Soulframe: 7 Beginner Tips 

Soulframe, the new in-development MMO-lite from the makers of Warframe, is not an easy nut to crack in its early hours. It doesn't exactly have a souls-like difficulty you'd expect from its name, but instead, what I'm talking about is a lack of hand-holding. In the current version (Prelude 10), the game remains somewhat vague and freeform about what to do and how to progress.

While this adds a thicker layer of immersion to a fledgling MMO-lite, some players may feel lost after doing the first couple of quests. In this guide, I'll go over things I wish I knew about Soulframe right at the beginning.

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7 Soulframe Beginner Tips a fresh Envoy should know

1) Break ALL the containers

Chests are not the only source of loot (Image via Digital Extremes)

Soulframe has a lot of crates, barrels, urns, and other assorted containers scattered about its medieval-fantasy world of Midrath. Like many actual Souls-likes,these are breakable. This is not just for the window-dressing satisfaction of shattering world objects with detailed physics. A good amount of the containers drop Dracs (the main currency), as well as common resources you'll need to craft stuff.

More to the point, enemies don't drop much loot in this game (they also don't drop loot directly; you need to pick up loot pouches). Nor are there any dedicated mining-gathering systems in Soulframe. So swinging at stacks of boxes and barrels and carefully picking up all the loot that shakes out is a necessary habit you have to cultivate.

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2) Thrown weapons can score headshots

Melee weapons in Soulframe don't lock into a melee playstyle. You can right-click to aim (PC) and press the heavy attack button to throw your weapon. While the projectile isn't that fast, it deals the damage of a normal swing and reaches quite far.

The kicker is that these hits can headshot for a damage multiplier. Almost all weapon types in Soulframe has a Combat Art (perk) that lets you 'perfect throw' that weapon, and if you score a headshot with it, it should one-shot any level-appropriate enemy. This is the most useful during bosses like the Stag or Nimrod, though - you can keep kiting them and scoring these headshots to down them in 6-7 hits (depending on your weapon).

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3) The Soul mode gives cues for puzzles and highlights loot

If you're stuck by a locked door inside a dungeon, or can't figure out a puzzle, hold E to enter the Soul mode. This is Soulframe's detective goggles, and it highlights all objects of interest in Gold. This includes hidden pressure plates, weapon racks, and miscellaneous small objects you can and should interact with more often than not.

Tapping the same button performs a Soul-steal. This is useful in two cases - one, to collect history Motes, which are needed to recover the names of places, and two, to kill off mockeries, a corrupted enemy type that keeps reincarnating otherwise.

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4) Stick to enemies under lvl 10 if you are struggling

Some encounters can get dicey - not this one though (Image via Digital Extremes)

In Soulframe Preludes 10, enemies only scale up to about lvl 25 or thereabouts. However, there's not much benefit to actively seeking out higher-level enemies. Their loot pouches drop the same material and Dracs with marginally higher quantities. The only advantage of killing higher-level mobs is more XP.

If it takes you too long to kill said enemies, though, the XP boost becomes a moot point. If you're still figuring out your build or leveling your Pact in Soulframe, it's best to stick to areas near the starting zone, or at the very least areas with enemies under Lvl 10, and then do Faction Tales there.

For reference, the south-western part of the map is the easiest, as long as you keep away from the big corrupted beach with the fallen sky-ship. That's the arena for the Mendicant King boss. We recommend you get a bit more geared up before you face him.

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5) Undercity is the best place to farm Drac and resources

Undercity (Image via Digital Extremes)

Remember the first Soulframe beginner tip, where I suggested breaking all containers on sight? Well, the Undercity of Dermark dungeon type has the highest density of containers.

Moreover, one of its rooms will be a giant grotto with a lot of crates suspended from blue balloons. Almost all of these can be collected from the flooded floor once you pop the balloons, and you can get a lot of resources this way.

There are a couple of Undercity dungeons accessible from where you start Soulframe, none of which have enemies over Level 10. In a couple of runs, you can rack up thousands of Dracs by farming this - not to forget, as a bonus, you get a bunch of weapon and armor fragments from chests.

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6) Complete the crafting quest as soon as possible

Tuvalkane might be the most important Ancestor (Image via Digital Extremes)

Wondering what to do with all those weapon and armor fragments you got? Those are basically the recipe, and you need the crafting ancestor to put them together. This is Tuvalkane, the blacksmith, whom you can recruit right after the start. At the center of the Midrath map, you can pick up a Moonsteel helm to get started with the quest that unlocks her.

It only takes about five minutes, provided you have a co-op partner with you. Here's our Steelsinger quest guide in Soulframe, if you want to learn further details.

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7) You can break the Ode'n Moaners for easy 1000 XP

Ode'n Moaners (Image via Digital Extremes)

Ode'n Moaners are the giant monolithic Ode structures found near water bodies in Midrath. If you inspect them closely, they'll have two heads that also get highlighted with Soul mode. Destroying both heads destroys the whole Moaner, giving you 1000 XP.

Near a World Tree at the center-south, there's a lake with three Ode'n Moaners nearby you can farm by logging in and logging out. It's a rather boring way to grind XP, but it's consistent.

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In closing, I should mention that the game is still in "early Alpha", by the developer team's own admission. A lot of things and systems in Soulframe will get changed, revised, and possibly even removed as development continues. For now, there's not so much content where you'd need to min-max a build - so, don't forget the most important beginner tip of all: take it slow and enjoy it.

Check out other guides on Soulframe:

• Tethran vs Oscelda vs Sirin: Which starter Pact should you pick in Soulframe?
• Soulframe stats explained: Virtues, defenses, and damage
• Soulframe: Brewer of Hues quest walkthrough (unlocks armor recoloring)
• Soulframe: The Torment Stag puzzle solution

Edited by Sambit Pal