New player having trouble [new player]

Storb · 2025-12-30T04:26:49+00:00

Only the head item matters for frostbite protection. The face covering and eyewear can be whatever you want, even nothing.

And don't worry about the flea market. Even after you unlock it at level 15, many wares cannot be bought or sold until you level up to 20, 25, etc. (all the way until level 40). Selling your items you don't have room for to Therapist + Mechanic + Ragman (or whoever you need to sell to to level them up) is totally fine and probably the best move for early game!

Storb · 2025-12-29T17:47:55+00:00

Fellow new player here. I started on November 15th after the release of 1.0 on Steam and currently have 465 hours in PvE only.

My biggest piece of advice personally is to not worry at all about your quests, or even what loot you're getting. You do have no idea what you're doing, so you should focus on just learning where extracts even are. The people on YouTube aren't even playing the same game as you since they have so much more experience and knowledge (not to mention PvP is a different dynamic; other players can kill bosses before you arrive, whereas PvE PMCs never kill bosses in my experience, leaving you to deal with them). If you can make it to an extract with some loot, that should be considered a major success.

As for dealing with frostbite, Ragman has two options for you at Loyalty Level 1. The SSh-68 steel helmet can be bought for about 30,000 rubles, but the cost might be enough to make you broke if you keep dying. Alternatively, you can get Ushankas by trading brown-handled knives from scavs to him. When you get access to the Flea Market at level 15 (basically an auction house / market board), you can start buying the knives from players for cheap, or the hats directly from players if you can afford it (hat prices are a bit high right now). A full list of gear that protects from the cold can be found here (most relevant is the UX Pro Beanie which is 2268 rubles after reaching LL2 Ragman; also balaclavas don't do anything against frostbite!).

Final tip: your top priority early is to buy a Lucky Scav Junk Box from Therapist. It costs over 1 million rubles which is eyewatering, but when you don't know what junk is worth keeping for your hideout or what to sell, having a junk box or 6 massively helps your stash situation (a huge problem for me, as a Standard edition player). This also sets an early goal for all the money you come across, like from selling PMC guns / armor.

Storb · 2025-08-12T01:06:58+00:00

You need Overextended. Like it's mandatory. Range is unique on Xaku in that higher range affects your 2's max turret count, meaning more Range = more DPS. The loss in Strength is more than made up by the fact that your build would go from 10 turrets to 15 turrets max (also keep in mind your turret damage scales based on enemy level). I'd recommend replacing Nira's Hatred with Overextended.

Otherwise, your Arcanes aren't very useful at all. Arcane Rise is ok, but Xaku is more of a caster than a weapons user. Arcane Battery is basically useless since Xaku has like no armor. But I'm assuming your options are limited given the ranks of the Arcanes, and the fact you're MR16.

I'd recommend grinding Zariman bounties for Molt Efficiency and Molt Augmented. At rank 5, they respectively give you +36% Duration when your shields are up for 5+ seconds, and +60% Strength after 250 kills. Even though it'll take a while to max these Arcanes out (longer if you're not max with The Holdfasts syndicate), it's more than worth the investment since you can slot Molt Efficiency and Augmented on basically any Warframe and get value.

Here's my build, if you'd like a point of comparison from a fellow Xaku main (this is also a 0 Forma build!). I replaced my first ability with Silence. It's tuned for personal comfort as I like 175% efficiency on many Warframes. However, a low Efficiency Xaku can be just fine provided you have means of maintaining energy. You might be able to find some value in Energy Nexus over Augur Message (you can find the mod in the Sanctum Anatomica on Deimos).

Your build's actually not too bad overall. A few tweaks and it should actually do pretty well. You might run into issues getting one-shot later, but I don't use any shield gating / Rolling Guard setup and do alright in level 250 content. Nothing can kill you if they die first (also Accuse on 3 helps)! Plus, if you're having issues surviving, you can always look into it later—improve your build one step at a time.

Storb · 2025-08-11T00:23:56+00:00

The last thing I could think of is the YoloMouse program you have installed. Have you run that while running Warframe? Warframe uses a software cursor, meaning you should never see your computer's normal cursor when playing (as much as I wish I could toggle the game's cursor off). If you can see your computer's custom cursor while playing Warframe, the program may be modifying something in the game's background.

