The progression in this game...

[Horus]

So basically in order to progress with mastery rank, I have to level up my items. Fine.

Then I learn that applying Forma and levelling them again doesn't count for my mastery.

Then I learn the same is true for my warframe?

Does this mean I have to change warframes and weapons every few hours of play?

I mean, I like trying new things, but it takes 3 freaking days to build a warframe and a whole day for a weapon. So technically if during my vacations I play enough to level up 3 frames + weapon sets a day, I should have 9 frames being built in my foundry and making a total of 27 weapons during my 3 days to satisfy the mastery rank levelling up requirements?

Isn't this a bit... Insane?

Am I missing something?

[AllergicToBrainRot]

Yep. Have to keep grinding to get new stuff to level them up for MR. If you failed the test; have to wait 24 hours to try again. Have fun.

[Phares]

Early game progression is rough, lategame progression is pointless xD
Once your MR is around 12-18 you won't really have to care about leveling stuff, you just pick the equips you like using.

Free-to-play means you gotta play smart, building your warframes well in advance to when you wanna use em and keeping track of Nightwave for all the extra slots n stuff.

[Ben Lubar]

You can have every warframe and weapon waiting in your foundry at once.

[NPC_CO8ALT]

Free to play doesn't mean FREE. You gotta give up something in return. If you aren't spending money, you gotta spend TIME.

[tv]

eventually it becomes less about master rank and more about finding weapons that aren't boring or just big number generators. the small number of weapons I like without modding is staggering.

[hi]

Your mindset should be more about: What content can i beat with my Main chosen kit.

And all the other items, we refer to them as Fodder.
I have hundreds of weapons and frames combined..
I think i use 15 items (frames,melee,offhand,mainhand) in total.

You can get a metric ton of levels from the blueprints you can purchase with credits, you can easily boost yourself to 16 once you unlocked the Index (money to buy blueprints)

and at that point.. levels are just a convenience, nothing needed.

[Thing1Thang2]

I'm a long time player 10 years at this point. I can assure you MR only matters if you want a specific gun or build or a riven bad enough. Otherwise it matters little. Before this account merge thing I had 2 accounts both under MR 16 and neither were ranked up without a specific need or just by accident trying new weapons. Currently sitting at MR 21 due to the merge pushing me up a bunch of levels. If you want to expedite MR there is plenty of market weapons that you can buy with credits that you can use to push you through a bunch of MR ranks. Don't feel forced or fomo because you don't have access to the shiniest new stick though. There are a ton of builds and weapons at every MR level. I think even still today the HEK is still one of the best weapons for regular content and the weapon sits at MR4 if i recall correctly.

I will also mention other than completing Main Quests and full clearing the star chart (which you should really really do) there is no set progression in the game. The gameplay loop is built around making frames/weapons and squeezing all the potential you can out of them so you can then have fun nuking everything or just watching invis in a corner seeing the rest of your squad running around in pain.

[Sel Und Irae]

First 20 levels are painful yeah, I always hated the mastery system cause it doesn't mean anything it just says "I wasted (X) time on crap weapons" Nobody cares about it aside from collectors.

[Donitsi]

Don't worry too much OP. You don't have to reach max mastery. My personal opinion is that MR20 or higher is enough. Why? For daily Syndicate and open world standing points.

Originally posted by FEAR:

Yep. Have to keep grinding to get new stuff to level them up for MR. If you failed the test; have to wait 24 hours to try again. Have fun.

This can confusing for new players. I want to add that you NOT lose Mastery progress if you fail a MR test but keep levelling up new stuff.

[Nooneyouknow]

Originally posted by Horus:

So basically in order to progress with mastery rank, I have to level up my items. Fine.

Then I learn that applying Forma and levelling them again doesn't count for my mastery.

Then I learn the same is true for my warframe?

Does this mean I have to change warframes and weapons every few hours of play?

I mean, I like trying new things, but it takes 3 freaking days to build a warframe and a whole day for a weapon. So technically if during my vacations I play enough to level up 3 frames + weapon sets a day, I should have 9 frames being built in my foundry and making a total of 27 weapons during my 3 days to satisfy the mastery rank levelling up requirements?

Isn't this a bit... Insane?

Am I missing something?

You can build more than 1 weapon/frame at a time. By the time you make it half way through the star chart, you'll have a half dozen weapons building at a time, minimum. Mastery Rank no longer gates content. Pets also give mastery, as well as vehicles.

[Maya-Neko]

Instead of thinking, that you need to achieve everything in as short of a time frame as possible, rather take it slowly, once you've found a setup that is comfortable for you. And sitting down like 8 hours per day, just to maximize the progression you could get out of it is unhealthy anyway, though there are still ways to sink that much time into the game for other content that doesn't include leveling, if you want to.

So just put new frames and weapons into the foundry and just pull them out if you feel like leveling and otherwise do something else in the meantime, maybe even playing other games from time to time.

[Quasi-Bad]

This is why I hate deleting items as well. They expect you to level every weapon/frame/archwing/archgun/necramech and then delete the ones you dont like lol. Irks me.

Of course most of us will buy slots so we dont have to delete our time and energy. Yes yes it only takes like 8 rounds of sanctuary to level your frames, or 8 rounds of elite sanctuary to master weapons. But doesnt help with archguns or the necramechs of course. Let alone the resources that go into building stuff towards the endgame.

Then they design alot of missions with certain playstyles in mind, so it makes sense to just keep everything.

I feel like the more crap you have/the higher your mastery rank is, the crappier your rng gets. Of course people will just say "thats rng for ya". But at the same time, would be real easy to fudge things a little and no one would be the wiser haha. Ive given up on trying to farm kullervo, easier to farm arcanes to sell for the plat to buy the warframe and weapon. Ive done proably 30 missions, seen kullervos hold once and the host migrated screwing the mission. Lmao. And yes I know he only has a chance to show up during certain cycles, like anger.

[Bakanya]

Is pretty funny to level MR till 12, and then you start hate yourself, cruel world, DE, warframe story... Oh, 3000 plat for riven!!! Is pretty funny to level MR till 16, and then you start hate yourself, cruel world around us, 26 million losers, simulator of space ninja... Oh, 2100 plat for arcane!!! Is pretty funny to level MR till 18, and then you start hate that dude in mirror at mornings, grim world full of filth and cruelty, and then... Eh, what was the question?

[RainRuby]

When you hit MR16 you never have to MR again for new weapons. Its just rough at first. Use what you enjoy after MR8 and level things one at a time or so.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by Horus:

So basically in order to progress with mastery rank, I have to level up my items. Fine.

Then I learn that applying Forma and levelling them again doesn't count for my mastery.

Then I learn the same is true for my warframe?

Does this mean I have to change warframes and weapons every few hours of play?

I mean, I like trying new things, but it takes 3 freaking days to build a warframe and a whole day for a weapon. So technically if during my vacations I play enough to level up 3 frames + weapon sets a day, I should have 9 frames being built in my foundry and making a total of 27 weapons during my 3 days to satisfy the mastery rank levelling up requirements?

Isn't this a bit... Insane?

Am I missing something?

That's it. That's why there's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapons that players call MR Fodder. Also, you don't have to exhaust yourself. If you use sanctuary (the game mode) then you can level up everything in a mission or two if you're doing the level 60+. It'll help you to figure out if you like a new weapon you've gotten or not as well.

I know it gets exhausting after a while, so you don't have to keep playing if you've had enough, but a lot of us oldies found patterns to level things up really fast and farm more easily. More Easily. Not 'makes it really easy'.