Warframe Incarnon weapon tier list (May 2024)

Incarnon weapons are Warframe's most meta-defining school of weaponry - but not all 40 can be equally good. Whether you are a returning Tenno or a new player, it can be hard to determine which one to invest your Formas into. This is exactly what an Incarnon weapon tier list can help you with.

This tier list will categorize all of the 35 Incarnon Genesis weapons in Warframe, as well as the seven non-Genesis Incarnons, in terms of overall performance. This will take into account not just burst DPS potential but also their general-purpose useability in the endgame.

Disclaimer: Although this Incarnon weapon tier list will attempt to be as objective as possible, your mileage may vary. Ultimately, your preferences should decide what the best Incarnon Genesis weapons are for you.

Warframe Incarnon weapon tier list (Update 35.5): All 42 Incarnon weapons, ranked

We will use five tiers to rank all the available Incarnon weapons: SS, S, A, B, and C-tier. If you get a god-roll Riven for a specific weapon, though, it may perform well above its tier in some cases.

Utility tier

Magistar Incarnon is a bad melee weapon, but a good stat stick (Image via Digital Extremes)

Before we properly start off the Incarnon weapon tier list, a few outliers have to be addressed. Those under this category are not the best damage dealers but provide utilities that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

Bronco: With Dizzying rounds, this weapon can be used as a stun gun with okay damage.
Ceramic Dagger: The Gun and Blade perk on Evolution II makes the Ceramic Dagger the only way to have a permanent max combo counter, which you can use for various purposes.
Dual Ichor: The utility aspect of this Incarnon has been nerfed in the last few patches, but Dual Ichor's on-kill clouds are still a great way to get high KPM with Saryn.
Magistar: Melee Incarnons, in general, make for the best stat sticks in Warframe. In particular, Magistar Incarnon is the only way to get an extra flat critical damage multiplier on your pseudo-exalted abilities.
Synoid Gammacor: While the Gammacor Incarnon works on the regular one, Synoid Gammacor should be considered the default option for the passive energy regen from the Syndicate Proc. Other than this, the Synoid Gammacor can act as a pocket Proboscis Cernos to group up enemies, but its niche is very limited in practice.

Note that some other Incarnon upgrades, such as the Anku Incarnon, can be used as a stowaway stat stick on any build for pure utility talents like +Movement Speed.

SS tier

Dual Toxocyst is the most popular secondary from this Incarnon weapon tier list (Image via Digital Extremes)

The reason why Incarnon weapons are the meta in Warframe.

These are easily the best weapons you can get in the whole game, setting the new power ceiling of what can be achieved. There is one simple justification for including an SS tier on this Incarnon weapon tier list: crowd-clearing. Weapons in this tier have innate ways to dispatch multiple targets, even without punching through.

Get the Incarnon Genesis Adapters for these at your earliest convenience.

Dual Toxocyst: Built-in Viral and good stats on chaining projectiles make this one of the most satisfying ways to persistently get high KPM in Warframe.
Latron: Easily the best primary Incarnon weapon if you are looking for raw stopping power. Can be built both as a crit-machine and as the most energy-independent way to strip armor in Warframe.
Torid: The most popular Incarnon weapon for good reasons. Attacks deal good single-target damage, chain to other enemies, and help you get high KPM. However, if you do not like beam weapons, Torid Incarnon may not feel like SS tier material to you.

S tier

Miter is arguably even better than Latron Incarnon (Image via Digital Extremes)

A cut above the rest.

Many of these weapons do not have the sheer crowd-nuking capacity of the SS tier weapons. However, ranking in the S tier for an Incarnon weapon tier list still makes for a top-percentile gun in Warframe. Whether you are looking for endurance runs or picking off ads in Archon Hunts, you cannot go wrong with these weapons.

Burston: Heat-heavy Incarnon mode that hits hard with high critical stats; pardon the alliteration.
Boltor: High Slash-weightage, high critical change, good status chance. What the Soma Incarnon should've been.
Laetum: The OG meta-setting Incarnon secondary.
Lex: Pre-nerf Catchmoon on Steroids. Out of all entries on this Incarnon weapon tier list, Lex Incarnon has the highest single-shot burst damage potential. If you use Hemorrhage, shots from its Incarnon Form also guarantee a respectable Slash DoT - which gives it good scaling.
Miter: A direct competitor of the Latron for the spot of best primary Incarnon in Warframe, Miter is held back from the SS tier in this Incarnon weapon tier list for one reason: its projectile homing can be inconsistent sometimes. If you're running Zephyr with a Tornado build, however, this is easily S-tier.
Strun: The goblet of fire it shoots beats many Incarnon weapons in terms of DPS but does not have any ricocheting properties like Miter or Latron Incarnon. There is currently a bug that allows the Strun to reach ridiculous amounts of status chance due to a duplication glitch with one of its Evolution IV talents. However, once this is addressed, the weapon is still good enough to stay A-tier.

A tier

The baseline power level for good Incarnon weapons.

The criteria for breaking A tier in this Incarnon tier list are twofold: good performance and passable useability. Weapons listed here are not the most popular options, but with a good Riven, most of them are viable for going up against level-cap armored targets.

