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What's the best Warframe? What's the best build for my Warframe? What starter Warframe should I pick? What's the best bow? What's the best Rifle? Who's Lotus? Why is she bossing me around? Why am I in an advanced weaponized exosuit butchering deformed humanoids who are shooting at me with mushroom guns?

All Warframe players have been at that point of the game. New players have tons of questions about the game and I bet most of them Google-ed these stuff. So, rather than looking for the answers that are scattered all over the vast world-wide-web, we decided to compile all the common misconceptions, FAQ, and a quick startup guide for new Warframe players in this one guide.

There are already tons of great beginner's guide in the community so we won't talk about all the details here. This guide is designed to help you quickly search some commonly asked questions.

Although both of us have spent a very significant amount of time in Warframe, we can't promise you that we cover all the newbie's question. At least, these are all the questions and misconceptions that we've seen going around the internet, and ones that confused us during our journey in Warframe.

Disclaimer: This guide is a compilation of F.A.Qs aimed towards new players, not an encyclopedia. This guide is absolutely NOT an alternative to reading Warframe wikia.

You are supposed to read it per question, not read the entire guide. Click whatever you are interested with from the Guide index on the right-hand side of the page. Afterwards, click the 'Closer and Extra Notes' part so we can thank you for reading and address some possible FAQ.

Note: English isn't our first language. Please excuse the grammatical errors and awkward sentences. We'll fix it whenever we spot one. Do let us know if you find something ambiguous or something that needs further clarification due to linguistic errors.

So, without further ado, here are the common misconceptions, questions, and a quick startup guide for Warframe.

I bet almost everyone have google-ed this question. The answer is very straightforward: there is none

Players who want to get a starting edge often wants to purchase the 'best' Warframe with Platinums, or ask a high level player to help them farm the 'best' Warframe. I see this question A LOT, not only on forums and Google search results, this also hit all my friends and I when we first started playing Warframe.

Unfortunately, many answers are misleading. So-called 'experts' and elitists often answer these questions with their own favorite Warframe, usually ones that are either very expensive (i.e. Ember Prime) or difficult to farm (i.e. Equinox).

Why is there no 'best' Warframe?
1. Because they were designed for a role - i.e. Solo Warframe, Defense Warframe, Support, etc.
2. Because devs are doing their best to balance out all the Warframes every now and then.
3. Because it is entirely subjective.
4. Arguably, because every Warframe is adequately powerful in case of basic leveling purposes (like Akkad, Eris)

Let me elaborate my first and third point.

Warframes can be exceptionally good for a single purpose, say, defense. However, there are always alternative Warframes. Which one is better? That's up to you to decide.

When one claims that Hydroid is the best defense Warframe, others will argue that Frost is the best one. Then, another one will argue that Limbo is the best one. It'll go on and on and on to eternity. Because it is subjective. Unfortunately, many do not accept other's opinions and trigger unnecessary internet fights about something that is most likely equally good - this confuses new players who are using their argument to look for answer.

Here's my personal list of some notable Warframes for each roles:

Mission type wise:
1. Defense and Mobile Defense: Frost, Limbo, and Banshee
2. Excavation: Frost and Vauban
3. Survival: Nova, Ash, Loki
4. Extermination : Ember, Equinox, Volt
5. Interception : Mesa, Nyx (for solo)
6. Assassination : Nova, Valkyr
7. Spy : Loki and Ivara

Roles and Playstyle wise:
1. AoE: Ember, Equinox, Nidus
2. Super DPS/Boss Buster : Mesa, Valkyr, Banshee
3. Solo: Loki, Ivara, Limbo
4. Tank: Rhino, Valkyr, Chroma, Inaros
5. Crowd Control: Banshee, Titania, Vauban
6. Support: Trinity, Oberon, Harrow

Keep in mind that the list is only our opinion. This is neither a dogma nor a universal truth claim. We have our reasons for that list, and others have their own reasons for their favorite Warframe list. The reason we put this list here is just to give new players an understanding of Warframe categories/roles. You are all free to choose whatever you want for each category/role.

Notice that no single Warframe excels on every single role. Does that mean you can use any Warframe to play all roles? Not really, but generally, yes. Support is a rather unique role with special skills so those Warframes are quite irreplaceable.

Other than that, you're good to go with any Warframe you want. Because a squad of murderous space ninjas is terribly overpowered. Your squadmates will most likely use one of the Warframes that excels in that specific niche/game mode you're on. Plus, 'roles' are not exactly that prominent in Warframe - except Support and Defense.

Here's an example. You only have Excalibur but you want to play Defense. Simply use your 2nd skill, finish the ancient healers, and mow down the crowd on the cryopod with your 4th skill or your weapons. Sure, it's less effective and more energy-thirsty than Frost's Snow Globe. But hey - it works.

Another example. You only have Mag but you want to play Solo because people keep yelling at you for having bad internet. Simply bring tons of large energy and health restore, your strongest weapons, and you're good to go. Just make sure you adapt your playstyle with the difficulty.

A warning for Defense, you WILL struggle without defense Warframes on high level mobile def/excavation missions. It is not entirely impossible to finish those missions without defense Warframes, but defense Warframes will make things a lot easier.

Are there underpowered Warframes?
Again, this is subjective. I do believe some Warframes are completely overpowered by their alternatives. But they are all still usable and you can still finish high level missions with them. So don't worry about it.

