![[Top 10] Warframe Beam Weapons That Are Powerful-01](/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_image_2x_1240xauto/public/2022-07/top_10_warframe_beam_weapons_that_are_powerful-1.webp?itok=N2aHe9p_ "Beam Weapons Main Photo")
Warframe has an incredible variety of flashy tools and weaponry. And there’s nothing flashier than shooting literal beams of light. And thus I present to you: Beam Weapons.
Though technically speaking, not all beam weapons in the game actually shoot light per se. What is classified as a beam weapon in Warframe are weapons that fire a constant stream of something. It could be fire, toxins, electricity, or anything else.
You can also tell when a weapon is considered a beam weapon if they can use mods that are exclusive to beam weapons such as Combustion Beam and Sinister Reach. There IS an exception to this though. The Tenet Flux Rifle can use the Combustion Beam despite not being a beam weapon (it’s an automatic rifle).
So that’s the deal with Beam Weapons, and here are the cream of the crop:
Note: This list will only cover Primary Weapons. I won’t be including beam weapons that are secondaries, amps, or archguns. Maybe in another list.
10. Phage
Right off the bat, we’re going to go for a weird one, so hang on to your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen. The Phage fires seven beams at once that deal viral damage. The beams are spread out, allowing you to hit multiple targets at once.
But that’s not all.
If you hold aim (right-click) while also holding the trigger (left click) all seven beams will focus the beams into one powerful stream of beams. You can also let go of the aim button to choose how focused you want the beams to be.
What Phage excels at:
- Versatility
Due to its special effect, the Phage is useful as both a crowd control weapon and a weapon to take out tanky or high-priority enemies.
- Status effects
Each beam has a 15.5% status chance, increasing this with mods and concentrating them make the weapon consistently proc status effects.
How to get Phage:
You can research and obtain the Phage Blueprint in the Bio Lab of your clan dojo.
Phage Details
9. Gaze
Now we move on to something that isn’t even a weapon. At least, not by itself it isn’t. The Gaze is a Kitgun chamber, one out of three parts necessary to craft Kitguns. Kitguns vary in power and stats depending on what parts you use so make sure you know what you want before making one.
When used as a primary weapon the Gaze will make your Kitgun fire a beam that deals radiation damage. Upon impact, the beam will deal area of effect (AoE) damage.
What Gaze excels at:
- Customizability
Being a Kitgun part, there are tons of ways to design a weapon out of the Gaze. Whether you want your Kitgun to concentrate on critical hits, status chance, fire rate, or any other stat is up to you.
- Crowd control
Since it deals AoE, you can use your Kitgun to keep groups of enemies at bay with the Gaze’s laser.
How to get Gaze:
The Gaze blueprint is bought from Rude Zuud in Fortuna in Venus. It is accessible starting at Neutral rank and costs 500 Solaris United Standing.
Gaze Details
8. Glaxion Vandal
A weapon to make Gru proud. The Glaxion Vandal features better damage, critical chance, status chance, bigger magazine, bigger ammo capacity, and faster reload time than the regular Glaxion.
Remember to scream “freeze ray” every time you use it. I’m sure that won’t get old quick.
What Glaxion Vandal excels at:
- Freezing fools cold
Enemies killed by the Glaxion Vandal will be frozen solid and will count as 2 corpses. This is really useful in farming when used in tandem with Nekros’ Desecrate ability. Though admittedly a really niche effect, it’s still pretty good.
- Inflicting status effects
The Glaxion Vandal has the highest status chance among all beam weapons (38%). This will allow you to easily spread the status effect of your choice all around the battlefield.
- Stalling for time
Since the Glaxion Vandal’s default damage, and it has a huge status chance, you’ll be able to easily slow down enemies with the cold status effect. The beam itself also deals AoE so you won’t be limited to freezing just one enemy at a time.
How to get Glaxion Vandal:
The Glaxion Vandal can be bought from Baro Ki’Teer whenever he shows up in a Tenno Relay. However Baro Ki’Teer’s inventory changes on every appearance so this weapon might not be for sale the next time you go check on him.
Alternatively, unranked Glaxion Vandals bought from Baro can also be traded between players.
Glaxion Vandal Details
7. Panthera Prime
In a category full of weird and unique weapons, the Panthera Prime probably takes the cake. Though it is a beam weapon, it’s also basically a chainsaw.
