Should you choose Excalibur, Mag, or Volt in Warframe’s Duviri Paradox?

Warframe is admittedly one of the coolest concepts for a game out there. Come on—don’t tell me you have never considered the idea of being a space ninja taking over your entire life.

That being said, Warframe is a commitment, and requires players to put in the hours in order to be good at the game, especially due to the various challenges the game has introduced over the years—one of them being the infamous quest ‘The Duviri Paradox.’

The Duviri Paradox is an alternative introductory quest brought into Warframe through Update 33.0. The quest follows the journey of the paradoxical Drifter in Duviri instead of simply starting with the regular Warframe path from the Awakening quest. For players that have started on the traditional Warframe path, The Duviri Paradox becomes available again once players have gained access to the Codex after completion of Vor’s Prize.

In this quest, Warframe access is limited, and unlike the normal game, you do not have access to your regular roster and are forced to choose one of the three starter frames to proceed.

Related: How to get Enigma Gyrum in Warframe’s Duviri Paradox

Confused about which starter frame to pick in The Duviri Paradox? We’ve got you covered.

All three starter Warframes explained

Before we talk about The Duviri Paradox, let us discuss and dive deep into the three starter frames to get a better understanding of how each of them functions, even outside the context of this alternative introductory quest.

Excalibur

If you’re a fan of large, hefty swords, then the Excalibur would be an almost instinctual choice for you. You can cause havoc across the battlefield by running around and slicing your enemies up. You are also able to use your magic sword to blind your foes while shooting out energy slashes at them as they have no choice but to cower in defeat.

Excalibur skills and their breakdown

• Passive: Excalibur deals 10 percent increased damage and attacks 10 percent faster when wielding swords.
• Slash Sash: Slash and dash through enemies alongside a radial specter. The powerful Exalted Blade’s slashes inflict bleed status.
• Radial Blind: Emit a bright flash of light, blinding all nearby enemies.
• Radial Javelin: Radial javelins impale nearby enemies, inflicting bleed status.
• Exalted Blade: Summon a sword of pure light and immense power.

Excalibur: the pros and cons

• Pros:
  • Excalibur is admittedly the most beginner-friendly Warframe that you can start with. Most of the Warframe’s damage is a result of your Exalted Blade magical energy sword. Use almost any mods you want on this bad boy and he will do the job like nothing else could, easily carrying you through a lot of the game if you are a relatively new player, making this pick a very forgiving one.
  • Excalibur has the most armor and health of the three while also possessing invulnerability frames with some of the first abilities you unlock, meaning you’ll have a super convenient get-out-of-jail card whenever you need to make use of it.

• Cons:
  • Excalibur does not come with many polarities, which means that you will need to put in intentional work if you want to mod your Excalibur the right way.
  • Excalibur doesn’t have much crowd control. Excalibur mains may argue that the raw damage potential counters this flaw, but there are times when the need for crowd control that this Warframe does not possess becomes very apparent.
  • The need to pick Excalibur as your starting Warframe makes less sense when there is an Excalibur that you can acquire later on that outperforms this one by miles, making other starter options a smarter choice.

Mag

Similar to Excalibur, Mag is quite a straightforward Warframe that introduces you to Caster/Nuker frames. During the early game, she can be quite frail, but Mag needs attention and investment to truly stand out. If you use her skillfully and creatively, she scales well into the later game where activities are more difficult.

Mag skills and their breakdown

• Passive: Nearby items gravitate toward Mag for easy collection.
• Pull: Mag stuns enemies as she manifests a magnetic vortex. The vortex pulls in Polarize Shards and stunned enemies to place them directly in front of her.
• Magnetize:  Enclose a target in a magnetic field that ensnares nearby enemies and deals damage over time. The field pulls Polarize Shards that orbited Mag and shrapnel into the deadly mix. Mag surrounds herself in a magnetic field that absorbs ranged attacks and reflects damage back in a destructive cone.
• Polarize: Emits an energy pulse that depletes enemy shields and armor as it restores ally shields. Debris left over from the pulse becomes Polarize Shards. Nearby Polarize Shards orbit Mag and cut enemies, inflicting Bleed status.
• Crush: Magnetize the bones of nearby enemies, causing them to collapse upon themselves.

