Ammo

The number of ammo rounds a weapon's magazine holds.

> Reload Time: |AMOUNT|s

> Ammo Maximum: |AMOUNT|

> Ammo from Pickups: |AMOUNT|

—In-Game Description

Ammunition (or ammo for short) describes the variety of bullets, bolts, slugs, cartridges, batteries, and more that enable all Primary and Secondary weapons to be fired. The only weapons that do not use ammo are Melee weapons.

Remaining ammunition for the currently active weapon is indicated in the bottom right corner as two numbers with a divider between them. On the left side, the number indicates how much ammo is currently loaded inside the weapon's magazine. On the right side of that division, the number indicates how much more of that type of ammo the player is carrying.

Magazine Capacity[]

Weapons have a magazine capacity or clip size that limits their ammo expenditure. Weapons can load ammo up to their magazine size; after shooting the whole magazine, the weapon must be reloaded. Because reloading takes time, a low magazine size can significantly reduce the sustained DPS of a weapon in relation to its expected burst DPS.

Note that Magazine Capacity bonuses do not affect weapons that pull ammo directly from their reserve pool like Bows and Epitaph.

Increasing magazine capacity[]

Decreasing magazine capacity[]

Conclave mods[]

In addition, there are some PvP-exclusive mods which affect magazine size:

Ammo Maximum[]

For a list of max ammo counts of all weapons, see Weapon Comparison.

Ammo Maximum refers to the amount of maximum ammunition that can be carried. Enemies do not track or run out of ammunition, though their weapons do have a magazine size and they must reload accordingly.

Ammo Maximum has no effect on weapons that lack an ammo pool, such as Battery Weapons and Archguns in Archwing or held by Necramechs.

Ammo Pickup[]

Ammo Pickup refers to how much ammo is obtained from pickups.

Area of Effect Weapons tend to have lower base Ammo Pickup than normal.

Drop Chances[]

Chance to drop Primary or Secondary Ammo scales with squad size^[1]:

1 player squad = 45%, or 60% in Landscapes
2 player squad = 37.5%, or 52.5% in Landscapes
3 player squad = 30%, or 45% in Landscapes
4 player squad = 22.5%, or 37.5% in Landscape

Eximus are guaranteed to drop either a Primary or Secondary Ammo, each having the same chance of dropping.

Primary[]

Purple lighting.
Refills primary ammo based on the weapon type:
- 80 for rifles, Continuous Weapons, and crossbows.
- 60 for spearguns.
- 40 for automatic shotguns.
- 15 for semi-automatic shotguns, Sniper Rifles, and bows.

Secondary[]

Orange lighting.
Refills secondary ammo based on the weapon type:
- 40 for most secondaries.
- 20 for shotgun sidearms.

Heavy[]

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Drop chance may have changed in Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

x

Yellow lighting.
Refills 1000 rounds of atmospheric Archgun ammo, or resets the Archweapon Deployer cooldown when not equipped.
Has a 5.01% chance to drop from Bombards, Heavy Gunners, Napalms, Corpus Tech, Fusion MOAs, Oxium Ospreys, and all Ancients.^[2]
Guaranteed to drop by Terra Mankers that appear during Profit-Taker Orb fight.

Universal Ammo Pack[]

Blue lighting with red or blue accents.
Refills 1x Ammo Pickup of all weapon types, but does not reset Archweapon Deployer cooldown.
This type of ammo is not encountered in standard gameplay and only available in Arena missions, the Conclave or the Simulacrum. In these situations, the pickup will have blue accents.
- Exceptions are Lavos's Transmutation Probe and Protea's Dispensary. These pickups are smaller and will have red accents.
Not to be confused with the Omni Ammo Box gear.

Increasing Ammo From Pickups[]

All ammo types have a corresponding Aura mod; these are the scavenger mods, which can be equipped to increase the amount of ammo received when picking up an ammo pack.

All weapons can equip a mutation mod for their respective ammo type. Ammo mutation mods convert the ammo packs of other weapon types into those for the active weapon, as long as the other ammo pool is full.

