Warframe Duviri Circuit Guide: Decree Choices and Weekly Rotations

The Circuit is the one Duviri mode that actually plays like normal Warframe. You drop into the Undercroft, pick a frame and a handful of weapons from Teshin's Cave, then chain random missions until you extract or wipe. The payoff is a weekly reward track that hands out Warframe blueprints in the normal version and Incarnon Genesis adapters in Steel Path. The catch is that your loadout is random, and your real power comes from the decrees you grab mid-run. Pick those well and even Steel Path feels easy. Pick them badly and stage 10 will humble you fast.

So the whole thing hinges on two things: knowing what is on the table each week, and knowing which decrees to grab. Below is how the rotation works, what to take when you are piloting a Warframe, what to take when you are stuck on a weapon, what Steel Path changes, and which frames make the grind fly by.

How the Circuit Rotation Works Each Week

Everything in the Circuit runs on a weekly clock. The reward pools reset every Monday at 0:00 UTC, and that is when your progress track and your reward choices both wipe and start over. You have seven days to climb the tiers before it all goes back to zero.

The reward track and how progress stacks

You earn Circuit Progress by clearing stages, and that progress banks into your weekly total. The curve looks odd at first but it is pretty friendly:

• Stage 1: 100
• Stage 2: 110
• Stage 3: 125
• Stage 4: 145 (plus a one-time 50 bonus per day)
• Stage 5 and every stage after: 170 each

Here is the part that trips people up. Your progress carries across runs for the whole week. Each run restarts the stage counter at 100, but the points keep adding to the same weekly pile. So you do not need one marathon session. Hit stage 10 in a run and you have banked about 1,500 points. Do that two or three times and you are done.

How far you have to climb depends on difficulty. Normal Circuit tops out at Tier 10, which takes 3,640 progress. That is a single run to roughly stage 23, or a few shorter ones. Steel Path needs more, about 5,460, so expect two or three solid runs there.

Normal vs Steel Path reward tracks

The two modes hand out completely different prizes. Normal gives you Warframe parts. At the start of the week you pick one of three frames (the rotation runs Excalibur, Trinity, Ember, then Loki, Mag, Rhino, and so on for 11 weeks before it loops), and clearing tiers drops that frame's neuroptics, chassis, systems, and blueprint along with credits, endo, mods, and arcanes.

Steel Path swaps all that for Incarnon gear. You pick two out of five Incarnon Genesis adapters, unlocked at Tier 5 and Tier 10, and those turn ordinary weapons into souped-up Incarnon versions. More on that in the Steel Path section.

Mission types and enemy scaling

Stages cycle randomly through the usual Warframe mission types. Defense has you hold for 3 waves, Survival asks for 5 minutes, Excavation needs 300 cryotic across three drills, Exterminate is kill everything and then Corrupted Vor, Void Flood wants 5 ruptures sealed, Alchemy fills 2 crucibles, and a Corrupted Jackal fight can't show up before stage 5.

Enemy levels climb hard and fast. Normal starts around level 30 and hits 450 by stage 10. Steel Path starts at 130 and is already at 1,392 by stage 10. Steel Path runs into the 9,999 cap by stage 18, while normal takes until stage 30 to get there. That steep curve is exactly why decrees matter so much more than your base gear.

Choosing Decrees for Warframe Runs

On a Warframe run, decrees fall into a clear pecking order. A few are flat-out broken in the best way, and you should snap them up the second they appear. Others are situational or just okay. The good news is the top picks tend to stack with each other, so once you get the ball rolling your frame turns into a monster.

The always-grab picks

These show up as gold rare decrees, and they are the backbone of pretty much every strong run:

• Vicious Barb doubles your critical damage. A flat 2x on yellow and red crits. If your frame or weapon has any crit at all, this is a no-brainer.
• Majestic Strike makes every melee swing hit twice. It is basically free multishot for your melee, and it stacks hard with everything else on this list.

Both of these are rare decrees, so you won't see them every run. When you do, take them.

Melee crit chains

If you are on a frame with a strong melee or an exalted blade (Excalibur, Valkyr, Wukong, Baruuk), build a crit chain. Royal Wrath adds flat critical chance on every melee hit, up to 10 stacks. Rising Agony bumps your critical damage after a crit lands. Dueler's Outburst speeds up your attack speed on crits. Stack those three with Vicious Barb and Majestic Strike and your melee starts printing red numbers.

