Endo Farming – Warframe

An in-depth guide to Endo farming on Vodyanoi arena, Sedna. Including builds, Mechanic explanation, and team positioning.

The motivation behind writing this guide

The reason I decided to write a guide about Endo farms was because not only it’s an unknown type of farming for the most of the player base, But also the more people hear about it the more they decide to just hop in, Completely ignoring the requirements of this farm and annoy their teammates. While neither of the rookie players and the unexperienced players gain the much needed endo. And even if they do, It’s super underwhelming and awful for everyone in the group.

Although there are countless guides out there on the internet both in text and video format, People not only don’t bother checking them but also resist to take a look at internet guides with several excuses.

So here’s the latest steam guide on Endo farming for everyone who are either just starting out or the players who do it regularly, But in the wrong way. So here we go:

Direct endo farming, Why do it?

Before we jump into the guide, I wanted to mention that this guide is focused around the direct Endo farming rather than some well known sideways to get endo in game. But if someone happens not to know them in a rare case, Here are some other indirect ways to get endo in game: 1. Sell duplicate mods for endo. 2. Ayatan treasures, Including the ones from Maroo’s weekly quests and the random ones you get in missions or as sortie rewards (Tho you might have experienced the pain from getting anasa from sorties already!)

But why should you farm it directly the way explained in this guide? Because when you compare other common ways, This is yet the fastest way to farm endo in Warframe. Compared to a filled Anasa sculpture which gives around 4.7k Endo while sold to Maroo, Doing around 5 direct farms, Each taking ~2 mins gives the same amount of endo while there is no limit to the number of runs. I will explain the drop rate of this method and how RNG and the farming setup might affect it as we go further but let’s start with the basics.

Where and how to do it?

The famous sedna node, “Vodyanoi” is where the farm happens. This node is an arena mode. The rules of this mode is simple: You have to kill 25 grineer AI enemies who are called “Executioners” to win the match. And in a rare case, If the executioners manage to score 25 kills, You lose the match. The Vodynaoi needs at least 15 judgement points to enter which you can gain from the lowest level arena node on Sedna, “Nakki”. Once successfully finished a run on Vodyanoi, Players are rewarded with 25 judgment points. Which means playing on Vodyanoi after the first run is technically free since you gain more points than you spent entering.

But how do you do it? The special thing about the node is that the executioners drop table is simply limited to some health orbs (Which are not exactly a drop!), Some super rare mods such as “Vengful Revenant” and Endo! So killing enemies will drop endo, But it’s not really that much. You need 25 kills for the match while endo has drop chance of ~ 22.5% from each enemy killed. That being said, It’s a very low endo drop on normal conditions. Even if you ever manage to get an endo drop from each of those 25 kills, It’s still around 750 in total. And it gets a bit worse as if you decide to do it solo or with random unrelated frames in your team, Since each run will go around 4~5 mins and even longer depending on the players skill and arena modifiers. Since the enemy level on Vodyanoi is around 85, And those are heavily armored grineer units with a lot of utilities to render you paralyzed and a lot of damage to kill any frames in 2-3 hits, It could mean that the runs are gonna take even longer. These points bring us into the organazied meta teams that are focused on speeding up the process, Lowering the downtime and increasing the endo droprate using tricks.

Edit: Removed where I say the health orbs are in the droptable of executioners since those are actually a product of the desecration.

Team positioning and the reasons behind it

Now when it comes to the endo farming “Meta”, Most people ignore the facts. Same as when it comes to Eidolon hunts, ESO runs or even kuva farms, There are several players who tend to break through the meta simply because they don’t want to bother with getting the required gear for the job. It might work for kuva survivals and to a less extend for eidolon hunts and ESO runs, But it does not work at all when it comes to meta endo farms. The reason: Efficiency. In other examples, The efficiency problem can be slightly fixed either by the player’s experience or some high damage weapons or abilities to save the meta breakers from being useless. But luckily (Or maybe not!) When it comes to endo farming it’s all simply about math. Testing out new things are usually rejected because “Doing alright” isn’t enough fro endo farming. You have to maximize the performance as much as possible.

