WARFRAME FRAMES GUIDE

----------INTRODUCTION----------

GRADES ARE GIVEN FOR EASE OF USE. DON’T RELY ENTIRELY ON GRADES. READ FRAME DESCRIPTIONS.

This guide presents an overview of frames as well as builds for most of them. Above all else, this guide seeks to answer questions such as: “Is X frame good?”, “Which frame should I make?”, “How do I build X frame?”

Frames are graded on a scale from A+ to F based on their endgame potential, prioritizing group play, though solo play is also taken into account. All frames with a grade of B or higher are considered good for endgame.

Build guidelines are also given for frames with grades B or higher; frames with grades worse than B do not have builds because there’s little point in optimizing them.

When applicable, purposes besides endgame content (e.g. Nekros for farming) are also explained.

The terms ‘post-DEAC’ (DEAC = Digital Extremes Approved Content) and ‘endgame’ are used interchangeably and refer to endless Sorties/T3 or T4 void missions, basically any time you face level 80+ enemies. Deception, Sabotage, Spy, Capture, etc. missions are NOT considered endgame, no matter the enemy level, because their level of difficulty is considerably lower than endless missions. For endgame missions, crowd control (CC) is a premium.


Unless otherwise stated, each build will, of course, maximize power efficiency.

----------LIST OF FRAMES BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER----------

=== ASH PRIME ===
Grade: B
Roles: Damage
Edgelord frame that deals surprisingly good DPS with Bladestorm. Because of its Finisher damage type that ignores shields and armor, Bladestorm scales decently into endgame, capable of one-shotting regular enemies, though it falls off against high-HP heavy units such as Ancients. Unfortunately, Ash has no use outside of Bladestorm. Bladestorm also leaves him unable to do anything, so he’ll need support defending objectives.

There is one build:

-Bladestorm build that runs max power strength with decent range. Dump stat is duration, though some players like to add in Prime Continutiy so they can use Smoke Screen as a get-out-of-jail button. Press 4 and watch cutscene, over and over. Good for Defense missions to speed up killing waves, especially in augmented armor Grineer sorties. The only build in the game that works best with Steel Charge and doesn’t require a dash aura polarity slot for CP. Mod your melee weapon with Fury/Quickening to speed up the animation and Body Count to increase damage. Other melee mods don’t carry over.

Some people like to use Ash solely for Smoke Screen, running around invisible. Don’t do it. Use Loki instead.

=== ATLAS ===
Grade: F
Roles: None
One Punch Man. Only use is his super secret gimmick Landslide build that deals 1 million damage punches. Tectonics is a worse version of Volt’s Electric Shield, which is already a worse version of Snowglobe. Rumblers are tanky but unreliable at drawing aggro.

=== BANSHEE ===
Grade: C
Roles: Buff
AKA whoframe. Has some niche use endgame with Sonar and the Resonance augment, which greatly amplifies weapon damage and can dish out absurd numbers, but the damage is overkill when you can just use any top-tier gun and 4x Corrosive Projection. Sound Quake provides decent CC but is inferior to Prism, Bastille, etc. with the added disadvantages of high energy drain and being a channeled ability. Her grade here is an average. For the vast majority of the game, including sorties, her grade is a D. For extremely long runs, however, (e.g. 2h+ void survival), Banshee’s damage amplification actually becomes relevant and she becomes a great frame.

=== CHROMA ===
Grade: B+
Roles: Survivability, Damage
Tank frame that can reach 99% damage reduction using Vex Armor and Elemental Ward. Inferior to flat-out invincibility from Wukong or Valkyr, but the plus is that Chroma can buff his weapon damage to insane amounts. Effigy has fringe use in credit-farming. Good solo frame but provides little to a team.

Instead of going over builds, I’m just going to link a forum post that goes into each build in-depth: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/431756-sci_ants-comprehensive-chroma-armor-build-guide-in-depth-with-calculations-and-results/. General gist is that you use Vex Armor and Elemental Ward along with a shitload of power strength and Steel Fiber. You need some way to regain health from chip damage, e.g. Life Strike, lifesteal Furis, etc.

