Hit a Solo Brick Wall

[Mr Windblade]

First off, I'm not good at the game. I get spotted at the beginning of almost every mission (I've even gone so far as to spawn in front of security cameras, go figure) but usually I can fight my way out of the level and get something going. I have pretty good aim, so hitting the "sweet spots" isn't hard.

But some enemies, like the Corpus, have no real weaknesses except their torsos, and even then, it's not a great way to save on ammo. Other enemies, like the Grineer, dish out damage so fast that it's tough to do anything about them.

I'm not really able to create anything (that I'm aware of) and I'm mostly doing stock damage despite having a level 17 frame (Excalibur, I'm a beginner after all) and rank 13 weapons (MK1-Breton, Lato, Cronus). I am doing something wrong, and I know that, but I can't figure out how to get the blueprints I need to continue playing what seems to be a really interesting game.

[Suzaku]

The first thing you can do to help yourself is pick up a Braton (not the Mk-1). You can buy it straight from the marketplace for 25k credits. You may also want to buy Aklato for another 25k as well.

Since you're playing as excalibur, you've got two really useful abilities that you should definitely equip and use, those being Slash Dash and Radial Blind. Max out both of these abilities, because Slash Dash will basically insta-kill anything lvl 40 and below (aside from heavy units), and Radial Blind blinds all targets within 14 yards of you, allowing you to finish them off or make a quick escape to cover.

If you plan to put a reactor into him (which doubles your mod capacity), your other 2 abilities are very useful too. Super Jump gives you a lot more flexibility when getting around the map compared to other frames, and Radial Javelin can decimate groups of enemies.

Don't forget to mod your weapons according to the faction that you're planning to fight (assuming you have the mods): Armor piercing for Grineer (it works well for the other two too), Shock for Corpus, and Fire for Infestation. Ice deals double damage to shields, and slows down targets to a crawl.

And just in case you didn't know, when in melee, don't bother with normal attacks (tapping E). They can be reduced by enemy armor and simply don't hit hard enough. Use charge attacks (hold E), and you'll kill most enemies in 1-2 strikes. I've seen too many new players stay out in the open for 15 seconds to kill one enemy because they think 20 fast cuts are better than 2 clean slices.

[Elaboration]

I'm a new player as well, but I'd say that the most important thing is to replace that MK1-Braton with the Braton (similar name, but handles like a totally separate, improved gun). It's only 25k credits in the store for the gun (not just a blueprint), and it both shoots faster and does more damage.

The other credit-purchasable guns aren't bad. I like the Lex sidearm myself - 50k credits for a sniper pistol to replace that weak Lato. The Strun shotgun (75k credits) is fun to use, and is good for rushing through levels.

[Concerto]

You didn't mention mods. Have you customized your weapon(s) and warframe with mods yet? You can fuse them with others to upgrade their level and strength to. I'd recommend getting away from the mk1 braton though. Atleast buy & rank up the braton. Blueprints are found off bosses mostly, or got as rewards from completing some missions. And also the market.

[Mr Windblade]

I have been doing some mods, I have the armor piercing for Grineer (though it seems to add a second, separate damage count when I hit with it) but I didn't know that the Braton was oging to make such a huge difference (although the numbers are kind of deceiving, so that does make a bit of sense.)

I don't know what a Reactor is but if it increases my mod capacity, I'll take it. The Slash Dash is great, I just haven't done anything to upgrade it. The radial attack (power slot 4) has also come in handy a few times.

More than anything I just get totally overwhelmed numerically - they seem to send endless waves of dudes, and running makes things significantly worse.

[WantedOne (Lrn2shoot)]

Just an addon to Suzakus post: Some weapons inately ignore armor, but the charged attacks always do. A good place to check things out is the wikia if you are deciding what to buy.

[Vixus]

First off, try playing in low levelled areas, mostly mercury and venus so that you'll be able to level up most of your equipment, once you do that, you can start selling one weapon and then buy another and upgrade it and keep doing it and you'll see yourself become a pro. Btw, also remember to add friends so that they can join you and you guys can help each other out. And also, use the mod system to your advantage, learn a good excalibur build from the net and you'll find yourself on top of every situation.

[Suzaku]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mr Windblade:

I have been doing some mods, I have the armor piercing for Grineer (though it seems to add a second, separate damage count when I hit with it) but I didn't know that the Braton was oging to make such a huge difference (although the numbers are kind of deceiving, so that does make a bit of sense.)

I don't know what a Reactor is but if it increases my mod capacity, I'll take it. The Slash Dash is great, I just haven't done anything to upgrade it. The radial attack (power slot 4) has also come in handy a few times.

