With hundreds of melee weapons to choose from, Warframe can feel a bit overwhelming at times. The list below will point you to some very powerful options in the game right now, but you still need to remember to experiment with weapons, builds, and tactics. Warframe's inventive community always finds a new combination of weapons and mods to turn your Tenno into a murder machine, and there's always something new to discover.
Orthos Prime
Orthos Prime is a superb polar firearm. You'll need to be at Mastery Rank 12 to use it, but taking it for a spin will make you realize the insane power it can unleash. With a critical chance of 24%, a status chance of 36%, and a critical multiplier of 2,2x, the building options for this are varied. You can lean into status or critical hits, or a hybrid version of the two. Stacking mods like Organ Shatter, True Steel, and Primed Pressure Point will give a solid base of critical damage, with Blood Rush and Body Count complimenting it perfectly.
The Shimmering Blight stance will allow for quick and swift attacks, allowing you to quickly build your combo and force plenty of critical hits on large groups of enemies.
Venka Prime
Venka Prime gives you the highest base damage of any claw weapon, combined with super high Slash damage, high critical chance, critical multiplier, and attack speed stats. They also have the best status chance of all claw weapons. In short, if you want to use claw weapons, it really has to be the Venka Prime. Rely heavily on a critical build and get so much range that you'll turn him into an absolute monster. It's also a fantastic candidate for a bleeding build, modding for more slash damage, base damage, and status chance, but you should still be working in certain mods that increase crit chance and critical damage. to really take advantage of Slash's procs.
Nikana Prime
Nikana Prime is the king of arms Nikana. Huge Slash damage, critical chance, and critical multiplier combine to make this a monster. Combined with the Blind Justice stance, it becomes an absolute whirlwind of death. Combine it with range mods to reduce a large number of enemies. A Berzerker mod will give you plenty of attack speed, Blood Rush to keep critical hits smooth, then tweak any damage types you like with condition overload on top.
Like all Condition, Overload builds, you'll benefit from running a secondary weapon to deal bonus status damage to your enemies before tapping them. Zakti or Cyanex are perfect for this.
Silva and Aegis Prime
Another weapon that had been lost in the depths of Warframe time was Silva and Aegis Prime, but Melee 3.0 brought it back with a vengeance. It deals innate heat damage and combines perfectly with Bezerker and Blood Rush, and many combos automatically result in state procs, so modding for three different damage types and condition overload can really amplify your damage.
Related: The best primary weapons in Warframe
Everywhere
Zaws are the problem child of Warframe melee weapons, offering so many options, powerful builds, and general advantages over other weapons that it's almost impossible to talk about them individually. Building different Zaws and experimenting with them is one of the most useful things you can do in the game if you are looking for a powerful melee weapon. The wide variety of potential builds means you can build a Zaw for any occasion and get incredible damage amounts from it.
Reaper Prime
For a long time Scythian weapons were left out in the cold in Warframe, but Melee 3.0 changed all that and the Reaper Prime is now one of the best weapons in the game. Like most of the other weapons on the list, it Deals high Slash damage, has great critical values, and backs it all up with very good status chance. The Reaping Spiral stance mod will add spin-ti-win elements to your arsenal and give you the tools you need to deal insane damage to difficult units.
Lesion
Lesion is the second Polearm on the list but deserves to be there for his ridiculous damage. Lots of Slash damage, the highest status chance of any gun, and a passive bonus that increases attack speed when inflicting status procs on an enemy. He will also gain 100% toxin damage, which will make it very easy to remove any armor if you modify for corrosive damage. This weapon works great with a Condition Overload build supported by three Dual Status mods to increase the status chance to 100%, and a Sacrificial Steel mod to increase the critical chance to almost 50%.
Prime Redeemer
Redeemer Prime is Warframe's Ultimate Gunblade. Part of the appeal is that you don't have to spend Forma to make it a huge one.
