How important is mastery rank?

[Burba]

I might just be the wrong kind of person for this game. I tend to find things I like and keep them. Only ever changing equipment if the game forces me to through difficulty. For instance I found a minigun in Destiny 2 the week it came out and it never left my inventory to this day. I liked it so I just kept using it.

I already have a warframe and weapons I am happy with. What is my low mastery rank going to stop me from doing?

[TheTool]

It's pretty much the gate between you and better/more powerful weapons and gear.

[Foster]

Hard locks on some story content, some weapons and a few other things.
Soft locks on some content that you simply wouldn't be able to do if you stuck with using certain early game weapons that aren't viable for that kind of content.
For example, if you just use a braton forever you probably won't be doing arbitrations and getting galvanized mods.

Ironically, if you like a low tier weapon that's not viable and insist on continuing to use solely that weapon, you're probably actually locking yourself out of obtaining a higher tier version that you could actually keep using in the endgame.

Also worth noting the bulk of things locked behind mastery are actually rather early and don't require a ton of MR levels.

[Burba]

Originally posted by Foster:

Hard locks on some story content, some weapons and a few other things.
Soft locks on some content that you simply wouldn't be able to do if you stuck with using certain early game weapons that aren't viable for that kind of content.
For example, if you just use a braton forever you probably won't be doing arbitrations and getting galvanized mods.

Ironically, if you like a low tier weapon that's not viable and insist on continuing to use solely that weapon, you're probably actually locking yourself out of obtaining a higher tier version that you could actually keep using in the endgame.

Also worth noting the bulk of things locked behind mastery are actually rather early and don't require a ton of MR levels.

What is the minimum MR to make the game worth playing in your opinion?

[Illusive Soul]

Mastery rank 15 should able to let you use all weapon, some Riven require Higher MR, MR 30 giving more Riven slot also let you use Blessing at Relay .

[Dan brDorman]

Mastery rank 16 is the minimum you need to have access to every content in the game, Except for the mastery rank 30 which gives you the ability to boost an entire lobby inside tenno relay with a 25% boost, Either health, shield, damage, resource drop chance, credits or xp.

Otherwise, Going Pass rank 16 simply gives you quality of life stuff, Such as increasing your capacity limit, Standing and so fourth.
It will also count as your starting Mod capacity for your equipmentdepending on your current mastery rank, So if you were rank 16, then your mod capacity will be 16 from the start.

[DIhlo]

Farm for plat now and then, get slots, collect every item in the game simultaneously. Thats what i have been doing. MR 23 right now been at it "on again off again" since 2013. Sure there are some things I sold. moslty cause I reaaaly didn't like them. Also had to sell stuff back in the day when trading wasn't a thing yet.

Nowadays there's plenty of ways to get about a 100 plat in a week or two without much effort. Rivens (for slivers or from sorties), Ayatans, prime parts. Might get a bit tedious if it's all you're doing but that's a beautifull thing about Warframe: there's so much stuff to do, you can always switch between activities to some extent and still earn things you need, or can use.

Using low level guns in middle game content sadly isn't as viable as it used to be. If you don't have a potato in your tool it's usually pretty useless past level 25-30. that's kinda sad for me.

[Burba]

Originally posted by DIhlo:

Farm for plat now and then, get slots, collect every item in the game simultaneously. Thats what i have been doing. MR 23 right now been at it "on again off again" since 2013. Sure there are some things I sold. moslty cause I reaaaly didn't like them. Also had to sell stuff back in the day when trading wasn't a thing yet.

Nowadays there's plenty of ways to get about a 100 plat in a week or two without much effort. Rivens (for slivers or from sorties), Ayatans, prime parts. Might get a bit tedious if it's all you're doing but that's a beautifull thing about Warframe: there's so much stuff to do, you can always switch between activities to some extent and still earn things you need, or can use.

Using low level guns in middle game content sadly isn't as viable as it used to be. If you don't have a potato in your tool it's usually pretty useless past level 25-30. that's kinda sad for me.

