Iron Staff

Iron Staff is Wukong's and Wukong Prime's signature Exalted Weapon, summoned by activating the ability Primal Fury. The weapon exclusively uses the Primal Fury stance.

Refer to the weapon's ability page for a list of mods that affect the weapon.

Characteristics[]

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Requires energy to activate and keep active.
Damage isn't affected by the combo counter.
As an Exalted Weapon, it cannot benefit from, nor contribute to the set bonus of any Set Mods (excluding the Sacrificial Mod Set; the Gladiator Mod Set can still apply if equipped on Warframe, Melee, or Robotic Weapons, and not on the Exalted Weapon itself).
Cannot equip Melee Combo Counter Mods (except Drifting Contact), Acolyte Mods (e.g., Blood Rush), or Amalgam Mods (e.g., Amalgam Organ Shatter).
Cannot equip Melee Arcane Enhancements.

The Iron Staff appears in the Arsenal after unlocking Wukong's Primal Fury ability.
Cannot equip Body Count.
As an Exalted Weapon, this weapon comes with an Orokin Catalyst pre-installed.

Tying in with Wukong being based off the character of the same name from the novel Journey to the West, the Iron Staff is named after the Monkey King's signature weapon, Ruyi Jingu Bang, which was a magical staff that could change its size on a whim. This is reflected in the way the weapon extends after each kill, as well as the way the Iron Staff transforms into a large cudgel during certain attacks.
On Wukong Prime, the staff is named Iron Staff Prime. Its stats are, however, identical to Iron Staff.
Before the introduction of moddable Exalted Weapons, the stats of Iron Staff depended on the mods equipped on the player's melee weapon.
Iron Staff is the only melee to have visual presentation of its actual range, which is also affected by mods.

Update 35.1 (2024-02-20)

Fixed Exalted Melee weapons experiencing animation issues if they were deactivated after parrying.
Fixed being unable to switch back to Secondary weapon after hitting the “Switch Weapon” binding while Exalted Melee weapon is active and you don’t have a Primary weapon equipped.

Update 33.0 (2023-04-26)

Fixed many mods that previously worked on Exalted Weapons not correctly applying, for example (but not exclusively) Life Strike not working when installed on Exalted Melee Weapons.

Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)

Fixed de-equipping a Scanner not returning you to your active Exalted weapon if one was equipped prior.
Fixed the Carnis, Jugulus, and Saxum Mod Sets not being equippable on Exalted Melee.

Fixes towards Exalted weapons not being equipped when viewed via Look Link or Mod Link.

Another fixed towards Wukong Prime's Iron Staff not blocking 100% of Damage as intended.

Update 28.3 (2020-08-12)

Wukong's Iron Staff now has a 100% Damage block.
- All melee weapons are intended to have perfect blocking after Melee 3.0, Wukong's staff just slipped through the cracks.

Fixed inability to Melee block with your Exalted weapon until the normal weapon's combo times out.

Removed Stance Forma eligibility on Exalted weapons due to Stance Forma providing no benefit to these weapons.

Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)
Actual patch notes missing damage changes.

Fixed invalid colour options being shown for Wukong Prime Staff and Wukong Samadhi Staff Skin.

Update 25.2 (2019-06-19)

Primal Fury will feature a new specialized and streamlined combo for Wukong’s legendary Iron Staff. As a preview of the upcoming Melee 3.0 system, Wukong’s Primal Fury uses new combo routes with simplified inputs providing a safe, limited space to try out coming releases.
Damage for Wukong and his clone is redistributed for a more powerful feel, with a much higher status chance, larger base range, and some slash.
Casting no longer holds Wukong in place. With new energy requirements, the cast cost of Primal Fury was lowered but cast drain was increased to be turned off and on as desired.
Animation has been trimmed.
The range of Wukong’s Iron Staff is always long, comparable to top range Zaws, and no longer needs to build combo to scale range.

Update 24.4 (2019-03-08)