Ophelia on Uranus is the best Tellurium farm in Warframe. In this guide, learn why Ophelia is the best activity for farming Tellurium, discover alternative farming locations, and find out which Warframe, Weapon and Companion builds are best for Tellurium farming. Plus, learn whether you should farm Ophelia in Steel Path or on normal difficulty.
Tellurium is a vitally important resource in Warframe that nonetheless can be quite difficult to farm. You’ll need it as an ingredient when constructing a wide variety of different Warframes and weapons.
Without the right approach, though, getting your hands on enough Tellurium will be either very expensive or very difficult.
Tellurium has a base drop rate of just 0.2%, which means you’ll have to kill an average of 500 enemies just to get one drop — and Tellurium does only come from enemy kills.
I’m going to explain how to get Tellurium with maximum efficiency so you can stack it up with basically no effort and have plenty to craft whatever you need.
We’re going to start by covering six different ways you can get Tellurium, ranking from the best to the worst.
From there, I’ll get into tips and tricks for how to maximize your Tellurium gains using the right weapons, Warframes, companions, and buffs.
At a glance:
- Tellurium is a rare resource in Warframe that only drops from enemy kills.
- Tellurium drops on any Archwing, Railjack, or Kuva Fortress mission.
- Ophelia on Uranus (Survival) is the best Tellurium farm in Warframe.
- Ophelia technically counts as an Archwing mission due to its submersible areas.
- Survival missions are generally the best for farming.
- Nekros Prime is the best Warframe for farming Tellurium.
- Combine him with a Smeeta Kavat for increased drops.
- Don’t forget to stack Resource Boosters and Drop Rate Boosters.
- Generally, Normal difficulty is better than Steel Path for farming Tellurium.
1.)Why is Ophelia on Uranus the best Tellurium farm in Warframe?
Ophelia on Uranus is an ideal Tellurium farm because it is a low-level Survival mission with tons of enemies that are easy to clear through. It unlocks early in the Star Chart and offers practically AFK melee gameplay.
Tellurium drops on Ophelia because it is technically a submersible mission. However, almost all of the map is above water.
During the farming process, you do not go into the water at all with your Archwing. You just go around this relatively low-level survival map, slicing enemies to bits and using Nekros’ Desecrate to maximize your gains.
- In my experience, you get one Tellurium in Ophelia around every 5 minutes.
- Of course, it does vary. Sometimes you get more, sometimes you get less.
But compared to your other options, that is a relatively high drop rate. The main reason for this is there are lots of enemies, and they go down really quickly. That’s also why I don’t suggest you run Ophelia on Steel Path.
One other reason Ophelia is a great Tellurium farm is it’s relatively easy to unlock. You just need to progress in the Star Chart until you get to Uranus, do a few missions on Uranus itself, and then you’ll be able to access Ophelia.
Plus, you can get carried here by another player if they invite you to their party.
Enemies on Ophelia go down really easily with the right build. All the buffs you can get from your Companion and your weapon type apply.
It’s repetitive, basically AFK gameplay that you can do while watching TV or listening to an audiobook. You’ll never be in any real danger. You basically just hold the melee button, run through the map, and collect your Tellurium.
2.) Are Railjack missions good for farming Tellurium in Warframe?
Railjack is a relatively good farm for Tellurium — in theory at least. However, after spending more than an hour in different Railjack missions, I have yet to find a single Tellurium myself.
Tellurium supposedly drops from any kill in Railjack missions, whether you’re in the Railjack, flying around to your Archwing, or you’ve boarded an enemy craft or base.
The community suggests that Survival missions with Corpus enemies are the best for this. With Survival mode, you basically spend all your time on an enemy vessel, making it similar to any other Survival match.
The other issue with Railjack is that to get to the good nodes, you have to progress through a wide variety of different missions first.
Railjack missions require a lot of prep work unless you come with a full squad. You need to hire a crew, invest in the right components, and level up your Intrinsics.
So, there’s a much higher barrier to entry for this farming method with — at least in my case — no confirmed results.
3.) Is Kuva Fortress a good Warframe Tellurium farm?
Tellurium does drop from Kuva Fortress maps, but it’s not a particularly good Tellurium farm. The best node to run is Taveuni because it is a Survival mission similar to Ailia.
