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This article/section contains unofficial information, concepts, or terminology derived from or based on community discussion, invention, or knowledge. It may be subjective and contain information or terminology that is not used by Digital Extremes or in official WARFRAME communications, and may not be an officially recognized concept.

When a player or enemy deals damage to their targets' health or shields, that damage may be mitigated by sources of damage reduction (also called damage resistance relative to receiving damage). In other words, players may deal less damage than the listed Arsenal value due to armor; damage type modifiers from different health, armor, and shield classes; and/or other sources of damage reduction.

Note that in-game and on the wiki, sometimes Abilities and Mod descriptions mention damage reduction when they really mean negative damage type modifier and vice versa. This distinction is needed to differentiate between multiplicative and additive stacking of different forms of damage reduction.

How Damage Reduction Affects Damage[]

Main article: Damage#Damage Calculation

When a player is dealt damage, it is reduced by a scalar calculated from the amount of damage reduction (DR) active (from Mods, Warframe abilities, etc.). The general calculation takes a form of:

For example, if a Grineer Lancer normally deals 100 IPS damage (50  Impact, 25  Puncture, and 25  Slash) against a player, and that damage is dealt to the player's shields (classified as Tenno Shield), which have an innate 50% DR, the amount of damage the player receives will be:

( 50 +  25 +  25) × (1 - 50%) = 50

If that damage is dealt to the player's health (classified as Tenno Flesh with no modifiers), with 100 armor (classified as Tenno Armor with no modifiers) and  Gara's  Splinter Storm active (70% pure damage reduction), the amount of damage the player receives will then be:

( 50 +  25 +  25) × (1 -  70%) × 100/(100 + 300) = 7.5

Damage Type Modifiers (DM, not to be confused with damage reduction, DR) also play a role in damage calculations. Although the Tenno are neutral to all damage types as of Update 27.2 (2020-03-05), mods such as  Toxin Resistance or ability effects like  Kinetic Plating add damage modifiers to a player's health and shields against either one type of damage specifically ( Toxin for Toxin Resistance) or multiple ( Impact,  Puncture,  Slash,  Heat,  Cold, and  Blast for Kinetic Plating). The generalized formula from above can be modified to account for these as such:

For example, if the previous damage from above is dealt to a player's health, with 100 armor, Splinter Storm,  Aerodynamic, and Aviator, the amount of damage the player receives will then be:

( 50 +  25 +  25) × (1 -  24%) × (1 -  40%) × (1 -  70%) × 100/(100 + 300) = 3.42

In the case of armored enemies (whose health and armor have innate damage modifiers), the modified damage dealt is calculated as:

Where HM is the damage type modifier of the Health, AM is is the damage type modifier of the Armor, PR is a pure damage reduction (e.g. Ancient Healer aura), and AR is the amount of armor.

For example, if 100 pure  Slash damage is dealt to a Heavy Gunner with 500 Ferrite Armor (-15% DM to Slash) and 300 Cloned Flesh (+25% DM to Slash), the amount of damage it receives will be:

100 × (1 + 25%) × (1 + -15%) × 300/(300 + 500[1 - -15%]) = 36.4286

*Notice that in this case, the two damage modifiers, HM and AM, do not add together as in the formula before. This is because the damage modifier for armor is applied separately from the one for health.

Against Non-Health/Shield Types[]

Damage Reduction has no affect on effects that absorb damage, Overguard, or Object health such as:

Some of these may benefit from increased Armor (e.g. damage absorption scales with Armor values), but Damage Reduction will not be applied to these to reduce incoming damage received.

Types of Damage Reduction[]

Type Applies to Stacking behavior & source
Armor Health only
  • DR from armor is multiplicative with other types
  • Armor bonuses stack additively (e.g.  Steel Fiber and  Gladiator Aegis)
Pure Damage Reduction Shields and Health
  • DR is multiplicative with all forms of damage reduction
  • Typically obtained from using Warframe abilities
Damage Redirection Overguard, Shields, and Health
  • DR is multiplicative with all forms of damage reduction
  • Typically obtained from using Warframe abilities
Damage Type Modifier Shields and Health, where applicable*
  • DR from damage type modifier is multiplicative within the same type
  • DR is multiplicative with other types
Energy as Health Energy at 2 Health
  • DR is multiplicative with other types
  • From equipping  Quick Thinking and/or  Gladiator Finesse, efficiency bonuses stack additively

*Modifiers granted by mods or effects (e.g.  Toxin Resistance) are applied to both health and shields, while modifiers that are innate to a shield or health type only apply to the damage dealt to shields or health. E.g.  Slash damage dealt to the neutral shields of an enemy that has a +25% modifier to slash on its health will not take increased damage to its shields. The exception to this are damage modifiers on armor, which do apply to health as well, but not to shields.

