Beginner's Guide to The Index

[Canach]

All,

I have put together a Beginner's Guide for The Index.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dGnyG-5YZcDF95737ofVfWnR1UoaaBfz2HTcyKN0Zps/edit?usp=sharing

Please give it a read and let me know what you think.

All feedback is appreciated!

[Canach]

1 hour ago, Xiqan said:

Excellent read Thx!

Ran the index a few nights back with booster on and made over 5 million in a very short time comparatively speaking to all other sources of credits.

Very Nice!

• Do you remember how long it took?
• How were you geared?
• Did you use a built team, PUG, or solo?
• How did you run in terms of single/multiple rounds and Easy/Med/Hard?

[Jeetkunedoh]

 

Decent beginners guide, I would suggest a brief: advanced class section, for those newer players wanting to take it to the next level, some tips for going beyond index 101.

Shield disruption.  Never under estimate using shield disruption in the index. When enemies start hitting level 200 and up on longer runs it’s godly.  And even at starting levels a few people running it and coaction drift is amazing.  

And Mesa...not much of an index guide even for beginners if you’re not mentioning Mesa.  Most people don’t do prodman runs as beginners so fatal teleport ash is unnecessary and nothing melts enemies in index faster now that nuke trinity is gone than Mesa.  A simple 2 forma investment in mesas regulators allows a great radiation build and she’s dead simple to use, press 3, protect yourself, press 4, melt things.  Press 2 if you think it’s even necessary to buff your teammates damage, it isn’t necessary as nothing lives long with Mesa around.

Also not mentioned is plat making potential of index.  Gold mods drop in the first few rounds in good quantity.  After a few rounds they stop dropping.  Don’t underestimate the importance of transmuting those gold mods at 36,000 credits per transmutation and having a chance at Condition Overload and cyclone kraken among others which can net you easy plat and help pay for that next 30 day credit booster.

Also, Excal Umbra and an opticor. Go in spoiler mode and make a sandwich, much hilarity ensues when unnamed kills start showing up...wait for some clown to beg DE to nerf it and wish that DE would let you have more fun in game...

Yours in Grofit, Jeet.

[Canach]

2 hours ago, Jeetkunedoh said:

 

Decent beginners guide, I would suggest a brief: advanced class section, for those newer players wanting to take it to the next level, some tips for going beyond index 101.

Shield disruption.  Never under estimate using shield disruption in the index. When enemies start hitting level 200 and up on longer runs it’s godly.  And even at starting levels a few people running it and coaction drift is amazing.  

And Mesa...not much of an index guide even for beginners if you’re not mentioning Mesa.  Most people don’t do prodman runs as beginners so fatal teleport ash is unnecessary and nothing melts enemies in index faster now that nuke trinity is gone than Mesa.  A simple 2 forma investment in mesas regulators allows a great radiation build and she’s dead simple to use, press 3, protect yourself, press 4, melt things.  Press 2 if you think it’s even necessary to buff your teammates damage, it isn’t necessary as nothing lives long with Mesa around.

Also not mentioned is plat making potential of index.  Gold mods drop in the first few rounds in good quantity.  After a few rounds they stop dropping.  Don’t underestimate the importance of transmuting those gold mods at 36,000 credits per transmutation and having a chance at Condition Overload and cyclone kraken among others which can net you easy plat and help pay for that next 30 day credit booster.

Also, Excal Umbra and an opticor. Go in spoiler mode and make a sandwich, much hilarity ensues when unnamed kills start showing up...wait for some clown to beg DE to nerf it and wish that DE would let you have more fun in game...

Yours in Grofit, Jeet.

