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[Updated: 9.8][Guide] Getting Started


Xylia
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UPDATE: For those of you wondering about the age of this guide (it was written during 9.8), I am planning a new update, probably after Update12 or thereabouts, since DE has promised a lot of tweaks and newbie changes, tutorial changes, and other things that would have huge impacts on this guide.

 

Those of you who are new to the game and are going to follow this guide, please keep in mind that the game is on 11.6 now, and this guide was written during 9.8 so some things might not be exact. The general logic and flow behind the guide mostly still stands, however.

 

With that said...

 

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To see this guide in action, click here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/95224-my-new-account-trial-log/
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I'm surprised there's no "Getting Started" guides.

There's guides for Void, there's general "Tips and Tricks", but no "How to get started in Warframe".

This guide assumes that you have the general UI control down-pat, and that you know how to play games of this type in general.

This guide is more for goals and directions, as the game itself doesn't really tell you much about what you should be doing once you get out of the tutorial. They start you on Mercury, and.....that's it. "Go do some missions, Tenno!"

So, here's the Getting Started For Newbies Guide.

As a Newbie, your first goals should be to get on your feet to where you can reasonably acquire things on your own should you find yourself in a situation where there are no groups where you wish to go. Ideally, the first main goal you should shoot for, is the ability to solo farm any material so that you can make anything you want to make, be it a Warframe, Weapon, Sentinel, whatever.

This means being able to solo Level 30-ish maps (for Control Modules).

Once you get to the point where you can solo Level 30-ish missions, you can start farming your mods and your materials without too much trouble, and then you can keep branching out from there. This guide is meant to help you do that.

BEFORE YOU START:

Your First 50 Platinum: Unless you intend on paying real money to buy platinum, you might want to use your first 50 platinum wisely. You can obtain everything in the game except for Slots, Color Packs, and Sentinel Decorations. Only Slots have an impact on your game; I highly recommend using your platinum for slots. Warframe slots cost 20 Platinum each, while Weapon Slots cost 12 Platinum for 2. Buying 1 Warframe Slot and 4 Weapon Slots will cost 44 Platinum, leaving you with 6 left.

Modding Advice: "What do I stick in my weapons?" Sadly, since Mod Drop 2.0, your choices are very limited. The main mods you are looking for, are...

1). Vitality: Nearly anything will drop these; you should see them in Mercury.
2). Redirection: You won't see one of these until you get to a Lv20 mission (more on this below).
3). Convulsion: (Electric Damage for Pistol): Nearly any Infested level will drop these.
4). Stormbringer: (Electric Damage for Rifle): I got lucky and found on in Vay Hek's mission, Everest on Earth so I would wager a guess that Lv15+ Grineer can drop this.
5). No Return/Piercing Hit (Armor Pierce Damage for Rifle/Pistol): Mars, Corpus Missions.
6). Cryo Rounds (Cold Damage for Rifle): Mars, Corpus Missions.
7). Ammo Drum (Nearly anything will drop this, also a reward from Raid/Capture)
8). Trick Mag (Raid/Capture reward)

I got a Tower Key, what's this for?: Tower Keys are for Orokin Void missions. These are special missions that take place in the Orokin Void. You can invite people to these, but you must host the game yourself, and you must find people willing to help you. Keys that are labeled "Tower Exterminate" and such are Tier 1 keys; they are Level 15-25. If you die and fail a mission, the Key will not get used up. Orokin Void missions are excellent for credits, and are solo-able once you have Rhino with moderate difficulty.

If you get a Tower III Key from Raid/Capture, don't bother with those unless you know some really good friends. These are very high level missions, and unless they agree to carry you through them, you need much better equipment to even attempt them; they are Level 60-90.

A Note about "Why Rhino?": This guide assumes that you will be building Rhino as your first non-starter Warframe. "Why Rhino?" you might ask. The reasons are simple:

1). Rhino is incredibly durable. Even without his powers (which is a seperate point altogether), he has very high health, armor, and shields. Vitality and Redirection are based upon your Warframe's base Health and Shields; equipping these on Rhino will be much more effective than equipping them on the other starter frames (especially Loki). The extra armor means that your health will last longer when your shields do go down.

