With the release of Jade Shadows, all damage\h has changed forever. The types that were\h\h
good and bad have shifted, the nature of\h various procs overhauled. Fair warning,\h\h
talking about damage in full like this means\h talking at times about quest locked content,\h\h
so there will be spoilers\h up to Whispers in the Wall.
I'll walk you through how every damage type and\h\h
its associated status proc works so\h you can get the most out of them.
I'm TheKengineer, let's solve a practical problem.
[Intro Music]
You know what's also new? The brand new launch\h of my merch store where you can get mugs,\h\h
mousepads, pins and more. Support the channel with\h\h
a practical purchase. Right,\h on with the damage types.
The available types hasn't changed with\h this update. There are still 15 ish types\h\h
of damage you can deal across different weapons,\h features, and abilities. However all enemy health,\h\h
shield, and armor types are now gone.\h Instead each enemy faction or subfaction\h\h
has their own weaknesses and occasionally\h resistance to a handful of damage types,\h\h
affecting their entire hitpoint pool.\h These damage types then can be broken\h\h
down into the physical, basic element,\h combined element, and exotic types.
Physical comprises Impact, Puncture,\h and Slash. Most weapons will contain\h\h
some spread of these types, occasionally\h having only one or two types but typically\h\h
using all three with different weightings.\h If a weapon lacks a physical damage type,\h\h
that type cannot be added to the weapon\h through ordinary modding by any means,\h\h
including the physical mods. Physical\h mods are in effect weaker elemental mods,\h\h
acting identically except for only\h enhancing their matching base damage type.
Impact damage, a blunt force approach to killing,\h offers a damage bonus against all Grineer enemies.\h\h
This is a change from the past where it used to be\h bonused against shields. Due to this bonus you'll\h\h
deal 50% more damage with the impact portion of\h a weapon than with other non bonused damage types\h\h
against the Grineer. However, the old effect of\h a damage bonus ignoring part of enemy armor has\h\h
been removed. It's a simple 50% damage bonus\h now. Pure impact damage will now kill Grineer\h\h
twice as fast as it did before the update, while\h dispatching some Corpus only slightly slower.
The impact proc causes a stagger effect on most\h enemies, effectively a brief stun. In addition,\h\h
it increases the hitpoint threshold at which\h heavy units like Eximus can be mercy killed\h\h
as shown by the moving marker on their health\h bar. You can therefore use impact procs to help\h\h
dispatch of heavy units without needing\h the damage output to quickly kill them,\h\h
letting you punch above your weight. This also\h makes it easier for you to get the benefits of\h\h
mercy kills such as from Parazon mercy mods.\h Impact procs are hard capped at 5 effects,\h\h
with the 6th effect applied replacing\h the oldest proc on the target.
Puncture damage, a piercing stab or shot,\h\h
offers a damage bonus against normal Corpus\h enemies as well as Corrupted enemies,\h\h
recorded in the UI as Orokin faction. This bonus\h will apply against both shields and health,\h\h
granting a 50% damage bonus to the puncture\h portion. Special Corpus enemies, specifically\h\h
the Corpus found on Jupiter, are not weak to\h Puncture damage. Puncture will now kill some\h\h
Corpus enemies substantially faster than before,\h but is weaker against all Grineer, all Murmur,\h\h
and some Infested and Sentients. Pure puncture\h will take up to three times longer to kill\h\h
enemies previously considered Ferrite Armored,\h though the new armor cap will mitigate that.
The puncture status effect is weakness,\h causing the target to deal substantially\h\h
lower damage. At its smallest this applies\h a 40% damage reduction debuff and this is\h\h
applied twice multiplicatively to status\h effect damage. With a single proc then,\h\h
on an enemy or a player, their status\h effects will deal only 36% of the damage\h\h
they were doing without the puncture effect.\h Additional procs increase the penalty by 10%\h\h
to a max of 80% with 5 procs, consequently\h reducing status proc damage to just 4%.
Puncture effects also apply a flat bonus to\h critical chance for attacks against the target.\h\h
Every puncture proc applies a 5% bonus to critical\h chance for incoming attacks, calculated as a final\h\h
value after all other bonuses. If the attacker\h would normally have a 10% critical chance,\h\h
and the target has the full 5 puncture procs\h on them, the critical chance climbs to 35%.
