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If you thought Warframe Update 35 wasn’t stacked with new features already, here are some new ones. Tennokai mods in Warframe are the latest augmentation for melee combat. It’s an area in Warframe that sorely needed catching up after the series of updates that buffed Primary and Secondary weapons. Now that they’re here, here’s what you need to learn about them.
What Are Tennokai Mods & How to Use Them
They’re special Exilus mods for melee weapons, and they will enable the Tennokai mechanic. This lets you randomly deal with a much heavier Heavy Attack and spices up melee combos.
As always with Warframe, there are several ways to improve new mechanics even further, in this case, with Tennokai mods. Each Tennokai mod will change how the Tennokai attack works. To use Tennokai, just equip whichever Tennokai mod you have in your melee weapon’s Exilus mod slot.
During combat and while performing melee attacks, you’ll get a randomly occurring Tennokai icon in your crosshair (it’s a sword on top of a circle). While this Tennokai icon is active, you can perform a Heavy Attack. That particular attack will deal much greater damage (equivalent to around 12x in the combo meter).
Tennokai Mods & How to Obtain Them
As for the actual Tennokai mods, here is a list of them based on how easy they are to obtain, their effects, and where to get them.
- Mentor’s Legacy – Enables Tennokai.
- Finish the “Whispers in the Walls” quest to get it as a reward.
- Condition’s Perfection – Enables Tennokai. Increases status chance by +100% on Tennokai attacks.
- 12 percent drop chance during Rotation C (round 4) of the Alchemy mission in Cambire, Deimos.
- Master’s Edge – Enables Tennokai. Increases Tennokai damage by 60%.
- 12 percent drop chance during Rotation C (round 4) of the Alchemy mission in Cambire, Deimos.
- Opportunity’s Reach – Enables Tennokai. Increases opportunity window to 4s and melee range by 3m for Tennokai attacks.
- 12 percent drop chance during Rotation C (round 4) of the Alchemy mission in Cambire, Deimos.
- Discipline’s Merit – Enables Tennokai. Opportunities occur every 4 melee hits instead of at random.
- Six percent drop chance during Rotation C (round 4) of the Alchemy mission in Cambire, Deimos.
- Dreamer’s Wrath – Enables Tennokai. Increases opportunity chance by 50% and heavy attack critical damage by 32%.
- Six percent drop chance during Rotation C (round 4) of the Alchemy mission in Cambire, Deimos.
Out of all those, Discipline’s Merit is practically the most consistent damage increase since it removes the element of randomness. Dreamer’s Wrath is a close alternative, and Opportunity’s Reach is a great way to make Tennokai more convenient to use.
If you also want to avoid the grind, you can just purchase the Tennokai mod bundle in the in-game store for 100 Platinum.
Do keep in mind that the Tennokai mods have a higher drain than Mentor’s Legacy (which has zero drain), so they might force you to Forma your melee weapon to accommodate. Still, they’re worth it if you’re a big fan of fighting your intergalactic and interdimensional enemies with the elegance of cavemen.