Warframe Soloing Every Boss Guide

Warframe Soloing Every Boss Guide by denmax

Introduction

Before we begin, there are some things one should try to understand before proceeding to read the guide, else one’ll probably just be confused as to what I am trying to describe or talk about.

After the section about Warframe feedback, each heading should describe what the contents of the section is all about to ease navigation for the reader. The format of the heading are as follows:

Boss Name (Planet) – Blueprint Drops

Under each section, there is a set of information usually common among every section of its kind. Each field are as follows:

Difficulty refers to how easy or hard it is to beat and manage the boss following whatever process is written under the section. The duration of the boss fight is also included in this field, so even if it actually isn’t tedious to beat the boss, but takes up so much valuable time, then the difficulty field will be affected

Warframe Dependence means the difficulty of the boss fight using any warframe. If it ranks high, it technically means that it is heavily suggested that certain warframes should be utilized.

Recommended Warframe(s) are a list of Warframes that make the boss fight rather easier in difficulty. The degree of the need to follow such recommended warframe(s) depends on the Warframe Dependence field.

Item Dependence is similar to Warframe Dependence except it deals with weapons and consumables (such as ammo and health)

Recommended Item(s) includes the more viable weapons to use against the boss

Mod Dependence is unsimilar to the first two “dependence” fields as the entry to this one is simply the REQUIRED mod to add on your arsenal to make beating the boss a whole lot easier.

Please assume that Rhino, Trinity, and at some extent Loki and Ash, are always a recommended warframe when soloing bosses. The reason is further explained in the next section of this guide

Warframe Feedback

There are some warframes better in boss fights than others, either by a small margin,or a huge gap. Under this section, I will discuss each Warframe’s effectiveness in soloing boss figts

Excalibur

Effectiveness: Low – Medium
Excalibur is a so-so Warframe when it comes to dealing with bosses solo. His arsenal of skills are quite effective at certain situations. The most useful in his skillset, however, is Slash Dash and Radial Blind. The reasoning behind it is quite simple – Slash Dash is more energy efficient when it comes to dealing damage in a single target, and some bosses such as Lieutenant Lech Kril can be stunned using Radial Blind. However, these two abilities are not enough to make Excalibur’s boss farming life a whole lot easier compared to others.

Loki

Effectiveness: High – Very High
Loki’s abilities make defeating bosses a whole lot easier. His kiting game and pseudo-tanking allows him to deal terrible, terrible damage to bosses before they could really retaliate and fight back. Decoymake almost every melee-oriented boss a cakewalk. Swap can actually work on some bosses, and this can be used effectively to put a boss in a position where he cannot fight back properly. Though he is soft, Invisibility is his equalizer as he can scrap out a significant amount even before the boss could notice you.

Mag

Effectiveness: Low – Medium
The greatest problem of Mag is that there are many bosses who can come out unscathed whenCrushed, or even are unaffected by the ability completely. None of her other abilities could help except maybe Bullet Attractor to take out bosses who are smart enough to try to take cover like Vay Hek.

Volt

Effectiveness: Medium
The only great ability that Volt can use against non-melee bosses is Electric ShieldSpeed may also be able to work for the player as it can be used to place yourself in a location where a boss may not be able to retaliate. However, these kinds of bosses are quite rare.

Ember

Effectiveness: Low – Medium
Ember’s conundrum comes from the fact that none of her abilities have any utility whatsoever. True,Overheat would be able to reduce incoming damage and she can actually keep enemy shields down using her many DoT abilities, but it is not enough. Fire Blast could actually cause some bosses to panic, much like normal enemies, but the amount of bosses that do are not in the majority.

Rhino

Effectiveness: Very High
Rhino is typically one the greatest boss killers in the game due to only one of his abilities, Iron Skin. Being granted 15 seconds of invulnerability at max level for only 50 Energy is no joke. You can typically dish out so much damage that it wouldn’t even matter if the boss wanted to fight back or not.

Frost

Effectiveness: Medium – High
Frost has two abilities in his arsenal that he can utilize against bosses, Freeze and Snow Globe. Freeze basically makes kiting for Frost a whole lot easier in the process. Snow Globe is probably the biggest reason why soloing some bosses is so much easier for Frost. Keep in mind that there are bosses which are immune to the super-slow-that-is-almost-like-a-stun effect like the Jackal. His only real problem is probably getting the items he needs to deal damage to the boss – which every other frame does.

