Most effective against shields. Cold status causes enemies to move up to 70% slower.
—In-game Description
Cold Damage is one of the four primary elemental damage types. It performs well against the standard Shields used by most Corpus units as well as the Alloy Armor worn by many high-level Grineer units, but is not very effective against most of the Infested.
The status effect of Cold damage is Freeze. It reduces the target's movement speed and fire/attack rate by 25% over 6 seconds. Subsequent procs add 5% slow up to 70% in total after 10 stacks, with each proc having their own duration. For Warframe abilities, the proc duration can be decreased (but not increased) if Ability Duration is lower than 100%.
When targets are killed while under the effects of a Cold proc they will turn into ice statues which can be shattered or left to melt. The frozen enemy will be dismembered into multiple body parts, regardless whether or not they are shattered, which is considerably valuable for a Nekros using Desecrate as each part can spawn a Health Orb and some loot.
The Empyrean game mode version of Cold is called Frost. Its status effect is Immobilize, which disables the target ships' weapons and slows their movements to a complete stop for 6 seconds, refreshing the duration with subsequent procs. Against the Tenno's Railjack, it instead creates an Ice Hazard that seals a ship door shut with ice.
As with all damage types effective against armor, Cold damage's type modifier works in two ways: it ignores a percentage of the target's armor, and increases the damage dealt in the same way as a type modifier against hitpoints. Practically speaking, this means that Cold damage is only reduced by 75% of the target's whole Alloy Armor and the base damage is increased by +25%.
Spectral Scream Exhale a deep breath of elemental destruction. Tap to cycle through elements, hold to cast. The chosen element applies to all of Chroma's abilities.
Wielding mastery over the deadly elements, Chroma can selectively change his elemental alignment, by tapping the ability key to freely cycle the selection wheel between Heat, Electricity, Toxin, or Cold.
Chroma's initial element once he enters a mission is determined by the primary emissive color in his Appearance customization, otherwise it will default to Heat.
Hold down the ability key (default 1 ) to expend 10 energy to activate Spectral Scream. While active, Chroma holsters his weapons away and continuously exhales elemental energy in a cone 4 / 5 / 6.5 / 10 meters long that inflicts 200 / 250 / 300 / 400Heat, Electricity, Toxin, or Cold damage per second with a 100%status chance and a ?% chance to stagger lightly; each enemy hit directly by Spectral Scream's cone will also spread its ability effects via an elemental energy stream to one other enemy within 10 meters.
Damage bypasses obstacles in the environment and does not decrease with distance.
Damage type is based on Chroma's current elemental alignment which is determined by Chroma's emissive color.
Cone length is affected by Ability Range, following the expression: 10 × (1 + Ability Range)1/3.
At max rank, with a maxed Narrow Minded the range would be reduced to 6.97 meters, while a maxed Overextended would instead increase it to 12.38 meters.
Status chance, stagger chance, and spread range are not affected by mods.
Spectral Scream's cone emits from Chroma's mouth, which changes direction based on where Chroma's model is facing (not the player camera) and can only be aimed within 90 degrees to each side and 45 degrees above or below Chroma.
While Chroma cannot use his weapons with Spectral Scream active, he is still able to cast abilities or maneuver just as freely.
Spectral Scream drains 3 energy per second and will remain active as long as Chroma has energy. Spectral Scream will end if Chroma runs out of energy or if deactivated by holding down the ability key again (default 1 ).
Channeling energy cost is affected by Ability Efficiency and Ability Duration.
This ability can come in handy when used as a form of Crowd Control and can both be used as a damage ability, or with Heat or Electricity elemental damage creating a continuous crowd control stun.
This ability can be used to resist knockdowns, making it usable for walking through corpus laser doors or shockwaves caused by MOA or death orbs.
Rolling can be used to counteract the movement speed reduction and cover a large area in a short period of time.
Having a Limbo with a high duration build on your team can be very useful, as Spectral Scream will be able to damage all enemies even while Chroma is in the rift. With a build with maximum efficiency, this will also cause Spectral Scream to cost no energy to use, while actually gaining energy at a minute rate.
Elemental Ward Depending on Chroma's elemental alignment, an offensive area-of-effect is created. Chroma and his nearby allies are imbued with defensive energy.
