Noob in search of answers

[(PSN)LuckyManChild]

Hey, first off shout out to Digital Extremes, supporting London's economy and setting up shop in my hometown.

Second. I started playing Warframe last weekend, a friend referred me to it and like I said, Digital Extremes is in my hometown. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I have some questions though.

1) I made a Volt. Is that a good character. Should I be looking to upgrade my frame?

2) I have a Paris bow, Kunai, and the Bo staff. Should I worry about upgrading them? Are guns inherently better? I understand the way the mod system works and I have been keeping them up, I'm just curious if I'd find it easier with a set of guns or a sword.

3) Is it worthwhile to purchase platinum? As in, am I able to farm it myself? Would my money be better spent some place else? I've made it to Mercury and found a Paris Prime recipe and a Paris Prime part. I've hit the market and seen what prices things fetch. If I have those 2, how close would I be to say 100p? I'm trying to get a grasp on Warframe's economy.

 

Thanks in advance, any players nearby, hit me up on the PSN, LuckyManChild.
 

[(PSN)Shaun-T-Wilson]

Early on spend plats on slots for warframes and weapon.

[Azure.Fang]

1) If you enjoy Volt, upgrade it. You can build, collect, and use (just about) every frame as long as you buy extra warframe slots, but always deck out what you enjoy to play.

2) While some weapons are considered "meta", and some are inherently superior (Paris Prime > Paris, for example), experiment. While some weapons may be inherently weaker overall, upgrading through Forma and catalysts can make any weapon worthwhile to some extent. But if you upgrade now and find an overall better weapon later, be prepared for a fresh grind. A little research on the wiki goes a long way.

3) I follow the mantra of "If you enjoy it, support it." Buying some plat now and then feeds the DE crew (literally). It's not a necessity, but I recommend it now and then for weapon/warframe/sentinel slots. Beyond purchases, you can also sell extra mods/prime parts to players for plat. http://warframe.market is a good show for general interest, but prices will likely differ for PS4 economy.

Edited April 24, 2017 by AzureFang1

[Blade_Wolf_16]

1) Volt is good, but you should try to get more Warframes that you may like. Try as many as you want, it can only help :). I suggest you go for Rhino and Frost, the two first farmable Warframe in the game (now). If you find a Phorid node (an Infested boss that only appear when Infestation Invasions spread to a Boss node), you can farm it to get Nyx, wich is also very good.

2) Of course you'll have to try new weapons. Upgrading stuff (like Warframes, weapons, companions) is the only way to get a higher Mastery Rank (MR) to unlock new things, such as more weapons, Syndicates, Relais, etc. Try anything you can find, not just what people claim to be "the best". Make your own opinion on each weapon and enjoy the ones you like :).

3) Plat is optionnal, and you can get plat from other players with the trade chat. The 50 plat you get when you start the game aren't tradeable, so if you want to buy stuff from others, you'll have to sell things first. Trade are unlocked when you reach MR2 and the list of the tradeable items is in the said Trade chat. 

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Blade_Wolf_16

[Imaru]

Taking your points one at a time. 

Volt: He's pretty solid. Not the best, but he'll hold you over until you can get something else. His Shield ability is very useful, especially since you can pick it up and move it, using it like a riot shield. I'd suggest watching the Warframe Profiles on Warframe's official YouTube channel to find one you think you'll like and shoot for that.

Weapons: For starters, the Paris, Kunai, and Bo are pretty good. Keep in mind that the Paris and Kunai both have travel time and fire in an arc, but both are pretty good, especially if you plan to be sneaking around. Always try for headshots if you have time to aim them, as they will consume less ammo per kill, allowing you to conserve your ammo for your bow, as it is more rare. Definitely rank them up to 30 before moving on, as you will want to have them maxed eventually and if you come back to them down the line you will hate it. 

Platinum: Save it for now or buy Warframe or Weapon slots. You can eventually trade and earn it from other players.

[(XBOX)Senor Twix]

Volt is a great starter (and I may be biased) but is a decent crowd control frame too. Volt can get you through the entire star chart with no problem.

Bows are great in the game, and no one can really give you advice on this because your question because it really depends on your playstyle. Guns are better if you enjoy using them more, and vice versa. If you're talking about terms of being overpowered, it really just depends on the mods. Try out different weapons and see what fits you best.