Ash

Effectiveness: High
Ash is similar to the of Loki in a sense that Ash has Smoke Screen, which grants Ash invisiblity allowing him to deal some damage without resistance. Teleport also gives Ash some kiting game. But the lack of anything similar to Decoy means that Ash cannot trigger the ability cooldowns of the bosses, so as soon as his Smoke Screen ends its expected that the boss will throw whatever skill to you ASAP. Being fast enough to react helps a whole lot though.

Trinity

Effectiveness: Very High
Same story with Rhino – an ability that grants invulnerability. The difference, however, is that Trinity could potentially make it last indefinitely. The process is to cast Link first, which makes Trinity take anything and shrug it off like a caressing spring breeze. After getting Link, Energy Vampire comes next, which converts the damage Trinity deals to the boss into energy. With the right mods, you could technically nullify whatever energy you should have lost by doing the combo

Nyx

Effectiveness: Low
Though Nyx has the best crowd control in game (U7), she has almost zero potential against bosses. True, her Mind Control and Chaos could actually stun the boss for a good two seconds, but it isn’t enough.

Banshee

Effectiveness: Low – Medium
The only thing Banshee has going for is Sonar, but it costs so much energy that it wouldn’t even matter. Sonic Boom could stagger some bosses, but that’s about it in its potential.

Saryn

Effectiveness: Medium – High
Saryn can keep boss shields down completely, which is usually the bane of new players to deal with when up against bosses because of their supremely quick recharge time. Keeping Venom rolling allows continuous DoT to hover over the boss quite reliably and costs only 25 energy. Moult can act similar to Decoy, except it lasts indefinitely (instead – has a health and shield threshold which also regenerates overtime) and does not require Saryn to do any animation.

Captain Vor (Mercury) – Cronus

Difficulty:Very Easy
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):None
Item Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Item(s):None
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • Melee attacks that can engulf you in flames
  • Recharging shield
  • Ash’s Teleport
  • Volt’s Shock at long range
  • Rhino’s Radial Slam (rare)

Captain Vor is quite an easy opponent to beat. The only thing threatening about him is when you first see fight him and see him teleport behind you in an instant, only to realize he is just a big softy.

Captain Vor takes many weaknesses that most other normal mobs have as well – that he can be staggered quite easily with a charge attack from Skana or even on 100% stun weapons like Dual Zorens.

Because of how easy he is to beat and how he drops the Cronus Sword blueprint quite frequently, he is usually farmed by many players to earn credits at a fast pace. Sorry but the previous statement is not quite true anymore.

General Sargas Ruk (Saturn) – Ember

Difficulty:Easy – Medium
Warframe Dependence:Low
Recommended Warframe(s):Loki, Ash
Item Dependence:Low
Recommended Item(s):Low damage/bullet rifles
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • The Gorgon as a weapon
  • A fast recharging shield
  • Radial stomp when approaching him at close range
  • Can place a spherical field around you which reverses all your bullets towards you – potentially dealing damage to yourself
  • Volt’s Electric Shield that drains your shield when cast. (used after receiving enough damage)

To new players, Ruk might have been a punishing experience. Trying to spray all their bullets at Ruk, only to fail to realize that all those bullets were aiding at their downfall rather than their enemy’s. However, patience goes a long way when going up against Ruk.

Assuming you are not either Loki or Ash, you will have to deal with Ruk casting his own version of Bullet Attractor towards you multiple times. When he does do this, try to wait around 10 seconds for the shield to disperse then deal as much damage as possible against Ruk before its cooldown runs out. Fret not when he casts electrical shield, as he usually doesn’t even use if properly anyway and he is actually tall enough for you to shoot his head. Just try to be patient when dealing with Ruk because there is nothing you could really do when he casts Bullet Attractor on you, no matter what weapon you may have (except melee).

Now, Loki and Ash work so well against Ruk due to the fact that he can’t cast on anything he can’t see. rolling Invisibility or Smoke Screen continuously allows them to deal damage without the need to wait for Bullet Attractor to finish its duration or whatever.

