Editing VGO's Guide to Warframe


This is where the fans of Warframe on VGO can talk about the best way to play with the stuff you get--Warframes in particular, but also weapons and other stuff.
Note that this is not where to find things like secrets, stats, or mission walkthroughs... those are very well covered by [https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Warframes the Warframe Wiki].

==General Info==

==Mastery Rank==
As you level warframes, weapons and companions, you'll gain mastery. Once you have enough mastery, you can complete a trial to increase your mastery rank. Certain missions, weapons and riven mods have a minimum mastery rank associated with them. If your mastery rank is lower than that, you can't access them. (I believe that you can use weapons bought with platinum, even if your mastery rank isn't high enough.) Once you achieve a mastery rank of 18, everything should be accessible to you.
Having a higher mastery rank increases the number of void traces you can have (for upgrading relics), the number of loadouts you can have, and how much standing with factions you can gain in a day. At MR 30, you also get a legendary core, 30 additional riven slots, and can bestow a blessing on all of the players at a given relay.

You gain mastery for levelling up different weapons (if you level up 2 of the same type of weapon, only the first one counts. Prime and faction variants are considered different weapons), companions, warframes, and necramechs. You also gain mastery by gaining intrinsics, completing the star chart, and again by completing the star chart on the steel path.
Each mastery test is very different. Some are much easier with a specific warframe. [[MasteryTips|Here]] are some tips.

Also, you can only take the test once a day. You can practice as many times as you like, though. To practice a test you've qualified for, go to Cephalon Simaris at one of the relays, and turn right just as you enter his room. There will be a corridor with alcoves for the different Mastery tests. You can only practice tests you've passed, or qualified for.
Also, if you're having a hard time passing a test, any mastery gained in the meantime is banked, and applied after you pass the test, so it isn't lost.

==Mods==
As you play, you will pick up Mods, which you can add to your equipment to change its capabilities. There are mods specific to Warframes, classes of weapons (I.e., swords, whips, et cetera), and a select few for specific Warframes or weapons (but note that those will work with any variant of that Warframe or weapon, normal, prime, or special.)

Mods can be upgraded at the mod station on your orbiter by spending Endo--the amount of Endo needed is proportional to the rarity of the mod and the level.
* it's good to have copies of mods with variable levels of upgrades to allow for flexibility in a mod loadout.
===Warframe mods===
* Placing an aura mod in the aura slot will increase the capacity of your Warframe proportional to the level of the mod--''if'' it is of the correct polarity of the slot.
===Riven Mods===
Riven mods are a special type of mod. When you get it, it will be "veiled," which means that its properties are hidden, other than for the general type of weapon that it's for, such as shotgun, rifle, secondary weapon, or melee weapon. To unveil a riven, you have to do a task with the riven equipped in a weapon that you're using. The task can be something like "kill 10 enemies while sliding" or "kill 5 dargyn pilots before they hit the ground with a dragon key equipped."
Once unveiled, the riven will be for a specific weapon, like a Boltor, and will have 2-3 random positive stats and may have a negative stat as well. You can use kuva to reroll the stats on a riven, although the cost goes up with each reroll.
Rivens also have a disposition, based on how popular the weapon is. The more popular the weapon, the lower the disposition, and the lower the stats of the riven. (That means that a Zhuge riven may have better stats on a base Zhuge than on the Zhuge Prime.)
There are some tricks to make unveiling rivens easier. Here are a few. [[Unveiling_Tricks]]

==Warframes==
Most frames have both a normal version and a Prime version; the normal version you can get through normal play, while the Prime versions come from parts that show up in Relics, requiring they be unlocked by collecting Void Fissures in the appropriate missions... and hoping you get lucky. (See Missions section.) In general, the Prime version of a Warframe works just like the non-prime version, including Abilities, but are just generally ''better''  in their stats.
* '''Ash/Ash Prime'''
* '''Atlas/Atlas Prime'''

