Warframe is free-to-play and one of the best-rated games on Steam. If you’ve been holding off on embarking on this thrilling story and love Sci-Fi settings, you’re missing out on some intense gameplay that will keep you hooked for hours.
And don’t worry. We’ll share Warframe tips that will transform your gameplay to help you get through the newbie phase.
Want to find another game like Warframe to try and master? Consider the 5 Nexon Games You Should Be Playing.
12 Useful Warframe Tips for Beginners
Warframe is still popular and enjoys a dedicated player base that continues to grow month after month. Implementing the tips below when you start playing will help you up your game and feel more like a seasoned veteran than a beginner.
1. Understand the Factions
First, you need to understand the three factions and how they impact your gameplay. You don’t want to fight factions at random because it won’t bode well for your gameplay. Learning about the three main groups will make you a better player.
You’ll come across:
- Grineer: You’ll find that this faction doesn’t take security seriously, so you may mistake them for being easy to kill. However, they know that power in numbers can help them thwart most attacks. Enemies in this faction are difficult to take down, use powerful weapons and will try to outnumber you.
- Corpus: Well, while the Grineer doesn’t focus on security, the Corpus certainly does. This faction uses drones that fly into combat with them and are known for laying traps.
- Infestation: A dangerous faction. The Infestation faction will drain your energy and use swarming tactics to try and overwhelm you in battle. Often, you’ll be taken by surprise and won’t last through this type of onslaught.
While other factions do exist, these are the three that you must master because they’re the foes that you’ll face in battle.
Before we go on to our second tip, don’t forget to grab a Nexon Game Card (previously known as Karma Koin) from OffGamers.
2. Tinker with the Control Settings
Control settings will matter – eventually. Mapping controls at the start of the game isn’t the most fun and shouldn’t be your main focus. However, as you progress and open up more controls, it can quickly become overwhelming to remember how you mapped everything out.
You can play with:
- Mouse/keyboard
- Controller
If you’re playing on PC, you’ll find that you can fire a weapon with Mouse 1 and aim with Mouse 2, but your melee attacks are bound to:
- E – Melee
- Mouse 3 – Heavy
Abilities are also bound to keys 1 – 4, and that’s just the start of the controls that you have to work with. Go through these control settings every once in a while to ensure that you remember them and have your keybindings to your exact preference.
3. Always Look to Finish Daily and Weekly Missions
Daily and weekly missions are one of the best ways for beginners to master Warframe. You’ll find that you can get a lot of practice during these missions, which will help you master the games and new controls faster.
Invasions are missions.
If you find an invasion, you’ll need to join sides with either:
- Corpus
- Grineer
Joining sides means that you’ll need to complete three missions for the faction and will be rewarded with various resources, such as a Fieldron or Detonite Injector.
Weekly, Clem will have a Survival mission for you where you’ll play the role of Clem’s protector for 10 minutes. You’ll learn valuable lessons during the mission that will help you with your Star Chart in the future.
You’ll also benefit from:
- Levelling up various weapons
- Obtaining resources
Finally, you’ll find Sorties, which are daily missions that you can complete at level 30 or higher. You’ll find that these missions are very challenging and will give you numerous upgrade mods and other goodies.
If you don’t do daily and weekly missions, you’re leaving out strategic ways for you to level and get high-end resources in the process.
4. Stealth Is Underrated
Running into the fray and attacking enemies is a lot of fun, but you’re a new player and likely underpowered. Levels go up to 100, and if you face foes much higher than you, you’ll have a clear disadvantage in gameplay and survivability.
So, what can you do?
Be stealthy. You can’t always remain in the shadows, but when you can, it will:
- Give you a clear advantage over your enemies
- Allow you to be patient and find openings
- Help you avoid fighting a foe that is too challenging
How can you remain “stealthy?” Well, there are a few ways:
- Silent weapons are your best friend for stealth and will allow you to take down foes without alerting everyone to your presence.
- Crouch when you can to remain out of the enemy’s line of sight.
If you are seen, you’ll learn quickly when playing, the alarm will begin to sound, and the mission will become far more difficult. You can play the game any way that you like, but this approach definitely leads to easier mission completion and fewer deaths along the way.
5. Weapon Modifications Are Game Changers
Weapon mods are game-changers. Modding will make your weapons do more damage and possibly have stronger status effects.
It can take some time and practice to get good at modding, but it’s a great habit to get into. Modding is more complex than you might think, but it’s worth learning.
There are plenty of simple mods, like those that add 10% more damage. However, if you can take the time to really learn the modding system, you can create some powerful things.
For starters, you can fuse mods to upgrade them. But you can also combine different mods that do elemental damage to deal secondary elemental damage, which is far more powerful.
Speaking of elemental damage, there are four main types and six secondary types. Learning how they work is important.
6. Learn the Elemental Types
Warframe has four elemental types:
- Electricity: Strong against robots, but weak against boss armour. Can be chained to affect multiple enemies.
- Cold: Strong against Alloy armour and shields, but weak against flesh. Slows enemies.
