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  • How To Craft Chroma
  • How To Craft Chroma Prime
  • Chroma Abilities
  • Chroma Augments
  • Chroma Builds

Chroma is Warframe's version of a playable dragon, utilizing elemental effects to dominate the battlefield. Exhale a stream of elemental damage, empower yourself with various auras, and even turn your pelt into a dragon turret. If you're looking for a tank that can dish out some respectable weapon damage, consider farming for Chroma.

Related: Warframe: Angels Of The Zariman Quest Walkthrough

Once you get your hands on Chroma, you'll need to create a good build and get an understanding of each ability. This guide will go over how to craft Chroma and his Prime variant, how each ability works, cover all of Chroma's augment mods, and we'll showcase two builds that take full advantage of Chroma's abilities.

Updated February 11, 2023, by Charles Burgar: Chroma is a staple boss killer for some of Warframe's toughest fights. To help turn Chroma into the ultimate Eidolon slayer, we've updated this guide with updated information on all of Chroma's abilities, where to get his augment mods, and we've added a subsection explaining which Archon Shards work best on Chroma.

How To Craft Chroma

Chroma's Blueprint is obtained upon completing "The New Strange" quest, with the rest of his parts dropping from Star Chart Junctions. The exact drop locations for Chroma are as follows:

  • Chroma Blueprint: "The New Strange," unlocked from the Europa Junction.
  • Chroma Neuroptics: Complete the Saturn Junction.
  • Chroma Chassis: Complete the Uranus Junction.
  • Chroma Systems: Complete the Neptune Junction.

Unfortunately, that's not all you need to make Chroma. Each Chroma component also requires a crafted part from Frost, Ember, Saryn, and Volt. You won't unlock Saryn's boss fight until you reach Sedna, so you won't be able to craft Chroma until you've nearly cleared the Star Chart. We'll list these subparts in an expandable section below for players who don't have these parts crafted yet.

Chroma Blueprint

Drop Source

"The New Strange" quest reward

Crafting Costs

  • 25,000 Credits
  • 1 Chroma Neuroptics
  • 1 Chroma Chassis
  • 1 Chroma Systems
  • 1 Volt Neuroptics

Crafting Time

72 Hours

Chroma Neuroptics

Drop Source

Saturn Junction

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 200 Plastids
  • 2 Neural Sensors
  • 350 Polymer Bundle
  • 1 Ember Neuroptics

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Chroma Chassis

Drop Source

Uranus Junction

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 2 Neurodes
  • 900 Salvage
  • 50 Plastids
  • 1 Frost Chassis

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Chroma Systems

Drop Source

Neptune Junction

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 400 Oxium
  • 2 Argon Crystals
  • 1 Neurode
  • 1 Saryn Systems

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Additional Crafting Requirements

Volt Neuroptics

Drop Source

Clan Dojo (Tenno Lab)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 150 Alloy Plate
  • 1 Neural Sensor
  • 150 Polymer Bundle
  • 500 Rubedo

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Ember Neuroptics

Drop Source

Tethys, Saturn (38.72% drop chance)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 150 Alloy Plate
  • 1 Neural Sensor
  • 150 Polymer Bundle
  • 500 Rubedo

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Frost Chassis

Drop Source

Exta, Ceres (38.72% drop chance)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 1 Morphics
  • 1,000 Ferrite
  • 300 Rubedo

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Saryn Systems

Drop Source

Merrow, Sedna (22.56% drop chance)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 1 Control Module
  • 1 Morphics
  • 550 Salvage
  • 350 Plastids

Crafting Time

12 Hours

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How To Craft Chroma Prime

Unlike default Chroma, the Prime version does not require any additional Warframe components.

Chroma Prime is currently in the Prime Vault, preventing his Relics from dropping in-game. Any Relics or Chroma Prime parts obtained before this vaulting may still be used. You may also trade for Chroma Prime's component blueprints or Relics from other players through Warframe's trading system.

