Glossary

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
This page contains a list of important terms and abbreviations commonly used by players.

A

• Affinity - Experience in Warframe. Contributes to levels for weapons, Warframes and sentinels.
• AFK - Away From Keyboard. This refers to someone that, while present in a mission, is not actively playing it. Depending on the use, it may either be informative (the player has to attend to something in real life for a short moment, and thus cannot assist) or derogatory (the player does not move at all after the mission starts).
• Aggro - Both the Threat Level mechanic, and the act of giving oneself as great a Threat Level as possible to distract enemies.
• Alert - Missions that appear randomly and give additional credits or loot as a reward.
• Alertium - Nitain Extracts, which can primarily be obtained as an alert reward.
  • Alertium Prime - Vauban Prime, owing to the large amounts of Nitain Extracts required to construct him.
• Ambulance - Ambulas.
• AMD - Antimatter Drop; Nova's 2nd ability.
• Ancient Retribution - A well-known placeholder mod in Warframe that may appear as a Defense or Interception reward due to bugs.
• Angry Ball - An unstable Lunaro.
• AoE - Area of Effect; used to describe attacks or abilities that affect multiple targets within a specified area.
• AW - Archwing.

B

• Baconframe - Atlas, owing to his obi resembling strips of bacon.
• Baking - Slang for an item being made in the foundry e.g. "I have a blue potato baking."
• Ballistica Syndrome - A derogatory term for a weapon that spends more time reloading than firing.
• Bar, BarPol - The polarity shape.
• Baro Ki'Teer - the Void Trader, who offers rare items in exchange for Ducats and Credits.
  • Baro Ki'Tears, Baro Shit-Tier - Derogatory nicknames for Baro Ki'Teer, usually in response to his current stock.
• BoneDaddy - Nekros.
• Booben - Vauban.
• Boxheads/Blockheads - Corpus, nicknamed for their box-like helmets. (Crewmen in general, Techs)
• BP - Blueprint.
• Breeding Mods, Breeding Mod Set - The four dual-stat mods rewarded in Operation Breeding Grounds, known as Thermite Rounds, Volcanic Edge, Scorch and Scattering Inferno. Now obtained as a possible reward for completing Spy missions.
• Buff, Buffed - Improving something's ability overall.

C

• Cabbage - A Void Relic, named such for their resemblance to cabbages.
• Cap, Capt, Capture - Refers to the Capture mission type.
  • Cap may also be used in Interception missions, typically to order other players in capturing a specific point (e.g. "Cap A" meaning "Capture point A").
• CC - See Crowd Control or Conclave.
• Cell(s) - See Orokin Cell.
• Cicero Mods, Cicero Mod Set - The four dual-stat mods rewarded in The Cicero Crisis, known as Malignant Force, Virulent Scourge, Pistol Pestilence and Toxic Barrage. Now rewarded by defeating Corrupted Vor.
• Clan - A guild. A clan has its own chat channel, can build a Dojo, facilitates trades, and allows advanced weapons and items to be researched.
• Clantech - Items obtained primarily through research in the clan dojo.
• Clem - Originally a fanmade character derived from certain lines from the Grineer. Clem has since been canonized by Digital Extremes.
• Clemmings - Kavor Defectors from the Defection game mode. Named after Clem and lemmings.
• Cmod, CM - Control Module.
• Compound Syndrome/Weapons - Derogatory terms for weapons which requires multiple weapons as ingredients to craft; examples include the Panthera or Akjagara. Manually crafted Akimbo weapons such as the Akbronco or Akbolto tend to be excused from this term.
• Cooking - Slang an item being made in the foundry e.g. "I have a blue potato cooking."
• Co-op Door - Refers to a door that requires two players present to open when in a party.
• Corpus - One of the three main enemy factions. They are a merchant cult, built on the foundation of salvaged technology and robotics.
• Corrupted - The type of enemies encountered in the Orokin Void or Void Fissures.
• Corrupted Mods - Mods that increase one stat and decrease another, obtained in Orokin Vaults.
• CP - Corrosive Projection, an Aura that reduces enemy Armor.
• Crowd Control - Abilities or actions which have the capability to incapacitate enemies from retaliating, such as knocking enemies down and/or blinding them.
• Cryotic Mods, Cryotic Mod Set - The four dual-stat mods rewarded in Operation Cryotic Front, known as Rime Rounds, Frigid Blast, Frostbite and Vicious Frost. Now obtained as a possible reward for completing Spy missions.