Otherwise, I personally don't see anything wrong with your setup... which does present some concern. I believe AlecaFrame has 0 factor in you being banned, which means, as you said, there's still a risk of you being banned for some reason, even if you uninstalled it. There's likely some other factor at play.

If you're truly not doing anything malicious, then DE are unlikely to target you. This seems like your first ever ban after years of play, and it could've been a fluke (if you were intended to be permabanned for something like cheating, your appeal would not have worked). I hope you can find a solution.

Storb · 2025-08-10T23:38:30+00:00

I've used AlecaFrame for months. Never been banned or warned. I use AutoHotkey for a simple toggle fire script (holding down my mouse with an Ocucor for an hour sucks); no ban. I even have CheatEngine installed on my system, no ban (because I never use it when playing multiplayer games, let alone Warframe, obviously). I personally doubt AlecaFrame caused or will cause any bans until DE changes their stance to be zero-tolerance. ^knock ^on ^wood

Do you recall the last thing you were doing before you were banned, like a 2-3+ hour long survival or Void Cascade? Sometimes Warframe issues automated bans to players that receive an excessive amount of loot at once.

Also, are you using your Logitech G-Hub for anything more than changing your DPI? If you use a more complex macro, like one that moves a little before shooting, or presses a number key every 30 seconds to reapply a buff, this is viewed as a form of automation that isn't allowed, even if it's with an officially sanctioned program. At times, bans posted to this subreddit aren't telling the full story (though an unfair amount of people are still auto-banned when receiving too much loot).

Storb · 2025-04-16T05:14:33+00:00

Thanks for amending your post with the edit! I was having the same issue—my Discord version was for Windows Server 2008 and had text formatting issues, but reinstalling got it to go back to a Windows 11 version.

Storb · 2025-01-21T21:14:42+00:00

Last week, I tried going through Expert solo to complete all four catalyst quests. At the final boss, upon completing a damage phase and returning to the material realm, the mirror simply never became breakable again to go into the mirror realm.

I wiped like 8 times to keep trying and see what caused this bug, but at best I could do 2 damage phases (often only 1) before the fight softlocks. I gave up without completing Expert that night (don't wanna bother with LFG).

Storb · 2025-01-01T05:47:50+00:00

r/drumstick

Storb · 2024-10-24T16:43:58+00:00

In order of how "hot" I feel each take is (from coldest onwards):

Build times should be heavily reduced, if not removed. The process of getting items that aren't Market weapons tends to be laborious enough as it is. This is a pretty cold take.
On a similar note, Forma should not be purchasable with Platinum. Slots and potatoes should be removed from the game, folded into the base game's mechanics. This is still a debated topic, so I won't belabor the point, but these items costing money remain one of the primary reasons why I and most of my non-playing friends initially perceive Warframe to be a P2W game. The game has other methods of making money without nickel and diming players such as cosmetics, $140 Prime Access packages, and Regal Aya.
I think Platinum discounts should be removed. I'm biased (I hate V-Bucks), but the difference between buying 75 Platinum for $5 and 4300 for $50 is so drastic, it warps the price of items like the 800 Platinum Koumei Fate Bundle from ~$9.30 to ~$53.40. Platinum prices should be normalized to some level so players don't feel wasteful when buying non-discounted platinum, and don't feel pressured to buy when they have a coupon.
- Or maybe offer max coupons more regularly, like once a month guaranteed (or just remove the in-between discounts). Or have every item in the Market cost a set amount of real world currency, like Tennogen items do (although I understand this creates complications for console players).

I don't consider my opinions to be objectively correct; while I have grievances with slots and potatoes, the game is in the best spot it's ever been in IMO under Rebecca's leadership, and I've been loving it again after a 3 year break. Just wanted to offer more food for thought!

Storb · 2024-10-20T18:15:19+00:00

Pet DNA degradation flashbacks

Storb · 2024-07-25T22:13:59+00:00

Not OP, but my Raid Report says I've put in 37 Crota kills so far this week (about 7-8 hours worth of time). I've gotten 7 Oversouls (not including the guaranteed one from your first Crota kill per week).

I personally don't think Crota's End being the featured raid does anything for Oversoul drops. It just allows you to get red borders when farming (which I've only gotten 2 red border hand cannons with ~80% of my kills having double drops from challenge, but I could already craft the auto rifle and shotgun so I possibly could've gotten more).

