How to progress past Jupiter?

[TheColorUrple]

About 50 hours into the game, I've hit a wall with progression through the nodes since some Jupiter / Europa missions are giving me a really hard time.

I'm MR 6.

I haven't farmed or done any grinding really beyond unlocking new nodes and finishing a few quests. I have Excal, Volt, and Ember. I've levelled a dozen gear items or so, some of which are Mk-1.

I've only been using Auto Mods and I haven't fused them because they seem to quickly require more power than my frames can handle, and I don't know which ones to prioritize.

I have maybe 750 plat that I could spend.

What should my strategy be? Is there a frame I should buy, maybe certain good weapons? Or should I be farming specific lower level missions for xp or mods? Void relics? Affinity boosters? WTB? I don't know.

So far, I've only used frames and weapons that are currently being levelled so as not to waste xp on maxed out stuff. I would hate to have to use maxed gear for the next 30 hours unlocking planets, unless that's really the only way to do it.

Thanks for the help.... beginner Warframe is a bear.

[Fire Guardian]

i would need to see your ingame profile to say waht weapons would be best but excals 4 should be able to deal with a good amount of enemies fine.(just add strengh and perhaps efficeny)

[Kawalorn]

With weapons, first and foremost you should put the basic damage mod and one or two elemental damage mods on each.

Base damage mods for each weapon category are:
Serration for Rifle
Point Blank for Shotgun
Hornet Strike for Pistol
Pressure Point for Melee.

For Warframes focus on Vitality (HP) and Redirection (Shield) mods.

That combination should keep you strong enough up until around the end of star chart.

As for frame, Rhino which you can farm on Venus trivializes most of star chart with his Iron Skin.

If you want you can also buy Orokin Reactor or Orokin Catalyst from market (20 platinum each) to double mod capacity of Warframes and weapons. But they are easy enough to farm from nightwave IMO so it might be considered a waste of platinum.

[TheColorUrple]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kawalorn:

With weapons, first and foremost you should put the basic damage mod and one or two elemental damage mods on each.

Base damage mods for each weapon category are:
Serration for Rifle
Point Blank for Shotgun
Hornet Strike for Pistol
Pressure Point for Melee.

For Warframes focus on Vitality (HP) and Redirection (Shield) mods.

That combination should keep you strong enough up until around the end of star chart.

As for frame, Rhino which you can farm on Venus trivializes most of star chart with his Iron Skin.

If you want you can also buy Orokin Reactor or Orokin Catalyst from market (20 platinum each) to double mod capacity of Warframes and weapons. But they are easy enough to farm from nightwave IMO so it might be considered a waste of platinum.

Thanks for the detailed answer!

So let's say I farm (or buy) Rhino to clear the chart - where should I go when I want to focus on completing frames and weapons for mastery? For that matter, is it more efficient to mod and use frames as I level them through the chart or just stick to Rhino and level frames elsewhere?

I know that's a whole other topic but you seem knowledgeable :)

[Kawalorn]

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

Thanks for the detailed answer!

So let's say I farm (or buy) Rhino to clear the chart - where should I go when I want to focus on completing frames and weapons for mastery? For that matter, is it more efficient to mod and use frames as I level them through the chart or just stick to Rhino and level frames elsewhere?

I know that's a whole other topic but you seem knowledgeable :)

There are "optimal" places for farming, so if you don't want to level stuff through natural gameplay you can use them. For example Hydron on Sedna is great if you go on a public match, since all 4 players killing all the enemies at once will rack up XP really quickly. Another great place is Onslaught mode which you will unlock after some quests.

Unfortinately you still have a lot of star chart to clear for those most efficient places. Until then you should just generally try to find a squad for some kind of endless mission that makes it easy to stay with your team, like defense or interception and it should generally be an upgrade over solo farming.

I personally don't do that, since I want to properly experience the weapons and warframes at the same time. I usually go to exterminate missions or survival missions on Saturn. That planet has the best balance of not-super-tough enemies and rewarding a lot of XP.

I should add about mods, that you probably have all those mods I mentioned in Flawed version which have lesser maximum upgrade. They are good for start but check every once in a while if you happened to get a normal version of it and switch to it.

