Best Solo Warframe by Mission Type

[(PSN)AccursedImmortal]

I don't really "main" a warframe, but I use Rhino a lot because of his survivability. He's very useful in Survival, Free Roam Bounties, Capture, Index, Arena, and Elimination. But he terrible for everything else such as Defense, Mobile Defense, Defection, Interception, Spy, Disruption, Excavation, and Sanctuary. People's tier list shouldn't be the top 10 dps or tank frames but rather the best warframe for each mission type. Frost is ranked very low in most lists, but he's amazing for Defense, Excavation, and Mobile Defense, especially when soloing. 

What I need is help for some missions that I can't seem to pull off soloing. Such as defection where I need to heal NPCs, disruption where I need to kill a Demolisher very quickly, or Interception where I need to defend multiple capture points. 

So here's a list of mission types, please post the very best warframes for each. I'm asking this as a relatively "new" player with only a few warframe slots to spare.

Arena
Assassination
Assault
Capture
Defection
Defense
Disruption
Excavation
Exterminate
Free Roam Bounty 
Hijack
Infested Salvage
Interception
Junction
Mobile Defense
Rescue
Sabotage
Sanctuary Onslaught
Spy
Survival

[Hello]

I won't say these are the best, but it's what I use for solo on these mission types.

Arena  - Khora. Sounds kind of like a dumb reason but with Venari's augment, you have a second change of not dying. Plus enemies in strangledome is a great CC.
Assassination - For the most part it doesn't really matter. I use Mesa for Ambulus. Nova for Lephantis. Octavia can make some of these easy. Revenant can also trivialize some of the assassinations.
Assault - Any frame would be fine
Capture - Also doesn't matter, take whichever you want.
Defection - Trinity and Oberon are good for this. I prefer Oberon.
Defense - Mesa or Gara. I don't focus on defending the point as I do killing enemies. Gara can nuke smaller defense tiles, whereas Mesa can hit a enemies quite easily.
Disruption - Mesa, her peacemakers do target the demolysts. Sure they have the nullify period but peacemakers get back on target pretty quickly.
Excavation - Khora because of her strangledome and her augment for the double drop chance. Limbo can make this mission type easy.
Exterminate - Doesn't really matter. I usually use Ignis Wraith and a melee. Frame I take what I feel like playing.
Free Roam Bounty - I take Mesa just in case the keep control or defend type bounties pop up.
Hijack - Nidus or Inaros. Without shields, it uses health to power.
Infested Salvage - Uhh no comment on this one. I don't do this mission.
Interception - Nova. Slowing enemies makes it a bit easier to keep things under control. You can also teleport between points depending on your range.
Junction - I used Nidus since I bought him earlier on but junctions aren't something I've done in a while.
Mobile Defense - Octavia. Her 2 and 4 make enemies chase a ball and ignore the objective. Depending on the location, some enemies far away can still attack it though.
Rescue - Usually Nova or an invisible frame like Octavia.
Sabotage - Any frame you feel like playing. 
Sanctuary Onslaught - Regular SO, most frames can get to zone 8 especially with a decent melee. ESO, Saryn always.
Spy - Ivara or Nova.
Survival - Unless you're going for 1-2 hours, frame shouldn't matter to much with survival. With longer survival, I would go Ivara, Nekros or Khora. Sometimes I take Octavia so I don't have to do much.

[Uhkretor]

29 minutes ago, (PS4)AccursedImmortal said:

Spoiler

I don't really "main" a warframe, but I use Rhino a lot because of his survivability. He's very useful in Survival, Free Roam Bounties, Capture, Index, Arena, and Elimination. But he terrible for everything else such as Defense, Mobile Defense, Defection, Interception, Spy, Disruption, Excavation, and Sanctuary. People's tier list shouldn't be the top 10 dps or tank frames but rather the best warframe for each mission type. Frost is ranked very low in most lists, but he's amazing for Defense, Excavation, and Mobile Defense, especially when soloing. 

What I need is help for some missions that I can't seem to pull off soloing. Such as defection where I need to heal NPCs, disruption where I need to kill a Demolisher very quickly, or Interception where I need to defend multiple capture points. 

So here's a list of mission types, please post the very best warframes for each. I'm asking this as a relatively "new" player with only a few warframe slots to spare.

