Beginner Friendly Budget Zephyr build

This all-rounder build is meant for people, who just started the game, and low on resources. It is easy to play and understand. Can be used to solo clear most of the missions, it is reliable both on kill, and defend missions. It brings some team utility, and doesn't have any abilities, that could grief your teammates, so you can hop into any missions into, with it. The build works perfectly fine, with non-prime [Zephyr].

Pros:

• Doesn't rely on weapons. The frame alone does all the work.
• Scaling damage.
• Cheap. No forma, low Endo.
• Can last you a long time, into harder content.
• Near immortal against projectile attacks.
• Versatile

Cons:

• Could cause motion sickness.
• Doesn't work against enemies, that are immune against skills.
• Weak against status effects.
• Requires a catalyst.
• Most of the damage comes from one, hard-ish to get mod.
• Can get repetitive.

Why these mods:

Aura: Can use anything here. The capacity shouldn't be a problem. I recommend [Energy Siphon], because the build is skill spam heavy, so it needs energy. [Physique] is an other easy to get aura, that fit into the polarity, if you are short on capacity. Once you [Reach] higher levels, you can replace these with [Aerodynamic].

[Motus Signal], unranked: I recommend using a shotgun, with Motus Setup, and a melee weapon with Motus Impact. This leads to 100% crowd-control immunity, while in air. If you can't get the rest of the set, or don't want to use a shotgun, feel free to drop this mod, and replace with something else. Either put [Aviator] in this slot, or [Anchored Glide]. I use an unranked version, because [Zephyr] can already stay in air for long, she doesn't need a stronger double jump. A maxed mod could "glue" you to the ceiling, on low ceiling maps, and slow you down, when trying to pass doors. These mods drop on Ganymede, Jupiter.

[Cunning Drift]: Ability range is important on this build. This mod is harder to acquire as a beginner, so it could be replaced with [Jet Stream], for some quality of life on the third skill (You might need to forma the frame once, in this case, depending on your aura mod). This mod drops on Lua, in the Cunning Test room.

[Augur Message]: Ability duration helps you keeping up your 3rd skill, or 4th, in case you need it. Augur sets help you keep up your shield. This mod drops from Cetus (Earth open world map) Bounties (Missions).

[Augur Reach]: Ability range to help your damage, and defense. Augur set, to help your defense. This mod drops from Cetus (Earth open world map) Bounties (Missions).

[Aviator]: Reduces damage taken, while in air. Pretty useful, since most of the time spent will be in air. This mod drops from Nox, Kuva enemies, and Sentient enemies. It should drop after a while, while playing naturally.

[Streamline]: Ability efficency reduces the cost of abilities. This mod drops from multiple sources, should drop after playing for a while.

[Vitality], rank 5: Health is important for survival. [Zephyr] has decent base health, so maxing this out isn't top priority, but a nice goal for later. This mod can drop anywhere.

[Stretch]: Pure ability range. Helps with damage via our first skill, and survival with our third.

[Target Fixation]: This mod is the sole source of damage for this build, and it is mandatory for the build to work against high level enemies. This mod comes from New Loka, or the Red Veil faction, after completing their whole standing grind. I would recommend asking a friend, or clan mate to grab this for you, or buying it, if you don't want to spend the time, and resources, to acquire it yourself.

Zephyr, skills, and how to use this build:

Zephyr is a relatively easy frame to get. You can acquire the non-prime version from your clans dojo, if researched. The prime variant drops from void relics, which are usually vaulted, so you will have to get the parts from other players.

Passive move faster, and fall slower, while in air, and get additional critical chance.

Tail Wind is the first skill, and the bread and butter of this build. It launches you toward the direction you are aiming, damaging enemies, that you pass through, or pass close to. Looking downwards, while in air changes the skill into a Dive Bomb. Thanks to the duration from the mods, the build can wipe out large group of enemies with every single Dive Bomb. Using this skill while in air halves its cost, so you should always use it while in air. Thanks to [Target Fixation], every enemy hit increases the damage of this skill, letting us scale its damage infinitely, as long as we don't spend more, than 2 seconds on the ground.
Holding down the ability key lets you hover around, but draining energy constantly. It is a nice addition, but rarely needed, when running this build.

