Arbitrations inWarframeare challenging endgame missions designed to test your skill, build strength, and coordination. These special missions offer unique rewards like Vitus Essence, exclusive mods, and cosmetics, making them highly attractive for veteran players. However, they also come with strict requirements, tougher enemies, and unique mechanics that can quickly overwhelm the unprepared. If you’re looking to understand how to do Arbitration in Warframe, this guide will cover everything from requirements to tips for success, ensuring you’re fully equipped to tackle these elite alerts with confidence.
What Are Arbitrations?
Arbitrations are special alerts in Warframe that become available after you’ve completed all nodes on the Star Chart. These missions rotate hourly and feature random mission types and factions, but with unique modifiers that make them distinct from standard gameplay. One of the key draws of Arbitrations is the potential to earn rare resources and mods not found elsewhere in the game.
Each Arbitration is hosted by the Arbiters of Hexis syndicate and introduces unique twists such as:
- Enemies with enhanced health and damage.
- No revives death is permanent for that mission.
- One random Warframe and one random weapon get special buffs.
- Rotations are longer (e.g., 10 minutes for Survival instead of 5).
Requirements to Unlock Arbitrations
1. Complete the Entire Star Chart
Before you can access Arbitration missions, you must unlock and complete every node on the Star Chart, including the junctions and all mission types. This ensures players have a good grasp of game mechanics before attempting the more punishing Arbitration system.
2. Visit the Arbitration Console
Once all nodes are complete, go to the Arbitration Alert console located at the back of the Relays next to the Syndicates area. Here, you can view which Arbitration is currently active and what modifiers are in play.
Types of Arbitration Missions
Most mission types that exist in Warframe can appear as Arbitrations, though a few are excluded due to balance. Common types include:
- Survival Survive against endless enemies while maintaining life support.
- Defense Protect an operative rather than a cryopod, adding extra challenge.
- Interception Capture and maintain control of communication towers.
- Excavation Power up and protect excavators to gather Cryotic.
- Disruption Defend conduits against Demolysts with increasingly tough enemies.
- Infested Salvage and other variations Occasionally appear for extra variety.
Each mode in Arbitration has enhanced difficulty. The enemies scale faster, and there’s less room for error, especially with permadeath in effect.
Key Arbitration Mechanics
1. No Revives
The biggest change in Arbitrations is the removal of standard revives. If you or a teammate dies, you won’t be able to use your standard revives. Instead, other players must collect 5Revive Dronesdropped by specially marked enemies and use them at your body to bring you back. This system emphasizes team coordination and cautious gameplay.
2. Arbitrations Buffs
Every Arbitration grants a 300% bonus to ability strength, health, and energy to one random Warframe and a 300% critical chance and status chance buff to one random weapon. These buffs can dramatically change your strategy depending on which Warframe or weapon is empowered.
3. Enemy Scaling and Drones
Enemies in Arbitrations start at level 60+ and grow rapidly. Special Arbitration drones accompany some enemies, granting invulnerability to nearby units. These drones must be destroyed first before you can damage their allies. They do not trigger Warframe abilities, which limits crowd control effectiveness and forces more direct combat tactics.
Tips for Succeeding in Arbitration Warframe
1. Build for Survivability
Because revives are limited, survivability becomes top priority. Consider tanky Warframes or those that can provide damage reduction, healing, or crowd control. Good examples include:
- Inaros High health and armor make him a strong tank.
- Rhino Iron Skin adds survivability, and Roar helps boost team damage.
- Wisp Provides passive buffs and healing with Reservoirs.
- Trinity Can supply energy and heal allies, improving longevity.
2. Focus on Drone Control
Arbitration drones can make fights more difficult by shielding enemies from damage and Warframe powers. Always target and eliminate drones first in every wave or spawn group. Bring high-precision or AoE weapons to deal with them quickly.
3. Use Buffed Equipment
Take advantage of the buffed Warframe and weapon listed in the alert. Even if it’s not your main build, the massive multipliers can make average gear perform extremely well. Don’t hesitate to swap gear before launching the mission.
4. Play With a Squad
While Arbitrations are technically soloable, playing in a squad increases your odds of success. More players mean better coverage, quicker revive drone collection, and diverse Warframe abilities. If you go solo, be sure you’re running a balanced build with crowd control and healing.
5. Manage Rotations Efficiently
Arbitrations use longer rotation intervals. For example, in Survival, rewards come every 10 minutes instead of 5. Plan ahead and manage your resources (ammo, energy, life support) accordingly. Decide with your squad how long you want to stay, as enemy scaling becomes intense beyond 30 minutes.
Arbitration Rewards
The main currency from Arbitrations isVitus Essence, which can be exchanged at the Arbiters of Hexis vendor in the Relay. Other rewards include endo, Ayatan sculptures, and exclusive mods that can enhance builds dramatically.
Rewards You Can Get Include:
- Adaptation A mod that gives increasing damage resistance to damage types.
- Rolling Guard Grants brief invulnerability when rolling, great for high-level content.
- Archgun Rivens Occasionally available for Vitus Essence.
- Statues and Cosmetics For those who enjoy decorating their Orbiter or Dojo.
The drop tables change slightly depending on the mission, but Vitus Essence remains the consistent reward and can be farmed over time to purchase what you want.
What to Avoid in Arbitration Missions
Since Arbitrations are tougher, avoid certain behaviors that could cost your squad:
- Don’t play recklessly death is hard to reverse.
- Avoid low-damage or unranked weapons, even if they’re buffed.
- Stay close to teammates for support and revive coverage.
- Don’t rely on cheese tactics enemy resistance and drone mechanics often bypass them.
Be strategic, communicate with your team, and always build for the long haul.
Learning how to do Arbitration in Warframe opens up access to some of the most rewarding and challenging content in the game. These elite alerts offer not only rare mods and resources but also a chance to truly test your builds and coordination. Prepare by completing the Star Chart, build survivable loadouts, and work with a squad when possible. With the right setup and mindset, Arbitrations can become a steady source of powerful upgrades and endgame mastery.