Instead of firing a beam, it actually launches and suspends a sawblade a few meters in front of you. The sawblade will spin rapidly (because of course it will), slicing everything that it comes in contact with until you let go of the trigger.
And that’s just its secondary fire. Its primary fire will launch the sawblades like a normal gun fires bullets. This gun probably breaks several health and safety rules and like, the Geneva convention.
What Panthera Prime excels at:
- Conserving “ammo”
When using the chainsaw mode, the Panthera Prime will only exhaust ammo if it deals damage. So you can keep the magic flying sawblade up and running without having to worry about wasting ammo.
- Critical hits
The secondary fire has a better critical chance (26%) than its regular fire (18%). Making it hurt way more, though at the cost of it having limited range.
- Dealing status effects
The secondary fire also has a better status chance (38%) than its regular fire (30%). So you’ll be causing more status chaos swinging the telepathic chainsaw around than shooting it.
How to get Panthera Prime:
Like most Primed weapons, the Panthera Prime’s blueprints and parts are obtainable by cracking Void Relics or trading them with other players. A list of the Void Relics containing this weapon’s blueprints and parts can be found on the “Panthera Prime details” link below.
Panthera Prime Details
6. Ignis
Warframe’s iconic flamethrower. There isn’t really a lot of craziness going on with the Ignis. It’s a flamethrower, it shoots flames (or other elements if you mod it that way). It deals good damage, decent crits, and very good status chance (27%).
What Ignis excels at:
- Burning through everything
With its great status chance, you can rely on the Ignis to dish out whatever status effects you equip onto it.
- Controlling crowds
The Ignis specializes in turning small to middle size groups of enemies to ash. You can even burn through more if you choose to place yourself near a choke point and wait for the hordes to come to you.
How to get Ignis:
You can research and obtain the Ignis Blueprint in the Chem Lab of your clan dojo.
Ignis Details
5. Vermisplicer
And here we have another Kitgun chamber. The Vermisplicer, when crafted to be a primary weapon, will fire a single beam that will split into three beams once it hits a target. The three beams will automatically hit other nearby enemies within 6 meters of the initial target. The beams also deal toxin damage.
It’s like if you shoot a laser at a mirror and then it splits into 3 more lasers that uh are attracted to more mirrors… except they don’t split anymore after that… yeah, like that.
What Vermisplicer excels at:
- Customizability
Like the Gaze, it’s up to you how you want to make a Kitgun with the Vermisplicer as its chamber. There are tons of possibilities! Just a little tip though, this gun works better as a primary than a secondary.
- Hitting four birds with one beam
Its special effect will allow you to target up to four enemies at once and melt them where they stand.
How to get Vermisplicer:
The Vermisplicer blueprint is bought from Father in the Necralisk in Deimos. It is accessible starting at Neutral rank and costs 500 Entrati Standing.
Vermisplicer Details
4. Basmu
Sentient weapons are really rare so it’s an exciting occasion when a new one gets released. Like the Panthera, the Basmu is a beam weapon only with its secondary fire. The primary fire acts as an electric rifle whose rounds deal heat damage on impact.
The alternate fire will unleash two beams of electricity that will chain up to 5 enemies within 7 meters of the latest enemy being chained.
Another special effect the Basmu has is that when you deplete its magazine, it will generate three damaging pulses that have a vampirism effect. This means you’ll regenerate health based on how much damage the pulses deal.
What Basmu excels at:
- Increasing survivability
The pulse effect the Basmu has makes you significantly harder to kill as all you have to do is throw yourself towards a group of enemies when your magazine is low and you’re in need of some health.
- Painful crits
The Basmu’s beams have the highest critical multiplier among all primary weapons, with a jaw-dropping 4.8x critical multiplier.
However, it has an incredibly low critical chance of 2% so if you want to make use of that amazing crit multiplier, make sure you add tons of critical chance additives like the Kavat mods Cat’s Eye and Charm, Warframe abilities like Harrow’s Covenant and Arcanes like Arcane Avenger.
- Dealing with groups
The beams being able to chain to five enemies make this weapon super useful in getting rid of several enemies at once.
How to get Basmu:
Unfortunately, the events where you can get the Basmu blueprint are currently over. These events are: Operation: Scarlet Spear, Operation: Orphix Venom, and Nights of Naberus. Out of the three of these, only Nights of Naberus is a recurring event, it comes every October (it’s a Halloween event). So you’ll have to wait for the event to get it.
