Warframe in the Playground 2.0

[Wraith]

The wiki says they appear on Grineer Asteroid, Grineer Galleon, Grineer Shipyard and Orokin Moon tilesets (during Invasions). Ceres might be a good bet; just beware that they sometimes vary slightly in appearance as they have a slightly different helmet on some maps compared to others. It shouldn't affact synthesis, but it may make them tricky to spot if you're not expecting it.

[mangosta71]

Found one. Being nearly immobile is less problematic when you're playing Frost in an excavation mission. And I managed to spot the bugger from far enough away that he didn't aggro until I'd already tagged him 3 times.

[Brother Oni]

It's my synthesis target, so I should get a message from Simaris if one is there at the start of the mission. But if they don't start spawning until I've done a couple rounds, will he still tell me when I load in?

Ah, if it's a synthesis target, I'm fairly sure they ignore level spawning criteria, so you just need the right tileset.

The wiki says they appear on Grineer Asteroid, Grineer Galleon, Grineer Shipyard and Orokin Moon tilesets (during Invasions). Ceres might be a good bet; just beware that they sometimes vary slightly in appearance as they have a slightly different helmet on some maps compared to others. It shouldn't affact synthesis, but it may make them tricky to spot if you're not expecting it.

Mangosta was after an Arid one though (desert camo version), and I'm fairly sure they only spawn on Mars.

Found one. Being nearly immobile is less problematic when you're playing Frost in an excavation mission. And I managed to spot the bugger from far enough away that he didn't aggro until I'd already tagged him 3 times.

Congrats.
I think the 'no abilities' criterion only applies after the target has spawned, so you're good to use abilities until then.

[D-naras]

Congrats.
I think the 'no abilities' criterion only applies after the target has spawned, so you're good to use abilities until then.

That's true and makes Ivara a good frame to use for these challenges. Just pop prowl before you find the target and you're golden.

[mangosta71]

That's true and makes Ivara a good frame to use for these challenges. Just pop prowl before you find the target and you're golden.

Well, hell. I assumed that having Prowl active would invalidate the challenge. She would have been fine defending excavators against level ~12 enemies, too. Even Hobbled. Especially since I only needed to clear one before extracting.

There's always next time. Of course, next time will probably be another "clear a level 30+ interception solo with a Hobbled Key equipped" again...

[thatSeniorGuy]

Spoiler: Rap. Tap. Tap.

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Just finished Chains of Harrow, and oh my goodness, I think it's my favourite quest out of all the syndicate + other warframe quests*. Except for the very last part with the Operator, because dang I really wish DE could give him/her a bit more energy and/or health. I think I died about 5 times fighting those Red Veil

* Haven't done Jordas Precept and Hidden Messages, though I doubt they could knock Chains of Harrow off it's perch.

So how have people found Harrow? I still have to farm the neuroptics and systems, but I'm looking forward to him!

E: The Hydroid rework seems ... underwhelming. Thoughts?

[Leon]

Harrow is good, Quest was good up till the last part then it was just stupid ~ your frame is parked just back up and behind you but noooo. I found out where his parts dropped from and said NOPE! The event was bad enough and im not going to do that mission again in the vain hope for parts to drop.

[mangosta71]

Yeah, defection sucks balls. The other parts were quick and easy; I got the chassis from the first rift I did and the neuroptics from my second attempt, so both first day. Then I spent a week endlessly running defection to get the systems (though I did manage to pick up a life strike in the process, so that was nice). And yes, the last part of the quest was stupid. The rest was nice; I rarely get creeped out by media of any sort, and I certainly wasn't expecting it from a F2P game.

Harrow is good. As in, finish a mission having taken 70% of the squad's total damage, and they never even got through your shields good. The whole squad can just spam their abilities and never run out of energy good. Trinity-level support with Rhino-level tanking, and his 1 is pretty damn good CC, too.

[Wraith]

The theme and atmosphere of Chains of Harrow was excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through something genuinely spooky. As with everyone else, however, I hated the last part - I've yet to meet anyone who enjoys the parts of the game where you are forced to use the Operator for some arbitrary reason.

