There’s a lot to do in Warframe, so any guidance on where to start can be helpful. Syndicates are factions within the game that reward you for completing certain activities, so getting to know which ones do what and how to get their approval is a must. Here’s a guide that will take you through all the Syndicates currently available in the game and tells you what to expect.
16. Conclave
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The Conclave is Warframe’s PvP syndicate. It is run by Teshin, who can be found on any Relay. To earn standing with the Conclave, players have to take part in Warframe’s PvP mode. Your choice of weapons and Waframes is limited to ensure balance, and there are select mods exclusive to this mode. It is, to put it bluntly, not popular. The very small player-base makes the mode frustrating, as you rarely come up against actual people. Forget about matchmaking based on skill. If you do come across a player, they’re likely one of the few dedicated who has invested heavily and will vastly outmatch you. You can select the ‘Recruit Conditioning’ mode to only match with people below Tempest rank, but this just decreases the odds you’ll ever see another person.
Gripes with the PvP mode aside, the Conclave acts as an alternative way to obtain Mag, Volt, and Excalibur, along with a handful of mods. Teshin also offers up some conclave-exclusive mods, some cosmetics and weapon skins, and a couple of Captura scenes. Since there’s nothing exclusive to the Conclave that isn’t purely aesthetic or only usable in PvP, there’s no harm in giving this syndicate a miss.
Choose the Conclave if…
You enjoy PvP
You want a specific cosmetic exclusive to Conclave
The Ventkids are found in Fortuna on Venus. Living inside the vents, these children refuse to labor to pay off family debts. Instead, they spend their days riding and modifying their K-Drive hoverboards. After getting a K-Drive from the ‘Vox Solaris’ quest, standing with this syndicate can be earned by riding and performing tricks. You can also gain it by completing races within a time limit on the Orb Vallis (Venus) and Cambion Drift (Deimos). The races available change each day, with the starting points indicated with a blue K-drive symbol on the map.
In terms of offerings, the Ventkids provide you modules to construct your own custom K-Drive, mods for the K-Drive, some cosmetics, a Captura scene, and the Kompressa weapon parts. K-Drives are fun to play with, but can only be used in the open world zones, and whilst superior to just moving around on foot, Archwings are much faster. The only advantage K-Drives have over Archwings is that they can be used inside buildings and caves. The Kompressa is also a fun and potentially potent weapon. l All in all this makes the Ventkids a fun, flavorful syndicate, but by no means essential.
Do you think it’s cheating to lump all these guys together? Well, it’s my list, and I don’t, so tough. All primary syndicates have representatives in each relay. In terms of getting standing and what they have to offer, the primary syndicates – Steel Meridian, the Arbiters of Hexis, Cephalon Suda, the Perrin Sequence, the Red Veil and New Loka – are all more or less equal. The primary difference is really in their lore and aesthetics, though its worth looking at each in detail.
Gaining standing is as simple as doing any mission with the relevant syndicate’s sigil equipped on your Warframe. As you level up with a syndicate, sigils that offer a slight bonus on top of what you’d earn become available. It is worthwhile picking up the highest one, as it offers an additional 15%. You can also run up to three daily missions for them, with more being available as you reach higher ranks. It is in these missions that you can find up to ten of the relevant faction’s medallions, which can be turned in at any relay for more standing.
These syndicates have a lot to offer and are the easiest to gain standing with, so you might be asking yourself why they are placed relatively low on the list. Unlike every other syndicate, the primary syndicates have relationships with one another. For example, every time you gain some standing with The Perrin Sequence, you gain half that with New Loka, but also lose the same standing amount with Steel Meridian and half with the Arbitors.
This makes it impossible for all the syndicates to be at the highest rank at the same time. At best, you can have four at the top rank by leveling one through its allied faction to not upset their enemy. On the plus side, once you’ve paid the price to go up a rank, even if you do drop down again, you only have to meet the standing requirement to reach that rank again.
Their most notable offerings are augment mods, which alter Warframe abilities. These can really change up how a Warframe plays or just make them more effective. All syndicates have a different selection available, but you can get all mods for any one Warframe from two different syndicates. They’re also tradeable, so it’s common to see people wanting to swap mods with people affiliated with opposing factions.
Each syndicate also offers an exclusive variant of a primary, secondary, and melee weapon. However, none of these are particularly potent, typically performing better than the base weapon, but outstripped by their other variants. The only particular standouts are the Steel Meridian’s Vaykor Hek and Cephalon Suda’s Synoid Gammacor. The syndicates also offer mods specifically for these weapons and variants. None of these mods are real game-breakers, but do help improve otherwise rather average weapons. If you really enjoy the gameplay of one particular weapon, it’s worth checking if there’s a syndicate mod for it.