Alternatively, Basmu blueprints are tradeable so you can find a player to sell them to you.
Basmu Details
3. Amprex
The Amprex, like the Basmu, fires arcs of electricity (though the Amprex only shoots one “beam”).
You may be wondering what makes it better since it doesn’t have an alternate fire and doesn’t even have the Basmu’s vampirism effects. Well, the one thing the Amprex does, it does well. Its actual beam is way better and more reliable than the Basmu’s, it has almost double the damage and a critical chance that can work on its own.
It’s a simpler weapon, but sometimes less is more.
What Amprex excels at:
- Lighting up crowds
You know the drill. The Amprex’s electricity can chain up to three enemies within ten meters. This makes the weapon great when dealing with crowds.
- Crits galore
The Amprex has an impressive critical chance of 32% and a critical multiplier of 2.2x. The crit multiplier may not match up to the Basmu’s but the crit chance more than makes up for this, making the Amprex land a ton of a lot more critical hits.
How to get Amprex:
You can research and obtain the Phantasma Blueprint in the Energy Lab of your clan dojo.
Amprex Details
2. Phantasma
Another sentient weapon in the bucket. We’ve had beam weapons that can act as guns, but now here’s one that doubles as a grenade launcher. A grenade launcher whose grenades split into homing missiles upon contact.
The Phantasma’s primary fire fires 6 beams of radiation focused together (like the Phage when being aimed). Its alternate fire will unleash a ball of radiation that explodes into 5 more balls that will track down nearby enemies.
Also, as a little bonus, the Phantasma gets an increase in magazine size when wielded by Revenant (its owner in lore). It gets 4 additional rounds.
What Phantasma excels at:
- Wiping out hordes
Both of its firing modes make it an excellent weapon for melting down huge numbers of enemies with little effort.
- Procing status effects
Another similarity the Phantasma has to the Phage is that the status effects of all its focused beams add up, meaning that the Phantasma has an amazing base status chance of 133.2%. This guarantees status effects every shot, with a chance of it procing status effects twice per shot (more if you mod it well)!
- Constant damage
The Phantasma counts as a shotgun (like some other beam weapons, some count as rifles though), and its reload speed is the fastest among all of them. With a reload speed of 0.5s you’ll honestly almost never even notice the interruptions in firing. I know I don’t.
How to get Phantasma:
You can simply buy the Phantasma’s blueprint from the in-game market. You can access the market from the console across the console where you access your quests.
Phantasma Details
1. Ignis Wraith
The current favorite among players, not only is the Ignis Wraith the best beam weapon, it is one of the greatest primary weapons in Warframe. It’s also the most used primary weapon in the game according to the 2021 Warframe Statistics.
This upgraded version of the Ignis has better damage, critical chance, critical multiplier, status chance, magazine, ammo capacity, reload capacity, and reach. Making it just an amazing upgrade all across the board.
What Ignis Wraith excels at:
- Being a divine version of the Ignis
Like I said, earlier, it’s a flamethrower, no super wild special effects. It melts enemies in an instant and that’s all it needs to be great.
Also, the Ignis Wraith is slightly crit viable since its critical chance of 17% is marginally better than the base Ignis’ 11%. It also has a better crit multiplier (2.5x).
How to get Ignis Wraith:
The Ignis Wraith can be bought from Baro Ki’Teer whenever he shows up in a Tenno Relay. However Baro Ki’Teer’s inventory changes on every appearance so this weapon might not be for sale the next time you go check on him.
You also have an 8.70% chance of getting an Ignis Wraith blueprint from Abandoned Derelict Caches in Veil Proxima Grineer-controlled territories (Railjack missions).
Another way, and probably the easiest way to get an Ignis Wraith blueprint is to get it from other players. Believe it or not, a lot of players actually give this weapon away for free because previous events have made it extremely easy to get for some (like some clans can simply create blueprints for it). The community is pretty kind to new players too so try giving the chat a shot.
You May Also Be Interested In:
- Warframe: Best Warframes, Ranked Weakest To Strongest (Warframe Tier List)
- Top 10 Warframe Best Primary Weapons (And How to Get Them)
- [Top 5] Warframe Best Arch-guns And How To Get Them
- [Top 5] Warframe Best Melee Weapons And How To Get Them
- [Top 5] Warframe Best Kuva Weapons And How To Get Them
- [Top 11] Warframe Best Weapons And How To Get Them
