Warframe Speed Run

[Zgwortz]

Warframe Speed Run - November 2018

A few weeks ago I made a rough estimate of how long it might take to do a run from the very start through the game for a novice or experienced player as part of a comment on acquiring Paracesis, and became curious as to how long that would *really* take to do.   So I did it.   I figured people might be curious to the results.

Milestones
==========

First, here are the timing milestone results - I'm going to give you three times - the "Time Played" time from Stats, the actual time In-Game (includes time in the orbiter/Cetus/Fortuna/Relays), and the Real Time (includes breaks - out of game time) from the start - all just rounded to hours played for brevity: 

Real Time       In-Game Time    Time Played    Milestone
    1                      1                               1            Vor's Prize / Saya's Vigil / Unlock Venus / MR1
    5                      4                               3            Vox Solaris / Unlock Mercury
   12                     6                               5            Once Awake / Unlock Mars
   15                     9                               7            Started Archwing / Unlock Phobos
   23                   10                               8            Unlock Ceres
   27                   12                               10         MR2 / Unlock most Jupiter Requirements (need Prosecutor)
   48                   15                               12         Archwing / Unlock Jupiter / Start Building Frost
   50                   17                               14         Stolen Dreams / MR3
   61                   20                               16         All Europa requirements except Specter
   72                   22                               18         Unlock Europa
   76                   24                               19         MR4 / The New Strange / Start Building Rhino
   93                   27                               21         Unlock Saturn / Farmed Mods in Void
   96                   30                               24         Unlock Uranus
   99                   32                               26         Natah
  110                  33                               27         Unlock Neptune
  112                  35                               28         The Second Dream / Unlock Pluto / MR5
  145                  37                               29         Unlock Sedna
  148                  39                               31         The War Within
  171                  43                               34         Personal Quarters / MR6 / To Sedna Branch of Void
  193                  45                               36         Mot
  195                  47                               37         Chains of Harrow / Apostasy Prologue
  197               48:34                          38:15       The Sacrifice / Chimera Prologue

  
Not as fast as I wanted but not too shabby for an old man with bad reflexes... 😄

  
Time Gates
==========
  
There's a big gap in the Real Time between TSD and Unlock Sedna - that's the day off I took for Thanksgiving.   But why am I listing the Real Time, anyway?  Because there are a two actual time gates in the game.

- You cannot go up a Mastery Rank less than 24 hours after going up a previous Mastery Rank.  I'd known you couldn't take the test again if you failed, but didn't realize this also gated you if you succeed.   I had more than enough Mastery for MR2, MR3, and MR4 before I could take any of those tests.   Had I planned a bit better, constructed or bought more MR fodder weapons or a second Companion early, I probably could have taken the MR5 test at the 97 hour mark, but instead that waited until after I finished TSD.

- To unlock Sedna, you need to have made an MR5 weapon - which adds 12 hours real time after making MR5 because you cannot start constructing it until then.  You can speed this up with Platinum.

- Finally, before you can do the Apostate Prologue, you must build your Personal Quarters segment, which takes 12 hours after The War Within *if* you have the materials, which is unlikely unless you farmed them before starting TWW.   Also something you can speed up with Platinum.

Given those hard limits, you could theoretically do the entire run in Real Time 124 hours minimum (100 if you're willing to spend platinum), but you'd have to be right on time for MR tests and have all the materials needed for the MR5 weapon and Personal Quarters segment when you unlock the ability to build them.

Other Time Constraints
======================

There are also some other timing constraints, but with planning these could potentially be avoided:

- To unlock Europa, you need to craft a Warframe Spectre - I didn't remember this until reaching Jupiter, and needed to farm some materials for it before I could build it.

- If you're going to build and use a different warframe for the high level content, once you've collected all the materials, you have a 12 hour construction time for the parts, and a 3 day construction time for the actual Warframe.   Given that the fastest way to get to all the parts for either Rhino or Frost is to reach Jupiter, you *can* theoretically get those by the same time you make MR5, but you need to put in a LOT of hours in that first day to do so.  I had Frost by the time I'd finished TWW, and Rhino was ready by the time my Personal Quarters was done, mostly because of the day off I'd taken for Thanksgiving.

- I was unlucky in the Mods I found and didn't get anything to make a Shotgun into a useful high end weapon (no multishot or elemental damage mods) - which shot down my first endgame choice of the Hek.   I got good Rifle mods, though, but, IMHO, the first decent endgame rifle is the Soma at MR6, so I was a bit time gated after TWW to get that built.   Again, planning ahead for MR6 and the Soma would have made that go quicker.

General Notes
=============

- The RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away.   I was delayed close to two hours just doing missions on Ceres looking for a Prosecutor.   They never seem to spawn in solo missions, and people kept turning off the alarms in public groups, no matter how often I told them not to do so.   On the other hand, farming for Frost and Rhino parts went very quickly.

