How To Craft And Play Gauss – Warframe
Warframe’s Gauss is a supersonic blender of destruction, attacking enemies with an onslaught of bullets and melee swings. Few Warframes can offer the same adrenaline-fueled gameplay as Gauss, let alone with the degree of speed that Gauss offers.
Available from Sedna’s Disruption node, Gauss serves as the ultimate solo Warframe for weapon and melee fans alike. You can run at blinding speeds, strip armor, instantly freeze targets, protect yourself from incoming damage, and triple the fire rate of your guns. This guide will go over how to craft Gauss, what each ability does, and the best builds you can use with this Warframe.
How To Craft Gauss
Gauss’ components drop from Rotation C of Kappa, Sedna—a Disruption node located towards the end of the Star Chart. All of Gauss’ parts drop from rotation C, requiring you to defend at least three conduits from rounds four and onward. Each Gauss part has around an 8% drop chance. Gauss’ blueprint may be purchased from the in-game market for 30,000 Credits.
Gauss Blueprint
| Drop Source | In-Game Market (30,000 Credits) |
|---|---|
| Crafting Costs |
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| Crafting Time | 72 Hours |
Gauss Neuroptics
| Drop Source | Kappa, Sedna (Rotation C, 7.84% drop chance) |
|---|---|
| Crafting Costs |
|
| Crafting Time | 12 Hours |
Gauss Chassis
| Drop Source | Kappa, Sedna (Rotation C, 7.84% drop chance) |
|---|---|
| Crafting Costs |
|
| Crafting Time | 12 Hours |
Gauss Systems
| Drop Source | Kappa, Sedna (Rotation C, 7.84% drop chance) |
|---|---|
| Crafting Costs |
|
| Crafting Time | 12 Hours |
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Gauss Abilities
Stats
| Gauss |
|---|
|
Passive
Passive: Moving generates an electrical current that fills Gauss’ battery. Shields recharge up to 120% faster while the Recharge Delay is up to 80% shorter, based on the battery level.
Gauss has a unique resource that fuels his powers. The Electrokinetic Battery is a second meter on the bottom-left of your HUD that generates power as Gauss moves. The more distance you traverse as Gauss, the more power your battery will accumulate. Casting your abilities will either power or drain this battery, granting your abilities stronger effects in return.
Your Electrokinetic Battery can reach up to 80% efficiency without the use of Redline, Gauss’ ultimate ability. Your battery’s power level can be altered with the following actions:
- Moving: +0.5% per meter traveled.
- Falling out-of-bounds removes about 3% battery power.
- Casting Mach Rush: +10%
- Impacting a target: +1% per enemy
- Casting Thermal Sunder (Cold): +10%
- Entering a Nullifier Bubble: -15% per second
The more Electrokinetic Battery you have charged, the stronger your shield regeneration will be. Having a maxed battery grants 120% faster shield recharge and 80% shorter recharge delay, making Gauss a surprisingly good shield tank if you can keep your battery maxed. This bonus stacks additively with other sources of shield recharge rate and delay.
Mach Rush
Mach Rush: Burst into a hyper-sprint blowing over enemies and charging the battery. Crashing into solid objects generates a powerful shockwave. Hold to rush continuously.
| Mach Rush Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Drain | Cast: 15 Energy | ||
| Drain: 12.5 Energy per second | |||
| Range | 12 Meters | ||
| Impact Radius | 4 Meters | ||
| Explosion Radius | 10 Meters | ||
| Explosion Damage | 800 Impact | ||
| Applicable Mods | |||
| Duration | Range | Efficiency | Strength |
| Affects Energy drain while < 175% Efficiency | Affects impact and explosion radii | Affects cast and channeling Energy costs | Affects explosion damage |
Gauss enters a hyper-sprint, preventing him from using weapons or parkour movement. Tapping the ability thrusts Gauss 12 meters towards your cursor, charging 10% of your Electrokinetic Battery. Holding the ability enters a channeling state where Gauss continues to sprint, causing him to move at hyperspeed until you run into a wall, run out of Energy, cast the ability again, or use your weapons. Your movement speed in Mach Rush is affected by sprint speed modifiers.