===Hildryn===
[[User:Aliasi]]
* Hildryn is a frame difficult to acquire 'naturally', as her parts require a fair amount of relatively high-level grinding. However, if you're starting out and don't mind buying her with platinum, she may be very useful to a new player. She is tanky, much like Rhino, but unlike most Warframes she does not use energy. All of her abilities are powered by her shields. Until you have mods that allow you to more easily manage your energy, this can allow you to get used to Warframe abilities as her shields will recharge. (It worked for me!)
* Her #1, Balefire, gives you an alternate built-in weapon that uses her shields for ammunition. While useful (especially on missions that restrict type of weapon but permit Warframe abilities), it's not an ability you need to focus on unless you really enjoy it.
* Her #2, Pillage, is your new best friend. Hildryn emits a wave that strips shields and armor off nearby foes, and restores her shields. Many otherwise difficult enemies become much easier to manage if you remove their armor. Sadly, Infested enemies tend to have less armor and no shields, so they are more difficult to deal with as Hildryn. But see later!
* Her #3, Haven, works in concert with Pillage to truly kick things up. Not only will it restore the shields of your squad (and your companions, if you have any), but it also damages enemies. 
* Her #4, Aegis Storm, creates an area which holds enemies in place while you can use your Balefire charger on them. While a useful last-ditch crowd-control measure, you'll probably get more use out of the limited flight it grants you than anything else until you master the parkour-style movement of the game.
* As a special note, the Blazing Pillage augment mod (purchasable if you do work for Cephalon Suda or the Perrin Sequence) helps patch the hole in her kit regarding infested. Enemies within your Haven area will take damage and restore extra shields when hit with Pillage, even if they would not otherwise do so!

===Limbo/Limbo Prime===
* On rescue missions and Defense Sorties, you can banish the hostage, so enemies can't hurt them.
* On Mobile Defense missions, you cannot interact with the console in the Rift plane. If you cast Cataclysm before a teammate could insert the module, they won't be able to, until it ends. This often makes your teammates very mad at you.
* Cataclysm is of limited use on defense missions. The mission lasts until all enemies in a wave are destroyed. Guns can't fire into or out of the rift, slowing the killing spree.
* Warframe abilities do NOT have this limitation. That means that Mesa's Regulators, Hildryn's Balefire Chargers, and other weapon powers can target enemies through the rift.
* Enemies protected by Arbitration drones ignore the rift.

===Mag/Mag Prime===

[[User:Nondeceptive]]

One of the three starter Warframes, Mag is difficult to master and sometimes misunderstood because her powers do not scale normally as you progress through the game. 
* #1, Pull: Yoinks enemies towards Mag, grabbing from a cone-shaped area. At very low levels the damage from Pull is enough to massacre enemies, but this will quickly fall away as you explore the star chart. Pull can be particularly useful in objective-based levels like Interception or Defense, as Mag can simply Pull enemies off the objective in question.
* #2, Magnetize: Mag's bread and butter. If there is a target that is hard to kill, Magnetize it. A field will be created where all damage moves toward the enemy trapped in the center, and all projectiles whirl around, repeatedly striking enemies if they are able. At the end of the duration, the field explodes outward. Damage to enemies inside the field, and the damage of the explosion later, all depends on what gets poured into it while the field is active. Projectile weapons with high punch-through values will strike Magnetized targets repeatedly. If you hold the button instead of tapping, Mag can "catch" incoming fire from a cone in front of her and, when released, hurl the damage back at those who sent it.
* #3, Polarize: Mag releases a wave that causes enemy shields and armor to detonate, dealing True damage. The damage rates for this are fixed values; they can only be stretched so far. Very early in the game, Polarize doesn't have enough to work with and doesn't do much. Towards the early-middle levels of the star map, Polarize becomes incredibly destructive to Corpus and Grineer. Later on, it remains useful in its ability to damage armor but loses a lot of its strength. Incidentally, as the wave passes over your allies you will restore their shields by a small amount. 
* #4, Crush: Enemies in a sphere around Mag will be lifted up, crushed for damage, and dropped. Shields of Mag and her allies will be boosted by a variable amount depending on how many enemies were caught in the Crush. Early in the game, this is your "Oh, too many!" panic button; it will kill things all around. Later on, it starts to lose its strength and will eventually become chiefly useful for cranking up your shields. 
* Please use Mag with consideration for your fellow players. Warframe's netcode has some trouble accurately representing the position of many ragdolled enemies, so constant use of Pull is probably making things harder for everyone else. Magnetize bubbles can also block/absorb allied weapons fire, not just that of the enemy. 
* Mag enjoys powerful synergy between her powers: For example, Magnetized enemies take much greater damage from Crush. Or you can pull a bunch of enemies into a corner, magnetize the pile, then pull more enemies into the damage field to maximize what gets wrecked by the eventual explosion. Synergy can also be found with weapons (those that punch-through or bounce will be greatly enhanced with Magnetize) and with other Warframes (anything that uses shields in its powers, like Hildryn or Valkyr for example, can benefit from a Mag's all-squad shield enhancement). 
* Mag players need to be aware that certain enemies (for example, bosses and capture targets) feature protection against players moving or holding them, and thus the movement-affecting aspects of Pull, Magnetize, and Crush will have no effect. 
* Scaling: In the very early stages, Pull is almost all you need, with Crush for real emergencies. As you advance a little, Polarize becomes overwhelmingly powerful. But as you advance still further, the damage-dealing aspects of these powers will fall into near-uselessness. This can lead to the impression that Mag doesn't do well in high-level play, but the fact is that Power #2, Magnetize scales ruthlessly with the power of enemies and your own weapons. Well-used Magnetize fields can carry Mag into pretty much any Warframe content. 