D

• D, DPol - The  polarity shape.
• Dash, - The polarity shape.
• Dashes, AbilityPol - The polarity shape. Used for Augments or Channeling mods. See also Scratch/ScratchPol.
• Data-ass - Derogatory term used to describe a player whom misuses possession of a Datamass during Deception or Mobile Defense missions either by refusing to complete the objective, or by going AFK.
• DC, D/C - Disconnected. DC also may refer to the 'Design Council'.
• Def, Defense - Refers to the Defense mission type. Players will often advertise Void runs and its difficulty.
• Derf, Derf Anyo - An officially recognized fan-made character, as Devstream 30 claims. Usually refers to son, nephew, or other familial bond to Nef Anyo.
• DNS (technical) - Domain Name Server. Used to determine a players IP address in an international scale, if a DNS address is mismatched, the player will not be able to connect to other certain players.
• DM - Death Mark.
• Dojo - A clan meeting place. Different rooms can be built, with purposes of research, trading, duels.
• Doorway Hero, Door Hero - denotes the specific act of utilizing choke points (such as doors) to rapidly kill recently spawned enemies. Mostly used as a derogatory term. The term Hallway Hero is sometimes used interchangeably.
• Dorito cape - Abrasys Syandana.
• Down, Downed - When you run out of health, you'll be in bleedout state. Teammates can revive you back to full health and shields.
• Dogs - May refer to:
  • Internet-shared slang for Grineer. Originated during The Gradivus Dilemma where Alad V would generally refer to the Grineer as "dogs".
  • Kubrows, owing to their dog-like appearance.
• Dual/Dual-stat Mods - Refers to Nightmare Mode Mods which grant two different beneficial stats. Not to be confused with Corrupted Mods.
• DS - Dark Sector. Usually followed by S - Survival (DSS) or D - Defense (DSD).

E

• Elephant - A Nickname for the Infested boss Lephantis. See also Panties/Le Panties.
• Endo - form of currency required to rank mods.
• EV - A Trinity build focused on Energy Vampire, primarily by reducing her Power Duration in exchange for increasing both Power Strength and Power Range.
• Ext, Exterminate - Refers to the Exterminate mission type.
  • Ext may also refer to the extraction point. See below.
• Extract, Evac - To exit a mission or head to the extraction point, typically used in Survival missions.
• Exp - Experience. Correctly called Affinity, used to level Weapons, Warframes and Mastery.

F

• Farm - To play repeatedly or for long periods to achieve desired objective, usually something in larger number (such as a certain resource or enemy).
• Fashion Frame - When a player creates or aims to create an overall aesthetic modification to a Warframe strictly for the purpose of being aesthetically pleasing.
• Fast Nova - A Nova modded with Overextended and no Power Strength mods to cause Molecular Prime to speed enemies up, instead of slowing them down. Commonly used during Infested Defense missions to make enemies get into players' range faster. Also called Speed Nova and Neg Nova.
• FL - Friend List.
• Focus - a selection of special abilities that can only be obtained after completing The Second Dream quest. Check its respective article for more details.
• Forehead: Phorid, for both its name and its appearance.
• Forma, Forma'd, Formed - To use a Forma to alter a polarity slot (a.k.a. polarized, polarization).
  • # Forma - Adjective for a weapon or Warframe that has been polarized # times (e.g. 4 Forma Braton)
• Frame - Warframe.
• Friendship Door - Refers to a door that requires two players present to open when in a party.
• Fusion Core - May refer to:
  • Fusion Core, a core can be used to increase the rank of mods.
  • Nef Anyo, a derogatory nickname due to his outfit being similar to the shape of a Fusion Core.

G

• G3 - The Grustrag Three.
• Gate - Nova's Worm Hole.
• Gate Crash Mods, Gate Crash Mod Set - The four mods rewarded in Operation: Gate Crash, known as Buzz Kill, Fanged Fusillade, Sweeping Serration and Maim.
• Glass Cannon - A frame capable of dealing large amounts of damage, while having low survivability.
• GMag - A Greedy Pull Augment using Mag.
• Golem - The Jordas Golem, an Infested boss.
• Greedy Milk - Derogatory slang for Corpus blood, popularized by one of General Sargas Ruk's quotes during The Gradivus Dilemma; "Rraahudd Tenno! Now we fight together! Now we crush the greedy milk from their skulls. The Corpus will pay for their crimes with their useless lives."
• Grind - To play repeatedly or for long periods to achieve desired objective (e.g. attaining rare items).
• Grineer - One of the enemy factions. A race of clones.

