Arcanes: slots, ranks and farming

An Arcane is an upgrade you equip on top of your mods. Most Arcanes have a condition, for example “on kill” or “on critical hit”. When it happens, you get a bonus for a short time. Arcanes cost no mod capacity, and good Arcanes are often what turns a decent build into a really strong one.

The most important terms in short:

Arcane

An extra effect for a Warframe, weapon, Operator or Amp. It goes into its own slot, not into the mod slots.

Rank

Arcanes rank up when you sacrifice copies of the same Arcane. The higher the rank, the stronger the effect.

Arcane Adapter

An item that unlocks an Arcane slot on a weapon or Amp.

Vosfor

A resource. Loid in the Sanctum Anatomica turns Arcanes you do not need into Vosfor. You trade it for new, random Arcanes.

Family

Arcanes that share the first part of their name, such as Magus, Molt or Cascadia. A family usually comes from the same source.

Legendary

The rarest tier, e.g. Arcane Energize. You can only trade them from Mastery Rank 11.

Each piece of gear has its own Arcane slots, and only the matching kind fits. You cannot put the same Arcane twice on one item. You can use one copy on several items at once though, just like mods.

Gear	Slots	Matching Arcanes
Warframe	2	Warframe Arcanes such as Arcane Energize, Theorem and Molt
Primary weapon	1	Primary Arcanes such as Primary Merciless, Fractalized, plus bow-only and shotgun-only Arcanes
Secondary weapon	1	Secondary Arcanes such as Secondary Outburst, Cascadia, Conjunction, Akimbo
Melee weapon	1	Melee Arcanes such as Melee Duplicate
Zaw	1 extra	Exodia
Kitgun	1 extra	Pax and Residual
Operator	2	Magus and Emergence
Amp	1, 2 with an adapter	Virtuos and Eternal
Arch-gun	2 (with an adapter)	One Primary and one Secondary Arcane

• You unlock the Primary and Secondary weapon slots with the Primary or Secondary Arcane Adapter. You get them from the Market for 20 platinum, from Teshin for 15 Steel Essence and from Acrithis in Duviri for 25 Pathos Clamps.
• The Melee Arcane Adapter becomes available after “Whispers in the Walls”: from the Market for 20 platinum, from Bird 3 of the Cavia (rank 3, 50,000 standing) or as a reward from Netracells and Deep Archimedea.
• On Zaws and Kitguns the Exodia or Pax slot is a separate slot. So you can add a normal weapon Arcane as well once that slot is open.
• The second Amp slot is opened by the Amp Arcane Adapter from Cavalero of the Holdfasts (rank 5, 20,000 standing). Arcanes only go on a gilded Amp, see Focus, Operator and Drifter explained.

A new Arcane is rank 0. To rank it up, you sacrifice more copies of the same Arcane. You do this in the Orbiter in the Arcane Segment or through Equipment > Arcanes. Each rank needs one copy more than the one before:

• Most Arcanes go up to rank 5, which takes 21 copies. That covers all Warframe, weapon, Operator and Eternal Arcanes.
• Exodia, Virtuos, Pax and Residual stop at rank 3. 10 copies are enough for those.
• Warframe Arcanes at rank 3 or higher also give you an Arcane Revive. With two of them you have up to 6 instead of 4 revives per mission.

Almost every big area of the game has its own group of Arcanes. The table shows the main sources:

Source	Arcanes	Examples
Eidolons on the Plains of Eidolon, Orphix missions in Venus and Veil Proxima	The classic Warframe Arcanes	Arcane Energize, Arcane Grace, Arcane Avenger, Arcane Fury
Acolytes in The Steel Path	Primary and Secondary Arcanes: Merciless, Deadhead, Dexterity	Primary Merciless, Secondary Deadhead
Arbitrations (Vitus Essence)	Five Warframe Arcanes	Arcane Tanker, Arcane Pistoleer
Onkko (Quills) and Little Duck (Vox Solaris)	Magus and Virtuos for Operator and Amp	Magus Elevate, Virtuos Shadow
Hok (Ostrons, rank 5) and Rude Zuud (Solaris United, rank 5)	Exodia for Zaws, Pax for Kitguns	Exodia Force, Pax Charge
Isolation Vaults in the Cambion Drift (Deimos)	Theorem and Residual	Theorem Demulcent, Theorem Contagion
Zariman: Void Angels, Thrax enemies, Holdfasts standing	Molt, Cascadia, Fractalized, Emergence, Eternal	Molt Augmented, Cascadia Flare, Fractalized Reset
Circulus (Lua) and Tyana Pass (Mars)	A few Warframe and weapon Arcanes	Arcane Blessing, Primary Frostbite, Arcane Steadfast
Duviri: The Circuit and Acrithis	Duviri Arcanes, and in the Steel Path Circuit also the bow, shotgun and akimbo Arcanes	Arcane Reaper, Secondary Outburst, Longbow Sharpshot
Albrecht’s Laboratories: bosses, Netracells, Deep Archimedea, Bird 3 of the Cavia	Melee Arcanes	Melee Influence, Melee Crescendo, Melee Duplicate
Sisters of Parvos (Ascension missions)	Arcanes from “Jade Shadows”	Arcane Battery, Secondary Surge, Melee Afflictions
Höllvania: bounties and missions, The Hex standing	Höllvania Arcanes	Arcane Bellicose, Primary Crux, Melee Doughty
Temporal Archimedea	Three Legendary Warframe Arcanes	Arcane Escapist, Arcane Hot Shot, Arcane Universal Fallout
The Descendia (Dark Refractory) and Roathe	New Warframe and weapon Arcanes	Arcane Persistence, Primary Overcharge, Melee Careen
Uranus Proxima: Railjack missions Scoria’s Angel and The Kuva Wytch, vendor in Pontis Tower	Four Arcanes from Update 43	Arcane Sculptor, Primary Compression, Melee Assimilation

