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- For the mod, see Frostbite.
Primary Frostbite is an Arcane Enhancement for primary weapons that increases primary weapon critical multiplier and multishot for 12 seconds when applying
Cold procs.
Effect[]
| Rank | Critical Damage per Stack | Max Critical Damage Stack | Multishot per Stack | Max Multishot Stack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.5% | 20% | 0.375% | 15% |
| 1 | 1% | 40% | 0.75% | 30% |
| 2 | 1.5% | 60% | 1.125% | 45% |
| 3 | 2% | 80% | 1.5% | 60% |
| 4 | 2.5% | 100% | 1.875% | 75% |
| 5 | 3% | 120% | 2.25% | 90% |
Acquisition
Primary Frostbite can be obtained from Conjunction Survival Circulus on Lua as a Rotation C reward. Alternatively it can be purchased from Archimedean Yonta for 15 
Lua Thrax Plasm each, with a total of 315 for max rank.
| Item | Source | Chance | Expected | Nearly Guaranteed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Tier 2 Conjunction Survival / C | 10.20% | ~ 9 C Rotations | 64 ± 21 C Rotations |
All drop rates data is obtained from DE's official drop tables.
See Mission Rewards#Standard Missions for definitions on reward table rotations.
For more detailed definitions and information,
visit here.
Note[]
- At all ranks, it will take 40
![DmgColdSmall64](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="32" height="32"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Cold procs to reach the maximum bonus. - Stacking Primary Frostbite does not require the Cold proc to come from the primary: it can come from Warframe abilities such as
Frost's ability kit, or any weapon that can proc Cold - even if the primary is holstered. - Unlike other weapon arcanes, Primary Frostbite stacks expire all at once after 12 seconds of no procs, rather than only 1 stack every 12 seconds.
Tips[]
- With high fire rate weapons such as
Glaxion (
Vandal, 
Tenet), 
Cryotra, or 
Verglas, Primary Frostbite's max stack can be reached quickly.
Bugs[]
- Will only stacks if new cold procs are added onto enemies, if the enemy already has 10 cold procs the arcane will not add bonus stacks nor refresh the timer.
Patch History[]
Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)
- Introduced.
 Arcanes
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Eidolon • Arcane Helmets • Ostron • Operator • Amp • Solaris United • The Holdfasts • The Quills • Vox Solaris | ||
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30 comments
This should have the same bug note that Primary Blight has about Dex Pixia's and Diwata triggering it but not benefiting from it.
Really good with Tenet glaxion and citrine. Effortlessly stacks her her 3rd ability
Hmmm... Im trying to cook with this and on paper, at full stack its a Vital Sense and Vigilante Armaments on a stick.
Here hoping it makes the Tenet Glaxion into a beast
So excited for this...
So much critical damage sources for Tenet Glaxion LOL
Tried running this on the Rauta to get extra multishot for even more melee counter building but... It only applies once per trigger pull for some reason? Was this always the behaviour or did something recently break it?
Iirc Rauta has a cap on the melee combo it can give you per shot
If you want Rauta to build combo count, punchtrough is the way to go, especially if use it with Kullervo. I mean every single pellet that hits another enemy after a punchtrough is count as a separate hit, and if you have Curse on the enemy, you essentially doubled the damage of that pellett on the entire group.
Is the buff additive or flat increase??
Seems like a lot of people really ignore the fact you don't need cold procs from your weapon just in general and one of the best Sentient weapon just vomits cold procs.
Dont work since last patch?
Still works great on Helstrum
This slaps on gotva prime
Yeah but corrosive cold is almost certainly better than whatever status combinations you can get with toxin unless you're fighting corpus
Outwith the niche case of saryn or lavos very true or any other frame proccing toxin on abilities
This procs much easier than primary blight while blight has bit higher crit damage this has higher multishot it's up to you i suppose Im going with frostbite, easier to farm, easier to proc due to not even needing my primary not needing cold to work,
Primary Blight forces you to mod pure Toxin which is not ideal for most factions except corpus
Can Secondary Encumber proc it? Since all Heat procs can proc Cascadia Flare, i'm assuming it can...
Well this niche arcane is potentially going to be a lot more viable when cold procs will also increase your crit damage multiplier, up to 0.5x bonus
It's the other way around tbh. Flat CD buffs devalue Frostbite.
It's more crit damage either way, it does not effect frostbite, as it will be a 0.5 flat bonus on top of frostbite.
About to rebuild my Frost
It does make the crit damage from Frostbite less valuable mathematically. What you mean is that when cold becomes a more attractive element people have more incentive to use stuff related to cold procs, like Frostbite.
For an AOE crit weapon, you need a MS+CD+Damage riven in order to outperform Arcane Merciless.
Won't get triggered if you use Thermal Transfer to give yourself Cold damage.
Use it with a cold Kuva Drakgoon and Mirage for the ultimate multishot shenanigans!
When it loses all stacks then the duration should be better... 20s would be great. ifc its not hard just dealing another cold proc but there are also situations, where you arent fully busy with killing/hitting mobs for short periods of time and restacking became annoying each time. Even using it with citrine, but still annoying. Could be way better with 20s or not losing all stacks - 1/4 each time or even only one with a duration of 10s then. long story short; needs a tiny change imo
On one hand, it's true that keeping the stacks up is a major pain due to the short timer and losing all the stacks at once.