The only build not on there is the credit build:

-Credit Chroma runs high power strength with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Dump stat is range. Used solely for credit-farming 5-wave Dark Sector Defenses. Go to Akkad, plop down Effigy at the objective, and you can go do something else for five minutes. In groups, the usefulness of a single Effigy is doubtful, because waiting for your Effigy to kill enemies usually isn’t as efficient as everybody killing enemies to speed up the round. Best used with multiple Effigies.

Word of caution: Chroma requires multiple high-ranked r10 mods and forma to become good.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== EMBER PRIME ===
Grade: C-
Roles: Damage, Clearing DEAC
Queen of DEAC. The combination of World on Fire (WoF) and Accelerant obliterates enemies below level 50 and potentially even up to the first sortie, but against 80+ enemies you might as well as be slapping them with a wet noodle. Ember is a great buffer with the Fireball augment + Accelerant, but buff builds are uncommon. Some people like to use the WoF augment for CC, and it’s alright, but severely outclassed by almost every other CC. Despite having low endgame potential, Ember is a useful frame to own simply because she’s so efficient for DEAC, which comprises the vast majority of the game. There’s a reason her vaulted Prime set is outrageously expensive. She allows you to speedrun exterminates and semi-AFK in Survival/Defense missions.

=== EQUINOX ===
Grade: B
Roles: Damage
Great damage-dealing frame. Although she has eight abilities, all her abilities are lackluster except Maim. Maim’s stored damage is infinite-scaling, making it good even into endgame, although it takes time to charge and decreases with distance. In a pinch, Maim can also be used as CC by recasting it over and over. Her Sleep ability provides good CC but the range is too abysmal to be worth using. Her power strength buff is good, especially for frames like Ember, but nobody is going to request Equinox specifically for the buff, and in terms of pure damage it’s outshined by many other buffs.

There are two builds:

-Maim build that builds max range with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Power strength only affects the initial slash damage, so it will be a dump stat unless you plan on buffing. Press 4, let damage store, press 4 again. Maim is ineffective against armored units unless you bring multiple CP.
-Peaceful Provocation build that uses the slow part of Peaceful Provocation, building for high power strength (ideally 200% to hit the slow cap) and high range. I honestly don’t recommend this build. Because any competent team will find ways to mitigate damage, the slow takes an extremely long time to build up, so the only way you can build it up quickly is through self-damaging weapons. Compare it to Nova’s Molecular Prime, which can reach 75% slow instantly along with a 2x damage amplification. The only benefit of Peaceful Provocation over MP is that it’s always active and doesn’t need time to spread. Even then, slow is not a hard CC like Blind/Bastille.

=== EXCALIBUR ===
Grade: A
Roles: Damage, CC
Posterboy frame that’s by far the best of the starter frames. Exalted Blade (EB) scales off of melee weapon mods, allowing it to deal massive damage even through endgame. Radial Blind is great CC, while Radial Javelin (RJ) has a highly sought-after niche in Draco runs.

There are three builds:
-EB build is by far the most popular build. If you want to go pure EB, all you need is power strength, but there’s enough mod space to add range and duration for Radial Blind. An equally important part of this build are your melee mods. You want as much damage as possible through elementals. EB has mediocre crit stats, but feel free to build for crit if you want to see crazy numbers (and also to help proc Berserker).
-RJ build that prioritizes max range, then max power strength, then max efficiency. Dump stat is duration. Natural Talent is also good for spamming even more RJ. Only ever seen for Draco runs, but is integral there.
-Radial Blind build that goes for max range and duration. Dump stat is power strength. Pure Radial Blind builds are unpopular because Mirage does a better job (Prism doesn’t require line of sight).

=== FROST PRIME ===
Grade: A
Roles: Defense, CC
King of Defense. Snowglobe is one of the best defensive skills in the game. Unfortunately, Frost is useless for anything not Defense-related, though Avalanche is decent for DEAC nuking and provides a measure of CC.

