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Kullervo

Steel Path Warframes

Focus on a very small pool of warframes at the beginning, preferably with good built-in survival tools without too much investment.

Force yourself to read the full descriptions of the frame's kit (Arsenal > Hover over Frame > Abilities: read passive, abilities and all tips).

Consider adding a Helminth for damage or survival.

The selection is already reduced, to push further the top prio / super-meta / easy are indicated in bold:

Prio: autonomous damage & status resistance

Dante, Revenant, Kullervo, Follie

Nezha, Rhino, Valkyr, Trinity, Gauss, Atlas, Uriel

Very good: damage resistance + need to add status resistance

  • add status resistance externally:
    • Nova, Protea, Wisp, Baruuk, Hildryn, Ash, Citrine, Nyx, Yareli, Xaku, Octavia
  • special case: Lavos (passive + Synth Fiber to remove cooldown)

Bonus choices

  • Rush Spy/Capture: Wukong, Titania, Voruna (bonus velocity)
  • Weapon platform: Saryn, Mirage, Volt, Oraxia
  • others: in principle all frames are viable, those listed can just make Steel Path access easier and are less demanding than others in terms of survival/DPS/modding.

FRAME MODS: SURVIVE

  • health, armor & Adaptation mod:
    • without arcane: for early Steel Path this can help pass a threshold. Damage reduction skills can also help. After that it peters out (lvl 1500+ in endless missions) but that's not a problem here.
    • with Arcane Persistence: health/armor tanking viable at lvl cap. Prerequisites:
      • minimum 700 armor for activation. Count 1400 armor to handle heat or corrosive procs (1892 for proc+corro at same time but very rare). Consider blue archon shards.
      • take into account magnetic status and nullifiers that can disable the arcane (!):
        • status: either use cleanses (Saryn's Molt, Rolling Guard mod), or status immunity (Inaros' Scarab Armor, Trinity's Link, Titania's Helminth Spellbind / Trinity's Well of Life, etc...)
        • nullifiers: have enough AoE or melee weapons with lots of range and/or impact status. Consider a fast-firing weapon or one that can cancel shields (Miter with Neutralizing Justice)
  • Shieldgating:
    • Catalyzing Shields + Brief Respite / Augur mods: active/dynamic gameplay and energy-demanding, so need good management (Flow + Equilibrium and/or little Efficiency and/or Helminth Nourish from Grendel, for example)
    • Primed Redirection + Guardian (companion mod): expensive technique, complements with Vigilante Vigor + Fast Deflection or even Arcane Aegis if you want to push it. For the companion with Guardian, prefer a Diriga (Arc Coil + Guardian + Manifold Bond + Momentous Bond + (Primed) Regen, NO Assault Mode) and a weapon full of status (Prime Laser Rifle + Viral/Fire/Mag/Rad)
    • Omamori (Helminth) + Catalyzing Shields + Vigilante Vigor + Fast Deflection +/- Arcane Aegis: quasi-invulnerability passive as long as Omamori is maintained
  • Invisibility: very strong but sensitive to stray bullets (bad positioning) and damage over time (Rolling Guard compensates)
    • Frame ability: Ash, Ivara, Loki, Octavia, Oraxia, Voruna, Wisp, Wukong, Cyte-09
    • Helminth:
      • Evade from Cyte, little compatible with group play
      • Quiver from Ivara, reserved for static or haphazard gameplay (possible to plant the arrow in your sentinel)
    • Companions: for "caster" frames that don't need to use weapons (Protea, Xaku, Dante...)
      • Shade Prime: more solid (less aggro), access to Guardian mod
      • Huras Kubrow: free companion that can die more easily, gives access to retriever mods + Kubrow nuke

ENERGY

In most cases, running out of energy is synonymous with death: either you no longer kill dangerous enemies, or you no longer cast skills to feed shieldgating.

Two main strategies that can be combined:

  • reduce the cost of skills:
  • efficiency: direct reduction
    • Arcane Sculptor
      • frame (very) compatible: Cyte, Follie, Gara, Gyre, Jade, Protea, Vauban, Volt
      • helminth (very) compatible: Brightbonnet (Nokko), Molt (Saryn), Astral Shell (Sirius & Orion)
  • duration: for buffs, fewer casts / minute => less energy spent
  • increase the stock/energy pool and ways to refill it
  • energy pool: Flow, Primed Flow, blue archon shards (2-3 max)
  • energy supply:

HELMINTH

Unlock Helminth on Deimos to apply abilities to other frames and free up frame slots without uselessly "throwing away" them.