Chroma emits an aura of elemental energy, by expending 50 energy to empower himself and nearby allies as long as they remain within 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 meters, providing both offensive and defensive buffs. Elemental Ward lasts for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds.
Elemental Ward exhibits different effects depending on Chroma's current elemental alignment, determined by Chroma's primary emission color or the selected element of Spectral Scream.
Heat
Generates a flame aura around Chroma and affected allies that increases base Health by 50% / 75% / 100% / 200% and inflicts 25 / 50 / 75 / 100Heat damage per second within a radius of 5 meters with a 2% / 5% / 7% / 10%status chance.
Health bonus and damage per second are affected by Ability Strength.
The health bonus stacks additively with base health modifiers, and the amount of health gained is determined by the affected Warframe's base health at rank 0. Since Chroma has 100 health at rank 0, a rank-3 Elemental Ward with a maxed Vitality and Intensify will increase Chroma's health at rank 30 to 100 × (1 + 2 + 4.4 + 2 × 1.3) = 1,000.
Damage bypasses obstacles in the environment and decreases with distance.
Burn radius and status chance are not affected by mods.
Electricity
Infuses Chroma and affected allies with an electric current that increases base Shields by 50% / 65% / 75% / 100% and converts incoming damage into arc discharges. An arc discharge inflicts 250% / 300% / 500% / 1,000% incoming damage as Electricity damage to a single target within 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 meters with a 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%status chance. Arc discharges will inflict a minimum of 50 / 60 / 100 / 200Electricity damage.
The shield bonus stacks additively with base shield modifiers, and the amount of shields gained is determined by the affected Warframe's base shields at rank 0. Since Chroma has 100 shields at rank 0, a rank-3 Elemental Ward with a maxed Redirection and Intensify will increase Chroma's shield capacity at rank 30 to 100 × (1 + 2 + 4.4 + 1 × 1.3) = 870.
Arc damage bypasses obstacles in the environment.
The final damage of an arc discharge is determined by the amount of shields and/or health lost by incoming damage. For example with a maxed Intensify, losing 100 shields from a single instance of damage will produce an arc that inflicts 100 × 10 × 1.3 = 1,300Electricity damage at rank 3 to a single target as long as it's within range.
Damage from environmental hazards can also be converted into arc discharges.
Arcs can strike the same target multiple times, and arcs can be produced in quick succession should Chroma and allies receive multiple instances of damage that exceed the minimum threshold.
Emits an aura of noxious fumes around Chroma and affected allies that increases base reload speed by 15% / 25% / 30% / 35% and holster rate by 15% / 25% / 30% / 35%. Within a radius of 5 meters, the noxious fumes also have a 25% / 35% / 40% / 50% chance per second to deal 5% of an enemy's maximum health as Toxin damage with a 100%status chance.
The Toxin damage will only be applied to an enemy if it is not already affected by a Toxin proc, but can occur as soon as an existing Toxin proc expires. As such, its effect cannot stack with itself but can refresh itself every 7 seconds.
Damage bypasses obstacles in the environment and does not decrease with distance.
Reload speed and holster rate bonuses are affected by Ability Duration.
The amount of reload speed gained is determined by the affected weapon's base reload speed.
Poison radius, enemy health to Toxin damage, and status chance are not affected by mods.
Cold
Encases Chroma and affected allies in a layer of frost that increases base Armor by 25% / 75% / 100% / 150% and creates an ice shield that reflects incoming fire back to their source. Reflected damage is increased by 150% / 200% / 250% / 300% and has a 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%status chance.
Armor bonus, damage multiplier, and status chance are affected by Ability Strength.
The armor bonus stacks additively with base armor modifiers, and the amount of armor gained is determined by the affected Warframe's base armor, according to the following formula: Base Armor × (1 + Armor Mods + Ability Modifier × (1 + Strength Mods)).
Since Chroma has 350 base armor, a rank-3 Elemental Ward with a maxed Steel Fiber and Intensify will increase Chroma's armor to 350 × (1 + 1.1 + 1.5 × (1 + 0.3)) = 1,417.5.