There is one build:

-Snowglobe build that runs high power strength and decent range so that explosives/Napalm doesn’t splash through Snowglobe. Dump stat is duration. Great for Defense, Mobile Defense, Excavation, organized Draco runs, and camping in Survival missions. Plop Snowglobe down and sit inside. Make sure to use your CC when needed.

Don’t bring Frost to Infested Defense. Snowglobe is useless against Infested and also stops your team from hitting anything inside it. For any mission, make sure to pop Snowglobes if they’re in the way (use your first ability on it). It’s also generally a mistake to plop Snowglobe down on Interception points.

=== HYDROID ===
Grade: D
Roles: Farming, CC
Has the second-best loot-generating ability in the game after Nekros. The Pilfering Swarm augment (PS) build is his sole purpose, building for high duration and minimum power range (max Narrowminded) so tentacles don’t spawn erratically. All his other abilities are awful, though Undertow has fringe use in blocking off Interception points and is fantastic for griefing in Defense missions. Despite being worse than Nekros, he’s not bad in multiples like Nekros, so Hydroid is still a decent frame to have in your inventory for farming. An optimal farming group runs 1 Nekros and 2-3 Hydroids with a possible EV Trin.

=== INAROS ===
Grade: B+
Roles: Survivability, CC
Decent solo frame, decent team frame. He’s tanky with almost 5k health, but comes nowhere close to LITERAL INVINCIBILITY. Although it’s difficult to actually die with him, Inaros’s biggest problem is that he requires constant maintenance through lifesteal, compared to Valkyr/Wukong/Chroma who just press one button and forget about ever dying. His one advantage over other tank frames is that he functions better on a team, because he provides CC through pocket sand (it’s ironic that despite having 4 CC abilities, his only decent CC is pocket sand). His heals are clunky to use on anyone except himself.

There is one build:

-CC Inaros that builds max range and high duration for pocket sand. Dump stat is power strength. Vitality + Steel Fiber are necessary; Rage is also good for infinite energy sustain. Bring a dagger with Covert Lethality for finishers. You want to start almost every mission by building up Scarab armor to max. Blind enemies with pocket sand, shank them to regain health. Devour and Scarab Armor are sub-par heal/CC  and generally not worth using over pocket sand, though Devour is useful if you’re feeling lazy.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== IVARA ===
Grade: A-
Roles: Survivability, Damage, Utility
High-damage frame that offers good utility. Has the single highest number of viable builds out of any frame. Artemis Bow (AB) scales off of primary weapon mods and gives her incredible DPS. Has built-in survivability with Prowl, making her a good solo frame, and Prowl’s slowness can be mitigated by rolling everywhere. Navigator provides insane damage bonuses that is often overkill and generally not worth the time/energy investment. Quiver provides tons of utility: Cloak arrows are great and your team will love you for it, while Sleep arrows provide good CC in a tiny, tiny AOE. Dash arrow occasionally has its uses. Noise arrow is useless 99% of the time but has its niche in soloing Interception missions.

There are five builds, listed in order from general to specialized:
-AB/Prowl build that builds high power strength for Artemis Bow with just enough efficiency/duration to hit the efficiency cap. Dump stat is range. Bring a primary weapon modded for crit. Punchthrough isn’t needed since Artemis Bow has innate punchthrough. Fire rate mods such as Vile Acceleration are very good if you plan on using Artemis Bow’s horizontal fan.
-Hybrid build that’s essentially the first build but sacrifices power strength for range/duration, allowing for more utility through Cloak arrows. Good general all-purpose build for when you still want utility but don’t trust your allies enough to dedicate yourself to supporting them.
-Cloak build that builds high range and high duration for Cloak arrows. Dump stat is power strength. Spam Cloak arrows on allies and on yourself. Cloak is especially useful for sortie defenses to keep the operative alive. For missions with object-type defenses e.g. Mobile Defense, Cloak will NOT protect the objective.
-Solo Survival build that builds high range and duration for Sleep arrows while hitting the efficiency cap for Prowl. Dump stat is power strength. Entirely used to solo Survival missions for hours, using Prowl to steal life support and a Covert Lethality dagger to kill enemies with Sleep arrow.
-Noise arrow build that builds max range and enough efficiency for Prowl. Can also add duration for Cloak/Sleep arrow (+CL) but not required. Dump stat is power strength. Ever only used to solo Void Interception missions. Stay in Prowl and use Noise arrow to lure enemies away from towers. Once you have all 4 towers captured and enemies are in a permanent state of doing nothing, you can afk in Prowl and do something else until the end of the round.

