Getting started: what to do after the tutorial?

After the tutorial, Warframe drops you into a huge game with lots of systems. That feels overwhelming at first, and that is completely normal. The good news: the main quests walk you through almost everything important, step by step. If you follow them and unlock the Star Chart along the way, you are doing it right.

The key terms in short:

Orbiter

Your spaceship and home. Here you find the Arsenal, Foundry, Market, Mods segment and Codex.

Star Chart

The map with all planets and missions. Each mission is a node you need to clear once to move on.

Junction

A gate between two planets. You complete a few tasks, defeat an enemy and unlock the next planet.

Foundry

Where you build new Warframes, weapons and parts from blueprints and resources. It takes time, often 12 hours to 3 days.

Mastery Rank

Your account’s experience level. It grows when you level new gear and unlocks new weapons and features.

Platinum

The premium currency. You buy it with real money or get it from other players through trading.

Codex

The encyclopedia on your Orbiter. Here you start quests and see where enemies and items can be found.

For new players everything starts with three quests that follow each other directly:

1. 01

   “Awakening”

   The tutorial. You pick your first Warframe: Excalibur (melee and all-rounder), Mag (crowd control) or Volt (fast, electricity). Don’t worry, you can get the others later.

2. 02

   “Vor’s Prize”

   A few missions on Earth. You repair your Orbiter and unlock the Market, Foundry and other areas. In the end you defeat Captain Vor and get the Burston blueprint.

3. 03

   “The Teacher”

   Since Update 40.0 the third main quest. Teshin teaches you modding. You get the Mods segment, the Thornbak rifle, basic mods such as Vitality, Serration, Pressure Point and Hornet Strike, plus Endo and credits. It also unlocks Cetus and Nightwave.

You unlock new planets through Junctions. Each Junction asks for a few tasks, such as finishing a quest, upgrading a mod or building something in the Foundry. Then you fight a Warframe Specter. Every Junction you clear gives 1,000 mastery points and rewards.

• The first Junction from Earth to Venus asks for “The Teacher”, among other things, and rewards you with your first Orokin Reactor. Put it into your favorite Warframe.
• The Junction from Venus to Mercury gives you an extra Warframe slot and unlocks the quests “Once Awake” and “Howl of the Kubrow”.
• Every node on the Star Chart gives mastery points the first time you clear it. So it pays to play every node once.

Next to each node you see the enemy level. The further you get from your starting planet, the higher it gets. If a planet feels too hard, that is fine: go back, level your gear and upgrade your mods.

The main quests build on each other. Many need a specific Junction. This order follows the Codex:

Quest	Requirement	Key reward
Vox Solaris	Talk to Eudico in Fortuna (Venus)	Garuda blueprint, K-Drive, Solaris United
Once Awake	Mercury Junction	First encounter with the Infested
Heart of Deimos	Earth to Mars Junction	Xaku blueprint, Necramech, access to Deimos
The Archwing	Mars Junction	The Odonata Archwing for space missions
Natah	Uranus Junction	Exilus Warframe Adapter
The Second Dream	Natah and Neptune Junction	Operator, Focus, access to Lua
The War Within	The Second Dream and Pluto Junction	Sorties, Kuva Fortress, Kuva Liches
Rising Tide	The War Within	Your own Railjack
Chains of Harrow, Apostasy Prologue, The Sacrifice	the previous quest each	Story, Harrow and Excalibur Umbra
Chimera Prologue, Erra and further prelude quests	The Sacrifice	Setting up the big finale
The New War	Railjack, an Amp and the prelude quests	The Drifter and a major turning point of the story

Every new weapon and Warframe gives you mastery points while you level it. A weapon gives 3,000 points in total up to rank 30, a Warframe 6,000. With enough points you take a short rank test and go up in How to raise your Mastery Rank fast.

• A higher Mastery Rank unlocks stronger weapons that need a minimum rank.
• You can sell a weapon at rank 30 and still keep its points. That frees up space for the next one.
• Level gear in a group or in missions with lots of enemies, such as Defense or Survival.

Almost every player makes a few of these mistakes at the start. These tips save you a lot of trouble:

• Spending starting platinum on cosmetics. You start with 50 platinum. Buy slots with it instead: one Warframe slot costs 20 platinum, two weapon slots cost 12 platinum. You will always need slots.
• Selling regular Warframes. Later you can feed non-Prime Warframes to the Helminth: unlock it, feed it, swap abilities and give their ability to other Warframes. If you sold one, you have to build it again for that.
• Selling mods for credits. A mod sells for very few credits. Dissolve duplicate mods into Endo instead and use it to upgrade other mods. More in Modding basics: capacity, Endo, Forma and more.
• Overlooking the Market. Many Warframe and weapon blueprints can be bought in the Market for plain credits. Platinum there buys finished items, which you usually don’t need.
• Ignoring Nightwave. Nightwave gives you standing for daily and weekly tasks. With it you climb 30 ranks and get rewards such as Orokin Reactors, Orokin Catalysts and sometimes even slots.
• Wanting too much at once. Many systems only matter later. Focus on the next quest and the next Junction.

Sooner or later you will be missing a resource or a part. Two sources help you:

• The Codex on your Orbiter shows where scanned enemies and items can be found.
• Our database shows drop locations and build costs on every item page, for example for Forma or Orokin Hücresi.
• In the Foundry, the game shows which planets drop a resource when you hover over it.

Here is a rough plan for the coming weeks. You don’t have to follow it exactly, it just gives you a direction:

1. 01

   Understand modding

   Read Modding basics: capacity, Endo, Forma and more and upgrade your most important mods with Endo. Good mods matter more than a new weapon.

2. 02

   Learn damage types

   Every faction is weak to different elements. Damage types and status effects explained explains which combinations are worth it.

3. 03

   Collect mastery

   Build new gear, level it and take your rank tests. Tips in How to raise your Mastery Rank fast.

4. 04

   Get your first Prime parts

   From Mercury on you find Void Relics. How to open them is explained in Void Relics: farming Prime parts.

5. 05

   Resources and platinum

   With Resource farming: get there faster you find everything for your blueprints. With Earning platinum and trading safely you earn platinum without real money.

6. 06

   Swap abilities

   With the Helminth: unlock it, feed it, swap abilities you give Warframes new abilities. This is where you will be glad about every Warframe you did not sell.

7. 07

   Endgame

   After the big quests, How to unlock and master the Steel Path, Archon Shards: unlock, farm and socket them, Arbitrations: rules, Vitus Essence and rewards and Incarnon: awaken old weapons weapons are waiting for you.