Look into crafting a Zaw! And take a look at what's available as blueprints from the clan labs in the dojo. There should be plenty there of interest, from Warframes to weapons to companions.
There's a shotty called the Kohm that you can buy the blueprints for. It's amazing! Kinda like a shotty version of Sweet Business from Destiny, it's full auto, has a 250 round mag, and both speeds up and adds more pelets to each shot (up to 12) as you hold down fire.
I modded mine for damage (obvs), increased fire rate, and status chance. It had 120% status chance in the end and was setting everything on fire. Crazy gun.
Played the first couple of missions of this today. It's very Destiny isn't it? The controls are all over the shop though, hold RB and press A to zap lightning? What?
Everything seems to be a one hit kill for my bow and melee, with the side arm kunai only taking a couple of hits. I like the movement and it looks nice enough but it's not particularly satisfying to play at a low level.
The movement and combat hooked me pretty much immediately, same for the unusual art direction, but yeah the early game is very easy. A lot of it is tbh, but then a lot isn't. It was the game's failure to explain the various complex systems that caused me to walk away more than once. And this is still a problem 7 years in.
Not sure what changed this time, but I decided to stick with it and I'm now completely hooked. I love the way the various Warframes change the way you approach combat, how mods do the same for every weapon and Warframe, how ridiculously complex that modding system is, and just how the game plays in general, as well as a thousand other things that'd take far too long to explain.
It's definitely not for everyone though, it's a grindathon of an action looter MMO that requires hundreds of hours committed (and a hefty amount of research and community engagement) to get the most out of it. Shit, I'm well over 200 hours in and I still consider myself a novice. But I think I'm starting to get to grips with it...
With a PS4 pad you can swipe the touchpad to activate your abilities, which I do like, but there's full controller re-mapping available if you need it. But like everything in Warframe, it's not entirely intuitive.
Controls are a bit mental, but there's moments it's weird decisions will create something special.
Boss fights are weakest link, generally, Explanation of a lot of things is non-existent, and it's a grind fest, but man, the highs.
It is generally easy. To me, the challenge/fun, isn't in the difficulty, it's in trying to be as OP and ridiculous as possible when going around, the majority of missions are really hard to actually fail, so it's more about how well you can do them and trying dumb stuff.
The Bow goes from OP to back to middle of pack eventually (Well, there's probably better bows, and I should probably reupgrade mine to make it ridic). But it's still so fun. Pinging dudes to a wall that's hundreds of metres away is amazing.
Relentless fucker hunting Warframes, looks very Warframe-like himself. The screen goes all weird when he enters a mission, and he can two-shot even a max level Starchart frame easily.
(is it quite short? I don't have it active anymore, but it didn't bring up the quest complete screen. Given what else happened, I figure it was enough.)
December 2015 for the Second Dream, 2 years or so after the game launched.
But yeah, it only takes an hour or so to play through, and that cinematic section with the reveal is the end of the quest. I loved it, but I was pretty clued up on the story to that point. That I'd put some 150 hours in before playing the Second Dream, and thought I had a grip on most things only added to the impact of that reveal. Kudos to DE for that.
Did you get that...
Spoiler:
The Sentient, Hunhow, was the sword? He still wasn't strong enough to manifest in his old form, so allied with the Stalker and became his weapon.
The next cinematic quest, The New War, fills in a bit more of the Tenno's back story. The third one, The Sacrifice, has some info the origins of the Warframes themselves, before the Tenno.
Okay, so during the height of the Orokin Empire the Tau system was marked for colonisation. Advanced AI, the Sentients, were sent to terraform Tau many years before the first colonists were due to arrive.
One colony ship, the Zariman Ten-Zero, suffered a failed warp jump, and the corrupting energies swept through the vessel. When the ship was found only the children remained, changed forever by the void energy.
An Orokin named Margulis discovered that through dreams the children could focus their newfound powers, and after killing Margulis the Orokin used this to tie the children of the Zariman Ten-Zero (the Tenno) to a new weapon system, and trained them in the arts of war.
For the Sentients had returned from Tau, and had decided that the Orokin civilisation could not continue to exist.
A brief breakdown of the story up to your Tenno's awakening. Byf tells it well and in more depth while keeping it short. Shit, this vid should be required viewing before you even start playing.
Pick your favourite max level Warframe, go to "upgrade" and bind your focus lens to your frame. During missions, you'll see golden icons appear, run through them and you'll start a timer. Kill as many enemies as you can before the timer runs out and you'll be rewarded with focus points.
This is all leading to new mechanics you discover during The New War quest, the sequel to The Second Dream. And honestly, it's something I'd recommend aiming for ASAP.
The Lua and void Orokin tileset variants have some lovely touches tbh. Secret jumping puzzles and challenge rooms, the spy missions, hidden chest rooms, the works.