- The need to farm for Credits, Endo, and Resources can also be a major delay.   I was constantly short on Ferrite, especially.  It drops a lot in the right spots, but you also NEED a lot, not just for Warframes and Weapons.  It was needed for the Spectre on Jupiter, and the Personal Quarters segment, and I also was burning through a lot of it building Energy and Ammo restores and Ciphers.   Tellurium (needed for the Personal Quarters) and Kuva (needed for the Sacrifice quest) also caused some delay as they needed specific farming runs.  Credits are tight - I probably spent an hour or two farming them on Gabii (Ceres) and the Index (Neptune).   And doing a speed run, you'll get only one chance at Maroo's Ayatan Run, so Endo is painfully tight.

- Mods are your bane doing a speed run -- you *never* have all the mods you want, and you're walking a tightrope constantly - you don't want to slow down the run farming for mods, but there are certain mods you really need.   I ended up spending an hour farming for mods in the Void until I got Serration and Flow, and another hour on the Plains of Eidolon - but that mainly was to farm Ferrite, and hope for some useful mods from Assassinate targets - which I did get.   I did some bounties in the Orb Vallis as well, but it wasn't as useful for mods.  (In retrospect, I probably could have traded some Prime Junk for a set of mods, but it didn't occur to me then.)

- I built Rhino and Frost as a hedge -- I knew they could handle the high end content, but wasn't sure Mag could do it.  Mag with an Orokin Reactor actually handled surprisingly well until I hit the final four nodes in the Void -- and there it crashed and burned.  Frost and Rhino had been leveled to about Rank 20 each in the push for MR6 and neither had a Reactor - they *barely* got me through the Void to Mot, but managed it.

- I did Saya's Vigil and got some Ostron standing early thinking I might build Gara instead of Frost/Rhino.   Gara is capable of both roles, but she has time gates - you need 12000 total Ostron standing (5000 for Rank 1 & an Ore blueprint, then another 7000 for the other two Ore blueprints), and given the MR time gates you can't even get there until you hit MR4 - by that point I'd already started building Frost & Rhino. (On the other hand, doing the Vox Solaris quest gave me a K-drive, which made the later Plains of Eidolon ferrite/mod farming go *much* faster.)

Worth Mentioning
================

During this run I noticed a number of changes to the game since earlier runs which made running through it go much faster:

- Venus Junction no longer needs Eximus enemies to unlock, and Mercury Junction only requires half of them, which can be from Earth OR Venus.   If you do either Saya's Vigil or Vox Solaris quests, you'll get that easily.

- Mars Junction now gives you a Incubator Power Core, making building your first Kubrow worthwhile if only for the Mastery Rank - it's an easy and cheap second companion.

- The Second Dream appears to no longer have the Conculyst / Battlyst fight on Neso, Neptune.   I heard the sound, but the enemy never spawned as far as I can tell - Alad V made a mention about adaptation, but nothing else.   The Void Key was sitting in front of the gate and there was no problem with proceeding from there.

- Sedna Junction only needs 5 Sentients and 1 of the Lua Orokin Challenge Mods - both of which you can accomplish during The Second Dream quest.  (Although you can miss the Mod if you aren't paying attention and don't know to drop in the hole after the Security Eye destroys the Pendula - I happened to be lucky that there was another player in that quest stage and when they picked up the mod, I saw the marker appear and ran back to get it.)

- There was a bug (already fixed according to the latest patch notes) during The War Within where the Golden Maw and it's trail wasn't visible... and yet I still managed to do it mostly by sound and having done the quest a few times before.   (Yes, it was still there - I did get eaten, but only once...)

- The difficulty of those four Void nodes leading to Mot is pretty high - not very noticeable when you're MR10 and have weapons like the Arca Plasmor... but when you're trying it with a barely modded Mag and a Soma... good luck.

- I was kind of surprised by how fast the game accelerates once you hit The Second Dream.  It takes less than half the time to get from TSD through the Chimera Prologue.

Conclusions
===========

Eight days and a couple hours after starting this project, I've got an even better appreciation for the base game, and I have a better feel for Mag.  (Best way to learn a Warframe is to play it through the entire starmap in every type of mission...) They've improved the starting "grind" a lot, and I now have a better idea of what a new player might need to get into the game.

I would still, as my best initial recommendation, strongly suggest anyone doing the same for fun or because you're migrating to a new platform: Join a Clan.  A clan can help you with the Mods, can help you farm rare materials, and can group up with you during the hard spots.