A sidenote: Prowl’s loot-stealing ability generally isn’t worth the time and risk of sitting next to enemies for a few seconds.

=== LIMBO ===
Grade: C-
Roles: Utility
Most bad frames are useless. Limbo has the dubious distinction of actully harming your team if played incorrectly. His biggest problem is that allies can’t damage enemies in another plane of existence, so while he can protect your team, other frames such as Frost or any of the CC frames can also do that while letting your allies damage enemies. His biggest use is in Rescue/sortie Defenses to protect the objective, but Rescues are most efficiently done by speedrunning them, and in sortie Defenses you’d rather just get CC anyway. Some people like to use him in Spy missions to avoid setting off lasers, but Loki is almost always better for Spy. The exception is Moon spy, where Limbo can be better.

=== LOKI PRIME ===
Grade: A+
Roles: CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Extremely versatile frame for both solo and group play. Invisibility comes very close to invincibility in this game, while Radial Disarm (RD) is a fantastic CC that turns enemies into ducks hitting each other with sticks. His Decoy and Switch Teleport abilities are less useful but still essential for trivializing Spy missions. Having the highest base sprint speed in the game also means he’s great for speedrunning.

There are two builds:

-Invisibility build that runs max duration (Continuity, Narrowminded, etc.), which allows you to essentially maintain it forever. Dump stats are power strength and range. General all-purpose build for non-endless missions, Spy missions, and speedrunning. Because Invisibility is so easy to mod for, there’s plenty of room to add sprint/parkour mods. Best solo build on one of the best solo frames.
-RD build that runs max range (Stretch, Overextended, etc.), which allows you to spam it over and over to trivialize entire rooms. Dump stat is strength and duration, though fitting in a Prime Continuity for Invis is recommended. Natural Talent can also be good to speed up RD’s long cast time, and the Irradiating Disarm augment might be the best augment in the game. Preferred build for group play in endless missions and Raids. Note that disarmed enemies still do shitloads of damage if they hit you with their sticks.

There’s also a hybrid build which is essentially the RD build but you add in duration via Narrowminded. This allows you to keep a high-duration Invisibility, but I don’t recommend it. The standard RD build already has space for Prime Continuity, giving you ~12s of invisibility, which is more than enough to pop a life support capsule or revive a teammate.

=== MAG PRIME ===
Grade: B-
Roles: Damage
Annihilates Corpus with Shield Polarize. Unfortunately, she’s awful against everything else. If you picked her as your starting frame it’s probably just easier to restart. That being said, she has a niche in obliterating Corpus, which makes her more useful than a lot of other frames with nothing going for them. Her grade here is an average: against Corpus she’s an A, against Void (which has Corpus units) she’s a C, and against Grineer/Infested she’s an F.

There is one build:

-Shield Polarize build that runs high range with 200% power strength to completely remove shields. Anything over 200% power strength is gravy. Dump stat is duration. Press 2 and watch Corpus die. Shield Polarize is infinite-scaling, making it especially good for augmented shield sorties. Just make sure to bring along an anti-Nullifier weapon.

=== MESA ===
Grade: D
Roles: Survivability
It physically hurts me to put her this low, but Mesa’s days of glory are over. For a variety of reasons, the Peacemaker change destroyed her, and Peacemaker is hardly worth using now. Shooting Gallery’s switching is annoying and unreliable. Shatter Shield is her best ability, but it turns out a 95% damage reduction that doesn’t protect you against explosives isn’t good enough for endgame. On the plus side, she has the best hips.