H

• H - Hosting.
• Hallway Hero - A negative term referring to a player in a defense mission (endless, wave, mobile, or survival) who fights far from the defense objective or team, killing enemies too far to share Affinity and spreading out pickups too thinly. The term Doorway Hero is sometimes used interchangeably with Hallway Hero.
• Harvester - The original name of Zanuka Hunter.
• Hitscan - A type of weapon wherein the weapon's target is calculated by way of intersection with a line trace, as opposed to collision with a projectile. Such weapons are said to hit targets 'instantly', on the same frame in which the weapon is fired. Common hitscan weapons include the Braton, Burston, and Soma.

I

• ID - Irradiating Disarm, a Warframe Augment Mod for Loki's Disarm skill.
• Infested - A main enemy faction. Comprised of Corpus and Grineer that have been infected with the Technocyte Virus.
• Infusion ability/mods - Augment abilities which buffs the damage of a player's weapon with their respective elements such as Venom Dose or Smite Infusion. Other uses:
  • Infuse - Applying infusion abilities to a player.
• IPS - refers to the physical damage types; , , and .

J

• Jellyfish - Derogatory nickname for Alad V, coined by Tyl Regor in Operation: Tubemen of Regor.
• John, John Prodman - A fan-name given to a Prod Crewman that managed to take down Phorid and survive. Many fans have applied this name to the Prod Crewman that frequently appears in Promotional Videos. Digital Extremes have since canonized John's existence, though not much information has been released since then.

K

• Kappa - A commonly played mid-level Mobile Defense mission, located on Sedna.
• Keys - Void Keys, Derelict Keys or Dragon Keys used to enter the Orokin Void, Orokin Derelicts or Vaults.
  • Key Share - A group set up to run the same mission multiple times where each player uses a key to activate the mission one after the other.
• Killframe, Kill Frame - A Warframe capable of killing large groups of enemies quickly, most notable example being Excalibur using Radial Javelin and Saryn using Miasma.
• Kiste - A very commonly played high-level Mobile Defense mission, located in Ceres. Known for one of the most populated affinity farm node.
• Kit - abbreviation of Baro Ki'Teer. Kit can also mean a player's loadout.

L

• Leech - A player who is taken on a mission simply to fill the squad and maximize enemy level, commonly being weak and having low level equipment, with the intention of leveling up quickly. Not to be confused with Taxi.
• LFM, LFG - Looking for member/more, group.
• Lobster/Lobster Butt - Trinity, owing to the overall appearance of her skirt resembling a lobster's tail.
• LoR, LOR - Law of Retribution , an 8-player trial mission which can be obtained by buying and crafting its key from the equipment section in the market.
• LoS, Los, - Line of Sight, typically relating if an enemy or enemies can see the player or not. Certain abilities -particularly those that Blind enemies- generally require Line of Sight for maximum effect.
• Lotus - The Tenno players' guide.
• LS, Life Support - Life Support Modules that are dispensed from dead enemies in Survival missions.

M

• Mastery - Your overall account level. Increased by leveling up weapons, Warframes and companions (not counting forma(s)) and completing a test.
• Mastery Fodder - Weapon with insufficient damage capability, or too gimmicky to be viable for end game play, thus making it useful only in advancing experience for next Mastery Rank. Usually sold right after achieving level 30 on it.
• Mats - Resources. Short for Materials.
• MD, MDef, MobDef - Mobile Defense.
• Mods - "Cards" picked up during missions and won for completing some missions to enhance the power of Warframes, weapons, and companions.
• MR - Mastery Rank.
• MP, M Prime - May refer to:
  • Molecular Prime, Nova's 4th ability.
  • The second mission on Mercury.