I streamed the whole thing, and all the videos from this run should be up on my twitch account if anyone is curious: https://www.twitch.tv/zgwortz

Edited November 26, 2018 by Zgwortz
Added tags / Added Twitch link

[Slamminslug]

Pretty Interesting. Simply due to the type of game warframe is, Speed running it never crossed my mind, honestly got a chuckle out of me when I read the title. is there a community of speedrunners for this game? I don't frequent the forums as often as most people with 3k+ hours clocked, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is one and i've missed all their festivities until now. even taking the 24hr block for thanksgiving, 170-200 hrs is less than I expected for reaching the chimera prologue, though I figure most players will have 4-5 frames and be about MR11 by that point

Kudos.

[GnarlsDarkley]

30 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

Not as fast as I wanted

I got 20hrs. Recorded on Youtube and you can see it ingame with /profile das.unterhund

https://i.imgur.com/bD8igZb.jpg (backup link)

I took days off for crafting weapons/waiting for MR Rank Up cooldown.

All done with Excalibur, Hek, Lex, Atterax

 

edit: my first attempt was 31hrs on fml.bat

Edited November 26, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[Zgwortz]

Remember... that's 170-200 hours *real* time - including, breaks, sleeping, work, meals, and the like.   Actual time with the game running on my screen was only a bit over 48 hours.

I doubt there is a community of speed runners - the idea simply occurred to me as I was estimating time, and since I've run through this game on multiple accounts a couple of times before, it was a pretty easy step from idea to actually doing it.

That said, each time through, I *do* learn quite a bit more which helps my game play on my main account, so I find the time spent worth it.

[MARALOHK]

There are definitely some speed runners in the game, but they tend to devote their time to speed running a specific thing. For example, they would speed run the raids, speed run the old void capture keys, and now they speed run the Eidolons.

There is a larger community of "copterers" the players who hone the craft of mastering movement systems in Warframe. You will usually see them waiting for you at the exit. The speed runners tend to be a subgroup of the copterers.

[_Vortus_]

Pretty interesting!   Shows how much content just the base game has, and its all free.  Now I want to see how long it takes someone to complete (ranking all mods, a full set of rivens, max frames etc) and collect everything that the game currently has to offer. 

Not something I will ever do, as I like to chew, savor and enjoy my food.   But its still cool to see what it took time wise for someone to do it.

[Zgwortz]

1 minute ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

I got 31hrs. Recorded on Youtube and you can see it ingame with /profile fml.bat

Oooh.   I can see how that might be possible as I could have easily shaved that 38 hours (Time played - does not count orbiter or relay/town time) down to 34 or 33.   I did a lot of extra stuff farming mods, and dealing with getting Frost/Rhino, and on PoE/Orb Vallis that I might not have needed if I had been able to do the final Void runs with Mag.   Did you have trouble with them and Excalibur?   And did you have to spend much time farming mods?

[GnarlsDarkley]

32 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

down to 34 or 33.

Had the wrong account in my mind. Edited it. My first attempt was 31hrs. The second one (which was recorded took me 20hrs). 

After thoroughly reading your OP...I think I can scratch another hour with the same rng given in my recording. I had to grind for the Eximus on Venus plus the 2 Drift Mods on Lua. And I was solo on Vay Hek

Edited November 26, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[Zgwortz]

4 minutes ago, _Vortus_ said:

Pretty interesting!   Shows how much content just the base game has, and its all free.  Now I want to see how long it takes someone to complete (ranking all mods, a full set of rivens, max frames etc) and collect everything that the game currently has to offer. 

Not something I will ever do, as I like to chew, savor and enjoy my food.   But its still cool to see what it took time wise for someone to do it.

Not something I'll ever do either - My main account hasn't even come close to that.   I'm not even sure it's possible to collect a full set of rivens given the max capacity.

[(PSN)xtharbadx]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing.

One thing I didn’t get, was this 100% solo? How much help did you get? Did you use trading to get missing stuff?

[GnarlsDarkley]

2 minutes ago, (PS4)xtharbadx said:

One thing I didn’t get, was this 100% solo? How much help did you get? Did you use trading to get missing stuff?

Can't speak for OP, I was doing it about 90% solo. Ghouls (for Hunter Adrenaline), Fissures and 4th arm of Void (to Mot) were done public.

I guess that's another reason I was so much faster. I didn't have to wait for the squad to reach extraction

Edited November 26, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

53 minutes ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

edit: my first attempt was 31hrs on fml.bat

So that's who this was:

 

[GnarlsDarkley]

6 minutes ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

So that's who this was:

Yes! Lol. I am deeply impressed someone actually read that and remembered it. With the knowledge I could plan ahead for the second try

Edited November 26, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[Zgwortz]

8 minutes ago, (PS4)xtharbadx said:

This is awesome, thanks for sharing.

One thing I didn’t get, was this 100% solo? How much help did you get? Did you use trading to get missing stuff?

