The Orb Vallis is Probably a Bit Too Hard for Newbies
Fortuna and the Orb Vallis are currently where the action is at. That’s where all the big, new shiny things are right now. Garuda was there, Baruuk and the Profit-Taker Orb are there and now Hildryn, an Operation, a second Orb and a mystery are all out there on the Orb Vallis. But the Orb Vallis is a very hard place to visit if you’re a newbie.
The Orb Vallis isn’t hard the way the Plains of Eidolon are. If you’re a newbie visiting the Plains, as long as you stay near the main entrance to Cetus, the enemies remain at pretty low levels and are quite manageable. The hardest things are Dargyns, which are very hard to hit if you’re still using the MK1-Paris. All of this changes at night though, as Vomvalysts spawn at level 30 consistently, regardless of area, and are impossible to completely kill unless you have completed the War Within.
The difficulty of the Orb Vallis is different. There’s no night cycle but the vastness of the place, on top of the fact that it’s harder to navigate and starts at higher levels, means that it’s not really meant for newbies at all. Sure, there are no Vomvalysts but the Corpus patrols will often contain small, hard-to-hit attack drones or even Shield Ospreys. There aren’t more things that shoot at you but Corpus turrets blend in more, and since all Corpus energy is blue now, it’s easy to lose track of what’s killing you. Sure, things like Nullifier Ospreys, Hyenas and Jackals don’t spawn until you hit level 3 alert levels, but if you can’t kill enemies and beacons fast enough, that’s what you’ll end up fighting.
In comparison, the Grineer on the Plains are incredibly simple. Assuming there are no ghouls around, Tusk Grineer are just normal Grineer with a paint job. The Ghouls can be difficult enemies but they are much more telegraphed than Corpus enemies.
The intro quest into Fortuna is also a lot harder. You can basically get into the Plains by doing an Exterminate mission for Konzu, but Fortuna has a fully fledged quest. That’s cool and all but during this quest, some very hefty shit is thrown your way. The first mission might require finding caches but later parts will send you to defend things and throw tons of enemies at you. The quest is doable if you have level 30 equipment, but it’s easy to accidentally fall into the quest when you’re really not ready for it yet.
You might be wondering why a newbie might be in Fortuna in the first place. That’s a good question but it’s also quite easy to answer. Fortuna is located REALLY early in the star map. Funnily enough, Fortuna and the Orb Vallis, if you just go from Junction to Junction, can be encountered before you go to Cetus and the Plains of Eidolon.
To put it another way, you need to go to Venus and Mercury before you can go to Mars, and Cetus is on the path to Mars. Fortuna though is a tiny offshoot from the main path towards Mercury. Fortunately, Fortuna and the Orb Vallis aren’t required when it comes to getting to Mercury or Mars (while Cetus and the Plains unfortunately are) but since when will newbies know that?
It’s made worse by all the new stuff lately being tied to Fortuna. Everyone wants to go to Fortuna and do the new stuff. But not everyone can go there. The Orb Vallis will steamroll anyone who isn’t careful.