Priority Helminth Abilities

Very strong, common & meta:

  • damage (stat buffs):
    • Roar from Rhino to boost anti-faction, synergizes with damage over time (fire, blast, toxin, elec)
    • Xata from Xaku to add Void damage (many interactions + Void bonus damage on overguard + magnetic bubble effect)
    • Nourish from Grendel to boost energy gain, Viral bonus, light CC
    • Wrathful Advance from Kullervo to buff melee crit %, reverse the cast via preferences and aim at the ground
  • tanking:
    • Pillage from Hildryn for shield gain + armor/shield strip + cleanse status
    • Omamori from Koumei for pseudo-dodge (very strong in addition to dodge/shield-gating)
  • armor strip: less priority today, makes enemies more fragile:
    • Pillage from Hildryn, shield and armor strip, requires lots of power (rather with Corrosive Projection aura) + blocked by walls, long cast
    • Terrify from Nekros, armor only, no LoS, requires little power, fast cast, costs quite a lot of energy
    • Tharros Strike from Styanax, armor and shield strip, LoS, fast cast, heals health, short range
    • Ophanim Eyes from Jade, armor only, continuous debuff in vision cone, little energy consumed + enemy slow

Niche Helminth Abilities

Sometimes useful, much less visible/prevalent:

  • damage (stat buffs):
    • Eclipse: increases base damage (like a Serration mod). Heavily nerfed in the past, can be useful. Multiplicative damage buff applied after the rest. Double bonus for melee projectiles (Exodia Contagion, Glaives)
    • Thermal Sunder from Gauss + augment mod Thermal Transfer to add Blast
    • Shock from Volt + Shock Trooper: electric damage boost
    • Warcry from Valkyr: melee attack speed buff (mostly) and armor (a bit)
    • Breach Surge from Wisp: multiplies damage received from one target to inflict on another, light CC (radiation + blind, does not affect Eximus)
    • Airburst from Zephyr + Airbust Rounds: secondary weapon damage buff, requires hitting many targets (range) often an anti-synergy
  • damage (debuff):
    • Webbed Embrace from Oraxia: zone CC (3 zones max) + vulnerability debuff (= increased damage received)
    • Sentient Wrath from Caliban: cone CC + vulnerability debuff
    • Rest & Rage from Equinox (Day version, requires a clear emission color on the frame): enemy speed boost + vulnerability debuff
  • tanking:
  • buff / frame effect:
    • Molt from Saryn: light aggro (instant part), speed boost, status cleanse & instant cast (useful for shield-gating)
    • Null Star from Nova: 75% DR + enemy CC
    • Condemn from Harrow: shield regen + enemy CC + easy headshots
    • Quiver from Ivara, allows creating static invisibility zones. Very particular gameplay. Possibility to link the zone to a sentinel, hard to achieve consistently in dangerous situations
    • Eclipse: 75% damage reduction. Can be shared with allies via Total Eclipse
  • enemy control:
    • Resonator from Octavia, completely disables enemy AI. Requires lots of range
    • Astral Shell from Sirius & Orion: automatically generates when hit invulnerable decoys that draw fire to them within 30m. Couple with a bit of shield regen. Compatible with Arcane Sculptor
    • Silence from Banshee: disables enemy abilities (including Eximus auras) + short stun
    • Shooting Gallery from Mesa + Muzzle Flash: very good CC but no longer affects Eximus, small damage buff too
    • Gloom from Sevagoth, important slow + life steal, big energy drain
    • Webbed Embrace from Oraxia: zone CC (3 zones max) + vulnerability debuff (= increased damage received)
  • energy: (other than Nourish...)
    • Dispensary from Protea: generation of health/energy orbs + ammo at a fixed point
    • Fractured Blast from Citrine for health/energy orb generation
    • Lycath's Hunt from Voruna for health orb generation on melee attacks / energy on headshots (use Equilibrium + melee)

STATUS RESISTANCE

Status from enemies has 3 main dangers:

  • damage over time: especially toxin, fire, slash
  • controls: the most annoying are Knockdown and Stagger blocking you in place
  • energy drain via Magnetic status, less common but potentially deadly

You can protect yourself in different ways via immunities or cleanses/removals. Requires specific frame kits or external sources (Helminth, mods, companions, arcanes).

Control Immunity:

"Huge DPS Increase"

AUGMENT MODS

Also called syndicate mods.

MOBILITY

Maneuvers are the basis of Warframe movement: bullet-jumps, rolls, slides... reference video

Fundamental part of the game for:

  • the fun of the game
  • movement speed
  • survivability
  • the roll provides 75% damage reduction, or even invulnerability via Rolling Guard
  • fast movement greatly reduces the probability of being hit / enemy accuracy
  • Survival Instinct from Sly Vulpaphyla even resets enemy targeting AI every 5 seconds via a bullet jump

Common sources: