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Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Prime Unvaulting: Nova and Trinity Primes (2020)

A new Unvault has been announced that will immediately follow the closing of Oberon and Nekros: Trinity and Nova. This switch will occur on the 26th of May.

Trinity is the quintessential support Frame. With a focus on helping herself and allies, she is appreciated in just about any squad.

Well of Life (1) is by her least useful ability. It suspends the targeted enemy, giving them additional health and healing any players who damage it. Energy Vampire (2) deals True Damage to a targeted enemy, periodically emitting pulses that restore Energy to players in range. If the victim dies, one pulse is emitted restoring Energy equal to all remaining pulses. Link (3) attaches to a few nearby enemies, reducing the damage received by Trinity and redirecting all damage and procs received to the linked enemies. Blessing (4) instantly fully heals all players and other friendly units within affinity range, and gives them up to 75% damage reduction for a time. It also provides a small amount of healing and 50% damage reduction to defence objects.

Most of Trinity's Augments are decent, giving her abilities additional useful effects. Pool of Life (1) causes Well of Life victims to drop Health orbs on death, with a chance for an Energy orb as well - a complete waste of a mod slot given her other abilities. Vampire Leech (2) causes excess energy restoration on allies to restore their Shields, to the point of building up Overshields. Abating Link (3) causes Link to temporarily reduce the armour of any affected enemies.

Trinity Prime has increased Shields, Armour and Sprint Speed over regular Trinity. Overall, Trinity is a very useful Support, capable of keeping her allies topped up with health and Energy. With limited enemy weakening/killing ability on her own, she truly shines in a squad.


Dual Kamas Prime is a solid Dual Sword Melee, however it is strictly outclassed by the (also Vaulted) Nami Skyla Prime, and faces stiff competition from the many other good Dual Swords. Solid Crit, Status Chance, Slash bias and reasonable Range and Attack Speed make it a very well rounded weapon. Melee weapons in general are extremely strong right now, and any half-decent one with a good build can easily take on the majority of content in Warframe.

Kavasa Prime Collar is equippable on all Kubrows, including the Helminth Charger. It replaces the default Taichen Collar. It gives the pet slightly increased Health, Shields and an alright amount of Armour. It's a nice-to-have for your Kubrows, being a straight (albeit minor) upgrade over the default collar, but is nothing special since the removal of Pet permadeaths. It also does not offer any Mastery points.


I've covered Nova Prime in previous posts, and she has changed little, if at all, since then. She comes with Soma and Vasto Primes. An anti-matter themed Warframe, Nova excels at Debuff/CC, with an element of DPS and reasonable survivability.

Null Stars (1) orbit around Nova, throwing themselves at any enemy in range. More importantly, each Null Star orbiting Nova gives her 5% Damage Reduction to her health. Anti-Matter Drop (2) creates a slow moving projectile that, upon impact, explodes dealing Radiation damage based on the amount of damage shot into it beforehand. This damage is capped at 200,000 Radiation damage. Wormhole (3) creates a portal that teleports objects including projectiles from one location to another. Molecular Prime (4) "primes" all affected enemies, causing them to take double damage, have their speed affected according to Power Strength (current limits are +60% speed to -75% speed), and explode on death.

All of Nova's Augments are useful, either enhancing the appropriate ability or improving Nova's survivability via Null Stars. Neutron Star (1) allows you to decast your existing Null Stars, dealing minimal damage to nearby enemies. More importantly, it allows you to quickly recast your Null Stars to maximum. Antimatter Absorb (2) allows AMD to also absorb enemy shots. Escape Velocity (3) grants Nova and allies a temporary boost to move speed upon using a Wormhole. Molecular Fission (4) restores Null Stars on each kill of a primed enemy.

Nova Prime has increased Shields, Armour and Energy compared to regular Nova, the latter of which is most useful. Molecular Prime singehandedly makes Nova a very good CC Frame and an essential farming Frame, and her other abilities all have solid uses as well.


Soma Prime is a Full-Auto spool-up Rifle. It has great Crit and a massive Mag Capacity, but also chews through ammo very quickly and has mediocre Status Chance. Once a signature top tier weapon, it has since been vastly powercreeped both by newer releases, and older, buffed weapons. Nonetheless, the reduction of high-end enemy scaling allows the Soma Prime to remain relevant at reasonably high levels, and not fall too far behind its peers.

Vasto Prime is a Slash-focused revolver Secondary. With high Crit as well as Status Chance, it is very effective against both unarmoured and armoured targets. Its biggest weakness is a small Mag Capacity of just 6 rounds, necessiting constant (albeit relatively short) reloads. The VastoP is one of relatively few Secondaries that is very good at inflicting critical Slash procs, and is an all-round solid sidearm.


I would personally recommend the following list of priority for the new Unvault items:
  1. Nova and Trinity Primes
  2. Vasto Prime - also consider picking up multiple to make Akvasto Prime.
  3. Soma/Dual Kamas Primes to preference
  4. Kavasa Prime Collar

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