Warframe 1999: Atomic Tank – The Best Nova Prime Build

Nova Prime Overview

Stats

• Health: 270 (370 at rank 30)
• Shields: 300 (400 at rank 30)
• Armor: 205
• Energy: 245 (295 at rank 30)

Nova’s stats are pretty abysmal compared to most other Warframes. Her low health and armor firmly place her as one of the squishiest ‘frames in the game, but luckily there are ways to get around this with her abilities.

Passive

Enemies killed by Nova Slowed have a 15% chance to drop a Health Orb. While enemies killed while sped up have a 15% chance to drop an Energy Orb.

Abilities

Null Star (1st Ability)

Nova surrounds herself with antimatter particles that orbit her and automatically launch themselves at enemies. Each particle grants Nova a 5% Damage Reduction which caps at 90%

This is easily one of Nova’s best abilities. Not only does it provide some survivability that she desperately needs, but it also provides some good area damage with the guaranteed Blast proc. 

Antimatter Drop (2nd Ability)

Nova creates a volatile orb of antimatter that travels forward and is directed with the aiming reticle. This particle absorbs all damage and will continue moving until it comes in contact with a surface, exploding and dealing Blast damage based on how much damage was absorbed.

A hidden gem when it comes to Nova’s abilities. It might seem overly difficult to use when you have overpowered weapons to tear through enemies, but on Steel Path it can do crazy amounts of damage with its ability to absorb damage. Add the augment mod Antimatter Absorb, it also becomes a powerful survivability move as well.

Wormhole (3rd Ability)

Nova opens a wormhole creating a portal entrance with an energy trail leading to the exit point. Allies and enemies can use the portal up to a maximum of 4 uses per wormhole to instantly teleport to the exit point.

A neat ability, and definitely fun to use on the open world maps, but not as useful on the usual tilesets. In most cases, I swap this ability out for a Helminth ability.

Molecular Prime (4th Ability)

Nova unleashes a radial wave of antimatter particles. All enemies in range are coated in antimatter which increases their Damage Vulnerability and causes them to detonate dealing Blast damage when they die. Depending on whether the ability was tapped or held enemies will either speed up or slow down based on Power Strength.

The bread and butter of Nova Prime, this is how she can control the battlefield so effectively. Being able to slow down and speed up enemies will make completing missions a breeze. Not only that, increasing the damage vulnerability of every enemy hit makes even Steel Path enemies easy to kill. 

Atomic Tank Nova 

The focus of this build is to turn Nova squishy Nova into one of the tankiest Warframes in the game. Not only will she be able to survive anything Steel Path level enemies have to throw at her, but she’ll also be able to chew through them because of the damage vulnerability caused by Molecular Prime.

Mod Choice

The mod choice for this build is as follows:

• Primed Continuity: Nova wants as much Duration as possible since most of her abilities heavily depend on it. Primed Continuity is the best mod for this.
• Narrow Minded: Same as Primed Continuity, more Duration is always better. The hit to our Range won’t matter too much for this build. 
• Constitution: Same as the above mods, we want a lot of Duration. Constitution also has the added bonus of giving us knockdown recovery speed.
• Augur Message: The final Duration mod for this build, with the added buff of converting a percentage of energy spent on abilities to our shields.
• Intensify: We only need a little bit of extra Ability Strength for this build to max out the slow/speed effect from Molecular Prime. With the right Archon Shards, Intensify should be fine.
• Molecular Fission: This is the most important mod for this build and what will keep Nova tanky throughout a mission. This augment mod for Molecular Prime will make it so primed enemies will restore Null Star charges which Nova uses to reduce damage. This, paired with our high Duration, means we will easily reach high levels of damage reduction buff that will never drop.
• Equilibrium: My favorite mod for ensuring I keep a healthy energy pool. This mod will make sure we have enough energy to cast abilities, and it synergizes well with Nova’s passive.
• Primed Flow: I put primed flow in this slot to increase my energy pool, but this last slot can be used for any mod you might want. We added everything we needed with the previous seven mods.

Alternate Mod Choice

If you want to make Nova into a more aggressive Warframe, it takes only a couple of alternate mod choices to do so:

• Neutron Star: An augment mod for Null Star, this mod causes Null Particles to deal Heat damage with a guaranteed Status Effect. It also allows you to recast the ability to send the particles out to deal damage to nearby enemies.
• Archo Vitality: A mod that increases health and doubles Heat damage done, this mod works perfectly with Neutron Star.
• Overextend: This mod will help ensure Neutron Star can hit enemies without you being right next to them. The hit to our Ability Strength hurts, but it can be offset with mods like Blind Rage. 

Arcane Choice

• Molt Augmented: Despite this build not focusing on Ability Strength, Nova benefits a lot from it. This arcane will see a lot of mileage.
• Arcane Blessing: To go in line with the tankiness of this build, Arcane Blessing can help balloon Nova’s health every time you pick up a Health Orb.

Helminth Abilities

• Roar (Rhino): One of the easiest Helminth abilities to fit into a build, Roar can help buff every one of Nova’s abilities.
• Eclipse: Another great Helminth ability, Eclipse can help add even more defenses to Nova, as well as increase her weapon damage with its alternate activation.
• Pillage: Combine this with Corrosive Projection and some Ability Strength, and this provides an excellent area armor strip ability. 

Weapons & Gear

Nova doesn’t need any specific items to make this build work. A lot of her power comes straight from her incredible kit. You could load up a companion with Synth Deconstruct to provide more reliable Health Orb drops for Equilibrium, but with Nova’s passive it is not necessary.