As with all other additive armor bonuses, Elemental Ward's bonus is applied before multiplicative armor bonuses.
Incoming hitscan and non-hitscan projectiles are physically redirected. As such, obstacles in the environment can prevent reflected damage from hitting enemies.
Hitscan projectiles are reflected directly to the source enemy regardless of distance from Chroma. Melee attacks are not reflected.
Non-hitscan projectiles are reflected in the direction of the source enemy.
Elemental Auras of any type from two or more Chromas do not stack, i.e. two Heat auras do not increase damage nor health values, and if you had both a Heat and Cold aura, only one of them would be active on allies, the first aura stays until you move out of range or it expires.
Has a casting delay of 1 second. The animation interrupts movement and other actions.
Elemental Ward cannot be recast while active.
Subsuming Chroma to the Helminth will offer Elemental Ward and its augments to be used by other Warframes. The Ward's effects are determined by the Warframe's primary emission color.
Everlasting Ward is a Warframe Augment Mod for Chroma that allows allies to retain Elemental Ward's effects upon moving out of its range, lasting for a percentage of Elemental Ward's remaining duration.
In a pinch, the bonus Health provided by the Ward can be used as a quick heal, as the Health granted is automatically added to your remaining health and is not reduced from your remaining health when Elemental Ward wears off.
Electricity
Can be used to great effect on Survival and Exterminate missions where enemies approach you from all directions and are often difficult to locate or target. At maximum Ability Strength, the damage reflected can easily finish off weaker enemies and potentially stun any survivors.
Toxin
Works very well with weapons that require you to reload frequently or have long reload times.
Can reduce recharge delay for Cycron or a Kitgun equipped with Pax Charge, however, it does not affect recharge rate.
Cold
Properly modded, a Cold-oriented Ward can provide an armor bonus high enough that can counteract the armor penalty generated when casting Effigy.
Bugs
Allies who enter, leave, then re-enter the radius of Heat-oriented Ward will not regain the buff on the same cast of Elemental Ward. This results in an empty space where the bonus health should have been, even if they took no damage at all.
This causes Medi-Ray and other healing abilities to attempt to heal the player, but if the player gets out of Elemental Ward's range, their health will return to normal again, wasting the health restored in the process.
The in-game UI shows the armor bonus from the Cold aura as a flat bonus rather than a percentage.
Chroma sheds his outer pelt by expending 50 energy to activate the ability, imbuing the pelt with elemental energy to sprout wings and converting it into a stationary floating sentry with 1000 / 2000 / 4000 / 8000Fleshhealth and 140Ferrite Armor. The sentry will attack all enemies within 20 meters with a continuous stream of elemental energy, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 / 400Heat, Electricity, Toxin, or Cold damage per tick with a ?% status chance at 5 ticks per second. If enemies come within 5 meters of the sentry, it will periodically unleash a radial knockback that inflicts 200Heat, Electricity, Toxin, or Cold damage while blasting the affected enemies away. The sentry can also unleash a radial roar to temporarily stun all enemies within 30 meters.
Sentry health and continuous damage are affected by Ability Strength.
Effigy's elemental breath attack does 5 ticks of damage within 1 second making the base damage per second 2000.
Damage type is based on Chroma's current elemental alignment, determined by Chroma's primary emission color or the selected element of Spectral Scream.
Sentry armor, attack range, status chance, damage ticks per second, knockback radius, knockback damage and stun radius are not affected by mods.
Enemies killed by the sentry have a 15% / 30% / 45% / 60% chance to drop additional credits. All credits that drop within 10 meters of the sentry yield 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% additional credits.
Credit chance, credit bonus drop zone, and credit bonus are not affected by mods.
Technically increases credits income by 3.75% / 15% / 33.75% / 60% while the Sentry is active.
While Effigy is active, Chroma can fight in his lightened form, gaining 20% movement speed but with a 50% armor reduction.
Speed bonus and armor reduction percentages are not affected by mods.
The armor reduction is a multiplicative penalty that's applied to Chroma's total armor (e.g., with a maxed Steel Fiber and Intensify, Chroma with Vex Armor at full capacity will have his armor lowered to 350 × (1 + 1.1 + 3.5 × 1.3) × 0.5 = 1,163.75 when Effigy is activated).