The primary syndicates offer parts for arch-gun and arch-melee weapons, but none offer a complete set. Leveling up standing with multiple syndicates or trading is a must here. Each has a blueprint for a squad restore, though the only really useful one is the squad energy restore, offered by the Perrin Sequence and the Arbitors.
They also offer relic packs, with 3 random relics from the currently available set. This is a quick way to grab a bunch of relics if you’re not fussed about which you get. In terms of aesthetics, each has a unique syndana, a series of Captura scenes, emotes, a sculpture, and an armor set.
Factions that you have a negative standing with will occasionally send a squad of enemies after you, though these are relatively weak and usually just an irritation. Siding with a syndicate will allow you to summon a spectre from these groups instead. What stings more is the cruel things they have to say to you. I might have saved Suda’s very existence once, but she still calls me ‘a perfect specimen of wasted life’. Ouch.
Steel Meridian
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This syndicate is made up of Grineer deserters and are focused on protecting the colonies everyone else forgets. They’re allied with the Red Veil, opposed to New Loka, and enemies with the Perrin Sequence.
Choose Steel Meridian if...
You love the Grineer
You want augments for Atlas, Ember, Excalibur, Frost, Garuda, Grendel, Khora, Mesa, Nezha, Nidus, Nova, Oberon, Rhino, Saryn, or Xaku
The Arbiters reject the notion that Tenno are merely warriors. Through discipline and practice, they want to expand your potential. They also run the Arbitration mission, though this is not in any way related to your syndicate ranking with them. They’re allied with Cephalon Suda, opposed to the Perrin Sequence, and enemies with the Red Veil.
Choose the Arbiters of Hexis if…
You like their courtroom vibe
You want augments for Ash, Baruuk, Equinox, Excalibur, Gara, Gauss, Harrow, Inaros, Limbo, Loki, Mirage, Nyx, Volt, or Wukong
Cephalon Suda loves to learn and wants you to help her. She features prominently in the ‘Octavia’s Anthem’ quest, though this has no impact on her standing. She is allied with the Arbiters of Hexis, opposed to the Red Veil, and enemies with New Loka.
Choose Cephalon Suda if...
You like a clean minimalist aesthetic
You want augments for Banshee, Chroma, Frost, Hildryn, Hydroid, Ivara, Limbo, Mirage, Nezha, Nova, Octavia, Revenant, Vauban, Wisp, or Xaku
The Perrin Sequence is made up of former Corpus merchants. They aim to bring about order and prosperity without abusing others. They are allied with New Loka, opposed to the Arbiters of Hexis, and enemies with the Steel Meridian.
Choose the Perrin Sequence if...
You love the Corpus
You want augments for Banshee, Chroma, Gauss, Hildryn, Inaros, Ivara, Mag, Nekros, Nidus, Revenant, Rhino, Trinity, Valkyr, or Vauban
The Red Veil are willing to do whatever it takes to purge the system of corruption. They feature prominently in the ‘Chains of Harrow’ side quest, though this has no impact on their standing. They are allied with the Steel Meridian, opposed to Cephalon Suda, and enemies with the Arbiters of Hexis.
Choose the Red Veil if...
You like extra edge on your edge
You want augments for Ash, Atlas, Ember, Garuda, Grendel, Harrow, Khora, Loki, Mesa, Nekros, Saryn, Titania, Volt, or Zephyr
New Loka venerates the human form and Earth as it was before its corruption. Their ultimate goal is to restore and repopulate Earth. They feature prominently in ‘the Silver Grove’ side quest, though this has no impact on their standing. They are allied with the Perrin Sequence, opposed to the Steel Meridian and enemies with Cephalon Suda.
Choose New Loka if…
You like a more nature-inspired look
You want augments for Baruuk, Equinox, Gara, Hydroid, Mag, Nys, Oberon, Octavia, Titania, Trinity, Valkyr, Wisp, Wukong, or Zephyr
Cephalon Simaris wants to create accurate replicas of the world and to do that he needs you to scan things with his Synthesis Scanner. You can pick up 25 scanners for 5,000 credits from Simaris’ enclave at any relay. He is the only syndicate that does not have ranks, so all your standing gained with him can immediately be spent on rewards. Scanning anything will provide standing, scaling with enemy level, and if you’ve been noticed. You can also pick up a daily task from his enclave at any relay.
