[h2] Levelling, Mods and the Importance of Fusion[/h2]
I’ve mentioned mods a few times already, but now it’s time to learn how they work. Your Warframe, primary weapon, secondary weapon, melee weapon, and sentinel — once you buy or build one — all have their own experience levels. All characters and weapons start at level zero, and gain levels as you use them. With every level gain, characters and weapons unlock the ability to hold more mods.
Mods are a little like trading cards that grant players additional powers. They randomly drop from enemies during missions and can also be awarded to the player at the end of a mission. Each Warframe and weapon can reach a maximum of level 30, which means that once you’ve reached the level cap, you would then have 30 mod points to play with. You can go beyond the 30 mark, but we’ll discuss that later.
Each mod has a numbered cost associated with it. If your Warframe is at level ten, and you’re using a mod that requires two points, then you’ll have eight points left to spend on your other mods. Mods are also class-based. You might find a mod that increases your damage with shotguns, your fire-rate with rifles, your reload speed with pistols, or the recharge rate of your shields, but these mods can only be used to upgrade those specific weapons or Warframes. You can’t put a pistol mod on your rifle, or a health increase mod on your melee weapon. Character specific abilities — such as the ones listed in the “Selecting your Warframe” section above — are also unlocked and upgraded with specific mods.
Once you’ve started finding mods, it won’t be too long before you’re finding the same ones more than once. The good news is that mods can be “fused” together to create a more powerful version of the original. While any mod cards can be fused together, fusing two of the exact same mod will typically give you the best results. You might find a pistol mod that does 15% fire damage. Combine that with another of the same 15% fire damage mod and you end up with a mod that does 30% fire damage.
The first upgrade usually only requires two mods to be fused together, but the next upgrade will often require two or three more mods to be combined, and additional upgrades after that point will require an even higher number of mods. Another thing to note is as the power of a mod goes up, so will the cost associated with it. If your 15% fire damage pistol mod starts out requiring four points, you can expect that number to change to five points once it’s upgraded to a 30% fire damage pistol mod.
One more thing you should also be aware of is mod polarity. Each mod, and some mod slots, have a symbol in the upper-right corner. If the symbols match, the cost required to install the mod is lowered by 50 percent. If the symbols don’t match, then the cost to install the mod is increased by 25 percent. The Warframe specific abilities have a polarity symbol that looks like two claw marks and you should make sure to install them in matching mod slots to get the most of your Warframe’s potential.
Once you’ve started maxing out certain mods, you’ll be glad to know that there are a couple of things you can do with unwanted mods. You can simply sell them for a small amount of credits, or take four unwanted mods and “transmute” them into a new mod. If you transmute four rare mods, chances are good that the resulting mod will also be rare. If you put common mods into the system, you’re more likely to get a common mod out.
Keep in mind that there are no do-overs if you’re not happy with the result. Once you choose to transmute your mods, you’ll be stuck with whatever random mod that you’re given. You should also note that unlike fusion, you don’t get better results by using the exact same mods. Lastly, in addition to specific mods, you’ll also find plenty of generic mods that can be used to upgrade any mod. This is especially useful for rare mods, as it enables you to level those mods without needing to find more of them.