Warframe In The Playground - The Grustrag 03

[Wraith]

...much like how people get attached to their roombas in real life. !

Funny you should mention roombas....

Also, congrats on the rank up! You're on your way to the end of the game (Fashion Frame) and no mistake

[AmberVael]

Also, congrats on the rank up! You're on your way to the end of the game (Fashion Frame) and no mistake

Other end game routes include Decor Frame and Sitar Hero.

(I'm currently spending an inordinate amount of time redesigning and decorate my clan's dojo, and its really satisfying to have it come together).

[NeoVid]

Oh whew! I'll probably still keep them given what others have said, though. All the pets are so cute, even the Helminth Charger! Sentinels are cute too, much like how people get attached to their roombas in real life.

We're still wondering just how long the wait will be before they give us the ability to have more than one pet out of stasis at a time. Plenty of people would be willing to pay any amount of plat for the convenience/ability to have more than one kitty on your ship.

By the way, you can get a bunch of Kubrow/Kavat cosmetic options without spending plat. Master Teasonai in Cetus sells a random pack of them each day, charging nothing but crafted materials from the Plains. Mostly not materials you can get as a brand new player, but it's something to keep in mind that you can earn through gameplay instead of $, and to make it more generous, color schemes for Kubrows/Kavats are not restricted to one type of pet.

[Squark]

We're still wondering just how long the wait will be before they give us the ability to have more than one pet out of stasis at a time. Plenty of people would be willing to pay any amount of plat for the convenience/ability to have more than one kitty on your ship.

By the way, you can get a bunch of Kubrow/Kavat cosmetic options without spending plat. Master Teasonai in Cetus sells a random pack of them each day, charging nothing but crafted materials from the Plains. Mostly not materials you can get as a brand new player, but it's something to keep in mind that you can earn through gameplay instead of $, and to make it more generous, color schemes for Kubrows/Kavats are not restricted to one type of pet.

The recolors are particular useful for recoloring Kavats, who have a very, very wide color palette that can produce some... spectacularly hideous color combinations. I have no desire to spend several hours photographing Kitties to potentially get the wrong breed if I try again, so I just recolored Kritkat into a nice mix of blues and white instead of a mix of flesh-tone, Radioactive green, and 2 other colors I've repressed.

[Leon]

I don't know if its a thing still and i don't think i have the screen caps any more but there used to be a glitch where your (already large Kubrow) would grow giant after attacking something big like a Juggernaut.

[Wraith]

We're still wondering just how long the wait will be before they give us the ability to have more than one pet out of stasis at a time. Plenty of people would be willing to pay any amount of plat for the convenience/ability to have more than one kitty on your ship.

I was going to say that they probably wouldn't, as stasis slots are bought with 20 plat's worth of real money and having a pet walking around takes it out of stasis - De would lose money.

But then I realised.... Just make a "kennel slot" for active pets and sell them for 30 plat each. Instant millionaires.

[Dire Ferret]

DE has vaguely mentioned improving the pet system so hopefully it will happen eventually.

At least they already got rid of pets outright dying if you don't log on often enough to give them genetic stabilizers.

[Brother Oni]

Oh whew! I'll probably still keep them given what others have said, though. All the pets are so cute, even the Helminth Charger! Sentinels are cute too, much like how people get attached to their roombas in real life.

You can even get your own customisable robotic Moa pet from Fortuna.

Personally, I want a pet Bursa that I can ride into combat on, or maybe a pet Ambulas that I can call in artillery strikes with (the landing craft bombing run doesn't really cut it).

[Leon]

Maximum Grofit right there.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Question about blueprints, if you'll indulge me: I'm aware that a lot of the warframe component blueprints are dropped by bosses or lesser enemies, but most of the articles about each warframe on the Wiki don't say anything about where the "master blueprint" to put the three components together into a complete new Warframe. Where do you get those, do you just buy them from the Market?

[AmberVael]

Most of the time you can just buy it from the Market for some credits. Generally if you can't, you can get it from the same place you get the rest of the blueprints from (like from clan research, or sometimes as a drop).

[Rynjin]

A lot are also dropped by the...fossil...relic...things I forget the name of at the moment that open up like Challenge Dungeon style rifts. That's where I got the blueprint for Oberon Prime, I believe.