Despite being an increase to critical chance,\h seeking to add puncture to a setup is likely to be\h\h
worse for damage than focusing on other options.\h You cannot add puncture to a weapon that lacks it,\h\h
and investing in puncture where it already exists\h is always at the expense of increasing something\h\h
else instead. For that reason puncture shouldn't\h be modded for, merely enjoyed when it exists.
Last of the physical types is Slash, the cutting\h and slicing approach. Slash damage has a bonus\h\h
against ordinary Infested and the Narmer faction,\h a threat after the New War quest. Classically\h\h
Infested are not resilient, and Narmer are found\h in exceptionally few places, making the slash\h\h
bonus itself relatively weak. However, compared\h to how things were before Slash has actually been\h\h
buffed further than this. Slash damage used to\h be massively reduced in effectiveness against\h\h
all Grineer and Murmur faction enemies, as well\h as a handful of Corpus enemies. All of those\h\h
resistances have been wiped out, buffing pure\h slash damage as a result. Pure slash against\h\h
heavy Grineer units like Bombard for example\h should kill them over twice as fast as before.
Slash status effect is bleed, causing the target\h to repeatedly take damage over time every second\h\h
for six seconds, starting 1 second after the\h proc lands. This damage over time is based on\h\h
your weapon's damage with all bonuses included\h except for any elemental and physical mods.\h\h
The total value is then multiplied by 0.35,\h further multiplied by any faction bonus you have,\h\h
and damages the enemy for this value\h every second while ignoring armor.
As the calculation ignores your weapon's\h physical mods, applying slash mods to\h\h
your weapon will increase slash damage and the\h chance a status proc you land is a slash proc,\h\h
but it does nothing to increase the\h damage of the slash status effect itself.
On the flip side, it ignoring armor means that\h with no elemental or physical mods involved,\h\h
the slash status effect will deal more\h damage every second than the direct hit\h\h
of your weapon if the target has any more than\h 65% damage resistance, such as from 1409 armor.
While slash procs usually only come from\h slash weighted weapons, you can force them\h\h
to occur in various ways, such as using the\h Internal Bleeding mod, Hunter Munitions mod,\h\h
or certain melee moves and stances. As slash proc\h damage is based on your weapon's overall damage,\h\h
not just the slash portion, a slash proc from\h a non-slash weapon still works just fine.
Out of all the physical types, the lack of\h being able to mod for them directly means you\h\h
cannot directly choose which type you're using\h without choosing an entirely different weapon.\h\h
The flattening of damage type modifers and capping\h of high level armor also means that type selection\h\h
for physical damage is even less important. While\h a 50% damage bonus is noticeable, choosing it at\h\h
the cost of an otherwise worse weapon for the\h job will make the net effect relatively low.\h\h
Whether that's a weapon that's less powerful,\h or a weapon that's less fun, picking it up is\h\h
not as important. The exception to this is Slash\h weighted weapons as they remain the higher damage\h\h
option in almost all circumstances due to having\h the only damaging proc from physical damage.
Onto the basic elements. Here we have\h Heat, Cold, Electric, and Toxin. It's\h\h
important to remember them in that order,\h known as HCET, due to how they function in\h\h
modding. I've covered HCET in its own video,\h so let's just focus on what these types do.
Heat damage has a 50% damage bonus against\h normal Infested, but deals half damage to\h\h
Kuva Grineer. At first glance this may seem like\h Heat is overall lacking. After all, what use is\h\h
a damage bonus against the weakest enemies and a\h damage nerf against some of the tankiest? Well for\h\h
heat damage itself that is the whole story. The\h true power of heat is all in its status effect.
The heat effect is unsurprisingly to\h burn enemies. Burning causes targets\h\h
to panic for a moment, effectively stunning\h them. Burning also deals damage over time,\h\h
based on your weapon damage similar to slash\h but applying 50% of the value rather than 35%,\h\h
plus it benefits from any modded heat bonus. The\h burning effect also reduces the target's armor.