Arena
Assassination
Assault
Capture
Defection
Defense
Disruption
Excavation
Exterminate
Free Roam Bounty 
Hijack
Infested Salvage
Interception
Junction
Mobile Defense
Rescue
Sabotage
Sanctuary Onslaught
Spy
Survival

 

... Well, I run everything with an Excal and I have no problems with those mission types...

[YUNoJump]

There are enough Warframes in the game at this point for the "best of category" nomination to largely come down to personal taste. Any given task can usually be carried out sufficiently by more than one Warframe, so it comes down to which frames a player enjoys the playstyle of. It may also come down to build quality or access to super-rare mods/upgrades; Arcane Energize can make or break many builds, but only if you've managed to get enough of them.

With that said, here are my favourites in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Arena: Rhino, because energy can be scarce and a full-strength and/or augmented Iron Skin is pretty tanky without any need for constant energy.
Assassination: Mesa is pretty good as a default for most things just for Peacemakers and tankiness, but Chroma also offers tankiness and damage boost, both are good for bosses.
Assault: it's a completely all-round mission type so it doesn't really matter what you bring, just take your favourite.
Capture: Gauss is my pick just for speedrunning the mission, but any frame with the ability to run past enemies without dying also works.
Defection: Trinity can easily heal the Defectors with Blessing. Oberon also works, but I avoid Defection like the plague so I don't have much experience with sortie-level Defection.
Defense: Gara has Splinter Storm and Mass Vitrify to offer a lot of defence capability, SS gives 90% damage reduction to the target and anything else, MV refreshes it.
Disruption: Mesa as long as you can stay out of nullify-range of the Demolishers, her Peacemakers melt them. Other than that, a frame with a damage buff like Chroma.
Excavation: Frost can place Globes in multiple locations so he's probably the best here.
Exterminate: whatever you want, something that can kill enemies and stay alive. I like Gauss for the speedrun potential while still having tankiness.
Free Roam Bounty: too all-round for a specialisation to really matter, the defence tasks aren't hard enough to require a dedicated build at any level. Bring your favourite.
Hijack: Hildryn so that the cart doesn't ever stop, she's also tanky enough to stand in the middle of a horde without melting.
Infested Salvage: I don't think I'm qualified to comment here because I played three missions, bought Nidus with plat, and have never played it since. Tankiness and good area damage seems like a good strategy, Equinox or maybe modern Ember would work alright.
Interception: I like Nyx because Chaos can stop enemies from hacking. Really any frame with a large-radius AoE works well here.
Junction: It's been a while, but I remember relying on weapons for damage being more reliable. Valkyr is probably pretty good.
Mobile Defense: Similar to defence choice, Gara has really solid DR for the target and herself.
Rescue: Almost every prison tile has a way to dash to the prisoners and beat the execution timer, so I just bring a general-use frame that can stay alive and clear enemies fast enough for the prisoner to survive until extraction.
Sabotage: Relatively all-round again, I like Gauss because there's a lot of places to run to in Sabotage, but unless you always do Cold sabotages, anything will work.
Sanctuary Onslaught: Saryn is a clear pick in the meta, but Volt with range also works pretty well.
Spy: Ivara if you want to walk through lasers, Loki if you can get past lasers but want to get through the mission faster.
Survival: anything with damage and tankiness. As above, Mesa and Chroma are common picks, but anything goes as long as you can get kills and stay alive.

I'll also add that Rhino with high strength is my main pick for Index (not listed) as well, due to the energy drain. Many people prefer to bring other frames and just deposit before the energy drain gets significant though.

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by YUNoJump
spoiler tag to shorten post

[Shanoo]

One might not see my list as "best in mission type" frames, but more as a list of my personal preferences:

• Rathuum Arena: Inaros for survivability or Ash with fatal teleport augment and covert lethality dagger mod for quick and easy kills
• Index Arena: I prefer Hildryn or Inaros for stacking points, because Rhino is energy dependent, just my laziness. 😉
• Assassination: Really depends on the target imho, do they have invulnerabilty phases, high movement, weakpoints, etc.
• Defection: Healing warframes like Trinity are quite handy to keep the defectors alive.
• Defense: I prefer Frost for stationary defense and Limbo for mobile defense targets like syndicate agents. Mesa can be a good alternative for quickly dispatching of enemies.
• Disruption: Any frame that can do high damage quickly is useful, I personally prefer Mesa so I do not have to find the demolyst in a crowd or aim properly. 😉
• Excavation: Frost or Slow Nova do fine imho. Khora, Vauban or Gara might be nice alternatives.
• Exterminate: Any mobile aoe nuker frame like Ember, Saryn, Eqinox or Excalibur does quick work of enemies on most levels.
• Bounties: Because of the large areas you are fighting in, making most direct damage abilities useless, tough weapon-dependent frames like Hildryn, Chroma or Inaros are my favorites here. For eidolons i prefer tough buff frames like Chroma or Rhino.
• Hijack: Abilities are disabled on the rover, thus tough non-ability-dependent frames like Inaros are the way to go imho.
• Infested Salvage: Desecrate Nekros, Trinity or Nova can be useful here, but also strong CC or nuker frames like Volt or Saryn.
• Interception: In small groups CC is king, I personally go for Slow Nova or max range & duration Volt.
• Junction: Bring survivability (non-energy-dependent) and a strong weapon.
• Mobile Defense: See defection or excavation.
• Rescue: I prefer Loki for quick and silent solo extraction, in party any mobile and/or nuker frame does fine.
• Sanctuary Onslaught: Might be zone level dependent but mostly the same as in exterminates. If in a group with nukers, support is nice to have, like Trinity or Nova.
• Spy: I prefer Ivara with infiltrate augment or Loki.
• Survival: See sanctuary onslaught + might be nice to bring a Nekros for more life support.
• Assault / Capture / Sabotage: Any frame can make quick work of those imho, not much you need to go for.

My prefered frames in no certain order, based on ability setups, not mission types:

• nukers: Ember, Equinox, Excalibur, Mag (polarize), Mesa, Nidus, Saryn, Wukong
• support: Banshee, Chroma, Harrow, Nova, Oberon, Octavia, Trinity, Wisp
• stealth: Ash, Ivara, Loki
• defense: Frost, Gara, Khora, Limbo, Vauban
• CC: Loki (disarm), Nova, Nyx, Volt
• tanks: Chroma (abilities+armor), Gara (ability), Hildryn (shield), Inaros (ability+health), Limbo (avoidance), Mesa (abilities), Nova (ability+augment), Rhino (ability), Trinity (abilities), Valkyr (abilities+armor), Zephyr (ability+augment)
• bonus drops: Atlas, Hydroid, Khora, Nekros (best for loot only)

Edited December 11, 2019 by Shanoo

[.Unreality]

Arena - Anything for Rathuum and Rhino for Index hoarding
Assassination - Depends on the boss
Assault, Capture, Disruption, Free Roam Bounty, Infested Salvage, Junction, Rescue, Sabotage - Doesn't matter, just use a good weapon
Defection - Trinity or Oberon for healing pathing defects
Defense, Exterminate, Sanctuary Onslaught, Survival  - Saryn for killing
Excavation - Limbo, Frost or Gara just avoid Corpus
Hijack - Nidus or Trinity for pushing and healing
Interception, Mobile Defense - Nyx or Ivara for CC cheesing
Spy - Wukong or Ivara for laser bypass

[Peanutor15]

Arena: anything, though Nidus or Khora to pull the enemies to you can be nice, especially with the extra loot from Khora
Index: Khora with high dur strangledome with moderate range and venari bodyguard. You CC everything within 3 miles and drag them to you while Fetch gets you all the points (you can equip it on Venari) and even if you somehow take damage you have bodyguard to survive, for pure point carry Rhino is probably the best
Assassination: Chroma just for the damage buff, though anything works as long as you have a good bosskiller weapon, other good options are Rhino and Wisp (and Mesa if the boss is targetable)
Assault: anything, though just general survivability is good to have
Capture: anything that can move fast since you won't have trouble with doing the objective, Nova and Wukong are both pretty good
Defection: STR based Limbo with low duration and the Rift Haven augment allows you to CC the enemies while healing the defectors, other good options are Trin and Oberon
Defense: Saryn, Volt, Mesa, basically any nuker ever. If we're talking sortie-level then you want a frame with some way to heal allies (see: Defection)
Disruption: Either massive damage eg. Mesa or CC eg. Harrow with his 1
Excavation: if Corpus or Relic, Slow-va or Frost, otherwise Limbo
Exterminate: any nuker
Bounties: Anything that can both kill and defend an objective, so basically any defensive frame with offensive capabilities or something that kills so fast that they can't touch the defense objective (Gara being an example of the first while Volt fits the second category)
Hijack: Inaros since it drains from his health instead of shields, you can literally AFK on top of the objective.
Infested Salvage: Khora, Nekros or any nuker
Interception: anything, it's not exactly a hard mode, defensive frames and nukers are probably the best though
Junction: Excal, Mesa, basically anything that just deals damage
Mobile Defense: see Excavation
Rescue: see Capture
Sabotage: see Capture
Sanctuary Onslaught: Saryn is queen, though any nuker will do, special mention to Mirage with her augment
Spy: Ivara if you want foolproof (you can use her augment to simply walk through any traps), Loki if you want cheese and Wukong if you want consistent fast
Survival: anything that has good killing power, extra loot is a bonus so Nekros and Khora have a special place here