Just like on Ophelia, every enemy kill on Taveuni has a chance to drop Tellurium.
However, this method is much less straightforward. It is generally not considered to be a worthwhile Tellurium farm on its own.
Instead, Tellurium is just an added bonus while you go around completing the main objective, which is farming Kuva.
Compared to Ophelia on Uranus, you unlock the Kuva Fortress much later along in the Warframe storyline as well, making it an overall unideal option, but still something that should be mentioned.
Other endless Kuva modes also work for this, including Disruption, but again, the Kuva Fortress is not a great option for farming Tellurium — even though it is an option.
4.) Can you get Tellurium from Fortuna bounties?
From what I hear, Tellurium can also be a very rare drop from Tier 4 bounties on Fortuna.
I have gone here and checked out the Tier 4 bounty a few times myself. Not once has Tellurium shown up as a possible reward.
But, this is something that the community says is sometimes a reward here.
However, even if Tellurium does drop from these Tier 4 bounties, the reward pool is heavily diluted with other options like Endo and mods, making this a very indirect way to farm Tellurium — if it ever does show up from these bounties at all, which I have not been able to confirm yet.
Like the Kuva Fortress, this is not a very good dedicated Tellurium farm. But if you do happen to be doing these bounties anyway, just understand the community says you will sometimes be able to get Tellurium from Fortuna Tier 4 bounties.
5.) Can you buy Tellurium from Teshin?
Sometimes Teshin (found in any Relay) will offer Tellurium in exchange for Steel Essence as part of his weekly rotation.
If you are already running the Steel Path and farming Steel Essence, this can be a good way to use it.
But again, this is a crapshoot. You never know when Teshin is going to have Tellurium again, so you cannot really rely on this as a farming method.
Is Tellurium a possible login reward in Warframe?
Tellurium will sometimes show up as a daily login reward in Warframe, but there’s no way to predict when this will occur. When it does show up, Tellurium is usually rewarded in quantities of 1-2.
6.) Can you buy Tellurium for Platinum?
Yes, you can buy Tellurium directly from the Warframe Market for 10 Platinum a piece. However, this is a really bad idea.
10 Platinum for just one Tellurium is a very high price.
I just want to mention this in case you’re completely desperate — you just need one more Tellurium, and you don’t want to farm.
You can technically go to the market, search for Tellurium, and then buy it there directly.
Summary: Best Warframe Tellurium farm
So, those are your options. I do highly recommend just farming Ophelia.
The rest of the options are really not that good, except maybe Railjack, but it requires a lot of prep work.
Generally, when in need of Tellurium, the community just goes to Ophelia and grinds for 20-30 minutes. It’s the best option at your disposal — unless you want to go to the market and buy it for Platinum.
Which Warframe is best for farming Tellurium?
Nekros is the best Warframe for farming Tellurium. Nekros’ third ability, Desecrate, causes corpses to drop additional loot.
This is a toggle on-or-off ability that you simply turn on at the beginning of a match and then forget about it.
Combined with a mod we’ll get into shortly, Desecrate should just keep running all the time.
With Nekros Prime, you basically just want to make sure that he’s going to survive in a Level 25 mission like Ophelia, which is not hard to do. Just slot mods like Vitality, Adaptation, Health Conversion, etc.
But then much more important than all of that are mods that improve the utility of Desecrate.
So, for instance:
- Stretch, which increases ability range.
- Overextended, which increases ability range even further.
- And, most importantly, the Nekros-specific augment mod, Despoil.
Even Nekros Prime only has 190 base energy. So, if you happen to use Desecrate on a large pile of corpses, you’ll immediately run out of energy.
Despoil, however, changes Desecrate to consume health instead of energy.
With the fact that Desecrate will produce tons and tons of health orbs, you do not need to worry about dying. This augment mod makes sure that Desecrate will be running non-stop as you slash through Ophelia.
Which weapon is best for farming Tellurium?
The best weapon for farming Tellurium is a melee weapon with high slash damage. For instance, Kronen Prime — but basically any bladed melee weapon will work here.
For mods, I’d recommend:
- Berserker Fury
- Reach or Primed Reach
This will ensure you can clear lots of mobs very quickly. Aside from that, just make sure to use a slash-based weapon.
