Even in Warframe, Plastids don’t exactly grow on trees. This “common” resource gets eaten up quickly by crafting (and, if we’re talking about Helminth, quite literally). Yet it doesn’t drop in tremendous quantities. And while it might not even be the hardest-to-get basic resource — not by a longshot — we all still need to know where to farm Plastids in Warframe. So, let’s take a look!
For most players, Plastids farming begins and ends with Dark Sectors. These are specially marked missions pretty much built from the ground up for farming resources and Affinity (the Warframe equivalent of XP). They always endless mission types, like Survival and Defense, meaning you and your squad can theoretically play them forever.
The annoying part is that enemies typically get stronger with each new “tier” you reach by staying longer and longer on a mission. The risk comes with greater reward on Dark Sector missions, though. All of which have innate bonuses — typically providing a 20-30% bonus to total resource drops. That’s the real moneymaker.
There are several different Dark Sectors in Warframe that house Plastids. These include:
- Assur – Uranus (Survival)
- Ur – Uranus (Disruption)
- Zabala – Eris (Survival)
- Akkad – Eris (Defense)
- Piscinas – Saturn (Survival)
- Caracol – Saturn (Defection)
- Memphis – Phobos (Defection)
- Zeugma – Phobos (Survival)
- Sechura – Pluto (Defense)
- Hieracon – Pluto (Excavation)
Warframe Plastids Farming 2023 – Dark Sectors
Each of these have their own pros and cons. However, Survival missions usually get the nod because of how well they line up with existing resource farming methods in Warframe. Namely: you can farm resources and oxygen at the same time by using frames like Nekros and Hydroid. Since the fail state for these missions is running out of oxygen, you’re constantly killing two birds with one stone by doubling down on farming Plastids (and other resources)! Not to mention you don’t need to worry about some secondary objective dying on you — such as the Grineer NPCs in Defection missions.
This has long made Piscinas a pretty favorable Plastid farming location. It’s the right type of mission, starts at a decently high level (which means more enemies to loot), and it’s on Saturn. That means it also has a high chance to drop Orokin Cells: one of the most important rare resources in Warframe. This means, despite it not necessarily being the best spot to farm Plastids exclusively, it’s one of the most efficient missions to farm for it overall, since you’re getting a decent number of Plastids and rarer materials.
But if you’re looking for the most possible Plastids — and only Plastids — in the shortest amount of time, then Assur might be your best bet. Yes, this is just another Survival mission, and no, it doesn’t have Orokin Cells. However, this Dark Sector comes with a 25% resource drop boost (compared to the 20% found on Piscinas). It also gives you access to Polymer Bundles: another fairly hard-to-farm resource.
Last but not least is Zabala. This Survival mission has the best resource bonus (35%). However, its higher level of difficulty and the relative “late game” status of Eris can make it harder to farm than the more midrange zones.
More requirements to unlock the area mean fewer random players are available to squad up and help. Not to mention that, if the enemies become too difficult to kill, you’ll need to reset and leave more frequently. This is why Assur is likely to be the sweet spot for most players.
Warframe Plastids Farming 2023 – Deimos
On a quick side not, there’s one other potential place to farm Plastids. Though it isn’t even labeled as such on your star map. You can always go to the Cambion Drift on Deimos and try your luck there. After unlocking the zone through the Heart of Deimos questline, of course.
This is a bit confusing because Deimos doesn’t list Plastids within its loot pool. (You can check any pool, by the way, by pulling up the Resource Extractor menu over any planet, moon, or other harvestable world.) The reason for this might be that the Infested moon can’t produce Plastids willy-nilly. The resource only drops from one specific type of resource container: the orange, glowing Rolizor Infested Cysts found on the surface and within the world’s caves.
You can see an example of the cysts in question in the screenshot above.
The upside here is that the cysts can drop 50-60 Plastids at a time. That’s quite a bit! The downside is that the drops seem very, very inconsistent. You can fly and run around shooting one cannister after another for 10 minutes and not get a single drop of Plastids. If you do get some, you’ll get a lot! You just might also not get any at all.
With a bit of setup, however, you can make the Cambion Drift method fairly quick using either Xaku or an Itzal Archwing.
When specialized for maximum range, Xaku can destroy any cannisters in a wide radius using their ultimate ability: The Vast Untime. This destroys crates and other such objects even through walls. Then you can use the “Greedy Pull” augment, after equipping Xaku with Mag’s Pull ability using the Helminth, to soak up all the resources. Though this process can be quite finnicky as Greedy Pull requires line of sight to the objects being collected.
You can also use the Itzal’s Cosmic Crush ability to accomplish pretty much the same thing. This skill vacuums up loot in a decent-sized area while you fly around. Though it won’t work if you go inside certain caves within the Drift.
On one final note, you can always aid your Plastids farming (and all other resource gathering missions) with some basic boosts. In particular, Resource Booster buffs and the Smeeta Kavat companion increase resources gathered pretty much across the board. And don’t forget about the aforementioned frames that can increase resource drops on their own.
In my personal opinion, though, the simplest ways are still the best. Farming Plastids on Assur — or Zabala or Piscinas depending on your preferences for difficulty and Orokin Cells — is the closest thing to a surefire way to get what you want. At least in a game as heavily reliant on randomness as Warframe.
