Warframe Tips for New Players

After reading the Polygon review of Waframe, I’ve come to realize there’s a lot of misinformation on the game out there primarily based on new players not digging deep enough.  You can’t really blame anyone as the game does not explain it self.  So here’s some advice and things to keep in mind:

1. Your opening choices for a frame are Mag, Loki, and Excalibur. They aren’t lying when they say Loki is for advanced play.  Do not start out with Loki.  Mag’s powers will get you the kill count. Excalibur’s powers are mostly melee focused. As a first time player, you aren’t going to have a full idea of your frame’s true potential until the frame hits around rank 20.  If you did start out with Loki, always play with a party and get a new frame the second you hit a boss that drops parts.

2. Platinum can’t be earned in game and you start with 50. Spend it on Orokin Catalysts or Reactors. These items permanently and future actively double the amount of mod points available in a weapon or frame. Do not put one in your starter weapons.  They are hard to find even later in the game.

3. Inventory space is severely limited.  20 platinum to add a warframe slot and 12 platinum to add 2 weapon slots.  Plan accordingly.

4. If you’re going to play Warframe for an extended amount of time you’ll eventually want to spend money on platinum be it for inventory space or Orokin catalysts/reactors. A login  reward periodically awards platinum purchase discounts between 20-50 percent. Wait for one of those.  Also only buy platinum from the main website.  You get more for your money.

5. Your starter weapons are crap but you’re stuck with them until you go up a master rank and score $20,000 credits to get a new blue print. This takes maybe a couple hours of gameplay to do. Read the weapon descriptions. If it says they’re XP locked, that means your master rank needs to go up which can take a while after the first couple master ranks.  There are a few weapons you can buy outright with credits so consider upgrading to those.  Blueprints may require parts from planets you can’t get to yet so LOOK BEFORE YOU BUY.  Weapons take 12-24 hours to forge once you get all the parts.

6. Every boss drops blueprints and usually frame blueprints. The wiki is your friend. Don’t be afraid to use it to find out which boss drops what. Each frame consists of 4 blueprints: systems, helmet, chasis, and the frame blueprint itself.  

7. Do not be afraid of the Orokin Void Tower 1 keys. Tower keys are one of the best ways to earn money in game. A T1 key nets 10K or more in credits and you only need your weapons/frame around 15-20 to survive. Always go in a pack of 4.  And you’re guaranteed to get a piece of a prime weapon or frame.

8. Your first Sentinel should be the Carrier. The Carrier picks items up for you from a distance. This is imperative in a game with rare drops you can miss.  Sentinel blueprints cost 100,000 credits.  If you’re going to buy platinum, spending 75 on a Carrier is a good investment.

9. Go into your inventory and sell off blueprints and exclusive parts for weapons and frames you already have.

10. The recruitment channel is super easy to use and a quick way to go on a ton of tower or Orokin Derelict missions.  If you don’t know what an abbreviation stands for google it.  You don’t want to wind up on a vault run without a vault key. This is also a great place to go to get a taxi to an Alert.

11. Alerts are there for a reason and you’re guaranteed to find a public match for one. Exclusive mods, weapon blueprints, and Vauban frame parts are the prizes. The mods alerts drop are Aura mods. These go in a special slot on the warframe and instead of using up mod points, the Aura mod GIVES you mod points. The Excalibur and Nekros allegedly do not have an Aura slot.

12. DE does Twitch live streams weekly and biweekly. There are events and mechanics and drops in the game you will only learn here. These streams are typically an hour long and they always give away platinum to users logged in the chat.

Hopefully that helps new players get started and have fun!  If you aren’t familiar with any of the terms ask around or google it. Even the jerks in this game appear to be informative. There’s a ton more to the game I didn’t mention but if I mentioned everything this list would take an hour to read.