Review: Saryn (Prime) (U24.1.1)

Saryn is a toxin-themed Warframe who was released way back in U7, and has received several reworks since. Saryn Prime was released alongside Spira and Nikana Primes in U18.4.12. As she is currently, Saryn is a surprisingly survivable and quite powerful AoE Warframe who excels at destroying rooms of enemies.

Note: This is I believe the third version of Saryn, having already seen a rework before her more recent one. I have only experienced the second and third versions, and both work very differently.

Acquisition

As with the majority of Warframes, Saryn requires 3 parts + blueprint, with each part needing to be built from its own individual blueprint. The main blueprint is available from the Market, while the blueprints for her parts are rewarded for defeating Kela de Thaym on Merrow, Sedna.

Saryn Prime is a standard Prime Warframe, requiring 3 parts + blueprint. Each of the parts must be built from their own individual blueprint. As SarynP is currently Vaulted, none of her blueprints can be obtained from currently available relics.

Stats

Saryn has above average Armour at 225, Health at 125, and Energy at 150, though below average Sprint Speed of 0.95.

Saryn Prime has even higher Armour at 300, Energy at 200 (which is the equal-highest alongside Volt Prime), and a boosted Sprinted Speed of 1.

Since this is my first Frame review, it's worth noting that while Prime weapons are typically vast upgrades on their base models, Prime Warframes are typically much smaller improvements. Besides for a few select cases (where abilities are affected by armour), the abilities of Prime and regular Warframes are identical. As such, while say a Burston is far outclassed by the Burston Prime, Saryn can still perform the same job as Saryn Prime. In every case, the non-prime Warframe will still do just fine. I personally used a non-Prime Nova for a while in Sorties, and fared no different with it than the Nova Prime I eventually acquired.

Notably, Prime Warframes also have a neat interaction with Orokin Death Orbs. Touching an Orb with a Prime Frame will release a pulse that restores 250 energy to all Frames in range. This can only happen once per Orb.

Abilities

Passive: Potency

All Status Effects inflicted by Saryn or her weapons last 25% longer.

This is a simple but effective and very useful passive. There are many Status Effects for which increased duration is beneficial, including Slash, Toxin/Gas and Viral. Increased duration for the former two increases overall damage dealt by a single proc, while increased duration for the latter increases the window of opportunity to take advantage of the halved enemy health. This passive also synergises well with Saryn's abilities, as she her Toxic Lash (3) and Miasma (4) proc Toxin and Viral respectively.

1: Spore

Spore inflicts a targeted enemy with 3 spores, with unlimited duration. These spores inflict at base 10 Corrosive damage (+Str), with 50% Status Chance (+Str). Killing and infected enemy with weapons, or damaging the spore itself, will pop and spread the spore, which then inflicts all enemies within 16m range (+Ran) with a new spore. Enemies who die to Spore damage will not spread their spores, with the except of enemies Spore is directly casted on - they will spread spores on death. Enemies can have up to 3 spores at once. Casting Spore does not interrupt actions, and costs 25 energy.

For each enemy inflicted with spores, the damage dealt by each spore is increased by 2 damage per second (+Str), to a maximum of 7 enemies. The damage dealt by spores is universal to all spores, and is displayed on the bottom-right of the UI, also with a count of infected enemies. There is a hard cap of about 100,000 damage-per-second for spores, though you are unlikely to get anywhere near this in regular gameplay. My record is probably around 5,000 in Zone 10+ of ESO, before the damage growth was limited to 7 enemies.

Recasting Spore while there are still spores active will reduce the current damage by 20%, but will only cost half energy. When there are no enemies left infected, the damage will decay, losing 20% instantly and 10% every half second. This decay is slowed by (+Str) and (+Dur). Nullifying effects, such as Nullifier fields, reduce the damage by 30% every half second.


Spore is one of the more complicated abilities in the game, but thankfully can be utilised much more simply. Getting the most out of Spore can be like playing a game of Plague Inc (or similar) - if you don't take care of your spores, they will die out quickly. However, if well maintained and spread, Spore is one of the most damaging abilities in the game, capable of tearing through swathes of high level enemies with ease. Its Corrosive procs are also invaluable for weakening and killing armoured enemies.

So long as its damage has not gotten too high, Spore can be fairly easily mantained by actively killing infected enemies with weapons (or abilities, as will be discussed below). In my experience, it is generally not worth using at lower levels due to how quickly it will kill itself off. It also struggles with low enemy density, where it cannot grow or deal as much damage as ideal. For high density, higher level missions, such as ESO or Defence, Spore thrives and can do incredible amounts of damage.