A few notes on the main sources:

• Eidolons: the rare Arcanes only come when you capture an Eidolon instead of killing it. How that works is in Eidolon hunts: Teralyst, Gantulyst and Hydrolyst.
• Duviri: The Circuit gives Arcanes as tier rewards, and from a certain rank you can also buy them from Acrithis. More in Duviri and the Circuit.
• Netracells and Archimedea: this is the main place for the Legendary Melee and Höllvania Arcanes. See Netracells and Archimedea: weekly endgame loot.
• Syndicates: the Quills, Vox Solaris, Ostrons, Solaris United, Holdfasts, Cavia and The Hex sell Arcanes for standing. How to earn standing is in Syndicates, open worlds and standing.
• Arcanes dropped by enemies count as mod drops. So they drop more often in The Steel Path and with a Mod Drop Chance Booster.

After the quest “Whispers in the Walls”, Loid waits in the Sanctum Anatomica on Deimos. He dissolves Arcanes you do not need into Vosfor. With Vosfor you buy collections of new Arcanes from him.

1. 01

   Dissolve Arcanes

   Pick the Arcanes you want to get rid of at Loid. Depending on the Arcane you get between 12 and 98 Vosfor per copy. Legendary ones like Arcane Energize give the most.

2. 02

   Choose a collection

   Each collection belongs to one area, such as Eidolon, Duviri, Cavia, Höllvania or the Holdfasts. It costs 200 Vosfor and 50,000 credits.

3. 03

   Get three Arcanes

   Each purchase gives you 3 random Arcanes from that collection. Every slot is rolled on its own.

Collection	What is inside	Special
Eidolon	Classic Warframe Arcanes	Many common Arcanes, only 5 % chance for a Legendary
Duviri	Duviri Arcanes	5 % chance for a Legendary, e.g. Arcane Reaper
Cavia	Melee Arcanes and Arcanes from “Jade Shadows”	5 % chance for Melee Crescendo or Melee Duplicate
Holdfasts	All Zariman Arcanes	Always rare Arcanes, e.g. Molt Augmented
Höllvania	Höllvania Arcanes	Mostly rare, 5 % Legendary
Necralisk	Theorem, Residual and the Tyana Pass Arcanes	Always rare Arcanes
Steel	Acolyte and Arbitration Arcanes	Always rare Arcanes
Ostron and Solaris	Magus, Virtuos, Exodia and Pax	Many common Arcanes

• You can get Vosfor in other ways too: a pack of 200 Vosfor is sold by each of the six Relay syndicates at rank 5 for 30,000 standing, and by Kaya in Höllvania for 6 Pix Chips.
• Deep Archimedea can give Vosfor as well.

These Arcanes show up in a lot of builds. The values are for max rank 5:

Arcane	Slot	Effect at rank 5
Arcane Energize	Warframe	On energy pickup: 60 % chance to give you and allies within 15 m 150 energy (15 s cooldown)
Arcane Grace	Warframe	On health damage: 9 % chance for +6 % health regeneration per second for 9 s
Molt Augmented	Warframe	On kill: +0.24 % Ability Strength, up to 250 times (so up to +60 %)
Arcane Avenger	Warframe	On damage: 21 % chance for +45 % critical chance for 12 s
Primary Merciless	Primary	On kill: +30 % damage for 4 s, up to 12 times. Plus +30 % reload speed
Secondary Outburst	Secondary	On switching to your secondary: consumes your Combo Multiplier for +20 % critical chance and critical damage per Combo consumed for 30 s
Melee Duplicate	Melee	On base critical hits: 100 % chance for the attack to strike a second time

Almost all built Arcanes can be traded with other players. For rank 5 in particular, that is often faster than farming 21 copies yourself. How trading and prices work is in Earning platinum and trading safely.

• Check the rank when you buy. A rank 5 Arcane costs much more than a single copy at rank 0.
• Legendary Arcanes such as Arcane Energize, Arcane Grace or Melee Duplicate can only be traded from Mastery Rank 11.
• Rare Arcanes that many players need sell well for platinum. So you can sell spare copies instead of dissolving them.