Warframe: Styanax Complete Guide – Drops, Abilities, And Builds (2024)

Warframe's Veilbreaker update came with its 50th Warframe, Styanax. This armored warrior is an expert at annihilating foes with powerful javelins and wide-range crowd control effects. Players that want a mix between Nidus and Harrow might get a kick out of Styanax's abilities and overall playstyle.

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But as with any other Warframe, you'll need to craft Styanax and invest some Forma to truly unleash his potential. This guide will showcase how to do just that. We'll go over how to obtain Styanax, what each ability does, and we'll showcase three builds that make him a great choice for all Warframe content.

Updated September 18th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Digital Extremes has nerfed Styanax twice since we originally wrote this article, and this Warframe is now officially obtainable through Chipper and Kahl's weekly missions. We've updated this article to reflect recent nerfs, updated our endgame build to focus more on survivability, and added Styanax's component crafting costs.

How To Craft Styanax

All Warframe players will get Styanax for free if they log in before September 28th. Styanax will be given to you in an inbox message, complete with a Warframe Slot and Orokin Reactor pre-installed.

Styanax's component blueprints may be purchased from Chipper at the Drifter's Camp. Upon completing the "Veilbreaker" quest, complete the "Sneaky Sabotage" weekly Kahl mission to unlock Chipper's shop. All Styanax blueprints may be purchased from Chipper with Stock, a currency type that can only be found by completing Kahl's weekly missions.

Styanax Blueprint

Styanax Neuroptics

Styanax Chassis

Styanax Systems

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Styanax Abilities

Stats

Passive

Passive: Styanax's critical chance increases with his shields and doubles for spearguns.

Styanax's current Shield Capacity grants a critical chance buff to all of his weapons. This buff functions similarly to critical chance mods like Point Strike, multiplying the critical chance value by the weapon's base critical chance. This buff stacks additively with similar critical chance mods. If Styanax is currently using a speargun, this buff is doubled.

Your weapons gain 1% more critical chance per 40 shields on Styanax. At max rank with no shield buffs, Styanax's 750 base shields grant an 18% critical chance buff, increased to 36% for spearguns. Adding mods like Redirection and Vigor will further increase this bonus. Conversely, using a Decaying Dragon Key will reduce the strength of this passive. The critical buff is taken based on your current shields, so taking damage mid-fight will decrease the efficacy of Styanax's passive.

Axios Javelin

Axios Javelin: Throw an Axios Javelin. When the javelin impales an enemy against a wall, surrounding enemies are pulled into the area and suffer a burst of damage.

*Duration is supposed to affect the vortex duration, but vortex duration cannot exceed two seconds as of writing. Only the target's impale duration is affected by this stat.

Styanax conjures a javelin in his right hand and throws it towards the reticle, impaling any targets caught in the spear's path. Enemies hit by the spear take 1,250 Puncture damage and are impaled onto the javelin. Additionally, directly impacting a target with the Axios Javelin will cause them to explode, dealing 1,250 Blast Damage to themselves and nearby foes.

If the Axios Javelin makes contact with an enemy and subsequent wall, the target will be impaled to the wall and create a short-lived vortex that sucks in nearby targets within a 15-meter radius. The vortex behaves similarly to Nidus' Larva ability or Vauban's Bastille. This suction effect lasts for two seconds, and the impaled target is left inactive for eight seconds—the latter of which is affected by Ability Duration.

Axios Javelin scales well with Ability Strength and Range, Strength taking priority. Axios Javelin has the largest radius out of all suction-related CC abilities in Warframe, beating out Nidus' Larva by three meters. This means you only need a small investment into Ability Range to pull enemies from 20+ meters away, making this a fantastic crowd control ability. High investment into Ability Strength makes Axios Javelin great for killing unarmored fodder enemies as well.

Tharros Strike

Tharros Strike: Summon Tharros, the shield of Styanax. Swing Tharros to repel enemies and reduce their shields and armor. Styanax regenerates health for every enemy struck.

Styanax bashes his shield, creating a fan of ethereal Tharros projectiles that spread out in roughly a 135° cone. All enemies hit by the ability will take 1,000 Impact damage, lose 50% of their armor and shields, and Styanax will heal for 100 HP per enemy hit. The projectiles travel in a fan up to nine meters from Styanax, affected by Ability Range. Tharros Strike can also knock back targets, including Disruptors.