Which brings us to the proper setup for endo farming on Vodyanoi arena.

A team consisting of 1 Nidus and 3 Nekros’s. The mentioned meta breakers (Actually attemports to break it!) Usually step in at this point and mention that having more than 1 Nekros will not affect the droprate since “Desecrate” does not stack. Which is true. Then why should have more than 1 Nekros in your team? Again it’s not about stacking desecrate. It’s about time! Here is what happens on the proper endo farm team: Nidus, Who has a lot of range and duration, Put his larva in the specific spot (Which you can see in the below screenshot) And drag in every enemy around into the larva. Then the whole squad starts attacking them with ONLY weapons that apply slash damage to enemies, Cutting them into 2~4 parts (Depending on the weapon which will be explained later) And desecrating them for more endo drops. The reason to have 3 Nekros’s around is simply to lower the desecrate downtime to 0, Meaning that every single available body part will be descerated as soon as possible before you get enough kills to finish the game and there will be not a single body part missed as they tend to disappear in a few seconds, So that everyone can get all the drops rather than having to watch them spawning after the game is over and no one can move further to pick them up.

As you can see 3 Nekros players desecrate the parts at the same time, Meaning that not a single parts vanishes before being desecrated so therefore you get those drops asap and miss nothing.

There is also a 3rd reason for having many Nekros’s, And it’s simply that no matter how skilled or well equipped you are, Those tough executioners will take you down every now and then. So even if one or 2 Nekros’s go down you still have another Nekros to desectare the much needed parts while dead teammates are on their long respawn cooldown.

RNG and the run’s rating

Now when it comes to the drops, Even with desecrate you still have to deal with RNG. RNG is always at work so you might end up with 1k endo per run for 3 runs and then get stuck with ~400 endo gain per run for 6 runs. When that happens, Usually the newbies of the squad leave because they think it’s somebody’s fault that they get low drops. As an experienced endo farmer with a few thousand runs, I can clearly tell you that you should not leave your squad behind as you might end up with another squad who might get the same results, UNLESS the squads performance is low and underwhelming. How do you rate it? You don’t rate it with the RNG affected endo gain, You rate it with the time spent factor.

Here’s an example:

• Got ~300 endo per run for last 3 runs, Each one taking ~ 2 mins: RNG
• Got ~300 endo per run for last 3 runs, Each run taking ~ 4 mins: Squad performance efficiency issue

There is another example to make it clear:

• Got 300 endo in 1~2 mins: RNG
• Got 1k endo in a 4~5 mins run: Severe squad performance issue (Because prolonging the run could mean more endo, But it clearly means at your squad is not able to kill enemies fast enough and if the modifier is bad it’s gonna be even more painful!)

These being said, The standard time of the run must be 1~2:30 mins.

Here’s how to rate the runs and squad performance:

• 200~300 endo = Basic run (Not calling it a bad run, As a bad run is one that takes <4 mins long)
• 300~450 endo = Ok run
• 450~650 endo = Normal run
• 650~800 endo = Good run
• 800~1000 endo = Perfect run
• <1200 endo = Legendary run (Maybe it sounds dumb but it does happen every now and then. Too bad I was so jazzed and forgot to screenshot the glory! )

Warframes setup

Starting with the warframes, I have to mention that I only farm endo as Nidus. Although I had a Nekros prime around, But my interest in plats made me to sell him away and I have no desire to get him back, Specially for Vodyanoi farms. The real thing with Nidus is that no matter how good or bad the player is, There is always a room for error. When I farm endo I prefer to be the one who uses larva and crowd control’s. I’ve seen many Nidus’s who either put the larva in the worst spots so that no one can reach them, Or some other who usually forget to cast it regularly in first place, Which leads to enemies walking freely and screwing everyone around, Which itself leads to a lot of downtimes and long run or what I define it “A bad run”. It might be sarcastic, But if the Nidus of the team can’t even properly press ONE button then even If I had kept my Nekros around I wouldn’t bother to play him without a proper CC in squad. Besides Nidus players are harder to find for endo runs thanks to the grind behind getting him. So I’d rather find Nekros’s as everyone seems to have one in a corner. Notice that both Nekros and Nidus builds must include “Corrosive projection” (or as called by recruiters “CP”). In other words all 4 squad members must have CP equipped on their warframes. That being said, Let’s cut right into the builds:

Nekros: His build is simple and even tho I don’t use it, I know how to mod it:

• Despoil: Since Nekros is only gonna use his Desecrate ability he doesn’t need energy for other abilities. Despoil solves the energy problem in arena by simply using your health instead of energy for desecrate.
• Stretch + any other range mods: So that you can have a longer range for desecrate. It’s true that Nidus has to gather all the enemies in one spot so the loot management is easier. But thanks to the wiggling effects of larva the bodies might get thrown around like a basketball and drop far away from the door camping spot. Besides having some extra range on Nekros is never a bad thing.
• Health Coversion: This is by far the most important mod for Nekros on Vodyanoi, Since the desecrate cycle will give you a lot of health orbs to keep the armor up all the time. Which is really important as the executioners have a lot of damage output.
• Some health and armor mods
• Natural Talent: To smoothen the animations and therefore speeding things up.

The rest of slots can be used to fit in anything you desire, Since the mods mentioned above will do the job for you. I highly recommend not trying to use your 4th and trying to tank through “Shield of shadows” As it’s just not needed, But it also can mess things up the whole scene and ♥♥♥♥ the shooters of the team off since they can’t aim well. It’s also because you have to mod for a lot of strength to tank, Which is not needed for endo farms. But still, It’s your call

Nidus: Nidus is all focused on range and duration to drag and keep enemies down for easier and faster runs as he only casts his 2 at the door location. Rage provides all the energy you need for cast as well.

Arcanes are not really needed here but you can go for “Arcane Grace” and “Arcane Strike” for some enhancements.

Weapons setup

As mentioned earlier, All the damage dealt by squad memebers must be slash. No elementals except for “Viral” or “Corrosive” should be allowed. Specially “Blast” and “Heat” must be avoided like plague as they do not allow further body dismemberment and the body parts disappear faster (Although the last one is said to be visual)

Therefore, In theory ANY weapon that deals slash damage is allowed in endo runs. But notice that some are superior to others. The 2 most used and effective weapons are “Kohm” and “Atterax”. “Tigris prime” can also be used to explode bodies into pieces (It is NOT blast damage, As mistaken by some players). The real thing with weapon setup that no one tells you is that in a squad where a player or 2 use a maiming strike atterax, The other players don’t even have the time to get enough kills/ Damage dealt as one or 2 players swipe the crowd in a few seconds. It is a VERY important thing to note that you should not blame other players for not getting so many kills for the mentioned reason.

Remember, Doesn’t matter who is getting all the kills, You just need as many body parts as possible. A kohm is way slower than atterax slide attacks and you may end up with the least damage dealt (~5%) and kills, But in fact you are doing the most important thing. Whoever kills the enemies on larva, It’s you kohm that is slashing them into 2 or 3 more parts, Dead or alive as they fall to ground. The ideal weapon setup is that 1 or 2 players use atterax or other fast high damage melee’s and 2 or 3 others only use kohm for more slashed parts. In case no one has the right melee setup for this, Everyone can go Kohm/ Tigris, But do not forget to make it fast or you might end up with a “Bad run” .So let’s get on with the builds:

Kohm

• “Chilling grasp” and “Toxic barrage” are here for Viral damage. Viral is important here, Since with the high status you have on kohm, Combined with higher fire rate you end up killing groups of enemies on larva pretty fast.
• “Hell’s chamber”, “Vigilante arnaments”, “Vicious spread” and “Point blank” are pretty much for the raw damage.
• “Shotgun spazz” is also importantas you need the high fire rate for faster take down.
  Something to note here is that “Vicious spread” is not a very popular mod on several shotguns. But since you’ll be shooting at the larva in a circular shape from up close, The inaccuracy won’t be a problem.

Atterax

This is a well known build and almost anyone who has ever heard the term “spin2win”. Thanks to the recent acolyte event,
“Maiming strike” is now more accessible and cheaper than it was before.

