Warframe Beginner’s Guide

Warframe Beginner’s Guide by nginferno

Basically, this is a practical combat and mission guide for newer players, though i think older players will also find some useful information. Either ways, this guide is very long and you’d want at least 10 minutes to go through all the stuff, so go get a drink or something.

So you find yourself in a powered ninja suit, in space. And everyone hates you except your own kind. So it might be good to learn how to kill them, either by eviscerating them in a bloody manner or filling their body with enough lead to cause them to die of lead poisoning.

Part 1: What you can do

Here are the things you currently wont learn from the tutorial.

Sliding: Sprint, and then hold crouch. You will slide across the floor, creating sparks with your legs. You can slide in mid air by sprinting, jumping and then crouching in mid air. Does a small amount of damage and knocks down enemies. Slightly useful and also cool. You can do an 360 swing with your melee weapon or shoot while sliding.

Forward flip: Do a slide, and then jump in the middle of the slide. Not really useful but very cool.

Backflip: Aim down sights (right mouse button by default), walk backwards and press roll.

Wall running: Sprint, run towards a wall and hold jump. There are two versions of this. The first one is a vertical wall jump, which you will run UP the wall and eventually do a backflip at where the wall ends. Very useful as you can run upwards onto a platform or just climb over fences and guardrails. The horizontal version requires you to run at about 20-30 degrees beside the wall before jumping onto the wall and you will start running along the wall. Both of these are fairly useful to navigate the various places you’ll go to. But remember, you will stop wall running when you run out of stamina, which is your green bar.

Rolls, wall running are actually both bound to the shift key and the V key.

Leapstrike: This is a useful attack that knocks down enemies and deal damage in an area of effect. Just jump and press your melee button.

More info on these guides:
Warframe Combo Moves Guide
Warframe Wall Running Guide

Part 2: What you will need to do

So, as you will find out after completing a couple of missions, that there are quite a few types to actually go into. This part is where most of the mechanics in missions are explained.

Sabotage: There are 2 types of sabotage missions, the first one requires you to find the ship’s reactor and destroy it. Fairly simple, just find the room with the reactor in it and shoot it, or climb onto the reactor and do leapstrikes. In the other one, you need to look for 4 huge mining machines and destroy them. To conserve ammo just spam your melee attack or charge attacks.

Raid: Almost the same as sabotage, but you need to retrieve an artifact. When you are playing multiplayer, if the player holding the artifact dies you have to grab it from his/her dead body and keep running towards extraction. So it is advised that the person with the artifact doesnt die, at least not very far away from the team.

Exterminate: Simplest mission type. Just kill everything. Bonus points for doing it with style.

Spy: One of the most annoying mission types. It requires you to run around the ship looking for certain consoles that has data in it, hack the console and grab the datamass. The main problem with this mission is that when you are holding the datamass you cant use your primary weapon, double handguns and melee still work the same even though the animations would be different. You can drop the datamass by pressing your switch weapons button to use your primary. You can stack multiple datamasses together and the number of stacks will be shown with the number of glowing bulbs on the datamass.

Assasination: Boss fight. There are different bosses on each assasination mission and you should actually find out how to fight them before going in and getting your face pounded.

Defense: A fairly straighforward mission where you and your teammates have to defend a cryopod with a warframe in it. Multiple waves of enemies will spawn from one of the various doors and start to attack the pod. Just kill them off. The cryopod has regenerating shields and health so if it gets low on health try to leave one enemy and get it to chase you around while letting the pod regenerate.

Mobile Defense: This is kind of like defense, but you need to bring a datamass to certain consoles, activate them, defend them, and then defend the cryopod. This is time based instead of wave based so try to just hold out.

Capture: You need to look for a certain VIP on the ship and capture him. When you find him just melee him until he falls down and then you press the use button (X by default) and capture him while he screams.

Rescue: Almost the same as capture but the VIP will follow you around and you have to keep him alive after you got to him.