In my honest opinion I would never buy platinum unless I truly needed it, and there really isn't a time when you truly need it. This game requires a lot of patience, and if you lack that quality, then go ahead, buy platinum and rush it (though I advise against it).

Plat is really easy to farm though, sell mods, spare prime parts you get from relics, etc. There's always one person wanting to buy something you have.

Paris Prime parts are way too cheap. I see full sets going for around 30p, and it shouldn't really be higher. For those two parts I'd say around 10-15p.

 

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

1. Volt is fine as a starter frame.  You can protect yourself with shield, CC enemies with his 1 and 4 while also doing damage.  You do want more frames but that isn't because Volt is not good enough.

2. Weapon types don't matter that much.  Use what you enjoy and are good with.  With that said, one of your primary goals right now is increasing your Mastery Rank.  To do that you need to be constantly ranking new stuff (weapons, frames, companions) from 0 to 30.  Experiment with new stuff to explore what you like.  Join syndicates, do the quests, unlock all the planets.

Shotguns are really powerful though - I can't recommend the Hek enough for the early to mid game.

3. Yes, buying plat is a good idea if you can / want to.  Trade chat is a strange beast with new or rare items fetching crazy large sums of plat but older and more common stuff worth basically zero.  At this point you really are not going to have access to much in the way of stuff worth plat.  Buying a couple of hundred plat would be hugely beneficial, using it to buy slots for more weapons and frames.  Cosmetics are really nice to have but obviously they have no impact on the game.

[VentiGlondi]

1. Even the worst warframes have their niche. A large portion of this game is trying different warframes and deciding which one you enjoy most. That said Volt isn't a bad one.
2. Those are low tier weapons. Especially if you're using MK1 version of them. If you just started they should be sufficient, but you need to keep in mind that you will need to gather resources for better weapons. If you're aiming for keeping this specific loadout, you'd want to take a look at Dread/Paris Prime/Rakta Cernos, Spira, and uh... I think Tipedo is the best staff currently.
3. The only way to generate platinum is buying it or getting a jackpot during a devstream. It is tradeable though, so you could get platinum that was bought by someone else.

[Dylki]

Hey Lucky, I have a few answers and a few tips for you :)

First off, yes, Volt is a good warframe. (also Volt's male but it's ok, many people mistake him for a lady) My starter frame was a Volt, and he stood by me through thick and thin. Volt's strength lies in his diverse kit. His first ability doesn't see much use, but his Speed ability is very good in rushing to extraction or giving yourself the upper hand in melee fights. His shield is my favorite ability. It boosts the damage and range of projectiles you shoot through it, and it can be re-positioned. I think it has infinite health (I need to check on that one) which is why I always pop it before I get into a skirmish. It'll keep you protected from ranged attacks, but melee units can run through it. His fourth ability is also quite solid, stunning and damaging enemies in a large radius for a long time.

A good basic Volt build would be to focus on Shields and Power Duration, Volt has a lot of shields so it should keep you alive. His Speed, Shield and Discharge (4th ability) all benefit from PDuration to make him much more effective.

Howeverm Volt isn't exactly the best frame in game, as he falls short when fighting infested and grineer. I advise you try to get Valkyr or Rhino, they're steady frames that are good for beginners.

Secondly, your weapons. There is nothing like "upgrading" in this game. "Upgrades" come from upgrading Mods such as Pressure Point, Point Strike etc. These mods will always stay in your inventory even when you sell a weapon with the mods equipped. Multiple weapons can have the same mods at the same time e.g I can put Serration on my Paris and my Braton. It's like having an "arsenal" of available mods that you upgrade which can be slotted into weapons as you get them.

The only purpose to level up weapons is to allow them to accommodate more mods. Each mod has a drain (as indicated by the number at the top right corner of a mod) and each weapon, item or warframe has a mod capacity that increases as you level up. At level 1, a warframe will have 1 mod capacity. At level 2, it will have 2 capacity and so on. The maximum level and capacity of any item in game is 30. This can be increased by installing an Orokin Reactor in a Warframe or an Orokin Catalyst on a sentiniel or weapon. Unlike mods, Orokin Reactors and Catalysts are consumables, once used they are removed from your inventory. Once you install an Orokin Reactor or Catalyst in an item, it's mod capacity is doubled to 60. However, you cannot uninstall these, so choose wisely before catalyzing or reactoring something!