N

• Neffy - Nickname for Nef Anyo, coined by Tyl Regor in Operation: Tubemen of Regor.
• Neg Nova, Negative Nova - A Nova modded with Overextended and no Power Strength mods, which causes Molecular Prime's speed debuff to increase enemy speed, instead of slowing them down. Commonly used during Infested Defense missions to make enemies get into players' range faster. Also called Fast Nova and Speed Nova.
• Nerfed, Nerf - Something that was recently weakened or needs weakening.
• Neutral Nova - A Nova modded with Overextended in such a fashion that Molecular Prime's speed debuff does not modify the speed of affected enemies in any fashion. Useful if players only wants the damage buff from the ability.
• Nightmare Mods - See dual mods.
• NM, Nightmare - Nightmare Mode. A high difficulty mission that can occupy random nodes indicated with a skull and rewards special mods unique to these missions.
  • NM may also refers to Narrow Minded.
• Node - a planetary mission.
• Nuke - any weapon or ability that can kill a large quantity of enemies at once (i.e. Molecular Prime, the Ogris).

O

• Octopus - The Phage rifle. Nicknamed for its appearance when firing.
• OC, OCell, OroCell - Orokin Cell.
• OD - Orokin Derelict, usually followed with an additional letter indicating the mission type. e.g. ODS, ODD and ODA refer to Orokin Derelict Survival, Defense and Assassination respectively.
• ODV - Orokin Derelict Vault, a section of the Orokin Derelicts that awards players Corrupted Mods.
• Orokin - The name of the race that previously ruled the solar system. Tenno are their descendants. 
• One-handed action - Commonly used term in the wiki, this refers to actions that do not interrupt full actions such as reloading, charging, or shooting
• OV - Orokin Void, usually followed with an additional letter indicating the mission type, as well as the Tower number representing the difficulty. For example: OVS, OVD and OVE refer to Orokin Void Survival, Defense and Exterminate respectively. And for the Tower number, a general T1, T2, T3 or T4, meaning Tower one, two, three or four.

P

• Panty, Panties - The Infested boss Lephantis.
• PBR (Treatment) - Physically-Based Rendring, which offers a less production-intensive approach to the rendering of materials and light. Within the context of the game, this refers to a graphical update that improves the luster of metallic sections of equipment, and allows them to be customized.
• PC - Price check. Used on the trading channel to find out how much something is worth.
• Pizza, Pizzas - Team Restores, deployable Equipment that restores either health, energy, shields or ammunition every few seconds. Will typically have one attribute prefixed to indicate what it restores (e.g. Health Pizzas for Team Heal Restores and so on).
• Plat, Pl, Pt, P - Platinum, the game currency that can only be traded or paid for.
• PM - Private message. Use /w <username> message to whisper to the player.
• Pol - The polarity associated with a slot in a Warframe or weapon.
• Potato, Blue/Gold Potato - An Orokin Catalyst or Orokin Reactor, named such for their resemblance to potatoes. As per A Man of Few Words, it is an abbreviation of Potent Orokin Technical Augmentation Tactical Offensive.
  • Potatoed - Refers to equipment that has a Catalyst/Reactor installed.
• Precept - The abilities that a Companion can use. Precept mods have the polarity.
• Prime - May refer to:
  • The modifier given to an enhanced version of a Warframe or weapon.
  • Molecular Prime.
• Primed Disappointment - a user-created mod that Baro Ki'teer is said to bring when his stock is less than stellar. Cf. Baro Ki'tears, Baro Shit-Tier.
• Proc - The result of a weapon or ability triggering one of the additional damage effects via status chance, An abbreviation of Programmed Random Occurrence. See Status Effect.
• PST - Abbreviation of "Please Send Tell", or to send a private message to another player in-game. Use /w <username> message to whisper to the player. Can also be seen as an abbreviation of "Psst!"
• Pubs, Pug, Pugs - Pick-up Group/Public. Used to describe a group that is not preorganized or a player that is not part of the organized group.

Q

• QT - The Quick Thinking mod.

R

• Red Text - In-game announcements that appear in the chatbox from the developers at Digital Extremes. The text is written in red, hence the name.
• Rep, Reputation - Syndicate Standing.
• Raid - Also known as Trials. Refers to 8-man end-game content such as The Law of Retribution and The Jordas Verdict.
• RJ - Radial Javelin, referring to an Excalibur build that prioritizes that ability.
• RQ - Resonating Quake, an Augment mod for Banshee's Sound Quake. It may also refer to builds that focus on this augment.
• RNG - Random Number Generator. Used to refer to the random chance of things happening in the game, such as mod drops or the appearance of Assassins. Sometimes jokingly called Random Number God.
• RNGesus, RNJesus - A joking nickname attributed to the RNG (above), typically mentioned in such a way to imply the speaker is praying.
• Rotten Salad - Mutalist Alad V, owing to Alad being partially infested. See also Spoiled Salad.
• rPol - The polarity shape.
• Rush - May refer to:
  • Completing a mission as fast as possible.
  • Instantly finish building an item in the foundry, using platinum.
  • The Rush Archwing mission type.

