[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

Thanks for the advice guys!! Yeah I think I'll prioritize shields for now, since I do back off and let them regenerate when it gets low. 

 

EDIT: ah... where do u get plastids?

You can get those on Saturn. Beat the boss of Mars to get access to Saturn.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

Hmmm ... so I should spend it on health?

Probably, extra health is also probably useful for you since you're still new to the game and learning the ropes.

What's most important is your playstyle, and if extra health is useful for the way you play then definitely go for it.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

Not hung up on whether or not to use them, just hung up on what to use them on :P

 

EDIT: got a reply on steam forums, he said use them on vitality (health) because nightmare missions usually strip you of shields. Sound good?

Nightmare missions have multiple possible modifiers, and no shields is pretty common. There are also occasionally nightmare alerts that reward a specific nightmare mod. These alerts are guaranteed to have the no shields modifier, so having more health can be useful for that.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

Fusion cores drop like candy so don't get too hung up on whether or not to use them.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

Ah ok, I just bought a reactor for my frame (20 plat) and I'm going to start fusing mods to make more health, more armor, and more melee damage I guess. And yeah my bar is flashing yellow, so should I do the rank up thing now?

You might as well do it now, it shouldn't be that hard. But, if you fail it you'll have to wait 24 hours to try again. There is a way to practice for it though. On Mercury there should besomething called the Larunda Relay, this is a social hub. There are energy elevators on the opposite side from where you spawn in (one goes up and one goes down), take the elevator up to the second floor. There are only two rooms accessible up here, one is Darvo's shop, but we're interested d in the other one called The Sanctuary iirc. There's a big, orange cephalon in ther called Simaris, don't worry about him though. Immediately to the right upon entering the sanctuary there is a hallway with wide steps that partially surrounds the sanctuary. There are terminals for each mastery test in this hallway. You can interact with the first terminal amd there should be an option to practice the test. Practicing won't count toward your daily attempt so you can practice as much as you want.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

The reason you should always level stuff to 30 (max level) is because everytime a piece of gear reaches a new level (the first time) you get mastery experience which goes toward raising your mastery rank. If you look at your pause menu, at the top between your name and your loadout there should be a blue meter (flashes yellow when full). When this meter is full a "rank up" option appears under it; selecting this will take you into a mini mission with special rules called a "Mastery Test". IIRC, the first three tests are just defeating waves of enemies with only your primary, secondary, or melee weapon (can't remember the order).

Why does Mastery Rank matter? If you've looked at the markets you might have noticed a few weapons have a banner that says "xp locked" or something similar over them. This means that weapon requires a higher Mastery Rank than you have in order to use. There are also entire systems in the game locked behind mastery ranks, like Archwing (space combat).

Increasing your Mastery Rank also gives you more trades per day, more load out slots, a higher daily cap on syndicate standing gain, and access to more relays.

Orokin Reactors are items that can be permanently installed on Warframes (also sentinels and kubrows) to permanently double their mod point capacity.

Orokin Catalysts are items that can be permanently installed on weapons to double their mod point capacity.

Each piece of gear can only have one reactor/catalyst installed on it.

In my last sentence I ment to say starting plat. Plat = Platinum, the real money currency (which you can technically obtain for "free" of you're willing to put in the effort/get really lucky.) Inventory space for Warframes, weapons, sentinels (and their weapons), and kubrows is limited, and you can only get new inventory slots by buying them with platinum. (Archwings and Archwing weapons are separate and have unlimited inventory slots). I was suggesting you save your starting platinum for buying inventory slots since at your point into the game, reactors and catalysts aren't required to get by, and do show up as rare rewards for alert missions and invasions.

[New Player Needs Some Guidance]

1. Mod fusion is only 1 to 1 for the first rank, each rank afterward requires more mods and credits to reach the next rank. If you haven't already you'll start getting mods called fusion cores as loot, they can't actually be equipped and exist purely for fusing into other mods.

2. Each planet has a boss node, defeating the boss on a planet gives you the nav segment for another. IIRC, either Mars or Venus should reward the nav segment for Saturn.

3. Free blueprint is free, heatsword is a good weapon for a new player.

4. Buying blueprints is the only way to get new weapons/warframes without paying platinum (aside from prime gear and limited run event weapons, but you don't need to worry about prime gear at your level)

5. Crafting warframes requires more than crafting weapons. If you look at the material requirements on a warframe blueprint you'll see it wants the systems, chassis, and helmet for that warframe as materials. To get those, you have to craft them from their own blueprints. For most warframe those will come from a specific boss. Ash parts drop from Grineer Manics and Oberon parts drop from Eximus enemies. Vauban parts only show up as rare alert rewards. Mirage, Chroma, Mesa, and Limbo each have their own quest for obtaining them which you access by crafting special items available in the markets. Volt, Banshee, Zephyr, and Wukong parts and overall blueprints must be purchased in the tenno research lab in a clan dojo.

6. The Vectis and Vulkar are sniper rifles whose blueprints are available in the markets.

7. Can't help you with PvP.

8. The matchmaking system can be unreliable. You may also be having trouble getting squads due to your ping restriction (can be changed in options menu), you should also check to see that you're set to the correct region there as well. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help in region and recruiting chat.

Edit: a suggestion from me; if you decide you need/want to sell a weapon/warframe You should get it to rank 30 first, it'll save you some hassle later on.

Also, I suggest you save your starting play for inventory space since reactors and catalysts do show up as rare rewards from alerts and invasions