By the way, guns are not necessarily better than bows: All bows are silent, meaning that enemies will not notice you if you kill one of their friends, as they hear nothing. Guns are really loud, just firing can alert everyone in the area. Bows also tend to have high-single-shot damage that can be charged, and their projectiles have piercing properties, meaning you can skewer multiple enemies with a single arrow if they are lined up. Rifles tend to not have piercing capabilities and have more variations like automatic firing rifles, semi-auto, charge shots (similar to bows), shotguns and sniper rifles. Secondary weapons also have various types like kunai, pistols (auto and semi-auto) and shotguns etc. Melee weapons have the most diverse types, ranging from swords to tonfas to gunblades. All of these play differently and suit different playstyles and if I were to go on for much longer I'm sure you'd get bored :P If you have questions send me a pm later on.

Lastly, platinum. Oh man, this is a toughie. In my opinion, it's not that worth it to buy plat, because everything in game can be obtained for free. The drawback is that this is going to take forever. Paying for plat not only supports the devs, it also speeds up this process as you can buy Orokin Reactors, Catalysts, Warframe and Weapon slots, and prime items. (By the way, never ever buy an unprimed warframe or weapon with plat, it's much more worth it to farm for them) It depends on how much you can afford to spend on this game or how willing. I'm sure more experienced players can give better tips than I.

Good luck out there!

Edited April 24, 2017 by Dylki

[Elvangreen]

All warframes are viable, however later on you will want to upgrade your weapons, both to get more effective gear and to try new things. However there are more powerful variants of all the gear you have, so if you enjoy then you can look into that.

Don't buy plat unless you get a 50% or 75% discount on login, as that makes your money go many times further. THIS IS PC, for PS4 i believe you get discounts on specific purchases.

Never buy weapons or warframes from the market, and never buy resources or rush items in the foundry.

You will start off with 50p. I strongly advise you pick up 1 warframe slot for 20p, and 4 weapons slots for 12p a pair.

Those 2 parts might get 5-10p combined, as they are extremely common. rarer parts can fetch 10 - 25p each, and sets are always more valuable than the sum of their parts.

If you invest a decent amount of time in the game you will be able to get rarer items such as corrupted mods easily, and can make plat far more easily.

I would offer to help you if you got stuck, or provide taxi, but i am on a separate platform, so all i can offer you is good wishes and advice.

 

Stay strong tenno.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Elvangreen

[Ankerstilte]

8 minutes ago, (PS4)Shaun-T-Wilson said:

Early on spend plats on slots for warframes and weapon.

That is, if you are confident that you'll keep playing the game, and that you don't mind spending some money for the devs =)

 

I'll try to be fair with my answers :

-The simple fact that you can drop and build a Volt Prime should answer your quesiton ;) Although, I thought like you when I started playing the game. I started with mag and thought I would main it til the day I die. But this is not how you'll have the most fun. Try new frames, as well as weapons, before considering that this one might actually be your favorite ;) Also, later on in the game, you won't even ask yourself the question "should I put a reactor on that weapon?", you'll just do it with every weapon you come across. But before that, keep it simple, I'd suggest.

-For your weapons, once again you ought to try some of each ! If your weapons are MK-1, they are not worth much, as standard (better) versions of these exist, and even primes. Try a little bit of shotgun, a little bit of rifle, a little bit of pistol, throwing knives, grenade-launchers, double daggers, glaives, swords, hammers, etc... But of course, if you find a gamestyle that you're comfortable with, a set of frame/weapons that you consider your favorite, it's pretty good for evolving in the system/boss/junction path. As long as you're having fun, you're playing the game right.

-Platinums can be obtained either by purchasing with real money (with the possibility of -25, -50 or -75% reductions), or, as you suggest, by selling your prime parts / riven mods / rare mods / syndicate weapons, etc... I'm not fond of the exchange method, just because it's not very fruitful in my country. But just try on the exchange channel, see how this works for you. And always check for the "right" prices of the items you sell / buy on the internet.

 

[Shalath]

I'm not a fan of Volt myself but others like him. Which frames to go for is very much down to your play style really so I tend to recommend trying any you can get your hands on and if you like them get the prime versions later on. Same with weapons really. Levelling weapons the frames is how to gain mastery ranking so generally speaking you want to level stuff even if you don't really like them. Any you do like you can apply forma to re-polarise a mod slot so it costs half the polarity points to put a corresponding mod in which means you get get more out of the equipment.

