Warframe: Top 10 Focus Ways You Need To Use (2023)

Focus schools are skill trees tied to a player's Operator in Warframe. Each Focus school includes unique passives and augments called Ways that grant powerful bonuses to either the Operator or Warframe.

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Warframe features five unique Focus schools: Madurai, Naramon, Vazarin, Unairu, and Zenurik. Each school focuses on different things, whether that be defense or utility. Since maxing out a Focus school can be a long and arduous process, it is best to focus on unlocking the best Ways first. Even if players are not interested in upgrading their Operator, there are plenty of Focus Ways that enhance a player's Warframe. Here are some of the best Focus Ways players need to use in Warframe.

Updated May 7th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Focus saw a major rework with the Angels of the Zariman update. All Focus schools come with two Operator abilities, two waybound nodes that apply to all Focus schools, and a plethora of passives that further enhance your Operator and Warframe. We've updated this list to include Focus 3.0 nodes, and we've added Focus Way descriptions to each entry.

10 Last Gasp (Unairu)

Last Gasp: Revive your Warframe by transferring to Operator and killing enemies before the Revive Meter drains in 15s. Each kill fills the Revive Meter by 30%.

Last Gasp gives Inaros' passive to every Waframe you own. It's also a waybound passive, meaning all Focus schools get this benefit when fully unlocked. In essence, whenever your Warframe would die, you become downed instead and take control of your Operator. If your Operator can kill enough enemies in 15 seconds, your Warframe is revived. This works in solo and co-op missions.

Once you invest into the Focus system, it's fairly easy to get a few kills with your Operator—especially when using Unairu's passives and the Vengeance waybound passive. Get yourself a good Amp, Arcanes, and you'll be able to revive yourself in just about any situation.

9 Enduring Tides (Vazarin)

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Enduring Tides: Increases Operator Health and Armor by 200%.

Operators can rely on shield gating to survive most endgame content, yet they start with rather low HP and armor. Vazarin's Enduring Tides waybound changes this by increasing your Operator's HP and armor by 200% when maxed. And since this is a waybound node, every Focus school can use this passive.

A boost to your Operator's survivability is crucial for using your Focus school abilities and the Last Gasp waybound from Unairu. If you use HP and armor-enhancing Arcanes alongside this passive, you can give your Operator more HP than nearly the entire roster of Warframes in the game. Once you unlock Void Flow from Zenurik, focus on unlocking this waybound.

8 Unairu Wisp (Unairu)

Unairu Wisp: 100% chance to summon an Unairu Wisp per enemy hit by Caustic Strike. The Wisp will seek out the nearest ally in Affinity Range, increasing Operator damage by 100% for 20s.

Caustic Strike's ability augment is Unairu Wisp, spawning Wisps that double your Operator's Amp damage when grabbed. This effect is downright essential for Eidolon Hunts or other Operator bosses, yet the Focus 3.0 rework gave this passive even more value.

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Operator damage output has never been more important with the introduction of the Last Gasp passive and new Focus abilities. If you want to revive your Warframe when it's downed or kill Thrax units, Unairu Wisp makes it far easier to pull off. And if you are interested in hunting Eidolons, be sure one member of your squad has Unairu Wisp unlocked.

7 Void Strike (Madurai)

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Void Strike: First Ability consumes all energy to increase damage for 8s. Deal 10% additional damage for every percentage of energy consumed. 40s cooldown.

Void Strike has seen a major rework with Focus 3.0. This ability originally increased the damage of your next eight attacks for each second you spend cloaked as the Operator. Now, Void Strike consumed all of your Operator's Energy and converts it into a massive damage buff for a short time.

Should you sacrifice all of your Operator's Energy, you'll gain a 1,000% damage buff for the next eight seconds. This lets you instantly kill most enemies in Warframe and bypass certain multiphase boss fights mechanics—notably the Angel fights aboard the Zariman. It works for your Operator and Warframe, so there's little reason not to use it. Void Strike might not be as good for Eidolon hunts as it used to be, although this change makes Void Strike much more powerful for just about every other activity.

6 Power Spike (Naramon)

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Power Spike: Melee Combo Counter now decays while out of combat by 5 every few seconds instead of depleting completely.

