Affinity is the in-game mechanic for experience points. Warframes, Archwings, Companions and weapons are all capable of earning Affinity. It is earned by killing enemies, hacking terminals, completing objectives/Missions/challenges, using Warframe powers, or picking up Affinity Orbs.
Affinity is only shown numerically in the player's profile. Elsewhere, they are shown only as progress bars to the next level for that piece of equipment, such as in the Arsenal, during missions, or in the end-mission report.
Upon gaining enough Affinity, equipment will rank up and gain one extra point of Mod capacity (two points when supercharged via an Orokin Catalyst or Orokin Reactor), used for applying mods. Despite players often calling it "experience," Affinity is stored in each specific item, not the player's character/account; if an item is sold or used in crafting, it loses all of its associated Affinity and ranks.
Affinity does not directly affect a player's Mastery Rank, but a player does gain 200 Mastery points per level on a Warframe, Archwing, and Companion, and 100 Mastery points per level on a weapon.
The amount of Affinity a weapon or frame has earned during a mission can be seen in the post-mission report, just to the left of the reward info box, where it is referred to as XP (experience).
Using the Affinity Booster, purchasable for 
40, doubles Affinity gain for 3 days, or 7 days with the 80 booster.
Some Prime Access packages also have special 90-day Affinity boosters.
Acquisition
Warframes and weapons gain Affinity for several types of actions, detailed below. Unless specified otherwise, all Affinity gained uses the same split: 25% of the amount goes to your Warframe and 75% of the amount is divided evenly among all equipped weapons (25% each for three, 37.5% each for two, or the full 75% if only one is equipped).
- Kill an enemy. Each enemy grants a specific amount of Affinity. If killed with a Warframe ability, all of the Affinity goes to the Warframe. If killed with a weapon, half goes to the Warframe and half to the killing weapon.
- Be near an allied Tenno when they kill an enemy. When within 50 meters of an ally when they kill an enemy, you gain the same total Affinity, split according to your own weaponry. This doesn't reduce the Affinity gained by the killing player, and doesn't reduce the Affinity gained by other nearby allies. This does not apply to Archwing and the Interception mode; they have much larger ranges for shared affinity.
- Use a Warframe ability. Affinity equal to the base energy cost, in most cases.
- As Update 15.8, it is still bugged. User sometimes gains no affinity from ability use.
- Hack a terminal. 50 Affinity.
- Complete an objective.
- Complete a Challenge. 1,000 or 5,000 Affinity, depending on the particular challenge.
- Collect an Affinity Orb. 100 Affinity.
- Scanning with the Codex Scanner.
- Scanning objects. 10 Affinity.
- Scanning enemies. Affinity equal to 1/3 of gain upon killing the enemy (rounded down).
- Stealth scan. Affinity equal to gain upon killing the enemy.
Companion Affinity
Companions gain their own Affinity, similar to Tenno.
- The Companion kills an enemy. Total Affinity upon kills is equal to that gained by Tenno. The owner of the Companion gains no Affinity.
- Kills with its weapon. 50% Affinity is split between the Companion and its weapon.
- Kills with an ability. 100% Affinity to the Companion.
- The Companion uses an ability. Amount varies by ability.[investigation needed] 100% goes to the Companion.
- A nearby Tenno, but not the Companion's owner, kills an enemy. Affinity gained by the Companion does not detract from that gained by its owner.
- 50% Affinity is split between the Companion and its weapon.
- 100% Affinity to the Companion in the absence of a weapon.
Bonus Affinity
If a player completes a mission successfully they gain bonus Affinity based on the amount of Affinity gained during the mission. Bonus affinity shown as yellow in the end of mission report and an additional 125% of the base affinity earned for each item.
Level Requirements
To reach a given level from unranked, a Warframe or Sentinel needs 1000 × level2 Affinity in total. A weapon needs half that amount.
To reach the same level from the previous level, a Warframe or Sentinel needs 1000 × (2 × level − 1) Affinity. Again, a weapon needs half that amount.
Pie chart illustrating the proportion of each level of the total affinity required to rank any item from unranked to 30.
| Level | Warframe/ Sentinel |
Weapon | Level | Warframe/ Sentinel |
Weapon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000 | 500 | 16 | 256,000 | 128,000 |
| 2 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 17 | 289,000 | 144,500 |
| 3 | 9,000 | 4,500 | 18 | 324,000 | 162,000 |
| 4 | 16,000 | 8,000 | 19 | 361,000 | 180,500 |
| 5 | 25,000 | 12,500 | 20 | 400,000 | 200,000 |
| 6 | 36,000 | 18,000 | 21 | 441,000 | 220,500 |
| 7 | 49,000 | 24,500 | 22 | 484,000 | 242,000 |
| 8 | 64,000 | 32,000 | 23 | 529,000 | 264,500 |
| 9 | 81,000 | 40,500 | 24 | 576,000 | 288,000 |
| 10 | 100,000 | 50,000 | 25 | 625,000 | 312,500 |
| 11 | 121,000 | 60,500 | 26 | 676,000 | 338,000 |
| 12 | 144,000 | 72,000 | 27 | 729,000 | 364,500 |
| 13 | 169,000 | 84,500 | 28 | 784,000 | 392,000 |
| 14 | 196,000 | 98,000 | 29 | 841,000 | 420,500 |
| 15 | 225,000 | 112,500 | 30 | 900,000 | 450,000 |
Enemy Affinity Scaling
When you kill an enemy, the Affinity gained is shown on screen underlined in blue. It is calculated as:
- Affinity = Enemy Base Affinity × (1 + 0.1425 × Enemy Level0.5)
Standardized affinity scaling. Y-axis indicates the ratio of affinity at current level to base affinity, X-axis indicates the difference between current level and base level.
Because the square root is taken of the enemy's level, the actual benefit of facing high-level enemies is minimal. For example, killing a level 100 Napalm would give 1213 Affinity, less than twice the Affinity you would get from a level 3 Napalm (623). Therefore, "farming" Affinity is easier when killing many low level enemies instead of withstanding very powerful ones.
For further reading on this subject, consider the Affinity and Affinity Density chapters of the Enemy Level Scaling article.
Notes
- Fully ranked equipment still accumulates Affinity even though the mission end screen does not display it. The total Affinity can be seen from a player's profile page.
- Enemies in the Simulacrum when killed do not reward Affinity.
See also