• I did a beginner's guide for a few different reasons, but primarily because I can be specific in recommendations. Once we start talking about longer runs, individual preferences and tactics become unlimited - and besides, anyone going for Prodman, or seeing how far they can go on Hard, or playing around with pre-made teams in different configurations  - not the target audience.
• The Shield Disruption + Coaction Drift sounds great for a premade team, thanks for the tip.
• As far as not mentioning Mesa, there's a really good reason for that - I haven't tried her yet, therefore I said nothing good or bad about her. Also the Opticor, starting to hear that weapon repeated enough times that I almost added it - but again, I haven't tried it myself so... 
• I will add a line into the guide about the mod drops, thanks for the catch there,
• The bit about the spoiled sandwich - yeah... I'll leave that sort of hilarity unmentioned in the guide so you can continue to surprise players - they don't need spoilers.

Great post, thanks!

[Signs]

1) melee is works just as well as other weapons in the index. An atterax can shred enemies with haste. A CO lesion will also shred given the right setup.

2) speaking of setups, stealth frames such as Octavia or Ash are amazing with melees both increasing damage and survivability.

3) Strun Wraith is amazing for CO and deals a good amount of damage in general. Built for viral/heat or corrosive/heat can open enemies for finishers. Detron/Mara is also amazing for CO built for corrosive can shred armor. Strun procs 5 statuses while detron procs 3.

4) Mesa is amazing for 3-4 round given the right build. She has one of the highest DPS in general and her regulators can shoot up 50 meters.

Banshee provides the highest damage increase in the game. She is usually only used if you want to hunt John Prodman. But can be used for great results. Using her with a max range scoliac can shred enemies in huge AOEs.

[CorerMaximus]

You may want to throw in something on suggested / minmax/ optimized team setups in there too, say EV, Banshee, Slowva, and a Rhino; EV, for well, EV, Banshee and Nova for CC and DPS (Banshee's sonar allows you to oneshot things going several rounds into the Index, and that's without shield disruption), and a Rhino to carry points/ kill stuff.

[Xiqan]

On 2018-08-02 at 2:00 PM, Canach said:

Very Nice!

• Do you remember how long it took?
• How were you geared?
• Did you use a built team, PUG, or solo?
• How did you run in terms of single/multiple rounds and Easy/Med/Hard?

It wasn't a planned thing, (2 man with pugs) we went in just run 1 for credits while boosted, and we were surprised when we noticed nearly a half million jump. Went off to the plains and thought we should run a couple more. How long i'm unsure as it was broken up over the night but had to be a couple hours at least, probably more but under 4 i'd think is safe to say.

I took my Nova and he took his Chroma he'd collect i'd kill, if he went down i'd pick up, and we reversed rolls We always collect enough for bonus points and always only ran one then out. I guess we were up about 2 million and left, yep returned again, xd.

This time we got lucky, we bumped into a Rhino on a pug who collected and wanted to roll a bunch, next thing we know were well over 5 million. Haven't been back since.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Xiqan

[Canach]

3 hours ago, CorerMaximus said:

You may want to throw in something on suggested / minmax/ optimized team setups in there too, say EV, Banshee, Slowva, and a Rhino; EV, for well, EV, Banshee and Nova for CC and DPS (Banshee's sonar allows you to oneshot things going several rounds into the Index, and that's without shield disruption), and a Rhino to carry points/ kill stuff.

EV? idk EV

[Korci007]

Nice guide.

I usually solo que with randoms and I use a Slowva + Tigris Prime, with Zenurik for energy. 

The key is to locate the enemy first and then cast MP. The slowed and weakened enemies are then easily shot down (one clip with the Tigris per enemy on Medium except for Bursas, but since they are slowed it’s easy as well). Also my slow and weakening helps my team survive and dish out more damage, even if they are undergeared.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Korci007

[guartz]

this is sorely needed. It's tough playing index with other people, because even 1 person who is clueless can cause a loss.

[(PSN)NecroLord91]

On 2018-08-01 at 7:01 AM, Canach said:

Thanks for posting, it's cool to disagree on tactics. 👍

Your first two point are about slowing combat down instead of speeding it up - you prefer the former, I prefer the latter.

