WARFRAME NEW PLAYER’S GUIDE

Sections:

1. Starting the game

2. What do I do after completing the opening story quest? (Quest Progression Order)
3. General Tips – Or things I wish I knew when I started the game
4. What is Mastery and why should I care?
5. How the heck does this mod system work?
6. What mods should I aim for as soon as possible?
7. How does the game’s damage system work?
8. General Warframe Modding Guidelines
9. General Weapon Modding Guidelines
10. General Survival Tips and Shield Gating
11. Where do I get specific Warframes from?
12. What are void relics and how do they work?
13. Where do I go for more information?

NOTE: This guide strives to be as spoiler free as possible. If you want to see where to get specific items,
check out the wiki with the caveat that the wiki has very few spoiler warnings:
https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

1: STARTING THE GAME

After you create your account and fire up the game for the first time and log in, you will get the game’s
opening cinematic and start the first story quest “Awakening”. During the quest you will be given a
choice of 1 of 3 starting warframes. Exalibur, Volt, or Mag. The opening cinematic gave you a taste of
what each warframe’s playstyle is like.

Excalibur is a melee focused warframe and has the highest armor of the starters. His passive also
synergizes with one of the starting melee weapons.

Volt is an ability focused warframe with 2 abilities that deal direct damage and stun enemies, a run
speed buff, and a deployable shield that provides cover from enemy fire and boosts the damage of your
own projectiles that pass through it. He has less armor than Excalibur, but makes up for this by having
more energy and more shields. – NOTE: Volt is the easiest of the 3 starter warframes to acquire later.

Mag is a crowd control focused warframe. Her abilities allow you to shield yourself from enemy fire OR
place a shield on an enemy that attracts fire to them. She also has an innate ability to attract pickups to
her by bullet jumping. She has the lowest health of the starters but makes up for this by having more
shields.

There really is no wrong choice here. Pick the one that sounds the most fun to you.

As you continue through this opening mission you’ll be presented with some more choices.

PICK A MELEE WEAPON:

Skana – Standard sword weapon. Mid range damage and attack speed. Can be modified with a faction
mod later giving it extra damage and a health restore proc. This mod alone makes this weapon a
superior choice starting out IMO.

Mk1-Bo – Slower attack speed than the skana, but hits harder and has more reach.

PICK A SECONDARY (SIDEARM) WEAPON

Lato – Pistol that is accurate over long range. Has relatively low stopping power though.

Mk1-Kunai – Throwing knives. Projectiles arc and have a travel time. Innately stealthy which can be
useful early on.

PICK A PRIMARY WEAPON

MK1-Braton – Full auto rifle. Accurate at mid to long range. Deals primarily slashing damage which is
useful against early grineer enemies.

MK1-Paris – Slower fire rate compared to Braton. Bow’s draw from the sniper ammo pool (which
doesn’t drop as frequently). Has a charged shot with innate punch through which is good for shooting
through light cover or the shield carried by Grineer Shield Lancers. Also innately stealthy.

Again, for the weapons, the choice is purely one of desired play style. Personally I choose the Skana,
Lato, and MK1-Paris but there can be arguments for taking any of them.

Once you complete this quest, you will be taken to your orbiter which serves as your primary hub
between missions. This is where you will eventually have access to all of the various systems of the
game to manage your arsenal (weapons and warframes)

Your next quest is Vor’s Prize. This will have you on rails for a bit, but each step unlocks another feature
of the game as well as rewarding you with some starter “flawed” mods.

2: What do I do after completing the opening story quest? (Quest Progression Order)

Once you complete Vor’s prize, the game throws you to the wolves so to speak. It can be very
overwhelming because there are so many different things to tackle.

In general, the best thing you can do is to pick a goal and focus on doing that thing. Then set another
goal and repeat. EG: I’m going to keep farming until I unlock access to the Rhino warframe. OR I’m going
to clear the Venus Junction.

1 Early note. You start the game with 2 Warframe Slots, 8 Weapon Slots (this is shared among all
weapon types), 4 Archwing Slots, 4 Archwing Wepon Slots, and 8 Amp slots. If you buy a weapon or
warframe outright with platinum you gain a slot to accommodate it. Otherwise you can purchase 1
warframe slot for 20 platinum and 2 weapon slots for 12 platinum. It can be worth it early on to
purchase a few extra slots just so you can have a variety of frames or weapons to choose from. The
Nightwave weekly and daily tasks also will grant you 2 weapon slots.

Your initial early goal should be to do the following:

1: Clear all the mission nodes on your current planet. (Earth has two branches so you have to leave and
come back). Your ultimate goal should be to get to and clear all of the nodes on Eris.

2: Clear the next Junction on the planet you are on. (Mousing over the junction will tell you what you
have to do to go into the Junction). The junctions themselves are mini boss fights and typically reward
you with a weapon blueprint, some mods, and possibly a quest or two.

3: Raise your mastery rank.

4: Complete the Nightwave daily and weekly tasks as often as you can. You can find these on your
navigation pane at the bottom right by clicking on the Nightwave banner. This earns you various rewards
and the Nightwave “cred offerings” shop lets you purchase much needed Aura Mods and Orokin
Reactors and Catalysts.

5: Complete Story Quests as you unlock them.

6: After getting mastery rank 1, complete the weekly treasure hunt from Maroo’s Bazaar on Mars. The
treasure you earn can be sold to Maroo for Endo. Endo is the currency you use to rank up your mods.

Clearing the star chart opens up access to Arbitrations and Steel Path which are both endgame mission
types. Further, the more planets you have access to, the easier it is to farm for resources you need to
craft things.