"How much armor?" you might ask. Heat\h temporarily removes half of an enemy's\h\h
existing armor over the course of\h two seconds. Existing armor here\h\h
refers to whatever is left after\h reductions such as from abilities.
Historically enemies could have as low\h as 5 armor or climb well into the tens\h\h
of thousands. In extreme cases you could even\h face off against over 100,000 armor. That has\h\h
changed. Now all enemies that spawn with armor\h have a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 2700.
Not only that but the way their armor\h protects them has changed. Instead of\h\h
using the Tenno formula which is\h Armor divided by Armor plus 300,\h\h
enemies have a brand new equation. For\h them it's Armor times three, square rooted,\h\h
then divided by 100. I've put the two curves\h these equations produce side by side here.
Basically enemies with really low armor,\h like Butchers, now have merely low armor\h\h
rather than functionally non-existent. Enemies\h with really high armor, like Heavy Gunners,\h\h
quickly reach a cap and just stop getting more\h resistant, growing only in hitpoints. Enemies\h\h
with middle ground armor between the two caps are\h all weaker than before in the armor department,\h\h
taking up to twice the damage they did\h before at that same level of armor.
Under this new system enemies will take as little\h as 10% more damage if they have the minimum armor,\h\h
and as much as 264% more damage if they have\h the maximum armor. If you're on Steel Path,\h\h
almost every Grineer unit – and I must\h stress, almost – will have over 2000 armor.\h\h
For them, heat will cause them to take\h at least twice as much damage from all\h\h
sources. In the majority of cases they'll\h be taking over three times as much damage\h\h
as without the heat proc. The downside\h is you have to wait two seconds for the\h\h
full bonus which in Warframe terms\h is a long time to kill most enemies.
Heat has some additional quirks that\h further cement its power. Unlike every\h\h
other status effect in the game, applying a\h new heat proc will cause all existing heat\h\h
procs to refresh their duration. This\h means heat can be stacked indefinitely,\h\h
at least on enemies which don't cap\h the status effects they receive.
This refreshing nature also causes something\h strange in the damage calculation. The first heat\h\h
proc on an enemy applies as I've explained, using\h the heat mods of the source it came from. However\h\h
all subsequent heat procs applied while that one\h is running will use those same heat mod bonuses,\h\h
even if they came from a different source, even\h another player. This is a mechanic known as Heat\h\h
Inherit. If the first heat proc comes from a\h weaker source, such as an ability from Ember,\h\h
then all following procs will be weaker too. If\h the first proc comes from a stronger source, such\h\h
as an ability from Lavos with Valence Formation\h active, then all following procs will be stronger.
To top it off, the owner of the first heat proc\h also becomes the owner of all following heat\h\h
procs until the whole stack is extinguished.\h This means a player who ignites an enemy will\h\h
get the kill credit for that enemy if\h the enemy dies from heat proc damage,\h\h
even if another player applies the\h necessary power to secure the kill.
We're getting into the really arcane details\h here, but someone would be mad if I didn't at\h\h
least point this out. The main thing is heat\h burns all and laughs at armor in the process.
The next basic element is Cold. Cold\h damage has a 50% bonus against only\h\h
Sentients and no damage penalties. This makes\h it damage wise an exceptionally neutral type,\h\h
dealing lower damage to some Grineer and\h Corpus than it did prior to the update.
Its status proc however is stronger than\h ever before. Able to stack up to 10 times,\h\h
it applies a series of scaling effects.
Firstly it'll slow enemies down, inhibiting\h their movement, attack speed, fire rate,\h\h
and even ability animations. This starts\h at a 50% slow and increases with every\h\h
proc up to the 9th for a max of 90% slowing\h effect. Overguarded enemies resist cold,\h\h
preventing more than 4 stacks being applied\h but still getting significantly slowed.
The second effect is a critical damage bonus.\h The first cold proc will increase the critical\h\h
damage multiplier of incoming attacks by\h 0.1 x. This isn't a multiplicative bonus,\h\h
but instead a flat increase to your critical\h bonus after all mods are considered. Every\h\h
extra proc up to the 9th will again increase this\h effect by 0.05 x for a maximum of 0.5 x bonus.