Deception: Another tricky mission. You need to carry a datamass to the ship’s navigation system and presumably upload a virus to screw the ship over. And again, the guy carrying the datamass cant use his primary.

Sometimes, lotus will add another objective to the current mission and it varies. Notes on the second objective is that if the second objective is exterminate you will drop your first objective regardless of what it is. In rescue missions the vip will even dissappear. Also, if you stack the extra datamass on the 4 stacks of datamass you got earlier, the bulb will turn green for the 5th stack and so on.

After awhile there will be system alerts appearing. These are special missions that will expire as they have better rewards. But these missions are harder than the regular ones in the system so be careful. Clicking the mission name on the top left would show you the rewards.

Part 3: What you will see

There are a few “weather effects” involved in this game. First there’s “ship on fire”, where parts of the ship will be burning. The fire will damage you and enemies so dont stand in the fire. After that there’s a broken tempreture control where its freezing, there’s ice everywhere and your shields would be halved.

Also, dont break the reinforced glass. It’d cause the vacuum of space to slowly murder everything in the room, including yourself. If you did, run towards the nearest control console and hack it. Dont worry about the enemies as they will most probably die before you’re done hacking.

Part 4: What you will kill

Now for the most important part, the “shoot what first and shoot which part of it”.

There are currently 3 hostile factions in this game, who are out for your blood, assuming that you have blood.

High target priority means you should shoot him first, ask questions never. High threat means he can kill you when he does his stuff.

Grineer

These are the evil space marines in chubby looking armor. Yeah they look ugly, especially their faces. Makes it easier to shoot them. They’re all pretty armored though so aim at their ugly faces for extra damage. Their helmet is purely cosmetic and doesnt make a difference. Get armor piercing for these guys if you cant aim.

Grineer Lancer: The grunt. He has a rifle that does fine damage, he will hit you when you get close and it staggers. That’s about it.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Shoot the face. Always. Or do a charge attack.

Grineer Trooper: The lancer’s slightly tougher brother, has a shotgun but like all shotguns, he cant do anything with it at long range. Will also hit you in melee.
Target priority: Low
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Same as lancer, but charge attacks would soon stop oneshotting these guys in the higher levels.

Grineer Sawman: The suicidal maniac. He has a spinning saw ready to slice you in pieces. Does alot of damage, but he’s squishy. You can always hear his saw buzzing so try to listen.
Target priority: High
Threat level: High
Tips: Just shoot him, dont let him get close. Or hit him with a melee attack.

Grineer Powerfist: Sawman’s cousin. His attack is so slow you could leave your chair, go take a &!$$, drink some water and get back before it connects. But it directly damages your health so dont let him hit you.
Target priority: High
Threat level: Low
Tips: See sawman.

Shield Lancer: Annoying prick with a big metal shield. He has a pistol that he would shoot you with while hiding behind his shield. He would also charge you and smack you with the shield knocking you down. Other grineers would also hide behind his shield for cover.
Target priority: High
Threat level: High
Tips: You can try to shoot his head cuz the hitbox is slightly higher up than the shield. Melee attacks can go through his shield but be careful when meleeing him cuz the knockdown can be lethal when you are being shot at. You can stagger him with a melee hit and then do a charge attack without him retaliating. He also has a tendency to survive charge attacks, as he is quite tough.

Grineer Commander: The captain. He has the ability to swap places with you even when you cant see him, which is fairly troublesome. He will try to teleport you into his mates. He has an energy shield and is also much tougher than the lancer and trooper.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Try to not panic when you suddenly get teleported, kill the enemies around you and then remember where you were before the teleport and go after him.

Grineer Flameblade: The teleporting bastard with an electric baton. Slightly scarier than the rest of the melee crew due to his shields.
Target priority: High
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Watch your back. The shields negate headshot bonuses so you dont need to shoot his head before shields go down

Grineer Napalm: The arsonist heavy. This guy is tough, has energy shields and will set a lot of stuff on fire. He can do a stomp attack that does knockdown.
Target priority: Low
Threat level: High
Tips: Keep shooting his face from a distance. And get away from the fire, it burns.

