CHOOSING YOUR WARFRAME
After the introductory cinematic, you’ll be given a choice of three Warframes. In time you will be able to construct or purchase additional Warframes to master!
Excalibur
is a Warframe with a balanced set of powers. Use Slash Dash to violently lead the charge into battle and follow up with Radial Blind to stun any nearby survivors.When executed, Radial Javelin will skewer any enemies foolish enough to be in the deadly range of an Excalibur Warframe. Exalted Blade allows Excalibur to create a sword of immense power to replace his melee weapon temporarily.
Volt
has several abilities that offer an alternative, or supplement, to gunplay. Use Shock to deliver a jolt of electricity that will jump to nearby enemies and damage them as well. Speed increases the movement speed and melee attack rate of all nearby allies, allowing them to get away from danger, as well as navigating missions more quickly. Use Electric Shield to provide cover for you and your teammates; enemies will be unable to shoot through it, but players can, and their weapons will gain bonus electric damage as they shoot through the shield. Finally, Overload will make Volt surge with electricity that radiates outward, damaging enemies, and will cause electronic equipment to explode and deal even more damage.
With full command of surrounding magnetic energy,
Mag
is an expert at energy manipulation. Use Pull to drag enemies out of cover, or allies to safety. Shield Polarize can drain an enemy's shields, softening them up for an assault, or it can replenish the shields of your friends when they need help. Hitting an enemy with Bullet Attractor will make any nearby bullets hone in on the target; even those fired by other enemies! Mag's ultimate ability lives up to its name: Crush will lift nearby enemies into the air and deal massive damage as they're crushed by gravitational forces.
CHOOSING YOUR WEAPONS
Your
melee weapons
allow you to perform special stealth attacks on enemies that are unaware of your presence. If you are able to perform a stealth attack on an enemy, a special context action will be available (Default: Right Bumper). Stealth attacks will deal massive damage, killing weaker enemies outright. You may find missions easier to complete by eliminating enemies stealthily before they can raise the alarm.
The
Skana
is a balanced weapon that has a high attack speed.
The
Mk-1 Furax
has a jump attack that will send enemies flying in a large radius.
The
MK-1 Bo
has slow, sweeping attacks that can easily hit multiple enemies at once.
Your
sidearm
may not be as strong as your primary loadout weapon, but has a separate ammo reserve, and can be used while you're in a near-death bleedout state. Properly modded, your secondary weapon may become the deadliest weapon at your disposal!
The
Lato
is a pistol that deals average damage, and is highly accurate thanks to its low recoil.
The silent
Kunai
travel in an arc when thrown, allowing you to hit enemies that are behind cover without raising an alarm.
Your final selection will be your
primary weapon
.
With a primary weapon, your loadout will be complete; try a weapon that covers the shortcomings of your other weapons so you can handle most situations you’ll come across.
The
Mk-1 Braton
is a well-rounded assault rifle that fires quickly and is accurate at most ranges.
The
Paris
isn’t a gun like your other choices, but a bow. Perfect for killing enemies without being heard be sure to hold the fire button to maximize the damage before you shoot.
LOOT CONTAINERS
Lockers and other loot containers will appear in your missions, and contain supplies that will help you in your current mission (such as health and energy pickups for your Warframe, as well as ammo for your weapons). They can also contain items that will be useful between missions, such as Credits to purchase new items, and resources to construct items in your Foundry. Lockers can be opened (Default: B), but other containers will need to be destroyed with your weapons to drop their contents.
PARKOUR
Warframe's freedom of movement allows you to navigate through Missions in a wide variety of ways. Jump over obstacles, leap over large chasms or run across walls with your innate parkour abilities.
Double Jump
- Push jump twice to perform a second jump in mid-air.
Sliding
- Pushing the crouch button while sprinting will cause your Warframe to slide, enabling you to slip under low-hanging obstacles that may be impossible to run through.
Bullet Jump
- Jump while sliding will activate Bullet Jump, giving you an extra burst of speed forward in any direction you choose.
Aim Glide
- Aim while jumping in mid-air to slow your fall, giving some control over your descent while making it easier to shoot enemies
Wall Dash
- Hold the jump button along any wall to move up or across the surface. Jumping on a wall resets your Double Jump.
Wall Latch
- Aiming while against a wall will enable you to latch onto the surface.
