Going To Be Stuck In Solo For A While; Have Any Fun Ideas/tips?

[BlueA10]

Without going into the specifics at the moment, I'm not losing internet access but I have been restricted to playing alone for at least several months. I was wondering if anyone was willing to share any fun ideas for solo play, tips for leveling since leeching isn't an option, or if some of you play solo primarily, what your general thoughts about it are / how do you deal with it, or what is your typical day in Warframe. Just looking for anyhting to help me on the lonely road ahead.

 

I've got most of the star chart is unlocked, I guess I could try focusing on unlocking everything, but I could probably get that done in one night. I'm 2/3 through Mastery 8, currently levelling and building a ton of weapons and frames, but farming and levelling are both such a pain in Solo. I've been toying around trying to see how far I can get in Survival and trying to stealth my way through missions, but neither feel particularly rewarding, stealth much less so than Survival.

 

If all else fails I've got several other games I could play and things to do, but I not only love Warframe (despite some of its problems), I want to keep enjoying it without depending on other players to make it enjoyable, regardless of when I get multiplayer back up and running.

 

EDIT: Weapons and Frames I have currently

Frames

Mag Prime MAX Potato

Excal Prime 27 Native-potato

Banshee 0

Nova MAX Potato

Nyx 11

Rhino MAX

Saryn 0

Trinity MAX Potato (gone are the days of 100% Link Tanking)

Valkyr 21

Vauban 24

in 1 day Frost Prime and Volt

 

Weapons

Akvasto MAX Potato

Burston 0

Cernos MAX

Dark Dagger 0

Dark Sword 3

Drakgoon 4

Dread MAX Potato

Dual Zoren MAX (for coptering)

Galatine MAX Potato

Glaive MAX

Gorgon 10

Hek MAX Potato

Lanka MAX Potato

Mk1-Braton 17 (Found out I never finished leveling it, recently repurchased for that purpose)

Nami Skyla MAX

Orthos MAX Potato

Pangolin Sword 0

Paris MAX Potato

Paris Prime 0 (most likely about to potato)

Prova Vandal MAX Native-potato

Soma MAX Potato

Strun Wraith MAX Native-potato

 

All that along with several blueprints and parts for other weapons and frames that I'm missing key parts for (Mostly like 100 Orokin Cells and a few Formas)

Edited July 6, 2014 by BlueA10

[10twenty4]

If you don't have it already, get a Penta, since it makes leveling things on infested defense (preferably sechura on pluto if it's not in conflict) a breeze. The angstrum might work instead, but I haven't potato'd mine yet so I can't say for certain. Even solo, you can make it through the first 10-15 waves without breaking a sweat and make mad XP.

[R34LM]

Go with a frame that has abilities to keep you going, seeing as that all gunfire will be placed on you. Loki is always a favorite, thanks to Invisibility and Radial Disarm. Rhino is for Iron Skin. But there are other good frames who do well for solo play. Pick one that suits you best; you just have to stay alive against the odds.

[Yazeth]

For quick runs and Survivals/Interceptions, get frames that can take a lot of damage (Rhino, Valkyr, Zephyr), or frames that won't take any damage at all (Ash, Loki). For Defense missions, go for either Nyx or Frost. If fighting against Infested in Survival or Defense, Vauban's your best option.

 

Get a nice primary that can dish out damage quickly, such as the Boltor Prime or the Soma. For Defense missions, Penta's your best option. Secondaries are just your choices, since you'll be using your primary for almost all of the time, but Angstrum and Marelok are good choices. Get both a coptor melee that can send you flying for quick runs an such and a hard-hitting one for higher levels and/or life stealing.

 

All of this should have you go through missions easily. Just remember to use the right builds and rank up your mods. Putting in a forma or two also helps a lot.

[BlueA10]

Already got a maxed Rhino (no potato, usually save them for Primes), but I don't really like him that much. Iron Skin and Stomp are great (didn't like Rhino Charge much), but I feel like their usefulness drops at higher levels, and I personally prefer fast frames with Rush to avoid damage rather than tank it. I guess I could buy a Vanguard helmet from somone and put it on Rhino Prime to mitigate his slowness. Loki's got the speed, and I do have 2 of Lokis parts and have been meaning to make him for a while, since he sounds like tons of fun. Might just get him started tonight. I've already tried somewhat emulating Radial Disarm with Radial Blind on Excal Prime.

 

Soma's good and kills things dead, but it's not ammo efficient enough for me, I don't want to slot an ammo mutation in on it, and I'm saving my Formas for the foundry. Along with Loki I have been meaning to get a Penta, or some other explosive/AoE weapon. The little clan I'm in has just about if not everything researched, and I'm currently holding an Ogris and Ignis BP, but am in serious lack of Ferrite, of all things.