Sources of Ammo[]

3 75	Dispensary Deploys a device that generates 3 pickups after a short delay: empowered health orb, universal ammo pack and energy orb. Introduced in Update 28.0 (2020-06-11)	Strength:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 % (extra pickup drop chance)
		Duration:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 s
		Range:N/A
		Misc: 2 s (pickup spawn interval) 100 HP (empowered health orb restore) 1x (universal ammo pack restore) 1 (limit of active caches)
		Subsumable to Helminth

3 10	Transmutation Probe Launch a probe that converts Health and Energy Orbs into Universal Orbs that provide both, and ammo pickups into Universal Ammo Pickups. The probe shocks enemies in close proximity. Each electrocuted foe reduces other ability cooldowns by one second. Hold to imbue the next ability cast with Electricity. Introduced in Update 29.6 (2020-12-18)	Strength:100 / 150 / 200 / 250 /s ( Electricity damage per second) 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 /s (imbued elemental damage per second)
		Duration:N/A
		Range:3 / 4 / 5 / 6 m
		Efficiency: 1.5 s (Cooldown Reduction per enemy shocked)
		Misc: 15 m/s (probe speed) 3 s (probe duration) Electricity and imbued elemental status proc per second 0.5 s (halt delay) 25 HP/EP (Universal Orb restore) 1x (Universal Ammo restore)

Battery[]

Certain weapons use an auto-recharging battery instead of magazine-fed reserve ammo. When a battery weapon stops firing, there is a small delay before they automatically regenerate ammo, without the need to manually reload.

While they still benefit from magazine capacity, ammo maximum and ammo pickup have no effect on battery weapons.

Ammo Efficiency[]

Ammo Efficiency determines to the number of shots that occur before consuming ammo, hence being more "ammo efficient". For example, if a weapon has 75% ammo efficiency and each shot originally costs one ammo, every four shots will use one ammo. Sources that grant no ammo consumption for the duration of its buff can essentially be treated as 100% ammo efficiency.

Number of shots per ammo consumption = 1 / (1 - Ammo Efficiency Bonus)

Sources of ammo efficiency stack additively with each other except for Energized Munitions, which stacks multiplicatively.

Akmagnus Prime On hit, 4% chance for 100% ammo efficiency for 4 seconds

Magnus Prime On hit, 4% chance for 100% ammo efficiency for 4 seconds

Velox 20% passive ammo efficiency (40% with Protea/ Protea Prime)

Velox Prime 20% passive ammo efficiency (40% with Protea/ Protea Prime)

N/A 50	Energized Munitions Imbue your weapons with ammo efficiency. Introduced in Update 29.0 (2020-08-25)	Strength:N/A
		Duration:3 / 3.5 / 4 / 5 s
		Range:N/A
		Misc: 75 % (ammo efficiency)
		Subsumable to Helminth

Ammo Economy[]

Ammo Economy is a metagame measurement of how effective a weapon is in using its ammo to damage enemies. In many cases, ammo economy is considered irrelevant because a sufficient amount of ammo packs drop from fallen enemies—but there are a number of weapons with poor ammo economy which can easily cause a player to run out of ammo faster than they can replenish their stocks. It can be derived from the following calulations:

${\displaystyle { \begin{aligned} \text{Time To Deplete Ammo} &= \frac{ \text{Modded Ammo Capacity} }{ \text{Modded Magazine Size} } \cdot ( { \text{Modded Reload Time} } + \frac{ \text{Modded Magazine Size} }{ \text{Modded Fire Rate} } ) \end{aligned} } }$

${\displaystyle { \begin{aligned} \text{Average Shot} &= \text{Modded Multishot} \\ &\qquad \cdot [ ( \text{Normal Shot} \cdot (1 - \text{Modded Crit Chance} \pmod{1} ) ) \\ &\qquad + \text{Critical Shot} \cdot \text{Modded Crit Chance} \pmod{1} ] \\ \end{aligned} } }$

Note that mod refers to the modulo operation

See Damage#Gun Damage Per Second for full calculation

The longer it takes to deplete a weapon's ammo reserves and the higher the average damage per ammo, the better ammo economy it has.