The War Within was fine because it gave us a HUGE amount of lore and plot, with the Operator bits being mostly tutorial, but I sincerely hope that they stop making me fight as Operator while I can see my Warframe looking down at me doing nothing, for no good reason.

[Leon]

On the topic of Operator suck, the MR24 test is operator mode ~ have to kill a ball with void beam while being chased by Boilers and Maggots, not fun at all

[thatSeniorGuy]

Yeah, I don't know why DE keeps 'forcing' us to use Operator mode - and I have to wonder how people who do QA* on these parts of the quests go through them and think "Yep, this was definitely an enjoyable addition to this quest, go ship it!"

Re Defection: Yeah, when the event came along I did it a grand total of once (just to ensure I got the Ignis Wraith), and that was plenty for me. I've done it a few times in alerts though, and I've found using Ember & WoF seems to get the job done (though of course, in those cases I've been with a squad, and we've only had to do two rotations). Hopefully the luck I've had with the Octavia and Nidus parts holds (only two 2 rounds of Lua missions and one of ODS to finish off Octavia, and ~5ish runs of Infested Slavage to get Nidus), otherwise it's plat time. If anyone has some tips for Defection I'd love to hear them (you know, apart from "Don't do it." )

...
Harrow is good. As in, finish a mission having taken 70% of the squad's total damage, and they never even got through your shields good. The whole squad can just spam their abilities and never run out of energy good. Trinity-level support with Rhino-level tanking, and his 1 is pretty damn good CC, too.

Damn. I've been using Oberon Prime to level up my weapons on Akkad & Hydron because it's a nice blend of CC & support, but maybe Harrow will replace him!

On the topic of Operator suck, the MR24 test is operator mode ~ have to kill a ball with void beam while being chased by Boilers and Maggots, not fun at all

Well, it'll be a while before I have to try out the MR24 test, so not too concerned about that. On that note though, I finally got off my posterior and got up to MR15 (at time of writing, I can rank up at least one more time), and ...

Spoiler: Aw yeah!

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* Because they QA this don't they? Right? ... Right?

[Leon]

QA... what QA besides the devs mucking about in their little sandbox the amount of crap that enters live game shows that there is no position of QA at DE.

[Brother Oni]

If anyone has some tips for Defection I'd love to hear them (you know, apart from "Don't do it." )

If you're running with pubbies, Firequake Ember is a good solid choice. You shouldn't expect co-ordination, but try and make sure there's no bunching up or unescorted defectors.

For those long runs with a pre-made, you need something with a bit more CC; Limbo (banish all the defectors, although you have to wait until it wears off at the checkpoints to send them on), Repelling Bastille Vauban (drop Bastilles all the way down a route) and max range/duration Stomp Rhino are good choices. A Trinity is nice to keep up the team's energy and the defectors' health, but only really necessary when you're going for scoreboard level runs.

After that, it's all team work. They way I did it with my clan, is we split off into pairs to escort them from B/C to A, then one member of each pair goes back to B/C to get ready to pick up the next set, while the remaining 2 escorts them from A to the exit. Ideally you should wait until both groups are at A before sending them on for maximum efficiency, but circumstances may dictate otherwise.
An alternate method is that one player camps A, keeping it stocked up while single players do all the escorts - that way if one convoy gets into trouble, that player is in a central location to go help.

Remember that your goal isn't to kill stuff, it's to get the defectors to the exit, so don't get too carried away shooting bad guys (besides they're infested, they'll come to you).

Finally, there are nicer maps than others. I heard tale of one from a clanmate, which had a ~400m run from C to A, so he extracted early on that one.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Thanks for the tips Brother Oni. Didn't know about the Firequake mod, seems great! And thankfully I'm levelling up Steel Meridian/Red Veil at the moment.

[Brother Oni]

Thanks for the tips Brother Oni. Didn't know about the Firequake mod, seems great! And thankfully I'm levelling up Steel Meridian/Red Veil at the moment.