=== MIRAGE ===
Grade: A
Roles: CC, Damage
Versatile frame that can DPS, CC, or buff. Hall of Mirrors provides significant weapon damage amplification with the additional upside of allowing explosive weapons to cover a larger area. Eclipse is one of the best weapon buffs in the game that can also buff allies with the augment, though it can be annoying to make sure you’re standing in light all the time. Prism is one of the best hard-CC abilities in the game.

There are two builds:

-Standard DPS build that builds power strength and duration. Dump stat is range and efficiency. Efficiency isn’t needed because you’re only casting two abilities every 50s. Uses Hall of Mirrors with the augment and Eclipse to deal massive damage. Prefers AOE explosive weapons such as Tonkor, Kulstar, and Synoid Simulor.
-Prism build that builds max range and duration. Dump stat is strength. Must have Natural Talent because Prism has a very long cast time. Use Prism, pop Prism, blind everything in a massive AOE. Useful for Raids. Also useful for Interception and Mobile Defense missions. Since Blinded enemies don’t capture points, you just blind them and sit back. Same with MD and any other mission where killing things isn’t the goal.

A third build is a buff build, which is identical to the DPS build except you swap out the Hall of Mirrors augment for the Eclipse augment.

=== NEKROS ===
Grade: D
Roles: Farming, Utility
Gives you more loot. That’s his sole purpose. Desecrate is one of the few loot-generating abilities in the game and by far the best, with massive AOE and spammability. Used rarely by some groups to provide extra life support in long survival missions. Terrify is okay CC and Shadows of the Dead is a fun ability, but all anyone wants Nekros for is Desecrate. Despite his lack of endgame potential, he’s a good frame to have in your inventory because he’s the best for farming, and you WILL inevitably run out of resources. Best played with a macro while you do something else. There are (unconfirmed) rumours that rare resources no longer drop from Desecrate.

=== NEZHA ===
Grade: C
Roles: CC, Speedrunning, Survivability
Ladyboy frame whose only use is ERP. With innate Maglev, he’s actually a great speedrunner and can be even faster than Loki, but his speedrunning is limited to non-Spy, non-Rescue, non-endgame missions (Warding Halo will not protect you in the time it takes to do a cipher). Warding Halo and Divine Spears are passable but just worse versions of Rhino’s abilities.

=== NOVA PRIME ===
Grade: A-
Roles: CC, Buff, Damage
Versatile support frame. Her best ability is Molecular Prime (MP), which can be modded for CC or to speed up endless missions, all the while doubling the damage your team does. Wormhole is a great team mobility skill, and Anti-Matter Drop (AMD) is an infinite-scaling damage ability. Fantastic for endgame missions.

There are two builds:

-Slovva build that runs max duration for MP with just enough power strength to hit the slow cap (145%, achievable with max Intensify + Power Drift). Dump stat is range. Good for AMD, better if you bring along an AMD weapon (e.g. Boltor Prime, basically any high-damage weapon that doesn’t rely on crts because AMD does not take crits into account). Standard build for endgame, Raids, and any time you want CC.
-Speednova build that runs max duration for MP with minimum power strength (max Overextended). Because MP’s slow scales with power strength, having less than 100% power strength will actually make enemies go faster. Why is this good? Because this speeds up the mission. Preferred build for grinding Defense missions.

Slovva is the standard build for most missions, including Excavations and Survivals. It’s generally a mistake to bring Slovva to a Defense mission, because slowing down enemies means waves take much longer to kill. Don’t bring Slovva to Sortie Defenses.

=== NYX PRIME ===
Grade: C
Roles: CC
Worse RD Loki. Only ever used for Chaos, which is not reliable CC and is overshadowed by Irradiating Disarm in every way. Absorb has fringe use in protecting objectives, but is outshined by Frost.

