Warframe in the Playground 2.0

[mangosta71]

I had a group that was doing well with me in an Ember, a pair of Trins (one Prime), and I forget what the fourth guy was but it didn't matter anyway. Unfortunately they decided to split after 60.

[Eldariel]

We ran 400 targets (~1600 points minus some dead) with two Trin (Prime)s, Vauban (Prime), Rhino (Prime). Could've done more but needed to sleep. Everything built for range and duration, though Trins need enough Strength for 75% DR Bless and EV as well. Trins heal the morons and stack up energy, Vauban (w/ Repelling Bastille) and Rhino CC everything and you just run through the map. Basically, team splits into two: one Trin, one CC. Group B (Trin + CC) goes to B, Group C goes to C. At A, Group B Trin and Group C CC frame turn around and go activate the next spawns immediately, while the other pair runs the morons out. Vazarin focus school abilities are extremely convenient for reviving the morons as well as any potential fallen teammates, and for increasing Trinity Bless range.

There's a fair amount of desynch which requires some thinking on the fly, which makes coordination and voice chat rather convenient; we had a group of 3 friends on Skype while our 4th guy hanged around. It certainly helped especially coordinating on the fly. Vauban seemed better than Rhino, because Bastilles remain in place and Repelling Bastille can actually clear the way of enemies without having to kill anything.

We tried Limbo-based strategy too, but it's simply way more effort since Limbo needs to Banish so many individual targets, and you can only give orders to the rescue targets while out of the rift. However, on a principal level there's no limit to how long you can do with e.g. 2xLimbo/2xVauban (Limbo runs Haven to heal the rescue targets). But with solid play, 2xTrin/2xVauban can probably do any amount as well.

EDIT: Exact points were 1584.

[mangosta71]

Got 82 rescued before we had so many parasitic eximus spawns that we couldn't use any more abilities and we had to bail. Might have been able to do more if we'd had a Trinity in the group, but I only needed 65 anyway. And now that I've gotten the total score over 2000, I'm done with this stupid event.

[Brother Oni]

So after some minor hiccups, I now have the Ignis Wraith cooking. My clan also managed to get into the top 10% (we got pushed out of the top 100 Storm clans with about an hour to go), so we also have the Ignis Wraith BP researching.

Back to farming for Banshee P and Helios P - at least I'll have stuff to sell for ducats for Baro tomorrow.

[IFenrys]

I managed to break into the top 10% of the Ghost Clan tier around 10 last night, so Ignis Wraith research is now cooking over here as well. I remember that a couple of people were looking for more active clans around here (well, at least one was) - anyone still looking? I've got some space now.

We've got the Hema researched too, so you won't need to lose all your Mutagen Samples!

[Wraith]

Ye Gods, but I hate Sentients. I mean, I'll get through them - it's just a matter of persistence and finding time to sit and hammer it out for a couple of hours..... But in the mean time, I'm definitely NOT having fun being locked in a room with four of these buggers.

Anyone had more luck and got through it more easily? I think I have a decent setup with my Vaykor Hek doing all the heavy lifting, though I'm lacking a high-damage secondary weapon that isn't the Kulstar, and thus isn't as much (if not more) of a danger to me as anyone else.

[mangosta71]

Ye Gods, but I hate Sentients. I mean, I'll get through them - it's just a matter of persistence and finding time to sit and hammer it out for a couple of hours..... But in the mean time, I'm definitely NOT having fun being locked in a room with four of these buggers.

Anyone had more luck and got through it more easily? I think I have a decent setup with my Vaykor Hek doing all the heavy lifting, though I'm lacking a high-damage secondary weapon that isn't the Kulstar, and thus isn't as much (if not more) of a danger to me as anyone else.

Is this for Octavia's quest? Because I was ranking stuff up and still breezed through it; I ran from all the Sentients I could, and the ones I was forced to fight never got immunities. Maybe it was bugged when I did it.

Valkyr (Prime) + (Sancti) Tigris + Twin Grakatas + War. Mod each of them to deal different elements. Use Hysteria's damage immunity to get to point-blank range and unload the Tigris; if they survive that blast, either the Grakatas or War will finish them in an instant. An alternative might be to use Ember; keep World on Fire running so they get immunity to fire damage and then nuke them with anything else.

