Warframe: Iron Staff Master – Best Wukong Prime Build

Wukong Prime Overview

Stats

• Health: 455 (555 at Rank 30)
• Shields: 345 (445 at Rank 30)
• Armor: 290
• Energy: 145 (195 at Rank 30)

Wukong has some pretty good stats and decent health, shields, and armor. This is great since it means the Celestial Twin will have an easier time surviving. The only downside is the low energy pool, which we’ll rectify with mods.

Passive

Whenever Wukong takes fatal damage, he will be randomly allowed 3 techniques per mission. Each ability will make Wukong avoid entering, bleed out, and become invulnerable for a short time.

The techniques Wukong will be allowed are as follows:

• Primal Force: 300% elemental damage for 60 seconds.
• Heavenly Cloak: Invisibility for 30 seconds.
• Cosmic Armour: Invulnerable for 30 seconds.
• Monkey Luck: Enemies killed yield extra loot drops for 60 seconds.
• Sly Alchemy: Orbs are 4x more effective for 60 seconds.

Abilities

Celestial Twin (1st Ability)

Wukong splits himself in two, creating a Specter that wields his weapons. This twin will attract the enemy’s attention and switch weapons based on what weapon the player is currently holding. 

One of the most unique abilities in Warframe, being able to summon a Specter on demand is very useful. Especially when it grabs enemy attention and deals decent damage to boot. It will also activate Primal Fury along with you when you cast your fourth ability which is a nice bonus.

Cloud Walker (2nd Ability)

Wukong disappears into a cloud of smoke, turning invisible and gaining increased movement speed. While traveling in this cloud, Wukong is invulnerable, cleanses all Status Effects, and restores health per meter traveled.

This move is the bread and butter for keeping us alive in a pinch. Not only do we get healing per meter moved, but we can also go through enemies meaning we can easily get out of tight spots. This ability also makes our Celestial Twin invulnerable while healing them as well.

Defy (3rd Ability)

Wukong engages a defiant stance while reading his Iron Staff and becoming invulnerable to damage and Status Effects. While in this stance, Wukong taunts enemies absorbing any damage he takes. When the invulnerability period ends, Wukong cleanses himself of any Status Effects and deals damage around him based on the damage absorbed. When Defy is activated, your Celestial Twin will also hit the stance, mimicking your ability.

A fun ability for sure, but not extremely necessary given our other abilities. Cloud Walker keeps us alive and Primal Fury will be more than enough to do damage. Still, Defy is a great ability on higher difficulties when you get surrounded.

Primal Fury (4th Ability)

Wukong equips his legendary exalted weapon, the Iron Staff. When activating the Primal Fury while Celestial Twin is active, your twin will also equip the Iron Staff.

This is the main damage dealer for Wukong. Just like Valkyr, Cyte-09, and every Warframe with an Exalted Weapon, we want to focus on this heavily.

How To Get Wukong Prime

Unfortunately, Wukong Prime is currently vaulted in Warframe. That means players that want to get him either have to use already acquired relics that have him, trade for him with other players, or wait for him to be unvaulted.

Luckily, the difference between Prime Warframes and regular Warframes is not too great. To get regular Wukong you just need to research him in the Tenno Lab at a clan dojo.

Iron Staff Master: The Best Wukong Build

As I mentioned before, this build will focus on increasing the effectiveness of Wukong’s Iron Staff. With this build, You’ll be able to smash through Steel Path dropping red crits with ease.

Mod Choice

The mod choice for this build is as follows:

• Primed Continuity: We want a lot of Duration to allow us to keep Primal Fury active as long as possible. Primed Continuity will help us do that.
• Narrow Minded: Same as Primed Continuity, we want as much Duration as we can get. The loss of Range isn’t important as we won’t be utilizing Range that much.
• Archon Intensify: Since Cloud Walker will allow us to heal whenever we want, Archon Intensify will allow us to get up to 60% bonus Ability Strength.
• Transient Fortitude: Primal Fury will mainly be based on our Power Strength, so we want to make sure we have enough Power Strength to do damage. We take a hit to our Duration, but it won’t be too severe.
• Equilibrium: This mod will allow us to keep our Energy Pool up and allow us to keep Primal Fury active for entire missions.
• Primed Flow: This will help us increase Wukong’s low Energy Pool. This will make it easy to continue casting his abilities as well as give us a buffer so we don’t run out of energy with Primal Fury active.
• Primal Rage: An augment mod for Primal Fury, this mod will increase our Critical Chance by 15% per kill making it easier to land red crits.   
• Adaption: I put Adaption as the final mod for a little more survivability, but you can utilize this slot for anything you might need.

Iron Staff Mod Choice

The mod choice for Wukong’s Iron Staff is as follows:

• Sacrificial Steel: We want bit crits, so Sacrificial Steel will help us do that.
• Organ Shatter: Just like above, we want big crits and Organ Shatter will help our crits hit harder.
• Gladiator Might: A perfect mod to add a little more critical damage to our Iron Staff.
• Primed Reach: The Iron Staff already has an impressive reach, but increasing it just means we can hit more people.
• Fever Strike: We want to put the Corrosive Element on the Iron Staff to help break through enemy armor. Fever Strike will let us do that.
• Shocking Touch: The other element we need to make Corrosive.
• Condition Overload: This will help increase our damage significantly. If we have a primer equipped this will essentially be free extra damage.
• Faction Mod: I use the last slot for faction damage mods based on whoever I’m fighting. This slot can be used for any utility mods you might need, however.

Arcane Choice

• Molt Augmented: An easy choice for Wukong. This will increase his Ability Strength per kill, which is exactly what we want.
• Arcane Blessing: This Arcane will increase our max health whenever we pick up a health orb. This is perfect to give Wukong and his twin a little more survivability.

Helminth Abilities

• Wrathful Advance (Kullervo): The de facto ability for any melee-oriented Warframe, This will increase the crits of our Iron Staff significantly.
• Warcry (Valkyr): Another great ability for melee Warframes. This will increase your melee attack speed. Add the Eternal War augment mod and you can keep this buff active for entire missions. 

Weapons & Gear

Since we are using Condition Overload we want some time of primer to help add Status Effects to enemies. You can use a usual Primer like the Cycron. This will also allow your Celestial Twin to wield it meaning they can prime enemies for you. You can also use the Diriga Sentinel with Manifold Bond and Arc Coil to have it spread Status Effects for you.