Warframe has lots of tradable items, and you can easily benefit from trading – with that in mind, here’s how to start with trade in Warframe.
Warframe actually puts quite a few restrictions and requirements on the trading system, which means it’s not something you’ll be able to do a lot of right away. It’s still useful even in the early stages of the game, but due to how trade works in Warframe, it’ll get more useful as your level increases further.
In any case, you’ll need to fulfil set requirements to trade at all. So let’s talk about those barriers to the Warframe trade system first.
What do I need to trade?
The absolute minimum requirements to trade at all, are as follows. You’ll need to have mastery rank 2, at least. Your account will need to have 2fa (two-factor authentication) enabled, and naturally, you cannot be trade-banned.
The reason I say “Mastery rank 2, at least” is because you actually get a number of trades per day based on rank. MR2 will have two, MR5 will have five, and so on. That restriction seems a bit silly to me, as lower rank players have more to be trying to trade for, but there it is.
You can also only trade up to 6 unique items per trade screen. Plural items, such as a stack of 10 Ayatan cyan stars, counts as one. Your trade partner can also put up to 6 items into the trade, bringing the maximum possible number of items swapping hands per trade to 12.
Restrictions aside, you also need to be in specific areas to trade. No trading during missions for example. Instead, your trading must be done in player hub areas. Examples of such would be the hubs of open-world regions, such as Fortuna, or Clan Dojos and relay stations.
How do I trade in Warframe?
To actually start a trade after you’ve jumped through all the required hoops, you just need to send the offer to the player you’re trading with. In a Clan Dojo environment, such as shown below, you’ll have two options to do so. One of you can set up a trading store by selecting the option in the emote wheel, and have the other approach and interact with it to open the trade interface.
Alternatively, you can use a clan trade station like the one shown here to initiate trades with any players in the same Dojo as you. Simply click on the name of the player and wait for it to be accepted.
If neither of you has a clan to use the Dojo as your trading hub, that’s fine too. You can head to a relay station for that, or Maroo’s Baazar on Mars. Maroo’s is the more common choice for players trying to trade or sell items without a partner already found, as far more players can access the Baazar than most of the relays, and the relay population is split across all of them, while the Baazar gets regular visitors doing their weekly Ayatan hunt.
Players holding an arm in the air, like these shown below, are currently operating a store. If you approach and interact with them, this will also open a trade interface. Some of these stores will have items listed as displayed here. Others may simply use the arm-up trading signal to find partners to trade with, with nothing specific in mind.
How to find a trading partner in Warframe
Now that we know both what we need to trade, and where we can trade, we just need someone to trade with. So where exactly do you find trading partners in Warframe? People to buy items from, or sell them to?
There are two primary options for this. Naturally, you could find people through other ways – asking your friends to trade for example – but these are the methods most players will use when trying to sell items.
Making use of Trade Chat
The first of these options is by far the one with more variance and risk attached. Trade chat is one of the default Warframe chat rooms, and has hundreds of players trying to sell something off posting into it constantly throughout the day.
Speaking from experience, I find Trade chat tends to have the people charging both the best and absolute worst prices. Make sure you look around and check different options before committing to anything here. Most players making use of trade chat are out for themselves making Platinum, after all.
The Warframe Market
The less aggressive traders option involves an external tool, known as Warframe Market. There are probably other tools that serve the same purpose, but this was the best one I’ve used. Feel free to find alternatives yourself.
In any case, the Warframe market can be used to search or list items. If you wanted say, Frost Primes Blueprint, you could search for that and check buyers and sellers’ pending offers. The actual current market price is often somewhere between the lowest few sellers and the highest few buyers listed here, though this judgement system is only accurate on items that are traded quite a bit. Items that are rarer, or less frequently traded may suffer from being manipulated with deceitful pricing here.
Regardless, you can sign up to the market and list your items there for a pre-determined platinum price. Players will then use the site to message you in-game and try to buy them if your price is reasonable.
