Warframe – The Ultimate Nova Guide

Nova Guide (2026) – Builds, Abilities, Augments, Arcanes & Companions

Passive

Enemies killed by Nova while slowed have a 15% chance to drop a Health Orb. Enemies killed while sped up have a 15% chance to drop an Energy Orb.

The slow or speed-up effect can come from any source, including Molecular Prime, Helminth abilities such as Gloom, Wyrd Scythes, and Webbed Embrace, weapons that apply Cold procs, or the Operator’s Temporal Drag.

Equilibrium is highly recommended because Health Orb pickups provide consistent energy regeneration even when Nova is at full Health.

Abilities

Null Star

Nova spawns orbiting antimatter particles that grant herself Damage Reduction, up to 90%, for each particle orbiting her. The particles remain indefinitely until nearby enemies enter their targeting range, causing them to launch at those enemies.

Recasting Null Star restores the particle count to its maximum, but there is a 2.5-second cooldown between casts.

The particles deal Blast damage that scales with Ability Strength and have a guaranteed Blast status effect. The total particle count scales with Ability Duration. The particles also benefit from Universal Weapon Bonuses such as Arcane Arachne, Nourish, and Vigorous Swap.

Null Star benefits from flat Critical Chance bonuses such as Arcane Avenger, Cat’s Eye, and Covenant. However, its Critical Multiplier is only 1x, so these bonuses require a source of Critical Damage, such as Tenacious Bond or Arcane Crepuscular, for critical hits to have an effect.

Null Star can receive elemental infusions such as Nourish and Valence Formation, allowing its particles to apply the corresponding statuses. These infused elements compete with its innate Blast weighting.

Antimatter Drop

Nova creates a slow-moving orb that absorbs incoming damage from allies, companions, and enemies before detonating on contact with terrain or enemies.

On direct contact, the orb deals 10 Blast damage. It then explodes, dealing 200 damage plus 8x all absorbed damage as Blast damage and applying a guaranteed Blast proc.

Recasting the ability causes the orb to rapidly accelerate forward.

Direct-contact damage, explosion base damage, and the absorbed-damage multiplier all scale with Ability Strength.

The orb can pass through Wormholes, instantly absorbing 12,500 damage.

Antimatter Drop has several restrictions:

• It deals purely ability damage and is not weapon-coded like Null Star.
• Its explosion requires a direct line-of-sight check to deal damage.
• It cannot absorb more than 25,000 damage.
• It only absorbs damage from the first five hits received.
• Additional hits from Multishot and Punch Through do not consume additional hit counts.
• Critical hits and status effects such as Heat and Slash are excluded.
• Combo multipliers from melee and sniper weapons are excluded.
• The ability scales with Ability Range.

Wormhole

Nova opens a portal directly in front of herself, linking it to a targeted exit point farther away. Ability Range increases the maximum teleport distance.

Allies, enemies, projectiles, beams, and gunfire passing through the entrance are instantly teleported to the exit while maintaining their original momentum and trajectory.

Holding the ability displays a range indicator, making precise portal placement easier.

Wormholes have four charges and persist indefinitely until all charges are consumed. Nova can have up to four portals active at once.

Bullets consume one-tenth of a portal charge and are limited by a 0.1-second teleport cooldown per Wormhole.

Wormhole is primarily a utility ability. It can be used for Drone Escort bounties, especially during Plague Star, and to bypass Spy vault laser grids.

Molecular Prime

Nova releases a slowly expanding radial wave of antimatter that primes enemies and applies +100% Damage Vulnerability while either slowing or accelerating their action speed.

Tap-casting slows enemies, while hold-casting accelerates them.

The wave starts at a fixed 5-meter radius and expands at 5 meters per second. Ability Range does not affect its initial size or travel speed. Ability Duration instead increases the wave’s duration, extending its total final radius.

Ability Strength increases the slow or speed-up debuff, reaching up to 75% at 150% Ability Strength.

Primed enemies explode upon death, dealing Blast damage with a 20% Status Chance. The explosion radius starts at 10 meters and scales with Ability Range, with 60% linear damage falloff.

Augments

Neutron Star

Null Stars now explode upon enemy contact, dealing extra Heat damage and applying a guaranteed Heat proc within a small radius.

Recasting disperses half of the remaining particles, causing them to seek nearby enemies with doubled targeting range before replenishing the particles.