There is no 'best' Warframe. It is entirely subjective so just get whatever you like - assuming you're playing on public matchmaking. Warframe is a highly popular game so it's safe to assume that your squad will use the right Warframe for the job.

Update 2: If you're one of those commenters who are going to say something like:
1. "I don't see [Warframe Name] THAT I THINK is best fit for [Mission Name] in the list.";

2. or "Why don't you include [personal favorite Warframe name] on the list?";

3. or "Your so-called recommended Warframe list is an insult to my 3,000 hours of experience because I am in a dire need of recognition of my extensive knowledge in controlling a virtual space ninja shooting out exploding mushrooms in a virtual battle - which is certainly an important life-and-death matter that has enabled me to make a living for my imaginary spouse and imaginary children better than my imaginary career";

or ANY comments of those kinds; then it is clear that you either do not understand what we've written or do not understand the difference between subjective and objective claims. You are free to disagree with our lists, but realize that it will not contribute anything to the goal of this guide. Please re-read section 2 and 3.

Unlike Warframes, weapons in Warframe are more prevalent towards being underpowered/overpowered because they have more variance. In weapons context, the 'best' all-around weapon does exist. But which one is best? That's another subjective point. Same goes for underpowered weapons - terrible weapons that struggles to kill weak enemies do exist.

However, we still believe that the majority of weapons in Warframe has been balanced to their own type. Like, low damage but high magazine capacity and fire rate. High damage but high recoil and slow bullet travel speed, etc.

Here's our personal list of weapons for this section (do not take this as a universal truth claim - it's our opinion):
Best all-around weapon: Soma
Great for defense: Synoid Simulor/Tonkor/Penta/Torid/other high-damage explosive weapons
Great for bosses: Tigris, Hek, Lanka, and Opticor
Best all-around secondary: Akstiletto
Best all-around melee: Nikana

Again, it's subjective. Other's list might be totally different than ours. This list is based upon our pragmatic views. We do not include weapons that we like for its aesthetics or any other non-practical variable. Our argument to support our own list would take too much space of this guide. Warframe offer limitless possibilities to build a weapon with the mods - others might argue our point because we may have not built ours the way they built theirs. Especially due to the existence of Riven mods.

Keyword: subjective There is no 'correct' list. Everyone has their own preferred weapons for each category. We just shared ours to give you a better general picture of what kind of weapon can be considered 'effective'. Use our list as a foundation where you can start building your own preference. Do not take our list as a dogma. We are neither trying to indoctrinate you nor claim that our opinions are undeniable facts.

Update: As you may have noticed in the comment section, people who cause the confusion in regards of Warframe and Weapons have started to pop out here with their incapability to think from a new players' point of view. If you are a new player, don't concern yourself with all their arguments to prevent further confusion. Follow the weapon building guide and you should be good with whatever weapon you pick.

Note: Both of us will do our best to update the list based on the latest Warframe update. Please inform us of any inappropriate listing due to nerfs/buffs as we do not want to mislead players. However, please avoid trying to enforce us to follow your opinion on which are the best/worst weapons. That is exactly what we are trying to avoid in order to prevent confusion on new player readers.

Now, this is very specific to new players. People often wonder which Warframe/weapons they should get FIRST, simply because they want to start on the 'right' track.

For the starter Warframe, we highly recommend getting the Excalibur due to the difficulty of farming him. Volt and Mag are relatively easier to get than Excalibur, plus you can always buy the Prime version of them. Yes, we are aware after The Sacrifice update, some people might not recommend getting Excalibur because (read this if you're OK with The Sacrifice quest spoiler) you will get a ready-to-use, maxed Excalibur Umbra from finishing the quest. However, if you want to increase your Mastery rank, you'll still need Excalibur.

If you're more worried about their abilities, there are numerous videos online that will summarize and review them for you. From what I've seen around the forum, Excalibur apparently stands as the most recommended starter warframe.

If you want to know our opinion: Excalibur is also our most recommended starter Warframe. He deals a ridiculous amount of damage and his survivability is decent. Volt is great for finishing low-level missions very, very quickly and his skills are still viable for high-level missions. Volt is an amazing Warframe for assassination farms (e.g. Orokin Cell and Rhino parts) and he is very fun to use. Mag deals a lot of AoE damage and her skills allow her to pull resources towards her - used by some people for 'lazy farming'. So if you've picked something other than Excalibur, don't worry about it.

What about AFTER you got the starter Warframe? Get the ones that are easiest to get first. Then proceed to get Warframes that completes your squadmates.

Why? Because you will eventually level up everything in the game to increase your Mastery Rank. Sell the ones you don't like and keep the ones you like to use to preserve slots. Not necessarily strong - maybe just fun to use.

Easy Ones
Rhino, Valkyr, Oberon are amongst the easiest Warframes you'll get as you progress through the quests.

As for weapons, start from weapons you can directly purchase with credits like Strun. Then, simply look for weapons that you can easily craft with what you currently have/often get from enemy drops. You'll most likely start with Boltor because its rare component, Neurodes, drops on Earth.

Ask your squadmates
If you have friends that often play Warframe with you, cross-check your arsenal with his/hers so you can complete each other. You will most likely have to get Trinity first, then a defense warframe, a tank warframe, a crowd control warframe, and finally a damage dealer Warframe.

The warframe that we think everyone should have
Trinity.

