Entirely dependant on the weapon/frame. I basically just create the build I want, figure out how many forma is needed after which I decide if it’s worth the investment. For me the key part is to have the build in your head (or just make it on overframe I guess) before you start.

I have very few things with 7-8 forma though since most builds are finished before that, and too many forma can be limiting if you want a alternate build (changing elements on a weapon for instance or a different focus on a frame build), the only thing I have that is fully formad is I think the trumna.

At this stage though I don’t really mind just burning a forma for random stuff, and sp circuit has caused my forma usage to increase drastically since if I scout a weapon that could be good but that I never really played outside of leveling or that has a really old build I might as well drop a potato/arcane adapter/forma into it if it can benefit from them. I found a few fun weapons that I’d just leveled and moved on like that.

As many as it needs. I have a very few weapons with 6+ forma.

It always depends on which mods you’re going to use. If you’re planning on incorporating rivens, primed mods or even Umbra mods in your builds (and you’ll eventually want to), you’ll need considerably more Forma than if you didn’t.

7 or 8 forma is a perfectly normal number for a piece of gear that’s modded to its max.

This is kind of a bullshit answer, but “as many as it takes”.

I think I have 4-5 forma on some weapons¹, but I haven’t done more than 2-3 on a frame. Some frames don’t need any at all to fit the build I want.

¹ Excluding tenet/kuva weapons, those I always put in 5 since it’s required to get the XP out of them. I often find myself debating what to do with that last forma needed, since at that point the build is rather tight.

I think the need for more forma for frames probably comes with umbral builds, since umbra forma is scarce and the mods still use a ton of drain even with matching umbra polarities.

For weapons it’s just “put in V polarity until it fits”, haha.

The objectively correct answer is “enough”. Overframe is pretty bad for builds, but forma optimizing button is really nice so I recommend

However many it needs.

If I’m dealing with a weapon with riven, I might go for 5-7 so that I get some flexibility. Usually up to 4 for non-riven.

Frames is a more by-use basis. I generally play mostly with prime frames so I will always consider an aura forma, I have a bunch. Then I just start using the frame and as I notice things I want to change to make the frame better, until I stop noticing what could be better. Typically I end up with forma’ing frames up to 3 times, the most extreme being… 7? I think I made a mistake on that one at some point and ended up undoing it, but I’m not sure.

As many times as required to put on the build I want to put on. That was especially problematic before umbra forma if I wanted to use two umbral mods, and it’s problematic today with ranged weapons because they don’t have stances/auras to increase mod capacity, and the primed & galvanized mods cost a lot of capacity.

The only problem is that it also limits the builds I can put on because of conflicting polarities.