The Wiki is always availalbe but I prefer hearing opinions first hand from other players, so can anyone offer comparing opinions between the Penta and other weapons that can be used to a similar effect?

 

It's not so much that I'm having trouble with missions. Star chart missions are easy to finish with maxed gear, and they feel piontless. Leveling new stuff feels less pointless, but is harder to do quickly alone, so I'm mainly looking for best ways to level solo and more ways to have fun without playing online.

 

Updated OP with my Frames and Weapons

Edited July 6, 2014 by BlueA10

[castem]

I feel your pain - I have to go solo at least 1 week a month (due to internet reasons), and a few months back my internet was so unstable that solo was my only option (my first ~6 months of Warframe was entirely solo, which made for a frustrating new player experience).

 

My #1 tip for solo play (not only to survive, but for fun):  use frames with defensive abilities / high survivability.  In a group, it's relatively easy to roll with whatever you want and be revived by your teammates when you make a mistake.  When you go Solo, it's just you - one death means you burn a revive or forfeit a mission.  This issue is exacerbated by the fact that all fire is focused solely on you (or the objective, if doing a defense mission) which makes it very easy to go down and/or fail the mission.

 

From personal experience, I have found that the following frames do well solo in these situations:

Zephyr vs Corpus

Trinity vs all factions

Valkyr vs Infested (can work against other factions, but will be using Hysteria significantly more)

Rhino/Prime vs all factions

Loki/Prime vs all factions

Ash vs all factions

Frost/Prime vs any non-Infested defense / mobile defense mission

Vauban vs any Infested defense / mobile defense mission [Valkyr can also perform admirably in these kinds of missions]

 

Basically for solo play, the name of the game is survive.  This means limiting or eliminating the damage you take (Rhino Skin, Invisibility, Link, Hysteria, Smoke Bomb, Snow Globe, etc) from enemies.  (Extreme CC can also perform this role against the Infested.)  Extremely skilled & well-equipped players can do this with any frame, but for the majority of Warframe players I recommend going with a frame with defensive options - it'll make your life a lot easier, and make Warframe more fun / less frustrating.  [Also, get a sentinel if you haven't already.  Shade in particular works well solo, as its stealth can be useful in several scenarios.]

 

My last tip for making Solo a less frustrating experience is to make sure you're using good weapons & mods.  In group play, you can get away with doing less damage, but when doing things Solo it's all up to you to take out your enemies - the more effectively you can do so, the less pain you'll have down the road.

 

Now for fun, there's a few different things I do when Solo:

1.  Alerts - not only for the rewards, but some alerts prove to be a challenge when solo.

2.  Star Chart - completing the star chart is not only helpful for alerts later on; it may also provide new experiences (there are still some bosses I haven't faced yet) provide a sense of accomplishment, and make sure you can get everything you can out of warframe (alerts, events, etc).

3.  New Gear - going after new warframes, weapons, and mods is a bit of a grind, but I enjoy getting my hands on them and trying them out for myself.

4.  Hard Runs - once you get used to how brutal Solo can be, you can challenge yourself by doing various things - running with only a single weapon, picking a weaker frame, etc.  (Ironically enough, I tend to stay away from nightmare missions because the challenge is too random - you don't know what detrimental effects will be present until you're already in the mission.  You're more than free to run a few if you like them though.)

 

I hope this post helped you.  Hopefully you'll get through your solo stretch, and we'll see you back on the battlefield before long!

 

Edit:  If you're looking for leveling things up, Defense/Survival works well - especially if you can survive until the later waves.  As for explosive weapons, they each have their own uses.  I find that the Penta (for its controlled explosions) and the Angstrum (for its ability to spit out explosions or charge up for a powerful one...as a sidearm) are very useful.  The Ogris is nice for its pure power, though.  I personally only use explosive weapons in ODD, as I dislike the potential for self-damage (all the moreso in solo mode).  For that purpose, only 1 of the three weapons is really needed, so you can take your pick between the three.  [if you have no real preference between the three, I recommend the Penta.  It looks great, offers more control, and is much, much easier to craft in comparison to the other two.]

Edited July 6, 2014 by castem

[BlueA10]

 

 

Damn that's a nice post. Didn't expect to get anything elabroate like that, and I really appreciate it. I've played the game for quite a bit of time, so some of these things I already understand or have tried, but I took a break somewhere around the 4th quarter of last year. Just came back a few weeks ago and now I'm losing Online for an extended amount of time, while I've been mostly playing with others for the time I have played. It's really nice to have everything laid out in front of me like you just did, considering I'm basically new to Solo play. Helps me get a handle on my options and general mindset to take to.

 

So thanks a lot! Great post!