![WARFRAME Wiki](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="500" height="500"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
The Balefire Charger is 
Hildryn's and 
Hildryn Prime's signature Exalted Weapon, summoned by activating 
the ability with the same name. This pistol launches bolts of 
Electricity that deal area-of-effect damage in a large area, and can be charged to deal more damage. Its massive damage is offset by its low critical chance, critical multiplier, and status chance.
Characteristics[]
- This weapon deals primarily
![DmgElectricitySmall64](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="32" height="32"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Electricity damage. - Innate two
![Madurai Pol](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
polarities. - Can benefit from
![Mod TT 20px](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="12" height="20"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Fulmination ( Primed).
Advantages
- Highest base damage of all Exalted Weapon secondaries.
- Releases shots that explode in a 1/2/3 meter radius.
- Does not inflict self-stagger.
- No damage falloff.
- Pinpoint accuracy.
- Magnum Force's accuracy penalty is minimal on this weapon.
- Balefire Surge augment allows fully charged shots to replenish shields and overshields, as well as destroy nullifier shields.
- Does not use ammunition and does not need to reload.
Disadvantages
- Very low critical chance.
- Low critical multiplier and status chance.
- Slowest fire rate of all secondaries in the game.
- Projectile has travel time.
- Requires shields to activate and consumes shields per shot.
- As an Exalted Weapon it cannot contribute towards the Set Bonus of any Set Mods.
- Cannot equip Acolyte Mods (e.g., Sharpened Bullets) or Amalgam Mods (e.g., Amalgam Barrel Diffusion).
- This includes mods based on Acolyte mods, such as Galvanized Crosshairs.
- This includes mods based on Acolyte mods, such as
- Does not have an Exilus slot.
- Cannot equip Secondary Arcane Enhancements.
Notes[]
- The Balefire Charger uses Pistol Mods.
- The Balefire Charger is the only weapon that can be used while using the
Aegis Storm ability.
- The Balefire Charger cannot zoom in when used with Aegis Storm.
- While Hildryn holds two Balefire Chargers instead of one while Aegis Storm is active, this is a purely cosmetic feature and has no effect on the weapon's effectiveness.
- The Balefire Charger's explosion radius scales with Balefire ability rank and is affected by Ability Range mods and ( Primed) Fulmination.
- Range mods and Fulmination bonuses multiply. A fully ranked Balefire with Fulmination and Stretch will have: 3m × (1 + 24%) × (1 + 45%) = 5.4m, but Fulmination's effect will not be reflected on the ability card.
- Shield cost to activate and cost per shot is affected by Ability Efficiency mods.
- When Hildryn has Overshields, Balefire Charger shots will
Ragdoll enemies. - While charging, the increased damage and shield consumption scales with the amount charged. At full charge, the Balefire Chargers deal 100% more damage and consumes 450 shields.
- As an Exalted Weapon, this weapon comes with an
Orokin Catalyst pre-installed.
Tips[]
- While Balefire Charger's low base Status Chance make
Corrosive and 
Magnetic procs less effective at removing shields and armor, it synergizes well with Hildryn's 
Pillage, as this ability can drain shields and permanently remove armor.
Trivia[]
- The Balefire Charger is the first Exalted Weapon to not be channeled via Warframe's fourth ability, and is the first Exalted Weapon to be a first ability.
- The Balefire Charger is the third secondary Exalted Weapon, after
Regulators and 
Dex Pixia. - On
![HildrynPrimeIcon272](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="31" height="32"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Hildryn Prime, the pistol is named 
Balefire Charger Prime. Their stats are, however, identical to Balefire Charger.
Balefire Charger Skins
Patch History[]
Hotfix 36.0.4 (2024-06-26)
- Fixed Hildryn’s Balefire quickfire Attack Speed being increased when the “Fire Manual Trigger Weapons Continuously” setting is toggled on.
Hotfix 33.6.4 (2023-08-15)
- Fixed being unable to equip the Balefire Einheri skin on Hildryn’s Balefire Prime.
Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)
- Fixed de-equipping a Scanner not returning you to your active Exalted weapon if one was equipped prior.
Hotfix 29.1.1 (2020-09-18)
- Fixes towards Exalted weapons not being equipped when viewed via Look Link or Mod Link.
Update 27.4 (2020-05-01)
- Fixed both Charged Damage and Quick Shot Damage of Hildryn’s Balefire Charger Damage displaying the same value in the Arsenal.
Update 24.6 (2019-04-04)
- Hildryn is no longer restricted to move at walking speed when charging Balefire.
Update 24.4 (2019-03-08)
- Introduced.
Last updated: Hotfix 23.1.3 (2018-07-26)
See Also[]
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20 comments
It's like a pocket Bramma except it's bad and ain't nearly close to an actual Bramma. Poor crit and status stats with slow charge. High shield drain and small AoE. Can't even make use of the Cannonade mod.
Or you could just mod it for base damage, easily reching 50k+ on chrged shot. Or mod for area and rain quickshots from above, hitting everything in a 5+m radius.
50k+ damage on paper is nothing under high level if the weapon is neither good at critical or status and it's exactly what Balefire Charger is. Good at neither. A weapon with 1/10 damage can kill much faster if it has good critical or status stats.