The Jackal (Venus) – Rhino

Difficulty:Easy – Medium
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):None
Item Dependence:Low
Recommended Item(s):Ammo Efficient weapons (e.g. shotguns)
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • A machine gun that could potentially drain your shields out quickly
  • An undraining shield that can only be deactivated by shooting his legs
  • His arena spawns an indefinite amount of Mine Ospreys
  • A stunning slam similar to Shockwave Moas. Can be cast continuously if the player stands too close.
  • Shoots an array of homing missiles.
  • Releases a cluster of grenades that deal tremendous damage and could instantly kill the player

Jackal is a more unique boss compared to many of the other bosses in Warframe in that he has his own unique Arena and that he cannot be directly damaged. Though Jackal has many tremendous abilities that could completely devastate the experience of any new player, there is a way that makes Jackal not use any of his skills at all except his machinegun attack and the spawning of Mine Ospreys.

First thing to understand is the arena. There are four pillars, where two pillars (opposite diagonally) usually have some containers dropped nearby which could give you some ammo or energy if required. These four pillars may be used to your advantage.

The first thing one needs to do is to go behind one of the pillars as fast as possible. The Jackal should start closing in on you to try to attack you. Don’t worry, this is all part of the plan. Shoot one of his legs until he starts to kneel down. Once he does kneel down attack his body to deal some damage to him. After some time, he should go back up and start chasing you again. Whenever this happens, sprint to another nearby pillar and repeat the process.

Jackal is quite a tanky boss and also because of his mechanic, a complete waste of bullets. It is normal that you’ll be delaying the fight a lot by looting more ammo from the dropped containers, so no worries about that. Once you’ve gotten yourself some good mods and shotgun, the fight would be a complete breeze could possibly last only about a minute or less.

J3-Golem (Jupiter) – Volt

Difficulty:Easy
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):Mag
Item Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Item(s):Lex, Snipertron, Latron
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • A slow moving hunk of thick flesh
  • Can generate poison damage, which passes through shields and directly hits health
  • Can release a poisonous cloud near himself
  • Throw a poisonous grenade at the player’s feet
  • Mag’s Pull

Golem is typically an ancient that doesn’t charge at you. This makes him especially easy to snipe to in range, especially outside of his Pull and Toxic Grenade range (around 30+ meters). Just like any other ancient, he takes additional damage when shot at his metal boot.

If not equipped with a range dominating gun, then not to worry as all you need to do is keep on the move. Even if he does Pull you, it takes him so much time for him to react and release the toxic fumes or do a melee attack. The only real threat is if he is already standing at some poisoned floor and pulls you towards it, which is quite rare.

If Mag uses Crush on Golem, he is stuck in a crumped and weird position.

Sgt. Nef Anyo (Mars) – Mag

Difficulty:Very Easy
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):None
Item Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Item(s):None
Mod Dependence:Electrical Damage mods

Abilities

  • Equips himself with a slow firing, high burst sniper rifle
  • Invisibility

Nef is typically based of from ordinary Corpus Crewmen. It should be noted that Crewmen take so much valuable time being stunned by electrical damage mods from anything, to a point that they couldn’t retaliate. This same things happens to work against Nef as well. It should be noted that he could also be stunned when attacked while invisible, so keep wacking at his general direction if ever he does get the chance.

Even without an electrical mod, however, one can still beat him easy, especially with melee attacks. Staying in range and being immobile is highly unrecommended. The only main difference between having an electric mod and not is that he could be a little hectic in his movement, which is quite easy to counter. The only main problem is chasing him down while he’s invisibile since he won’t be holding down in the same position.

Tyl Regor (Uranus) – Ash

Difficulty:Easy
Warframe Dependence:Low
Recommended Warframe(s):Loki
Item Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Item(s):None
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • Charged up melee attacks
  • Near instant shield recharge rate
  • Quite a bit faster running speed
  • Ash’s Smoke Screen
  • A ranged Rhino’s Radial Blast
  • Excalibur’s Slash Dash (rare)

There are two ways to approach Regor and it depends if you have Loki

Assuming you don’t own him, the way to deal with him is through old fashioned kiting. Though he can run, most of the time it isn’t enough because he still needs to charge up for his melee attacks to work. Much like Captain Vor, he can be stunned with a charged Skana. Just keep shooting at hime whilst backpedaling and eventually he’ll die do something cheap like Radial Blast and attack you while you’re down.

