#devs please drop a lore update look what the fandom is up to

[sichore]

any tips for somebody trying out warframe for the first time since they were like uuuuhh. 17?

I’m gonna assume this means you haven’t checked out the game in a few years, which puts you in a boat similar to the one I was in when I redownloaded it in 2016, which is totally cool! The game has changed so much it may as well be a different game, and continues to do so every year. In some ways the new player experience is streamlined, but overall it’s still really overwhelming to get into.

First off, if you’re redownloading on the same platform with the same account you had previously, anything you did previously will still be there. For example, when I first played I started with Mag. When I tried the game again years later, I picked Volt for the tutorial quest that was added in the meantime, but once I got into the game proper, I still had Mag. And I’ve heard of accounts of people thinking they’d lose their Prime frames or platinum after reinstalling, only to still fin them there. So that’s a cool thing I’m sure still applies.

If you’re starting fresh, in regards to starter frames, I recommend Excalibur or Volt depending on whether or not you’ll be playing with others or solo. I say this because Mag and Excalibur can be acquired very early on (with Mag being one of the first three frames you can farm for once you have access to the solar map; she’s my favorite of the three, and the only reason I recommend not to choose her to start is because she’s incredibly simple to acquire regardless); for Volt, however, you’ll need to join a clan to have access to their dojo and their labs, which have blueprints for various things, including Volt. If you don’t want to commit to a clan but want the blueprints, many clans are open to inviting people with no commitment or requirements, so you can grab your blueprints and leave. I saw this a lot frequently with the tweaks made to Nezha, who can only be acquired via a clan dojo (also my favorite frame, highly recommend, Nezha’s the reason I’m into warframe). Lots of newer players asked to join clans just to get him, and clans were very receptive to this!

But uh, in short; if you don’t wanna talk to people, choose Volt. Otherwise, maybe go for Excal since the boss fight to acquire him can take longer/is more annoying than Mag’s, who is easy peasy. Although, you can start your own clan and build your own dojo/labs, but it’ll take a long while to get things set up so you can have access to those blueprints.

Speaking of blueprints, I feel they’re set up in a confusing way that can seem unfair. I don’t believe Warframe is a game that promotes microtransactions and works hard to make it optional, but the menu layout isn’t always clear on this. By this I mean, if you’re looking for new frames or weapons in the market, and it says you have to buy with platinum, the real world currency–you really don’t. There will be a button prompt that will either give you the price of the blueprint in credits, so you can gather material and craft the frame/weapon, or it will tell you where the blueprint is, which generally means it’s in a dojo lab, a quest, or you farm for it somewhere.

If you don’t know what to do, follow the Solar Map. It basically tells you where to go and what unlocks, be it planets, quests, or new game functions and such. If you’re interested in the open world areas, the REALLY COOL THING is that they’re available from the start! Plains of Eidolon is on Earth and deliberately has a new player friendly tutorial and a good half or more of the features. The upcoming Fortuna addition will be on Venus, which is also a planet that doesn’t take long to get to.

You’re going to get some starter platinum that you can’t trade, and I highly recommend you keep it for extra warframe and weapon slots. I find it ridiculous that they cost platinum, but at least it’s a very low amount that’s easy enough to trade for. You can earn platinum in-game via acquiring relics and opening them in void fissure missions. This is something I don’t think is explained unless you look for it in the in-game Codex; but the Warframe wiki will probably be your best source of info for just about everything. To be honest, the only things in the game that absolutely require platinum that can’t be farmed are cosmetics* and slots. Everything else can either be farmed, or just requires patience (building items in your foundry takes real time for example; it costs platinum to speed it up, but you don’t really need to spend it).

(*also exception to the cosmetics rule are alt helmets; tennogen, that is user made ones, and deluxe skins+helmets will always cost platinum, but the official ones can be acquired via alerts.)

If you happen to have an Amazon Prime and/or Twitch account, use them! Linking your Prime account to twitch gives you access to Twitch prime, and therefore various bundles Digital Extremes have been releasing which include free Prime frames and weapons. You can earn stuff even if you just have a Twitch account, as DE has been experimenting with Twitch drops, and if you tune into their weekly streams, you can win platinum and other prizes. I won platinum in my first few months of playing! The devs are also wonderful and in near constant communication with the playerbase and are, like, constantly just giving things away, it’s amazing.

Uhh lastly, I wanna say overall the community is good, but I suppose that would depend on where you interact. The region chat in game is full of trolls, and from what I’ve seen on reddit or the official forums, it’s mostly full of either whining or ~veterans~ talking about the meta which consists of a bunch of shit that’s really not relevant to newer or uninterested players. The fandom here on tumblr is full of a lot of creatives (myself included! though I haven’t done anything for Warframe yet) which is super cool, but if you care at all about the lore or story, you’ll want to blacklist spoilers and stuff liberally if you browse the tag, since PC gets updates before consoles, and in general the big story reveals are a few years old now. Personally if I need to look up something, I just go to the wiki.

That’s all I can think of! I apologize for the text dump, but as much as I love Warframe, many of the game features aren’t well-explained in the game and it’s hard not to over-explain. Thank you very much for asking me about this fantastic game and please feel free to ask me anything else! Or if anyone else has any starter advice to add on, that’s cool too! I LOVE WARFRAME A LOT AND I’M VERY EXCITED YOU’RE GIVING IT ANOTHER TRY BECAUSE IT’S A GREAT GAME!!!