Which Warframes first? The best frames for new players

At the start you pick one of three starter Warframes: Excalibur, Mag or Volt. After that you can earn almost every other Warframe yourself. You get most of them by defeating a boss on a planet and building the parts in your Foundry. That costs no platinum, just some time and resources.

The key terms in short:

Blueprint

A building plan. You use it in the Foundry to build an item, for example a Warframe or one of its parts.

Neuroptics, Chassis, Systems

The three components of every Warframe. Each needs its own blueprint.

Foundry

The workbench on your Orbiter. Here you turn blueprints and resources into finished items.

Assassination

A mission type where you defeat a boss. Most bosses then drop a Warframe part.

Warframe slot

Every Warframe in your inventory needs a slot. Free slots are scarce and cost platinum.

Market

The shop on your Orbiter. You buy many Warframe main blueprints there for plain credits.

Every Warframe consists of four blueprints: the main blueprint plus one each for Neuroptics, Chassis and Systems. For most frames you buy the main blueprint in the Market for credits. You have to earn the three parts, usually from a boss.

1. 01

   Buy the main blueprint in the Market

   Open the Market, find the Warframe and buy the blueprint for credits, not the finished frame for platinum. For Rhino it costs 35,000 credits.

2. 02

   Farm the part blueprints

   Defeat the boss until you have Neuroptics, Chassis and Systems. Each win gives a random part, duplicates are normal.

3. 03

   Build the parts in the Foundry

   Each part needs credits and resources and is done after 12 hours. You can build all three at the same time.

4. 04

   Build the Warframe

   With all three parts you start the main blueprint. Depending on the frame this takes 24 or 72 hours.

5. 05

   Claim and level it

   Claim the finished Warframe in the Foundry. It needs a free Warframe slot.

Here is what that looks like for Rhino and Frost (values from the official game data):

Build step	Rhino	Frost
Neuroptics	15,000 credits, 1× Neurode, Rubedo, Alloy Plate, Polymer Bundle, 12 h	15,000 credits, 1× Neural Sensors, Rubedo, Alloy Plate, Polymer Bundle, 12 h
Chassis	15,000 credits, Ferrit, Rubedo, Circuits, 12 h	15,000 credits, 1× Morphics, Ferrit, Rubedo, 12 h
Systems	15,000 credits, Ferrite, Circuits, Polymer Bundle, 12 h	15,000 credits, 1× Control Module, 1× Morphics, Salvage, Plastids, 12 h
Warframe	25,000 credits, 3 parts, 1× Neurode, 24 h	25,000 credits, 3 parts, 1× Orokin Hücresi, 72 h

You can get these frames without platinum. They are roughly sorted by how early you reach them on the Star Chart.

Warframe	Role	Where to get it	Why it is good
Rhino	Survival, control	Jackal, Fossa (Venus)	Iron Skin gives you a thick layer of Overguard, Rhino Stomp knocks enemies down and slows them. The easiest tank in the game.
Frost	Defense, control	Captain Vor and Lech Kril, Exta (Ceres)	Snow Globe protects you and the objective. Ideal for Defense missions.
Nekros	Loot, support	Lephantis, Magnacidium (Deimos)	Desecrate makes defeated enemies drop loot a second time. Perfect for farming resources.
Valkyr	Melee, survival	Alad V, Themisto (Jupiter)	Lots of armor and health. During Hysteria your hits heal you and status effects cannot touch you.
Nova	Control, damage	Raptors, Naamah (Europa)	Molecular Prime slows enemies and makes them take more damage.
Loki	Stealth	Hyena Pack, Psamathe (Neptune)	Invisibility makes Spy and Rescue missions very easy.
Trinity	Support	Ambulas, Hades (Pluto)	Heals and restores energy for the whole squad. Always welcome in groups.
Saryn	Area damage	Kela De Thaym, Merrow (Sedna)	Spreads toxins and spores across whole groups of enemies. One of the strongest damage frames.
Wisp	Support	The Ropalolyst (Jupiter)	Her Reservoirs give the squad more health and speed and shock enemies. The boss drops the main blueprint too.
Khora	Damage, control	Sanctuary Onslaught (Cephalon Simaris)	Strangledome traps enemies. Hit one of them with Whipclaw and all of them take damage.

• For Trinity you need 5× Animo Nav Beacon. You get them by hacking Ambulas units in Corpus missions on Pluto.
• For Saryn you need Judgement Points from Rathuum missions on Sedna.
• The Ropalolyst only unlocks after the quest “Chimera Prologue”.
• Sanctuary Onslaught opens with the quest “The New Strange”. The parts drop rather rarely there.
• You can reach Deimos as soon as you have cleared the War node on Mars.

There is no wrong frame. But think about what you are missing right now. Early on, three things help most:

• Survival: Dying a lot? Get Rhino, Valkyr or Frost. They take a lot of punishment and forgive mistakes.
• Crowd control: Enemies that cannot move or cannot see you cannot hurt you. Frost, Nova and Loki are good at this.
• Damage: For large groups and harder missions later, Saryn and Khora are strong. They do need good mods.
• Support: Trinity and Wisp make the whole squad stronger. This is most fun in groups.
• Farming: Nekros gets more loot out of every mission. He saves you many hours later on.

This order follows your path across the Star Chart, so you farm each frame as soon as you reach it.

1. 01

   Rhino (Venus)

   The first boss after the tutorial and the most important early frame. Buy the main blueprint in the Market and defeat Jackal until you have all parts.

2. 02

   Excalibur and Mag

   On your way through Mars and Phobos, pick up the parts of your other starter frames. Good mastery points for little effort.

3. 03

   Frost (Ceres) and Nekros (Deimos)

   Frost for Defense, Nekros for more loot. With Nekros every later farm gets easier.

4. 04

   Nova and Valkyr

   Europa and Jupiter are on the way into the mid game. Both are strong and versatile.

5. 05

   Loki, Trinity and Saryn

   Neptune, Pluto and Sedna come later. For Trinity and Saryn you first need to collect Animo Nav Beacons or Judgement Points.

6. 06

   Wisp and Khora

   Once you have the required quests, both are great additions for support and damage.

Every Warframe needs a Warframe slot. A new account has three slots. You get another one for the Venus to Mercury Junction. After that, each extra slot costs 20 platinum in the Market. Nightwave also gives one Warframe slot per season.

Still, think twice before you sell a frame. With the Helminth: unlock it, feed it, swap abilities you can later feed Warframes so other frames learn one of their abilities. For that you still need the frame. Strong Prime versions come later from Void Relics: farming Prime parts.