Railjack from scratch: getting one, who does what, what to level
Railjack is not hard so much as unexplained: you board the ship and have no idea where to stand. So, in order: how to get one, who does what aboard, and the four ranks of progression that change everything else.
Getting a Railjack
Two routes, and the second one costs money.
- The Rising Tide quest, which needs The War Within finished. It walks you through building six hull sections, each with its own build time.
- The starter bundle in the market for 175 platinum: a finished ship, four crew slots and four component slots. Buying it marks Rising Tide as completed.
Ships are built and customised in a Dry Dock, which exists on tier 2 and 3 relays, meaning Saturn and Pluto, and can be built in a clan Dojo. Each player only ever sees their own Railjack.
The step people get stuck on: a finished ship still does not fly. Cephalon Cy will say it has no power source. Go to the Reliquary Drive on the second deck, agree to the trip to Lua, grab the Void Key there and slot it in. Navigation opens only after that.
Who does what aboard
The question a first flight raises is not «what do intrinsics do», it is «I am aboard, now what». Here is the deck plan: compartments and the four jobs.
There are exactly four jobs, and a squad of four sorts itself out. Solo, one person does all of it, which is why a solo Railjack is a constant run between the pilot seat and the breaches.
The four hazards and the Omni
The Omni is the gear-wheel tool that repairs everything aboard. It is granted automatically after The Archwing quest, and if you never equipped it, it drops into the first empty gear slot when an Empyrean mission starts.
There are four hazards, and most guides list three. All of them:
| Hazard | What it breaks | Caused by |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | turrets overheat faster and cool slower, ordnance locks on at half speed, forward artillery takes twice as long to charge | Heat procs |
| Electrical | scrambles the minimap and disables the tactical menu | Electricity procs |
| Ice | disables everything interactive: pilot seat, turrets, slingshot, doors, forge | Cold procs |
| Catastrophic hull breach | damage over time to everyone aboard and a threat to the ship | heavy hits |
Repairing a fire or an electrical hazard restores 15% of the ship's maximum health each. The engineer is not tidying up, they are healing the ship, and in a long fight that matters more than shooting.
The forge: what the engineer does between fires
Four forge terminals sit at the back. Each makes one resource at a time, instantly, then goes on a 3 minute cooldown. Whatever is made refills the whole squad, not just you.
- Revolite: the Omni's consumable. Without it there is nothing to repair with.
- Warframe energy: for everyone aboard.
- Hull restore: ship health back.
- Munitions: ammunition for turrets and ordnance.
- Dome charge: a round for the forward artillery.
Which gives a newer squadmate a simple rule: if you do not know what to do, stand at the forge and keep Revolite and munitions topped up. That helps more than missing with a turret.
Intrinsics: what to take first
Intrinsics are five trees of ten ranks: Tactical, Piloting, Gunnery, Engineering, Command. Points come from affinity earned in Empyrean missions.
Two things matter. First, they rank up you, not the ship, so they work aboard somebody else's Railjack. Second, each rank costs twice the last: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, which is 127 points cumulative to rank 7 in a single tree.
So spreading points evenly is a waste. The order that actually changes the game:
| Take | Rank | For |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 1-2 | faster repairs, and half the Air Support cooldown |
| Tactical | 3-4 | fast travel inside the ship and an Omni warp back aboard from anywhere |
| Command | 1 | your first NPC crew member |
| Piloting | 1-2 | boost and a lateral vector |
| Gunnery | 3 | the Archwing slingshot for boarding |
Two thresholds worth knowing in advance: any intrinsic at rank 5 unlocks Saturn Proxima, where a Kuva Lich is finished off, and rank 3 unlocks Neptune Proxima for the Sister of Parvos. If a Lich is already waiting, rank 5 is the target.
Points come fastest from long Survival runs on Luckless Expanse in Venus Proxima, where you play your normal Warframe once the main objective is done, and from stealth kills in the Veil.
An NPC crew
You do not have to fly alone: from Command rank 1 you can hire crewmates from Ticker in Fortuna.
| Command rank | What it unlocks |
|---|---|
| 1 | first crew member |
| 2, 4, 6 | a competency point each for your crew |
| 3 | second crew member |
| 5 | third crew member |
| 7 | redistribute competency points already spent |
| 8 | converted Liches become available as crew |
| 9 | one can be set On Call and summoned into normal missions |
| 10 | elite crewmates appear at Ticker |
Rank 8 ties straight back to Liches: the one you spared instead of vanquishing comes to work on the ship. Which to pick is covered in the Kuva Lich guide.
What a Railjack pays out
- Void Storms: the Railjack version of fissures, with their own reward list that includes relics. Details in the relic farming guide.
- Finishing a Kuva Lich happens in Saturn Proxima, and there is no closing one without a ship.
- Wreckage from missions repairs into ship components and armaments.
- Endo from scrapping wreckage you do not want, 75 to 300 per component depending on its mark.
Where Orikon helps
Railjack missions rain relics, and after an hour in the Proxima the inventory is full of things you cannot name. The app scans them and shows what each relic holds and what it is worth, so you crack them on purpose rather than in order.
Common questions
How do I get a Railjack?
Finish the Rising Tide quest, which needs The War Within, or buy the starter bundle for 175 platinum, which hands you a finished ship and marks the quest complete.
Where do I build a Railjack?
In a Dry Dock. There is one on the Saturn and Pluto relays, and one can be built in a clan Dojo.
Why will my finished Railjack not fly?
It needs the Reliquary Key. Go to the Reliquary Drive on the second deck, take the trip to Lua for the Void Key and slot it in; navigation opens then.
Which intrinsics should I level first?
Engineering to rank 2 and Tactical to 3-4: the first speeds up repairs and halves the Air Support cooldown, the second gives fast travel and a warp back aboard. Then Command 1 for a crewmate.
Which intrinsic rank does a Lich need?
Any one of the five at rank 5, which opens Saturn Proxima where a Kuva Lich is finished. A Sister of Parvos only needs rank 3.
What does the Omni do?
It repairs all four hazards: fire, electrical, ice and hull breach. It comes from The Archwing quest, and its consumable, Revolite, is made at the forge.
How do I hire an NPC crew?
From Ticker in Fortuna, starting at Command rank 1. The second and third crewmates unlock at ranks 3 and 5, and at rank 8 a converted Lich can join.
