Energy of a Warframe is used mainly to power abilities and melee channeling. All Warframes have 4 abilities that at base, cost up to 100 energy to cast. Every Warframe has their own energy-pool with varying capacities depending on the types and costs of their various abilities, with the exception of Hildryn who has no energy but draws from her shield pool instead. For channeling, energy is used to provide bonus damage and other effects such as life steal, and to enable parrying while blocking which will nullify all incoming damage, reflect some damage back, and open up melee attackers for finishers, but will drain energy on every blocked attack.
Like health and shields, a Warframe's energy capacity scales with their rank and through the use of mods or buffs. It is also worth noting that the words "power" and "energy" are often used interchangeably by members of the community.
Increasing Energy Capacity
Mods
These are the mods currently available in the game. It is worth noting that Flow and Primed Flow cannot be used in the same build.
Formula For Modded Energy Capacity
These mods increase the energy capacity of a Warframe following the following formula:
So as an example taking Volt Prime with 200 base energy and 300 max energy he will have:
- With Flow:
- With Primed Flow:
- With Primed Flow and Endurance Drift:
Buffs
The only buff currently available to increase energy capacity is Cephalon Suda's Entropy effect. Entropy will release an AoE radial attack 25m around the player, dealing 1000 Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. damage and applying the Magnetic Status Effect to enemies in range reducing their shields. It will also restore 25% of the player's base Energy, and provide a (base) Energy boost of +25% for 30 seconds.
Arcane Helmets
These are retired helmets that in the past used to grant increased energy capacity to their respective Warframes
Warframe Starting Energy In a Mission
Formula
Upon loading into any mission, each Warframe has a fixed amount of energy that they start with. This amount of energy is calculated based on the Warframe's free mod capacity and a base value specific for each Warframe (differs even between normal and prime variants). The formula followed is:
Table of Initial Energies
The initial energy of a Warframe is given from the following table. Do note that this table is currently still under construction and it is still unknown whether these values are calculated off some other attributes or simply fixed parameters for each Warframe. This area of research is still very actively pursued.
Warframe | Energy Pool | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ash | ?? | |||||
Ash Prime | 50 | |||||
Atlas | 50 | |||||
Banshee | 100 | |||||
Banshee Prime | 125 | |||||
Baruuk | 150 | |||||
Chroma | 75 | |||||
Chroma Prime | 100 | |||||
Ember | 75 | |||||
Ember Prime | 75 | |||||
Equinox | 100 | |||||
Equinox Prime | 115 | |||||
Excalibur | 50 | |||||
Excalibur Prime | 100 | |||||
Excalibur Umbra | 100 | |||||
Frost | ?? | |||||
Frost Prime | 50 | |||||
Gara | 75 | |||||
Garuda | 50 | |||||
Gauss | 100 | |||||
Harrow | 50 | |||||
Hildryn | N/A | |||||
Hydroid | ?? | |||||
Hydroid Prime | 100 | |||||
Inaros | 50 | |||||
Ivara | 75 | |||||
Limbo | 100 | |||||
Limbo Prime | 100 | |||||
Loki | 100 | |||||
Loki Prime | 125 | |||||
Mag | 50 | |||||
Mag Prime | 50 | |||||
Mesa | 50 | |||||
Mesa Prime | 65 | |||||
Mirage | ?? | |||||
Mirage Prime | 125 | |||||
Nekros | 50 | |||||
Nekros Prime | 75 | |||||
Nezha | 125 | |||||
Nidus | 50 | |||||
Nova | 50 | |||||
Nova Prime | 150 | |||||
Nyx | 100 | |||||
Nyx Prime | 150 | |||||
Oberon | ?? | |||||
Oberon Prime | 150 | |||||
Octavia | 100 | |||||
Revenant | 50 | |||||
Rhino | 50 | |||||
Rhino Prime | 50 | |||||
Saryn | ?? | |||||
Saryn Prime | 100 | |||||
Titania | 50 | |||||
Trinity | ?? | |||||
Trinity Prime | 125 | |||||
Valkyr | ?? | |||||
Valkyr Prime | 100 | |||||
Vauban | ?? | |||||
Vauban Prime | 100 | |||||
Volt | 50 | |||||
Volt Prime | 125 | |||||
Wisp | 150 | |||||
Wukong | 50 | |||||
Wukong Prime | 65 | |||||
Zephyr | 50 | |||||
Zephyr Prime | 75 |
Effective Energy Capacity
Casting Effective Capacity
Similarly to how one can define the concept of "effective health" by weighting the number of hit-points with the corresponding damage reduction, one can also define the concept of casting effective energy capacity by weighting the energy capacity using the Ability Efficiency factor:
Since casting efficiency is currently capped at 175%, the highest possible upper-bound for the casting effective energy capacity is:
Toggle Effective Capacity
Since the efficiency of toggle abilities depends also on the duration, in that case the formula becomes:
For the case where no energy is recovered and a constant rate of energy drain, one can also consider the effective toggle duration as follows:
Due to the definition of the terms, there are many ways in-which the formula for effective toggle duration can be expressed.
