Nova/Main

Nova uses electromagnetic energy to contain and control highly volatile antimatter that fuels her abilities.

This is Nova, wildly unpredictable.

Nova's presence on the battlefield is complex and deadly. Handle with care, Tenno.

Yurr struggled to his feet as every molecule in his body approached critical.

Behind the glass the technicians gave him a final, grim salute before slamming the blast door closed. Holsom Yurr, pirate and legend, went nova. The reactor caught the reaction. The technicians harnessed it, and the engines of the Masker's Theodolite roared to life. It was, indeed, the boldest of fools who attempted to leash lightning. And so a notorious rogue, said to be unkillable, met his end in the attempt.

As the historical record now demonstrates.

—Drusus

Release Date: July 13th, 2013

Nova is a high-tech, antimatter themed Warframe. She is somewhat fragile, lacking any powerful defensive abilities and having low shield capacity and moderate health. In return, she features extremely powerful offensive abilities capable of demolishing entire waves of enemies. Nova materialized in Update 9.0 (2013-07-13).

Acquisition

Nova's main blueprint can be purchased from the Market. Nova's component blueprints can be obtained from defeating the Raptors on Naamah, Europa.

Drop	Chance	Expected	Nearly Guaranteed
Chassis Blueprint	38.72%	6 – 7	27 ± 9
Neuroptics Blueprint	38.72%
Systems Blueprint	22.56%

All drop rates data is obtained from DE's official droptables.

Expected refers to total number of attempts a player can expect to need in order to receive at least one of each drop associated with the respective values.
Nearly Guaranteed refers to the total number of attempts a player needs to obtain a 99%, 99.9%, and 99.99% probability to receive at least one of each drop associated with the respective values.
^{For more detailed definitions and information on how these number were obtained, visit here.}

Manufacturing Requirements
25,000	1	1	1	1	Time: 72 hrs
25,000	1	1	1	1	Rush: 50
Market Price: 375			Blueprint Price: 35,000
Neuroptics
15,000	150	1	150	500	Time: 12 hrs
15,000	150	1	150	500	Rush: 25
Chassis
15,000	1	1000	300		Time: 12 hrs
15,000	1	1000	300		Rush: 25
Systems
15,000	1	1	500	600	Time: 12 hrs
15,000	1	1	500	600	Rush: 25

Lore

Main article: Leverian#Nova

Nova. Mercurial, unpredictable and a miraculous example of harnessed antimatter.

It would be a bold fool indeed who tried to tame lightning. One such individual was Holsom Yurr, a freelance problem-solver who commanded high fees for his low morals. A deficiency that netted him great success in endeavors where a conscience would have held others back. He is the only figure known to have secured a back-channel charter permitting him to selectively raid certain rails, so long as Orokin ships were avoided. The story of Nova and Yurr survives via the captain and security logs of the Orokin vessel Masker's Theodolite. It survives because it was deemed to be... of historical importance.

Orokin investigators scrutinized every frame of security footage, each line of the captain's log, for assurance that the outcome of this encounter was indeed true.

—Drusus

Holsom Yurr was a notorious Corpus rail pirate who was hired to neutralize Nova. In his calculated plan, the pirate lured Nova onto the Orokin vessel, Masker's Theodolite, by rupturing its antimatter reactor as it was being drawn into a gravity well of an unknown planetoid. Once Nova was aboard, he jettisoned all of the ship's escape pods and then the antimatter core. Without the core, the ship's reactor ceased to function, threatening the lives of its 10,800 crew. Nova, a being that contains and harnesses antimatter, was then forced to sacrifice herself in order to replace the antimatter core.

Turning to the technicians she had saved, Nova threw her Hikou Hikou stars at Yurr's surveillance cameras and devised a strategy. She then walked into the reactor chamber, only for the technicians to override the blast doors to allow her to Worm Hole Worm Hole into the bridge and Molecular Prime Molecular Prime Yurr and his mercenaries, picking them off with her Alamos Sniper. She then grabbed Yurr and threw him back into the series of Worm Holes, bringing him into the reactor chamber, before they collapsed and the blast doors sealed shut.

The pirate's molecules reached critical and his body went nova, and the ship's engines roared to life. Yurr met his fate as antimatter fuel for the Masker's Theodolite.

Warframe Guides

“I am the Lotus. I will guide you, but we must hurry.”

Guides are created by users like you. They aren't as strictly regulated as most pages, so keep an eye out for dated or subjective information.

Have your own build and playstyle? You can contribute too! Instructions are within.

See Category:Nova Guides to read user-made guides on how to play this Warframe.

Trivia

Both the name and the abilities of this Warframe were chosen by submissions of Design Council being filtered by Digital Extremes then voting by the Design Council community.
Nova is one of the fastest Warframes, with a base sprint speed third to Gauss Gauss, second to Loki Loki, and tied with Ash Prime Ash Prime, Mirage Mirage, and Wisp Wisp.
The term nova refers to the violent outbursts of energy that occur in cataclysmic variable stars. These variables are actually binary stars that consist of a tidally-distorted companion that accretes stellar material onto the surface of a white dwarf. In this accretion disk, the infalling matter is highly compressed on the white dwarf's surface due to its immense gravity. This process increases the pressure and temperature of the collected matter tremendously: enough to burn hydrogen. As this matter contains mostly hydrogen, runaway fusion reactions occur on the white dwarf's surface, producing an extremely bright thermonuclear outburst.
According to Nova's profile, this Warframe was a result of Tenno High Council research. This is widely believed to be a nod to the Design Council that aided in Nova's creation.
Nova is the last Warframe with a helmet that grants statistical changes (The Nova Flux Helmet), as all helmets released from Nekros Nekros onward have since been entirely cosmetic.
Currently one of four frames that has three alternate helmets, the others being Loki Loki, Excalibur Excalibur, and Vauban Vauban.

Bugs

Dying while wearing a different helmet and using a different color scheme causes Nova's head to return to default coloring.