I like Firequake as it keeps Ember relevant in higher level content, like Sorties. Her damage drops off massively, but the CC means that you can shoot the enemy freely provided you keep their numbers down (< 5 of them within range) and her limited survivability doesn't become an issue.

I've been playing around with a Flash Accelerant build, but haven't quite got it sussed yet.

[mangosta71]

Damn. I've been using Oberon Prime to level up my weapons on Akkad & Hydron because it's a nice blend of CC & support, but maybe Harrow will replace him!

You can level a weapon all the way to 30 with a single run through Sedna - Adaro with Ivara. Silence your weapon, put enemies to sleep, rock that 500% stealth multiplier all the way through the mission. Takes less than 10 minutes per weapon. There's a tutorial of the setup on youtube.

Spoiler: Aw yeah!

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I'd personally pick Blaze over Scattering Inferno there; I've never needed status on any variant of the Tigris because there's very little that survives the first pull of the trigger (aside from bosses that are basically immune to statuses anyway) when I mod them for damage, and I think the +60% damage also affects all of the elemental damage mods.

[Ionbound]

Speaking of Riven challenges, the one I got from War Within was 'Clear a level 30+ exterminate with an Extinguished key and without being detected'. Fun. Especially because it's a Rifle mod I want to put on my Tiberon which means I can't break out the Dread I have for Stealth missions.

[mangosta71]

Speaking of Riven challenges, the one I got from War Within was 'Clear a level 30+ exterminate with an Extinguished key and without being detected'. Fun. Especially because it's a Rifle mod I want to put on my Tiberon which means I can't break out the Dread I have for Stealth missions.

Bows count as rifles for purposes of Riven mods, and the weapon you use to unlock the Riven has no bearing on what weapon the Riven will be for once it's unveiled. You can absolutely do the challenge with your Dread. Or slap a Hush into whatever rifle you want and run an exterminate mission with Ivara. It will be for a random weapon, so the odds that it will be a Tiberon mod are not good. In fact, given that the stats are all random the odds that it will be a good mod are kind of terrible. Get ready to start farming billions of Kuva so you can reroll it until it isn't garbage. (Of course, it's probably going to be for a garbage weapon anyway...)

[thatSeniorGuy]

Forgive me Holy Rell, for I have sinned. I ... got a plat discount yesterday and ended up buying Harrow. Having said that ... holy Nox on a stick is he great. YOu were certainly right on with your assessment mangosta71.

You can level a weapon all the way to 30 with a single run through Sedna - Adaro with Ivara. Silence your weapon, put enemies to sleep, rock that 500% stealth multiplier all the way through the mission. Takes less than 10 minutes per weapon. There's a tutorial of the setup on youtube.

*mind-blown*

[Brother Oni]

Bows count as rifles for purposes of Riven mods, and the weapon you use to unlock the Riven has no bearing on what weapon the Riven will be for once it's unveiled. You can absolutely do the challenge with your Dread. Or slap a Hush into whatever rifle you want and run an exterminate mission with Ivara.

You can even not bother with the rifle - stealth finishing everything with a Covert Lethality dagger on Ivara works as well.

[thatSeniorGuy]

So, uh, me again. I had my first encounter with the Jordas Golem yesterday, and ... it didn't go so well. I could barely make a dent in its HP, even when shooting at the engines. And that was when I was even able catch up to and out-manoeuvre it. After 10 minutes I aborted the mission because it was clear I wasn't getting anywhere. Obviously a huge part of the problem is that I haven't been paying much attention to Archwing, so I don't have many mods, and haven't potato'ed the default archwing and weapons. Can anyone give me some advice on how to take it down (including useful archwings and arch-weapons)?

[Wraith]

It *can* be done, but it takes forever and isn't a lot of fun - I've done it once by refusing to follow the thing back and forth, just find one good spot where I can hit it's engines and jink about to avoid incoming fire, and then wait there until it finishes it's tour of the area and turns it's back on me. It's so much faster than an Archwing that chasing it around means that you're inevitably going to be within it's main arc of fire in return for just a few shots at it's rear, so why bother?

