Welcome, Tenno. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been playing for years, chances are you’ve run into confusion when trying to maximize your weapon’s performance. Why does one build seem to shred enemies while another fizzles? Why does your Serration mod feel weaker than expected? Today, we’re diving into how damage is calculated in Warframe and how modding impacts your damage output at every level — phase by phase.

Let’s break it all down.

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The Foundation: Base Damage

Every weapon begins with base damage. For our purposes, we’ll use a Braton Prime with a base damage of 77. This is the starting point for all other calculations. It’s essential to know that everything else — crit chance, elemental mods, multipliers — stacks onto this.

Remember: Armor and enemy resistances are applied after these calculations. If you’re seeing lower damage numbers than expected, armor is probably the culprit — not your mods.

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Phase 1: Base Damage Mods (Additive Stacking)

This is where you apply mods like Serration, Hornet Strike, or arcanes like Primary Deadhead.

Example:

• Serration (165%) + Merciless (360%) = 525% combined base damage boost.
• 77 base damage × (1 + 5.25) = 482.25 damage
• Total = 559.25 damage per shot

Mods and buffs from the same category add together in this phase.

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Phase 2: Elemental, Status, Crit Chance, and Fire Rate (Additive-Multiplicative)

Now we’re cooking. Mods in this phase include:

• Elemental Damage (e.g., Malignant Force, Rime Rounds)
• Status Chance Mods (e.g., Hammer Shot, 60/60 mods)
• Fire Rate Mods (e.g., Shred, Speed Trigger)
• Crit Chance Mods (e.g., Critical Delay, Point Strike)

Key mechanics:

• Elemental damage mods add together but multiply your base damage from Phase 1.
• Fire rate and status are additive among themselves.

Example Mod Stack:

• Rime Rounds (60% cold + 60% status)
• Malignant Force (60% toxin + 60% status)
• Viral total = 120% damage
• Status total = 120% + 80% (Hammer Shot) = 200%
• Fire Rate = +10% (Net of Shred and Critical Delay)
• Crit Chance = +200% total (from mods)

If your base crit chance is 12%, then 12% × (1 + 2.0) = 36% crit chance Status: 26% × (1 + 2.0) = 78% status chance

You’re now doing:

• 559.25 base × 1.2 (viral) = 671.1 total damage per bullet

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Phase 3: Crit Damage Multipliers

This phase affects your critical damage multiplier. Mods like:

• Vital Sense (+120%)
• Hammer Shot (+60%)

Combine to give:

• Base crit damage is 2x
• +180% crit damage = 2.0 + 1.8 = 3.8x multiplier

This phase multiplies the Phase 2 result only on a crit.

Example:

• Crit hit = 671.1 × 3.8 = 2,550.18 damage per shot

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Phase 4: Final Multipliers

This is where Warframe abilities, arcanes, and faction mods go.

Includes:

• Roar (Rhino): Adds 206% final multiplier
• Faction Mods: e.g., Bane of Grineer (+30% to 55%)
• Arcane Avenger: +45% flat crit chance
• Tenacious Bond: +1.2x crit multiplier

These effects stack but occur after all damage from Phases 1–3 is calculated.

Let’s say you crit:

• From Phase 3: 2,550.18
• Roar + Bane = 3.39x
• Crit mult from Tenacious Bond: 3.8 (previous) + 1.2 = 5.0x
• Total: 2,550.18 × 3.39 × 5.0 = 43,197.55 damage per shot

Remember: Multishot creates additional instances of this entire process. Each instance can crit, apply status, or both.

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Final Layer: Multishot and Galvanized Mods

Galvanized Chamber / Shot / Diffusion = Must-haves.

• Increases your multishot, creating extra bullets = more damage instances.

Example:

• Galvanized Chamber at max rank = +230% multishot
• Base Braton Prime has 1.0 shots per trigger pull
• With Galv. Chamber: 1 + 2.3 = 3.3 shots per trigger

Each of those 3.3 shots runs through Phases 1–4 independently. Some may crit, some may apply status, some may do both. It’s what makes priming + multishot builds so powerful.

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Optimizing Your Builds: What to Prioritize

General rule:

• One solid base damage mod (Phase 1)
• Stack Elemental and Status (Phase 2)
• Add crit chance and damage if your weapon supports it (Phase 2 + 3)
• Include faction mods and Warframe buffs (Phase 4)
• Always add Multishot

Don’t blindly stack +damage mods. Each phase compounds on the previous. Swapping Serration for a status or elemental mod might increase DPS even if the tooltip number is lower.

Test. Compare. Use Simulacrum. Theorycraft.

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Summary

• Phase 1: Base damage mods (e.g., Serration, Hornet Strike)
• Phase 2: Crit chance, elemental, status, fire rate — multiplicative to Phase 1
• Phase 3: Crit damage multiplier (e.g., Vital Sense, Hammer Shot)
• Phase 4: Final multipliers — Roar, Faction mods, Arcane buffs
• Multishot: Applies all of the above per shot

By understanding how your mods interact across phases, you’ll build smarter and deadlier weapons. Warframe’s damage system is complex — but once it clicks, your builds become unstoppable.

Happy hunting, Tenno.