Best Early Game Weapons in Warframe

Soma

The first weapon on this list, and a personal favorite of mine, is the Soma. The Soma is a high crit chance, high fire rate gun that can destroy entire mobs of enemies with ease.

With only a few mods, this weapon can easily bring you through the entire star chart, only slowing down once you hit beefier enemies in the late game. It’s even received an incarnon form which means if you stick with it, or its prime version, until the late game you can power it up even more.

Stats

• Damage: 64 (66% Slash)
• Crit Chance: 30%
• Crit Multiplier: 3
• Fire Rate: 15 attacks/sec
• Status Chance: 7%
• Mag Size: 100

Acquisition

Once you reach Mastery Rank 6 you can purchase the blueprint for the Soma can be purchased for 50,000 credits from the Market.

Hek

The next primary on our list is the Hek. This powerful shotgun of Grineer make is an absolute powerhouse. With high damage and tight pellet spread, this gun can annihilate foes at a good distance for a shotgun.

This shotgun may have a smaller magazine, than its compatriots, but its high damage makes up for it. Pick this up if you want a good bossing weapon or like taking out single enemies from mid-range.

Stats

• Damage: 525 (65% Puncture)
• Crit Chance: 10%
• Crit Multiplier: 2
• Fire Rate: 2.17 attacks/sec
• Status Chance: 10.70%
• Mag Size: 4

Acquisition

Once you reach Mastery Rank 4 you can purchase the blueprint for the Hek from the Market for 25,000 credits.

Dread

The signature weapon of the Stalker, apart from being cool, is incredibly powerful. This bow has high crit, high damage, and fast reload speed. That means you can spit arrows out fast, ripping through anyone in your crosshairs.

Arguably one of the best features of this weapon is that it’s silent. Unlike the other primaries on this list, firing this bow will not alert nearby enemies. That makes this weapon perfect for stealth missions.

Stats

Uncharged Shot

• Damage: 168 (80% Slash)
• Crit Chance: 50%
• Crit Multiplier: 2
• Fire Rate: 1 attack/sec
• Status Chance: 20%

Charged Shot

• Damage: 336 (90% Slash)
• Crit Chance: 50%
• Crit Multiplier: 2
• Charge Time: 0.5s

Acquisition

Once you reach Mastery Rank 5 you can get the Dread blueprint by defeating the Stalker. Like his other weapons, the Dread blueprint has a chance of dropping from his loot pool.

To fight the Stalker you must be marked by him after completing an Assassination mission. You’ll know when that happens because he will send you a message telling you as much. After that, he has a chance of spawning in almost every mission type in the game randomly. 

The chance of him spawning goes up the more people in a squad are marked, so run assassination missions with some friends and you should see him in no time. 

Atomos

The next weapon on this list, and the first secondary to make the list, is the Atomos. Another weapon of Grineer design, the Atomos is a wrist-mount beam weapon that does heat damage.

The best part of this weapon is its ability to chain to other enemies and its ramping damage. This means that you can quickly deal status damage to a group of enemies. This is perfect against infested, or for builds that involve priming enemies with status effects.

Stats

• Damage: 29 (100% Heat)
• Crit Chance: 15%
• Crit Multiplier: 1.70
• Fire Rate: 8 attacks/sec
• Status Chance: 21%
• Mag Size: 70

Acquisition

After reaching Mastery Rank 5 you can grab the Atomos blueprint from the Market for 30,000 credits.

Sonicor

Our first Corpus-designed weapon on this list, the Sonicor is a secondary that provides great AoE that can get you out of a tight spot.

Although the weapon lacks any crit and status chance, it has decent damage and can throw enemies around with ease. Perfect for when you get surrounded on those infested survival missions. The shots from this weapon even explode dealing some nice area damage. 

Stats

Projectile

• Damage: 150 (100% Impact)
• Crit Chance: 0%
• Crit Multiplier: 4
• Fire Rate: 1.25 attacks/sec
• Status Chance: 0%
• Mag Size: 15 

Explosion

• Damage: 50 (100% Impact)
• Crit Chance: 10%
• Crit Multiplier: 2
• Status Chance: 25%

Acquisition

After reaching Mastery Rank 2 you can purchase the blueprint for the Sonicor from the Market for 20,000 credits.

Galatine

Speak softly and carry a big sword, Tenno. The Galatine is the first melee weapon on this list and it’s a big one. Not only does it break the usual assumptions of what type of blade a ninja would use, but it’s also pretty cool.

With a high attack range and faster swing speed than you might expect, the Galatine is perfect for cleaving through the star chart.

Stats

Normal Attack

• Damage: 182 (95% Slash)
• Attack Speed: 1x animation speed
• Crit Chance: 10%
• Crit Multiplier: 2
• Status Chance: 20%
• Combo Duration: 5s
• Range: 3m

Heavy Attack

• Heavy Damage: 1,092
• Wind-up: 1.1s

Acquisition

After reaching Mastery Rank 3 you can grab the Galatine blueprint from the Market for 25,000 credits.

Guandao

Release your inner Guan Yu with the Guandao, a massive polearm that can slice up your foes from a distance. This weapon has a high crit chance and multiplier so you can do your best blender cosplay when fighting enemies throughout the star chart.

Stats

Normal Attack

• Damage: 202 (70% Slash)
• Attack Speed: 0.83x animation speed
• Crit Chance: 28%
• Crit Multiplier: 2.20
• Status Chance: 4%
• Combo Duration: 5s
• Range: 3m

Heavy Attack

• Heavy Damage: 1,212
• Wind-up: 0.9s

Acquisition

After reaching Mastery Rank 4 you can get the Guandao blueprint from the Tenno Lab in a clan dojo. If you’re not in a clan, you can easily join one that likely already has the Tenno Lab completed.