🤗Ultimate Beginner's Guide To Warframe 2026🤗

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Is WF Pay2win?

The answer is a clear cut NO. Warframe is an example of free to play done right. Everything in the game can be gotten without spending real money. There are some cosmetics that can only be gotten using real money, but there are a TON of cosmetics that don't require real money. If you're into fashion and don't want to spend real money, don't worry! However spending real money does get you some exclusive cosmetics, convenience, and potentially faster progression. Paying real money also contributes to DE and allows them to maintain and update the game!

**Example Skins That Don't Require Real Money To Buy

**

Main Menu

Pressing 'esc' brings up the menu which provides shortcuts to many things you'll need to navigate through the game. Many of these options will not be shown at first, but will unlock as you progress through the quests.

In-Game Currency

Credits represented by three shards can be farmed or bought off the in-game market (total rip off). Platinum represented by a silver cylindrical shape is the premium currency which can only be traded for or bought with real money. If trying to avoid spending real money, it is suggested to farm parts and build items rather than purchasing them directly with platinum. Platinum is very valuable and should be spent intelligently.

Ranks/Levels

What Ranks Do To Warframes, Weapons, and Companions

Warframe doesn't use the term levels. It instead uses the word ranks, but they are basically the same thing. Affinity is the equivalent to experience.
All warframes, weapons, and companions can be ranked up to 30 through gaining affinity. It is important to note that ranking up doesn't quite work the same as other games. When a warframe ranks up, it will unlock abilities and each warframe has 4 abilities. Ranks will also provide more capacity to equip stat enhancing mods. Each mod costs different amounts of capacity. When weapons are ranked up, they do not increase in power. They only increase in capacity. Mods are the key to improving dps.

Experience Division To Your Loadout

Affinity will be divided up between all warframes and weapons. Companions will receive their own affinity pool. It might be a good idea, when attempting to level up, to only equip warframes and weapons that are not max level to not waste affinity, unless you need your rank 30 warframe or weapon to deal damage.

What Is a Mastery Rank?

You also have an overall rank called, Mastery Rank, seperate from warframes, weapons, and companions which provide vital benefits.

The Benefits of Mastery Rank

Ranking up mastery rank is vital for progression. First and foremost, ranking up unlocks weapons in the game. As you progress, more and more weapons will be unlocked until finally at mastery rank 16 all weapons will be unlocked. Trading requires at least mastery rank 2. Mastery rank 16 unlocks all rivens which is non-essential end-game content. Note that all warframes and companions have no mastery rank requirement. Here are additional benefits of mastery ranks:

• Increased daily trading limit which is equal to your Mastery Rank
• Increased daily syndicate point limit
• Increased void trace limit
• Increased daily focus limit
• Increased starting capacity of a level 0 warframe, weapon, or companionNote: Buying equipment from the in-game market with platinum or real money will bypass any mastery rank requirement.

How To Level Up Mastery Rank

Mastery rank is gained by ranking up warframes, weapons, companions, archwings, and archwing weapons to level 30. Once an item is max ranked, you will never be able to gain mastery rank points from ranking up that same item. To find out what items you have ranked up and what items you haven't, check either the codex (esc-->quests-->universe tab) or profile (esc-->profile-->my profile-->equipment tab). Ranking up warframes, companions, and archwings provide double the amount of points toward Mastery Rank than weapons do.

Mastery Rank Tests

When you're ready to rank up, you must first pass a mastery rank test. The game will notify you and a new option "Mastery Rank Up" will appear in the main menu. The tests are easy, though later they can present more challenge.

How To Gain Experience From Enemies Killed By Teammates

Affinity isn't split among teammates, but you do receive affinity every time a teammate scores a kill. However, you will only receive this affinity, if you are within 50 meters (base distance) of the teammate who scored the kill. Therefor it would be ideal, when leveling, to stay within affinity range indicated by the three circle symbols next to player names.

Inventory Management In Early-Game

How To Access Inventory

esc-->inventory-->warframe or weapon tab

The Difficulty of Inventory Management During Early-Game

One of the biggest difficulties of a new player is inventory management. As said in the previous section, leveling Mastery Rank is vital. You will have to max rank many items. HOWEVER, you only start with 2 warframe slots, and 8 weapon slots. It will cost platinum to increase slots. Limited slots and limited platinum creates a dilemma for a new player. To rank up new weapons, old weapons will have to be deleted to create space.