Running into enemies will cause them to ragdoll over Gauss while granting 1% Electrokinetic Battery charge. Sprinting into a wall will end the ability and create a small explosion, dealing Impact damage to targets in the radius. The damage and radius of this explosion are affected by Ability Strength and Range, respectively.
Mach Rush is your main method of charging your battery and getting around the battlefield. Building around sprint speed is highly recommended if you’re playing open world content, allowing you to traverse large expanses faster than most Warframes. Only Titania, Archwings, and a high Strength Volt build can outrun you.
Kinetic Plating
Kinetic Plating: Generate armor plating that converts a portion of absorbed Kinetic Damage (Physical, Heat, Cold, and Blast) into Energy. Also protects Gauss from being staggered or knocked down. Damage Resistance is relative to the battery level.
| Kinetic Plating Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Drain | 50 Energy | ||
| Duration | 30 Seconds | ||
| Damage Reduction | 20-100% | ||
| Energy Conversion | 5% | ||
| Applicable Mods | |||
| Duration | Range | Efficiency | Strength |
| Affects ability duration | N/A | Affects cast Energy cost | Affects damage reduction |
Kinetic Plating activates Gauss’ armor plates, causing him to gain damage resistance against all incoming damage. Kinetic damage—IPS, Heat, Cold, and Blast—will also grant Gauss Energy at a 5% conversion rate, similar to how Rage and Hunter Adrenaline work. Damage taken to your shields or HP can trigger this Energy conversion. Taking damage while Kinetic Plating is active will drain your battery. The bigger the hit, the more battery power will be drained. While your battery is at 100% power, Kinetic Plating also grants a 100% damage boost to all melee weapons and forces a stagger with each melee hit. This damage buff stacks additively with base damage sources.
Kinetic Plating works the best with Duration builds; Strength should be kept positive but not built around. Gauss’ Redline ability allows you to reach 100% battery power, allowing this skill to grant 100% damage resistance for a few incoming attacks. Since Kinetic Plating drains battery power with each incoming hit, it’s recommended to use Mach Rush after or during a gunfight to keep Kinetic Plating’s DR buff at maximum. The damage resistance provided by Kinetic Plating stacks multiplicatively with other DR sources.
Thermal Sunder
Thermal Sunder: Siphon kinetic energy from the area, charging the battery and inflicting Cold status on nearby enemies. Hold reverses the process, draining the battery and inflicting Heat status on nearby enemies.
| Thermal Sunder Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Drain | 50 Energy | ||
| Radius | 12 Meters | ||
| Duration | 15 Seconds | ||
| Status Duration | 4-8 Seconds | ||
| Damage | Cold: 150-750 Cold Damage | ||
| Heat: 300-1,500 Heat Damage | |||
| Applicable Mods | |||
| Duration | Range | Efficiency | Strength |
| Affects ability and status duration | Affects ability radius | Affects cast Energy cost | Affects Cold and Heat damage dealt |
All energy around Gauss gets sucked into his Warframe suit, causing nearby targets to take Cold damage and even become Frozen with a battery over 80% charge. Casting this ability grants 10% battery power and leaves behind a small AoE ring that inflicts continuous Cold damage to enemies inside. Holding the ability causes Gauss to drain 10% of his battery before creating a ring of fire, dealing twice as much Heat damage in the same radius. The damage of this ability is affected by Ability Strength and your battery power.
Casting both types of Thermal Sunder in quick succession will inflict Blast damage, permanently stripping enemy armor based on your battery power. At 100% power, this ability is a permanent, full armor strip to all targets affected. Thermal Sunder can be used as a panic crowd control tool, a hard-hitting AoE ability that inflicts Heat, or a way to strip armor while Redline is fully charged. You can also use Mach Rush through your Thermal Sunder to add elemental damage to your Mach Rush impact and explosion.
Most Gauss builds don’t build for Thermal Sunder, but Warframes that subsume Thermal Sunder should spec for Range and Strength. Thermal Sunder deals absurd damage with a small investment in Strength and a full battery, capable of killing Steel Path enemies in just a few casts.
