What can you do with Forma?
To answer simply, a LOT.
To break this down a bit, you’ll need Forma for a large variety of things including, ranking up Syndicates, building weapons, improving weapons and Warframes and even Fashionframing.
Certain items as well require you to have Forma on hand before you can even start building them.
In some cases you’ll even need multiple Forma per weapon or frame, this is where the grind starts to escalate.
The main usage of Forma though is to apply them to your favourite Weapons, companions and Warframes. By doing this you’ll be able to add a polarity to a particular mod slot, enabling any mod of a matching polarity you place there to use half the drain it otherwise would.
These are the main polarities for both Warframes and weapon mods that you’ll come across:
Some players have different names for these polarities so usually:
- Madurai might be called “V” or “R” polarity
- Vazarin might be “D”
- Naramon might be dash or line
- I’m not aware of another name for Zenurik or Umbral
To find out what polarity a mod or mod slot is, look for one of those symbols in the top right corner of said mod, next to the drain number.
You can also apply a Forma over any existing polarity to change it or remove it.
How can Forma help me mod?
An interesting thing to note as well is, Warframes do benefit from having leftover capacity.
Each warframe will gain 5 more starting energy per 1 spare capacity. For example, the Wisp above with 40 free capacity would start every mission with 200 bonus energy, the well formad Wisp with 52 remaining capacity would start every mission with a bonus 260 energy, 60 more than the poorly formad Wisp.
How can I get Forma?
The majority of players will say Relic cracking here. So will I.
Forma blueprints can be found in quite a few different relics, available as a drop when completing void fissure missions, run these missions with full groups for more chances too.
If, however, you have a stack of blueprints already, you can farm up a whole load of prime parts and trade them for plat. With this plat you can buy the forma bundles from the market at 35plat for 3 built forma, skipping the build time.
Another method would be to run the daily Sortie missions. After completing all 3, you’ll have a 2.5% chance of getting a built forma. Unfortunately though, because it’s a Sortie, you only get one chance per day.
Alternatively, you could also run the music Puzzle on Lua to get an Orokin storage cache to spawn. Break this for a 12.5% chance at a fully built forma. This can be rerun as many times as you can be bothered, so grind till your hearts content.
Finally, to actually build the Forma. You’ll need:
- 1 Forma Blueprint
- 35k Credits
- 1 Morphics
- 1 Neural Sensor
- 1 Neurode
- 1 Orokin Cell
- And 23 Hours
That’s right, Forma takes a whopping 23 hours to build, start building today, come grab it tomorrow kinda deal. But hey, at least it isn’t a 24 hour build time.
As far as materials go though, once again I don’t see any of these posing a big issue if you’re at this stage in the game. However, if you’re an incredibly unlucky soul, you may be short on some of the rarer materials like Orokin Cells.
What should I Forma?
A tricky question.
While still in the earlier game, Forma whatever you like the most. Not the answer you were hoping for I know.
For example, do you feel strangely attached to your starter Excalibur? Feed him some Forma.
Do you just love your Karak, even though everyone tells you to dump it? Give it some Forma.
While this is in no way an efficient use of Forma, it is a fun use of Forma, using it to improve equipment you know you enjoy fighting with, is, I feel, much more important in the early game before you really get situated with the current meta’s.
If, however, you are looking for useful gear to Forma. Some gear is worth more than others. For starters, its much better to Forma the prime versions of gear over their base counterparts. This is due to their higher stats being more useful and they usually come with more pre formad slots, saving you forma.
Warframes with a lot of killing potential and utility, like Saryn prime, Rhino Prime, Trinity Prime, Nekros Prime etc are all good choices to Forma as they are extremely useful in some or most circ*mstances.
Weapons like Zaws and Kitguns also make good Forma Fodder because of their decent stats.
Weapons you have a good Riven for can also be Forma’d to slot it in easier.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t worry what you’re Formaing until at least midgame, just Forma whatever you like using as this will make the grind more enjoyable than Formaing meta gear you don’t like using. You’ll also have a larger selection of mods and more fully upgraded mods later in the game, to really make the most of that extra space.
Related Posts:
- What are Prime Warframes? And how do I get them?
- How to get mountains of Orokins Cells
