Struggling with open world content, not sure where to go from here

[(NSW)hiDibbers]

Hello,

I have been playing on and off on Switch since 2018 and have always had issues understanding the flow of this game and what exactly I'm supposed to be doing to get stronger. Early on I was able to max out my Excalibur and have mostly maxed out mods on it (Vitality, Redirection, Armored Agility, Streamline, Intensify, etc). I also have a a maxed out Sobek (Disruptor, Acid Shells, Hell's Chamber, Blaze, Chilling Reload, etc). Some of them I traded for, and that setup worked fairly well for me until I attempted the open world bounties. It seems like I can only handle the very first bounties despite being double the level recommendation. So this whole time I've basically just been grinding mastery on the Arval spy mission. 

Clearly I missed something here, how do players hit power spikes so they are able to handle the higher level open world content? I get shredded and do zero damage. The furthest quest I have completed is the Limbo questline. 

[ShogunGunshow]

Main recommendation is to continue through the star chart and unlock more stuff. If you're having survivability issues, I would recommend picking up Rhino through the Jackal assassination on Venus, as his Iron Skin buff can be a big boon, and it's easily accessible by a new player.

For weapons the Sobek isn't really a popular pick. Middling base status but low base crit. You really want something where you can take advantage of the status options the game has to buoy up your damage potential. However, if you can get them, any dual stat weapon mod (+elemental damage +status) would be an enormous multiplier. When facing normal star chart enemies, Viral (cold+toxin) will multiply your damage several times, and heat will be an easy way to melt a bit of armor. Corrosive can also be useful, though will mostly show its benefits against heavily armored units, where on top of its base benefit (80% armor reduction at max stacks) it also pierces 75% of remaining armor. Shouldn't come up too much on normal star chart, though. 

Don't neglect your melee weapon. Even the Mk-1 Bo is pretty powerful baseline compared to a lot of the early guns you'll have access to, and you'll be able to survive being in close range much easier with Rhino (and be able to automatically block shots coming in a cone in front of you). In particular, progress far enough that you can start the Deadlock Protocol quest. You don't need to finish it if you can't - just progress far enough for the game to give you the Xoris, which is a fantastic melee weapon for the MR you can grab it at. 

[MutoManiac]

For me it was a question and still is of restoring my health. When your health starts dropping, you need to run away and find a way to regenerate it quickly. That's how Wukong became my main, I just found it the easiest frame to just press 2 and voila, my health was maxed really fast. Later you'll have many more options, but in the beginning when I had trouble, that saved me from pulling my hair out. Oh and the kohm. That was the first weapon that seemed to help a lot and then it became the Acceltra. GL

[RLanzinger]

1 hour ago, (NSW)hiDibbers said:

Clearly I missed something here, how do players hit power spikes so they are able to handle the higher level open world content? I get shredded and do zero damage. The furthest quest I have completed is the Limbo questline. 

To survive when you usually get killed by :

• Status effects : You need to not get hit instead of being a bullet sponge (Zephyr 3th ability is the easiest way). Or by using sentinel wyrm with negate augment.
• Higher Damage : You need some crow control abilities to not let enemies shoot at you (Like Spamming Exca's Radial blind, Maxed range and duration).

You need others warframes as they all have different abilities for different. Example with starters frame

• Exca : Deal damage with most abilities / Crowd control = finishing with radial blind /
• Volt : boost allies melee with speed (max duration, average str) /  or Oneshot boss by staking shield and / Crowd control with discharge^4th (max range)
• Mag : cheapest Crowd control with pull^1th / best Crowd control to regroup and kill enemies.

Most early frames (20 firsts) are more specialised do more than their counter part. As example, I did an intercepton with overboosted duo of Xaku+revenant and when the mission ended with me doing 80% of Damage, Xaku's player ask "HOW is this possible ? ☹️" my answer was simple : "Mag - Attraction"... he rage quit 😂 !!!