If you have Loki, all you need to do is to cast Decoy on top of a crate. Regor will try to attack the Decoy, only failing. He’ll also cast his Radial Blast at it to push it off the height advantage but since its a Decoy that won’t be happening. Just shoot at him whilst he’s busy slashing at a crate. Eventually you’ll kill him as long as you keep the Decoy up and running throughout the duration. If all else fails, cast Invisibility.

Kela De Thaym (Sedna) – Saryn

Difficulty:Easy – Medium
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):Medium speed frames
Item Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Item(s):Burst damage weapons, not melee
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • A set of explosive weapons, such as a high damage rocket launcher and a set of grenades
  • Almost no shield recharge rate
  • Can spawn Rollers/Grinders indefinitely
  • Frost’s Ice Wave
  • Rhino’s Radial Blast
  • Shockwave Moa’s Shockwave with the addition to recharge shields to full on cast

As much of a decent leveled boss Kela is, she is one of the more accesible to solo, and the only real predicament is running out of ammo, which is rare considering that her shields are almost never a problem because of how it takes so much time for it to recharge on itself.

The main strength of Kela is her offensive power, so expect to receive a huge ton of damage when you take a hit. However, it is very possible to avoid taking any damage from her via two simple steps; stay on crates and be mobile.

The reason to stay above crates: Rollers. These ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s will take you down the moment you make the simple mistake of going in same ground level as Kela. Even if a hundred of these things were already present, she will still throw more. The big problem of Rollers is that they can’t reach heightened terrain, and the crates provided on the arena is quite effective.

The price for Kela’s explosive power is speed – not hers, but her projectiles. Her rockets are so slow that you could literally dodge every single one of them by jumping from one crate to another. Her rocket gives off an obvious sound queue as she shoots and makes predicting her moves even more easy. Her AI is smart enough to lead her targets, but not smart enough to shoot at your feet, and even so, your height advantage meant that she couldn’t hit the floor.

The arena she is in, similar to the arena almost every Grineer boss is in, has two pairs of crates that sit close to each other. It is highly likely that Kela will be close to either one of the pairs. If this happens, try taking the crates which are not in proximity of her. Not only does it help dodge her rockets, but it also helps in preventing the annoying shockwave she emits when instantly recharging her shields.

Ambulas (Pluto) – Excalibur

Difficulty:Medium
Warframe Dependence:Very Low
Recommended Warframe(s):None
Item Dependence:Low
Recommended Item(s):Not melee
Mod Dependence:None

Abilities

  • Basic higher level MOA weaponry and tactics, such as a melee kick attack that knocks the player down
  • Ember’s Fire Blast
  • Mag’s Pull

Although Ambulas is the highest leveled boss (U7), he is definitely not the hardest. The simplest thing one can do is climb over two large crates. What does he do to retaliate? Absolutely nothing; not even Pull. The only real problem are the adds and the ammo.

But if you’re one to take up the challenge of fighting Ambulas on same level ground, it is quite possible as well. However, it will need some farmed up, high rank, and fairly modded weapons. Any warframe, even Nyx, could take up the challenge.

Councilor Vay Hek (Earth) – Trinity

Difficulty:Medium – Hard
Warframe Dependence:Low
Recommended Warframe(s):Mag, Saryn
Item Dependence:Medium
Recommended Item(s):Bolt weapons, Fragor, Dual Ether, Modded Gorgon
Mod Dependence:Armor piercing

Abilities

  • Equips the HEK, hence the name
  • Could throw a grenade like most ordinary Grineer
  • Probably the best reason why everyone should carry armor piercing mods
  • Something similar to Loki’s Decoy
  • Super duper high recharge rate on shield
  • Smarts – because he actually uses cover so much frequently during the right moments

Hek is probably the first boss you’ll encounter as someone who is very annoying to solo because of the simple fact that he’s a genius compared to many other bosses. He is frequent at taking cover like something you should probably expect from a leader of the military. His armor is also in a different tier of sturdy, that having no armor penetrating mods means that your Lex would probably deal decimals worth of damage per shot. Tough armor plus cover tactics plus high recharge rate makes a fierce combo that is quite difficult to counter without the appropriate weapons, and even teammates if you decide to not solo this at all.

