Quartz 4

Warframe game

11 min read

Warframe is a free-to-play collect-a-thon with third-person shooting as the primary action mechanic. It’s known for fast, fluid, and free movement, a wide variety of items to collect, and player-friendly monetization.

Game loop

Warframe has many different game modes, but the primary loop regarding the collection is this:

  1. Identify an item you want to obtain
  2. Discover what is required to build the item
    • This can be found via the Warframe wiki or, if you already own the main blueprint, it will show the parts needed.
    • For more powerful/complex items, the main blueprint may point to components which have their own blueprints and are also composed of several parts. In these cases, you’ll need to see all the blueprints to understand all the items you need to collect.
  3. Find the sources of the various components and how to obtain them.
  4. Complete the activities required to obtain all parts until you have everything needed.
  5. Build the item, and find the next item you want.

Currencies

Credits

Credits are earned through play. Each successful mission awards credits. Harder missions generally reward more credits and some mission types reward more credits than others.

Uses

  • ranking up mods
  • transmuting mods (i.e., taking four mods and turning them into a different mod; this is a way to potentially use duplicate mods to try to get other mods you haven’t collected)
  • buying blueprints from the market
  • Baro Ki’Teer charges both ducats and credits for items on offer
  • player trades are taxed in credits

Acquisition

  • The best way I have found for obtaining credits is The Index.

Platinum

Platinum is a premium currency in Warframe

Uses

  • Slots are the most important platinum purchases for a collector/completionist.
    • Warframe has distinct slots for many item types: warframes, weapons, companions, and many others. Once you have collected enough of an item to exhaust your available slots, you will need to purchase additional slots to hold those items.
  • purchasing weapons and warframes outright from the market
    • Most of these are also offered as blueprints for credits. This will require the item to be built whereas the platinum purchase conveys the completed item.
  • cosmetics: skins, palettes, decorations, etc.

Acquisition

  • The easiest and most expensive way to obtain platinum is by purchasing a pack.
    • Players are sometimes rewarded coupons for discounts on platinum. The best coupons are 50% off and 75% off. I have received each once.
  • Players may earn platinum by trading with other players
    • Earning platinum in this way makes your hourly rate comically low, but if you enjoy the activities you’re doing to earn the items to sell anyway, it can still make sense.

Ducats

Ducats are primarily associated with the void trader Baro Ki’Teer.

Uses

  • buy items from Baro Ki’Teer
  • Ducats are a requirement for crafting at least one item

Acquisition

  • As far as I know, the only way to obtain ducats is by trading blueprints obtained from void relics at the trading kiosks near Baro Ki’Teer (or in the spaces he occupies, in the event he is not currently present).

Endo

Endo is a currency used for ranking up mods.

Uses

  • Ranking up mods

Acquisition

  • dissolving mods
    • You may do this with duplicate mods since they are not needed
  • trading Ayatan sculptures and stars to Maroo

Collectibles

Warframe has a ton of different items to collect — far more than I could list here. I will name a few of those with unique uses or means of acquisition.

Uses

  • most make up one part of items built at the foundry
    • The player will typically need to collect a number of a given item as part of the requirements to build something. Requirements are outlined in the item’s blueprint.

Acquisition

  • most are acquired by breaking containers or opening lockers in missions or as drops from enemies
    • Some items are obtained from containers specific only to them while others will sometimes drop from generic loot containers.
    • Breakable containers generally shimmer to show that they can be broken.
    • Openable loot lockers usually display green lights to show they can be opened.
      • Red containers cannot generally be opened without equipping mods that allow you or your pet to try to unlock red containers, turning them into green ones.

Ayatan stars and sculptures

These are special items which can be traded to Maroo at Maroo’s Bazaar for endo. Sculptures come in many different varieties, each with a different appearance and configuration of sockets which can hold Ayatan stars. Ayatan stars come in two varieties: cyan and amber, with the former being about 4x as common as the latter.

Uses

  • Ayatan stars may be traded directly to Maroo for endo.
  • Ayatan sculptures may also be traded to Maroo for endo but will earn more if you socket the correct stars
    • You can only socket stars by clicking on the “Ayatan Treasures” button in the “Mods” segment of the orbiter. You can then select a sculpture and rotate it around, clicking the sockets on the sculpture itself to socket a star in each one. This UI will show the endo value increasing as you socket stars.

Acquisition

  • Most missions have 2+ Ayatan stars that are relatively easy to find if you’re not blowing by every loot container.
    • They drop from breakables and from openable loot lockers.
    • They make a distinctive sound when they drop, and an icon is visible throughout the level showing their location until they are collected.
  • The Arbiters of Hex syndicate vendor at the room’s entry door who trades for Vitus Essence will trade you an infinitely repeatable blueprint to build amber stars by expending 2x cyan stars and 1x Vitus Essence.
    • This effectively levels out the drop rate versus the usage rate since they are generally socketed at a 2:1 ratio favoring cyan stars while the drop rate is 4:1.
  • Sculpture pickups are extremely rare and are not highlighted on the map.
    • I’ve found maybe 5 of them in 300 hours of play.
    • They are just sitting around in the level, usually in out-of-the-way places.
    • Many collectibles appear as generic indicators, but the sculptures appear in the level as their full models. A sculpture pickup in the level looks exactly like the sculpture itself.
  • Maroo offers a weekly mission in which the player may run a race to obtain a single sculpture
    • The player is placed in an orokin level with a waypoint at the start of the race. Stepping on a pressure plate at the waypoint opens and door and starts the finish line door closing. The player must run through a sort of obstacle course and make it through the finish door before it fully closes. If you make it, you can pick up the sculpture at the end.
    • It may be retried immediately if you fail.
    • You may succeed in only one treasure hunt mission per week.
    • Some frames are very well suited for this mission. Among those I have:
      • Zephyr’s slow fall and Tail Wind (1) ability allowing her to fly a straight path by pressing or hover by holding make it easier to navigate most of the obstacles.
      • Wukong’s Cloud Walker (2) ability is basically a cheat code. It allows the frame to fly very fast, controlled by the user, for the duration of the ability. It can be used to go directly to the destination.

