Warframe

Well, I think I’ve ‘wasted’ my first 2 potatoes... I threw 1 on the Excalibur (I have a Rhino (never worn), and I guess I ‘like’ Excalibur’s abilities), and 1 on the Hek.........

I think I regret the Hek-tatoing the most... it’s terrible at range (duh, shotgun), and I prefer melee for anything close range, anyway.... Don’t get me wrong, the Hek is very powerful, I just.... eh.

The Excalibur..... I dunno, I’ve been in a few Jupiter (or Europa) missions where I feel so fragile. Maybe I was hoping to buff his survivability more... oh well - they’re rare, but not finite, so we’ll see.

I really want to play this more but find it's difficult with the baby. Even solo-ing a mission i have to stay connected and if I can find a place to pause and set the system down without a patrol hitting me, if the system goes to sleep, I get booted and have to restart the mission.

Maybe I could increase my sleep time on the Switch? I don't know. Anybody else have this problem? How do you play with interruptions?

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Well, I think I’ve ‘wasted’ my first 2 potatoes... I threw 1 on the Excalibur (I have a Rhino (never worn), and I guess I ‘like’ Excalibur’s abilities), and 1 on the Hek.........

I think I regret the Hek-tatoing the most... it’s terrible at range (duh, shotgun), and I prefer melee for anything close range, anyway.... Don’t get me wrong, the Hek is very powerful, I just.... eh.

The Excalibur..... I dunno, I’ve been in a few Jupiter (or Europa) missions where I feel so fragile. Maybe I was hoping to buff his survivability more... oh well - they’re rare, but not finite, so we’ll see.

Neither one of those potatoes was wasted. Hek is a solid weapon - especially in any sort of confined mission spaces - and Excalibur is more than capable of handling end game content. You're still new to the game and I have $500 that says your mods are limited and mostly unleveled.

My current Excalibur build contains no endgame/hard-to-get mods, but he mows through targets with Skill 4 like there's no tomorrow and he has mounds of survivability.

Aura: Physique 5/5 (+health)
Fast Deflection 5/5 (+ shield recharge)
Redirection 5/10 (+ shield capacity)
Vitality 7/10 (+more health)
Steel Fiber 5/10 (+armor)
Intensify 3/5 (+ability strength)
Streamline 5/5 (+ability efficiency)
Stretch 5/5 (+ability range)
Flow 4/5 (+energy)

Stele wrote:

I really want to play this more but find it's difficult with the baby. Even solo-ing a mission i have to stay connected and if I can find a place to pause and set the system down without a patrol hitting me, if the system goes to sleep, I get booted and have to restart the mission.

Maybe I could increase my sleep time on the Switch? I don't know. Anybody else have this problem? How do you play with interruptions?

Sounds like a Switch issue - I can pause into the menu while playing solo on PS4 or PC and walk away from the game for a good 30-45 mins. I don't have a Switch, so I can't tell you where to go, but I'd check your power settings.

As far as wasted potatoes. Do note eventually you get bored with X that you like now and want Y and want to change eventually.
Hek - is a fine gun and do note super late game start to get Special missions that require X type of gun. So you will need a shotgun eventually even if you do not like it.
Excalibur - Is a fine frame and a lot of people really like it. I will say this one might be semi wasted only because later on you will get Excaliber Umbra which is a better version of the frame. As for frames the only recommendation I would make is pick one frame you want to have for leveling and potato that. Then only potato frames that do not have a "prime" equivalent (at least in rotation) Umbra pretty much = Prime.

Using the handy app

Vitality 7, Steel Fiber 8, Redirection 0

Credits is my current limit on upgrading, atm - bought too many weapon BPs, a while back. I sold off a bunch of crystal’d up Ayatan, so I still have a bunch of endo.

I think I might have preferred potatoing the Kraken... it’s been a nice pistol, but my limited “space” on it is hampering it’s power.

So for late game Vitality/Steel Fiber are king. Mainly because armor does not apply to shields. However, early game shields are usually higher/easier so Redirection is pretty big before lvl 25-30 (still used in a fair amount of late builds also).

Also, Kraken is a secondary. In my experience, the mods you need to make weapons more effective for early/mid game are available sooner & easier to find for primaries. As an example, one of the single most effective elemental combos is corrosive (electricity + toxin). You can find toxin pretty early and easily for primary weapons, but I've probably got at least a couple hundred hours in the game on PS4 and just got my first secondary toxin mod from a Plains of Eidolon - which is really a mid-to-late game zone - bounty last night.

For early game, some good weapons you might want to try are Karak and Boltor. I would probably still be rocking one of those two if I hadn't recently received a Soma Prime.

