What are the expected challenges I must face, if I just want to do the story missions?

[Matoro_Zeliph]

So the last time I played Warframe was back in April 2015. I've noticed a few additions: such as they made it difficult to go to other planets - like facing a evil warframe at checkpoints between planets? That's the only significant difference since I last played.

I decided to go back to it again recently, because it is a dry season for new fast-paced video games (until Quake Champions comes out :) ).

I'm looking to mainly play Warframe for its story and PvP.

 

For its story: I'm not interested in farming for prime: mods, weapons and warframe parts. I want to try and avoid grinding if possible to complete most or all off the story missions with my basic F2P Warframes [Zephr, Mag, Volt, Valkyre], mods and easy-to-craft blueprint basic weapons.

So what are the expected challenges will I be facing and how should I prepare for them if I want to do only the story missions? Will I hit a wall at some point that would require me to invest in achieving a certain rank, paying plats or crafting prime equipment? Any pointers and tips? Most importantly, Is there a walkthrough I can follow for which ones to tackle first?

 

For PvP: What are its peak times to face other players for casual competition? Can the rewarded conclave mods be used for PvE?

Thanks in advance!

Edited April 18, 2017 by Matoro1992

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

You'll hit a wall right away because the game is a grind. The basic nature of the game is a grind and even the free stuff is a grind, the whole money option exists to skip a majority of that grind and so that the folks over at DE can actually buy food for themselves and keep the game running. If you don't want to grind in any way, shape, or form, don't play Warframe, simple as that.

That being said, you are going to have to grind for resources, credits, endo, and get your MR up and get weapons & Warframes to rank 30 and unlock the planets and nodes to do the story missions because they're also scattered everywhere on the starchart now.

Most people don't like PvP in the game, but you should allways be able to find some folks on, and PvP mods can't be used PvE, although I think there are like 2-3 exceptions

[Keiiken]

35 minutes ago, Matoro1992 said:

Can the rewarded conclave mods be used for PvE?

No

[tsoa]

If you want story, I guess you're mainly after the quests. The codex now lists the requirements to unlock each one. So you can always check there. It also lists the quests in the recommended order. Though that's just a guideline. For War Within you have a small Archwing part and there has been a change of controls there (it switched to 6 degrees of freedom), which made Archwing difficult for some including me. Though I had no problem with the quest since the section doesn't include fighting.

No prime weapons or frames are needed anywhere. It's more important to forma your stuff and upgrade your mods (now done with Endo).

A quest that you might want to avoid is the Limbo Theorem. First part is Archwing Interception and then you have to do multiple excavations with a small chance to get a certain part. Was one of the worst frames to farm for me. Other quests only give the bp and you have to get the parts somewhere else like Glast Gambit and Octavia's Anthem. They are still nice for the story though even if the former one requires multiple Index runs.

Moreover you should check out the changes of the frames. I can remember that Valkyr's Hysteria now drains more energy and Volt can now carry his shield. But I rarely play those frames and play Zephyr even less. So there might be more. But I can speak about Mag, who got a major change about a year ago. Basically her 2 and 3 got switched. Magnetize (former Bullet Attractor and now on 2) can be cast up to 4 times and scales very well with the right weapons. It deals damage over time and also when it explodes. Polarize (now on 3) got a major change and now also permanently reduces armor. It no longer nukes shields though but it still deals damage to them and let's them explode. It falls of quickly beyond Sortie level though and I mainly use it against Grineer for the armor reduction. Nevertheless even without any strength mod it's enough to eliminate large groups in the star chart. It still replenishes shields and now also leaves behind shards that deal additional damage if her 2 is used. Both her 2 and 3 are now dependent on duration, so you'd have to find a balance. Large duration is good for 3 to cover whole rooms. But her 2 is tricky. A small duration let's the bubbles explode more quickly but you also have less time to pump damage into them with your weapons. A large duration is good if you want to shut down narrow areas but a bubble in a wrong position might be a real problem with a long duration. If that happens you can cast Magnetize more times to let the previous bubbles (since you then have more than 4) implode. No idea if that implosion will cause damage though.

Conclave mods can't be used in PVE. Those are the ones with the wings/bird symbol. But there are some universal mods like Agile Aim that have a diamont symbol on them.

