Best builds for Styanax in Warframe

“Styanax never wonders how many enemies he will face, only where he can find them.” That’s how Warframe describes Styanax in its Arsenal, and it doesn’t take much to realize that’s not hyperbole.

Styanax brings his Axios Javelin and his Tharros shield into battle, which he uses as part of his abilities. His first ability—aptly named Axios Javelin—hurls a javelin into an enemy, and if it connects, it will pull nearby enemies, just like the vortex from Vauban’s Bastille. This ability offers decent damage and excellent crowd control, and it’ll be an integral part of Styanax’s kit. Use it as an opener to disable enemies, then unleash your weapons and bash them with your shields.

Styanax also uses his Axios Javelin in his fourth ability, Final Stand, which sees him soar and unleash a barrage of javelins in the style of Pharah’s Barrage in Overwatch, minus the iconic “justice rains from above!” voice line. And though most Pharah mains know how vulnerable you are in the air, Styanax can either subdue his enemies with his first ability or outright tank the damage he receives in the air, at least in non-Steel Path contact.

Styanax’s third ability, Rally Point, regenerates energy for Styanax and nearby allies, and also boosts his shields (and those of any nearby teammates) after each kill. This gives Styanax invaluable sustain by bolstering his shields and allowing plenty of shield-gating.

The crown jewel of Styanax’s kit, however, is his second ability, Tharros Strike. With Tharros Strike, Styanax bashes his shield in front of him, hitting any enemies in a cone. Each enemy hit recovers some of Styanax’s health, which contributes to sustain, but the most important element of the ability is how easy it is to strip armor and shields alike. With just 200 percent Ability Strength, you can remove the armor or shields from enemies even in Steel Path by pressing a button. Pair it with Axios Javelin to group up hordes of enemies, then bash them all to strip their armor all at once, and take them down with your weapons or your Final Stand. This fairly simple combination is extremely effective, even in Steel Path content.

Here are our favorite builds for Styanax in Warframe, using a mix of attributes. We’ve aimed to hit 200 percent Ability Strength on all of them to max out Styanax’s shield/armor strip, and we also tried to make these builds relatively similar to each other when accounting for the Forma usage. This selection should allow you to switch builds fairly quickly since it mostly relies on Madurai (V) polarities, which are used in a series of popular mods—such as Continuity/Primed Continuity, Transient Fortitude or Blind Rage, regular Intensify, and even Hunter Adrenaline or Rage. We also prefer Primed versions of Flow and Continuity whenever possible, though the base versions of them will do in the absence of the improved versions.

A bit of everything: Best all-rounder Styanax build

Zero-Forma Styanax all-rounder build

This zero-Forma Styanax build aims to give players a little bit of everything, focusing on Ability Strength without really bearing negative attributes. Getting Styanax’s Strength to 200 percent is paramount to achieving full shield/armor strip, so to reach that milestone, we’ve mixed Intensify with Transient Fortitude and the ever-elusive Augur Secrets. To take advantage of Styanax’s build-in Naramon (dash) and Vazarin (D) polarities, we’ve also added Primed Flow (though the base Flow will do) and Vitality, with the latter possibly being swapped out by Adaptation or Redirection if it fits your playstyle (though Redirection will require you to use a base version of Flow without a Forma). If you’re in dire need of room, you don’t necessarily have to level your Adaptation: the mod’s level doesn’t change the maximum damage reduction from the mod, though it does change how much DR each hit gives you (five percent at level zero, or 10 percent at max rank).

For this build, the aura doesn’t really matter. We went with Loot Detector since we already have max armor/shield strip, which renders both Corrosive Projection and Shield Disruption useless. Don’t be afraid to change Styanax’s Aura polarity, though, especially with Growing Power (Madurai/V polarity) being a strong way to boost your Ability Strength when using a weapon that can apply lots of status effects.