So for people that are starting to get later in game. One thing I wills tress is "Riven Mods" are a game changer for bad weapons. AKsomati's are not rated high in any tier list. WIthout a good riven they are very mediocre. I have a very good rolled Riven mod for AKsomati and I have never seen anyone with a auto rifle (not counting snipers/shotguns) out damage against high level enemies. How they balance riven mods is a genius system (although they should update the balance more often).

I just got my first Riven and I can't open unlock the damn thing. Requires me to synthesize a target without using any abilities or a trap. Tried the tips I found online, but either one of the other factions (corpus, grineer, infested) kill my target or my Carrier sentinel does. For the latter, the only thing I have on him is the recommended freeze mod.

So jumped back in the last couple days and did some now missions on Earth. Tonight went to Cetus and found the open mission area. Not sure if that's what I should be doing? The only main mission I have is Venus Junction. It looks like I finished the last requirement for it while on Cetus. So should I head to Venus or do more on Earth?

I see there is mining and fishing. Worth it at this point or just keep fighting?

I’m only just now doing Cetus... I’ve cleared Mercury to Jupiter, and part of Europa and the Void - stuck on “defeat Chroma” (the waves destroy the pod). I’m working on the missions from Konzu- building standing for access to their stores. I’ve heard that Zaws are popular. I wouldn’t consider Cetus to be “early” content.

I’m doing this in my, almost 30, Rhino and building up a new staff (forget the name).

Stele wrote:

So jumped back in the last couple days and did some now missions on Earth. Tonight went to Cetus and found the open mission area. Not sure if that's what I should be doing? The only main mission I have is Venus Junction. It looks like I finished the last requirement for it while on Cetus. So should I head to Venus or do more on Earth?

I see there is mining and fishing. Worth it at this point or just keep fighting?

I would ignore Cetus for a while. There is very little you can do their early game. The new open world area i know their goal was to do more things for lower level players there but can't confirm they did. However, even if they did the stuff you do their will not really help your overall progression because the open world area's have their own unique resources and resources are one of the major things you need for progression.

So at the very least i'd move on to Fortuna in Venus and skip Cetus but like Wink above I would suggest just progressing and coming back unless the open world is the main reason (obviously take a peek just to see it) you are playing.

More than a little irritated that they decided to have Baro sell Primed Flow this weekend and placed him way the hell out there in Eris.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

I’m only just now doing Cetus... I’ve cleared Mercury to Jupiter, and part of Europa and the Void - stuck on “defeat Chroma” (the waves destroy the pod). I’m working on the missions from Konzu- building standing for access to their stores. I’ve heard that Zaws are popular. I wouldn’t consider Cetus to be “early” content.

I’m doing this in my, almost 30, Rhino and building up a new staff (forget the name).

escher77 wrote:

I would ignore Cetus for a while. There is very little you can do their early game. The new open world area i know their goal was to do more things for lower level players there but can't confirm they did. However, even if they did the stuff you do their will not really help your overall progression because the open world area's have their own unique resources and resources are one of the major things you need for progression.

So at the very least i'd move on to Fortuna in Venus and skip Cetus but like Wink above I would suggest just progressing and coming back unless the open world is the main reason (obviously take a peek just to see it) you are playing.

Thanks. I did manage to stumble on Saya's Vigil quest on my own, which started in Cetus. Did those missions and got a Gara blueprint. I guess if I decide I want that I can come back to plains and farm for the parts. Moving on for now.

Related question. Any benefit to hitting all the zones on Earth once and completing missions? Or can I just go on to Venus?

Just go to Venus. Pretty much early on just do missions to get to new planes so Venus/Mecury then backtrack to Mars, Ceres/Phobos (forget which is first) and so on.

Yeah, iirc there’s some relatively high-level content in a couple of those Earth nodes.

vypre wrote:

More than a little irritated that they decided to have Baro sell Primed Flow this weekend and placed him way the hell out there in Eris.

Just go into a regional chat and ask for a Taxi. Someone will take you generally. At least on PC they would.

If you group up with someone they can take you to any planet they have unlocked even if you don't.

escher77 wrote:
vypre wrote:

More than a little irritated that they decided to have Baro sell Primed Flow this weekend and placed him way the hell out there in Eris.

Just go into a regional chat and ask for a Taxi. Someone will take you generally. At least on PC they would.

If you group up with someone they can take you to any planet they have unlocked even if you don't.

Also Baro is selling Primed flow on PC I thought that on PS4 you got Baro 2-4 weeks behind?

escher77 wrote:

Just go to Venus. Pretty much early on just do missions to get to new planes so Venus/Mecury then backtrack to Mars, Ceres/Phobos (forget which is first) and so on.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Yeah, iirc there’s some relatively high-level content in a couple of those Earth nodes.

