Unlike Components, Armaments, and Avionics your Intrinsics don’t just affect your Railjack: they are tied to you are a character. That’s right, what you level up here will follow you on all of your ventures into the expanse of space, so it’s critical you understand how they work.
Intrinsics are leveled via Railjack missions by performing tasks.
Intrinsics leveling works off of affinity like everything else in regular Warframe, so much so that Affinity Boosters actually increase Intrinsic gains. Earning affinity towards your Intrinsics requires you to actively contribute towards the mission, seeing as it requires 20,000 affinity to earn one point, so no AFK slouching here if you wanna be efficient.
Killing enemies will net you affinity, no matter if you are in a gunner’s nest, pilot’s seat, or out on foot. Taking down crewships will also net you affinity, as will completing objectives. Repairing the Railjack when it takes damage also rewards affinity, so be sure to lend a helping hand. Basically, perform and provide and you will level your Intrinsics. Also, restocking the Forge provides affinity. The point being – play as a team, work as a team, be rewarded as a team.
Now, that said, your Intrinsic skills won’t rise on their own. In order to advance the four trees of Tactical, Piloting, Gunnery, and Engineering (and the soon to be released Command tree) you’ll need access to your Configure console in your clan’s dry dock. If you haven’t finished building your Railjack you will not be able to use your banked Intrinsic levels. You can still join in on Railjack missions on Earth and earn as many points as you want, but if you want to unlock new skills, passives, and move out of the Earth Proxima you have to build your ship. This may change in the future, and I’ll update this guide when that happens.
Assuming you have your own Railjack, you can level up each tree via the Configure console in the dry dock, under the Intrinsics tab. Each of the four trees has 10 tiers, with the first costing 1 Intrinsic point, and the last tier costing 512. The cost doubles each time, so you’ll need a cumulative 1023 Intrinsic levels to max out one tree. Yes, maxing out all four will be a grind, but there are certain perks you should focus on unlocking before anything else.
Below is a list of the perks associated with each tree in order:
- Tactical
- Tactical System – Deploy Tactical Avionics. Crew tracking system. (Access to the Tactical menu, which is L on PC, and RB/R1+Left d-pad on console).
- Ability Kinesis – Warframe abilities can be deployed as tactical support. (Via the Tactical menu).
- Command Link – Fast Travel within vessel. Coordinate squad members with command interface. (Again, Tactical menu; there is a theme here).
- Recall Warp – Omni gear can be used to warp aboard the ship from anywhere. (Just click on the Omni in your gear wheel).
- Overseer – Crew chase camera.
- Tactical Efficiency – Reduces Flux Energy consumption by 25%.
- Tactical Response – Reduces Tactical Avionics cooldown by 20%.
- Archwing Tactical Blink – Reduces Archwing Blink cooldown by 25%.
- Swift Tactics – Further Reduces Tactical Avionics cooldown by 20%.
- Join Warp – Warp from ship to crew members.
- Piloting
- Boost – Hold LShift to boost Engine Speed for a short time.
- Vector Maneuver – Tap LShift to burst Directional Thrusters (evasive dodging).
- Safe Flight – Damage due to Collisions reduced by 50%.
- Drift Maneuver – During Vector, press and hold LShift to drift. Drifting consumes Boost to charge launch speed. Release LShift launches out of drift (super dodge).
- Slipstream – Boost Time increased by 25%.
- Enhanced Maneuvers – Vector and Drift Maneuvers consume 25% less Boost.
- Aeronaut – Archwing Speed increased by 20%.
- Evasion – Reduce incoming Damage by 10% while Boosting.
- Ramming Speed – Ramming into enemies while Boosting will deal 2000 particle Damage.
- Gunnery
- Target Sync – Target lead indicators and ordnance lock-on.
- Phantom Eye – Augmented reprojection and turret suspensors allows full 360 degree combat engagement.
- Archwing Slingshot – High velocity Archwing deployment into the combat zone (located at the top of the Railjack).
- Archwing Warhead – Slingshot Archwing damages fighters and penetrates enemy crewship hulls (easier boarding).
- Artillery Command – Control of forward-mounted Artillery cannon (crewship destroyer, but requires coordination with pilot).
- Cold Trigger – Reduce Turret Heat Accretion by 20%.
- Advanced Gunnery – Reduce overheat recovery time by 50%. Extends Slingshot range by 50% (more pew-pew, and even easier boarding).
- Vengeful Archwing – Increases Archwing power: Damage +25%, Ability Strength +20%, Ability Range +20%, and Ability Efficiency +20%.
- Combat Drift – Drifting reduces weapon heat buildup by 50% while increasing weapon damage by 50% (so, someone needs Rank 5 piloting for this to work).
- Reflex Aim – Aim snaps turrets to the nearest lead indicator.
- Engineering
- Applied Omni – Accelerated hazard suppression and hull repair.
- Flux Forge – Forge Flux Energy in realtime to power vessel Battle Avionics.
- Ordnance Forge – Replenish Combat Ordnance while deployed.
- Optimization Pass – Increase Forge yields by 25%.
- Dome Charge Forge – Resupply Forward Artillery cannon during combat.
- Forge Accelerator – Increase Forge processing speed by 25%.
- Full Optimization – Further increase Forge yields by 25%.
- Vigilant Archwing – Increase Archwing defense. Health +30%, Shield +30%, and Armor +30%.
- Surplus Yield – Increase Refinement yields by 10%.
- Anastasis – Remotely repair onboard hazards.
I recommend getting all of them to Rank 5 first, then pushing Gunnery to seven (more DPS and you’ll be able to more easily board and destroy crewships), and Engineering to 9 (better Forging and more materials for you to take home when you refine at the end of a mission). The Rank 10 rewards are…underwhelming, so don’t stress getting anything to that rank just yet, unless you need the mastery (cause, yes, leveling an Intrinsic rewards mastery – 1500 per rank for a total of 60,000 for everything maxed out). It’ll take 4092 Intrinsics to max everything, so focus on those first before pushing ahead in Piloting and Tactics. These unlocks follow you, so even if you are on someone else’s Railjack you’ll be able to do more and provide greater assistance towards completing the mission.
One final note: the Archwing unlocks are not limited to Railjack: they are applied to your Archwing in all modes.
For more of our Railjack guide series be sure to check back into the guide hub!