One-Forma Styanax all-rounder build

With the meager cost of one Forma (and a few trips to Hydron), you can slap in a Madurai (V) polarity to open up a ton of freedom for other mods. The extra space allows you to use two of either Vitality, Redirection, and Adaptation for extra sturdiness (and even bigger overshields if running Redirection) or keep running Streamline for improved efficiency. You can also throw in a Natural Talent or even just swap to Primed Continuity with the extra mod slots. It’s a fairly cheap investment if you have Formas lying around due to the sheer amount of options it opens for your build (we’re partial to Redirection or Natural Talent). You can also run a minimum-level Adaptation alongside a Redirection and Umbral Vitality, or run regular Intensify alongside regular Vitality and Augur Secrets if you don’t have Umbral mods.

Two-forma Styanax all-rounder build

To make the most out of the all-rounder build, you can also slot in another Madurai (V) Forma, which allows you to fit Umbral Vitality and Umbral Intensify, as well as a max-rank Adaptation. You can also use Augur Reach and Message for extra duration and range, though the 14 remaining capacity narrows down your choices heavily. Additionally, you can slot in another Vazarin (D) polarity to fit a max-rank Redirection instead of one of the Augur mods, or run a minimum-level Adaptation instead (pushing Redirection to the built-in Vazarin slot).

The Undying: Best tanky Styanax build

Bashing your enemies with shields or raining javelins from above is fun, but so is not dying. Thanks to his synergies, Styanax can be fairly sturdy on his own, but you can make him even more bulletproof with a slew of mods that bolster his survivability.

Zero-Forma Styanax tank builds

We’ve brought three zero-Forma builds for a tanky Styanax. One focuses on sheer survivability, while the other two bulk up the 200-percent Ability Strength threshold with a good dose of sturdiness. One of them uses a minimum-level Adaptation mod instead of mitigating the Duration penalty from Transient Fortitude, while the other swaps around mods to avoid having any stats below 100 percent.

One-Forma Styanax tank build

With just one Madurai (V) polarity, you can start tinkering with your build to bring in some even more firepower. The Madurai polarity halves the cost of your Transient Fortitude, which opens up just enough mod capacity to bring both Umbral Intensify and Umbral Vitality into the mix and also allows you to ditch Augur Secrets, though you’ll still need a minimum-level Adaptation to slot everything in.

You can also ditch Augur Accord for Augur Message to avoid taking the Duration penalty, but Styanax’s second ability (Tharros Strike), which gives you health back, isn’t affected by that stat. Additionally, if you don’t have Umbral mods, you can make do with Transient Fortitude, Intensify, and Augur Secrets, which also opens up room for a Vitality mod and a max-level Adaptation.

Strike from Afar: Best Ability Range Styanax build

Styanax suffers from the same issue that other Warframes like Xaku: He benefits from basically all of the stats (the only exception being his second ability, which isn’t affected by Duration but still benefits from Efficiency and Range). Because of that, investing heavily in his range comes with the caveat of using Overextended, which drains your Strength. Luckily for players, there are ways to offset that and end up with little stat penalties, though the sheer volume of mods and energies to do so makes it hard to slot in survivability mods.

Zero-Forma Styanax Range build (with Strength)

Though it’s hard to reach the 200-percent threshold without any Formas, a Range-based build can get fairly close right out of the gate. If you’re aiming for Range, you’ll need Overextended, which comes with a hefty drop in Ability Strength. To offset that, you’ll bring Blind Rage, which will drain your Efficiency, and Transient Fortitude, which improves your Efficiency at the cost of Duration. It’s a balancing game, and one that doesn’t really leave much on the table for survivability.

One-Forma Styanax Range build (with Strength)

A single Madurai (V) polarity trims the cost of Blind Rage, which opens up room for plenty of other mods. With Umbral Intensify, Blind Rage, and Augur Secrets, you can pass the 200-percent threshold while mitigating the downsides from the rest of the attributes with Primed Continuity.

Overextended: best Range-based Styanax build without Ability Strength

If sheer range is what you need, though, Warframe offers some ways to boost your Styanax’s reach, though that does mean sacrificing the full armor/shield strip. This does increase the range of all Styanax abilities, but it comes at the expense of firepower.

Best Styanax Overextended build

This fairly cheap build will bring you the most range in your setup, though this means ditching the 200-percent Strength threshold. You can get much closer to it with a single Forma, and practically reach it with two if you change the Aura to Growing Power (boasting a whopping 99 percent reduction).