The third effect is a compound benefit on hitting\h that 10th cold proc. The critical damage bonus\h\h
jumps from 0.5 x to 1.0 x, the slow effect\h is replaced with a full freeze of the enemy,\h\h
and the enemy becomes unable to regenerate\h their own shields while frozen. This effect\h\h
wears off after only 3 seconds rather\h than the usual 6 seconds for status\h\h
effects. Once worn off, the enemy sheds\h all but three of the cold procs on them.
As the cold critical damage bonus is a fixed\h flat value, it's comparatively less effective\h\h
the more built for critical hits your weapon\h is. However the defensive aspect never changes,\h\h
slowing enemies to impede their attacks while\h also making it much easier to aim at the enemy,\h\h
especially at weak points. Cold is a\h valuable support type to go alongside others.
Electric is the third basic element, zapping\h enemies. It has a 50% damage bonus against\h\h
both the Murmur as well as the Corpus Amalgam,\h unique to Jupiter missions. Just like with Cold\h\h
it also has no penalties, making it a relatively\h niche but useful element for damage purposes.
The electric status effect can apply\h significantly more damage. It deals\h\h
50% of the weapon damage plus electric\h mod bonuses every second for six seconds,\h\h
similar to heat. Unlike heat however, electric\h doesn't strip armor, doesn't self refresh,\h\h
nor does it wait around. Instead its\h damage over time starts straight away,\h\h
damaging both the target it is applied to\h and all other enemies within 3 metres. This\h\h
can give it a lot of damage if used on a tight\h cluster of enemies, potentially far exceeding\h\h
the stated damage of the weapon or source\h itself. However in anything but extremely\h\h
high enemy density, such as grouping them or\h tight chokes, the AoE will see limited value.
Electric procs also briefly stun\h most targets that receive them,\h\h
causing them to shake as they're electrified.
Finally toxin is the fourth basic element,\h poisoning enemies. It has a damage bonus\h\h
only against Narmer making it functionally damage\h neutral. However despite its neutral modifiers,\h\h
it has the unique trait of bypassing\h all normal shields. Some enemies like\h\h
Treasurers ignore this rule, but largely\h most corpus units will take toxin damage\h\h
straight to their health allowing you to\h bypass their unique regenerating defense.
Toxin status effects are very similar to some\h of the others, applying toxin damage over time\h\h
every second for 6 seconds. This toxin damage is\h half the weapon's damage before elemental mods,\h\h
buffed by the toxin mods specifically\h on the weapon. As the toxin proc is\h\h
dealing toxin damage, this too will\h bypass enemy shields in most cases.
Despite having no numerical bonus against the\h Corpus, toxin remains an exceptionally powerful\h\h
weapon against them for the shield bypass.\h Against other factions it's still capable\h\h
as a damage dealer too, only losing favour due to\h losing the opportunity for other elements instead.
Beyond the basic elements we have the\h combined elements. I know there's some\h\h
people cringing at the phrase combined\h elements as elements are, by definition,\h\h
supposed to be elementary but it's the\h naming convention they've become stuck with.
All combined elements can be\h made from two basic elements,\h\h
though they can each also be present natively on\h their own. These six combined forms are Blast,\h\h
Corrosive, Gas, Magnetic, Radiation, and Viral.
Blast is formed of Cold and Heat, producing\h explosive waves. Real world physics doesn't\h\h
really apply to Warframe's blast,\h so forget what you think you know.
Blast damage itself has a bonus against\h Deimos Infested, specifically the ones\h\h
in the Cambion Drift, while having\h a penalty against Corpus Amalgam on\h\h
Jupiter. This makes it relatively neutral\h as a damage type, only weaker on Jupiter.
The blast proc is both brand new\h and completely unique. Firstly it\h\h
has only a 1.5 second duration instead of the\h usual 6 seconds. Secondly it has two forms.
