There are tons of weapons to choose from for every weapon slot in Warframe. While the community has its own meta and favorites that have persisted, one weapon may prove better than most expect. In the 30th Warframe update, Call of the Tempestarii, we received a brand-new storyline that introduced us to Sevagoth and his signature weapon, Epitaph. This wrist-mounted secondary weapon is an off-meta choice but is, in fact, quite powerful.
Where to Farm for the Epitaph Weapon
Naturally, all weapons with a Warfrane pairing are usually acquired through similar means. To acquire the receiver, barrel, and blueprint for the Epitaph, you must farm Void Storms. For those who don’t know what Void Storms are, Void Storm missions are like Void Fissure missions, but for Railjack missions.
If you are new to Warframe, accessing Railjack missions and completing the Call of the Tempestarii questline requires completing the Rising Tide questline to build your Railjack. Like Void Fissure missions, you should bring a Void Relic for Void Storm missions.
Sevagoth and his Epitaph have different drops for different regions. You can find all the parts needed to build the Epitaph from completing Void Storms in Venus, Saturn, and Earth Proximas. If you want to farm Sevagoth simultaneously, you can find his parts in Neptune, Pluto, and Veil Proximas. Both Sevagoth and the Epitaph have an average drop chance of 10% from their respective areas.
Related Article: Where to Farm Argon Crystals in Warframe When You Need Them
Epitaph Builds in Warframe
The Epitaph is an exciting weapon with a small amount of confusion surrounding it. Firstly, it is a secondary that functions similarly to a crossbow. The Epitaph has a primary and a charged version of its projectile, which also uses its reserve ammo since the weapon lacks a magazine.
The primary fire is very underwhelming, a short explosion that does guarantee Cold status with minor damage numbers. The Charged shot fires a small projectile with a 2m punch and does far more damage than an uncharged shot. When the Sevagoth Warfame wields the Epitaph, it does an extra 20% damage with headshots.
Interestingly, it has one of the highest base crit chances out of any secondary weapon in the game with 48%. Yet, it only has a 4% status chance. Both the charged and uncharged shots have a forced Impact proc. This means the Impact status effect will always be applied even if the weapon has a 4% chance. The charged shot also has a 45% chance of Slash damage, on top of forced Impact damage. The crit multiplier for the charged shot also resides at a natural 2.6x, which is a lot of critical damage without mods.
One mod that cannot be ignored on any build is Hemorrhage. This mod allows Impact Status effects to have a 35% chance to apply a Slash status effect. Additionally, the mod’s effect is doubled if the weapons fire rate is below 2.5, and the Epitaph happens to have a 1.5 fire rate.
Since every charged shot from Epitaph in Warframe guarantees a forced Impact proc, and with the 2x effect from the mod, every shot should have roughly a 70% chance of applying Slash. This value increases by adding multishot mods, making every additional shot have the same 70% chance of applying Slash.
Related Article: Comparing the Pistol Amp and Shotgun Amp Mods in Warframe
Epitaph Bleed Build
We can lean into the strength of what Hemorrhage already gives this weapon with a bleed build. Note that Slash damage goes through armor, which makes it excel at cutting through Grineer. Pistol Gambit and Target Cracker are a must. Their Primed versions are better if you happen to have them. Hornet Strike, Lethal Torrent, and Augur Pact help increase the weapon’s base damage, but Augur Weapon can be swapped if necessary.
We also recommend Barrel Diffusion to raise the multishot to utilize Hemorrhage’s previously stated strengths better. This build is easier to put together and is more cost-effective if you have a limited amount of Credits, Endo, or mods.
High Crit Build
This build focuses more on the high natural critical chance and multiplier the Epitaph has in Warframe. Pistol Gambit, Target Cracker, and Hemorrhage are still highly recommended for this build. Next, we use Galvanized Diffusion, Crosshairs, and Shot mods for this build.
These mods provide minor stat trade-offs but make up for it in many other ways. If you don’t have any Galvanized mods, you can buy them from the Arbitrations vendor in the Arbiters of Hexis room in any Relay for 20 Vitus Essence. You can acquire Vitus Essence by completing any Arbitration mission. We also recommend using either Lethal Torrent or Barrel Diffusion for the additional multishot.
If you want to use any of these builds against any target, we recommend adding one or two status mods. Adding Toxic or Cold helps to make Viral, but this only helps kill Corpus enemies. If you don’t want to roll status mods on a low-status chance weapon, that’s completely ok. You will have to fight corpus enemies for a bit longer compared to others. Lastly, if you want to use the Epitaph as the primary weapon in your build, you can also equip Pistol Amp for further extra damage.
Epitaph is a Great Warframe Weapon
Overall, the Epitaph is a unique weapon with an interesting stat line. This makes some players believe the Epitaph weapon in Warframe isn’t great at first glance. If you’re looking for a different secondary weapon that can hold its own even against Steel Path enemies, this little wrist-mounted gun is for you.
For more, check out our article on how to best use the Blood Rush warframe mod. And as always, good hunting, Tenno!