Your built team setup - I get the tank and offense obviously, but can't imagine anyone wanting two support members. I don't get a support to weaken enemies, as I'm recommending single medium runs and so enemies already die in one or two shots to most, say MR10 or above, players. It would make sense for players with lower MR weapons or gear that's not maxed - but there's a lot of better places to level gear. I also don't get a second support for "time mangement" - that would be killing things and banking points, right? I would say any team with at least one player collecting points (and watching the friggin score and clock) and at least one player 'spanking and banking' the other two players could be either, and one of them could be support (I mention Speed Nova for that). 

I can't agree with your fourth point, but there's no way to prove anything and it may vary by who's doing it. I will continue to recommend single runs of medium as "most efficient" and will take some convincing otherwise.

Sorry for the long response, anyways to answer some of your questions first...

For the person doing the time management role, they are basically making sure the timer doesn't get below 60 seconds so they"ll be banking the points while the tank doesn't have to prematurely. As for the 2nd support, that is long game so that is probably my fault for thinking that since you stated this guide for new beginners. However if your group does plan to stay longer than 2 runs then anything to make the enemies easier to kill via slowing them down or weaken their armor rating... etc becomes more and more important. I run with a particular group for Index and we tend to stay for 10+ rounds all the time so you can probably imagine why I state with what I mentioned.

As for my 4th point, the only thing I can say is that unless you can get every Tenno to have a better Internet connection (which we both know that won't happen) then simply waiting between 10 seconds to 2+ minutes starts adding up really quickly when you breeze through the lower risks. I rather stay for a 2nd round that can be done quickly then waiting for who knows how long thanks to bad connections and crappy ping. Like you said it isn't something you can prove either because of so many variables to that situation I just stated.

Lastly something I forgot to mention and I didn't see it in your guide earlier, if the enemy scores at least 1 point then it'll reduce your timer to stay in the match.

[(PSN)whyaskdouknow]

Good info 👍🏾

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

I think someone found something...

[Canach]

2 hours ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

I think someone found something...

Definitely NOT going to add any exploits to the beginner's guide.

[azeriathis]

Wow, from someone who started playing 1 week ago, thank you for this.

Very well written guide. Good job! 👍

[Canach]

@Moderator There's been a lot of positive response to this guide, can we get it stickied? Thanks!

[(XBOX)Mr JDubbs 11]

Some constructive criticism: 

You may want to add a section to the guide related to the best mods for each weapon type and the type of elemental damage you should go for to exploit the enemies weaknesses.  

Also its not really helpful for beginners when you suggest MR10+ weapons, prime versions of mods or weapons that are vaulted. A beginners guide should be focused on players that don't have access to the "Best" stuff.  If there are required mods or weapons people should have before entering you should be specific about it and lay that out in your guide.  

Going from basic details in the beginning to assuming people know how to build Rhino or Nova properly to achieve the required results removes the value that this guide could bring.  

I say this as someone who has read your guide and still struggles with the index.  I can easily deal with enemies up to level 50 in all other places but I am unable to kill anything quickly in the index.  I can take out a level 40-60 corrupted heavy gunner in 3 bursts but it takes 2-3 clips against the index enemies.   I am guessing its because my weapons are not modded correctly but what they should be modded for is not in your guide.  

 

[Canach]

2 hours ago, (XB1)Mr JDubbs 11 said:

Some constructive criticism: 

You may want to add a section to the guide related to the best mods for each weapon type and the type of elemental damage you should go for to exploit the enemies weaknesses.  

Also its not really helpful for beginners when you suggest MR10+ weapons, prime versions of mods or weapons that are vaulted. A beginners guide should be focused on players that don't have access to the "Best" stuff.  If there are required mods or weapons people should have before entering you should be specific about it and lay that out in your guide.  

Going from basic details in the beginning to assuming people know how to build Rhino or Nova properly to achieve the required results removes the value that this guide could bring.  