2). Iron Skin. This is the bread-and-butter of Rhino. It gives 400/600/800/1200 damage absorption. What this means is that when you take damage, your Iron Skin absorbs it first. When Iron Skin wears off, you can cast it again provided you have 50 Energy. After Iron Skin wears off, then your shields take damage, and finally, your Health starts dropping after that. 1200 Damage is a LOT of Damage, especially in Newbie levels. As long as you're not standing in the middle of whole packs of enemies, Iron Skin makes you nearly invincible in early-level maps (but this starts dropping off later game). It also makes you immune to Stagger, Knockdown, Disruption, Toxin, Laser Doors, and other similar things. Equipping Focus increases the strength of Iron Skin even further (to a max of ~1500 or so).

3). Rhino Stomp. This is a very effective AoE attack that places a long stun on anything near you that doesn't die instantly. In newbie areas, just about everything will die outright from this except for Heavy Gunners, Napalms, Commanders, and Ancients.

When you get Rhino, slot Iron Skin first, then Redirection, then Vitality. If you have a Focus, that should be your 4th, and then after that, Rhino Stomp.

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With that said, let's get started:

Goal #1: Get yourself some starting weapons.

You start with a Skana, an MK1-Braton, and a Lato. Of these weapons, only the Lato is worth hanging onto (don't sell the MK1 and the Skana yet; you want to level them to 30 for mastery points eventually). Thankfully, there are two weapons within easy reach: A Braton (you buy it from the Marketplace) and the Cronus (kill Captain Vor to get the Blueprints, the Materials all come from Mercury).

The Braton is a very nice gun, and is one of the best solo-farm guns out there until you get to things like clan tech weapons. It can handle nearly any situation with ease once properly modded, and it excels at everything from Long-range, to mid-range, to close-range spraying. You definitely want to buy this ASAP; it is only 25,000 credits. Best purchase you will ever make in Warframe.

The Cronus is a 'meh' melee weapon that will hold you for now; you probably won't be using it much as a primary damage source. It is more of a box opener than an actual weapon. It is better than the Skana, so you might as well make it.

Goal #2: Get yourself a real melee weapon.

Whenever you get some extra funds, I highly recommend buying the Orthos Blueprint. The Orthos requires Ferrite, Polymer Bundles, and Alloy Plates. The Ferrite and Polymer Bundles you ought to be familiar with; those drop on Mercury. The Alloy Plates, you can find on Venus which will be your next planet.

The Orthos is an excellent melee weapon that is easy to make early in the game. It delivers a lot of damage, has impressive range, and can be chained for quick succession attacks. It is a heavy weapon that rains blows on foes nearly as fast as a one-handed weapon.

Note that the Orthos requires Mastery Rank 2 -- This is easily obtainable by leveling your starting Warframe to 30, your Braton, Lato, and Cronus to Lv15-20.

Goal #3: Trying to get Intermediate Materials and Redirection.

Your next goal involves trying to get materials so that you can build better stuff than you can buy for credits. This means getting to Earth, and then Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn for their materials.

Earth is mostly populated by Grineer, so you will want those No Return and Piercing Hit mods on your Braton and your Pistol. If you want something with a little more Oomph on your sidearm, you could try out the Lex; you buy it for Credits at the Marketplace. The Lex is a high-damage, slow-firing pistol that acts somewhat like a sniper rifle. It is a bit expensive, so you may wish to continue using your Lato or Aklatos instead.

Make your way through Earth; get familiar with the place as this will be your go-to place for Rubedo (which you will need 800 of for Rhino...) and Neurodes (many weapons need them). If you're having trouble with Earth still, don't be afraid to farm Venus some more; one always needs more Alloy Plates.

I highly recommend getting groups for Eurasia, Lua, and Lith -- these missions are very difficult for solo players, especially if you are new to Warframe. Excalibur will shine in these missions if you picked him as your starting frame; Slash Dash is your friend. Otherwise, just hope you get a decent group that can clear the area.

Once you've gotten to where you can handle Earth, now is the time to try Jupiter, Mars and Saturn out.

Of the two, I suggest Jupiter first; Jupiter is entirely Infested and Infested tends to be easier than Corpus or especially Grineer. You will find Salvage, Neural Sensors, and Circuits on Jupiter. If you made the Orthos like I suggested, you should have a fairly easy time on Jupiter as long as you deal with Infested Ancients appropriately. Getting Fury ranked up first is very much recommended; the faster you can swing your spear, the faster you will chop the light infested units up before they can hit you. I suggest Rank 4 before starting to apply Pressure Point.