Tharros Strike is your main source of armor strip on Styanax and should be built for Strength and Range. Since armor stripping is additive now, you can actually run Corrosive Projection and reach about 167% Ability Strength to fully strip a target's armor, giving you more space in your build. That's great since Tharros Strike has a rather small base range—something that isn't a big issue if you subsume Tharros Strike onto other Warframes. Try to get your Ability Range to 190% or more to consistently hit targets from a distance. You can also subsume this ability and replace it with Hildryn's Pillage, something we talk about in the builds section of this guide.

Rally Point

Rally Point: Draw enemy attention to Styanax. His resolve uplifts him and nearby allies, regenerating the squad's energy over time.Styanax and his allies also regenerate shields for every kill assist they contribute.

Styanax stands his ground and projects a wide-reaching pulse, granting himself and nearby allies a temporary buff. You and your allies affected by Rally Point will regenerate three Energy per second and gain 50 shields per kill while this ability is active. Rally Point is not a channeled ability, so you can pair this ability with Zenurik's Wellspring skill. And similar to Rhino's Roar, allies only need to be near you when Rally Point is cast to receive the benefits of this skill for its duration.

Rally Point scales heavily off Ability Strength and Duration. Strength increases how much Energy you'll regenerate per second and your shield restore on kill. Duration makes the ability last longer, increasing the net Energy this ability grants. Scaling both stats and equipping Primed Flow can single-handedly solve Styanax's Energy economy.

Final Stand

Final Stand: Exude might and valor. Rise into the air and throw a barrage of Axios Javelins. The javelins deal damage to nearby enemies wherever they land. Direct hits to enemies deal greater damage.

With the might of many Warframes, Styanax flings himself in the air and begins throwing a barrage of Axion Javelins at the reticle, throwing six Javelins per throw with the help of his ethereal allies. You will stay hovered in the air until you finish casting this ability. Increasing your Ability Duration will add additional barrages to the ability, making it last longer and increasing its total DPS. The damage of each javelin may be increased with Ability Strength. All javelins explode on impact with any surface, although the listed impact damage requires you to directly hit a target. Direct impacts guarantee a Slash proc.

You cannot cast your other abilities while in Final Stand, and you may not fire your weapons or use parkour maneuvers while throwing these javelins. Air control is substantially increased to compensate, making it quite easy to reposition while casting this ability. Gravity does not affect Styanax while casting Final Stand. Cast speed modifiers do not affect the ability itself, only the wind-up.

Ability Strength and Duration are recommended if you wish to build around Final Stand. Increasing your Strength will enhance the damage of each javelin and your Slash procs, while Duration allows you to throw more javelins per cast. This ability also has great synergy with Axios Javelin, converging all nearby targets into a tight ball for easy Slash procs. You cannot disable Final Stand mid-cast, so be careful about speccing for too much Duration.

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Styanax Builds

Styanax has quite a few build possibilities due to his versatile kit. Most Styanax builds will want to spec for Ability Strength, followed by Ability Duration and Range. Around 200% Ability Strength is recommended to fully strip armor with your second ability, but you can forgo some Strength and use Corrosive Projection as your aura to achieve a similar effect.

For your Focus School, use Zenurik. Styanax doesn't have any channeled abilities in his kit, allowing you to reap the benefits of Wellspring and Energy Pulse. The Energy regeneration from both sources stacks with Rally Point, allowing you to regenerate 15+ Energy per second with a good build.

For general survivability, we highly recommend playing as a shield tank. Shield-gating is possible on Styanax but not optimal. His base shields are quite high, requiring you to dump Efficiency and use Rally Point as a panic shield restore—an ability that roots you in place and has a lengthy cast animation. Adaptation and Redirection will serve you far better in most situations. If you worry about Toxin procs killing you, replace Tharros Strike with Hildryn's Pillage (as shown in our second build).

Archon Shards

Archon Shards can be incredibly powerful on Styanax. We recommend using Crimson Archon Shards to increase your Ability Strength, allowing you to reach the 100% defense strip cap on Tharros Strike or Pillage without needing to use multiple Ability Strength mods. Fill the rest of the slots with Crimson (Duration) or Azure (Shield) Archon Shards.

