Helpful Rank 30 (True) Mastery Test Guide (Mesa)

[Neumeier]

Hello, this is some tips for finishing out the True Mastery test.

The test is a survival style affair, and will end if run out of life support.

It is composed of 5 stages, and each stage has the pattern of: Kill X# Enemies -> Kill X# Bosses -> Activate Life Support Tower. 

The last part is important, you MUST activate the tower to reach the next stage. 

Each stage has more enemies you must kill, and more bosses, and their level increases with each progression. 

There is always one Arbitration shield drone in each boss step, and starting with stage 2, a Nullifier Crewman. 

For a more comprehensive breakdown of the enemies by stage, please visit the wiki under "Mastery Rank".

Quickly the problem becomes trying to wipe as many fodder enemies as you can, and then trying to switch to killing mini-bosses, some with ungodly amount of defenses. Several Warframes and weapons work, such as Octavia and Mesa, those being the more common choices, and one of the ones I used. 

Here is the setup I used,

And my companion, a MOA, 

While the Companion wasn't really important, the Whiplash Mine helped by corralling enemies together. This will be a recurring theme for the rest of the explanations, the "this isn't important, but it helps." I found that beating this Mastery Test is a game of stacking the deck, and not using a trump card. You keep adding things that will help until it tips the scale in your favor for a win. Please don't judge me for mixed metaphors and similes.

Mesa herself, 

This build relies heavily on Mesa's 4, and should favor energy conservation, and then ability range, in that order, with Umbral Vitality bolstering Umbral Intensify. The Arcanes used were Velocity, so that Mesa's 4 would get faster DPS for the bosses, and Energize, giving a chance that every Energy orb picked up would add extra energy to fuel Mesa's 4. 

Her Regulators, 

You want to emphasize damage types that will kill Grineer defenses, as all of the super spongy bosses are Grineer type, I chose Viral, but could go with Corrosive. Then I put mods on that will increase damage and critical chance. 

Next the Primary, 

I choose a rifle, but some people tend to favor energy shotguns, it depends on what it'll be used for. I was using my primary exclusively to kill the Arbitration shield drone, and to pop Nullifier Crewman shields, both of which are bosses, and should be the ones prioritized when they appear, the rest can be cleaned up with Mesa's 4. I use the word prioritize, because sometimes you can rake across the arena with Mesa's 4 and kill a few of the bosses before turning it off to kill the anti-ability jerks. As I was using it to kill Robotic and Corpus enemies, I favored Magnetic damage. I also strongly recommend the Tactical Reload mod, anything that can shave off any time is what you will need for this fight. 

Lastly Melee, 

Melee is what I used when my Mesa was either out of energy, or it was impractical to use any other weapon. How you build your weapon, and which you choose is something of personal choice. That said builds favoring Condition Overload tend to be more popular. Melee will mostly be used to try and panic kill Nullifier Crewman, and lesser Bosses (i.e. Heavy Gunner and lower), but should only really be used when using Mesa's 4 is impractical. 

 

So a few more things,

counterintuitively death is your friend in this Mastery Test, there is no cap for how many times you snuff it in the Mastery test (as of the time of this writing). So if you're running low on energy, getting killed, may cost a second, but you come back with half energy on respawn, which lets you continue blasting away with Mesa. 

Some guides I read suggest using operators to force punch burlier bosses over ledges, but this isn't something I recommend, because it takes time to do it, sometimes the bosses rubber band back to the ledge, and it can take a few seconds for the game to register that the boss has fallen to their death and award you the kill, and you NEED time like the ocean needs water. 

I also completed the Mastery Test with Resource Drop Chance booster. I don't know if this actually affected the drop rates of life support boosters and energy orbs, but it certainly didn't hurt. So I erred on the side of Pascal and spent the 40 platinum for a 3 day supply. 

P.S. 

Spoiler

These are personal thoughts, and have nothing informative about the test. I very much considered putting this at the top of the post, but felt it better to tack it on after, more professional I guess. I really think DE needs to balance out the difficulty in this test, it took me I don't know how many times, and a VERY specialized build to accomplish it. Where the other tests, were difficult, but not impossible if you didn't have an optimized build. It took me over a month to complete this test, and the sheer difficulty of it greatly diminished my enjoyment of Warframe. At this difficulty, I can almost guarantee that some people WILL stop playing Warframe when they reach this test. Which is not in the best interest for the continued health of this game. 
Speaking of health, I am ashamed at responses of some of the members of this community to people having problems with this test. The elitist mentality I have seen on this board and other locations has been heart breaking on the subject of helping people with this test. Search "Mastery Rank 30", or "True Mastery Test" and you will find around 1 in 3 threads with a phrase along the lines of "If they can't beat this test, they don't deserve to be a True Master." That is just an abysmally unempathetic response. I even had one racist jerk continually refer to me as "Adolf" (because I have a German sounding moniker) after I asked if they had any tips for beating this test, this was in-game. To them I offer them this rebuttal, here is the mail the Lotus sends you after beating the test: 

So I finish off with this, shame on you. Shame on you if you scoffed at someone who struggled with this test. 
 

