[Top 5] Warframe Best Gunblades That Are Powerful (Latest Patch: Angels of Zariman)

Updated:

20 Oct 2022

The Tenno and their Warframes are considered to have mastered the ways of the gun and the blade. What better representation of this than a weapon that combines the features of both! Hence the Gundblade. These magnificent tools of death make you a large threat both near and far.

For those of you that are new to Warframe or have never tried using gunblades before, here’s how they work: they have the usual melee attacks of other melee weapons, but by pressing the alternate fire button, instead of performing a heavy attack, you fire the built-in gun wherever you’re aiming. Their guns don’t use ammo, so you don’t have to worry about running out.

There are currently only 5 of these weapons in the game (as of the Angels of Zariman update). So here’s the lowdown on which of the gunblades are good, and which is at the pinnacle of their class.

5. Redeemer

The Redeemer is what you get when a shotgun and a machete love each other very much

Blow people away (quite literally) with this gunblade. Like all gunblades, its gunfire ragdolls most enemies when you fire at them up close (up to 4 meters). Its melee deals Slash damage while its shotgun deals blast damage.

The Redeemer is actually a pretty decent gun for being at the bottom of the list. The only thing keeping it from being ranked higher is the fact that its Prime version does exactly what it does, but better.

What Redeemer excels at:

Crowd control:

Not only does the Redeemer ragdoll enemies, but its shots have a stagger and knockdown chance regardless of distance. It also has an innate punch through. All of this makes this weapon way more useful in dealing with bunched-up groups of enemies.

Status effects:

The ranged attack has a 6.6% status chance which may not sound like much, but your ranged weapon is a shotgun that fires 10 pellets at once making the status chance reach up to 66% if you can manage to land every pellet.

Slash damage:

The Redeemer’s melee attacks deal primarily Slash damage which is a damage type that’s good against health.

How to get Redeemer:

Blueprints for the Redeemer are simply bought from the in-game market. You can access it from the market console across the console where you access your quests. Keep in mind that the Redeemer uses two weapons, the Vasto and the Dual Skana as crafting materials.

Redeemer Details

4. Sarpa

The Sarpa is what you get when a burst rifle and a sword love each oth- okay, sorry I’ll stop doing that

The Sarpa can be a really weird and confusing weapon to understand.

First, the number of shots it fires in a single burst changes based on your weapon stance.

Second, for some reason when no stance mods are equipped, this weapon uses the stances mod "Bullet Dance"'s Samba Slash combo.

And lastly, despite being a burst rifle, the Sarpa's shots are most effective at close range (20m below) as the gun has falloff damage, meaning the farther the enemy, the less damage they take.

But once you get the hang of it, this can be a really fun weapon for removing armor and nullifier shields.

What Sarpa excels at:

Armor stripping:

Equipping the mod "Shattering Impact" can make every attack you make remove large amounts of armor since you fire multiple shots per attack. This even makes the Sarpa an option in Eidolon Hunting, to quickly strip Eidolons of their tough armor.

Dealing multiple status effects:

This weapon has a 28% status chance. Even for the ranged attack. This makes applying status effects really easy since, again, you fire multiple shots at once.

Popping nullifier spheres:

A quick series of shots from this gun obliterates nullifier bubbles as long as you can keep your aim straight.

How to get Sarpa:

Blueprints for the Sarpa are simply bought from the in-game market. You can access it from the market console across the console where you access your quests.

Sarpa Details

3. Vastilok

This rugged shotgun gunblade blasts anyone in its way to next week

The Vastilok is another shotgun gunblade, this time of Grineer origin (rather than the Redeemer which is a Tenno weapon).

This weapon pretty much acts exactly like the Redeemer, just with different stats (i.e., higher base damage, higher blocking angle). Also, unlike the Redeemer, the Vastilok can use the mod “Shattering Impact''. This is because the Redeemer’s long-range attack does not deal impact damage, it deals exclusively blast.