Chroma Prime Blueprint

Drop Source

  • Meso B4 (Common)
  • Meso P1 (Common)
  • Meso Z3 (Common)
  • Neo K2 (Common)
  • Axi A6 (Common)
  • Axi D1 (Common)
  • Axi G5 (Common)
  • Axi T5 (Common)

Crafting Costs

  • 25,000 Credits
  • 1 Chroma Prime Neuroptics
  • 1 Chroma Prime Chassis
  • 1 Chroma Prime Systems
  • 5 Orokin Cells

Crafting Time

72 Hours

Chroma Prime Neuroptics

Drop Source

  • Lith C3 (Rare)
  • Lith C4 (Rare)
  • Lith C8 (Rare)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 4 Neurodes
  • 1,750 Circuits
  • 450 Plastids
  • 4,750 Polymer Bundle

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Chroma Prime Chassis

Drop Source

  • Meso C5 (Uncommon)
  • Meso D4 (Uncommon)
  • Meso K2 (Uncommon)
  • Meso L1 (Uncommon)
  • Meso T3 (Uncommon)
  • Neo Z8 (Common)
  • Axi R2 (Uncommon)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 2 Nitain Extract
  • 10 Control Modules
  • 1,600 Rubedo
  • 7,800 Salvage

Crafting Time

12 Hours

Chroma Prime Systems

Drop Source

  • Meso C4 (Rare)
  • Meso R4 (Uncommon)
  • Neo C1 (Rare)
  • Axi C3 (Rare)
  • Axi C4 (Rare)

Crafting Costs

  • 15,000 Credits
  • 2 Argon Crystals
  • 5 Neural Sensors
  • 1,775 Polymer Bundle
  • 4,000 Ferrite

Crafting Time

12 Hours

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Related: Warframe: A Complete Guide To Focus 3.0

Chroma Abilities

Stats

Chroma

Chroma Prime

  • Armor: 350
  • Energy: 150
  • Health: 100
  • Shields: 100
  • Sprint Speed: 1
  • Armor: 425
  • Energy: 200
  • Health: 125
  • Shields: 100
  • Sprint Speed: 1

Passive

Passive: Wings sprout for an additional jump and bullet jump.

Despite the wording, this passive does not grant you a third jump and a second bullet jump; the extra jump is mutually exclusive. For example, you can bullet jump twice and jump once in the air, or you can bullet jump once and jump twice in the air.

Chroma has a hidden passive that allows you to set your abilities' damage type. Your Chroma's main emissive color determines which element they'll have selected when a mission begins. Each element is selected with the following colors:

  • Cold: Light blue, white, and black colors
  • Electricity: Dark blue and purple colors
  • Heat: Red, orange, and yellow colors
  • Toxin: Green colors

You do not need to purchase a color palette to benefit from this feature. Additionally, you may swap your element mid-mission by tapping the Spectral Scream ability. This chosen element only affects your abilities, not your weapons.

Spectral Scream

Spectral Scream: Exhale a deep breath of elemental destruction. Tap to cycle through elements, hold to cast. The chosen element applies to all of Chroma's abilities.

Spectral Scream Stats

Drain

Initial Cast: 10 Energy

Drain: 3 Energy per second

Range

10 Meters

Status Chance

100%

Damage

400 [Element Selected] per second

Applicable Mods

Duration

Range

Efficiency

Strength

Affects Energy drain while < 175% Efficiency

Affects ability range

Affects cast and channeling Energy costs

Affects damage output

Spectral Scream is a channeled ability that causes Chroma to exhale a small cone of elemental damage. The damage of Spectral Scream is determined by your currently selected element, something you can change by tapping this ability. You cannot change Spectral Scream's damage type while it is active.

You cannot use weapons while Spectral Scream is active, but you can use melee weapons and other abilities. It doesn't restrict your movement either. With that said, Spectral Scream does pitiful damage and doesn't scale well into Steel Path content. Modding for Range only grants a small length bonus to Chroma's breath attack, so this ability isn't even a good option for rapidly applying status ailments. We highly recommend you subsume Spectral Scream for something else; it's easily Chroma's worst ability.

Elemental Ward

Elemental Ward: Depending on Chroma's elemental alignment, an offensive area-of-effect is created. Chroma and its nearby allies are imbued with defensive energy.

This ability can be subsumed with the Helminth system.

