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 the Warframe Wiki.

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.

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

• 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!

Rhino/Rhino Prime

Lord Knockwood the Mad (talk) 23:20, 19 July 2021 (PDT)

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.

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.

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 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

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...
  • Exception: the Moon, now named Lua, is high-level, but it won't be revealed until later in play.
• 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).