Warframe is a free-to-play action role-playing third-person shooter multiplayer online that includes stealth, developed and published by Digital Extremes. First released for Windows personal computers in March 2013, it was later ported to PlayStation 4 in November 2013, Xbox One in September 2014, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 5 in November 2020, and Xbox Series X/S in April 2021. Support for cross-platform play and cross-save, as well as ports to mobile devices, are planned for 2022. The game is in a long-term state of open beta. online action game
Warframe is set in the future. Players control members of the Tenno, a race of ancient warriors who have awoken from a century-long cryosleep as they awake again on Earth, with their memories about the Old War lost for the moment. In the Solar System, they find themselves at war with the Grineer, a matriarchal race of militarized and deteriorated human clones built upon metal, blood, and war; the Corpus, a mega-corporation with advanced robotics and laser technology built upon profit; the Infested, disfigured victims of the Technocyte virus; and the Sentients, a race of self-replicating machines made by a long-dead transhuman race known as the Orokin. The Lotus guides Tenno through difficult situations and gives hints that help the player defeat enemies. To fight back, the Tenno use bio-mechanical suits, the eponymous Warframes, to channel their unique abilities.
All of the factions encountered in the game, including the Tenno, were created by or are splinter groups of the old Orokin Empire, which the Tenno learns was an ancient fallen civilization and former reigning power in the Solar System. Although most of them are long dead by the time of the Tenno's awakening, their lingering presence can still be felt throughout the Solar System. Before their fall, the Orokin had realized the Origin System was becoming dangerously depleted of resources, and their solution to keep their Empire alive was to colonize new star systems. The Orokin sent out colony ships through the Void, a trans-dimensional space that enabled fast travel between stellar systems. Unfortunately, they had also sent out the Sentients beforehand to arrive in these systems first, and terraform them, so the colonists would arrive at garden worlds capable of supporting human life. None of these residential ships returned, and those they had loaded with Sentients returned. The Sentients now decided to wipe out the Orokin, leading to the Old War, the creation of the Tenno, and finally, the Empire's collapse.
The Tenno use their powered Warframes and various weapons and abilities to complete missions. While many of the game's missions use procedurally-generated levels, newer updates have included large open-world areas similar to other massively multiplayer online games and some story-specific missions with fixed-level designs. The game consists of elements of shooting and melee games, parkour, and role-playing to allow players to advance their Tenno with improved gear. The game includes both player versus environment and player versus player elements. It is supported by microtransactions, which lets players purchase in-game items using real money but also offers the option to earn them at no cost through grinding.
The concept for Warframe originated in 2000 when Digital Extremes began work on a new game titled Dark Sector. At the time, the company had successfully supported other developers and publishers and wanted to develop its own game in-house. Unfortunately, Dark Sector suffered several delays and was eventually released in 2008, having used some of the initial framework but far different from the original plan. By 2012, in the wake of the success of free-to-play games, the developers took their earlier Dark Sector ideas and art assets and incorporated them into a new project, their self-published Warframe.
Initially, the growth of Warframe was slow, hindered by moderate critical reviews and low player counts. However, since its release, the game has experienced positive growth. The game is one of Digital Extremes' most successful titles, seeing nearly 50 million registered players by 2019.
Since its release, Digital Extremes has supported Warframe with patches and expanded the game through significant updates. These updates have included major gameplay overhauls, such as its "Melee 2.0" combat system to give players a wider array of combat moves, additional planets and missions, story elements, limited-time and seasonal events, and new gameplay modes, alongside the regular addition of new Warframes, weapons, and other equipment to procure.
The Second Dream
In December 2015, Digital Extremes released Warframe's first cinematic story quest, "The Second Dream". This quest features prominent characters from the game and introduces a new faction, the dreaded Sentients. Also, and most importantly, The Second Dream serves as an "Awakening" to the Tenno's true nature, as more than a mere Warframe, "more than human, but once a child, like any other". Completing this quest grants access to a new game mechanic named Focus and temporarily allows players to enter the battlefield as themselves through Transference. During Transference, the Warframe is temporarily deactivated (Provided the player isn't using Excalibur Umbra), and a spectral form of the Tenno themselves enters the battlefield, channelling one of five Focus Abilities depending on which of the five Focus Schools the player chose during the quest's events.
The player discovers that the Lotus is a Sentient, rebelling against the others to protect the Tenno's knowledge of their importance. The Lotus' father, Hunhow, sends a vengeful assassin called the Stalker to Lua (the remains of Earth's Moon), which the Lotus had hidden from normal space, to find its secret. The Lotus dispatches the Tenno there to stop the Stalker, arriving too late as the Stalker unveils the entity that the Lotus had protected: a human child known as the Operator, who is the real Tenno controlling the warframes through the course of the game. The Operator is one of several human children that survived the passage of the Zariman Ten-Zero colony ship through the Void. The adults have all gone mad from its travel. When the ship returned to the Orokin Empire, the children had all been put to sleep for thousands of years, outlasting the fall of the Empire, to be found by the Lotus and becoming the Tenno (Tenno short for the "Ten-zero" of the ship's name). The power of the Void gave these children the power of Transference to be able to control the Warframes from afar, making them powerful weapons in battling the ongoing forces in the Solar System. From this point forward, the player can then engage in quests both as the Warframe and the Operator.
