Warframe Guide: Top 100 Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

warframe guide
Your journey starts here


Warframe: The Tenno’s Journey of the Origin System

So you’ve loaded Warframe for the first time and are now confused as what to do next. You’ve come to the right place as here are some tips, secrets, and tricks to help you on your journey.

The Beginning

Upon creating your account and starting the game for the first time you will do a mission that will introduce you to the basic mechanics.

To start off, you will be able to choose between 3 different warframes to start with. They are Excalibur, Volt, and Mag.

  • Excalibur is a sword-themed warframe. He is the poster boy of the game itself and will be the one that I recommend the most for new players. The reason why I recommend Excalibur the most is that his abilities are stronger from the get-go as opposed to the other 2 starter frames which require some mods in order to really be impactful.
  • Volt is a warframe themed around electricity. He offers abilities that can offer high damage, crowd control, utility, and support. However his abilities will not be as potent early on due to lack of mods. The only good reason to pick Volt over the other 2 starter frames is that he is the hardest to acquire early on. In order to get Volt, you have to be in a clan that has the research for his parts completed.
  • Mag is a warframe themed around magnetism. She has abilities that can dish out a ton of damage and crowd control. However, she is also very fragile especially at the beginning of the game. I recommend her the least because she requires mods for her abilities to really be effective. Mods are scarce when the player first starts out. Her parts are also easily obtainable early on as you progress through the star chart.

After choosing your warframe, you will do your first mission which will introduce you to the basic controls of the game. You will be introduced to Captain Vor, one of the antagonists that you will encounter later on in the game. He will put an Ascaris on your warframe which you can remove later on.

  • The first types of enemies you will have to fight are Grineer Lancers. You can dispatch them quickly with your first ability (Default Hotkey is 1.)

As you progress through the mission you will have a choice of weapons to choose from. These are preferential as you will be replacing them as you progress through the game.

  • For Melee weapons, you have the choice between the Skana or the MK-1 Bo. The Skana is a sword while the MK-1 Bo is a two-handed staff weapon. Both are decent starting options
  • For Secondary weapons, you have the choice between the Lato and the MK-1 Kunai. The Lato is a semi-auto pistol while the MK-1 Kunai are silent throwing knives. You can choose either based on your playstyle.
  • For Primary weapons, you have the choice between the MK-1 Braton and the MK-1 Paris. The Braton is an automatic assault rifle while the Paris is a silent bow. I would recommend the Braton more unless you want to be stealthy.

Movement

The opening mission will introduce you to some of the movements that you can do, but not all of them.

  • You can sprint by holding down the Left Shift button. Additionally, you can just press the left shift button to have your character do a roll.
  • You can crouch by holding down the Control button. You can also slide by crouching while moving. You can do a divekick by crouching while moving in the air.
  • You can do various types of jumps (Default key is Spacebar.)
    • A double-jump can be performed by pressing the jump button twice.
    • A bullet jump can be performed by jumping while crouched. This is one of the most important types of movements in-game as it allows you to quickly move through obstacles and dodge enemy attacks. In addition, bullet jumping near enemies will knock them over and deal a small amount of damage to them.
  • Another useful movement mechanic is aim gliding. This is executed by pressing the aim button (Default key is Right Click) while in the air. This will allow the player to aim while airborne while also slowing the rate at which they fall.
  • You can wall latch by pressing/holding the aim button while mid-air against a wall. This holds you in place next to the wall for a certain amount of time.
  • You can wall dash by holding the jump button while near a wall. You can do both vertical and horizontal wall dashes depending on where you are aiming with your crosshair.

Controls

  • You can use your warframe abilities with buttons 1-4 by default, laid out respectively from your first ability to fourth ability.
  • The Gear wheel may be accessed pressing and holding Q by default. This holds items which may be of use during missions. This will also allow you to access the emotes wheel by pressing Mouse 2 while holding the Gear Wheel button.
  • The Use button is bound to X by default. This allows you to open lockers, hack control consoles and interact with various other things in the game.
  • You can switch weapons by pressing F, the default hotkey. It will cycle between your Primary and Secondary weapons.

Melee

You will be able to melee attack by pressing E, the default key. In addition, you may perform certain attack combos if you press the melee attack button with other key inputs (such as sliding or holding down the melee button.)

  • Slide Attacks can be performed by sliding (crouching while moving) and pressing the melee button during the slide.
  • Slam Attacks can be performed by aiming at the ground while in mid-air then pressing the melee button
  • Wall Attacks can be performed by wall latching then pressing the melee button. This will launch your character towards the direction you are facing.

The Orbiter

Upon completing the opening mission, you will be introduced to your landing craft. This is basically your new home where you have Ordis who serves as your butler. There are various segments inside the landing craft which you will use regularly as you progress through the game.

The Navigation segment is where you will select what planets and mission nodes to play. This will also display global alerts and events that will happen throughout the solar system.

Next, you have the Communications segment which comprises various things:

  • The Codex which stores information about almost everything you will encounter throughout your space adventure. It stores stats and weaknesses of enemies that you encounter, lore, mission types, quests, and many more things in the game.
  • The Market which is where you can buy various things for platinum or credits. These include weapons, cosmetics, boosters, and bundles.
  • The Syndicates terminal which shows your standing with 6 different factions, all with differing relations with one another. See the Syndicates section for more information.
  • Conclave which is where you can access standing and game modes relating to the PvP side of Warframe.
  • Radio Scanner which displays broadcasts. This contains Nightwave broadcasts, a new reward system recently added in the game..