Elemental Ward Stats

Drain

50 Energy

Range

12 Meters

Duration

Elemental Ward: 35 Seconds

Swap Buff (Toxin): 3 Seconds

Buffs

Cold: +150 Armor

Electricity: +100 Shield Capacity

Heat: +200 Health

Toxin: +35% Reload Speed and Holster Damage

Auras

Cold: Reflect projectiles back at enemies, dealing 3x more damage.

Electricity: Damage taken is released in electrical arcs, dealing 10x more damage in a 10-meter radius.

Heat: Nearby enemies take Heat damage per second.

Toxin: Nearby enemies occasionally take Toxin damage.

Aura Status Chance

Cold: 25%

Electricity: 25%

Heat: 10%

Toxin: 50%

Applicable Mods

Duration

Range

Efficiency

Strength

Affects ability duration and buff magnitude for Toxin

Affects aura ranges and Electricity arc radius

Affects cast Energy cost

Affects buff magnitude, damage output, and aura status chance (excluding Toxin)

Elemental Ward projects an aura around Chroma for the ability's duration. The aura's effects are determined by your selected element type:

  • Cold: Gain Armor (a percentage of your base Armor), reflect projectiles when attacked, and inflict Cold status when projectiles hit targets.
  • Electricity: Gain Shields (a percentage of your base, level 0 Shields), convert damage taken into electrical discharges, and inflict Electricity status when the lightning hits someone.
  • Heat: Gain Health (a percentage of your base, level 0 Health), damage enemies near you, and inflict Heat status to nearby targets.
  • Toxin: Gain reload speed (35% by default) and bonus damage for 3 seconds upon swapping weapons. Your aura will occasionally damage nearby enemies with Toxin, inflicting Toxin status when an enemy is damaged by the aura.

Allies within the aura's radius also gain a copy of your current Elemental Ward. Multiple Elemental Wards do not stack, even if they're different elements. In general, most players use the Cold version to gain a massive boost to their armor, increasing Chroma's survivability. The Cold aura can also reflect physical projectiles such as Bombard rockets. Most buffs scale with Strength except Toxin's reload speed which scales off Duration. Status chance can be modded with Strength for every element but Heat.

Vex Armor

Vex Armor: When Shields are hit, Chroma and nearby allies' Armor grow stronger. When Health takes a hit, weapon damage increases.

Vex Armor counts as a damage ability for the purposes of Helminth. You may not subsume Roar or Eclipse on Chroma unless you replace Vex Armor. Elemental skills with damage-boosting augments—Smite, and Shock—may be subsumed as normal.

Vex Armor Stats

Drain

75 Energy

Range

18 Meters

Duration

25 Seconds

Buffs

Armor: 350%

Weapon Damage: 275%

Applicable Mods

Duration

Range

Efficiency

Strength

Affects ability duration

Affects ability radius

Affects cast Energy cost

Affects buff magnitude

Vex Armor grants Chroma one of two buffs when you take damage. Shield damage grants a massive multiplier to your base armor value, stacking additively with armor mods like Steel Fiber. Health damage grants a base damage multiplier for all weapons, stacking additively with base damage mods—Serration, Hornet Strike, etc. Both effects may be active at once.

Each effect has a maximum magnitude that's displayed in your ability tab. By default, you can increase your armor by 350% and damage by 275%, affected by Ability Strength mods. Most Chroma builds focus on scaling as much Strength as possible to maximize the effects of Vex Armor. It's worth noting that you can't reach Vex Armor's maximum armor buff from your base shields. You'll need to either recharge your shields or increase your shield capacity to gain the maximum Armor buff.

Since Vex Armor grants base damage, it's recommended to drop Serration and other base damage mods from your builds if you're running Chroma, as elemental and faction mods will grant far more damage. Vex Armor may be recast, refreshing the ability's duration while retaining your current buff values. Spec for Strength to get the most out of this ability.

Effigy

Effigy: Chroma turns his pelt into a massive sentry that strengthens nearby allies and engulfs enemies in elemental attacks.

