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%.
Chroma unleashes a continuous stream of elemental energy in a cone 4 / 5 / 6.5 / 10 meters long that inflicts 100 / 125 / 150 / 200Heat, Electricity, Toxin, or Cold damage per second with a 40% / 45% / 50% / 60%status chance.
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 energy 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.
Spectral Scream's damage can be boosted by the Fury aspect of Vex Armor.
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 pressing the ability key again (default 1 ).
Activation energy cost is affected by Ability Efficiency, and the 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 that infuses himself and nearby allies with elemental energy as long as they remain within 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 meters, providing both offensive and defensive buffs. The aura lasts for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds.
Elemental Ward exhibits different effects depending on Chroma's current elemental alignment, determined by Chroma's energy color.
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.
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 200 + 100 × (1 + (4.4 + 2 × 1.3)) = 1,000.
Heat status effect deals 50% of Elemental Ward's base damage per tick over 7 ticks in 6 seconds. Ignited enemies will also panic and flail around for a brief period.
Damage bypasses obstacles in the environment and decreases with distance.
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% / 1000% 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 300 + 100 × (4.4 + 1 × 1.3) = 870.
Electricity status effect chains 50% of Elemental Ward's base damage to surrounding enemies in a small area of effect. Shocked enemies will also be briefly stunned.
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.
Self-damage and 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.
Damage chance per second is affected by Ability Strength, while the damage is not.
Toxin status effect deals 50% of Elemental Ward's base damage per tick over 9 ticks in 8 seconds. As the base damage constitutes 5% of an enemy's maximum health, the ensuing proc will deal a total of 22.5% of the enemy's max health as Toxin damage in 9 ticks over 8 seconds, bringing the total damage to 27.5% of the enemy's max health.
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 9 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.
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.
The armor bonus stacks additively with base armor modifiers, and the amount of armor gained is determined by the affected Warframe's base armor. 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 × 1.3) = 1,417.5. As with all other additive armor bonuses, Elemental Ward's bonus is applied before multiplicative armor bonuses.
Cold status effect reduces a target's movement speed and fire/attack rate by 50% over a duration of 6 seconds.
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.
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.
Electric
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.
Chroma sheds his outer pelt, imbuing it with elemental energy to sprout wings and converting it into a stationary floating sentry with 1000 / 2000 / 4000 / 8000health. The sentry will attack all enemies within 20 meters with a continuous stream of elemental energy, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 / 400Heat, Electric, Toxin, or Cold damage per tick. The sentry is capable of unleashing a radial attack that inflicts 200Heat, Electric, Toxin, or Cold damage to enemies within 5 meters. The sentry can also unleash a radial roar to temporarily stun enemies within 30 meters.
Sentry health and continuous damage are affected by Ability Strength, while the radial attack damage is not.
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 energy color.
Heat status effect deals 50% of Effigy's base damage per tick over 7 ticks in 6 seconds. Ignited enemies will also panic and flail around for a brief period.
Electricity status effect chains 50% of Effigy's base damage to surrounding enemies in a small area of effect. Shocked enemies will also be briefly stunned.
Toxin status effect deals 50% of Effigy's base damage per tick over 9 ticks in 8 seconds. Toxin damage bypasses shields and is able to directly affect health. Multiple instances of the Toxin DoT stack on the same target for increased damage over time.
Cold status effect reduces a target's movement speed and fire/attack rate by 50% over a duration of 6 seconds.
Enemies affected by the close-range radial attack are ragdolled.
Sentry attack range, stun radius, and knockback radius are not affected by Ability Range.
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.
The range is not affected by mods.
Technically increases credits income by 3.75% / 15% / 33.75% / 60% while the Sentry is active.
Credit chance and credit bonus are not affected by Ability Strength.
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 are not affected by Ability Strength.
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 ).
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.
Frost launches an icy projectile that inflicts 150 / 225 / 275 / 350Cold damage on impact and 50 / 100 / 125 / 150Cold damage with a 100%status chance in an area. Enemies directly hit by the projectile will be frozen for a duration of 5 / 7 / 12 / 15 seconds. If the projectile impacts a surface, a patch of ice will be created that lasts 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 seconds and slows enemies as they enter its area of effect.
All damage is affected by Ability Strength and body-part multipliers.
Area damage affects the initial target, decreases with distance, and does not bypass obstacles in the environment.
Freeze duration and ice duration are affected by Ability Duration.
The freeze duration will end prematurely if the initial target loses 50% of its current health during the time its 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 inflicts 300 / 445 / 565 / 700Cold damage with a 100%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 (freeze radius) 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 m (explosion radius)
Info
Frost summons an avalanche that freezes enemies over a duration of 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 seconds within a radius of 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 meters. Frozen enemies have their armor reduced by 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% of their current armor (similar to a Corrosive proc) for the duration of the freeze.
Once the avalanche completely encompasses the area of effect after a short delay, 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1500Cold damage is dealt to all frozen enemies. Frozen enemies violently shatter upon death and inflict 100 / 200 / 300 / 400Cold damage with a 100%status chance within 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 meters.
While an avalanche does not affect Storage Containers, the explosion from frozen enemies does.
While frozen, enemies are unable to regenerate Shields.
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.
Can be recast on frozen enemies multiple times, restarting the armor reduction and freeze duration.
Has a cast time of ~2.4 seconds and a cast delay of ~0.75 seconds.
The armor reduction is applied after ~1 second of the casting animation has passed.
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 stuns and knocks back enemies a small distance when cast, this may result in them being out of range for the freeze and subsequent damage, 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.
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 charge on tap) 10% (battery drain on hold) 100% (Heat ignite damage bonus) 100% (Cold freeze chance and Heat ignite chance from Redline) ≤100% (Blast enemy armor reduction from Redline)
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, they are set ablaze by scorching flames, taking 100% extra damage over time, which can be stacked multiplicatively by recasting.
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 have individual maxima of 4 being cast at any given time. Casting Thermal Sunder after reaching the maximum of Heat or Cold area 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, then also receive a Blast proc and deals damage based on the mode being used plus the damage of the cancelled status.
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.
The Heat proc deals full damage-over-time against enemies.
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.
Tips & Tricks
Thermal Sunder does not affect cracked Reinforced Glass in Corpus Ship tileset and can be used to safely clear a corridor without causing a lockdown.
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.
Edit
Nekros using 
Desecrate as each part can spawn a Health Orb and some loot.
Cold Status on nearby enemies. Hold reverses the process, draining the battery and inflicting 
Heat Status on nearby enemies.
Blast enemy armor reduction from Redline)
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 • 