How To Survive

This guide explains the many ways of increasing survivability, through items and strategies, and is aimed at beginner and intermediate players.

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STAY MOBILE

Parkour Sequence

Staying mobile makes it harder on enemies to land attacks obviously, but there are specific parkour moves that increase movement speed and produce better results.

All those corpus enemies weren't able to land a single hit. These parkour moves do not guarantee no damage at all, but with good parkour, a high percentage of attacks can be dodged.

Starting Position


Bullet Jump


Double Jump


Mid-Air Roll


Mid-Air Kick and Slide


Roll

Abilities Castable In the Air

It is smart to take advantage of abilities that can be casted mid-air. A perfect example is Nova's M Prime ability. When casted, M Prime has an animation that makes you vulnerable to attack which is especially dangerous because Nova is squishy. Therefor, it would be smart to cast it while bullet jumping instead.

Vertical Bullet Jump and Cast


Horizontal Bullet Jump and Cast
Hold glide to extend horizontal travel during cast.



I have a really in-depth guide on parkour, Speed Runs: Tips, Parkour, And Ability Mechanics. Though the focus of the guide, is traveling from point A to point B as fast as possible, following the guide also boosts survivability by a ton.

MODS & ITEMS

Mods

Of course, there are the run of the mill survivability mods.



It is important to note that the mods are multiplicative. To get most bang for the buck install the mod especially if the base stat is high. For example, a base health of 225 with a max vitality will equal 555 health, which is an increase of only 330 health. Meanwhile a base health of 450 with a max vitality will equal 1110 which is an increase of 660 health.

The following mod combo is especially good on squishy warframes, or warframes that are not fully leveled yet.




Important note: Some people avoid using quick thinking because of the stagger animation when it kicks in. It is important to quickly bullet jump right after the animation to escape, or your warframe will continue staggering until death.






Handspring is effective against swarms of infested where likely hood of being knocked down is high.

Arcanes

Arcanes are rewards for killing or capturing Eidolon Teralysts. A complete set to reach rank 4 is 10. Each complete arcane set installed gives an extra revive. With 2 complete arcane sets, that's a total of 6 revives versus default 4.

At max rank, Arcane Gaurdian gives a 20% chance on being damaged to receive +600 armor for 20 seconds. This is an amazing defensive arcane especially on squishy frames. For example Nova Prime has a base armor of only 65. At 65 armor as explained in the "Armor/Damage Mitigation" section, Nova Prime will receive just about 100% incoming damage. With this arcane proc'd, Nova Prime will have 665 armor and will only receive roughly 32% of all incoming damage.


At max rank, Arcane Energize gives a 40% chance on energy pickup to restore an additional 100 energy. This arcane synergizes well with the quick thinking, (primed) flow, and rage mod combo.


At max rank, Magus Elevate gives s 75% chance when transitioning from operator back to warframe, to heal your warframe for 200 health. Spamming in and out of operator quickly restores health to 100%. Because this is an operator arcane, Magus Elevate does not provide an additional revive.


At max rank, Arcane Grace gives a 6% chance on being damaged to regen 4% health per second. This arcane set is mostly useful on tanky warframes since the regen rate is slow but steady.


At max rank, Arcane Aegis gives a 6% chance on being damaged to regen 60 shield per second for 20 seconds. This arcane is best on warframes with high shields such as Volt Prime, Mag, and Trinity Prime.


At max rank, Arcane Barrier gives a 4% chance on being damaged to fully restore shields. This arcane is best on warframes with high shields such as Volt Prime, Mag, and Trinity Prime.


At max rank, Arcane Eruption gives a 20% chance on energy pickup to knock down all enemies within 20 meters of you. This is effective, but also inconsistent. It's probably most consistent in a defense where many kills take place in one area.

COMPANIONS

Don't underestimate how much companions help with survivability.

Most Effective Sentinel Mods

Most Effective and Exclusive Sentinel Mods

Most Effective Sentinel Weapon

Artax provides soft crowd control by cold proc'ing enemies. It is explained in depth in my other guide, Proc'ing Growing Power: +25% Power Strength. Though the guide focuses on proc'ing growing power, it also doubles as a form of soft crowd control.

Most Effective Kubrow/Kavat Mods

DANGEROUS ENEMIES

*This section refers to enemies found in most normal situations and excludes bosses or special enemies such as enemies found in the index.

GRINEER

Heavy Gunners do a lot of damage, but telegraph their attack through the loud wind up on their machine guns.



Bombards shoot slow moving grenades that are sneakily silent until detonation. They should be killed as soon as possible and have killed many tenno.



Ballistas are deadly accurate but telegraph when they're are about to shoot with a high pitched sound.