Speaking of Ember, I had a locked Riven that sat in my inventory for weeks because I had to get 16 kills in a row while wall-hopping/latching, and it took me that long to realize that all I had to do was toggle World on Fire and hump a wall on a defense mission. Derp. I also managed to unlock a "beat a defense mission without the objective taking any damage" against infested thanks to the augment; anything that got close enough to attack was perma-ragdolled. And to think that all this time I thought that Frost was going to be the way to go for that one...

[Recaiden]

I fought them with a Buzlok (Which has a good split between two damage types before mods) and a Helminth Charger which did way more damage than I expected.

Remember that Operator Beam turns off their damage immunity.

I find the main thing about sentients isn't their DR but the Battlyst's laser-spider-bomb attack that one-shots anyone not invincible. This is what actually made the Buzlok so nice. Aim once, focus entirely on fleeing while shooting wildly into the air, they still die.

[Brother Oni]

Anyone had more luck and got through it more easily? I think I have a decent setup with my Vaykor Hek doing all the heavy lifting, though I'm lacking a high-damage secondary weapon that isn't the Kulstar, and thus isn't as much (if not more) of a danger to me as anyone else.

I used a Rhino with a Vaykor Hek (Corrosive and Blast) and a Vaykor Marelock (Impact and Gas), which worked just fine.

I even managed to farm the mission with a Hysteria build Valkyr P before they hotfixed it (they dropped the patch while I was in mission and I just stayed), racking up about 500 Sentient kills (probably about half being Conculysts). While I wasn't expecting to get the stance (Vengeful Revenant?), I was hoping to get 2 War Blades.

Despite getting multiple Orokin Cells (Conculyst rare drop) and multiples of every other uncommon Conculyst drop, not a single uncommon War part.

Speaking of Ember, I had a locked Riven that sat in my inventory for weeks because I had to get 16 kills in a row while wall-hopping/latching, and it took me that long to realize that all I had to do was toggle World on Fire and hump a wall on a defense mission. Derp. I also managed to unlock a "beat a defense mission without the objective taking any damage" against infested thanks to the augment; anything that got close enough to attack was perma-ragdolled. And to think that all this time I thought that Frost was going to be the way to go for that one...

Using a Loki with an Ignis on an infested survival also works for the former.

I find that a max range Vauban on an infested defence seems to work better than my max range Frost for the second condition.

[IFenrys]

I decided to try out the Limbo rework for Octavia's Anthem, and found a neat trick in the last mission.

Spoiler: Octavia's Anthem Spoilers

Show

During the last leg of the quest, when you're fighting Hunhow in Suda's datascape, entering the Rift allows you to walk on notes without activating them. This includes the ones that are supposed to stay off.

Makes the act of getting to far-off nodes very easy, especially when the Eradicysts (I think that's what they were called) show up - they hit pretty hard and like to knock you onto notes you weren't meant to activate in conjunction with their boss, but dodge-tanking through the Rift works as well as it ever has - possibly even better.

On that note, the sudden assistance from the Cephalons right at the end was spectacular. All of Ordis's lines were pure gold, and Simaris bringing the cavalry was absolutely beautiful.

Limbo rework gets high marks from me, as does the new 'frame, the new guns, the reworked Charger... really, can't think of any negatives. Great update :D

[Wraith]

I changed one mod on either of my weapons and breezed through the mission first try. Turns out I'd doubled up on Blast damage, which for my Hek and Kulstar meant I was losing 80% of my damage in one stroke. Still, once it was sorted out, 120% Multishot on a Kulstar was killing two or even three of the Sentients in one huge, earth-shattering kaboom before I knew I had done so

Turns out that the choice of warframe is pretty much irrelevant for the mission. I did it with Hydroid because that's the frame I just happened to have the Hek equipped upon and didn't have any problems. A couple of times I used Undertow to recharge my shields, but I think that so long as you have enough Health/Shields/Armour to take more than one hit at a time then you'll probably be fine - avoid Inaros and Nidus, and all will be fine.