[thatSeniorGuy]

• For frames whose parts drop from bosses, generally the master blueprint is available from the market.
• Some frames are tied to quests (Atlas, Mirage, Harrow etc.) and their master blueprint is typically given as a rewards when the quest is done. Their parts are either given during the quest, or might be available from missions that are unlocked afterwards.
• I think there are a couple whose blueprint you have to buy from a syndicate, like Baruuk from Vox Solaris?
• Khora's blueprint is dropped from Sanctuary Onslaught, along with her parts.
• As AmberVael said, Volt, Wukong, Nezha and Zephyr's blueprints are available through clan research.
• All Prime frame blueprints are dropped from Void Relics, both master and component blueprints. Prime blueprints are also tradeable with other players, whereas none of the other ones are.

I think that covers everything.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I think my technique needs some work...on anything except a Spy mission, I mostly just seem to be running around flailing my Skana in a blind panic instead of using my abilities to their full extent or shooting things with my weapons before they close with me.

The only time I HAVEN'T done that is in the aforementioned Spy mission I recently solo'ed by patiently sniping the patrolling Grineer with my MK1 Paris and Kunai and generally just taking things slow and paranoid, and even then, I still needed to swing around my Skana like a fool in the portions of the mission in-between the vault sections to clear out the larger clusters of Grineer and those irritating feral kubrows!

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

[Squark]

I think my technique needs some work...on anything except a Spy mission, I mostly just seem to be running around flailing my Skana in a blind panic instead of using my abilities to their full extent or shooting things with my weapons before they close with me.

The only time I HAVEN'T done that is in the aforementioned Spy mission I recently solo'ed by patiently sniping the patrolling Grineer with my MK1 Paris and Kunai and generally just taking things slow and paranoid, and even then, I still needed to swing around my Skana like a fool in the portions of the mission in-between the vault sections to clear out the larger clusters of Grineer and those irritating feral kubrows!

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

The Braton assault rifle, Strun shotgun, Lex, and Sicarus are available for purchase for purchase on the market. These are bought fully built with just credits to help you get started. Being able to equip weapons suited for a straight firefight is a huge help.

That being said... Excalibur tends to be a spammy melee frame. He just trades up for his exalted blade once youbhave access to proper energy management.

[DeTess]

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

I'm not seeing the problem :P

Though to me it sounds like your weapons might be underperforming maybe? A bow weapon should work decently enough for dealing with clusters once its modded a bit (penetration+draw speed+damage+crit chance or whatever gets your fancy). Otherwise, it might be helpful to use a weapon that's more useful in a close quarters panic, such as a shotgun or rapid firing machine gun.

If you just want to practice though, you can actually unequip the melee weapon, forcing you to rely on your other gear.

[Grif]

I think my technique needs some work...on anything except a Spy mission, I mostly just seem to be running around flailing my Skana in a blind panic instead of using my abilities to their full extent or shooting things with my weapons before they close with me.

The only time I HAVEN'T done that is in the aforementioned Spy mission I recently solo'ed by patiently sniping the patrolling Grineer with my MK1 Paris and Kunai and generally just taking things slow and paranoid, and even then, I still needed to swing around my Skana like a fool in the portions of the mission in-between the vault sections to clear out the larger clusters of Grineer and those irritating feral kubrows!

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

Yeah, your weapons are kinda trash at this point (which isn't a point against you. (Mk1) Paris and Kunai are genuinely not very good even when fully modded.) Mind you, their power practically doubles if you install catalysts, and some rare mods you get are mandatory for some weapons to even achieve their potential.

As the other posters said earlier, you'd want to try out different weapons, at least a few in each class, and get a feel for how they handle. The Vectis is a good representative of a sniper. The Strum/Hek your quintessential shotgun, Braton for your standard battle rifle, (Non-Mk1) Paris for bows. For secondaries, you have your revolver types (Lex), machine pistols (Furis), dualwields (Ak-pistols), and thrown weapons (Kunai/Spira).

Even so, you'd quickly find that not all weapons are made equal, and there will inevitably be a few bad ones that you'd throw away. Gorgon and Hind comes to mind. (I have no idea why they even exist, except as mastery fodder). They did make the MR requirement a loose metric on a weapon's theoretical power, where higher MR weapons will be better than lower ones, at least in terms of raw stats. Outliers still exist here and there, but it's a nice rule of thumb.

[Squark]

Oh, right, weapon modding...

Yeah, you're going to want to watch a tutorial for that.

