In Warframe, Neurodes are an essential building block of Forma: one of the main progression tools for late-game play. That makes them awfully valuable to new and veteran players alike, similar to Orokin Cells and Neural Sensors. Neurodes are also one of the game’s “rare” resources, as opposed to common and uncommon ones, with drop rates that can be frustrating to work around. As such, you should probably have a good spot for farming Neurodes in Warframe. Let’s take a look at some with our latest guide!
Before we begin, I’ll lay out all the usual resource farming tips that apply to nearly every item in the game. Just to get them out of the way!
Neurode Farming Tips
Warframe players can boost the rate at which they acquire basic resources (including Neurodes) via several buffs. The most basic of these break down like so:
- The Smeeta Kavat companion
- Resource Boosters purchased with Platinum or acquired as login bonuses
- Resource “blessings” given out by Mastery Rank 30+ players on Tenno Relays
- Using (or accompanying) a Nekros Warframe
- Augment mods like “Pilfering Swarm” purchased from Syndicates
Most of these methods should already be familiar to even fairly new Warframe players. But, for those that didn’t already know, now you do! The Tenno Relay trick is especially handy since it’s entirely free and not really indicated anywhere else in the game.
To make use of the blessings, all you usually need to do is enter a relay. Each of these social hubs is accessible via specially marked nodes over several different worlds — such as the Larunda Relay on Mercury. Once inside, you can often just sit and chill for a minute until a high-level player drops the buff for everyone in the station. If you’re impatient, you can also ask in the local chat channel if someone at the appropriate level is around to give out the blessing.
Neurode Drop Locations
Now, let’s talk about Neurodes themselves. You can find the rare resource as normal drops across several different planets (and planetoids) in Warframe. These include:
- Earth
- Lua (a.k.a. the moon)
- Eris
- Deimos (specifically in mission nodes and not the Cambion Drift open-world area)
- Venus (only from specially marked rewards for completing Fortuna bounties)
Neurodes are also available as rewards for opening special, hidden caches during specific Sabotage and Exterminate missions. However, this is not a very reliable method, as the caches themselves are limited and can be finnicky to locate. If you’re opening hidden caches, you’re typically looking for much rarer prizes than Neurodes.
You can also passively farm Neurodes by placing Resource Drones on most of the aforementioned worlds. Specifically, Earth, Lua, Eris, and/or Deimos.
Of these zones, I personally recommend Deimos as the priority spot to drop extractors. The location has a chance to produce both Neurodes and Orokin Cells: two rare resource types needed en masse for useful items like Forma. Though the drop rates for either are extremely slim when using Resource Drones, it’s still a good idea to have the extractors up and running passively in the background. They will continue to soak up resources even when you’re not playing the game.
The Best Neurode Farming Spots
With all this general information out of the way, let’s talk specifics. You can technically farm Neurodes from any of the locations or methods listed above, but a few stand out above the rest. These include:
- Tikal, Earth
- Zabala, Eris
- Tycho, Lua
- Plato, Lua
- The Plains of Eidolon, Earth
- Magnacidium, Deimos
Zabala and Tikal make the cut for being Dark Sectors: special endless mission nodes with increased rewards. And while there are multiple Dark Sectors on both Earth and Eris, these get special mention because they’re harder to fail than most.
Tikal, being a fairly low-level mission, has lower resource drop rates than some of these other farming spots. Yet it’s accessible to newcomers and features the “Excavation” mission type. Unlike Defense and certain other endless missions, there is no way to entirely fail the objective here (besides dying too many times). Meaning you can keep playing until the enemies become too tough to tackle. Similarly, Zabala is more difficult but features the “Survival” archetype, which is easy to endure as long as you kill enemies quickly. There is no non-player target to escort or defend.
The Lua locations are different. These options don’t include Dark Sectors. However, they do spawn Sentient faction enemies. Assuming you’ve already completed “The Second Dream” cinematic story quest, of course. Each of these unique enemies appears to have a much-higher-than-usual chance of dropping Neurodes on death — making them a great source of the item in a short span of time.
On the other hand, The Plains of Eidolon are great for farming while gathering other rewards. Open-world bounties and Eidolon Hunts will net you a great deal of useful mid-to-endgame loot. Thus, while it might not be the most efficient way to farm Neurodes specifically, it’s often more efficient in the long-term, as you’ll be obtaining much more difficult rewards while “passively” accruing the rare resource.
Last but not least, Lephantis on Magnacidium has the usual high chance of dropping rare planetary resources shared by most Warframe bosses. Lephantis is also one of the more straightforward Assassination targets in the game — simply requiring you to shoot a series of weak points. This means you can complete the mission over and over again faster than most other Assassinations. Assuming you have a squad and/or a powerful enough ranged weapon.
The “downside” to this method is that Magnacidium is also found on Deimos. That means Lephantis will frequently drop Orokin Cells instead of Neurodes. This can be a bit annoying if you specifically want the latter and not the former, but isn’t really a long-term problem. Orokin Cells are generally much more valuable than Neurodes. You need them not only to craft Forma, but also Prime Warframes and weapons. Not to mention Orokin Catalysts and Orokin Reactors.
And those are pretty much the basics! Keep these locations and tips in mind and you should have no problem farming Neurodes in Warframe going forward. Best of luck out there!
