All new Melee Arcanes in Warframe, explored

Warframe's Whispers in the Wall is the first mainline update in a long time to buff Melee combat with the introduction of all-new Melee Arcanes. Arcanes are a special add-on item that you can install on most Warframes and weapons to increase their power ceiling in various ways. The stat boosts gained from Arcanes also allow you to be more flexible with your mod build on that piece of equipment.

At their peak, Melee weapons used to be the most powerful category of arms in Warframe, but they have long since fallen out of favor. After big nerfs to Melee scaling mods like Blood Rush and Condition Overload, they had been far superseded by primary weapons in the last few years.

However, the Whispers in the Wall update attempts to address this power gap between weapons in many ways. Like Primaries and Secondaries, Melee weapons can now enjoy the benefit of Melee-exclusive Arcanes.

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How to install Melee Arcanes in Warframe

Melee Arcanes, as well as Adapters, can be bought from Bird 3 in Sanctum Anatomica. (Image via Digital Extremes)

Zaws, the modular Melee weapons you can craft in this game, have long been able to benefit from Exodia Arcanes. This includes a few fan-favorite Plague Star exclusives like Exodia Contagion, allowing Zaws far more useability over regular Melee weapons.

However, the Arcanes released with Whispers of the Wall can be used on any subclass of Melee, including Glaives and Gunblades. To install these, you have to unlock the Arcane slot, an individual Melee weapon with an Arcane Adapter.

Like its Primary and Secondary variants, Melee Arcane Adapters are consumed upon use. You can get them from Bird 3 in Sanctum Anatomica, Deimos. However, this requires:

• Completion of Whispers in the Walls quest.
• 50,000 Standing with the Cavia syndicate per Melee Arcane Adapter.
• Rank 3 (Colleauge) Cavia Standing Rank.

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Warframe Melee Arcanes list with details

The Fragmented boss in Deimos drops Melee Arcanes. (Image via Digital Extremes)

Melee Arcanes can be bought from Bird 3 in exchange for Cavia standing. The Fragmented Murmur boss found in Effervo (Deimos) also has a guaranteed Melee Arcane drop upon defeat.

• Melee Influence: On Melee Electricity Status: 20% Chance for elemental Melee Status Effects to apply to enemies within 20m for 18s. Cannot refresh while active.
• Melee Fortification: On Melee Kill: +210 Armor for 10s.
• Melee Animosity: On Melee Hit: Gain 42% Critical Chance on your next Heavy Attack, up to 420%.
• Melee Retaliation: Gain 30% Melee Damage for every 200 current Shields, up to 420%. Bonus halved for Overshields.
• Melee Exposure: On Ability Cast: Gain 60% Corrosive Damage on Melee strikes for 25s. Stacks up to 240%.
• Melee Vortex: Kill an enemy affected by Magnetic Status for a 45% chance to pull in enemies within 18m radius.

The following 'Legendary' Melee Arcanes can only be acquired from the Netracell mission, accessible through Tagfer in Sanctum Anatomica.

• Melee Duplicate (Legendary): On Base (yellow) Critical Hits: 100% chance for your attack to strike a second time.
• Melee Crescendo (Legendary): On Finisher Kill: Gain 6 Initial Combo for the rest of your mission.

Compounding on top of the new Tennokai system also introduced in Whispers of the Wall. These Melee Arcanes may shift the favor of the Warframe meta towards more Melee weapon usage.

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