The current story quest progression order is:

NOTE: See https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Quest for up to date quest progression info.

Awakening – starter quest

Vor’s Prize – after Awakening

Once Awake – after clearing the Mercury junction on Venus

The Archwing – after clearing the Mars junction on Earth

Stolen Dreams – after clearing the Phobos junction on Mars

The New Strange – after clearing the Europa junction on Jupiter

Natah – Obtain mastery rank 3 and scan one of the Sentient drones that appear at random in the
Grineer Sealab tileset on Uranus

The Second Dream – after clearing the Neptune junction on Uranus

The War Within – after clearing the Sedna junction on Pluto

Chains of Harrow – after War within and clearing the Mot mission node in The Void

Apostasy Prologue – complete Chains of Harrow and install the Personal Quarters Segment on your
orbiter

The Sacrifice – Complete the Apostasy Prologue

The Prelude to War – Complete the Sacrifice

The New War – must have built a Necramech and Railjack, available after completing The Prelude to
War

OTHER/SIDEQUESTS

Saya’s Vigil – Available after Vor’s Prize and having access to Cetus on Earth

Vox Solaris – Available when you first visit Fortuna

Deadlock Protocol – after Vox Solaris

The Waverider – after Vox Solaris

Call of the Tempestarii – after the Deadlock Protocol

Rising Tide – after The Second Dream (rewards Railjack)

Octavia’s Anthem – after The Second Dream

The Glast Gambit – after the War Within

There are several other sidequests that unlock simply from ranking up in mastery OR completing specific
junctions. In general all of the sidequests are worth doing, but progressing through the story should be a
priority.

3: General Tips – Or things I wish I knew when I started the game

The game does a really por job of teaching you all of the various maneuvers you can perform.

• Double Jump – All warframes can innately double jump.

• Sprint – Hold down the sprint key. You can set this to a toggle in options if you want.
• Dodge Roll – Tap the sprint key while holding a direction. You can dodge roll in any direction.
Dodge rolling backward will perform a back handspring. You can use this to get forward
momentum. You can also doge roll in mid air to change your direction of movement. Combine
this with aim glide and bullet jumping to cover very long distances. Dodge rolling also reduces all
damage you take during the animation.
• Aim Glide – If you hold down your aim button while in the air, you will slowly glide. Use this with
bullet and double jumping to cross over large gaps very quickly.
• Wall Jump/Run – Hold down jump while moving into a wall. This will cause your warframe to
push off the wall and leap in the direction you are pressing. This allows you to scale walls or run
along walls. – In missions you will typically see a series of scratches or an obviously hanging
grate on areas you can access with this maneuver.
• Slide – Hit crouch while running. If you melee attack while sliding, you will do a circular strike.
This is also a way so build momentum.
• Jump Kick – Crouch while moving forward in mid air. This will knock enemies down if you hit
them, but is really hard to pull of.
• Bullet Jump – Hit jump while crouched. You will jump in the direction of your targeting reticle.
EG: You can bullet jump forward to cross large gaps OR you can bullet jump straight up to get
extra height or access very high ledges. Couple a bullet jump up with a double jump to get even
higher.
 • Wall Latch – Press and hold aim while pushing against a wall. This will cause your warframe to
hang onto the wall like spider man. While holding in place you can aim around and shoot at
things. If you hold down jump while letting go of aim you can transition into a wall jump/run.
• Edge Grab – Jump near a ledge. You will automatically grab onto a ledge/edge and pull yourself
up.
• Enemy/NPC Vault – Press jump while moving toward an enemy or non-hostile npc. You will get a
slight lift and go over the enemy. This can knock enemies down, but is not easy to pull off.
• Hard Landing – If you fall from a big height, you will be briefly unable to move. This is signified
by leaving a crack in the ground. Rhino’s passive takes advantage of this and does a radial slam
attack whenever he does a hard landing.

Melee Maneuvers:

• There are separate attacks based on the following. Most Combo Stance Mods (see the modding
section) perform different animations/attacks based on jumping, wall running, sliding, combo
attacks and slam attacks. Slam attacks are performed by hitting melee while your targeting
reticle is aimed toward the ground while you are airborn. Your alternate fire button will perform
a heavy attack which his a wind up time and deals damage based on your total combo counter
at the time of the attack. Heavy attacks also almost always proc a status effect.

Archwing Combat:

• Archwing is a mode unlocked after completing the Mars junction. At mastery rank 5 you can also
craft an Archwing launcher (blue print will be in your clan dojo). The Arching launcher lets you
summon your archwing in the 3 open world maps (Plains of Eidolon (Earth), Orb Valis (Venus),
Cambrion Drift (Deimos))
• Dash/Thrusters – Holding the sprint button will boost you forward at higher speed. You maintain
momentum for a bit after letting go of forward and the thrusters.
• Blink – Double tap sprint while moving forward. Teleports the archwing forward a short
distance.
• Braking – Hold backward. If you do this just before crashing into a wall or obstacle it will bring
you to a complete stop without taking any damage.
• Ascend – Pressing jump will move you up vertically.
• Descend – Pressing crouch will move you down vertically.
• Dodge – Tap spring while pushing a direction to briefly dodge in that direction. You can also tap
sprint and jump or sprint and crouch to dodge up and down respectively.