Zipline
- Tap the context action button when near a zipline to balance yourself on top of the line.
ADVANCED MANEUVERS
Looking down while performing a melee attack in midair will cause your Warframe to
slam the ground
with their weapon. Melee weapons can behave differently, but this move will commonly throw nearby enemies to the ground.
Performing a slide while midair will cause your Warframe to
kick,
which will knock down any weaker enemies you hit.
Enemies that have been knocked to the ground are susceptible to a
ground finisher
a special attack that deals bonus damage, similar to the stealth attack.
Blocking
(Default: Right Trigger) will cause incoming frontal attacks to deal less damage than normal, depending on your equipped weapon. Blocking can still be performed during several maneuvers, such as jumping and sliding, use this to your advantage.
Channeling
your melee weapon (Default: Left Trigger) while it’s equipped causes your Warframe’s energy to augment your melee attacks. Hitting an enemy while channeling will deal additional damage, but will drain energy for each successful hit.
Blocking and channeling at the same time can cause enemies to be staggered when they attack you, opening them up for a
counterattack
that will deal bonus damage.
HACKING
Sometimes hacking will be necessary to continue a mission, such as when doors become inoperable from a security lockdown. Approach a security terminal and press the context action button to begin the hack. While hacking, rotate the hexagon tiles to line up the pattern before time runs out. If a hack isn’t completed in time, you can attempt again, against a different set of tiles.
Ciphers can be acquired that will cause the hack to succeed instantly. These are useful for when a terminal needs to be hacked while enemies are nearby. Select the 'Use Cipher' button to consume one of your ciphers and complete the hack.
YOUR SHIP, THE LISET
Once your first mission is complete, you’ll find yourself aboard your personal ship, which will serve as your base between missions. Initially the Liset will be missing vital segments, but these will become available as you complete tutorial missions.
The Arsenal
segment will allow you to modify your Loadout as you acquire additional weapons and Warframes. You can also change the appearance of your Warframe and weapons by equipping cosmetics and changing their colour schemes.
As your Weapons and Warframes level up through use, they'll be able to accommodate more powerful mods. Your Warframe's base stats will also increase as they level up.
The Market
is where you purchase Warframes, weapons, cosmetics, blueprints, consumables, and other items. Blueprints will commonly be available for Credits, while other items may require Platinum instead to purchase them.
Missions are selected from the
Navigation console
.
The readouts will tell you the enemy faction present in that mission as well as their average level, to help you decide if you're ready to tackle it. More missions will become available as you complete the ones already unlocked for you.
You can also consult the top-right of the navigation screen to see which Foundry resources will be present at that location.
The Foundry
allows you to construct items from the blueprints you've acquired. Once you’ve collected the component resources, you can begin construction, although there is a build time before the item is available to use.
Some blueprints will create multiples of the same item simultaneously; this can be useful when building consumable items you use commonly during missions.
The Mod Station
lets you sell unwanted mods, or transform them into new mods. You can even use spare mods to further increase the strength of your most used mods.
Fusing allows you to rank up mods, which will increase their effect, at the cost of requiring additional energy to be installed in your loadout. Fusing will consume Credits, as well as destroy whatever you fuse into the original mod.
MODDING
While playing Warframe you'll pick up many valuable resources to help even the odds against more difficult enemies. Mods play a large role in giving weapons and Warframes an added boost of power and customization, and how effective you are in combat will largely depend on what Mods you equip.
Each Mod equipped will take away from your Upgrade Capacity -- a limit that will naturally increase as your Weapon and Warframe increase in levels.
Mod Polarity -
Every Mod has a unique Polarity that's displayed in the upper right hand corner. Matching this Polarity in a Weapon or Warframe slot will reduce the Capacity of the Mod by half, but equipping a Mod using an unmatched Polarity will double its cost.
Aura Mods -
These Mods can only be equipped in a Warframe, and give you a passive effect that benefits your entire Squad. Matching an aura's Polarity also increases your Warframe's total Capacity.
Stance Mods -
These Mods can only be equipped on a Melee weapon, and give unique combo attacks when equipping that weapon in combat. Stance Mods also increase the weapons total Capacity if equipped on a matching Polarity.
Forma -
Forma Blueprints can be obtained from Missions as a reward, and are used to change the Polarity of any slot on a weapon or Warframe. Be careful, as using a Forma will also reset your weapon or Warframe level back to Unranked.