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- Differences Between Focus 2.0 And 3.0
- How To Unlock Focus
- Earning Focus Points
- Focus Node Costs
- All Madurai Nodes
- All Naramon Nodes
- All Unairu Nodes
- All Vazarin Nodes
- All Zenurik Nodes
Warframe's Angels of the Zarmian update has overhauled the Focus system. All Focus schools have seen a rework, granting Operators new abilities and a plethora of useful passives. If you're interested in fighting Eidolons or Void Angels, you'll need to upgrade your Operator.
Whether you're new to Warframe or a long-time player, this guide will cover everything about Focus 3.0. We'll cover some key differences between the previous iteration of Focus and this one, explain how to unlock Focus, briefly cover how to unlock Focus nodes, and explain how every Focus school and node works. Use the table of contents above to jump to any section that interests you.
This article contains major spoilers for Warframe's story quests, notably "The Second Dream."
Differences Between Focus 2.0 And 3.0
This section is tailored toward experienced Warframe players. Newcomers to the Focus system should skip to the next section.
Operators saw some core tweaks with the Angels of the Zariman update alongside a rework of every Focus school in Warframe. If you're familiar with how Focus 2.0 worked, here's a quick rundown of what's changed:
- Void Dash has been replaced with Void Sling, a slower yet more controllable movement tool for your Operator.
- All Arcanes and Focus nodes related to Void Dash have been reworked to use Void Sling instead.
- Operator melee now transfers you into your Warframe instantly, meaning Void Blast has been removed from the game.
- Transference now has a short cooldown before it can be used again.
- Every Focus school has been reworked. In general, every school has been buffed and provides buffs for your Operator and Warframe.
- Jump to a specific Focus school through the table of contents for more information on what's different.
- More Focus points are required to max a school now.
- The Focus Waybound pool has been removed. You'll have all points refunded as Radiant Eidolon Shards upon logging in.
- Waybound nodes still require Eidolon Shards to unbind, allowing them to be used on other Focus trees.
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How To Unlock Focus
Focus is unlocked in two parts. You'll be introduced to the system upon completing "The Second Dream" quest, acquired by clearing the Neptune Junction on the Star Chart. This unlocks a new ability for your Warframes. To unlock Focus skill trees and Operator-specific items, you must also complete "The War Within" quest. Completing the Sedna Junction and "The Second Dream" will unlock this quest.
Choosing A Focus School
When you complete "The Second Dream" quest, you'll be asked to pick between one of five Tenno schools. This will act as your starting Focus school, giving you a lens to accumulate XP with your chosen school. You can change your Focus school at any time, so you aren't locked out of anything. However, you'll need to obtain a new Focus lens to earn XP towards any other schools (explained in the next section).
The Lotus will give a brief description of what each school is focused on, although you don't get to preview the Focus tree itself. Here's a rundown of each Focus school's unique properties:
- Madurai: Buffs your Warframe and Operator's damage output. Warframes get more cast speed, while Operators get more critical damage.
- Abilities: Deal 1,000% more damage temporarily; cause enemies to take more damage.
- Naramon: Melee combo counter decays in intervals. Gain melee crit chance and Operator Amp damage.
- Abilities: Open enemies to melee finishers; levitate nearby foes.
- Unairu: Become immune to slows and staggers, gain more armor, and gain Inaros' passive for every Warframe you play.
- Abilities: Fully strip enemy armor while buffing Operator damage; fully strip enemy shields.
- Vazarin: Support allies with instant revives and periodic invulnerability.
- Abilities: Grants allies a frontal energy shield that absorbs damage; suck nearby targets into a vortex.
- Zenurik: Improves your Energy economy while granting crowd control effects.
- Abilities: Gain 5 Energy/sec for 30 seconds; slow nearby enemies by 80%.
We recommend starting with Zenurik. It gives you a constant source of Energy for your Warframe, allowing you to use your abilities far more often. Zenurik also has good passive nodes and great waybounds for other trees.
Operator Controls
After you complete "The War Within," you'll be able to switch to your Operator at any time through your fifth ability. While controlling your Operator, you can do the following:
- Void Beam/Amp: Replaces your main fire mode. Deals Void damage, resetting Sentient resistances.
- Void Cloak: Crouch to shift your Operator into the Void, making you impervious to all damage and invisible to others.
- Void Sling: While cloaked, bullet jump to fling your character forward. Hold the jump button to extend the sling's distance.
- Melee: Immediately switch to your Warframe and perform a melee strike.
- If your Warframe has no melee weapon, you'll just switch to them.
