Warframe Tier List (Best Warframes, Ranked)

Picking up the best Warframe for your Tenno can be tricky, more so with 98 different frames to choose from (including Prime Warframes and Excalibur Umbra). Digital Extreme’s sci-fi Action Online RPG requires practice and constant trial and error. However, it’s possible to bypass all of that and learn the meta in a few easy steps.

Knowing which Warframe to equip for every occasion is the key to success in a game that has hundreds of different materials to farm and enemies to conquer. This guide offers a detailed list of all Warframes, with a careful analysis of the current meta, power levels, and viability for Steel Path and End-Game challenges.

All Warframes, Ranked

Each Warframe has its pros and cons. Knowing their advantages, weaknesses, and utility purposes is the way to success in a game as massive as this. It’s not just about packing damage and clearing hundreds of enemies at once, or just a bulky ‘Frame’ that can withstand lots of punishment. Some Warframes are great at both of those, while others excel at a different approach. At the end of the day, players should choose whichever Warframe they feel comfortable with, learn its mechanics, its abilities, and, more importantly, the best builds for them.

Here are all the available Warframes in the game, ranked by tiers:

Prime Warframes are always a Tier above their original, due to their increased base stats and intrinsic polarities. Players should always aim to invest in Prime Warframes whenever they have the chance. Regular Warframes should be used to subsume through Helminth to enhance their utility even further and equip their abilities to other Warframes.

S Tier Warframes

• Wisp Prime is one of the best support Warframes, with access to great mobility and a spectacular passive that turns her invisible while she glides/jumps. The Prime version is even more useful than the regular one since it has more Base/Max shields and armor.
• Harrow Prime is another great support option, with lots of utility. It can block damage, stun enemies in place, boost critical chances/damage, and grant energy to the team. The prime version of this Warframe is significantly better than his regular version in all aspects except Sprint Speed, which remains the same.
• Saryn Prime is a powerful Clear Warframe. She’s ideal for dealing with massive numbers of enemies, causing wide area Corrosive damage, applying extra Toxin Damage to attacks, and causing Viral Damage in an area. Her powerful Spore abilities spread like a contagion each time affected enemies die, improving her clear capacity. Her Prime version boasts more Shield, Energy, and Armor.
• Octavia Prime is the most fun Support Frame in the game. A customizable disco sphere follows her around, stomping enemies as she goes, buffing the team, and even turning them invisible. Octavia Prime has more Health, Armor, and Energy.
• Xaku Prime is a roaming turret that can steal enemies’ weapons, turning itself into a mobile fortress. Xaku can also trigger AoE damaging abilities and debuffs, and use a single-target penetrating skillshot to maim foes. Especially effective against Sentient, Xaku Prime boasts more Shields, Armor, Energy, and Sprint Speed than its regular version.

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• Dante is one of the latest additions to Warframe, with his own Grimoire-type exalted weapon that scans opponents as he slays him with powerful combo spells that cause incredible damage. Dante currently has the Ability Damage Output in the game.
• Mesa Prime is a great option for Defense, Mobile Defense, and Survival Missions. She uses her signature Peacemaker pistols to deliver powerful auto-aim shots that increase in damage and speed as she fires. The Prime version of this Warframe has more health, armor, and energy capacity.
• Kullervo is one of the strongest and most resilient Warframes on the roster with his ability to generate Overguard, which can escalate up to 5 figures. He is an expert at dealing heavy melee Red critical blows and increasing combo counter, as he slices his foes with a storm of razorblade knives. Kullervo specializes in increasing the survivability of its team, while also dealing ridiculously high critical damage with its Wrathful Advance ability.
• Hildryn Prime is another of the best tanks in the game, specialized in generating and maintaining overshield, and holding out the line while others would fail at doing so. It has the highest base/max shield values of all Warframes. Her Prime version has even more shields, health, sprint speed, and an extra Polarity slot.
• Inaros Prime can turn practically immortal, and can be optimized for Steel Path in some wicked ways. This Warframe’s ability to feed on enemy health is its main perk, though it requires a bit of skill. The Prime version has more Base Health, Armor, and Sprint Speed.
• Nidus Prime is the infected Warframe that many people refuse to learn how to use, but can be powerful, tanky, and nigh immortal if players know how to build it. By investing in a few polarities, Nidus Prime becomes unstoppable, turning pain into energy, and energy into charges for its mutation passive ability. This can infinitely revive him during missions, as long as he maintains a certain number of charges. The Prime version of Nidus has more Health, Armor, and Energy.
• Revenant Prime is a sentient/Warframe with incredible skills and the ability to control his foes. He has the third-highest Shield pool of all Warframes, and can reflect damage and stun his foes. When Revenant’s shield is depleted, it emits a pulse of Explosive energy in a wide radius. He can also cause considerable damage with his Dance Macabre ability in a wide area, so it is a good option for Clearing Survival. The Prime version of this Warframe has increased Armor and Shields.
• Oraxia is a deadly combination of stealth and Toxin damage, with access to invisibility, and an execution move similar to that of Ash/Ash Prime, who slays enemies automatically when below a certain health threshold. This Warframe’s intense mobility mechanics and the ability to imbue her weapons with Toxin damage, as well as making herself invulnerable to status effects, make her a complex yet reliable choice for many game modes, including Steel Path.

