If you’re only just jumping into Warframe now, you’re about to immerse yourself into an immense library of content that won’t always make sense, from a newcomer’s perspective. Warframe‘s Mods, for example, are a big point of contention, and it isn’t immediately obvious which ones you should focus on early.
For one, Warframe absolutely bombards the new player with different types of content from the get-go. Archwing upgrades, half a dozen different (and unique) pet creatures, open-world progression… it’s easy to lose track of what Mods might give you the most bang for your buck, especially when credits and Endo don’t come easy.
Most important Warframe Mods you should upgrade early
Early on, there’s going to be a glut of Mods you could be spending your hard-earned resources on. The issue, though, is that without knowing how many of Warframe‘s gameplay systems intersect, you won’t be able to make an informed decision as to which Mod upgrades will get you the most value. That’s why our recommendation is to focus on Mods that increase your damage output and survivability, and which can apply to as wide a range of gear as possible.
Most important Warframe Mods
We’ll keep this very simple: your early Warframe Mod investments should be Vitality and Redirection, increasing your health and shields respectively. Certainly, we could go into much more significant detail, explaining many nuances of the game’s gearing and modding systems, but that gets extremely complicated very quickly, and won’t necessarily help you learn the ropes of Warframe‘s combat in a meaningful way.
Instead, get Vitality and Redirection to a level where you feel comfortable playing the game, as they’ll help you figure out which other stats you might be interested in, from a practical point of view. Depending on your Warframe of choice, for example, you might not care even a bit about ability casting speed, ability range being your stat of choice instead. By starting with simple survivability mods, you’ll have the opportunity to figure out your desired niche without spending resources on stuff that doesn’t matter to you, while still being able to keep up with the enemies in combat.
Most important weapon Mods
In Warframe, as soon as you’re not getting one-shot by your enemies, you can adopt the age-old “offense is the best defense” adage. Basically, you’re going to want to start bumping up your damage output as much as possible, and weapon Mods are the way to go about doing this. Certainly, there are highly specialized damage Mods focusing on specific types of damage, but you shouldn’t concern yourself with these early on.
Instead, your first goal should be to upgrade your Serration, Hornet Strike, or Pressure Point Mods (depending on whether you focus on primary, secondary, or melee weapons, respectively). This can be compounded further through elemental damage Mods of your choice, as well as multi-shot Mods such as Split Chamber.
Of course, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all guide: some weapons are extremely focused on critical hits, such as the Soma automatic carbine, and building up its damage won’t scale as much as critical Mods would. That’s something you’ll figure out as you go, though, and you absolutely cannot go wrong early on with pure damage builds.
How to upgrade Mods in Warframe
Whenever you’re ready to upgrade a certain Mod, simply head on over to your Orbiter’s ‘Mods’ console, select the Mod you’d like to upgrade, and then choose the ‘Fusion’ option.
There are two main resources you’ll be using to upgrade your Mods: regular credits and Endo. Credits are self-explanatory, and you’ll keep getting them virtually everywhere you go. Naturally, you’ll need a healthy stack of credits if you aim to keep your Mods topped up, but you shouldn’t worry too much about spending it all if push comes to shove.
While you’ll need to use credits on virtually everything in Warframe, this isn’t the case with Endo. Endo is a unique currency that’s used specifically to upgrade your Mods, and while you’ll certainly need loads of it, at least you won’t need to spend it on anything other than Mods.
