Warframe: All Damage Types Explained

Detailed explanation of Warframe weapon damage type: element combination and best choice

Unlike most third-person shooters, Warframe's weapons have unique damage types and come with powerful state effects and magnifications. Understanding the utility and state effects of each element is the key to improving the power of a weapon. Take advantage of Warframe's damage system, you can turn enemies into ashes, bypass their defenses, and even let enemies kill each other.

This guide will briefly cover all 15 damage types in Warframe, how to create specific element combinations such as explosions and viruses, and the effects of each damage type. Before explaining the effects of each damage type, it is crucial to understand the source of these damage types and their importance.

Updated March 30, 2025 by Charles Burgar: Warframe's 1999 update adds some new factions, all with unique elemental advantages and weaknesses. We have updated all current damage plurals for all factions in this guide, and we have updated the Explosion section to better explain its best use.

Damage Types in Warframe

There are 15 unique damage types in Warframe , each offering unique effects and damage multiplier for specific hostile factions.

Damage types are divided into the following categories:

Physical damage (IPS)
Impact	- 50% increase in damage to Grineer, Kuva Grineer, Scaldra - No damage reduction	Stun the target and increase the HP threshold of Parazon's termination skills
puncture	- Increase damage to Corpus and Orokin by 50% - No damage reduction	Reduce enemy damage and increase fixed critical strike chance
Cut	- Increase damage to Infested and Narmer by 50% - No damage reduction	Inflicts continuous damage to bleeding
Basic elements
Freezing	- Increase damage to Sentients by 50% - 50% damage reduction for Techrot	Slows the target and increases the critical damage they take. When the maximum number of layers is reached, the target will temporarily freeze.
electric shock	- Increase damage to Corpus Amalgam and Murmur by 50% - No damage reduction	Shock the enemy, chain the shock to nearby targets
flame	- 50% increase in Infested - 50% damage reduction for Kuva Grineer	Ignite the target and melt the armor
	toxin	- Increase damage to Narmer by 50% - No damage reduction	All toxin damage ignores shields. Causing continuous damage to poisoning
Combination elements
explode	- Increase damage to Infested Deimos by 50% - 50% damage reduction for Corpus Amalgam	The target explodes after a brief delay, causing a small percentage of damage. When the maximum number of layers is reached, the target explodes immediately.
corrosion	- 50% increase in damage to Grineer, Kuva Grineer, Scaldra - Reduce damage to Sentients by 50%	Deprive the target armor
poison gas	- Increase damage to Infested Deimos and Techrot by 50% - 50% damage reduction for Scaldra	Create a range effect that causes continuous damage
magnetic force	- Increase damage to Corpus, Corpus Amalgam, Techrot by 50% - 50% damage reduction for Narmer	Increase damage rate to shield
radiation	- Increase damage to Sentients and Murmur by 50% - 50% damage reduction for Orokin	Enemies will fall into chaos and attack nearby allies
Virus	- 50% increase in damage to Orokin - 50% damage reduction for Infested Deimos and Murmur	Increase damage rate to health
Special damage types
reality	- No damage correction	Ignore enemy shields and armor
Void	- Increase damage to Zariman and Overguard by 50% - No damage reduction	All Void damage resets Sentient resistance. Create a dome that attracts ammunition to the center of the dome

Most weapons in Warframe use impact, piercing, and cutting as their default damage types, although some weapon types (Revenge and Creed Weapons, Bacteria, etc.) may have elemental damage types that align with impact, piercing, and cutting or even replace them.

Some MODs can be used to add elemental damage to the weapon , giving elemental damage based on the percentage of base damage.

Combination elements are created by applying two or more basic elements on a weapon. These elements tend to have unique damage corrections and status abnormalities.

Special damage types such as Real and Void damage are usually reserved for Warframe skills or operators.

Add elemental damage to weapons

Some mods in Warframe allow you to add elemental effects to weapons . Elemental MOD will add a basic element to your weapon - frozen, electric shock, flame or toxin. The amount of damage caused by an element depends on the strength of the MOD and the base damage of the weapon. For example, applying 90% toxin MOD to MK-1 Braton will give Braton 90% of its base damage as additional toxin damage.