As far as building low level weapons go... my priorities would be

1) Damage (Serration/Point Blank/Hornet Strike/Pressure Point). This improves every other stat's effectiveness, and should always be the first stat you add unless you're doing something bizarre (Certain Chroma builds, for instance)

2) Elemental Damage. Elemental damage mods scale much better than the physical damage mods (Impact/Puncture/Slash) unless a weapon overwhelmingly favors one phsyical damage type. Elemental damage also has better effectiveness when matched to the correct health type. Building for the correct damage type has a bit of a learning curve, but for new players;

• If you have room for just one elemental mod, use Toxic vs. Grineer, Toxic or Cold vs. Corpus, and Heat vs. Infested
• If you have room for two elemental mods, use Toxic+Electric (Corrosive) vs. Grineer, Cold+Electricity (magnetic) vs. Corpus, and... just heat vs. Infested.

3) There are a few weapon-type specific mods worth considering as well that you may have access to by this point
-Vigilante Armaments (Rifles and Shotguns): Gives you a chance to fire 2 bullets at once with a rifle, or increases the number of pellets with a shotgun. Multishot is another nigh-mandatory inclusion on weapons, but most multishot mods are only found later on. Vigilante armaments, however, is a possible reward from low level bounties in Cetus
-Auger Pact (Pistols): More base damage is always good. Another low level cetus reward
-Fury or Reach (melee): Common mods that imrpove melee attack speed/range. These drop from all sorts of enemies.

Critical Chance/damage and status chance are important parts of endgame weapons, but many of the mods associated with them are hard to find or unavailable at low levels.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So I SHOULDN'T be trying to rank up the MK1 weapons to 30 before moving on to their non-MK1 counterparts?

[AmberVael]

I think my technique needs some work...on anything except a Spy mission, I mostly just seem to be running around flailing my Skana in a blind panic instead of using my abilities to their full extent or shooting things with my weapons before they close with me.

The only time I HAVEN'T done that is in the aforementioned Spy mission I recently solo'ed by patiently sniping the patrolling Grineer with my MK1 Paris and Kunai and generally just taking things slow and paranoid, and even then, I still needed to swing around my Skana like a fool in the portions of the mission in-between the vault sections to clear out the larger clusters of Grineer and those irritating feral kubrows!

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

You're right, if you're just hammering the E key you need to up your game. You want to be hammering Ctrl and E.

As a primarily melee player myself, just hammering E can get you pretty dang far. For the vast majority of content, you can absolutely get through with just a melee weapon, and a lot of situations don't *really* require a ton of finesse. Killing swarming infested doesn't take much skill, after all. That said, there are absolutely things you can do to be more effective and also have a more interesting combat experience while using melee. There are two main branches of advice here: how to make hammering E more effective, and how to melee with more finesse than just hammering E. The first is more helpful for being able to deal with higher level enemies, the latter about feeling like a melee master rather than a button masher. I got long winded, so here's two spoilers for each topic, respectively.

Spoiler: Hammering E for Fun and Profit

Show

Mods are the key to combat power. While there absolutely ARE differences in power between weapons, I've spent too much time beating the absolute crap out of end game content with a heavily derided weapon (a Kronsh zaw, for those wondering) to believe that specific equipment matters more than the mods used. With this in mind, basic modding comes down to three things: using fully or highly ranked mods, using efficient mods, and using weapon appropriate mods.

1) Higher ranked mods are simply better. The obvious side of this is that a mod with more ranks has more effect. But as important is that a well ranked mod is generally more efficient than multiple lower ranked mods. A mod's drain goes up by 1 for each rank, with the mod's effect usually multiplying by 1 for each rank. Since mods cost 4 or more at base level, a rank in a mod is more cost effective than an additional mod. For example, the basic elemental damage mods add 15% elemental damage at first rank, and an additional 15% for each rank beyond that. They start off at 6 drain, and add 1 drain for each rank. So clearly a max rank elemental mod that has drain 11 and +90% damage is way better than two 0 rank elemental mods with a cumulative drain of 12 and a cumulative damage bonus of 30%.
2) Some mods are priced more efficiently than others. Now, this matters less the further you get into warframe, but for a beginner this can be critical. To go back to elemental mods, the basic melee cold damage mod is North Wind, deals 15% cold damage per rank, and has a drain of 6+1 per rank up to a maximum of 90% damage and 11 drain. However, there's another notable melee mod that does cold damage: Vicious Frost. It deals 15% cold damage per rank and adds 15% status chance per rank, has a drain of 4+1 per rank, up to a maximum of 60% damage/status chance and 7 drain. Vicious Frost is more efficiently priced for its damage, has an additional effect on top of that, is cheaper to rank up since it has less ranks, AND since it has less ranks is easier to fit on lower ranked weapons. That second series of mods has a few that can be kinda tricky to get, but Vicious Frost and Volcanic Edge are available from all the early Spy missions, so you should be able to get them quickly if you want them. Anyway, look at mods and their costs, figure out what is most efficient to level, and use those to achieve maximum effect for minimum cost (both in terms of drain and credits/endo).
3) Not all weapons want the same thing! Shocker, I know. But the main things to look for are Crit and Status stats. If a weapon has decent critical chance and a good damage multiplier, using True Steel and Organ Shatter to amp them up can be well worth it. If a weapon has decent status chance, boosting it with stuff like Vicious Frost and Volcanic Edge can be effective. If it just has big damage and bad Crit/Status, just chuck on every damage mod you can find. Its also worth considering Attack Speed and Range. Slow weapons are just obnoxious and hard to use well, so speeding them up is critical (I mean, not that more attack speed is ever really wrong, but sometimes its more necessary than others). And if you have a short range weapon then using Reach to improve its range is well worth it, since it means you miss less often and, in fact, may start hitting multiple enemies at a time.