[Zukabazuka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kawalorn:

With weapons, first and foremost you should put the basic damage mod and one or two elemental damage mods on each.

Base damage mods for each weapon category are:
Serration for Rifle
Point Blank for Shotgun
Hornet Strike for Pistol
Pressure Point for Melee.

For Warframes focus on Vitality (HP) and Redirection (Shield) mods.

That combination should keep you strong enough up until around the end of star chart.

As for frame, Rhino which you can farm on Venus trivializes most of star chart with his Iron Skin.

If you want you can also buy Orokin Reactor or Orokin Catalyst from market (20 platinum each) to double mod capacity of Warframes and weapons. But they are easy enough to farm from nightwave IMO so it might be considered a waste of platinum.

Thanks for the detailed answer!

So let's say I farm (or buy) Rhino to clear the chart - where should I go when I want to focus on completing frames and weapons for mastery? For that matter, is it more efficient to mod and use frames as I level them through the chart or just stick to Rhino and level frames elsewhere?

I know that's a whole other topic but you seem knowledgeable :)

You can use normal maps but generally it will take longer to level them up. The maps that do generate the best experience for warframes are generally endless maps, like survival, defense, disruption and some other ones. Then just try to stick together with the rest of the squad and that will generate far more experience for you than doing normal maps. As for what faction for best exp is Grineer that comes first. They just really give the best exp overall.
Second would be Corpus, easier to kill than grineer but little less exp. Then its Corrupted in the void and last one is infected.

[Leoscar]

Unless you really, really hate a piece of equipment, you should always slap a reactor/catalyst into it. Though that might not be true in the very begging of the game because a lot of the weapons there you won't be using later.

Spend your plat on warframe/weapon slots, that should be your number one priority as far as spending plat goes. Second goes to the reactors/catalyst. Never buy frames/weapons with plat you'll be wasting it.

Relic missions are a good way to make some plat by selling what you get to other players but you already have some, still it's not a bad idea to go there from time to time, and you'll start building your prime parts collection for when you'll want the shiny stuff.

The best XP farming spots are Helene, Saturn; and Hydron, Sedna. Both are defense missions and will level up your equipement from 1 to 30 in 15 waves.

[Altheus]

The exception to the catalysts in everything guideline is the weapons that are components of future weapons. When you have one of them just level it and build the weapon that requires it as a component.

Example: there is a sidearm called the Bronco, there is a weapon called Akbronco which requires 2 broncos to craft, build 2 broncos, level one of them to 30, then build and level the Akbronco. Do not put a catalyst in either bronco.

[Khanwolf]

The beginning is hardcore.

Thats a lot of items to lvl for mastery... But it will get better, more rewarding and even more engaging after you cleared all the planet junctions.

Join a clan... Play a lot of public games and find some people who are playing at your pace.
Drag some friends in...


It is a bit tedious with unleveled gear, no catalysts/reactors and without a huge collection of stuff. There is more than auto-mod. There is a way to build gear for your playstyle. Just bite through all of the junctions as fast as possible.

The game offers no depth from where you are standing now, but this will change fast.

[Mhblis]

There is great advice here.

Jupiter is the point in the game where you need to start having some.game mastery, understanding modding and do targetted farming.

Upto this point its been the sandbox tutorial. You are entering the middle of the game. And its actually really short. Its really about pushing through the starchart and wrapping up the main story quests to unlock all the nodes and gamemodes.

To do this you will need to go farm or buy the specific modes that allow you to do proper builds.

Honestly the fastest way to learn this is to check out some frame and weapon builds on youtube or warframe builder.

Write down the most commonly used mods and then use the wiki or warframe market to get them.

As people said most weapons use 4-5mods in every build and frames are about the same.

You will see a few common mods like Condition Overload and Weeping wounds. Now these are rare drops and not must haves. They just push your alresdy powerful weapons into oneshot max level enemy territory.

[Vanillia]

Try not to buy Warframes from the in-game Market. The Market is expensive, and often spending platinum there is not worth it. If anything you can buy Prime Warframes(full sets) from other players in case you don't want to farm yourself.