Armor[]

Main article: Armor

Armor is an attribute that reduces damage taken to health but not to shields. Not all enemies possess armor; Warframes, most bosses, and all Grineer do, but normal Corpus and Infested enemies do not have any. For a given Warframe, its armor value can be found in the Arsenal. Armored enemies have their base armor values listed in the Codex but this value increases when they spawn with higher levels due to Enemy Level Scaling.

In combat, enemies with more than one point of armor have their health bars displayed yellow instead of red. It is possible to strip away armor value through certain abilities or damage Status Effects, turning those enemies' health bars back to red.

Pure Damage Reduction[]

Any source of damage reduction, aside from armor, will decrease damage done to health and shields. Sources of damage reduction (including armor) stack multiplicatively with each other.

This form of damage reduction is usually temporary or conditional, unlike armor, so it must be reapplied to receive less damage to health and shields.

Sources of Pure Damage Reduction[]

Abilities

 Baruuk's tolerance for violence wanes as his hand is forced by his foes. Restraint is a resource unique to Baruuk that provides up to 50% Damage Reduction when the meter is completely depleted.

  • Restraint meter is displayed in the lower-right on the HUD, above the ability icons.
  • Restraint meter starts fully filled, and is depleted using Baruuk's abilities:
    • Each attack evaded through  Elude erodes 1.2% from the meter.
    • Each enemy affected by  Lull erodes 0.8% from the meter.
    • Each enemy disarmed by  Desolate Hands erodes 1.6% from the meter.
  • Baruuk's fourth ability  Serene Storm utilizes Restraint instead of Energy to cast and maintain. Using this ability refills Restraint meter by 4% on activation and by 0.8% per second until the ability is deactivated.
    • Restraint can still erode from using Baruuk's other abilities during this ability.


3
75
Desolate Hands

Summon a bevy of orbiting daggers to seek out enemy guns, destroying them with a small explosion. Combine with Elude to double the range.


Introduced in Update 24.2 (2018-12-18)

 Strength:100 / 150 / 200 / 250 ( Blast damage)
3 / 4 / 6 / 8 (number of charges)
 Duration:N/A
 Range:6 m (seek range)
3 m (explosion radius)

Misc: 1.6% (Restraint erosion per enemy disarmed)
10% (damage reduction per dagger)
90% (damage reduction cap) 50% (dagger cap per ally)

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4
25
Serene Storm

With his Restraint eroded, Baruuk commands the Desert Wind to deliver powerful radial strikes with his fists and feet. Each moment commanding the storm restores his Restraint.


Introduced in Update 24.2 (2018-12-18)

 Strength:100 / 125 / 200 / 250 ( Impact damage)
10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (damage reduction)
 Duration:N/A
 Range:N/A

Misc: 40% (damage reduction cap)
? % (disarm chance on hit)
100 % (wind wave projectile deflection)

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2
50
Preserving Shell

Citrine guards herself and nearby allies with a crystalline shell that gradually decays. Kills and assists increase the defensive power of the shell.


Introduced in Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)

 Strength:10 / 20 / 30 / 40 % initial damage reduction
+3% damage reduction per kill
+1% damage reduction per assist
 Duration:18 / 20 / 22 / 25 s
 Range:N/A

Misc: 50 m Affinity Range
8 m  Stagger radius
2 m  Knockback distance
1 s initial decay delay
10 / 20 / 25 / 25 % minimum damage reduction
-1%/s decay rate at 25%-75%
-3%/s decay rate at 75%-90%
2 s kill/assist decay delay
90% max damage reduction

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2
50
+
when at max heat:

+1t/s-2
t = time at max heat in seconds
Immolation

Protect Ember with flame armor that burns stronger over time, consuming energy once its meter is at full strength. Cast again to extinguish the flame.


Introduced in Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)

 Strength:10-50 / 20-65 / 30-75 / 40-85 % (damage reduction)
 Duration:N/A
 Range:N/A

Misc: 50-90% (damage reduction cap)
0.5%/s (minimum heat generation)
+1%/s ( Fireball heat rate per cast)
-2%/s ( Fire Blast heat rate per cast)
-50% ( Fire Blast heat per cast)
+3%/s ( Inferno heat rate per cast)

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3
10
+0.5/s/enemy
+3/ability
Pacify & Provoke

In Night Form reduces damage inflicted by nearby enemies. In Day Form increases Ability Strength of nearby allies.


Introduced in Update 17.0 (2015-07-31)

Strength: 20% / 33% / 43% / 50% (damage reduction)
Duration: N/A
Range: 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 m

Strength: 5% / 10% / 15% / 20% (Ability Strength bonus)
Duration: N/A
Range: 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 m

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2
50
Splinter Storm

Gara's armor splinters into a maelstrom of shattered glass that slices enemies and impairs their weapons. Allies who contact the cloud are fortified against damage.