I say this as someone who has read your guide and still struggles with the index.  I can easily deal with enemies up to level 50 in all other places but I am unable to kill anything quickly in the index.  I can take out a level 40-60 corrupted heavy gunner in 3 bursts but it takes 2-3 clips against the index enemies.   I am guessing its because my weapons are not modded correctly but what they should be modded for is not in your guide.  

 

Thanks for posting!

Sounds like I need to grow the guide, and you've noticed the discrepancy inherent in a 'Beginner's' guide for a non-beginner's area.

This is a beginner's guide - not for beginning players, but for people beginning to do The Index. Also, I don't want to come off as exclusive - like some player's aren't good enough or don't rate, but I do want to communicate that it is beyond Tier 1 equipment. Also, to be fair, the weapons I recommended and the few mods I mention are in widespread use, so you shouldn't have issue with me discussing them. If you are below MR 10, you might consider Soma Prime (MR 7), Karak Wraith (MR 7 Weaker, but Status), maybe some sniper rifles like Vectis (MR 2) or Vulkar Wraith (MR 7) - but you almost need MR 10 weapons to do well, but I guess MR 7 would be the entry point. I may expand the guide a little that direction, talk more about things from a MR 7 perspective.

I did not get into the particulars of the warframe or weapon builds because there's too much variation. I am thinking about expanding the guide to include enemy profiling for weapon status selection, but I do recommend in the guide that "Viral and Radiation are usually recommended for The Index." I believe that to be the general consensus, and it is what I use.

Feel free to PM me your frame and weapon build you want to use and I'll see if I can help. Also, check with your clan and get some teaming going on - that's the whole point of clans!

G'luck!  

[MrMrs]

I really liked the guide but I have 2 things.

One, why didn't you mention trinity? She is a reliable source of energy to be sure other characters have the energy to do stuff like kill and not die. Also, she has healing abilites so that tanks don't die by accident and have a safeguard if say rhino's iron skin went out.

Two, this is more of a question but is it possible to preform finishers with fatal teleport without the augment? I'm planning on getting it but I want to know if it's possible. I've tried using fatal teleport in the index but I've never been able to preform finishers. I normally don't have problems when I use fatal teleport on normal enemies.

[Canach]

4 hours ago, MrMrs said:

I really liked the guide but I have 2 things.

One, why didn't you mention trinity? She is a reliable source of energy to be sure other characters have the energy to do stuff like kill and not die. Also, she has healing abilites so that tanks don't die by accident and have a safeguard if say rhino's iron skin went out.

Two, this is more of a question but is it possible to preform finishers with fatal teleport without the augment? I'm planning on getting it but I want to know if it's possible. I've tried using fatal teleport in the index but I've never been able to preform finishers. I normally don't have problems when I use fatal teleport on normal enemies.

Sure,

One, There's a lot of frames I don't mention - Trinity is not named as good or bad, probably my most common question seems to be "why didn't you talk about (whichever) warframe/weapon".  In regards to Trinity, I don't recommend people start with support frames anyway, not saying she couldn't be good...

Two, To be clear, there's four parts. Ash has a teleport ability, but it does not apply a finisher. The Fatal Teleport augment mod for Ash causes his teleport to automatically apply finishing moves on whoever he teleports to. Covert Lethality is the dagger mod which causes any finishers to be fatal, with some exceptions. Arcane Ultimatum gives any warframe (100% chance) 20 s of +600 armor whenever you use a finisher.  If you have the Fatal Teleport augment, you may not need the Covert Lethality dagger mod, and of course you don't need the Arcane Ultimatum, but if you don't have the Fatal Teleport augment, Ash is just carrying a gun around, and you can use any frame for that.

[Canach]

Addition information regarding "Financial Stress" derived from observed measurements taken by our clan:

Health Reduction:

• Carrying one shard reduces max health by 17%
• A second shard reduces by another 15% (for 32%)
• A third shard reduces by another 12% (for 44% reduction)
• A fourth shard reduces by more than 50% of max health and additional shards continue to reduce health
• I do not have numbers for more than 6 shards, but 4,5, and 6 were consistently 9% each.

