The Orthos is a dual-bladed Polearm that resembles the result of a bored Tenno duct taping a Dual Skana onto a Bo before swinging it around with wild abandon until everything in the room is dead. At Mastery Rank 2, the Orthos is an excellent melee weapon for new Tenno to take through the Star Chart and even into Sorties, depending on the build.
The Orthos and Orthos Prime are the two longest melee weapons in all of Warframe (outside of Zaws) and as such can clear crowds of enemies easily, making the weapon a staple of any arsenal. If there’s an enemy in your way, the Orthos is usually the answer for getting them out of your way.
How to Acquire
The Orthos blueprint can be bought from the Market for 20k Credits and has a fairly low build cost. Once most new Tenno reach Mars in they will tend to have more Morphics than they can ever really use, although the Polymer Bundles can prove tricky to procure (just ask Greg and Lucas about Polymer farming).
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Credits 20,000 -
Morphics 4 -
Polymer Bundle 500 -
Ferrite 850 -
Alloy Plate 700
The Orthos Prime is still currently available in void relics, and consists of two Blades and one handle. The build also requires 15k Credits and 10 Orokin Cells which can be obtained as rare drops in the Star Chart.
Stats by Variant
The Orthos — as any good sword-on-a-stick should — deals primarily Slash Damage, making it extra effective against anything with Health. Along with its very favorable Damage spread, the Orthos is long – long as the dickens, you may say – long enough to hit all of Lephantis’ heads and still have room for a charger or two… and the Orthos Prime is even longer. The Orthos favors Status Chance at a base of 15%, and building it from there will spread all kinds of bleed and Elemental procs to your enemies as you become a Twirling Spire (get it?) of pain.
The Orthos Prime has an even greater reach than the base Orthos and is tied with the Guandao and the Cassowar for longest reaching Melee weapon in the game. The Orthos Prime has an increased Critical Chance from the base version, sitting pretty at 10% along with a matching 15% Status Chance. The Orthos Prime has higher base Damage and attack speed than the stock Orthos, and sports a nifty Orokin inscription that reads ‘The longest arm is the law,’ which is certainly the case in Warframe.
Crit or Status?
The Orthos’ long reach makes it a shoe-in for a Combo-based Melee build. This kind of build relies on consecutive Melee strikes to build a multiplier, which boosts the weapon’s Damage the higher the combo counter goes. Mods like Body Count, Drifting Contact, and Gladiator Rush will serve to boost not only the combo timer (the time before the combo resets), but can also be augmented with Weeping Wounds, which will increase the Status Chance based on the Combo Multiplier.
The Orthos Prime can be built the same way as the Orthos, but replace Weeping Wounds with Blood Rush. It can also effectively be built for Status Chance / Damage using the dual-status mods rather than using Combo mods.
Both the Orthos and Orthos Prime will benefit greatly from the addition of a maxed-out Reach or Primed Reach mod, which increases their effective Range, thus hitting more enemies. Both weapons can also be pushed to 100% Status Chance, allowing every swing of the weapon to inflict a status proc, which will cause Damage over time.
The Orthos is an excellent early weapon for any Tenno looking to become a Shimmering Blight on the battlefield. Polearm weapons are peak spin-to-win gameplay and the Orthos leads the way with gusto, allowing an enterprising Tenno to spread misery in ways unavailable with previous MR0 and MR1 weapons. The Orthos is a solid early-game choice and is an easy recommendation for any level of player.
Andy