[Matoro_Zeliph]

27 minutes ago, tsoa said:

If you want story, I guess you're mainly after the quests. The codex now lists the requirements to unlock each one. So you can always check there. It also lists the quests in the recommended order. Though that's just a guideline. For War Within you have a small Archwing part and there has been a change of controls there (it switched to 6 degrees of freedom), which made Archwing difficult for some including me. Though I had no problem with the quest since the section doesn't include fighting.

No prime weapons or frames are needed anywhere. It's more important to forma your stuff and upgrade your mods (now done with Endo).

A quest that you might want to avoid is the Limbo Theorem. First part is Archwing Interception and then you have to do multiple excavations with a small chance to get a certain part. Was one of the worst frames to farm for me. Other quests only give the bp and you have to get the parts somewhere else like Glast Gambit and Octavia's Anthem. They are still nice for the story though even if the former one requires multiple Index runs.

This is really good advice! I didn't know that DE changed the old Warframes, such as Mag so drastically. I thought it was a bug because her abilities are different. 

Who knew a lot has changed in the last 2 years. 

That's good to know that I do not need to farm as much to play the missions. But I need to "Forma" my stuff? As in upgrade my weapons otherwise they'll be weak? I need to look that up

What's considered the best story mission quest in Warframe? Is it the one when you discover your human self - what's that mission called? Second Dream, right?

Thank you so much

[tsoa]

yes Second Dream and the follow up The War Within. Have fun :)

[Matoro_Zeliph]

Sorry, had to bring this old topic up again. But I have another question. If I want to finish all of the Warframe Quests. 

What is the minimum Rank would I have to reach (as a prerequisite, as of April 2017) to complete all quests?

Is it necessary for me to upgrade my Warframe, buy new weapons, and get the "best Prime hard-2-find mods" to manageably complete all the story missions solo? It's intimidating, because what's with all these YouTube Warframe build guides, saying that "you need to get these hard-2-find mods" 

I've noticed when I reached to Uranus (dumb planet name), I'm starting to hit a wall where my opponents can suck up most damage now. Not only that, but it's hard for me to find parties (under 150 ping) with other people, as if people gave up. I don't blame them. I gave up too when I reached a certain wall I could not overcome. As if the current common mods I am using are junk. 

. 

Currently I've spent $20 on the game to get Nova Prime and some weapon/Warframe slots to make my experience a bit manageable and I hope I don't spend more than $60 on this game. Because I'm really in it for the Story and PvP. Not for the endless farming/grinding and fashion frame.

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Matoro1992

[Matoro_Zeliph]

One last question: How come there isn't any YouTube guides for PvP? I've reached a certain wall where I'm being match with fashion frame aimbot/parkour exploit like skill pros from an MLG Tournament! I don't think it would allow me to go back to recruit conditioning anymore since i passed a certain point. And I thought Quake Live was fast! 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm getting salty, but I'm just wondering how the game matches you up with other players with the same skill level as you. It seems to be two tiers.

Like if I have to rate my PvP skill, it's above-average among other average players. (Like this video: 

 

Warframe is actually the first multiplayer twitch game that handed my butt to me. Everything else like Quake, Titanfall, Unreal Tournament - I am usually in the top 3. 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Matoro1992

[Elvangreen]

1 hour ago, Matoro1992 said:

Is it necessary for me to upgrade my Warframe, buy new weapons, and get the "best Prime hard-2-find mods" to manageably complete all the story missions solo? It's intimidating, because what's with all these YouTube Warframe build guides, saying that "you need to get these hard-2-find mods"

Not at all. all you need is basic modding knowledge and a bit of gameplay experience.

You will need the basic range of mods and a lvl'd warframe, and you will need to pick up a decent gun (build not buy), but all of these are easily accomplished as you clear the nodes on the starmap, and do the quests. There is utterly no need for any primed guns or mods.

Btw, try not to buy plat unless you get a 50% or 75% off voucher on your login.