 

To complete higher level in solo, you need to handle High levels enemies with

• More firepower : this means better weapons, sobek^MR7 is ok at low-mid level. Try getting syndicate weapons like Vaykor Hek.
• More debuff : Stripping armor is greater nowadays, Nyx ability is one of the cheapest. Mag's augment is great too.
• More helps !!! : Building Tenno Specters (3 stars), using Drone shield specter (Suda syndicate), using Pizzas (Team Bonus Consumables, 200 max per mission)
• More Joker : Health restore (insta get 100% health), Having Archgun (Venus's Quests) then a Necramech (Deimos's quests)

 

Personally I don't use more than 2-3 forma per warframe/weapons so mines aren't over boosted. Usually,

• For frame : I use Zephyr for higher bounties level in solo.
• For weapons : AoE is not the best way, Mag + any shotgun is stronger. I prefer use Synoid Simulor or Vaikor hek paired with a Telos Akbolto.
• For melee : You need a fast warframe (volt, gauss, wisp) and maintain higher damage x12 with naramon school or similar mods (combo timer boost).
• Also you will need a good radar or range to finish the enemies before the timer goes down.

 

Most will propose you some META solutions that you may be able to use or lazy build with wukong/nezha; They can work but there is more diversity and choice in the game that you should find your own way to do thing. You just need slighty better weapons and more refine tactics. My excalibur build are pretty simple :

1. Assist : Good Ranged, Efficiency and energy pool to optimise speed. Zenurik school for replenish self an allies.
2. Badass : Maxed Strenght, Duration, energy pool with Preparation for Excalted's blade with elemental viral blade (build toxic+augment cold). Lots of energy pizza needed. Unairu for debuff enemies and self reborn
3. Crow control : Max Ranged, a bit of duration and strength to spam radial blind and javelin's augment to go melee. With Vazarin to quick reborn allies

 

Remember : Don't only seek firepower or abilities strength...

[KernelWizard]

Open world zones are pretty hard, I've got pretty good gear myself but it's still easy for me to die if I'm being careless. Getting a necramech or an archwing launcher can help you immensely though. I'd recommend Voidrig, you can go demolish an army of npcs with it's 4th skill. 

[Graavarg]

Firs of all I disagree with conclusions about Sobek, I think it is one of the better starter-mid level weapons but you really need to get your hands on the Acid Shells mod (drops from Kela de Thaym). For reference I use Sobek with (very) good results on Steel Path, but that is with a riven, 8 Formas and some high level trickery.

If you are not "fluent" in how damage works then need you need to study a bit. The Wiki has a lot of info, and it is available elsewhere as well. The main reason new clan members have started to struggle is that they simply do not know which damage types works against which enemies, how crit works and how the different status effects (procs) works. When they get to this stage they usually have a "favourite weapon", which is a "favourite" because it's current mod setup worked wonders at the specific planet they were currently clearing nodes on. But that mod setup, by design, is bad against other enemy factions. Leading to problems. Sometimes simply switching two mods around makes a huge difference (because you end up with a better damage composition).

In my opinion "healing" currently works better (in general play) than using shields or armor, as long as you get yourself a good healing mechanic. IMHO one of the best healing methods and one that you can use with all your warframes is to get Magus Repair and put it on your operator. If you switch to operator and crouch (enter void mode) you will heal 25% of your health per second you stay crouched. And while you stay crouched in void mode you (and your warframe) are basically invulnerable. As a bonus you also heal allies within a short distance. You can buy the single arcanes for 10k standing from Vox Solaris,so  it takes a bit of farming to get a fully ranked arcane, but even at the lowest level it will heal you by 5% per second, anywhere, just by switching to operator and crouching. When we still got new players in the clan we used to donate extra Magus Repair arcanes, it is so overwhelmingly useful at that point when you have problems retaining your health, and having (safe) healing available "everywhere" opens up a huge amount of new missions, just by itself (and especially when soloing).

If you are soloing open worlds, start using specters and pick a companion that is either "lethal" (kills enemies on its own) or applies cc, or both. Your standard specters ranks up according to the mission rank (so when deploying a specter in a more difficult mission it will be tougher and do more damage), and you will be surprised how much help a well-designed specter and a killer companion can be. Another option when soloing is to use a companion that revives (and heals) you, as this will allow you push your boundaries a bit extra.

Copying über-builds from toobers etc. is NOT the way to go, but some of them explains their builds in detail and you can learn a lot from that. And everyone has their favourite warframes and weapons, and generally that is very little help. You need to pick and play with the stuff you like, ANY warframe can handle the open world bounties (even if some are better for certain bounty stages than others).