Guns aren't necessarily better as bows are very quiet and designed around stealth. One thing to remember with bows is that enemies can see bodies so it you hit one hard and the body gets impaled on the travelling arrow you could end up alerting an entire room of enemies. Paris Prime is one of the better bows.

If you decide to buy plat (it can save you a ton of waiting for things) wait until you get a 75% discount (or at least a 50) as your daily login reward as you will get a lot more for you money. Prime items tend to go for 50-100p or so depending on the rarity but always check prices before you buy. You can just farm prime items and sell them for plat but again check prices first. One tip here is when the void trader appears every 2 weeks many are desperate for Ducats which you sell prime parts for and buy his stuff. If you farm low level fissures you can end up with a lot of prime "junk" which people will buy for 2-5p if you are lucky to find somebody that really wants something.

I agree with the above on plat early in the game. Frame and weapon slots should be a priority as you will always need one when you don't have any plat.

In short grab every weapon and frame you can to level. Remember you don't get mastery to for completing a mission the second time so only revisit planetary nodes when levelling a new frame or weapon. Dark Sector Defence missions are probably the best source of credits early in the game.

Rhino will probably be one of your first "acquired" frames which you get from Jackal. He is a nice all-rounder but don't fall into the newbie mistake of putting his iron skin on at all times as that will get you killed later on. If you study his wiki article you will find that that for a couple of second after activating you have an invulnerable period where any damage you take gets added to the iron skin's health pool. What you should do is leave it inactive until you get into trouble and then activate it when taking a pounding to beef it up

[TrickshotMcGee]

It makes me happy when new players ask this stuff instead of just asking how to get the most powerful stuff as fast as possible. 

36 minutes ago, (PS4)LuckyManChild said:

1) I made a Volt. Is that a good character. Should I be looking to upgrade my frame?

Volt is a fairly good warframe, though he can be tricky to make the most out of, and most people assume he's just a damage-dealing frame. Experiment with him and he can do extremely well. Of course you should be looking to grab more Warframes, but you'll do that naturally over time as you clear planets, and many warframes are very unique from one another. 

36 minutes ago, (PS4)LuckyManChild said:

2) I have a Paris bow, Kunai, and the Bo staff. Should I worry about upgrading them? Are guns inherently better? I understand the way the mod system works and I have been keeping them up, I'm just curious if I'd find it easier with a set of guns or a sword.

Those weapons do well enough in the part of the game you're on. As long as you know how modding works then you'll be fine with pretty much anything at this point. You can get blueprints for better guns from the Market but, again, right now you could be fine with what you have and upgrade later when you have more credits to burn on experimenting. 

Guns are not necessarily better than bows or kunai, and swords aren't necessarily better than a staff. It's more of a preference thing in the end. One of the hardest-hitting weapons in the game is a bow called Dread. More important than weapon type are the weapon mechanics and the damage it does.

Edited April 24, 2017 by TrickshotMcGee

[(PSN)LuckyManChild]

Wow, the support from this community is amazing, 12 replies in half an hour. I'm shocked.

Sadly I still have mk1 weapons. I'll look to getting some normal ones for now, then the primes later. I do like the playstyle of the bow/kunai/staff, makes me feel all ninja-y inside. Is there a warframe that works well with stealth play? I read somewhere Ash is a good one for that?

Rhino is also on my short list of guys I want to try because I tend to gravitate toward tanky classes in games.

It's about supporting the devs for me. I live in London, I've actually applied to work for the company. I know I can farm stuff up but I'd like to actually support the game too. That's how new stuff is made. Programmers don't work for good intentions :) Hoping the wife lets me go to Tennocon as well.

All I can see in my limited experience with this game is it's a butt load more complex and strategy based than just equipping the item with a better armor value or something a la World of Warcraft. I'm happy about that. Lol.
 

[PeachyPurpleNova]

Welcome to Warframe!

To answer your first question, Volt is a great warframe and you'll have a lot of fun with him. There are no bad warframes per se, they just cater to different play styles. Some are more popular than others and some are better suited to certain situations, but what matters most is how you mod yours and how much you enjoy playing with it.