All to know about this build is that: 1. You won’t need any specific stance as atterax is a “slide attack-only” kind of weapon. 2. You can use the “Primed pressure point” in this build but the thing is: I removed “Weeping wounds” from last spot and put in the “Buzzkill” in there. The atterax with maiming strike and “Blood rush” always performs red crits after a few slide attacks. You wont need status mods in there to kill things fast, Since it already is fast. Then using Buzz kill + Pressure point equals 120%+ 120% = 240% slash damage, Which is bigger than 165% melee damage from the primed pressure point. 3. “Berserker” and “Drifting contact” are both utility mods to keep your speed up and make sure combo counter lasts longer in case you can’t manage to hit enemies for a few seconds. (Which happens every now and then if you manage to kill the enemies too fast and empty the map for a while)

Small note about atterax “Spin2Win”: Since you’re going to be slashing enemies at high speed while moving fast to avoid taking hits, You can simply use a macro to spin attack around or else you might end up breaking your fingers Ctr+E’ing around at high speed while you might also miss some spins in between. Since I’m not really sure about DE’s rules on macros, I do not recommend using auto click macro softwares that record and repeat clicks and personally don’t hold any responsibilities for any banned accounts who use them (You would never know how the things might go when it comes to the hammer of ban!). But you can simply use safe and easy softwares such as Razer synapse to simply bind macros to your mouse 4 or 5 button. Seems like the note wasn’t so small afterall!

Final notes

A lot of us might not like the “Meta”. As this word usually means doing something that you don’t find fun, And yet might have to do. We criticize the Eidolon huntings recruiters: Oh I need void strike to actually do some work in the hunt? Oh you’re asking me to have an archwing so I don’t waste 5 mins running to the altar? Oh this? Oh that?

But it all makes sense as you once run in a hunt or similar missions, Only to realize that you are not providing anything to the team, But are also slowing them down or cause some inefficiency.

Same thing is right about Endo farms, But on the bright side all you need is the right frame and minimal mod investment. Even kohm does not need super rare mods to work here. Maybe the maiming strike build is a bit expensive, But it’s still not something people ask you to have. It’s more of something that other squad mates might provide so everyone can have a more smooth experience.

All these things being said, There are some tips left that are important.

Avoid like plague

1. Using Radiation (Specially on Arca plasmor), Heat and blast elementals. About other elements, As far as I know Toxin, Cold, Gas, Magnetic and electricity do not affect the body parts disintegration timer.
2. Using Nuke frames, Specially ones with built in elementals. A.K.A Miasma Saryn, Avalanche Frost
   and Chroma. The elemental frames mentioned above actually do affect the body parts as they make them dispose way faster than they would in a normal condition. Also even if they don’t cause elemental issues, Discharge volt or max range Mesa for example, They still cause enemies to die in a distance. So you get corpses all over the place and drops in locations that you don’t even have time to check. So the whole team will split up and…
3. EV trinity. Yes she is popular. Yet she is nothing but a wasted slot here. No one need her EV in first place as Nekros either use “Despoil” or “Equilibrium”, While Nidus has his “Rage” or “Hunter adrenaline”. The bless is also useless as there are loads of health orb around and both Nekros and Nidus have their own survival mods already.
4. “Pilfering swarm” Hydroid. In theory, He can increase drops alongside with Nekros. In action, It’s cancer! The tentacles either grab every enemy around and keep them wiggling around which means you’re gonna have a rough time killing them, OR Won’t do anything as the interaction between larva and tentacles is 0. Meaning that if larva got them first tentacles cant grab them afterwards. OR you can first wait for the whole duration of tentacles and once they are gone, Cast larva and kill the targets then. Have fun with hour long runs for perhaps +1k extra endo Just don’t do it!
5. “Slowva” and “Speedva”. There is no need to even explain this one. Enemies will either take days to walk out of their spawn in slomo OR jump on you like a tiger and tear everyone apart.

At the end, Thx for reading the guide. I hope it helped you max out all your primed mods and some GROFIT. Don’t forget to upvote if it was helpful to you…

Original Link – Continuation of discussion