Focus is one of the more obtuse systems in Digital Extreme’s Warframe. It’s a very complex system that involves slotting in unique items into individual weapons and Warframes to earn massive bonuses to your abilities as a player. It’s basically the first major path to build customization in the game, and understanding the system is vital to being better at this game.
You will need to complete the Second Dream questline first, so go and do that now. There are some pretty big story spoilers involved in that quest, so don’t mess that up for yourself as it makes the story of Warframe much more interesting.
There are five unique Focus trees in Warframe. Each Focus tree has its own unique special ability that can be activated in-game, under the keyboard control of the “5th power”. Completing this chain of events also unlock another set of crucial enhancements, Amp and Arcanes, which are vital to achieving most endgame builds.
Lens Basics
The Lens is the key to gaining Focus. The Focus will accrue over time in missions, but the Lens will make the process much faster and will apply Focus to the tree based on a scale of the level of enemies. Each School has a skill tree that has nodes you can unlock and level. Spending the Focus you gain through Lenses is how you do this.
Also, any item must be maximum rank to have a Lens attached.
Say you put the Lens on a Hek shotgun, this will earn Operator XP that can be spent on Operator abilities, and this will continue to be gained as long as you’re using the Hek. If you swap to a new weapon or Warframe, the Lens will no longer generate Focus, but you will gain more Lenses over time.
What Warframe Works Best With Each Focus Trees?
- Zenurik – Has some utility for melee builds, but’s a very popular general choice thanks to the major buffs it offers to Energy. Any ability-heavy frame will benefit here.
- Limbo
- Nova
- Mesa
- Nekros
- Naramon – A tree focused entirely on DPS, especially for melee builds. All about dealing out tons of close-range damage. It’s defensive strength offers a bunch of utility for avoiding rather thank soaking damage.
- Ash
- Valkyr
- Loki
- Vazarin – Support frames may want to focus here. The buffs to healing and other defensive layers make this a good pick for team players.
- Trinity
- Madurai – A really good choice for those looking for a focus on buffs to very specific abilities. Also a good choice for a bit of extra tank.
- Inaros
- Rhino
- Unairu – A more situational build enhancer, Unairu is all about offering enhancements to sustain through damage reflection and other defensive layers.
- Hydroid