Stay in Jupiter until you get to Metis. It is the first and easiest mission that you can find Neural Sensors in, unless you wish to try your hand at Defense. Enemy Levels in Defense climb with each wave, so theoretically any Defense mission will work. If you'd rather Solo, then Metis or Carme is probably the best place to go to try to get a Redirection.

Once you've gotten a Redirection and a good bit of materials (try to get a Neural Sensors or two; you will need one or two later), now its time to try Mars. You will find Morphics, Salvage, and Gallium there. I recommend doing the first couple missions until you've gotten at least 1 Gallium.

Once you do that, now it is time to bite the bullet and try for Saturn. You only need to pass the very first mission there for now. Once you do that, you're ready for your next goal.

Goal #4: Get a real Side-arm!

Now that you are able to handle the first few missions of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn, you have everything you need to get yourself a better side-arm. Lex is good, but these sidearms are better!

You've got a choice here: Kunai or Hikou. The Kunai hurts a lot more, but the Hikou fire faster and has a bigger clip size. Personally I recommend Kunai for Ammo Efficiency. For the Kunai, you will need Morphics (Mercury or Mars), Ferrite (Mercury), Nano Spores (Saturn), Salvage (Jupiter or Mars). It will take quite a bit of materials to make, but it is totally worth it in the end. If you decide to go the Hikou route, the materials are considerably less, but you will need Plastids and Rubedo instead of Nano Spores and Ferrite.

Goal #4a (Optional): Thrown Melee!

I highly recommend that at some point after getting your new sidearm, that you try for either a Kestrel or a Glaive. If you haven't seen Glaive come up in Alerts yet, you'll have to make-do with a Kestrel; both are good. Kestrel does less damage and has less range, but will knock enemies down (which is very newbie helpful!). The beauty of these weapons is that they are ranged, but do not use ammo at all, so that if you run out of ammo, you can hide behind crates and chuck this thing as a last resort. It also does nice damage too.

For both of the above goals, you will need materials from Saturn. In my experiences, the first mission on Saturn is better for Nano Spores, but the second mission is better for Plastids and is much easier, and less difficult.

Goal #5: Your first Built Warframe.

In Venus, there is a mission called Fossa. It is an Assassination for a boss called Jackal. Don't try going this one alone, Tenno. Wait until there are other people on the map (mouse over it and look for the person icon). You will be looking for these to drop off of the boss:

Rhino Chassis
Rhino System
Rhino Helmet

These will look like the red orb you picked up from Captain Vor; they are blueprints.

You will not be able to build Rhino right away; but you can start setting aside materials for him as you go. The worst of the materials will be the Control Module; if you know a friend who can carry you to get one, this will help you.

Rhino requires Rank2 to use, but by this point you should have Rank2 (especially if you made the Orthos as I described above).

If you wish to attempt to solo Jackal, it is best if you use Excalibur. Use the four pillars in the room, and peek around its right edge (the pillar should be on your left) and shoot at Jackal's left leg until he falls down. Once he does, Slash Dash him, turn around, and Slash Dash him again and run as fast as you can for the furthest pillar. Continue doing this until he dies. If you hear a very deep and loud THUD noise, get away from him as fast as you can! If you do it right, you shouldn't get hit much at all, but don't let the Mine Ospreys overwhelm you, either.

You can do it with another frame, but ammo will be very tight unless you've found good mods for your Braton/Kunai.

Be advised that Rhino Systems will very likely be quite difficult to obtain. If you obtain multiple copies of Rhino Helmet or Chassis, you can sell those by going into your Inventory, clicking on the one you want to sell then clicking the Sell Button; they sell for 3,500 credits each. Just don't accidentally sell the last one.

Goal #6: You're Almost There!

Rhino requires a lot of crafting materials, but if you followed my guide, you should very near have everything you need. If you're missing something, you can go to wherever you need to, to collect the rest of the stuff. There is one thing you don't have yet, and that is the dreaded Control Module. To get a Control Module, you will need to go to Europa. Provided you don't have anybody to carry you, you will need to go through Jupiter to get to Europa.

Europa starts at Level 35; the first mission is 35-37 and is a Corpus Capture mission. I'd suggest to keep farming that until you get 2 (two) Control Modules.

Goal #7: Rhino, Shade, And the End

With the Two Control Modules, you can now build Rhino (buy the Rhino Blueprint from the Marketplace once you have the 3 parts built). If you have the credits, go ahead and buy a Shade Blueprint as well, and make yourself a Shade.