Introduced in Update 22.0 (2017-10-12)

 Strength:100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (damage per second)
25% / 30% / 50% / 70% (damage reduction)
15% / 20% / 25% / 35% (damage vulnerability)
 Duration:10 / 14 / 18 / 22 s
 Range:15 / 20 / 25 / 30 m (cast)
1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 m (radius)

Misc: 50% (absorbed damage)

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2
50
Kinetic Plating

Generate armor plating that converts a portion of absorbed Kinetic Damage (Physical, Heat, Cold, and Blast) into Energy. Also protects Gauss from being staggered or knocked down. Damage Resistance is relative to the battery level.


Introduced in Update 25.7 (2019-08-29)

 Strength:14 - 70% / 16 - 80% / 18 - 90% / 20 - 100% (damage reduction)
 Duration:15 / 20 / 25 / 30 s (duration)
 Range:N/A

Misc: 0.1% (battery drain per hit)
1% (battery drain per second)
0.25% (battery charge per melee attack)
2 / 3 / 4 / 5 % (energy restore per hit)
50% (damage reduction cap at empty battery)
100% (damage reduction cap at full battery)
100% ( Slash status chance for Mach Rush)
100% (base melee damage bonus and stagger chance from Redline)

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4
25
Glory on High

Soar with destructive power. Use alternate-fire to detonate Judgments, causing an explosion of Jade Light. Enemies inside the Light's Judgment radius empower the explosion.


Introduced in Update 36.0 (2024-06-18)

 Strength:75 / 100 / 125 / 150  Heat damage
750 / 1000 / 1,250 / 1,500 Alternate Fire  Heat damage
20 / 25 / 30 / 35 % damage reduction
 Duration:N/A
 Range:2 m primary fire explosion
4 m alternate fire explosion

Misc: 50% damage reduction cap
10% Judgment chance on Glory primary fire
1.5x Light's Judgment empowered range multiplier
7.2 ms (base movement speed)
100% (innate movement speed bonus).

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3
75
Shatter Shield

Envelops Mesa in a barrier of energy, reflecting back incoming bullet damage.


Introduced in Update 15.5 (2014-11-27)

 Strength:50% / 60% / 70% / 80% (damage reduction)
 Duration:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 s
 Range:5 / 7 / 9 / 11 m

Misc: 95% (damage reduction cap)
45° (deflect angle for non-hitscan)
90° (divert angle for hitscan)
∞ (hitscan reflect range)

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3
25
Eclipse

(TAP) Temporarily reduce the damage Mirage takes from enemies.

(HOLD) Temporarily increase Mirage's weapon damage.


Introduced in Update 14.0 (2014-07-18)

 Strength:25 / 40 / 60 / 75 % (damage reduction)
115 / 125 / 150 / 200 % (damage bonus)
 Duration:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 s
 Range:N/A

Misc: 90 % (damage reduction cap)

Subsumable to Helminth
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1
25
Null Star

Creates anti-matter particles that orbit Nova and seek nearby targets.


Introduced in Update 9.0 (2013-07-13)

 Strength:? / ? / ? / 200 ( Blast damage)
5% (damage reduction per particle)
 Duration:6 / 8 / 10 / 12 (particles)
 Range:? / ? / ? / 10 m (attack radius)

Misc: 1 s (attack interval)
∞ (particle duration)
100% ( Blast status chance)
90% (damage reduction cap)

Subsumable to Helminth
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2
50
Tribute

Cycle through and extract one of the four Buffs when cast on an enemy. Thorns reduces incoming damage. Dust degrades enemy accuracy. Full Moon increases companion damage. Entangle slows enemies within range.


Introduced in Update: The Silver Grove (2016-08-19)

 Strength:200 / 300 / 400 / 500 ( Impact damage)
 Duration:6 / 8 / 10 / 12 s (debuff duration)
 Range:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 m (cast range)

Misc: -25% (damage debuff)
15 s (offering duration)
120 s (aura buff duration)
35 m (aura range)
50% (Thorns damage reflection and reduction)
-50% (enemy hit chance)
75% (Full Moon damage bonus)
50% (Full Moon health and armor bonus)
25% (Entangle move speed debuff)

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4
100
Blessing

Restore the health and shields of allies within Affinity Range while reducing the damage they take from enemies.