The first form is if that 1.5 seconds expires\h without the enemy dying. This activates the pop\h\h
effect, dealing damage to that enemy equal to\h 30% of your weapon damage without any elemental\h\h
mods from the triggering hit. Like all damaging\h status effects, this damage will reapply any\h\h
faction modifiers you have too. As 30% with no\h elemental bonuses is exceptionally low this is\h\h
far from the result you'll want. Further still,\h once the damage is dealt the blast proc is gone.
The second form happens should you either\h reach 10 blast procs on the target at once,\h\h
or the target dies while a blast proc is on them.\h This activates the boom effect. Just to be clear,\h\h
DE didn't give the two effects names,\h I'm just doing it for clarity. The boom\h\h
effect deals 300% of the weapon damage of all\h triggering hits accumulated, rather than the\h\h
30% if those blast procs would have timed\h out. Not only is this ten times stronger,\h\h
this same damage is applied with no fall off\h to all enemies within 5 metres of the target.
In a way, this is similar to the Marked for\h Death ability. The blast proc is the mark and\h\h
killing the enemy in time is the explosion.\h What's different is that it only counts the\h\h
damaging instances that procced blast, and there's\h absolutely no limit on how much damage that can\h\h
be. If you shoot a 100 hitpoint enemy with a 1\h million damage shot that procs blast – somehow\h\h
with no elemental modifiers – then not only does\h that enemy die, all enemies in that 5 metre range\h\h
around it will take 3 million damage from the\h boom effect immediately. Usually triggering\h\h
blast requires modding blast into your weapon, and\h usually you can't get a blast proc on every hit,\h\h
so that will reduce both the reliability and\h scale of the AoE compared to your direct hits.
To be very clear on the damage, and\h this applies to all status procs,\h\h
it is only reduced by armor on the target\h taking a given instance of damage. If you\h\h
hit and kill a target with 90% damage reduction\h from armor, the explosion hitting other enemies\h\h
with the same armor will be reduced by their\h own armor but not by the original target's\h\h
armor. More or less armor on one enemy does\h not affect the damage that others receive.
The big downside for blast procs is the range.\h At 5 metres it's nearly twice the range of\h\h
electric procs but still shorter than some melee\h weapon's reach. Without well grouped enemies,\h\h
the general effect can often be\h limited. To get the most out of\h\h
blast you need reliable status procs,\h rapid kills, and clustered targets.
Next up we have corrosive, formed of electric\h and toxin. Corrosive damage has a 50% bonus\h\h
against all Grineer, but deals only half damage\h to Sentients. This is a significant change from\h\h
the older system where most non-boss Sentients\h were actually vulnerable to Corrosive. It's also\h\h
a damage nerf against the Grineer in general.\h Previously corrosive had a 75% bonus against\h\h
roughly half of Grineer units in a mission due\h to their ferrite armor. This bonus also ignored\h\h
75% of their armor. In higher levels this could\h mean between 5 and 7 times extra damage. While\h\h
the other half of Grineer units gave no bonus to\h Corrosive damage, that still averaged to around 3\h\h
times damage vs lesser types. In effect Corrosive\h is now half as effective against Grineer.
Corrosive procs reduce a target's armor. The\h first proc reduces armor by 26%, and then each\h\h
subsequent proc removes another 6%. Typically\h Corrosive will max out at 10 procs for an 80%\h\h
removal, though boss type enemies typically\h only allow up to 4 procs for 44% removal.\h\h
Emerald Archon Shards can raise these caps to\h allow for greater or even total armor removal.
Uniquely, corrosive procs last 8\h seconds rather than the usual 6,\h\h
restoring enemy armor to\h normal instantly on expiring.
With the rebalance to enemy armor,\h a small amount of armor removal is\h\h
far more significant than before. Previously\h with enemy armor able to scale indefinitely,\h\h
even run of the mill units like Elite Lancers\h could exceed 5000 armor. A single corrosive\h\h
proc on that unit would allow you to\h deal just 32.5% more damage due to\h\h
the front loaded curve on armor value.\h Now that same single proc on an enemy\h\h
with max armor will provide you a 125% damage\h bonus. For smaller amounts of armor the effect\h\h
gets considerably smaller quickly due to the enemy\h taking significantly more damage at full armor\h\h
already. Still, even against Elite Lancers level\h 114 and above, or in the case of heavier units\h\h
like Heavy Gunners by merely level 57 and above,\h corrosive procs can provide that full power.