Why? Because a vast majority of Warframes are damage dealers or crowd controllers. Like in any other games, everyone wants to get the most recognition. Similar to being a carry in MOBAs, Hanzo/Genji in Overwatch, and Scout in Battlefield 1. Many gamers want to have the best K/D and blame support on every failure. People will most likely prioritize damage-dealer Warframes to get the most damage percentage.

People rarely queue on public matchmaking with a Trinity equipped. Countless squads are running without Trinity. Would they survive? Sure. But wouldn't it be better to have unlimited energy and being constantly healed to max HP and max shield? Moreover if you're playing high level missions. Warframe also doesn't reward people with most damage dealt - affinity is shared within a certain range.

Like I've mentioned before, you will most likely have to get Trinity first after cross-checking your arsenal with your squadmate.

From comment section: We agree that no Warframe is truly essential. You can always skip Trinity if you hate playing as support. We were just trying to increase the amount of people that are willing to take the support role, specifically for difficult high-level missions.

Warfarme is NOT Pay To Win
Unlike many other free to play games, Warframe developers are strictly against Pay to Win system ever since their early DevStreams.

Here is a list of common features/points missed by new players, causing them to judge Warframe as pay to win:

Why are all the weapons' prices on Platinum?
Weapons can be CRAFTED. Yes, their prices are listed with platinum as currency - but notice that you can purchase the blueprints with credits. It is very easy to farm the required components. Rare components will obviously take more time to farm, but it will take less time if you know the drop point. (e.g. Helene on Saturn for Orokin Cells, Index/1-excav Hieracon for credits, Alad V assasination for Neural Sensors, Akkad on Eris for EXP and Neurodes, etc)

Do I have to purchase Prime Access to get Prime stuff?
You do not need to purchase the Prime Access to get Prime Warframe/Weapons. Simply wait for a day or two after its release and it should be sold by numerous traders on the Trading Chat. Or, you can farm it on fissure missions

Do I have to spend real money to get Platinum?
You certainly can purchase platinums with money, and we encourage you to do so if you want to support the developers. But there are other ways. Simply farm relics from excavation/defense missions and open them up on fissure missions. You can then either immediately sell all the parts you've got, or save them until you got a complete set and sell it (will probably sell for more plats)

Do people who spend a lot of Platinum gain more power?
No. Prime accessories that you can't get from fissures are cosmetics only. Paying players have no advantage over non-paying players in terms of strength. Platinum only cut down your grinding time.

Is Warframe grind-y?
Well since it's a free-to-play, non-pay-to-win game, it is a bit grindy. This is their way of keeping people in-touch with the game. It's one of the classic video games' psychological tactic: rapid feedback. Or in other words, the level-up thingy.

The RNG can be quite punishing when you're looking for certain items. Like Ivara parts, Dread/Despair/Hate, War, etc. They add these 'super rare' stuff to add more benefits for the platinum buyers. Why? Because it's business. Digital Extremes (DE, the devs) don't make games for free entertainment charity. They need to pay their employees, fund new game development, pay server, update new content, etc. You don't lose anything by not getting these super rare stuff. They are still farmable and not essential to own. You will eventually get them as you progress through leveling other items.

After purchasing some platinum, new players often wonder what to buy with the platinum. Or even, not considering to spend it efficiently at all and mindlessly spend all the platinum on whatever they want. If you want to maximize the value of your Platinum, here's a basic shopping list numbered by its priority:

1. Slots
This is the very first thing that must come to your mind when you've purchased platinum. Slots allow you to save more weapons, Warframes, and riven mods. Why would you need so much weapons and Warframes? Because many of them excels at certain situations.

And of course, the 'fun' weapons. Weapons that you like so much that you want to keep it no matter how useless it is. The point of playing video games in the first place is to entertain yourself - why bother restricting the weapons you can own? Save the ones you like.

2. Potatoes
Potatoes are Orokin Catalysts and Orokin Reactors. These are vital to maximize the efficiency of a Warframe, Archwing, or a weapon. Plus, these will make leveling up weapons much easier since you can deal much more damage.

3. Bundles & Darvo
Bundles from the Market and Darvo at Relays often offer great deals that can save you a lot of platinums. Of course, remember that whether it is a great deal or a rip-off entirely depends on your perceived value of the item and the sale.

4. Difficult-to-farm Weapons and Warframes
Why bother playing spy missions over and over again when you can just get Ivara immediately from the market? Why bother taking pictures of cats when you can just get a Kavat from the market? Prioritize time-consuming items. These will greatly reduce your grinding time.

Despite its expensive price and some disagreements from non-spenders and veterans, we still highly recommend the 'What Stalker?' pack if you plan to spend some money for Warframe. It will give you access to one of the most difficult weapon set to get in Warframe: Dread, Despair, and Hate. They all drop from Stalkers yet it's already rare enough to meet a Stalker, moreover wishing for a rare drop from him.

Here's a fact to support our point: Our clan members have been playing Warframe for 700 - 1,000+ hours, yet not a single member has successfully acquired the entire set (most of us are missing one of the weapons).

Note: Yes, we understand how probability works. It is probable for you to get the entire set just from 3 Stalker encounters. We're just trying to point out the low probability of getting the entire set.