Its not about plat I'll buy plat if I need slots or something. I just like to keep one build and get good at it. Then if the game gets hard I will make what ever small change I absolutely have to make to beat the boss/level. I like my guns big, high capacity and fully automatic. I like my melee weapons long and fast. Right now that is what I got and I don't want to change it.

[ÃrçL!ğhț𒌐]

Not much, like u need i think max 15 to unlock everything? The higher levels are just there if u want to master more stuff and get additional bonuses tho they arent that big of a deal.

[Zukabazuka]

For getting stuff from faction, having a higher MR do make it more enjoyable because they are limited to the rank you have. Say you have MR 15, every faction can get at most 15,000 standing. So when you need to get 22,000 standing for getting to next standing and you have to have it. You cant spend it.
Next rank
2. 44,000
3. 70,000
4. 99,000
With just 15k a day getting all that is gonna take weeks. So getting up to MR25 to give you 25,000 standing just feel better.

[Nibbie]

MR16 is the last level that unlocks anything unique until 30, but you only need MR 8 or so to unlock most of the actual stuff to do.

[Midas]

-MR dictates your default mod capacity regardless of weapon level (IE if you're MR 20 and get a new weapon, it will have mod capacity as if it were already level 20)
MR dictates your caps for void trace storage, daily syndicate rep cap, and Focus cap
-Every 2 MR gives you another loadout slot
-MR 16 is the highest MR you need to meet requirements for all MR-based equipment restrictions. They all raise gradually, but MR16 is the top.
-MR30 grants several rewards once you reach it, including the ability to grant a daily blessing at a relay that grants everyone effects similar to a booster.


MR overall does not directly impact your strength in any way. However, there are many ways your strength escalates the longer you play. The main driving force is mods, but other options become more available as you move on. You have the ability to invest heavily into almost any weapon and push its limits further and further. For your specific preference of wanting to keep specific weapons, yes, this potentially possible, but depending on the weapon, it might not scale as well into late-game content as other weapons, and you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage by sticking to it.

However, many weapons have variants which are fundamentally the same weapon, but might be better suited to invest heavily into. This all depends on the weapon in question.

If there is a specific weapon you like, you can probably push it very, very far. However, warframe has literally hundreds of weapons, many of which have much more nuance than simply being different flavors of the same weapon, so you might find other weapons that you like more.

[Azure]

Relevant till you have all the unlocks and then largely is a counting metric that shows you can jump thru hoops. I'm MR27 with the 28 test waiting and it can keep on waiting as i have no use for MR anymore

[Spirit]

Originally posted by TheTool:

It's pretty much the gate between you and better/more powerful weapons and gear.

to unlock every weapon its simply enough to reach lvl 15 , but some of these "tests" are obnoxious like the stealth one

[ttv/xarenth]

Originally posted by Burba:

I might just be the wrong kind of person for this game. I tend to find things I like and keep them. Only ever changing equipment if the game forces me to through difficulty. For instance I found a minigun in Destiny 2 the week it came out and it never left my inventory to this day. I liked it so I just kept using it.

I already have a warframe and weapons I am happy with. What is my low mastery rank going to stop me from doing?

It's pretty important up until 16 when all weapons are unlocked. Past that, it's still relatively important depending on how quickly you want to progress and/or how much you like trying new equipment + your tolerance for leveling them.

You always gain a higher focus/void traces/syndicate rep cap as you gain MR. This can allow you to acquire BPs, mods, etc faster. Getting more focus is a pretty transparent benefit, but both of these may not matter much to you if you dont care for those systems.

[Foster]

Originally posted by Burba:

What is the minimum MR to make the game worth playing in your opinion?

I think MR 8 is required to do the most important things. everything after that is unlocking access to very useful but technically unnecessary mechanics and items (including weapons.)

I believe once you hit MR 15 you literally have access to everything though, I could be mistaken, so if you want to be able to access all content then you want to hit that.

If you bother to level up new weapons and frames regularly you should be fine.