Ammo economy is most relevant on weapons with high Fire Rate. Modding a weapon with damage mods (like Serration) increases both damage per second and damage per ammo, while increasing fire rate (through Speed Trigger) only improves damage per second. When playing missions against tough enemies that require many shots to be killed, players should consider eschewing fire rate for straight damage because of this reason.

Patch History[]

Update 33.5 (2023-06-21)

Fixed the ammo pickup SFX playing repeatedly due to an interaction between Vacuum and Soma’s alt-fire.

Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)

Ammo pickups have a brand new look!
Fixed the notification for ‘Primary Weapon Ammo full’ not appearing when the player is in Archwing underwater.
Fixed several issues related to players spawnings ammo using the Gear wheel in mission.

Hotfix 32.1.2 (2022-11-04)

More fixes towards ammo pickups hovering around Warframe when Spectre has more max ammo than player.

Hotfix 32.1.1 (2022-11-03)

Fixes towards ammo pickups getting infinitely stuck to you after summoning a Specter while the Vacuum Mod is equipped. As reported here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/yk9xlv/loot_lag_wouldnt_let_me_finish_the_mobile_defense/
- If you run into this issue, a temporary fix is to clear your ammo from your weapon by shooting to clear the hovering pickups with the same ammo type.

Update 32.1 (2022-11-02)

Fixed Primary and Secondary ammo pickups only being picked up if the player presses reload while standing near them.

Hotfix 32.0.2 (2022-09-08)

Ammo Changes & Review:

When we were reviewing ammo acquisition as a whole for Update 32, we felt weapons with Ammo Regen Rate Overrides, or “Battery,” in particular, needed a place within the ecosystem of change we had established. That said, upon review of feedback, we recognize we were a bit heavy-handed with the changes we made to Battery weapons. We have restored their original values for the time being while we reassess how we can better approach these weapons.

We have restored the original values for the following weapons:

Basmu:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 42/s from 10.5/s
Bubonico:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 9/s from 4.5/s
- Returned Alt fire ammo requirement to 3 from 9
Flux Rifle:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 40/s from 24/s
Fulmin:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 30/s from 20/s
- Returned Alt fire ammo requirement to 10 from 15
Shedu:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 28/s from 3.5/s
Cycron:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 40/s from 20/s
Tenet Cycron:
- Returned ammo regen rate to 40/s from 20/s

We also missed a note from Update 32, where applying Pax Charge to Kitguns was also applying Ammo Regen Rate Overrides. But similar to the above, we have since reverted that for review.

Fixes:

Fixed being unable to pick up universal ammo (such as ammo from ammo dispensers in the Simulacrum or Protea’s Dispensary) if the player only has a secondary weapon equipped.
Fixed PH tags appearing in the ammo stats in the Arsenal.

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

Ammo Changes

We understand the power fantasy of these weapons is very popular for some, so our first approach was to keep them powerful, but limit how often they can be used by making changes to ammo pick-up.

Ammo Pick Up'

Ammo drop types have been simplified to Primary, Secondary and Heavy ammo. We have eliminated the Sniper and Shotgun ammo types. ‘Ammo Pickup’ is also a new property on every weapon, it indicates the amount of ammo you get when picking up an ammo box.

We also increased base ammo pickup values as follows:

Primary - from 60 to 80
Secondary - from 20 to 40

Ammo Pickup Overrides

The following weapons now have ammo pickup overrides, meaning they gain less from picking up ammo. This mostly applies to AoE weapons, in hopes that players will become more deliberate with their aim to make the most of their Ammo pools. The following lists the specific ammo pick up overrides per weapon category.