Otherwise, the best advice I can give, is to not do it solo. It moves in (roughly) a triangle, so you ideally want at least 2 other players, one in each corner, and hammer it in turn whenever it turns it's back on you. It's by far the most annoying boss in the game, and I say then even over Vay Hek, which I know some people detest.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Thanks Wraith. I'm glad it's not just me then.

[Brother Oni]

Having solo'd Jordas many, many times while farming Atlas, some tips:

• Whatever Aura you have on your Warframe also works while in Archwing. Rejuvenation and Energy Siphon are two very good suggestions.
• Unfortunately you will need to level up your Archwing a bit so that it doesn't have the durability of tissue paper (Jordas' AOE is a pain in the arse). The Enhanced Durability and Energy Inversion mods are very good to have to bolster up your toughness.
• Know your Archwing manoeuvers: Afterburner (Shift+Space) is a must, Dodging (while aiming, move sideways then tap Shift) can also be useful.
• Kinda obvious, but a bring a big gun. I used the Velocitus - the Fluctus was bugged when I was farming Jordas and did no damage to the engines.
• Make use of your Archwing abilities - Odonata (Prime)'s 1 ability gives you both a defensive shield and a weapon damage/crit buff.

Unless you follow Wraith's tactic, Afterburner after Jordas, get behind him, pop your Odonata's 1 and fire shots into its engines. Repeat until dead. He is very tedious to fight and once you've gotten over 1,000 shields and 1,000 health, pretty much no threat to you unless you get caught by the missile stream or end up in the middle of the infested space drones.

If you're still having problems, give me a shout (I'm online from about 6pm in the evenings BST) and I can help kill him.

[Recaiden]

• Especially if you can find other people to go with you, the Corrosive Projection Aura is a big help; Jordas has a ton of armor.
• If you have the Itzal, it's pretty possible to teleport behind where he's going to be and avoid a lot of the attacks.
• If you have the Amesha, its abilities make you basically unkillable.
• The Elytron is not particularly useful for fighting Jordas.
• I used the Grattler when I fought him and it was fine, but overall I'd recommend the Velocitus.
• He really has a ton of armor. Mod for Corrosive Damage unless you have a full team of CP Auras.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Thanks for the advice guys. And yay! The Velocitus is one of the weapons I can get with the syndicates I've levelled up (I know you can trade for them, but it's a bit of a hassel).

[thatSeniorGuy]

The Plains of Eidolon have opened up, so if you'll indulge me in some amateur prose:

Spoiler: A fragment from the memories of a Tenno on his first field trip

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I arrived from a long session of farming Orokin Cells (those premium Orokin-designed weapons, those 'Primes', were so damned needy but so shiny!), when I got that long-awaited communique from the Lotus: the Ostrons were finally allowing us access to their town, and the so-called "Plains of Eidolon". Whether they had gotten word the return of the Myconian children to their parents by Tenno hands, or if news had spread of the safety my brethren and I had given to the Kavor Defectors, or whether they had a hidden, deeper design for us, it didn't matter. I had to keep myself from yelling at Ordis to hurry and deploy lander, but I was wary of overloading an already not-entirely-stable Cephalon.

As the lander plunged through the Gray Mother's atmosphere, I caught sight of it: the familiar radiance of an Orokin Tower, but rising from an unfamiliar vista, a golden coast meeting a blue-and-grey sea. I stared at the images Ordis was transmitting to me, as I waited for the lander to eject me with its peculiar mechanism, and I wondered - had my parents ever taken me to such a place? Had I ever left the baking sand to run out to the cold water while my mother watched on with doting but careful eyes? Teshin had unlocked some of my memories of them, but the rest were still hidden away, still smothered by the weight of the long sleep that was the Dream. As if hearing my thoughts, I spotted several Ostron children chasing after a leader, who had a strange- was that a Volt mask? As I watched I realised what they were doing - playing-fighting, surely emulating the tales they had heard of mighty Tenno doing battle against the cruel forces of the Grineer. Even through the transference, I could feel a smile growing on my face.

