Weapons

Weapons are used by Warframes, Sentinels and enemies in combat to damage. Weapons can be leveled up for more mod energy to apply more capability. There are three main weapon types used by Warframes: Primary, Secondary, and Melee weapons. Sentinels also have a single energy weapon that is leveled up independently.

Usage
Weapons in Warframe obtain Affinity when used in combat. When enough Affinity is obtained, the weapon rank increases, up to a maximum rank of 30. The weapon's Mod capacity is increased by one point per rank, these points limit what combinations of mods you can equip. You can double the Mod capacity by using an Orokin Catalyst on the weapon.

Weapon level up grants 100 Mastery Points to the player. Once a weapon has been leveled up, it cannot be purchased again and leveled up for more mastery points. Only levels attained beyond that of the first time around will add points.

Many Melee weapons have cosmetic "skins" that can be applied in the color pallet option menu. These skins often change some attributes of the original weapon.

Weapons have eight mod slots. Installing and removing mods can be done freely, when a mod is removed you gain back all mod capacity that was being used by that specific mod, now available for use with any other mod.

A new player will start with the MK1-Braton, Lato, and Skana as their default weapons.

Attributes
To see stats and a comparison of all of the weapons, go to Weapons Compare.
 * Weapon Type
 * The basic function changes with type. i.e. shotgun vs rifle, or dagger vs heavy. Also, ammo types change.
 * Damage
 * How much damage is dealt to health and shields.
 * Accuracy
 * How easily a shot will hit its intended target.
 * Reload Speed
 * How quickly the weapon reloads.
 * Magazine
 * How large the magazine size is.
 * Charge Attack
 * How quickly a weapon can be charged and damage it does from a charge.
 * Critical
 * The chance that a weapon will land a critical hit and damage it does from a critical.
 * Fire Rate
 * How quickly the weapon fires its ammunition.  Semi-automatic weapons have their fire rates very highly affected by frame rate, easily resulting in fire rates around half the intended value.
 * Total Ammo
 * Total number of ammunition that can be carried (including magazine).
 * Polarities
 * If the weapon has a Polarity.

Weapon Mods
Weapons can have Mods slotted into them to increase their power. A list of mods for each weapon type can be viewed here.