Do Purple Archon Shards Boost Your Exalted Weapons? A Warframe Guide

Introduction

Exalted Weapons represent the pinnacle of a Warframe’s power, manifesting unique and devastating armaments fueled by the very essence of their being. Whether you’re unleashing Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, tearing through enemies with Valkyr’s Talons, zipping around as Titania with her deadly Dex Pixia, or raining down destruction with Ivara’s Artemis Bow, optimizing these signature weapons is a primary goal for many Tenno. The path to maximizing their potential, however, can sometimes feel shrouded in mystery. This is where the newly introduced Archon Shards come into play, offering exciting customization and power boosts that can drastically alter a Warframe’s capabilities. Among these crystalline fragments of Sentient origin, the purple Archon Shard, also known as the violet Archon Shard, holds particular interest, promising to enhance a Warframe’s ability strength and thereby amplify the potency of their abilities, including, potentially, their exalted weaponry.

Archon Shards have opened up a world of customization to warframe and weapon builds. Players are now able to further min and max their warframes towards a particular build, as well as augment base stats. Some players have focused on health regeneration. Others may prefer to boost their parkour velocity. The beauty of the Archon Shard system is the ability to further customize your loadouts toward particular playstyles.

But does investing in purple Archon Shards translate into a significant boost for your cherished Exalted Weapons? Does the increase in ability strength actually provide a tangible difference in damage output, utility, or overall effectiveness? This guide will delve deep into the intricacies of Purple Archon Shards, explore how they interact with Exalted Weapons, analyze their potential benefits, and help you determine if they are the right choice for your Warframe build.

Understanding Purple Archon Shards and Ability Strength

Before we dive into the specifics of Exalted Weapons, it’s crucial to understand how Purple Archon Shards function and their relationship to ability strength. Archon Shards, in their essence, are augmentations that can be installed into your Warframe after defeating Archon Hunt missions. Each Archon Shard has a unique passive, and installing multiple of one type grants a bonus. The two types of purple Archon Shards grant a flat ability strength bonus, and an ability strength bonus for Tauforged. Each purple shard grants a percentage ability strength increase that is displayed on the Archon Shard before you commit to installing. Tauforged Archon Shards grant a higher percentage. The question then is, does this percentage increase have a significant effect on damage output?

Ability strength, in turn, is a fundamental stat that governs the potency of a Warframe’s abilities. A higher ability strength percentage directly translates into stronger damage, increased duration, greater range, and more potent effects for many Warframe powers. For example, a Warframe with increased ability strength may cast an ability with a wider radius of effect, or a longer duration of crowd control. While most builds do not focus on ability strength exclusively, it is often a desired stat when considering the power of warframe powers.

With the introduction of Archon Shards, many players have begun shifting their builds around to accommodate the new bonus stats offered by the shards. Some have removed mods, others have kept them. The truth is, everyone’s build will look different depending on their preferences. However, with a basic understanding of how the stats work, anyone can build toward their desires.

Ability Strength and Exalted Weapons: A Symbiotic Relationship

Many Exalted Weapons scale directly with ability strength, making Purple Archon Shards a potentially valuable investment. The degree to which ability strength impacts an Exalted Weapon varies depending on the specific weapon and the Warframe wielding it. Generally speaking, most Exalted Weapons benefit from higher ability strength in terms of increased base damage. This directly translates into more damage per hit, leading to faster enemy elimination and improved survivability. The question is, how much more damage are we talking about?

Beyond direct damage increases, ability strength can also affect other crucial aspects of Exalted Weapons. In the case of Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, for instance, ability strength not only boosts the weapon’s base damage but also increases the range of the energy wave emitted with each swing. This extended range allows Excalibur to hit more enemies simultaneously, dramatically improving his crowd control capabilities. Similarly, Valkyr’s Talons benefit from increased ability strength through increased damage output and potentially enhanced critical chance and status chance. Depending on your particular build, this may or may not be a meaningful change. However, it is generally understood that ability strength has a positive effect on Valkyr’s Talons.

Consider also Titania’s Dex Pixia, arguably one of the most potent Exalted Weapons in the game. Increased ability strength directly translates into higher damage output for these miniature machine guns, allowing Titania to shred through even the most heavily armored enemies with ease. Furthermore, the increased damage can amplify any status effects applied by the Dex Pixia, making them even more debilitating. Similarly, Ivara’s Artemis Bow profits from increased ability strength through increased damage per arrow and potentially enhanced multishot potential. Multishot adds additional arrows to each shot.

Finally, the added benefit of increasing ability strength is armor strip potential. Certain skills are able to strip armor from enemies. The higher the ability strength, the more armor you can strip, up to a limit. This is another consideration for warframe builds.