 

 

[(XBOX)sinamanthediva]

38 minutes ago, Xaero said:

Let me explain once again: "I can't see how any player who reached this point can struggle with it" means exactly that and nothing more.

 

Just dont say it. Boom. Problem solved. Just say how you did it without any personal anecdotes that might be construed as insensitive. It's that simple. Merry Christmas!

[Xaero]

14 minutes ago, Neumeier said:

Xaero, you at least showed your weapons mod configuration. Now what about your Excalibur frame? Is there an Arcane that's benefiting you? What if someone didn't have your specific Riven on your melee weapon, would that make a difference?

The info about needing a riven was in the video, I typed it in the chat. As for Excal, I didn't show anything about the frame because there's really nothing to show. The only thing you might need from a frame is to not die. Knockdown immunity or fast knockdown recovery can help you save some time too. No arcanes needed.

Did another rerun with minimal amount of mods, no arcanes, no riven. Builds are in the end. Here it is. Nothing really changes.

19 minutes ago, Neumeier said:

While I appreciate the effort both of you, I really do, simply showing what you're doing without giving your viewers the tools to fully understand how you're doing it, is not enough.

Well, I'm open to questions and discussion anytime. And, as mentioned before, I'd prefer seeing someone's failed attempt first so I could analyze it.

[-CdG-Zilchy]

3 hours ago, Drasiel said:

 

I've only done practice ones since amps are my nemesis but I think a lot of it comes down to drop luck. If you don't get enough life support you just can't do it. I've gotten close really close, running out of air on the way to the final canister a lot of the times even. There's been plenty of times I've cleared the area of enemies and not gotten any life support. I'm not even sure if the bosses can drop life support.

That comes down to clear speed. You say you've killed all the enemies but the thing is they respawn as you clear them so if your KPS is too low, you're not going to get as many drops. 

[-CdG-Zilchy]

31 minutes ago, Neumeier said:

While I appreciate the effort both of you, I really do, simply showing what you're doing without giving your viewers the tools to fully understand how you're doing it, is not enough. And worse, the people viewing might become frustrated and view you as callous.

Surely a player that's reached MR 30 knows enough about the game to recognize what typical builds are being used? I think it's less about build and more about tactics anyway.

[(XBOX)TehChubbyDugan]

Sort of weird that people are talking about this like it's nearly impossible.  I can understand this test being hard if you're one of the people that refuses to even acknowledge the meta, but using the meta made this very easy to me, and since game knowledge is a large part of the mastery being tested, I feel like ignoring it is a mistake.

I had one failed practice run because I went into the test blind, and didn't exactly understand the mechanics, because DE never explains anything and their waypoint system has been so broken and so buggy for so long that I've learned to basically ignore it.  Ignoring it meant I spent several minutes keeping up life support when I should have moved onto the next wave.  I still very nearly passed that blind practice run.  I passed the next practice run with tons of time to spare, then passed my actual test pretty easily.  I made a few cocky errors that cost me some time, including a missed jump right at the end that probably would have failed me, but used the Operator slingshot trick to blast my frame up to the last position and passed anyway.

I used Revenant for both area clear capabilities as well as invulnerability, and generating a little distraction for the trash mobs with Enthrall.  I brought in one primary or another that I didn't use, my viral status hose Gaze, and a heavy attack Stropha.  I barely even noticed the Nox that was discussed in this thread because of the status hose/Stropha combo.

[-CdG-Zilchy]

4 minutes ago, (XBOX)TehChubbyDugan said:

Sort of weird that people are talking about this like it's nearly impossible.  I can understand this test being hard if you're one of the people that refuses to even acknowledge the meta, but using the meta made this very easy to me

Careful you're gonna get accused of stroking your ego mate and he'll use his 1 trick-pony gif on you...

[Xaero]

44 minutes ago, Neumeier said:

I think I have too many large pictures in one post, and the forum is just trying to save bandwidth. At least that's my guess.

That’s definitely not the case. It seems like your links just don’t automatically transform into images for some reason. Do you see this message when you paste the links?

Just in case, I’m posting all your images here. You can try copying them directly from my post, it might help.

Spoiler

 

[Neumeier]

7 minutes ago, -CdG-Zilchy said:

Surely a player that's reached MR 30 knows enough about the game to recognize what typical builds are being used? I think it's less about build and more about tactics anyway.

 

2 minutes ago, (XBOX)TehChubbyDugan said:

Sort of weird that people are talking about this like it's nearly impossible.  I can understand this test being hard if you're one of the people that refuses to even acknowledge the meta, but using the meta made this very easy to me, and since game knowledge is a large part of the mastery being tested, I feel like ignoring it is a mistake.

