How to rank Warframes to Level 30 fast

Warframe is an epic, sprawling game with a ton of different ways to measure progression and rank up. One of the more important elements is equipment rank, so here’s our full guide to how it works and how to level up quickly.

Leveling up your equipment is dependent on earning Affinity while wearing a specific Warframe or using a specific weapon. Killing enemies, completing Missions, using powers, and earning Affinity Orbs all contribute to leveling up an individual Warframe.

Thanks to that broad scope, you should find that you are making decent progress through the ranks just by playing the game how you wish. That said, there are several more efficient activities and approaches, so you can maximize the use of your time.

How to level your Warframe overview

The way activities are designed in Warframe makes some far more efficient than others when it comes to farming Affinity. Our recommendations are as follows:

1. Defense Missions
2. Sanctuary Onslaught Missions (ideally Elite)
3. Spy Missions
4. Steel Path

Run Defense Missions

Digital Extremes/Dexerto

Defense Missions are the absolute bread-and-butter approach to earning Affinity in Warframe. Defenses are endless Missions where a team of players has to defend an objective from increasingly difficult waves of enemies.

Every five waves, players have the chance to leave and receive a reward or continue for another five waves. If you fail to reach the next checkpoint, then all previously earned rewards are forfeited, and you will leave with nothing.

The great advantage offered here is the sheer number of enemies it offers. Warframes earn 100% of the Affinity for ability kills, plus 50% of the earned Affinity for any weapon kills. This quickly spirals, and you should see your Warframe ranking up quickly.

The best nodes to look out for are Hydron on Sedna and Helene on Saturn, with the latter also offering a great source of ever-useful Orokin cells. Both offer Grineer enemies, who reward the highest amount of Affinity of any faction.

Complete (Elite) Sanctuary Onslaught Missions

Sanctuary Onslaught Missions follow a similar vein to Survival Missions. It’s an alternate version of the horde mode where players must survive for as long as possible against increasingly numerous and challenging enemies.

Chiefly, these missions serve as a great way to level up weapons but, as Warframes take 50% of Affinity for weapon kills, it’s also a great way of passively leveling up. There is also an Elite version of the activity, though you will need to be Mastery Rank 30 or have a Rank 30 Warframe to enter with an under-leveled, polarized Warframe to earn further Affinity.

Complete Spy Missions

Digital Extremes/Dexerto

In a different style of activity to the two we have been over so far, Spy Missions should offer a nice alternative for the stealth-minded. These task players with stealing confidential data from enemy systems via the game’s hacking mechanic.

This works particularly well because each Data Vault rewards 1000-4000 Affinity every time the player successfully hacks it. Take into account the fact that there are also enemies that you can choose to confront and there are plenty of sources of XP here.

The real trick is getting stealth kills to increase your multiplier in between Data Vaults. This is particularly good for solo players, those who prefer toned-down combat, and those who use Warframes suited to stealth segments, like Octavia or Loki.

Confront the Steel Path

Steel Path Incursions essentially function as an additional difficulty modifier for more experienced players. If you are later into the game and looking to level another Warframe, taking on Steel Path versions of the Missions above (aside from Sanctuary Onslaught, where it is unavailable) will easily be your most efficient route.

As well as offering a 100% increase to Resource and Mod drop chance, it also grants a ton of Affinity as you kill more formidable enemies. To unlock the Steel Path, you will need to play through and complete every node on the Star Chart, aside from the Mutalist Alad V Assassination, Railjack, and Golem nodes.

That’s all there is to know about leveling up your Warframe quickly and efficiently. Before you start grinding with the methods above, we recommend completing all of the story missions and additional nodes so you’ll be in a much stronger position to farm.

If you’re playing the latest update and plan on trying out Koumei, we’ve got the ideal build to get you started. Equally, if you fancy giving Caliban a go after it was given away for free, we have you covered there as well.