Introduced in Update 4 (2012-11-02)

 Strength:40% / 50% / 75% / 80% (shield/health restoration)
25% / 30% / 40% / 50% (damage reduction)
 Duration:? / ? / ? / 15 s (buff duration)
 Range:N/A

Misc: 50 m (affinity range)
75% (damage reduction cap)

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}}

Mods
Arcanes
Others
Enemies

Damage Redirection[]

Main article: Damage Redirection

Damage Redirection is different from Pure Damage Reduction in that it also applies to Overguard.

Sources of Damage Redirection[]

Abilities


3
75
Warding Halo

Create a protective ring of fire that also stuns and damage enemies who get too close.


Introduced in Update 18.1 (2015-12-16)

 Strength:500 / 650 / 800 / 1000 (base health)
50 / 75 / 100 / 125 ( Slash damage per second)
1.15x / 1.25x / 1.75x / 2.50x (armor multiplier)
2.5x (absorption multiplier)
 Duration:N/A
 Range:1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 m

Misc: 3 s (invulnerability duration on cast)
90% (damage redirection)
2 s (invulnerability duration on break)

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3
Parasitic Link

Bind to a target with a parasitic link. For allies, both the host and Nidus gain increased Ability Strength. Linked enemies take the damage inflicted on Nidus.


Introduced in Update 19.5 (2016-12-22)

 Strength:10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (strength bonus)
10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (damage bonus)
20% / 30% / 40% / 50% (damage redirection)
 Duration:30 / 35 / 45 / 60 s
 Range:24 / 28 / 34 / 40 m (ally link)
10 / 13 / 16 / 20 m (enemy link)


3
75
Link

Any damage taken while Link is active will be channeled to a nearby enemy.


Introduced in Update 4 (2012-11-02)

 Strength:1 / 2 / 2 / 3 (affected enemies)
 Duration:? / ? / ? / 20 s
 Range:12 / 14 / 17 / 20 m

Misc: 50% / 60% / 70% / 75% (damage redirection)
100% (damage and status transfer)


2
25
Merulina

Summon Merulina, a rideable creature of the waves, and the inspiration for K-Driving. Merulina protects Yareli by absorbing a large portion of incoming damage.


Introduced in Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)

Strength: N/A
Duration: N/A
Range: N/A
Misc:4 s initial invuln. time
Secondary only restriction
Ragdoll immunity
Stagger & knockdown resistance
1.5 s dismount invuln. time

Strength: 3,000 / 4,500 / 6,000 / 7,500 HP health pool
Duration: N/A
Range: N/A
Misc:90% damage redirection
∞ duration
18 m/s move speed
21 m/s boost speed
3 m jump height
12 m double jump height
1.25 s jump charge time
17 m charged jump height
10 m dash distance
1,000  Impact damage on landing
5  Impact damage on slam shockwave
2 m slam shockwave radius

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Mods
Others

Damage Type Modifiers[]

Main article: Damage Type Modifier

Damage Type Modifiers are a unique classification of damage reduction that is usually specific to only one type of damage. Damage modifiers stack multiplicatively with each other and other sources of damage reduction.

Sources of Damage Type Modifiers[]

Abilities

Versatile and resilient,  Caliban and allies within his Affinity Range gain Adaptive Armor that builds damage resistance against the highest damage type received from enemy attacks, stacking 5% per hit up to a cap of 50%. If Caliban or his allies do not receive damage for 5 seconds, their Adaptive Armor loses 2% per second until fully removed.

  • Passive bonus value is displayed as a Buff icon beside Caliban's hitpoint indicators.
  • Damage over time from procs (such as  Slash or  Toxin for example) will not contribute nor maintain damage resistance.
  • Adaptive Armor does not stack with  Adaptation. The damage reduction provided to Caliban (or his allies) equipped with Adaptation will be the higher of the two values.
Mods
Others
Enemies

Quick Thinking and Gladiator Finesse[]

 Quick Thinking and  Gladiator Finesse are mods that convert a percentage of lethal damage taken into energy drain when the player reaches 2 health. At above 100% efficiency, additional lethal damage taken will be reduced. With both mods at maxed rank equipped, your Warframe's energy pool will be 300% efficient in absorbing damage, reducing incoming damage by 66.67%.

To calculate the multiplier on incoming damage:

To calculate damage reduction provided by these mods:

Quick Thinking
Rank Efficiency Additional damage reduction Multiplier on incoming damage
0 40% -150% 2.5x
1 80% -25% 1.25x
2 120% 16.667% 0.833x
3 160% 37.5% 0.625x
4 200% 50% 0.5x
5 240% 58.333% 0.41667x


Gladiator Finesse
Rank Efficiency Additional damage reduction Multiplier on incoming damage
0 10% -900% 10x
1 20% -400% 5x
2 30% -233.33% 3.33x
3 40% -150% 2.5x
4 50% -100% 2x
5 60% -66.67% 1.667x

Special Enemies and Damage Attenuation[]