Mag: the pros and cons

• Pros:
  • With a little practice and finesse, Mag can be built to pulverize large groups of foes easily, something other frames have a tough time pulling off. Mag’s ‘Pull’ skill in particular is amazing for crowd control, which is especially important for Duviri Paradox.
  • The ability to generate Overshields with her Crush skill, and shield regeneration through her Polarize skill, means Mag is fairly well-rounded.

• Cons:
  • Despite the Overshield/shield regeneration discussed above, Mag is just so squishy. She also has energy consumption problems while also taking a while of playing before she actually turns out to be exceptional.
  • Her skills are built for crowd control, meaning you’ll find yourself more reliant on your guns for damage since her skills don’t hurt too much on their own.

Volt

In the same vein as Excalibur and Mag, Volt also serves as an introduction to players—in this case, an intro into Gunslinger frames. Volt finds himself somewhere in between Mag and Excalibur, where he depends on ranged combat for damage output, but also possesses some defensive capabilities through his mobility skills. Volt is about repositioning enemies and buffing weapons to deal substantial damage all at once.

Volt skills and their breakdown

• Passive: Grounded movement generates an electrical charge building up 10 damage per meter that is unleashed with the next attack.
• Shock: Launches a shocking projectile. It stuns and deals high damage to a single target and chains damage to nearby enemies.
• Speed: Volt energizes his body and nearby Warframes, giving them increased speed and dexterity for a short time.
• Electrical Shield: Volt deploys an obstacle of energy, providing cover in any situation.
• Discharge: Paralyze nearby foes with a damaging electric charge. This also shocks approaching enemies.

Volt: the pros and cons

• Pros:
  • Volt proves to be incredibly versatile, useful in numerous roles throughout the course of Duviri Paradox whether as a damage-dealer or a support frame.
  • Volt provides you with shields, and gives you nifty speed boosts, while also being able to stun entire rooms of enemies. Warframes don’t get handier than this.

• Cons:
  • Similar to Mag, Volt happens to be quite the squishy Warframe with near identical high energy consumption. This can be controlled when you get mods like Flow and Streamline, but that won’t happen in the early game.
  • Volt scales a lot slower than other Warframes, meaning you’ll feel the difficulty of the game grows a lot faster than Excalibur or Mag.
  • While Volt is very versatile, it does have a slower power scaling, at least when compared to a Warframe such as Excalibur. Additionally, you need to keep a constant eye out on your energy consumption since you can find yourself in quite the pickle if you run out of energy.

The best Warframe to choose for The Duviri Paradox quest

While every Warframe has its use case, the most optimal one to choose specifically for the Duviri Paradox would be Mag.

Unlike the other two starter frames, Mag allows you to group up your enemies in a single spot and pick up items all with the use of one skill, Pull.

This kind of optimization is very important, especially since you do not have access to your regular Warframe roster during the Duviri Paradox quest, which means no weapons and no mods. 

Related: How to get Lua Thrax Plasm in Warframe, explained

While the other two starter frames have the same kind of amazing raw damage output that Mag possesses, the latter proves itself to be the whole package, and with so many constraints for this quest, you will need a single frame that can cover as many bases as possible before you head in.

When can you use your Warframe in The Duviri Paradox quest?

There is an area inside the Duviri underground known as The Undercroft, where the Mad King has incredibly limited sway, letting you use the Warframe you’ve chosen to your heart’s content. A lot of the missions in Duviri Paradox will lead you into The Undercroft, which means you will have lots of time to make use of your Warframe during those very missions.

For older players, however, their Operators will have access to their whole weaponry and kit while inside the Undercroft, which makes Operators much more potent than the Warframe when it comes to raw damage output.