And a final word: ENJOY the challenge! It might not feel that way, but it really is one of the best phases of the whole Warframe experience. If you continue playing you will soon enough reach a level when all the normal enemies are trivial and the special enemies (with damage attenuation and other trickery-pokery) mostly irritating. The power level climb is a one way street, and there is no going back.

[Zakkhar]

Honestly, average Mesa build for her 4 trivialises most of the open world content. Aimbot everything in 50 meter range.

Have in mind that that content is not really meant for players using Sobek. 

I remember my first time on PoE on some easy Bounty (or just the Gara quest), during the Ghoul purge. I went in with my based Volt, some Ghouls spawned, i tried kiting them, more spawned and i got gangbanged. Did not come back to PoE for a while after.

[(NSW)hiDibbers]

7 hours ago, ShogunGunshow said:

Main recommendation is to continue through the star chart and unlock more stuff. If you're having survivability issues, I would recommend picking up Rhino through the Jackal assassination on Venus, as his Iron Skin buff can be a big boon, and it's easily accessible by a new player.

For weapons the Sobek isn't really a popular pick. Middling base status but low base crit. You really want something where you can take advantage of the status options the game has to buoy up your damage potential. However, if you can get them, any dual stat weapon mod (+elemental damage +status) would be an enormous multiplier. When facing normal star chart enemies, Viral (cold+toxin) will multiply your damage several times, and heat will be an easy way to melt a bit of armor. Corrosive can also be useful, though will mostly show its benefits against heavily armored units, where on top of its base benefit (80% armor reduction at max stacks) it also pierces 75% of remaining armor. Shouldn't come up too much on normal star chart, though. 

Don't neglect your melee weapon. Even the Mk-1 Bo is pretty powerful baseline compared to a lot of the early guns you'll have access to, and you'll be able to survive being in close range much easier with Rhino (and be able to automatically block shots coming in a cone in front of you). In particular, progress far enough that you can start the Deadlock Protocol quest. You don't need to finish it if you can't - just progress far enough for the game to give you the Xoris, which is a fantastic melee weapon for the MR you can grab it at. 

Thanks! I actually already have Rhino and quite a few weapons just because I collect them, I also have a maxed Galatine, which was supposedly a good weapon when I started but maybe it has fallen from grace. I picked Sobek because I thought the Acid Shells mod was cool. :) 

I will level up Rhino back to max again and start through the Star Chart, and works towards the Xoris (Vaykor Hek was also suggested by another user). 

 

 

8 hours ago, RLanzinger said:

To survive when you usually get killed by :

• Status effects : You need to not get hit instead of being a bullet sponge (Zephyr 3th ability is the easiest way). Or by using sentinel wyrm with negate augment.
• Higher Damage : You need some crow control abilities to not let enemies shoot at you (Like Spamming Exca's Radial blind, Maxed range and duration).

You need others warframes as they all have different abilities for different. Example with starters frame

• Exca : Deal damage with most abilities / Crowd control = finishing with radial blind /
• Volt : boost allies melee with speed (max duration, average str) /  or Oneshot boss by staking shield and / Crowd control with discharge^4th (max range)
• Mag : cheapest Crowd control with pull^1th / best Crowd control to regroup and kill enemies.

Most early frames (20 firsts) are more specialised do more than their counter part. As example, I did an intercepton with overboosted duo of Xaku+revenant and when the mission ended with me doing 80% of Damage, Xaku's player ask "HOW is this possible ? ☹️" my answer was simple : "Mag - Attraction"... he rage quit 😂 !!!

 

To complete higher level in solo, you need to handle High levels enemies with

• More firepower : this means better weapons, sobek^MR7 is ok at low-mid level. Try getting syndicate weapons like Vaykor Hek.
• More debuff : Stripping armor is greater nowadays, Nyx ability is one of the cheapest. Mag's augment is great too.
• More helps !!! : Building Tenno Specters (3 stars), using Drone shield specter (Suda syndicate), using Pizzas (Team Bonus Consumables, 200 max per mission)
• More Joker : Health restore (insta get 100% health), Having Archgun (Venus's Quests) then a Necramech (Deimos's quests)

 

Personally I don't use more than 2-3 forma per warframe/weapons so mines aren't over boosted. Usually,

• For frame : I use Zephyr for higher bounties level in solo.
• For weapons : AoE is not the best way, Mag + any shotgun is stronger. I prefer use Synoid Simulor or Vaikor hek paired with a Telos Akbolto.
• For melee : You need a fast warframe (volt, gauss, wisp) and maintain higher damage x12 with naramon school or similar mods (combo timer boost).
• Also you will need a good radar or range to finish the enemies before the timer goes down.