Effigy drains 10 energy per second while active, and will deactivate if Chroma runs out of energy, sentry health is depleted, or if manually deactivated by pressing the ability key again (default 4 ).
Ability Synergy: Effigy's damage per tick and knockback damage can be boosted by the Fury aspect of Vex Armor.
When deactivated, Chroma can teleport his pelt from anywhere onto himself. This will stop movement and interrupt any action Chroma is doing, such as reloading, leaving a player vulnerable.
When deactivated while sliding, Chroma's pelt will be reapplied to him without triggering the animation, even if the player immediately cancels his slide.
Both the initial cast and the return of Chroma's pelt will cease any actions as they are a two-handed ability.
Guided Effigy is a Warframe Augment Mod for Chroma's Effigy that allows him to control the Effigy, dealing rapid damage to enemies in its path and stunning enemies at the destination.
The sentry usually unleashes its roar a few seconds after deploying. This allows you to quickly deploy the sentry for a temporary stun to all nearby enemies.
The pelt can be Banished, preventing damage from non-banished enemies while still being able to damage all enemies normally.
The pelt gains shields from the Shield Osprey Eximus Specter.
Misc:600% (Cold status chance) 50% (freeze health threshold) 3m (impact radius)
Info
Frost launches an icy projectile in the direction of the reticle, traveling until it reaches an enemy or a surface. The projectile deals 150 / 225 / 275 / 350Cold damage to an enemy if hit directly and freezes them in place for 5 / 7 / 12 / 15 seconds. Inflicts 50 / 100 / 125 / 150Cold damage with a 600%status chance to all enemies within a radius of 3 meters from the impact point.
The freeze duration will end prematurely if the initial target loses 50% of its current health during the time it is frozen.
While frozen, enemies are unable to regenerate Shields.
Ability Synergy:
Casting Freeze onto the exterior of a Snow Globe will destroy it, triggering an icy explosion that damages and ragdolls enemies in an area of effect.
Casting Avalanche on a target frozen by Freeze will override Freeze's effects. The target will remain frozen for Avalanche's duration while temporarily reducing the target's armor and removing Freeze's health threshold.
Freeze is a one-handed action. As such, it can be used while performing various maneuvers and actions without interruption.
Can be recast on a frozen target multiple times, restarting the freeze timer.
Freeze Force is a Warframe Augment Mod for Frost that allows Freeze to be held on cast, creating a wave of energy traveling outward from the user that temporarily grants the caster and nearby allies additional Cold damage to all attacks.
Its primary strength is that a direct hit causes the target to be frozen in place for a fixed 10 seconds, regardless of rank. This is particularly useful when fighting single enemies such as bosses to buy time for teammates to revive incapacitated Tenno, recharge shields, reload, etc.
Targets that are frozen will be freed of their immobility if they take health damage by anything. Freeze's utility can be easily wasted unless proper coordination with teammates is exercised.
Freeze can be used to set up an effective kill-combo on an enemy with a burst-damage attack.
Frost sends forth a wave of ice shards that deals 300 / 445 / 565 / 700Cold damage with a 600%status chance to all targets in its area of effect. The wave has an initial width of 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 meters, disperses at a 30 / 35 / 40 / 45° angle, and travels over a distance of 10 / 12 / 17 / 20 meters.
Ice Wave Impedance is a Warframe Augment Mod usable in both PvE and Conclave for Frost's Ice Wave that makes it leave a trail of frozen ground after casting, slowing down enemies that walk over it.
As a damage and crowd control ability, it can be dependent on the situation; it only affects those in front you rather than all around you. It works effectively against a large group of enemies rather than a single enemy like a boss.
Even though the wave moves along the floor, it is able to hit enemies that are slightly above or below it, such as Shield Ospreys.
Ice Wave is best used against enemies in a tightly-packed line. Loses effectiveness on Infested as Ancients resist much of the damage.
Since it passes through Snow Globe, Ice Wave can be used to clear the globe of enemies if Frost is somehow forced out of it.