General Gameplay Tips:

• Join a clan – Clans give you access to various Labs which have kiosks you can buy blueprints from
for credits providing your clan has completed research of that blue print. Clans also have a clan
dry dock (used for Railjack missions later in the game). Further, your clan dojo can be used for
conducting in game trades by going to the clan trade kiosk. – The big help here is there are 5
warframes (Banshee, Volt, Nezha, Wukong, and Zephyr) and ALL 4 archwings that can be
purchased from your clan Dojo.
• You can fast travel in relays, open world hubs (Cetus, Fortuna, Necralisk), and within your clan
dojo by opening up the game menu and selecting Fast Travel.
• You can customize the look of your UI under Game Menu > Options > Interface > Customize UI
• You can change how Tap/Hold abilities function for the warframes that have them under Game
Menu > Options > Controls > Invert Tap/Hold Abilities.
• You can change how the melee and quick melee button functions under Game Menu > Options
> Controls > Melee with Fire Weapon Input. With this option on, whenever you quick melee you
can continue to melee with the primary fire button instead of the melee button.
• You can make sprinting and aiming toggles instead of being held under Game Menu > Options
Controls > Toggle Spring and Toggle Aim.
• The first mission you complete every day gives you double the normal credit rewards (this is
useful for farming credits as certain missions have higher credit rewards at the end).
• You should always be using the maximum number of Extractors you can build. These are items
you can craft that you deploy at planets to extract resources every few hours.
• You can set your mission privacy by clicking on the globe next to your name at the top of the
screen. This lets you set it to public, friends only, invite only, or solo mode.
• You can pause the game if you have it set to solo mode. – Opening the game menu while in solo
mode pauses the action. This is useful if you know you aren’t going to be on long, or want to
play while doing things like laundry or making dinner or whatever.
• Loot absolutely everything. Take your time early on to shoot containers, open lockers, shoot
resource nodes etc.
• Loot Radar and Enemy Radar mods are your friend. – Early on you can get companions that are
combat pets. ALL companion types have a rare mod called Animal Instinct that gives you loot
and enemy radar. They also all have a mod that increases your innate pickup range. (Vacuum for
robotic, Fetch for animal)
• Buy a scanner and equip it to your gear wheel. You can use it to scan Cephalon Fragments (big
glowing blue orbs) for lore. You can also scan enemies for lore entries. Later when you get
mastery rank 3, you can visit Cephalon Simaris and buy a Synthesis Scanner. Completing daily
tasks for him earns you standing. For 50,000 standing you can buy a Solar Battery widget for the
synthesis scanner which nets you infinite scanner charges. – The Helios companion will
automatically scan enemies for you. – Completing the lor entry for a specific enemy will let you
look up their specific damage weakness and armor types. – This is specifically useful for running
the simulacrum later (available for 100,000 standing at Cephalong Simaris). The Simulacrum lets
you test out builds against dummy enemies.
• You can practice mastery rank tests before trying to take them. – There will be a practice button
at the lower right of the screen. Alternatively, along the outer edge of Cephalon Simaris’s room
on any relay are teleporters that let you practice the mastery rank tests.
• Once you reach mastery Rank 3 you can pledge to one of the 6 factions. The factions are allied
with 2 other factions and enemies with 2 other factions. As such, when you earn points with one
you earn points with 2 others and lose points with 2 others. The system is set up in such a way
that you can easily pledge and earn standing with 3 of the 6 factions. The New Loka, Red Veil,
and Perrin Sequence is one set. The Arbiters of Hexis, The Steel Meridian, and Cephalon Suda
are the other 3. Each faction has unique weapons, mods, and warframe augments available to
 them. You can read about the rewards available to each faction here:
https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Syndicate

4: What is Mastery and why should I care?

You can think of mastery as your personal character/account level. Just as each wraframe and weapon
has ranks associated with it, you account has a rank/level referred to as mastery.

First and most importantly, progressing through the game requires you to earn up to Mastery Rank 5.
Also, certain weapons, mods, and prime warframes require you to have a specific mastery rank. Rank 8
is currently required for access to ALL prime warframes. Rank 16 is needed to be able to equip any
weapon in the game, Riven mods (earned later in the game) are also locked behind mastery rank
requirements.

Further, your mastery rank determines the total amount of faction standing you can earn per day, the
total amount of Tenno School Affinity you can earn per day (a system unlocked after progressing to a
certain point in the story), and the total number of trade transactions you can conduct per day.

Finally, the total number of mod points you have available is always equal to your mastery rank OR the
weapon’s rank, whichever is higher. AND when you apply a forma to a warframe, the Warframe’s
minimum level for determining what abilities are available to you is equal to your mastery rank.

So, how do you Raise mastery rank?

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Mastery_Rank#Warframe has a list of the total mastery points

required as well as the specific benefits earned at each rank.

You earn mastery points as follows

• When you level up a warframe, companion, archwing, K-drives, your Railjack Plexus, or
Necramech for the first time you earn 200 points per level. NOTE: Moa and Predasite
companions require gilding before you earn mastery. (for a maximum of 6,000 points).
• When you level up any weapon for the first time you earn 100 points per level (for a maximum
of 3,000). NOTE: Kitguns and Zaws require gilding before you earn mastery.
• You earn a very small mastery reward for each mission node you successfully complete for the
first time.
• Defeating a junction boss for the first time is worth 1,000 mastery
• Each of the 5 Railjack intrinsic categories is worth 1,500 points per rank (for a total of 15,000
points per intrinsic at rank 10)

So, as you can see simply leveling up your first warframe and first 3 weapons is worth 6,000 for the
warframe and 3,000 per weapon (for 9,000 total for all 3 weapons and 15,000 total just for leveling your
starter gear and warframe). This is enough to get you to rank 2 and well on your way to rank 3.