Particles deal two instances of damage: direct contact damage and radial damage.

• Direct: Seeking particles deal Blast damage with 100% Status Chance. The damage is affected by status modifiers, such as Viral dilution from Nourish, and benefits more from Status Vulnerability caused by Tau procs from Venato Prime.
• Radial: Particles explode and apply a forced Heat proc. The Heat is affected by Archon Vitality, while the radial damage is affected by Universal Damage Bonuses.

The radial explosion also applies a Blast status effect, although this is likely a bug. Like the direct hit, this Blast proc is affected by status-weighting modifiers such as Viral dilution from Nourish.

Against one enemy, each particle produces:

• Neutron Star: 1 Heat + 2 Blast
• Null Star: 1 Blast

Neutron Star is currently bugged to disperse only half of the remaining particles instead of all particles, as described by the augment.

The partial Armor Strip from Heat improves weapon damage, but Neutron Star Heat procs cause disinherit. Subsequent Heat DoTs inherit the Heat% and Faction% values from the first Heat proc applied to an enemy. Because Neutron Star contributes 0% to both, it can significantly weaken the damage of later Heat procs applied by weapons.

Alternative elemental setups include:

• Viral/Electric
• Corrosive/Cold
• Corrosive/Blast

Antimatter Absorb

Antimatter Drop becomes surrounded by a vacuuming field that absorbs nearby enemy gunfire and converts the absorbed shots into explosion damage.

It does not increase Antimatter Drop’s 25,000 damage absorption cap and primarily provides additional survivability by intercepting incoming enemy fire.

Escape Velocity

Traveling through Nova’s Wormhole grants +50% Movement Speed.

The buff is not affected by Ability Strength and stacks additively with other sources.

The buff also affects Archwings and Cetus Drones, but not Specters, invasion allies, or allies created by abilities such as Loki’s Decoy.

Molecular Fission

Null Star particles apply Molecular Prime’s effect when they hit enemies. Killing primed enemies restores two Null Star charges.

Restored charges are capped by Null Star’s current maximum particle count, preventing Nova from infinitely stacking particles.

Null Star particles inherit whichever Molecular Prime variant was cast most recently, either slowing or accelerating enemies while applying +100% Damage Vulnerability.

Molecular Fission is highly recommended alongside Neutron Star. The combination provides consistent Heat-based Armor Strip, Damage Vulnerability, Crowd Control through Slow Molecular Prime, and Viral priming through Nourish while remaining mobile. This is useful for quick missions and missions requiring mobility, such as Void Cascade.

Build Priorities

Ability Stats

• Ability Range is the top priority. It increases the Molecular Prime and Neutron Star explosion radius, Null Star targeting radius, and Wormhole teleport distance.
• Ability Duration is a mid-level priority, but becomes the top priority when using Null Star for a nuke build. Aim for around 200% Duration at minimum, with higher values for a Null Star-focused setup.
• Ability Strength has a target of approximately 150%. Little or no additional Strength is needed beyond this threshold.

Arcanes

• Molt Efficiency / Arcane Concentration: Maximize Duration to increase the number of particles, expand Molecular Prime’s final radius, and prolong buff durations.
• Molt Augmented / Arcane Ice Storm: Maximize Strength to gain more bonuses from Roar.

Arcane Ice Storm is limited to the specific Okina Incarnon setup whose spectral daggers consistently freeze enemies, allowing the Arcane to be stacked.

• Arcane Hot Shot: Easily maintained by Neutron Star and supports a simpler weapon-platform setup.
• Arcane Avenger: Applies to weapons and abilities such as Null Star and Breach Surge. Nova can reliably sustain incoming damage from enemies or Combat Discipline through Null Star.
• Arcane Aegis: Provides additional survivability for shield-tanking and shield-gating setups.
• Arcane Arachne: Applies to weapons and abilities such as Null Star and Breach Surge.

Helminth Subsumes

Nova can subsume an ability over either Wormhole or Antimatter Drop.

Antimatter Drop is a heavily restricted damaging ability that is often outclassed by Molecular Prime and, by extension, Null Star. Wormhole is primarily a utility tool that offers limited value in more stationary missions.

Nourish

Nourish applies to weapons and abilities such as Null Star and Breach Surge, freeing Viral mod slots on weapons.