Like Hildryn, Mag is somewhat weaker against the Infested. Polarize is almost entirely useless against them as they generally lack shields or armor, and the overlapping protections of Ancient Healers and Ancient Disruptors will cover most of Mag's other powers as well. Limit your casting to an occasional strategic Pull to move Healers away, and Magnetize on priority targets, with Crush serving to enhance your shields.

===Protea===

[[User:Seroster|Seroster]] 

* A mostly straightforward warframe likened to the engineer in some shooters.
* Protea's #1 ability, Grenade Fan, is really two different abilities whether you tap or press and hold. Note that you can swap the function of these two in settings just for Protea! Shrapnel Vortex grenades are in my experience not very helpful but they do stagger enemies. Shield Satellites are indispensable defence for Protea - throw these nearby or on your position, then run near one to pick it up and boost your shields. After a while the shield satellite duration will end, leaving you with overshields, and you will want to cast Shield Satellites again when your shields start to get chipped away. 
* Her #2 power, Blaze Artillery, is really the frame's main power. You can put down up to 4 turrets at once and they will blast away at what is in their firing arc. IMPORTANT to note that their damage increases with each shot, making Duration a very important value for Protea - more than Power Strength.  You want to judge number of turrets vs number of enemies, because if you drop more turrets than you need to, their damage counters won't increase by as much so each turret will be less effective.
* The #3 power, Dispensary, drops ammunition, health, and energy orbs. Note that you need to have energy in order to drop Dispensary, so having your energy drop all the way to 0 is not a good thing.
* Her #4 power, Temporal Anchor, is the signature power introduced to you when you do the quest that introduces her, but is somewhat situational. At the end of its use you are returned to the same position with the same energy level as you had at the start. This will let you drop lots of turrets for free since you will get all your power back. BUT because you are brought back to the same location it is not very useful in missions involving a lot of movement. A possible power to replace via Helminth. 

===Rhino/Rhino Prime===

[[User:Knockwood|Lord Knockwood the Mad]] ([[User talk:Knockwood|talk]]) 23:20, 19 July 2021 (PDT)

[[User:Bira|Bira]]

