Warframe: A Free-to-Play Power Fantasy

Warframe is all about power fantasy, and the game embraces that fully. A lot of new players wrongly think they can rush to the end of the main quest and hit maximum power. But quests are more about storytelling and adding flavour to the world. Real power comes from customising, building new gear, and improving it.

There’s a power ceiling in Warframe, with the devs giving you both a floor and a ceiling to work towards. That floor is lower than most people realise, and the ceiling is pretty low for most of the content. The key things you want are mods—they’re the foundation of everything. Out of around 1,200 mods, I use maybe 100 at most. Other items are similar to mods but act more like extra bells and whistles. Are they necessary? Not really—they’re just nice quality-of-life options. For example, there are 148 Arcanes, but I only use about 20.

Some people might not like Warframe’s loot-shooter style, but honestly, it’s not all that different from other live-service games. Take Genshin Impact as an example: it has RPG elements, focuses on loot, and lets you make custom choices too. You can play any character in both games and still do just fine. Sure, in Warframe (and Genshin), some characters are better at specific tasks, making certain things easier. The big difference is that Warframe values your time far more than Genshin does. With Warframe’s trading system, you can earn loads without spending a penny.

Why I Like Warframe

So why do I like Warframe? It’s the customisation, the movement, and the power fantasy. When I tried Genshin, I felt lost after the main quest and couldn’t get more characters. Worse, some stuff had been retired, and I couldn’t earn it anymore. Warframe, on the other hand, keeps retired items tradable or brings them back during limited-time events. Most content is still earnable, even if a Prime item gets retired.

Warframe has been going strong for 12 years now and has a massive amount of content. During that time, they’ve taken risks, revisited content, and added new ideas. Instead of sticking to a formula, they’ve expanded so much. You can race in Warframe, fly spaceships, and more. They’ve taken the game far beyond the original vision, all while keeping it as extras to the base game.

The game doesn’t do the best job of signposting what you should be working on. It can feel overwhelming at first, especially with over 750 items to unlock and use. Things like Mastery Rank act as a progress bar, but the game doesn’t explain them well to new players. Each rank gives you access to new guns, features, and plenty of areas to explore. Once you unlock more features, the game truly opens up with endless options to pursue.

Even though I’ve done nearly everything in Warframe, I still find stuff to farm and things to do. Updates and changes keep the game fresh, and I either revisit old content or get ready for what’s next. Most importantly, Warframe never feels like a full-time job to me. I can take breaks and catch up with little effort, and that’s why I keep coming back.

It’s not perfect—they’ve made plenty of mistakes—but they’ve worked towards better systems. I’d love to see them revisit older content and improve it further. A good example would be adding a pity system to everything, not just some of the newer content. If you don’t enjoy it, stop playing—it’s free to try, after all.

So, what do I have left to do after all this time? Solo a boss fight with certain frames, collect my missing mods, and finish off my Arcane collection. I also need to adjust builds for exalted weapons that have been reworked, farm the newest frame from the Temple, and get the last of the Cedo weapons.