It also allows Null Star and Neutron Star to consistently prime Viral across entire crowds of enemies.

Roar

Roar applies to weapons and abilities.

It double-dips DoTs from Null Star Blast, Molecular Prime Blast, and Neutron Star Blast and Heat, while triple-dipping on Melee Influence.

Survivability

Evade, Silence, and Pillage can be used for survivability.

Molecular Prime Interactions

Xata’s Whispers and Elemental Ward (Cold) have interactions with Molecular Prime.

Xata’s Whispers applies to weapons, creating an extra damage instance that double-dips headshot or weakspot multipliers and stealth damage multipliers, which are inherited by Molecular Prime.

Xata’s Whispers also provides damage reflection, which is likewise seen with Cold Elemental Ward.

These abilities enable access to Miscellaneous Damage within Nova’s kit when these instances occur.

Archon Shards

• 1-3 Crimson Shards for Ability Duration.
• 1-2 Amber Shards for Casting Speed or Parkour Velocity.
• 1-2 Violet Shards for Equilibrium to remove the mod version.
• 1-2 Crimson Shards for Ability Strength.

Violet Shards for Equilibrium are recommended only with external energy support such as Nourish, Zenurik Focus, Mystic Bond, or Synth Deconstruct.

Crimson Shards for Ability Strength can free mod slots while reaching the 150% Strength threshold.

General Tips for Nova

Nova’s Wormhole and Molecular Prime make her useful for coordinated gameplay.

Possible applications include:

• Hunting Thumpers with Molecular Prime’s slow.
• Eidolon hunting by using Propa teleportation with Wormhole and the Archwing speed provided by Escape Velocity.
• Speedrunning escort missions using Wormhole and its speed utility.

Nova has several methods of survivability:

• Manual gating with Catalyzing Shields and Brief Respite or one Augur mod.
• Additional survivability from Rolling Guard, Vazarin Focus, or Arcane Aegis.
• Damage Reduction tanking with Null Stars and Adaptation.
• Health or Shield tanking.
• Crowd Control from Molecular Prime, Neutron Star, Silence, weapons, and other sources.
• External methods such as Vazarin Focus, Evade, Pillage, and Omamori.

Companion Options

Three notable companions for Nova are:

• Nautilus Prime: Cordon groups enemies close together for more consistent nuking.
• Diriga: Passively triggers Melee Influence with Electro Pulse and provides consistent close-range priming with Arc Coil.
• Adarza Kavat: Cat’s Eye applies to Null Stars.

Nova benefits from weapons that interact well with Molecular Prime. The right weapon loadout can allow Molecular Prime to provide a wide range of effects.

Miscellaneous Damage

Miscellaneous Damage refers to damage that was not correctly linked back to its source and is therefore able to interact with effects in ways it normally should not.

There are currently few sources of Miscellaneous Damage and even fewer ways to take advantage of them. These interactions can allow Molecular Prime to passively activate melee effects through Melee Influence, such as Spinnerex, or passively activate Arcanes such as Pax Seeker. This provides access to primary and secondary damage depending on the Kitgun selected, or both.

Molecular Prime explosions can also benefit from these effects. Mending Shot and Energizing Shot can interact with the explosions, and Molecular Prime explosions can revive Nova when running the Sacrifice mod.

These interactions can enable a convergence of the entire loadout through Molecular Prime.

Molecular Prime Interactions

Molecular Prime’s explosions count as a Weapon Hit, allowing them to inherit traits from the weapons or abilities that applied the killing blow to primed enemies. These inherited effects can then propagate through subsequent explosion chain reactions.

Ability Interactions

Enemies killed with Demonium Runes, Resupply Ammo Packs, Silken Stride, Toxic Lash, or Xata’s Whisper active cause the resulting explosion to deal another instance of damage.

Weapon Arcanes

On melee kills, explosions can spread status effects through Melee Influence while it is active. On secondary kills, explosions can benefit from increased Overguard damage if Secondary Fortifier is equipped.

Hits from Molecular Prime that apply statuses inherit the +24% chance to proc additional random status effects from Secondary Encumber.

Primary, Secondary, and Melee kills stack Merciless and Dexterity Arcanes accordingly. Primary and Secondary headshot kills stack Deadhead Arcanes accordingly.