I recommend that you spend your first 50,000 standing on the Sol-Battery Widget. This gives unlimited charges for your scanner, so won’t have to waste precious credits picking up more. The other widgets make scanning easier or make the scans provide you with additional information on a target’s weaknesses and resistances, making them a convenience rather than essential.
Another Simaris-exclusive offering is transmutation cores. These can be used when transmuting mods to guarantee the result will be a certain polarity, which is useful when you’re trying to get a specific mod. This is a convenience rather than essential but it’s useful to bear in mind if you have a transmutation-only mod you want to get your hands on for your ideal build.
There’s also the Simulacrum Access Key. This lets you access a simulated space where you can spawn selected enemies. This is a great place for testing out how effective your new gear or mod setup is against specific enemies in a controlled environment. The choices of enemies to spawn is limited, but this can still be a very useful tool for players wanting to compare different builds.
Simaris also offers the Ludoplex, unlocking the mini-game Frame Fighter. Personally I think this 2-player fighting mode is a more fun PvP experience than the Conclave. The Flappy-bird clone Happy Zephyr and side-scroll shooter Wyrmius are both already available as Easter eggs, but can also be bought for the Ludoplex.
In comparison to other syndicates, Simaris’ aesthetic offerings are somewhat lacking, with a handful of orbiter decorations and a skin for Helios. Don’t be fooled into thinking the Simaris Offering and Research Consoles have any functionality- they’re purely decorative. However, his Captura scenes include the Color Key Scene. This is a green screen that will let you easily edit your Warframe into anything you want, making it the best scene.
Simaris has a number of exclusive mods, most notably Companion Weapon Riven mods. There are a few weapons, though none are particularly outstanding. Simaris also acts as a way for you to pick up anything that was originally given to you as part of a quest. This has become more useful with the introduction of subsuming Warframes for abilities, since you’ll probably want to get a duplicate.
Simaris is relatively easy to earn standing for and has a diverse set of offerings, but nothing truly essential.
Choose Cephalon Simaris if...
You want to be able to test out your load-outs in a controlled environment
You love messing around in Captura
You need something from a completed quest
You have no issues with having your personal space invaded
The Ostrons are hardy common folk living in Cetus, Earth, next to the Plains of Eidolon. Standing can be earned through various activities on the Plains – completing bounties, performing conservation and trading in gems, fish and completed and ranked up Zaws. Zaws are Warframe’s modular melee weapons, and are one of the standout offerings of the Ostrons. Standing can be traded in for various parts and the construction to create your very own custom melee weapon. It can be further enhanced with Arcanes also available for standing.
Bounties offer various rewards - including parts for Gara and Revenant - and offer a lot of standing, so they’re a great starting point. This is the case for all open-world factions, but particularly the Ostrons, as the others offer more alternative ways of gaining standing.
Mining, hunting and fishing gear is also available. You can skip their mining cutters, as the one available from Solaris United is superior. However, the gem and ore cutting blueprints are needed to create components for several weapons and Warframes, so it’s best to pick them up when possible.
The fishing spears are used to catch different fish and the baits are very helpful for catching specific types. Fish parts are also essential to many items around the Plains so try to keep some bait on hand for fishing trips. In the long term, instead of spending standing on dye, you’re better off picking up the companion Oxylus from Solaris United.
All the open world-based factions offer a wealth of purely aesthetic items, including Orbiter decorations, Operator cosmetics, and ‘floofs’, soft toys exchanged for hunting tags. Of the three open world zones, the Plains has the smallest number of hunting targets – four animals with three variants each. Nevertheless, the floofs you can exchange the tags for are still adorable, and you can use standing to get yourself a caged kondroc or kuaka as a decoration. Other notable Ostron cosmetics include the nightmarish papier mache-style Operator masks sold by Nakak, and of course the various fish trophies.
Choose the Ostrons if...
You love being able to build your own unique melee weapon
The Quills are a secretive order that work in service of the Unum, and claim to see the future. They use this along with information gathering to protect Cetus, where you can find their representative after completing the ‘Saya’s Vigil’ and ‘The War Within’ quests. Standing is earned by trading in Sentient cores, which are dropped by certain Sentient enemies. Most notably, these are dropped by the giant Eidolon which stalks the Plains at night. They may also be dropped by Lua’s Battalysts and Conculyst, and the Veil Proxima’s Murex Sentients. Obtaining Sentient cores early on can be difficult, as these enemies are pretty challenging, but it’s well worth the effort.
