[Overview]

This build focuses on Avalanche to achieve 100% armor strip and Biting Frost augment to boost weapon damage further, as well as allowing Breach Surge sparks to red crit.
Survivability comes in 3 forms:

• Shield-Gating with Catalyzing Shields and Brief Respite
• Overguard from the Avalanche augment Icy Avalanche which with this build can reach 30K. (Overguard grants status immunity)
• Crowd Control from the instant freeze of enemies via Avalanche and Blind via Breach Surge.

UPDATE JUNE 2024
Arcane Ice Storm gives +40% strength and +40% duration for 15s when enemies are frozen, which occurs constantly on Frost Prime. Currently with full stacks of Molt Augmented this build reaches 199% which is a bit over board so taking the 20% power strength loss is not a big deal as we will still be above 167% for that full strip!

UPDATE APRIL 2024
Breach Surge and Ice Wave Impedance now both no longer work on Eximus/Thrax through Overguard, but Biting Frost still allows Breach Surge to achieve red crits. Note Avalanche can apply 4 cold procs onto Eximus which still slow them by 65%.

Playstyle

1. Cast Breach Surge to stun enemies in line of sight and prime them for spark production.
2. Cast Avalanche (4) to freeze and strip enemies, which also triggers Breach Surge sparks. Breach Surge sparks red crit when they hit frozen enemies due to Biting Frost. Additionally, Icy Avalanche gives Overguard which blocks status effects and has 0.5s iframes on breaking.

Archon Shards

Archon shards with this build are completely a personal preference! But this is what I use/recommend!

• 2x Tau Forged Crimson Shard - 15% power strength for the ability to full strip without Molt Augmented or Arcane Ice Storm stacks.
• 1x Tau Forged Amber Shard - 37.5 casting speed for faster casting for both Breach Surge and Avalanche.
• 1x Amber Shard - for 30% initial energy for being able to cast my abilities on start with zero start-up time.
• 1X Tau Forged Azure Shard - 75% energy max to bring my total energy pool to just above 500 to take full advantage of Arcane Energize.

Build

Stat Breakdown

Duration
Duration affects the freeze duration of Avalanche as well as the blind duration or Breach Surge. Keep the duration as close to neutral or higher if possible.

Efficiency/Energy Economy
Avalanche is a very costly ability so you will need some forms of energy regeneration. Arcane Energize is used here as the main source, since in most missions especially endurance missions where you measure DPS in "Kills Per Minute" energy orbs are very abundant. Every Eximus is guaranteed to drop one Energy Orb, two Health Orbs, and either Primary Ammo or Secondary Ammo on death. Meaning this build is very rarely starved for energy but if you find yourself in a lack of energy just [Hunt] down a Eximus or two.

Range
Higher range is ideal so avalanche cover a wider area. You can either hit 175 range with Stretch + Augur Reach or 235+ range using Overextended + Stretch

Strength
Avalanche only needs 167% ability strength for permanent full strip any additional strength is primarily to boost Breach Surge spark multiplier.

Special Slots

Aura
[Brief Respite] is used for restoring shields for shield gate iframes.
[Corrosive Projection] lowers the strength threshold for strip to 137%.

Exilus
Power Drift to hit any strength thresholds, otherwise run Cunning Drift for more range. Primed Sure Footed is no longer needed since Avalanche gives frequent Overguard which blocks knockdown and statuses.

[Flow]
Archon Flow is flexible for Primed Flow. Both give the same amount of energy but Archon Flow has the slight bonus that random kills via cold abilities like avalanche or freeze generates a special large energy orb.

Augments
Each of the augments are flexible depending on personal preference.

Biting Frost is good for buffing crit based weapons, but if you're using phenmor/laetum/[Felarx], you should drop this.
Icy Avalanche is great for giving you and your team Overguard, which blocks statuses including knockdown and gives extra 0.5s iframes upon breaking.
Freeze Force is optional and can be used to provide a free cold mod on any viral weapons, thereby freeing up a slot. Note, this does NOT apply cold damage to Breach Surge.
Natural Talent - important to slot if you don't have 2+ Cast speed shards or Madurai Power Transfer active.

Arcanes
Recommended:
Arcane Energize for energy [Regen].
Arcane Ice Storm for strength and duration.
Optional:
Molt Augmented for strength
Arcane Avenger for more flat crit chance
Arcane Arachne boosts Breach Surge sparks by 2.5x

Helminth Subsume

With this build the subsume is obvious but I should state where you subsume is up to you. I personally like the utility of the Snowglobe for pushing enemies away and then popping it with Freeze.
If you feel that Breach Surge isn't for you then a grouping subsume is your best next choice!

Grouping

• Ensnare Allows you to pull frozen enemies together, works on Acolytes!
• Coil Horizon is an option for subsume that allows Archon Stretch to give bonus energy.

Energy Gain
If you have energy issues, a helminth that can supply energy is very useful:

• Spellbind with spellbound harvest which provides status immunity and a source of energy: https://overframe.gg/build/240565/frost-prime/spellbound-avalanche-frost/
• Nourish with Arcane Energize gives you approximately 1200 energy per minute and gives raw viral damage which hurts armor stripped Grineer more: https://overframe.gg/build/456819/
• Dispensary with Equilibrium
• Fractured Blast with Equilibrium

Companions

Energy Gain

• Dethcube using Energy Generator.
• Diriga using Arc Coil and Archon Stretch on Frost Prime.

Grouping

• Nautilus using Cordon.

Weapons

With grouped and armor stripped enemies, we can employ the power of electric and gas status to nuke enemies. This is because electric and gas both create AOE damage (in 3m radius) effects that magnify exponentially when enemies are grouped.

UPDATE JUNE 2024
Blast now is a viable option for nuking groups of enemies!

Crit Bug
Biting Frost gives a crit chance buff that is MULTIPLICATIVE to crit chance mods, on certain fire mods on certain guns (normally additive to cc mods), allowing many to red crit easily:

• Tenet Envoy
• Tenet Tetra
• Kuva Chakurr
• Stahlta
• Laetum Incarnon
• Tenet Plinx Alt-fire
• Strun Incarnon
• Gorgon Incarnon
• Angstrum Incarnon
• Gammacor Incarnon
• Basmu
• Tenet Diplos
• Acceltra/Acceltra Prime