S

• Salad V - A popular nickname for Alad V.
• Scratch, ScratchPol - Also refers to the Augment/Channeling polarity.
• ShieldPol - Shield Polarize.
• Slova - Slow Nova.
• Space Mom - a nickname for Lotus.
• Space Nazi - Grineer or New Loka.
• Speed Nova - A Nova modded with Overextended and no Power Strength mods to cause Molecular Prime to speed enemies up, instead of slowing them down. Commonly used during Infested Defense missions to make enemies get into players' range faster. Also called Fast Nova and Neg Nova.
• Spoiled Salad - A nickname for Mutalist Alad V. See also Rotten Salad.
• Stunlock - A tactic that forces enemies in a Stun-phase or remain them plummeting to the ground.
• Syndicate - A group of Factions with unique ideologies that the Tenno can side with.

T

• Tank - A player that can take large amounts of damage.
• Taxi - A player that has a mission or planet unlocked that will form a group for a player that does not.
• Tethra Mods, Tethra Mod Set - The four dual-stat mods rewarded in Tethra's Doom, known as Jolt, Shell Shock, High Voltage and Voltaic Strike,
• Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3 / Tier 4 - The difficulty or level group of enemies in a mission or wave. The tier determines the reward pool players have access to.
• Tomato - An Exilus Adapter, named such for the resemblance to the cross-section of a tomato.
• Tylenol - Nickname for Tyl Regor.

U

• Ult, Ultimate - The '4' ability on a Warframe. Comes from the 4th ability often being the most powerful and costly Warframe ability.

V

• V, VPol - The polarity shape. Sometimes called rPol.
• Vault - See ODV.
• VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol; Voice Chat
• Vorrito - Refers to Captain Vor

W

• Warframe - The machine that the Tenno controls.
• Wipers - A contraction of Wraith Twin Vipers.
• WTB/WTS/WTT - Want/Willing to Buy/Sell/Trade.

X

• XP - Experience. Correctly called Affinity, used to level Weapons, Warframes and Mastery.

Y

• Yelling - Having a discussion through in-game chat, then distributing it to the forums.

Legacy Terms

These are terms that may still be used by long-term players but refer to things that no longer exist.

• AbilityPol - An earlier name for the  Augment/Channeling polarity. Up until Update 15.0 (2014-10-24), Warframe abilities also had their own mod cards, allowing players to equip/unequip abilities.
• Copter, Coptering, Spin Dashing, Zoren Coptering - Using the slide attack of melee weapons, particularly those with a high attack speed, to fling a player a great distance quickly. The momentum generated by melee slide attacks was greatly reduced in Update 17.0 (2015-07-31) (in exchange for Bullet Jumping, making this less effective.
• Draco - An Interception mission node on Ceres that was a popular spot for players to farm affinity. The mission type was changed in Update 19.0 (2016-11-11), making it less of a popular spot.
• Fusion Core - A mod card used solely for leveling up other mods, now replaced with Endo.
  • R5 - Fusion core ranked Rare 5.
  • U5 - Fusion core ranked Uncommon 5.
• Green - Life Support pick-ups in Survival missions. Named for the green HUD indicator that was unique to them.
• Naked Nick - The person inside the Warframe Cryopod before its model was changed in Update 12.0 (2014-02-05).
• R+QT - A combo between Rage and Quick Thinking which granted invulnerability. The combo's efficiency was nerfed in Update 11.1 (2013-11-27), and the term fell out of use soon after.
• Rainbow Build - A mod loadout popular during Damage 1.0 that used all elemental damage mods for maximum damage. Fell out of favor with the introduction of Damage 2.0.
• Viver - A mission node on Eris that was used to farm large amounts of mods, resources or credits in a short period of time.
  • The abuse of the interception mission on Viver to speed level gear resulted in Digital Extremes nerfing several frames including Excalibur, Mag, and Trinity. This controversial action is referred to as Vivergate.
• Xini - Another Eris mission node, this one a high-level Defense mission, that was used to farm affinity similarly to Draco.