[Watermelons]

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

I've only been using Auto Mods and I haven't fused them because they seem to quickly require more power than my frames can handle, and I don't know which ones to prioritize.

Stop doing this. Auto modding is really bad, I don't even understand the way it decides to do it.
First and foremost, upgrade the basic +damage mods, they will be the first mods you'll ever put on any weapon. Damage mods, as well as multishot mods should be considered essential mods to have on all weapons.

You say you're MR6, so that means you have a minimum of 6 capacity on a new weapon, so at least have a Serration/Hornet Strike/Pressure Point set aside that you can match up with your MR, so that when you build a new weapon you'll be able to fit it immediately.

To learn how to properly mod beyond that, you'll have to know how to read a weapon's stats and see what's worth building for. Status/critical chance stats around 20% are a sure sign that they're worth increasing with mods, critical damage stats at least 2.0x are good to increase.

Damage types are important for two different reasons: the varying damage resistances and weaknesses of enemies, and the status effects of each damage type.
When it comes to elemental damage, remember that you can combine elements, which will open up your options beyond Heat/Cold/Toxic/Electric.

Heat + Cold is Blast, Heat + Toxic is Gas, Heat + Electricity is Radiation
Cold + Toxic is Viral, Cold + Electric is Magnetic
Toxic + Electric is Corrosive.

For Physical damages, the Slash status effect will apply a Bleeding damage over time which ignores armor ( and therefore is not reduced by any armor ) but does not ignore shields. The Puncture status will weaken the damage output of the target. And the Impact status will stagger the enemy, and after repeated staggers can open them up to Mercy finisher kills with your Parazon wristblade.

The Heat status effect will set enemies on fire to panic them and deal Heat damage over time, as well as halving their current armor value for the duration of the status. Cold will slow enemies down. Electricity will zap between multiple targets, stunning and also leaving an Electric damage over time on them. Toxic will apply a Toxic damage over time on the target. Also, remember that Toxic damage in general ignores all shields, not just on the status effect but any source of Toxic damage will ignore shields except against very few exceptional enemies.

The Blast status effect will disorient enemies and reduce their accuracy. Gas will create an area of effect Gas-damage cloud. Radiation will confuse the enemy and make them prone to shooting at friendlies. Viral will increase the amount of damage the target's health will take. Magnetic will increase the amount of damage the target's shields will take, as well as block their shield regen. And Corrosive will strip away at a target's total armor value, if the target has any armor ( armored health bars are yellow instead of red ).
All the status effects can stack to increase their effects, while Corrosive does have a cap of stripping away up to 80% of a target's armor.

As for damage resistances, there is a huge variety in enemies but they all use different "types" of Health, Shield, and Armor. Like a Corpus Crewman would have Flesh health, but a Grineer enemy would have Cloned Flesh health and would be protected by either a Ferrite or an Alloy armor, and these have a different set of weaknesses and resistances.

Basically, Grineer are weak to Slash, Viral and Heat on their health. The Bombards, Napalms, and Elite Lancers armor is weak to Puncture, Cold, and Radiation, while Heavy Gunners and Trooper armor is weak to Puncture and Corrosive. For Grineer machinery, they are typically weak to Impact and Blast, and if any armor, weak to Puncture, Electricity, and Corrosive.
So, Slash, Viral, Heat, Puncture, Corrosive, Radiation are what you want against Grineer.

For Corpus Crewmen, their health is weak to Slash, Toxic, and Viral. Their robot health is weak to Puncture, Electricity, and Radiation. Most Corpus use "Shields" though a few rare enemies use a different "Protoshield", don't worry about that too much. Corpus shields are weak to Impact, Cold, and Magnetic.
So for Corpus humans, Slash, Toxic, and Viral. Corpus robots, Impact, Electricity, and Radiation.
While robots are resistant to Toxic, remember that Toxic will bypass and completely ignore all shields, so there is a huge value in using Toxic to deal with any Corpus units.