For the same reason, using emerald archon shards\h for a full strip is less important. In the old\h\h
system, removing 80% of the armor from a 5000\h armor unit would still leave them with 1000 armor,\h\h
granting still 76.9% damage resistance.\h Removing that final 20% of armor would\h\h
more than quadruple your damage. Today against\h the highest armor possible, 80% removal reduces\h\h
their damage reduction to just 40.2%. Removing\h that final 20% of armor would give you a roughly\h\h
two thirds damage increase. Effectively using\h emerald shards for full removal via corrosive\h\h
procs has become at best 5 times less effective\h on base Steel Path, even lower as you climb up the\h\h
levels. Extra corrosive procs still grant you a\h damage bonus, just nowhere near as much as before.
Onto Gas, coming from heat and toxin. Gas damage\h has a 50% bonus only against the Deimos Infested,\h\h
specifically the ones in the Cambion Drift.\h However, it now has no penalties to damage\h\h
anywhere. Previously Gas damage dealt more damage\h to only basic infested units, the ones that didn't\h\h
need help dying. It also did significantly lower\h damage to Grineer and Corpus enemies. In effect\h\h
Gas has been triple buffed in exchange for not\h overkilling basic Infested quite so easily.
The Gas status effect creates a lingering\h poisonous cloud. I don't know how it chokes\h\h
machinery but let's not worry about that.\h This cloud has a base radius of 3 metres,\h\h
growing to 6 metres with additional procs.\h Enemies within the cloud will take damage every\h\h
second equal to 50% of the weapon's base damage\h without elemental modifiers, boosted by gas mods.\h\h
I must be very clear here, the damage is\h NOT boosted by heat mods and toxin mods,\h\h
even when they work together to create gas.\h The only elemental mods to improve the gas\h\h
cloud damage are gas mods which currently do\h not exist for any weapons. The sole source\h\h
of such a buff is Lavos' Valence Formation\h augment when used to imbue gas into weapons.
Unlike electric procs which also cause area damage\h every second, gas procs will linger after the\h\h
target dies. In exchange, gas procs can only scale\h up to ten status procs on a target. If you apply\h\h
an 11th proc, the oldest gas proc on the target\h will immediately vanish even if it was a higher\h\h
damage one. Any source of extra gas procs will do\h this, such that if you apply one big gas proc but\h\h
then your allies apply ten more tiny ones to the\h target, your big damage moment will be wasted.
As a result gas can be theoretically powerful\h but needs a controlled situation to really\h\h
shine. This means either grouping enemies\h forcefully into the procs, or ensuring\h\h
enemies die in useful choke points with high\h damage procs on them so others walk into it.
The fourth combined element is Magnetic, formed\h from cold and electric. It has a 50% damage bonus\h\h
against all Corpus units, but suffers a 50%\h reduction when used against Narmer. While the\h\h
50% bonus is lower than the previous 75% against\h Corpus shields, this damage bonus also now applies\h\h
to Corpus health. Where the Corpus unit has no\h more than twice as many shields as health points,\h\h
this is a net damage buff. Magnetic also no longer\h struggles against many armored units like Grineer.
The magnetic status effect\h does a lot of different things.
Against us Tenno, it causes our\h shields to take more damage,\h\h
prevents shields regenerating of their own accord,\h\h
drains our energy at 30 energy per second for\h 3 seconds, and scrambles our UI for 3 seconds.
Against enemies, magnetic procs will not drain\h their energy nor scramble their UI as they have\h\h
neither. Instead it still applies that damage\h bonus against their shields and overguard.\h\h
Incoming damage will deal 100% more on\h the first proc, plus a further 25% more\h\h
for each subsequent proc up to the 10 proc\h cap. At 10 procs it's a 325% damage bonus.
What's more, when an enemy's shield or overguard\h is reduced to zero while under a magnetic status\h\h
effect, they will be immediately struck\h with electric damage with a forced proc.\h\h
The amount of this damage is scaled based on\h the number of magnetic effects on the target.