* Needless to say, a very tanky Warframe, heavily armored and built to wade into battle and draw fire. Its tank qualities are offset slightly by Rhino's slow speed.
* Rhino's #1 ability, Rhino Charge. moves Rhino forward a short distance, and any enemies hit are knocked down and take damage. This is a good way to get enemies off of vulnerable characters--or just make an entrance, if you forgot to bring the dip. :)
* Rhino's #2 power Iron Skin functions as an extra layer of armor and "temporary HP", with the advantage that it also bounces a number of special attacks, including knockdowns, staggers, and energy drains. It also grants invulnerability for 1.5-3 seconds, so this is a good power to activate when beset by enemies. Any damage done to you during this invulnerability period gets added to your Iron Skin armor value after it ends. 
* Rhino's #3 ability Roar is a basic damage buff for you and your party.
* Rhino's #4 power, Rhino Stomp, is a PBAoE effect that damages nearby enemies and immobilizes them for a few seconds. Very good as a save-your-ass move.
* When modding your Rhino, you'll want to boost all of its "survivability" stats: health, shields and armor. Armor is especially important if you want to rely on Iron Skin, because the amount of "temporary HP" you get from it is proportional to your base armor score. 
* As for the ability modifiers, Efficiency and Strength are the most important. Strength affects the toughness of your Iron Skin and the size of the damage bonus from Roar. Efficiency lowers their energy cost so you can use them more often. If you want to focus more on Roar to better support your squad, consider also increasing Duration.
* Iron Skin makes Rhino an awesome "attacker" for Index matches, since the health and shield penalties for carrying a lot of points don't apply to Iron Skin's bonus HP.
* Damage done to Iron Skin also doesn't count as "real damage" to the game, so it's good for fulfilling challenges that require you to take no damage while doing something.

===Titania/Titania Prime===

[[User:Seroster|Seroster]] 

*Two mods will make Titania a whole lot tougher: Aerodynamic, an aura mod from Arbitrations (24% damage reduction while airborne) and Aviator, an exilus mod (40% damage reduction while airborne)

===Wukong/Wukong Prime===

Inspired by the Monkey King of Chinese legend, Wukong is a versatile, all-purpose warframe that can be nearly immortal with the right mods. His blueprints can be researched in a dojo (VGO's dojo has them already). The rarest resource they require is Nitain Extract, and the easiest way to get some is to buy it from Nora with Nightwave credits.

Abilities:

* Celestial Twin (#1) creates an AI controlled clone of your Wukong. It has the same weapons as you, and its shield/health values are a multiple of yours. There's no "energy upkeep" for the Twin, only the cost to summon it. When you're using your ranged weapons, the Twin uses melee, and vice-versa. You can press the ability button again while aiming at an enemy to have the Twin focus on it, with a damage bonus. If you use one of the other abilities, the Twin also uses it. You can dismiss it by holding down the ability button for a couple of seconds. The Twin is awesome as backup, particularly for new players, and more importantly it can act as your partner in the "shake hands" emote :).

* Cloud Walker (#2) makes Wukong disappear and envelops your screen in a "mist" visual effect. This lasts for a few seconds, during which you can use your movement controls to fly really fast, passing through enemies and security sensors but not walls. While moving in this mode, your health also recovers. This is awesome for certain Espionage maps, and it's an important component of your "immortality". 

* Defy (#3) makes Wukong assume a mocking stance for a few seconds, drawing aggro from all nearby enemies. Wukong is invulnerable while the gesture lasts. When it ends, Wukong deals a multiple of all the damage dealt to it to nearby enemies, and gains bonus temporary Armor proportional to that damage (up to a maximum of 1500). A nice skill to use when surrounded.

* Primal Fury (#4) summons Wukong's legendary Iron Staff. Like Excalibur's Exalted Blade, this is an exclusive melee weapon with its own built-in stance and its own mod set. It's very strong, and as a staff it has long base range and a large base block angle. When you summon it, your Twin also does the same! It expends the same amount of energy over time whether the Twin is out or not.

The final ability is passive: Wukong essentially has three "extra lives". These come into effect whenever it would be reduced to 0 health. They prevent it from dying, restore some health, and give one of 5 possible bonuses (randomly selected at mission start). Once you're out of extra lives, the game's normal mechanics take over, so you still have the usual 4 revives at that point.

When modding Wukong, you want to increase your Health and Armor as much as possible, but Shields aren't a big priority. For his abilities, Strength and Efficiency are the most important, and Duration is also nice to make you fly further with Cloud Walker, but range is secondary. There's one specific mod you should try to get for your Wukong: Hunter Adrenaline. This gives you energy when you take damage to your Health, and it's what can make Wukong truly immortal combined with timely usage of Cloud Walker. It can be obtained from Cetus bounties, or traded with other players.