Primary Weapon Ammo Pick Up Overrides

1 Ammo per Pick Up:

Kuva Bramma
Kuva Ogris
Kuva Zarr
Lenz
Proboscis Cernos

3 Ammo per Pick Up:

Tonkor
Kuva Tonkor

4 Ammo per Pick Up:

Tenet Envoy

5 Ammo per Pick Up:

Carmine Penta
Penta
Secura Penta
Ogris

9 Ammo per Pick Up:

Zarr

10 Ammo per Pick Up:

Torid

15 Ammo per Pick Up:

Arca Plasmor
Catchmoon (Primary)
Cedo
Cernos
Cernos Prime
Corinth
Corinth Prime
Daikyu
Dread
Drakgoon
Exergis
Felarx
Hek
Komorex
Kuva Chakkhurr
Kuva Drakgoon
Kuva Hek
Lanka
MK1-Paris
MK1-Strun
Mutalist Cernos
Paris
Paris Prime
Phantasma
Rakta Cernos
Rubico
Rubico Prime
Sancti Tigris
Simulor
Sporothrix
Sporelacer (Primary)
Snipetron
Snipetron Vandal
Sobek
Synoid Simulor
Strun
Strun Prime
Strun Wraith
Tenet Arca Plasmor
Tigris
Tigris Prime
Vaykor Hek
Vectis
Vectis Prime
Vulkar
Vulkar Wraith

20 Ammo per Pick Up:

Tombfinger (Primary)

40 Ammo per Pick Up:

Acceltra
Aeolak
Alternox
Astilla
Astilla Prime
Boar
Boar Prime
Gaze (Primary)
Ignis
Ignis Wraith
Kohm
Kuva Kohm
Miter
Opticor
Opticor Vandal
Stahlta
Tenet Tetra
Vermisplicer (Primary)

60 Ammo per Pick up:

Amprex
Javlok
Scourge
Scourge Prime
Trumna
Zhuge Prime

Primary Weapons with Ammo Regen Rates Overrides:

Basmu: From 42/s to 10.5/s
Bubonico: From 9/s to 4.5/s
Flux Rifle: From 40/s to 24/s
Fulmin: From 30/s to 20/s
Shedu: From 28/s to 3.5/s

Secondary Weapon Ammo Pick up Overrides:

3 Ammo per Pick Up:

Angstrum
Prisma Angstrum
Kulstar

4 Ammo per Pick Up:

Castanas
Sancti Castanas
Pox
Talons

5 Ammo per Pick Up:

Akarius

9 Ammo per Pick Up:

Kuva Seer

20 Ammo per Pick Up:

Akbronco
Akbronco Prime
Atomos
Brakk
Bronco
Bronco Prime
Catabolyst
Catchmoon (Secondary)
Cyanex
Detron
Epitaph
Euphona Prime
Gaze (Secondary)
Kohmak
Twin Kohmak
Kompressa
Kuva Nukor
Kuva Brakk
Mara Detron
Nukor
Pyrana
Pyrana Prime
Sepulcrum
Sporelacer (Secondary)
Sonicor
Staticor
Tenet Detron
Tombfinger (Secondary)
Twin Rogga
Vermisplicer (Secondary)
Zakti
Zakti Prime
Zymos

Many weapons have also had their maximum ammo capacity adjusted.

Primary Weapons:

Arca Plasmor: From 48 to 50
Corinth: From 132 to 135
Gaze (Primary): From 400 to 200
Kuva Zarr: From 15 to 5
Kuva Ogris: From 30 to 7
Kuva Tonkor: From 60 to 11
Miter: From 72 to 80
Proboscis Cernos: From 9 to 7
Sporelacer (Primary): From 130 to 60
Tenet Envoy: From 24 to 16
Tombfinger (Primary): From 540 to 120
Vermisplicer (Primary): From 226 to 90
Zarr: From 84 to 60

Secondary Weapons:

Epitaph: From 60 to 40
Gaze (Secondary): From 400 to 200
Vermisplicer (Secondary): From 226 to 90

Secondary Weapons with Ammo Regen Rates Overrides:

Cycron: From 40/s to 20/s
Tenet Cycron: From 40/s to 20/s

We also reduced the frequency of ammo drops from enemies and made them scale with squad size.

