Learning how to trade in Warframe is, like everything in Digital Extremes' free-to-play shooter, a complicated process. But the rewards are absolutely worth it. If you know how to trade, you can equip your Warframe and weapons with the best mods, acquire rare blueprints, and even earn platinum, the premium in-game currency used for everything from buying Warframes directly to purchasing cool cosmetics. Even if you're just a casual player, knowing how to trade in Warframe will open up a ton of options for you.
Unlike similar games, Warframe doesn't have a central auction house to facilitate the exchanges between players. But have no fear, this guide will teach you the two basic ways trading happens in Warframe while also pointing you to handy resources that'll help you determine what's a fair price.
How to unlock trading in Warframe
Before you can become a merchant mogul in Warframe, you'll need to first reach Mastery Rank 2 on your profile by leveling up several Warframes or weapons to level 30. If you're a brand new player, don't worry, this should only take a few hours.
Your Mastery Rank is an overall indication of your progress through Warframe, but it also determines how many trades you can complete per day. At Mastery Rank 2, you are able to trade twice per day and that number increases by one with each new rank you achieve. A Master Rank 20 player, for example, can trade 20 times a day.
Keep in mind that your Mastery Rank determines how many transactions you can make in a day. In a given trade, each player can offer up to a maximum of five items to trade.
How to trade in Warframe
Trading in Warframe happens in one of two locations: A clan dojo or Maroo's Bazaar. We'll cover the clan dojo method first since it's the most common way of trading.
Most players prefer to trade their items for platinum (often written as 'p'), Warframe's in-game currency. You can buy platinum for real money or sell items to make some.
In Warframe, clans are basically player-run guilds that you join to find friends to play with and access all sorts of handy features—one of the them being access to a trading post. This structure, which is placed in your clan dojo (you might have to ask someone in your clan where it is if you can't find it), facilitates trading with any other player that is physically in your dojo.
The basic steps of a trade are:
- Find someone you want to buy from or sell to
- Decide which player will invite the other to their dojo and then have them send an invite
- If you are inviting the other player to your dojo, head to your dojo from the Star Chart and, once there, hover over that player's icon and select the option to invite them to your dojo
- Once the other player enters your dojo, head to your trading post and select their name to open the trade window
- Conduct your trade
How do I find people to trade with?
This is the most complicated step as there are a variety of ways to find people to trade with in Warframe. But, generally, there are three main approaches.
The first method of finding trades is Trade Chat, a channel within Warframe's chat interface where players are constantly sharing items they are looking to buy or sell. To access Trade Chat, open the chat window and select the button that looks like two arrows going in a circle, and you will be instantly bombarded with thousands of players advertising items. Depending on what you're looking to do, you can select the magnifying glass icon on the top left of the chat window to set up a chat filter, which will help you look for specific items or buyers and sellers based on specific keywords.
Let's take a look at some basic chat lingo.
WTB means "want to buy."
WTS means "want to sell."
WTT means "want to trade."
PC means "price check"—the player is wanting others to tell them what they'd pay for an item.
So, if you want to make Trade Chat a little easier to read, you might filter it to show "WTS" so you see only what players are trying to sell.
You'll notice most items are encased in square brackets, which you can click on to see a tooltip describing what the item specifically is. You can do this yourself by putting these brackets around the name of your item as you type it into chat.
Once you have found a player in Trade Chat that you'd like to trade with, you can whisper them to begin the trade or haggle over price. Once everything is agreed upon, reference the steps from the last section to actually complete the trade.
The second method of finding trades is Warframe.Market, a third-party auction house where you can search for items to buy and see a listing of everyone who is selling that item. From there, you can either copy a message to paste in the chat window that will message them and offer to trade, or, if you register an account, you can message them through the website. You can also create your own listings to sell items, and players will then message you either through the website or in-game offering to trade. It's very convenient.
One drawback with Warframe.Market is that, while there is a way to see if people are online or not, it's not always accurate. You'll sometimes message players who are actually offline, AFK, or doesn't play in the same timezone as you. It's not a big problem, though, because there's always other people selling similar items.
The third method of finding trades is the official Warframe forums. Players will make threads advertising items they have to sell or want to buy and you can reply with your offer to trade and then schedule a time to meet in-game to complete the transaction.
What the hell is trade tax?
Welcome to the annoying downside of trading. Each time you receive an item through trade in Warframe, it is subjected to a tax paid out in credits, the basic currency in Warframe. This tax scales depending on the rarity of the item you are receiving.
In most trades, both players will have to pay a trade tax for the items they are receiving, even if the item is platinum.
Fortunately, this tax is quite small and ranges from 500 to 8,000 credits for most items. However, legendary mods and rank 3 Arcanes are subject to a staggering one million credit trade tax. This chart on the Warframe wiki breaks down the tax for each type of item.
Additionally, some clans may charge an additional clan tax on trades. This is pretty uncommon, thankfully. But if you are invited to someone's dojo that does have a clan tax, you may wish to invite them to your dojo instead or cancel the trade outright.
How to trade using Maroo's Bazaar
If you don't have a dojo to host trades with, one option is Maroo's Bazaar. This relay station is currently orbiting Mars. When entering Maroo's Bazaar, you'll sometimes be given a choice of an instance to join based on population. Always choose one that is "busy" so that you're with as many players as possible.
Maroo's Bazaar is a unique place in Warframe in that it acts like a flea market where players can hangout and organize trades in person. When entering the main lobby after spawning on the landing pad, you'll find Maroo herself and other players looking to trade. As you walk around, you'll see Warframes with their hand raised, indicating that they have items for sale that you can see listed above their head. If you want one of those items, you can whisper that player to negotiate a price.
This area is typically friendly to haggling, so feel free to negotiate a good price.
You can raise your hand and sell items to players by holding the 'Q' key which brings up the gear wheel. You'll see a new option labelled "Set up shop" which will lead you to the trade screen where you can select up to five items to put on display. Once chosen, your Warframe will raise their hand and you can find a visible spot to stand so other players can check out what you have.
Whether you're buying or selling in Maroo's Bazaar, the trade interface is the exact same as the one used in the clan dojo.
One thing to keep in mind is that Maroo's Bazaar is subject to an extra 10 percent trade tax.
What items can I trade?
Not everything you own is available to be traded to other players. Before you go looking to sell or buy an item, check this list to make sure it is actually tradeable.
Here are some items that you can't trade:
- Resources like endo, ferrite, nitain, etc.
- Regular (non-prime) parts for Warframes
- Forma, Orokin Catalysts and Reactors and their requisite blueprints
- Platinum exchanged for platinum
- Platinum given for promotional purposes or as a free gift when registering a new accountist
How can I make sure I get the best deal?
Because Warframe doesn't have a centralized economy, you're always at risk of paying too much or getting too little for an item. To prevent getting ripped off, there are a few tools that help track the going rate for certain items.
First of all, always double check prices on Warframe.Market to make sure it's within an acceptable range of other listings. Another useful tool is the website Nexus-Stats, which scrapes the Warframe Trade Chat to gather information about the current prices people are listing their items for. I'd also recommend joining an active and populated clan that you can go to for advice. If unsure of whether a deal is fair or not, your fellow clanmates should be able to help you decide.