Hyekka Masters carry the ignis flame thrower and should be kept at a distance.



Scorch is dangerous for the same reason Hyekka Masters are. They carry the ignis flame thrower.



Manics are quick, teleport, and go invisible. Doing enough damage to them they become invincible while frozen for a short period. They then wake up and start teleporting again. You have to do this about three times before they die. Crowd control abilities work well against them. If left to their own devices, they will one-hit kill you.



Napalms shoot incendiary grenades that explode in a large radius. After the explosion, fire hazards lay on the ground. Try to avoid the fire hazards.



Ramparts appear on some maps and equips a grineer unit with heavy machine guns and invincibility from the front. They can be destroyed from behind.



Kuva Guardians only show up in Kuva missions. They are invincible and their strong attacks knockdown tenno. To temporarily take away their invincibility, the tenno must go into operator mode, do a void blast, then void dash through them. If successful, you will hear a loud clang as their metal polarm hits the ground.

CORPUS

Nullifier Crewman protect themselves and any enemy inside of their nullifier bubbles. The nullifier bubbles also protect against damage and crowd control from warframe abilities. These are high priority targets. Their nullfier bubbles can be destroyed by shooting the projector drones usually located above the nullifier bubble. Shooting directly at the bubble works too but be mindful that critical damage does not register and that fast firing status weapons are most effective.


Scrambus' jam warframe abilities.


Bursas are dangerous and have a wide array of attacks. They are vulnerable from behind and the top tip of their heads.


Sapping Ospreys drop dangerous blue orbs that produce AOE damage. The orbs should be destroyed from a distance.

INFESTED

Juggernauts have killed many tenno. They have crazy armor, but have weak underbellies. One of their attacks exposes their underbellies and the tenno should take advantage. Another solution is to ignore them.


Mutalist Ospreys create poisonous clouds that bypass warframe shields.


Tar Mutalist MOAs shoot poison goop on the floor that should be avoided. The poison bypasses warframe shields. The goop can be destroyed with weapons.

OTHER

The Stalker is a notorious assassin out to kill the tenno. He randomly spawns in missions if the tenno is marked. He disables warframe abilities, teleports tennos who run away to him, and deals high damage. He adapts to damage, so using multiple damage types is ideal.


Battalysts and Conculysts spawn after an oculyst drone detects the tenno. They do great damage and adapt to damage, so using multiple damage types is ideal.

ARMOR/DAMAGE MITIGATION

Damage Reduction From Armor

Looking at the graph we see how armor rating affects damage infliction.

Armor	Damage Received
0	100%
300	50%
600	33%
900	25%
1200	20%
1500	16%
1800	14%
2100	12%
2400	11%
2700	10%

TRUE TANKS

This is not a builds guide, so there are no builds. This section is only meant to help you in picking a warframe to use.


Valkyr has 600 base armor and Valkyr Prime has 700 base armor. Valkyr becomes invincible after activating her fourth ability, Hysteria. She is then limited to powerful, but short-ranged claw attacks.


Wukong has only 225 base armor, but with his second ability, Defy, and the right build, he becomes immortal.


Nidus has a base armor of 450 and achieves invincibility by a combination of stacks, his third ability, Parasitic Link, and health regen from his fourth ability, Ravenous. Nidus is an amazing defensive and offensive warframe and takes skill to play. His potential comes out during long endless survivals, because of the way his stacks work.


I have written a guide on Chroma, Chroma: INSANE Damage And Survivability


Inaros has base armor of 200 which can be increased with mods, and his fourth ability, Scarab Swarm. He has highest health pool of all warframes with base 2200. With a max vitality mod, total health comes to 4620. His third ability, Sandstorm, acts as a great crowd control ability.


Rhino has 190 base armor while Rhino Prime has 275 base armor. Rhino's second ability, Iron Skin, absorbs damage, leaving Rhino invincible until the armor's health depletes. Rhino's first ability, Charge, with augment mod, "Iron Clad Charge," gives additional armor. Rhino's fourth ability, Stomp, provides great crowd control by totally freezing enemies in a radius around him.


Trinity and Trinity Prime have only 15 base armor, but makes up for it with powerful abilities. With 150% power strength, Trinity's fourth skill, Blessing, gives her and her allies 75% damage reduction. Her third ability, Link, also transfers damage to nearby enemies for even more damage mitigation. Her second ability, Energy Vampire, regens her's and her allies' energy. With augment mod, Vampire Leech, any over-regen gives her and her allies over-shield.