What Items To Keep and What Items To Level Solely For Mastery Rank

Some weapons are worth keeping and others are not, also known as MASTERY FODDER. Most of the lower rank weapons are not worth keeping. However, some of them are and they are listed in the "Weapons" section. There are so many warframes and I'm sure you'll be interested in at least several. In that case, it will be important to increase warframe slot capacity. Warframes to keep are ones you find fun and/or are useful. Warframes awarded from quests (see "Warframes (Quest)" section) should be kept unless there is an available primed version within reach, because the quest warframes can never be acquired again (Digital Extremes is looking to change this at some point). Several Prime warframes have been vaulted, which means they no longer are in the drop tables. If the prime version of a quest frame is vaulted, it may be better to keep the non-prime version until acquiring the prime version. Some weapons, are also ingredients to other weapons, so those should be kept also. Check out this Wiki Link[warframe.fandom.com] for a list of all weapons that are ingredients.

How To Get Additional Warframe and Weapon Slots

Luckily DE has provided every new account with 50 platinum which allows for purchase of 1 warframe slot and 4 weapon slots. The slots are so important that the platinum shouldn't be wasted on anything else at this point. To buy the slot, just click on the + sign. Eventually you'll want to buy even more slots, because a development of interest in multiple warframes and weapons is almost guaranteed as you progress. In that case, you'll need more platinum, so check out the "How To Make Platinum" section of this guide. Alternatively, you can buy 1 orokin reactor (20 platinum) and 1 orokin catalyst (20 platinum) which allows more mods to be equipped on 1 warframe and 1 weapon (more details on orokin reactors/catalysts in "Modding" section)

Building

Foundry - How Items Are Made

To access foundry: esc-->equipment-->foundry
Many items are built using resources and/or parts.

All Building Requires Time

Everything has a build time with warframes being the most at a whopping 3 days. Weapons take 12 hours. New players are usually shocked at this wait time. It is a significant amount of time and matters less later in the game.

How To Lessen The Impact of Long Build Times

To lessen the impact of such high wait times, it's smart to continuously build, so that way while your leveling your current warframes and weapons, there will be new ones ready by the time you max rank them. This way a cycle begins eliminating all or almost all wait time. Alternatively, building can be rushed with platinum, but this is not recommended if low on platinum.

How The Foundry Can Help With Inventory Management

As mentioned earlier, inventory management is troublesome in the beginning. A smart trick is to build items even if you have no more slots left, and leave it unclaimed in the foundry. When a slot opens up, you can claim them then.

How Non-prime Warframes Are Made

Most blueprints for non-prime warframe parts (Neuroptics, Chassis, and Systems) can be farmed. The blueprint that combines the parts can be bought off the in-game market with credits. Some warframe blue prints can only be gotten from completing Quests (more details in "Warframes" section). After getting the blueprint, it will be displayed in the foundry.
How to access the in-game market: esc-->market

Resources

Where To Get Specific Resources

There are many different types of resources. They all drop from enemies and containers with some exceptions. Each planet drops a specific type. You can find out which resource drops from which planet by selecting a planet and hovering over the extractor icon at the bottom right.

Strategies for Farming Resources

Generally, more resources drop the higher the planet level is. They also drop more when fighting high concentrations of enemies, which are usually found in survival or defense missions and more players in a the party will cause more enemies to spawn. Argon Crystals drop from enemies but they also often spawn as containers. Therefor, it would be smart to enter rooms with high concentration of containers and destroy them all.

Warframes That Increase Resource Drop

• Nekros - Nekros' third ability desecrates dead enemy bodies for additional chance for loot. Weapons with high slash damage will cut bodies in half. Each half can be desecrated for even more loot drop chance.
• Hydroid - Hydroid's fourth ability with augment mod Pilfering Swarm increases chance for additional loot from affected enemies.
• Kora - Kora's fourth ability with augment mod Pilfering Strangledome increases chance for additional loot from affected enemies.
• Atlas - Atlas' third ability, Petrify, with augment mod, Ore Gaze, increases chance for additional loot. Atlas is the least effective compared to Hydroid and Nekros.
• Ivara - can pickpocket enemies for another chance for a drop while her third ability, Prowl, is active.