Be aware that the aforementioned weapons are NOT essential (arguably, Dread is the only weapon from the set that packs a punch) and you absolutely DO NOT need to purchase the pack if you don't plan to level up all weapons to increase your MR, or if you plan to take your chances for the rare drop. We're just giving you a recommendation for a pack that will considerably cut down your grinding time.

5. Trade!
This is the last, but still important phase of spending your platinum. Use whatever leftover platinum you have to trade on the trading chat. You can either try to purchase Prime Warframes/Weapons or re-sell items for a profit. You can also purchase veiled Riven mods, unlock it, then sell it for a profit.

This is one of the top-searched Warframe question on Google so I ought to put this here.

The answer is: Yes, Warframe does have a storyline and a 'campaign mode'

As long as you don't skip the dialogues, narratives, or cutscenes, you should easily be able to follow the storyline from tutorial until the latest story: The Sacrifice. Quests are essential for progressing through the game. You can activate quests through the game menu.

The devs are continuously updating the story. Story updates usually comes in a big package together with many other contents. It's not a typical crude MMORPG story. It does have cutscenes and it is coherent. Quite well written, in my opinion.

Another commonly searched questions about Warframe in Google. One of the biggest drawback of Warframe is its difficulty. Many of my friends are quitting Warframe after a while due to lack of challenge. Well, yes, they are mostly PvP-only fanatic boys but I still think it's a valid point. Warframe does seem too easy.

But is it going to get more difficult as you progress? Yes it definitely will.

Warframe doesn't have a good scale-up system for difficulty so it might seem that the only challenge is that enemies become bullet sponges. But they do have some quite interesting endgame challenges. Like Sortie missions and The Law of Retribution.

They also added new 'Nightmare missions' that I haven't tried. Seems like you have to complete a mission under a certain situation. Like, no energy, no shield, Shotgun only, etc.

However, for new players that haven't really forma-ed/potatoe-ed/maxed up Warframes and Weapons, a significant challenge will be present when playing against level 40+ enemies. Also, devs are adding new types of enemies that will amp up the challenge. You can also try to play Spy missions and farm Nightmare mods if you like obstacle-course-puzzle thingy.

We also believe that difficulty is not the main feature of Warframe. It was never meant to be an extremely challenging game like Dark Souls. It is hard to pinpoint Warframe's 'main feature' due to its ever-growing content. Heck, it's even already hard enough to name one fixed genre for Warframe.

UPDATE: Eidolon, Kuva, and waves of other new contents have expanded the 'endgame phase' of Warframe. It may not be something 'difficult' to satisfy your needs of frustration and pain, but it's most definitely something that can keep you engaged.

This was my top-searched question as a newbie - How do I build a particular Warframe/Weapon?

Again, the answer is very simple: You build it however you want.

There are only four main things to look at in building Warframe:
1. Health/Shield/Armor percentage
2. Abilities tab
3. Your personal preference
4. Uniquely built Warframes

IMO, you usually need at least 1 defensive mod (Vitality/Redirection/Vigor/Steel Fiber) for best survivability. If a Warframe has a larger amount of health, use Vitality. Larger amount of shield, use Redirection. No shield/High Armor warframes (Inaros, Nidus, Valkyr), use Steel Fiber and Vitality.

But hey - remember that you can build it however you want. Some may argue a defensive mod is useless, some may argue it's important for certain missions, some may argue it's absolutely essential.

Here it is, the most complicated part in building a Warframe - its skills. You have to unlock all its skills first by leveling up before being able to measure your mods' effect on its skills. After unlocking all the skills, you should be able to see all the numbers in the Abilities tab.

Now, try tweaking your Strength/Duration/Range/Efficiency using mods. Then look at your Abilities tab again. You should see green/red/gray numbers. Green means it has been increased by your mods, red means it has been decreased, gray means it's unaffected.

Strength/Duration/Range/Efficiency above 100% causes green numbers, below 100% causes red numbers, and 100% causes gray numbers.

With that basic understanding, you can now tweak your abilities however you want.

Abilities cap (from comment section): Power Efficiency beyond 175% has no practical effect. Nova's Slow Build caps on 145% power strength.

Some Warframes have multiple viable builds - pick whatever you want. Just because others have built it in a way doesn't mean you have to follow them. Just because Mogamu on YouTube has built a Warframe in a certain way doesn't mean you have to follow him. Just because others have built it in a weird way, doesn't mean it's bad. Everyone has their own personal preference build.

Example: Rhino CC (High range and duration) or Rhino Iron Skin (High strength and efficiency)

As far as I know, there are very few Warframes that needs to be built in a unique way for maximum efficiency, in contrast to the green/red/gray number indicator I mentioned.

1. Equinox = More range means more damage. Power Strength is quite unnecessary, although dropping it too low isn't recommended. Why? Because more range means you can stack up more damage from more enemies, even with low Power Strength. Peaceful Provocation mod allows you to subsidize the damage loss.

2. Nova = More power means slower enemies, less power strength means faster enemies. Use slow build for survival and speed build for leveling in defense missions.

3. Chroma = Ice build for tank role, supporting its other abilities. Plus, it was meant to be a tanker in the first place. However, you can always build Chroma for non-tank.

4. Inaros = Drop your power strength. High range allows you to quickly mow down tons of enemies with finisher attacks in combination with your first skill.

5. Trinity = Drop your duration. You will be able to quickly kill a EV-ed enemy anyways.

Same concept, different things to look at.