My Warframe's heavy legs made a heavy thud on the landing pad the Ostrons had prepared. Word had spread amongst the Tenno that deep in the plains, the Grineer had fierce reinforcements ready to meet our might. And if some of the wilder rumours were true, at night the Grineer were not the ones you had to worry about; so as I glanced up at the setting sun I was glad that I had brought the familiar weight of my Rhino.

I headed up to the Ostron's settlement, and was immediately worried about the integrity of the transference stream - the amount of colour, of noise, of smell, that my Warframe had plunged into nearly overwhelmed me. I stared, dumbstruck, at the tableau before me: A woman selling that peculiar flesh of that Orokin tower (which I had already vowed to myself that I would never, NEVER consume because ewww). A man peddling a variety of pets - I made a note of him, as my kavat could surely benefit from some company (Ordis' one pet per operator rule be damned). A dazzling array of gems, reflecting Sol's light from a display where an Ostron promised he would make me rich, rich beyond my wildest dreams! An enterprising young child, selling those crudely carved but just so adorable Warframe masks. My frame walked on as if on autopilot as I wondered at what I was seeing. This place radiated a ... life ... that I had never seen anywhere else in the Origin System. Certainly not on those dark, smokey ships those degenerate clones used. Certainly not in the cold, metallic caves where corporate drones churned out their endless stream of machinery in the name of profit. Certainly not in the glorious but empty (well, near enough to empty) Towers that floated in the Void. And most certainly not in the sick corruptions of all of those environments, where the virus twisted both machine and flesh into its own cruel designs.

I approached an Ostron who, surrounded as he was by warframes in an almost ludricrous range of fashions, was evidently the leader of the colony. Sure enough, this Konzu greeted my warmly and wasted no time in enlightening me of several ways that I could foul the workings of the Grineer machine as they applied their best efforts to grinding over the Ostron, like they had done to countless other colonies in the system. I picked what I though looked like an interesting task, and headed a massive gate, constructed of that familair Orokin gold and white, which gave way to yet another gate. I waited eagerly for my first peak of the plains.

And waited. And waited.

And waited.*

I was about to call the Lotus up and half-sarcastically demand if the Ostrons liked playing pranks on new visitors, when the gates finally parted. For the second time since landing here, I was rendered dumbstruck as I slowly took in the rolling hills, the elegant cliffs, and the fields of gentle waving grass that still exuded beauty even in the encroaching night. After I recovered I headed out to the first waypoint the Lotus had set out up, marvelling at the seemingly limitless space surrounding me; a welcome change to the weaving, sense-defying corridors of Grineer and Corpus ships. And as I departed out from safety of the Orokin and Ostron structures, and moved past the solitary stations the Grineer had set up, I started to see the influence that other ... entities ... had made upon this place. The glowing lights that impossibly radiated from the rock and ground itself. The waters that had turned poisonous to the energies that powered my warframe. The blue sprites darting through the brush.

And then I encountered my first Eidolon.

I heard it first. Or maybe more accurately I felt it first? The movements that resonated through the earth seemed to affect the entirety of my surrogate body, not just its ears. A memory flashed through me - something my parents had once shown me? Some relic from the old Earth, where a merchant had resurrected ancient creatures from amber stones *- a screech interrupted my daydream, and the Eidolon climbed over a hill not 50 meters from where I stood. A giant creature, composed of spectral matter, Sentient machinery, and material scavenged from the plains themselves. As much as I wanted to test my strength against it, word has already spread that only most determined Tenno operating together could hope to face one of these remnants of the Old War.

And besides ... I wasn't done exploring the plains yet.