As a Recap, you should have...

1). Primary: Braton
2). Secondary: Kunai or Hikou
3). Melee: Orthos along with a Glaive or Kestrel.
4). Warframe: Whatever you started with, and Rhino.
5). Access to Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Europa.
6). A modest collection of mods.
7). The ability to solo farm any material.

There you go, you can now solo farm any material in the game, and farm Lv20-ish stuff for mods.

I hope this helped you!

Edited by Xylia
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This is just perfect for a basic Noob strategy guide to get started!  I trawled through to find this, am surprised that there is not a separate New Player Forum area.  Generally in a new game its the first thing I look for.  Many thanks for putting up this guide.

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I see someone necro'd this guide.

 

There are worse things to necro, but this one is way out of date, unfortunately. Back in the day, this was an excellent way to get started. I used it as my Warframe bible for several months.

 

Some of the basics are still accurate, though. You can do a lot worse for your initial weapon and warframe progression. However, the details are now very different.

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I see someone necro'd this guide.

 

There are worse things to necro, but this one is way out of date, unfortunately. Back in the day, this was an excellent way to get started. I used it as my Warframe bible for several months.

 

Some of the basics are still accurate, though. You can do a lot worse for your initial weapon and warframe progression. However, the details are now very different.

Just started playing, could you point out some of the things that are no longer relevant?

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Just started playing, could you point out some of the things that are no longer relevant?

 

I also just started, but right off the bat here are some things to consider:

- the mission types are either changing or have changed; some unpopular types were replaced, details in patch notes, whether this affects the listed loactions that need groups or not I can't say but be aware that some locations may now be harder or easier solo.

 

- weapons ... for example, I find throwing knives to be better than my primary weapon (braton as recommended here still seems great for startup).  The knives cut thru armor and are silent allowing you to kill without being seen easier (gunfire and other noise alert enemy).  And my braton is in decent shape, I have good mods in it and its a great item.  Its just that the knives, with high puncture and more from a mod, are very nasty.

 

- I am still trying to unlock more planets but without leaving earth/venus/mercury I have already 2 of the 3 blueprints for oberon frame parts, hoping to score the third soon.  I have not seen the first bit of rhino.   Oberon looks to be a good general purpose setup and if I get the piece I will make it as my second frame.   I seem to earn these on venus missions.

 

- I did not start with excal but mag.  Mag's pull is very overpowered early on -- pulls everything into a pile and knocks them down, a burst of the brat and its over.   And pull outright kills weaker stuff, including the annoying corpus flying buffbots that kamakazi you or the stupid riot shield grineer and other pests.   You don't have to start with excal.  Since I did not, I can't say if it is any easier or not, but mag is pretty easy.

 

most of the rest of it seems reasonable though it trivializes a lot of the early game.  Some one liners in there represent many hours of play, such as "just level everything to 30" or "go unlock mars"  etc.  

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I'd have to rewrite the guide to cover all the stuff that has changed--and it wasn't mine to begin with.

 

One big thing that has changed: damage 2.0. This was written before the damage/armor model was changed. The above poster alludes to this by mentioning Mag. I started with Mag myself and she had real issues dealing with heavily armored enemies--pull is magnetic damage and didn't ragdoll back when. Now, that isn't an issue and Mag is far better dealing with enemies early on than she was. Also, many weapons (especially the secondaries the guide recommends early on) had innate features they no longer have--namely armor piecing. This is no longer a thing.

 

Another is the reference to Jupiter being infested only. It was until around U11 or 12, now they're strictly invasion, dark sectors (didn't exist when the guide was written), and Eris.

 

The basic concepts of working towards a goal of having a warframe and loadout capable of farming anything you might want or need in the game is still valid. Buying a Braton and Lex initially with credits. Building Orthos as soon as possible. Working straight to a particular node to obtain control modules to get a Rhino built (although, I think control module locations have changed a bit since then along with a few others). The introduction and changes to Oberon makes him a viable alternative to Rhino early on. There are a lot of new weapons that are relatively easy to make when you hit Jupiter and more effective than credit gated weapons (namely the Karak and revised Boltor).

 

A lot of water has passed beneath the bridge since this guide was written and stickied (and de-stickied). Without the ability to edit it, it's essentially a dead item, though it does bring back fond memories.

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