Warframe

Preamble

Warframe is mainly a co-operative MMO. Solo play is possible, but playing co-op and joining a guild lets you progress much faster. The wikia page is useful to sort through all the jargon, pre-requisites, and assorted confusion: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

Almost all of the post, unfortunately, is very relevant information you'll need to understand to engage with the game. It's a long established free to play game with years and years of accrued systems, many of which make less sense than they probably should.

The 2 main forms of currency in the game are:
- Credits which are earned from missions and quests; and
- Platinum. New warframe accounts are given 50 to start. Additional platinum can be purchased with real money, or it can earned later on by trading items with other players.

Both currencies can be used to buy items in the Market, the console on your ship that lists most of the game's content.

Credits are mostly used to buy the blueprints for weapons and warframes. From there, you'll need resources and specific parts to craft them. Crafting with blueprints is the primary way of acquiring new warframes, weapons and gear.

It should be noted that Platinum is the only way to increase your inventory space. Consider spending your starter platinum on weapon slots or warframe slots.

You can start trading with other players at Mastery Rank 2 if you have access to the relay on Mars (called Maroo's Bazaar). Otherwise, you can join a clan, and trade in their dojo. Also, take note of the 2-Factor Authentication requirement: https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Trading

There's 3 other forms of currency: Ducats, Standing, and Nightwave creds.
- "Ducats" Earned by trading in Prime parts at kiosks in any of the the planetary relays. (See "Void relics, Void Fissures, Prime parts, and Prime Mods" for more info)
- "Standing" Earned by doing missions (and bounties) for various syndicates. Each syndicate has their own form of Standing that can be used to purchase their offerings.
- "Nightwave creds" Warframe has "seasons" under the banner of "Nightwave". Completing these daily or weekly goals can unlock cosmetics, upgrade materials, and inventory slots. You'll also earn Nightwave specific currency that can be spent on even more cosmetics, upgrade materials, as well as rare mods.

All equipment (Weapons, warframes, companions) will rank up when brought into a mission. Most equipment will max out at Rank 30, and each rank will give you Mastery Points. These points contribute to your overall Mastery Rank.

Mastery Rank is tied to unlocking new content in the game, which means there's an element of "Gotta collect them all". Currently, Mastery Rank 30 is the highest. However almost all content is available by Mastery Rank 16, so you can skip a few things.

Playing with others increases your mastery gain. You'll have to be within "affinity range", a symbol will appear next to other player names when you're close enough. You'll share a portion of the kills and damage dealt by others, which is a boon early on since experienced players will tear through most missions.

Most mods have 3 - 10 pips along the bottom, showing their overall rank. Higher ranks are more powerful but also mean a larger capacity cost.

Unwanted or duplicate mods can be melted down into Endo, fueling the upgrades of other mods.

Upgrading "Aura" mods (for warframes) and "Stance" mods (for melee weapons) will increase mod capacity instead of requiring it, so you should always fully upgrade them.

If you join a clan, their dojos will have "Research" rooms where you can spend credits to get weapon blueprints. They also have access to a few warframes. You'll need the blueprint for the warframe itself, and the blueprints for the parts it requires.

To access a Clan Dojo, you'll need to construct a Clan Key from a blueprint you receive when you join.

At some point you'll end up with "Void Relics". These are essentially random lootboxes that can only be opened in "Void Fissure" missions. Void Relics are the source of Prime equipment and warframe blueprints. Prime equipment and frames are the best gear available in the game.

Once you're in a Void Fissure, it's a normal mission plus the inclusion of enemies that become corrupted and sometimes drop "Reactant" upon death. You have to collect 10 reactant before completing the mission in order to unlock the void relic. Your reward will be one of the half dozen items listed in the relic's description, most likely a Prime part.

When playing in a group, make sure everyone has 10 reactant before ending the mission. Everyone with 10 reactant get to choose one of the prizes from all the opened relics. If you fail to collect 10, then you don't get any prizes.

Void Fissure missions also reward you with "Void Traces". These traces can be used to "refine" void relics, and get a better chance at the uncommon and rare drops. Void traces are collected regardless of whether you equipped a relic or collected enough reactant. Also, bonus traces are earned if other players choose your relic's reward.