This guide will show you how to be a true ninja and play a hit game completely free! You will need a lot of patience though...

1. Getting started
2. Good uses for platinum
3. Gear up
4. Playing the first mission
5. Crafting
6. Finding materials
7. Partying
8. Clans
9. Mods
10. Sentinels
11. Solo tips
12. Information and stuff

Step 1: Getting Started

After the tutorial, you will have to choose between three Warframes: Excalibur, Loki, and Mag.

Excalibur- low armor but highest health rating with highly offensive abilities. Good for tanking (running into a crowd and not dying instantly).

Loki- rounded stats with abilities more focused towards support. Can place a decoy to draw fire and can become invisible for a time (good for stealth and sniping).

Mag- weaker stats but higher power rating. Mag is a caster or controller class using Mag-netic manipulation letting her control the tide of battle with her abilities.

When choosing a character make sure you're ready to commit to them because you'll be stuck with them for a while, unless you spend money of course.

Once you've chosen your Warframe you should be at the main menu. You may notice at the top by your information there will be credits and platinum. Both are currency in the game but platinum costs real money. You should start with about 50 plat or so and there's quite a bit you can do with it. Of course it won't last long, but (if you're on playstation) go to the store and look for the starter pack. It may or may not still be free, idk.
The starter pack comes with 100 plat, I think 30,000 creds, and some boosters that last a day or so. Definitely worth looking into.

Step 2: Good Uses for Platinum

So that 150 platinum is starting to singe a hole in your pocket? Don't do something stupid with it like I did, hold onto it for something you need or can help. Like a sentinel for starters. Basically a pet with individual uniqueness among each other, but we can talk about that later.
You only have a certain number of open spots for weapons and warframes. Honestly I only use the same three weapons I've used for like a month now so don't worry about that. However, you can only hold two warframes at a time and it's definitely good to expand your closet because each warframe has it's own set of revives (which replenish daily) and depending on the mission, your Warframe can make it or break it.
So don't blow your platinum on skins and accessories. Ninjas don't need flash and flare! (Unless it's a flash bomb or uv flare for night vision). And while we're at it, don't worry about using plat to rush an item, it'll be done when it gets done.

Step 3: Gear Up

There's a tool for every job and every job is a profession. A surgeon has a scalpal, a carpenter has a hammer, a tanker has a shotgun, a sniper has a rifle, and a controller has what ever they use in combat. But seriously, if you're gonna be tankin, your primary should probably be something that can do a lot of damage when your in Someone's face, secondary should be something that's gonna actually put a hurt on someone while you're bleeding out and melee should just be preference, so if you like to swing an axe then whatever lol.
The support/sniper type should have something that's better at a distance, like a bow or strong, single-shot rifle. Your secondary should be something that makes up for speed in case your in a close encounter, and melee is whatever as well.
Controllers should probably be packing the strongest weapons they can manage since their stats are so low. I honestly wouldn't know since I only have two warframes cuz I blew my starting plat on crap i mostly didn't need...

You should also prepare before a mission. Sometimes it's easier to handle a mission while being stealthy and sometimes it's better to bring every thing you have to the table.
Just play and you'll figure out what I mean.
Also be sure to equip gear in your arsenal, team heals and ammo caches are nice.

Step 4: Playing the First Mission

Your first mission should be easy enough to handle on your own. It's a good way to get the feel of your character and the controls. If you're having difficulties then your probably not equipped right, or not playing right. Running into a mob as Mag with a depleted power meter is a bad time waiting to happen.

Alternatively, it's a good way to test your ability while in stealth or while fighting everyone head on. I do this mission solo every so often just to touch up on stealth since I'm primarily a tank. If you find yourself in a tight spot while playing solo, look at the tips step

Step 5: Crafting

Every piece of equipment you see in the market can be crafted. I'm about 99.8% positive of that. So stop thinking about paying out of pocket for that fancy new Warframe or gun. You can buy blueprints in the market for most of the weapons. As far as Warframes go, you have to find blueprints to craft a helmet, chassis, and system and use ANOTHER blueprint (which you buy in the market) to put it all together. Building a Warframe is very time consuming but you can find the three components blueprints from assassination missions across the game. I've also found Oberon and Nyx component prints from survival missions on the second planet.

A lot of the weapons blueprints are found in the market but I noticed early on that some of the really cool ones weren't. I thought "maybe this is one of those pay-to-win games". Well it really isn't, those blueprints you can't buy can be made in a lab inside of a clan dojo. I don't recommend making a clan and I'll explain later. Join a clan that seems pretty far a long and has a lot built, but look out for taxes, people get stupid when setting taxes. What you're looking for in particular is a Lab, there's several types of them but the more the merrier. There are chemical, energy, organic, orokin, and Tenno research labs (as far as I know and I might have left one out), and these are where you spend those special blue items that haven't been used for anything in the foundry. The more people a clan can house, the more materials are required for research. So a ghost clan, like mine, would only use one of those items. Whereas a moon clan would use like 100

I.e. Ghost clan
Blueprint requirements:
Fieldron-1
Detonite injector-1
Mutagen mass-1
Credits-5000

Moon clan
Fieldron-100
Detonite injector-100
Mutagen mass-100
Credits-500,000

Step 6: Finding Materials

Most planets early on will have item drops consisting of a common, uncommon, rare and a research item
I.e.
Mercury
Common- ferrite
Uncommon- polymer bundle
Rare- morphics
Research- detonite ampule (I think)

Identifying rarity by Quantity per drop
Common- 80-200+
Uncommon- 20-80
Rare- 1-3
Research- 1-3 (however, it's more common than rare so drops about as often as common/uncommon)

Planets later on could have some weird mix like 2 common, 1 uncommon, and 1 rare for example.
There are some items that can be found anywhere just about, like nav coordinates. Some items are dropped by specific enemies, like oxium. And in some rare cases a boss can drop an item that's not a part of that planets normal set, like Vor who on occasion drops orokin cells.