5: How the heck does this mod system work?

Just leveling a warframe or weapon doesn’t necessarily make it more powerful. While warframes get
slightly more powerful abilities at rank 30 and will have slightly higher health and shields, the modding
system in the game is how you truly build up the power of your weapons and warframes.

That said, there is an oft repeated refrain in warframe that any frame or weapon can be good so long as
you understand the games modding and damage system.

Here is what the mod screen looks like:

1. This area lists your capacity and stats screen. Each installed mod requires capacity points. The
level/rank of your weapon or warframe determines its maximum capacity. Installing an Orokin
Catalyst for weapons OR Orokin Reactor for Frames, Archwings etc will double the total capacity
meaning most weapons have a maximum of 60 capacity, though Melee weapons and
Warframes have a way to increase this slightly further.
2. Mod Slot: Drag and drop mods from the area below into the slot to install a mod. NOTE: The
symbol at the top right of the slot is the polarity. No symbol here means the polarity is neutral.
(see below screen shots)
3. Weapon/Warframe Name and Current rank and Configuration tabs. The 3 tabs directly under
the name are configuration slots. By default you can have 3 different configurations. You can
click the pencil icon to the right to name each configuration (by default they are named Config
A, B and C). To swap configurations you need to go into the upgrade screen and click the tab.
The last tab you were looking at will be your current configuration for the missions you go into.
4. Symbol of the current Tenno school lens installed on the weapon or warframe (this is unlocked
after a certain story quest). This is used to earn levels in your Tenno school (a percentage of the
experience you earn on rank 30 weapons is converted into Tenno school points of the matching
lens you have installed).
5. Number of forma used on this weapon or warframe.
 6. Arcane slot: Arcanes are another type of item you can use to add stats to a weapon or
warframe. Arcanes are earned from certain in game activities such as Eidolon hunts on Plains of
Eidolon or by defeating specific enemies in Steel Path or completing Arbitration missions at end
game. Kitguns and Zaws also have a special Arcane slot specific to them. These arcanes are
purchased from vendors on Cetus, Fortuna, and the Necralisk.
7. Exilus Mod Slot: This is a special mod slot available on Warframes and Primary and Secondary
weapons. This slot is locked by default and can be unlocked with 20 platinum OR by looting or
purchasing the appropriate adapter. Warframe Exilus adapters are a potential reward from
some events OR from Sorite missions. Weapon Exilus adapters can be purchased from the 6
syndicates for 75,000 standing points at syndicate rank 5.
8. Mod Pool: This is the pool of all available mods you have that fit the item your looking at. The
buttons and drop down on the right are various actions. The Actions button allows you to install
an Orokin Catalyst or Reactor, Apply a Forma, or apply a Tenno School lens. – The Drop down on
the far right lets you change the sorting method of the mods in your pool (By Name, Rank, Drain
(aka capacity cose), or Rartiy).

ANATOMY OF A MOD:

1. Name, Mod Type, and Effect of the mod. In this example the Mod name is Vital Sense. It’s effect
is that it adds 120% damage. The mod type is Rifle meaning this can only be applied to Rifle type
primary weapons.
2. Mod Rank: All mods have various numbers of ranks. The dots will be grayed out at rank 0 and
will turn blue for each rank applied to the mod. Each dot represents one rank.
3. Drain/Capacity Cost/Polarity Symbol: This is the required available capacity required to install
the mod. The symbol next to the number is the Polarity of the mod. Installing a mod in a
matching polarity slot halves its Drain/Capacity cost (rounded up). Installing it in a mismatched
polarity slot increases the drain/capacity cost. Each rank applied to the mod increases the
drain/capacity cost by 1 AND increases the effect the mod has. In this example, Vital Sense has
 +20% critical damage at rank 1 and increases by 20% for each rank up.
NOTE: In this example screenshot the mod is installed in a matched polarity slot
4. RARITY: The background color of a mod denotes its rarity. Gold = Rare, Silver = Uncommon,
Bronze = Common. White/Silver = Primed/Umbral (rare mod purchased from a vendor or
earned as a log in reward). Purple = Riven (special mod types earned from various activities),
Dark Silver/Black = Galvanized (purchased from the Arbiters of Hexis for Vitus essence, a
currency earned from Arbitration missions), Light Silver/Grey = Amalgam (earned from Thermia
Fractues on Orb Valis OR the Ropalolyst boss on Jupiter)

POLARITY SYMBOLS Matching and Mismatching:

This screenshot shows a mod installed in a matched polarity slot: The base drain of the example mod is
12.

And here is the same mod installed in a mismatched polarity slot:

AURA/STANCE Mods: Warframes and Melee Weapons have a special Mod slot that appears at the top of
their mod window called the Aura or Stance mod. Aura Mods apply a squad wide buff for warframes.
Stance mods change the melee combos available to a weapon.

BOTH Aura and Stance mods INCREASE the available Capacity instead of decreasing it. Matching the
polarity gives larger increase (double) while mismatching it gives a smaller increase (about half). In this
example screen shot, the Aura Mod “Energy Siphon” is increasing the available capacity of the warframe
by 14 points.

FORMA: A forma is a special item earned from various game activities. You can earn Forma from
Nightwave, specific mission nodes, or from occasional in game events. Applying a Forma to a rank 30
Weapon, Warframe, Archwing, Companion etc lets you apply a polarity symbol to a slot that doesn’t
already have one OR change the existing polarity symbol on a slot that already has one.