And a last few assorted tips. Stances are godly for melee weapons, especially early on. Unlike other mods, Stance mods increase the capacity of your weapons, and the higher rank they are, the more capacity they add. And if the polarity of the weapon and stance match, they increase capacity even more. Get stances, use them, love them.
I recommend trying out a polearm or whip. Their additional reach is fantastic, and you can get some decent attack speed on them, which is just huge for quality of life. Orthos should be available to you now, and its a pretty good polearm.
Pressure Point is absolutely the best melee mod to use and rank. Its not immediately apparent from the description, but it increases the base damage of your weapon, meaning that other damage increasing mods (like elemental mods) grant bonus damage off of the improved total. Pressure Point is the first mod to go on your melee weapons every time, and it should be the one you rank up first.

Spoiler: Melee Mastery, WATCH OUT HERE I COME

Show

As a first, quick note, stances are huge. Again. In a new way. Equipping a stance changes your attack moves, and adds a big list of combo attacks you can make which let you really play around with your fighting style. Get them, try out the combos, see what you like.

But for the main topic, if there's one main takeway for mastering melee, its this: mastering movement is the same thing as mastering melee. If you're fighting in melee, then knowing how to close the distance, or get away, or navigate groups of enemies, is as important as knowing how to attack. With that in mind, here are my thoughts and observations on Warframe movement.

• Get used to the Bullet Jump (Ctrl + Space), as it lets you move quickly and has more vertical movement than even double jump, which lets you get to the enemies faster and get to that sniper on a ledge.
• Sliding (click Ctrl while moving) is also big, as its fairly fast but controllable movement, and can easily be turned into a big area attack by pressing E to Slide Attack.
• Rolling (click Shift) can let you avoid attacks, shake off latched enemies (like those rolling grineer bombs) and is notable for offering a 75% damage reduction while you're doing it.
• Jump Kicking (hold Ctrl while airborne) lets you move faster in the air and never have hard landings (you want to avoid hard landings as they stagger you for a moment).
• Aim Glide (hold right click while airborne) can keep you in the air for longer, and ALSO avoids hard landings. It can be combined with Jump Kicking for longer air time and faster movement in a direction.

And then, there's various forms of attacks.

• Slide Attacking (Ctrl + E, which I memed about earlier) is a very significant move, since it lets you move, attack, and specifically attack in a radius around you. Its great for getting into the fight, and for taking out big groups of enemies while remaining on the move to avoid their attacks.
• Ground Slam (E, while airborne and aiming at the ground) is also a big deal. Not only is it a move that staggers and damage enemies in a radius, but it is the fastest way to move to the ground... and since you can aim it, can give you even more airborne movement. Also, note that staggered Shield Lancers no longer protect themselves with their shield. Ground Slam is the counter to those annoying little grunts.
• Heavy attacks (holding E or the heavy attack button which I rebound so I don't remember the original) are dangerous due to their long windup, but activate the amazing Life Strike mod and deal massive damage. A recent change also means that critical chance mods are even more effective for heavy attacks, so they can be well worth it to get a devastating hit on an enemy.

The real key to all this is learning how to use it in conjunction. For example, Bullet Jump into a Jump Kick + Aim Glide into a Ground Slam can cover a massive amount of distance in a short span and can take you across gaps that a double jump or any single maneuver could never cross.

