Warframe has over 50 Warframes to choose from, each with its own strengths. If you’re looking to spawn a Kuva Lich or a Corpus Sister, however, your choice may not depend on a Warframe’s power, ability strength, or build. Instead, it’s all down to what Progenitor Warframe you need to use.
Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos will provide a long challenge to players, similar to a siege. Players need to diminish the Lich or Sister’s control over the Solar System, discover their weaknesses, and use a certain combination of Requiem Mods (available from Requiem Fissures) to take them down. Each showdown gives you a chance to test a certain combination of Requiem mods—but if you fail to defeat your target, they’ll become stronger and stronger. Not only do you need at least three different mods, but using them against the Lich or Sister will also consume one of their charges.
After killing the Lich or the Sister, however, the Tenno gets a specific weapon for their troubles, which can be entirely unique (like the Kuva Chakkhurr) or improved versions of base weapons (like the Kuva Zarr or the Tenet Arca Plasmor). To spawn a Lich or Sister, players need to finish a target in specific missions, and the weapon will appear as a pop-up above their target’s head before using a Mercy on them. Their element, however, won’t appear before spawning, and it’s up to the Progenitor Warframe to determine which bonus you want on your weapons.
Your Kuva or Tenet weapons will have a specific damage type that depends on the Progenitor Warframe, which is the game’s way of referring to the Warframe you use to spawn the Lich. Spawning a Lich while using Frost, for instance, will result in a weapon with Cold damage. Prime versions of the Warframe (or Umbra, in Excalibur’s case) will have the same element as their base counterpart.
The Progenitor Warframe system allows you to choose specific elements for your weapons by using specific Warframes—and if you’re lucky enough to have a Lich or Sister spawn with an Ephemera, your Progenitor Warframe’s element will also dictate what kind of Ephemera you’ll receive.
Though some cases are intuitive (Volt and Gyre being Electricity, Saryn being Toxin, and Ember being Heat, for instance), other cases can be hard to guess off the top of your head. Here are all the Progenitor Warframes and their elements in Warframe so you know what you’ll get on your weapons (or what Ephemera you’ll receive).
Progenitor Warframes list in Warframe
Toxin
- Atlas
- Ivara
- Khora
- Nekros
- Nidus
- Oberon
- Saryn
Cold
- Frost
- Gara
- Hildryn
- Revenant
- Styanax
- Titania
- Trinity
Electricity
- Banshee
- Caliban
- Excalibur
- Gyre
- Limbo
- Nova
- Valkyr
- Volt
Heat
- Chroma
- Ember
- Inaros
- Nezha
- Protea
- Vauban
- Wisp
Impact
- Baruuk
- Gauss
- Grendel
- Rhino
- Sevagoth
- Wukong
- Zephyr
Magnetic
- Harrow
- Hydroid
- Lavos
- Mag
- Mesa
- Xaku
- Yareli
Radiation
- Ash
- Equinox
- Garuda
- Loki
- Mirage
- Nyx
- Octavia