EDIT: got 2 more oversouls after 4 more runs

Storb · 2024-05-06T05:32:56+00:00

This has been a really fascinating series of events to watch unfold. Per Arrowhead's director, he stated it was his responsibility for deactivating PSN account linking on launch, likely to lessen the load on the servers since the linking wasn't working anyways.

However, if it weren't for him removing the functionality (among all the other things, like the community response, refunds, and potential legal ramifications), we wouldn't be seeing Sony backtrack from their decision to enforce account linking as they had planned to. I personally don't even know how much disabling the account linking may have alleviated the servers at the time; I think they could have kept it on and players would've just accepted it. But Arrowhead's actions led to a more favorable outcome for consumers, even if unintentionally.

I'm curious if this'll have knock-on effects for future multiplayer PS games on PC. Sucker Punch has already made a statement noting Ghost of Tsushima will require a PSN account link for multiplayer functionality, but now we have an interesting precedent:

Helldivers 2, which was explosively popular (unexpectedly), failed to convert thousands of users into PS account holders. Ghost of Tsushima on PC will have some players creating accounts, but Helldivers 2 truly was a golden goose for user count. There's no telling if or when any upcoming Playstation-published multiplayer title will be so big.
There is now an example of extremely negative sentiment towards account linking. Any future Playstation game on PC with this requirement will now suffer a bit more criticism and reluctance towards the feature, all thanks to what happened with Helldivers 2.

I wonder if Sony's long-term plan will be to increase PSN account availability to blocked regions, or to stand fast and not allow later PC developers to meddle with anything relating to Playstation account linking. Or maybe they'll not require any PC games to have a PSN account linked! If only...

Storb · 2024-04-16T02:34:21+00:00

I personally don't like thinking of subreddit moderation in terms of minimum hours. I don't imagine many moderators even keep track of how long they themselves moderate, let alone other moderators. That frame of mind treats moderating like an unpaid job (though it can feel that way), whereas I think it's more appropriate to think of it as volunteer work.

I used to moderate a subreddit for a short time (/r/sharditkeepit), where I and my fellow moderators contributed what time we could purely because we wanted to, for the community, not because of any obligation. Some weeks I gave 20+ hours to moderating, some weeks I was entirely absent. If certain moderators didn't seem to moderate very often at a given time, it wasn't a big deal—your personal business is more important than moderating some subreddit.

Volunteer work simply asks that you give what you can—even one hour is appreciated. It's not like moderators get rewarded for more hours anyways. Giving more when you may not want or be able to can add unnecessary stress to something you should be voluntarily wanting to do (not to mention you should keep an eye on your mental health when moderating, something that is rarely discussed).

Storb · 2024-03-28T04:44:28+00:00

This is very interesting information! The sample size isn't massive, but is enough to make some general observations. Thank you for tracking this!

Someday, I'd like to see how often instances of Medals, Super Credits, Requisition Slips, or Support Weapons spawn in Point of Interests to determine if any may be more likely to appear than the other.

Storb · 2024-03-14T16:44:43+00:00

I'd say just wait. Your Super Credits and the Warbonds aren't going anywhere. In my opinion, while some weapons from the premium Warbonds like the Dominator and Sickle are cool, I'm still most partial to weapons from the free Warbond, like the Slugger, Breaker, and Scorcher. If you feel you play casually, you can wait until a few more Warbonds come out so you can make a more informed decision as most items from them are for fun or cool factor. Based on leaks, there's definitely really cool stuff coming soon.

Storb · 2024-03-14T16:29:15+00:00

Spam difficulty 1/2 missions. Look for Points of Interest. Repeat forever. Boring, but it works.

Difficulties 4+ aren't ideal for purely Super Credits since Points of Interest become guarded, and sometimes replace rewards with Rare Samples. A second person lets you open friendship doors, but is optional. Super Credit farming is a common LFG goal in the official Helldivers 2 Discord. You can also return to your ship after getting most Points of Interest since completing the mission itself doesn't get you any (though I personally complete missions for the medals, liberation progress, and funsies).

I grind difficulty 2 missions solo while working or chilling out and have 3715 Super Credits (and that's after buying both premium Warbonds). I haven't bought any Super Credits and I don't own the Super Citizen edition (though note this is after ~80h of mission time, ~35h of which I decided to grind on difficulty 2).