Range:8 / 10 / 12 / 15 m (ability radius) 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 m (shatter radius)
Misc:600% (Cold status chance)
Info
Frost summons an avalanche to crash down around him, striking all surrounding enemies within 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 meters with a 600%Coldstatus chance. Shortly after, an icy pulse rapidly expands over the area, freezing enemies in place and reducing their current armor by 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 seconds. When the pulse dissipates, frozen enemies are immediately dealt 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1500Cold damage. If an enemy dies from the sheer cold, they violently shatter upon death, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 / 400Cold damage to enemies in a 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 meter radius.
Armor reduction, initial damage and shatter damage are affected by Ability Strength.
Shatter damage diminishes with distance and bypasses obstacles in the environment.
Ability radius and shatter radius are affected by Ability Range.
Status chance is not affected by mods.
Has a cast time of ~2.4 seconds and a cast delay of ~0.75 seconds.
The armor reduction persists while the enemy is frozen and can only apply once, it does not stack with subsequent uses.
The armor reduction is applied after ~1 second of the casting animation has passed, but before the damage is dealt.
Recasting on frozen enemies multiple times refreshes the armor reduction and freeze duration.
While frozen, enemies are unable to regenerate Shields.
While the avalanche does not affect Storage Containers, the explosion from frozen enemies does.
Casting Freeze on a target frozen by Avalanche will extend the armor reduction and freeze duration. The effects will expire when Freeze ends or when Freeze's health threshold is reached.
Icy Avalanche is a Warframe Augment Mod for Frost that grants allies within the radius a protective coating of ice for each enemy that is frozen by Avalanche.
To achieve 100% armor reduction with a rank-3 Avalanche, reaching 250% Ability Strength is required. Increasing Ability Strength beyond this percentage will not benefit the armor reduction further.
Avalanche can be used to immobilize large groups of enemies, as even if it does not kill enemies outright it lowers their armor, allowing players to finish off any survivors.
Avalanche staggers enemies back a small distance when cast, this may result in them being out of range for the freeze and subsequent damage when at the edge of the area of effect, so it is important to make sure you group enemies effectively before casting.
This ability can damage enemies through walls. Using Avalanche while pressed against a wall can clear a room without even entering.
Avalanche can hit enemies who are above or below Frost's position.
Scales well against Corpus as freeze does double damage against shields, useful for destroying Corpus being protected by Shield Ospreys.
Avalanche can still serve as crowd control even with low Ability Duration, as the Cold status effects are not affected by mods and will stay on the target even when unfreezing (if the freeze duration is shorter than 6 seconds, that is).
Being a naturally cryogenic Warframe, any melee assailants that strike Frost have a chance to be frozen on impact. In Conclave, players will instead be inflicted with Coldproc.
Thermal Sunder Siphon Kinetic energy from the area, charging the battery and inflicting Cold Status on nearby enemies. Hold reverses the process, draining the battery and inflicting Heat Status on nearby enemies.
Range:6 / 8 / 10 / 12 m (initial radius) 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 m (final radius)
Misc:10% (battery drain) 100% (Heat ignite damage bonus) 100% Heat ignite chance from Redline) ≤100% (Blast enemy armor reduction from Redline) 4 (limit of areas per element)
Info
Gauss manipulates the kinetic energy around him to create an area of extreme temperatures with an initial radius of 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 meters, which quickly shrinks to a final radius of 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 meters and lasts for 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 seconds.
Tap the ability key (default 3 ) to absorb kinetic energy, charging battery power by 10% to inflict a Cold proc on all enemies within range, lasting for a minimum duration of 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 seconds on empty battery, up to a maximum duration of 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 seconds on full battery. Enemies caught in the area creation receive a minimum of 75 / 100 / 125 / 150Cold damage on empty battery, up to a maximum of 375 / 500 / 625 / 750Cold damage on full battery; enemies lingering inside the area also receive damage per second, which diminishes in amount with the size of the area. When cast on enemies already affected by Cold proc, they are instantly frozen solid for the full status duration.