More than anything I just get totally overwhelmed numerically - they seem to send endless waves of dudes, and running makes things significantly worse.

The Braton is much better than it's Mk-1 version because of the higher damage and higher fire rate. That means you'll be able to kill enemies much more quickly, and bring their numbers under control. It's slightly less accurate, but I still pick enemies off from a mile away with mine.

An orokin reactor can be purchased from the marketplace for 20 platinum, or earned as a login reward, or as a possible reward from alert missions with a "?" listed. It doubles the amount of mod capacity that you have, so a level 10 frame will have 20 capacity, and a level 30 frame will have 60. You can use it at any time, since it scales with your character.
An orokin catalyst does the same thing, except for weapons.

If you have spare fusion cores, you can use those to upgrade your Slash Dash ability. If you haven't upgraded it, you're only hitting for 150, but it does 500 damage at max.

Use your stronger gun to cut down enemies as you see them, and Slash Dash to decimate lines of them.

[Zefar]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Suzaku:

Since you're playing as excalibur, you've got two really useful abilities that you should definitely equip and use, those being Slash Dash and Radial Blind. Max out both of these abilities, because Slash Dash will basically insta-kill anything lvl 40 and below (aside from heavy units), and Radial Blind blinds all targets within 14 yards of you, allowing you to finish them off or make a quick escape to cover.

He doesn't need to max the Slash dash skill. Getting to level 5-6 is enough to kill anything in one hit except those powerful units. Those only need 2.
I wouldn't waste points on Radial blind because if you got the dash you can deal with the enemies with that instead.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Suzaku:

If you plan to put a reactor into him (which doubles your mod capacity), your other 2 abilities are very useful too. Super Jump gives you a lot more flexibility when getting around the map compared to other frames, and Radial Javelin can decimate groups of enemies.

Super jump is not needed. It's only really useful on certain maps what I've seen but those are few. You're better off going behind a corner and have put points into Shield regen, Shield capacity or extra health mods.

The Javlin skill should only be taken if you have room left after the reactor imo. Though I'm assuming it drains a lot of energy that you use which probably isn't always ideal. So it gets to, couldn't the dash skill solve the problem with less energy? In most cases it will.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Suzaku:

Don't forget to mod your weapons according to the faction that you're planning to fight (assuming you have the mods): Armor piercing for Grineer (it works well for the other two too), Shock for Corpus, and Fire for Infestation. Ice deals double damage to shields, and slows down targets to a crawl.

My experience with armor piercing is that you need to max that mod to see any good effect from it. Right now for me it's rather useless even if it's up in 40% and this is on an Latron with damage bonus.
He's better off getting the Kunai as secondary weapon and find the damage upgrade for pistol. Heavy hitting armor ignoring weapon is LOVELY. Silent too. I'm dealing 87 damage at the moment with it and I never run out of ammo. Enemies takes like two hits or one to the head. Buffed units takes a bit more. I wonder if I can apply that double shot mod to this weapon as that might become a bit OP then.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Suzaku:

And just in case you didn't know, when in melee, don't bother with normal attacks (tapping E). They can be reduced by enemy armor and simply don't hit hard enough. Use charge attacks (hold E), and you'll kill most enemies in 1-2 strikes. I've seen too many new players stay out in the open for 15 seconds to kill one enemy because they think 20 fast cuts are better than 2 clean slices.

It depends on which enemies you fight. Those mutant? Just slash away and you'll kill all of them. Because the charge up only hit one enemy and they will stagger you. Slashing normally will get it done quicker.
It works on Grineer but you need to time the charge up every time or they'll just put you in a stagger position.

[Suzaku]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Zefar:

My experience with armor piercing is that you need to max that mod to see any good effect from it. Right now for me it's rather useless even if it's up in 40% and this is on an Latron with damage bonus.
He's better off getting the Kunai as secondary weapon and find the damage upgrade for pistol. Heavy hitting armor ignoring weapon is LOVELY. Silent too. I'm dealing 87 damage at the moment with it and I never run out of ammo. Enemies takes like two hits or one to the head. Buffed units takes a bit more. I wonder if I can apply that double shot mod to this weapon as that might become a bit OP then.

Every faction has an enemy that is weak to armor piercing; that's what makes it so valuable. Every Grineer unit takes a lot of extra damage from AP, corpus crewmen can't be headshot without it (they take 0 damage unless using a weapon that ignores armor), and infested chargers and ancients can be quite durable otherwise. It may not go as high as the other mods, but its cost also starts out lower.