2: Molt

Molt leaves behind a decoy that draws enemy fire that lasts for 40 seconds (+Dur), and can be cast without interrupting movement or actions, costing 50 energy. For the first 3 seconds (+Dur), it absorbs damage, adding it to its hitpoint pool afterwards. For 5 seconds (+Dur) after casting, Saryn has increased movement speed by 1.5x (+Str). Casting Molt immediately clears all Status Effects from Saryn.

The decoy has base 400 shields and 500 health (+Str). Upon being destroyed, its duration expiring, or Molt being cast again, the decoy explodes. This deals 400 Toxin damage (+Str) with guaranteed Toxin proc to any enemies within 10m range (+Ran).


Molt is a useful utility ability for getting out of a difficult situation. Even though its aggro-drawing can be unreliable, any amount of aggro drawn is useful for survival. This is especially true with the speed boost, as enemy accuracy is inversely proportional to target move speed. The ability to cleanse any and all Status Effects on command is very useful, especially in Sorties with hazards and elemental modifiers. The damage dealt by Molt upon exploding is negligible.

3: Toxic Lash

Toxic Lash adds 30% Toxin damage (+Str) to Saryn's weapons, doubled for Melee weapons, for 45 seconds (+Dur). This damage is calculated from weapons' total damage, and does not combine with any elements equipped. All hits have guaranteed Toxin proc. Landing a hit on an enemy infected with Spores will immediately burst and spread all of the spores. Melee weapons have 40% increased blocking damage reduction (+Str), with blocking damage reduction limited to 90%. Toxic Lash can be cast without interrupting actions, and costs 50 energy.


Toxic Lash is a rather powerful weapon damage buff that also makes Spore spreading extremely easy. Instead of needing to hit the Spore specifically, or kill the enemy, any hit with Toxic Lash active will do. The added Toxin damage and proc is fantastically effective against Augmented Shield sorties, completely bypassing the shields and dealing major damage directly to health.

4: Miasma

Miasma deals 150 Viral damage per second (+Str) to all enemies within 20 metres (+Ran) for 6 seconds (+Dur). All affected enemies are stunned for a short time on cast, and are inflicted with a Viral proc. Miasma will not re-stun enemies if they are still under the effects of a previous Miasma. Miasma deals quadruple damage (4x) to enemies affected by Spores. Enemies affected by Miasma will spread Spores on death, regardless of the cause of death. Casting Miasma will interrupt actions and prevent movement, and costs 75 energy.


Miasma is an AoE nuke and debuff that has been reworked to rely heavily on Spores. Its base damage is fairly low, but immediately becomes quite impressive if Spores are present. The short stun can be useful, though it does not last very long. The guaranteed Viral proc is very useful, both for Spores to destroy their targets faster, as well as for killing enemies with weapons. The guaranteed Spore spread on death is also very useful, as high damage Spores can be very frustrating to spread and maintain. Miasma without Spore is still reasonably effective for low level enemy clearing.

Augments

1: Venom Dose

Venom Dose is very simple. It gives 100% Corrosive Damage (+Str) to a targeted ally, lasting for 40 seconds (+Dur).

Boosted Corrosive damage can be quite nice, but this Augment has a number of issues. It cannot be applied to yourself, so is completely worthless without teammates. There will be times when added Corrosive is not necessarily ideal, for instance on a Viral + Slash build. It also takes up a valuable mod slot, and I find that Saryn is a frame who is already very tight on mods as is. As it can only buff allies, and its value relies entirely on your allies making use of it, I generally feel that it is not worth equipping.

2: Regenerative Molt

Regenerative Molt offers Saryn a reliable and consistent heal, something not very common and highly valuable among Warframes. It heals Saryn 50 health per second (+Str) for 10 seconds. If the Molt is destroyed (either from damage or too short a duration) before Regen Molt's duration has expired, it will no longer heal Saryn.

In spite of stopping healing if the Molt dies, Regen Molt is a very useful healing mod. Thanks to the absorption period Molt now has upon casting, it is practically guaranteed to survive at least 6 seconds, often longer. Combined with Molt's aggro drawing, I find that it is typically sufficient to survive and escape whatever situation you were caught in. Regen Molt also synergises fantastically with Rage/Hunter Adrenaline, as Regen Molt will pretty much always heal more health than was lost to gain the energy required to cast it.