For Infested, Slash, Heat, and Gas work well against basically all light Infested enemies, and the heavy/special enemies are exceptionally weak to Blast and Corrosive.
There is only one specific Infested boss enemy who has a unique health type that is weak to Puncture, Cold, and Radiation.
So for Infested, use Slash, Heat, Corrosive, Blast, and Gas. Gas mostly for the weakest enemies, so you might want to concentrate more on Blast and Corrosive to deal with the more annoying and dangerous heavier enemies.

[Watermelons]

Oh and I enjoy helping new players out in the game, both with advice and information, and helping out in missions. So feel free to add me here, or ingame at so_many_watermelons
If you send it ingame, add a note to it so I know it's you.

[TheColorUrple]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Something Something Watermelons:

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

I've only been using Auto Mods and I haven't fused them because they seem to quickly require more power than my frames can handle, and I don't know which ones to prioritize.

Stop doing this. Auto modding is really bad, I don't even understand the way it decides to do it.
First and foremost, upgrade the basic +damage mods, they will be the first mods you'll ever put on any weapon. Damage mods, as well as multishot mods should be considered essential mods to have on all weapons.

You say you're MR6, so that means you have a minimum of 6 capacity on a new weapon, so at least have a Serration/Hornet Strike/Pressure Point set aside that you can match up with your MR, so that when you build a new weapon you'll be able to fit it immediately.

To learn how to properly mod beyond that, you'll have to know how to read a weapon's stats and see what's worth building for. Status/critical chance stats around 20% are a sure sign that they're worth increasing with mods, critical damage stats at least 2.0x are good to increase.

Damage types are important for two different reasons: the varying damage resistances and weaknesses of enemies, and the status effects of each damage type.
When it comes to elemental damage, remember that you can combine elements, which will open up your options beyond Heat/Cold/Toxic/Electric.

Heat + Cold is Blast, Heat + Toxic is Gas, Heat + Electricity is Radiation
Cold + Toxic is Viral, Cold + Electric is Magnetic
Toxic + Electric is Corrosive.

For Physical damages, the Slash status effect will apply a Bleeding damage over time which ignores armor ( and therefore is not reduced by any armor ) but does not ignore shields. The Puncture status will weaken the damage output of the target. And the Impact status will stagger the enemy, and after repeated staggers can open them up to Mercy finisher kills with your Parazon wristblade.

The Heat status effect will set enemies on fire to panic them and deal Heat damage over time, as well as halving their current armor value for the duration of the status. Cold will slow enemies down. Electricity will zap between multiple targets, stunning and also leaving an Electric damage over time on them. Toxic will apply a Toxic damage over time on the target. Also, remember that Toxic damage in general ignores all shields, not just on the status effect but any source of Toxic damage will ignore shields except against very few exceptional enemies.

The Blast status effect will disorient enemies and reduce their accuracy. Gas will create an area of effect Gas-damage cloud. Radiation will confuse the enemy and make them prone to shooting at friendlies. Viral will increase the amount of damage the target's health will take. Magnetic will increase the amount of damage the target's shields will take, as well as block their shield regen. And Corrosive will strip away at a target's total armor value, if the target has any armor ( armored health bars are yellow instead of red ).
All the status effects can stack to increase their effects, while Corrosive does have a cap of stripping away up to 80% of a target's armor.

As for damage resistances, there is a huge variety in enemies but they all use different "types" of Health, Shield, and Armor. Like a Corpus Crewman would have Flesh health, but a Grineer enemy would have Cloned Flesh health and would be protected by either a Ferrite or an Alloy armor, and these have a different set of weaknesses and resistances.

Basically, Grineer are weak to Slash, Viral and Heat on their health. The Bombards, Napalms, and Elite Lancers armor is weak to Puncture, Cold, and Radiation, while Heavy Gunners and Trooper armor is weak to Puncture and Corrosive. For Grineer machinery, they are typically weak to Impact and Blast, and if any armor, weak to Puncture, Electricity, and Corrosive.
So, Slash, Viral, Heat, Puncture, Corrosive, Radiation are what you want against Grineer.

