In Warframe, players get rich by playing several factions into prolonging their already eternal conflicts. The three major ones are the Grineer, the Corpus, and the Infested. Beyond those three, there are also smaller ones called syndicates who also wage their own wars over ideals, resources, or territory.
The players as Tenno, however, are usually just interested in one thing from these syndicates: the offerings. Helping these syndicates will open up their inventories. These contain powerful faction-specific weapons, mods, or other craftables. Six of these factions are at war with one another while some neutral ones take a lot of effort and time before they consider the players worthy of their stuff. Which Warframe syndicates give the best advantages?
Updated April 14, 2022, by Sid Natividad: With Warframe always expanding its horizons, it's a constant battle for newcomers to keep learning its mechanics and faction politics. Warframe syndicates keep joining the fray. So it can be hard to choose which Warframe syndicate to join.
Granted, not all Warframe syndicates necessitate allegiance, some merely require effort. As always, that's how players can choose to somewhat join such Warframe syndicates. We've added even more of them to this list of Warframe syndicates in order to expand the player's options. Each of these new syndicates has its own offering for the players.
15 The Quills
- Main Attractions: Tenno Amp, Arcane Enhancements, Operator Cosmetics
- Conditions: None
The Quills are the brother syndicate or sub-faction of the Ostron and like their friends, they're peaceful. Much more so in fact, since they're monastic and serve only to improve the weaponry and equipment of Tenno (separate from their warframes).
Improving standing for The Quills does require some rather herculean effort since they'll be asking for Sentient Cores and Eidolon Shards. It can be a pain to farm one of those solo, but the effort is worth it since some of the Arcane Enhancements they offer enable some endgame builds.
14 Vox Solaris
- Main Attractions: Tenno Amp, Arcane Enhancements, Operator Cosmetics
- Conditions: None
Of course, there would be an equivalent of The Quills in Fortuna. Those wee rebels would be the Vox Solaris which is also a close ally of Solaris United and has ties to The Quills themselves. As expected, Vox Solaris offers players some Corpus-themed cosmetics for their Operators.
Along with that, they also give out some Arcane Enhancements for the right price. These upgrades allow players to improve the dynamics between their Operator and warframes, allowing for some unprecedented combos and endgame interaction.
13 Entrati
- Main Attractions: Various weapons, mods, and resources
- Conditions: Assuming the role of family therapist
The Entrati is a literal syndicate family in Warframe who rose to fame during the Orokin era and were held in high renown. Nowadays, they bicker among themselves (initially) and it's up to the players to straighten out their relationships with one another to restore this fractured syndicate back to operating capacity.
Because some of their offerings are good. Their rare mods for specific weapons, in particular, are game-changing and can even bring back some old weapons to current meta standards. The effort needed in order to improve standing with them takes too much grinding, but thankfully, the rewards are worth it.
12 Necraloid
- Main Attractions: Necramech upgrades
- Conditions: None
If players don't want to entangle themselves in the Entrati family drama, they can just shift their efforts into improving their relationship with Loid. He's the family robot butler, and he has his own workshop within the Necralisk. It's all about upgrading the Nercamech which is pretty much a Gundam suit in Warframe, except more crude.
In any case, having a Necramech is necessary if players want to access some late-game questlines, so it pays to improve standing with Loid and his "syndicate." Most of the rewards offered are mods for the Necramech or useful new blueprints.
11 Ventkids
- Main Attractions: K-Drive
- Conditions: None
For a different change of pace, some players might want to chill out with the Ventkids. Yes, they're literally cyborg kids who dedicate their free time and skills to racing and performing stunts with the K-Drive or Warframe's futuristic skateboard.
The refreshing beauty in the Ventkids syndicate is that they don't ask the players to grind for them in the traditional Warframe way. Instead, they're all about appreciating some mad board skills. They also don't ask for resources or other tedious syndicate stuff. It's all fun and games with these guys.
10 Red Veil (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Rakta Cernos
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with Cephalon Suda & Arbiters of Hexis
Red Veil is the edgy syndicate in Warframe and their main methods of communication are screams and grunts. They have a good reason for their demeanor. They're the last representatives of humanity back when they were on the brink of extinction.
As such, their tactics against their enemies are aggressive, employing fire, stealth, and chaos in order to cleanse whatever they think is "corrupt." They also believe that the end justifies the means and this is reflected in their weapons. The Rakta Cernos is quite a beast and uses the Blight effect, which deals Viral damage.
9 New Loka (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Sancti Tigris
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with Steel Meridian & Cephalon Suda
New Loka's ideals are not unlike Red Veil's. They also seek to cleanse Earth to make it a habitable environment for humanity. To that end, they're some of the most honorable factions in the game. They merely seek to undo the Orokin's terraforming attempts, which ruined the planet.
Due to their philosophy, they typically favor using Tenno weapons and will reward them to any players who toil under their faction's sigils. They also have what used to be one of the strongest guns in the game, the shotgun called Sancti Tigris. While that has fallen off the META several years ago, it's still a fun and viable double-barrelled shotgun.