Starter Build (0 Forma, No Subsume)

• Forma: 0
• Subsume: None

This build attempts to give Styanax a bit of everything to enhance your overall kit. Umbral Intensify and Augur Secrets give you a solid baseline for your Ability Strength. Paired with Corrosive Projection as your aura, Tharros Strike will fully strip enemy armor. These mods can be a pain to obtain, so feel free to use Transient Fortitude or a standard Intensify instead; just focus on getting your Strength to 168% with Corrosive Projection or 200% without.

Stretch and Augur Reach grant 175% Ability Range, making your Axios Javelin a fantastic crowd control tool. It also makes Tharros Strike much easier to use in larger tilesets. For Duration, we use Augur Message and Primed Continuity to give Styanax a 54-second timer on Rally Point. This should give you about 270 Energy per cast, so we'll be using Primed Flow to increase Styanax's Energy reserves. Paired with the Zenurik Focus School, Energy shouldn't be an issue. Round off the build with Redirection for survivability, and you should be good for most base game content; Steel Path will require more investment.

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Endgame Build (3 Forma, Pillage Subsume)

• Forma: 3 (2V, –)
• Subsume: Pillage (Hildryn)

Styanax's overall kit is solid, yet he lacks a panic heal for when he gets focused. That's why this build replaces Tharros Strike (or Axios Javelin, your call) it with Hildryn's Pillage, an ability that creates an expanding ring that stripes enemy defenses and grants overshields to Styanax. It also cleanses status aliments, so you can forgo Rolling Guard for Adaptation.

The issue with Pillage typically is its low defense strip, requiring a whopping 400% Ability Strength to achieve. Since Tharros Strike was the main reason we scaled Range in the first place, we can forgo Range mods this time and spec for more Strength and defenses. With your Arcanes fully active, Pillage will be able to fully strip defenses and give Styanax maximum overshields in a single cast.

Transient Fortitude, Blind Rage, Power Drift, and Molt Augmented are our sources of Ability Strength for this build. Paired with Corrosive Projection, your Pillage will achieve 100% defense strip. To counteract the negatives from both Corrupted Mods, we use Constitution, Primed Continuity, and Molt Efficiency to increase Ability Duration and Streamline to counter the negative Efficiency from Blind Rage. Since Strength scales Rally Point's Energy regeneration, your Energy economy will be fine if you use Zenurik. If you don't mind dropping your survivability, replace Redirection with Boreal's Hatred.

For defenses, we use Redirection/Boreal's Hatred and Adaptation. The DR from Adaptation applies to your shields, and you have two abilities that recharge your shields. Use Pillage if you're in a pinch, and Rally Point will restore shields after each kill. While an expensive build to replicate, you'll have solid survivability, great damage, excellent CC, and one of the best defense-stripping abilities in the game.

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Health Tank (4 Forma, Parasitic Armor Subsume)

• Forma: 4 (2V, –, D (Exilus))
• Subsume: Parasitic Armor (Helminth)

If you love Warframes like Inaros but dislike their playstyle, this build is for you. This build uses the Parasitic Armor Helminth ability (replacing Final Stand) to give Styanax over 2,500 armor, turning him into an HP tank while active. Tharros Strike becomes a far more useful tool for restoring HP, and you still get to use Axios Javelin's excellent CC and Rally Point's passive Energy regeneration.

Umbral Intensify and Molt Augmented will scale your Strength for this build. With Corrosive Projection as your aura, Tharros Strike will fully strip armor. Energy might be an issue since our Strength is so low, but that's where Rage and Primed Flow come in. Since you're an HP tank now, you can use Rage to maintain your Energy needs. Rally Point even draws aggro towards Styanax, making it incredibly easy to benefit from Rage.

For the armor conversion itself, we use Primed Vigor to buff our shields and HP alongside Umbral Vitality to give our HP a major boost. This gives Styanax over 1,000 HP, giving him durability that's comparable to Nidus. We round off the build with Stretch for some Ability Range, Adaptation for more DR, Primed Continuity to extend the duration of your abilities, and Primed Sure Footed to make Styanax immune to knockdown effects. The second Arcane slot is up to you, but we recommend Molt Efficiency for more Ability Duration. Once your shields recover, wait six seconds before using Rally Point and Parasitic Armor to maximize this Arcane's effect.

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