Grineer Heavy Gunner: The heavy with a huge machinegun. He has all the Napalm has except for the gun. He shoots bullets. A lot of them.
Target priority: Low
Threat level: High
Tips: Shoot his face, and dodge behind cover when your shields get low. Let it recharge and repeat until he dies.

Grineer Bombard: This time, he has a rocket launcher.
Target priority: Low
Threat level: High
Tips: See Grineer Napalm. The rockets can home in on but are very slow, so just run behind some cover when they fly at you.

Grineer Grinder: A small hamster ball of annoying death. It moves fast and it staggers you when it hits. A pain in the neck when there’s more than one. Does very little damage though.
Target priority: High
Threat level: Low
Tips: SHOOT IT, GODDAMN. Leapstrike when its low on health and you cant be damned to aim anymore.

Grineer Seeker: Oh damn. This guy sends mini grinders at you. They dont stagger like the normal ones, but they are quite dangerous. There are 2 types of mini grinders, Latchers and Nervos. Latchers are sticky bombs. Nervos are a pain to deal with because they literally keep you stun-locked until a teammate can help you. Good thing Nervos only appear in multiplayer or people will be raging so hard…
Target priority: Very high
Threat level: Medium
Tips: The Latchers and Nervos have very little health, so shoot them if you have a weapon with a high rate of fire or a shotgun. You can also roll to get rid of the ones stuck to you. They’ll still explode so watch out. Other than that, shoot the bastard in the face.

Corpus

Think droid army from star wars. Except they look slightly different.Electric damage stuns the crewmen and does double damage to the walkers.

Corpus Crewman: This is what happens when they make the S#&$ty combat droids in starwars look slightly fatter.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Unless your weapon does armor piercing, shoot the body, not the head. Armor piercing does 20 times the damage on the SIDES of his head, not the front. Might be a weird hitbox problem. So if your gun does armor piercing damage, shoot the top, the sides and the back of his helmet, not the face.

Corpus Prod Crewman: Melee guy, not much to say. Staggers on hit.
Target priority: High
Threat level: Low
Tips: Same hitbox problem as the Crewman.

Corpus Sniper Crewman: He has a sniper rifle.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Medium
Tips: I never seem to be able to distinguish these guys from the normal crewmen. Staggers you if he shoots you.

Shield Osprey: A floating drone thingy that provides his mates with shields. Has a blue glow below him.
Target priority: Very High
Threat level: nonexistant
Tips: Always shoot this thing first. The shields are very annoying and wastes your bullets. Aim slightly above the glow though.

Mine Osprey: A drone that drops cute little orange colored energy balls that explode when you walk over.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Low
Tips: Kill it, its quite squishy. Just dont step on the mines.

Leech Osprey: This drone shoots little bugs at you that slowly saps your shield.
Target priority: High
Threat level: Low
Tips: To kill the parasites you need to melee or roll. Killing the osprey doesnt immediately deactivate the parasite.

MOA: A gun on 2 legs. Has energy shields but very little hp.
Target priority: Medium
Threat level: Medium
Tips: Wear down its shields, and then shoot the crotch. Shields cancel out headshot bonuses. Charge attacks dont kill it in one hit unless you upgraded the charge attack.

Shockwave MOA: This one also does a stomp attack that knocks down. Very annoying.
Target priority: High
Threat level: High
Tips: See MOA. You can jump to avoid the stomp attack.

Railgun MOA: It has a railgun that staggers you on hit and does a crapton of damage.
Target priority: High
Threat level: High
Tips: See MOA.

Security System: This is the most annoying part of doing corpus missions. There are cameras that glow teal, and turns red when they spot you. And then they do 2 things. One is activate turrets on the ceiling, which would keep shooting at you until you leave line of sight of the turret. The other is activate laser barriers on the doors. Which is @(*()$ annoying when you walk through a door and get blasted by lasers. The lasers hurt alot.
Target priority: Very High
Threat level: High
Tips: Shoot the cameras. They glow teal when idle and red when alerted. Turrets can be killed but they’re quite tough. Listen for the beeping noises the cameras make.