There's a nice defense mission on Coba, Earth that is giving some bonuses xp. I also got 6 mods from a 10 wave run, so that was nice. Might do that a couple times, but yeah, otherwise need to move on.

I see that there are archwing missions on Earth but I don't have that yet, so onward to Venus!

As I’ve been “stuck” (yes, I could ask for, and probably get help) in the storyline - The New Strange (and waiting for Limbo build, for Theorem) - I’ve turned my focus to acquiring more Frame parts... Frost is cooking. Working on getting the last piece of Mag (plus buy BP). Might get the missing 2 pieces for Hydroid, next. Archwing Launcher component (for Foundry) is cooking, need Fish Oil for the Launcher itself....

Using Europa defends/exterminates for leveling up new weapons, in between.

Saw the announcement about free items for a Twitch stream. Joined one of the partner streams yesterday afternoon and left it running all night. Got 7 mail yesterday and another 5 this morning. Mostly they were credit caches and fireworks items. But I did get one Meso relic. Not exactly sure what that's for but hey.

The credit influx has been extremely helpful, for me. Relics - Lith, Meso, Neo(?), Axi - are used when doing “Fissures” (farthest right icon in your mission bar - top right in Navigation).

If you’ve selected one of your relics, at the start, once the mission is complete there will be a selection screen of what was inside - I’m not sure if it’s ‘always’ 4 choices, or if that’s only the number of relics your group brought - players’ names will be visible on the item (if players choose “your” item - you get bonus essences (essences are used to improve relics to skew their drop-chances towards the rarer item)). Looking at your relics in your inventory will show you what has the chance of dropping. As far as I know, this is the only source of “Prime” stuff (besides buying it for plat).

I did a couple, before I figured I should wait until I have a better understanding of the game, before I try more. Maybe soon-ish.

OK yeah I just did one of those missions on Venus, since it was there and low enough level for me. I bailed after wave 5 (was a defense mission) and got an item. But I wasn't sure about the selection thing. I think 2 of my random teammates had the same item even. Oh well. Should probably save those until later so I know what to choose even.

EDIT: Read the wiki. Looks like there are different rewards every 5 waves. Probably should have continued a bit, that was a decent team.

The waves get progressively more difficult, and you have to draw another relic, from your inventory, each 5 waves. It’s very common for players to choose the same item, at the end of the 5th wave(s). A clue might be in the colour of the name - bronze, silver, or gold - most common drop, to rarest drop.

Damn Wink, you're moving along. I've been playing PS4 and PC versions off and on ever since they were released on each platform and you've almost caught up to where I am now.

FYI for relics. The number of choices depends on the matter of people that used/unlocked relics. You only get a choice of item if you have used/unlocked a relic yourself.

You can do void fissures with no relic but generally if you are going to do that you do with a group using none or solo (mostly solo). The reason to do it with no relic is you can still gain void traces. Void traces are used to upgrade relics giving a better chance at the uncommon or rare rewards. You get a random number of void traces if you collect 10 reactant (enough to open a relic) even if you don't have a relic. You can get between like 8 - 30 traces (which i believe is completely random).

I think it makes sense to jump into relics early-ish. There isn't a huge reason to need to do multiple waves, as opposed to bailing and starting over, other than a bonus to credits and xp.

The item selection is everyone's cracked relics. If someone doesn't bring a relic, or they don't get 10 yellow thingies in the mission, their relic doesn't open and you're down a choice. Plus they don't get to choose anything at all. So you want to crack your relic in the mission for sure, and do what you can to let others finish theirs before the mission is over. You can see a count of the other players' progress towards 10 yellow thingies in the hud somewhere.

Beyond that my rule of thumb is to pick the rarest thing you don't have, then forma blueprints, then whatever to sell for ducats in the relay. The rareness is color coded so you don't have to remember that part. Also the search box for relics in the ship will also search by reward, so you can pretty quickly see if you have the relic you need to get something specific without hitting the wiki.

FYI not a major addition their is a "minor" rewards for going 25/50/75 in fissures (only in fissures). At 25 you get an extra relic that is already exceptional and 50 you get a relic already Flawless and 50 you get a Radiant one.

50/75 won't normally happen but sometimes you get a group that go's to 20 and just gives a reason to do those extra 5 waves.

Those 10 things you need are called "reactant" When reactant drops it drops for everyone so in fissure missions until everyone has 10 you want to stay together. It benefits you to make sure everyone gets their 10 because then you have more chances at a rare drops.

On “just pick the gold” - I’ve noticed in at least one of my relics, Forma was a rare drop (maybe it was uncommon), but most of the time it is Prime-something.