I'll let others talk about guns/ranged weapons since I use them less, but there absolutely are situations where a melee weapon won't cut it. Some bosses just really need a gun to hit them reliably, for instance. And in some missions a gun is more practical than melee. Like... Defense missions, for example. I guess what I'm saying is that, as a melee player, Defense missions are where I'm at my worst, so the only time we played together you saw me as a fish out of water.


EDIT:

So I SHOULDN'T be trying to rank up the MK1 weapons to 30 before moving on to their non-MK1 counterparts?

I'd say you shouldn't, honestly. While I stand by 'the mods are more important' the early weapons are real bad. It'll be easier on you if you switch quickly to more effective weapons. Eventually you'll want to rank up the MK1 and early weapons, but you'll be able to do that way, way faster later on anyway, so there's not much reason to suffer through them in initial stages.


P.S., stance mods are just... so useful and so fun to use, but unfortunately getting them is a real RNG fest. If you want to get some or try them out, I'd recommend asking friends or others for them. For instance, I have a lot of copies just lying around that I'd be happy to hand over.

[NeoVid]

So I SHOULDN'T be trying to rank up the MK1 weapons to 30 before moving on to their non-MK1 counterparts?

You should always rank things up to 30 before scrapping them, but you don't have to force yourself to use a pathetic weapon from 0-30 without switching it out. Running out of inventory space is an issue for new players, though, so maxing and tossing bad weapons fast can actually save some frustration.

[Wraith]

What are some tips you fine folks might have to fight with more finesse and develop an ACTUAL playstyle beyond "hammer the 'E' key until it breaks?"

Everything that has been said about weapons and mods so far, I agree with. The only reason that you *need* to rank a weapon up to 30 is to get Mastery Rating which ranks up your 'account'... But there's absolutely no need to do the same weapon consistently. Swap out your crappy Primary weapon for a better one, and you'll still gain XP on your Secondary Weapon and melee weapon, so you can rank those up without needing to use them. Rotate things around, find ones you like and use them to level up your other stuff.

And definitely do a little reading/watch a tutorial on how Mods work. One of Warframe's biggest weaknesses is explaining how that works, even though it's crucial to progression in the game.

Some general tips though? Hopefully this will not come off as patronising, they're things that I had to learn that I really could have picked up sooner, on reflection, so hopefully you might find them of use.

1) Bullet Jump EVERYWHERE

There really is no reason to walk or sprint anywhere. Get into the habit of chaining Bullet Jumps together, crouching just as you land one so that you slide along ready to jump again, and you can outrun pretty much anything else in the game. Being able to consistently escape an enemy so that you can take a moment to breathe, collect yourself, and take aim is a huge advantage.

2) Look up!

On every level, the scenery provides you an advantage. There are always buildings or structures you can climb up, or rafters in the roof that you can hide in, to get away from the enemy - most of whom can't follow you and won't spawn above ground level. Don't be afraid to get up there and hide while your shields regenerate, or if you want to snipe through a narrow window where things can hardly shoot back at you. You won't always be able to turtle-up forever, especially in Survival missions where you're forced to go out and find oxygen canisters occasionally, but on most maps you'll be safe and maybe even find some hidden loot.
Warframe isn't a "corridor shooter" - try to think and look around in 3D, as there's usually somewhere nearby where you can go that the enemy can't get to you.

3) Aim for weak spots

Just about every enemy in the game has a head - even the robots and the little flying monster things, even though they're small. The few enemies that don't have a head, will have another weak spot that deals extra damage if you shoot them there. If you're not sure where to look, you can check in the Codex on the bridge of your orbiter and look at the enemies you've encountered for more information.
It's not always easy to pick up in the middle of a busy fight, but if you know roughly where to pointyour crosshair then you're bound to get a few lucky hits in occasionally. Spray and pray, you'll be fine!

4) Don't worry about trying to do everything on a map in the first time

Getting from one planet to the next WILL require you to backtrack a bit and replay some maps that you have already been through. The first time you play through a mission, just concentrate on getting through to the end. That's how you make progress onto the next part of the game, and you WILL come back at some point in order to explore and find a particular type of resource or enemy. So, don't fixate on trying to do it all at once and then get bogged down with fighting and trying to do other things, it'll be overwhelming and you wont have as much fun.

[Squark]

Oh hey, double XP weekend+ level 70-80 alerts. Combine that with Nightwave's affinity booster... I'm ranking Paracesis to max in 10 minutes. Repeatedly.

[AmberVael]

Also, apparently the "Rising Tides update coming soon" trailer they put up yesterday meant "coming tomorrow." Now we have the railjack drydock and the quest to start it all off.
The drydock is huge. It is larger than the rest of my dojo put together.