Edited April 23, 2017 by Elvangreen

[tsoa]

To complete most quests, you just have to be MR5. Only exception is The Silver Grove with MR7 lock.  http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Mastery_Rank#Indirect_Mastery_Locks

To progress further, you might want to look into resistances, damage types and armor. A simplified version would be this:

• Grineer: puncture, corrosive, heavy units: radiation
  • Armor is what makes the Grineer difficult to fight later on because it absorbs most of your damage. That's one reason I bring Mag to Grineer Sorties because her 4 (with Augment) and 3 can remove the armor of a whole room. And without armor they become vulnerable to slash.
• Corpus: impact, magnetic and toxin (latter bypasses shields)
  • They have a lot of special units like Bursas, Comba/Scrambus, Nullifier, Techs, Ospreys,.... Learn how to deal with each one of them.
• Infested: slash, gas and heat, Ancients: corrosive
  • Ancients is what makes them difficult. They have auras that have a large AOE effect. The healers take damage and status procs for others. The toxics give allies toxic damage and heavily reduce toxin (+ elements that include toxin like gas which is toxin + heat) damage. Disruptors on the other hand reduce warframe duration and give allies the ability to drain energy.
  • Radiation procs deactivate the Ancient auras, which is the reason I mainly run a radiation/viral build on my Ignis. Although the radiation is reduced, it is still good vs infested mobs because later on it still can do damage. Without radiation procs and a lot of Ancients present, the Infested really are a pain to fight.

For more on this: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_2.0

One thing about modding: Damage and Multishot mods are considered to be essential. So (almost) max them as soon as possible. If you have the resources to max them, then that's good. But the last rank (from 9 to 10) is the most expensive one. And using a rank 9 Serration is fine too.

You can check http://warframe-builder.com/ for different builds. Most rare mods are only interesting later on (Sorties, endless runs) and are not necessary in the star chart. But learn to mod yourself. It really is important and not that difficult.

 

PVP is under constant revision and balancing. So one thing that outshines all others might get used a lot till it's brought par on par with other stuff again. If you're interested in doing a lot of conclave, then try to find a experienced people to play with. I myself rarely played it. The different warframe abilities as well as the constant change is too much work for me to keep up.

[W3zeer]

I also hit that wall when I first encountered Tyl Regor on Uranus :D. What helped me get past him was the good old, trusty Hek. Put a Catalyst into it and it will carry you trough the rest of the star chart and well into "endgame" :). When it comes to mods, it's usually better to use fewer upgraded mods than a lot of unranked stuff :).

[Matoro_Zeliph]

2 hours ago, tsoa said:

One thing about modding: Damage and Multishot mods are considered to be essential. So (almost) max them as soon as possible. If you have the resources to max them, then that's good. But the last rank (from 9 to 10) is the most expensive one. And using a rank 9 Serration is fine too.

You can check http://warframe-builder.com/ for different builds. Most rare mods are only interesting later on (Sorties, endless runs) and are not necessary in the star chart. But learn to mod yourself. It really is important and not that difficult.

 

PVP is under constant revision and balancing. So one thing that outshines all others might get used a lot till it's brought par on par with other stuff again. If you're interested in doing a lot of conclave, then try to find a experienced people to play with. I myself rarely played it. The different warframe abilities as well as the constant change is too much work for me to keep up.

So what I'm leading to believe is that it seems like in later levels, DE doesn't want the player to F around and actually pay attention to Damage types and basic mod builds to progress through the game (I honestly let let the game auto-decide for me. I have hundreds of mods I don't care about going through. ) That's probably why the Grineer is able to suck up damage. 

As for PvP, I wonder if there is a dedicated "conclave pro" community on the forums that I can I can go by and practice with. I'll look that up. 

Thanks for the links and basic strengths/weakness guide Tsoa. If I can't progress through the game with this, then I suck at gaming, lol (I hope not)!

5 hours ago, Elvangreen said:

You will need the basic range of mods and a lvl'd warframe, and you will need to pick up a decent gun (build not buy), but all of these are easily accomplished as you clear the nodes on the starmap, and do the quests. There is utterly no need for any primed guns or mods.

Btw, try not to buy plat unless you get a 50% or 75% off voucher on your login.

The vouchers can go up to 75%?! I felt ripped off from DE! I used a 20% voucher, but that was still close to $20 because of tax (like $19 to be exact). Darn it! :O

That 370p goes by fast! After buying 2 Catalysts, 4 additional weapon slots, 3 Warframe slots, Nova Prime stuff (140p in total - I was lucky) and other miscellaneous stuff, I'm down to 117p. They really try to hook you in and I don't blame them!