What Vastilok excels at:

Armor stripping:

Similar to the Sarpa, the Vastilok can make use of Shattering Impact to make your enemies more vulnerable. Even though it has a lower range, the Vastilok is still viable in Eidolon Hunting since Eidolons are big enough that missing won’t be a problem.

Blocking:

The Vastilok has the highest blocking angle of all gunblades. With a 90° blocking angle, pretty much all ranged attacks coming from the front are blockable as long as you keep the weapon up.

Raising combo count:

The Vastilok’s shotgun mode fires 9 pellets at once, every single one of these counts as a combo count when they hit, allowing you to reach insane numbers before unleashing a heavy attack to kill a tough enemy in one hit.

Maximizing condition overload:

The mod “Condition Overload” increases a melee weapon’s damage by 80% for each status effect on an enemy. Having the highest status chance out of all gunblades (31% for melee, 10.33% for each shotgun pellet), the Vastilok can multiply its damage output several times with this mod and a couple of elemental mods.

How to get Vastilok:

The Vastilok can be bought from Baro Ki’Teer whenever he shows up in a Tenno Relay. However Baro Ki’Teer’s inventory changes on every appearance so this weapon might not be for sale the next time you go check on him.

Alternatively, unranked Vastiloks can also be traded between players.

Here’s a Baro Ki’Teer guide in case you haven’t met him yet

Vastilok Details

2. Redeemer Prime

The Redeemer she tells you not to worry about

The Redeemer’s redeemer. The Redeemer Prime is simply a straight-up upgrade to the regular Redeemer. It dwarfs its little brother in base damage, critical chance, critical multiplier, and status chance.

Another thing that’s different: the way it counts combos. With the shotgun blast, when an enemy is hit, your combo counter increases by 5 regardless of how many pellets made contact.

What Redeemer Prime excels at:

Critical damage:

The Redeemer Prime has the second-highest critical chance and critical multiplier among gunblades (24% critical chance, 2.2x critical multiplier). Giving each of your attacks an extra sting in them.

Dealing status effects:

The Redeemer Prime also has the second-highest status chance among gunblades (30% for the melee, 9% for each shotgun pellet)

Crowd control:

As you know, the Redeemer Prime does everything that the Redeemer does but better. So of course this gunblade would rip through hordes of enemies with ease.

Comboing:

The fact that the combo count rises by 5 for each enemy hit is pretty nuts considering this is a shotgun that can hit lots of enemies at once. Add the fact that the shotgun has an innate 1-meter punch through (which you can increase through mods), and you’ll see your combo count skyrocket.

How to get Redeemer Prime: Like most Primed weapons, the Redeemer Prime’s blueprints and parts are obtainable by cracking Void Relics or trading them with other players. A list of the Void Relics containing this weapon’s blueprints and parts can be found on the “Redeemer Prime Details” link below.

Void Relic Guide

Redeemer Prime Details

1. Stropha

Point this thing at whatever you want to not exist anymore

This is the first, and so far the only, Corpus gunblade. And boy, I don’t get why because they obviously know what they’re doing. It’s a tough one to farm for but it’s definitely worth it.

Unlike the other gunblades so far, the Stropha doesn’t fire ballistic bullets. Instead, it shoots a wide shockwave with limited range (17m). Don’t let the range limit fool you though, it deals huge damage (700 impact) and forces stagger on enemies.

What Stropha excels at:

Delivering massive crits:

The Stropha has the highest critical chance and critical multiplier among gunblades (30% critical chance, 2.4x critical multiplier). Making its already deadly base damage even deadlier.

Crowd control:

Due to its projectile being a wide shockwave, the Stropha can mow down entire platoons of enemies. As a bonus, enemies within 1 meter of the shockwave are ragdolled, allowing you to follow up with even more pain.

Deleting shields:

Dealing 700 pure impact damage with the ranged attack is sure to make any shield-reliant enemies a non-threat. This is ironic as the Stropha is a Corpus weapon and the Corpus are the most shield-reliant faction in the game.