Steel Path is Boring

Currently, in Warframe, I am actually missing a few nodes. I haven’t been able to play Arbitrations, because there are nodes I haven’t unlocked yet. Well, there’s four nodes, three on the Zariman and one on Lua. But I also haven’t done these nodes on the Steel Path either. Why? Because I find Steel Path boring.

The Steel Path, put simply, is the normal star chart except harder. Everything is 100 levels higher and has 50% more armour and shields. The missions though are the exact same missions you get on the normal star chart. The only real difference is that, while you can be invaded by Stalker on the normal star chart, his Acolytes will attack you on the Steel Path. But frankly, the Acolytes are just a distraction. Sure, they have a chance to drop good stuff, but the real threat is the mission itself and the level 110+ enemies. Unless you keep on moving, you will be shredded by these enemies. Even tanks can fall if you don’t pay attention.

To survive on the Steel Path, there are ways for all frames to survive and do well, but it requires a lot of investment. You can’t just jump in with any random weapon or frame. Which I initially tried to do. It’s doable, but it takes a long time. And eats a lot of ammo. Good picks include anyone who has armour strip and someway to stop themselves from dying. There are plenty of options, although some of them involve using Helminth abilities. Abilities like Nourish and Gloom go a long way.

Not every weapon can be used on Steel Path either. Somewhat ironically though, some of the best mods and arcanes that you need for the Steel Path kinda… drop on the Steel Path. Luckily there are weapons that do work fine without all the best mods, but it’s just like with Warframes, you can’t just jump in with anything.

Now, this may seem like a skill issue. The Steel Path might just be too hard for me. But the thing is, I did most of the Steel Path solo. I actually wrote an article a while back, based on how I beat most of the Steel Path. In fact, bringing out specters was quite fun, because the specters are all also the same level as your enemies. They scale exactly the same, and their weapons and abilities scale with them. Warframe specters in particular are great, but so are the syndicate-based specters too. And if you die, one of your non-dead Liches or Sisters has a chance to spawn and help you.

But really, it’s just normal missions. And most normal missions are pretty boring. No one wants to do a Mobile Defense on the best of days, let alone do it in Steel Path where everything hurts more. If you want to kill level 100+ enemies without having to wait an hour, then the Steel Path is great. But doing every node is a long, tedious and very boring task. Heck, most of the Steel Path star chart is as untouched as the normal star chart.