There are only 3 main things in building weapons:
1. Critical/Status Weapon
2. Your Personal Preference
3. Riven Mods

Look at Critical Chance's percentage and Status' percentage. If Critical Chance > Status, it means it's a Critical build weapon. If Status > Critical Chance, it means it's a Status build weapon. If both are low, build it however you want. Remember that mods are based on percentage, so build whichever already has a big value in the first place.

Mainly elements. Weapons don't really have any unique/weird builds that you need to know. I personally put blast on all of my weapons for the lulz. It's better to set elements that are effective for each faction you're fighting but I'm too lazy for that.

Some mods can also make weapons seriously deadly, like Berserker, Argon Scope, etc. Those are completely up to you. Not essential.

If you REALLY like a weapon or if you use the weapon a lot, consider purchasing (or trying your luck on veiled rivens) a riven mod for the weapon. Less popular weapons such as Daikyu, Tiberon, Latron, etc. have some very cheap, yet amazing Rivens.

I bet you've met numerous mute and uncooperative squadmates in Warframe. These kind of players are quite tolerable on easy missions, but they can be seriously frustrating and annoying on difficult missions.

Yes, teamwork is absolutely essential in high-level missions.

You can easily rush low level missions with Volt or Equinox or Ember or whatever and leave your squadmates behind safely. But if you're playing difficult missions, you better be damn sure you got cooperative teammates.

Teamwork in Warframe isn't as complicated as other games. The ultimate goal is just to make sure your squad can complete the mission without any of your team member dying over and over again.

Pay attention to the following list if you're planning to do difficult missions:
1. What kind of mission it is
2. What kind of roles you'll need
3. The completion of the main objective
4. The location of your squadmates
5. Your surroundings
6. Special conditions
7. For support players: Turn on your teammate list UI and pay attention to their HP/Energy/Shield
8. Communication

My first, second, and seventh points are quite self-explanatory. Different missions require different roles. Defense and Mobile defense would be best played with a Frost, Limbo, or Banshee in your team. Survival would be best played with a slow-build Nova in your team. Any squad would have the best chance of survival with a Trinity/Oberon/Tank Warframes for reviving in it.

As for the seventh point, look at your UI settings.

My third point should be common sense but many often forgets it in-game. Make sure you complete the main objective. Don't get in over your head when killing enemies and follow the flow all the way to the spawn point.

Leaving your squadmates behind is a ♥♥♥♥ move in bird culture. Almost any Warframes can be 1-hit-KO'ed by a high level Toxic Ancient so you better watch each other's backs. Don't parkour all the way to the objective/extraction point and ignore your mates.

Don't put yourself in the middle of a pack of Toxic Ancients. Keep a fast and steady pace with your mates. Don't get left behind. Inform them if you're stuck or lost.

Obvious but missed by lots of people I've met. Some missions have special conditions like no shield or shotguns only or whatever. You'll want the right loadout for the condition e.g. you might want Nidus, Rhino, or Inaros in a no-shield mission.

Speak if you have a microphone. Crank up your in-game VOIP volume if you're not using Steam VC/Skype/Discord/TeamSpeak/whatever. Type if you don't have a mic. It's basic human social interaction. I can't fathom the abundance of mute players in high-level missions. Communication is vital in almost every single online game.

I'll try to write my own version of a startup guide. Not exactly a detailed guide because I don't want to take up too much space. I'll assume you already understand the basic elements of the game (e.g. game modes, crafting, farming, etc.). Take this as a general guidance on what to do as a new player. Note that these are for very early stages of the game. You can do whatever you want afterwards.

Max up your MK1 weapons and get rid of them ASAP. They're weak and taking up spots of your precious weapon slots. You can easily level them up by following the early quests and unlocking missions and junctions.

Afterwards, get these:
Rhino -> Kill Jackal over and over again at Fossa, Venus. There are tons and tons of people playing this mission so don't worry about not being able to beat it.

Why Rhino? It's the easiest and safest Warframe to play. Boost your Power Strength and efficiency to make sure your Iron Skin can be casted often and can withstand a lot of damage. In a mission, cast your Iron Skin and you should be invincible and can't be knocked down. Rhino does have a different build for CC, boosting its 4th skill. But I would prefer to recommend the Iron Skin build for new players.

Boltor -> Get Neurodes from Earth's Everest excavation mission and get this sexy, high-damage primary weapon.

Strun -> Purchaseable immediately at the market for 25,000 credits - I highly recommend getting this first if you're struggling on getting Neurodes for Boltor

Secondary doesn't really matter that much but I personally would recommend Afuris/Hikou as a starting secondary.

As for melee, your starting weapon should be good enough for now.

Prioritize high MR friends that can help guide you throughout the game. Or at least, help you finish difficult missions. If you don't mind joining a strangers' clan, look for a well-built/seasoned clan. They will have all the researches done and you can get multiple clan-exclusive weapon/warframe blueprints. Plus, its dojo will also serve as your trading post.

Although I'm highly against begging for stuff, because in bird culture, that's a ♥♥♥♥ move, your high MR friends should have duplicate rare mods all over the place. Instead of trying to farm everything by yourself, ask your friends if they have any duplicate rare mods (usually Flow, Blind Rage, Narrow Minded, etc.). DO NOT beg stuff from strangers.