Thanks for the advice anyway, guys. I was definitely on the right track, and the prompt to double-check my mod order was all I needed.

Spoiler: Octavia's Anthem Spoilers

Show

Makes the act of getting to far-off nodes very easy, especially when the Eradicysts (I think that's what they were called) show up - they hit pretty hard and like to knock you onto notes you weren't meant to activate in conjunction with their boss, but dodge-tanking through the Rift works as well as it ever has - possibly even better.

I couldn't help but think that it would be an absolute joke if only I'd brought Titania. Or Zephyr, if I felt like hopping from block to block wasn't enough of a challenge without trying to do it at Mach 3.

[mangosta71]

I decided to try out the Limbo rework for Octavia's Anthem, and found a neat trick in the last mission.

Spoiler: Octavia's Anthem Spoilers

Show

During the last leg of the quest, when you're fighting Hunhow in Suda's datascape, entering the Rift allows you to walk on notes without activating them. This includes the ones that are supposed to stay off.

Makes the act of getting to far-off nodes very easy, especially when the Eradicysts (I think that's what they were called) show up - they hit pretty hard and like to knock you onto notes you weren't meant to activate in conjunction with their boss, but dodge-tanking through the Rift works as well as it ever has - possibly even better.

On that note, the sudden assistance from the Cephalons right at the end was spectacular. All of Ordis's lines were pure gold, and Simaris bringing the cavalry was absolutely beautiful.

Limbo rework gets high marks from me, as does the new 'frame, the new guns, the reworked Charger... really, can't think of any negatives. Great update :D

Spoiler

Show

Once I realized that the beam would pass over me if I crouched, I never got hit with it again; until that point I'd been jumping over it, and got nailed a few times due to miscalculating. And also figuring out where the Eradicysts spawn (spots that need to be activated but aren't yet) I was able to gun them down before they did any serious damage even with something as puny as low-rank Twin Vipers; they'd be under half health before they finished the spawn animation because I was looking right at them and opened fire the moment they appeared. I was running a Valkyr with Rage (a simply delightful combo) and Hysterical Assault plus Vazarin as my primary focus, so I didn't have any worries about health, energy, range, or getting staggered.

I've been farming Plato on Lua; found the music puzzle and scored the chassis on my third or fourth run, but no luck on the neuroptics yet. And I haven't even started running Derelict survival yet for the systems... I also need to run a bunch of excavation missions because I'm basically out of cryotic... Basically I need about 16 more hours per day. Oh, and I've also been failing the rank 17 test for the past few days. I guess I should go to the Simaris room and practice with different frame/weapon combos, but it seems like the globe spawn is completely random so I feel like practicing this one is less helpful than it has been for other ranks.

[Brother Oni]

I couldn't help but think that it would be an absolute joke if only I'd brought Titania. Or Zephyr, if I felt like hopping from block to block wasn't enough of a challenge without trying to do it at Mach 3.

Or Nova and be really, really good at parkour: 3:48 speed run.

Oh, and I've also been failing the rank 17 test for the past few days. I guess I should go to the Simaris room and practice with different frame/weapon combos, but it seems like the globe spawn is completely random so I feel like practicing this one is less helpful than it has been for other ranks.

A range Ember then modding for speed on yourself (Rush, etc) and a fast melee weapon with range (eg Galatine with Fury and Reach) is how I did it. Alternately, Excalibur's Exalted Blade will hit them as well.

[mangosta71]

A range Ember then modding for speed on yourself (Rush, etc) and a fast melee weapon with range (eg Galatine with Fury and Reach) is how I did it. Alternately, Excalibur's Exalted Blade will hit them as well.

Ember was a good call, though I modded for efficiency/duration (plus speed) and used Ohma; I'd been attempting it with a speed Valkyr, and found that I had no time to kill enemies because I had to focus on getting to the next orb even though she's significantly faster than Ember.