* The loading times for the plains have been abysmal on my machine, but I realised that I had Warframe installed on my HHD, not my SSD. Correcting that should hopefully help. Addendum: It helped. A lot. 1ish minute load time is down to 10ish seconds. Soooo much better.
** No seriously, I was getting some major Jurassic Park vibes when I came across my first Eidolon. And it felt fantastic

In more prosaic terms: absolutely loved my first time on the plains (well, apart from loading issues). Great atmosphere in Cetus, it feels alive and populated with people going about their daily/nightly routine. Konzu is great. Onkko is even better. The plains look gorgeous, even on my lower-end machine. Eidolons feel massive and imposing. I like the multi-stage implementation of the bounty system, sort of like a mini-sortie. Mining is kinda fun, haven't tried fishing yet.

Then came the bugs. Entering into someone else's session and not having a HUD. Bounties failing if you (or anyone on your team?) put a step outside the 'bounty zone'. Selecting a bounty, then getting matched with a team that is just roaming around on the plains. Having to wait for everyone to get to the gates to extract. Not being able to extract anywhere else on the plains. Ridiculously small amounts of standing awarded from bounties (though that's been improved at least).

I really want to be gush to anyone who will listen about how great an update this is (and I do think DE have done some fantastic work here), but with the state it's in at the moment I can't. Here's hoping that the plains will evolve into something better.

[Brother Oni]

In more prosaic terms: absolutely loved my first time on the plains (well, apart from loading issues). Great atmosphere in Cetus, it feels alive and populated with people going about their daily/nightly routine. Konzu is great. Onkko is even better. The plains look gorgeous, even on my lower-end machine. Eidolons feel massive and imposing. I like the multi-stage implementation of the bounty system, sort of like a mini-sortie. Mining is kinda fun, haven't tried fishing yet.

Then came the bugs. Entering into someone else's session and not having a HUD. Bounties failing if you (or anyone on your team?) put a step outside the 'bounty zone'. Selecting a bounty, then getting matched with a team that is just roaming around on the plains. Having to wait for everyone to get to the gates to extract. Not being able to extract anywhere else on the plains. Ridiculously small amounts of standing awarded from bounties (though that's been improved at least).

I really want to be gush to anyone who will listen about how great an update this is (and I do think DE have done some fantastic work here), but with the state it's in at the moment I can't. Here's hoping that the plains will evolve into something better.

I do agree the NPCs are great, from the double entendres of the fishmonger, the sheer abuse that the Zaw merchant gives to anybody within earshot ("Hok would rather get a plate in his head and collect magnets!"), to the random Chinese that Konzu injects into conversation ("Ai-yoooo!").

It's much more playable now that they've hotfixed it multiple times (including hotfixing a hotfix), although they still haven't sorted out the vault not opening bug or the disappearing reticule, plus typical pubbie behaviour means that running pre-mades or solo is recommended for bounties or Eidolon hunting.

While I'm enjoying it, there's still a number of non-technical issues, for example: the economy which they're still working on (a big step made with the bait BPs becoming re-usable), the fairly ridiculous Focus costs, the higher tier bounty reward tables diluted with crap (2 Control Modules as the rare drop - really?).
However with people discovering new mechanics (eg chuck bait into water ripples for guaranteed rare fish) and DE introducing new mechanics that didn't make the initial release (the fishing spears are now specialised towards certain types of fish, which is currently being bypassed with judicious use of Volt's passive), it's still a bit early to see how well Plains is doing in my opinion.

[Arcane_Snowman]

DE seems to be approaching the game somewhat in reverse of Valve-Time tbh. They do so much polishing after the release of their content, which is definitely not bad, but it can be infuriating when you're excited to get started.

As an example, my current Teralyst Eidolon loot acquisition to kill ratio is about 2:3 due to interference of one bug or another.

My biggest concern with the plains at the moment, outside the actual bugs, is the crafting material acquisition. Both the Wisp/Breath of Eidolon acquisition seems like it's gonna be the biggest bottle-neck in the economy. I was already pretty disgruntled with the sortie reward table, but the way that they've diluted the bounties is pretty aggravating.

[mangosta71]

Haven't gotten onto the Plains in a couple days; have they fixed the bug where sometimes the first stage of a bounty never completes, and then you can't progress without leaving and trying again?

And a curiosity: does anyone else abuse Ivara's pickpocket to get double sentient cores?