User:Rastanari/Early Planet Progression

Players new to Warframe are initially guided through the game by a linear set of missions that introduce new equipment, abilities, companions and other fundamental game functionality. These missions are offered on a planet-by-planet basis where once a player has completed a set of requirements for a given planet they are then able to move to a new planet and progress further into the game.

This guide is intended to give a new player an idea of what to expect through the first few planets and what to look for and use once a new ability or component is available.

Overall Progression
A Mission on a planet is a single task that needs to be completed to progress to further missions on that same planet. The initial order of planets is first Earth, then Venus, Mercury and Mars. A Junction connects one planet to another planet. To get from one planet to another players need to complete the requirements for a junction and then defeat a mini-boss for that junction. In the main navigation map, hovering the pointer over a junction will show which criteria have been met and which still need to be addressed before attempting to defeat the junction mini-boss and then moving on to the next planet.

Missions that have not yet been completed will blink light blue on the navigation map for that planet.

Junction mini-boss fights become a little more difficult with each new planet but can be immediately repeated until players manage to win.

Earth
Players start out on Earth. Following the mission paths on the navigation screen for Earth and will eventually complete the criteria to be able to fight and defeat the junction mini-boss and continue to Venus.

Players will not initially be able to complete all the missions on Earth. One mission branch requires what is known as an Archwing, which will not be available to players until completing all the criteria for the Mars junction (which means completing Venus and Mercury as well). This particular mission branch can be returned to and completed later once a player has completed the requirements for and earned an Archwing.

Completing the Venus junction on Earth will award players with their first Companion, a Taxon along with a weapon for it called the Artax. Once players have completed the Venus junction they should open their Arsenal and equip both the Taxon as a companion and the Artax for its weapon. The Taxon and Artax will increase in rank over time just like a player's warframe and other weapons.

Venus
Players should continue through Venus exactly as they did on Earth, following and completing the blinking blue mission paths and eventually completing the criteria for the junction and defeating the junction mini-boss on Venus leading to Mercury.

Completing the Mercury junction on Venus will award players with a Quest for a relatively short line of steps to earn a second companion known as a Kubrow. It is the player's choice if or when they want to complete the quest to earn this companion. One caveat to this companion is a Kubrow costs credits to maintain at 100% functionality. Even if players decide to complete the quest line it is recommended they focus on leveling up their existing Artax companion and keeping the Kubrow in Stasis until later in the game when they have built up a larger number of credits.

Mercury
Players should proceed on Mercury exactly as they did on Earth and Venus. Rinse and repeat. By now players should have a greater understanding of the different type of missions involved when progressing through the game.

Players should continue through the Mercury missions exactly as was done for Earth and Venus and they will fulfill the requirements to move on to Mars.

Mars
The Mars junction is back on Earth but the requirements for it are all on Mercury.

Completing the Mars junction on Earth awards players with the last component they will need to build an Archwing. Once a player's Archwing has been built they can go back and complete all the Archwing missions on Earth, Venus and Mars they could not complete earlier.

By the time players have completed the requirements for the Mars junction they should have a fairly good basic understanding of the game, mechanics, components, progression and so forth, which is continued through each planet's progression through the rest of the game.

Mastery Rank Progression
As a very rough measure, players can expect to earn a little less than one Mastery Rank per planet. At some point after finishing Earth and moving into Venus players can expect to earn Mastery Rank 1. Past Venus and at some point towards the end of Mercury players can expect to reach Mastery Rank 2, and so on. This metric assumes players do not repeatedly grind individual mission nodes on a planet to earn Affinity but rather attempt to progress further into each planet completing each planet's mission nodes only once.

Beginner Videos
There are a number of good beginner videos for Warframe. Watching some of them for the early game content will greatly help a player's understanding of the game, interface and mechanics. Highly recommended!