A Tier Warframes

• Cyte-09 is a specialized Sniper who uses elemental Ammo and detector units to pinpoint enemies and blast them with his powerful Exalted Weapon, which has ricocheting bullets and increased precision damage. He’s fun to play and powerful, but requires a lot of practice to dominate his exalted weapon and tweak his energy consumption.
• Khora Prime has become one of players’ favorites for farming, thanks to her Dome ability, which can be boosted with the Syndicate Mod called Pilfering Strangledome (Steel Meridian, Red Veil). This makes her the best option to make enemies drop more items, credits, and rare materials. The Prime version of Khora has more Health and Armor, and her Pet Kavat also boasts better stats.
• Gauss Prime is the fastest Warframe so far, with an interesting kit of abilities that make him extremely hard to target. He can also make weapons fire faster and reload faster. The Prime version boasts an extra Mod Polarity, increased Shields, and Sprint Speed.
• Volt Prime is the second fastest Warframe, and can cause Electricity damage. Its powerful speed buff increases the sprint and attack speed of the whole team, and his portable shield makes him useful for various types of missions. The Prime version has better Shields, Armor, and a bigger Energy pool.
• Nyx Prime is still a little weaker than most other Warframes, despite the recent rework. However, her superior utility and damage absorption ability make her one of the top-tier Control/Utility Frames. The Prime version has more Health, Armor, and Energy than the regular one.
• Trinity Prime used to be the best Support Frame, and the only one capable of turning the whole team invulnerable. But now, she has been relegated due to more viable (and versatile) Frames being released. Her Prime version has more Shield, Armor, and Energy.
• Excalibur Umbra is a special case, since he is the only Umbra Warframe available. Made to fight Sentient enemies, he is equipped with Umbra Polarities and slightly different stats/abilities than the regular Excalibur. He is also the only Warframe capable of fighting by itself while the Operator is out of the Frame, or controlling a Necramech.
• Nova Prime’s powerful Wide Area Control/debuff kit makes her useful for Defense missions, but there are better Frames for those with the patience to farm them. The Prime version has more Health, Armor, and Energy.
• Jade is a flying killing machine, capable of buffing the team with powerful Hymns that resonate each time she slays an enemy. Jade marks enemies for punishment and delivers explosive radioactive missiles like an attack chopper.
• Citrine has lots of utility, support skills, and the ability to mark enemies for critical thanks to her Crystallize skill. It’s not a top-notch Warframe, but her capacity to generate orbs and cause many elemental Status Effects makes her special, and a good option for Steel Path Long Survivals.