The amount of damage according to the in game tool\h tip is 3% of the enemy's max shield or overguard\h\h
per magnetic stack. I would love to confirm\h whether this is true or not but at time of writing\h\h
it appears to be significantly bugged, such that\h the weapon or source used to break the target's\h\h
overguard changes how much damage is actually\h dealt. Even when controlling for all modding,\h\h
target level, target type and so on, the\h damage continues to vary between sources.\h\h
I'll put a pinned comment on this video as\h and when this is both fixed and clarified.
Beyond the electric damage, it also guarantees\h an electric proc on the target when the shield or\h\h
overguard is broken. Just like an ordinary\h electric proc, this will deal half the base damage\h\h
caused by the break as extra damage every second.\h Also just like ordinary electric, this half will\h\h
be buffed by your equipped electric mods on the\h triggering weapon, even if those electric mods are\h\h
otherwise combined into a different damage type\h such as magnetic or corrosive. With over 100%\h\h
modded electric bonus on your weapon, the status\h proc from a magnetic break will deal more damage\h\h
than the initial hit itself. Still, how good\h this really is will have to wait on that bug fix.
Next then is Radiation, made of heat and electric.\h Radiation damage has a 50% damage bonus to both\h\h
Sentients and Murmur, while dealing half\h damage to Corrupted units, ie Orokin.
Previously most Sentients were\h slightly vulnerable to radiation,\h\h
making this a slight improvement. Some\h heavier Sentients however, like Eidolons,\h\h
took significantly more damage from\h radiation due to how it bypassed most\h\h
of their armor. This portion of the effect is\h now gone, a comparative nerf to damage there.
As for the Murmur, unarmored Murmur used\h to take 75% extra damage from radiation,\h\h
making this slightly weaker than before.\h Armored Murmur on the other hand took no\h\h
extra damage from radiation, broadly levelling\h the result against that faction in most missions.
Of particular note though is that radiation no\h longer has a huge penalty against many of the\h\h
strongest Infested, allowing it to be used\h much more effectively in places such as the\h\h
Cambion Drift. In some cases it will now deal\h around 7x more damage to those enemies than\h\h
before. In exchange however, radiation no\h longer has an up to 7x damage bonus against\h\h
alloy armored units making it much worse at\h taking down enemies like Elite Lancers and\h\h
Bombards. It's not 7 times worse than other\h choices, just no longer a powerful option.
Radiation's status effect causes enemies\h to become confused, forgetting who their\h\h
allies are and opening fire on whatever\h seems most threatening to them nearby.\h\h
Confused enemies will also deal additional\h damage to other enemies, starting at 100% and\h\h
increasing by 50% per additional proc up to\h the cap of 10 procs for a 550% damage boost.
Generally speaking enemy on enemy damage is\h poor. They have low damage and high hitpoints\h\h
to balance against our comparatively\h high damage and low hitpoints. Having\h\h
enemies shoot each other is mostly about\h getting them to not be shooting at you,\h\h
a crowd control effect. Do be aware that\h boss type enemies will not get confused.
Radiation uniquely also has a 12 second status\h proc duration rather than the usual 6 seconds,\h\h
helping to keep enemies controlled\h and confused for a longer time.
The final combined element is Viral, formed from\h cold and toxin. Viral damage only has a bonus\h\h
against Orokin faction, the corrupted enemies,\h while uniquely having two penalties to damage.\h\h
Viral damage is halved against both the Murmur\h and the Infested Deimos on the Cambion Drift.
Previously, Viral also used to have a damage\h bonus against the Grineer and Corpus biological\h\h
enemies. With that removed, it's lost a\h small portion of damage against Corpus\h\h
and nearly half its damage against Grineer.
However, that is not the important use of\h viral. Viral is still one of the strongest\h\h
types in the game because of its status\h effect. With a single proc on an enemy,\h\h
that target will take 100% additional damage to\h their health. For each additional proc up to 10,\h\h
the enemy takes a further 25%\h damage, to a max bonus of 325%.