I wrote up a big feedback post on the Kuva Lich system, and I figured people here might be interested in reading it. I'll spoiler it below!

Spoiler: Kuva Lich

Show

The great power of a nemesis system is the emergent story, an engaging rivalry between player and villain that doesn't need hand-crafting. My experience is that the Kuva Lich system doesn't capitalize on that potential as well as it could. I'll try and hit the key points.

• Origin of a Maggot: Your Kuva Lich starts out as a larvaling, an enemy who spawns randomly and dies swiftly in your first encounter. This feels like a missed opportunity to me, as the lack of narrative hook or detail in a Kuva Lich's origin makes them less of a rival. From their perspective, sure - I murdered them. But from mine? In the few months I've played warframe, my stats report I've killed over 75,000 grineer. To quote Bison, "I'm sure it was the most important day of your life. But for me? It was Tuesday." While you could really go whole hog on this and have some dramatic gameplay around the origin of a nemesis (minibosses of a level, perhaps?), I think simple solutions could also help: even an inbox message with implications of an origin based on factors like the mission they spawned in ("thank you for killing my boss, you'll be seeing more of me" or "I escaped the reactor explosion, now I will destroy you in turn") could add some much needed flavor.
• Rivalry Ensues: A Kuva Lich has a lot of fun generation options (the elemental bit is pretty cool, the names make me laugh but I wouldn't trade them for anything, the quirks are pretty nifty and I think the differing ability sets has good potential). However, once created a Kuva Lich is fairly... static. They can get more powerful, but they don't gain new abilities. Every encounter with them is also largely the same: they show up, you fight, you probably stab them, they steal your stuff. Greater variation, I believe, would lead to more engagement. You might have a variety of encounters rather than pure combat (perhaps something like a kuva siphon showing up, or how capture missions sometimes become exterminate, except with the Lich playing a key role). You might have the Lich develop new quirks or powers, or change quirks or powers or effects depending on interaction with them. Variation, some ability for things to shift or play out unexpectedly, is what will help give rise to an emergent story.
• Rising Tension: There's... not much going on with figuring out how to beat your lich. In fact, its not just samey, its incredibly vague. What am I even doing, gathering murmurs? 'Murmur' implies interrogation, maybe, but there's not much of that going on. And while figuring out the correct sequence of Requiem mods shows promise, the trial and error method of testing isn't much of a puzzle. I don't think a super in depth puzzle is necessary, but a method that's a little more complex and less opaque might help. Maybe actually using Requiem mods on thralls somehow, testing them before going for the lich? We're hitting the problem of Bison's Tuesday again here: killing Grineer isn't exactly new gameplay ground, so hunting murmurs just doesn't engage me much. Even some small twist would be much appreciated.
• Breaking Batman: Games have pretty well established that dying is a failure state. Warframe reinforces this by penalizing affinity when you do so. This is something we're trained to try and avoid, to a certain extent. So... when the core Kuva Lich loop makes your repeated death inevitable, it feels like we're doing something wrong. After all, we hit the failure state! And for the narrative, well, it means we're always telling the same story, which hamstrings the strength of a Nemesis system: varied, emergent stories. Having the hero lose a few times before killing the villain is a well trod path, but it being unavoidable and a dissonant gameplay note feels like a flaw.

And now, a few other bits and pieces!

• Luchalich!: The grapple+throw attack of the lich feels too strong. I primarily run a tanky Valkyr (2000+ armor and 1000 health from full Umbral, plus Adaptation) and more often than not, the throw one-shots me. The balance feels quite out of place compared to their other attacks, and the fact that it so heavily discourages melee (my favorite combat style) is disheartening. Its possible that my normal defenses don't apply well to it for some reason, but given everything else I tank it does feel off. I'll also note that its a very slow move and since you lose control for the duration, I find myself saying "hurry up already." So, maybe it could use faster animation too?
• Weapon Duplicates: I greatly appreciate that liches won't drop the same weapon twice. But um, half of my liches have had Twin Stubbas. Maybe a more thorough solution is required? Perhaps a relic style drop system, so you have more control over what you get from a lich. An evergreen reward choice could help with replay value as well, as people will eventually get the weapons they want. (Forma or forma blueprints? Would also help with the forma needed to rank up Kuva weapons, come to think of it).
• Boston Tea Party: Sooo the one way a Kuva Lich really feels like a rival is the way they steal from you. But, I don't think it provokes the right response? For the resource rich and powerful, it won't get a reaction. For others... it seems to be getting annoyance. 'cause, well, its a tax. And not liking taxes seems to be a universal truth. I think a method of antagonizing and provoking us could be a great part of the system, but I dunno that this is doing it.