Effigy Stats

Drain

Initial Cast: 50 Energy

Drain: 10 Energy per second

Health

8,000

Damage

400 [Element Selected] per second

Credit Buffs

Extra Credit Chance: 60%

Credit Multiplier: 2x

Speed Increase

20%

Armor Reduction

50%

Applicable Mods

Duration

Range

Efficiency

Strength

Affects Energy drain while < 175% Efficiency

Affects ability range and stun radius

Affects cast and channeling Energy costs

Affects damage output

Effigy sheds Chroma's pelt and turns it into a stationary turret, damaging nearby foes with a Spectral Scream attack and an occasional crowd control slam. Enemies that die from the Effigy turret have a 60% chance of dropping additional Credits, and all targets that die within ten meters of your Effigy will drop twice as many Credits. All Credit effectscannot be modded.

Shedding Chroma's pelt leaves you more vulnerable for a time, halving your current armor rating. You also gain a 20% movement speed increase while Effigy is active. Both effects can't be modded for. The Effigy's Spectral Scream range, total HP, and damage are affected by mods. Effigy's damage is also affected by the damage aura from Vex Armor.

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Related: Warframe: Gyre Complete Guide – Drops, Abilities, And Builds

Chroma Augments

Chroma has four augment mods for players to choose from, one for each ability. Each augment mod may be purchased from the Perrin Sequence or Cephalon Suda Syndicates for 25,000 Standing each. You'll need to be at max rank with either Syndicate to purchase these augment mods. If you don't have either Syndicate leveled, these mods may be traded between players.

Afterburn

Afterburn: Spectral Scream Augment: Upon deactivation, Chroma will launch an elemental projectile, dealing 100 damage for each second the ability was active, up to a maximum of 500 damage.

Using Spectral Scream will build up a damage stack on your HUD. When Spectral Scream is deactivated, a projectile will launch from Chroma that deals the listed damage. You'll build 100 damage per second by default, capping at 500 damage after five seconds of continuous use. The damage ramp-up and cap are both affected by Ability Strength. Since this mod is usable in PvP, Afterburn's base stats are exceptionally low and not worth using in any PvE build.

Everlasting Ward

Everlasting Ward: Elemental Ward Augment: Allies that leave the radius will retain the effect for 100% of the remaining duration.

Everlasting Ward makes your second ability far better for supporting allies. Allies that leave the radius of Elemental Ward will retain its effects for the rest of the ability's duration. For example, if your Elemental Ward lasts for 30 seconds and an ally leaves when it hits 20, they'll have the buff for the next 20 seconds. This makes it far easier to buff your team with Elemental Ward without having to play near allies. Everlasting Ward works with subsumed Elemental Ward on other Warframes.

Vexing Retaliation

Vexing Retaliation: Vex Armor Augment: Taking 150 damage will trigger a 9m burst. Shield damage will cause a Puncture status effect while Health damage will cause a Blast status effect.

Vexing Retaliation creates a small AoE effect whenever you take damage, inflicting either Puncture or Blast status on nearby foes. The range of the blast is affected by Ability Range. Strength does not affect the damage or damage threshold of this augment mod.

Guided Effigy

Guided Effigy: Effigy Augment: Cast and hold to make Effigy move to your aim point. Deals 4,000 damage/s and restores 5 Energy for each enemy in its path. Roars on arrival, stunning nearby enemies.

Holding the Effigy ability will place a beacon on your crosshair, causing your Effigy dragon to quickly fly towards the beacon. Enemies hit by the Effigy will take 4,000 elemental damage and restore five Energy to Chroma. Using Effigy this way also resets its AoE stun cooldown, allowing you to spam Effigy's stun if you continuously tell it to move. Damage from this augment is affected by Strength, and the Energy returned is affected by Efficiency. The more Efficiency you have, the less Energy you'll receive.

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Chroma Builds

Chroma is a simple Warframe to build for. Your most important abilities, Elemental Ward and Vex Armor, prefer a high amount of Strength and Duration. Range is a dump stat for most builds, and Efficiency can be circumvented with Arcane Energize or the Zenurik Focus school.