Every single enemy in the game they are\h alive when they have health remaining\h\h
and dead when they do not. No amount\h of shields or overguard will prevent\h\h
an enemy on 0 health from being dead.\h As a result, a damage bonus to that\h\h
one hitpoint type that every single\h enemy has is naturally very powerful.
The damage negative against the Murmur and\h Cambion Drift enemies also does not interfere\h\h
with this bonus. So long as an enemy isn't\h immune to viral procs – which many of them\h\h
are because it's just that strong – it is always\h going to be a powerful addition to your setup.
Beyond these damage types there remains a few\h miscellaneous ones which we might as well call\h\h
exotic to hype them up a bit.
Void damage is, well, the power of the\h Void. It has a 50% bonus against overguard,\h\h
a 900% bonus against Thrax in their\h spectral form, and unique interactions\h\h
with various niche aspects of the game\h such as resetting sentient resistances.
Void damage is usually only\h available through Operator Amps,\h\h
though a discount version of it can\h be applied through Xaku's ability\h\h
Xata's Whisper. It's discount in that it\h doesn't interact with some of those niche\h\h
interactions including being unable to\h damage Eidolon shields or spectral Thrax.
The void damage status proc creates\h an attraction bubble on an enemy,\h\h
redirecting all projectiles that strike the bubble\h towards the enemy's head, though not with perfect\h\h
accuracy. This includes shots fired by that\h enemy itself, causing them to harm themselves.
Generally speaking, Void damage isn't\h something you need to seek out. Instead\h\h
it's attached to various features in the\h game and you either have it or you don't.
Tau damage is a unique damage type dealt by\h many Sentients. It has no known status effect,\h\h
no known strengths, is resisted\h by the Umbral mod set, and is\h\h
otherwise a fancy way of saying\h they're different from you and I.
Then lastly we have True damage. Well, kind\h of. We have true damage, cinematic damage,\h\h
and shield drain damage, all of which may be\h referred to as true damage by the community.\h\h
All three of these are typeless in that\h they are unresisted by faction nor by armor,\h\h
and all of them have no associated status effect.
Cinematic damage is the one you may normally know\h\h
as true damage. It applies damage\h to shields, health, and overguard,\h\h
whichever is the top layer at the time. Slash\h status effects actually deal cinematic damage.
True damage ignores shields as well as armor,\h applying either to overguard or directly to\h\h
health. Some abilities use this type such as\h Trinity's Energy Vampire or Inaros' Dessication.
Shield drain damage, as the name might\h suggest, is specific to shields. It will\h\h
only damage shields and overguard,\h ignoring other health hitpoints.
These three types are usually not a concern\h as individuals so you do not need to memorise\h\h
them. About the only frame they become relevant\h on is Kullervo as his Collective Curse ability\h\h
will deal damage to nearby targets based on the\h hitpoints you damage directly to trigger it.\h\h
I've covered that more in his specific guide if\h you want to smash your mind against that. 31 16
These are all the usable damage types for normal\h Warframe gameplay. Some, like toxin and radiation,\h\h
are more effective directly but have beneficial\h staus effects. Others shine brightest as status\h\h
effects without relying on damage, like cold and\h viral. Yet others need a hybrid combo of damage\h\h
and status chance to do their best work, like\h heat and blast. Very broadly you want corrosive\h\h
against the grineer, magnetic or toxin against\h the corpus, heat against the infested, viral\h\h
against the orokin, cold against sentients, and\h electric against the murmur. However using other\h\h
damage types is plenty acceptable, especially\h if the status effect is more beneficial to you.
Now while there are all the damage types you\h can encounter during normal Warframe gameplay,\h\h
there is a selection of damage procs and modifiers\h that exist in their own strange little bubble in\h\h
Railjack. I would go into detail about those\h except they don't matter, the turrets aren't\h\h
moddable, and damage type isn't going to matter\h for the space portions of all encounters there.
So rather than waste your time explaining that\h bundle of nothing much, you can spend that time\h\h
instead hitting the subscribe button to catch more\h videos as they go live or support the channel with\h\h
the links down below. In any case, you're now\h fully armed with all the details you'll need to\h\h
tackle damage types in Warframe so as always,\h mod types, land procs, and fight well Tenno.