Trade Chat, Warframe.market, and forums.
The very first thing that you need to do before you can dream of trading Waframe is to set up your two factor authentication. You cannot trade anything without activating it. If you don't configure it, you won't trade, end of discussion.
Once you get that out of the way, you'll need to hit Master Rank 2, which as a new player should happen pretty quickly. Just set your weapons and frame to 30, and you should cross that line.
After that you have a few options. For starters, Warframe has a few dedicated chat tabs, and one of them is assigned to trading (don't go asking for a group here; the chatbot will kick you in the shins). The Commercial Chat is where you'll find all kinds of enterprising Tenno selling all kinds of merchandise, but it can be overwhelming without a filter. By clicking on the magnifying glass in the chat interface, you will be able to set chat filters to help remove some of the noise. However, it is useful to know the jargon before proceeding:
- WTS - want to sell
- WTB - want to buy
- WTT - want to swap
- PC - price check
- p - platinum
Most transactions on Warframe are done with Platinum, the premium payment currency. This may ring a bell, until you realize you can sell items for Platinum. Yes, you can use trading to avoid paying a single dime in Warframe (however, Dish is also subject to credit taxes, so the more you want to buy, the more tax you will pay). That said, the WTT is generally a Flat-Free affair: one item for one item transfer. That's not to say the dish is never involved, but nine out of ten times a WTS or WTB trade is a trade involving platinum. Price checking is exactly what it sounds like - you ask others to share what they would pay for an item.
To make your life even easier, you can put an item name in blocks for other players to click on it and see what it is (the game will also help you filter the item you type once you get started). This also works for you - if you buy relics, for example, by clicking on the linked item, a user interface will appear to show the items contained therein.
If you don't want to manually check the price through the chat or want to skip some of the foreplay, Warframe.market is the go-to website for trading. It does require some preliminaries to work, including posting to the Warframe Forums, but it functions as an out-of-game auction house (and is available as an app on Android and iOS). You can use it to track an item's average Flat price, negotiate a sale, or even set up your own. Sometimes the person you want to talk to won't be online or will be AFK, but most of the time Warframe.market is the easiest way to create an exchange when you know what you're looking for.
You can also use the official Trade Forum for Warframe to organize a trade. It might not be the fastest method available, but it's usually the best way to negotiate the price outside of Maroo's Bazaar. You can also search the forum for what you are looking for, which helps reduce potentially wasted time waiting in commercial chat.
That said, there are some trading limits you should be aware of.
You can swap two locations in Warframe.
Given Warframe's segmentation, you can't just randomly chat in a mission to see what they've crammed into their inventory. If you want to trade with another player, you will need to either be in a Clan Dojo with a Trade Station, or in the Maroo Bazaar just outside of Mars. However, there is a difference between the two locations.
In a Dojo clan, you can set up a trade with a blank slate: the interface appears, and you enter what has been agreed upon by both parties. In Maroo's Bazaar, you are essentially a store stall, and whatever you or the other person puts up for sale is what is traded (without the agreed payment). While it's not difficult to change trading in Maroo's Bazaar, it's slightly easier to do in a Dojo (however, bartering is much more acceptable in Maroo's Bazaar).
Additionally, every transaction in Warframe is subject to a credit trade tax, and in Maroo's Bazaar, this tax has an additional 10%. The flip side, however, is the Clan Tax: Clans can set a Clan Tax on their terminals, and while it's usually low or non-existent, you can find yourself trading with someone who has a clan tax. exorbitant clan tax. Remember this before negotiating: you'll still need bank credits, with rarer items requiring a higher tax (one million credits for Prime mods and Tier 3 Arcana, and 500 credits per unit of flat: this adds up quickly).
If you have your own clan and terminal, you'll want to trade there. If you're just looking to throw your trash at others and don't have a clan, then Maroo isn't a bad alternative. A lot of this is because at Maroo's Bazaar you click on Q, select 'Configure Store', choose your six or fewer items to sell, and wait. You can automatically drive a sale, basically. It's not effective, but it's good for those of you who don't want to rub Trade Chat for deals.
It is also important to understand the limits of trading. You are limited to a certain number of trades per day, depending on your mastery rank. So at rank 2 you can only trade twice a day (up to five items per trade), but at mastery rank 15 you can trade up to 15 per day (the limit of five items per trade do not change).
Equally important to remember: you cannot trade available in the game. To begin with, you cannot trade:
- Resources
- Endo
- Regular Warframe Parts and Their Plans (Prime Plans are a Fair Game)
- Forma, Orokin Catalysts, Orokin Reactors and their plans (but, you can get the necessary Dish to buy them in the market through trading)
- You cannot exchange Platinum for Platinum (I have to fight the bots and scammers somehow)
- Any Platinum donated as part of a promotion (again, I need to keep these bots at bay).
Use this official listing if you want to be absolutely sure of what can and cannot be traded. You can trade the majority of items earned in Warframe (including new Relics and Kuva lich mods) to other players, so feel free to ask, check out Warframe market, or browse the trade chat to make a deal. Remember to be courteous, and if a deal fails, be polite and leave it with dignity. The Warframe community is chatty, so don't be a dick. Otherwise, jump in and enjoy: Trading is one of the best ways to progress in Warframe, and it just takes a little effort.
