Warframe Legendary Core: what is it and how to get one

Warframe has been around for over a decade, so as you might expect, there are lots of rare items in the game. However, the Legendary Core, to this day, is still one of the hardest to find, most lucrative items in Warframe. Keep reading to find out what a Legendary Core is and how to get one.

What is a Legendary Core in Warframe?

A Legendary Core is unique type of mod that’s consumable. You can’t equip it on a weapon, but you can use a Legendary Core to level any mod you have to its maximum level — no Endo necessary.

For a Legendary rank mod with 10 levels, like a Primed mod, that usually requires 40,920 Endo. However, a Legendary Core can max such mods out entirely for free. Free if you can get your hands on a Legendary Core, that is. As mentioned above, Legendary Cores are incredibly rare.

How to get a Legendary Core in Warframe

There are only a few ways to find Legendary Cores in Warframe. The main way to acquire them is by playing Sorties, which can be done once a day, or Archon Hunts, which can be played once a week. The final mission of either has an impressive 0.18% chance of dropping one.

So, at best, you have eight chances per week of hitting a less-than-one-percent roll. This is precisely why many Warframe players who’ve been playing regularly for a decade have never found a Legendary Core themselves. Although, there are ways to acquire one aside from dropping one.

For one, a Legendary Core is awarded for completing a Mastery Rank Legendary Rank Test. Also, Digital Extremes occasionally gives out Legendary Cores as rewards. More importantly, Legendary Cores are tradable, even if they come with a trading tax of a million credits.

While rare, Legendary Cores aren’t too expensive. If you look them up on Warframe Market, at the time of writing, a Legendary Core goes for somewhere between 100 and 150p. This makes sense, considering this is about the difference in Platinum between an unranked mod and a max rank mod.

What are Legendary Cores good for in Warframe?

The short answer is not much, unless you manage to get lucky and drop one.

In general, simply trading for a mod that’s max rank or trading for Ayatan Sculptures you can turn in for Endo will be a more cost-effective way of leveling mods versus buying a Legendary Core. Depending on the mod, though, this may not be the case 100% of the time.

The best way to think of a Legendary Core is as a rare bonus for playing Archon Hunts, Sorties, or reaching Legendary Mastery Rank, not necessarily something you’ll want or need to acquire during normal gameplay. These aren’t regularly used for leveling mods.

Plus, even if you do manage to acquire one, you should only even consider using it on something like a Primed mod with 10 possible ranks. Even then, you may get more out of it by selling it for a good price. We’d recommend putting it up for sale to see what you can get, either way.