Nekros and Nekros Prime have only 65 base armor. However, Nekros' third ability, desecrate, spawns many health orbs and with the mod, "Health Conversion," Nekros easily gains 1350 armor for roughly 78% damage mitigation. Nekros also has a fourth ability, "Shadows of the Dead," which summons shadow versions of dead enemies. They take a lot of the attention away from Nekros. Further damage mitigation can be gotten with the augment mod "Shield of Shadows." "Shield of Shadows" allows Nekros to transfer a percentage of damage he receives to any active Shadows of the Dead minions within 50 meters. Nekros' third ability, Desecrate, forces fallen enemies around you to drop additional loot. Each dead body is desecrated, and using slash weapons cuts the bodies into two for yet another chance.


Atlas has 450 base armor. All of Atlas' abilities create rubble which restore some health and provide additional armor. Atlas' second ability, Tectonics, can block off small choke points. Atlas third and fourth abilities, Petrify and Rumblers, provide crowd control by petrifying enemies. Atlas can be built to have around 1700 armor which equates to 85% damage mitigation. This damage mitigation, ability to self-heal, and crowd control makes Atlas hard to kill.

MID-TIER TANKS

This is not a builds guide, so there are no builds. This section is only meant to help you in picking a warframe to use.


Frost and Frost Prime both have base armor of 300. Frost's third ability, snow globe, creates a protective sphere. It shields from projectile attacks and enemies caught within are slowed and projected outward. The globe has its own health and is destroyed once depleted. Frost's fourth ability, Avalanche, freezes and damages enemies in a radius around him.

DEFENSIVE ABILITIES

This is not a builds guide, so there are no builds. This section is only meant to help you in picking a warframe to use. The following warframes aren't tanky, but have abilities that help with survivability such as crowd control and invisibility.


Combining Ash's fourth ability, Blade Storm, and third ability, Teleport, and in that order, provides a very brief time of invulnerability during his attack animation. This combo of abilities, however, can mostly only be used in terms of survivability as a last ditch effort to survive. Ash's second ability, Smoke Screen, provides invisibility.


Banshee's third ability, Silence, stuns enemies in a radius.


Ember's ability, World On Fire, combined with her augment mod, "Fire Quake," stuns and knocks down enemies in a radius.


Equinox in night/day form, can put enemies to sleep using her second ability, Rest And Rage.


Excalibur's second ability, Radial Blind, blinds enemies in a radius.


Gara's fourth ability, Mass Vitrify, forms a glass that prevents projectiles and enemies from entering its circle.


Harrow's fourth ability, Covenant, provides him and his team a short period of invincibility.


Hydroid's second ability, Tidal Surge, transforms Hydroid into liquid and crashes forward as a wave of water. He is invulnerable during the surge and knockbacks any enemies in the way. Hydroid's third ability, Undertow, is a great ability where he becomes a pool of water. Any enemy who unknowingly walks over the pool will be trapped and take damage. During Undertow, Hydroid is invulnerable. Hydroid's fourth ability, Tentacle Swarm, offers crowd control. Although its range is respectable, it will not be as large as some of the other CC abilities other warframes have. Tentacle Swarm also does some damage and with the augment mod, Pilfering Swarm, enemies held by tentacles have a 100% chance at additional drops.


Ivara can go invisible using her third ability, Prowl. In this mode, Ivara has limited mobility, but can be alleviated by traveling along her first ability's dashwire arrow. Her first ability, can also be switched to sleep arrow mode, which puts enemies to sleep.


Limbo has amazing crowd control by combining his second and fourth abilities, Stasis and Cataclysm. All enemies within the Cataclysm become frozen. The cataclysm also causes any players within to be invulnerable to outside attacks. Limbo also has the ability to become invincible at any moment by going into the void dimension and simply rolling which for limbo is instead a dash animation. However, in this dimension, Limbo cannot damage enemies, preventing him from true tank status.


Loki can go invisible, using his second ability, Invisibility. He also has an amazing ability to disarm enemies forcing them to melee only, using his fourth ability, Radial Disarm. His first ability, Decoy, creates a hologram of himself which redirects enemy attention to it.


Mag's second ability, Magnetize, creates a bubble around an enemy. The bubble attracts bullets and instead redirects them toward enemies within the sphere. With the augment mod, Magnetized Discharge, any enemy whose bullets enter the bubble have a 50% chance to be disarmed. Mag's fourth ability, crush, restores shields and provides overshield.


Mesa's third ability, Shatter Shield, at default 100 power strength reduces incoming bullet damage by 80% and with more power strength up to a max of 95%.


Mirage's first ability, Hall of Mirrors, creates four dopple gangers of herself. These dopple gangers trick enemies into attacking them preventing most damage to the player. Mirage's fourth ability, Prism, blinds enemies in a radius. The blind, however, only reaches enemies with an open line of sight.