Hildryn suffered a good bit from the armor changes. 50k used to be plenty since every enemy should be stripped of their armor and shields, but those enemies have several times as much HP than they had before.
I feel like Balefire Charger should be buffed by a good amount.
Don't like ragdoll effect of balefire on enemies with pillage'd shield and armour. I don't wanna launch mobs+cells to the lua in undercroft excavations. Also thraxes can disappear, if they fell into the void without granting focus points.
Does casting speed increase charge rate?
Those are 2 different stats, so no.
Tenno: This weapon is garbage against grinner due to their armor.
Me: Oh no! If only there was a way for Hildryn to strip away their armor so Balefire could do damage /s
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Waiting for the wiki boys to make a page for the prime version of this
It says in this page that the prime version has the exact same stats as the normal version
Does anyone know if Synth Charge works on Balefire Charger? This says magazine of 1 so it would make sense, but Warframe is weird sometimes.
No ammo, no magazine. Synth Charge shouldn't work.
What if increasing the magazine size boosted the pool from which its shots were drawn (i.e. the shield pool) (yes I know that would be broken but still imagine it)
Why would anyone imagine this? It is asinine.
I wanna mention that Embedded Catalyzer is a Acolyte Mods and can be fited. Benefit is since its a exalted weapon you always proc effect. Downside is you need to right click and recast ability every 5 shots (full charge with all fire rate mods on/ 2 full charge shots with no fire rate mods)
Sure shot gives the same bonus and is never equipped for damage purpose
What's its damage falloff?
Looks like this is the last AoE weapon with no damage falloff!
Fitting for an exalted weapon
Can someone tell me if the Balefire has a single round or do you have to reach the end of your shields to proc Synth Charge?
it will not work. it does not have a mag size
Can someone please clarify how reload speed and fire-rate affect this weapon.
With the new augment, my guess is fire-rate increase charge rate and becomes a lot more important.
I've already noticed that new augment is busted given how it seems to scale with power strength(i think?) or else its just weird with when it does/doesn't trigger.
Reload speed has zero affect on this weapon since it doesn't reload. Fire-rate does increase charge rate.
Anyone else notice it lacks the ability to put on the secondary explosive radius mod? (I think it was fulmination?)
just mod for range, at max range you get 8 meter RADIUS so 16 meter wide circle of death
This thing is a Megabuster, its even built into her forearm!
Considering how long it takes to charge the shots, and considering it only does double damage at full charge, it seems best to not charge these attacks.
Full charge also drains around 4 times the shield, so firing it normally is the way to go
full charges drains 3x the shield for twice the damage.
you'll deal twice the damage for twice the shield if you fire twice.
just spam it
Charge Shot should increase Range as well.
does Pistol Amp work with this weapon?
It does, but it is a mimimal damage boost (with Hornet Strike on it is ~5%)
Growing Power is probably better provided you proc it before activation
This thing is pretty powerful and fun to use.
Struggles a bit on high level heavy armored enemies tho.
I modded mine for damage, multishot , status and firerate.
I only wish you could preform maneuvers or run when charging this thing like you can with Staticor.
Should mention that this is a 1 bullet magazine weapon so by increasing the reload speed, it will actually increase your rate of fire. Meanwhile increasing your fire rate will only shorten the charge time.
this is not correct though?
Can confirm that it's more dependent on fire rate, rather than reload speed. Tested it with just a lethal torrent vs an all fire rate mod build (Gunslinger, Anemic, Torrent) vs all reload mod (Primed Quick Draw, Stunning Speed).
The second build is significantly faster.
The gun does not reload as it has no ammunition, reload mods do nothing at all
So you can't build it for Crit or Status, just raw dmg? Seems underwhelming for a signature compulsory weapon.
reminder that ability strength both increases balefire launcher damage AND makes shield pillage permanently chunk enemy armour pretty damn hard
Also, it is base electric damage, you can go full Corrosive or full Radiation with it, it does extremly well.
[quote]To person above, thats not how it works. Multishot divides status between each individual shot. It looks incredibly underwhelming and looks like a MUCH weaker kulstar[/quote]
True, but the individual shots land so close together, and with the shots natural aoe effect, its better than it looks still.
Hildryn's other ability can already strip armor. Just mod for damage, multishot, range, and multishot. Forget about status and crit.
"While Hildryn holds two Balefire Chargers instead of one while Aegis Storm is active, this is a purely cosmetic feature and has no effect on the weapon's effectiveness."
Lmao nice synergy de
Should give us at least increase fire rate, or turn Charged fire into Auto while using in Aegis Storm. I mean, we can't replenish our shields during Aegis Storm anyway.
Maybe make it cost no energy to fire Balefire while in Aegis Storm, and equip automatically. Losing the use of 2 for Aegis Storm means it's like any other channeled ability in that it will end eventually. Sooner than most, if you're taking damage. Even sooner if you've built for power str to make Balefire useful for something. I dont think it would be a stretch to make Balefire deal double damage too, considering it's a weaker, shorter duration, peacemaker, with nothing to show for it but a bit of mild energy generation effects, and trash CC.
Can the bullet speed of the balefire charger be affected if you put LETHAL MOMENTUM?