Warframe offers a wide range of weapons to pick from and you can pair any of these secondary weapons with the primaries.
Unique weapons like fully-automatic exploding assault rifles and plasma shotguns are typical in Warframe, although secondary weapons are sometimes forgotten about.
A lot of secondary weapons come with even stronger mods than their primary versions. This means if you mod them right they can be stronger than the primary options.
Secondaries can have interesting individual mechanics just like primaries can.
Some allow you to add a custom effect like infinite ammo or getting power strength when killing.
Let’s take a look at some of the best secondary weapon options in Warframe:
24) Knell
This one-shot, scoped pistol instantly reloads with a headshot.
This means you can continue procing this weapon for infinite ammo if your aim is good enough.
The scope offers remarkable long-range precision.
If you’re confident in your aim this is a good secondary to choose and you can impart lots of criminal damage using some of the Rivens.
23) Aksomati Prime
This bullet-hose secondary has a base damage of 20. That might not sound much but when factoring in the 3x critical damage multiplier and 24% critical chance, it suddenly seems more attractive.
Add a good critical build to shred pretty much any target.
This weapon has a high enough status to proc Corrosive and Viral and make it even better. It has high reload speed and Slash damage as well.
If you aren’t the best at aiming, don’t worry because this weapon is a good spray-and-pray option. You can dump a lot of bullets into foe weak points.
22) Kuva Kraken
The base Kraken is one of the weaker weapons but the Kuva Kraken has new mechanics and also addresses the slow fire rate, long reload time and pitiful damage the base Kraken has.
This weapon empties the whole magazine in alternate fire. It can give crazy amounts of damage to bosses and hordes of enemies.
The 2-round burst is now a 3-round burst and the status and critical effects are improved. If you can get a Kuva Kraken out of a dead Lich’s hand you are sure to find it impressive.
21) Lato Vandal
This weapon is a middle ground option for slow-firing, hard-hitting weapons and damage-inflictors.
It has high slash damage and critical chance as well as good base damage. You can reload it fast so DPS downtime is limited.
You can get good Rivens for Lato Vandal since not a lot of people use standard Lato.
20) Akbolto Prime
This secondary weapon uses critical hits to inflict damage. It comes with a 36% base critical chance so it’s not hard to hit red crits with it.
Akbolto Prime has a 2.8 crit multiplier so go for damage mods and critical chance to get the best from it.
This weapon also does extra damage to hordes by making enemies crash into each other.
19) Kuva Seer
Kuva Seer is actually a Bolt Pistol in disguise, a fact probably known by fans of Warhammer 40K. It’s a semi-automatic which shoots corrosive projectiles and cause plenty of damage in a small area.
Because it always gives Corrosive damage when exploding, the Viral and Radiation mods are ideal. These three together can kill even the hardest enemies in the game.
The gun has 33% status chance and 21% critical chance so it’s ideal for a hybrid build it you want to scale well into endurance and Steel Path missions.
18) Sicarus Prime
This can be easy to get or it can be nearly impossible, depending on what the ever-rotating Prime Vault offers.
Prime items are released and also removed every quarter and Sicarus Prime is a part of the range.
This gun can inflict 50 damage from each shot. It comes with 25% status and critical chance as well as a rapid 3-round burst to make it a real powerhouse.
Install Punchthrough to make it tear through hordes of enemy with one single burst. It’s one of Warframe’s best burst weapons even compared to primary ones.
It has a good Impact, Puncture and Slash balance. If you’re good at aiming, the burst fire nature of Sicarus Prime allows you to make the most of this weapon.
Bear in mind that a Fire Rate mod is going to reduce the time between every round, making it more manageable. The high status chance also makes it good for hybrid Status/Crit builds.
17) Prisma Twin Gremlins
This weapon offers twin pistols that will pin enemies to the wall with quick-moving bolts used for ammo.
You can only get these from Baro Ki’Keer who appears every other weekend at a Relay.
Since it comes with 23% critical chance even before mods as well as a 23% status chance, this weapons is worth the price.
Its high Riven disposition and ease of use makes it an interesting choice. It’s more spray and pray than precise aim, but perhaps that appeals to you more.
16) Twin Grakatas
This primary weapon can become a secondary weapon, giving you a pair of guns instead of just one.
These are in the Secondary slot so you can have something else in the Primary slot. These guns have high recoil but you can fix that with the correct mods.
It comes with high critical chance, a very high rate of fire to impart damage and innate multi-shot.
15) Synoid Gammacor
This secondary beam weapon can be yours for 100,000 Standing from Cephalon Suda.
It boasts a great grind which might seem intense for beginner players but is worth it. This beam weapon fires 12 rounds per second and has a 28% status chance and 20% critical chance.
Add status, fire rate and critical mods and this weapon will be a beam able to kill nearly any target in under a second.
Synoid Gammacor comes with Entropy effect which gives you free energy after you get a specific amount of Affinity.
14) Atomos
This weapon is like a single-handed Ignis, mowing down herds of the enemy using high status elemental procs.
After that you can use it as a Condition Overload weapon inflicting Viral procs on your enemies, reducing their health pool before they are close enough to engage in combat with you.
13) Mara Detron
Each projectile comes with a 13.7% status chance which might not sound like much until you learn this is a pocket shotgun.
Install Barrel Diffusion and Lethal torrent to make this gun shoot 21 pellets all sharing the status chance. You can mod it further for status chance to get an armor-stripping or Viral-stacking machine.