As for your weapons, it's always worth ranking them to 30 and slotting mods. You'll want to upgrade from the MK1 gear as soon as you can as those are only really fit for the intro and the earliest of content. Blueprints for new weapons are rewarded from completing junctions and can also be purchased from the market for credits. There are literally hundreds of weapons which are aquired by various means throughout the game.

Try every warframe and weapon at least once, the game offers you choice and diversity without any major linear progression path for gear. Experimenting is half the fun of Warframe.

Platinum is well worth purchasing as you will need slots for warframes and weapons. It will also support London's economy.

Most people wait for a discount which can be a potential login reward. Platinum is also a tradable currency and you will be able to sell your prime items, among other stuff, if you wanted to make it that way. The market is changing all the time and I'd suggest spending some time in trade chat to get a feel for it.

 

On a side note the Warframe Wikia is a fantastic resource for all information and it's an invaluable tool if you are new to the game and need some answers. You can also seek a Guide of the Lotus. The Guides are available to answer questions and assist new players with any concerns. They can usually be found in a low level relay or in the public region chat. Full list of guides on your platform can be found on that thread too.

Plus there is also the forum of course! With a great many helpful people here.

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by PeachyPurpleNova

[Dylki]

16 hours ago, (PS4)LuckyManChild said:

Wow, the support from this community is amazing, 12 replies in half an hour. I'm shocked.

Sadly I still have mk1 weapons. I'll look to getting some normal ones for now, then the primes later. I do like the playstyle of the bow/kunai/staff, makes me feel all ninja-y inside. Is there a warframe that works well with stealth play? I read somewhere Ash is a good one for that?

Rhino is also on my short list of guys I want to try because I tend to gravitate toward tanky classes in games.

It's about supporting the devs for me. I live in London, I've actually applied to work for the company. I know I can farm stuff up but I'd like to actually support the game too. That's how new stuff is made. Programmers don't work for good intentions :) Hoping the wife lets me go to Tennocon as well.

All I can see in my limited experience with this game is it's a butt load more complex and strategy based than just equipping the item with a better armor value or something a la World of Warcraft. I'm happy about that. Lol.
 

Hey Lucky, me again. Regarding the topic of stealth frames, you may not want to get Ash first. His parts are difficult to obtain, as uncommon drops from the Grineer Manic enemy, which spawn rarely in any grineer mission when the alarms are on. For me, it took forever to farm him. A good stealth frame you'd want to aim for is Loki. His parts are obtainable from the Hyena Pack boss on Neptune, which is fairly high leveled. You'll want to try other frames and get stronger before going there :) remember not to rush through the game, take your time to enjoy every weapon and frame and sentinel. 

Loki is pretty solid because of his Invisibility and Radial Disarm abilities. The former turns him invisible and gives him extra melee damage, and the latter forces all enemies in a wide area to become disarmed, dropping their weapons and forced to use a melee weapon that kinda looks like a shiny stick xD this is good as enemies with dangerous weapons like Napalms become a lot easier to deal with. Build Loki for Range and Duration to get increased invisibility duration and a larger disarm radius 

[Ollnozz]

1 minute ago, Dylki said:

Hey Lucky, me again. Regarding the topic of stealth frames, you may not want to get Ash first. His parts are difficult to obtain, as uncommon drops from the Grineer Manic enemy, which spawn rarely in any grineer mission when the alarms are on. For me, it took forever to farm him. A good stealth frame you'd want to aim for is Loki. His parts are obtainable from the Hyena Pack boss on Neptune, which is fairly high leveled. You'll want to try other frames and get stronger before going there :) remember not to rush through the game, take your time to enjoy every weapon and frame and sentinel. 

Loki is pretty solid because of his Invisibility and Radial Disarm abilities. The former turns him invisible and gives him extra melee damage, and the latter forces all enemies in a wide area to become disarmed, dropping their weapons and forced to use a melee weapon that kinda looks like a shiny stick xD this is good as enemies with dangerous weapons like Napalms become a lot easier to deal with. Build Loki for Range and Duration to get increased invisibility duration and a larger disarm radius 

Loki is sweet stuff, but as Dylki said, he can only be obtained at higher levels. A frame that gives you more stealth at the cost of mobility would be Ivara, you can get her parts from Spy missions, provided you find them easier than fighting a boss. Ivara's parts are spread across low-to-mid-to-high tier Spy missions, meaning that you get specific parts from specific missions based on the level of enemies. It's complicated, I'm sorry; maybe reading the wiki would do you some good too!