=== OBERON ===
Grade: F
Roles: None
Literally the worst frame in the game. Supposedly a jack-of-all trades frame, but he actually can’t do anything well and doesn’t even have any niches like some other bad frames. His only passable ability is Reckoning, which is okay for DEAC nuking. For some reason DE devoted time to making a kickass skin for a frame nobody liked.

=== RHINO PRIME ===
Grade: B-
Roles: CC, Survivability
Doesn’t do anything particularly well, but does enough of everything decently. Prime version is a decent speedrunner with the Arcane Vanguard helmet. Iron Skin is a passable tank ability that falls way short of literal invincibility other frames have and will not protect you in endgame. Roar is a decent team buff ability, but the various augment mods are better for single-target buffing. Stomp is good CC but outshined by other CC abilities with significantly higher duration.

There are three builds:

-Tank Rhino that builds for max power strength and armor for Iron Skin. Dump stat is duration. The augment is a must-have for the sole purpose of being able to re-cast Iron Skin. Even still, don’t expect to be invincible endgame. If you want to tank, Rhino is not a good frame for it.
-CC Rhino that builds for max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength. You’ll mostly be using Stomp, and unfortunately Iron Skin will suffer as a result.
-Hybrid build. All-purpose general build. Basically a CC Rhino that trades duration/range for power strength so Iron Skin isn’t gimped. Probably the most popular build.

Rhino gets bonus points for being newbie-friendly. He’s easy to mod for and easy to roll through DEAC content with.

=== SARYN PRIME ===
Grade: C+
Roles: Damage, Buff
A difficult frame to evaluate. None of her abilities scale into lategame except Spores, and in order for Spores to scale, you MUST use a high-status weapon built for gas damage: Gas cloud proc deals toxin damage, and Spores can spread toxin damage, essentially allowing Spores to scale with your weapon damage. Simple enough in theory, right? Unfortunately, currently the only weapon that works with this is gas Lanka; other weapons work, but their damage doesn’t come close to that of the Lanka. Testing is made difficult by inconsistency of results and the fact that nobody knows exactly how Spores work, least of all DE – and Spores may very well be bugged. For now, it’s ultimately safer to say that Saryn is a bad endgame frame with one highly-specific viable build. Her grade may increase with further testing.

=== TRINITY PRIME ===
Grade: A+
Roles: Infinite energy, Survivability/team survivability
Best support frame in the game by far. Energy Vampire (EV) provides infinite energy to your team, while Blessing can give your team 99% damage reduction (while also completely healing them). Essential for a wide variety of strategies. Her downside is that she sucks for solo play, and most pubs aren’t worth supporting.

There are two builds:

-EV build that runs max power strength (Intensify, Blind Rage, etc.), max range, and minimum duration (Fleeting Expertise + Transient Fortitude) to shorten the time between energy pulses. Dump stat is efficiency. Often runs the EV augment. Necessary build for Raids, Draco runs, and any time you don’t want to pop lots of energy restores.
-Blessing build that runs max duration to make sure Blessing lasts as long as possible, with just enough power strength to hit 100% heal. Because Blessing grants damage reduction based on the lowest health in the party, you want a reliable way to deal damage to yourself. The best way is using a Glaive modded for toxin damage, Power Throw, and Quick Return. Throw it at your feet, and it will explode, damaging your health. A correctly-modded Glaive will reduce your health to 1 without killing you through Quick Thinking. Cast Blessing right afterwards and enjoy your 30s of 99% damage reduction.

A hybrid build is also possible. This requires high duration for Blessing, which will cause EV to have shitty range with a long time between pulses. To get around this, you first cast EV, then have your allies gather around the EV target and kill it, which causes a large pulse of energy.

=== VALKYR ===
Grade: B+
Roles: Survivability
Literally invincible. Hysteria grants you the best survivability skill in the game, with the tradeoff that you’re forced to use melee. Fortunately, Hysteria’s Claws are superb melee weapons. Warcry is a decent melee buff and is infinitely sustainable with Eternal War. If you’re a melee shitter, Valkyr is for you. If you prefer guns, use Wukong instead. Good solo frame but provides little to a team.