I'm trying not to spend more than $60 on this game (Because that is what it's worth and I'm willing to support the developers).

Yeah, I know the different methods of trading and using external resources to trade. But I'm not willing to farm to get 5p here and there, Unless I'm with friends having fun. 

Sorry, I just felt ripped off (when really I wasn't...?) when I could of saved moolah to buy even more plats.

 

Also that's good that I can progress through the game without Prime stuff and with only basic mods. I'll be sure to rank up the essential basic mods. Like duration and power efficiency.

 

---

 

Thanks everyone! All these tips and advice really helps out when starting out or going back into the game after some time. 

---

See! This is what made me leave the game in the first place! I hit a wall and gave up and thinking it was a p2w game! But I got back to it because I felt burnt out on other games and I wanted a similar experience like Titanfall (movement mechanics wise), I was willing to give it another chance - and because now I have career and not a part time job to earn dough so I can spend some plats.

Just a side note to DE if you're reading this, you got to make it less intimidating for newer players! I can't seem to convince my IRL friends to go back into the game after a few years because of the "bad" experience they had. I don't think the average player is willing to go through guides and other extra means to progress further.

But since I'm willing to go out of my way to ask questions like this, I can progress more efficiently and effectively. If DE can solve that issue, I'm sure they'll gain a larger playerbase. Which it needs! Because I want to pwn noobs in conclave and I don't want to be the one that gets pwned! :)

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

On 18.4.2017 at 4:54 PM, 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4 said:

 the folks over at DE can actually buy food for themselves and keep the game running

Agree to most but holy s**t dude. They sure must eat solid bars of gold at this point.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

What everyone else said.

Didn't read trough all the comments tho so i'll go ahead and say that pvp is hardly visited at all times. Pvp in warframe has the worst latency issues and the smallest reward. Rushing trough max rank once gives you access to all the possible rewards, which mainly boild down to small pvp advantages and unique visual options. There's absolutely no reason for anyone but very limited gameplay in pvp to stick around beyond that.

 

But you should really consider sticking around a bit. PvE has become frickin fast, challenging, solo compatible and most of all: Fun, compared to what it started off as or even has been for the longest time due to DE's constant work. Still needs work and most of all varriety, rather then ultimate balance to make anything but aoe and Cc frames more but a comfortable choice (ya know, the stuff propper mmorpg's offer as WF definitly provides the present roles) but the grind is fun for what it is and it's never been as accessible as it is now.

Edited April 23, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[Elvangreen]

1 hour ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

What everyone else said.

Didn't read trough all the comments tho so i'll go ahead and say that pvp is hardly visited at all times. Pvp in warframe has the worst latency issues and the smallest reward. Rushing trough max rank once gives you access to all the possible rewards, which mainly boild down to small pvp advantages and unique visual options. There's absolutely no reason for anyone but very limited gameplay in pvp to stick around beyond that.

 

But you should really consider sticking around a bit. PvE has become frickin fast, challenging, solo compatible and most of all: Fun, compared to what it started off as or even has been for the longest time due to DE's constant work. Still needs work and most of all variety, rather then ultimate balance to make anything but aoe and Cc frames more but a comfortable choice (ya know, the stuff proper mmorpg's offer as WF definitely provides the present roles) but the grind is fun for what it is and it's never been as accessible as it is now.

A fair amount of the latency issues have been fixed now, but it is still underpopulated.

7 hours ago, Matoro1992 said:

So what I'm leading to believe is that it seems like in later levels, DE doesn't want the player to F around and actually pay attention to Damage types and basic mod builds to progress through the game (I honestly let let the game auto-decide for me. I have hundreds of mods I don't care about going through. ) That's probably why the Grineer is able to suck up damage. 

As for PvP, I wonder if there is a dedicated "conclave pro" community on the forums that I can I can go by and practice with. I'll look that up. 

Thanks for the links and basic strengths/weakness guide Tsoa. If I can't progress through the game with this, then I suck at gaming, lol (I hope not)!

 

The vouchers can go up to 75%?! I felt ripped off from DE! I used a 20% voucher, but that was still close to $20 because of tax (like $19 to be exact). Darn it! :O

That 370p goes by fast! After buying 2 Catalysts, 4 additional weapon slots, 3 Warframe slots, Nova Prime stuff (140p in total - I was lucky) and other miscellaneous stuff, I'm down to 117p. They really try to hook you in and I don't blame them!