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• Protea Prime is one of the best frames for Defense, Survival, and similar types of missions. Her kit is versatile, generates resources, and can be tuned for AoE. The Prime version it has an extra Naramon Polarity, and increased Armor and Energy pool.
• Wukong Prime is fun to play, tanky, and powerful. It has unique traits like the ability to deploy clones, turn into mist, make himself and his clone invulnerable, and summon his Heavenly Staff. Plus, his passive makes him practically immortal and grants him lots of buffs. The Prime version of Wukong has more Armor and Energy.
• Nehza Prime is another fun-to-play, but situational Warframe. Since there are more effective ways to survive, he has been cast aside from the Meta. However, his powerful kit burns foes, empowers his defenses, and restores energy as he causes damage with his Divine Halo. Plus, he can impale enemies in a wide area, Burning them and immobilizing them. Nehza Prime has all its stats increased compared to its regular version and an extra Naramon Polarity to boot.
• Gara Prime is powerful enough to cause huge amounts of damage, even in Steel Path. Her interesting kit makes her viable for most mission types. Its fourth ability causes CC and protects a designated area, but using her first kill will turn this wall of Glass into a powerful Nuking AoE that will shred foes into tiny bits. The Prime version of this Warframe is more powerful than the original,
• Nekros Prime is one of the best farming Warframes, with access to powerful Nuke Attacks. He can resurrect dead enemies, or Pilfer their corpses to get extra Orbs, Mats, and Creds. It’s a good all-rounder in terms of utility, farming, and survival. His Prime version boasts more Shields, Armor, and Energy Capacity.
• Titania Prime is the queen of the Fairies, with a unique mechanic that turns her into a tiny Frame equipped with her own signature Archwing, Archgun, and Archblade. When using her fourth ability, Titania miniaturizes and can deliver powerful auto target melee attacks, and fire her dual Pixie Guns to crush enemies. She can cause several debuffs with her other abilities, and surround herself in steel butterflies that cause slashing damage in AoE. Her Prime version has more Armor and Energy.
• Voruna boasts an interesting kit of abilities, including increased attack speed, increased parkour speed, invisibility, and the ability to turn into ‘Predator Mode’ running on all fours and pouncing on foes. It’s a powerful kit, but situational at best.
• Styanax is a spartan soldier turned Warframe. His passive makes him more powerful when wielding Speargun weapons, can increase his base critical chance, and can regenerate damage based on enemies hit with his shield. He also has the power to grant a Shield Regeneration buff to the party. He can throw spears that can create a vacuum effect to attack enemies in a single spot, or throw a barrage of exploding spears that cause tons of damage.
• Sevagoth Prime is a shadowy Warframe that specializes in delivering draining AoE abilities and slowing down foes. When reduced to 0 hit points, it unleashes his Exalted Shadow form, reaping foes to resurrect his original form. Sevagoth is excellent at Nuking, second only to Dante in terms of destructive power. Its Prime version has all its stats increased, and an extra polarity.
• Dagath specializes in causing Viral damage, applying Status Effects, and chipping away at enemy armor with its unique Doom debuff. Summoning forth spectral Kaithes to crush her foes, Dagath lays waste to large groups of enemies.
• Ivara Prime specializes in extracting information and remaining undetected in those types of missions. Outside of them, she doesn’t have much utility. However, her signature Exalted Weapon, Artemis Bow, can be turned into a lethal one-shot for Steel Path with the correct build. Her Prime form boasts more Armor and Energy.