The reasoning for this is kind of grotesque, but very interesting: Slashing enemies cuts their bodies into multiple pieces. and then each of those body segments counts as a body for Desecrate.
If you cut a Grineer on Ophelia in half, for instance, each of those pieces counts as a separate body that Desecrate can squeeze more loot out of.
What is the Amalgam Ripkas True Steel trick?
You can use Ripkas, a particular low-tier weapon to make all of your weapons do the equivalent of slash damage.
With a mod called Amalgam Ripkas True Steel, this weapon turns into a stat stick that then causes “Gore” to proc on your other weapons, which dismembers bodies just like slash damage.
You could, for instance, equip Ripkas with that mod and then kill enemies with a fastclear weapon like Acceltra Prime.
Which Warframe Companion is best for farming Tellurium?
The Smeeta Kavat and the Panzer Vulpaphyla compete for the title of “best Warframe farming companion.”
Smeeta Kavat:
- The Smeeta has an inherent ability called Charm that can have a variety of different effects, including a chance for the rare resource from the map you’re farming to drop directly into your inventory.
Panzer Vulpaphyla:
- The Panzer is the strongest Companion in Warframe. Since all Beast Companions can now use Resourceful Retriever, this Companion can now increase your drop rates nearly as much as the Smeeta.
However, the Smeeta’s Charm still gives an extra 4% chance to drop the map’s rare resource, which could be worth it — especially considering how much harder it is to get a Panzer compared to a Smeeta.
With either Companion, just make sure to slot:
- Tek Enhance to increase ability duration.
- Fetch so your companion can pick up resources automatically.
How do you get Drop Chance and Resource Boosters in Warframe?
The best way to get Drop Chance and Resource Boosters in Warframe (which stack to provide 4x resource drop rate) is to go to any Relay and simply ask for one.
Players at Mastery Rank 30 or above can bestow Boosters as Blessings.
- Simply enter the chat,
- Go to “Relay Chat,”
- And ask, “Drop rate boost, please.”
You may have to ask a few times, and definitely go to a busy instance of the Relay because there’ll be more people there.
Can you buy Boosters for Platinum in Warframe?
Yes, you can buy Booster items from the Warframe Market for Platinum. However, these cost a lot of Platinum.
- A 3-day Drop Chance Booster costs 40 Platinum.
- A 7-day Drop Chance Booster costs 80 Platinum.
- A 30-day Drop Chance Booster costs 200 Platinum.
The Boosters you get from other players only last for a few hours, but it’s much better to get these for free.
Is Steel Path better for Tellurium farming in Warframe?
Even if you’ve unlocked Ophelia on Steel Path, farming Tellurium in normal difficulty is usually the better option.
Steel Path does technically have twice the drop rate compared to normal missions, and there’s a higher concentration of enemies right from the beginning of a Survival mission.
However, your time-to-kill (TTK) goes up considerably with Steel Path, as do your chances of dying.
In the end, you almost always get a better drop rate from normal Ophelia. With a relatively good weapon like Kronen Prime, you can just fly through with your Nekros mincing meat.
Farming Tellurium: Best practices
Lastly, I do just want to mention a couple good practices when you are farming Tellurium on Ophelia:
- One thing you can do is politely ask your squad if they are using slash.
- You can remind them you’re using desecrate on Nekros and request or suggest they use weapons with slash damage so Descrate works at maximum efficiency.
- When you do find a Tellurium, make sure to mark it for your teammates.
- On PS5, for instance, press the left button on the D-pad.
- Whichever input you have bound to marking a waypoint, just press it so your teammates will know where the Tellurium is.
- Unlike other rare resources like Argon Crystals, Tellurium does not show up as an icon on the map for your teammates.
- So, marking it when you find it is just common courtesy.
Conclusion
That’s going to do it for explaining how to farm Tellurium in Warframe. Just summing up one more time:
- Normal Ophelia on Uranus is your best bet.
- Bring Nekros or Nekros Prime.
- Turn on Desecrate with Despoil.
- Use a Slash weapon.
- Equip a Smeeta Kavat.
- Make sure you have a Drop Rate and Resource boosters active.
With all that in place, farming Tellurium should be pretty easy.
It’s never really that easy. Tellurium’s drop rate is pretty low, but you can definitely make it easier or harder.
And with this guide, my goal was to make it as easy for you as possible.
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