Neurodes are one of the most difficult rare resources to farm for in Warframe, though it’s much easier now than it used to be.
Where to Get More Neurodes
Neurodes are available as rare resources on a handful of planets in Warframe. Specifically, these planets are Earth, Deimos, Eris and Lua. Given the nature of many of these being higher level, or being gated behind the story, Earth is often the safest choice for trying to obtain Neurodes for much of the game.
Still, taking a mission in any of these regions will have a chance to net you some Neurodes. As a rare resource, they’ll turn up quite infrequently via enemy drops, at least when compared to the likes of Nano spores that will drop quite regularly. They can still appear at any given time through enemy drops, just don’t rely on it. They can also appear when breaking containers.
Like other resources in Warframe, Neurodes are also capable of turning up as a resource deposit, shown here. Neurodes deposits are known as a “Neuroptic mass” when found in missions and marked. These rare resource deposits tend to be accordingly rare as well. Most missions you undertake on the listed planets may contain anywhere from one to a small handful of them.
Finding them all will require you to be checking each room of missions on those planets. If you do manage to find some, simply damage the container somehow and it should break open, revealing at least one of the coveted Neurodes within.
If you aren’t specifically trying to farm Neurodes but happen to be on one of the planets featuring these, it can still be worth actively seeking them out. This is because Neurodes are used heavily by a variety of systems, from crafting to clan decoration. On top of that, they are among the rarest of the rare resources, being available on fewer planets than most, and having no missions that tend to drop plenty of them, as resources like Morphics do.
How to Farm for Neurodes
So, if you need plenty of Neurodes (and you probably do), ideally quickly, where should you go?
Neurodes are more of a nuisance than many of the rare resources in Warframe. With that said, there are still a few options available that make for reasonably easy farming. Just don’t expect anything quite as easy as there is for other rare resources such as Morphics.
Earth Exterminate runs
As a farming method, going to a level 1 to 3 mission may surprise some players. Traditional Warframe wisdom holds that you should fight lots of higher-level enemies for the best drop chances. And that isn’t even incorrect, it’s simply not what this method aims to use to farm for Neurodes. Instead, we use Mariana, a low-level Grineer Exterminate mission to quickly blitz through a tileset that can contain Neurodes.
The Grineer here should be of no significant challenge to any player who hasn’t just left the tutorial sequence. It’d be entirely possible to have a strong enough companion that they can complete the objective for you without you firing a shot manually, in fact.
Your goal in this mission is actually entirely unrelated to its objective. Finding Neurodes here will require a different method unless you’re remarkably lucky and the local Grineer feel incredibly generous with their drops. Simply kill them on sight, they likely will not drop anything of value.
You should come into the mission with some kind of loot radar. Thieves wit or Animal Instinct for example will both work here. Make sure of the containers now being highlighted on your minimap by going to and breaking all of the ones you can find a way to reach. Containers themselves are unlikely to contain Neurodes, though looting them anyway may net you some extra, so it’s still worth the effort.
There is a reason you are checking each container icon though. The loot radar will also highlight the Neuroptic masses mentioned earlier on as containers as well. Smashing them has a 100% Neurodes drop chance, so simply finding one or two of those each mission will net you neurodes quite quickly.
Even a very slow sweep of that mission while distracted was enough to find a Neurode in just below 5 minutes. This is a good method if you just need a few quickly with relative certainty you’ll get them, as the resource deposits pretty much always spawn at least one per mission. Players that are more focused and speedrunning will easily clear the low-level mission used in 2-3 minutes, improving your farming rates nicely.
We do have another option though. Specifically, it involves relying on the fact that bosses are highly likely to drop a single rare resource per kill. Lephantis is a relatively simple mid-game infested boss, who is excellent for exploiting this. Specifically, he’s much better than other bosses for one particular reason.
Farming Lephantis for Neurode drops
Due to how Lephantis fight’ plays out, you will obtain 4 separate boss drops from him. If you were to kill, say, Alad V, for comparison, he would only have one boss drop. Of course, Alad V is one man, while Lephantis is a giant infested monster with 3 heads.
Each head during the fight phase of the fight will have a separate rare item drop chance. Following the end of the first phase, the actual death of Lephantis in the second phase will also have another chance to drop a rare resource. Each of these can be a neurode, which means up to 4 of them a run. The main issue with this method is that Lephantis is somewhat unreliable.
The planet he is located on, Deimos, has a chance to drop Neurodes, Orokin Cells and Mutagen samples. Each of these competes for that rare drop slot on Lephantis’ loot table. That leaves you with a chance for any of these three items.
Lephantis does have greater potential to drop plural Neurodes for you per run. If you are intending to focus on farming Neurodes for a while, he will likely average out ahead of the other method. If you only have a limited bit of time, however, or struggle with Lephantis, Mariana Earth will pretty much always get you at least one per run if you find any Neuroptic masses, which you should do in the vast majority of missions.
In short, Mariana will likely give you 1 to 2 per run. Meanwhile, Lephantis can be anywhere from 0 to 4. Over the long term, Lephantis is better, but if you just need some now, use the Mariana Exterminate mission.