Aura, Stance, and Umbra Forma: These are special forma types. See the warframe wiki for how to obtain
them. Aura and Stance mods make it so the Aura or Stance slot will always match the polarity of
whatever mod is installed. Umbra forma apply the Umbra Polarity to a slot. The Umbra Polarity mods
are a special type of set mod earned after completing a specific story quest.

SET MODS:
 1. Set Name and Mod effect – Like normal mods this is the effect of installing this specific mod. The
Name of the Set is always the first word. This example screenshot is part of the “Augur” set.
The boxes under the effect are the total number of mods in the set. The number of filled in
boxes is how many mods from that set you have equipped currently.
2. Set Bonus – The effect applied per equipped mod in the set. In this case the base effect for the
set is 40% of energy spent on abilities is converted to shields and increases by 40% per set mod
equipped.
3. Mod Type – Like normal mods this section indicates what it can be installed on. Set mods also
have the word “SET” here.
4. Set Symbol – Each set mod has a specific symbol associated with it. This is to help differentiate
the various sets.

6: What mods should I aim for as soon as possible?

At the bear minimum, check out the Essential Mod packs on the platinum store. There are 6 total. You
can check out the warframe wiki if you want to try and farm these mods yourself.

Others to Aim for:

Auras: These can be purchased from the Nigtwave “Cred Offerings” shop: Steel Charge, Corrosive
Projection, Rejuvenation, Energy Siphon

Set Mods: All of these come from Bounties in Cetus/Plains of Eidolon: Augur Secrets, Augur Reach,
Hunter Adrenaline, Hunter Munitions, Vigilante Armaments

Corrupted Mods: All of these come from Orokin Vaults on Deimos: Blind Rage, Fleeting Expertise,
Narrow Minded, Over Extended, Transient Fortitude

Dual Status Mods: These mods add +% element and +% status chance: These can be found as follows:
 • Rifle: Heat = Tier 3 spy missions, Cold = Tier 2 spy missions, Electricity = Hive Sabotage (Eris),
Toxin = Loot from Boss, Corrupted Vor in the Void mission nodes
• Shotgun: Heat = Tier 2 spy missions, Cold = Tier 3 spy missions, Electricity = Hive Sabotage (Eris),
Toxin = Loot from Boss, Corrupted Vor in the Void mission nodes
• Secondary Weapon: Heat = Tier 3 spy missions, Cold = Tier 3 spy missions, Electricity = Purchase
from Baro Ki’teer (wandering vendor), Toxin = Loot from Boss, Corrupted Vor in the Void mission
nodes
• Melee Weapon: Heat = Tier 1 spy missions, Cold = Tier 1 spy missions, Electricity = Purchased
from Baro Ki’Teer (wandering vendor), Toxin = Loot from Boss, Corrupted Vor in the Void
mission nodes

NOTE: As you can see from above, farming all of the spy missions is a really good choice.

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

7: How does the game’s damage system work?

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Damage

There are in general 4 types of defenses you will encounter in each enemy faction with some of those
defenses having slight variations. These are: Flesh (red hp bar), Shields (blue hp bar), Armor (yellow hp
bar), Robotic (red hp bar, only applies to obviously mechanical enemies)

Each of the various defenses has a resistance or weakness vs the various types of damage in the game.

See the warframe wiki damage overview for which defenses are vulnerable to which damage types. In
general Corrosive, Viral, and Bleed damage are the best over all damage types as only two defenses in
the game are resistant to these damage types.

Radiation is the best alternative damage type when up against specific armors such as certain Corpus
Bosses, Necramechs in Cambrion Drift, or Eidolons on Plains of Eidolon.

In general there are 16 different types of damage in the game. 13 of those occur naturally on weapons
and warframes OR from mods.

Void damage comes from Amp’s (a weapon available after a specific story quest) AND from the
warframe Xaku. Void damage is mainly used against Sentient type enemies. Sentients as a faction have
an ability to build up immunity to damage types. Void damage, except from Xaku, removes that
resistance.

Tau damage is only from the Sentient enemy faction and not presently available to players. The Umbral
set mods provide resistance to Tau damage.

True/Finisher damage comes from combo finishers, stealth attacks, and from the bleed status effect.
True damage bypasses all defense types.

When you deal damage to an enemy you will see the damage pop up as a colored number.

White = Base damage.

Yellow = Critical hit AND or headshot

Orange = Second tier critical hit (your crit chance was over 100%)

Red = Third tier critical hit and higher (your crit chance was over 200%)

PHYSICAL DAMAGE TYPES

There are 3 physical damage types. In general the vast majority of weapons in the game deal one or
more of these 3 damage types. There are mods in the game that have +% bonus to these specific
damage types OR just +% damage which applies to all of the base damages on a weapon. NOTE: If a
weapon does 0 of one of these damage types adding the +% of that type will not add damage of that
type to the weapon.

Slash

Puncture

Impact

BASE ELEMENTAL DAMAGE TYPES

Unlike Physical Damage, you can add elemental damage to a weapon by adding a mod that has +% of
that element type. This % is added as the total base damage of the weapon. As such adding a +%
damage mod will increase the elemental damage types as well.

Heat

Cold

Electricity

Toxin

ADVANCED ELEMENTAL DAMAGE TYPES

Corrosive (Toxin + Electricity)

Viral (Toxin + Cold)

Gas (Toxin + Heat)

Magnetic (Cold + Electricity)

Blast (Cold + Heat)

Radiation (Heat + Electricity)

STATUS DAMAGE

Each damage type has a chance to proc a status effect which is a short duration debuff applied to the
enemy.