You should never assume someone else's library of knowledge. There are 50+ Warframes, hundreds of weapons, and over a thousand mods. That's a lot to keep track of.

Using myself as an example, until a week ago I didn't even know that Nukors have a special invisible debuff of "microwave" that they apply. Which is why I'm assuming that they make such an appealing companion to Condition Overload melee builds. But that's an assumption. 

[Neumeier]

7 minutes ago, Xaero said:

That’s definitely not the case. It seems like your links just don’t automatically transform into images for some reason. Do you see this message when you paste the links?

I’m posting all your images here. You can try copying them directly from my post, it might help.

Cheers mate, it turns out that I needed to copy them as address links, and not plain text. Anyways, that did the trick. Thanks!

[-CdG-Zilchy]

16 minutes ago, Neumeier said:

 

You should never assume someone else's library of knowledge. There are 50+ Warframes, hundreds of weapons, and over a thousand mods. That's a lot to keep track of.

Using myself as an example, until a week ago I didn't even know that Nukors have a special invisible debuff of "microwave" that they apply. Which is why I'm assuming that they make such an appealing companion to Condition Overload melee builds. But that's an assumption. 

Um it's more the fact you can stack a bunch of elementals and get one already with magnetic on top of that. The kuva Seer actually makes a better CO primer purely based on how many status you can apply at once, seeing as that's all CO needs, bonus dmg per status.

Back on track, then they'd be better off using gear they are familiar with, the MR 30 test is about your tactics less than your gear, the only reason I chose yo use Mesa is to drop more life support with the fast DPS of peacemaker.

[Lutesque]

Only a True Master... 👀

Or should I say Maestra ? 😝

For whatever Reason... You can not use on call Crew for this Test.... So I had to make do with Just Mallet and Dethcube....

Which it turns out was more than enough.... There was so much Life Support every where it never Dropped Below 60... 👀

Took Care of The Bosses with Primer + Glaive Prime.... I wanted to keep my Distance because they were Arson Eximus Units and then they can Chain knock you down to infinity 😱....

 

[-CdG-Zilchy]

1 minute ago, (PSN)kite9000 said:

  

No, it doesn't mean one is a seasoned player or an experienced player, it means a player that know what the meme is.  If all you want is the nuke build of the nuke weapon and prefer high efficiency, fair enough that's your choice.

Viral crit melee weapons are the 'meme' du jour.  It wasn't a good year ago and it can change at the drop of the proverbial hat. People who know what a viral crit build melee are : People that play often, people that have been playing for a long time, people that listen to youtubers, people that can look up the meme build, people that get told what mods to put where by others. In short, it has really nothing to do with being seasoned or not let alone being 'good' or not.

E.G. I recall the time when THE weapon for Eidolons was the Lanka. If one didn't use a Lanka then a certain crowd would look down their noses. That was until others started to point out that Rubico actual was better (and now it's all about the Redeemer I believe). Nowadays if you would show up for an Eidolon with a Lanka that aforementioned crowd would deride you for bringing such a 'crappy' weapon.

I know a guy who took Eidolons down with an Ignis Wraith. You can laugh and claim that he lacked experience but the point remains that it asked far more 'skill' and knowledge of what mods are needed to make that happen then it does for just copying what one can find online. And sure, he wasn't going to do a 2x3 in one night. Is it quicker and more efficient to not do it with an Ignis, yes. But not everything is about speed or efficiency. Some of us get more pleasure out of other things.

If you find the game to easy then why not challenge yourself and don't use the OP builds for OP weapons/warframes that every Tom, $&*^ and Harriet are using? Again, you can state that they are the most efficient and be correct, at least for the moment. This however doesn't mean that there for one using it is better at the game. You can state that you just want to use high efficient weapons with the highest levels of kill per second and that's perfectly fine and dandy. But linking that to 'experience' is nonsense. Want a challenge? Use the Veldt to do a survival mission on SP with Zephyr.  I like the Veldt myself but know out of experience that even with 4 forma it's still not up to par with most other rifles.

You want to use the most OP builds, your choice.  But so can any kid that happens to look at what the meme builds are of the moment and who runs Hydron 24/7. Chances are even higher that those Hydron runners will have the most OP builds. Nothing to do with experience, solely to do with what the general consensus is online amongst youtubers.

In short, you do you. But not everyone is like you. Some of us actual get enjoyment in trying out weapons, builds, frames. Pushing the ones we like to the limits even if they are not the best. Or just running the everyday missions as mindless bit of fun without challenge at all.

Here let me shock you. For the longest time I was using Hydroid Prime as my main, clearing most of the star chart with it. Later on I switched to Nezha because of the team player defending aspect of it. Imagine that, not using a warframe out of the top 5 most popular warframes in the last few years. If I look at the present day top 10, the only one that  I really use often is Wukong (9th in top 10 of September 2020). Mesa? When I occasionally use her it's for mixing things up or unveiling a riven.