Argon crystals

Vitus essence

Progression

Warframe offers several forms of progression.

Item progression

Items like warframes, weapons, vehicles, and companions have a rank. Each new item starts unranked and is ranked up through play by way of affinity. Affinity is gained directly for an item by using it — for Warframes, by using abilities; for weapons, by killing enemies with those weapons; etc.

Affinity can also be picked up from loot containers and is earned passively when within “affinity range” of a squadmate as they earn affinity. Affinity earned in these ways is divided between any items which can earn affinity.

Account progression

You have an account rank that is effectively the culmination of the affinity you have earned. (I’m not sure exactly how this works because the affinity applied to your account rank doesn’t seem to be simply the sum of all affinity earned. From my observation, it appears to be much less.)

Once you have collected the requisite amount of affinity toward account rank to advance, you will be given an opportunity to complete a challenge to rank up. You may complete one rank-up challenge per day, capping the number of ranks you can earn in a day. You access the rank-up challenge through the pause menu (press Escape on PC). Each rank-up challenge is unique, and you may want to prepare a build based on the specific challenge ahead. Previously, players were allowed only a single attempt per day, but you may now attempt as many times as you want.

Mission types

Spy

Spy missions offer opportunity for stealth, although you don’t have to use it throughout the entire level and that’s poorly communicated by the game.

Spy missions point out three objectives in the level where you need to — as stealthily as possible — infiltrate the vault and find your way to the console where you can steal the intel. Generally, the way to the console is not straightforward and may include patrols and surveillance intended to notice your infiltration and start destruction of the intel. If you are noticed and trigger an alarm, this will kick off a timer until destruction, giving you an opportunity to quickly steal the intel before it is destroyed.

Stealth is not required and there is no risk of triggering destruction throughout most of the map. While heading toward one of the objectives, Lotus will note just as you arrive at a locked door that triggering alarms past this point will trigger destruction of the intel. Only once you hack the console controlling this locked door and advance through it is this true.

Not triggering any alarm in the controlled areas will reward some bonus affinity (alarms in other areas of the mission do not impact the reward), but the most desirable rewards from these missions generally come from the items rewarded for each vault capture. Each vault capture will award an unidentified item which will then be identified at the end of the mission. You can see them in the mission rewards section of the recap prefaced with the text “Identified.” (Note that identified credit rewards will be broken down in a tooltip when hovering over the overall credit reward. Identified endo rewards are not broken down or called out the way other items are, so you will end up inferring based on the amount of endo awarded and on the number of other identified rewards versus the number of vaults completed.)

Most of the most desirable spy mission rewards require cracking all three vaults. At the end of the mission upon cracking all three, you will roll on all three reward tables for that spy mission. The final table is usually the source of the best rewards.

Assassination

Exterminate

The Index

The Index is a unique mission on Neptune. It pits a team of players (with empty slots filled by bots) against a team of bots.

The player must select one of three wagers which determines the difficulty and the potential reward. The second wager of 40,000 credits seems to be a sweet spot. It rewards 175,000 credits for each round won reaching the required point threshold within the time limit. For this wager, the requirement is 75 points.

Points are earned by killing opposing bots to collect their index points. Each point represents as a small flat silver diamond-shaped coin with a glowing green center. (These can be difficult to see while also engaging in the action.) When any competitor is killed, they will drop all the coins they have collected, and those may be collected by any other competitor. Each point carried reduces the carrier’s health and shields.

The map is divided into two roughly symmetrical sides. On your team’s side, you will find a glowing yellow spot on the floor you can touch while carrying coins to bank those toward your team’s score. Each coin conveys a single point toward the required threshold, although bonuses are rewarded for carrying many coins at a time. 10 coins is a sweet spot because it is the threshold for a four-point bonus. Banking also increases the remaining time, so you may need to bank early to avoid running out of time before hitting the point threshold. Not doing so will forfeit your wager.

The Index is so far the best method I have found of earning credits. The most lucrative missions aside from this earn about 20-30,000 credits. The Index can earn 5x this in about the same time. Playing on the public setting so that other players can join can make completion even faster. It’s particular effective with a credit booster. It’s not the most fun mode, but the utility is undeniable.

My Warframe quest log

Warframe quest log

Incomplete

Complete

  • Gild Panzer Vulpaphyla
  • Acquire Shade Prime
  • Acquire Verglas Prime (by acquiring Nautilus Prime)
  • Get Alad V Nav Coordinate from Hyf on Deimos
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