Each damage type present on a weapon has a chance to proc that damage type’s status with priority
being given to the higher damage over all.
EG: A weapon with 100 slash damage and 10 impact and puncture damage has a higher chance to proc
bleed.

Where both elemental and physical damage types are present, the physical damage types have a higher
chance to proc than the elemental damage types. That said, it is entirely possible for a single attack to
proc multiple status effects at one time.

PHYSICAL STATUS PROCS

Bleed (Slash) – Deals 35% of the attack’s base damage per second over 6 second as True damage. Can
stack infinitely with each stack having its own separate timer.

Stagger (Impact) – Causes target to flinch and stagger for 1 second with higher stacks causing a longer
stagger. Also increases the health threshold for Parazon finisher attacks. Stacks up to 10 times, each
stack has its own duration.

Weakness (Puncture) – Reduces damage dealt by 30% for 6 seconds. Additional stacks further reduce
damage dealt by 5% for a total of 75% reduced damage at 10 stacks. Each stack has its own duration.

BASE ELEMENTAL STATUS PROCS

Ignite (Heat) – Deals 50% of the base attack per second as heat damage over 6 seconds. Chance to cause
enemy to panic causing it to run around in fear. Stripes armor over 2 seconds up to 50% of the total
armor of the enemy.

Freeze (Cold) – Slows movement speed, fire rate, and melee attack speed by 25% for 6 seconds. Stacks
up to 10 times with each stack further reducing speed by 5% per stack for a total of 70% at 10 stacks.
Each stack has its own duration.

Tesla Chain (Electricity) – Deals 50% of the base attack per second as electricity over 6 seconds to all
enemies within a very short range of the target. The primary target is stunned for 3 seconds. Each stack
has its own duration.

Poison (Toxin) – Deals 50% of the base attack per second as toxin damage over 6 seconds. Ignores
shields. Stacks are not limited and each stack has its own duration.

ADVANCED ELEMENTAL STATUS PROCS

Corrosion (Corrosive) – Reduces current armor by 26% for 8 seconds. Stacks 10 times for a maximum of
80% reduced armor. Each stack has its own duration.

Virus (Viral) – Damage dealt to the target’s health will deal +100% damage for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 10
times for a total of 325% amplified damage.

Gas Cloud (Gas) – Creates a small cloud that deals 50% of the base attack per second as gas damage
over 6 seconds to targets inside the cloud. Each stack has its own duration and the cloud remains even
when the original target dies.

Disrupt (Magnetic) – Damage dealt to the target’s shields is amplified by +100% for 6 seconds. Stacks up
to 10 times for a total of 325% amplified damage. Also prevents shields from regenerating as long as at
least one stack of disrupt is on the target. – NOTE: This only applies to shield health and once this is
depleted the target won’t take any amplified damage to other defense types/health pools. EG: If they
have 1 shield HP left, the amplified damage does not spill over to their HP.

Inaccuracy (Blast) – Reduces accuracy by 30% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times for a total of 70%
reduced accuracy.

Confusion (Radiation) – Causes the target to attack the closest enemy dealing +100% bonus damage to
allies. Allies in turn will attack the target for up to 12 seconds. Stacks 10 times for a total of +550%
damage against allies and 4 times for a total of +250% damage received from allies. Some enemies are
immune to effect that causes them to attack allies.

8: General Warframe Modding Guidelines

Aside from Health, Armor, and Shields, and Energy warframe mods can also apply to their abilities in the
form of Power Strength, Range, Duration, and Efficiency. There are also mods that effect sprint speed,
parkour maneuvers, enemy and loot radar, and resistance to specific damage types.

In general when modding your warframe you want to consider the following priorities:

1: How will this warframe survive? (see the section on general survival tips)

2: How does this frame’s abilities function? Some frames benefit from High Duration, High Strength and
low efficiency. Others benefit from High Duration and Efficiency and don’t care as much about Strength
or Range. This is where looking up build guides or checking out the warframe wiki on that frame can
help you decide what best to use

In general when considering survivability HP > Armor > Shields is the way to go. For higher level content
you need to start looking at mitigating knock downs AND mitigating status effects. Since bleeding and
poison can go through shields you need to look at methods of mitigating that damage. Mods that can
help this are Adaptation (possible reward during arbitration missions) and Rolling Guard (Purchased
from Arbiters of Hexis Arbitration Vendor on any relay for 20 vitus essence)

Having some method of healing yourself is useful as well. That can come from companions, warframe
abilities, life steal on attacks and so on.

9: General Weapon Modding Guidelines

In case you didn’t read How Damage Works section, know that in general modding for Corrosive damage
OR Viral/Bleed/Heat damage are the optimal choices in most cases since very few enemies in the game
are outright resistant to these damage types.

For some very specific content: Eidolon hunting (plains of eidolon), isolation vaults (neracmech hunting
on deimos), or a few specific boss fights, Radiation is a better choice of damage.

When modding a weapon you want to look at its base stats to determine what a viable choice will be for
the build you want to go with.

In general you can’t go wrong with adding multishot to your ranged weapons.

After that for ranged weapons there are typically 3 build routes that most people go for.
1: High damage with high crit chance and corrosive damage. – Best for slow firing weapons so you do as
much damage per shot as possible. Look for a base critical chance of at least 15 to 20%

2: High status chance with viral/bleed/heat damage. – Best for rapid fire or shotgun weapons so you can
apply debuff stacks very quickly.

3: A hybrid crit/status build using viral damage + hunter munitions to apply bleeding damage – Best for
weapons that have both a mid range base status and crit chance.