Do I think that I'm better at the game because I cleared the star chart mostly with Ignis Wraith and Sonicor? No. If anything Ignis Wraith is fire and forget. Pull trigger and just clear room after room. Mindless. Which is all I want after a workday of calculating, designing and engineering.

Do I look down at others that use the meme weapons/warframes of the season? Nope. If that's what they enjoy then that's what they enjoy. I don't use Volt or Octavia but there are those that main it. Is either of us wrong? No. It's a game, whatever makes you enjoy the game. My wife (MR29) loves running solo, unveiling rivens ,trading those rivens and farming rare mods and such. Making anywhere up to a couple of thousand plat a month. I couldn't sell a god roll rubico riven if my life depended on it. Is she better at the game? No, she just has patience and lot of knowledge about what rivens/mods are looked for and what fair price points are so that neither party feels taken advantage of.

We can agree on that. I enjoy almost all kinds of mission types but I don't enjoy 4 hour grinding one type of mission. This test is easy for those that do because they will have innate high DPS/KPS builds as well as lots of experience with using those kinds of builds. The rest of us won't. Does that make them better at the game? No, neither are they worse at the game. They just have different priorities and playstyles. Not better, not worse, just different and this test favors those.

Look at it this way. There are those that enjoy Indy 500 (driving around and around making only left hand turns) and are really good at it. Others like GP's or rally's more. Does being an Indy 500 winner mean one is the best at driving a car? No, it only means that he can do that particular race well.

You are good at high DPS. Nice for you but please refrain from thinking that makes you somehow better.

Did I need help with the MR30? Clearly. Was not being able to get past that test making me frustrated with the game. Yep. Please tho', think back to all the previous MR tests. Can you honestly say that you never came across a test that you fail to pass in the first couple of a tries? Or are you one to claim that you were born with the muscle memory and mod knowledge for this game?

Again, thank you for the tip about Aenemic agility.

Thank you for the offer. The build I have now can no doubt be min/maxed more but it works and will take me past the test. After which Mesa will only occasionally be used because there's other frames I enjoy much more in everyday missions and tasks.

Have a nice one.

Well.. to start with it's not so much the meme as knowing what's effective in the current time of Warframe as updates obviously can change things in a big way, your gas build on regulators for example which used to be very good, particularly vs Corpus. Eidolons that you mention are actually a very good example of how things change, those weapons you mention didn't become better to use because more people tried them, they became better to use as updates changed damage mechanics and melee was given a huge boost for Redeemer. As for the challenge part, I cleared most of Steel Path with Nova, not cos she's best at it but because she's fun to use and I like speed running. Steel Path is extremely easy anyway so pretty much any gear will get you through it if you're familiar with how best to use that gear. And I wouldn't even be able to tell you what the top 10 used frames are because I don't pay attention to such things, nor do I pay attention to any youtubers who're trying to get a few views showing the latest buzz weapon, it doesn't interest me.

Without wishing to boast I'm just answering your question here. Every MR test I've done I've practiced it once then passed it first go, you just need the one practice run to show you what you'll be doing, adjust your gear accordingly and then in you go. I've actually created a lot of tutorials for the MR tests for other players as well as tutorials for other things in the game, all the links to them are in that first video I posted on here.

I don't actually do long endurance missions very often anymore unless you count the last event, I don't really have the time for it and they're not challenging, matter of fact I fell asleep during a clan challenge that lasted 3 hours. I usually try to do speed challenges and various operator only, limited gear sort of challenges etc to try and find something interesting to do in this game currently. I actually prefer decorating the dojo to playing missions at the moment. But I wouldn't say that this makes the test easier, there's really only 1 random element and that's the Arbi drone, the rest is stuff you encounter in most missions albeit a slightly higher level and all at once instead of singularly. As I said before, you just isolate the enemies so they're not working off each other's strengths. 

I'm glad I could help you beat the test, it's not really anemic agility that did it, it's just overall fire rate and multishot. Have fun and have a good xmas. 

[-CdG-Zilchy]

9 minutes ago, mp3FrameEditor said:

i'm one of those struggling. i'm middle-aged but had no issues with the first 29 tests. the problems nobody mentions are not being able to see where the arbitration drone is from all the flashing on the screen and the last red enemy losing its red mark (a bug i guess) so i'm not sure if i should be looking for it or the air support (and there is usually another one or two yellow marks present at the same time). coupled with none of the warframes i usually play being on the "menu" here i'm not making much progress after a dozen or more attempts. sorry, i'm too lazy to install the software to record a video. excal does seem better than mesa to me, i've almost finished stage 4 with it. well, off to octavia to test that one...

Mesa is by far the easiest way but you can use any frame, it doesn't really matter. Any frame plus a strong melee can beat it no problem, I beat it with Loki without using his abilities just to see if I could. If you can't see the Arbitration drone just bring an AoE weapon and you'll accidentally kill it if you fire it at the other bosses.