“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
This page is actively being worked on and may not be completely correct. Please assist in making this page accurate. See WARFRAME Wiki:Research on ways to perform research on this game. Click here to add more info.
Need details on exact numbers and add more enemies that have some unique DR on their shields or health (separate from armor)

Certain enemies possess unique damage reduction calculations separate from armor or sources of pure damage reduction. Usually, this unique damage reduction scales based on the weapon's average damage per second (DPS) (more specifically burst DPS), sometimes excluding Critical Hits. Officially, this is referred to as adaptive damage scaling, scaling damage reduction, or damage attenuation.[1] The game calculates DPS typically as:

Where damage, critical multiplier, fire rate/attack speed, and multishot is calculated after mods and buffs are applied (e.g.  Octavia's  Amp or  Volt's  Shock Trooper for damage,  Sharpened Bullets for critical multiplier,  Valkyr's  Warcry or  Gauss'  Redline for fire rate/attack speed, and  Split Flights for multishot).

Note that weapons with the auto-spool trigger type, like the  Gorgon or  Kohm, will noticeably deal less damage per damage instance as their fire rate ramps up to their maximum value.

In most cases, this scaling DR stacks multiplicatively with DR provided by the enemy's armor.

To calculate damage reduction based on DPS:

Acolytes[]

Main article: Acolytes

Acolytes possess Damage Reduction that scales based on several static metrics of the weapon and its mods. Firstly, Acolytes possess a 62.5% damage reduction on health and +50% bonus damage to their shields which apply before the below damage reduction is applied. These factors only apply once in status effect damage calculations. The damage reduction for a particular damage instance can be calculated as follows:

Tier 0 Damage is the theoretical non critical damage instance that would be seen in game if there were no static DPS limiter. Note that this factor includes the 62.5% damage reduction on health and +50% bonus damage to their shields.

 Misery is an exception to this DR and uses a different formula.

As can be deduced from the above, output DPS is capped at 14,600, however this limit can be bypassed with critical hits. Critical damage against acolytes have a modified critical scaling equation defined below.

Where "CM" is the weapon's critical multiplier after mods and other buffs.

Amalgams[]

Main article: Amalgam

All Corpus Amalgam enemies possess the following damage resistance calculations, using Amalgam Alkonost as an example: Amalgam Alkonosts possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.

Proc Damage uses the same formulas where average DPS is defined as :

Archon[]

Main article: Archon
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
This page is actively being worked on and may not be completely correct. Please assist in making this page accurate. See WARFRAME Wiki:Research on ways to perform research on this game. Click here to add more info.
Third layer DR needs to be investigated further. Specifically the trigger and response over time.

Archons fought during Archon Hunts possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS.[2] There are three layers of damage reduction. The first layer is a flat 20% damage reduction that is applied before the other damage reduction stages are applied. The second layer is a static damage reduction (unchanging over time) that scales each damage instance, and is determined based on the following weapon characteristics:

,

“Theoretical Damage” is the damage instance that would be seen in-game if there were no layer 2 or layer 3 damage reductions. This value includes the layer 1 flat damage reduction, it includes criticals, and it is calculated per damage instance. This stage will effectively limit damage per trigger pull to 460,000.

The third layer is a dynamic damage reduction (changes over time) that is calculated per game tick. This stage will only activate if the Archon’s health is reduced by more than approximately 495,000 within a window of 0.6 seconds. After this damage trigger has been reached, on the next game tick a changing damage reduction is applied that will respond to how much damage is dealt over time.

Condrix[]

Main article: Condrix

Condrix possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding Critical Hits. DPS is calculated by:

Critical Hits are applied after DR is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using Health Modifiers and is quantized.

Eidolons[]

Main article: Eidolon Teralyst

Eidolons' shields and health possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS multiplier. Your DPS multiplier is defined as:

Final damage is defined as the damage that would be seen on screen if there was not any damage reduction.

Eidolons possess a body part multiplier of 2x, and a critical damage bonus of 2x which would be factored into the above formula. The Eidolon's head possesses a 3x headshot multiplier and also benefits from the 2x critical damage bonus. However, when damaging the Eidolon's head, AOE weapons will not benefit from the 3x headshot multiplier, providing no bonus damage, and will not benefit from the 2x critical damage bonus. Body hits with AOE weapons will still benefit from the 2x body part multiplier and 2x critical damage bonus.

Empyrean Corpus[]

Certain Empyrean Corpus units possess the following damage resistance calculations, using Aurax Actinic as an example: Aurax Actinics possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.

The following units possess the same damage resistance.

Guardian Eximus[]

Main article: Eximus#Guardian

Corpus Guardian Eximus enemies project an aura that have increased damage type resistance to all damage types by 90% for themselves and their allies.

