What's even the purpose of farming "base" Warframes?

[zorocancor]

Made all the Wukong blueprints on dojo, only to realize he requires 4K Plastids. Instead i traded 3 prime parts, got 60 platinum and got a Wukong Prime, which besides being better, is extremely easier to build (didn't even need to farm resources)

Nezha: 4K Plastids (again);
Nezha Prime: the hardest resource you need to get is 3 Tellurium. And you can get the set for 60 platinum.

So, why should someone even bother farming the base Warframes when they're worse in every aspect to their Prime counterparts?

[✨Saint✨]

It used to be purely for Mastery fodder, they are also good for the Helminth system.

[Pakaku]

"Worse" is debatable, usually it's only a slight difference at best. One reason I could think of is to have a separate copy for different polarity mixes, if you happen to get forma-heavy on your original, plus their own three loadout and cosmetic slots

[RancidRevenant]

Mastery XP, And helminth food. If theres a prime version of it. you'll usually want to switch to that for slightly better stats and in most cases (keyword being most). better appearance.

[abarca666]

Farming 4k plastids? But in a copple hours you get 10k so it's not a big problem to farm them
Something that I always do is, farm the base warframe then I lvl it up to get the mastery points and if I really like the warframe I buy the prime one so if I dont like it I dont waste my plat, farming resorses in Steel Path is a really easy way to get watever you need to farm your "base" warframes or your weapons

[jonnin]

It takes like 2 hours to one tops, and that is ensured. If you just started out, that rhino or hydroid are big additions to your early game. You have like 1 or 2 relics, none rare. You have no plat, nothing of any value. They are starter equipment for a while, until you can reliably get relics in bulk AND crack them AND build the things you earned. It takes a while to be able to handle axi level relic cracks. It takes a while to get some of the materials reliably.
why you would farm something like ivara .... completionist or too much time on your hands or masochist.

[Fake]

If you think 4k plastids is a chore to farm, wait till you see the requirements for the Sibear. 😜

[Draykoss]

base warframes are always available, whereas primes cycle in and out of the vault, meaning youll have to trade plat to receive some of the primes, plus the base warframes can be leveled for mastery and fed to the helminth. the only differences are the models and base stats, which rarely matter in any significant way

[TheMetalCorpser]

Originally posted by RancidRevenant:

Mastery XP, And helminth food. If theres a prime version of it. you'll usually want to switch to that for slightly better stats and in most cases (keyword being most). better appearance.

Even if someone doesn't like how a Prime frame looks they can always change it to look like the original. Not sure if mastery of the original is required or not.

Also skins are there.

Originally posted by Kennast:

Snipped

Mastery and Helminth food to get abilities on the learning bench is the reason to get the original frames. Or if you can't farm for the Prime you want as they could be vaulted. Could trade but vaulted frames can be costly.

[McGoodGreen]

All of the best points have already been mentioned. I would also like to add, however, that at one point a lot of these "base" warframes were the "only" option as Prime versions had not come out yet~

Over time that will of course change for everything!

[Inner Sight]

Feeding the frame to the Helminth late game, and basic mastery fodder.

There's no tactical reason to use a base version over a prime version if that's what you're asking.

Edit: Though a part of me feels like you shouldn't be allowed to make a prime until you've mastered a base. Just for the sake of progression.

[Sk[A]rMo'Ry2012]

Some basic frames was a big part of the adventure, so I cant feed them

[CapturedFire]

Originally posted by SkArMo'Ry2004:

Some basic frames was a big part of the adventure, so I cant feed them

build a second and feed that

[GreatPalm]

Originally posted by Aasha:

Feeding the frame to the Helminth late game, and basic mastery fodder.

There's no tactical reason to use a base version over a prime version if that's what you're asking.

Edit: Though a part of me feels like you shouldn't be allowed to make a prime until you've mastered a base. Just for the sake of progression.

it could be super nice if crafting primed version required generic version as component for craft

[DLOZanma]

So OP tell me....how did you get Sevagoth Prime already? Also i hope you started with Excalibur Prime...

[Spartykins]

before it was just mastery, now it's to sacrifice to the wall