3: Contagion Cloud

Contagion Cloud spawns toxin clouds on enemies killed while Toxic Lash is active. These clouds deal 150 Toxin damage per second (+Str), are 2 metres wide (+Ran), and last for 12 seconds (+Dur). Damage is doubled for melee kills.


Another pretty simple Augment, this one makes your Toxic Lash kills a bit better. However, I don't think this Augment is worth a slot either. The damage scales only with Strength and not weapon damage or mods, so even with very high Strength, it doesn't do much at high levels. 600 Toxin per second is nothing compared to 20,000+ DPS that most decent weapons can easily put out. 2 metre base diameter is also pretty small, and it takes a lot of clouds and high Range to actually cover any decent area with it. Annoyingly, the cloud itself also does not pop and spread spores on infected enemies.

If you want this sort of toxic cloud mechanic, grab a Pox or Torid. Those weapons will create clouds that are far more powerful, and with Toxic Lash active, will also pop spores on any infected enemy who passes through.

4: None

Miasma does not currently have an Augment.

Builds

Saryn's kit revolves around Spores, and infecting and killing as many enemies as possible. The best way to achieve this is to prioritise Range. Miasma also becomes much stronger with more Range. I personally consider +90% Range to be the minimum for a properly effective Saryn, as that is the threshold where I have been able to spread her spores reliably. I feel that the next best stat to prioritise is Strength. Increasing Strength drastically increases killing power, since it affects her base damages, as well as Spore's ramp-up speed, and slows the spore damage decay. Especially with the cap of +14 damage per second at base (7 enemies worth), Strength is necessary for a fast damage buildup. It also increases her Spore's Corrosive Status Chance, though base 50% is already very good.

Duration is useful, but I feel is not very important. Spores now last indefinitely, and all of Saryn's abilities have quite long base duration. The biggest bonus from Duration I feel is that Miasma will deal increased damage, since it does damage-per-second. It also slows damage decay, although Strength does that as well and is a lot more overall useful. I also find Efficiency to be unnecessary for high level builds, as I find Rage/Hunter Adrenaline to provide more than enough energy. Furthermore, with proper spore maintenance, Saryn does not actually require much casting. However, Efficiency is definitely useful at lower levels where R/HA are much less effective and spore maintenance is much more difficult. I also always run Zenurik, so my view of Efficiency is heavily biased.

With decent armour, above average base health and a source of reliable healing (Regen Molt), health is a very good defence for Saryn. Regen Molt + Rage/Hunter Adrenaline is an especially strong combo that can keep you alive with a lot of energy quite easily. Personally I strongly dislike Quick Thinking as I prefer keeping energy available to cast abilities, but it is also a very strong option for Saryn (Prime) as both have very large energy pools. Increasing Saryn's armour is an option if you want to boost survivability further, however I feel that they aren't worth slotting in as much as the other mods that I use and would recommend.

Due to her rather high Range desires, I feel that Saryn is not an easy Frame to build for as a newer player. She wants several rarer mods at high rank (mainly Corrupted mods) to properly realise her potential.

Saryn has native - and D polarities, with the Prime also having a V. The native Aura polarity is a D.

0-Forma:

This build has -5% Strength, +2.5% Duration, +135% Range, and +30% Efficiency. Ideally Continuity would be replaced with Intensify, which is possible with Saryn Prime's extra V polarity, if Transient Fortitude is Rank 8 or lower, or if Stretch is switched for Augur Reach. The reduced Duration would not be a huge problem, as Molt, Toxic Lash and Miasma will all still last a decent duration, and the Strength will keep damage decay from being too fast.

As I discussed just above, Range is the top priority stat. Strength is kept from dropping too low as it has a major impact on killing power, and Streamline is a useful mod to have, especially for lower levels or if you are still struggling with energy economy. Duration is useful to have, but I would readily switch it for more strength. Rage/Hunter Adrenaline is an option for the Streamline slot at higher levels, as I feel it offers far better energy economy.

I've gone with Vitality and Regen Molt for defensive purposes. With Saryn (Prime), Vitality results in a 925 health pool, which is quite high. Combined with Regen Molt at a reasonable Strength, this makes Saryn surprisingly difficult to kill. If you like Quick Thinking, that instead of Vitality would also offer even higher total health pool, but would of course drain energy to survive. Especially with Regen Molt that essentially turns energy into health far more efficiently, I personally don't like QT on Saryn (or in general really).

