Abilities

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Abilities

Abilities are special skills that all Warframes possess which are used to provide tactical advantages in battle by either affecting enemies directly or bolstering teammates in some manner. Every Warframe has a set of four unique Abilities which directly influence their gameplay and their role within a team. For example,  Frost's Abilities are based around slowing down enemies and blocking damage, making him more suited to a defensive role.  Nova, with her damage-oriented Ability set, is a good choice for offensive playstyles.

Abilities require Energy, which is spent every time an Ability is used. Warframes have only a limited Energy capacity, so Ability use must be carefully managed to prevent running out of Energy at critical moments. Energy costs vary between Abilities; in general the more advanced/powerful the Ability, the greater its Energy cost.

Types

Warframe Abilities are currently officially classified into four different types, according to their function:

Damage

The most common Ability type, Damage Abilities primarily deal direct damage to enemies. They also typically have a secondary effect, such as applying a Status.

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Buff & Debuff

These Abilities are used to modify a unit's innate stats. Buff-type Abilities enhance a Warframe or their allies, while Debuff Abilities weaken or cripple enemies. Some Abilities can even perform both at the same time.

Template:Buffdebuffpowers

Mobility

Mobility Abilities enhance a Warframe's ability to travel between two points or allow them to reach normally inaccessible places.

Template:Mobilitypowers

Perception

Perception Abilities are used to confuse or distract enemies, making them engage false targets or prevent them from seeing the player entirely.

Template:Perceptionpowers

Certain Warframe Abilities can have two different classifications. For example, an Ability can be both a Buff/Debuff and a Damage type. Currently, the above classification of powers is used to determine which Abilities are affected by certain enemies, such as Corpus Combas.

Ability Mods

Warframes Abilities can be affected by four types of modification: Ability Duration, Ability Efficiency, Ability Range, and Ability Strength. With the proper combination of mods and gear Abilities can obtain a maximized value. See Power Mods and Abilities

Ability Duration

Main article: Ability Duration

These mods affect how long a Warframe Ability lasts.

Mods that affect Ability Duration positively:

ConstitutionModU145.png

ContinuityModU145.png

NarrowMindedModU145.png

Maximized at +206% with a negative effect of -66% range. Note that  Continuity and  Primed Continuity are mutually exclusive; the maximized value assumes the use of Primed Continuity.

Ability Efficiency

Main article: Ability Efficiency

These mods affects how much a Warframe Ability costs to cast. Ability Efficiency has a hard cap of 75%. For example, an Ability which costs 100 Energy cannot be reduced below 25 Energy.

Mods that affect Ability Efficiency positively:

StreamlineModU145.png

FleetingExpertiseModU145.png

Maximized at +90% with a negative effect of -60% Duration. The 75% hard cap mentioned above means it is inefficient to completely level Fleeting Expertise as well as Streamline in the same build, unless also utilizing a mod that decreases Ability Efficiency, such as  Blind Rage, or minimizing the drain of channeled Abilities with as few mods as possible.

Ability Range

These mods affect the radius and targeting range of Warframe Abilities.

Mods that affect Ability Range positively:

Cunning drift.png

OverextendedModU145.png

StretchModU145.png

Maximized at +180% with a negative effect of -60% Ability Strength.

Ability Strength

These mods and Arcanes affect the damage and the potency of Warframe Abilities (such as Banshee's  Sonar and Energy restored by Trinity's  Energy Vampire).

Mods & Arcanes that affect Ability Strength positively:

BlindRageModU145.png

IntensifyModU145.png

 Pax Bolt

Maximized in the arsenal at +259% (including all Umbral mods) with a negative effect of -55% Ability Efficiency and -27.5% Ability Duration. Maximizing together with a maxed  Fleeting Expertise on a Warframe that does not need much Duration is efficient since it will effectively triple the damage of Abilities and also make them 5% cheaper to cast (although it will require 4 Warframe mod slots).

Maximized in-game without any additional Warframe ability buffs at +399% (including all Umbral mods,  Energy Conversion,  Pax Bolt, and if all players in a squad equip  Power Donation).

Last updated: Hotfix 25.7.8 (2019-09-26)

Patch History

Update 25.6 (2019-08-08)

• Added numerous Warframe Ability Augment stats to the Ability Screen. We debuted this with Wukong’s rework, and you will now be able to directly see the Stat changes associated with Augments on the Abilities!

Hotfix 25.5.2 (2019-08-02)

• Fixed the Warframe Ability screen breaking if a given Warframe didn't have any Ability hints.
• Fixed the width of the Passive button textbox on the Warframe selection screen being too small for some languages, resulting in text wrapping awkwardly.

Hotfix 25.5.1 (2019-08-02)

• Fixed missing Warframe Ability Tips section when playing Warframe in Korean and Russian.

Update 24.6 (2019-04-04)

Warframe “In Air” Ability Changes

Right now, there are certain powers that just cannot be cast in the air. Some of those powers are easy to address, and we simply remove the restriction. A full breakdown can be found here in the Developer Workshop: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1079249-dev-workshop-cannot-cast-in-the-air-friend-or-foe/

• Removed "cast on ground" requirements for the following Warframe abilities:
  • Trinity Well of Life
  • Trinity Energy Vampire
  • Trinity Link
  • Frost Avalanche
  • Atlas Tectonics
  • Mag Crush
  • Chroma Effigy
  • Loki Radial Disarm
• Additionally, the following abilities require ground to activate, but can now be cast in the air and will do a melee-esque slam to the ground:
  • Rhino Stomp
  • Banshee Sound Quake
  • Oberon Hallowed Ground
  • Khora Strangledome
  • Nidus Virulence
  • Harrow Condemn

Update 22.20 (2018-05-17)

• Updated several ability stat descriptors to make them clearer:
  • Standardized format across all Warframe ability descriptions.
    • E.g. Range (Meters) # to Range #
    • E.g. “Health over Time #” to “Health / Sec #”
  • Added units of measurement to the abilities where appropriate - M (meters), S (seconds), % (percentage), X (multiplier), etc.
  • Converted decimals to whole numbers (e.g. Equinox’s Rest & Rage Wakeup Health Threshold has been changed from 0.5 to 50% for max rank).
  • Changed “Range” to “Radius” for several Warframe abilities.