For Corpus Crewmen, their health is weak to Slash, Toxic, and Viral. Their robot health is weak to Puncture, Electricity, and Radiation. Most Corpus use "Shields" though a few rare enemies use a different "Protoshield", don't worry about that too much. Corpus shields are weak to Impact, Cold, and Magnetic.
So for Corpus humans, Slash, Toxic, and Viral. Corpus robots, Impact, Electricity, and Radiation.
While robots are resistant to Toxic, remember that Toxic will bypass and completely ignore all shields, so there is a huge value in using Toxic to deal with any Corpus units.

For Infested, Slash, Heat, and Gas work well against basically all light Infested enemies, and the heavy/special enemies are exceptionally weak to Blast and Corrosive.
There is only one specific Infested boss enemy who has a unique health type that is weak to Puncture, Cold, and Radiation.
So for Infested, use Slash, Heat, Corrosive, Blast, and Gas. Gas mostly for the weakest enemies, so you might want to concentrate more on Blast and Corrosive to deal with the more annoying and dangerous heavier enemies.

Thanks for the guide, it's an impressive amount of information.

What it does in practice though is reduce my desire to play the game. I figured master ranks led to better overall frames and weapons which let you feel more powerful, but I had no idea the level of intricacies required to become efficient! I'm used to Destiny 2 where the difference between a basic build and a nerded out min-max stat build isn't enormous, and I'm not a big fan of meticulously micromanaging gear in any RPG.

It seems like you'd have to make mod loadouts (you can do that, right?) and change them constantly depending on the enemy type of the mission. Might not be my cup of tea!

Thanks again, I'll have to study this more carefully in the near future.

[Watermelons]

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

Thanks for the guide, it's an impressive amount of information.

What it does in practice though is reduce my desire to play the game. I figured master ranks led to better overall frames and weapons which let you feel more powerful, but I had no idea the level of intricacies required to become efficient! I'm used to Destiny 2 where the difference between a basic build and a nerded out min-max stat build isn't enormous, and I'm not a big fan of meticulously micromanaging gear in any RPG.

It seems like you'd have to make mod loadouts (you can do that, right?) and change them constantly depending on the enemy type of the mission. Might not be my cup of tea!

Thanks again, I'll have to study this more carefully in the near future.

Mastery Ranks are what gate the weapons and equipment, yeah, but as a bonus, MR also provides a baseline amount of modding capacity. Capacity will equal either your weapon's current level (0 to 30) or your Mastery Rank (0 to 30), whichever is greater. That way, the higher in MR you go, the more space you have to mess with newly built/forma'd equipment.

MR locking for weapons isn't a completely linear, strict guideline, like "oh this MR 13 weapon is completely and objectively better than this MR12 weapon I picked up a bit ago." Upgraded variants of weapons are often higher MR, that is true, but sometimes it also matters on your personal preference and what you want to build. Weapon capabilities may rest on the foundation of their stats, but it's the modding you do that makes them reach their potential, and honestly, we can get so powerful that even starter MK1 gear can deal with all of the star map, to say the least.

As for making different mod loadouts for different factions, eh, you can do that. It rubberbands from early game to late game, wanting to work on the strengths of a build against specific factions. In early game, it's because you're weak and have to in order to survive. In late game, it's because the enemy scaling can get really beefy and you basically want to cheese the numbers enough for it to not matter.

Regardless, there's definitely a middle ground there where you can ignore having to micromanage your gear for every day missions.
The meta right now is using Viral and Heat elements since Viral makes health take more damage, and Heat halves enemy armor. While, say, Infested are resistant to Viral damage itself, the status proc makes it incredibly useful anyways. And an enemy may not have armor for the Heat to reduce, but that just means it's an easy enemy to kill anyways.

Don't forget that Warframe abilities can be extremely powerful in managing or destroying enemies. Your current options, Excalibur, Volt, and Ember, are pretty varied. Excalibur's Radial Blind is perfect for heavy enemies since it opens them up to a melee finisher, which is a very powerful move and will often kill anything you do it on. His Exalted Blade does massive damage, almost indiscriminately against any target.
Volt's Electric Shield pairs excellently with crit-based weapons, as it will give a 200% crit damage bonus to any shots fired through it, as well as bonus electrical damage. His Speed ability buffs your melee attack speed as well as movement, so it's an excellent option to increase your melee DPS.
Ember's access to Heat means you are capable of reducing half the armor of enemies around you, and that's before considering her Fire Blast ability stripping even more armor. Her 4th ability, Inferno, blasts enemies with fire and leaves them both in Heat statuses, but also an additional cover of flame that hurts both them and spreads to their neighbors, meaning any survivors are going to take plenty of damage to ensure they go down soon.