How Purple Shards Affect Exalted Weapon Stats and Performance

Let’s examine specific examples to illustrate the impact of Purple Archon Shards on Exalted Weapon performance:

Excalibur’s Exalted Blade

Imagine an Excalibur build with a base ability strength of one hundred percent. Adding even one Purple Archon Shard could significantly increase the damage of each swing and the range of the energy wave, allowing you to clear entire rooms with ease. Consider how this synergizes with the Blind effect of Radial Blind, further enhancing Excalibur’s crowd control potential.

Valkyr’s Talons

Valkyr’s Talons rely heavily on critical hits and status effects to maximize their damage output. By increasing ability strength with Purple Archon Shards, you can potentially boost both critical chance and status chance, resulting in a substantial increase in overall damage. Consider this alongside Valkyr’s armor buff.

Titania’s Dex Pixia

Dex Pixia are already incredibly powerful, but Purple Archon Shards can push them to even greater heights. The increased damage output allows Titania to easily dispatch high-level enemies, making her a formidable force in any mission. Furthermore, the amplified status effects can cripple even the most heavily armored opponents.

Ivara’s Artemis Bow

With increased ability strength, Ivara can quickly dispatch enemies with a flurry of arrows. This makes Ivara very powerful in open-world bounties and Archon Hunts.

Considerations and Synergies

Purple Archon Shards are not the only source of ability strength. Mods like Intensify, Umbral Intensify, and Transient Fortitude offer significant ability strength boosts. It’s crucial to understand how these sources stack with Archon Shards. In most cases, they stack additively, meaning the bonuses are added together to determine the final ability strength value. This can lead to diminishing returns, where each additional point of ability strength provides a smaller increase in damage output. Therefore, it’s essential to strike a balance and avoid over-investing in ability strength at the expense of other important stats like duration and efficiency.

The synergy between your Warframe’s other abilities and the increased damage output of your Exalted Weapon is also a crucial factor to consider. For example, using abilities that debuff enemies or provide damage buffs can further amplify the effectiveness of your Exalted Weapon. Experimenting with different Warframe abilities and Exalted Weapon combinations can lead to surprising and devastating results.

There are of course alternative shard options you can pick. Crimson shards may give you additional survivability or parkour velocity. However, for those seeking to maximize their exalted weapons, purple shards may be a good choice.

Building for Success: Example Builds and Recommendations

To illustrate the practical application of Purple Archon Shards, let’s consider some example builds for popular Exalted Weapons:

Build Example Excalibur

* **Warframe:** Excalibur
* **Exalted Weapon:** Exalted Blade
* **Mods:** Umbral Intensify, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Steel Charge, Primed Continuity, Streamline, Adaptation, Rolling Guard
* **Archon Shards:** Three Purple Shards for Increased Ability Strength.
* **Strategy:** Focus on maximizing ability strength for increased damage and wave range. Use Radial Blind for crowd control and damage amplification.

Build Example Valkyr

* **Warframe:** Valkyr
* **Exalted Weapon:** Talons
* **Mods:** Umbral Intensify, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Steel Charge, Primed Continuity, Streamline, Adaptation, Rolling Guard
* **Archon Shards:** Three Purple Shards for Increased Ability Strength.
* **Strategy:** Focus on maximizing ability strength for increased damage and wave range. Valkyr is incredibly durable and shreds through enemies.

Build Example Titania

* **Warframe:** Titania
* **Exalted Weapon:** Dex Pixia
* **Mods:** Umbral Intensify, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Steel Charge, Primed Continuity, Streamline, Adaptation, Rolling Guard
* **Archon Shards:** Three Purple Shards for Increased Ability Strength.
* **Strategy:** Focus on maximizing ability strength for increased damage and wave range. Dex Pixia is one of the most powerful damage weapons, and is amped even further through ability strength.

When determining how many Purple Archon Shards to use, consider your playstyle and desired outcomes. If you primarily rely on your Exalted Weapon for damage, investing heavily in ability strength may be a worthwhile choice. However, if you prefer a more balanced approach, consider using a mix of Purple Shards and other shard colors to enhance different aspects of your Warframe’s abilities. The downside to having too much ability strength is lowered duration. The best build should seek a balance between ability strength and duration.

Conclusion: Unleash the Power Within

Purple Archon Shards offer a compelling way to enhance the performance of Exalted Weapons in Warframe. By boosting ability strength, these crystalline fragments can significantly increase damage output, utility, and overall effectiveness. However, it’s crucial to understand the mechanics behind ability strength scaling, consider other sources of ability strength, and experiment with different build configurations to find what works best for your individual Warframe and playstyle.

The effectiveness of using purple archon shards to boost your exalted weapons is a fact. In many cases, it is beneficial to slot purple archon shards into your warframes for additional damage.

So, Tenno, go forth and experiment! Try out different Purple Shard builds on your favorite Exalted Weapons, push the limits of your Warframe’s potential, and share your findings with the Warframe community. The power to unleash the true potential of your Exalted Weapons lies within your grasp! The beauty of Warframe is the ability to customize each build to your individual playstyle. Experiment around and see what you like. What builds did you try out? Let us know in the comments below!