Warframe Beginner's Guide — Starting Warframes, Star Chart & First Hours

Starter Warframe Quick Reference

Choosing Your Starter Warframe

Your first decision in Warframe is choosing between Excalibur, Volt, or Mag. All three are competent for new players and can carry you through early content, so pick based on playstyle rather than power. Excalibur is the most beginner-friendly — his Exalted Blade gives you a reliable melee damage option and his kit is straightforward. He is the safest all-around pick.

Volt appeals to players who love speed. His Speed ability permanently accelerates your movement and attack speed, making missions feel fast and fluid. His Discharge ability can stun rooms of enemies with electric damage. Volt is also used in late-game content as a team speed buffer, so he has long-term value.

Mag is a crowd control frame who specializes in pulling enemies together with Magnetize and Pull. She shines in Corpus missions where her shields-interacting abilities deal bonus damage. She requires a bit more tactical thinking than Excalibur but rewards skilled play. Note: you can acquire all three starters eventually through Dojo research or trading, so do not stress over this choice.

Navigating the Star Chart

The Star Chart is Warframe's mission map — a network of nodes spread across planets and locations in the solar system. Each node is a specific mission type, and clearing nodes progresses you toward Junctions. Junctions are special nodes that connect to new planets; they require you to complete specific tasks (such as defeating a boss, collecting resources, or ranking a mod) before you can pass through.

Start on Earth and work outward. Mercury, Venus, and Mars are accessible early. Each planet has its own faction enemies: Grineer on Earth/Mars/Saturn, Corpus on Venus/Mercury/Neptune, Infested on Eris/Deimos, and mixed factions in the Void. Understanding which faction inhabits a planet helps you pick the right damage types.

Do not skip Junctions — each one grants a free Warframe component blueprint or resource reward. Completing every Junction on a planet before moving on ensures you collect all free rewards and have a solid foundation of unlocked mission nodes for future farming.

Core Mission Types Explained

• Extermination — Kill a set number of enemies and extract. The most straightforward mission type; great for beginners and resource farming.
• Survival — Stay alive as long as possible while maintaining life support. Rewards scale with time spent; most farming runs target 20-minute marks for rare drop rotations.
• Defense — Protect a cryopod through waves of enemies. Rewards come every 5 waves; optimal farming runs go to wave 20 (4 reward rotations).
• Interception — Capture and hold 4 radio towers simultaneously against enemy waves. Requires area control and fast movement.
• Excavation — Power excavators to dig up Cryotic (a resource). Each excavator runs for 100 seconds and requires Power Cells dropped by enemies.
• Spy — Hack 3 data vaults without triggering alarms. Stealth-focused; rewards include Warframe blueprints and augment mods from specific locations.
• Alerts and Bounties — Time-limited missions on the open worlds (Plains of Eidolon, Orb Vallis, Cambion Drift) that grant standing and unique rewards.

Early Priorities: Mods, Crafting & Credits

Mods are Warframe's primary progression system. Every weapon and Warframe is upgraded through mods slotted into mod slots. Focus on finding and ranking up core mods early: Serration (rifle damage), Hornet Strike (pistol damage), Vitality (Warframe health), and Steel Fiber (armor). These drop from enemies and mission rewards throughout the Star Chart.

Use your Foundry early and often. You receive free blueprints during The Vor's Prize and from Junction rewards. Crafting your first Orokin Catalyst (doubles weapon mod capacity) or Orokin Reactor (doubles Warframe mod capacity) from a Blueprint Alert or Daily Login reward should be a high priority — apply them to your most-used weapon or frame.

Credits are the basic currency used for crafting, mod ranking, and trading. Run Credit Cache missions (found on Ceres and other mid-game planets) or the Index on Neptune for large credit payouts once you unlock those areas. Running out of credits is a common early-game bottleneck, so keep a healthy reserve.

First 25 Hours Roadmap — What to Do When

Junction Unlocks Per Planet — Free Rewards You Must Not Skip

• Mercury Junction (from Earth): Rewards 50,000 credits, a Warframe blueprint, and unlocks Mercury for Mastery farming. Requires completing The Vor's Prize and reaching Mastery Rank 1.
• Venus Junction (from Earth): Rewards a Warframe component blueprint and unlocks Venus, where Rhino drops from the Jackal boss. Requires defeating the Lieutenant Lech Kril boss on Ceres or similar mid-tier checks.
• Mars Junction (from Phobos): Rewards a weapon blueprint and unlocks Mars. Required for accessing the Ceres planet line, which leads to important mid-game gear.
• Jupiter Junction (from Ceres): Rewards include Vauban component blueprints and unlocks Jupiter. Important for accessing Mastery rifles and the Earth Forest tileset events.
• Saturn Junction (from Jupiter): Rewards a weapon component and unlocks Saturn, home of Helene (one of the best XP farms via Defense missions).
• Uranus Junction (from Saturn): Rewards include Equinox blueprint pieces from Tyl Regor. Required for Plains of Eidolon access via Cetus.
• Neptune Junction (from Uranus): Unlocks high-mid-game content including Hyena Pack (Loki drop) and Razorback events. Rewards include weapon components.
• Pluto + Sedna Junctions: Late-game unlocks. Sedna includes the most popular Eidolon-hunting Amp components from Quills standing on Plains of Eidolon.

Mod Priorities for Brand-New Players

1. Serration (rifle damage): drops commonly from enemies; rank to at least 5 within your first 10 hours. Eventually max to 10 for +165% rifle damage.
2. Hornet Strike (pistol damage): same as Serration but for pistols. Essential for any secondary build.
3. Pressure Point (melee damage): rank to max as soon as Endo permits. Core melee mod.
4. Vitality (Warframe health): Doubles your Warframe HP at max rank. Most universal survival mod in the game.
5. Steel Fiber (Warframe armor): Especially important on Rhino, Inaros, or any armor-scaling tank. Rank to at least 8 by hour 15.
6. Split Chamber (rifle multishot): Critical multishot mod. Drops from Rare Mod Bundle drops or trade chat. Buy from Warframe.market for 30–60 Plat if needed.
7. Continuity (ability duration): Important for ability-focused frames like Excalibur (Exalted Blade duration) and Mag.
8. Intensify (ability strength): Pair with Continuity for ability-focused builds.