Apart from toggle duration, this can be used to work out the effective duration granted per energy pick up.
Examples
Suppose a Prowling Ivara has a modded drain of 0.25 energy/sec. An orb of 50 energy would provide:
Considering the same Ivara with full energy pool of 744 capacity, she can remain in prowl for:
Restoring Energy
In missions, there are various ways to restore energy:
- Energy can be picked up during a mission from Blue Orbs. Blue Orbs dropped by enemies restore 25 energy, while containers drops will restore 50 Energy.
- The Aura Energy Siphon slowly restores energy for all players. A squad running multiple Energy Siphon auras allow for faster energy recovery.
- Harrow's Thurible grants players inside the aura a variable amount of energy from kills made by Harrow, depending on how long the ability was charged and whether the enemies were killed by body shot or headshot.
- Trinity's Energy Vampire allows Warframes to regain energy through the four energy pulses the target releases.
- Limbo's Rift Plane slowly restores energy for all players within it.
- Octavia's Inspiration passive slowly restores energy over time for all players that were near Octavia when she cast an ability.
- Team Energy Restores are consumables that grant Energy to nearby teammates in varying amounts, up to 400 total.
- Weapons triggering an Entropy (Syndicate: Cephalon Suda) effect restore 25% of the player's base energy, and provide a base energy boost of +25% for 30 seconds.
- Weapons triggering a Blight (Syndicate: Red Veil) effect restore 25% of the player's base energy, and provide a base movement speed boost of +10% for 30 seconds.
- Zenurik Focus:
- Energy Pulse passively restores additional energy over time on picking up blue orbs.
- Energizing Dash creates a dome on Void Dash that restores energy over time for all Warframes that walk through it.
- Notable mods that affect energy generation:
- Rage or Hunter Adrenaline: Converts damage on health to energy.
- Kinetic Diversion: Converts damage on health to energy for Archwing.
- Equilibrium: Health pickups restore a certain amount of energy alongside health recovery.
- Quick Thinking or Gladiator Finesse: Converts energy into health to provide a last resort buffer against death.
- Endurance Drift: Increases maximum energy and parkour velocity.
- Energy Siphon: Slowly restores energy for all players. Multiple copies of this aura allow for faster energy recovery.
- Coaction Drift: Improves the Warframe's equipped aura, including Energy Siphon.
- Arcane Enhancements:
- Arcane Energize has a chance to replenish energy for the user and nearby allies on picking up blue orbs.
- Exodia Brave restores energy on melee channeling kill.
Mods
It is important to note that on most occasions, toggle abilities disable energy generation from team abilities, consumables, or passive regeneration methods
Using Energy as Health
Mods
These mods stop lethal damage by allowing hits to drain your energy after your health is depleted in exchange for occasionally staggering the player
Notes
- These mods synergize extremely well with Rage and Hunter Adrenaline since all the health drained before taking lethal damage would ensure that there is enough energy for the mods to consume.