Learning goals
- Understand what a Secondary weapon is.
- Understand why sidearms are not automatically weak.
- Understand common sidearm roles.
- Understand that Secondary weapons can support Primary, Melee, and Warframe ability gameplay.
Explanation
A Secondary weapon is usually your sidearm in a standard Warframe loadout. It can be a pistol, dual pistol, machine pistol, hand cannon, throwing weapon, beam weapon, shotgun-style sidearm, launcher sidearm, Kitgun, or special variant. Many beginners treat Secondary weapons as emergency backup only, but they can also provide precision, status application, utility, stealth, close-range safety, build support, high damage, and Mastery progression.
What should I do?
When you equip a Secondary weapon, ask whether it is backup damage, utility, precision, status, crowd clear, or Mastery leveling. Check whether it covers a weakness in your Primary, helps your Melee or Warframe abilities, uses ammo quickly, requires headshots or close range, and feels good enough to level.
How to avoid wasting time
Do not ignore Secondary weapons until late-game. Even simple sidearms can teach fire rate, recoil, reload rhythm, ammo economy, status chance, and precision.
Common mistakes
Watch for these Secondary weapon habits while testing and investing.
- Ignoring Secondary weapons completely.
- Assuming every Secondary is weaker than every Primary.
- Equipping two weapons that do the exact same job without reason.
- Judging a sidearm before adding basic mods.
- Selling secondaries before ranking them for Mastery.
- Investing before understanding the sidearm's role.
Practical example
A player uses a slow bow as Primary, so their machine pistol Secondary helps when enemies rush them. Another player uses an AoE Primary and keeps a precise hand cannon for weakpoints or tougher targets.
Key Takeaways
- A Secondary weapon is not just your small gun. It is your flexible sidearm slot.
Practical task
You need to know why your sidearm is equipped before choosing a better one.
- Open your Arsenal.
- Write down your equipped Secondary weapon.
- Identify its broad type: pistol, dual pistol, machine pistol, hand cannon, throwing, beam, shotgun, launcher, Kitgun, or other.
- Decide its current role: backup damage, precision, status application, utility, close-range safety, or Mastery leveling.
- Write down one thing it adds to your loadout.
You can explain why your current Secondary is equipped.