Warframe – Things I Wish I Knew Earlier

Some tips about the new player experience as of late 2019 and early 2020. This is not a comprehensive guide. It is meant for people who like to discover things on their own, but would like a few pointers to get started, and some small things to keep in mind that will make a difference later on.

Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Warframe

Note: Credit goes to Heliopteryx

Progression

Your main goal starting out is to unlock different planets by completing objectives listed in the planet junctions. These are meant to subtly nudge you in the right directions for various in game systems, such as using a scanner. Your gear will level up while you use it, up to a maximum rank of 30. The cumulative total experience you have earned from using items contributes to your total mastery rank. Increasing your mastery rank is necessary to be able to equip certain guns and travel to certain destinations. It’s a good idea to have at least one item equipped at all times that isn’t maxed out, in order to passively gain mastery rank.

Warframes

Early on, you will not be able to use powers too frequently, and it will be difficult to get energy. Keep an eye out for the aura mod Energy Siphon from Nightwave. It will allow your energy to slowly regenerate. You could also consider using energy boost consumables, whose blueprints can be purchased from the Market for credits.

Initially, your ability to craft waframes will be bottlenecked by the Jupiter junction. Most warframes require the material neural sensors to be built, and these do not drop before Jupiter. Before reaching Jupiter, you will be able to build Rhino. His blueprints drop from the Jackal, the boss on Venus. It is possible to build Oberon before as well, but his parts are random drops from eximus enemies, so he is harder to farm than Rhino. Most warframe blueprints are drops from Assassination missions.

Weapons

A lot of blueprints, and even a few weapons that are ready made, can be purchased from the market for credits. Initially it will look like this shop console in your ship only takes real money, but there’s a lot of items available for credits. You can use the check boxes to sort for only items with blueprints that you can buy for credits.

If you are in a clan, you can also purchase blueprints in your clan’s Dojo.

Consumables, such as ciphers to bypass console hacks, or antitoxin to boost xp and give random extra loot from Earth sabotage missions, can also be acquired from the Market and clan Dojo for credits.

Sentinels and Pets

You get the Howl of the Kubrow quest to get a kubrow pet very early on, but you will not be able to complete it until you have progressed to the Void. Save it for later. You can purchase blueprints for sentinels from the Market or a clan Dojo for credits. Sentinels and pets may seem underwhelming at first, but there are mods that make them hard to live without, such as a shield booster for sentinels or mods that make them vacuum up nearby loot.

Loot to Keep an Eye Out For

Materials

At first, you will likely run out of neurodes and plastids. Consider using resource drones on planets that can drop these. Early on, it’s easiest to get neurodes from Earth and plastids from Phobos.

It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for mutagen samples or masses. Mutagen masses can sometimes be a reward from invasions.

Endo

You will need endo in staggering quantities later on. When selling duplicate mods, even if it’s tempting to sell for credits, you should sell for endo instead because of this. Rarely, Ayatan sculptures can be found in missions, as well as Ayatan stars that power the statues. These can be used as decoration or sold for endo. Once you complete the Stolen Dreams quest, you will have access to a weekly Ayatan statue treasure hunt mission. These involve a parkour challenge that leads to a guaranteed Ayatan sculpture. If it happens to take place on the Orokin Derelict ship, this is also a good opportunity to try and farm enemies for mutagen samples.

Scannable Plants for The Silver Grove quest

It will save you much time if you gather these before the quest asks them of you. You will need either a codex scanner or a Cephalon Simaris scanner. On Earth, sunlight plants can only be found during the daytime, while moonlight plants can only be found during nighttime. This day/night cycle in Earth missions is independent of the Plains of Eidolon day/night cycle.

• 2 Dusklight Sarracenia (Ceres)
• 6 Moonlight Dragonlily (Earth)
• 12 Sunlight Threshcone (Earth)
• 2 Moonlight Jadeleaf (Earth)
• 6 Ruk’s Claw (Mars)
• 6 Lunar Pitcher (Lua)
• 2 Sunlight Jadeleaf (Earth)
• 8 Frostleaf (snowy Corpus tile sets)
• 12 Vestan Moss (Grineer Asteroid tile sets)

General Tips

• A good early game credit farming location is the Dark Sector Seimeni on Ceres. Extract after 5 waves.
• Good mastery rank farming locations are Helene on Saturn, Sanctuary Onslaught once you have progressed the story quest line to Cephalon Simaris, and Hydron on Sedna.
• Specters are hostile when spawned in Nightmare missions.
• Do as many Nightwave objectives as you can comfortably complete without going too far out of your way. Daily objectives expire after 3 days. Weekly objectives refresh Sunday at midnight GMT.
• Medallions in syndicate missions and scannables such as frame fighter data and cephalon fragmets share the same possible spawn locations with Ayatan sculptures. If you learn the general locations these can spawn in, it’s useful for keeping an eye out for sculptures.
• Joining a Syndicate and doing void fissure missions are good ways of getting trade goods. You can trade with other players to get platinum.
• Unfilled mod space on your gear determines how much energy you start missions with.
• After completing The Second Dream quest, find the Quills in Cetus and get an amp before progressing the story. If you can, craft an amp (the cheapest combination of parts is fine).
• There is a recruiting chat channel you can use to find people to team up with. There is also a trade channel where people exchange items and platinum, but it’s a good idea to compare prices with the third party website warframe.market
• Unless you are willing to research the Kuva Lich system, avoid killing an enemy whose spawn in a mission is announced by the following pictured dialogue. Such enemies spawn only in Grineeer missions with enemies above level 20.

Warframe is overwhelming at first. But it will get better. One method to deal with this is to decide which parts of the game you will pursue and ignoring everything else until you feel ready. It’s not a race, always remember that it is fine to go at your own pace.