[(XBOX)sinamanthediva]

23 minutes ago, gbjbaanb said:

When I did the MR17 test, I found that incredibly difficult. I could pass it 2/3 times on practice, but failed it 5 times in a row. I gave up trying, just did it each day not expecting it to be different and then I passed. I didn't get any better, didn't do anything different. So I can only assume it was the RNG making me very unlucky with orbs spawning far away or in awkward places, and then time I passed were when the RNG placed the orbs more conveniently.

Now, look at the MR17 thread on these forums - someone had similar problem completing it, and the thread is full of belittling comments, all of whom were saying "I could do it easily so you must be rubbish".

That's the insensitivity - maybe not intended, but it comes across exactly the same. Your quote "I can't see how any player who reached this point can struggle with it" is more of that, impling "you failed the easy test, you must be a loser". A better way of saying what you wanted would be to leave that part out entirely, or simply mention that you found it easy, no need to comment on any one else's ability at doing it.

Its a good thing you want to suggest help, but never ever contribute to the elitist toxicity that exists here, even if you mean well.

As it is, this one seems to be RNG based too. If you're lucky, you win easily. If you're not, too bad. IMHO none of these tests should have a random element, drops and positions should be fixed or removed. This one would be better if the extra-time drops didn't exist and the timer was simply set longer (eg if there are 20 enemies to kill and the drop chance is 1 in 4, why not just give 5 drops right at the start and bypass the potential for the RNG to not perform as expected) . Though I also think the timed ones are just too annoying to be allowed, let us take our time, make the test a challenge of something other than how quick your reactions are.

Thank you for making it even more clear for the players that continue to say insensitive comments like stating the MR 30 test was "Easy". 

 

3 hours ago, Reidenshi said:

Dude, honestly, so far you're the only one giving toxic vibes here.

Dude, its sarcasm to make my point since apparently some people just don't understand basic common decency with regards to making others feel inferior or stupid because the test wasn't easy for them.  We don't CARE if it was easy for you and its not relevant to someone asking for advice in a post.  Just give helpful advice without making others feel bad is all I am saying. It's not rocket science and am dumbfounded that I am having to explain why its not ok.  

All anyone has to say is "Here is how I passed it.....  hope it helps. " DONE!

[Xaero]

4 minutes ago, (XBOX)sinamanthediva said:

Just dont say it. Boom. Problem solved. Just say how you did it without any personal anecdotes that might be construed as insensitive. It's that simple. Merry Christmas!

Or maybe just don't take the words out of context and read the whole message. Though it seems you're not here to participate in the discussion, since you keep ignoring anything related to the topic. I guess you're here just to take your anger out and you've chosen me? I'm not interested then.

[Reidenshi]

45 minutes ago, (XBOX)sinamanthediva said:

Dude, its sarcasm to make my point since apparently some people just don't understand basic common decency with regards to making others feel inferior or stupid because the test wasn't easy for them.

Maybe it's actually you who doesn't get the point?

I'm not yet close to reaching MR30 and here's what I see:

1) the test is likely easy as it was cleared on the first try with Excalibur (which is a pretty mediocre frame and if anyone clears something with him that usually means this something isn't difficult). The video posted after that supports this claim as nothing special in terms of skill is shown;

2) he doesn't understand the struggle of other players because of that and he has yet to see an actual failed attempt.

Doesn't sound degrading at all. If I had any problems with this test, I'd be interested in a further discussion.

Then you show up, quote half of the post and start bashing in a toxic manner while bringing nothing meaningful to the topic. And here's what I see: some people are just looking for something to be offended.

And if this topic gets locked, know that it was because of your toxic behaviour.

[(PSN)kite9000]

 

11 hours ago, Neumeier said:

  Hide contents

So I finish off with this, shame on you. Shame on you if you scoffed at someone who struggled with this test. 
 

 

Cheers.

Now that is far more helpful than all those remarks by the stuck up git gud crowd. And yes indeed the sheer lack of empathy by the 'elitists' is disgusting. The mentality of how can you be hungry when I just had a 4 course meal. Or in this case, you must be bad because I had RNG in my favor.

The lack of insight that perchance it isn't because that they are so good but just that they got lucky is just revolting. And lots of times, when you check, those that make those kind of remarks aren't the ones with actually lots of experience and hours of game play but the ones that just rushed everything so as to have bragging rights because they think  high MR means that they are good at the game.

I have been playing constantly for close to 2 and half years. I however am not the kind to run every missions as a race to see how to do it quickest with as a result that there's hardly a nook or cranny that I don't know or a resource that I don't have a stockpile of. I know the different paths to each spy vault, not just the simple brute force ones. I know the locations of most 'hidden' rooms. I can't say all because you can never tell if you found them all. I have seen many high ranking MR who doesn't know that 'locked' rooms can be entered and how to do it. But they will brag about how they could run a 5 hour survival. To each their own but I don't find pleasure nor mentally challenging to waste 5 hours literally doing 1 mission continuously.