On an unrelated note, how many formas do you guys consider reasonable for a single piece of equipment? I keep seeing build recommendations with 3 or 4, which seems crazy because 1) that's almost my entire supply and 2) with the time I can put into the game on a daily basis it typically takes 2-3 days to level a weapon (frames take a lot longer since they require more XP and I can't level them in sorties; a lot of days the sortie is all I have time for).

[Recaiden]

On an unrelated note, how many formas do you guys consider reasonable for a single piece of equipment? I keep seeing build recommendations with 3 or 4, which seems crazy because 1) that's almost my entire supply and 2) with the time I can put into the game on a daily basis it typically takes 2-3 days to level a weapon (frames take a lot longer since they require more XP and I can't level them in sorties; a lot of days the sortie is all I have time for).

Depends on the weapon. Because it's really about how many polarities you need and they start with different numbers in different configurations.

My main weapon is a 6-forma Gorgon Wraith, and it actually needs a 7th, I just haven't gotten around to it. Gorgon comes with no polarities at all.

The 'standard' Rifle build needs 6 polarities to fit all its mods.
Critical hit mods are 9 drain, while elemental mods are 11 drain. That means 1 fewer forma on crit weapons.
Status mods are only 7 drain, so that's 2 forma saved over 'standard' weapons.
I personally can't stand having 190% multishot on slow-firing weapons, so I don't use Split Chamber on them. (That 10% of the time where you only do 1/2 damage is too sad). So Snipers/Launchers/Bows need 1 fewer forma compared to full-auto/beam.

Pistols are about 1 forma cheaper than rifles due to how Barrel Diffusion and Lethal Torrent stack up.

I don't wanna talk about shotguns.

Riven mods are 18 drain, so if you have one of those, that's at least 1 more forma, maybe 2.

Melee weapons used to not need any.
The +10 capacity from Stances was worth 2 or 3 forma already. Even now, most melee weapons need 0 forma. But newer melee mods have mostly been expensive (not you, Drifting Contact; you're perfect). If you want a 3-Primed-Mod+Blood Rush super-crit weapon, that'll take at least 2 formas.

[Leon]

As many as it takes to make what you want to fit, then step it up a notch when you have a Riven and maybe have to change the loadout slightly to suit (my Harpak is formaed to fit the capabilities of two very different rivens)
On the subject of rivens i have not seen a rifle or shotgun one in a long while last 5 i have revived have been Pistols and the last 2 unlocked were both for the AkStiletto and the friend i was doing yesterdays sortie with also unlocked a Akstiletto with his.

[NEO|Phyte]

On an unrelated note, how many formas do you guys consider reasonable for a single piece of equipment? I keep seeing build recommendations with 3 or 4, which seems crazy because 1) that's almost my entire supply and 2) with the time I can put into the game on a daily basis it typically takes 2-3 days to level a weapon (frames take a lot longer since they require more XP and I can't level them in sorties; a lot of days the sortie is all I have time for).

As others have said, it depends entirely on the specific piece of gear. Some things come with good polarizations already, some you have to build up from scratch. The amount of capacity you need also varies. I only needed 1 forma to get my Nyx Prime where I wanted her, but Nova Prime is sitting here with 4.
A properly built melee takes me 2-3 forma these days, because primed mods.
Guns are the real forma leech, I tend to go lighter on the amount needed by using event mods rather than the vanilla +damage ones, but the ones I've invested in are still all at least 2 forma each.

Meanwhile I've played this game long enough and am stingy enough with actually using the things that I've got a stack of 41 built forma waiting for me to use them, along with 38 blue potatos, 29 gold potatos, and 6 tomatos.

[theMycon]

If you just want something that will lay waste to 99% of the enemies you see in Sorties and Trials, you probably need no more than 2 forma & a potato on a good weapon. If your 2-forma Sancti Tigris or Vaykor Hek has trouble with anything less than a bursa, reconsider your build or your play-style.

If you want your ranged weapon to be as powerful as it can, 5-7 forma is the standard. This assumes you have things like maxed primed mods & vault mods lying around. Ditto needing 2-3 for melee weapons; if you don't have any primed mods a blue potato & the right stance should be all you need.