Infested
These guys are the space zombies, the zerg rush and the mind rape all in one. Considered overpowered by most players including myself. Fire damage staggers them. Climbing onto anything stops the zerg rush entirely and their whole army just sits there waiting. Except for the leapers.

Chargers: Infected grineers that mutated into giant pitbulls. They stagger on hit and they come at you in a zerg rush so try to not get caught or you will be torn to bits.
Target priority: High
Threat Level: High
Tips: Climb onto something. Boxes, anything, and they stop charging. Shoot their red faces, not the grineer head below it. These guys have broken head hitboxes as well, its hard to score headshots on them for some reason.

Runners: L4D’s boomer’s distant cousin. Runs at you and then explodes. Very squishy. Does a little bit of damage.
Target priority: High
Threat Level: Low
Tips: Headshots can usually kill it instantly. The right leg with the boot on is “detachable” if you catch my drift.

Leaper: Looks like a less colourful runner. Just as squishy. Runs close to you, does a ritualistic dance and then jumps at you. The jump staggers, and he can jump onto stuff to knock you over. His melee staggers you though.
Target priority: High
Threat Level: Low
Tips: See runner. Also walk to the side a little bit if you see it doing the jump animation.

Nauseous Crawler: It only has one leg so it sloooooooooooowly crawls towards you to puke on you. The puke stuns and you cant move at all so dont let it get close.
Target priority: Very Low
Threat Level: Very Low
Tips: Just shoot it on the head to end its misery. Also very useful to kite around on defense missions to let the cryopod regenerate.

Noxious Crawler: The Nauseous Crawler’s green brother. You dont want to be close to this guy when he dies.
Target priority: Very Low
Threat Level: Very Low
Tips: See Nauseous crawler. Get away from the poison cloud when it dies, it goes through your shields.

Crawler: The saddest enemy in existance. No special abilities, terrible speed and neglectable damage.
Target priority: Very Low
Threat Level: Very Low
Tips: Kill it.

Ancient Healer: A walking meatshield that does an AOE heal from time to time, very tough. Charges at you and has a ranged attack that staggers.
Target priority: Low
Threat Level: Medium
Tips: Shoot the limbs. Its got armor all around, even on its head. Shoot the left arm or the right leg, they have bigger hitboxes. Charge attacks also stagger them, so having a teammate stagger it repeatedly helps.

Ancient Distruptor: The bull part of the bullS#&$ of the infested roster. It has 2 ranged attacks. Both stagger, but the one with the red glow literally fucks your shields over and instantly vapourizes all your energy. Your hud will also be messed up.
Target priority: Medium
Threat Level: Very High
Tips: See Ancient Healer. But get on a box when you wanna shoot.

Toxic Ancient: You’ve seen the bull, now here’s the S#&$. Does all the things the Ancient Healer does except the heal, but he’s poisonous to the touch. TOUCHING HIM POISONS YOU. Also has a broken charge that makes him KEEP RUNNING AT YOU WITHOUT STOPPING. Leaves a poison cloud on death.
Target priority: Medium
Threat Level: Very High
Tips: Better wish there’s a box around when you see this guy. Meleeing him just poisons you.

Part 5 Climbing the ranks

After a few runs, getting levels on your precious warframe and weapons, you find your rank meter on the top left side of your screen, and you are ready to head into rank 2.

But how do you do it? Simple. You need to click on the bar itself, and there would be an option for you to do a mission. The mission is very simple as you only need to murder a few guys and then you’ll pass.

If you ever fail due to various unfortunate events or sheer incompetency, you can only take the mission after 24 hours. So try to finish all your chores and be sure that in the 5 minutes you’re doing the mission you wont be disturbed.