On the other... it's one of those damage-boosting arcanes that can be stacked without having to kill. Meaning that even if you get a huge dip in power due to losing the stacks, as long as you can proc cold on something, you'll get said power back eventually, and potentially relatively quickly, depending on your mean(s) to proc cold. Meanwhile, with the Acolytes arcanes, if your weapon is too weak to kill without the stacks, chances are that you won't be able to get the arcane going anytime soon.
So I'm kind of on the fence on this one. Perhaps 20s would be nice indeed, notably on slower weapons.
Incarnon Torid Arcane, that's all i'll say
Is it viable with prisma lenz?
I got way better results against corrupted heavy gunners with unleveled frostbite and serration, vs another crit mod and merciless. Id say it's best in slot honestly.
Nope, still trash.
Definitely viable, although it's not as good as Merciless.
"Unlike other weapon arcanes, Primary Frostbite stacks expire all at once after 12 seconds of no procs, rather than only 1 stack every 10 seconds."
Way to ruin what could have been a fun and interesting arcane to use. It could actually perhaps compete with Merciless and Deadhead if they got rid of this silly feature.
No, read further. It's actually not a big deal when you combo it with a variety of cold proc sources. Go look up how many sources of guaranteed cold procs there are.
If it counts the cold aura, and extra cold procs possible from some of the Decrees in Duviri, it could become hard NOT to have max stats.
I think those buffs adds up additively, but it's not indicated... Could someone add the precision please ?
Truthfully as someone who mains Frost this feels like an arcane which falls flat on the idea of being used with Frost. The duration is a serious problem and the stacks don't gradually decrease like Deadhead, Merciless, Dexterity, etc. and even then, you'd be better off using them or some other frame with Thermal Sunder. And, to top it all off, forgoing Viral on the primary build. Yikes.
Hopefully the duration gets increased and the stacks dissipate over time rather than itself entirely later on.
Until then, I think we got ourselves a decent reason to bring out the Glaxion once more.
Redditor skill issue, best arcane ever
Come on, everyone and their mother is running around with an epitaph primer... geez
There might be one weapon on which Frostbite could be better than Merciless, namely the Kuva Drakgoon. Since it already fires a massive amount of projectiles, any bonus to multishot produces an hilarious amount of pellets.
It can reach up to 48 multishot with Frostbite, Galv Chamber and Vigilante Armaments, against 39 without Frostbite. It only amounts to 9 more pellets, but the effect on damage is noticeable.
The increased crit damage works well with the extra pellets.
The additionnal pellets also increase the chance to proc cold, so once the stacks get going it's relatively easy to maintain.
With that said, the ramp up can take a while if you don't have a primer. And you have to like using the Kuva Drakgoon.
If used as a pseudo-sniper, Primary Deadhead might still edge Frostbite damage-wise, due to the increased headshot damage.
What about with an incarnon weapon like the Felarx?
For the Felarx in particular, the performance is similar in Shotgun Mode, and plainly in favor of Merciless in Akimbo Mode.
Frostbite is relatively easy to stack with Felarx, so it's more consistent early in a run, but Merciless should still come out on top in term of damage in the end, though not as much as with most other weapons.
With that said, Felarx enjoys being able to use Viral+HuMu, so losing Viral to be able to proc Frostbite by itself is generally not worth it even if you keep to the Shotgun Mode.
As for the Phenmor, since Devouring Attrition revolves around low crit and is arguably the best option, you'd most likely waste Frostbite's increased crit damage for only a bit of Multishot.
You could try stacking Frostbite with Spiteful Defilement on a crit build, but the bonus of the perk is easily lost at high multishot and fire rate, even on a low status, cold oriented build. Unlucky Puncture/Rad/Slash procs can and will come to ruin your Spiteful Defilement moment.
As for Lingering Judgement, it works better with Deadhead anyway.
Speccing toward fire damage and Merciless will bring a lot more damage than cold and Frostbite, even if you shoehorn the Phenmor into a rapidfire hybrid weapon role.
The semi-auto nature of the primary mode doesn't do Frostbite any favor either.
Kuva Drakgoon is more of a pure damage dealer due to its firing mechanics and base status making it a somewhat poorer (but still effective due to the high pellet count) status applier, so Frostbite is not as much of a loss. Moreover, being a Kuva weapon, K.Drakgoon can have the Corrosive/Radiation/Cold combo to hit at least neutrally most factions.
With that said, Viral+HuMu still works quite well with the K.Drakgoon, so the choice between Merciless and Frostbite is more a flavor choice than a true optimization.
All of this assume you're attempting to use Frostbite without an external primer. If you do use a primer, then it becomes slightly more interesting on high crit chance and high bullet count weapons.
But even then, the timer to keep it going is short, and will timeout at inopportune moments if the primary itself is unable to proc cold. Merciless is so much more versatile usually.
Tho i did find another fun Frostbite weapon in the Aeolak. Stack the arcane with primary fire then unleash even more grenades than usual with the alt fire! Is it better than Merciless+Viral+HuMu? Probably not, but it does cover an even larger area with blinding explosions ^^