My single most powerful "weapon" is Mesa+Dual Toxycyst, with 5 forma each (but 5 primed mods between them). I only use it when I don't feel like fighting, because it kills sortie bosses before it even gets halfway to speed; and kills sortie bursas faster than they can raise the shield and slam it back down. This is clearly not a level of power anyone has any practical use for.

That said...
Some weapons (like the Amprex) just have such low base damage that it takes 4+ forma to function at higher levels- but they have crazy functionality that makes them worth it.

[Leon]

I have a Amprex riven that all but guarantees Red crits ~ tis glorius (and the second most expensive one i have bought)

[mangosta71]

If you just want something that will lay waste to 99% of the enemies you see in Sorties and Trials, you probably need no more than 2 forma & a potato on a good weapon. If your 2-forma Sancti Tigris or Vaykor Hek has trouble with anything less than a bursa, reconsider your build or your play-style.

My Sancti Tigris is unformaed and I two-shot Sortie Bursas. At least through the second mission, anyway; don't recall the last time I was forced to fight one in the third.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Greetings fellow Tenno,
I was wondering if anyone had some advice regarding getting the Principle challenge mods on Lua (e.g. Power Drift and the rest) so I can clear the Eris junction and finally do the War Within.

1. What's the best mission to find them in? I've been doing the Exterminate mission since it would seem to allow me the greatest chance of exploring, but are there any better ones?
2. As a follow-up, are there nodes where the Sentients don't spawn or at least have a smaller chance to spawn (and are a good place to find the mods)? Cause I'm kinda getting tired of dealing with them, and they (or at least the Oculysts) have popped up every time I've done that mission.
3. Does anyone know if any of the challenge rooms have a tendency to appear on different mission, or is it just luck? Also, does only one spawn per mission?
4. Are there any tips for finding them, or is it pretty much explore every nook and cranny?

Thanks for any help you can give!
Regards,
tSG.

[NEO|Phyte]

My knowledge is fairly dated, but in no particular order:

When I hunted mine, I did it in the Exterminate node, I have no clue if different nodes are more likely to spawn them.
More than one can spawn.
They won't be tucked away in siderooms like the void parkour puzzles, they're main route tiles.
Some are more obviously puzzles than others.

:edit:
The Principle of Speed could be bypassed with a nova back when I farmed the mods, I have no clue if this is still the case.
The room with the musical game of Simon isn't one of the mod puzzles, but if you solve it it spawns a container with a piece of Octavia.

[mangosta71]

I think that there will always be one Principle Room in any Lua mission (except for those where you don't move, like Defense), but the one you get is random and you need a group to complete most of them. Certain frames trivialize some of the challenges; Valkyr's Ripline made the agility test really easy for me, and I understand that Ivara's Dashwire Arrow does as well, and Ivara's Prowl with the Infiltrate augment should also make the Stealth test insignificant.

The Warframe wiki has more specific information, including screencaps showing what all of the rooms look like and instructions for solving the puzzles.

Edit: Do the Sentients not despawn after a couple minutes if you don't get spotted? If you don't want to deal with them, try buttoning up somewhere. Or just go invisible and run past them if you have Loki, Ash, or Ivara.

[Brother Oni]

Greetings fellow Tenno,
I was wondering if anyone had some advice regarding getting the Principle challenge mods on Lua (e.g. Power Drift and the rest) so I can clear the Eris junction and finally do the War Within.

1. What's the best mission to find them in? I've been doing the Exterminate mission since it would seem to allow me the greatest chance of exploring, but are there any better ones?
2. As a follow-up, are there nodes where the Sentients don't spawn or at least have a smaller chance to spawn (and are a good place to find the mods)? Cause I'm kinda getting tired of dealing with them, and they (or at least the Oculysts) have popped up every time I've done that mission.
3. Does anyone know if any of the challenge rooms have a tendency to appear on different mission, or is it just luck? Also, does only one spawn per mission?
4. Are there any tips for finding them, or is it pretty much explore every nook and cranny?