This test is however clearly aimed at those that love to run around like headless chickens. There's no skill involved. Just mindless roadrunner activity. In short, ideal for those that mainline Monster energy drinks.

In the beginning some of the MR tests could be difficult at times because of lack of experience at bullet jumping or because not having the right kind of weapon or mods or just bad RNG. This test however has got me stumped. So far I must have easily practiced it over a hundred times and at best I get to the final wave but without enough life support. I tried it with Saryn and with Mesa both fully decked out. I used different kinds of weapons and different kinds of companions. I used spectres to help out, I used all kinds of combo's and builds recommended and still no joy. Do I kill the fodder quickly? Yes. Do I use the abilities of Mesa or Saryn? Yes. In the mean while I've used an Aura forma, Umbra forma, and a few forma's on weapons and warframe's. And yes, all had potato's as well as forma in them before I ever reached the ability to do the MR30 test. In other words, all were Steel path viable but none the less they couldn't get me past the practice run and even now, further optimizing the builds, using builds provided by others, etc. still no luck.

The Test

1st wave : no problem. Using weapons and abilities kill the fodder which will drop some lifesupport (LS).

1st boss wave appears. Depending on where they are and there for how much time it takes to take them out I then pick up any LS that's around and/or kill some more fodder so as to be able to pick up enough LS to bring me to around 80% before hitting the LS station which only gives you something like +30% topping off the total at 100%. If it would actually give you +50%, or topping it off to 100% always, as I saw someone mention in another thread this would be a milk run.

2nd wave : still no issue. Basically rinse and repeat of 1st wave, just more enemies to kill but that doesn't' seem to mean more LS drops then in 1st wave. In other words, you spend more time in killing more enemies to only get the same amount of LS drops. This looks the be true for the other waves as well.

2nd boss wave. Keeping an eye on LS levels killing the bosses as well as the fodder if need be so that there would be more LS drops because bosses don't drop LS.

By the way, bumping bosses of the tiles hardly ever counts as a kill but instead I've seen them time and time again being re-dropped somewhere else on the map, preferable the other side of the map. You being bumped of the map will most of the time end up with you on the edge of the tile you got pushed off so don't be surprised that if you move in the wrong direction you're falling again. = costing time = losing LS points

When all goes well, you should be able to keep LS up somewhere in the 50-60% vicinity of higher before grabbing the 2nd LS station.

3nd wave : Same deal which means still more enemies but still the same LS drops. Being able to kill them quickly and grabbing the LS becomes more of a chore.

3nd wave bosses : More bosses, and of course again higher levels, and in general not exactly really grouped together

IF I'm lucky, I might be able to swing it to get my LS level up to 50 or 60% before hitting the LS station. Most of the times, no matter how much and how quickly I kill I might be able to pick up some LS all over the map and barely have 50% after hitting the LS station.

4nd wave : Here RNG really starts to kick in, in my opinion. Where are the enemies? How grouped are they. Do they spam mainly in one direction or all over the map. If you should happen to die/fall of map, did you just end up right in the middle of a group? Do the LS drops happen near by or do you have to fly from one side of the map to the other in the hope to bring LS level up to a decent amount before the bosses make their appearance.

4nd wave bosses. Are you in luck that you have a clear shot on the arbitration drone and nulifier or are they obscure by fodder, half way across the map, completely across the map, behind that big pillar in the middle of the map, etc.

Great ! You killed the 4th wave bosses and perhaps RNG was in your favor and you have 40% or 50% LS.  The jump to the 4th LS station isn't difficult at all but the jump back from it can be tricky depending on the frame and the mod set up (in some cases using operator helps).

My problem, the times I get to this point in the test, is that my LS level is low. And no matter how much I kill and run around picking up the LS drops, I can't get it high enough to be able to kill all the bosses because I have to spend time killing fodder to get LS drops. However this costs time, and it costs even more time to then run, bullet jump, to pick up the LS so it becomes a losing battle.  Alternatively, concentrating on the bosses I can't do either because if at the start of the boss wave you only have 50% LS there's no way that you can take them all out, including the NOX.

I have watched several youtube vid's of people demonstrating how "easy" it is. They do the tests in 4 or 5 minutes. They don't die. They hardly if ever get bumped of the map or even of their feet. And they all seem to have 90% or more after hitting each and every LS station.  Most of them just proclaiming that "It's so easy, anyone that knows how to play the game should be able to do it" But they all refrain from actually showing what their set up is. What mods they use, which arcanes, etc... 

 

 

[WarmongerExtraordinare]

no anemic agility on the regulators? cringe, man.

