After every major update to Warframe, plenty of new players hop in to see what the sci-fi space ninja game is all about. With its fast yet fluent gameplay, deep customization, and overall alien art style, it has made plenty of hardcore players hooked.

It can also ward plenty of new players away with its plethora of confusing systems and lacking tutorials. Along with that, the game gets progressively harder if players do not use good weapons or Mods. While good Mods are important, a good weapon is just as important. Here are ten of the best primary weapons you can use in Warframe.

Updated September 12th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: The Veilbreaker update nerfed AoE weapons, overhauled Warframe’s ammo economy, and made some changes to holster speed and headshot damage. We’ve updated this list to reflect these recent changes, replacing a few entries with weapons better suited for killing bosses or providing invaluable utility.

10 Scourge Prime

The Scourge itself hasn’t seen many changes since it was released back in the Chains of Harrow update—even accounting for its middling Prime upgrade—yet the state of Warframe’s sandbox has changed drastically. Galvanized Mods and Weapon Arcanes heavily encourage you to main a single weapon during a mission, so why not have one of your weapons built solely for utility?

That’s where the Scourge Prime comes in. Excellent status chance and base Corrosive damage allow you to make a status monster, acting as an excellent primer for your secondary or melee weapon. More importantly, you can throw the Scourge Prime with your alt-fire to enlarge the headshot hitbox of all nearby enemies.

Throwing a speargun used to be a major hassle, but recent sandbox changes made this worth considering:

You can pair the Scourge Prime with the Laetum, Knell Prime, or any pistol with Arcane Pistoleer to dish out some jaw-dropping damage. Debuff the enemy with status procs, throw your spear, then enjoy the barrage of headshots for the next few seconds. It makes non-AoE secondaries hit like a truck, helps you brute force through damage attenuation on endgame enemies, and encourages full loadout usage. Give the Scourge Prime a chance.

9 Rubico Prime

Sometimes you need a weapon that can rip a Grineer ship in half with a single bullet. For those situations, you’re best off using the Rubico Prime, a hard-hitting sniper rifle that has absurdly high critical stats and base damage. A 38% critical chance with a 3x multiplier makes this weapon hit like an absolute truck for most content, but it gets even better.

The Rubico Prime has a damage multiplier mechanic, same as with all other snipers in Warframe. Hitting an enemy will ramp up the Rubico Prime’s damage multiplier, and zooming in fully enhances its critical damage multiplier. Paired with a high-damage Warframe like Chroma or Volt, Eidolons and other endgame bosses don’t stand a chance. The Rubico Prime suffers at clearing fodder enemies and defeating enemies with damage attenuation, however, so don’t expect the Rubico Prime to one-shot Liches or Archons. But if you need to kill an Eidolon or Steel Path boss, there isn’t a better primary for the job.

8 Fulmin

As far as beginner-friendly weapons go, it’s tough to top the Fulmin. Craftable as early as Mastery Rank 8, the Fulmin is a rifle that can swap between an Arca Plasmor shotgun and a full-auto lightning rifle with the push of a button. It has infinite ammo, great critical and status chances, and it only deals elemental damage—great for benefiting from armor and health damage multipliers.

The Fulmin’s base stats make it excellent for clearing the Star Chart, and a few Forma can turn this weapon into a Steel Path killing machine. Pair this weapon with Zephyr’s tornados to one-shot just about every Steel Path fodder enemy in the game. While the Tenet Arca Plasmor might hit harder with an endgame setup, the Fulmin is so easy to obtain that it had to be mentioned.

7 Ignis Wraith

The Ignis Wraith did receive some nerfs in the Veilbreaker update, yet this weapon is still one of the best primaries you can use currently. It can no longer land headshots, and the weapon is no longer tradable; every clan can now research the Ignis Wraith and replicate its blueprint.

Besides those changes, the Ignis Wraith is still an accessible, hard-hitting flamethrower that all players will want in their arsenal. Excellent base status chance, fire rate, and a focus on Heat damage make for a great status primer and hard-hitting weapon against unarmored targets. It doesn’t require many mods to finish the Star Chart, and it can clear Steel Path content comfortably with an endgame build. Flamethrower fans will want to get their hands on the Ignis Wraith.

6 Phenmor

The Holdfasts Syndicate sells three unique Incarnon weapons that evolve under certain conditions, the Phenmor being one of them. This weapon acts as a high-damage rifle that can morph into a minigun after you land a few headshots. It’s a rather grindy weapon to earn, yet it’s more than worth it.