 

Most will propose you some META solutions that you may be able to use or lazy build with wukong/nezha; They can work but there is more diversity and choice in the game that you should find your own way to do thing. You just need slighty better weapons and more refine tactics. My excalibur build are pretty simple :

1. Assist : Good Ranged, Efficiency and energy pool to optimise speed. Zenurik school for replenish self an allies.
2. Badass : Maxed Strenght, Duration, energy pool with Preparation for Excalted's blade with elemental viral blade (build toxic+augment cold). Lots of energy pizza needed. Unairu for debuff enemies and self reborn
3. Crow control : Max Ranged, a bit of duration and strength to spam radial blind and javelin's augment to go melee. With Vazarin to quick reborn allies

 

Remember : Don't only seek firepower or abilities strength...

Thanks! I'll work towards a Vaykor Hek. 

[(NSW)hiDibbers]

2 hours ago, Graavarg said:

Firs of all I disagree with conclusions about Sobek, I think it is one of the better starter-mid level weapons but you really need to get your hands on the Acid Shells mod (drops from Kela de Thaym). For reference I use Sobek with (very) good results on Steel Path, but that is with a riven, 8 Formas and some high level trickery.

If you are not "fluent" in how damage works then need you need to study a bit. The Wiki has a lot of info, and it is available elsewhere as well. The main reason new clan members have started to struggle is that they simply do not know which damage types works against which enemies, how crit works and how the different status effects (procs) works. When they get to this stage they usually have a "favourite weapon", which is a "favourite" because it's current mod setup worked wonders at the specific planet they were currently clearing nodes on. But that mod setup, by design, is bad against other enemy factions. Leading to problems. Sometimes simply switching two mods around makes a huge difference (because you end up with a better damage composition).

In my opinion "healing" currently works better (in general play) than using shields or armor, as long as you get yourself a good healing mechanic. IMHO one of the best healing methods and one that you can use with all your warframes is to get Magus Repair and put it on your operator. If you switch to operator and crouch (enter void mode) you will heal 25% of your health per second you stay crouched. And while you stay crouched in void mode you (and your warframe) are basically invulnerable. As a bonus you also heal allies within a short distance. You can buy the single arcanes for 10k standing from Vox Solaris,so  it takes a bit of farming to get a fully ranked arcane, but even at the lowest level it will heal you by 5% per second, anywhere, just by switching to operator and crouching. When we still got new players in the clan we used to donate extra Magus Repair arcanes, it is so overwhelmingly useful at that point when you have problems retaining your health, and having (safe) healing available "everywhere" opens up a huge amount of new missions, just by itself (and especially when soloing).

If you are soloing open worlds, start using specters and pick a companion that is either "lethal" (kills enemies on its own) or applies cc, or both. Your standard specters ranks up according to the mission rank (so when deploying a specter in a more difficult mission it will be tougher and do more damage), and you will be surprised how much help a well-designed specter and a killer companion can be. Another option when soloing is to use a companion that revives (and heals) you, as this will allow you push your boundaries a bit extra.

Copying über-builds from toobers etc. is NOT the way to go, but some of them explains their builds in detail and you can learn a lot from that. And everyone has their favourite warframes and weapons, and generally that is very little help. You need to pick and play with the stuff you like, ANY warframe can handle the open world bounties (even if some are better for certain bounty stages than others).

And a final word: ENJOY the challenge! It might not feel that way, but it really is one of the best phases of the whole Warframe experience. If you continue playing you will soon enough reach a level when all the normal enemies are trivial and the special enemies (with damage attenuation and other trickery-pokery) mostly irritating. The power level climb is a one way street, and there is no going back.

Thank you! I have Acid Shells, so looks like I can still use the Sobek for Steel Path once in a while. :)