[BanMeBros]

If you need this guide, there's a chance you don't have much experience with the meta (or just DPS builds), but that lack of contact with the meta does not make you any less valid of a Warframe player than anyone else. As someone who sticks to a few staple loadouts, I understand how to feels to be confronted with a undiversified arsenal, and that is absolutely not a bad thing as long as no game mode gives you trouble. Don't let anyone tell you how to have fun.

Notwithstanding that, you will need a strategy to get through the MR30 test, and I can confirm that Neumeier's route still works perfectly as of August 2021. Find the time or the money to acquire Formas for your build, and you'll just have to match the listed loadouts and get a bit of practice with Peacemaker, which you can always test out on an endless mission where there’s plenty of enemies about. Really all you’ll need is Mesa Prime with her Regulators, and you can substitute the Kuva Karak for a Lesion modded for Condition Overload (which you can find many loadouts for online) if you’re feeling a bit braver getting into close quarters. Even the Nullifiers in this test are easy to kill with Lesion if you mod it right. Make sure to bring energy pads too, they’ll come in handy if energy becomes scarce which, hopefully by the time you're deep in a few phases, won't be.

Note: it is absolutely imperative that you include all the mods listed. Don’t substitute the Primed mods for any of their unprimed counterparts, and don’t mess with the procs listed. This is what I got caught up on, thinking I could get by with standard Flow, Continuity, Pistol Gambit and Heated Charge. I promise that Viral damage will eat away at any enemy just as well as the YouTube videos show you should, even with the Nox you’ll find at the end. The problem of life support drops should also solve itself when you're killing enemies at lifespeed.

Good luck with your MR30 test!

[Laura-Reyes]

I actually had this Mesa Prime Build and with your guide did some changes to the Regulators & Arcanes and used the Corinth Prime & Atomos but wasn't enough and life support was not dropping. Mesa was not killing enemies fast!!! it seemed like she was getting slow.  The problem was that my laptop couldn't handle the speed Mesa was shootin' and had huge lag XD. I downgrade every video settings and... woah after that was EZ and LS were everywhere compared to before where only 2 LS would drop.

Thanks for the guide. 

[mp3FrameEditor]

On 2020-12-22 at 8:21 AM, Xaero said:

There's nothing to boast about. The test doesn't require amazing skills. It doesn't require using any abilities or firearms as well.

Here's my playthrough. Just Excal and a melee weapon. Well, a Naramon combo counter passive too. Does it really look difficult to perform?

Did you even read my post? I want someone to show how they struggle with the test so I can tell what they're doing wrong. If you're among those who struggle, can you record your failed attempt and upload it?

i'm one of those struggling. i'm middle-aged but had no issues with the first 29 tests. the problems nobody mentions are not being able to see where the arbitration drone is from all the flashing on the screen and the last red enemy losing its red mark (a bug i guess) so i'm not sure if i should be looking for it or the air support (and there is usually another one or two yellow marks present at the same time). coupled with none of the warframes i usually play being on the "menu" here i'm not making much progress after a dozen or more attempts. sorry, i'm too lazy to install the software to record a video. excal does seem better than mesa to me, i've almost finished stage 4 with it. well, off to octavia to test that one...

[(PSN)kite9000]

On 2020-12-23 at 9:18 PM, (PSN)TONI__RIBEIRO said:

Did it with a 0 forms saryn and healing return weapon.

Of everyone that I've spoken with that did the test there weren't 2 people that did it with the exact same weapons, tactics or builds or even warframes. It greatly depends on what you are comfortable with and what your playstyle is. If you're MR29 you should have access to the weapons, warframes and mods that work for you.

My old clan chief did it with Mesa Prime's regulators (no Anemic Agility) and the occasional shot of an Acceltra, where as I did it with a combination of the regulators, kuva twin stubba's for some of the bosses and a couple of Rubico Prime shots to the head for the NOX and a 1star Saryn Spectre. There's  guy that did it with Zephyr, another with Ivara, ... as stated before, it all depends on what you're most familiar with or have spend the most time in ranking up.

 

Good luck to anyone that is going for it. Hang in there,  just figure out what works for you and if you can't find it, ask for pointers and suggestions.

[(PSN)TONI__RIBEIRO]

Did it with a 0 forms saryn and healing return weapon.

[(PSN)kite9000]

  

12 hours ago, -CdG-Zilchy said:

.... if I say that I used a hunter munitions Rubico for the Nox I presume that you would know 7 out of the 8 mods on that build with the last being personal choice and in my case a riven. That's just part of being an experienced player.

No, it doesn't mean one is a seasoned player or an experienced player, it means a player that know what the meme is.  If all you want is the nuke build of the nuke weapon and prefer high efficiency, fair enough that's your choice.

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If I said I used a viral crit build melee again, it should be obvious to a seasoned player.

Viral crit melee weapons are the 'meme' du jour.  It wasn't a good year ago and it can change at the drop of the proverbial hat. People who know what a viral crit build melee are : People that play often, people that have been playing for a long time, people that listen to youtubers, people that can look up the meme build, people that get told what mods to put where by others. In short, it has really nothing to do with being seasoned or not let alone being 'good' or not.