Junctions are 'bridges' across planets that grant you access to a new planet. Marked by a lock icon if you haven't unlocked it. Vital for progressing through the game for obvious reasons. But many neglect this fact and focus on leveling up stuff or farming credits instead. You have to unlock the junctions to unlock all the quests. Quests are vital in unlocking more features in-game. You do not have to unlock every junction from the start - just make sure you remember to unlock them.

As you go further out to high-level planets, you'll have to get better gears. Purchase blueprints early and plan out Warframe and weapons crafting. Remember that there are no 'best' Warframe or outrageously underpowered weapons (even some people will claim Magistar is an amazing weapon). Thus, don't be afraid on planning ahead. I highly recommend you reading my weapons questions if you're worried about crafting the wrong thing.

Trading is essential in gathering Platinums without spending real money. Yes, it's a social interaction. We're aware many players are trying to avoid talking to other players at all costs (considering the amount of mute Warframe players we've met), but there is really no other option - you HAVE to trade if you don't want to spend real money in Warframe. You can get prime parts, riven mods, rare mods, old event weapons, and many other things from trading.

You can access the trading chat by clicking the double arrow icon on your chat window. Use WTB for Want to Buy, WTS for Want to Sell, and WTT for Want to Trade.

1. Go to Trading Chat
2. Look for an advertising that piques your interest
3. Click the advertisers' name and contact him/her
4. Settle for a price
5. Meet at your/their trading post (or Maroo's Bazaar)
6. Put all the agreed items on the slots
7. Tick 'Ready to Trade' and wait
8. Accept Trade

1. Talk like you're talking to an actual seller/buyer face-to-face
You'll be amazed by how many rude or mute traders (ads only with no replies) in the trading chat. Not only it can be frustrating to others, IMO, people like these are lacking basic human decency. When you're talking with other trader(s), assume that you are talking to him/her face-to-face. Sure, others can still treat you like ♥♥♥♥ despite your politeness, but at least you still have some integrity about your manners.

2. You need each other
Buyers need sellers and sellers need buyers. That's why markets exists. Don't be arrogant just because you are either buying or selling expensive items. Personally, I'd rather wait for another well-mannered trader rather than trading with some arrogant nerds who are so proud of some virtual items.

3. Don't play the snob game
Just because someone has made an offer that you don't like for whatever reason, don't ignore the chat. That's plain out rude. Try to find a common ground - if there's none, politely thank him/her for his/her offer and say goodbye.

4. Know the item values
Avoid embarassing yourself or annoying other traders. When you are in the trading chat, others expect you to already 'know your stuff'. Literally. Know the value of your/their item and don't try to ask for an exorbitant price. That's equal to scamming.

The best way to estimate an item value is either by checking the Warframe forums, Warframe Market, or simply asking a bunch of other traders.

5. No Drama
Avoid complicated deals that solely rely on trust (e.g. My friend will send the item tomorrow but I need the plats now). Assume you can't trust anyone you've met on the internet. Two-way trading only. Both of you must receive the item(s) promised at the same time. Anything else is a red flag.

6. Riven mods have a generally subjective platinum value
Some meta/highly popular/Eidolon-essential weapons such as Lanka, Opticor, and Arca Plasmor can have a ridiculously expensive riven mods due to law of supply and demand (plus sellers' delusion). However, it can be rather tricky when you want to purchase a riven mod for a not-so-popular weapon. You might have noticed that there is a huge variance in riven mod pricings.

Be aware that a riven mod platinum value is relative to the buyers' perceived value. One might not have access to the Plains of Eidolon or Cetus due to insufficient PC specs, hence lowering the perceived value of Lanka, Rubico, Vectis, and Opticor riven mods. However, a frequent Eidolon giants hunter might pay a considerable amount of platinum for the aforementioned riven mods. The same rule goes for all the riven mods - there is no 'correct' price for a riven. It all depends on the buyer's perceived value.

For that reason, please do not waste your time commenting on people's pricing. You are bound to see sellers asking for an exorbitant (in your opinion) amount of platinum for a riven mod. If you can't afford it or if you think it's way overpriced, then don't buy it and move on. Simple as that.

PM-ing sellers saying "Hey your price is stupid" or something similar without any intention to purchase their wares is completely pointless. The sellers will lower their price if no one's buying their stuff after a while - there is no need for some smartass to criticize their prices. Don't waste your time picking up a fight with strangers over an irrelevant issue.

New Sections everyone!

This section is inspired by "dumb things players do" and some rant in comment section. I feel the need to assemble them into some kind of "tips and tricks" in doing certain mission. I know I heard some saying warframe is easy; no need a genius strategist to play as long you have brain cells (and can read) but, this tips and tricks will be leaning toward efficiency, effectivity, and ethics on co-op play. Just making sure everyone do missions nicely, without flame and hate. Only "good game" at the end of the day.

To kick it off, there's some things in my opinion should be great mindset (or virtues) an online player should have, Tenno included. And they are:

• Always hold back/ supress bloodthirst
  In multiplayer games that revolves around killing/beating another (be it players or AI), bloodthirst is what we always have (heck, mowing down enemies is the fun part) but excessive bloodthirst is not encouraged . One simple reason for this, is a player could be losing sight of the objective; not seeing the bigger picture. The old me would jumping here and there on defense mission, killing enemies, and then forget about the cryopod. Or, forgetting life support in survival because heads must roll. Just keep calm and have casual fun. Resist your urge to purge.
  