Deimos Jugulus[]

Main article: Deimos Jugulus#Damage Reduction

Deimos Jugulus possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.

A graph is available here: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/htrjngyeyb

For Proc Damage, Critical Hits are taken into account.

Where the Proc Damage is the per tick Damage of the corresponding Proc, with Health/Shield/Armor Modifiers taken into account. Note that unlike the DPS controller for normal Damage, the one for Proc Damage takes Critical Hits into account. For Heat Procs, the Proc Damage in the above formula is the accumulated value of all the previous Heat Procs.

Deimos Saxum[]

Main article: Deimos Saxum#Damage Reduction

Deimos Saxum possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.

Until both Femurs are destroyed, the main body possesses an additional 80% damage resistance. After destroying a Femur, the other one will take 2x damage. After destroying the other, both locations will take 2x damage.

For proc damage, critical hits are taken into account.

Where the proc damage is the per tick damage of the corresponding proc, with health/shield/armor modifiers taken into account. Note that unlike the DPS controller for normal damage, the one for proc damage takes critical hits into account. For heat procs, the proc damage in the above formula is the accumulated value of all the previous heat procs.

Demolishers / Demolysts[]

Main article: Demolisher#Damage Reduction

Demolishers possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield damage type modifiers, and is quantized.[3] This scaling DR is multiplicative to any other innate DR Demolishers may possess.

Demolisher Juggernauts and Demolisher Charger possess a damage multiplier of 0.8 regardless of DPS level.

For proc damage, critical hits are taken into account.

Where the proc damage is the per tick damage of the corresponding proc, with health/shield/armor modifiers taken into account. Note that unlike the DPS controller for normal damage, the one for proc damage takes critical hits into account, and that any innate DR have their effect squared, both in the Proc DPS equation and when applied after the damage controller equation. For heat procs, the proc damage in the above formula is the accumulated value of all the previous heat procs.

Hyekkas and Hyekka Masters[]

Main article: Hyekka
Main article: Hyekka Master

Hyekkas and Hyekka Masters resist 80% of all  Heat damage.

Juggernaut (Behemoth)[]

Main article: Juggernaut#Damage Resistance

A DPS cap is applied when hitting a Juggernaut's armored plating. While hitting this, the Juggernaut cannot take more than 500 damage per second.

  •  Slash procs from Hunter Munitions will bypass this DPS cap, but will have the DR in the following section applied.

A Juggernaut's weak points (the belly and back when exposed) possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS, including critical hits when triggered, where DPS is calculated by

Weak points also take 2x more critical damage. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield/armor modifiers, including damage reduction from armor and is quantized. Damage from procs uses the same calculation where proc damage replaces total damage.

Kuva Thralls[]

A Kuva Lich's Kuva Thralls have an innate 25% damage reduction on top of their armor.

Lephantis / Hemocyte[]

Main article: Lephantis#Damage Reduction

During phase 1, each of Lephantis's heads possesses an innate 60% DR. During phase 2, this is increased to 70% DR.

Lephantis also possesses Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's damage. Damage is calculated by

Additionally, the damage is calculated using all health damage type modifiers, and is quantized. Critical hits have their damage doubled on top of the weapon's critical multiplier.

If a head is hit again within approximately 0.27 seconds, whether from multishot or simply firing again, the hit uses the following modifier instead:

In addition, during Phase 2, each head possesses a damage cap. The cap is calculated for each damage instance, not the sum of hits.

In summary, bringing weapons with low damage but high fire rate such as fully automatic rifles are far more effective than weapons that deals high damage in a single shot such as snipers.

Leaping Thrasher / Deimos Therid[]

Main article: Leaping Thrasher#Damage Reduction

Leaping Thrashers possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.

For proc damage, critical hits are taken are taken into account.

Where the proc damage is the per tick damage of the corresponding proc, with health/shield/armor modifiers taken into account. Note that unlike the DPS controller for normal damage, the one for proc damage takes critical hits into account. For heat procs, the proc damage in the above formula is the accumulated value of all the previous heat procs.

Necramechs[]

Main article: Necramech (Enemy)#Damage Resistance
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
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Main article: Damage Reduction

Enemy Necramechs possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

This DR applies to its shoulders and back.

Orphix[]

Main article: Orphix#Damage Resistance

Orphix possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding Critical Hits. DPS is calculated by:

Critical Hits are applied after DR is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using Health Modifiers and is quantized.

Prosecutors[]

Main article: Guardsman#Prosecutor Variant

Prosecutors are elite Guardsmen hand-picked by Councilor Vay Hek. They have a 100% chance to drop  Javlok Capacitors on death.

