Pickups are in-game objects that the player can collect by running near or over them. They range from those useful on the current mission (ammunition, health) to resources and mods that can be later used and equipped. Many pickups are shared with teammates.
Lootables
All lootable objects such as Storage Containers, and lootable corpses will all show up on radar when equipped with the 
Thief's Wit, Loot Detector, and Animal Instinct mods.
- During Invasions, Spy mission vaults, and the Battle Damage/Self-Destruct Environmental Hazards, Butcher and Crewman corpses will appear depending upon the faction that owns the tileset; either the owner for Invasions and Hazards, or the opposite faction for Spy vaults (e.g. Butcher corpses in Corpus vaults). They can also spawn on specific parts of Earth.
- Storage lockers come in three types - green (openable), red (locked), and black (permanently locked/broken). Green lockers can be opened simply by interacting with them. Red lockers can be unlocked using the
Master Thief mod or a Kubrow with the Scavenge mod. Finally, black lockers can never be opened by any means. Lockers do not show up on the radar.
- Corpus and Grineer Caches in Earth and Orokin Void Sabotage missions also resemble storage lockers, though their lights are white, and the locker glows brightly whilst also emitting a low humming noise. These lockers do show up on the minimap.
- The four varieties of Storage Containers (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Reinforced) are 'opened' by force, dispensing loot when destroyed; they have very little HP and can be damaged by anything from melee strikes and gunfire to syndicate auras and Warframe abilities (Common and Uncommon containers have around 10 object health). The exact type of loot depends on the container type and area (lootables in hidden areas have a higher chance to yield rare resources, and mods up to rare in the Orokin Void).
- A unique variant of the Orokin container with red lights and smoke emitting from it will explode like an Explosive Barrel when destroyed.
- The Master Thief mod and Nekros's Desecrate ability are affected by pickup spawn patterns.
- Syndicate Medallions appear only in Syndicate missions, but do appear on the minimap (using the standard 'loot' icon).
Grineer Lootables
Corpus Lootables
Orokin Lootables
Items
Containers and dispatched enemies all have a chance to drop ammunition packs. Packs are universal in the sense that all players are able to pick it up if they need that type of ammo. If a glowing vertical line is seen, but there is no ammo pack on the ground, it means the player has picked up the ammunition, but another party member has not. The ammo type is indicated based on the color and shape of the pack, and the quantity of ammunition received by a player depends on the type of weapon used and the weapon itself. Orbs provide Health, Energy, Affinity or something special.
Ammo
Orbs
Energy
- Blue orbs dropped by enemies and Trinity's Pool of Life refill 25 Energy.
- Blue orbs dropped from containers and lockers refill 50 Energy. As of Hotfix 16.0.4 (2015-03-23), these orbs are visibly larger.
- Energy orbs are typically the most commonly dropped orb.
Health
- Red orbs refill 25 health.
- These are obtained from looting lockers, containers and by killing Drahks, Feral Kubrows, Hyekka or Feral Kavat.
- These drop less frequently than other orbs.
- Restores companion's health as well.
Void
- White orbs dropped from Sentient enemies.
- Refills Void energy for use of abilities in Operator mode.
Affinity
- Yellow orbs grant 100 Affinity to the player's current equipment.
- These drop from lockers, containers and Kubrow Dens.
- Nav Coordinates are used to craft most Orokin Derelict keys (excluding Assassination).
- These are often obtained from containers and by killing Drahks or Feral Kubrows.
- Lephantis Nav Coordinates are found within the other Orokin Derelict missions and are used to craft Orokin Derelict Assassinate keys.
Booster
- There are currently two kinds of booster drops in the game which are Credit and Affinity Boosters.
- They can only be found in Rare and Reinforced Storage Containers.
- Each one lasts either 30 or 60 minutes depending on if it was obtained from Rare or Reinforced container respectively.
- The same appearance of this orb is from Antiserum Injector Fragments, when dropping from enemies in The Jordas Verdict Raid.
Other
Mods
Modules are dropped by all enemy types. The drop rate is higher for heavy enemies and Bosses almost always drop at least one mod. Higher level enemies tend to drop higher ranked mods.
It is common courtesy for players to mark an uncommon or rare mod drop with a waypoint (default G ). If aimed correctly, the waypoint turns into a "module" waypoint and marks presence of a mod for all other players. Mods sparkle blue when they have not been picked up by all players in the squad. If a blue sparkle is seen, but there is no mod on the ground, it means the player has picked up the mod, but a party member has not. When Thief's Wit is equipped, mods are shown on the mini-map until the player has picked them up – it no longer shows mods uncollected by other team members.
Rare mods and Fusion Cores can be identified by the golden light beam produced.
Blueprints
- Blueprints can be dropped by Captain Vor, Stalker, Zanuka Hunter, The Grustrag Three, and Drekar Troopers after they have been defeated. Currently Eximi and Manics have a chance to drop Oberon and Ash parts respectively.
- As of Update 13.0 (2014-04-09), blueprints are marked with a purple beacon light.
- After Update 15.0 (2014-10-24), blueprints were given their own model.
- Update 17.0 (2015-07-31) moved Ash parts to the Manic's droptable.
Life Support Modules
Life Support Modules are dispensed from dead enemies in Survival missions. Each module restores 4.67%, or 7 seconds, of the total life support when picked up. They are automatically marked with a yellow marker which is invisible while zooming.
Resources
Resources are dropped by containers and enemies. The drop rate varies by the type of resource. Resource drops are uncommon when compared to other drops. The type of resources available depend on the location on the star map. Each area on the star map has at least 3 resources available with different rarity on their chance to drop. When Thief's Wit is equipped, resource drops are shown on the mini-map if any party member hasn't pickup it up yet.
Rare resources are green in color and have slight glow to make them easier to detect.
Additional "research" resources can be found for use in Clan Research, such as Detonite Ampule, Fieldron Sample and Mutagen Sample. These resources are blue in color in-game and only drop in quantities of 1.
Credits
- Credits are dropped by lockers, containers and enemies.
- Nearby credits will stack together to form piles.
- Depending on the size of the stack, the quantity can range from 10 credits to 300 credits.
- Credits collected by any Tenno are shared with the group.
Medallions
Syndicate Medallions are pickups only available in Syndicate alert missions. These pickups can be converted to Syndicate Standings when turned in to the Syndicate representatives in Relays. They are not auto-picked up when walked over and have to be manually picked up using the action key.
Trivia
- If any materials fall off the tile, they are treated like any other entity and will often (albeit rather unreliably) be transported back to their original position.
- Developers often replace Corpus Canisters with special skins during festival events, most notably during Easter, Halloween, and Christmas (when Corpus Canisters were changed to Easter eggs, pumpkins, and Christmas presents, respectively).
- Before Update 15.0 (2014-10-24), blueprint pickups resembled pink orbs.
Patch History
Update 22.0 (2017-10-12)
- (Undocumented) Added an innate 3 m pickup radius for Warframes and Operators when on foot
Hotfix 19.5.1 (2016-12-22)
- Conclave: Fixed script error with pickups