The Best Gauss Build in Warframe (2024)

(Image: Digital Extremes via HGG / Andrew Oli)

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Penned by Andrew Oli

Just a gamer that graduated from California State University of San Marcos with a BA degree who majored in Literature & Writing. I wanted to se... Read more

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Warframe is already a pretty fast-paced game by nature but there are some warframes that like to take that speed even further beyond. If you’ve ever thought that the combat in Warframe to be a little slow for your liking or if you’ve ever wanted to run across the Plains of Eidolon in 3 seconds flat, Gauss might be the perfect warframe for you.

This supercharged speed demon not only has the offensive capabilities thanks to his unmatched speed, but his battery also provides a very respectable amount of defense with his Kinetic Plating allowing for a comfortable amount of sustain. Gauss seems like he has it all so let’s take a closer look at his kit. Try to keep up, Tenno.

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Stats

• Health: 100 (300 at rank 30)
• Shields: 150 (450 at rank 30)
• Armor: 175
• Energy: 150 (225 at rank 30)
• Sprint Speed: 1.4

Gauss Build: Ability Overview

Here, we going to cover Gauss’ passive and four abilities.

Passive

While moving, Gauss charges his battery. Battery charge allows for up to 120% shield recharge rate and 80% shield recharge delay depending on battery charge level.

Mach Rush (1st Ability)

Burst into a hyper-sprint bowling over enemies and charging the battery. Crashing into solid objects generates a powerful shockwave. Hold to rush continuously.

Entering Mach Rush will make Gauss go into a super sprint mode allowing him to effortlessly run over anyone and anything in his path. Tapping the Mach Rush ability (default 1) will propel Gauss toward your cursor and charge 10% of his battery while holding Mach Rush will send Gauss into a full sprint until either you run out of energy or hit a wall. This ability will be used as one of his primary battery charging sources as well as mobility. Keep note that the speed from Mach Rush is affected by movement speed modifiers.

Kinetic Plating (2nd Ability)

Generate armor plating that converts a portion of absorbed Kinetic Damage (Physical, Heat, Cold, and Blast) into Energy. Also protects Gauss from being staggered or knocked down. Damage Resistance is relative to the battery level.

Kinetic Plating is what allows Gauss to be tanky and sustainable. This ability scales with ability duration and will grant damage reduction while also converting any damage taken into energy while also depleting battery depending on how much damage is taken. This means ability duration is highly desired in most endgame builds where survivability is priority.

Thermal Sunder (3rd Ability)

Siphon kinetic energy from the area, charging the battery and inflicting Cold Status on nearby enemies. Hold reverses the process, draining the battery and inflicting Heat Status on nearby enemies.

This ability scales with ability range and ability strength. Tapping this ability will drain 50 energy to inflict a cold proc to nearby enemies while also gaining 10% battery charge. Holding this ability will do the opposite and inflict a heat proc to nearby enemies while draining 10% battery charge. While most builds tend not to put too much emphasis on Gauss’ 3rd ability too much, it’s still worth keeping your efficiency above 100% to ensure you aren’t constantly energy starved.

Redline (4th Ability)

Push Gauss’ battery beyond the redline, supercharging his Abilities and setting Fire Rate, Attack Speed, Reload Speed, and Holster Rate into overdrive. When past the redline, bolts of arcing electricity dance periodically from Gauss, exploding en masse when the ability is deactivated.

Redline is Gauss’ signature bread and butter ability that makes him an extremely reliable warframe to use in any difficulty content in the game. While in Redline, Gauss gains a fire rate, reload speed, attack speed, and cast speed buff that scales with battery charge as well as ability duration.

In addition to those buffs, Redline also affects and buffs his other abilities as well making Mach Rush cost half energy, Kinetic Plating granting 100% melee damage and stagger bonus, and Thermal Sunder applying freeze, burn, and blast procs. More often than not, Redline is going to be the focal point of the majority of Gauss builds and for a good reason. Generally the goal is to have as much Redline uptime as possible while still using the rest of his abilities to make short work of the enemies be it with guns or melee.

How to Get the Gauss Blueprint

Gauss’ main blueprint can be purchased from the Market for 30,000 credits. The Chassis, Systems, and Neuroptics blueprints can all be obtained as drops from Tier 3 Disruption mission Kappa, on the planet Sedna. Each blueprint can be expected to drop around an average of ~12 C rotations with each blueprint having a 7.84% drop chance. That being said, you can easily get unlucky and have multiple of the same blueprint drop instead of having each drop once so good luck with the farm, Tenno. 

Alternatively if you’re strapped for time, you can just outright buy Gauss from the Market for 325 Platinum.

General Meta Endgame Gauss Build

There is a general consensus that the most effective endgame builds for Gauss are the ones that are built around his ultimate ability: Redline. Because the majority of his kit benefits the most from ability duration, we try to focus on balancing between having a fairly high amount of duration and range while still keeping both the efficiency and the strength at or above 100%.

That being said, you do not want any of your stats under 100%. Building Gauss in a way that capitalizes on his well-rounded kit while still being able to cover the very minor holes in his defenses makes Gauss a perfect choice to take into Steel Path and high level missions in general.

Arcanes

• Arcane Fury pairs perfectly with the melee buff from Kinetic Plating allowing for an extremely effective melee experience.
• Arcane Energize is always a safe staple for Warframe builds that require constant ability usage.

Mod Choice Explanation

• Quick Thinking – Adds an extra layer of protection when certain status effects such as Toxin damage can still go through Kinetic Plating making Gauss considerably more vulnerable against Infested enemies.
• Adaptation – Pairs really well with Quick Thinking to help cover the elemental weaknesses that get through Kinetic Plating.
• Energy Siphon – Extra added energy regen.
• Coaction Drift/Rush – The sooner Gauss hits maximum battery charge the better. Can be replaced with anything to help fit your own playstyle such as Speed Drift for casting speed. 
• Constitution – A little bit of added duration. Can be replaced with a stronger duration mod such as Narrow Minded if you’re not too keen on keeping your ability range high for casting Thermal Sunder. 
• Augur Reach/Augur Message – Padding stats while adding a little bit of shield recharge.

Join the High Ground

Hopefully our build guide helped you get yourself a new adrenaline-filled Gauss warframe to play around with as part of your arsenal! It may take a little bit of time to manually farm all of the parts with such a low drop rate but it’s well worth it in the end! Were you able to get yourself this speedster? How lucky or unlucky were you with the blueprint drops? Let us know in the comments!

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