[Aegix Drakan]

MASSIVE wall of text incoming.

Oprindeligt skrevet af TheColorUrple:

About 50 hours into the game, I've hit a wall with progression through the nodes since some Jupiter / Europa missions are giving me a really hard time.

I'm MR 6.

Congratulations, you've reached the second of about 3-4 serious difficulty walls, and probably the most significant one. We've all been there. :)

Once you break through this point, you can consider yourself to be a serious intermediate warframe player, and will have some of the knowledge you need to break through to "veteran" status.

At this point, what you need is good modding, and Orokin Catalysts/Reactors to get the most out of your mods.

New frames mostly just provide you with new playstyles. All of them can be made endgame viable, although some are easier than others.

I haven't farmed or done any grinding really beyond unlocking new nodes and finishing a few quests. I have Excal, Volt, and Ember. I've levelled a dozen gear items or so, some of which are Mk-1.

Oof. Oh BIG oof.

Your frames are fine.

Excal is a great all rounder frame until very late, he's ok. Ember requires a bit of work to really get the most out of, but she's a VERY solid nuker frame. Volt...I mostly used to speedrun Capture missions, or to cheese the Junction bosses.

So...You're pretty alright frame-wise, although I'd REALLY reccommend you get Rhino (super tanky) and Oberon (a fantastic all-rounder with some healing).

But if you only have a handful of weapons on hand, some of which are Mk-1? That's your first problem.

Mk-1 weapons are just there to get you started, and to serve as "Mastery Fodder". ie, something you rank to 30 for the Mastery Rank Exp, and then sold.

In fact, you should be trying to rank up as many weapons as possible, to raise your mastery rank as high as you can. The higher your mastery, the more weapons you can use, with a lot of the really good ones gated behind certain mastery ranks.

You should look into weapons that can actually carry you later into the game.
Here's a few I can think of:

1) Hek: It's a pretty powerful early shotgun that can actually carry you suprisingly far into the game. (Heck, you can straight up cheese all the Junction battles by popping a Volt Shield between you and the enemy, then blasting it with the Hek)

2) Soma: The first TRULY good Assault Rifle. It's an excellent Crit Weapon that you can get reasonably early. You can literally get it's Crit rate up to a whopping 75% with a single mod. It eventually gets outclassed IMO, but it's a pretty solid choice for quite a while.

3) Kohm: A pretty solid Fully Auto Shotgun. This one WILL require a few rare mods to make it really shine (it needs a lot of Multishot and Status Chance), but it really shines when you get it to work.

4) Arca Plasmor: Ok, this one is out of your range right now, as it requires you to be Mastery Rank 10. But this shotgun can straight up carry you through just about the entire Star Chart if you build it right.

I've only been using Auto Mods and I haven't fused them because they seem to quickly require more power than my frames can handle, and I don't know which ones to prioritize.

Wait, AUTOMOD?!

That's your REAL problem right there. You've been using a crutch the entire time, and now you're at the point where the game is asking you to run, which a crutch can't handle

Here's my beginner's guide to modding:
1) Identify a weapon/frame's strengths, and amplify them.

Weapons:
Once you have a gun that's actually worth investing in (like the Soma), plug in an Orokin Calalyst to double its mod capacity (it's a purple eggplant looking thing. You can buy them with Nightwave credits, or from some Alerts like Gift of The Lotus after a Devstream on some fridays, or you can get them from the market if you're desperate).

Then, you start modding.

(Note, the following is
For starters, always slap on direct extra damage. For Rifles, it's Serration. For shotguns, it's Point Blank.