The War Within
In November 2016, Warframe's second cinematic quest was released, titled "The War Within". This quest sends the player on the chase for Teshin, the master and overseer of the Conclave, as he is seen suspiciously searching the pods of the newly awakened Tenno. Tracking Teshin across the solar system leads to the discovery of the Kuva Fortress, a massive asteroid under Grineer control where the (so far only known as a legend) Twin Grineer Queens reside. The Queens are shown to have their origins as far back as the Old Empire. Teshin is revealed to be a Dax Soldier, meaning he was under their command due to them being of Orokin origin, thus gaining the ability to wield the Kuva Scepter. The Queens cause an overload on the connection between Tenno and Warframe, forcing the Tenno to seek them out themselves, slowly discovering their Void powers. On the mission's climax, the Tenno unlocks Transference (which replaces Transcendence), an ability which allows them to roam independently of their Warframe at will, weakens the Elder Grineer Queen and has the option to kill her or "Let her rot", since all Grineer bodies decay over time due to excessive cloning. This quest also introduces an Alignment system to the game, with possible options being Sun, Neutral and Moon. However, this alignment has not had any consequence on gameplay, leaving its purpose unknown.
Plains of Eidolon
An update to the game in November 2017, titled "Plains of Eidolon", added an open-world area to the game. The Plains are a semi-open world, initially accessible through a "hub" named Cetus, a settlement on Earth where a people named the Ostrons to reside, then directly through the player's ship. As the game describes them, the Ostrons are "A tight-knit band of hucksters and merchants." This expansion added Warframe's first open-world experience to the game, the ability for the player to gain a reputation with the Ostrons, side-activities of fishing and mining, and a Bounty system, consisting of five missions of ascending difficulty, where the player can choose to play any mission they would like regardless of whether the previous ones have been completed, a new quest named Saya's Vigil which rewarded the blueprint for the Warframe Gara, more customization options for the Tenno's combat pets, Kubrows (dogs) and Kavats (cats/ocelots), and the ability for the Tenno themselves to wield their own modular weapon, called an Amplifier (or Amp, for short) as well as another modular blade called a "Zaw". Finally, the "Plains of Eidolon" offer a new series of boss fights to the game: the titular Eidolons. These Sentient-origin titans require extreme gear and, in most cases, teamwork to take down for unique rewards.
The Sacrifice
An update to the game in June 2018, titled "The Sacrifice", added the third cinematic story to the game. Following on the events of Warframe's previous cinematic story quests, The Second Dream and The War Within, The Sacrifice sends the Tenno on a hunt across the solar system for a rogue Warframe known as Umbra. This quest provides insight into Umbra's past, the ability to gain Umbra into the arsenal after the quest's climactic point, and information on the origins of the Warframes themselves, answering multiple questions but creating even more. The Sacrifice also features the Alignment system introduced in "The War Within".
Fortuna
The " Fortuna " expansion was released on November 8, 2018. The update focuses on the titular Fortuna Solaris Debt Internment Colony, which is a hub for the game's second open-world map, Orb Vallis. The people of Fortuna (known as the Solaris) were enslaved by a Corpus known as Nef Anyo, which uses ancient Orokin devices that made gallons of coolant for the Workstation and trade center on Venus. The area expands upon concepts introduced in Plains of Eidolon, along with new activities and the ability to obtain a hoverboard-styled vehicle known as a K-Drive. This update also adds more modular items such as a plasma pistol called a "Kitgun", and a robotic companion called an "MOA".
Empyrean
The "Empyrean" update was revealed during TennoCon 2018 in July of that year and released on December 12, 2019. The update allowed players to construct a Railjack, an upgradeable spacecraft inspired by FTL: Faster Than Light. Players can gain non-playable characters to populate the ship, customize the ship, and add upgrades. The Railjack can be used in larger space-based missions, including space battles with enemy forces. Additionally, the game was planned to gain a system similar to the Nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and feature boss characters that the player would fight multiple times, with the boss changing its armaments and tactics based on the past fights with the player. Empyrean update was released in 3 phases, with the first phase released on the PC on December 12, 2019.
