Confused about progression / scale / level locked content

[LordyMatsuo]

Can anyone explain as breifly as possible without getting too complex as i am still a noob lol

1.How do missions scale in difficulty, is it based off my attributes some how? The higher overall gearscore i have the harder the AI is within the missions is my best guess right now?

2. How does the game progress? It feels like i'm compelting a series of small missions collecting all these mods and resources that i have no clue about really. I'll watch some videos on this but just breifly is progression linked with charcter level always so there is never a real threat as they are always matched to your gear level? I'm so confused?

3. Level locked content? I open alerts and see 4 active alerts ticking down varying from level 10-12 to 37-41 all of which are locked. What is this level as it doesn't appear to correspone to either my rank or combied gear score if i averaged out the level of everything i am wearing so what is this level referring too and how do i see what level i am?

4. Finally when selecting missions on planets they have level brackets but how does that relate to diffuclty or any level attribute i have as a charcater? So confused lol

[Stuff]

1. Missions don't scale with your gearscore (only bosses do), higher level means better enemies.
2. You progress the game by unlocking planets, mastery ranks,completing quests, acquiring gear and accessing end game missions (Sorties and Raids)
3. That's enemy level, it doesn't correspond in any way to your levels. These missions are locked because you didn't unlock the planets/mission nodes on which they take place
4.Higher level=better stats and new types of enemies.

[LordyMatsuo]

Originally posted by DonCarrot:

1. Missions don't scale with your gearscore (only bosses do), higher level means better enemies.
2. You progress the game by unlocking planets, mastery ranks,completing quests, acquiring gear and accessing end game missions (Sorties and Raids)
3. That's enemy level, it doesn't correspond in any way to your levels. These missions are locked because you didn't unlock the planets/mission nodes on which they take place
4.Higher level=better stats and new types of enemies.

Legend, this makes so much sense now. Was very confused with all this and after 6 hours didn't feel the game was really telling me much lol. Loving it still and gameplay is fun as hell.

Out of interest does this make early planets obsolete towards end game as you will be over powered since you leveled up all your gear but eneemy level will still be 1-5

[RaikoCaesar]

Eh, there's a lot to say...but I'll just summarize a few things I know from when I got as confused as you are now

1. To rise in account level (mastery level) you need to level up...pretty much anything that can level up. Pets / Warframes and Weapons.
   
   
2. Levelling up your mastery is manual! What I mean to say with that, is if you hit esc in the game and hover your mouse over your own character in the top of the screen, a little blue bar might be blinking under it, and an extra option stating 'rank up' is visible. Clicking on it brings you to a challenge zone in which you will have to show off a certain skill you are expected to have at this point (like rifle mastery, gun mastery, blade mastery, movement skills etc.). Don't worry, if you fail you only need to wait a day, you won't lose your progression.
   
   
3. If you unlock all zones on a planet, you'll be eligible to play the nightmare mode on that planet for special mods. Nightmare is a random mission on that planet, but with modifier(s).
   
   
4. Unlocking all zones on a planet also allows you to build an Extractor on it. These things gather resources for you. Saves you some grinding :) (Find the pattern in the market place, doesn't need plat if I remember correctly ~ Titan Extractor ~ build a few of these, they can take damage when you use them, and damaged ones that you've retrieved will slowly regen in your inventory. This means you can just switch them around with ones that are still 100%)
   
   
5. Careful not to throw weapons away without checking first whether or not they're parts of more advanced weapons... :(
   
   
6. You can level stuff more than once. Yes, you read that correctly. When a levelable item hits 30, you can chose to level it all over again, but this time with an added additional mod booster icon (or whatever it's called...the one that reduces the mod point cost of the particular icon by half). This does not contribute towards your mastery level.
   
   
7. https://deathsnacks.com/wf/ <--- Handy Warframe tracker site

There's more stuff...There's so much stuff it's a bit mind bogling really, but you can find most of the other things in your codex under 'Tutorials'. The codex being that thing on the opposite side of the market interface.

As to answering the question you posted lastly: Depends on what you call obsolete really; I still enjoy playing on all the planets whilst being at mastery 11 and having done sorties. A lot depends on the loadout you pick and where you go with it. Experiment and find out what works for you :) To me at least, as long as it's enjoyable, it's not obsolete!

Hope these things help a little and that you'll have fun playing!

p.s. Apologies for my mighty wall of text attack.

[BossGalaga]

You basically level up by fusing (upgrading) your mods. This is how you get stronger. Not only by getting better mods but by upgrading basic mods as well. Want more shields/hp/armor? There are mods for that. Fuse (upgrade) them and you'll have more shields/hp/armor.

Want to do more damage? Fuse the mods on your weapons. There are also Warframe mods that can affect weapon damage.

Want more energy, your powers to do more damage, last longer, etc.? There are warframe mods for that. Upgrade them.

Have you got to a point, where you're limited to how many mods you can put on your warframe and how powerful you can make them? Use aura/stance, forma, orokin catalysts and reactors on your Warframe/weapons to increase your mod capacity.