Each shot from the Phenmor deals 140 damage, mostly Slash. Good critical and status chances make the Phenmor solid for hybrid setups, although one of the weapon’s Evolutions makes this gun absurd when used with a status-only build. Focus on building this weapon for status, and you can take down tough Steel Path enemies in just a few shots. Alternatively, focus on a crit-only build to gain some absurd critical damage bonuses.

Land a few headshots, and now your quasi-sniper turns into an Arch-Gun for the next 408 shots, gaining three meters of punch through while retaining this gun’s great base stats. Most enemies don’t stand a chance when you start unloading hundreds of rounds down a narrow hallway. Anyone that survives will be inflicted with so many Slash procs that they’ll die shortly thereafter. It might not bombard the screen with massive explosions, yet the punch through and fire rate make this weapon excellent for clearing out hallways and other cramped tiles.

The bonus damage provided by an Incarnon’s alt-fire bypasses damage attenuation against Liches, Sisters, and Archons. If you’re looking for a good endgame boss killer, the Phenmor should be on your radar.

5 Acceltra

Statistically speaking, the Acceltra is a good critical weapon that has little status chance. On paper, this means the weapon will fall off significantly in endurance missions and Steel Path content against Grineer.

In practice, the Acceltra simply doesn’t care. Every round from this fully automatic rocket launcher detonates in a small radius for massive critical damage. Its critical stats are so great—32% critical chance with a 2.8x multiplier—that Hunter Munitions becomes a top-tier choice for this gun. Once players get used to the speed and explosive nature of this gun, it is incredibly hard going back to other weapons. It might not be the strongest gun in the game, but it does a hell of a job blowing up every enemy in sight.

4 Phantasma

Out of every weapon in Warframe, the Phantasma arguably got the largest buff from the Sisters of Parvos update. This status-focused beam/shotgun hybrid is seen by most as a good status primer, inflicting status procs constantly with its 22.2% base status chance and 12 fire rate.

But this gun is so, so much more than that. Thanks to Galvanized Mods and Weapon Arcanes, the Phantasma has become the ultimate beam of death. It can’t proc Slash through Hunter Munitions, but it doesn’t need to. This gun does so much raw damage with the right build that Steel Path enemies become a complete joke.

Its innate Radiation damage type also helps counteract its lack of critical damage, as most of Warframe’s hardest foes are weak to this element. Innate punch through also ensures that this weapon can clear hallways just as well as an Ignis Wraith. Throw on Viral or Corrosive, get some Galvanized Mods, and prepare to melt through Warframe’s hardest content with ease.

3 Kuva Bramma

AoE weapons received some major nerfs in the Veilbreaker update, the Kuva Bramma being no exception. With Arcane Merciless no longer granting reserve ammo and the nerf to Primed Firestorm, is the Kuva Bramma still worth using?

Absolutely. This weapon is still a hard-hitting, orange-critting machine. You’ll need to run an ammo mutation mod in your Exilus slot, but beyond that little’s changed. A single arrow will bombard the area with a massive explosion, followed by a series of cluster bomblets that will kill any survivors. The Kuva Zarr is still a better weapon overall, but those who love bombarding an area in explosions can’t go wrong with the Kuva Bramma.

2 Cedo

The Cedo is Lavos’ signature shotgun that has Condition Overload as a passive. As the enemy is afflicted with more status types, this gun becomes stronger. Not only does this stack with Galvanized Savvy, but this gun’s alt-fire can inflict every basic elemental status effect.

Fire your elemental glaive at a group of enemies, clean them up with your main fire, then repeat. You could also use the gun’s alt-fire mode exclusively for AoE add-clear, using your primary fire mode only for tougher targets that aren’t immediately killed by the glaive. It deals absurd damage, scales extremely well, and has AoE coverage. What’s not to like?

1 Kuva Zarr

Introduced in the Sisters of Parvos update, the Kuva Zarr is a significantly stronger variant of the default Zarr. This weapon is effectively a grenade launcher and shotgun strapped together, both featuring great critical and status chances. It did receive some nerfs in the Veilbreaker update, yet its ammo reserves are still more than large enough to allow for liberal use of this gun’s explosive primary fire.

Firing a cannonball at a target deals massive damage over a wide radius, further amplified by the weapon’s cluster bomblets that spawn once the main cannonball detonates. This effectively makes the Kuva Zarr a better Kuva Bramma since it has a magazine and more ammo reserves. But it gets even better. Its alt-fire shoots a shotgun-like round that has innate punch through. Clear a hallway with your alt-fire, clear rooms with your cannonball mode, and use both to annihilate an enemy’s health pool. If you love AoE weapons and shotguns, the Kuva Zarr was made for you.