The Basmu has always been a little slept on in Warframe. This Sentient rifle looks great and fires inherent Electricity rounds that explode on impact, dealing Heat damage. While it also has an alternative fire mode that acts as a beam weapon, that’s not what we’ll focus on today.
## The Best Basmu and Dreadful Killshot Build in Warframe
The Dreadful Killshot build was introduced in the most recent Nora’s Nightwave and offers a damage and status chance bonus that scales with your Warframe’s health. To get the full 360% bonus, you’ll want your Warframe’s total health to reach 1350. However, even at 600 health, you’ll match the benefit of a fully-ranked Serration mod.
You can technically run the Basmu with any Warframe, but it’s highly recommended to pair it with a Frame that can meet the upper health threshold. Leaving damage potential on the table isn’t ideal, especially when this build can shine with the right health pool.
For this build, I’m focusing on a low-cost option that will easily carry you through Steel Path with just a single Forma, which is a great deal. For the Arcane, I recommend running Primary Crux. It adds more ammo economy and status chance, though you should choose whichever Arcane you have fully maxed between Crux, Merciless, and Deadhead.
### Mod Recommendations
– **Critical Delay**: If you don’t have this mod, go with Point Strike as an alternative. Critical Delay boosts critical chance significantly at the cost of some fire rate. I usually dislike the overall impact on DPS, but we will compensate for it later in the build.
– **Galvanized Aptitude**: If you don’t have this, use Rifle Aptitude. Galvanized Aptitude leverages “Gun CO,” which means a multiplicative damage increase based on how many status effects the enemy has.
– **Magnetic Capacity**: Adds Magnetic damage — one of the best damage types in the game — and increases magazine capacity.
– **Vital Sense**: A huge boost to critical damage, essential for maximizing output.
– **Malignant Force**: Consider this as elemental slot one; combined with the next slot, it creates Viral damage, arguably the most valuable elemental type in the game.
– **Rime Rounds**: Elemental slot two, which combines with Malignant Force to form Viral damage.
– **Dreadful Killshot**: Provides a 20% damage and status chance buff for every 75 points of your Warframe’s health, capping at 360%.
– **Galvanized Chamber**: Grants multishot, effectively increasing the number of rounds fired per shot. Swap with Split Chamber if you don’t have this mod.
### Additional Tips
The build relies somewhat on external Corrosive priming to handle heavily armored enemies. Consider pairing the Basmu with a secondary weapon or companion that provides Corrosive damage. A Diriga or Hound companion with the appropriate build can make a massive difference.
Where things get really interesting is when you can outsource Viral damage. If you have Nourish available through the Helminth system, you can replace the Viral mods with Corrosive or Blast, depending on your preferences and enemy group density.
### How I Like to Run This Weapon
– **Frost**: Although my Frost build doesn’t meet the full health cap, it gains significant benefits from Dreadful Killshot. With full armor stripping on his fourth ability and a subsumed Nourish for Viral damage, it’s been a lot of fun using this setup in Void Cascades.
### Why This Build Matters
What makes this weapon and mod combo so appealing is that it works very well for players who like to health-tank — typically newer players. You only need one Forma to achieve this build, making it very economical to set up.
While the Basmu won’t compete with the absolute meta weapons when pushing for the level cap, it doesn’t need to. It’s an excellent low-investment weapon that will easily scale into Steel Path for players who want a powerful, budget-friendly rifle option.
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Ready to take the Basmu into battle? With this build, you’ll enjoy a surprisingly effective and versatile weapon that rewards investing in your Warframe’s health pool. Give it a try and see how it performs for you!
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146794/best-basmu-build-warframe