E.G. I recall the time when THE weapon for Eidolons was the Lanka. If one didn't use a Lanka then a certain crowd would look down their noses. That was until others started to point out that Rubico actual was better (and now it's all about the Redeemer I believe). Nowadays if you would show up for an Eidolon with a Lanka that aforementioned crowd would deride you for bringing such a 'crappy' weapon.

I know a guy who took Eidolons down with an Ignis Wraith. You can laugh and claim that he lacked experience but the point remains that it asked far more 'skill' and knowledge of what mods are needed to make that happen then it does for just copying what one can find online. And sure, he wasn't going to do a 2x3 in one night. Is it quicker and more efficient to not do it with an Ignis, yes. But not everything is about speed or efficiency. Some of us get more pleasure out of other things.

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...the game is too damn easy, has been for a long time....

If you find the game to easy then why not challenge yourself and don't use the OP builds for OP weapons/warframes that every Tom, Richard and Harriet are using? Again, you can state that they are the most efficient and be correct, at least for the moment. This however doesn't mean that there for one using it is better at the game. You can state that you just want to use high efficient weapons with the highest levels of kill per second and that's perfectly fine and dandy. But linking that to 'experience' is nonsense. Want a challenge? Use the Veldt to do a survival mission on SP with Zephyr.  I like the Veldt myself but know out of experience that even with 4 forma it's still not up to par with most other rifles.

You want to use the most OP builds, your choice.  But so can any kid that happens to look at what the meme builds are of the moment and who runs Hydron 24/7. Chances are even higher that those Hydron runners will have the most OP builds. Nothing to do with experience, solely to do with what the general consensus is online amongst youtubers.

In short, you do you. But not everyone is like you. Some of us actual get enjoyment in trying out weapons, builds, frames. Pushing the ones we like to the limits even if they are not the best. Or just running the everyday missions as mindless bit of fun without challenge at all.

Here let me shock you. For the longest time I was using Hydroid Prime as my main, clearing most of the star chart with it. Later on I switched to Nezha because of the team player defending aspect of it. Imagine that, not using a warframe out of the top 5 most popular warframes in the last few years. If I look at the present day top 10, the only one that  I really use often is Wukong (9th in top 10 of September 2020). Mesa? When I occasionally use her it's for mixing things up or unveiling a riven.

Do I think that I'm better at the game because I cleared the star chart mostly with Ignis Wraith and Sonicor? No. If anything Ignis Wraith is fire and forget. Pull trigger and just clear room after room. Mindless. Which is all I want after a workday of calculating, designing and engineering.

Do I look down at others that use the meme weapons/warframes of the season? Nope. If that's what they enjoy then that's what they enjoy. I don't use Volt or Octavia but there are those that main it. Is either of us wrong? No. It's a game, whatever makes you enjoy the game. My wife (MR29) loves running solo, unveiling rivens ,trading those rivens and farming rare mods and such. Making anywhere up to a couple of thousand plat a month. I couldn't sell a god roll rubico riven if my life depended on it. Is she better at the game? No, she just has patience and lot of knowledge about what rivens/mods are looked for and what fair price points are so that neither party feels taken advantage of.

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It is more due I think to the style of missions you enjoy playing that has made you have trouble with this.

We can agree on that. I enjoy almost all kinds of mission types but I don't enjoy 4 hour grinding one type of mission. This test is easy for those that do because they will have innate high DPS/KPS builds as well as lots of experience with using those kinds of builds. The rest of us won't. Does that make them better at the game? No, neither are they worse at the game. They just have different priorities and playstyles. Not better, not worse, just different and this test favors those.

Look at it this way. There are those that enjoy Indy 500 (driving around and around making only left hand turns) and are really good at it. Others like GP's or rally's more. Does being an Indy 500 winner mean one is the best at driving a car? No, it only means that he can do that particular race well.

You are good at high DPS. Nice for you but please refrain from thinking that makes you somehow better.

Did I need help with the MR30? Clearly. Was not being able to get past that test making me frustrated with the game. Yep. Please tho', think back to all the previous MR tests. Can you honestly say that you never came across a test that you fail to pass in the first couple of a tries? Or are you one to claim that you were born with the muscle memory and mod knowledge for this game?

Again, thank you for the tip about Aenemic agility.

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Also if you want to show me your mesa build I can probably help you improve that if you like.

Thank you for the offer. The build I have now can no doubt be min/maxed more but it works and will take me past the test. After which Mesa will only occasionally be used because there's other frames I enjoy much more in everyday missions and tasks.

Have a nice one.

[Xaero]

22 minutes ago, gbjbaanb said:

You say you cannot believe anyone could fail this

No, I say I can’t see how anyone failed the test. Because no one showed their failed attempts so far and I had no problems with it myself.