Warframe's upcoming Bayonet-Rifle is unlike any previous weapon in the game's history

The Old Peace puts back the theme of war in Warframe, and the upcoming bayonet-attached world-war-era rifle plays it forward. Uriel's signature weapon, "Vinquibus" is essentially a Warframe-ized version of a traditional 30-cal service rifle, with an intricate Orokin lance grafted along its barrel. It fires semi-auto rounds (with high crit stats as expected), makes the M1-Garand ping when the magazine is emptied, and sticks the lance into enemies who stray too near.

Most importantly, though, this weapon truly functions as both primary and melee. As in, you have to mod its separately as a primary and melee weapon, which took me by surprise when I was watching the stream.

Warframe's new Bayonet-type weapon has big implications going forwards

Could a gunblade retrofit be in order? (Image via Digtial Extremes)

Vinquibus will be the first in line to represent the new Bayonet weapon type. Once you equip it, it occupies your primary slot and your melee slot. There's no opt-out of either form. If you use the barrel, you're also married to the blade attached to it.

Consequently, you mod the two separate forms as if it was a traditional primary weapon and melee weapon. That includes mods, Arcanes, potato-ing, the whole nine yards.

This makes it a particularly tricky thing to build, as its Forma polarities are shared between the two forms (which means either get crafty or use those expensive Omni-Formas).

Out in the field, though, it feels like the most natural thing in the world for Warframe's gameplay. This game has zero downtime in switching from gun to melee anyway, so it's very intuitive. Plus, to incentivize you swap between the two forms, there's a passive unique trait: headshots increase melee damage, while melee kills increase ammo efficiency.

Other than some lingering questions about where the Riven could go, sticking a blade on a gun itself isn't anything head-turning past the wow factor of first impressions. What's more important is how this might affect other existing weapon categories which deserve a similar treatment.

The two obvious standouts are gunblades and spearguns. The former is secluded to being just a melee weapon, while the latter is more a plantable banner that shoots projectiles.

When the Vinquibus was revealed in Devstream 191, the devs didn't exactly say they would retroactively improve these older weapon categories. But now that the tech is figured out internally, it would be conceivable for the gunblades and spearguns to be truly interesting hybrid weapons as they were meant to be.

Even if they aren't, Bayonets still have big implications for the futures of Warframe's ever-growing arsenal: more new categories that play into the gunlancer fantasy, and perhaps even gun-to-melee Incarnons (or vice versa) down the line.

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Edited by Sambit Pal