Beginners Guide

Greetings Tenno. If you are new to Warframe and are interested in some tips, tricks, and otherwise answers to the plethora of features and functions of the game, this page is designed to help you with all of that.

The attached Crash Course video is an excellent source of standard information. Since the game is still in Beta, please note that there has been some alteration to the look of the solar system and the mission selection since this video. For everything else it does not cover or that you did not understand, please continue reading.

This page is a little intimidating with its length, but know that its just a lot of short sections designed to give new players an idea of features. This page can be used as a kind of table of contents for the whole WARFRAME Wikia. Feel free to skip around this page for info.

If you feel there is something major missing from this page, please let us know with comments on the bottom or by leaving a message on an admins' wall.

The Basics
Prior to the start of the game, please familiarize yourself on the game's settings, UI navigation and other basic functions.

Key Bindings
Please familiarize yourself with the default key bindings, or change them to your liking. Warframe uses a slightly unconventional default key binding set.

Tutorial
When you first start the game, you will be guided to a Tutorial mission. The mission is tied to the Warframe PS4 E3 Trailer: The Call. From there, the Lotus will guide you through a series of basic movement and combat tutorials. Also note that you cannot die in the tutorial; your health will only drop to a minimum of 3 health points. The tutorial can be replayed through the home screen of the game, by clicking the Personal Statistics section. More information will be detailed below.

Personal Statistics
You can view your personal statistics by clicking the progress bar on the upper left corner of your home screen. From there, you can access your player rank, the Lore of the game, and the Tutorial. The progress bar shows you your Mastery Rank in the game, and the avatar to the right can also be changed to your liking by clicking it. More information about Mastery Rank will be detailed below.

Settings
There are a wide range of settings that you can change to your liking. Notable settings include gore, network options, HUD toggle and of course graphics options. Warframe is Nvidia PhyX supported, so it is highly recommended to enable it if you have a high end Nvidia graphics card. Also, if you have a low end graphics card, it is recommended to turn Local Reflection off, since it is the most graphically intensive option. The settings can be accessed by clicking the 'gear' button on the upper right corner of the home screen.

Mode Selection
On the top of your home screen is the Mode Selection. From there you can alter the mode of your missions, these modes include: Online, Private, Invite Only and Solo mode. Online lets you play with a random group of people in your region; Private enables your friends and Clan members to join your session; Invite only enables you to play with people that you have invited to your session; and finally Solo mode lets you play in solo. Note that you can be revived by your teammates if you are defeated during a squad mission, however this ability will be disabled in Solo mode.

Other UI Buttons
Details regarding Arsenal, Contacts, Market and Foundry can be found in the section below.

Your Arsenal
The first thing to know is that you are playing a space ninja! But not just any kind, you are equipped with one of many different armors that grant special powers and shields along with many Weapons, a side kick known as a sentinel, consumable equipment, and persistent abilities called Auras.

The Armor Suit: "Warframes"
This armor is the Warframe Suit. Though the lore for the game is still being held by Digital Extremes, the creators of the game, we know that the warframes were designed by the Orokin, the predecessors of the Tenno, a very long time ago. The powers of the warframe are equipped after the frame has leveled up a few ranks by fighting with the weapons available to you (explained below). All warframes and weapons level up independently of each other with Affinity. Upon leveling up a warframe or weapon, item gains mod energy to equip mods and the player gains Mastery Points.

For more information on the warframes, see the pages of their explanations and see these videos:

Choose Your Weapons
Second, you have weapons! There are lots to choose from. Every Tenno may bring 3 separate weapons into battle: a Primary weapon, side arm, and a melee. All these and the warframe are equipped in the arsenal. These weapons can vary slightly to being completely different concepts. Various weapons will perform better or worse depending on how they are equipped and what faction you are fighting.

For more info on weapons, see all their pages or visit The Hidden Redcoat's channel

Sentinels
Sentinels are flying robots that have a mix of utility and offensive capabilities. All are equipped with a weapon and have programmable slots known as "precepts" that will change the functionality of the pet. Like the warframes and weapons, each work best in different styles. Notice that you will not have one from the beginning. It takes some time to get one of these.