A Note on Damage Stacking: Not all +% damage mods are equal when it comes to applying multiple
mods with similar or the same effects.

Mods such as Serration and Heavy Caliber (both rifle mods that add +% damage) are additive with one
another and suffer from diminishing returns such that the total overall actual increase in the damage
calculation is less behind the scenes than if you use mods or sources of damage that are multiplicative
with one another. EG: Even though the arsenal shows really big base damage numbers, the actual
damage you will deal will end up being less than if you use strictly sources of damage that are
multiplicative with one another.

The following mod combinations/sources of +% damage are multiplicative when combined with other
sources of +% damage

Base Damage (such as serration)

Elemental Damage (such as Cryo rounds)

Virus status proc (from Viral damage)

Bane Damage Mods (such as Bane of Grineer)

Headshots – It is worth noting not all weapons have a headshot multiplier

Increased damage due to reduced armor

Critical hits multiply the total base damage of the hit

Further: +% element damage is added based on the total base damage of a weapon and combined all in
one step. Thus, unless a weapon deals all of its Impact, Puncture, or Slash damage as ONLY ONE of those
damage types, a +% element mod with the same % will always be superior to a +% to one of the physical
damage types.

Mod/Damage Source Application Order:

1. +% base damage (such as serration)

2. All +% element AND +% physical damage
3. +% to faction damage

Critical hits multiply the damage dealt by the critical multiplier of the weapon. Weapons that add +%crit
damage increase the base critical multiplier of the weapon.

Critical hit chance can go above 100%. Each full 100% over increases the crit dear doing increasing
damage.
10: General Survival Tips and Shield Gating

In general the best defense is a good offense. When going into a mission you always want to consider
the faction and what enemies you’ll be fighting and mod your weapons accordingly. Dead enemies can’t
deal damage to you.

For most missions you will want the following offensive options:

• A weapon or ability to deal with high threat targets. These are enemies like Grineer Heavy
Gunners or Bombards; Corpus Nullifiers or Bursas; Infested Ancients or Juggernauts etc.
• A weapon or ability to deal with large swarms of weaker enemies.
• Some method of crowd controlling enemies

For most defensive options you want to mod your warframe for Health > Armor > Shields. This is not
true of all warframes. Some frames have higher shields and abilities that can give them overshields that
exceed their max shield health pool (purple shield health bar).

Also, all warframes benefit from an effect call shield gating. That is for example: if you have 100 health
and 100 shields and take a hit for 200 damage, you will only lose your 100 shields and then gain 1.3
seconds of invulnerability (Protea and Hildryn have abilities that can make this 3 seconds). Once a shield
gate happens your shields have to fully replenish before it can happen again. This makes abilities that
can replenish shields quickly very useful to frames that are more reliant on shields. This means you can
also take advantage of abilities that replenish a small amount of shields on frames that already have a
low shield amount to begin with.

For truly high level content 60+ you want to start looking at other sources of damage mitigation such as
very high armor, very high hp regen, or sources of damage reduction such as the Adaptation mod or
certain specific warframe abilities. This is also why knockdown mitigation is useful (surefooted or
constitution are two good mods for this). The less time you are on your butt, the more time you can
spend dealing damage. Being knocked down also makes you a sitting duck for damage.

Finally keep these bullets in mind:

• You don’t have to kill everything and in fact you shouldn’t try to UNLESS that is what the mission
type needs. EG: Defense and Survival missions need you to kill things to survive or progress.
Whereas spy missions only need to get into and hack open the vaults.
• Stay mobile. Remember dodge rolling reduces the damage you take during the animation. Also
moving in general makes you a harder target to hit.
• If you do need to stop and fight consider your terrain. Sometimes taking cover is useful, but if
you can funnel enemies with area denying abilities OR by using the terrain, you can use that to
your advantage to kill enemies more quickly with less risk to yourself.

11: Where do I get a specific warframe from?

Ash = Farmed from Railjack Survival and Defense Missions on Venus, Pluto and Neptune. Main blueprint
is purchase from the market with credits.

Atlas = Main blueprint comes from Jordas Precept quest. Parts are loot drops from the Jordas Golem
boss on Eris
Banshee = All parts researched/purchased from the clan dojo’s tenno lab

Baruk = All parts purchased from Little Duck in Fortuna

Caliban = All parts come from Narmer Bounties available on Cetus and Fortuna after completing the
quest “The New War”

Chroma = Main Blueprint from quest “New Strange”. Parts are rewards from completing Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto junctions

Ember = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. Parts are loot drops from General Sargus
Ruk on Saturn

Equinox = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. Parts are loot drops from Tyl Regor on
Uranus

Excalibur = Possible starter, Main blueprint purchased from Market for credits. Parts are loot drops from
Lech Kril on Mars

Frost = Main blueprint purchased from Market for credits. Parts are loot drops from Lech Kril & Vor fight
on Ceres

Gara = Main blueprint is quest reward from “Saya’s Vigil” in Cetus. Parts are rewards from Plains of
Eidolon bounties.

Garuda = Main blueprint is quest reward from “Vox Solaris” in Fortuna. Parts are rewards from Orb Valis
bounties.

Gauss = Main blueprint purchased from Market for credits. Parts drop from the disruption mission node
on Sedna.

Grendel = Main blueprint purchase from Market for credits. Parts require locators purchased from
Arbitration honors vendor for 25 vitus essence each. The locator unlocks a unique mission node which is
guaranteed to drop the part.