• Leave aside individuality.
  The point of a multiplayer game is working together towards common goal. Sadly, a few of players not actually doing this. Just because we want to excavate more we cannot rush to a new excavator alone then end up dead along with it. Void vaults can benefit everyone, not just us so we wouldn't want to mess it up alone. Just because we already got what we need, be it a loot or reactants, we can't leave our comrades-in-arms behind. These are just some of many examples that can jeopardize both other players and ourselves. Be kind. People helped us rise, it's natural that we return the favor.
  
• Communicate, keep ethics, be human, and humanize people.
  When we work with others, having those virtues is important. It can save you from lack of knowledge, inefficiency, or bad experiences altogether. A simple "thank you" could be a start of friendship. Saying "I need two reactants left, please don't extract just yet" could save you from wasting 5 minutes in void fissures. Asking for advice could save you hours, and asking prices could prevent you from being scammed. I know some of us, including myself are bad with strangers but, trust me, doing these could elevate your gaming experience from hollow grind to fellowship and comradery.
  
  That's quite the detour so let's get back to business. I'll be covering common missions for the time being.
  
  
  1. Assassination Mission
     For assassination, you objective is to kill the boss and nothing else specific. A good approach is to do just that . Why? Because most people playing assassination is farming parts or materials. And we would do a huge favor for both us and them if we can cut the farming time by killing the boss as quickly as posibble. Fellow Tenno will thank you.
     
  2. Capture Mission
     Doing capture mission has the same philosophy with assassination. Kill your target, capture them, then rush to extraction. Swift clear is most desired. In and out; two-minute adventure.
     
  3. Defense Mission
     Defend the objective as long as desired. The purpose of defense mission is mostly exp farming and parts/material farming, and sometimes credits. Thus, you will need to know about rotation that apply to defense, excavation, interception and survival. Rotation is basically a cycle; 5 waves for defense, 5 minutes for survival, 1 dechipered message for interception and one successful excavation for excavation mission, in which you recieve rewards. Every cycle have different reward pool for spesific mission (you can look it up on the wiki) except, the first two cycle. After the fourth cycle, the counter is reset and it will go back to first reward pool. Assuming the 3 reward pool are named A, B, and C, the cycle will look like this:
     
     A - A - B - C - A - ..... and so on. With interval of 5 waves/5 minutes/ one message/ one excavation.
     
     In general, rare parts, or mods are usually put in C reward pool/ C rotation. That means people farming parts would go for at least 20 waves/ 20 minutes/ 4 messages/ 4 excavation. Exp and material farming duration is usually based on personal judgement or squad agreement while credits farm usually take one rotation only then extract. One surefire way to avoid conflict in deciding duration is asking your teammates and come to an agreement.
     
     For maximum efficiency, it's best to bring a defense specialist like Frost or Vauban so you can focus less on the cryopod safety. Advanced player would bring speed-builded Nova for faster clearing, or looting frames (like Hydroid or Nekros) for easier farm. It's best to bring Support (like Trinity) and Tank (e.g Rhino) frames for prolonged period of defense.
     
  4. Excavation
     Your mission is to: deploy an excavator unit in specified place, guard and feed it with power for a period of time while it excavates ore, recieve the reward, then rinse and repeat. This mission is prefered for farming relics because one rotation only takes less then 2 minutes. Even less so if players are able to use multiple excavator simultaneously. Still, the bottom line of excavation is guarding objective so we would need defense-specialist frames for greater efficiency. If you are really, really confident enough to guard an excavator by you own (e.g you are one of two Frosts in the squad with decent build and gear), simultaneous excavation is a huge help. Be mindful not to overestimate your capability, though. Destroyed excavator plus faraway dead teammates are major setbacks to the mission. Always keep and eye for excavator power and feed them regularly.
     
  5. Exterminate
     Exterminate is a simple mission. We kill everyone in the tileset that isn't a Tenno. Total enemies are shown in the HUD and its position is constantly shown in the minimap that make this a lot easier. Speed run is appreciated here. Some would bring flexible, on-the-go AoE warframes (Ember, Equinox) and sometimes Volt to crank up movement speed.
     
  6. Interception
     A point-capture mission. The squad captures four rally points, guard it as it generates a score (dechipering progress), and round ends as the progress completed (reaches certain score). It involves rotation system so the ethics is similiar to defense. A good approach would be assigning each team member to a point which they have to protect. Each member would never leave their assigned post unless there's emergency (downed teammates, stalker, etc). That way, maximum time efficiency can be achieved.
     
  7. Mobile Defense
     In contrary of reqular defense, mobile defense features separate and limited defense objectives (2-3 defense objectives). In a sense, it's just limited survival with extra steps. Your objective is to take the provided datamass to the defense objectives, guard it for a few minutes, then move on to the next. Here, it's easy to get distracted and abandon the defense objective so be careful not to. Defense-specialist can make things easier, but most cases it is not mandatory.
     
  8. Rescue
     Your mission is as simple as freeing allies from prison and taking them back home (to extraction). The core part here is the prison break part of the mission, where you could do it loud or stealthily. Doing loud involves rushing to the prison (which will trigger the alarms), hack the security and the prison door as fast as possible before the timer ran out and prisoner is executed. Stealth approach is certainly harder and complex but results in clean and less risk; you carefully infiltrate the prison through platforms and ducts then freeing the captive with no pressure. It is encouraged to try the stealth approach first unless you value time extremely and really confident with your resilence and speed.

