All Archon mods in Warframe, explained

The release of Warframe‘s Veilbreaker Update brought more than just another Warframe to the mix. The Veilbreaker story marked the return of the Grineer soldier Kahl-175, who featured prominently in The New War. And engaging with the new update can get players some shiny Archon Mods for their trouble.

Veilbreaker allows players to dive into the action as Kahl himself, and the captivating character is also available as the leader of the Kahl’s Garrison Syndicate. Like other Syndicates, Kahl’s Garrison brings its own slew of offerings, including cosmetics for Kahl and Styanax blueprints, but the real prize could be the Archon Mods that are available from the Syndicate.

Archon Mods are a new take on established, tried-and-true mods that are staples of most builds. They are a more accessible way to reach higher stats without needing the Primed or Umbral version of those mods. They come with a higher mod cost, but they also bring bonus effects to the mix, which are related to some abilities and even specific damage types. Like Primed versions, they don’t stack with themselves—so while the prospect of running two Intensify mods is definitely alluring, it won’t work.

Archon mods are available from Chipper, the vendor for Kahl’s Garrison. Buying the Archon Mods off Chipper requires using Stock, a currency that drops from Garrison Assignments. Here are all the Archon mods in Warframe as of the release of Veilbreaker, as well as an explanation and comparison to their Primed and Umbral versions.

All Archon mods in Warframe

• Archon Continuity: +55 percent Ability Duration. Abilities that cause a Toxin status effect will also apply a Corrosive status.
• Archon Flow: +275 percent energy. Enemies killed by Cold damage have a 10-percent chance to drop an Energy Orb (10s cooldown).
• Archon Intensify: +30 percent Ability Strength. Restoring health with abilities grants 30 percent Ability Strength for 10 seconds.
• Archon Stretch: +45 percent Ability Range. Abilities that deal Electricity damage restore two energy per second over five seconds.
• Archon Vitality: +440 percent health. Status effects from abilities that deal Heat damage will be applied twice.

Archon vs. Primed vs. Umbral mods

Archon mods join the ranks of Primed and Umbral mods, which already enhance base mods such as Intensify or Vitality (Umbral) or Flow and Continuity (Primed). Primed mods are the simplest of the three: they’re a straight upgrade compared to the base version, though they bring little bonus effects outside of the higher value. They are available randomly from Baro Ki’Teer’s stock, and players may go a fair bit of time without having Baro sell a specific mod they need.

Umbral mods, on the other hand, come with an amount of Tau resistance (against Sentient damage), and pairing Umbral mods together increases their value (an Umbral Vitality, for instance, gives you 440 percent bonus health, but 550 percent when paired with Umbral Intensify and 770 percent when paired with both Umbral Intensify and Umbral Fiber). They also have their own Umbra polarity, which requires its own Umbra Forma—only available through Nightwaves, special alerts, and Teshin’s Steel Path offerings, without the option to buy them for Platinum.

Archon mods are somewhat of a mix between the two. They have a higher mod cost than Primed versions of Continuity and Flow for the same stat value, but they also bring hefty bonuses on the side. Additionally, Archon Continuity/Flow can substitute their Primed version at a slightly higher cost. Here’s a comparison of their values. Keep in mind Intensify and Vitality only have Umbral and Archon versions, while Flow and Continuity only have Primed variants. Stretch only has an Archon version.

Here’s a comparison of the mod cost between the different versions of these mods.

Archon mods can definitely compete against other versions of these mods even before taking into account their unique effects. The mod cost difference between the Primed and Archon versions of these mods is just two energy, and that number can be halved to just one by using a Forma. This also means players don’t have to rely on Baro Ki’Teer selling the Primed versions of these mods, and instead they can grind out progress with Chipper. The extra effects can also be worth spending another energy, for instance, with heal-oriented frames getting tremendous benefit from Archon Intensify.

Against Umbral mods, the Archon variants lose out when it comes to sheer attribute values, but win out in mod cost efficiency. Umbral mods cost 16 energy each and come with the elusive Umbra polarity, while the Archon mods will give a smaller boost (though an activated Archon Intensify will beat out an Umbral Intensify paired with another Umbral mod). Archon mods will open up plenty of opportunities for buildcrafting with your Warframes, and the benefits you get from them may be worth the (meager) mod cost compared to Primed mods, while their ease of use makes them easier to fit into a build than Umbral mods.