Combining two element mods will create a combined element with new damage corrections and state exceptions. The damage value of the combined element is based on the sum of the two base element MODs used to create the element. For example, applying 90% shock MOD and 90% toxin MOD on Braton will cause corrosion damage, which will cause 180% of the weapon base damage as additional corrosion damage.

Best type of damage?

Generally speaking, viruses are the best type of damage. It has the most powerful state effect in the game, multiplying damage to the target's health. Most players use viruses with flames to deal more damage to flesh and blood, and even deprive some of the target of armor through the flame state.

If you are new to you, we recommend corrosion and flame. Corrosion destroys most of the Grineer targets you encounter, while flames tear apart the Infested targets. Corpus will resist this combination, but you can simply use toxins or magnets to deal with them. Below you can find a detailed explanation of how each damage type works.

IPS – impact, puncture and cutting

IPS – abbreviation for impact, puncture and cutting – is the cornerstone of most weapons in Warframe. These are the most common types of damage.

Impact

Damage correction
Status effect

The main purpose of impact is to stun targets and raise their Parazon threshold, a instant kill ending technique you can perform on most non-Boss units. This is very useful for beginners who need help killing armored targets like heavy gunners or Nox units.

In advanced content like Iron Road, the main purpose of shock is to trigger MODs like internal bleeding and bleeding, which creates a cutting state to the target whenever you impose a shock.

puncture

Damage correction
Status effect

The puncture reduces the enemy's output damage, and more importantly, it increases the chance of additional critical strikes on the target. At the maximum number of layers, you get an additional critical hit chance of 25% on the target. The target's output damage will also be greatly reduced, up to -80%.

Cut

Damage correction
Status effect

Cutting is the best IPS damage type. It has a strong damage magnification for Corpus and Orokin, and its state effect makes the cut an excellent choice for killing heavy armored targets in everything.

Many terminal configurations will use MODs like Hunter Ammunition to create as many cuts as possible, killing the target with a series of continuous damage effects. A cutting-focused configuration tends to use this damage type with viruses to increase bleeding damage from cutting.

Elemental damage

There are four standard elemental damage types in Warframe: freezing, electric shock, flame, and toxins.

Freezing

Damage correction
Status effect

Freezing is a powerful damage type for state weapons. Each layer reduces the target's movement speed and increases all critical damage they take. Action speed includes movement speed, firing rate, and enemy ability to cast skills.

If the target reaches ten frozen layers, they will be frozen for three seconds. This allows you to easily perform headshots, perform secure Parazon finishing skills, or relocate to a safer location.

electric shock

Damage correction
Status effect

If you have difficulty fighting Corpus in the middle of the game, please equip the electric shock MOD. It works very well for Corpus, but it terrible for heavy armored Grineer. Although its state effect is powerful on paper, it causes insignificant damage itself. You need to build your configuration around shock triggers and damage magnifications to make the status effect worth the money.

Some terminal configurations use shock with poison gas as a way to control the crowd and additional damage. Electric shocks can trap enemies in a cloud of poison gas and cause continuous damage. Consider using gains like Rhino's roar or Gyre to fully play the role of shock in difficult activities.

flame

Damage correction
Status effect

Many people think that flame is the best basic element in Warframe. Armor stripping and continuous damage make the flame an excellent choice against all factions.

Almost all terminal configurations of Warframe use flame. It is an excellent type of damage to work with viruses or corrosion. Viruses multiply the damage triggered by your flame, and corrosion will help the flames deprive the armor as much as possible.

toxin

Damage correction
Status effect
Unique attributes

Toxins are the best independent element against Corpus shields, as toxin damage completely ignores the enemy's shields. Toxins are also a reliable option for combating armorless units. But be aware that you don't use it when fighting Infested at a high level, as toxic ancient creatures will make nearby Infested completely immune to toxins.