You increase your mod capacity, you can make your mods more powerful.

[KIREEK]

The idea is to play the game in a way you want, since it's a sandbox game, you decide on what to do.
This means, you decide on what to get and what not to get, since this game has no difficulty slider like many single player games, here you have to unlock new planets and eachplanet you unlock will unlock new factions and higher level enemies.

Mechanical difficulty increases this way, with more demanding exterminates, spy missions and new enemies, mathematical difficulty will also increase so enemies become stronger and can kill you faster.
So you decide if you want to play mercury all the time or if you want to advance to the next level.

That's about it really, playing the game is the core of the game, no real objective unless you decide one.
Do keep in mind certain warframes, mods, resources may drop on further planets, so if you don't want to pay for content, you might need to unlock planets and missions.

Missions will always display basic information to get you prepared, namely the faction, the tileset, the mission type and the level of the enemy.

How do you know if a certain level is to much for you? by playing it slowly, don't play lvl 5 missions and then ask for rides to missions that have lvl 40, use common sense and try 10, in fact just unlock the missions on your own.

[Sterling]

The scaling system is a piece of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that's it.

[Zero Honour]

Planet's do become obselete but only to a certain extent in that you're not likely to want to run a level 1-3 exterminate again. However that same location may be used for a higher level alert, syndicate mission or nightmare mission.

Because you will be acquiring new frames and weapons you are likely to re-visit some low level defence missions to earn exp before moving on. Dont be the guy who gets a new frame and takes it into a Level 30 mission while its still level 1!

[Sterling]

Originally posted by Zero Honour:

Planet's do become obselete but only to a certain extent in that you're not likely to want to run a level 1-3 exterminate again. However that same location may be used for a higher level alert, syndicate mission or nightmare mission.

Because you will be acquiring new frames and weapons you are likely to re-visit some low level defence missions to earn exp before moving on. Dont be the guy who gets a new frame and takes it into a Level 30 mission while its still level 1!

Unless it's a guy with a good MR and a decent aura.

[Machiavelli]

This thread is helpful, likely frequent as well. I too started recently and am a bit lost. I maxed out my starter warframe, volt, my paris, but still feel like I've not gotten anything decent. All additional things seem to be behind platinum and I really think I'm only getting the same mods to drop. I just tried the Mars Junction and the frost spectre destroys me completely, melee blocking all my ranged or one melee hit to kill me. It's literaly a "wtf am I suppose to do" moment.

I see other threads and people mentioning aura and stances, yet those seem to be locked for me. Unless it's a matter of completing the story first. I guess progression is just not as in your face as I was expecting it to be.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Machiavelli:

This thread is helpful, likely frequent as well. I too started recently and am a bit lost. I maxed out my starter warframe, volt, my paris, but still feel like I've not gotten anything decent. All additional things seem to be behind platinum and I really think I'm only getting the same mods to drop. I just tried the Mars Junction and the frost spectre destroys me completely, melee blocking all my ranged or one melee hit to kill me. It's literaly a "wtf am I suppose to do" moment.

I see other threads and people mentioning aura and stances, yet those seem to be locked for me. Unless it's a matter of completing the story first. I guess progression is just not as in your face as I was expecting it to be.

It's all really just a matter of finding the right mods, ranking them up, installing them in the right combinations on your gear, so on... I'm guessing you'll probably want to move past the starter gear (at least as far as weapons are concerned) before tackling junctions and the higher-level enemies that await on the planets beyond.
(Auras, melee stances are acquired in many of the same ways as other mods, though most of them only drop from specific enemy types, or as rewards from specific mission types)

[Donitsi]

Originally posted by Machiavelli:

This thread is helpful, likely frequent as well. I too started recently and am a bit lost. I maxed out my starter warframe, volt, my paris, but still feel like I've not gotten anything decent. All additional things seem to be behind platinum and I really think I'm only getting the same mods to drop. I just tried the Mars Junction and the frost spectre destroys me completely, melee blocking all my ranged or one melee hit to kill me. It's literaly a "wtf am I suppose to do" moment.

I see other threads and people mentioning aura and stances, yet those seem to be locked for me. Unless it's a matter of completing the story first. I guess progression is just not as in your face as I was expecting it to be.

Take a closer look at the weapons when you preview them in the Market. There is Info button on them if you can't buy them for credits. Info button tells you where to find the weapon.

As for mods, most stances are very rare so be happy when you find one.

Some of those specters were pain in the ass for me too and I'm a veteran. Stay behind one of those pillars and use hitscan weapon to shoot the specters. Toxin goes through their shield and should deal bonus damage on their flesh.

[Zero Honour]

A MK-1 Paris does quite poor DPS, especially with lacklustre mods. Try a Braton (with Serration) or Strun (with Point Blank) to clear the Junction, and put a few ranks on Vitality/Redirection to boost your toughness.

Both of those weapons are available from the market fully built for credits, not platinum.