  • Prosecutors are made unique by elemental shield auras that they use. There are four kinds of Prosecutor, one for each of the four base elemental damage types –  Heat,  Cold,  Electricity, and  Toxin. They project an aura that sets allies Damage Type Modifier to physical and non-combined elements to -100%, and gives -85% Damage Type Modifier to combined elemental damage types, but sets allies Damage Type Modifier to the corresponding non-combined element to +100%.
    • All increases or decreases are multiplicative to health and shield damage type modifiers.
    • Multiple Prosecutor auras stack.
    •  Void damage can also deal damage to Prosecutors of any type.
  • Prosecutors are likely to spawn after alarms have been triggered.
  • Prosecutors can share their immunity buff with Tenno should they be allied with the Tenno, such as when summoned through  Nekros's  Shadows of the Dead or during an Invasion when the player has sided with the Grineer.
  • Prosecutors are considered Eximus units for all purposes (for example, dropping  Carbides on the Grineer Shipyard tileset).
  • Prosecutors are most commonly found in the Rescue mission Nuovo on Ceres. The Lotus will warn the Tenno of the Prosecutor's appearance. They will then be found patrolling the area, near the prisoner.

Fire Prosecutor General Drops

Introduced Update 13.0 (2014-04-09) Mod Drops:
 Flame Repellent
Endo
 Trick Mag
 Cleanse Corpus
 Rifle Aptitude
 Enemy Sense
Other Drops:
 Javlok Capacitor (100%)
Tileset Grineer Shipyard
Weapon  Amphis
Codex Scans 3
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 1500
 +  +  +++    ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 5
 ++  +++  -  -
Affinity 500
Base Level 10

Ice Prosecutor General Drops

Introduced Update 13.0 (2014-04-09) Mod Drops:
 Flame Repellent
Endo
 Trick Mag
 Cleanse Corpus
 Rifle Aptitude
 Enemy Sense
Other Drops:
 Javlok Capacitor (100%)
Tileset Grineer Shipyard
Weapon  Amphis
Codex Scans 3
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 1500
 +  +  +++    ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 5
 ++  +++  -  -
Affinity 500
Base Level 10

Shock Prosecutor General Drops

Introduced Update 13.0 (2014-04-09) Mod Drops:
 Flame Repellent
Endo
 Trick Mag
 Cleanse Corpus
 Rifle Aptitude
 Enemy Sense
Other Drops:
 Javlok Capacitor (100%)
Tileset Grineer Shipyard
Weapon  Amphis
Codex Scans 3
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 1500
 +  +  +++    ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 5
 ++  +++  -  -
Affinity 500
Base Level 10

Toxic Prosecutor General Drops

Introduced Update 13.0 (2014-04-09) Mod Drops:
 Flame Repellent
Endo
 Trick Mag
 Cleanse Corpus
 Rifle Aptitude
 Enemy Sense
Other Drops:
 Javlok Capacitor (100%)
Tileset Grineer Shipyard
Weapon  Amphis
Codex Scans 3
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 1500
 +  +  +++    ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 5
 ++  +++  -  -
Affinity 500
Base Level 10

Sentients / Shadow Stalker[]

Main article: Sentient#Damage Adaptation

Most Sentient enemies (and Shadow Stalker) have a damage adaptation mechanic that allows them to have damage type modifiers as well as damage reductions toward particular damage types.

Raknoids[]

Tarask Bursa[]

Main article: Tarask Bursa#Damage Reduction

Tarask Bursas gain a 90% damage reduction for each Aurax Culveri MOA or Aurax Polaris MOA tethered to it, with no limit. Multiple tethers stack multiplicatively.

Tarask Bursas also possess Damage Reduction that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding critical hits. DPS is calculated by

Critical Hits are applied after the damage resistance is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using all health/shield modifiers, other sources of damage reduction, and is quantized.


Tusk Thumpers[]

Main article: Tusk Thumper


Treasurer[]

Main article: Treasurer

Treasurers have a unique shield that possesses 99% innate Damage Reduction, as well as being impenetrable by methods that would normally bypass shields (such as  Toxin damage), making them very resilient to most weapons and abilities. Unlike most shields, their shields will not recharge after being damaged. They can, however, be recharged by Shield Ospreys, even when fully depleted.  Toxin procs have no effect (dealing 0 damage) while their shields are up.

Their health has an innate 98% damage reduction, despite having no armor.