Redline
Redline: Push Gauss’ battery beyond the redline, supercharging his Abilities and setting Fire Rate, Attack Speed, Reload Speed, and Holster Rate into overdrive. When past the redline, bolts of arcing electricity dance periodically from Gauss, exploding en masse when the ability is deactivated.
| Redline Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Drain | 100 Energy | ||
| Duration | 30 Seconds | ||
| Buffs | Fire Rate: 15-75% | ||
| Attack Speed: 8-40% | |||
| Reload Speed: 10-50% | |||
| Holster Speed: 20-100% | |||
| Spark Damage | 400 Impact and Puncture | ||
| Applicable Mods | |||
| Duration | Range | Efficiency | Strength |
| Affects ability duration and buff magnitude | N/A | Affects cast Energy cost | Affects spark damage |
Redline is Gauss’ signature ability and arguably one of the strongest ultimates in Warframe. Gauss overcharges himself, allowing him to access the last 20% of his battery. Moving will cause Gauss to begin overcharging the battery, the speed of which is inversely affected by your Ability Duration.
Gauss gains four powerful buffs while in Redline: fire rate, melee attack speed, weapon reload speed, and holster speed. The magnitude of these buffs is affected by your battery level and Ability Duration. A fully charged battery allows Gauss to fire absurdly fast, reload almost instantly, holster weapons in an instant, and swing their melee weapon much more quickly.
The extra battery power from Redline also buffs your other abilities and gives them unique mechanics:
- Mach Rush: Costs half as much Energy to cast.
- Kinetic Plating: Your melee weapons deal 100% more base damage and stagger on hit.
- Thermal Sunder: Cold immediately freezes targets caught in the initial blast. Heat deals substantially more damage over time. Blast permanently strips armor, up to 100% at max battery power.
Redline is Gauss’ best ability and should be the focal point of your build. This ability scales the best with Ability Duration, extending the duration of Redline while increasing the power of each buff. Try to keep Redline up at all times to maximize Gauss’ effectiveness.
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Gauss Augments
Gauss has two Augments to choose from, one for Mach Rush and the other for Thermal Sunder. Each Augment may be purchased from the Arbiters of Hexis or Perinn Sequence Syndicates for 25,000 Standing each. Augments may also be traded between players.
Mach Crash
Mach Crash: Mach Rush Augment: Impact shockwave leaves behind a vacuum that sucks in enemies within 8m.
Running into a solid surface will end Mach Rush and create a vortex at the impact point, causing all targets within eight meters to get sucked into the vortex. It behaves similarly to the second half of Vauban’s Bastille ability, clumping targets into a tight ball. This vacuum lasts for about two seconds and is not affected by Ability Duration. The radius of this vacuum is affected by Ability Range.
Thermal Transfer
Thermal Transfer: Thermal Sunder Augment: Allies in range gain 75% bonus Elemental Damage for 30s.
Thermal Sunder grants a 30-second damage buff that matches the AoE’s damage type. If Gauss created a Cold Thermal Sunder, you and all allies that pass the AoE will gain 75% of your damage as extra Cold damage for the next 30 seconds. A Heat AoE grants a Heat damage buff. You can be affected by both damage buffs at the same time. The buff duration is affected by Duration mods, and the bonus damage is affected by Strength mods.
Heat damage is applied before anything else, even if you created a Cold Thermal Sunder first. This makes Thermal Transfer a tricky augment to take advantage of if you aren’t already using combined elements. As for general combination behavior:
- No Elements: Heat is applied, then Cold. This creates Blast damage.
- One Element: Heat merges with the single element, and Cold is left on its own.
- One Combined Element: Heat and/or Cold merge with the combined element (if applicable) for bonus damage. Otherwise, the damage types are added separately.
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Gauss Builds
We’ll be looking at three builds for Gauss that turn him into the ultimate speed demon and weapons platform. Most Gauss builds focus on Ability Duration above all else, seeing as it drastically improves the buffs provided by Redline. Sprint speed is also important on Gauss, so it’s recommended you use sprint speed scalars like Sprint Boost, Rush, and Amalgam Serration on your primary.
