You get it for free. That’s the wild part. After grinding through the emotional rollercoaster that is The Second Dream quest, Hunhow basically hands you one of the most statistically busted melee weapons in the entire game. Most players don't even realize that a "Broken" War is actually superior to the restored version in several key ways. It’s weird. It’s counter-intuitive. It’s Warframe.
If you’re looking at your arsenal and wondering why this jagged piece of Sentient metal is outperforming your fancy Prime weapons, it’s all in the numbers. Specifically, that juicy 35% critical chance.
Most people mess up their Broken War build by treating it like a standard sword. They slap on some basic damage mods and call it a day. But to actually make this thing red-crit like a monster in Steel Path, you have to understand how its stances interact with the current melee meta.
The Stance Dance: Iron Phoenix vs. Crimson Dervish vs. Vengeful Revenant
Choosing a stance isn't just about how the swings look. It’s about the multipliers. Honestly, most veterans will tell you to hunt down Crimson Dervish. Why? Because the "Coiling Impale" combo has a massive 300% damage multiplier on certain hits. It’s slower, sure. It feels a bit clunky if you’re used to the zoomy speed of Dual Katanas. But the raw DPS is hard to argue with.
Then you’ve got Vengeful Revenant. It’s rare. Like, "farm-Sentients-on-Lua-for-hours" rare. It feels amazing to use, very fluid, very aggressive. But if we’re being real, Iron Phoenix is perfectly fine for 90% of the game's content. It has a forced Impact proc which is... fine, I guess? But you're really here for the forced Slash procs found in the tactical combos of the rarer stances.
Scaling Into the Late Game
Blood Rush. If you aren't using Blood Rush, you aren't really playing with a Broken War. Because the base crit is 35%, a max-stacked Blood Rush at a 12x combo multiplier sends your crit chance soaring into the stratosphere. We're talking consistent Orange and Red crits without even trying.
But here is where the "Expert" advice diverges.
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A lot of players will tell you to build for pure Viral/Slash. It's the "old reliable" of Warframe. You take Weeping Wounds, you take Condition Overload, and you let the status effects do the heavy lifting. This works. It works exceptionally well. However, because Broken War has such high base Impact and Puncture damage, your Slash procs can sometimes get buried in the RNG pool.
To fix this, some high-level players are actually leaning into Melee Elementalist. This mod is a game-changer for the Broken War. It increases the damage of those status effects—the bleeds—without needing to mess with your elemental weighting too much.
What About the Elementals?
You've basically got two choices.
- The Classic Viral: Use North Wind and Shocking Touch (or the 60/60 versions like Vicious Frost and Virulent Scourge). This is for general-purpose killing.
- The Internal Bleeding Route: Since the Broken War has forced Impact procs on several stance moves, you can technically use Internal Bleeding to force Slash. Is it optimal? Probably not compared to a dedicated Weeping Wounds setup, but it's a fun experimental way to play if you’re bored of the meta.
Don't ignore Organ Shatter. Or better yet, Amalgam Organ Shatter if you have it from the Thermia Fractures event. That extra heavy attack wind-up speed feels great when you need to dump your combo into a Thrax Centurion’s face.
The Secret Sauce: Melee Arcanes and Tennokai
This is where the 2026 meta lives. If you haven't touched the Cavia or played through Whispers in the Walls, your Broken War is only operating at 60% capacity.
Melee Duplicate is the dream. Since Broken War crits so reliably, having a chance for those hits to strike twice is massive. But let's be real: Duplicate is an absolute nightmare to max out. A more accessible option? Melee Animosity. It builds up crit chance for your next Heavy Attack based on your light hits.
And then there’s Tennokai.
If you aren't using a Tennokai mod like Dreamer's Wrath or Discipline's Merit, you're leaving money on the table. Tennokai allows you to perform a Heavy Attack without consuming your combo counter. For a weapon like Broken War, which relies on Blood Rush and Weeping Wounds staying at 12x, this is mandatory. It lets you keep your massive crit buffs while still occasionally deleting an Eximus unit with a heavy slam.
Common Mistakes People Make
Stop putting Pressure Point on your build if you're using Condition Overload. They occupy the same "bucket" of damage calculation. Once you have two or three status effects on an enemy, Condition Overload provides way more raw damage than Primed Pressure Point ever could. Use that extra mod slot for something useful, like Primed Reach.
Speaking of Reach, the Broken War is a one-handed sword. Its range is... okay. It's not a Polearm. It’s not a Heavy Blade. Without a range mod, you’re going to feel like you’re swinging a toothpick in high-density missions like Steel Path Circuit. Primed Reach turns that toothpick into a laser beam.
Another thing: the "Broken" version has a higher crit chance than the "War" (the heavy blade version). People spend forever farming the parts to "fix" the sword, only to realize the heavy blade version is mostly Impact damage and actually feels worse in the current Slash-is-king meta. Keep the Broken one. It's unironically better.
How to Handle Different Factions
If you're fighting Grineer, you go Viral/Slash. No questions asked. The armor stripping from the bleeds is non-negotiable.
Against Corpus? Honestly, just swap one mod for Pure Toxin. Toxin bypasses shields entirely. Because Broken War hits so fast (especially if you're running Berserker Fury), you’ll stack Toxin procs so quickly the shields won't even matter.
For Infested, just build for raw Heat or Corrosive. They don't have the armor of the Grineer, but they have massive health pools that Heat can chew through.
The "I Don't Have Rare Mods" Budget Build
If you’re a newer player and all this talk of Arcanes and Tennokai sounds like gibberish, don’t panic.
- Stance: Iron Phoenix (Common)
- Damage: Pressure Point
- Speed: Fury
- Crit: True Steel and Organ Shatter
- Elements: Fever Strike and North Wind (Viral)
- Reach: Reach
Even with these basic mods, the Broken War will carry you through the entire Star Chart. It’s that good. The base stats are so high that it’s hard to make a "bad" version of this weapon.
Why You Might Consider a Riven
If you happen to unveil a Riven for this thing, look for Range, Critical Damage, or Attack Speed. Do not worry about "Initial Combo" or "Slide Crit." You want stats that complement the long-game scaling. Because the Broken War has a decent Riven Disposition, a good roll can make this weapon outperform even the most expensive Prime Melees like the Gram Prime or Nikana Prime.
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Synergizing with Your Warframe
Certain frames turn the Broken War into a literal god-slayer. Kullervo is the obvious choice. His Wrathful Advance ability gives a flat additive critical chance bonus. When you combine that with Broken War’s already high base, you aren't just red-critting—you're hitting tiers of crit that shouldn't even exist.
Saryn is another great pick. Her Toxic Lash adds a guaranteed Toxin proc to every hit. This counts as an extra status for Condition Overload, meaning your damage scales even faster.
Final Practical Steps
To get the most out of your setup, go to the Simulacrum. Test your swing speed. If it feels too slow, swap a damage mod for Berserker Fury or Primed Fury. If you find yourself dying before you can build a combo, look into Healing Return or the Vazarin focus school.
- Check your Stance: Make sure it matches the polarity so you get extra mod capacity.
- Focus on the 12x: Get your combo to max and keep it there using Drifting Contact or the Dexterity Arcanes on your guns.
- Upgrade your Arcanes: Start farming Vosfor to gamble for Melee Animosity.
- Don't "Fix" it: Unless you really love the look of the big heavy blade, keep your Broken War. You can't easily get it back once you use it to craft the War.
The Broken War isn't just a quest reward. It's a top-tier endgame tool that happens to be free. Respect the crit chance, lean into the status procs, and stop overthinking the elements. Just get in there and start swinging.