Rejuvenation has been chosen as the Aura, as it is by far the most useful of the D polarity Auras.

Duration 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities (or just one for the Prime) allows the comfortable use of a wide range of different mods. This pictured setup has all stats except Efficiency increased, with +25% Strength, +27.5% Duration, and +135% Range. Compared to the previous build, Flow and Continuity have been switched for their Primed versions, and Streamline has been swapped for Intensify.

More Strength makes all of Saryn's abilities stronger, while the boosted Duration particularly helps Toxic Lash and Miasma. My preferred setup, with very different energy economy, is:

Hunter Adrenaline and Regen Molt lets you take damage to gain a lot of energy, then heal off the damage for a fraction of the energy. This helps to compensate for the Efficiency loss from Blind Rage. The even higher Strength however lets you heal even more from Regen Molt, as well as being significantly more powerful overall.

Forma-ing the Aura slot for another polarity is a good idea, since V and - offer many more good Auras. V has notably Steel Charge which has extra capacity over other Auras and Growing Power for more Strength, while - has excellent options like Corrosive Projection, Enemy and Loot Radars, and Sprint Boost.

I strongly recommend trying different combinations of mods, as the best build is always the one you decide on yourself. I personally have gone through many different iterations before arriving at my current builds.

My Builds

This is my general purpose build. I essentially always run Zenurik focus, but at higher levels, Hunter Adrenaline is fantastic and keeps me at max energy almost all the time. Blind Rage + Umbral Intensify offers quite high Strength without reducing Duration as Transient Fortitude would. Umbral Intensify also works nicely with Umbral Vitality to provide more health and strength than Intensify + Vitality would. Overextended + Stretch are used for +135% Range. Regen Molt is of course there for healing, and Primed Flow for energy.

Handspring is a fantastic quality of life mod given how prevalent knockdowns are in Warframe. Corrosive Projection has been used as the Aura to make armoured enemies that little bit easier to kill, though other - polarity auras like Enemy Sense are of course fine options too. For a time, mainly before fitting in the Umbral mods, I also really liked Growing Power - it helped noticeably with raw killing power, as well as Regen Molt healing.

Saryn Prime is actually the only frame I've Forma'd to fit in the Umbral mods (besides Excal Umbra obviously), because of how much harder they are to fit in builds. While there are a number of Frames I use who would appreciate at least one of the Umbral mods, I can't be bothered putting what will likely be at least another 2 Forma into each of those Frames.

Arcane Guardian offers a nice bit of extra survivability under fire, while Arcane Avenger offers a fun (if fairly unnecessary) weapon damage boost. Avenger is particularly fun with a Blood Rush melee. These are absolutely not necessary for a good Saryn build.

My Onslaught build is almost identical, with only two notable changes. Augur Reach has been slotted in instead of Primed Flow. This is because of the Zone changes every 2:30 in Onslaught that reset energy, making the increased energy pool less useful. Saryn Prime's max rank energy pool is 300, which is already a good amount anyway. The extra Range is also very useful for infecting and killing more enemies, which is especially important in Onslaught which requires fast killing.

Arcane Energise has been swapped in instead of Arcane Avenger. The damage boost from Avenger was never really necessary, just a bit of fun. With energy constantly resetting in Onslaught, and minimum Efficiency at -55%, the occasional boost of energy can be a great help, especially at the start of a zone, for getting spores started and spread. At Rank 0, it's very unreliable and isn't a big boost, but it's certainly better than nothing.

This is my build for clearing low level defence missions. It has lower Strength, but high Range and more importantly, neutral Efficiency. Having normal Efficiency makes ability spamming much easier, though slotting in Streamline somewhere would help as well. This build makes a lot more use of Miasma, which benefits from the increased Duration from Primed Continuity. Regen Molt is only there because I had to polarise that slot to fit the Umbral mods in. If I didn't have to Forma that slot, I would have Streamline in there instead.

Hunter Adrenaline is of course no longer included since this build shouldn't be getting shot in the first place. Heck an argument could definitely be made to drop Umbral Vitality in that same vein. Enemy Sense (replaced now with Vigilante Pursuit since it is *finally* an Exilus mod) helps to spot any enemies who are still alive, so I can hunt them down faster.

Arcane Energise offers a nice, if rare, energy boost that reduces reliance on Zenurik. Arcane Grace is only there because I could, it realistically offers nothing for this build since I run Medi-Ray on Sentinels, Healing Return on melee, Regen Molt and Magus Elevate. Switching back to Arcane Guardian is probably a better choice.