Atomos: Lacking in single-target DPS, but otherwise a good upgrade for a beloved low-Mastery secondary.
Boar: While it is a very powerful weapon in its own right, there is unfortunately no way any other beam Incarnon can compete with Torid.
Braton: Very similar to the Burston Incarnon, with a much lower fire rate but greater damage per round.
Dread: The Incarnon Dread is Nataruk on steroids, boasting a high critical chance on a wide-radius projectile.
Furis: The limited range of its flamethrower mode makes this substandard for mob farming on this otherwise powerful secondary Incarnon.
Hate: One of the only two melee Incarnons to make it to A tier, Hate's void-infested upgrade is indispensible based on raw power alone. However, you need to invest in a heavy-attack build, and lean into this playstyle to truly benefit from it.
Innodem: Innodem is the best dagger Incarnon, even in the post-Ceramic Dagger Incarnon age.
Nami Solo: Although it looks like a comparatively drab downgrade from Hate on paper, there are some good things about Nami Solo. The biggest of these is the 1.0 Follow through when you use it in full melee equip mode (hold 'F' on keyboard for PC). This lets it shred through clumped up enemies better than almost any other melee weapon in the game.
Paris: A competitor to Dread, Paris' Incarnon upgrade enables it to get the highest status chance of all bows.
Phenmor: The original bullet hose with huge damage output, the Phenmor's relevancy persists through competition from the 3 B's - Burston, Braton, and Boltor Incarnon.
Onos: Considering how early you can get it, Onos packs quite a punch. However, it is not the easiest to use with a mobile playstyle. The Onos has a couple of unique mechanical gimmicks that some players love, while others hate. Depending on whether this fits your overall playstyle or setup, this may go higher or lower on this tier list.
Vasto: The most powerful quick-shot revolver for the hip-firing cowboy - but its usefulness is limited to single-target DPS. It is particularly useful as an Acolyte-killing sidearm, perhaps more than any other candidate on this Incarnon weapon tier list. It has some limited crowd-clearing capacities if you get another source of punch-through, but it is best left for hunting Liches, Sisters, and Archons.
Zylok: In practice, this serves the same function as Lex Incarnon: high area-of-effect damage. However, Lex has a higher overall damage output and Riven disposition - which overshadows the popular interest Zylok might have achieved otherwise.

B tier

Outperformed by higher tier Incarnons but still gets the job done.

You will find many Melee Incarnon weapons in this tier, as they fall behind the competition from other Incarnon weapons. The same goes for the non-melee weapons in this list, which have better alternatives you can use on this tier list.

Ack & Brunt: Standard melee Incarnon, but has good crit-status hybrid stats. It has the potential to compete with level-cap enemies in Steel Path, but a rather weak spectral axe-throwing gimmick limits it from becoming as useful as a zaw with Exodia Contagion.
Anku: Unless you get a god-roll Riven, use Hate instead.
Despair: A powerful throwing star but needs headshots to do any meaningful damage.
Felarx: One of the strongest shotguns in the game before Incarnon Geneses were a thing, Felarx's claim to fame was as an Archon/Lich-hunting weapon - a niche where other weapons do just as well now.
Furax: The Impact-to-Slash proc conversion has little mileage, but that aside, Furax Wraith is the best first weapon in the game with this upgrade.
Gorgon: The delayed explosion gimmick may feel clunky for regular gameplay, but otherwise good damage.
Lato: A straight downgrade from Dual Toxocyst Incarnon, but similar to it otherwise. If you had the Lato Prime, you could get more use out of it.
Praedos: For how much it is gated behind Zariman Faction standing, the Praedos is surprisingly lackluster.
Ruvox: With Lavos, it deals enough damage to be B+ tier. Without Lavos, Furax Wraith beats it as the better Incarnon fist weapon.
Skana: A downgrade from Hate, which does the same thing (forced Slash procs on heavy attacks) better.
Soma: Unfortunately, even at its best, Soma Incarnon cannot go back to the glory days of old.

C tier

Sibear Incarnon: you have too much Cryotic (Image via r/WarframeRunway)

The bare minimum.

C tier for this Incarnon weapon tier list still implies enough power to get you some kills in Sorties and other weekly activities, and even in the Steel Path. However, for most players, these weapons will not be worth the huge amount of investment that an Incarnon Genesis weapon takes.

Angstrum: Even used on the Prisma variant, this Incarnon is all fun and games until you get to the Steel Path, where its damage is lacking.
Bo: The impact-to-slash proc conversion talent only counts for one instance of Impact per strike.
Kunai: Underwhelming single-target weapon that gets outperformed by all other single-target Incarnons.
Sibear: A controversial Cryotic sink that gives little in return.

Original Incarnon weapons vs Incarnon Genesis weapons: What is the difference?

Originally introduced with Update 31, the first batch of Incarnons had shape-shifting weapons sold on the gimmick of "Incarnon Evolution," a branching skill tree system individual to a weapon. These are:

Phenmor
Laetum
Felarx
Innodem
Praedos

Incarnon Genesis takes this Evolution system and implements it on pre-existing weapons. The idea is to take forgotten legacy weapons and make them more competitive with Warframe's current meta - a goal that Incarnon Genesis has accomplished well.

Incarnon Genesis weapons need Incarnon Genesis Adapters found on weekly rotations. Here's a handy guide for this week's Incarnon rotation in Warframe.

Note that Incarnons are not for beginner players, as the barrier for entry is quite high in the Steel Path Circuit. If you have not progressed this far, here's a guide on the best Warframe weapon to use for each Mastery Rank.

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