Lastly, I want to touch on my favorite parts of the system to avoid going pure critique.

• You will rue the name: Lich names are far more entertaining than I could have ever expected. Yeah maybe they're not very serious, yeah maybe they can be immersion breaking, but honestly its the most memorable part of the system. I can't remember any of my fights with a Kuva Lich, but I DO remember Mix Magg, Grineer DJ. And Sogg Hoff, the miserably damp. And my current Lich, Mukepub, promises to give them a run for their money. If you want to take a fun thing and make it even better? More names. Give them titles and epithets as they rank up, take territory, and do cool things. Because the only thing better than Sogg Hoff is Sogg Hoff the Sweltering.
• Born of Fire: The elemental system for liches is pretty cool. Yes, we can learn the details of it fast. Yes, we can game it. But... that's another form of engaging with the system, really. Its a small thing, but I'd love to see even more like it: stuff determined by origin planet or node, stuff determined by where or how you defeated them, or how many thralls you killed, and so on. Its really cool.
• Kill Him for his Hat: A cosmetic award that appears on your nemesis is fantastic, and so I love Vengeful Ephemera. Seeing it gives you drive to acquire it, and its just another layer of customization on an enemy. I'd like to see more stuff like this: its way cooler to take a trophy from your enemy than receive it off a reward table.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

First off, I want to thank ALL of you for the advice on improving how I'm doing; mods, bullet jumping, getting new weapons, all of it! I can't wait to implement this advice when I get a chance to actually play this week instead of just making a token log-in for the Daily Tribute. Maybe I'll finally figure out just what kind of primaries and secondaries I like instead of just trying to figure it out in a mission, feeling overwhelmed by the enemy and switching to melee in frustration.

Some minor questions regarding weapons: can the MK1 weapons be upgraded to their non-MK1 counterparts, or do I need to buy/make them? And regardless of that, if you're making a weapon that requires other weapons as components (like using the Kunai and Bo to make the Tipedo), does the level of the component weapons affect the resulting weapon?

Finally, in the realm of FashionFrame, does it seem like some of the skins (especially the TennoGen ones) clash with the sort-of "biomechanical aesthetic" DE seems to be going for with the generic looks of the Warframes to other people or just me? I get that customization is a key feature of the game, to the point where we coined the term "FashionFrame" to describe it, and some of those designs ARE really cool, but part of me also wonders if they don't make the warframe they're put on feel less "warframey" if that makes any sense. Like they appear more like fantasy knights or robots, and that clashes with the aesthetics of the game's universe, breaking immersion in the setting. Even some of DE's own deluxe skins seem to do this like the Frost Harka or Oberon Feyarch, making it seem like a Norse Knight or a Butterfly Tree King teleportaled into a space opera. Or am I just overthinking this?

[Squark]

No, you can't upgrade a mk-1 to a normal version, and no, the state of a weapon used as a crafting component is irrelevant, so it's a bad idea to use something you've invested resources (Forma or a Catalyst) to craft something

[AmberVael]

First off, I want to thank ALL of you for the advice on improving how I'm doing; mods, bullet jumping, getting new weapons, all of it! I can't wait to implement this advice when I get a chance to actually play this week instead of just making a token log-in for the Daily Tribute. Maybe I'll finally figure out just what kind of primaries and secondaries I like instead of just trying to figure it out in a mission, feeling overwhelmed by the enemy and switching to melee in frustration.

Glad to be helpful! I can try and make some suggestions on primaries and secondaries if you'd like, as I know finding fun ones was something I struggled with too.

Some minor questions regarding weapons: can the MK1 weapons be upgraded to their non-MK1 counterparts, or do I need to buy/make them? And regardless of that, if you're making a weapon that requires other weapons as components (like using the Kunai and Bo to make the Tipedo), does the level of the component weapons affect the resulting weapon?

Mk1 versions cannot be upgraded, no. All the variant weapons in warframe (Mk1, Wraith, Vandal, Prime, etc) are completely distinct entities.
None of the qualities of a component weapon carry over to a new weapon. (Which is a big deal if you've used forma or a catalyst on a weapon - never use those as components).

[Wraith]

Some minor questions regarding weapons: can the MK1 weapons be upgraded to their non-MK1 counterparts, or do I need to buy/make them?

