Warframe Daikyu Prime build guide

Daikyu, a Tenno longbow originally added to Warframe in 2015, got a surprise Prime ten years later, as part of Yareli Prime Access. With across-the-board stat buffs, it's almost as good as a non-Incarnon precision bow gets in this game. If you're into the old-school bow playstyle, the sleek Yumi-inspired design and feel of this bow makes it worth the multi-Relic grind to get Daikyu Prime.

In this build guide, we'll go over all that's good about Daikyu Prime in Warframe, and how best to leverage it.

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All Daikyu Prime Relics in Warframe: How to get this bow?

To get the Daikyu Prime in Warframe, you'll need to farm 5 Relics: Lith A8, Lith Q2, Meso P16, Neo D10, and Axi V12.

• Daikyu Prime Blueprint - Lith Q2 (Common)
• Daikyu Prime Upper Limb - Meso P16 (Uncommon)
• Daikyu Prime Lower Limb - Lith A8 (Uncommon)
• Daikyu Prime String - Axi V12 (Common)
• Daikyu Prime Grip - Neo D10 (Rare)

You can potentially get them as part of Relic Packs purchased from Teshin or the six universal Syndicates. Alternately, just consult the known best farms for Void Relics of each era in Warframe.

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Warframe: Daikyu vs Daikyu Prime stats

Daikyu Prime stats (Image via Digital Extremes)

Daikyu Prime is an upgrade in every way compared to the original, including base damage, critical chance, crit multiplier, and also status chance. However, it does not reduce the bow draw time compared to the original Daikyu. This means you still need a Fire Rate mod or some sort of Fire Rate buff.

Here's Daikyu Prime's stats compared to the regular Daikyu in Warframe:

Stat	Daikyu Prime	Daikyu
Base Damage	750	700
Base Damage Distribution	Impact: 225 Puncture: 300 Slash: 225	Impact: 210 Puncture: 280 Slash: 210
Critical Chance	40%	34%
Critical Multiplier	2.4x	2.0x
Status Chance	50%	46%
Projectile Speed	180 m/s	140 m/s
In-built Mod Polarities	2 V (Madruai)	1 V (Madurai)
MR Required	15	10

There's one point to consider here: Rivens. If you have a decent Riven roll for the Daikyu (some combination of damage, fire rate, critical chance, and/or critical damage), the original Daikyu will be better. Daikyu Prime was introduced in Update 38.6, so its Riven Disposition will be low for the rest of 2025 and the better part of 2026.

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Best Daikyu Prime builds in Warframe

Daikyu Prime, like most legacy bow primaries in Warframe, is designed as a single-target weapon. However, it also has an innate 3-meter Punch Through, which gives it some group damage potential too.

Due to this, we are going to showcase two builds: one to go all-in on its single-target damage potential, and another one where a group-up tool can let you do some crowd-farming with the Daikyu Prime.

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Daikyu Prime Single-target Acuity build (4-Forma)

Daikyu Prime Acuity build (Image via Overframe)

This is an Acuity build, so there's no multishot shenanigans, and you specifically want to target weak point hits (headshots with it). Weak Point hits is the natural talent of the Daikyu Prime, because it has an innate +250% Critical Chance for weak point hits.

With a headshot, this Daikyu Prime build gives you a whooping +800% Critical Chance multiplicative with the already high 40% base Critical Chance. This means guaranteed red Crits with a 60% chance of an even higher-tier Crit.

Here's the mods we use and why:

Slot / Forma	Mod	Description
Slot 1: Innate V Polarity	Serration	A decent amount of base damage to work with, since we don't use an Acolyte Arcane. For a much bigger bang (or I guess whoosh), use Spectral Serration with a Warframe that has invisibility, the Evade Helminth Ability, or just run with an Ivara in party.
Slot 2: Innate V Polarity	Vital Sense	120% higher Critical Damage
Slot 3: Forma, Dash Polarity (Naramon)	Primary Acuity	350% Critical Chance and 350% additional damage for Weak Point hits
Slot 4: No Forma	Hammer Shot	60% higher Critical Damage and 80% more Status Chance
Slot 5: No Forma	Vile Acceleration	You abosultely need this Fire Rate mod for a useable full draw time, unless if you're playing a Gauss or Wisp
Slot 6: Forma, V (Madurai)	Amalgam Daikyu Target Acquired	75% higher Headshot Multiplier, 3% Life-steal on Nikanas, 65% Chance to pickup used Arrows. We use this mainly for the Headshot Multiplier, but it's also a good bit of additional sustain if you're a health-tank and use a NIkana (Nikana, Nikana Prime, Dragon Nikana, Skiajati, or Syam)
Slot 7: Forma, Dash (Naramon)	Critical Delay	200% higher Critical Chance at the cost of -20% Fire Rate (offset by Vile Acceleration)
Slot 8: Forma, D (Vazarin)	Galvanized Aptitude	Even more damage if you run a Status Primer. If you don't run a primer, use a Primed Bane mod (V Forma) instead.
Exilus Slot (Empty)	None	If you can spare a few more formas, you can use Vigilante Supplies here for the set bonus. However, this is not important for the build at hand.
Arcane Slot	Longbow Sharpshot	Grants 300% more damage for the next shot as long as you land a headshot. Since we are playing for weak point hits anyway, this is the best Arcane by far.

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Daikyu Prime Gas build (4-Forma)

Gas build for Daikyu Prime (Image via Overframe)

Since there's a 3-meter base Punch Thorough to work with, the Daikyu Prime can be tailored to a Gas build. For this to work, you would need enemies to be in close proximity to each other so the quadratic scaling kicks in. Naturally, you need an enemy grouping tool - Larvae, Ensnare, or even the Cordon precept from Nautilus works well for this.

We still use the same type and number of Forma, so you can simply switch between the two builds given here. Here's the mods we use for the Daikyu Prime Gas build:

Slot / Forma	Mod	Description
Slot 1: Innate V Polarity	Galvanized Chamber	Multishot mod for multiple projectiles, in turn resulting in more Gas procs. Theoretically, you could ditch this and run with an Acuity setup, but the Multishot approach is better for proccing more gas quickly. If you use something like Larva to group up enemies, you'll be unable to line up headshots reliably — so this approach results in better performance during the average mission.
Slot 2: Innate V Polarity	Vital Sense	120% higher Critical Damage
Slot 3: Forma, Dash Polarity (Naramon)	Vile Acceleration	You abosultely need this Fire Rate mod for a useable full draw time, unless if you're playing a Gauss or Wisp
Slot 4: No Forma	Hammer Shot	60% higher Critical Damage and 80% more Status Chance
Slot 5: No Forma	Thermite Rounds	60% Fire Damage and some status chance, needed to make the Gas Elmental combo
Slot 6: Forma, V (Madurai)	Amalgam Daikyu Target Acquired	75% higher Headshot Multiplier, 3% Life-steal on Nikanas, 65% Chance to pickup used Arrows. We use this mainly for the Headshot Multiplier, but it's also a good bit of additional sustain if you're a health-tank and use a NIkana (Nikana, Nikana Prime, Dragon Nikana, Skiajati, or Syam)
Slot 7: Forma, Dash (Naramon)	Infected Clip	90% Toxin Damage, needed to make the Gas Elemental combo
Slot 8: Forma, D (Vazarin)	Galvanized Aptitude	Even more damage if you run a Status Primer. If you don't run a primer, use a Primed Bane mod (V Forma) instead.
Exilus Slot (Empty)	None	If you can spare a few more formas, you can use Vigilante Supplies here for the set bonus. However, this is not important for the build at hand.
Arcane Slot	Longbow Sharpshot / Primary Merciless	If you're playing your cards right, it's not hard to rack up kills with the Gas build and a group-up tool. So you can either go for Merciless, or simply go for the Longbow Sharpshot, which would conditionally require Ensnare or Cordon (Nautilus) so you can actually get headshots.

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Check out our other guides on the game:

• Warframe Isleweaver update: Everything we know
• Warframe Valkyr Heirloom Skin release date, price, and more
• All Warframes tier list
• Warframe Incarnon weapons tier list
• Warframe Kuva weapons tier list
• Warframe Coda weapons tier list
• Best weapons in Warframe for each Mastery Rank