For elemental punch, Smoldering Strike adds a chunk of heat to every swing, and Venomous Touch makes every third hit deal up to 300% toxin. Those two layered on top of the crit chain melt groups in a hurry.

Ability and survival decrees

Don't sleep on the support picks, especially on defense and excavation where you are planted in one spot. Proficient Fighter cuts ability costs, Envious Economy sometimes makes your next cast free, and Bounce Back refunds energy on every ability use. For frames that spam (Saryn, Octavia, Khora), those keep you going deep into a run.

On the staying-alive side, Tactical Repositioning is sneaky-good. Take a hit, roll, and you get up to 75% of that damage back as health. Nourishing Terror heals you every time you proc a status, which on a Saryn or Octavia is basically constant. Killer's Confidence drops overguard on melee kills, and the overguard amount doubles for Warframes.

What to skip early

Avoid the niche stuff at the start. Fleet-footed (movement speed per decree) is fine but not a priority. Tamm's Fortune and Brimon's Nerve are finisher-based, and finishers are rare in a busy Circuit stage. Save those for later picks when the good options have already gone.

Choosing Decrees for Weapon Runs

Sometimes your frame is a dud and the only thing hitting hard is the gun you rolled. That is fine, the Circuit hands out decrees that can turn a basic rifle into a stage-15 clearer. The trick is picking gun decrees that stack multiplicatively, the same logic as melee but for bullets.

The gun-crit core

Crit is king, so build around it.

• Vicious Barb shows up here too and it is just as good on guns. Double crit damage works on every weapon.
• Between the Eyes gives up to +150% damage for 3 seconds after a headshot. On anything accurate, that is a near-permanent damage buff.
• Critical Roll bumps crit damage by up to 120% for 4 seconds after a roll. Roll between fights, then light everything up.

Stack those with a high-crit weapon (a Soma, a Vectis, anything with a good crit stat) and the numbers get silly fast.

Sustained-fire and fire-rate picks

Two decrees do most of the heavy lifting for automatic and beam weapons:

• Persistent Attrition makes each shot you land pile 10% more damage vulnerability onto that target. On a single tough enemy (the Jackal, an Acolyte, a Thrax), that ramps into absurd territory. It works on the Sirocco too.
• Irresistible Bombardment adds fire rate with every shot, up to +300%, decaying only when you stop shooting. Pair it with Persistent Attrition and an auto rifle and you turn into a hose.

For slow-firing guns, Duelist's Advantage makes your first shot after a reload deal up to +400% damage. Grab Ranger's Reload with it (rolling reloads your gun) and you can spam that opening shot over and over by rolling between kills.

Status and area decrees

If your weapon procs a lot of status, lean into the status family. Fearsome Bonanza gives up to +100% damage for every enemy near you suffering a status effect. Twofold Torment (a rare) doubles all of your status damage. Close Contagion (also rare) spreads statuses to nearby foes. Layered together, a status weapon turns a crowd into a pile of bodies without you aiming much.

For raw splash, Blazing Bombardment fires a homing fireball every fifth hit, and Bombastine's Malice drops toxin on headshots. Neither is a top pick, but they are great filler once the headliners are gone.

Match the decree to the gun

Quick rule of thumb. Crit decrees go on crit weapons, status decrees go on status weapons, fire-rate decrees go on autos. Don't waste Vicious Barb on a low-crit shotgun. If you rolled a Cedo, a Kuva Bramma, or an Ignis, the status and splash picks will carry harder than the crit ones.

Steel Path Circuit and Incarnon Rewards

Steel Path is the same mode with the volume turned up. Same mission pool, same decrees, same weekly clock, but enemies start at level 130 instead of 30 and your reward track swaps Warframe parts for Incarnon Genesis adapters. It is the main way to earn Incarnon weapons, and for a lot of players it is the only reason to keep coming back to Duviri.

Picking your two adapters

At the start of a Steel Path week you pick two out of five Incarnon Genesis adapters. They land at Tier 5 and Tier 10, so you have to climb to at least Tier 10 (about 5,460 progress) to grab both. The five options rotate on a fixed nine-week cycle:

• Week A: Braton, Lato, Skana, Paris, Kunai
• Week B: Boar, Gammacor, Angstrum, Gorgon, Anku
• Week C: Bo, Latron, Furis, Furax, Strun
• ...and so on through Week I, then it loops back to A

Because the list is fixed, you can look ahead and plan. If you are chasing the Torid or Dual Ichor adapters (Week E), you know exactly when to show up. Same goes for the big hitters like the Soma (Week F), the Dread and Despair (Week G), or the Sicarus and Sybaris (Week H).