Gathering for a blueprint could take some time. If you want to get a bunch of uncommon materials, you should do a mission where you know there will be a lot of enemies. I'm pretty sure exterminate missions are the only ones with enemies that don't spawn more when alarms are raised. Ideally defense and survival are the best for collecting any material. If you want an almost guaranteed rare drop then assassinations are where you want to be.

Step 7: Partying

So you should have a pretty good idea of how to play now, so let's party! Party play, that is. You'll find its a lot easier and faster to play in a party. Sometimes.
Sometimes it's frustrating. They die, you revive. You die, they run around you as you bleed out. You stay close and cover blindsides, they run off while you cover their 6 leaving yours exposed. Finding a good party is pretty difficult when most of the players treat this game like CoD.
But on the other hand, you're pretty under qualified for this area but the people on your squad can handle it by themself. So the sensible thing to do is stay close and loot as much as you can. Or, flip-flopped, you have someone pretty weak on your squad. Help them out, just cuz they died in less than a minute doesn't mean you should abandon them.
The best way to party on this game is fairly. If everybody works together things will be more rewarding, spiritually and literally more rewards for some people lol.

Step 8: Clans

As I mentioned earlier; making a clan is a bad idea. If you want to play free from the very beginning to the end, join someone else's clan, use their dojo for all it's benefits, and contribute in return! It is a symbiotic relationship, it is a community! Do your duty as a member and help out!
Otherwise you'll be in my situation: small clan, barely built dojo with a lab or two, trying to supply your own things by spending money at the benefit of any members.
It will be easier on you if you contribute the little things a dojo needs and in turn, you can use the dojo!
Running a dojo is probably the worst thing you could do but the most rewarding. If you absolutely need to feel this accomplishment, wait until you start getting Forma left and right because it's hard to come by and it's the most common material used for building a dojo.

Step 9: Mods

Before you go scouring the system for parts to a new weapon, try looking at mods. Yea you can only use so many, blah blah blah. Well modding my first rifle made it carry 72 rounds, every other hit was a critical, plus 40% fire rate and added 120 electrical damage on top of the regular damage. That rifle is still a pretty kick ass gun and I do use it from time to time.
But anyway, modding is a good alternative to crafting. If you ever see some infestation missions, do it! Those have an unusually high mod drop chance even though they drop the same few most of the time. Defense and survival are great for regular missions that drop a lot of mods. Also, in the market, there's a codex scanner. Great for tactical stealth, it outlines enemies within a certain radius (until they are scanned, then it doesn't pick them up anymore). After you've scanned an enemy so many times, their information starts to be revealed within the codex, including items and mods they drop. Definitely worth the 500 credits.

Step 10: Sentinels

Sentinels are pricey but they too can be crafted. They can help loot items, attack, scan, and that's just about it. But you should look into each one because they have their own role to play. Helios is the only one with a scanner, shade is better for stealth, deth cube is an aggressive cube of death, carrier is an item vacuum, and wyrm is a nasty slug thing... Wyrm prime is kick ass looking though, like a traditional Chinese dragon meets prime lol.

While on the subject of primes, everything prime can also be crafted, getting the prints for them sucks though.

Step 11: Solo Tips

So you're solo and there's an army on the other side of the door? Before you approach the door, crouch, and approach from the left. Stay behind the frame so you can get a better vantage of the enemies. While behind cover, start laying down some fire. Some enemies should flush out from behind cover and start shooting. Of course it's about like fighting storm troopers (if you don't get that joke, they can't hit anything). Stay cornered if you can so they can't surround you. Bring plenty of additional items like health restores and ammo restores. If you can make ciphers, always keep some handy, if security gets too heavy it's a quick fix.

Stealth approach! If you're solo, this is always the best way to get started. Make sure you have the scanner equipped and keep track of the enemies in the area. When you know it's clear, do a silent takedown. Approach from behind with the sword or from a distance with a bow or kunai... If you have those. Sometimes you can alert enemies who are close to the target when using the bow. Sometimes they watch their buddy fly right past them and think nothing of it. It's actually pretty funny like that......... If you want to get a bow, get Paris. Lots of fun, including multiple takedowns with one arrow, shooting enemies through barriers and walls, and the occasional dismemberment (shot a guy in the chest and his arms fell off, another in the knees and his lower legs stayed standing while his body pinned to a wall some 20 ft back).

Solo is a great way to improve yourself and hardens your skills to be better at tough situations... But partying has better drop rates!

Step 12: Information and Stuff

Pics were from the google at multiple sources
Information is from experience and wiki (look into for additional support)

If you need anything answered comment on this page or message me on psn
Psn id: moneyshot001584