Warframe Iceblade of Narin Tier List: Every New Addition Ranked

Warframe's Update 44: Iceblade of Narin went live on September 23, landing the game's 66th Warframe, two new signature weapons, and the biggest ability rework Banshee has had in years. That's a lot to sort through if you're deciding what to farm first, so here's our opinion tier list, built directly from Digital Extremes' official Update 44 patch notes and the Warframe Wiki's Narin page, not guesswork.

This isn't a ranking of every Warframe or weapon in the game. It's specifically about what Iceblade of Narin added or changed, so you know where to spend your first few days of Platinum, Kuva and Forma now that the update is live. We'll update it once Digital Extremes publishes hard numbers for Narin's kit or Glacial Defiance actually launches.

01What Changed in Warframe's Iceblade of Narin Update

Narin is the game's first female ice-themed Warframe, built around a rapier called Neote and a kit that leans on generating a resource called Ice to power her ultimate. Her passive, Sangodae, makes Cold Status Effects on enemies spawn pickups that grant bonus Cold damage on your guns, and every ability hit toward an enemy banks more Ice toward that ultimate. She launched alongside a new hub, Yuvan's Peak, and a vendor named Cephalon Melica who trades Narin's blueprints for a new resource, Entropic Kuva, farmed from a tougher enemy variant called Entropic Eximus.

The update also shipped two signature weapons, the Nunchasa bow and the Aksondol dual pistols, a full ability rework for Banshee, and a system called Riven Trait Locking that lets you freeze one stat on a Riven mod while rerolling the rest, at double Kuva cost. A new six-player mode, Glacial Defiance, and a Riven Splicing system tied to it are both confirmed but not live yet; Digital Extremes has only committed to a "before October 15" window for that piece.

None of Narin's ability numbers made it into the official patch notes or her wiki page yet, which is unusual for a Warframe launch. Treat any specific damage, duration or energy figures you see elsewhere as unconfirmed until Digital Extremes publishes them or the wiki fills them in from testing.

02S Tier: The Best of Update 44

Nurinarim, Narin's fourth ability, is the clear standout. It requires a full Ice meter to cast, then turns her into a continuous melee threat that marks targets for follow-up icy slashes stripping Armor and Shields, and detonates frozen enemies for radial Cold damage. Between the armor-shred and the group-clear potential, it's the payoff that makes the rest of her kit worth building around, and it's the ability to prioritize modding for if you're picking Narin up this week.

Banshee's Sonic Boom and Sound Quake rework is the other standout of the patch, and arguably the bigger deal for long-time players. Sonic Boom now casts one-handed without rooting Banshee in place, drops its old ragdoll for a push-and-stun that's easier to follow up on, jumps its impact damage from 50 to 250, and adds armor reduction that scales up to 100% with Ability Strength. Sound Quake, meanwhile, goes from a channeled ability that locked you in place to a 25-second area effect with guaranteed Blast procs that scale with distance. A frame that's been mostly a niche CC pick since her last major pass now has two abilities that can carry a squad on their own.

The rest of Banshee's kit got quieter but still meaningful upgrades. Sonar's Weak Spots are now standardized Weak Points that properly synergize with mods and arcanes built around that mechanic, and casting it no longer roots her, so she can keep repositioning while marking targets for the squad. Silence can now be recast to refresh its duration and reapply stuns instead of forcing you to wait it out, which matters a lot in longer Survival or Defense runs. None of these are flashy on their own, but stacked together they turn Banshee from a frame you bring for one niche use case into one you can build a whole loadout around again.

“I really do feel like Narin, in a way, kind of represents how Digital Extremes has evolved in its design of Warframes.”Megan Everett, Community Director, Digital Extremes

03A Tier: Strong Additions

Naraemagi, Narin's second ability, absorbs Cold Status Effect from nearby enemies to restore her Shields, and grants Overguard once Shields are full. It's a genuinely good sustain tool in a kit that otherwise has no Health recovery, and it doubles as an Ice generator every time it hits, which keeps Nurinarim coming back faster.

Nunchasa, Narin's signature bow, has a charged alt-fire that fires a blizzard arrow, freezing anything it touches and leaving a chilling path behind it. That's real crowd control on a primary weapon slot, and it fits Narin's Cold-focused kit without forcing you into melee range every fight.

Aksondol, the signature dual pistols, turn reloading into a defensive tool: each reload throws out a cloud of freezing mist that inflicts Cold Status, and the cloud's range grows with every round you reload into the magazine. It rewards a playstyle built around frequent, deliberate reloads rather than dumping a full clip, which is a fun twist on a secondary weapon.