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• Garuda Prime specializes in covering the battlefield with blood, impaling her foes with quills of steel, and turning her enemies’ suffering into an empowering altar to her and her allies. She is the only Warframe with a semi-permanent buff that escalates the more she kills, granting her 100% extra damage for weapons and abilities at max rank. Garuda Prime has increased Health, Armor, and Energy.
• Vauban Prime is capable of overcoming Defense and Survival missions without too much effort. Thanks to his Bastille ability, he becomes unparalleled in terms of crowd control. His Prime version has more Shield, Armor, and Energy.
• Equinox Prime, with its dual forms, is the master of control and debuffs. Its Night form is defensive-focused, while its Day form buffs damage and speed. Its metamorphosis skill also alters the effect of its other three abilities, with corresponding effects depending on the form Equinox takes. The Prime version has more Armor, Health, and Shield.
• Ember Prime is the master of Heat-based damage and the Burning Status Effect. It used to be S Tier, but the current meta and changes to ability damage scaling have turned her into a second-rate Nuker. She doesn’t have many uses except farming assistance (combined with Nekros or Hydroid). The Prime version of this Warframe has better Shield, Armor, and Energy Capacity.
• Baruuk Prime is perhaps one of the finest tanks of all. He uses a unique resource called Restraint, and the rest of his skills are about parrying, dodging, and deflecting enemy strength. The more he does so, the more Restraint he loses. Upon reaching 0,% he gains 50% damage reduction from all sources. His ultimate replenishes Restraint by unleashing Baruuk’s inner power in a series of fist combos that destroy his opponents. His Prime version has more base Shields and Energy.
• Koumei presents itself as a great choice for every fan of Elemental Damage. She can summon a Decree and benefit from its effects even outside Duviri. Unfortunately, it depends on RNG and requires players to complete Sub-Quests during the missions. So, her viability for Steel Path and other end-game content is questionable.
• Temple is equal parts support and DPS, with one of the most fun-to-play kits Warframe has seen in years (ever since Vauban). Plus, thanks to its access to an Invulnerability buff (Ripper’s Wail) and an exalted weapon (Lizzie) flamethrower, it combines heavy bursts of Fire damage with tons of utility. A decent option to clear those ridiculously large waves of Infested in high-tier Survival or Defense.

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B Tier Warframes

• Caliban is a curious case. It has a similar mechanic Garuda, with a passive called Adaptive Armor that increases the more damage this Warframe takes. He adapts to various types of damage and develops resilience, making him a versatile Frame that can be turned into a semi-tank and a nuker all in the same kit. Plus, he can summon several types of Sentient units to aid him during combat, and fire a powerful Ray of compressed Sentient energy.
• Rhino Prime was one of the first Warframes and used to be a great one. He combined great defense and offense, in a bulky Frame with lots of Health, Shield, and Armor. Sadly, with the endgame being so punishing, his defensive ability has become useless in comparison to other Warframe’s mitigation kits. Use him only in certain situations, or as Buff/Supporter with the Rhino Roar build. This Prime version has better Shields and Armor.
• Excalibur might be the ideal starter Warframe. It’s fast, versatile, and has access to the first Exalted weapon in the game: the Exalted Blade. It is a great choice overall, and can be optimized to cause various types of Energy damage with its Exalted Blade.
• Mag Prime is great to try if players like control, disruption, and essentially everything that impedes enemy projectiles. Her kit consists of magnetic-based skills that cause that type of damage. It used to be hardcore Meta, but her utility nowadays is doubtful, since many other options outperform her. Mag Prime has more Health, Armor, and Energy capacity.
• Lavos is another great concept that relies heavily on Elemental Damage and Status effects. This Nuker combines the best of Ember, with Frost and Saryn, but falls short as a jack of all trades, master of none. Still, it has some good uses, since it can eliminate Status Effects applied to it. This makes him quite useful against certain enemies like the Murmur.

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• Chroma Prime is an Elemental Monster with cool mechanics that are hard to master and have a low payoff. Chroma used to be the meta to take down Eidolons and Profit Taker, since his kit is used to boost stats. Some builds even allow players to farm Credits, since Effigy releases an aura that provokes enemies to drop more creds. However, that’s as far as this Warframe’s utility goes. Chroma Prime has increased Shields and Energy Capacity.
• Atlas Prime summons golems and the power of Earth to unleash shattering blows. Atlas is a tanky Frame, but not as much as some others, which are more able to resist damage. His mitigation is subpar, and to top it off, the Golems do not offer much help during combat. The Prime version of this Frame has all its stats increased.
• Mirage Prime is situational in casual play, but deadly in the hands of an expert. This Warframe uses trickery in the form of smoke, mirrors, and light, unleashing one of the most devastating cleansing abilities in the roster. Prism is a sphere of blinding light that unleashes rays that melt her foes in every direction. Activating this skill again will make the Disco Ball explode and blind all enemies around it. It’s useful for Survival, Defense, and Open World Missions (especially Narmer ones). Mirage Prime has better Shields and Armor.
• Grendel Prime might look slow and bulky, but with the correct build, this juggernaut can become nearly unkillable, and quite viable for Steel Path and other End-Game content. He is especially good at solo play and can reach near-godlike levels of mitigation. Grendel Prime has more Armor, Energy Capacity, and an Extra Madurai Polarity.
• Qorvex is a great Warframe, useful for preventing status effects, and causing Radiation Damage. It requires a ton of tweaking and mod optimization, but once players get the hang of it, they’ll love it. Ideal for dealing with the annoying Murmur and Sentient enemies.