If you have Drifter Intrinsics Opportunity at Rank 9, you can pass on the adapters entirely and grab a Riven mod or 20,000 Kuva instead. That is mostly for folks who already have every Incarnon.

Installing your adapters

Adapters do nothing on their own. Once you have one, head to Cavalero in the Chrysalith on the Zariman and he will install it on the matching base weapon. The weapon then gains an Incarnon form you charge up by landing hits, plus a set of evolution picks that let you tailor it to your build. Several of these, the Torid and Soma and Lex among them, sit near the top of community weapon tier lists even now.

What changes in the runs

The decrees are identical, so your strategy doesn't shift much. What changes is how fast you have to scale. Enemies clear 900 by stage 9 and climb to 1,392 at stage 10, so the survival decrees (Tactical Repositioning, Nourishing Terror, Killer's Confidence) move up the priority list. A frame with strong survivability or an exalted weapon matters more here than in Normal, because your random gear won't carry you on raw stats alone.

A note on timing

Since both adapters sit at Tier 5 and Tier 10, and Tier 10 needs that 5,460 progress, most people split it across two or three runs over the week rather than one brutal marathon. Pick your frame and weapons thoughtfully each time, because the Teshin's Cave selection refreshes after every extraction.

Best Loadouts for Fast Circuit Clears

Here is the thing about the Circuit. You can't bring your own gear. Every run you pick from a random pool of frames and weapons in Teshin's Cave, and that pool refreshes after each extraction (and at the start of every Duviri spiral). So "best loadout" really means "best pick from whatever the game offers you this time." Knowing what to grab when you see it is the whole game.

Lean on exalted-weapon frames

If the cave offers a frame with an exalted weapon, take it. These frames bring their own moddable weapon, so the random gun pool matters a lot less. The standouts:

• Mesa turns on Peacemaker and deletes everything in line of sight. Probably the fastest Circuit clearer in the game.
• Titania in Razorwing Blitz shreds and moves at absurd speed, great for exterminate and void flood.
• Excalibur with Exalted Blade and Valkyr with Hysteria are melee monsters that don't need ammo.
• Baruuk and his Desert Wind fists have punch-through and crowd control baked in.
• Khora, Garuda, and Wukong round out the list with strong exalted or pseudo-exalted options.

When the cave doesn't offer an exalted frame, fall back on nuke and survival picks. Saryn and Octavia for raw clear, Nova for slowing things down, Revenant for not dying, Frost or Limbo for defending objectives, Wisp for team buffs.

Weapon picks that scale

For the random weapons, reach for raw stats and splash over finesse. AoE launchers (Kuva Bramma, Tonkor, Ogris, Zarr) clear groups in one shot and love the status decrees. Beam and chaining guns (Ignis Wraith, Atomos, Amprex, Kuva Nukor, the Cedo's alt-fire) spread status everywhere, which feeds Fearsome Bonanza and Nourishing Terror. For single-target, anything high-crit (a Soma, Vectis, or Rubico) pairs nicely with Vicious Barb and Between the Eyes.

A practical tip. Check your frame's kit before you commit. If you grabbed Mesa, your secondary barely matters. If you are on a frame with no damage ability, make sure the gun you pick can actually carry.

Squad speed and intrinsics

A full squad clears faster than solo, full stop. Matchmaking is usually quick because everyone is grinding the same track. More bodies means faster kills, shared decree fragments, and someone to revive you when a Thrax Legatus catches you slipping.

Drifter Intrinsics smooth the whole thing out. The Opportunity tree is the big one. Rank 1 gives you a fourth decree choice, Rank 3 hands you a free decree when you enter, Rank 5 has a 50% chance to upgrade a common decree to rare, and Rank 6 lets you reroll your decree picks up to three times. Those ranks turn okay picks into great picks without you doing anything extra.

Keep your runs efficient

Don't overstay. Once you have banked enough progress for the week, extract. Sticking around past Tier 10 only earns credits and endo, and the enemy scaling will eventually outpace even a godly decree stack. The smart play is to hit your target tier, claim the rewards, and bank your time for something else.