Their offerings include modular parts for Amps, the Operator’s weapon. More or less any combination you build will be better than the initial Amp you are provided with. An improved Amp is a major asset against Sentient enemies, especially the Eidolon. As with all modular weapons, these can be traded back for standing after ranking them up.
The Quills also offer Arcanes for both the Amp and your Operator, which vary in how useful they are, but are worth taking a look at. As for aesthetics, they offer some Operator cosmetics and Orbiter decorations, alongside one Captura scene. Nothing too exciting, but given you have to fight a kaiju to earn their standing, probably for the best.
Solaris United aims to liberate their fellow laborers, who endlessly toil to pay off debts in the underground Fortuna on Venus, by the Orb Vallis. To gain access to this syndicate, you have to complete the quest ‘Vox Solaris’. You can then gain standing in the same ways you gain Ostron standing, but you can also purchase debt-bonds from Ticker for credits and resources, and can trade the bonds back in for standing. This makes a nice alternative to quickly earn standing without having to spend hours on the Vallis. Garuda’s parts are dropped from their bounties.
Whilst the Ostrons have Zaws, Solaris United has Kit-guns - modular primary or secondary weapons. They also offer Arcanes for your Kit-guns. You can also build your own modular MOA, a two-legged robot typically seen alongside the Corpus. They’re a fun alternative to the floating sentinels. They can be given more personality with ‘Emotion Modules’, which alter the MOA’s sounds, animations, and interactions with your emotes. Sadly, these must be purchased from the Market for 50 platinum. Ranked up MOAs and Kit-guns can be traded in for standing.
As mentioned earlier, Solaris United offers the best mining drill, the Sunpoint Plasma, so this should be an early purchase. As with the Ostrons, gem and ore blueprints are a must. The Business offers the Oxylus, a companion which marks fishing hotspots and highlights fish in the same way dye does, making it another great long-term investment. Baits remain helpful for catching specific fish, and the shocking spears offered here are necessary to catch the Vallis’ robotic fish.
In terms of hunting, Solaris United offers a notably larger variety of targets and consequently, floofs – seven species with three variants each. In comparison to the Ostrons, Solaris United doesn’t have as many other types of cosmetic offerings. Most of their furniture is very basic and utilitarian, but the robotic fish are sufficiently different from the Ostron fish to be notable.
Vox Solaris is the covert operations branch of Solaris United, and has ties with the Quills. They organize heists to take on the Profit-Taker and Exploiter Orbs roaming the Orb Vallis. To fully access this syndicate, you need to have completed both the ‘Vox Solaris’ and ‘The War Within’ quests and reached the fifth rank, Old Mate, with Solaris United. Standing is earned by trading in Toroids, which are rarely dropped by enemies around the Spaceport, Enrichment Labs, or Temple of Profit. They are also dropped by Raknoid enemies anywhere on the Vallis, and potentially found in specific caves. Profit-Taker and the Exploiter Orb also have a guaranteed drop of their unique Toroids.
Similar to the Quills, Vox Solaris offer Amp parts, and Arcanes for Operators and Amps. The Cetus Brace part is particularly loved by the community for its critical hit chance boost. For cosmetics, they have a number of blueprints for the Operator with a Fortuna-aesthetic, but no decorations or Captura scenes. They do however offer the Warframe Hildryn’s blueprint and all parts for the Warframe Baruuk, which has earned them their high rank on this list.
Choose Vox Solaris if...
You want access to some of the best amp parts
You want to build Hildryn or Baruuk
You want to use your Arc-gun in the open world areas
The Entrati are a family of Orokin scientists overwhelmed by the Infestation that took over Deimos, residing in Necralisk by the Cambion Drift. In order to access this syndicate, you must complete the ‘Heart of Deimos’ quest. Instead of earning standing directly from bounties and other activities, you receive tokens which can be directly for standing, or traded in batches with Grandmother for her tokens, which are worth more standing. This means it’s usually best to hold onto tokens to exchange them, with the possible exception of the Mother tokens earned from bounties, as these are aplenty.
Whilst they don’t offer a unique modular weapon type, they do offer some great modules for both the Zaws and Kit-guns, increasing the number of potential combinations significantly. Father also offers a number of standard infested-style weapons, and the parts for the Warframe Lavos. The Entrati do have a unique modular companionin Son’s efforts to cure injured Predasites and Vulpaphyla you find in the Drift. Purchase the blueprints for antigens and mutagens, apply one of each to an injured beasty, and you have a new infested companion.
