Wukong & Wukong Prime Builds Guide

The Wukong Warframe is based on the old Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West’, which influenced a lot of different modern stories.

The Monkey King (also known as ‘Sun Wukong’) is clearly has had a major impact during the creation of Wukong and not only does the Warframe look like The Monkey King, but his skill set also compliments the lore.

He uses a long and extendable staff as his main weapon, has a cloud-based ability and also can become an immortal being by activating his second ability.

While the lore part is point on, sadly Wukong isn’t a great pick as a Warframe nowadays and honestly he is just one of the weakest frames in the game.

His damage output is inferior to almost every other Warframe, there are way better tanks in the game (e.g. Rhino or Inaros) and his crowd control is pretty much useless. If you are still looking for ways to build Wukong and have fun with him, you might find a suitable build here.

Just make sure to understand his abilities and don’t expect super strong builds that will carry you through all kinds of missions.

Update: The community has asked a long time for a Wukong rework. With Update 25.2 the Warframe finally got it.

While some things changed, some stayed the same. And while Wukong is still far away from being a meta Warframe, he undoubtedly got a way better skill set now. He is also really fun to play, so if you haven’t already – give him another try.

You might want to check out our new builds. They are fun and hopefully help you out to find a version of Wukong you like!

Pros

Pros

• Potentially unkillable
• Above average shields
• High armor
• Easy to get
• Has unique exalted weapon

Cons

Cons

• Low damage output
• Slightly below average sprint speed
• High resource requirements for crafting

The Best Wukong Builds

When building your Wukong you almost always want to use the Steel Charge aura mod, simply because most builds will revolve around your exalted weapon, the ‘Iron Staff’.

Getting the extra melee damage is very beneficial and can increase your DPS by a lot. That said, there are also some arguments to be made about using Corrosive Projection instead.

Especially if you want to bring your Wukong to higher level missions, multiple instances of the armor reduction mod in your team are very strong and often times needed to kill enemies fast enough – or at all.

Tip: If you want to know more about Wukong and his abilities, feel free to to take a look at the wikia page.

The Iron Staff Build

To be honest, Wukong’s exalted weapon is his best feature. The critical chance is pretty great and the base damage is the highest for all melee weapons in the game (tied with some other melee weapons).

Especially if you manage to combine the weapon with a good Primal Fury build, you are able to kill lots and lots of enemies within a few seconds.

The build itself should be pretty self-explanatory: If you don’t have the primed mods, just bring the normal version and upgrade once you’ve get your hands on those primed versions.

You don’t really want to build around status chance, so bringing the +60% status chance mods (like Virulent Scourge) isn’t worth it.

Instead use two elemental mods of your choice and switch them out as needed. Berserker is very nice here, because the high critical chance will allow you to increase your attack speed often enough.

The Primal Fury Build

This build fully revolves around your Iron Staff and tries to increase your damage output with your melee weapon as much as possible while still being tanky enough to get into your enemies faces without dying.

To be that tanky you for sure want to get Vitality, while you’re free to use more or less survivability mods after that. Redirection is great, but you could use Steel Fiber instead – or just use both and don’t bother using Streamline.

If you are about to die, always make sure to activate your second ability ‘Defy’, which will make sure that you’re not going to get downed!

Primed Flow (or it’s normal version) are a great addition, simply because Wukong’s energy pool is pretty low without it and you might run out of energy too fast, especially against Infested enemies with energy absorption.

Primal Rage is your key mod here, because it will increase your damage by a lot. You can’t get a higher critical chance than 100% with the augmented mod, but that should be enough to keep your damage high, even though the buff is decreasing by 1% every second.

Otherwise you want a good combination of ability strength and efficiency.

If you feel like you’re not going to have any trouble at all with your energy pool (e.g. because you do have a Trinity in your group), you can switch out Streamline for Intensify or even Umbral Intensify to increase your DPS even further.

Another tip: Make sure to always have your clone up. It will also use the Iron Staff if you have ‘Primal Fury’ active and will deal a good amount of damage!

The New Defy Build

Defy is one of the abilities that got a complete rework with Update 25.2 and now works different than before. There are basically two ways to build around it – for a lot of invulnerable time with a lot of duration or the build I do present here.

There is nothing wrong with trying to use a low amount of duration and find a super fast nuke build, but this build really tries to burst as much damage as possible.

For that you want to get as much range as possible, using Overextended, Augur Reach, Stretch and Cunning Drift.

After that you really need to get as much duration as you can without using Narrow Minded – so Primed Continuity (or the normal version) and Constitution are really great here.

Augur Message is a nice addition, but could also become a Streamline if you find yourself having energy troubles.

Blind Rage is probably your best choice here, so don’t exchange it for something else. If you really need to use another mod (for example a Vitality for more survivability), switch Augur Reach out.

Another small tip: Make sure to always have your clone up. It will not only increase your damage output simply by being a clone, but will also cast your Defy as well.

The Clone Build

This build is a little bit more on the casual side of things and tries to maximize your clone health by reaching 300%+ ability strength.

That way your clone will survive forever (or at least for a long time) and will help you out with damage. If you use a primary or secondary weapon, your clone will simply switch and use your currently equipped melee weapon.

If you use your melee weapon, your clone will switch to your primary weapon (or secondary weapon if you don’t have a primary weapon equipped) and shoot enemies on its own. If you only have one weapon equipped, your clone will use that weapon – so you can force it to use exactly the weapon you want it to use.

The build itself isn’t crazy at all. Again, you want to get as much ability strength as possible. After that it is mainly about survivability, which is why Vitality and Adaptation are used.

The latter could also be anything else, but Redirection or Steel Fiber are probably your best choices for more survivability. You will not use your other abilities most of the time, so make sure to bring a good weapon.

Also, Celestial Stomp is just a great addition and a lot of fun. It basically works like Rhino’s ‘Stomp’ ability and will suspend enemies in the air for a few seconds.

Just hold your key/button for your first ability for a moment and your clone will use its extra stomp ability.

The Best Wukong Prime Build

Here is the best Wukong Prime build that you can use right now.

Conclusion

The new Wukong is acutally fun to play. He might not have the melee capabilities that Excalibur or Valkyr bring, but he is still very strong in melee combat and especially the new clone is just great. So give this Warframe a try and have fun playing with the new skill set!

Also, if you think we missed some important information or have another idea on how to build him, feel free to leave us a comment!