Roles

Saryn is an AoE DPS with a few Debuff elements. With a good build and proper spore spreading, she can be damaging and killing just about every enemy in smaller maps like ESO, Defence and Interception. The tougher enemies get, the more potent spores become because of their scaling mechanic. Armour is far less of an issue for Saryn than it is for other Frames because of the consistent and frequent Corrosive procs from spores as well. Toxic Lash gives her weapons a decent damage buff, Miasma gives a wide range short stun, Viral proc and a decent amount of Viral damage, and both of these abilities make maintaining spores much easier. Even if she is unable to deal significant damage, the Corrosive and Viral procs make enemies a lot easier to kill, especially armoured enemies. Molt, especially with Augment, is a much more niche, but still useful panic button ability that makes escaping bad situations a lot easier.

With above average armour and reliable healing from Molt's Augment, Saryn also has an easier time surviving hits than a lot of other Frames, though she'll still go down very fast at higher levels.

Combat Use and Summary

Saryn is my favourite Warframe at the moment, and can be a lot of fun to play. She has a lot of killing power, and excels when there are a lot of enemies. She scales fairly well into higher levels, and can hold her own without support with the right build. However, Saryn has much less to offer in missions that don't require killing, such as Spy and Rescue.


Saryn is most effective against Grineer/Corrupted. Her Spore + Miasma combo is devastatingly effective against typical armoured organic enemies, with repeated Corrosive procs stripping away armour, and Viral damage + proc and increasing Corrosive damage rapidly depleting enemy health. She is also reasonably effective against the unarmoured Infested, since their heavies take drastically increased damage from Corrosive, however Ancient Healers and Disruptors of course mitigate the effects. In contrast with her previous version, Spore + Miasma is not especially effective against most Corpus enemies. The majority of Corpus do not have armour to strip, Corrosive is weak against Proto Shields, and Viral procs do not affect shields. Nonetheless, the damage scaling mechanic of Spores will eat away at Corpus units anyway, and a decent weapon and Toxic Lash can make short work of the majority of them.

The typical combat cycle is (cast Spores [1] on enemy) -> (cast Toxic Lash [3]) -> (hit infected enemies to spread spores) -> (recast Toxic Lash as necessary), and repeating when spores die out until all enemies are dead. Casting Molt [2] is done as necessary, primarily to heal or escape. Casting Miasma [4] is done either to quickly wipe out a wave of enemies, or help spread spores in a wide range. Personally, I find that my weapons are strong enough to spread spores reliably without bothering with Toxic Lash, unless I want the extra Toxin. Additionally, melee strikes very reliably pop and spread spores, even if you don't kill with the strike.

Spore spreading is essential to making the most of Saryn's abilities. Spores is weak as a single-target ability, and grows very slowly compared to infecting a group. Additionally, Miasma's full damage relies on spores infecting all enemies at once.

If the only infected enemies are ones that are far away, recasting Spores on other enemies is often better than hunting the infected enemies. You only lose 20% of your damage, which is easily built back up, and you have a newly infected enemy who is guaranteed to spread spores on death.


If you're looking for a Frame who excels at map wiping, Saryn is one of the best choices. She handles armoured enemies better than a lot of other Frames, and can deal damage in a massive radius thanks to her spore spreading mechanics. However, she also requires an active playstyle to maintain her spores for maximum effectiveness, and offers little utility outside of her many ways of killing enemies.

I've found that Saryn complements my playstyle and loadout preferences pretty much perfectly. I tend to favour precision type weapons (e.g. Tiberon/Sybaris Primes, Battacor) that are fantastic against fewer heavy targets, but are far less efficient against crowds. I also enjoy shooting far more than melee. Saryn offers fantastic crowd killing capabilities that are amplified by good shooting to spread and maintain spores, and also weakens armoured enemies for easier kills. Her above average survivability helps compensate for my mediocre aim and mobility. I also really like her design, especially her Orphid Deluxe Skin.

Weapon Combinations

Since Saryn's Spores (1) tear through armour rapidly, you can optimise your weapons to damage shields and health (e.g. using Viral, Magnetic rather than Corrosive, Radiation). Notably for melee weapons, Saryn allows you to reliably inflict enemies with up to three Status procs - Corrosive from Spores, Toxin from Toxic Lash (3) and Viral from Miasma (4). This combines fantastically with Condition Overload and Healing Return.