Getting back into it

[Raselas]

So, returning player here. I picked this game up way back in closed beta and ended up quitting around U15/U16 due to general burnout and disillusionment. I've decided to pick the game up again, a few friends talked me back into it. However I'm starting over fresh, mainly because I want to play on my PS4. Right now I'm just working my way through the star chart and tracking down the essentials for modding, but there's really a lot of new stuff going on. I've read through update notes as best I can but I've been gone for a while. What would you guys suggest as far as the best path to take towards endgame, and what are some general tips or tricks for someone who's been out of the game?

[LordMazulia]

First of all, Welcome back. Second, I'd recommend just going through the starchart. You'll pick up quests, weapons, mods from completing the junctions that connect the planets. Don't try to rush through anything though. Take your time and try to enjoy the weapons/warframes that you pick up along the way.

A few questions though. How much have you done so far? What Mastery Rank are you? Have you built a new warframe yet? Do you have the Blueprint for the Taxon sentinel?

[Raselas]

So far I've just cleared Earth and Venus, and I have all the rewards associates with those two planets which I believe includes the Taxon sentinel. I haven't crafted any new frames yet, Volt was my one true love through the entire time I played and I picked him as my starter so I should be good for the time being. I picked up blueprints for some new weapons, I'm still using starter stuff right now though.

It's definitely a surprise how much the game has changed since last I played.

[TrickshotMcGee]

LordMazulia actually summed up my thought succinctly before I could even finish my post. 

Anyways, I do agree - just focus on finding stuff you like, enjoying weapons, and working your way up the ladder. Blasting through MR is simply a poor decision that contributes to burnout quickly for a large number of people. Don't ask for taxis for things outside of really important alerts, like Reactors and Catalysts. Leeching is a bad habit, and one I suggest you don't get into. The road is slower, and frustrating at times, but worth it (IMO).

15 minutes ago, Raselas said:

What would you guys suggest as far as the best path to take towards endgame, and what are some general tips or tricks for someone who's been out of the game?

Endgame is very much intangible at the moment. And there's REALLY no rush to get there, I promise. 

Tips and tricks, though, I can help with:

-Get a variety of Warframes. Lots of newer players I've met (you've been out of it long enough to constitute as "new", I would think) just have their starter frame and nothing else. Do not hesitate to buy a Warframe slot if you have parts sitting around. Worst case scenario, you don't like the frame and have two spare slots if you sell it. Warframe variety is a valuable tool. 

-Explore weapons. This is advice I was given when I was newer, and I'm really glad I followed it. I have found a number of weapons that are both fun and effective (for me) because I screwed around with blueprints and built what looked cool, instead of focusing on meta. 

-There is a specific set of mods you NEED on all weapons above everything else. Those are the flat damage mods (Serration, Hornet Strike, Pressure Point, and Point Blank) and the multishot mods (Split Chamber, Barrel Diffusion+Lethal Torrent, and Hell's Chamber). With those mods, mostly any weapon is usable. Don't focus on getting them to R10, though. I have had my Serration and Hornet Strike sitting at R8 for over 1k hours of solo play and have zero issues with any of my guns at all. They're important, but as long as they're R7 or above, they're 100% fine. 

-Get a sentinel. Taxon is one of the best sentinels out there, and it doesn't even have the capacity to kill anything. It has excellent CC with its gun and can provide you with overshields (and in early star chart, those are fantastic). Sentinels also provide other bonuses, but I won't go info overload any more than I have already. 

-Join a clan that's newbie-friendly. I'm not personally on PS4, so I can't recommend any good clans there, but check all of their recruiting pages well and make sure they don't have a bunch of ridiculous requirements that don't suit you. Join a clan you're comfortable joining.

-Do quests as you're able and not before. Some quests are on tougher planets, so when you get one that's got higher level enemies, don't rush to complete it because that quest isn't going anywhere. Work up to being able to deal with enemies before rushing through the quests on the planet. It'll just get you stuck in content you can't deal with and getting frustrated at it.

-Finish a lot of the star chart before you finish the cinematic quests. There are all kinds of post-War Within things locked behind star chart nodes and if you don't complete them, you'll either require a taxi or have to burn through Star Chart to do them. So might as well do the nodes beforehand and save yourself some work later on. Finishing a planet on the Chart also allows you to use something called extractors. These help you farm materials without having to go into missions. Very useful in the beginning of the game. 

[Haleryst]

I'd totally recommend going through the junctions as LordMazulia said and just experiencing everything for now. You're likely to discover some things for yourself, but the early story quests such as Once Awake and The Archwing are handy for introducing you to certain mission types and gameplay elements, and early junctions will also introduce you to things like Void Relics too. There have been some pretty awesome overhauls in recent years, so take a few days (or weeks!) to take it all in.

[LordMazulia]

Yep, there's been quite a lot of changes over the past few years. The starchart, for example, is a lot more streamlined. This way people have more of a direction as they play.

Anyway, if you haven't built Taxon yet, do so. He'll be your best friend. It's weapon has 100% cold procs so it'll always slow whatever it hits, and it recharge your shields, or give you overshield if it's full. All sentinels can use the Vacuum mod now, not just Carrier, so enjoy that.