References[]

Patch History[]

Update 35.5 (2024-03-27)

  • Fixed low framerate (below 30 FPS) affecting the efficacy of Damage Attenuation.
    • A combination of low frame rate and high fire rate/damage weapons was allowing enemies with Damage Attenuation (Archons, Kuva Liches, etc.) to be quickly one-shotted. Basically, low frame rates would extend the time it took for Damage Attenuation to kick-in and ramp up in relation to the damage per second being dealt. We found that this issue was present before the changes we made to Damage Attenuation in the Abyss of Dagath update, but it only really became apparent afterwards due to the increase in maximum damage per damage instance and damage per second. So we’ve fixed this unintended interaction by ensuring frame rate has no impact on Damage Attenuation. For reassurance, this fix has not changed anything about the current intended functions of Damage Attenuation.

Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)

Archon Hunt Damage Attenuation Changes

Speaking of earning Archon Shards, Damage Attenuation (or “damage pillows”) may be a familiar mechanic for those who frequent Archon Hunts each week.

This was a hot topic, especially near the end of 2022. Since then, we’ve taken our time to assess player feedback and devise a plan to address it -- and we’re finally at a place where we can execute it.

Damage Attenuation is one tool of many to increase enemy difficulty by limiting how much damage they take from player weapons, etc. Our current form of Damage Attenuation has resulted in many weapons feeling lackluster due to the high attenuation values, and damage output was reduced significantly to balance out the post-attenuation modifiers -- meaning that Archon fights felt like a slog if players did not use a limited set of optimal builds.

This is not a favorable outcome, so we have made the following changes:

1 - Maximum Damage Caps have increased

  • Maximum Damage per Damage Instance has been increased
  • Maximum Damage Per Second has been increased

Our goal is to make big hits still feel like big hits, especially for low-rate-of-fire weapons. We’re able to reduce the damage cap significantly because of the next change:

2 - Modifiers now apply before Damage Attenuation

Critical Multipliers (and other modifiers) applying post-damage-cap allowed for many of the One Shot builds to function, and for full transparency, we want to prevent One Shot Archon builds as much as possible. By changing where these modifiers apply, we can increase the Damage Caps to a much less punishing level for players.

Our goals with these changes are to:

  • Increase player damage output, thereby reducing the overall time to kill for Archons
  • Make “big hits” feel impactful by no longer throttling them to such an extreme degree
  • Encourage overall build diversity for Archon Hunts
  • Reduce the ability to use one-shot builds

We’re excited to see what Archon Hunts look like for players with these changes in the live build! Now that these changes have been released, we'll be keeping a close eye on player feedback and the resulting time-to-kill for Archons to see if further iteration is needed.

Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)

Adaptive Damage Scaling Changes for Liches:

Throughout our boss design history, we have added things like diminishing returns and damage mitigation techniques like armor or damage attenuation. In the time since we’ve launched the Kuva Liches, we’ve made adjustments to how we handle player damage vs. Liches. We’ve done things like add allowing Status Effects and attenuate damage to try and create a balanced combat experience. Like many bosses in Warframe, Liches have some damage modifiers applied to them.

We found a bug in the damage attenuation code, and have fixed it and polished the attenuation for Kuva Liches.

This system generally targets the scenario of very high damage things like the Void Rig’s Arquebex vs. a Kuva Lich, a scenario that is now possible due to the final showdown being based in Railjack. When we were testing this Voidrig Vs Lichout, our Liches barely lasted a second and we realized the damage attenuation code could use some review! We found bugs to fix and things to tweak to account for these new scenarios. Our only intention is to give you a fight that lasts more than mere seconds - happy hunting and may your teamwork and gear lead you to victory! We will be closely reviewing this to ensure we strike the right balance of a fight that requires teamwork and consistent offensive gameplay to beat, but also doesn’t feel impossible. Feedback is welcome!

Damage Resistance Mod Math Changes:

The following changes occurred due to the following scenario being shared:

A player reported that combining Umbral Mods + Adaptation + Lightning Rod on any Warframe made them fully immune to all damage from the Hydrolyst Eidolon.

Prior to this discovery, we already made sure we couldn’t reach 100% Damage Resistance because that would just be excessive in all cases. You can see this in action when we capped the ‘In Air’ Damage Resistance Mods. Even though the Mods theoretically could reach 100% Damage Resistance, there is a hard cap at 90%.

In response and to avoid future oversights, we have changed the way Damage Resistance works. It now works on ‘Damage Remaining’ instead of having all the Modifiers combined and operating at once.

Example:
Consider the case of:
4x 25% Damage Resistance Mods

WAS: (25% + 25% + 25% + 25%) = 100% Damage Reduction

NEW: Take 25% Less Damage = Only take 75% Damage

0.75 x 0.75 x 0.75 x 0.75 = 31.5% damage taken AKA 68.5% damage reduction

Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)

  • Fixed Warframe not being vulnerable with 90% Damage Reduction after directly Transferring into your Necramech.

Hotfix 25.7.8 (2019-09-26)

  • Airborne resistance from Mods is now capped at 90% to prevent stacking past 100% in some cases.