Used to drop from 70% of regular enemies and 80% of Open World enemies, now they drop less frequently, with smaller squads getting more drops
- 1p squad = 45%, or 60% in Open Worlds
- 2p squad = 37.5%, or 52.5% in Open World
- 3p squad = 30%, or 45% in Open Worlds
- 4p squad = 22.5%, or 37.5% in Open Worlds

On average you’ll be getting Ammo drops half as often, but most weapons with the aforementioned increase of pickup values receive twice as much.

Eximus will now have a guaranteed drop of either Primary OR Secondary Ammo in addition to existing base enemy ammo drops.

Increased the chance of a Riven Sliver dropping from Eximus Units.
- Steel Path Eximus: changed from 1% to 2% drop chance
- Regular Eximus: changed from 0.5% to 2% drop chance
  - Note that Riven Slivers still only have a chance to drop from Eximus level 30 and over

Made the following changes to Mods/Arcanes in light of the above ammo changes (stats shown at max rank):

Rifle Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
Pistol Ammo Mutation: Now converts Primary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
Shotgun Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
Sniper Ammo Mutation: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 50% of Ammo Pick Up.
Primary/Secondary Merciless Arcane: Removed its +100% Ammo Maximum bonus.
Vigilante Supplies Mod: Now converts Secondary ammo pickups to 30% of ammo pickup.
Mirage’s Explosive Legerdemain Augment: Increased damage dealt from proximity mines created from Ammo and Orbs pickups from 500 to 1000.

Deployable Ammo Restores now restore 1x (for small), 2x (for medium), and 3x (for large) Primary and Secondary Ammo Pick up amounts every 15s for 60s.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how these ammo changes affect specific weapons’ performance and popularity. Expect more tweaks to these values in future updates!

Update 25.0 (2019-05-22)

Heavy Ammo now drops from Bombards, Heavy Gunners, Napalms, Corpus Tech, Fusion Moas, Oxium Ospreys, Ancients, Corrupted Ancients, and Corrupted Bombards.

References[]

↑ Update 32.0 (2022-09-07) patch notes
↑ https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1100191-ask-me-almost-anything-again/?do=findComment&comment=10814226

Ammo Mods
Sentinels	Ammo Case
Reserve Ammo	Ammo Drum • Shell Compression • Trick Mag
Magazine Capacity	Ammo Stock • Atomic Fallout • Magazine Warp ( Prime) • Shotgun Elementalist • Slip Magazine ( Prime) • Wildfire • Ice Storm • Tainted Mag • Tainted Clip • Burdened Magazine
Ammo Mutation	Rifle Ammo Mutation ( Prime) • Sniper Ammo Mutation ( Prime) • Shotgun Ammo Mutation ( Prime) • Pistol Ammo Mutation ( Prime) • Arrow Mutation • Vigilante Supplies
Ammo Pickup	Amalgam Daikyu Target Acquired • Rifle Scavenger • Shotgun Scavenger • Sniper Scavenger • Pistol Scavenger
Ammo Efficiency	Skull Shots • Brain Storm
Ammo Refund	Blood For Ammo • Wild Frenzy
PvP	Maximum Capacity • Loaded Capacity • Full Capacity • Hydraulic Gauge • Hydraulic Chamber • Hydraulic Barrel • Draining Gloom

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Ammo

Magazine Capacity[]

Increasing magazine capacity[]

Decreasing magazine capacity[]

Conclave mods[]

Ammo Maximum[]

Ammo Pickup[]

Drop Chances[]

Primary[]

Secondary[]

Heavy[]

Universal Ammo Pack[]

Increasing Ammo From Pickups[]

Sources of Ammo[]

Battery[]

Ammo Efficiency[]

Ammo Economy[]

Patch History[]

References[]

See Also[]

Mathila

Councilor Vay Hek

Corinth

Archon Shard

Helminth

WARFRAME Wiki

Arcane Enhancement

Dual Toxocyst

Arcane Pistoleer

Energized Munitions

The Circuit

Incarnon

Incarnon

The Circuit

Warframes

Tusk Thumper Doma

Archon Shard

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