I'm trying not to spend more than $60 on this game (Because that is what it's worth and I'm willing to support the developers).

Yeah, I know the different methods of trading and using external resources to trade. But I'm not willing to farm to get 5p here and there, Unless I'm with friends having fun. 

Sorry, I just felt ripped off (when really I wasn't...?) when I could of saved moolah to buy even more plats.

 

Also that's good that I can progress through the game without Prime stuff and with only basic mods. I'll be sure to rank up the essential basic mods. Like duration and power efficiency.

 

---

 

Thanks everyone! All these tips and advice really helps out when starting out or going back into the game after some time. 

---

See! This is what made me leave the game in the first place! I hit a wall and gave up and thinking it was a p2w game! But I got back to it because I felt burnt out on other games and I wanted a similar experience like Titanfall (movement mechanics wise), I was willing to give it another chance - and because now I have career and not a part time job to earn dough so I can spend some plats.

Just a side note to DE if you're reading this, you got to make it less intimidating for newer players! I can't seem to convince my IRL friends to go back into the game after a few years because of the "bad" experience they had. I don't think the average player is willing to go through guides and other extra means to progress further.

But since I'm willing to go out of my way to ask questions like this, I can progress more efficiently and effectively. If DE can solve that issue, I'm sure they'll gain a larger playerbase. Which it needs! Because I want to pwn noobs in conclave and I don't want to be the one that gets pwned! :)

I agree that we need a better tutorial new player experience 100%.

If you tell me what weapons and warfames you have, i can give you pointers on what new weapons to get, and good tips on how to mod up your gear, as the auto-modder is kinda stupid. And if you need i have lots of spare mods lying around, ie. useful stuff like shred. (increases rifle fire rate by 30%, and adds 1.2m of punch through, allowing it to penetrate dead bodies and light cover)

Do you have a sentinel yet?.

Also, some of the quests are accessible out of order, i.e. Patient zero should come before The second dream, and Octavia's anthem should be done after the war within.

My best advice for the game would be don't try to grind or farm gear, just play through the starmap and use weapons you like, and after a while you will find you have mountains of resources and mods.

BTW with a 75% voucher, that $60 can get you over 4000 plat.

Also, the hardest quests are the War Within and Octavia's anthem, and they both do not go over LVL 40. For comparison sorties, which most experienced players can run solo daily, range from lvl 60 to lvl 100, and come with extra difficulty conditions. Quest difficulty usually comes from mechanics such as enemy adaption to damage, or typical invulnerability-phase bosses.

Edited April 23, 2017 by Elvangreen

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

3 hours ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

Agree to most but holy s**t dude. They sure must eat solid bars of gold at this point.

They have families, rent & taxes to pay, bills, etc. Being game developers is their primary job and source of income

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

14 hours ago, 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4 said:

They have families, rent & taxes to pay, bills, etc. Being game developers is their primary job and source of income

Ye and make in or rather every 3-9 months what other AAA game developers make with years worth work.

I mean there's prime access, vault access, tennogen, even regular and discounted plat sales... on 3 platforms. Worldwide. For a pretty normal work schedule for developers and basicly chat+p2p connect servers.

 

Does anyone really believe that they're not filthy rich by this point?

Edited April 24, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

1 hour ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

Does anyone really believe that they're not filthy rich by this point?

But is that really anyone's business to know? They do have expenses to pay, and they do probably make a good chunk of money on plat even with sales, but what they do with it is their business.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

On 24.4.2017 at 6:36 PM, 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4 said:

But is that really anyone's business to know? They do have expenses to pay, and they do probably make a good chunk of money on plat even with sales, but what they do with it is their business.

They're not investing it in a propper console patch schedule, not in gametesting which would simply avoid all of this allmost ridiculous reworking/Buffing/nerfing that's been going on for the last few years but actually concentrate on refining and adding to the game itself.

It's more of everyones buisness then one may think and at no point something that should be played down as realism could benefit all of us on the long run.Hardly any game got that strong of a feedback like WF does. Stating what's needet and not taking excuses is a mandatory for this games growth, wouldn't you agree?

Edited April 25, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108