The Best Rifles in Warframe for 2021

Last Updated on October 16, 2022

Are you looking to level up your gameplay with the best rifles in Warframe?

Warframe is an online action game that’s a hybrid of shooters and RPG games. While the Cedo and Bubonico shotguns are some of Warframe’s best shotguns, they don’t have that mid- to long-range capability that Warframe rifles possess. 

When it comes to picking the best primary weapons in Warframe, you may be wondering how to sift through the rubble and find the top-tier ones. While mods can give you a leg up in combat, the best and fastest method of defeating the alien-infested lands is by equipping yourself with the right rifle.

Here are seven of the best rifles to use in Warframe.

Top 7 Rifles in Warframe

1) Trumna

UNLOCKABLE: Mastery Rank 14 and ranked Associated or higher with the Entrati. 

The Trumna is not the easiest weapon to get, but once you get your hands on it, you’re in for a treat. This Orokin Era weapon is a full-auto rifle that uses explosive bullets to build charges on kills. This charge fuels its Alternate Fire mode, which is a destructively powerful bouncing, high-explosive grenade.

The rifle’s ammo causes a fiery sweat among the enemies in the battlefield, dealing strong Heat and Impact damage. The Heat damage makes it well-suited against enemy types like the Infested, Infested Flesh, Flesh, and Cloned creatures with its high burning potential. On the other hand, the high Impact damage deals with the more sturdier crowd, making it a great force against enemies with shields and durable armor. 

2) Acceltra

UNLOCKABLE: Visiting Sedna and taking on the Tier C Disruption mission at Kelpie to get a 10% shot at each component blueprint. (Yes, it’ll take a while, maybe 20 visits)

The Acceltra is Gauss’s bold and agile full-auto rocket launcher. It shoots micro-sized missiles in rapid fire succession, capping its firepower off with an explosion within a 4-meter radius. To prevent your character taking damage from the blast, the rockets ignite once it moves 7 meters away from the magazine. The missiles don’t miss a beat either – sporting a high critical chance, critical multiplier, and a blazingly fast 12 RPS fire rate.

One of the most unique attributes of the Warframe’s Acceltra is that it reloads faster as you sprint. If Gauss wields it, you run even faster. This, on top of the high Puncture and Impact damage that pierces through armor and shield, makes it a highly effective solution against sturdy enemies. 

The Acceltra isn’t all too perfect however – it comes with a couple of cons including low Slash damage, decreased effectiveness against Health-based opponents, and an abysmally low status chance. It also takes only two reloads before it runs out of ammo, so you need to be a highly accurate shot to get your gun’s worth.

3) Stahlta

UNLOCKABLE: You get access to the Stahlta once you defeat the Jackal. You can find the components needed to unlock the gun around the Granum Void.

If you’re looking for the most badass Warframe rifle in the list, the Stahlta is one vying for the number one spot. It’s a Corpus automatic rifle that shoots projectiles made to replicate steel blades. Its primary damage type is Slash, which gives it an godly advantage against high Health opponents. In primary mode, you shoot full-auto rounds with a high critical and status chance, as well as an added chance to proc Radiation too.

The Stahlta’s Alternate Fire charges a strong round which explodes in battle. It sports an incredibly high crit rate chance, tied as the top Warframe rifle in these terms with two other charge-up rifles.Upon direct hit with the Alternate Fire mode, enemies also gain a beating with a powerful Impact proc.

The reload speed of the Stahlta is decently quick at 1.4 seconds, and the charged shot explosion can deliver a whopping maximum of 1,200 damage. 

As for cons, you may feel a bit shorted by low impact damage, a weak shield penetration, and delayed travel times. Primary fire also has an underwhelming critical multiplier, while alternate fire has a slow charge speed.

4) Fulmin

UNLOCKABLE:  No Blueprint farming needed. Purchase the Fulmin Blueprint for 20,000 credits and you’ll get the gun.

The Fulmin is a silent rifle in Warframe – Wisp’s signature rifle. But don’t let its stealthy kills fool you, it’s an incredibly potent force. The primary shooting mode is a silent Electric pulse at close range. But switch it to Alternate fire – and the Fulmin can convert itself into an automatic weapon that shoots lightning off at a distance at a rapid rate. Switching the modes increases Wisp’s speed as well.

With a guaranteed Impact proc with enemies at 9 meters, and a 30% critical chance, the Fulmin is a powerhouse weapon under the right conditions. It’s not without its flaws though. It’s not as effective against Alloy Armor. Alternate Mode switching isn’t instantaneous either, usually having to wait 0.5 seconds for Wisp and 1 second for other characters. Its slow reload speed and lack of reload-triggered mods support with Spring Loaded Chamber diminish its value a bit too.

5) Tiberon Prime

UNLOCKABLE: The fanmade Tiberon Prime can’s relics can be acquired in multiple missions. You can buy the blueprint from the Market at 7500.

The Tiberon Prime is a gun that’s suitable for any occasion and terrain in Warframe. It comes with not one, not two, but three swappable firing modes: full-auto, burst, and semi-auto. 

Each of the different modes come with distinct stat increases; balanced stats with burst fire mode, higher crit chance and crit multiplier on semi-auto mode; and an increased status chance on full auto mode.

The weapon deals Puncture damage, making it effective against all factions, Shadow Stalker, and the Sentient. Shared among all the firing modes, the Tiberon Prime also boasts high accuracy and low recoil, especially with the Burst-fire mode and Semi-auto modes.

If you want mod recommendations in Warframe, Viral and Corrosive are great options. Viral makes your foes much squishier, whereas Corrosive makes shielded foes more susceptible with the Tiberon Prime’s Puncture damage.

6) Amprex

UNLOCKABLE: You can find the blueprint of the Amprex in the dojo from the Energy Lab.

You may be wondering: “What’s a base 22 damage weapon doing in this ‘Best Guns’ list?

You’d be surprised by the brute force the Amprex possesses with the incredible mechanics and stats it has up its sleeves.

How the Amprex deals damage is through Lightning. If you land an Amprex beam onto an enemy, you can proc a lightning chain arc to other enemies within range. These surges of lightning deal equal damage as the main beam, and can also critically hit and proc status effects on your foes.

If you equip it with the Viral mod in Warframe, you’ll be blasting through foes in the battlefield, and finishing them off with a toxic, effortless demise. It’s an incredibly powerful combo.

While the Amprex is impressive, it can’t stand on its own against tanky and heavily armored foes. Equip it with the right mods, however, and the Amprex can stand on its own in Steel Path.

7) Opticor Vandal

UNLOCKABLE: To get Opticor Vandal, earn 100 points in Orb Vallis in the event Thermia Fractures. You can only get this weapon once. 

Think of the Opticor Vandal as the run-off-the-mill Opticor on steroids. It features an increase in the following stats from its counterpart:

  • critical chance
  • critical multiplier
  • status chance
  • magazine size
  • reload speed
  • charge rate

All these stat increases at a sacrifice of 600 points of damage if you choose the Opticor instead.

If you fancy yourself an accurate shot, you’ll find that the boons you’ll receive from the Opticor Vandal make for much more exciting gameplay. 

Cons include low Impact and Slash damage, which makes the Warframe weapon less effective against shields and health. Explosions from the gun inflict self-stagger causing recoil as well. You also can’t control the shot timing when the gun is fully-charged, making it quite finicky to handle. 

Warframe is free to play and available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.