As with other "exclusive weapon" abilities, Primal Fury can be used to bypass "no melee weapon" restrictions on special maps. The Celestial Twin also ignores weapon restrictions.

==Weapons==
===Primary===
*The Ignis Wraith blueprint is available in our Dojo's chemical lab once you hit MR 9. It does great damage, has a huge reservoir, and doesn't require much aim. If you're not in our dojo, you can probably trade for the blueprint, without spending platinum.

*The Fulmin is both an assault rifle and a shotgun. That means that it can be used on sorties with either limitation, and can be used to unveil either type of riven.

===Secondary===
===Melee===
As usual, melee weapons range from small, quick weapons with low base damage to large, slow weapons that hit hard when they connect. These disadvantages can be mitigated with mods, to make small weapons more dangerous or large weapons faster (See the section on Mods above).

==Missions==
===On The Star Map===
* A rough guide to mission difficulty: you start on Earth, then when ready for the other planets, the difficulty roughly corresponds to orbit number... so, Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn...
* Earth, Venus, and Deimos (Moon of Mars) all have free-roam sections; the difficulty of activities there depend on missions selected in their corresponding city nodes (Cetus, Fortuna and the Necralisk, respectively).
* On your own, you can only visit nodes connected to nodes you've already unlocked. If you're on a team with someone, they can take you to nodes you haven't unlocked. (This is called Taxiing.) If a node normally has a mission that's too hard for you, sometimes it hosts other missions, such as Syndicate missions, or void storms. Doing those missions will also unlock the node.
* (Not sure) Syndicate missions and incursions are always available, even if you wouldn't normally have the node unlocked.

===Quest & Special===

===Disruption Hints===
For Disruption missions, your goal is to kill the Demolyst before they can take out the conduit. There are faint audio and video cues as to where they're coming from. Demolysts have a pulse every 5 seconds that disable Warframe abilities on itself and for 6.5 meters around it. Here are a list of weapons and abilities that can slow it.
* A positive strength Nova's (Slowva) Molecular Prime slows enemies.
* Sevagoth's Gloom is also a good slow.
* Loki's Switch Teleport can move the Demolyst back away from the target.
* Magus Lockdown will also freeze the Demolyst.
* A direct hit with the Proboscis Cernos will often stop and slow the Demolyst.


===Mining, Fishing, and Hunting===
The open-world areas have resources scattered throughout which you need special tools to get--tools which are available in their cities for a modest fee. Generally, the "fee" is in reputation rather than actual money, which for Cetus and Fortuna are part of the rewards for bounties.
* Deimos is a little trickier... the bounties don't give reputation directly, but they do give Mother Tokens, which you can trade to Grandmother for reputation.
** Note that Grandmother Tokens are more valuable, so it's worthwhile to trade other tokens for hers before trading for rep.

====Mining====
* In general, the harder a deposit is to get to the greater the probability of a higher value yield--but it's not certain. There is still plenty of low-level stuff mixed in with the higher-level stuff. Still, the easiest way to get the more valuable yields is to go into a cave--if you can find your way out.
* the drill you get from Cetus requires you to trace around the edge of a deposit, with the yield depending on your accuracy; the one you get from Fortuna requires you to find 1-3 drill spots on the deposit and hold down the button just long enough for the trace to stop within the brackets.
* Some of the deposits on Cetus require higher level drills. The drill from Fortuna works with all deposits. It is also upgradable with a silencer. Once the silencer is equipped, it won't alert nearby enemies.
* Sometimes while drilling a node, you'll see a large bracket [    ] and then a much smaller one, [|]. If you hit the smaller one, you're guaranteed to get gems in addition to the regular deposit. That means that on a deposit with 3 nodes, you could get 4 rewards, assuming they all have the option, and you get it every time.
* On the Plains of Eidolon (Earth) and the Orb Vallis (Venus), Red deposits are minerals, and blue ones are gems.
* On Deimos, yellow deposits are minerals.

===Railjack===
You don't need a Railjack to do railjack missions. As long as someone in your squad has one, you're good. Instead ride as a guest in other people's ships until you get tier 3 gear. Then build your gear and railjack, and equip it with the T3 equipment.