The first thing to deal with Hek is his annoying shields. It is essential to take them down and to keep them down at all times. Skills like Saryn’s Venom help a whole lot in keeping it down, but assuming you’re not Saryn, use a high fire rate weapon such as the Gorgon. Remember to mod it with armor piercing or the damage will turn out pitiful anyway.

Second is his covering tactics. Basically do a slide-melee attack which should stun him, giving you enough time to dish out as much damage as possible to him. Mag’s Bullet Attractor make his tactics almost pointless, but still be at your guard.

He is also one of the few Grineer bosses that do not have something in the likes of Rhino’s Radial Blast and can be stunned by charged attacks from strong weapons, making melee completely viable against him.

The whole battle of Hek is usually trading covers. Do not take him head on especially without equipment. If you are still poor in mods and items, it is highly suggested that you do not solo him just yet.

The Hyena (Neptune) – Loki

Difficulty:Hard
Warframe Dependence:Medium
Recommended Warframe(s):Volt, Saryn
Item Dependence:Medium
Recommended Item(s):Gorgon, Boltor, Grakata (prefer: high rank)
Mod Dependence:Frost and Electric mods

Abilities

  • High fire rate machinegun
  • High mobility
  • High shield recharge
  • Guided missiles (two at a time)
  • Sticky Bombs
  • Volt’s Electric Shield
  • Shockwave Moa’s Shockwave and a weaker version of such, one or more usually followed from the first Shockwave

Probably the hardest boss in the game right now, the Hyena is something that most unfarmed players would never try to go against unless they are using Volt or at some extent Saryn. Volt’s Electric Shield makes Hyena’s devastating machinegun attack a joke, while Saryn’s Venom can eliminate part of his tanking ability by keeping his shields down. But even so, players should exercise caution at all times when fighting the Hyena without the best of the best of equipment and mods.

It should be noted that the Freeze element is the only one that could deal additional damage to shields (hence why your shields are halved during a cyropump damage on a ship), and as a Corpus proxy, Electric should naturally be powerful against them. Stacking these two mods together makes the task a whole lot easier. Though not technically essential, but a good reload speed mod helps too.

Probably the biggest trouble players will deal with is if they have enough ammo. Unlike the Jackal, there isn’t a periodic container spawn that helps with refilling your ammo if you needed to, so management is the key to his defeat. One method is trying to stack Electric on your primary and Freeze on your secondary, or vice versa if you are using a stronger off-hand like the Akboltos. Keep switching between the two, using the one with Freeze to put his shields down and the one with Electric to directly deal damage to his health pool.

The same rule from the Jackal applies, which is to avoid staying too close to the Hyena. And be more cautious about this because he can freaking sprint at you in under 2 seconds. His Shockwave attacks may not be as annoying, but he can drain everything you have with a simple machinegun barrage.

His tankiness isn’t annoying enough that there is some sense in trying to solo farm him against joining a group. However, this would not be the same case if you were still lacking on some good weapons or mods. I highly suggest going in as a group if you really wish to grab that Control Module to craft your potato or first Warframe.

[COMING SOON] Lieutenant Lech Kril (Ceres) – Frost

If you’re in deperate need of help for Lech Kril, a tip is that you could counter him by either staying close or keeping distance. Abuse his slow melee attacks by forcing him to do it and dodging it when he does the action – rinse and repeat. Another is to outrange him using high accuracy yet high rate of fire weapons as his Gorgon has little to no sustain potential at higher ranges. He can also be stunned by many abilities, as well as bolt weapons.

[COMING SOON] Phorid (Eris) – Nyx

If you’re in deperate need of help for Phorid, a tip is to use a high rate melee with a freeze mod. Just attack behind him and follow his behind as he tried to retaliate by facing towards you.

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2 Responses

  1. Silbrulf says:

    This is very out of date… the bosses have been changed, as have their drops. Tyl Regor is a pain, drops equinox, and has a heavy regenerating shield for one

  2. Big Al says:

    –vay hek– Really? i found Hek to be one of the easiest bosses. Even taking him one with lex once or twice. Now bear in mind i mod most weapons with armor piercing, but still, even with his cover tactics all you must do is stay out of range and attack him in quick bursts, with a high DPS weapon

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