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Earning Focus Points
Unlocking your Focus tree will require the allocation of Focus points. Socketing Focus Lenses into max-rank equipment will grant Focus points whenever you earn XP/Affinity. The type of Lens you install determines which Focus school you're leveling up. For example, Unairu Lenses grant Focus points toward the Unairu school.
Convergence Orbs
Installing a Lens onto an item allows Convergence Orbs to spawn during normal gameplay. Convergence Orbs grant a 10x multiplier to all Focus point earnings for the next 45 seconds.
You can socket Focus Lenses into Warframes and weapons at max rank through the "Actions" tab in the modding menu. Should you reset the item's rank by installing Forma, that item will not grant any Focus points until it reaches max rank again. Once a Focus Lens is installed onto an item, it cannot be removed. Pre-installed Lenses can be removed by installing a new Lens, destroying the old one in the process.
Focus Lenses convert Affinity at the following rates:
- Standard Lens: 1.25% conversion rate.
- Greater Lens: 1.75% conversion rate.
- Eidolon Lens: 2.25% conversion rate.
- Lua Lens: 3.25% conversion rate.
Completing bounties in open world tilesets—the Plains of Eidolon, Orb Vallis, and Deimos—will be your primary source of Lenses. Higher-quality Lenses are obtained through crafting, their blueprints obtained from difficult open world content and Lua Disruption.
Waybound Passives
While most Focus passives are tied to the tree you're using, two passives in each school have a waybound passive. Waybound passives affect all Focus schools when at max rank, not just the school they came from. There are ten waybound passives in total, two for each school. Unlocking a waybound passive requires more Focus points than normal and one Brilliant Eidolon Shard. This resource drops from captured Eidolons roaming the Plains of Eidolon at night.
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Focus Node Costs
All Focus schools have two ability nodes, two ability-related passives, four passives, and two waybound passive nodes. Each type of node uses the same Focus point cost, so we're going to list them here instead of in every single Focus section for brevity. Every Focus school requires 10,500,000 Focus points to max out. Subsequent Focus points can be spent on cosmetics themed around each Focus school.
| Starting Passive |
|
| School Passives & Abilities |
|
| Ability Passives |
|
| (Waybound) First Passive |
|
| (Waybound) Second Passive |
|
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All Madurai Nodes
Madurai Abilities
| Madurai Abilities | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Void Strike | First Ability consumes all energy to increase damage for 8 seconds. Deal 10% additional damage for every percentage of energy consumed. 40-second cooldown. |
| Void Fuel | 40% Weapon Efficiency for Operator and Warframe while Void Strike is active. |
| Contamination Field | Second Ability emits a Void wave lasting 2 seconds that drenches enemies with Void Contamination, making them 50% more vulnerable to Operator Damage for 20 seconds. |
| Distilled Contamination | Killing an enemy affected by Contamination Wave makes all affected enemies take 25% more vulnerable while also making the effect last 10 seconds longer. Maximum 4 stacks. |
Void Strike grants 1,000% more damage for your Operator and Warframe for eight seconds, stacking multiplicatively with other damage sources. This makes Void Strike one of the largest damage buffs in the entire game. With the Void Fuel passive, you'll also gain Weapon Efficiency—a stat that causes some shots to not consume ammo in your magazine. This ability has a 40-second cooldown that begins the second you activate Void Strike. This cooldown cannot be altered in any way.
Contamination Field releases a rectangular wave of Void energy where you're aiming, causing all impacted targets to take 50% more damage from your Operator. Warframes don't receive any benefit from this ability. Distilled Contamination allows you to spread this effect to nearby enemies on kill, drastically improving its uptime and your Operator's clearspeed.
Madurai Passives
| Madurai Passives | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Phoenix Talons | Physical Damage and Operator Damage increased by 30%. |
| Power Transfer | 90% Amp Critical Damage for 20 seconds on switching to Operator. 50% Casting Speed on switching to Warframe. |
| Chained Sling | 50% Energy Efficiency on Consecutive Void Slings. |
| Sling Strength | Switching to Warframe after a Chained Sling adds 40% Ability Strength for 20 seconds. |
Phoenix Talons buffs your Warframe's physical damage and Operator's Amp damage by 30% each. Elemental damage is not included with this passive. The bonus damage is additive with other base damage bonuses (i.e., Serration or Weapon Arcanes).
Power Transfer nearly doubles your Operator's crit multiplier for their Amp upon switching to them, further improving your Amp's damage output. Pair this with Virtious Shadow for maximum DPS. Switching to your Warframe gives 50% cast speed, the same amount as Natural Talent. Bonus cast speed offered by Power Transfer stacks additively with other cast speed sources.
