There’s a reason Rhino is one of Warframe's most classic frames. The bulky mech is able to take an ungodly amount of punishment for how early—and easily—players can construct him. That makes Rhino a favorite among newcomers, since not having to worry about dying lets you reliably practice things like shooting and parkour. Like all frames, he has four basic skills and one passive ability.
Abilities
Rhino Charge sends the Rhino surging forward in a straight line. Enemies caught in Rhino’s wake will take damage and also be sent sprawling. The charge specifically does “impact” damage, as well, so it’s most useful against enemies with energy shields, like the Corpus faction. Rhino is also invincible while charging.
And while the game doesn’t draw attention to it, Rhino Charge can also be combo'd with itself for extra damage and range, with a reduced energy cost for each time you use it in succession. You just need to recast the ability within a second after the last charge finishes, which when used three times will increase the damage dealt by up to 400 percent, for just 25 percent of the original energy cost. Rhino Charge also combines with Rhino’s Iron Skin ability. Dashing while wearing Iron Skin inflicts the “blast” status on enemies—knocking them down where they stand.
Iron Skin is Rhino’s second and arguably signature move. It’s pretty simple. The skill multiplies Rhino’s armor tremendously, causing him to take less damage from enemy attacks while adding a buffer of bonus health. As an added bonus, the Warframe is invincible for a few seconds after casting Iron Skin. In fact, any damage he would take during that time is absorbed and converted into even more bonus health. Iron Skin should almost always be active when playing as it effectively makes Rhino invincible until the bonus health wears off, by which time you've (hopefully) gathered enough energy to cast it again.
Roar is even simpler than Iron Skin. The skill causes Rhino and all nearby allies to do extra damage for a short duration. This only applies to weapon damage, unfortunately. So Rhino and co.’s special abilities will not be boosted.
Finally, there’s Rhino Stomp. It’s a crowd control ability that sends out a shock wave from Rhino’s initial position. You basically stomp the ground so hard that you slow time. Enemies caught in the wave’s radius are sent tumbling, but are also slowed way, way down for several seconds—leaving them suspended in midair for easy kills.
This light stasis offers two advantages. The first is that even high-level enemies become sitting ducks. Since they can barely move or attack, you can single out their weak points and remove them from the board before they become a problem. The second is that slowed and stumbling enemies can’t attack you. Which indirectly adds to Rhino’s valuable survivability.
You can achieve a similar effect with Rhino’s passive skill, Heavy Landing, which knocks down and damages enemies near Rhino when he falls from great distances. It’s a bit niche, but free damage and crowd control are rarely bad things.
Construction
Like many basic frames, Rhino’s primary blueprint can be bought from the in-game marketplace for a paltry 25,000 credits. But the remaining three pieces—his neuroptics, chassis, and systems—are all randomly rewarded for killing the Jackal boss on Fossa, Venus. Theoretically, you could get all three pieces in just three tries. Odds are it’ll take you more. The mission is quite popular with early players, so it shouldn’t be hard to match into a public squad and take down the Jackal in just a few minutes per run.
The bigger nuisance isn’t getting the blueprints themselves, but the materials required to use them. Most of the necessary minerals are found on the first three planets: Mercury, Venus, and Earth. The primary blueprint requires a single unit of gallium (easily found on Mars), but the systems blueprint requires a whopping 600 plastids. This material is found earliest on Phobos, a relatively low-level area, but it's a pretty rare find there. Your best bet is heading to higher-level zones like Saturn and Uranus to find it. Be sure to check our plastid farming guide, if you have any trouble.
Builds
Being such a sturdy frame, Rhino is fortunately an easy Warframe for new players to tweak that won't require a lot of expensive rare mods. When starting out, focusing on adding and leveling up Steel Fiber, which will increase Rhino's already impressive armor stat and make him even more tanky. Vitality is always a good choice for new players as it gives you extra health in those rare instances where Iron Skin isn't protecting you.
From there, a basic build for Rhino focuses on increasing his energy pool and energy efficiency which will help keep Iron Skin active while still giving you room to use his other abilities. Steamline will lower the energy cost of abilities. Or you can use Fleeting Expertise for an even bigger boost at the cost of ability duration, which will impact the length of Rhino Charge's combo window alongside the duration of Roar and the slow effect of Rhino Stomp. Continuity can help offset that.
For more advanced (and expensive) builds, check out Warframe Builder or YouTuber MCGamerCZ's very recent Rhino build video.