Unfortunately, the best Strength and Duration mods in Warframe are either Corrupted or Primed mods, all of which have ten ranks. Chroma requires at least a few Forma and some high-level mods to reach their potential. If you aren't willing to invest a few Forma into a Warframe, we highly recommend you play another Warframe like Inaros or Nidus. For those that invest in Chroma, they'll have access to a great boss killer that can solo Profit Taker and most Steel Path bosses.

As mentioned earlier, we highly recommend you use the Zenurik Focus School. Most Chroma builds sacrifice Efficiency for Strength, so you'll want to counteract this by using Wellspring and some of Zenurik's useful Energy-related passives. If you don't mind using Energy Pads to refill Chroma's Energy in tough missions, Unairu is also an option to give yourself knockback immunity—a useful boon if you don't own Primed Sure Footed.

Archon Shards

Chroma benefits from Ability Strength and Duration (Crimson) Shards. You might also want to consider giving Chroma Starting Energy (Amber) Shards if you find yourself spamming Energy Pads at the start of Profit Taker or Eidolon hunts. All of Chroma's core abilities scale well with Strength and Duration, so spec for whichever stat you find more valuable. None of the builds showcased below will be using Archon Shards.

Eidolon And Profit Taker Chroma (3 Forma, No Subsume)

  • Forma: 3 (2V, D (Exilus))
  • Subsume: None/Preference
  • Element: Cold

Chroma's main use is to deal heavy damage versus Eidolons and the Profit Taker Orb, so this build focuses on boss DPS with as little investment as possible. You'll need three Forma and Steel Charge to fit all of these mods on your Chroma.

This build focuses on Strength and Duration by using some staple Corrupted mods: Blind Rage and Narrow Minded. This grants nearly twice as much Strength and Duration at the cost of Efficiency and Range, respectively. We don't care about Range, but Efficiency is somewhat important here. Instead of using Fleeting Expertise or Streamline, we're going to use Hunter Adrenaline or Rage to convert some HP damage taken into Energy. With how tanky Chroma is, you'll have no issues keeping your Energy reserves up.

Primed Continuity and Umbral Intensify will help improve your Strength and Duration. Umbral Vitality will buff Intensify and give you much more HP. Try to fit Primed Sure Footed in your build to become immune to staggers, seeing as Profit Taker and Eidolons have a ton of knockdown attacks. For the rest of your slots, try to increase your Strength and Duration some more. We use Augur Secrets and Message since they don't drain much capacity.

We don't typically recommend Arcanes, but we highly recommend you use Arcane Nullifier to negate all Magnetic procs from the Eidolon and Profit Taker fights. This will make managing your Energy far easier. If you still struggle with maintaining Energy, use the Zenurik Focus school. You can also use Arcane Energize in your second Arcane slot, provided you own a set.

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Umbral Chroma (5 Forma, Empower Subsume)

  • Forma: 5 (2 Umbral, 2V, D (Exilus))
  • Subsume: Empower (Helminth)
  • Element: Cold

This build costs two Umbral Forma and hundreds of thousands of Endo. Only make this build if you have the spare materials and love Chroma. Most players will do just fine with the previous build.

If you love Chroma and want to min-max this Warframe, you'll want to make an Umbral Chroma build. We'll be using Umbral Vitality, Intensify, and Fiber to give Chroma an absurd amount of HP, armor, and Ability Strength. As with the last build, Blind Range and Narrow Minded provide the most Strength and Duration out of their competition. We also use Transient Fortitude and Primed Continuity to buff these stats even more.

Umbral Fiber and Cold Elemental Ward will give you more than enough armor, but you might need more survivability in Steel Path content. That's why we're using an Adaptation as well, granting damage resistance as you take damage. We use an unranked version since it doesn't affect the mod's DR cap. Use your preferred aura, and slot Primed Sure Footed in your Exilus slot to ignore stun and knockback effects. To boost our survivability even more, we'll be using Empower from the Helminth system to get even more Ability Strength for Elemental Ward and Vex Armor.

For Arcanes, Arcane Energize and Grace are your best options. Energize will help keep your Energy economy afloat, and Grace will give you passive HP regen when you take damage, drastically improving your survivability. As with the previous build, if you struggle with Energy, use the Zenurik Focus school.

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Next: Warframe: Equinox Complete Guide – Drops, Abilities, And Builds