Chained Sling makes subsequent Void Slings cost half as much energy. Decloaking resets the effect.
Sling Strength grants 40% Ability Strength to your Warframe upon dashing twice in a row. The dashes can be uncharged, and the Ability Strength lasts for the whole duration. Ability Strength granted by this passive is additive with other Ability Strength sources.
Madurai Waybounds
| Madurai Waybounds | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Inner Gaze | Increases Energy for Amps and Void Beam by 40%. |
| Eternal Gaze | Increases Energy Regeneration Rate for Amps and Void Beam by 60%. |
Inner Gaze increases the Energy or "magazine" of your Amps, allowing you to shoot for a longer period. This is especially useful for players that want to use their alt-fire mode often.
Eternal Gaze acts as a reload speed boost for your Amps, allowing them to fully recharge much faster. Energy recharge delay is not affected by this waybound.
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All Naramon Nodes
Naramon Abilities
| Naramon Abilities | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Void Levitation | First Ability creates a 6m wide shockwave lasting 4 seconds that inflicts Lift Status on all enemies it touches. |
| Lethal Levitation | Additional 50% Damage per Lifted enemy attacked by Operator. Lasts for 60 seconds, and stacks up to 4x. |
| Sling Stun | Second Ability increases the width of the next Void Sling by 200%, and enemies hit are vulnerable to Finishers, taking 30% more finisher damage. |
| Killer's Rush | Initiating a finisher as Operator switches to Warframe, increasing melee Critical Chance by 50% for 40 seconds. |
Void Levitation behaves similarly to a Heavy Slam Attack from your melee weapon, suspending targets in midair for a short duration. Enemies that are immune to crowd control effects (notably Eximus enemies with Overguard active) are not affected by this ability. Lethal Levitation grants up to +200% damage for your Warframe and Operator based on how many lifted targets you damage as your Operator. This damage bonus seems to be additive, but it requires further testing.
Sling Stun will stagger enemies when you dash through them, making them open to Warframe melee finishers. Enemies finished this way take 30% more damage. Killer's Rush will then give your melee weapons 50% more critical chance. This critical chance is multiplicative with your base critical chance and additive with other critical chance Mods you have active.
Naramon Passives
| Naramon Passives | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Power Spike | Melee Combo Counter now decays while out of combat by 5 every few seconds, instead of depleting completely. |
| Affinity Spike | Kills from Melee Attacks grant 45% more Melee Affinity. |
| Opening Slam | Performing a Slam as Operator switches to Warframe and grants double Combo gain for 20 seconds. |
| No Quarter | Transfer to Operator with 8x Combo Multi to increase Amp damage by 100% for 40 seconds. |
Power Spike causes your melee combo to drop in increments of five whenever your combo duration runs out, preserving most of your combo instead of wiping it entirely. This passive makes Naramon the defacto Focus school for melee builds.
Affinity Spike is slightly misleading. This node causes all Affinity earned by your melee weapon to earn 45% more XP. While semantic, this means other Affinity sources like ally kills and Affinity drops are affected by Affinity Spike. Focus points earned through your melee weapon are also impacted by Affinity Spike, making Naramon the best school for farming Focus.
Opening Slam lets you melee in midair as your Operator, swapping to your Warframe before slamming the ground. All subsequent melee hits give twice as much combo for a moderate duration.
No Quarter grants double Amp damage if you've landed 160+ hits with your melee weapon. This effect lasts for a lengthy duration and does not consume your melee's combo count.
Naramon Waybounds
| Naramon Waybounds | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Mind Step | Increases Operator Movement Speed by 30%. |
| Far Sling | Increases Void Sling Speed by 30%. |
Mind Step affects your Operator's walking and sprint speed, and it also impacts how far they can slide. The increased movement speed stacks additively with other sources.
Far Sling increases the minimum and maximum distances of Void Sling, allowing you to traverse greater distances by dashing.
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All Unairu Nodes
Unairu Abilities
| Unairu Abilities | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Magnetic Flare | Use your First Ability to create an 8m radius field that lasts for 30 seconds and disables the shields of any enemy that enters it. |
| Magnetic Boost | Void Sling out of a Magnetic Flare to refresh its duration and increase its radius by 100%. |
| Caustic Charge | Second Ability launches an energy bomb that explodes with an 8m radius, stripping 100% of enemy armor. Cast again to detonate in-flight. |
| Unairu Wisp | 100% chance to summon an Unairu Wisp per enemy hit by Caustic Strike. The Wisp will seek out the nearest ally within Affinity Range, increasing Operator damage by 100% for 20 seconds. |
Magnetic Flare creates a small field that removes the shields of all enemies caught inside. Enemies that leave the field will still have their shields stripped until death. Magnetic Boost doubles the radius of the field upon slinging out of it, making it cover a much larger area.