[punish_me]

Gara is for all of them. 

[(PSN)de_sch0sch]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb Uhkretor:

... Well, I run everything with an Excal and I have no problems with those mission types...

Can you give some guidance on how you handle excavations? Back in the days I struggled with keeping the excavators alive past mars so I opt for Frost in these missions.

[vegetosayajin]

Arena - nidus max range + a good melee(if you find it harder to survive- ash)
Assassination - dunno exactly... ash perhaps
Assault - I would say Nova
Capture - Nova/Wukong/Volt
Defection - trinity
Defense - limbo/gara/frost/saryn
Disruption - Nova
Excavation - Nova
Exterminate - Saryn
Free Roam Bounty - Mesa
Hijack - Inaros
Infested Salvage - whatever, but I mostly run'd rhino there
Interception - Nova
Junction - Mag/excalibur
Mobile Defense - Limbo/gara/Frost/Nova
Rescue - Wukong
Sabotage - doesn't matter, something fast, Nova/Wukong/Volt
Sanctuary Onslaught - Saryn
Spy - if you know the vaults doesn't matter, if not in terms of ease of use(from best to ...not so best but also best) - Ivara, loki, ash, wukong, wisp
Survival - nidus/nova/gara/saryn...everything works as long as you know what you are doing

Edited December 11, 2019 by vegetosayajin

[RxLeonardo]

=================================================================================================

MY PERSONAL PICKS <3

 

Arena - Nidus (Sucking Snot) / Nekros (Desecrate)
Assassination - Depending on the mission
Assault - Volt (Speed) / Gauss
Capture - Volt (Speed) / Gauss
Defection - Trinity (Bless) / Oberon
Defense - Gara / Frost / Volt (DPS)
Disruption - Mesa / Wukong 
Excavation - Bimbo / Frost
Exterminate - New Ember <3
Free Roam Bounty - Mesa
Hijack - Inaros
Infested Salvage - Bad mission DE.
Interception - Chroma with effigy build / Ivara / Banshee (Nuke)
Junction - Mesa
Mobile Defense - Frost / Bimbo
Rescue - Volt / Gauss
Sabotage - Volt (Speed) / Gauss
Sanctuary Onslaught - Saryn for solo
Spy - Ivara / Loki
Survival - Anything (Ivara / Nekros / Khora (built with Pilfering Strangledome) for more loot

=================================================================================================

Edited December 11, 2019 by RxLeonardo

[Aazhyd]

Capture and Rescue: Gauss, because of his speed.

Defense and Mobile defense: Mirage with Explosive Legerdemain

Survival and Excavation: Nekros

Exterminate: anything goes, I use Gauss because of speed.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Aazhyd

[Uhkretor]

6 hours ago, (PS4)de_sch0sch said:

Can you give some guidance on how you handle excavations? Back in the days I struggled with keeping the excavators alive past mars so I opt for Frost in these missions.

I tend to avoid focusing on a single location for defense. Since enemies tend to come from everywhere, the less time you lose focusing on a single path, the higher is your chance of successfully defending Excavator.

However, defending Excavators beyond the 1500 Cryotic mark will be difficult. This tactic won't work as effectively but it will maximize the amount of Cryotic obtained from a destroyed Excavator.