Hold down the ability key to expend kinetic energy, draining battery power by 10% to inflict a Heat and proc on all enemies in range, lasting for a minimum duration of 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 seconds on empty battery, up to a maximum duration of 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 seconds on full battery. Enemies caught in the area creation receive a minimum of 150 / 200 / 250 / 300Heat damage on empty battery, up to a maximum of 750 / 1000 / 1250 / 1500Heat damage on full battery; enemies lingering inside the area also receive damage per second, which diminishes in amount with the size of the area. When cast on enemies already affected by Heat proc, Thermal Sunder deals its normal damage plus the damage of the current Heat proc.
Initial and final radius are affected by Ability Range.
Initial damage and damage per second are affected by both Ability Strength and battery power level.
Damage per second has a moderate chance to stagger light enemy units within the area.
Status duration is affected by both Ability Duration and battery power level.
Battery charge on cast, battery drain on cast, and ignite damage bonus are not affected by Mods.
Enemies already afflicted with a status effect of the same type will have it reapplied; its status duration uses the battery power level at the time of the new Thermal Sunder cast.
Both Heat and Cold can only have 4 distinct areas active at any given time. Casting Thermal Sunder in a new area after reaching the maximum of Heat or Cold areas will remove the oldest area of corresponding element.
Casting Thermal Sunder of the opposite damage type on enemies already afflicted with Cold or Heat procs, combines the damage type into Blast. Affected enemies first have the initial status effect removed, receive the new status effect, they also receive a Blast proc and deals damage based on the mode being used plus the damage of the canceled status.
For example: Casting a Heat Thermal Sunder at 80% battery followed by a Cold Thermal Sunder at 70% battery with 6 seconds left on the Heat proc will deal: [300 + 0.8 * (1500 - 300)] * 6 + [150 + 0.7 * (750 - 150)] = 8,130 damage.
The order in which the elemental procs are combined changes the direction in which enemies within the ability area are knocked back by the Blast proc. Casting Cold first then Heat will knock enemies outwards, while casting Heat first then Cold will pull enemies in towards the player.
When casting both elements, the elemental proc cast second will override and replace the first element already present, e.g. if enemies were affected by the Cold area first, casting Heat proc on them will remove the Cold proc and replace it with Heat.
Ability Synergy:
Mach Rush through a Thermal Sunder area to add its Cold or Heat damage to Mach Rush's knockdown and shockwave explosion.
Thermal Sunder gains bonuses to its status effects when Redline is active and above the redline battery charge (>80%):
The Cold proc freezes enemies solid instantly.
Consecutive casts of the heat mode against enemies with a Heat proc each deal twice the damage of the previous cast.
The Blast proc permanently strips away the enemy's current amount of armor based off of battery power level, up to a maximum of 100% with a full battery charge, before inflicting its damage.
Can be recast while active to create new Cold or Heat sunder areas. Gauss may create up to 4 distinct areas of either element, resulting in only 8 total distinct areas active at once.
Subsuming Gauss to the Helminth will offer Thermal Sunder and its augments to be used by other Warframes.
The damage dealt by Subsumed Thermal Sunder is equivalent to 50% of Gauss's battery: 225 / 300 / 375 / 450Cold damage and 450 / 600 / 750 / 900Heat damage.
While all other elemental mods utilize the polarity, cold damage mods that aren't associated with secondary effects (like added status chance) use the polarity, which is tied to defensive mods.
The first Cold Status Effect deals 25% slow. Subsequent Cold Status Effects deal +5% slow for a total of 70% slow at 10 procs. Each Cold Status has a duration of 6 seconds.
Cold Damage is one of the four primary elemental damage types. It performs well against the standard Shields used by most 
Corpus units as well as the Alloy Armor worn by many high-level 
Grineer units, but is not very effective against most of the 
Infested.
Nekros using 
Desecrate as each part can spawn a Health Orb and some loot.
Cold main damage)
Heat Status on nearby enemies.
polarity, cold damage mods that aren't associated with secondary effects (like added status chance) use the 
Impact (
Ballistic) • 
Puncture (
Plasma) • 
Slash (
Particle)
Electricity (
Ionic) • 
Heat (
Incendiary) • 
Toxin (
Chem)
Blast • 
Corrosive • 
Gas • 
Magnetic • 
Radiation • 
Viral
Tau • 
True • 
Void
Impair (PvP only) • 
Knockdown • 
Lifted • 
Ragdoll • 
