Gold-gilded Prime Warframes and weapons represent the peak of Warframe‘s style and substance. Anything Prime looks better and has slightly better stats. Hence, all that glitters is gold in Warframe; the veteran players know this, and the newbies crave it. But getting them isn’t as simple as grinding one boss. Here’s a clear, no-nonsense guide to farming Prime Warframes efficiently.
Step 1: Understand Void Relics
Prime Warframe blueprints and weapon blueprints are obtained by opening Void Relics. Thankfully, you can unlock Relics as soon as you’re introduced to Earth, Venus, and Mars, shortly after the tutorial missions. Each Relic contains parts for specific Prime gear, including blueprints, chassis, neuroptics, and systems. Relics come in four tiers: Lith, Meso, Neo, and Axi, where each is tied to different mission levels.
You can earn Relics through:
- Void missions (Missions in the Orokin Void area in the Star Chart)
- Bounties in open world maps (Earth – Plains of Eidolon, Venus – Orb Vallis, Deimos – Cambion Drift)
- Defense and Survival rotations
- Syndicate rewards (Through the Syndicate terminal, left of the Navigation terminal)
Step 2: Farm the Right Relics
Not all relics contain the parts you need. Before farming, check which relics drop the Prime parts you want. Then target specific missions:
- Hepit (Orokin Void) for fast Lith relics
- Ukko (Orokin Void) for Meso/Neo relics
- Higher-level Disruption missions for Neo and Axi relics
Efficiency matters, so you’ll want to run fast missions repeatedly rather than slow, high-risk ones. It also helps to bring the right Warframe for the job. Rhino (2nd Ability) is great for newbies, so you don’t have to worry about dying too much. Volt (4th Ability) can also be modded to erase areas full of enemies in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, powerful frames like Wisp, Saryn, Mesa, Revenant, Wukong, and Titania can make missions faster or easier by nuking areas with their Abilities or turning into walking fortresses.
Once you have the Relics, it’s off to Void Fissure missions (check the Navigation panel) to crack them open like walnuts.
Step 3: Try to Upgrade Your Relics First
But wait, before bringing Relics into Void Fissure missions, you can refine them using Void Traces. This increases the chance of getting rarer rewards:
- Intact (base)
- Exceptional
- Flawless
- Radiant (best odds)
Radiant relics are key when hunting rare Prime parts. If you don’t have Void Traces, it’s fine, no need to upgrade the Relics in that case. But you can earn Void Traces in Void Fissure missions as well, after collecting Reactant (the key to opening the Relics).
Step 4: Run Void Fissures (Smartly)
To open relics, play Void Fissure missions. The best strategy? Squad up.
When playing in a group, you can choose from any reward your squadmates get. This massively boosts your chances of landing rare parts. Public matchmaking works fine, but coordinated squads (called “radshares” or relic-share) are even better; everyone brings the same Radiant Relic (or lower) for maximum efficiency.
Step 5: Trade Smart (Optional but Powerful)
If RNG isn’t on your side, you can use trading. Sell duplicate Prime parts for Platinum, then buy the missing pieces from other players. It’s often faster than endless grinding. Other players will surely have gotten luckier and perhaps even own multiple Prime parts you’re after.
Step 6: Craft the Prime Warframe/Weapon
Once you have all the Prime parts necessary to craft a Prime Warframe or weapon, head over to the Foundry in your Orbiter and craft it. Usually, you’ll need to wait around 12 hours for each Prime Warframe part to finish crafting, with an additional 72 hours (three days) to finish crafting the Prime Warframe itself.
That’s a total of 84 hours, assuming you crafted all three Warframe parts (chassis, neuroptics, systems) all at the same time. Meanwhile, for weapons, you don’t need to craft the individual parts, only the weapon itself, and that will take around 12-24 hours.
Step 7: Watch the Vault
Not all Prime Warframes and weapons are always available. Some are “Vaulted,” meaning their Relics no longer drop, thus making their blueprints and parts more expensive to trade for (or sell). However, they return during special events like Prime Resurgence (through Varzia in Mars – Maroo’s Bazaar). Keep an eye on rotations so you don’t waste time farming unavailable relics.
