[Top 10] Warframe Best Glaive Weapons (And How To Get Them)

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Updated:

12 Jul 2022

In late 2020, Digital Extremes reworked the Glaive melee class to compete with the other melee weapons. Quality of life changes as well as exclusive glaive mods such as Volatile Rebound and Volatile Return pushed the weapon class several tiers upward.

Players are now dusting off glaives from their arsenal and cooking new ones in the foundry due to mod and test it. No surprise, the weapons are ridiculously strong. With all the results and testimonies out, it is now a great time to list and rank the top 10 glaives (and also how to get them):

10) Glaive

Starting off our list is the eponymous weapon itself: Glaive. The Glaive offers low mastery rank players a taste of the class. Like all the other glaives, it can be wielded with a pistol, thrown, manually detonated mid-flight, or simply used as a regular melee weapon.

Second fastest flight speed, tied with Falcor.
Thrown glaive has an innate blast effect. If detonated, it's a guaranteed blast and impact proc.

Despite its low stats, it's a great introduction for those that want to try glaives. However, it can only be bought from Nightwave Offerings, limiting its accessibility.

9) Kestrel

The Kestrel is a boomerang that deals impact damage. It has a ricochet effect where it could bounce of walls and has a potent crowd-control option where it knocks down any opponents it hits.

Slam attacks have innate magnetic damage.
Can use a mod exclusive to it called Entropy Flight which increases its flight speed.

The Kestrel's blueprint can be purchased at the Market for 20,000 credits. Players can build this weapon as early as mastery rank 0.

8) Halikar

The Halikar is a Grinner throwing mace with a unique disarming ability. When thrown, it has a chance to remove weapons from foes. It primarily deals puncture damage which is effective against armor.

Second fastest speed of all glaives.
Good critical chance at 17%.

The blueprint for the weapon can be purchased at the Market for 20,000 credits. It can be built as early as mastery rank 7.

7) Halikar Wraith

The Halikar Wraith is a direct upgraded to the Halikar, disarming feature included. It mainly deals puncture damage with its slam attack dishing out magnetic, like the base weapon. It also has a high status chance and critical chance.

Tied with its base variant and the Xoris for the second-fastest attack speed of all glaives.
Slightly curves towards enemies, more effective at longer ranges.

The Halikar Wraith can only be acquired when Baro Ki'Teer decides to sell it. An unranked Halikar Wraith can also be swapped between players the same way syndicate weapons are traded.

6) Orvius

The Orvius is capable of turning enemies into puppets with its unique skill, which suspends them mid-air when the glaive is thrown without charging. It also has the third greatest base damage of all glaives.

Thrown glaive and explosions guarantees cold procs.
High riven disposition.

You gain the blueprint through completing The War Within questline. Additional blueprints and components can be bought at Cephalon Semaris.

5) Falcor

The Falcor is a Corpus glaive that dishes out slash and electricity damage. It's a forgiving throw-and-forget weapon because it automatically homes into nearest enemies and has the second-highest explosion of all glaives.

Highest status chance of all glaives at 34%.
Second fastest flight speed.

The Falcor is easily acquired by researching its blueprint from the Energy Lab in the dojo.

4) Cerata

The Cerata is an infested glaive with an innate toxin element. It absolutely decimates the meager health hiding behind corpus shields due to its high status chance and guaranteed toxin plus impact procs on heavy attack. Because of this, the Cerata is a great choice for index runs.

Decent critical chance at 15%.
Great slash damage.

The blueprint is simply acquired by researching the blueprint in the Bio Lab at the dojo.

3) Pathocyst

The Pathocyst is an infested glaive with the unique effect of releasing maggots on attacks. The maggots deal negligible damage but provide decent, albeit brief, crowd control. The weapon combines its high status chance with innate viral and slash to quickly apply numerous status effects.

Highest base damage in its class.
Maggots stun enemies by latching onto them.

The Pathocyst can be acquired by killing Zealoid Prelate on Exequias, Deimos. The parts can also be traded between players.

2) Xoris

The Xoris is a Corpus-themed glaive that has the highest explosion radius in its class, making it is the most potent area-of-effect weapon. On top of that, it has a unique mechanic where its combo duration doesn't decay, meaning it has an infinite combo duration. However, using its heavy attack as well as skills that depend on melee stat sticks like Khora's Whipclaw will deplete the counter. Because of its low maintenance but high reward playstyle, it is a practical choice for tackling most of the game's content.

Highest critical multiplier of all glaives at 2.4x. It also has innate electricity.
A well-invested Xoris can easily solo Nightmare Granum Void.

The blueprint and all of its parts can be easily acquired by playing through the quest The Deadlock Protocol. If for some reason, you require another, it could be bought from Cephalon Simaris.

1) Glaive Prime

It is fitting to end the list that the Glaive Prime is the strongest glaive in the game. It was released alongside Ember Prime and Sicarus Prime. The reason why this weapon is powerful is because of its guaranteed slash proc upon detonation, completely melting through enemies in Steel Path.

Tied with Pathocyst for the second-highest status chance of all glaives at 30%.
Fastest attack and flight speed of all glaives.

As with other primes, you can acquire this weapon's blueprint and components by cracking open void relics during void fissure missions. Currently, this weapon is vaulted, so another option is to trade with other players. It was briefly available from January to March last 2019, and it was also unvaulted from September to December last 2020. If Digital Extremes follows this pattern, it could see a return later this year.

Digital Extremes did commendable work with the glaive weapon class. Without their careful attention, it would have continued to be mastery rank fodder with niche uses. The current state of Warframe is lightyears away from its original inception, with an overwhelming amount of content and weapons added regularly. This retrospective update at archaic systems and weapons is a great way to ensure that old content doesn't disappear into the void.