Caustic Charge throws a small projectile that explodes, causing all nearby targets to lose all of their armor. This is a full armor strip that lasts indefinitely, making this one of the best methods of armor strip in the game that is especially useful in Steel Path. Unairu Wisp buffs yourself and all allies in Affinity range with double Operator damage for a moderate duration. This ability currently does not work on Eidolons, but this will likely be patched in the near future.
Unairu Passives
| Unairu Passives | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Poise | Gain immunity to slow, stagger, and knockdown effects for 40 seconds after transferring between Operator or Warframe. |
| Stone Skin | Increases Armor for the Warframe and Operator by 200. |
| Reinforced Return | Warframe is invulnerable for 4 seconds after Operator is downed. Press the interact key as the Operator falls to bring the Warframe to the Operator's location. |
| Static Purge | 100% chance to clear Transference Static on kill while Reinforced Return is active. |
Poise gives you Primed Sure Footed for a long duration whenever you use Transference. If you don't have Primed Sure Footed, Poise is the best alternative to achieving stagger immunity.
Stone Skin gives you a flat boost to your Warframe and Operator's armor value. This bonus armor is not affected by armor-boosting Mods or Arcanes.
Reinforced Return lets your Warframe teleport to your Operator's location when they die. Paired with Static Purge, this completely nullifies the Transference Static debuff.
Unairu Waybounds
| Unairu Waybounds | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Last Gasp | Revive your Warframe by transferring to Operator and killing enemies before the Revive Meter drains in 15 seconds. Each kill fills the Revive Meter by 30%. |
| Vengeance | During Last Gasp, Operator Damage is increased by 100% plus an additional 25% per second. |
Last Gasp is Inaros' passive applied to every Warframe you own. And since this is a waybound, you can use Last Gasp with any Focus school, not just Unairu. Your Operator must get kills for your Warframe to get revived, but Unairu's abilities (or other Focus school passives) and the Vengeance waybound make this easier than you'd expect.
Vengeance gives your Operator a massive damage boost while in Last Gasp mode, making it easier to revive your Warframe through the Last Gasp waybound.
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All Vazarin Nodes
Vazarin Abilities
| Vazarin Abilities | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Guardian Shell | Use your First Ability to manifest a barrier on the Operator and allies in Affinity Range. It is invulnerable for 4 seconds when first created, and damage inflicted while it's invulnerable will be added to its base health of 500. |
| Guardian Break | When the Guardian Shell breaks, your Warframe Shield Regeneration rate is increased by 150%, and Regeneration Delay is reduced by 90% for 8 seconds. |
| Void Snare | Second Ability launches a projectile that spins up a vortex trap on impact. Tap again to detonate mid-flight. Trap lasts for 8 seconds. Void Sling through trapped enemies to grant allies within Affinity Range 100 Health. |
| Protective Sling | Allies touched by Void Sling are granted immunity from damage for 5 seconds and healed 60% over 5 seconds. Costs 10 Energy. |
Guardian Shell is similar to the Odanata Archwing's first ability. You and all allies in Affinity range will project a frontal barrier that absorbs incoming damage. Any damage received in the first four seconds of Guardian Shell's creation will be added to its health pool, similar to how Iron Skin works. Stray bullets from the side or behind your Warframe are not locked by Guardian Shell.
Guardian Break makes your shields regenerate substantially faster when Guardian Shell breaks, allowing your Warframe to better utilize the shield gate mechanic for a short duration. Bonuses from this node stack additively with other shield-regenerating Mods and buffs.
Void Snare behaves the same as Vauban's collapsed Ballista ability, creating a vortex that sucks all enemies into its epicenter. Enemies inside the vortex are ragdolled and cannot fight back. When the ability ends, all affected targets will need to stand back up before they can resume fighting.
Protective Sling works without Void Snare, adding functionality to your standard dash. Dashing through allies or your Warframe will grant them invulnerability and constant health regeneration for a short time. You can keep chaining this effect to theoretically keep someone invulnerable, although the increased Energy cost makes this impractical. Dashing through defense objectives will heal them for 500 HP per second; it does not make the objective invulnerable.
Vazarin Passives
| Vazarin Passives | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Mending Unity | Increases Affinity Radius by 25m. |
| Mending Soul | The next 4 revives are instantaneous. All following revives have their speed increased by 100%. |
| Void Regen | Void Mode starts healing at +10 Health per second, increasing by 10 per second up to a maximum of 50. |
| Squad Regen | When Void Regen reaches its maximum, it is applied to Operators within Affinity Range for 60 seconds. |
Mending Unity extends your Affinity range from 50 meters to 75 meters. This also extends the range of Affinity-dependent abilities such as Trinity's Blessing and Harrow's Covenant.