This weapon is only available from Baro Ki’Teer at the Relays. It costs 500 Ducats and 200,000 Credits. You can only find it occasionally though.
Mara Detron deals in Radiation Damage and can dissolve any enemy when built to 100% status chance.
Go for a solid status build and this weapon will impress you.
12) Staticor
Available from your Dojo’s Corpus Energy Lab, Staticor is fun to use.
Try the standard fire mode for a slow-flying projective causing area-of-effect damage. You might like to charge the shot which yields a big explosion and speedier projectile.
Staticor gives innate Radiation damage to strip enemy shields. It’s like a mini-Lenz in a way and can be a great asset on missions.
Mod it right and you can destroy most enemies.
It isn’t so good in late-game missions but you can mod it with blast damage for fun enemy-throwing.
11) Pandero Prime
This was issued as the signature weapon for Octavia.
It fires in semi-automatic for good damage multipliers and high critical chance multipliers.
Alternatively use it to dump every round to inflict maximum damage. Pandero offers a lot of Slash damage and is very adaptable.
10) Sepulcrum
This powerful pistol type weapon has explosive bolts which head a 30% critical chance, 2.2x critical damage multiplier and Heat damage.
You can use the alternate fire mode for heat-seeking missiles that deal 10x the damage and also have superior critical stats.
This highly damaging weapon doesn’t have much status chance but since it can dish out so much damage with every shot it really does need it.
9) Akstiletto Prime
Boasting high impact damage, very high status chance, good critical chance, and impressive accuracy, this weapon is a great choice for any stage of the Warframe game.
It also has 2 Polarity slots so you can apply mods with ease.
The only area this weapon isn’t so good is against high armor, but if you choose your mods wisely you can overcome that.
8) Athodai
This powerful hand cannon deals mainly Heat damage although it exceeds the functionality of a typical hand cannon.
Each shot comes with a 32% base critical chance. It also deals 70 damage when unmodded. A headshot kill makes it into a full-auto killer.
Headshots get you an increased fire rate as well as infinite ammo.
7) Euphona Prime
This is a good choice for a secondary shotgun in any combat at close quarters. It’s like Warframe’s version of a sawn-off shotgun and launches pellets or slugs.
If you have enemies at range, you can use this weapon’s special alternative fire to kill them. It has a projective slug to deal damage along with a hitscan shotgun blast as the alternate fire.
Use the slug for critical builds and the shotgun for status builds – you can’t do both. You won’t need both for a lot of late-game content since Euphona Prime does plenty of damage to kill most enemies with a single shot.
Pair it up with a melee weapon that’s good at clearing a crowd.
Technically Euphona Prime is a shotgun but it has Pistol mods so don’t worry if you are also bringing a shotgun as your primary weapon.
6) Kuva Twin Stubbas
A pair of these make a good hitscan alternative to the Prisma Twin Gremlins. Each bullet has a 31% chance of causing a status ailment.
With mods that can be closer to 60 or 70%. The 23% critical chance means this weapon can use both status and critical mods effectively.
The weapon also has a lot of inherent elemental damage because it’s from Kuva Liches. Kuva Twin Stubbas are a good choice for missions since they can constantly influct Viral, Slash and Heat Procs.
5) Catchmoon
If you have the components and sufficient standing you can build the Catchmoon Kitgun at Fortuna.
It’s like Arca Plasmor’s secondary version and a great shotgun. It’s a nice secondary to a Sniper Rifle primary and will be a great asset on any mission.
Try the Catchmoon, Haymaker and Splat build.
You are sure to be impressed with the hard hits this weapon doles out but it’s still worth trying other Kitgun combos.
4) Kuva Brakk
Dealing a 130 per shot of base damage and offering 29% critical chance, Kuva Brakk inflicts critical hits and status effects.
The 11.1% status chance means this weapon can apply Corrosive, Viral or nearly any status ailment easily with a hybrid build.
As it’s a Kuva Lich weapon it comes with implicit elemental damage too.
3) Sporelacer
Build this the correct way and it can be a powerful Kitgun. Look out for the self-stagger aspect but enjoy the area-of-effect possibilities.
Head to the Necralisk and get Kitgun parts from Father.
It’s a fun weapon to play around with.
2) Pyrana Prime
This might not have a status chance but it is a ferocious option. It comes with high base damage and high critical stats, making it a great all-rounder.
As long as your enemy isn’t well-armored, the Pyrana Prime is a very strong gun. It does fall off a bit in endurance and Steel Path missions because armor is a large issue there.
Whenever this weapon gets a triple kill it creates a clone of itself and becomes an akimbo variant for several seconds.
The base stats are good already but the akimbo version ramps it right up.
An increased fire rate along with double-sized magazine make this a worthy gun to consider.
1) Kuva Nukor
This is perhaps the best ever secondary weapon. You can get these from Kuva Liches and they’re a powerful combination of Synapse and Atomos.
Whenever this weapon makes contact with a foe it chains the damage between targets. It has a 50% base status chance.
You can mod it to inflict hundreds of Gas or Heat procs on your target within seconds. Kuva Nukor also has a 5x critical damage multiplier (the highest in the game).
Make this weapon the strongest Warframe gun by using sources of extra critical chance – maybe Arcane Avenger and Harrow.
It comes with innate Radiation damage as well as a huge area-of-effect potential making it even more fun. It’s incredible accuracy makes this one of the best, or even the best, secondary weapon choice in Warframe.
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