Focus schools aren’t needed for Gauss and are down to preference. Zenurik is a good pick to give Gauss some passive Energy while no enemies are nearby, and Unairu is a solid choice for stripping enemy armor while your battery isn’t at full charge. Use whatever you prefer.
For Helminth, Gauss doesn’t need it. His entire kit has too much synergy to warrant removing one of them. Mach Rush is needed to charge your battery, Kinetic Plating gives a ton of DR, Thermal Sunder gives good CC and armor strip, and Redline is the main reason you run Gauss in the first place. If you want to subsume something, we recommend either Energized Munitions or Rhino’s Roar, replacing Gauss’ Thermal Sunder ability.
Starter Build (0 Forma, No Subsume)
- Forma: 0
- Subsume: None/Preference
Gauss can work just fine without any Forma. Scale Duration as much as possible to increase the strength of Redline and the duration of your other abilities. Narrow Minded, Primed Continuity, Augur Message, and Constitution give you an immense boost to your Duration stat, granting 90 seconds of Redline and triple your buff strength. Weapons will unload their magazines in an instant and reload even faster.
For survivability, we’ll be using Redirection to take advantage of Gauss’ excellent shield regeneration and delay stats and Adaptation (R0) to gain some damage resistance while Kinetic Plating isn’t at maximum power. Primed Flow lets you store a ton of Energy that’s generated from Kinetic Plating, and Natural Talent makes casting your abilities much less time-consuming. Finally, we use Sprint Boost to give Gauss a small bump to his sprint speed, making it a little easier to charge his battery. If you think Gauss needs more survivability, equip an Arcane Aegis on him for constant shield regeneration.
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Mach Crash (2 Forma, No Subsume)
- Forma: 2 (D, –)
- Subsume: None/Preference
This build uses Gauss’ Mach Crash augment that creates a vortex whenever you run into a wall, giving Gauss a powerful crowd control tool. We’ll be building for a mix of Duration and Range to buff Mach Rush’s vortex, the size of your Thermal Sunder, all while maintaining the great buffs provided by Redline.
Narrow Minded, Primed Continuity, and Augur Message give you more than enough Duration to keep your abilities active and get some serious bonuses from Redline. Overextended and Stretch will help boost your Range stat to 169%, making your Mach Rush vortex quite large. Redirection and Adaptation give you some much-needed survivability, and Rush is used to help charge your battery.
Arcanes are required for this build to function in late-game content. Molt Efficiency gives you 36% more Ability Duration, allowing you to offset the penalty of losing Constitution. Molt Augmented counters the 60% Strength penalty from Overextended, allowing your Kinetic Plating to grant maximum DR with a charged battery. Getting 250 kills shouldn’t be a problem with Redline up. The end result is a typical Gauss build that also has great CC and massive Thermal Sunders.
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Energized Gauss (3 Forma, Energized Munitions Subsume)
- Forma: 3 (2–, D)
- Subsume: Energized Munitions (Helminth)
Having a 200% fire rate bonus is fun for most weapons, yet it can get quite frustrating when Gauss has to constantly stop shooting to reload his guns. That’s what this build aims to fix. We’ll be replacing Gauss’ Thermal Sunder with Energized Munitions from the Helminth system to give Gauss 75% ammo efficiency. You’ll be able to fire quadruple the rounds before needing to reload.
The build itself is very close to the starter build listed earlier. Focus on Duration, using all Duration mods (excluding Nira’s Hatred) to gain 306% Duration. We then use Molt Efficiency to gain another 36%, allowing you to use Redline for over 100 seconds and Energized Munitions for 17. Redirection and Adaptation will once again be used to keep Gauss alive, although we’re also using Arcane Aegis to give Gauss uninterruptible shield regeneration.
Primed Flow will keep your Energy economy afloat, and Natural Talent helps cut down on Energized Munitions’ absurdly long cast time. For the Exilus slot, we’ll use Rush to help charge Gauss’ battery and make him run faster. The aura is up to you, but we still recommend Sprint Boost. You’ll fire quickly, have quadruple the magazine capacity with Energized Munitions, and you’ll get to run at the speed of sound.
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