VVhite Angel is a Warframe Partner who makes insightful, critical content for Warframe’s French audience. In his video series “Impossible Tuning” VVhite Angel offers detailed build options for weapons that fall well below the meta tier with the point of showing that with time and effort, all weapons and playstyles can be viable for endgame content. The following article is co-authored by VVhite Angel and [DE]Aidan to encourage players to look beyond the meta and have fun. For more amazing French Warframe coverage, please visit VVhite Angel on YouTube.

Oh The Posibilities!

Over Warframe’s four years, players’ Arsenals have grown steadily to include a vast array of death-dealing tools. Even when you exclude variant weapons and Frames (Prime, Wraith, Vandal etc.), a player is still left with over 18,000,000 different possible loadout combinations with which they can inflict maximum pain on their enemies across the Origin System.

With this many options it is still interesting to see how trends and camps emerge surrounding which loadout combinations are truly the best. Typically, we refer to these combinations as “meta” meaning that they represent the single best way to play Warframe to a certain type of player. Personally, I am less interested in finding the one best way to play; instead, I like to switch things up as often as possible. I am always happy to share this philosophy with players who might be interested in breaking away from the Soma Prime and Atterax, trying some new things, and having some good old fashioned fun. Time to break your ludic chains and explore the multitude of gameplay and gunplay options that Warframe has to offer.

Weapons and the Riven Influence

As the various gameplay metas shift and emerge, it becomes clear which playstyles or weapon types reign supreme among Warframe players. Mind you, these trends certainly do not include all players, but instead a very visible chunk of the playerbase. Typically, what this means is that a select few weapons or weapon types are favored at the expense of many others.

In the past, it could be argued that certain types of weapons just could not measure up in terms of DPS, or their ability to inflict critical hits or status ailments. However, the addition of Riven Mods from “The War Within” in Update 19 has altered this dynamic. Now, all weapons have the potential to be great, which means that with the right Riven, you might be able to dust off an old favorite and end some Corpus lives! A great example here is the Stradavar, which initially suffered in comparisons to the Soma or Soma Prime. However, when Rivens were introduced, the immsensley more favorable “Riven Disposition” of the Stradavar meant that it could still find a place to shine.

This also opens up your game to a number of new weapon mechanics that may have been previously overlooked. Now, more “niche” weapons can pump out damage comparable to some of the meta weapons. Obviously, this is partially dependent on luck and knowing how to play to your weapons’ strengths. I was getting tired of always missing Buzlock shots, until I rolled a Riven with -112% Recoil Reduction. Now the scope hardly sways at all! I think you’ll often be surprised by how much difference a seemingly innocuous stat change can make! Other examples include grabbing/harpoon-based weapons like the Harpak and Paracyst. With the right Riven, these weapons can be devastating. The added functionality of a hook mechanic can incapacitate heavily armored enemies, nullifying their damage dealing potential while you whittle away at their health. The point here is to imagine the possibilities and work towards them!

Which Warframe Works?

In this section I want to try a little exercise with the Defense mission type. As most players know, Frost and his Prime variant are widely understood to be the icy kings of Defense. However, this type of thinking negates a multitude of other awesome options at your disposal for defending that poor sucker in the cryopod. I wanted to work through a few examples here to get people thinking about what else is possible for Defense!

• Atlas: Using the Tectonic Fracture Augment for Atlas’ Tectonics ability, you can construct additional rock walls that will block incoming bullets and projectiles, and also stop enemies in their tracks. While those witless Grineer are dumbfounded you can throw a few granite-hard haymakers their way and send them flying.

• Chroma: Using Chroma’s Effigy ability allows you to set up an elemental turret that keeps enemies at bay while you can fly around the level taking out stragglers with your weapons. You can also use the Guided Effigy Augment to control the Effigy and send it to do your deadly bidding. Playing with the Ice energy colours makes you an interesting thematic guardian of the cryopod!

• Mag: Careful and creative placement of Mag’s Magnetize bubbles can create magnetic bullet traps that block projectiles from reaching the cryopod, while also creating kill-zones for enemies to stumble into and get shredded.

• Nezha: Nezha offers a lot of awesome defense-oriented abilities! Using Warding Halo with its Safeguard augment can provide excellent invulnerability for you and your teammates. Firewalker can be used to run scorching rings of fire around the cryopod, and Divine Spears can provide some awesome crowd control as well. Ever tried fire-roasted Helminth-kabobs?

• Valkyr: Using Paralysis with the Prolonged Paralysis Augment can create some pretty interesting defensive situations. Modding for Range and using Natural Talent will help you turn Valkyr into an enemy sponge, provide decent crowd control and allow you to tear enemies to shreds with Hysteria. The best defense is a good offense, right?

These are just a few quick suggestions about what I find interesting when it comes to Defense; mixing things up is key!

Knowledge is more than power, It’s Freedom!

If you take away anything from reading my thoughts on this topic, it’s that diversity of play is very important to my own personal enjoyment of Warframe. I wanted to share a few different ways that I think about the game with the hopes of breaking you out of your meta-cages and encourage some variety in your playstyles.

This isn’t to say that meta weapons can’t themselves be fun or exciting, but with immense repetition comes the increased possibility of burn out. Why not switch things up? Especially when farming lower-level enemies, you don’t actually need to be dealing the highest DPS imaginable, why not try a wacky fun weapon like the Drakgoon instead?

Additionally, knowing how to play to any weapon’s strengths, learn its mechanics, and master it in a true sense can be a liberating experience. This is why knowing yourself and knowing Warframe is so important, and a great way to achieve this goal is to do some exploration! Again, with over 18 million possible combinations, who knows when you’ll find the right one for you?