Amps and More Amps

Amps are a thing that you should get to know. Not to do a huge spoiler on it, all I will mention for now is that you should be reading this guide ONLY after you have unlocked your operator. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to go finish War Within, Saya's Vigil, and meeting Onkko over on Cetus. If you haven't done any of those things, turn away from this guide. If you have, proceed!

First and foremost, amps are something you should get to know because they are kind of an unspoken requirement for Eidolon hunts, some story quests, when you need to help fellow operators get to their feet in a frenzy of enemies, end game things, the list goes on. Eidolon hunts are something you might have already come across - outside of Cetus at night. That thing you hear screeching in the night? Yeah, you need an amp to kill that. Also, it works for the vomvalysts that you encounter at night. You know, those weird floating boxes of doom that you can't damage with a gun? Yeah, those things. Need an amp for them.

NOTE: No matter what build you decide to do, GUILD that thing! Guilding gives you some extra oomf in some areas, much like guilding a zaw, kitgun, MOA, etc - a little more damage here and there. If that wasn't enough incentive, guilding an amp will give you the MR for it (mastery ranking that is needed for leveling your overall account, which gives you access to more weapons/warframes). Please note that the Prism is what gives you the MR for the amp, not the Scaffold or Brace.

Okay, so you get a super basic amp to start off with and let's be honest, it is HORRIBLE. Luckily, we can change that! First thing you should be doing is getting some Sentient Cores over on Plains of Eidolon during the night phase (can also be found on Lua and Railjack missions). This will take some time getting the standing with the Quills via Quill Onkko, but trust me when I say that it is worth it. So there are two options for getting the most pew pews as a super new operator. The reason why the original mote isn't worth using is because it isn't modular and you can't customize it. True, once you build your own amp, you can't really change it either unless you just want to change the arcanes. An arcane is something you explore later when you get further into the Quills standing, but it is basically a "mod" you can install on your amp.

1 - Raplak Prism - 1,000
1 - Pencha Scaffold - 1,000
1 - Clapkra Brace - 1,000

1 - Raplak Prism - 1,000
2 - Shraksun Scaffold - 1,500
3 - Lohrin Brace - 2,000

Let me break down what all that means. The first number is how a lot of players in the community use to reference parts. For example, these are called 111 or 123 respectively. The second section is the name of the part, while the final number is how much standing it costs. For super new operators who want to get to pew pewing, these are very viable options and will get you results. The prism is your primary fire, the scaffold is your secondary fire, and the brace is the stats modifier. Each part is vital to know what you are building exactly, so read the table at the bottom to know what does what.

The reason 111 is viable is because it is:

super cheap to get,
the primary fire is a semi-auto, long range hit with precision
the secondary fire is a charged beam
the brace provides an additional +40 to the energy pool

When it comes to the 123 build:

the primary fire is a semi-auto, long range hit with precision
the secondary fire provides short ranged flak grenades
the brace has an additional +12% critical and status chance.

Either way, you can't go wrong with either of these two builds when you are just starting out. With a bit of dedication, you will be getting to the next amp section in no time.

When you get to Venus and unlock Fortuna, you will eventually learn of Vox Solaris. This is basically the Quills over on Earth, but higher level stuff. Now, if you are like so many other Tenno out there, you will be wanting the best of the best, but can't afford it...yet. For this awkward phase of the game, a good option build is 223:

2 - Shwaak Prism - 1,500
2 - Shraksun Scaffold - 1,500
3 - Lohrin Brace - 2,000

Now, I know what you're thinking: this has nothing with the new shiny toys Little Duck offers. I know. You need to start farming Torids in order to trade Little Duck, much like Sentient Cores for Quill Onkko. This part of amp building takes a while, so in the meantime, the 223 build is pretty legit and will carry you for a good bit.

NOTE: If you have blasted through all of the content and managed to get The New War completed, you can use Narmer currency to trade as well as Torids.

The reason for this being a viable build is because:

the primary fire is a mid ranged, semi-auto, punching through things projectile
the secondary is a short ranged flak grenade
the brace gives an additional +12% critical and status chance

Most bang for your "buck" for this stage of the game, or at least it will get you through most basic hunts. Also really good when leveling it up against common enemies on various planets.