Pax Seeker is triggered by Miscellaneous Damage, such as Xata’s Whispers combined with Molecular Prime, spawning seeking projectiles from enemies. Exodia Force triggers from explosion hits.

Weapon Mods

Explosions receive modded Faction% and Status Damage% from the killing weapon. Combustion Beam triggers from Molecular Prime kills. Energizing Shot and Mending Shot trigger when Molecular Prime hits the respective orb type.

On-Hit Effects

Weapon Augments

• Argonak: Explosions strip 6 Armor per hit when using Argonak with Amalgam Argonak Metal Auger and a Dagger.
• Daikyu/Prime: Explosions gain +3% Life Steal when using Daikyu with Amalgam Daikyu Target Acquired and a Nikana.
• Hate: Explosions apply +120% Status Vulnerability when using Hate with Burning Hate and hitting enemies affected by Heat.
• Status Vulnerability is multiplicative with Status Damage and Faction Damage Bonuses.
• Bronco/Prime: Explosions apply Stagger and open enemies to finishers when using Bronco with Dizzying Rounds.
• Furis/Mk1: Explosions gain +20% Life Steal when using Furis with Winds of Purity.

Weapon Passives

• Pathocyst/Coda: Explosions spawn Maggots/Miasmites respectively.
• Reconfix: Perfect reloads allow explosions to apply Heat procs.
• Venato Prime: Explosions inflict the Tau Status.
• Rakta Dark Dagger: Explosion damage against enemies affected by Radiation regenerates shields.
• Amanata: Explosions receive its Status Damage buff.
• Evensong: Explosions inflict 7 stacks of Puncture.
• Spinnerex: Explosion hits give enemies a 10% chance per Toxin Stack to detonate on death.

On-Kill Effects

Weapon Augments

• Sobek/Kuva, Jat Kittag, Detron/Mara/Tenet: Explosion kills trigger their respective mods: Acid Shells, Vulcan Blitz, and Thermagnetic Shells.
• Furax/Mk1/Wraith: Explosion kills apply Stagger and an additional Blast status when using Furax with Amalgam Furax Body Count.

The additional Blast procs ensure all affected enemies reach the 10-stack multiplier.

• Catabolyst/Coda: Explosion kills stack the critical buff from Critical Mutation.

Weapon Passives

• Enkaus: Explosions instantly kill enemies below 35% Health and restore ammo to Enkaus.
• Secura Lecta: Explosion kills yield double Credits.
• Heliocor/Synoid: Explosion kills scan enemies into the Codex.

This is useful for rapidly completing Codex entries and unlocking enemies for the Simulacrum.

• Trumna/Prime: Explosion kills generate charges for the alternate fire.

The alternate fire can generate its own ammo as long as the projectile bounces once.

• Pyrana Prime: Three explosion kills within 2 seconds activate its Akimbo Mode.
• Tatsu/Prime: Explosion kills grant a Soul Swarm charge.
• Dorrclave: Explosions consume its Status Chance buff to force a guaranteed Blast proc on the initial detonation. Subsequent chain-reaction explosions do not inherit the effect.

This does not guarantee a Blast proc on surrounding enemies.

Incarnon Evolutions

Zariman Incarnons

The Zariman Incarnons Laetum, Phenmor, and Felarx can all allow Molecular Prime to inherit their Attrition evolutions: Devouring, Overwhelming, and Devastating.

This causes explosions to have a 50% chance to deal +2000% damage on non-critical hits.

• Phenmor: Explosion kills have a 20% chance to refill the weapon’s magazine through Executioner’s Fortune. Lingering Judgment causes explosions to deal +50% Headshot Damage for 8 seconds.

The ammo refill retains Resupply infusion. The source recommends considering a Cyte-09 Specter/Ally pairing.

• Laetum: Caput Mortuum causes explosions to deal +50% Headshot Damage. Overwhelming Attrition’s buff can be stacked by explosion hits, although the explosions themselves do not inherit the damage buff.

Genesis Incarnons

• Dual Ichor: Explosion kills create lingering Toxin Damage fields while Incarnon Form is active. Hitting enemies affected by Toxin builds melee combo through Alchemist’s Wrath.
• Okina/Prime: Explosion kills create spectral daggers while Incarnon Form is active. Hitting enemies affected by Slash builds melee combo through Seeing Red.
• Lato/Vandal/Prime: Explosion kills have a 50% chance to reload the wielded weapon.