Find more information about the sentinels on their pages:

Modification Cards
Better known as just mods, these cards are used to optimise frames, weapons and sentinels to perform at top efficiency. They can add Damage Types, increase Armor, change a sentinels behavior, add effects, and extend the range of their equipment. All mods are only attachable to one set of equipment, require mod energy, and almost all have a Polarity. Mods level up by Fusion at the cost of Credits and increase their mod energy requirements. So don't go off just upgrading them all to max as fast as you can. Give your equipment time to level up first.

Auras
Aura cards are very much like Mod cards, but with 2 significant differences. The first is there mod energy listing GIVES more mod energy to the equipped warframe, and the second is that the card effects the entire squad in play with that player. The cards can only be equipped to the slot hanging out on the left side of the other mods. See their page for more details.

More to come.

Missions
Participate and hopefully success in completing missions. There are a lot of different objectives to fulfil, like Capture, Raid, Rescue and more. A successful completion will earn you bonus experience, credits and sometimes (depends on the mission) additional rewards like mods, consumables or even blueprints. As you play through a mission, you will also collect resources, credits and mods as well as experience (affinity). Failing a mission or quitting out before extraction will cause you to loose all rewards gained in the mission except experience.

Factions
There are four Factions in warframe. The 3 enemy factions are Grineer, Corpus, and Infested. The player is considered part of the Tenno. The Orokin towers (you will learn about them later) also have the "corrupted," but these are just modified versions of the other factions. Each faction dominates a different planet and has different attributes and strategies, weaknesses and resistances.

Powers
Each of your warframes possesses four unique abilities. These abilities are detailed on the warframes page. they are all assigned numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. the 4th ability is an "ultimate." Using powers costs Energy.

Parkour
Agility is a very important component in the game. Each of your warframe is capable in doing various combat maneuvers, swordsmanship, and various types of free-running skills. These include horizontal wall-running, vertical wall-running, sliding etc. These abilities defines the Tenno as the true master in both weapons and martial arts.

Mastery Rank
Mastery Rank is gained by leveling up equipment. Warframes give 200 mastery points per level up while weapons give 100 points. Therefore it is highly recommended to sell your equipment only when you have reached the maximum rank 30 on each of your equipment. Mastery is needed to obtain more powerful weapons. To gain a rank, a player must gain enough mastery points AND pass a test.

Foundry
Crafting is a huge component to warframe and with it, resources. With enough grinding for resources, components, and credits, you can build most every weapon, sentinel, and warframe in the game from their blueprints. You will also be able to build Orokin Catalysts Orokin Reactors and Forma.

Your Clan
Clans are the basis of competition in warframe. Clans are groups of players with common interests, goals, methods, or just groups of friends. You can join an existing clan by being invited by one of it´s members or create a clan of your own with your buddies. A list of existing clans can be found on the wikia at the clan listing page. Alliances are a future function for Clans that allows clans to still connect with each other and have special actions.

Clan Dojo
The base of your clan. Here you can research and build strong weapons, test your movement skills in a parkour room, or duel with your clan mates for fun. If you created a new clan, you will have to build all the necessary rooms for these different options with collected resources.

Other things to note
This game is in beta! That means there are going to be problems, bugs, glitches, undocumented features (intentionally and unintentionally). The game is expanding rapidly. Big changes are still to come.

The Stalker
The Stalker is a rouge Tenno who will show up at random after you have killed a boss. He(?) is very strong, but not undefeatable. With the right weapons, or a good team, he can be brought down for a good prize.

Founders
Founders are players who have invested money in this free to play game to get some extra gear, purchase their warframes, and speed up crafting. Some gear is only obtainable through purchasing a founders pack. For players who by the top two packs, they also get to vote in special secret votes to determine the outcome of some features of the game. Those who buy the top package will have their name show up in game as a "solar land mark" (sponsor) for one of the missions.