It’s hard to recommend Warframe to someone because of the vast information the game throws at you in the beginning. Even at the start of the game, you must choose between three different starter Warframes without knowing anything about them. I thought it would be best to make a tier list of all the best Warframes you can use.
As the game now has nearly 50 Warframes, how does a new player know which one to farm? In the current meta of the game, a new player needs to have one Warframe that specializes in one thing or the other. Even in the game’s community, you can hardly find anyone who has collected all the Warframes because it takes too long and is very grindy.
However, I am one of those people who like to subject myself to such misery. I have played this free-to-play game for over five years and have all the gear in the game. Thanks to my suffering, you won’t need to do the same thing as you can get the best Warframes mentioned in the tier list below.
Best Warframes [Tier List]
S-Tier Warframe
Saryn
She is the toxic queen who can kill enemies with her abilities that you can’t see on the screen. Her kit is pretty versatile as she has healing, weapons buff, and area of effect (AOE) abilities. She is more or less mandatory for high-level content and breezes through low-level maps like you are on a picnic.
Saryn’s abilities can simultaneously apply the strongest status effects in the game (corrosive, viral, and toxin status effects on enemies) on multiple enemies. Thanks to her AOE abilities, she is very useful when farming for other Warframes in this tier list. She might not be the best-looking warframe on this list, but she is undoubtedly the queen.
Pro tip: If players have an alternative source of healing like Arcanes, then you can swap out her Molt ability for Rhino’s Roar (damage buff) or Gauss’s Thermal Sunder (AOE).
Wukong
Warframe is a long and grindy game with procedurally generated maps. That’s why you need Wukong to help you speedrun through missions in a couple of minutes, thanks to his cloud walker ability. According to the developers, he was the most used warframe in 2021 for a good reason.
If you are a solo player, Wukong is the best warframe to use as he can make a clone of himself and use the same weapons in your loadout. This ability was soo powerful with AOE weapons that the developer has decided to tune it down, but it is still quite good. His fourth ability can also call upon his trusty staff, which can become an overpowered melee weapon if you build it right.
Pro tip: Players can swap Wukong’s third ability for Gauss’s Thermal Sunder for better ad-clearing potential.
Mesa
This warframe is the one you need if you want to kill everything you see. Mesa’s fourth ability is what makes her strong, as she becomes a gunslinger and kills everything in your line of sight. She also has damage reduction in the form of her third ability so you can survive in high-level missions.
Unfortunately, her first two abilities are not that useful, but you can replace them using the Helminth system. Warframe has a lot of missions where you need to defend a target and kill every enemy coming to you. She is the best warframe to pick from this tier list for such missions.
Pro tip: Swap her first or second ability for Rhino’s Roar or Protea’s Dispensary (support).
A-Tier Warframes
Wisp
Wisp is known for her reservoir ability to provide healing, crowd control, and movement speed. Each buff is tied to a single reservoir but can be combined into one with an augment. She also has another powerful ability called breach surge.
Breach surge blinds nearby enemies, and upon dying, they release head-seeking projectiles that do massive damage. Her other two abilities aren’t great but can be exchanged for another through the Helminth system.
Octavia
Kill your enemies with a song, literally. Octavia is one of the most unique warframes on this tier list, as she has a different mechanic than the rest. She is a musical Warframe, and players can use her Mandacord to remake any actual song.
This song will also decide the timing of the numerous buffs she can provide her squad, such as invisibility. These buffs make her Metronome one of the most overpowered abilities in the game. Her first two abilities can also be combined for a crowd control/damage combo that attracts enemies and constantly damages them.
Volt
Now, this is a warframe that you definitely need to have in your arsenal. Volt is a must-have for one of the endgame activities such as Eidolon hunting and Elite Sanctuary Onslaught. The latter game mode can even help you level up your weapons faster if you have him in your loadout.
He is an electricity-based warframe whose fourth ability can wipe out entire maps with just a press of a button. His third ability can also increase the crit chance of your operator, making him necessary for Eidolon hunts. He is often compared to Flash from the DC comics as his second ability makes him move faster, giving him super speed.
Trinity
She is one of the original warframes released with the game’s launch. Trinity’s abilities are focused on supporting the squad with healing and energy. However, she has dropped a little bit in usage since now, as there are a lot of alternative methods to get your energy back and heal yourself.
Even then, she is still the best at what she does. Trinity can more or less make her squad immortal by combining her first and fourth abilities. Her energy vampire build is also widely used for providing unlimited energy to the squad.
Pro Tip: Exchange her third ability for something like Nidus’s Larvae using the Helminth system.
B-Tier Warframes
Rhino
Every game has a character that can tank any amount of damage the enemies can dish out, and Rhino can certainly do that and more. Besides taking damage, he can also provide a damage buff to the entire squad. Despite being in the B-tier, Rhino is one of the greatest warframes for beginners on this list.
His Iron Skin ability has good synergy with his first ability, thanks to an augment mod. With this, his armor count can go up to a ridiculous amount, essentially making him unkillable. Players can swap his fourth ability that doesn’t get much use for something else.
Nekros
Warframe is a game with lots of resources and rare items. Fortunately, we have Nekros, who can use his Desecrate ability to give us additional loot from fallen enemies. Nekros can then bring back these fallen enemies as AI allies to help with the fight.
His Despoil augment even removes the energy requirement from the Desecrate ability. If the enemy is cut into two parts, their body parts are treated as distinct corpses, allowing for even more loot. It is recommended that players use a Slash-based weapon to dismember their enemies when using Nekros.
Speaking of slash and gore, the next warframe on this tier list combines both.
Khora
Looking at Khora, one might think that she is inspired by Catwomen. Her abilities also reflect heavily on this theme. She is the only warframe on this tier list that comes with a cat companion of her own called Venari. Her first ability is a very powerful whip that can target multiple in a big area.
Khora also has good crowd control potential with her fourth ability creating a ‘Strangledome’ that traps any enemy that comes close to it. Her second ability Ensnare is also CC based and can group multiple enemies in a single place. Once the CC ability is used, Khora can use her Whipclaw to deal massive slash damage to all enemies.
Warframe Tier List: Which one did you like?
Once, someone asked me what games I play the most, and my answer was Warframe. They further asked me what the game was. I told them it was the most frustrating, mind-numbing, grindy, and complex game I have ever played.
They asked me why I played it then, and I told them that despite its shortcomings, Warframe is the best game I have ever played. All in all, you should definitely get the S-tier warframes mentioned on this list. The ones in A-tier can also come in handy in some endgame activities. However, you can also collect all warframes if you please.