Melee weapons accrue combo as you hit targets with them, decaying if you don't hit anyone for a short duration. Power Spike makes it so you only lose five combo count instead of your entire multiplier, meaning you can maintain a maximum combo multiplier with virtually no micromanaging.

For most melee builds, this is nothing more but a quality-of-life improvement. But for Warframes with Exalted weapons or abilities that rely on melee combo, Power Spike can drastically improve your DPS. If you love slicing through hordes of enemies with your melee weapon, Power Spike was made for you.

5 Protective Sling (Vazarin)

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Protective Sling: Allies touched by Void Sling are granted immunity from damage for 5s and healed 60% over 5s for 10 energy cost.

Protective Sling is a Vazarin node that grants healing and immunity to allies upon dashing through them.

More specifically, Protective Dash makes allies hit by an Operator's Void Sling invulnerable to damage for five seconds, restoring 60% of their health during this period. While the invulnerability portion only works on teammates, the healing portion works on objectives as well, albeit at a fixed healing rate. Excavators, defense objectives, and rescue targets will heal for a flat rate of 500 health per second for five seconds. This is a fantastic pocket heal that can salvage a defense mission that's going poorly.

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As for the invulnerability portion of Protective Dash, it's invaluable. If your Warframe is about to die, switch to Operator mode and dash through them to grant them five seconds of invulnerability on top of a 60% heal. Best of all, there isn't a cooldown on how frequently you can use this passive.

4 Caustic Strike (Unairu)

Caustic Strike: Second Ability launches an energy bomb that explodes with an 8m radius, stripping 100% of enemy armor. Use the ability again to detonate in-flight.

Caustic Strike is Unairu's second ability that lets your Operator strip enemy armor with an explosive projectile. Enemies hit by this ability have all of their armor stripped permanently, making this one of the best sources of armor strip in the game. Struggling to kill a Kuva Lich or a Steel Path Eximus unit? Switch to your Operator and use this ability. Pair Caustic Strike with a crowd control ability to make better use of the armor strip.

3 Poise (Unairu)

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Poise: Gain immunity to slow, stagger, and knockdown effects for 40s after transferring between Operator or Warframe.

Knockdowns become lethal when playing high-level or Steel Path content. Losing control of your Warframe for just a few seconds is a death sentence. Staggers are also annoying if you're using an AoE weapon with a wide blast radius, causing your character to become staggered with every shot.

Both of those issues are fixed with this single Focus node. Poise is the first Unairu node you'll unlock and arguably one of the best passives in the game. It acts as a Primed Sure Footed Mod for both your Operator and Warframe, lasting for 40 seconds whenever you use Transference. So long as you use your Operator—which isn't a big ask with Unairu's abilities—this is always active. If you don't want to restrict your loadout or lack Primed Sure Footed, Poise is an S-tier passive.

2 Void Flow (Zenurik)

Void Flow: Increases Operator Energy by 90%.

Focus 3.0 has put more stress on your Operator's Energy economy than ever before. Void Slinging and using abilities can quickly widdle your Energy pool down, which is why Zenurik's Void Flow waybound is downright essential if you plan to use your Operator at all.

This passive simply increases your Operator's Energy max by 90%. While simple, it allows you to cast your abilities more often and chain far more Void Slings together for smoother map traversal. Since this is a waybound passive, you'll want to unlock this as soon as possible.

1 Wellspring (Zenurik)

Wellspring: First Ability creates a well of energy for 8s. Allies passing through the well gain 5 Energy/s for 30s.

If you haven't played Warframe since Focus 3.0, Wellspring is Energizing Dash. This ability creates a wellspring of energy around your Operator. Anyone that steps through the well will regenerate five Energy per second. Running outside the well will cause this buff to persist for the next 30 seconds. Operators recover twice as much Energy.

Warframe's Energy economy is inconsistent when you're first starting out. Until you get access to Energy Pads and Arcanes, your sources of Energy are quite limited. Thanks to Wellspring, players can spam their abilities to their heart's content throughout the mid to late game. Wellspring certainly loses some value once you've found other Energy sources, but until you've hit that point, Wellspring is one of the most powerful Focus passives you can use currently.

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