Harrow = Main blueprint is quest reward from “Chains of Harrow”. Parts are from the Kuva Fortress spy,
defection, and survival missions.

Hildryn = Main blueprint purchased from Little Duck in Fortuna. Parts drop from the Exploiter Orb boss
encounter in Orb Valis.

Hydroid = Main blueprint purchase from market for credits. Parts dropped by Vay Hek on Earth.

Inaros = Purchase quest Sands of Inaros from Baro Ki’Teer. All parts obtained by completing the quest.

Ivara = All parts farmed from tier 1 to 3 spy missions.

Khora = All parts farmed from completing levels of sanctuary onslaught (normal not elite)

Lavos = All parts purchased from Father in the Necralisk on Deimos.

Limbo = Main blueprint purchase from market for credits. All parts earned from quest “The Limbo
Theorem”
Loki = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts are loot drops from the Hyena Pack
on Neptune.

Mag = Possible starter, main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts drop from The
Sergeant on Phobos.

Mesa = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts drop from Mutalist Alad V on Eris.

Mirage = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts are obtained from ques “Hidden
Messages”

Nekros = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts drop from Lephantis on Deimos.

Nezha = All parts purchase from the clan dojo’s tenno lab.

Nidus = Main blueprint rewarded from quest “The Glast Gambit”. Parts are dropped from Infested
Salvage mission on Eris.

Nova = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. Parts dropped from Raptor on Europa.

Nyx = Main blueprint purchase from market for credits. Parts dropped from Phorid in infested invasion
missions with the assassination type.

Oberon = Main blueprint purchase from market for credits. Parts dropped from points of interest in
Railjack mission on Earth, Saturn, and Grineer Controlled Veil Proxima nodes.

Octavia = Main blueprint is reward from quest “Octavia’s Anthem”. Parts acquired from Lua’s Music
Puzzle (random room on any mission on Lua), The hidden caches in Lua’s Crossfire Exterminate mission
node, and from at least 20 minutes on the Deimos Survival mission node.

Protea = Main blueprint is reward from quest “The Deadlock Protocol”. Parts are obtained from the
Granum Void side mission on any Corpus Ship tileset. 1 part each is done from the Basic (granum crown)
Extended (Exemplar Granum Crown) and Nightmare (Zenith Granum Crown).

Revenant = Main blueprint is reward from “Mask of Revenant” unlocked after reaching the rank of
Observer with the Quills faction in Cetus (rank 2). Parts are obtained from Plains of Eidolon bounties.

Rhino = Main blueprint purchase from market for credits. Parts are dropped from Jackal on Venus.

Saryn = Main blueprint purchase from market for cedits. Parts are dropped from Kela De Thaym on
Sedna.

Sevagoth = Main blueprint is quest reward from “Call of the Tempestarii”. Parts come from Void Storm
nodes in Railjack missions at Neptune, Pluto or Veil Prxomia Axi Fissures.

Titania = All parts rewarded from the quest “The Silver Grove”

Trinity = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. Parts are drops from Ambulas on Pluto.

Valkyr = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. Parts are drops from Alad V on Jupiter.

Vauban = Main blueprint purchased from market for credits. All parts are purchased from the Nightwave
“cred offerings” shop.
Volt = Possible starter, All parts purchase from the clan dojo’s tenno research lab.

Wisp = All parts acquired from the Ropalolyst boss fight on Jupiter.

Wukong = All parts purchase from the clan dojo’s tenno research lab.

Xaku = Main blueprint reward from quest “Heart of Deimos”. Parts are rewards from Cambrion Drift
bounties.

Yareli = Main blueprint is reward from quest “The Waverider”, Parts are acquired from the clan dojo’s
VentKids’ Bash Lab.

Zephyr = All parts purchased from the clan dojo’s tenno lab.

12: What are void relics and how do they work?

After you complete the Mars junction you will get the void relic segment for your orbiter. This allows
you to refine relics and complete void relic missions.

Void Relics themselves are basically items with a set loot table. There will be 3 items that have a
common chance to drop. 2 items with an uncommon chance. And 1 item with a rare chance on each
relic.

There are 5 relic types. Lith, Meso, Neo, Axi, and Requiem. Levels of the missions associated with each
relic tend to be lowest to highest in that order with Axi and Requiem missions being 40-60 and 60-80
respectively.

Completing void relic missions drops a resource called Void Traces. These can be used to refine relics to
Exceptional, Flawless, or Radiant with each tier costing 25, 50, and 100 void traces respectively. Each
level of refinement increases the drop chance of the uncommon and rare loot while lowering the chance
of the common loot drops.

When you select a void relic mission you will select the mission by relic type (eg: Lith, Meso, Neo, Axi,
Requiem).

Rewards from the Lith, Meso, Neo, and Axi relics are typically a component for crafting the primed
variant of a weapon, companion, or warframe. Primed variants are weapons and warframes with slight
higher base stats and generally come pre-equipped with some of their mod slots already polarized.

Rewards from the Requiem relics generall drop endo, Kuva (a special resource), and parazon mods used
for the Kuva Lich and Sisters of Parvos nemesis system. See the warframe wiki for more details about
those systems.

13: Where do I go for more information?

Check out the warframe wiki:

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

For trading/player market prices check out Warframe market:

https://warframe.market/
For builds and general gameplay advice check out the following youtube channels:

LeyzarGamingViews: New player friendly builds

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXeubDV2dwI-V9FO9oiDu3A

KnightmareFrame: Endgame/high level content focus, gives good explanations for mod choices

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9BVPiqY_Dc3hbcmDKatazA