Anybody who’s been playing Warframe for more than a few hours can tell you that progression in this game is all about mods. There’s no level-up screen, no linear skill trees except for your Operator—just a huge collection of mods that can turn an unimpressive weapon or Warframe into a formidable threat. Because mods are crucial to improving your gear's stats and efficacy, it’s natural to wonder which ones are best.
In this Warframe mods guide, I will take you through the basics of mods, their role in the game, and how you can utilize them effectively. You'll have an even better time playing the game by learning how to combine the best Warframe mods with the best Warframe primary weapons.
What Are Mods in Warframe?
Mods make up the upgrade system in Warframe. They are unique cards that grant one or more boosts to the item they are attached to. You can use various combinations of mods to tailor a particular weapon or Warframe to your requirements.
For example, put excessive Ability Strength mods on a Volt, and he’ll be a super-fast Warframe. Balance Ability Strength, Ability Duration, Ability Range, and Energy Efficiency, and your Volt will be great at crowd control. You can further specialize in crowd control. Do you want to cover a large area while sacrificing strength? Do you want to sacrifice efficiency because you have an excellent support Trinity on your team?
The possibilities are endless, and Warframe allows you to decide how you want the items you use to be. You can change them according to your playstyle or mission requirements.
Here are four things you need to know about when using Mods in Warframe:
- Mod rank: Every mod has a rank and rarity. Rarer mods are generally stronger and can be leveled up to improve the boosts they provide. For example, a Vitality Mod at level 0 will give a weaker health buff than the same mod at a higher level.
- Mod capacity: Every Warframe and weapon had a capacity linked to it. This number can be found on the left of the screen when you try to level the item up. You can use the mods only until that capacity is fulfilled.
- Endo: To level up your mods, you need a resource called Endo. Endo can be obtained in various ways, such as Ayatan Sculptures (the best way), recycling old mods, via missions, or even as alerts or Sortie rewards.
- Polarities: Mod slots on Warframes or weapons sometimes have polarities. A mod that matches the polarity of that slot will count for half its base capacity when put in that slot.
What Makes Certain Mods the “Best”?
Choosing which mods are best isn’t as easy as it might seem. With a massive array of weapons, Warframes, companions, and other gear, it’s rare to find a mod that’s the “best” in all circumstances. For example, a devastating mod on one weapon may be useless on another. We’ll give you some tips on which mods tend to be effective on certain types of gear but remember: you’ll have to use your judgment on which mods truly suit the situation.
That said, there are some mods that, when used correctly, can give your gear a considerable boost in terms of killing power and versatility. We might consider these the Best Warframe Mods because they’re so widely applicable—or because, while more specialized, they truly excel in certain specific scenarios. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the mods you should add to your “must-farm” list.
The Best Mods for Warframes
Aura
You want to find Aura mods for your Warframes as soon as possible. They grant beneficial powers to your Warframe, like the ability to regenerate energy or reduce enemy armor. They also increase your Warframe’s mod capacity, giving you even more room to optimize your Warframe further.
It’s challenging to single out THE best Aura mod since most of them are definitive picks, so here are some recommendations:
- Growing Power
- Steel Charge
- Energy Siphon
- Brief Respite
Vacuum
Vacuum is a companion mod that attracts resources around you in an 11.5m radius. It is not a damage mod, but it provides excellent utility and allows you to breeze through areas while automatically picking up the resources around you. If you can’t find a Vacuum mod, Fetch is a great alternative.Streamline
Warframe abilities are often more specialized than weapons, so there are fewer universally applicable mods for Warframes. That said, a few are almost always good to have. An example is Streamline, a mod that reduces the energy cost of using your Warframe’s abilities. Mods that boost your Warframe’s health, shields, or both, like Vitality, Redirection, and Vigor, are also essential to increasing your Warframe’s survivability.
Depending on your Warframe’s abilities, you should also have mods that increase their ability strength, duration, or range, such as Intensify, Continuity, and Stretch, respectively. These mods depend more on what aspects of your Warframe’s abilities you want to optimize. If your Warframe’s primary ability is something that provides you with a damage buff, then duration and strength will be much more important to you than range.
Elemental Damage Mods
Elemental mods are the ones that provide elemental buffs to your weapons (e.g., +x% Toxin or +x% Heat). These are the ones that will allow you to deal more damage to specific enemies, causing status effects and also dealing more significant overall damage.
Primed Critical Mods
If you want a boost to your secondary weapon’s damage, Critical mods like the Primed Pistol Gamit and Primed Target Cracker are the best in the market right now. These mods will increase your critical multiplier and critical chance, turning guns like the Pyrana Prime and Kuva Nukor even deadlier.
What Are Riven Mods?
Riven mods are weapon mods that only work on one specific weapon and its variants. For example, you can place a Supra Riven mod on a Supra or a Supra Vandal, but you can’t apply it to other weapons. Aside from their specificity, what sets Riven mods apart is that they come with a randomized set of stat bonuses and negative stats that are revealed once a particular challenge is completed while carrying a weapon with the Riven mod equipped.
These randomized stat bonuses and minuses can be re-rolled using Kuva, which is helpful since not all Riven rolls are useful for their assigned weapon. However, if you roll a Riven well-suited to its weapon, it can transform even a mediocre piece of gear into an unstoppable menace. For this reason, well-rolled Rivens are among the most powerful mods in the game.
So Are Riven Mods the Best?
You might’ve wondered why I omitted Riven mods on the list. You'll be at the mercy of the game's RNG due to the specificity of Riven mods and the unpredictable nature of their bonuses and minuses. Plus, you can only use the Riven mod you have if it compliments the stats that your weapon already has.
For example, if you have a weapon that does enormous amounts of critical damage but has a low-status Chance, then a Riven that grants a massive boost to the weapon’s Critical Chance at the cost of a minus to the already unhelpful Status Chance stat would be ideal. Meanwhile, a Riven that grants a massive increase to Puncture damage for a weapon with Puncture as its weakest damage type won’t be that useful.
How to Farm Mods and Endo Efficiently
Do your Sorties daily: They often reward you with Endo or Ayatan Sculptures (which can be traded at Maroo’s Bazaar for Endo).
Never miss an Ayatan Star: Ayatan Stars are marked on the screen whenever a teammate finds it. Always grab them, as they increase the Endo value of your Sculptures.
Sell your Legendary Cores: I know, I know. A Legendary Core skips the Endo price of taking a Mod from any level to max level. However, if you sell the Core and use the Platinum to buy Ayatan Sculptures, you gain more Endo from the process. As long as you have the Credits to use that Endo, converting your Legendary Core into Ayatan Sculptures is much better.
Recycle: Go to your Mods collection and sort them out by descending order the number of duplicates you have. Then recycle most of the duplicates. You’ll be surprised at how much Endo you can obtain this way!
Mad for Mods
Mods are one of the best things about Warframe’s gameplay. They allow you to modify your Warframes, weapons, Archwing, and even your companions as per your play style. But remember, with the staggering number of mods available in-game and the dozens of Warframes and weapons they can be attached to, there’s plenty of room for improvisation.
The mods I mentioned in this guide are some of the most useful, but you’ll undoubtedly find certain mod-gear combinations that produce even more mind-blowing results. So hold on to at least one copy of each mod and keep experimenting.