Mending Soul makes the first four revives of a mission instant, including yourself if an ally revives you. Once the first four revive charges have been expended, subsequent revives will be twice as fast.
Void Regen passively regenerates your Operator's HP while cloaked, granting up to 50 HP regen per second. This benefit extends to all friendly Operators in Affinity range if Squad Regen is unlocked.
Vazarin Waybounds
| Vazarin Waybounds | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Enduring Tides | Increases Operator Health by 200%. |
| Rejuvenating Tides | Increases Operator Health Regeneration by 6 per second. Effect is doubled while controlling a Warframe. |
Enduring Tides increases your Operator's HP from 250 to 750. This bonus stacks additively with other sources of Operator HP.
Rejuvenating Tides allows your Operator to passively heal at all times, doing so twice as quickly if you're controlling a Warframe. This makes Operators much safer to use and less reliant on abilities or Arcanes to heal.
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All Zenurik Nodes
Zenurik Abilities
| Zenurik Abilities | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Wellspring | First Ability creates a well of energy for 8 seconds. Allies passing through the well gain 5 Energy per second for 30 seconds. |
| Hardened Wellspring | Recast Wellspring while in a Wellspring to increase its size, boost its duration by 20 seconds, and grants 20% Ability Strength to those inside. |
| Temporal Drag | Second Ability emits a radial burst slowing any enemy it touches by 80% for 10 seconds. |
| Temporal Shot | Precision headshot damage increased by 100% on enemies afflicted with Temporal Drag. |
Wellspring creates an energy field at your Operator's location that grants the Wellspring buff. For 30 seconds, your Warframe will regenerate five Energy per second. Operators regenerate ten Energy per second. Wellspring's buff can be refreshed at any time by walking through the Wellspring again or recasting the ability. This Energy regen stacks with other sources of Energy regen except with ally Wellsprings.
Hardened Wellspring will create a larger well if you cast the ability twice. Doing so extends the duration of the Wellspring by 20 seconds, not the Energy-regeneration buff it gives you. Standing in the well also grants 20% Ability Strength, stacking additively with other sources of Strength.
Temporal Drag creates a small pulse around your character that inflicts an 80% slow to all susceptible enemies; Eximus units and most bosses cannot be slowed. Enemies slowed by Temporal Drag also take twice as much headshot damage if Temporal Shot is unlocked. The headshot multiplier is multiplicative with the base headshot multiplier, making your weapons deal substantially more damage.
Zenurik Passives
| Zenurik Passives | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Energy Pulse | Energy pickups grant 50% additional Energy over 5 seconds. |
| Inner Might | Allows abilities to be cast without using Energy or Shields but requires 60 seconds to recharge. |
| Disarming Sling | Slinging through enemies has a 50% chance to disarm them. |
| No Quarter | Killing a disarmed enemy increases the Operator's energy regen rate by 10% for 10 seconds. 4 Max Stacks. |
Energy Pulse gives you 50% more Energy from all Energy pickups. The additional Energy is given to you over five seconds. For example, if you grabbed 100 Energy at once, you'd receive 50 extra Energy at a rate of 10 per second for the next five seconds. This does not increase the amount of Energy Arcane Energize gives. Like other Energy regeneration sources, this passive is disabled while using a channeled ability.
Inner Might lets you cast an ability for free once per minute. Hildryn casts her abilities without using any shields. Lavos gets no benefit from this passive.
Disarming Sling has a chance of removing a weapon's currently-equipped weapon when dashing through them, forcing them to use a melee weapon. This has little value against Infested, yet it can be a decent defensive option when paired with Temporal Drag.
No Quarter grants Operator Energy regen upon killing a disarmed target. The regen bonus is hardly noticeable and can easily be skipped.
Zenurik Waybounds
| Zenurik Waybounds | |
|---|---|
| Node | Effect |
| Void Siphon | Increases Operator Energy Regeneration by 90%. |
| Void Flow | Increases Operator Energy by 90%. |
Void Siphon makes your Operator's Energy recharge nearly twice as quickly, making it much easier to weave your abilities and Void Sling during combat. This does not affect Amp energy.
Void Flow nearly doubles your Operator's maximum Energy, allowing you chain additional Void Slings or use your abilities more frequently. Paired with Void Siphon, you're able to use your Operator's abilities and Void Sling far more often.
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