On the Surface, Wargame might seem like your typical Looter-Shooter action game but there is a lot more to this amazing game than meets the eye. Especially if you are new to the game, it is fairly easy to get overwhelmed by the broad selection of things you can do. This Warframe beginner guide is designed to help new players get the best experience out of this game and avoid some of the common rookie mistakes that can easily doom your account if you are careless.
Warframe is a completely Free-to-Play game packed with a ton of content. However, there is a lot of grinding and farming involved in this game. Players have the choice to either spend real-world money to skip the grind or grind to earn the premium in-game currency – Platinum.
In this Beginner Guide, we will also go over how to spend and farm platinum, which is the in-game premium currency and can be quite rare for new players if they don’t want to spend real-world cash.
Warframe Beginner Guide and Tips and Tricks 2024
Warframe is a massive game. Where some 70-dollar games only come with 6-8 hours of gameplay content, you can play Warframe for 100s of hours and still be relatively in early-game. The game does a good job of guiding the players through the early missions of Starchart but will leave you wondering what to do after finishing the second quest.
This guide will be useful to you from the start of the game right up till you reach Mastery rank 6. So be sure to bookmark this page if you need to come back for more tips and tricks on Warframe.
Starting Frame and Weapons
After finishing the opening cinematic, you will be given the choice of choosing your first Warframe. This is an important decision as you will be stuck with your starter frame for quite a few hours of gameplay. The cinematic showcases the play style of each of the 3 Warframes to give you some idea of their playstyles. So, which starter Warframe should you choose?
Well, the answer is not as straightforward as you might expect. All 3 Warframes are good and despite being the stater frames, can carry you up to the end-game with the right builds.
Excalibur is the poster child of Warframe and hence the most common choice for the beginners in Warframe. He is also the flashiest of the three with his slash-and-dash playstyle.
Mag is the Least picked option but is excellent for the earlier boss fights.
Volt is the electric speedster that receives the least screen time during the cinematic but is nonetheless the best of the 3 starter frames. Volt has excellent Crowd-Control abilities and can equip shields to protect himself, his allies, and the objective.
Volt is the obvious choice if you want the best Warframe right from the start but for this Warframe beginner guide we will recommend going for Mag or Excalibur as you can easily get Volt for free from your Clan Dojo later.
What is Mastery Rank
Earlier We talked about Mastery Rank but you might be wondering what it means. Mastery Rank is essentially the overall level of your account. As you level up different Warframes and weapons, you will gain MR points, and eventually, an MR rank-up test will be available. You can only attempt the MR test once a day, if you fail the MR rank-up, you will have to wait 24 hours to attempt again. You also have the option to practice before taking the test which is usually not that hard to begin with.
It is important to rank up your Mastery Rank as it directly correlates to what weapons are available to you and the number of trades you can perform in a day.
Join a Clan
A clan in Warframe is like a guild made by other players you can join. You can only join 1 Clan at a time, however. There are a lot of benefits to joining a clan in Warframe. You can ask other players in the chat to invite you to a clan or make 1 yourself. We recommend you join a bigger clan instead of starting a new one if you want to progress quickly.
Once you get a clan invite check your Inbox for the Clan Key Blueprints and build it in the foundry. It will take about 24 hours to build and once it is done, you can open navigation to go to your Clan’s dojo.
Don’t Waste Platinum
You will start the game with 50 platinum and might be tempted to use it on seemingly attractive deals in the market or the arsenal. That would be a grave mistake that you should avoid at all costs. You should only buy Warframe and weapon slots for the starting 50 platinum you get. Also, never use platinum to rush a crafting process unless you have 1000s of platinum to spare. You start with 2 Warfame slots and 8 weapon slots. Each Warframe slot will cost 20 platinum and you can get 2 weapon slots for 12 platinum. We recommend you only spend your platinum at these slots in the beginning.
Mods and Builds
Mods are how you can upgrade your Warframes and equipment and the only way you can have different builds in the early game. Once you have leveled up your Warframe or weapon, go to your arsenal and click on upgrade next to the item you want to equip with mods. Each item has a set mod capacity. You can use forma to have a polarization that matches a mod to halve the required mod capacity. However, you can only do this on a level 30 item, and applying forma will reset it back to rank zero.
Important Tips for Modding
- Make sure to individually mod each item in a way that compliments its base stats. For example, put more status-related mods on a weapon that has a high status chance. Likewise put more crit-related mods on weapons that have a higher crit chance.
- Make sure to match the mod polarity with the polarity of the slot, doing so will halve the mod capacity cost.
- You can dissolve the duplicate mods to earn endo and use it to rank up your desired mods.
- For early game, mod your Warframes to have more energy, vitality, and shields
Open Void Relics to Make More Platinum
As you progress through the game, you will unlock Void Fissures, completing which can give you parts for Prime Warframes and Weapons. You can access the void fissures from the top right tabs in the navigation menu. You will need to have a matching relic which can be obtained by completing endless missions like defense and disruption missions.
After completing a bunch of Void relics, you will have a bunch of prime parts in your inventory. You can either keep them to build prime Warframes or weapons or sell them for Ducats or Platinum. For new players, it is recommended to sell the prime parts for platinum.
How to Make Platinum in Warframe?
A Warframe beginner guide will be incomplete without talking about platium. Platinum is the premium currency in Warframe. You will start with 50 plat but you can make more platinum without spending any real money. You can sell the prime parts you obtain via relics to make platinum. There are several ways you can go about trading in Warframe but we recommend joining a clan to ease the process. You will also need to have Two-Factor authentication enabled on your account to make any trades.
Once you are ready, you can either use the in-game trade chat or Warframe Market to make trades.
Beware of the Trade Chat
It might seem easier to use the trade chat to sell or buy something quickly, but it only works best when you need to sell prime junk for cheap. We do not recommend doing this as it is far better to sell the actual parts for more platinum using the Warframe Market. There is also a risk of getting ripped off if you are only relying on the trade chat.
However do note that Warframe Market is not associated with the Digital Extremes, the developers behind Waframe. It is a community-built website and is the most reliable way to trade in Warframe.
Engage With the Community
Warframe has one of the best communities in all of the gaming industry. You will be pleasantly surprised to discover it yourself once you engage with the in-game chat. You will eventually find yourself needing a resource that can only be obtained from a planet that you have not reached yet. But fret not as you can simply use the clan or recruiting chat to ask if someone can taxi you to a certain planet. Someone will soon invite you to join their squad and take you to that planet.
You can also enlist help from other players to defeat a tough boss or complete an annoyingly hard spy mission. Just be sure to ask nicely.
Complete the Quests
The last piece of advice we can give you is to complete as many quests as you can. This should be your secondary priority after completing the Starchart. Completing Quests will aid your progression as well as give you several weapons, equipment, and sometimes even Warframes.
Warframe Quests for Beginners to Prioritize.
As said before quests in Warframe reward you for your time and will also open up more content for you to play. Considering this is a Warframe Beginner guide, you will likely not have access to all the quests right away. With that in mind below are the few quests you should absolutely focus on a select few quests for the best rewards.
Duviri Paradox – It is a relatively long quest but completing it will allow you to play the Circuit, which will reward you with blueprints for a new Warframe each week.
Second Dream – One of the best story quests that will change your whole perspective on the lore and world of Warframe.
Sacrifice – Also one of the best story quests in the game that will also reward you with one of the best melee weapons in Warframe
The Deadlock Protocol – You can complete this quest fairlyearly in the game. It also rewards you with a Glaive Melee weapon.