There are two builds:
-Hysteria build that builds high power strength and enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Range is a dump stat. The Eternal War augment allows you to cast Warcry once and have it last the entire mission. Mod your melee for crit, because Hysteria’s claws have a whopping 50% crit chance. Primed Reach is also useful. You will have a LOT of trouble with Nullifiers, and Primed Reach allows you to melee down their bubbles. You will also hate flying enemies.
-Alternate Hysteria build that also runs Vitality, Rage, and Steel Fiber, which allows her to gain energy by being hit. For some reason people like to run this build. I don’t recommend it.

Some people like to take along Valkyr into Raids as a ‘revive tank.’ Don’t do it. There is no such thing as a revive tank.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== VAUBAN ===
Grade: A-
Roles: CC
The other King of Defense. Bastille is his best ability, granting spammable CC in a huge area. Vortex is occasionally useful, though generally outshined by Bastille. Fills the same niche as Frost for Defense, camping Survival, etc. with the upside that he’s useful in Raids and Infested missions. Downside is that unlike Frost, Vauban gets fucked over by Nullifiers.

There are two builds that build differently but play identically:

-Standard Bastille build that builds for duration, range, and power strength (yes, it requires all three stats AND efficiency). Spam Bastille and watch enemies float in the air.
-Repelling Bastille that uses the Bastille augment, building for duration and range. Dump stat is power strength.

For both builds you’re going to be spamming Bastille everywhere. Maintain as much coverage as possible.

=== VOLT PRIME ===
Grade: C+
Roles: Defense, Speedrunning
Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none frame. Electric Shield is good for defense, but is usually a worse Snowglobe. Shock and Overload are bad at dealing damage and bad at CC. His greatest use is using Speed to rush his team through easy missions (most useful in keyshares), but it’ll be faster just to solo easy missions with Loki or Nezha.

=== WUKONG ===
Grade: B+
Roles: Survivability
Literally invincible. Defy grants him invincibility without being limited to melee like Valkyr. Primal Fury is one of those abilities that scale off weapon mods, but it’s surprisingly shitty, lacking the range of Exalted Blade and the raw damage of Hysteria. Primal Fury might also be bugged at the moment, because it doesn’t scale with range mods like it should. Good solo frame but provides little to a team.

There is one build:

-Defy build that builds max efficiency and duration. Everything else is a dump stat. You must run Rage + Vitality to keep your energy pool up. Because Defy is so easy to mod for, you can also add in some power strength if you want to play around with Primal Fury, but you should just use your guns instead – if you want an invincible melee frame, use Valkyr. Remember to recast Defy every couple of ‘deaths’ to reset your heal percentage.

If you’re intent on using Primal Fury, bring along a melee weapon with good mods. Range mods (Reach) on your melee weapon are a must because they make his stick longer.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== ZEPHYR ===
Grade: C+
Roles: Survivability, Damage
Flight frame that’s made obsolete by Parkour 2.0. Tail Wind is a Bullet Jump that costs energy. Dive Bomb requires setup for pathetic damage. Tornado provides bad damage and unreliable CC. Turbulence is a decent tank ability that is ultimately too condition and too unreliable in endgame. Her only potential endgame is her gimmick build using the Turbulence augment and very high power strength to make Tonkor grenades explode on impact with surfaces.

----------NOTE ABOUT TANK FRAMES----------

Wukong, Valkyr, Chroma, and Inaros are all similar frames that fulfill the same niche of being a tank. I consider them to be all more or less equal. It mostly comes down to personal preference which frame you like more:

-Valkyr is literally immortal but is restricted to melee (albeit high-damage melee)
-Wukong is literally immortal and can use guns, but has nothing else going for him
-Chroma isn’t quite immortal but close to it, with the upside that he has insane damage output with weapon buffs. Requires expensive mods and lots of forma.
-Inaros doesn’t tank nearly as well as the other 3, but has decent CC and thus performs better on a team