End game time! So you farmed out a lot of Vox Solaris standing and you are ready to spend it on the best of the best, right? As of this writing, the best min max build is 177:

1 - Raplak Prism - 1,000
7 - Propa Scaffold - 3,000
7 - Certus Brace - 3,000

As I mentioned before, this is probably the best overall build that has been in meta rotation for a good bit of time. This amp loadout consists of:

primary fire which is a semi-auto, long range hit with precision
secondary fire that is a timed explosive and detonates upon impact
brace provides +20% critical chance

The 177 combo is mostly required for doing more than the 3 Eidolon targets in an instance, so just something to think about. What I mean by this is that it is more for those serious and organized runs, where your group is doing more than 4 sets of the Eidolon trio capture PER NIGHT CYCLE (usually abbreviated as 4x3 in chat). It will take practice to land those secondary shots just right, so practice makes perfect! If you don't plan on getting into these serious runs that can go up to 6x3 hunts, then check out the next build below.

NOTE: This set has parts that need to be purchased on Fortuna and cannot be acquired on Cetus.

If you are not planning on going the min max way, you can go for the older meta that was x27, where the x (prism therefore primary fire) is whatever tickles your fancy.

x - anything Prism
2 - Shraksun Scaffold - 1,500
7 - Certus Brace - 3,000

This set offers:

whatever you want for your primary fire - you can't really go wrong
the secondary is a short ranged flak grenade
brace provides +20% critical chance

It will definitely get you by on the typical 3 Eidolon hunt, but pushing past that might be a bit harder as the night progresses.

If you are in the market for some Void Angel hunting, a good meta build for it would be 147, accompanied with the Arcanes Eternal Eradicate, Eternal Onslaught, and/or Magus Melt. I prefer the Magus Melt in my latest build. Make sure to pick a school to go along with this build, such as Unairu for Caustic Strike or Madurai for Void Strike. Just pick a few combos and give them a try.

1 - Raplak Prism
4 - Phahd Scaffold
7 - Certus Brace

This set offers:

Angel focused primary shot
everything else secondary shot
the Phahd gives great crowd control

Another alternative, besides the 177 and the 147, would be a 747. What this does is provide essentially the same thing as the 147, just makes it a shorter range and a wider beam. This makes it a bit easier to use for general gameplay as well.

7 - Klamora Prism
4 - Phahd Scaffold
7 - Certus Brace

This set offers:

general crowd control no matter which way you shoot

Table Breakdown:

1 / Prism	2 / Scaffold	3 / Brace
1 - Raplak (Cetus T1) semi-auto long range precise hit	1 - Pencha (Cetus T1) charged beam	1 - Clapkra (Cetus T1) +40 energy pool
2 - Shwaak (Cetus T2) semi-auto medium range punch through projectile	2 - Shraksun (Cetus T2) short range flak grenade	2 - Juttni (Cetus T2) -1 second recharge delay
3 - Granmu (Cetus T3) 3 shot grenade burst	3 - Klebrik (Cetus T3) continuous homing beam	3 - Lohrin (Cetus T3) +12% critical and status chance
4 - Rahn (Cetus T4) full-auto long range	4 - Phahd (Cetus T4) bouncy shots between targets	4 - Anspatha (Cetus T4) +20 energy pool +15/s energy recharge rate
5 - Centic (Fortuna T1) quick and precise 3 shot bursts	5 - Exard (Fortuna T1) auto grenade launcher	5 - Suo (Fortuna T1) +100 energy pool +2s recharge delay
6 - Lega (Fortuna T2) continuous fire widespread fire medium range	6 - Dissic (Fortuna T2) clusterbomb launcher	6 - Plaga (Fortuna T2) +20 energy pool -1.5s recharge delay
7 - Klamora (Fortuna T3) wide beam short range	7 - Propa (Fortuna T3) timed explosive will detonate upon impact	7 - Certus (Fortuna T3) +20% critical chance

How to read the table: Each column is dedicated to the 3 different parts for an amp. The 7 - Klamora (Fortuna T3) is the code number used in general guides and communication, the name of the part, the location of the part, and what tier the part is. Finally, the bullet list is a quick description of what that part does.

References:

Amp | WARFRAME Wiki | Fandom

Amp Builder - Semlar.com - Really useful amp builder website