C Tier Warframes

• Limbo Prime was one of the most exciting arrivals to the Prime roster upon introduction. But now, his ability kit is less than viable. Its only solid use is High-Tier Defense missions on Steel Path, but certain enemies can entirely avoid Limbo’s Cataclysm and one-shot him before he can even jump into the Void to become invulnerable. It doesn’t have enough payoff compared to the skill it requires.
• Valkyr Prime is an improved version of the old Valkyr Warframe, which enhanced Armor and Energy. Besides that, there’s not much to say about this Frame, except that it is in dire need of a rework. Some players enjoy her Berserker skill, which turns her enemies into mince meat, but that only works if they’re low-tier enemies. Beyond level 50, there’s little Valkyr can do against powerful foes.

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• Hydroid Prime is only good when equipped with the Pilfering Swarm build for farming Orokin Cells and other rare materials. Despite receiving a great rework, it wasn’t enough to turn good old Hydroid into something that would become Meta for long. This Prime Warframe has better Armor, Shields, and Energy Capacity. Still, it is subpar compared to other frames with powerful AoE.
• Loki Prime used to be the go-to Warframe for Infiltration Missions. Then players discovered they could use it to farm Ivara, and that was it. Loki doesn’t have any utility besides disarming his foes. Radial Disarm is not as powerful as it used to be, and its utility is questionable. Use it only when there’s nothing else to pick and to gain Mastery Points. For Infiltration missions, players have Ivara and Ivara Prime.
• Ash Prime is another example of a great Warframe that hasn’t aged well. It was one of the first Frames released, over a decade ago. Though it has received a slight update, it is not enough to make it viable for anything except Infiltration missions if players do not have Ivara, Ivara Prime, or Loki. His stealth skills are subpar, and his other skills are not nearly enough to make it worth the time.

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• Oberon Prime can be great in the right hands. The problem is that it is expensive to build, and it requires at least 5 Forma, Exilus Adapter, and Arcane adapters to make it truly viable. It has its uses, causing Radiation damage in a wide area and providing support to the team. But it’s an overall subpar Warframe and only good for ranking up Mastery.
• Zephyr Prime has been sold far and wide as an underrated great Frame. But besides its fourth ability, which causes a lot of CC and subpar damage, Zephyr has nothing to offer. It falls short in comparison to other Frames. Though its Prime version has more Health, Armor, and Energy Capacity, it is more or less the same as its normal version.
• Frost Prime ​​​​​​is one of the top picks for Defense missions (alongside Vauban and Mesa), but over a decade after its release, its kit could use a buff. Still, with the correct build, it can become good at delivering wide-area CC, trading off damage for increased status effect time (Frozen). A decent pick for rookie players (easy to master), and a deadly frame in the hands of an expert player.
• Banshee Prime used to have great utility, thanks to her ability to detect enemies. After a lazy rework, it gained more utility thanks to Sound Quake. But it didn’t go as far as to become truly useful.
• Yareli Prime: a slight improvement from her basic form, Yareli Prime only adds extra energy, shields, a little bit more of sprint speed, and an extra polarity. Nothing much compared to her basic version, and despite her Aqua Blades being its major attraction, they don’t justify wasting time maining this frame. Build it, max it for Mastery, then leave it at the Arsenal.

D Tier Warframes

• Yareli is a nightmare. The quest to gain its parts and blueprint through the Vent Kids faction in Fortuna is a pain, and the payoff is an insult. Her kit is weak, situational at best. She only has one viable ability (Aqua Blades), but its damage scaling is far from optimal. The only fun thing about playing with her is sliding through enemies with her board Merulina, but it is so buggy that players should avoid using her.