Warframe is filled to the brim with secondary weapons to choose from, to the point where it can be a little intimidating at times. In this article, I'll be going over some of my favorite secondaries, which I consider to be some of the best secondary weapons in the game right now. You should find all of these weapons rewarding in the way they play, the damage they can deal, and their usefulness. They should also reward you for investing Forma in them, and should easily be able to do whatever you need them to by the end of the game.
Best secondary weapons in Warframe
Mara Detron
The Mara Detron can only be picked up from Bara Ki'Teer during his visit to the Relays. It will cost you 200 credits and 000 ducats and will only be available on rare occasions. It deals innate Radiation damage, and when built at 500% status chance, it will dissolve enemies. Just lean into some solid status build, and you can't go wrong with this shotgun that thinks it's a secondary weapon.
Staticor
You can get the Staticor from the Corpus Energy Lab in your Dojo. The standard fire mode is a slow moving projectile which will cause damage to the area of effect. You can also choose to charge your shot, resulting in a faster projectile and a big explosion. It deals innate Radiation damage, which will quickly strip enemy shields. In many ways, it looks like a mini Lenz. I am always impressed with his ability to make any mission a breeze. With the right mods, this thing will melt down most of the enemies you can find in most activities. He won't stand up to real endgame missions, but he's on this list because it's so much fun. Modify it with explosion damage for the hilarious enemy to throw hijinks.
Kitgun Catchmoon
While we're talking about mini primary weapon versions, we should be discussing the Catchmoon Kitgun. You can build it in Fortuna if you have enough room and the right components. It's pretty much a secondary version of the Arca Plasmor, one of the best shotguns in the game. This weapon will make its way through any mission you play and is the perfect weapon to accompany a sniper rifle primary, just because it does so much damage to so many enemies. I'm a fan of the Catchmoon + Splat + Haymaker version. Be warned though, it hits so hard that it can be tempting not to bother exploring other Kitguns, but you should really try out different combinations.
Euphona Prime
Warframe's equivalent of a sawn-off shotgun, the Euphona Prime can fire slugs or pellets, depending on what you need. Slugs will have more range, while pellets will decimate enemies that approach you. I like to pair this with a melee weapon that does a great job cleaning up crowds, and it's a save for when I encounter a target that's a little harder than average. Even though it's technically a shotgun, it still uses pistol mods, so don't worry if you want to bring a shotgun primary weapon as well.
Pandero
The Pandero was touted as Octavia's signature weapon. It can fire semi-automatically to take advantage of high chance and critical damage multipliers, or it can unload all rounds in a burst to deal massive damage. He's also high in Slash damage, one of the more beneficial damage types in the game right now. Another weapon that offers great adaptability depending on the threat you face.
Sicarus Prime
The Sicarus Prime contains high base damage which has an excellent balance between Slash, Impact and Puncture. He also has great critical chance and a decent critical multiplier. The burst-fire nature of the weapon rewards accuracy, so people with great aim and recoil management will be able to get the most out of this weapon. It should be noted; a Fire Rate mod will reduce the time between each round of the burst, making this weapon much more maneuverable. It's also worth noting that the high status chance makes this weapon suitable for Crit / Status hybrid builds.
Glass
Knell is a single shot pistol with scope. It doesn't look very good, but a headshot will instantly reload the weapon, meaning people with a good aim can continue to use the weapon for infinite ammo. Headshots on landing will also improve weapon crit and status chance. It's Harrow's iconic gun, and it works amazingly well with any Warframe that can effectively freeze enemies. It also has excellent long-range accuracy thanks to the reach. Definitely one for people who believe in their goal, and some of the Rivens for that can just get silly numbers for bonus damage and critical damage.
Twin Grakatas
Are you ready to harness the awesome power of Clem? How often do you see a primary weapon becoming a secondary weapon? Not very often, but that's what happens with the Twin Grakatas. Instead of a pistol, there are now two, and they're in your secondary slot, freeing up your primary slot for something else. It's hard to find a better deal than this. While the weapons have fairly high recoil, this can be fixed with the right mods, and it also comes with an innate multishot, high critical chance, and extremely high rate of fire to repair damage.
Akstiletto Prime
The Akstiletto Prime has been one of the best weapons in the game for quite some time now. Excellent accuracy, high impact damage, strong critical chance, and super high status chance combine to make them very viable at any stage of the game. They also come with two polarity slots, which makes them super easy. to modify. They really only drop against high armor, but the right mods can take care of that for you.
Pyrana prime
Another shotgun that thinks it's a secondary, quickly killing three enemies will cause a second Pyranna to appear in your other hand for a while. The damage potential from this weapon is insane, and it will tear high level enemies apart with ease. High slash damage and huge critical chance means you want to build pure damage and then lean forward to get the most out of it.
Akbolto Prime
The Akbolto Prime is a secondary that relies on critical hits to deal the most damage. The base critical chance is 36%, which makes it incredibly easy to hit those Red Scripts with this weapon. It also has a very respectable crit multiplier of 2,8, so you need to look into the critical chance and damage mods to get the most out of this weapon. It will also crash enemies into other enemies, causing additional damage to groups.
Vandal side
Not many people are going to put the Lato Vandal on their list of the best secondary weapons, but these people are wrong. Or I am. Someone is definitely wrong. I love the Lato Vandal and always have. It sits in a good compromise between weapons that damage spam and slow fire weapons that hit hard. It has substantial base damage, high slash damage, and a high critical chance. It also recharges very quickly, which means DPS downtime is limited. Finally, because not many people have it and not many people use the standard Lato, you can get some serious enough Rivens for it if you are lucky.