The Old Blood
Warframe's planned nemesis system was launched on October 31, 2019, as the second phase of Empyrean, with the Nintendo Switch launch delayed to November 19, 2019. This update revealed the Nemesis as a "Kuva Lich" - A once-ordinary Grineer grunt turned super-soldier through infusion with a mystical resource named Kuva. This enemy establishes their influence over one or more planets in the solar system, builds a following of "Thralls", which can be defeated to reveal information on how to defeat the Lich permanently, and steals resources from the player if they finish a mission in Lich territory and has unique personalities, weapons, appearances, semi-randomly generated names and weaknesses, resistances and immunities to different types of damage. A Lich can be generated in missions against the Grineer faction by performing an execution on a special enemy named a "Kuva Larvling". Said executions are performed with a newly introduced special weapon named the Parazon - a small blade attached to a rope on the Warframe's wrist. The Parazon is also used to execute Thralls and specific enemies for the game's Hacking minigame and visually in some cutscenes. The Old Blood also introduced Grendel, the game's 42nd Warframe and his signature weapon. Two earlier Warframes, Vauban and Ember, were adjusted to better function in the game's current state. Additionally, the game's "Melee 3.0" system had its release completed.
Heart of Deimos
Warframe's third open-world update was announced via the game's official YouTube channel on July 20, 2020, and was released on August 25, 2020, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and on August 27, 2020, for Nintendo Switch. The game's first expansion is to receive a simultaneous release across multiple platforms. The update adds Deimos, one of the two moons of Mars, as a new playable location within the game's Solar System. Deimos includes the Cambion Drift, an Infested open-world area smaller on the surface than the other two open-world areas but features procedurally generated underground tunnels. Much like the "Fortuna" and "Plains of Eidolon" updates, Deimos also contains a social hub called the Necralisk that houses the Entrati, an Orokin-era family known for creating the first technologies that could harness the power of the Void. Alongside Deimos came the Helminth system's introduction, which allows players to "infuse" new abilities on Warframes, including abilities from other Warframes.
Additionally, the Heart of Deimos introduced Necramechs to the game, which are mech suits built and controlled by players that feature their unique abilities. Lastly, this expansion improved the game's new player experience, mainly consisting of a reworked tutorial that includes a new cinematic intro film directed by Dan Trachtenberg, which first premiered at TennoCon 2019. The film was produced by Digic Pictures using a combination of motion capture and CGI.
Deimos Arcana
Warfame's Deimos expansion was released on November 19, 2020, for PC. It adds new weapons, a new Nechramech "Bonewidow". It was also planned to release with Lavos, an alchemist warframe but was delayed due to Covid. It also added numerous quality of life changes and new setting options.
Warframe's second Deimos expansion was released on December 18, 2020, for PC, then was released on January 21, 2021, for Console. This was a one-month event following Tenno's victory and the Sentients' defeat in Operation: Scarlet Spear. Erra and the Sentients have retreated and gone into hiding. The second Sentient invasion in the Origin System thus begins, and the Orphix Sentient Units return. Still, this time they have been taught to override Warframes by deploying weaponized pulses cleverly designed to disable them, leaving the Necramechs as the Tenno's last option.
During the Operation, Natah transmits messages to the Tenno, revealing that she was the one who taught the Orphix to disable Warframes. Her messages about deploying the Orphix series, containing a letter followed by a number, reveal a code from ordering the numbers, which says: "I AM DYING".
Father in the Necralisk on Deimos will have a shop where players can spend their earned Phasic Cells, including a brand-new Warframe, his helmet and his weapon, new Necramech mods and cosmetics, and items.
Corpus Proxima
The Corpus Promixa expansion was released on March 19, 2021. It aimed to simplify the Railjack component of the game by making it easier to acquire a ship with fewer components, eliminate the need to have a clan dojo, and the ability to buy a completed Railjack from the game's stores. It also included additional Railjack missions through additional sectors/planets for missions these missions. Players could also recruit members for their railjacks to maintain their guns or maintain the ship while the player is away, train them for specific tasks and give them their weapons. In addition, three new proximas were added to the Railjack system: the Pluto, Neptune, and Venus Proximas.
The New War
The New War expansion was released on December 15, 2021. The New War quest follows after The Sacrifice and Prelude to The New War. Ballas and Hunhow's son Erra wage war against the entire Origin System, prompting former enemies to become allies against a heavy threat. Still, all is lost after the Sentients successfully manage to take down the alliance. A new empire is born, named Narmer, and its influence becomes consequential. Ordis, now with an ally, must find the Operator and end Ballas for good. This quest will open more questions regarding the philosophy of time and answer why the Operator owes the 'Man in the Wall'. Acquisition of a Railjack and a Necramech, as well completion of some previous quests, is required to play The New War.
Angels of the Zariman
Adding to the ongoing theme of temporal paradoxes, the Zariman returns to the Origin System. The ship, previously thought destroyed, is infested with spectral Void entities, including the "Angels", which can possess Corpus or Grineer hosts. This update also overalls several basic enemy classes, notably Eximus enemies, making them much more resistant to damage. The resurrected crew tasks the Tenno to help protect the ship's various systems from being overrun while assisting them in piecing together their memories of the destruction of the original Zariman ship.