Both weapons are farmable without spending real money: Cephalon Melica sells the blueprints in exchange for Entropic Kuva, the resource dropped by the new Entropic Eximus enemies at Yuvan's Peak, or you can buy them outright from the in-game Market if you'd rather skip the grind. Either way, they're worth prioritizing over older Cold-element weapons in your arsenal for the next few weeks, since matching Narin's element with your loadout makes her Sangodae passive proc more often.

04B Tier: Solid but Situational

Neote, Narin's first ability and the one built into her signature rapier animation, lunges her forward and stacks Cold and Puncture status on anything directly ahead. It's a fine mobility-and-proc tool early in a mission, but it's a single-target, forward-only hit, so it doesn't scale into crowded rooms the way her other abilities do.

Hakchum, her third ability, is a double-tap leap-and-land move that opens a frost dome applying Cold Vulnerability and status in a large radius on landing. The area effect is useful for setting up a fight, but without a duration or radius number in the patch notes yet, it's hard to rate above situational until players confirm how long that vulnerability window actually lasts in practice.

Riven Trait Locking is a genuinely useful quality-of-life system if you already spend Kuva rerolling Rivens, letting you protect one good stat while you gamble on the rest. It's not a build or a weapon, but it's worth knowing about if you're chasing a specific roll on Nunchasa or Aksondol before either weapon's Disposition settles.

05C Tier and Below: Needs Work

The Warframe Wiki notes that neither Nunchasa nor Aksondol currently carries a Signature Weapon bonus with Narin, despite being sold as her signature tools. That's an odd gap for a launch this polished elsewhere, and it means neither weapon has a mechanical reason to pair with her specifically yet beyond the shared Cold theme.

Glacial Defiance, the promised six-player mode, isn't playable yet and Digital Extremes has only committed to a loose "before October 15" window. It's supposed to reward the new Riven Splicers that power Riven Splicing, but with no confirmed mechanics, it's not something you can plan a build around today. We'll revisit it once it actually ships.

The Archimedea change lands in this tier mostly because there's so little to it: Research Points from picking the mission's suggested Warframe went from 1 to 3 per run, letting you skip one modifier and still hit the maximum reward. It's a fine number tweak to an existing system, but it's not a build, a weapon or new content, so it doesn't earn a spot any higher than "smallest thing in the patch."

Iceblade of Narin Official Gameplay Trailer, originally published September 4, 2026 ahead of the September 23 launch.

06How to Build Your Iceblade of Narin Loadout

If you're picking up Narin this week, build toward her ultimate first and treat everything else as support for getting there faster. The steps below cover the fastest path to a usable Narin loadout and what to do with the rest of the update in the meantime.

How to Build Your Iceblade of Narin Loadout

1. 1Unlock the new hub and trade Entropic Kuva to Cephalon Melica for Narin's blueprints, or buy her outright from the Market if you'd rather skip farming Entropic Eximus enemies.
2. 2Prioritize Ability Strength and Duration for Narin's ultimate over her other three abilities, since Nurinarim's armor-shred and radial Cold damage are the actual payoff of her kit.
3. 3Naraemagi only restores Shields and Overguard, so run a Health-focused Arcane, companion mod or a support squadmate until you're generating enough Ice to lean on Nurinarim's damage reduction.
4. 4Grab both signature weapons from Cephalon Melica for Entropic Kuva before chasing Riven rolls on them, since neither currently carries a Signature Weapon bonus with Narin.
5. 5If you already own Banshee, relearn her rotation around the reworked one-handed Sonic Boom and the new 25-second Sound Quake instead of her old channeled playstyle.
6. 6Don't plan a build around the new six-player mode yet; Digital Extremes has only confirmed a "before October 15" window with no mechanics locked in.

This is our read of Update 44 from the patch notes and wiki data available right now, not a lab-tested breakdown. Narin's exact ability numbers haven't been published, Nunchasa and Aksondol's full stat blocks aren't out yet, and Glacial Defiance is still unreleased, so expect this list to shift once Digital Extremes fills in the gaps or the community starts posting hard numbers.

Iceblade of Narin arrives September 23! Dance through the blizzard with the 66th #Warframe, Narin, and take on new 6-player Glacial Defiance Missions and face extra-tough Entropic Eximus enemies.

— WARFRAME (@PlayWarframe), September 4, 2026 on X