Cheap Wukong build that makes him immortal - High level content made easy - Beginner friendly
Angels of Zariman update - new Eximi units : The build is still widely viable but you'll have to focus eximi as they can be quite annoying or even deadly at the moment. I advise to be especially careful about energy leeches.
You may already know it but [Wukong] is kinda broken, which makes it possible for him to be almost immortal without spending too much endo and without any forma.
[Wukong]'s survivability revolves around his second and third abilities. His 3, Defy, will grant him and his clone a short invulnerability during which he will convert all damage taken into temporary armor with a maximum value of 1500, which will considerably reduce the damage inflicted to his health. His 2, Cloud Walker, will grant him and his clone a way longer invulnerability while simultaneously healing them both.
Important Warning : Please remember that [Wukong]'s 2, Cloud Walker, will only heal you if you're moving while it's active !
Ability Strength will help [Wukong] get the maximum armor value of his 3 way faster while Ability Duration will make both the armor bonus of his 3 and the invulnerability fo his 2 last longer.
These two abilities however cost energy. That's why the [Hunter Adrenaline] mod is core here : being damaged by enemies will literally replenish your energy. So basically, whenever your health is low, you will have enough energy to cast Wukong's 2 and be full health again in a matter of seconds.
Useful Tips
[Primed Continuity] is the primed ( = upgraded) version of [Continuity]. Because this mod is only acquired from Baro Ki'Teer or sold by players for plats, I did not consider it "cheap" enough to be in this build ; Primed Continuity is however more comfortable and can be used here.
Generally speaking, Wukong's survivability is assured by his armor ; therefore, shield-related mods are rendered pretty much useless, that's why this build prefers Carnis Carapace over Vigor.
The Umbral Mods set is acquired for free upon completion of a quest from the main storyline.
In high level content, being knocked down for too long is often synonym of death, which explains the use of [Handspring] in this build. If you want to minimize the risk of dying from knockdown even more, you can replace [Gladiator Resolve] with [Sure Footed]. The [Constitution] mod is also pretty cool for this one purpose as it also grants ability duration, but its high drain requires sacrifices that I'm not sure are worth it.
If by any chance you own the [Adaptation] mod, you can use it instead of [Gladiator Resolve]. This will bring you closer to real immortality. But again, given it can be a bit harsh to obtain, it is not considered "cheap" in this context.
Arcanes are far from essential in this build, so you can use pretty much any arcane you want although I don't recommend all of them (shield-related arcanes for example). If you want to reach the pinnacle of immortality, go for Arcane Guardian I guess. I could see myself using Arcane Acceleration and/or Arcane Fury depending on the weapons I use. Arcane merciless is good too of course. (Side note : I don't know much about arcanes)
Note that too much armor serves almost no purpose as armor efficacity decreases as its value increases (please see the armor page of the Warframe fandom wiki).
If you go for a Helminth replacement, [Wukong]'s 4 is definitely the ability you want to get rid off. Instead you can put anything you think is useful. You can go for pure damage increase such as [Rhino]'s Roar or [Valkyr]'s Warcry. Crowd control abilities can also be used as [Wukong] is not especially good in any kind of Defense missions. [Wisp]'s Breach Surge for example is something you might go for since it also adds overall damage. If however you really want to be immortal without pressing any buttons more than once, go for [Sevagoth]'s Gloom which grants you (and your allies) 5% lifesetal on any damage.
Gameplay
Press 1 once at the beginning of a mission to spawn your Celestial Twin, then press 3 while under enemy fire, massacre using your weapons until your health is low, press 2, rinse and repeat. If you somehow don't give enough attention to your health bar and/or forget to press 2 in time, [Wukong]'s passive will save you from death 3 times before you actually die (happened to me countless times because small brain).
Your damage will exclusively rely on your weapons since you and your Celestial Twin will both use one. I recommend abusing the [Condition Overload] melee meta for maximum damage, but that is entirely up to you and you can also use the fact that your Celestial Twin has infinite weapon capacity as it uses no ammo at all.
In both Corpus and Corrupted missions, I recommend using melee and letting your Celestial Twin use ranged weapons as it will minimize the risk of the twin being in contact with a nullifier bubble which would result in its disappearance and would require you to cast 1 again.
As said before, [Wukong] is not very good overall in Defense missions, which translates to him being absolutely terrible in high level defense missions you sometimes find in Steel Path or Arbitrations. However, using a status-based AOE weapon with a few crowd control elements such as Radiation and Cold or even Heat and Electricity can make you save some precious time you will need to kill enemies. Absolute best weapon for this purpose is [Kuva Nukor] in my opinion since it has innate Radiation. Remember however that while it worked out for me until now, it is far from ideal.
Important Warning : If the Celestial Twin is afflicted with a radiation status, it will inevitably become hostile towards players and objectives, resulting at best in the death of the twin and at worst in the failure of the current mission. Such radiation hazards can be found in Thermia Fractures, a fight against a Kuva Lich/Sister of Parvos equipped with a radiation-based weapon or a random sortie effect, for examples.
Tested and Approved
This build made most of my high level content incredibly easy to this day. I used it for every single one of the Steel Path missions I've done (5 planets done as I'm writing this) and I plan to use it for the rest of them.
[Wukong] makes Arbitrations missions very easy in general but if you main melee like I do you might want to use a high ranged weapon such as a polearm because they have the ability to reach arbitration drones from the ground.
Final Notes
While very effective, this build is not optimized at all, it is cheap and beginner friendly. If you are ready to spend even 1 forma and if you have enough endo, you will certainly prefer some other more advanced build.
Feel free to tell me whatever you think of this build and guide, I appreciate feedback. Also if you have any additional tip, feel free to help !
Please tell me if you find any typo or wrong fact in this guide, I'd be more than happy to correct my mistakes.
Sincerely,
TonKarD