Nezha's fourth ability, Divine Spears, impales enemies in a radius and disables them. Nehza's third ability, Warding Halow, creates a protective ring that absorbs all incoming damage. It has its own health and stuns enemies nearby.


Nova's fourth ability, M Prime, provides great soft crowd control, slowing enemies up to 75% at 145 power strength. I have written an in-depth guide on Nova, Nova: Crowd Control, Farming, DPS, POE, Raid, And Speed Run Builds.


Nyx's third ability, Chaos, forces enemies in a radius to fight each other. Her fourth ability, Absorb, imobilizes Nyx, but causes her to be invulnerable. This ability is very situational and has a high energy drain. With the augment, Assimilate, Nyx is able to move normally but at 50% speed. This slow speed leaves very little viability in normal gameplay.


Oberon's third ability, Renewal, is a great healing ability. With the augment mod, Pheonix Renewal, Renewal causes any fatal damage to instead heal the player and allies for 50% health. This, however, only works every 90 seconds.


Octavia's first ability, Mallet, draws enemy fire. Her third ability, Metronome, allows you to go invisible.


Vauban's third ability, Bastille, suspends enemies into stasis. With the augment mod, Repelling Bastille, the Bastille repels new enemies when it reaches maximum amount of enemies it can contain.


Volt's fourth ability, Discharge, stuns enemies in a radius with electric. With the augment mod, Capacitance, 3% of the damage is converted into shields for the tenno and his allies. Volt's third ability, Electric Shield, provides a small invulnerable duration based shield. Because of its size, it best used in a small choke point to block enemy fire. I have written a very in-dept guide on Volt, Optimized Volt Builds: An Advanced Guide.

LIFE REGEN

Arcanes that provide life regen are detailed in section, "Mods & Items."

Furis

Important: Winds of Purity cannot be equipped on Afuris or Dex Furis.

Hirudo

Does not need any mod. Steals life from enemies on critical hit.

Life Strike

Can be equipped on any melee weapon. Steals life on channeled strike.

Equilibrium

Vazarin's Protective Dash

Void dashing through your own warframe or allies will grant immunity from damage for 5s and heal 60% of the warframe's health over 5s. This is especially useful for warframes like Inaros who has 4750 health with a max vitality and 8765 health with all +health mods. At 4750 health, that equates to 570 health healed per second and with 8765 health that equates to 1051 health healed per second.

OPERATOR MODE

In operator mode, the warframe is invincible unless an active ability is on. If an active ability is on, the warframe will instead take 90% damage reduction. By crouching, the operator enters into void mode, where he/she becomes invisible and invincible. This void mode is helpful in many situations such as safely reviving allies or hacking.
Maxing Zenurik's Void Siphon and Void Flow is recommended to be able to stay in void mode longer. Energy restores are also an option and restore operator energy.

ARCHWING

Please refer to my other guide, Pro Archwing Builds And Best Weapons To Use, for the tankiest Archwings.

CONCLUSION

If you ever wondered why vets tend not to die very much, well this is why. :)

MY GUIDES

How To Make Platinum

• How To Make Platinum: Long Term Investments
  
• How To Make Thousands Of Platinum Selling Rivens

Weapon Builds

• Best Weapons In The Game!
  
• The Scoliac: The Largest Area Damage Weapon In The Game!

Warframe Builds

• Optimized Volt Builds: An Advanced Guide
  
• Chroma: INSANE Damage And Survivability
  
• Nova: Crowd Control, Farming, DPS, POE, Raid, And Speed Run Builds
  
• Loki: All Builds
  
• All Things Rhino
  
• Proc'ing Growing Power: +25% Power Strength
  
• Learn To Mod On Your Own 🙂

Archwing Builds

• Pro Archwing Builds And Best Weapons To Use

Missions

• Speed Runs: Tips, Parkour, And Ability Mechanics
  
• 250k Focus In 10 Minutes!
  
• Riven Challenge Guide

Beginner Guides

• 🤗Ultimate Beginner's Guide To Warframe 2018🤗
  
• How To Survive
  
• How To Leech In Warframe 101 :>

[Sic.bn]

Garbage

[ThePHiLsTeR [¬º-°]¬]

Life regen section added.

[ThePHiLsTeR [¬º-°]¬]

Equinox corrected and mag crush added.

[Velnairi]

Should also mention under the Mag section, Crush will both restore shields and grant overshields.

[tattledomo123]

equinox is female in both states

[Quack]

limbo can still slap stuff in his dimension (melee)

[Scoinc]

you forgot that banshees 4 staggers enemies when hit

(Also, both forms of Equinox are female)

[Nobody]

you should add that gara is invincible while casting mass vitrify

[ThePHiLsTeR [¬º-°]¬]

Added

[Himi]

What about nezha's hoop? Works similar to iron skin.