In terms of mining, the Entrati have nothing notable beside gem and ore blueprints, though as before these are more or less essential for building other items. Getting an Entrati fishing spear is essential for catching many of the fish on the Drift, as they are the only ones able to penetrate the exocrine and hit fish that aren’t flying above it. The Ebisu is better than the Spari, but is unavailable early on. Daughter doesn’t require uncut fish for standing, instead trading tokens for parts, so there’s no reason to not cut up all fish as soon as you get them. It is worth noting that fish parts and gems can be obtained from Requiem Obelisks on the Cambion Drift, so fishing and mining are not as essential.
The most notable offering from the Entrati is the Helminth Segment blueprint. Obtained from Son, this opens up the infested area of your orbiter permanently. In exchange for feeding them various resources, you can replace your Warframes abilities with alternative ones. The Infestation will also let you subsume a frame, absorbing it over a 24-hour period. Whilst you lose the Warframe, you’ve now added a specific ability to the list available to put on other frames. As you feed them more and more they rank up, letting you subsume more Warframes and gain access to more abilities.
The Entrati are comparable to Solaris United in terms of cosmetics, with the same number of floofs available, and Grandmother offering a variety of Orokin and Infested orbiter decorations and Captura scenes.
Choose the Entrati if…
You love the infested aesthetics, especially on pets
You want more options for your modular weapons
You want to put different abilities on your Warframes
Necraloids are Cephalon-operated machines that serve the Entrati family. To fully access this syndicate, you must complete ‘Heart of Deimos’ and ‘The War Within’. Standing is earned by trading in Orokin Matrices, which can be earned from Isolation Vault bounties, or as a guaranteed drop from enemy Necramechs on these missions.
The Necraloid faction offers up the parts to create a Necramech, along with relevant mods and weapons. Necramechs are another alternative mode that can be entered on open-world areas and Railjack missions. Whilst not as agile as Warframes, they have their own unique sets of abilities and use Arc-guns, so they have a lot of damage potential. For aesthetic offerings, they offer a couple of glyphs, a Captura scene, a sculpture and cosmetics for sentinels. Not the largest variety, but as with all factions, very characterful.
You have to own a Necramech in order to start the latest main story mission, ‘The New War’. Going forward, it’s likely that Necramechs will become an increasingly important part of Warframe, in the same way that Operators have. This makes the Necraloid syndicate one of the best syndicates to get involved with – even if it might be one of the last, given the difficulty of the missions.
Choose Necraloid if...
You love the idea of having your own mech
You want to progress through the main story as soon as possible
Nightwave is Warframe’s seasonal content. You earn standing by completing the weekly and daily missions, which vary significantly enough that you will probably just passively obtain standing over time. Instead of using standing to buy rewards, each rank offers either a reward directly, or Nora’s Choice Creds. Creds can be spent on a number of different offerings. Notable rewards include Orokin Reactors and Catalysts, the Warframe Vauban’s parts, mods, and cosmetics. It is also the only source of Nitain extract, an important resource for building a number of Warframes and weapons.
Each season has several gameplay affecting rewards such as riven mods or load-out slots. At rank 29 each season so far has also offered up an Umbra forma. This is currently the only way to give Warframes an Umbra polarity slot. The cosmetics offered are also unique, and after a season ends may not be obtainable again for some time. In the event of you reaching a rank with an already received cosmetic reward, you get Choice Creds instead.
One of the major things that Nightwave has over the other syndicates is that there is no daily cap. Instead, you are limited by the number of missions that are available, which increases as the season goes on. After completing enough of the weekly missions, a previously uncompleted mission from the previous selection will become available. This means that even if you join in late for a season, you can still make your way up the ranks.
Overall, this very different style of syndicate is a great addition to the game. Nightwave offers up some of the best rewards in the game and has a diverse set of ways to earn standing through the varied demands. Seasons last for months at a time, and it can be rewarding to have some perspective on how much you’ve done in the game. The only real exclusives to any one season are cosmetics and do not alter your gameplay. Even if you do miss out on something, Digital Extremes have stated that it should eventually become available again, so there’s no real pressure.
Choose Nightwave if...
You want Umbra forma
You need Nitain extract
You want to build Vauban
You want easy access to Orokin Reactors and Catalysts
When not seeking nutrition, resting, or gaming, Erica shows a preference for roleplaying with their friends, trying to convince them to read Umineko, and knitting.
Gamer Since:
1995
Favorite Genre:
RPG
Currently Playing:
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Top 3 Favorite Games:
Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age: Origins, Papers, Please
