Warframe Mining Guide for Your Tenno

There’s a lot to do in Warframe. Whether it be taking part in Arbitrations, collecting and opening Void Relics, or farming for resources, there’s plenty of content to keep even the most devoted Tenno busy. Though many of these activities are combat-oriented in nature, Warframe also offers a number of more peaceful ways to spend your in-game hours, such as fishing, mining, and animal tracking. Today, we’ll be focusing on the second of these pastimes in our Warframe Mining Guide. Our mission: to turn your Tenno into an expert space-miner.

How do I start mining in Warframe?

There are currently only two locations where you can mine for gems and ore in Warframe: The Plains of Eidolon and the Orb Vallis. However, before you can start cracking open rocks, you’ll need some special equipment: a Cutter, to be precise. A Cutter is basically a small mining laser that comes with a built-in radar for locating nearby veins of precious ore and gems. You can buy one of these gizmos from Old Man Suumbaat in Cetus on Earth or from Smokefinger in Fortuna on Venus. Be aware though, that you don’t buy Cutters with Credits or Platinum. Instead, you’ll purchase them with either Ostron or Solaris United Standing, depending on the vendor.

So, you’ve got your fancy laser Cutter. Now what? Well, first, you’ll need to equip that bad boy in your Gear wheel, which you can do from your Arsenal. Then, simply head out to either the Plains of Eidolon or the Orb Vallis and equip your Cutter from your gear. After running around for a bit, you might just hear beeping coming from your Cutter’s radar. The beeping will increase in pitch and frequency the closer you get to a rock containing ore or a gem, so listen carefully! Your minimap will also show a small white icon that indicates the general location of the rock in question. You’ll know you’ve found the right stone if you see a streak of glowing red (for ore) or blue (for gems) carved into the rock, along with a few blinking blue points surrounding it.

Now that you’ve found the rock, just aim your Cutter at one of the blinking blue dots and hold down the fire button. This should cause a ring to appear, with a colorful glowing indicator swirling around it. You should also see a few areas of the ring marked with white brackets. Your job is to try and release the fire button just as the glowing indicator reaches the middle of one of these bracketed areas. The closer to the center you get, the better your reward. Once you’ve repeated this process for each glowing blue dot, you’ll be rewarded with a handful of ore or gems based on your performance. And hey presto—you’ve just mined in Warframe.

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What is the best equipment for mining?

Like most pieces of equipment in Warframe, not all Cutters are made equal. Unlike most equipment in Warframe, however, the best option for Cutters is pretty clear: the Sunpoint Plasma Drill. With a completely stable mining beam, a minimap radar with a 50-meter range, and the ability to mine the rarest of gems, this optimized Cutter is undoubtedly your best option for mining. It’s also pretty easy to get, costing just 2,500 Solaris United Standing at Smokefinger’s without any Standing ranking limitation. The Sunpoint Plasma Drill also has the unique capacity to be upgraded with two Widgets, both available from Smokefinger. These Widgets silence the drill, preventing it from drawing attention from enemies, and increase the range of its laser beam, allowing you to reach the trickiest veins of ore and gems. You do have to unlock access to Venus to get the Sunpoint Plasma Drill, but if you’re looking to be a serious miner, it’s well worth the effort.

How do I mine rare ores and gems?

Auron. Hesperon. Zodian. Thyst. These rare ores and gems can be a pain to find, but there are ways to make your hunt a little easier. First of all, try to mine in caves. Caves often have many ore and gem deposits stuffed into a relatively small space, making it much more efficient to mine there than above ground. Secondly, aim for the exact center of the brackets during the spinning ring segment. This should be self-evident, but the better you perform during this section, the more likely you are to unearth rarer gems and ores. Finally, pay attention to those “mini-brackets” you may occasionally see on the ring. These bracketed areas are extremely small and bisected by a white line. Though their small size makes it much harder to land the indicator in range, doing so will grant additional gems upon completion, providing an extra opportunity to obtain rare gems like Nyth or Sentirum.

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What can gems and ore be used for?

After you’ve collected a good amount of gems and ore (with help from our Warframe Mining Guide, of course), it’s time to turn them into something useful. Raw gems can be traded to either Smokefinger or Suumbaat for Standing with Solaris United or Cetus respectively, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to uses for your shiny new resources. Gems and ores alike can be refined into more potent forms using blueprints purchased from either of the two mining vendors. For example, Nyth can be refined into Heart Nyth and Venerol can be refined into Venerdo Alloy from your Foundry. Once refined, these gems and ores can be used to construct a variety of weapons, Operator cosmetics, Kitgun and Zaw components, Amps, and even components for certain Warframes, such as Garuda and Baruuk. For this reason, mining in Warframe can be well worth the effort, even if you’re just stopping to carve out a gem here or there while exploring the Plains of Eidolon or Fortuna.

Mine, All Mine

Mining is another unique aspect of Warframe’s open-world offerings that provides a welcome break from the shoot-and-loot grind. Whether you’re just looking for some relaxed rock-collecting or you’re hunting for rare gems to complete a sought-after blueprint, we hope our Warframe Mining Guide makes your mining journey a little less of a rocky road.

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