I was doing most missions Public - but a lot of it was entirely solo because nobody else was joining missions when i was playing them.   I did about half the bosses solo.  No trading, just farming for stuff.

In retrospect, I probably would have shaved quite a bit of time trading for useful Shotgun mods so I could use the Hek endgame.

[Zgwortz]

1 hour ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

I got 20hrs. Recorded on Youtube and you can see it ingame with /profile das.unterhund

https://i.imgur.com/bD8igZb.jpg (backup link)

I took days off for crafting weapons/waiting for MR Rank Up cooldown.

All done with Excalibur, Hek, Lex, Atterax

 

edit: my first attempt was 31hrs on fml.bat

Just watched the Void portion and some other bits, looking for the Mods you had managed to find.   As I noted the RNG was not my friend for Shotgun mods and would have loved to have even a few of the mods you had on the Hek so I could have used that.   (I had Point Blank, but none of the others...)

Excalibur might have been a better choice for my run.   Mag was great for certain enemies - but just couldn't survive those Void nodes.  If I ever do another speed run, I'll use Excalibur.  (Or, if I didn't care about real elapsed time, I could have gone with Gara - just pop in every day and do a few quick bounty missions for standing while making my way to Ceres, plus an hour of fishing and mining, then wait for the build to finish.)

Doing more missions solo might have helped too.. Was stuck in a few Survivals for longer than I wanted.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Zgwortz

[GnarlsDarkley]

8 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

As I noted the RNG was not my friend for Shotgun mods and would have loved to have even a few of the mods you had on the Hek so I could have used that. 

I was doing some runs on some Spy to get them while waiting on something (almost a complete Ivara lol). PB and Serration took me ages to get on fml.bat though...

8 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

If I ever do another speed run, I'll use Excalibur. 

make sure to match it with Ghouls Bounty or trade for Hunter Adrenaline. Also I was able to get a Rejuvenation Aura Alert. These 2 mods helped me A LOT. And I was having real trouble in the Void Mission. They tear a non reactored frame apart. I was dodging like mad and still died couple of times...so it was absolutely necessary to pub these

8 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

I could have gone with Gara

Never used her much...0.0% on my main account actually...so I cannot contribute in this direction

 

If you take another try: Best luck with rng/mods/alerts 

Edited November 26, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[(PSN)xtharbadx]

I’ve been thinking about doing something similar just for fun, but I added some challenge rules to myself:

- Everything that constitutes progress ( clearing star chart, bosses, etc ) can only be done solo

- Pub groups are allowed only for normal resource and MR farming

- No trading allowed, no buying plat, only starter plat can be used

 

[Zgwortz]

16 minutes ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

I was doing some runs on some Spy to get them while waiting on something (almost a complete Ivara lol). PB and Serration took me ages to get on fml.bat though...

make sure to match it with Ghouls Bounty or trade for Hunter Adrenaline. Also I was able to get a Rejuvenation Aura Alert. These 2 mods helped me A LOT. And I was having real trouble in the Void Mission. They tear a non reactored frame apart. I was dodging like mad and still died couple of times...so it was absolutely necessary to pub these

Never used her much...0.0% on my main account actually...so I cannot contribute in this direction

 

If you take another try: Best luck with rng/mods/alerts 

I noticed the Rejuve -- the only auras I managed to find were Physique and Speed Holster, which were no help at all.

I have a new appreciation for Gara since running another experiment a little while back where I took a new account, stayed on Earth until Gara was fully built, then took her through the map until I finished The War Within and did some Eidolon Hunting and built Revenant.   Gara was surprisingly effective at all of it - and in endless missions, can become an insane damage dealer.   I definitely learned a lot about her with that experiment -- IMHO, it's probably one of the best ways to learn a warframe - force yourself to play that warframe through every type of mission with limited mods and resources so you can squeeze out every ounce of performance.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

1 hour ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

Yes! Lol. I am deeply impressed someone actually read that and remembered it. With the knowledge I could plan ahead for the second try

😐

Yeah I remembered. I hadn't yet gotten to that junction and here you came blowing through the star chart leaving me sitting there reading the forum like: 😦 MR3 and they're at Sedna junction..., and they solo'd everything to go faster??? 😭

 

So yeah it made quite an impression. One I'm not likely to be able to forget. 😁

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

28 minutes ago, Zgwortz said:

Gara was surprisingly effective at all of it - and in endless missions, can become an insane damage dealer.   I definitely learned a lot about her with that experiment -- IMHO, it's probably one of the best ways to learn a warframe - force yourself to play that warframe through every type of mission with limited mods and resources so you can squeeze out every ounce of performance.

Yeah she is really something, and can scale. So long as you avoid nullifiers, she's going to slice and dice most anything, with quite a bit of damage reduction tossed in to the mix.