1) In my experience, for some odd reason the Crossfire Exterminate only tends to spawn 1 room. Back before they introduced infinite spawning, Exterminates were the best way to do the Lua puzzle rooms as you were guaranteed to be unbothered by bad guys shooting at you once you cleared out the immediate area around the room.
These days, Capture is probably best and you can waypoint any rooms you come across while hunting the target. Some people swear by Mobile Defence as the consoles tend to spawn in Principle rooms (be careful not to spawn Sentients with an active console though as they can destroy consoles in short order, causing mission failure).

2)Avoid them and don't let them scan you is the best option. This can either be by stealth or by just avoiding them. Option 2 would be to bring a powerful primary and secondary, both modded for different elements.

3) It's a random spawn and you have to find the room first. They can be overlooked, thus giving the appearance of no rooms spawning. Multiple rooms can spawn - most I've seen is 3 on one particularly lucky run.

4)As mangosta71 said, it helps if you know what you're looking for and the wiki has pictures. Bringing an agile frame helps for certain puzzles (eg Agility Drift rooms works well with Titania, Zephyr, Ivara and Valkyr) and Loki can switch teleport with his decoy to bypass certain bits.
The Endurance and the Co-op rooms needs spectres and some careful finagling to do solo. All the other rooms can be done solo, although some rooms are easier in a group, assuming good co-ordination (the Agility puzzle is impossible if people don't listen).

If you're still having trouble and play during the evenings GMT, send me an invite and I can help out (I've helped several clan mates through all the rooms, so know them all well). My ingame name is the same as my Playground one.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Thanks for the advice everyone (especially the information about spawning)! I might give the capture and mobile defence missions a go, especially the latter if the consoles can spawn in the Principle Rooms.

I had been taking Loki so I could evade Sentients (though that didn't stop an Oculyst from following me partway through the map even though I was invisible ), but I might try Valkyr next time (she seems to reliably take down Sentinels with Hysteria, and I'm betting she get through the Endurance challenge easily as well).

And thanks for the offer BrotherOni, but I live nearly on the opposite side of the globe from you I can also try asking my clan though if I get fed up.

Regards,
tSG.

[Brother Oni]

...but I might try Valkyr next time (she seems to reliably take down Sentinels with Hysteria, and I'm betting she get through the Endurance challenge easily as well).

While Valkyr is great at taking down Sentients, the Endurance challenge isn't quite that straightforward as while she can sit on the laser pad and be blasted until her energy runs out, you still need someone to shoot the buttons to complete the challenge and some of them can't be shot from the laser pad as they're behind a barrier.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if you can do some shenanigans with an Ignis and a reasonably accurate secondary for the further away buttons?

[mangosta71]

Yeah, Valkyr wrecks Sentients. Hell, Valkyr wrecks damn near anything. She and Ivara are my waifus.

On another note, I haven't done any of the Trials before, and I'm the only active member of my clan. Do we have enough Playgrounders to get a group together for Law of Retribution? Probably either evening or weekend, US time. I have Primes of Ash and Valkyr and standard versions of all the rest except Atlas, Limbo, and Nidus, but the ones I feel most comfortable with are Valkyr, Ivara, Frost, Nyx, and Ember.

[Brother Oni]

Probably either evening or weekend, US time.

Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific?


On a separate note, there are currently some promocodes as a reward for the warframe youtube site hitting a milestone in subscribers: Enter STAY for a 3 day credit booster and FOLLOW for a 3 day resource booster on the warframe site (note, all upper case).

Codes are valid until the 8th May, so you may be able to get them to last until the event with some careful timing.

[thatSeniorGuy]

While Valkyr is great at taking down Sentients, the Endurance challenge isn't quite that straightforward as while she can sit on the laser pad and be blasted until her energy runs out, you still need someone to shoot the buttons to complete the challenge and some of them can't be shot from the laser pad as they're behind a barrier.

... Heat+Cold. It's almost as if DE wants you to play with other Tenno to get the mods.

[Leon]

... Heat+Cold. It's almost as if DE wants you to play with other Tenno to get the mods.

Trying to do the Co-action one with 2 people was interesting ~ getting Specters to stand exactly on the buttons was a challenge (Clem doesn't like to stand still)