How To Get The AX-52 In Warframe

Warframe:1999 brings players to the merciless streets of Höllvania, where a swarm of infested monsters and a faction of soldiers wielding chemical guns fight each other while the Hex, a group of warriors, struggles to protect the innocent people in the city. On top of that, things get even more complicated when the Drifter arrives from the future.

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Eliminate hordes of enemies with Cyte-09’s signature machine gun.

One of the newly introduced weapons in this update is the AX-52, a modern-day-looking rifle that looks closer to our actual weapons than any of the Warframe tools in your usual arsenal. Here’s all that you need to know about it and how to get it.

What Is The AX-52?

Excalibur Umbra pointing the AX-52 weapon in Warframe.

The AX-52 is one of the new weapons introduced in the 1999 Update; it’s the primary weapon used by Arthur Nightingale, and he will loan it to you for a short time during the main story quest. However, you will be able to obtain this weapon permanently at a later point.

This rifle has a high Fire Rate and an above-average Critical Chance and Critical Damage and deals pure Puncture damage. When aiming, headshots have a whopping extra 400 percent Critical Chance increase, which makes it a perfect weapon for a Critical Damage build.

How To Get The AX-52

To get this weapon, you must finish The Hex quest, which will unlock all the vendors in Höllvania Central Mall; once you reach the Syndicate Rank 4 (Hot&Fresh), Amir will sell you the weapon blueprint. Once you have obtained it, you must build the AX-52 itself, so you need to invest in the following materials:

Blueprint	Materials	Credit Cost	Time To Build
AX-52	Techrot Motherboard x5 Techrot Chitin x25 Efervon Sample x60 Höllvanian Pitchweave Fragment x60	25,000	12 Hours 25 Platinum to Rush

The AX-52 was previously obtainable as a Twitch Drop during Tennocon 2024, but that method is now unavailable.

Best AX-52 Build

Excalibur shooting with the AX-52 in Warframe.

Given the weapon’s passive Critical Chance bonus to aimed headshots and the proficiency on both Critical Damage, Critical Chance, and Fire Rate, we will build focusing on those three values. To do so, we’ll begin with Galvanized Scope, Bladed Rounds, Critical Delay, Vital Sense, and Primed Shred, all mods that play into the AX-52 strongest points.

Then, We will add a Galvanized Chamber for some good Multishot, and for the last two mods, you can go with either a combination of two elemental mods of your choice (like Cryo Rounds and Infected Clip), or one of the faction-specific mods (such as Bane Of Grineer) and Hunter Munitions, which will apply some extra Bleed Damage per Critical hit.

On the Arcane side, Primary Deadhead or Primary Merciless are the best choices, but please keep in mind that the former only applies with a direct headshot hit, so if you want a more consistent damage output or you’re not confident in your aiming skills, the latter will be better for you.

Mod/Arcane Name	Effect
Arcane: Primary Merciless	On Kill: +30% Damage for 4 seconds. Stacks up to 12 times. +30% Reload Speed.
Or
Arcane: Primary Deadhead	On Precision Headshot Kill: +120% Damage for 24 seconds. Stacks up to three times. +30% to Headshot Multiplier. -50% Weapon Recoil.
Galvanized Scope	+80% Multishot. On Kill: +30 percent Multishot for 20 seconds. Stacks up to five times.
Galvanized Chamber	On Kill: +30% Multishot for 20s. Stacks up to 5x.
Vital Sense	+120% Critical Damage
Critical Delay	+200% Critical Chance. -20% Fire Rate (x2 for Bows).
Hunter Munitions	+30% chance to apply Bleed Status on Critical.
Bladed Rounds	On Kill: +120% Critical Damage when Aiming for 9 seconds.
Primed Shred	+55% Fire Rate (x2 for Bows). +2.2 Punch Through.