Then, identify whether the weapon is a Critical Hit weapon, or a Status Weapon.
-Crit Weapons typically have about 20% or higher critical hit rate. For these, slap on mods that boost critical hit chance and critical hit damage (if you happen to have the Hunter Munitions Mod from the Plains of Eidolon, that pairs well with this too)

- Status Weapons typically have about 20% or higher Status Chance. For these, crank up your status chance as much as possible, and use at least one elemental combo (two base elements together. Corrosive and Viral are strongest right now for general play)

+ Then, if you have any mods with Multishot on them, use them. Every % of multishot you add is an extra % chance to fire a bonus shot for free. If you go over 100%, you get even MORE bullets.

+ Finally, slap on Elemental mods for extra damage. If you can, use the element that your enemies are weak to (Heat, Corrosive and Radiation for Grineer. Heat, and Slash on the Infested. Shock, Gas, Magnetic on the Corpus). If not, use either Viral or Corrosive if you have space for 2 elements, or just heat if you have space for only 1.

If you can't fully mod a weapon, that's ok. Focus on the most important stuff in the order I suggested.

If you have a gun you really like and want to fully mod up, you can use Forma (gotten from Relics) to reset your weapon to Level 0, but turn one of the weapon's Mod Slots to a specific symbol, allowing you to get much more mileage out of modding it.


Warframe Modding:

Orokin Catalyst (Orange Potato/Eggplant looking thingy) to double your modding capacity.

Health first. Armor too if you can afford it (doesn't need to be maxed, just get SOME)

Then, identify your Warframe's source of OP-ness. For Excalibur and Ember, you want mods like Intensify (more power damage), Streamline (abilities cost less), Flow (more energy).

For frames like Mag or Oberon, you want some stuff like Reach (more range on abilities), and Continuity (Abilities last longer once cast).

Or should I be farming specific lower level missions for xp or mods?

Here's a tip: Build as many weapons as you can, then level them to 30. Always have a bunch of weapons fully built in the foundry, ready to go when you need to start levelling them.

From here, you have 2 options:

1) The Boring, but efficient way:
There's a Defense Mission on Ceres (It says Dark Sector) that's often populated with lower level players.

Take any new weapons and frames you have there, and run the mission for a while. It's currently the most efficient way you have to level your gear for now (eventually you'll unlock Lua, a very spoilery place, which has a defence node that's even more efficient, and finally you'll get Hydron, which is even more efficient).

Yes, it gets a little dull, I'm sorry. If you get any Affinity boosters from the daily login, or for a Double EXP weekend, use that time to rank up as many things as you can for Mastery Rank.

2) The spicy, but slow way.
Equip fresh new weapon, do not use it. Rely on your Max level Melee or your other max level ranged weapon entirely for the duration of these missions

Run a metric ton of Relic missions, try to assemble as many Prime Warframes and Weapons as you can manage (check you have the Mastery Rank for them first).

This will give you something to work towards as you slowly level up your gear. You'll hopefully assemble a few decent weapons (Prime stuff is slightly stronger than normal weapons/frames) along the way. It's considerably slower and less efficient than just farming popular high EXP defense nodes, but it's less boring.

Once you hit about mastery rank 10, though, the need to do so decreases a whole lot, as you have unlocked most of the really good weapons.

So far, I've only used frames and weapons that are currently being levelled so as not to waste xp on maxed out stuff. I would hate to have to use maxed gear for the next 30 hours unlocking planets, unless that's really the only way to do it.

Hate to break it to you, but yes. You're at that point now. You need all the Modding Capacity you can get.

Once you hit the end of Saturn, using Orokin Catalysts/Reactors and Max rank gear becomes 100% mandatory for your primary gear (aside from maybe a secondary weapon you're taking along just to level up)
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For more advice, try looking up BBKDragoon on Youtube. He's got a FANTASTIC newbie friendly guide series.

LeyzarGamingViews is also fanstastic for learning how to crank out as much power as you can from your weapons. ONLY WATCH HIS WEAPONS VIDEOS FOR NOW, as some of his other videos cover very spoilery stuff. Only watch everything after you complete The Second Dream quest (which, incidentally, is where the story REAAALLLY starts getting amazing).