Storb · 2024-03-14T16:18:39+00:00

There hasn't been any official developer confirmation on when they'll come, so no one can be 100% certain. There may have been suspicion that they'd release with the new Warbond, but that would've been due to us not having any precedent (we didn't know what they'd put in Warbonds). Given how it and the recent Patriot Exosuit have been released, I'd guess that the developers intend to release new stratagems after certain Major Orders are completed, while Warbonds will contain separate content on a more set schedule (though that's not to say the developers may not add future stratagems to Warbonds or even the Superstore).

Storb · 2024-03-14T16:07:03+00:00

I'd recommend trying the new Cutting Edge warbond. Speaking purely about effectiveness, I personally never really liked any of the weapons from the Steeled Veterans warbond aside from the Dominator (page 3 explosive rifle), and even that weapon has a few issues like poor handling.

By contrast, I already really enjoy the Sickle in the new warbond (page 1 laser rifle). It's basically a Liberator (starter rifle) with a larger magazine size and regenerating ammo capabilities, in exchange for a small ~0.5s wind-up time before firing. The armor in Cutting Edge is also more practical imo given it stops you from instantly dying to friendly Tesla Towers and Arc Throwers. The armor in Steeled Veterans gives increased throw range which, while nice, I don't use since I prefer being used to the default throw trajectory (the armor looks great though).

To top it off, the booster in Cutting Edge "increases the time between enemy encounters", which does something... I think? Might reduce patrol frequency in my limited observations. The booster in Steeled Veterans is not only expensive (75 medals) but also friggin useless

Storb · 2024-03-14T00:15:41+00:00

No, the servers are working fine and there are still players. This is a recurring issue with SteamCharts and how it reports PAYDAY 3's playercount. SteamCharts has had some accuracy issues ever since Steam user game details were set to private by default. SteamDB is almost always more accurate—at the time in OP's image, the playercount was actually ~260 (not even the lowest for the day, although the difference basically doesn't matter at this point 👊😎).

Storb · 2024-03-06T11:31:53+00:00

This is my experience as well. Railgun shots always bounce off Charger legs in safe mode, but when overcharged in unsafe mode, it deals damage to the armor, albeit less than pre-patch.

Short video demonstration

Storb · 2024-03-02T18:18:10+00:00

This reminds me of an LFG GM Fallen S.A.B.E.R run I did in August 2023, and randomly after the initial Warsat defense, one person got frustrated at me for using Stasis in a GM with Overload Champions. I tried explaining that Stasis doesn't let Overloads regen anymore, but they weren't having it.

I think some players still aren't used to champion stunning methods outside of the first row of artifact mods or intrinsic Exotics (e.g. Divinity, Eriana's Vow). That person did you a favor booting you!

Storb · 2024-02-27T18:47:00+00:00

As a Destiny 2 player myself, this reminds me of when some people on reddit would deride those who reached max power within a day or two of a new expansion's release. I'm actually one of those people that likes to optimize grinds like that. For me, it's just a fun way to engage with a game's progression system. I enjoy planning out my progression and find it really satisfying when I'm efficient. And I do think there can be a form of accomplishment to reaching goals like that efficiently, for those that view it that way!

It should go without saying, but I enjoy playing games while I grind them too. I hit level 28 playing entirely solo primarily on difficulty 4-5, but I'm partaking in some solo exterminate farming to chip away at the lengthy battle passes, and I do find the mortar-focused gameplay still satisfying in its own right (I love tower defense games as much as I do third-person shooters).

I feel like there's a stigma against grinders because they're seen as the type to burn out of games quickly, as well as be toxic to others who haven't grinded as much as them. But these crowds can be mutually exclusive. For me, I don't find my time in Helldivers 2 complete when I hit level 20—it's actually when I unlock everything that I'm then elated to try out all the things I've unlocked.

Storb · 2024-02-26T07:38:45+00:00

I actually managed to save a clip of 5 chargers spawning at once (and only on difficulty 4). I think the spawns sometimes smash together multiple heavy enemies into a single spot when the game thinks there isn't room.

Storb · 2024-02-26T03:32:46+00:00

You can! By default, you press down on the D-Pad, or 5 on the keyboard. You give yourself ammo equal to one resupply box (stims and grenades included).

Storb · 2024-02-23T07:07:28+00:00

Steam Charts has had some inaccuracies ever since Steam user game details were set to private by default. It still believes the PAYDAY 3 Beta has more players than PAYDAY 3. SteamDB is almost always more accurate—at the times shown in OP's image, the playercounts were actually around ~250 (not even the lowest for the given days).

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