Kunai are great (my current favorite, in fact), but he's only starting out. It'll be a while before he can stock up that much materials.

[Egro]

You can head shot corpus with a mod, well you can head shot most of enemies in this game. So aim at their head, or something look like a head.
Remember, depend on what mele weapon that you use. Simply spam E may be more effective than a charge attack. Like the dual ether dagger. Or more unique way to deal damage like the Ankyros, a jump attack 1 hit kill a Grineer if it's a direct hit.
Your stater gun is a good gun, some people stick with it all the way to pluto. The most important thing is the mods. If your gun lack something, you will fix it with mod. I personaly like the stun, but you will need to get very close to kill anything. So it's may be a good idea to mod up your curent gun and save up for better weapons.

And the most importance rule for a soloer is not surrounded by enemies if you are not a tanky frame.

[S3raph]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Zefar:

He doesn't need to max the Slash dash skill. Getting to level 5-6 is enough to kill anything in one hit except those powerful units. Those only need 2.
I wouldn't waste points on Radial blind because if you got the dash you can deal with the enemies with that instead.

.

Abilities only go to level 3 (which is why Suzaku told him to max it)... have no idea what you mean by level 5-6

[ȏ̵̹̱̈h̷̦̳͛ ̵̭̌̂n̷̪͎͗ö̵͇͓́͘]

just for those who dont know, feet is infested weak spot

[S3raph]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ffc:

just for those who dont know, feet is infested weak spot

Correction: Feet are ANCIENTS weak spot and only the right foot

[Zefar]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Egro:

You can head shot corpus with a mod, well you can head shot most of enemies in this game. So aim at their head, or something look like a head.
Remember, depend on what mele weapon that you use. Simply spam E may be more effective than a charge attack. Like the dual ether dagger. Or more unique way to deal damage like the Ankyros, a jump attack 1 hit kill a Grineer if it's a direct hit.
Your stater gun is a good gun, some people stick with it all the way to pluto. The most important thing is the mods. If your gun lack something, you will fix it with mod. I personaly like the stun, but you will need to get very close to kill anything. So it's may be a good idea to mod up your curent gun and save up for better weapons.

And the most importance rule for a soloer is not surrounded by enemies if you are not a tanky frame.

I've never been able to figure out the headshot area on Corpus. Those that ain't complete robots seems to be immortal on the head or I've just had laggy rounds at those points.

The main gun does work nicely but due to it's low damage at normal you'll need the mods at high level to do some reasonable effect.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von S3raph:

Abilities only go to level 3 (which is why Suzaku told him to max it)... have no idea what you mean by level 5-6

Felt like I've upgraded it several times but yes when I looked it said Common 3 at max level. So even at level 2 it's pretty powerful.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Suzaku:

Every faction has an enemy that is weak to armor piercing; that's what makes it so valuable. Every Grineer unit takes a lot of extra damage from AP, corpus crewmen can't be headshot without it (they take 0 damage unless using a weapon that ignores armor), and infested chargers and ancients can be quite durable otherwise. It may not go as high as the other mods, but its cost also starts out lower.

Kunai are great (my current favorite, in fact), but he's only starting out. It'll be a while before he can stock up that much materials.

It won't take that much extra damage unless you have a high damage weapon.

40% Armor reduction on an assault rifle that does 12 damage per hit isn't gonna deal a whole lot more. Sniper rifles or maybe a fully powered Latron will make good use of it.

In the start though he won't have many other cards to use than that so he can stick with it. But it never made a huge difference for me. Because if I wanted to kill Grineer quickly I aimed for the head.

Corpus seemed to go down fine normally and Mutants got hacked to bits.

[Mephis]

The reason you can't figure out how to headshot the corpus zefar is because their head is armored, the body isn't, A reverse grineer more or less.

Check the wiki for the actual armor spread, but generally skittling up your weapon (having a few types of damage mods) boosts its effectiveness in a crowd. Later missions it gets less prudent to slowly work through levels trying to kill everyone with guns. AOE abilities and good calls on fight or flight are the name of the game.

No one wants to get caught by a level 61 disruptor Ancient, No one.

"Mutants" are infected, they have no armor value, and take 3x melee damage from most weapons.

As far as OP goes:
Cronus is only a slightly stronger skana. I'd look at upgrading out of it by either crafting the Gram or the Dual Ether.

Gram is generally going to be more usefull across frames to do AOE melee, but I found the Dual Ether amazing at killing infected (which is what I end up farming for loot most of the time)

Gunwise, if you aren't very high rank, i'd look at the Gorgon possibly.