Terminal configurations sometimes use this element in Corpus tasks to completely ignore their shields. That is, because of the universality of toxic ancient creatures, never use toxins at a high level against Infested .

Combination damage type

Warframe has six combination elements damage types: explosion, corrosion, gas, magnetism, radiation, and viruses.

explode

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Explosions are made up of a combination of flame and freezing. It gives each weapon a pseudo-range effect. Defeating the target with an explosion will cause their bodies to explode after a brief delay. If you continue to apply explosion triggers, this explosion will enhance and cover a larger radius. Once you reach the ten layers, the enemy will explode within a radius of five meters, causing 300% of your basic damage, and clearing all explosion layers on the target.

corrosion

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Corrosion is made up of a combination of toxins and electric shocks. Enemies that are weakened by corrosion will have some armor removed. Corrosion can only remove up to 80% of the target armor by default, but if you install two emerald Archon fragments with corrosion caps, you can make the corrosion completely peel the armor.

Although corrosion is not very useful in terminal configuration, corrosion is a good choice if you are fighting Grineer. Armor stripping makes Grineer's more powerful units more easily killed, and the 50% damage bonus to them definitely helps corrode shine in the contents of the Iron Road.

poison gas

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Poison gas is made of a combination of flame and toxins. The poison gas cloud requires faction MOD and high base damage to deal considerable damage. However, the huge coverage of poison gas makes it a great choice to fight Infested and even Corpus if you build around the state effects of poison gas.

Most players avoid using poison gas in terminal content because its state effect is only ten layers at most, which is the only continuous damage effect in Warframe with a layer limit. If you can find a way to deal extremely powerful toxic gas persistent damage to your target (such as a serene storm using Baruuks), it could be a useful range effect. Otherwise, poison gas is best used in state triggers to extend overload conditions and similar MODs.

magnetic force

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Magnetism can be created by combining freezing and toxins . This is an excellent element to fight against Corpus, which greatly amplifies the damage taken by their shields. If an enemy's armor is too thick to make the toxin's ignorance of shield damage invalid, then magnetism is a good alternative.

Most terminal configurations use toxins instead of magnets , because toxins completely ignore the Corpus shield. Use it only if you play activities with a lot of Eximus targets, as magnetism can quickly resolve Overguard.

radiation

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Radiation is the result of a combination of flame and electric shock . Its damage correction makes the radiation an excellent choice for fighting the Murmur faction, although it can be difficult when voids fight corrosion units. The state effects of radiation are particularly useful for suppressing ancient healers and Eximus targets, preventing their halos from augmenting allies.

Apart from state triggers and niche configurations, you rarely see the use of radiation in advanced content. Some Nyx players will use radiation to increase the target's damage and then cast mind controls to significantly increase the target damage output for the duration of the skill.

Virus

Element combination
Damage correction
Status effect

Viruses are the result of a combination of toxins and freezing. This element is great for all situations, causing all targets to suffer more damage from all sources. Its damage rate is not the best, but the abnormal state makes up for it. It's hard to surpass viruses in current metagames .

Almost all terminal configurations use viruses. Bring some form of armor stripping to maximize the damage output of the virus.

Void and real damage

Void and Real Damage are two rather rare unique damage types. Let's see how they work.

Void

Damage correction
Status effect
Unique attributes

Void damage is reserved for operator amplifier and Xaku Warframe. This type of damage causes the bullet to magnetize to a certain position, making it easier to hit the target with a headshot or multiple times with penetrating ammunition. Void damage deprives Sentient of resistance , although only the operator amplifier can destroy the Eidolon shield.

Eximus targets are also extremely vulnerable to Void damage, as they have Overguard, a third pool of health that protects target health and shields. Use an operator amplifier or some Warframe skill to quickly deprive Eximus targets of Overguard.

Real damage

Damage correction
Status effect
Unique attributes

Real damage is an unlisted damage type, and some Warframe skills possess this damage type . It has no damage correction or unique status effects. Instead, true damage ignores all the armor the enemy has . Some examples of real damage include melee ending (not Parazon ending), cutting bleeding state effects, and Ash's Blade Storm skill.

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