Airburst is the second skill, lets you pull enemies into a single point, if you tap the ability key, or push them away, if you hold it down. It is useful, when you need enemies to die close to a container, or when you want to pull enemies into your allies trap. Otherwise, it doesn't see much use in this build.

Turbulence is the third skill. It is the most useful ability during defense missions, and our best source of survivability. It places a zone around the frame, diverting any projectile, or beam attacks. Thanks to the range from our mods, bullets should rarely hit us. One scenario where you should be careful is, when you are up against foes, that fire exploding projectiles, on tight corridors. The explosions can still damage you here.

Tornado is the last skill. It spawns 3 tornadoes, that lift enemies, and pass down damage to them, if an ally, or you hit them. They are useful on higher level missions, once energy isn't an issue anymore. It is crucial to solo Steel Path defense missions.

Video example:

Tips and tricks:

• Keeping up the stack counter is tricky at first. Luckily the early missions aren't really punishing. You can rebuild your stacks, and keep on rolling fast. Later, when you unlock Operator mode, you can preserve your stacks, by activating it, while in air. If you did it correctly, you are free to spend as much time, as you wish, walking normally, interacting with objects, reviving allies, or waiting out end of round votes, for round based, and void fissure missions.
• The Dive Bomb respects line of sight, so if an enemy is hiding behind a barrier, try to aim at the top of the barrier, to wipe out everyone around it, instead of just part of them. It ignores line of sight, when it comes to loot containers. It is useful, on hidden cache searches.
• Dive Bombs damage scales with the height you bomb from. If you are having trouble killing certain abilities, you could fly up, if the room allows, to drop from a greater height. Once you are stacked, you can wipe out your foes, even if you bomb milimeters from the ground.
• If your shield ran out, and you got a damaging status effect on you (except for Poison) start spamming your first ability. The damage ticks once per second, the Augur set gives you small amount of shield. If you have at least 1 point of shield, when the tick happens, it only damages the shield, and the overkill doesn't carry over to your health.
• If you max out Motus Signal, and you doublejump, before Dive Bombing, you'll bounce up right after the impact.
• You cannot Dive Bomb into Nullifier bubbles, but you can Dive next to them, to destroy the bubble firts.
• [Jet Stream] isn't only a movement speed increase. Increased bullett speed means damage falloff of the weapon starts at a longer distance.
• The third and fourth skills has a long cast time. You can aim-glide while casting, to slow down your falling speed, to avoid touching the ground.
• Wall latch, using ziplines, using vehicles is considered touching the ground. Avoid staying in these, for more than 2 seconds.

What's next? (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!)

• Getting a good pet helps a lot. The game gives you a [Taxon] for free, which works pretty well with the build. During the [Howl] of the Kubrow quest, you unlock Kubrow breeding, and get one for free. You should aim towards a [Huras Kubrow]. It puts you, and itself, into stealth, that only breaks, if you attack, or wander too far away. As long, as you keep clearing the enemies, you should stay stealthed. (Learned this neat trick from CarylCat, on Youtube. Shoutouts to them.)
  If you are unsatisfied with the range, equip an Overextended mod. The lowered strenght shouldn't matter much, because the stacks scale infinitely. It will lead to longer ramp-up times, if you lose your stacks.
• Once you are getting into later content, you will start to unlock more systems, that let you customize your playstyle even more. One such system is the Focus, where you can pick a School, for your Operator. This is where you can solve all your energy issues, by leveling the Zenurik school.
• The Helminth system lets you use other frames abilities. While running this build, you should be fine, without using this system. On high end missions, you could swap your fourth ability, with armor strip abilities, or Master's Summons.
• Later, you unlock Archon Shards. Luckily, this build doesn't really rely on them, you are free to use them on your other frames.
• Just like Archon Shards, Arcanes aren't crucial for the build to work either. Feel free to equip whatever tickles your fancy.
• Once you get a good weapon, and get bored of the build, but still wish to play Zephyr, I recommend swapping to a build, that plays around Tornado. You can find builds for it on this site easily.
• When you get later into the game, I recommend swapping around the mods, and personalize the build. While this build can survive against, and wipe out high level enemies, this setup isn't the best. If you want to push this playstyle to its limits, I recommend checking out CarylCats Perma stealth [Zephyr] video, on Youtube.