If I were to recommend two weapons you should try to make, it would be Zhuge and Lesion. Zhuge is a MR2 crossbow(like Attica) and it's VERY strong for both early and late game. It can easily be built for crits, status, or both with no problem. Lesion is a Polearm, and is easily on of the best Melee weapons in the game. It has high status, and whenever it inflicts a status proc it gains 100% toxin damage and 15% more attack speed for 6 seconds. Downside is that it's MR7, so it'll be a while before you can buy the BP for it. Also you'll need to build the Tipedo(MR3) to make it, and to make the Tipedo you'll need a Bo and Kunai. That being said the Tipedo is also a nice weapon to use until you can make the Lesion.

It's too bad you're not playing on PC. Would love to help you get through some of the early stuff.

[Pavelord]

Just reiterating this point.

5 minutes ago, TrickshotMcGee said:

-Explore weapons. This is advice I was given when I was newer, and I'm really glad I followed it. I have found a number of weapons that are both fun and effective (for me) because I screwed around with blueprints and built what looked cool, instead of focusing on meta. 

I would advise you hold on formaing equipment at least until you complete the starchart, putting forma in equipment is mostly gonna help you when you want to do content beyond level 60 enemies. Endgame is something rather elusive thing here, try to enjoy all the side jobs there are, like missions for ayatan sculptures, scanning for Simaris. In earth, mars and grineer asteroids you are gonna start seeing scannable flowers and moss, star scanning now they will save you time later.

One of the fist things you want to build is an Extractor, it will help you collect resources passively, and you can do it so from your cellphone with the warframe app.

 

 

[Raselas]

Thanks a lot, guys. I've been out of it for so long that the basic details of progression aren't anywhere near what I remember. It sounds like just taking it as I go is the best idea, and it's nice that's something that's actually possible now. I'll definitely keep that stuff in mind. Getting the mandatory mods is my current project, a little sad to hear that mandatory mods are still a thing but at least it's familiar! Besides all of that, is it good to play the void fissure missions as you go? I got a few relics here and there from missions and used them, but I'm not really sure how that whole system works yet.

13 minutes ago, LordMazulia said:

All sentinels can use the Vacuum mod now

That just made my whole day.

Edit: @Pavelord, I don't have all that many mods to begin with yet but the system is more or less the same as it has been, right?

Edited June 15, 2017 by Raselas

[Pavelord]

2 minutes ago, Raselas said:

I don't have all that many mods to begin with yet but the system is more or less the same as it has been, right?

The mod cards and the use of forma yes, you probably see also you have an extra space next to the aura, that is the Exilus slot, it only fits exilus mods, and it is open by using an Exilus adapter that you get from Simaris but I think only after you made a particular quest.

[Pavelord]

6 minutes ago, Raselas said:

is it good to play the void fissure missions as you go? I got a few relics here and there from missions and used them, but I'm not really sure how that whole system works yet.

The fissure system is feeds itself, you start by collecting relics, then you take a relic to a fissure, doing fissure also rewards you Void Traces, you use this traces to upgrade your relics and increase the % to obtain rewards, and now you can also share rewards with your party. You need to build the Void relic segment in your orbiter, you do by finishing the mars junction mission on earth.

[LordMazulia]

10 minutes ago, Raselas said:

Besides all of that, is it good to play the void fissure missions as you go? I got a few relics here and there from missions and used them, but I'm not really sure how that whole system works yet.

It's perfectly fine to use them when you get them, but you might want to hold off on using ones that have item parts that you REALLY want. The void relics contain 6 prime item parts (some have 5 prime parts and a forma BP). 3 of the items will be common and you are more likely to get them when you open a relic. 2 are uncommon. These you will get less often then the common relics but not by too much. And 1 of them will be rare. Rare items have a very low chance of being obtained, as you might have guessed. When you open a relic during a fissure missions(the missions you run in order to open a relic) you will obtain one of the items in the relic as well as a resource called void traces. These are pretty important as they are used to refine your relics, and improve the chances of obtaining rare items from them. They are also used for Dragon Keys(in place of Void Keys). If you need more Traces but don't want to use a relic then you can run the fissure mission without using one. You won't get an item, due to not using a relic, but you will get traces. The max amount you can have at once is 100 + (50 x MR). So at MR 0 you can have up to 100, and at MR 5 you can have up to 350(100 + (50 x 5)).

[Raselas]

Okay so that's a little more complex than keys but I think it makes sense, I'm sure it's the same grind in practice but it's definitely nice to have a chance at prime parts fairly early on. Overall I'm getting the sense there are a lot of new systems but the base mechanics are the same. Thanks again, I was a little lost but all the info definitely helps.

[LordMazulia]

17 minutes ago, Raselas said:

Okay so that's a little more complex than keys but I think it makes sense, I'm sure it's the same grind in practice but it's definitely nice to have a chance at prime parts fairly early on. Overall I'm getting the sense there are a lot of new systems but the base mechanics are the same. Thanks again, I was a little lost but all the info definitely helps.

The grind is actually much less overall, at least with prime items. Because if you run a fissure mission in a group, you can pick one of the items that everyone who opened a relic also got. So if you got a Lex Prime Barrel and another person got a Nekros Prime BP, you and everyone else can choose to take the Nekros Prime BP if you wanted to. This only applies to those who opened a relic though, so if you don't use one, or fail to open one, then you don't get to pick an item at all. Much better than the old trust based system of "key shares", as it makes sure everyone that uses a key gets something. For most other things it's largely the same. The Kela de thaym and Ambulas boss fights got reworks, but you'll get to them eventually. There's still plenty of information to absorb, but there's also plenty of people here and in game to help help you out.

Edited June 15, 2017 by LordMazulia

[Raselas]

Thanks for the help everyone! Glad to be back, and I'm glad the community is just as awesome as I remember it being.