 

Obviously, Endless missions are meant for cooperative squads, full or otherwise, since it makes it easier to stop them from destroying Excavators. (I blame the lack of Excavator level scaling for it.)

[DatDarkOne]

Arena----Ivara
Assassination----Ivara
Assault----Ivara
Capture----Ivara
Defection------FUQ this mission type
Defense-----Mag
Disruption-----Mag
Excavation-----Frost
Exterminate----Ivara
Free Roam Bounty ----Ivara
Hijack-----Mag
Infested Salvage----Ember
Interception----Ivara
Junction----Ivara
Mobile Defense-----Mag
Rescue----Ivara
Sabotage----Ivara
Sanctuary Onslaught-----Mag
Spy----Ivara
Survival----Ivara

[KnossosTNC]

I play almost exclusively solo, and go through many different setups. Here's what I typically use:

• Arena: Valkyr for Rathuum, Limbo for Index.
• Assassination: Valkyr, Mesa, Ivara, Inaros, depending on the boss. These days, I only fight Mercury Vor, Vay Hek and Ambulas in Sorties, and use Ivara in all three.
• Assault: Mesa.
• Capture: Loki for normal, Mirage for fissures up to Ceres, Titania for Jupiter (normal and fissures), Saryn for Europa and beyond.
• Defection: Nova.
• Defense: Equinox up to Europa, Mesa or Saryn beyond. I don't play Defense much.
• Disruption: Nova to CC everything except the demolishers to keep them out of my way, so I can use my Magus Lockdown.
• Excavation: Limbo versus Grineer and Infested, Frost versus Corpus.
• Exterminate: Anything for normal, really, though I'm quite partial to Ivara for the high level ones. For fissures, Equinox up to Ceres, Mirage or Saryn beyond. Titania for Jupiter in both normal and fissures.
• Free Roam Bounty: Mesa for Plains of Eidolon, Octavia for Orb Vallis.
• Hijack: Inaros or Hildryn.
• Infested Salvage: Used to be Ember before the rework. Had some success with Octavia since, but still testing my options.
• Interception: Nova.
• Junction: Valkyr.
• Mobile Defense: Limbo or Nova.
• Rescue: Gara.
• Sabotage: Equinox for Cervantes Earth, and all Reactor Sabotages up to Jupiter plus Thebe. Mirage for Ker Ceres, Kokabiel Europa, Enceladus Saturn and Sao Neptune. Ivara for Desdemona Uranus. Nova or Mesa for everything else.
• Sanctuary Onslaught: Saryn.
• Spy: Loki for quick runs, Ivara if I want to "do things properly."
• Survival: Ivara.

Hope that helps.

[Teliko_Freedman]

I Mag Prime everythang.

 

[ReaverKane]

On 2019-12-11 at 1:37 AM, (PS4)AccursedImmortal said:

 

• Arena - Tanky Nekros if you want Endo, Rhino works.
• Assassination - Valkyr can one shot all bosses that don't have invulnerable phases. For the others Rhino is a good option.
• Assault / Sabotage / Hive  - Speedy frames, Wukong is a great one, Volt is another.
• Capture - Same as above
• Defection - Oberon is a good way to keep the survivors surviving.
• Defense - Speed Nova for faster completions, on lower levels any nuker. For defensive aspect, Limbo, Frost or Gara.
• Disruption - Slow Nova is a good way to slow down the Demolishers and also softens them up a bit.
• Excavation - Limbo is a good way to secure the excavators.
• Exterminate - Ember used to be great... Now, just pick a frame honestly, no one else has the passive damage that ember had.
• Free Roam Bounty - Honestly, doesn't matter. But Ivara is great for floof hunting.
• Hijack - Hildrin
• Index -  Rhino
• Infested Salvage - Nukers, Limbo, Nidus
• Interception - Nukers work. Or just bring a limbo, or something tanky.
• Junction - Made most of them with Rhino or Excal...
• Mobile Defense - I take Wukong for speedy deliveries, then good weapons finish the job.
• Rescue - Limbo. Banish the hostage, and he's safe for 1m while you run to extract.
• Sanctuary Onslaught - Volt, Saryn, Equinox.
• Spy - Loki
• Survival - Nekros

Do note that, for most missions, except specialized stuff like Index, Arenas and the like, any thing goes on missions below 60-80.

Edited December 13, 2019 by ReaverKane