The Arsenal segment will be where you can customize the loadout of your Warframe. This where you can change weapons, frames, companions, and add items to your gear wheel for in-mission use. You can also add mods to your frames and weapons in this segment.

The Mods segment will be where you will access mods that you will acquire throughout your adventures.

  • You can rank mods up to increase their effectiveness, but they will take up more mod capacity on frames/weapons the higher the rank is. Ranking mods up require Credits and Endo.
  • You can sell mods for either Credits or Endo. Very useful if you have multiple duplicates of mods that you don’t need. I recommend that you sell unneeded mods for Endo as it is the harder resource to gather.
  • This where you can transmute 4 unwanted mods into a single mod at the cost of credits. I don’t recommend this early on as it is luck based and costs a lot of credits. However, there is a slim possibility of getting important and rare mods through transmutation.

The Foundry segment is across from the mods segment. This is where you will craft most things in the game, including weapons and warframes.

  • You need the blueprint for weapons/frames that you come across along with the raw materials displayed on the blueprint in order to build them.

The Arsenal, Mods, and Foundry are unlocked as you progress through “Vor’s Prize,” the quest which you will have to complete upon starting the game.

The Incubator segment is where you can breed companions. This is unlocked after completing the “Howl of the Kubrow” quest.

The Void Relic segment is located near the arsenal where you can access and refine void relics that you get from certain missions. This will be unlocked after

  • You earn Prime parts of warframes/weapons by cracking void relics.

There are various rooms that you will not be able to access until you complete certain quests that unlock them.

  • On one side of the orbiter behind the arsenal lies an infested room which you may only enter if you have a giant pink cyst on your warframe’s neck or if you equipped the Nidus warframe.
  • The room in the middle is unlocked after completing “The Second Dream” quest.
  • The room across the infested room to the right of the middle room will be unlocked after completing “The War Within” quest.

The Star Chart

You might be asking yourself as to how do you unlock access to all of these planets. Well, this section will cover the basics of it as well as point out some tips in order to make the progression as easy as possible.

For starters, access to each planet is locked behind a Junction which has requirements that need to be fulfilled before entering.

  • Entering a junction with all the requirements met will allow you to fight against a specter of certain warframes in which you must win in order to gain access to the planet. Completing junctions also gives Mastery points which will help you increase your Mastery Rank.
  • Warframes with abilities that crowd control or protect them from damage trivializes these junctions. Excalibur’s second skill is able to open specters up for finishers to dispatch them easily. Volt’s third skill will protect him from the specters weapon fire.

Complete the missions accessible to you on Earth, working your way to the Venus junction. I recommend avoiding Cetus/Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna/Orb Vallis for the time being as they have rather difficult content for newer players.

Take your time and complete all the missions you can for the planets accessible to you. You may have to replay some missions over again in order to complete junction requirements, obtain warframe blueprints, and attain resources.

Most planets will have an Assassination mission where you will have to fight the boss of that planet. These bosses usually drop parts of warframes which you will need to craft them.

  • It is recommended to fight these bosses multiple times until you get the 3 parts (Neuroptics, Chassis, and Systems) to build that warframe. The blueprint of the warframe itself can be purchased from the market for credits.
  • In the case of Venus, I highly recommend doing the Assassination mission multiple times as it drops parts for Rhino, a warframe that makes the later planets/missions easy for newer players to get through.

Unlocking junctions and planets may also unlock other quests which you will have to complete in order to progress through the game. Some of the other junctions require completion of certain quests in order to advance.

Syndicates

There are 6 different syndicates, all with varying relationships with one another. Gaining standing for 1 syndicate will make you hostile via negative standing with certain other syndicates. Also, syndicates will be allied with certain other syndicates. This means that standing gained for 1 syndicate will give half that to its allied syndicate.

  • To avoid being in hostile standing with most syndicates, it is better to focus on 1 syndicate at a time. You can choose what syndicates you want to start with depending on preference.
  • The 6 syndicates are Steel Meridian, Arbiters of Hexis, Cephalon Suda, The Perrin Sequence, Red Veil, and New Loka.

It is possible to be in positive standing with 4 syndicates at a time with careful balancing.

  • Example: Gaining standing with Steel Meridian will also mean positive standing for its ally, Red Veil. Consequently, you will lose standing with Perrin Sequence and New Loka. Perrin Sequence will lose the exact amount of standing that was gained with Steel Meridian as they are enemies. New Loka will only lose half the amount that is gained with Steel Meridian as they are not as hostile towards each other as with Perrin Sequence.
  • Likewise, you can gain standing with Cephalon Suda and Arbiters of Hexis as they don’t have any sort of relationship with Steel Meridian. However, gaining standing for these will negatively impact Red Veil standing.

In order to gain standing for syndicates, you will need a sigil for the syndicate that you must equip on your warframe. You can do this by going into your Arsenal -> Appearance -> Regalia -> Front or Back sigil.

You will be able to do missions for syndicates that give standing once you reach the first rank of that particular syndicate. These missions also have medallions that you can find throughout the map which you can turn in for additional standing.

You can purchase many things from syndicates. These include void relics, warframe specific mod augments, and special syndicate variants of certain weapons.

More on this topic:

Pages



Gamer Since: 2010
Favorite Genre: FPS
Currently Playing: Warframe
Top 3 Favorite Games:, ,


More Top Stories