Warframe: Top 10 Tips for New Players 2022

As much as I love Warframe, the game admittedly has a significant barrier to entry for new players.

There’s so much content yet often unclear directions on how to progress through the game. The game uses a very different lingo that most ordinary MMORPG players might not be familiar with (i.e. think of energy = mana and affinity = experience). Although Digital Extremes (DE) has made a quick start[www.warframe.com] tutorial on getting acquainted with Warframe, it often takes veteran players to guide new players into getting comfortable with the game.

So, in an effort to spare new players from shooting themselves in the foot with their MK1-Braton, here are my top 10 tips…

The Warframe Wiki[warframe.fandom.com] is the place to go if you need information on just about everything in the game.

Whether you need to know about how to defeat a boss, how to complete a mission, or where you might find a good place to farm a particular resource, you can find most answers to your questions through the wiki.

If at all possible, do not read the spoilers on the wiki. Otherwise, you won’t enjoy the full experience of the story. Trust me on this.

To all the veteran players, do a favor for the new players and don’t spoil them. 😛

Warframe has premium currency called platinum that you can buy with real money. That said, you start out with 50 free platinum as a new player.

You can use platinum to outright purchase Warframes, weapons, and cosmetics from the in-game store.

But here’s the important part: you also need platinum to open up more Warframe slots, weapon slots, archwing slots, etc. There is limited space in your inventory unless you pay with platinum (exceptions are crafting materials and resources).

1 Warframe slot costs 20 platinum.
2 weapon slots costs 12 platinum.

Having more Warframe/weapon slots means you can store more of them in your arsenal.

It’s possible to get free Warframe slots and weapon slots by completing weekly tasks (aka: Nightwave). But if you’re in a pinch, you will want to prioritize buying slots with platinum.

Yes! Technically, you can acquire free platinum by farming for parts of a Prime Warframe or weapon and trade the parts as a complete set to other players in exchange for platinum.

In Warframe, a taxi refers to a newer player asking a veteran player to group up and run a mission that only the veteran player has access to. Taxis are helpful if you’re wanting to level up faster or farm for specific resources that are best found in certain planet nodes.

Normally, you have to work your way through the Star Chart[warframe.fandom.com] to unlock and gain access to other planets. But if you want to run a mission on a planet that you haven’t even unlocked yet, a veteran player can help you get there.

• Not all missions may be reachable via taxi. There are some that you cannot skip through and have certain requirements of unlocking them in a linear progression.
• Even if you completed a planet’s node via a taxi, you may not have access to that node until you unlock it yourself. Best to unlock all necessary nodes as soon as you can (and veteran players can help you run through the nodes, too!).

Mods[warframe.fandom.com] are basically special cards or chips that boost the stats of your Warframes, weapons, companions/sentinels, archwings, other deployables, you name it. You can also upgrade your mods to make them have a stronger effect on the stat boosts. They are the building blocks of your survivability in end/late game as well as customizing your play style.

Flawed mods[warframe.fandom.com] are damaged/weaker mods that you find early game that can get you get started, but they are not as strong as the full-fledged versions. Don’t waste your resources on upgrading flawed mods! Instead, get the full-fledged versions and upgrade those.

Always level your Warframes, weapons, companions, everything to max (usually max level is 30, though some exceptions apply). This way, you earn the most possible points for your Mastery Rank[warframe.fandom.com] (player account level).

Leveling your Mastery Rank will unlock your ability to use/trade certain weapons and allow you to access more content (lore galore!), which in turn can help you continue leveling your Mastery Rank even more. 🙂

If you have a max-level regular Volt (aka: vanilla Volt) and you have a max-level Volt Prime, get rid of your regular Volt (there is a way to get rid of them later in the game…).

The Prime Warframes have slightly better stats and have some nice gold accents/trims. In my opinion, I don’t even recommend installing Orokin Reactors[warframe.fandom.com] and Forma[warframe.fandom.com] onto the vanilla Warframes because DE will release the Prime versions at some point in the future (exception is Excalibur Prime since he is part of the Founders-exclusive content from Warframe’s early days).

So don’t spend too much resources on upgrading vanilla Warframes unless you really love playing as them. Same concept goes for vanilla vs. Prime weapons. That said…

Be very careful of throwing away Warframes, weapons, blueprints, and items.

Some weapons build into others (which you can then level to get more affinity for your Mastery Rank), and any blueprints that you acquire through a story mission can only be received once.

If you throw away the blueprint or its fully built version, you cannot get them again from repeating the story. You may have to farm from a different source to get new versions of whatever you threw away. Or, you may be forced to buy the fully built version at the store with platinum.

Double-check via Warframe Wiki to make sure you’re not throwing away an important item that you might regret.

A clan is essentially a guild of players. There are items, weapons, and vanilla Warframes that can only be accessed through the clan’s dojo (i.e. guild hall). If you want to be a part of a clan, ask players in the recruiting chat for opportunities to join a clan.

Different clans have different requisites for joining. Some are very casual, while others may be more hardcore and have specific requirements. Find a clan that best fits your preferences.

Warframe is well-known for being a very fast-paced game…

Sometimes too fast to the point where everyone already killed the boss in a blink of an eye and they’re all waiting for you at the exit… and you barely knew what your mission objectives were.

You don’t have to progress through the entire game in a week to reach late game.

At the end of the day, take the time to enjoy the game and have fun. Explore and immerse yourself in Warframe’s world and lore. For a free-to-play game, it is rich with content.