- Toxin: Strong against flesh, but weak against robots. Adds a poison effect.
- Heat: Strong against infested flesh, but weak against Proto Shields. Causes panic and burn effects.
Each one of these elements also has secondary types that are created by combining the primary ones:
- Corrosive: Electricity + Toxin
- Blast: Heat + Cold
- Radiation: Heat + Electricity
- Gas: Heat + Toxin
- Magnetic: Cold + Electricity
- Viral: Cold + Toxin
Weapons and Warframes deal different types of damage and are more effective against some enemies than others.
7. Consider Rhino for Your First Warframe
When you finally get the chance to build your first Warframe, consider building Rhino. Rhino is beginner-oriented. He’s durable, hits like a truck and is tanky by nature. He can help you get through the difficulties of the early missions.
To get the Main Rhino blueprint, head over to the Market. You can buy it for Credits. But for the remaining three blueprints (Rhino Chassis, Rhino Neuroptics and Rhino Systems), you’ll need to take on the Jackal boss on Venus.
Fortunately, the materials you’ll need to craft Rhino are easily farmable and pretty common. They include:
- Ferrite
- Morphics
- Rubedo
- Alloy plate
- Polymer bundle
- Gallium
- Salvage
8. Resource Management
Resource management is an important tip for any game, but in Warframe, it’s even more important. Platinum isn’t easy to come by. It’s a premium currency bought with real money, and there are few opportunities to acquire it for free.
Don’t be too eager to spend it all at once. Save your resources until later when everything is unlocked. Then, decide which upgrade you want to spend your Platinum on.
If you’re keen to buy Platinum, wait for the right moment. You can get massive discounts from Prime Access bundles, or you can wait for a coupon to be delivered to your account. Your Daily Tribute can also include a discount code for Platinum.
Of course, you can also trade items with other players for Platinum.
As for other resources, remember that in a game like Warframe, you can never have too much of anything. Make sure that you’re picking up everything, even duplicate mods and blueprints. You can always sell them later on.
Dailies and weekly missions will also help you obtain a lot of additional resources, so be sure to complete these missions even if they aren’t that enjoyable.
9. Always Build Extractors
Extractors are unique items that will generate items for your passively. Build them, and then set them and forget them. You don’t have to lift a finger.
Always build extractors when you can. You can find blueprints on the normal market, and you can reuse them whenever you want. It will cost you 50,000 credits to buy one.
There are two types of extractors you can make:
- Titan Extractor: Requires 10,000 credits, 500 Polymer Bundles and 300 Ferrite
- Distilling Extractor: Requires 10,000 credits, 500 Plates and 300 Nano Spores
While you can reuse the blueprints whenever you want, you can only have a maximum of three Extractors out at a time. The number you can dispatch will depend on your Mastery Rank.
10. Join a Clan or Play with Friends
One of the most overlooked tips for newbies is to play with friends or join a clan. If you can, bring along a friend, preferably an experienced one, at the start. They can show you the ropes and help you through your first few matches.
Once you have some more experience with the game, join a clan. Joining a clan will further your knowledge of the game and help you get access to more powerful weapons.
Clans will allow you to access Dojos, which then gives you access to things like the dry docks and labs. Here’s where you can unlock powerful weapons.
You can start your own solo clan, too. Just keep in mind that it will take a lot of time and resources to get it up and running. Your best bet is to join a beginner-friendly clan.
Besides, Warframe was really meant to be played with other people. The experience will be more fun and less intimidating if you join other newbies.
11. Do the Railjack Missions
Railjack is the interceptor spacecraft from the time of Orokin, but the Tenno are using them. You’ll find that these spacecraft are massive and have very complex defensive and offensive systems, making them an extreme challenge for even the most seasoned of players.
But, the challenge also comes with a reward.
Spaceship-on-spaceship combat, in the beginning, leads to:
- Massive resource expenditure
- Repetitive gameplay
The reward? If you keep at it, you’ll be able to build the Railjack. You’ll receive a lot of Endo and credits for this grind, and even if it doesn’t seem worth the effort at first, it will be.
You’ll need to:
- Complete Second Dream, the quest
- Obtain Cephalon Cy
- Progress from here and you’ll be on your way to getting a Railjack.
12. Craft Forma
Forma is another unique resource in Warframe. It’s used to craft weapons, but it’s also used for other purposes. For example, you can use them to “polarize” your gear, which adds custom symbols to your mod slots.
If you match the symbol of the mod and its slot, the mod will cost 50% fewer points. Using Forma to polarize your slots is one of the best ways to upgrade your weapons and Warframes, so get busy crafting it.
You can acquire Forma blueprints from Relics, and they take 24 hours to craft. Start crafting as early as possible to ensure you have plenty available for the endgame.
If you’re a Warframe newbie, the tips in our guide should help you get started on the right foot and with confidence. For more updates, tips and tricks, be sure to watch streamers and gameplays on YouTube and Twitch.
Looking for more games to play? Check out The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Valorant and give this game a try for yourself.
