Updated:
30 Aug 2022
Since its release, Warframe has grown exponentially, in terms of both player base and systems available. As such, it can be difficult to know where to invest your hard-earned platinum, especially for newer players (And veterans who have their eye on that god roll riven). Luckily, we've got your back with our picks for the top 10 uses of platinum in Warframe today
10. Why buying prime gear is a great use of platinum
Boost your arsenal early on with these powerful weapons and warframes, bought from fellow players to get a headstart.
While prime gear bought from the in-game market demands a princely sum, generally speaking, player trading is an excellent way to build up your arsenal with high-quality gear. I find that if you're willing to shop around and haggle, you can pick up full prime warframe sets for less than 100 platinum.
If you want to get a feel for the prices of a specific item, I recommend using warframe.market, which is a great platform for player trading.
The main drawback of this use of Platinum is how time consuming it can become, however, there is a way to make your time turn a profit that I'll discuss later.
9. Fashion Frame is endgame
Cosmetics are generally fairly affordable, and offer a great extra layer of customisation to your warframes.
While looking good isn't a requirement in warframe, it's certainly something fun to spend time doing.
The above captura (Credit to u/BlueberryCatTH on Reddit), is an example of how good your warframes can look with a little investment from you.
For inspiration, I recommend the r/WarframeRunway subreddit, which is a highly active community of fashion framers who often post guides on how to achieve their look.
8. When in doubt, warframe and weapon slots
Regardless of your builds, progress and preferences, you'll eventually need to expand your arsenal with more slots.
While not a flashy pick, these are vital to expanding your arsenal, and come fairly cheap, thankfully.
Warframe slots come in at 20 platinum each, whereas weapon slots are 2 for 12 platinum. There is no way to reduce or circumvent this cost, sadly.
These can also be obtained through nightwave but to be honest, the rate at which you get them is too slow to keep up with the growth of most arsenals.
7. Buying new warframes outright isn't a bad choice
I'm looking at you, Harrow. Skipping the grind for a new frame can be worth the price tag.
Sometimes the grind for a certain warframe is a little too much. For instance Harrow neuroptics had a 1.5% drop chance from rotation C of defection missions, meaning one could end up running the same objective over 350 times before getting them.
To avoid equally frustrating grinds, and to get your hands on the newest shiny warframes, dumping some platinum into them is well worth it.
"Store Bought" Warframes also come preinstalled with an Orokin Reactor, which is a nice little bonus if you decide to buy outright.
6. Arcanes and Riven Mods are a great way to boost your gear to new heights
Sometimes, it's better to focus on quantity over quality with these rare and valuable items.
Riven Mods and Arcanes are a slippery bunch, being difficult to reliably farm. As such, buying them is a good way to save your time and sanity.
For Riven Mods, buying any riven for your desired weapon is best, then cycling it yourself for stats is the most economical, as god-roll rivens can fetch upwards of 3k Platinum
For arcanes, buying them in bulk, unranked is more cost effective, as maxed out arcanes fetch similar prices to god-roll rivens.
5. Buying up rare mods for specific builds can let you metaslave with the best of them
The more different mods you have, the easier it becomes to experiment with new builds and strategies.
While certainly not impossible, Arbitrations can be a grind, and buying the particular galvanised mod you've had your eye on can be a fair substitute for up to 20 rotations of these high-level missions.
Equally, mods with low drop rates that you really need for your build can generally be bought cheaply if you know where to look, and are willing to haggle. While it is possible to get for yourself, if you don't have time or want to do other activities, this may be the way to go.
4. Kuva Liches/Sisters of Parvos can be traded for their weapons
Getting a particular weapon isn't as much of a grind as it used to be, but this process cuts even that time down dramatically.
If you want a particular Kuva or Tenet weapon, you can usually buy it from another player via the Lich Trading system.
What this involves is a player selling a converted lich to a player with no active lich, giving them a new, active lich with whatever weapon it had for the seller.
This is an excellent way to fine-tune your arsenal with tailored Kuva and Tenet weapons, but be warned that the best gear doesn't come cheap, and you still have to kill your received lich before getting the weapon.
3. Exclusive bundles provide unique gear and cosmetics at a discount
Pick up a diamond in the rough today for rare weapons or a jumpstart in the railjack system.
While some aren't worth buying, a handful of bundles offered in the In-Game Market are real gems.
Pictured above is the Hunhow's gift bundle, the centerpiece of which is undoubtedly the War heavy blade, a weapon that is famously difficult to get a hold of normally, is now here for anyone with the platinum to buy the bundle.
Another great bundle early on is the Rising Tide bundle, which grants you access to a railjack right from the start, letting you bypass a lengthy quest
2. Exilus Adapters are extremely rare, but fortunately quite cheap to buy for platinum
These useful items are difficult to find normally, but easy to pick up in the in-game market.
While their weapon-based counterparts can be reliably sourced, Warframe Exilus Adapters have little in the way of a guaranteed farming method, as they tend to show up only periodically in alerts and sortie reward tables.
For this reason, paying 20 platinum to take advantage of an entire class of warframe mods is well worth the cost, especially when some of these mods, such as Power Donation, can change the role you play in a squad.
Many niche builds also benefit from mobility or ability enhancing exilus mods, meaning there's something for everyone's needs available.
1.Make your Platinum work for you, market trading will make your time spent pay dividends
Make use of tools available to begin turning duplicate gear into platinum. Do yourself a favour now and download the warframe.market app.
Nobody likes spending hours shopping around for a slight discount on gear, but being able to turn a profit might sweeten the deal.
Simply put, if you buy gear, mods and arcanes at the lowest possible price, there's nothing stopping you from holding onto them until the prices increase, then selling them at a profit.
This not only lets you build up a stock of gear at no loss to yourself, but also provides an income stream of Platinum for your own use, for free!
As a word of advice, however, don't charge more than you'd be willing to pay for yourself when you sell gear, remember, there are other sellers doing the exact same as you are.