Shields showed no reduction

Energy reduction:

• 1 shard drains no energy
• 2 shards drain 1 energy per second
• 3 shards drain 2 energy per second
• 4 shards drain 4 energy per second (almost one 25 pt energy globe gone every 6 seconds)
• 5 or more drain 4 energy per second

"Everybody wants to be a Kavat, because a Kavat's the only Kavat that know where it's at!" - The Aristokavats
 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Canach

[(PSN)Chel-El]

A Mag with all the positive range mods (Stretch, Augur reach, Cunning Drift) plus the Greedy Pull augment is so much fun here.

Once you setup the first few orbs by walking over them, it gets rolling because you can simply greedy pull orbs and shards from then on. 

That much range covers so much ground for her 4 (Crush), which adds overshields to all but Inaros and Nidus. This fulfills a support role.  

While casting Crush I also watch the dmg ticks, which shows me where the Corpus are.

I don’t bank any more than 5. My role is shield support, time management with 1-2 shards, and just having fun pulling anything lol (I try not to compete with the tanky bankers as you also stated)  

Anyone targeted by 2 (Magnetize) gets more damage, but I use it to bump up 4 and the Mara Detron- a shotgun secondary that does loads of dps.

For Corpus it’s gas + electric status or straight toxin. If you’re new to Mag’s index antics use this Mara Detron first. Unlike most shotguns, its pellets work for magnetize hence the synergy. Shooting at the top/side of the bubble angles to headshots. 

If Mag is too slow I traverse with Operator.

Sample G Pull build for range, efficiency, healthy overshields: 

Many thanks for this topic & its responses 

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by (PS4)Chel-El

[Canach]

@(PS4)Chel-El  Argh!  Now I'm going to have to get a Mag Prime!

I sold Mag years ago, but been thinking about picking her prime up - now I have a reason...

Thanks for the post, very interesting - will be reading wiki on the abilities etc (tomorrow or this weekend, not tonight).

[(PSN)Chel-El]

14 minutes ago, Canach said:

@(PS4)Chel-El  Argh!  Now I'm going to have to get a Mag Prime!

I sold Mag years ago, but been thinking about picking her prime up - now I have a reason...

Thanks for the post, very interesting - will be reading wiki on the abilities etc (tomorrow or this weekend, not tonight).

Excellent idea

After months of farming/leveling the other frames, I did a quick recap of Mag’s wiki to relearn her basics, and that proved to be very very useful. 

Thanks for all the Nova, Rhino, Ash and Inaros tips, I’m still learning these. Thanks. 

[Killstring]

Thanks for doing this! I've rolled up into the Index a couple times (I'm MR8), and tried to be a good support Trinity. While I've yet to be involved in a losing - or even close - match, I often wonder if I'm pulling my weight by trying to keep everybody energized. 

I've got Rhino in the Oven: I'm looking forward to figuring him out, then bringing him to the Index. 

Cheers!

[BL4CKN0ISE]

Nice guide, but I wanted to suggest some things to add. My two favorite frames to use in The Index are Gara and Equinox. Gara can easily kill everything just using her Splinter Storm and that also keeps her safe. Equinox has an augment called "Duality". It's one of the most amazing builds for The Index as long as you have a good weapon and decent duration. Just switching forms will create a specter that does an insane amount of damage. The Quanta Vandal and the Astilla work best IMO. It's just like instantly building a turret that tracks and kills everything. It's also great because you can stay in Operator mode most of the time. Then you can safely collect points while your specter does the killing. That reminds me...

Using the Operator is something else I think you should add to the guide. Your operator can safely collect and drop off points. Void Dash can save you in multiple ways. If you're running out of time, you can dash to the goal. I had to do this when I had about 10 seconds remaining and an Auditor deployed a laser barrier between me and the goal. I just dashed right through and no problem. You can also use your Operator as a goalie for emergencies, since you can ragdoll most enemies away from the goal.