You have to make them as new. Try to think of it as, if a weapon has ANY difference in it's name to another one - even if it's just to have MK-1 tagged onto it, or its given a prefix like the difference between "Boltor" and "Telos Boltor" - then you'll have to build or buy an entire new weapon.

And regardless of that, if you're making a weapon that requires other weapons as components (like using the Kunai and Bo to make the Tipedo), does the level of the component weapons affect the resulting weapon?

No, it doesn't. You might as well use a rank 30 weapon so that you gain MR for getting it to 30, unless it's a weapon that you want to keep using later, in which case it doesn't matter. The newly built weapon will always be rank 0 and have no difference to is stats.

Finally, in the realm of FashionFrame, does it seem like some of the skins (especially the TennoGen ones) clash with the sort-of "biomechanical aesthetic" DE seems to be going for with the generic looks of the Warframes to other people or just me?

TennoGen items are, for want of a better word, fan-made. While DE approved them and coded them in the game, they don't really care what they look like. So long as they win the vote on the Steam forums, they go in the game - it might clash, but they're proven to have a following, and DE don't take themselves so seriously that they are obsessive over their lore to the point of spoiling other people's fun.
Heck, in the past they have even included fan-designed weapons and even Warframes into the game both Chroma and Zephyr were based on designs submitted in the DE forums, iirc.

That being said.... SOME of the cosmetic stuff is based on people and places that you won't see until late game. It only looks weird now, because it's out of context.

[Squark]

In other news, this is log in day 297 for me. Would you suggest the Azima, Zenith, or Sigma & Octantis for my 300 day log-in reward?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Glad to be helpful! I can try and make some suggestions on primaries and secondaries if you'd like, as I know finding fun ones was something I struggled with too.

That's sort of the thing, I've tried a bunch of different weapons, but in the interest of completing a mission and not getting overwhelmed, I find myself switching to melee quickly and don't really have enough data to determine which ones I like. Do I like spray-and-pray assault rifles? Burst fire ones? Shotguns? I dunno!

Mk1 versions cannot be upgraded, no. All the variant weapons in warframe (Mk1, Wraith, Vandal, Prime, etc) are completely distinct entities.
None of the qualities of a component weapon carry over to a new weapon. (Which is a big deal if you've used forma or a catalyst on a weapon - never use those as components).

No, you can't upgrade a mk-1 to a normal version, and no, the state of a weapon used as a crafting component is irrelevant, so it's a bad idea to use something you've invested resources (Forma or a Catalyst) to craft something

Oh, whew! Good thing I haven't spent the starting Forma I got from the Lotus on any of them. I'm holding on to those. Thanks for the warning!

You have to make them as new. Try to think of it as, if a weapon has ANY difference in it's name to another one - even if it's just to have MK-1 tagged onto it, or its given a prefix like the difference between "Boltor" and "Telos Boltor" - then you'll have to build or buy an entire new weapon.

No, it doesn't. You might as well use a rank 30 weapon so that you gain MR for getting it to 30, unless it's a weapon that you want to keep using later, in which case it doesn't matter. The newly built weapon will always be rank 0 and have no difference to is stats.

That's what I was planning to do! Thank you for the tips!

TennoGen items are, for want of a better word, fan-made. While DE approved them and coded them in the game, they don't really care what they look like. So long as they win the vote on the Steam forums, they go in the game - it might clash, but they're proven to have a following, and DE don't take themselves so seriously that they are obsessive over their lore to the point of spoiling other people's fun.
Heck, in the past they have even included fan-designed weapons and even Warframes into the game both Chroma and Zephyr were based on designs submitted in the DE forums, iirc.

That being said.... SOME of the cosmetic stuff is based on people and places that you won't see until late game. It only looks weird now, because it's out of context.

True, but it IS a good thing that Warframe's got such creative fans, and there's clearly SOMETHING to these ones otherwise people wouldn't vote for them, right? I just worry about these things because I have no real confidence in my own sense of taste and rely heavily on external criticism for validation...I don't trust myself to know what's "cool" or "good."

Which ones are the ones based on people and places from late game? None of them seem to reference those kinds of things apart from maybe Excalibur Umbra.

In other news, this is log in day 297 for me. Would you suggest the Azima, Zenith, or Sigma & Octantis for my 300 day log-in reward?

While I'm nowhere near that point myself, I've ranked them in the order I think you should consider them in:

1. Sigma & Octantis
2. Sigma & Octantis
and 3. Sigma & Octantis