1. Sabotage
   Sabotage mission varies with the tileset. Common variations are:
   
   • General Grinner Sabotage
     Grinner Sabotage is the simplest of all. You head to the objective, destroy, and extract. Sometimes you have to destroy multiple objects, other times there's the timer before the object are destroyed. There's no spesific strategy to this one
     
   • Corpus Reactor Sabotage
     This sabotage is more intricate than the first one. You are tasked to (stealthly) stole a coolant cell, places it on the generator, guard it as it explodes and extract. If you are unable to stole both of coolant cell provided, you will have to use fuel cell that explodes on insertion, and you will have fearsome wall of fire chasing you as you extract. Even though using a fuel cell looks like a failure in the mission, some pros actually prefer this instead of coolant cell because they won't have to waste time guarding the generator. Plus, they are fast enough to outrun the waves of fire. Still, coolant cell is the most safe and noob-friendly way to do Reactor Sabotage.
     
   • Orokin Sabotage
     Void-exclusive orokin sabotage requires you to open a portal to another tileset using two consoles, enter it, kill the boss who has the key, and destroy the opened portal as you exit the other tileset. Be careful not to be on the other side of the portal when it closes (altough the time limit is overly forgiving ). Orokin Sabotage also features three hidden caches with rare loots inside. Look for it if you have the time. Me and [ARX]AnthonyPS usually split open-closing the portal and cache hunting between us; one clearing the objective and one looking for the caches. Could be a good strategy to clear the mission and finding the caches quickly.
2. Spy
   In Spy mission, you are to slip into enemy server room and retrieve its data stealthily. If enemy finds you and trigger the alarms, they will destroy the data within a short time limit, in some cases, instantly. So, stealth is your best bet on this. My advice would be get familiar with the tileset, because there's just a few variation of it. If you haven't familiar with the spy tileset or not able to surely retrieve the data, don't try to get in; in multiplayer or squad play. Familiarize yourself with the tileset by going solo at first, checking any entrance potential you can find. To make things easier, you can use Permanent-invsibility Loki or Ivara, which specially built for stealth and spy. The key is to take it slow at first. Then get swift-y when you know how to get around.
   
3. Survival
   Survival is basically an all-you-can-kill buffet of mobs, a purge if you will. The twist here is you have to keep your slowly-decaying life support system active by recharging it at single-use station periodically or killing enemies for the mission to continue. This also uses a rotation system so you know the drill (review defense section). To survive as long as possible, you will need support frames, tank frames, and crowd-controlling frames. The strategy here is just one word. Survive.

This guideline I wrote is based on my personal experience in playing warframe. If there's something I failed to mention or take the wrong way, please be so kind to add some feedback. That way you won't only help the author, but the reader as well. At the end of the day. Cheers for the Tenno!

We know we're not supposed to have a closer/conclusion part for this guide since you're not supposed to read every single page. But, we just feel weird without writing one, so we'll put some extra notes here to address some possible confusions

Keep in mind that almost everything at Warframe is subjective. Other players will most likely disagree with our guide here, especially the quick startup guide. This is simply because they have their own preferred method. Are they wrong? No, of course not. Their method might be more effective for them. Our method is more effective for us. Which one is the most effective for you? You decide. Whichever you pick, they all have been tested and have proven to get us through the early phase easily.

Our final answer would be: "Yes, but not really".

Basically, yes, you can play however you want. But that would disprove the reason we wrote this guide in the first place. LOL. So, we'll add a 'not really'. Let me explain.

You are free to do whatever you want and still ultimately get a nice loadout. But dumb moves that will make you struggle to progress do exist. That's the reason for the 'not really'.

Here is a list of dumb moves I've encountered:
1. A new player bought a blueprint for a very difficult-to-farm Warframe after he completed his tutorial.
2. Player ignoring his/her own loadout and only focus on trading because he/she is too stingy to spend anything for him/herself. Ultimately relying on others to complete missions.
3. I tried to Google 'best Warframe', 'best Warframe primary', 'best Warframe secondary' etc back in the old days. The result is obvious: everyone has got a different opinion on what's best so that confused the heck out of me.
4. Someone refusing to make any social interaction with other players in-game. Resulting in complaints about 'pay to win' because he/she can't farm Platinums through trading chat. Also results in complaints about 'Warframe is too grindy' because he/she can't ask for help from squad/clanmates.
5. New players trying to gather materials for popular weapons like Soma, Nikana, and Tigris, only to realize it's MR-locked.
6. Players refusing to do any of the quests
7. Players skipping all the cutscenes and ignore the dialogues, then complain that 'Warframe has no story'
8. Players refusing to expand his/her arsenal, then wonder why his/her MR never increases.
9. Players refusing to search for the best place to farm certain items and only play mindlessly
10. Players refusing to put orokin catalyst/reactor on his/her Warframe and weapons
... and so on.

Well, that's all for our guide. we'll add more things later if there's anything good in the comments section. This was our own misconceptions back in our noob days, so we might've missed a lot of stuff in our guide. Thus, please let us know if there is any popular new players' confusion that you want us to address. With that said, we'll really appreciate any suggestions, critics, and rate-ups from you guys.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find our guide helpful.
Have a great rest of the day.