In-depth Guide On Resource Farming

How To Increase Pickup Range

Equipping a sentinel with the mod Vacuum (preferably max ranked) or companion with Fetch will collect all items within a nice radius. Without this mod, it would be easy to accidentally miss drops.

Modding

Arsenal

To access Arsenal: esc-->equipment-->arsenal

Here you can switch warframes, weapons, and companions. Gear is where you equip items such as scanners and kinetic siphon traps. To mod a warframe, weapon, or companion, hover over them and click upgrade.

Modding Screen

Here you will equip vital mods and create your build. Mods take up capacity. Whenever you rank up and open up capacity, you should take advantage and either equip more mods or rank up currently equipped mods.

Polarities - How To Decrease the Capacity Cost of Mods

Warframes, weapons and companions often come with polarities. Because there is limited capacity, you'll want to use polarities to your advantage. If you look closely you'll see a symbol on some slots. There's D (Vazarin), V (Madurai), and - (Naramon). Every mod also comes with its own polarity. When you match polarities, the mod takes up half the normal amount.

Auras - Mods That Increase Total Capacity

For warframes, there's a special slot called the aura. For melee weapons, it's called a stance. Aura mods for warframes come from Nightwave (more information on Nightwave in "Nightwave System" section). As soon you have one, you'll want to equip them because they increase capacity. If auras polarities are matching, they will increase capacity even more.

Actions Screen

At the bottom right of the screen you'll see the actions button.

Forma - How To Change A Polarity

In the Actions screen, you can apply what's called a forma. When you apply a forma, you can either change an already existing polarity or add a new polarity to a blank one. Note in order to apply a forma, the weapon, warframe, or companion must be rank 30 and after applying the forma, the item will return to rank 0. There are also omni-forma available for 50 platinum on the in-game market. They provide special universal polarity.

What are the best ways to farm Forma?

• Built Forma can be purchased from the in-game market - 1 for 20 platinum, or 3 for 35 platinum.
• Blueprints can be found in Void Relics (more details in "Fissure" section)
• Blueprint received as an Alert Reward.
• Blueprint offered as Invasion battle pay.
• Built Forma can be obtained as a rare Sortie reward (mid to end game content).
• Built Forma can be found in rare containers which spawn after solving a music puzzle on Lua planet missions. Random puzzles spawn every mission. To farm Forma this way, it is suggested to spam exterminate missions until the music puzzle spawns. This youtube video explains the process very well.
• Built Forma can be farmed during the Plague Star Event.

Orokin Reactors/Catalysts - How To Double Capacity

Orokin Reactors double total capacity for warframes and companions while Orokin Catalysts double the capacity of weapons. In the actions screen, you will be able to apply them. Unlike forma, items will retain their rank and need not be level 30. These items are vital and should be applied to your favorite warframes and weapons as soon as you get them.

Where Do I Get Orokin Reactors/Catalysts?

• From the in-game market, for 20 platinum each.
• Nightwave
• Invasion Battle Pay
• Special Events

Ranking Up Mods

Going back to the previous screen, you'll see a mods button at the bottom right.

Here you will be able to rank up mods to increase their stats.

Endo - Currency Used To Rank Up Mods

Ranking up mods will cost endo. Endo can be collected in various ways. They will randomly drop from enemies and be rewarded from completing missions objectives.

Endo Cost To Rank Up Mods

Mod Tiers By Rarity

Common (Bronze) Uncommon (Silver) Rare (Gold) Legendary (White)

Great Ways to Farm Endo

• Can be built up just playing the game
• Rathuum arena on Vodyanoi, Sedna with pre-made team (mid-game content)
• Doing Daily Sorties regularly rewards 2k-4k endo (mid-game content)
• Arbitrations (mid-game content)
• Excavation mission at Hierchon, Pluto (late early-game content)
• Deimos Bounties (mid-game content)

Dissolving Mods For Endo

In the modding screen, duplicate mods that aren't worth any platinum can be dissolved into endo. Mods can also be sold for credits, but I recommend dissolving them instead.

Ayatan Sculptures

Ayatan Sculptures - A Good Source of Endo

In the modding screen, you'll see an Ayatan Treasures button.

This window lists any ayatan sculptures, ayatan stars, and ayatan amber stars you've gotten from missions.

Sculptures can be upgraded using ayatan stars and ayatan amber stars. They are randomly placed in missions but rarely. They can also be gotten once a week from Maroo's Ayatan Treasure Hunt. There's als