8 Arbiters Of Hexis (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Telos Boltace
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with Perrin Sequence & Red Veil
The Arbiters of Hexis are some of the strangest syndicates in the game and that's saying something. They modeled their organization after the Orokin and see the Tenno as powerful. They also see them as respectable and yearn to unravel the Tenno's full potential. One could say that they want the Tenno to resolve their, Hexistential crisis.
Due to their general attitude, they've earned the ire of the human-centric factions. Their true intentions are quite enigmatic as they only appear to want the Tenno to become stronger. One good reason to join them is their stylish syandana as well as the Telos Boltace, which is one of the best melee weapons in the game, particularly when it comes to crowd control.
7 Cephalon Suda (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Synoid Simulor, Synoid Gammacor
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with Red Veil & New Loka
Cephalon Suda is more of a sentient AI/machine than a whole syndicate, much like Ordis or Cephalon Simaris. As such, one can guess what Suda's personality is. She's hungry for knowledge and cares more about numbers than people. To make matters worse, her old masters were the Orokin and she still values their information.
This puts her in direct conflict with the anti-Orokin factions such as Red Veil and New Loka. It is, however, worth risking war with them for Synoid Simulor or Synoid Gammacor. Those used to be two of the best guns in the game for crowd control a few years ago. They still remain as fun weapons.
6 The Perrin Sequence (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Secura Penta, Secura Lecta
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with Arbiters of Hexis & Steel Meridian
The Perrin Sequence is the Corpus syndicate in Warframe but don't be fooled by their original faction— they're a peaceful splinter cell of those space anarcho-capitalists. Perrin Sequence seeks to resolve conflict through placid means such as diplomacy or trade.
One could even say that they're a positive version of the Corpus as they seek to make business gains through moral means and not by profiteering off conflict. Whether the players like that or not, they're going to love the Secura Penta, which is one of the best launcher weapons in Warframe.
5 Steel Meridian (Faction Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Warframe ability mods, Vaykor Hek, Vaykor Marelok, Dual Cleaver mod
- Conditions: Negative standing/war with New Loka & The Perrin Sequence
Arguably the noblest and most virtuous out of all the syndicates, Steel Meridian does the hardest task in the Warframe universe: fighting for the weak and oppressed. They also have the coolest syndicate name to boot. This Grineer rebel group was lucky enough to be born with defects to defy their Queens.
Thus, they have chosen to undermine their faction's warmongering and defend those that the Grineer seek to destroy. It just so happens that the Grineer likes to prey on the weak and scattered humans. Being used to plenty of warfare, they have some of the best syndicate weapons and mods available and players would do well to pick Steel Meridian.
4 Solaris United (Neutral Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Kitgun, Arcane Enhancements
- Conditions: None
Solaris United would have loved both the Steel Meridian and The Perrin Sequence (though those two factions are oddly at war); that's because they're the most oppressed group in Warframe. They are knee-deep in debt Corpus workers by day and freedom fighters by night. Truth be told, their situation is a little delicate since they can't exactly lose their jobs or wage too big a war against their Corpus overlords.
Hence, they employ warframes and the Tenno to do the legwork or wetwork. This is all so that the Corpus, specifically Nef Anyo, doesn't exploit them to the bone. They have the best work song ever and also some of the most overpowered pistols in the form of Kitguns.
3 Ostron (Neutral Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Zaw, Arcane Enhancements
- Conditions: None
The Ostron are in a situation similar to the blue-collar workers of Solaris United except it's the Grineer that threatens them. They're used to living and foraging peacefully off what remained of Earth until the Grineer got too greedy with the land grabbing.
Since most of them are merchants, they don't have the means to push back waves of Grineer aggression. This is where warframes and the Tenno enter the picture. In exchange, they give a highly customizable and modifiable weapon to the Tenno, plus maybe some early lunch.
2 Nightwave (Event Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Battle-pass-type reward track full of mods, weapons, and cosmetics
- Conditions: Limited time events
Players get automatically acquainted with the Nightwave pirate radio station/syndicate whether they like it or not. What players can do to voice their allegiance is to carry out the Nightwave's missions... or not. That should count as joining/committing or not.
In any case, it's hard to ignore the Nightwave's tasks since each of them will reward players with currency to purchase rare cosmetics, in-game store items, weapons, or mods. Out of all the syndicates, however, the Nightwave requires the most time and effort investment as their missions are limited and seasonal.
1 Cephalon Simaris (Neutral Syndicate)
- Main Attractions: Simulacrum access, Umbral mods, warframe parts/blueprints
- Conditions: None
Cephalon Simaris controls one of the most useful syndicates in the game and thankfully, he's neutral and only cares about his galactic encyclopedia. Players mostly improve their standing with Simaris for the Simulacrum or Warframe's version of a staging area where they can test out weapon and frame builds against different enemy types.
That in itself is one of the most useful endgame tools. After players have obtained the Simulacrum key, they can keep being chummy with Simaris for the Umbral mods or other weapon and warframe parts. He's not half-bad once players get past his creepy obsession with scanning living things and his lack of regard for personal space.
Warframe is available now for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.