A Daily Grind or a Second Job?

I don’t know if it’s because of the recent updates of Nightwave and Buried Debts, or because I’ve been burnt out, but lately Warframe feels like a real chore to play. There is just so much that needs to be done per log-in that it feels like a second job almost.

Normally, the average day would go along the lines of completing a sortie, doing some Syndicate missions and maybe doing some fissures or invasions, depending on what you need. Invasions and fissures are pretty quick to do. How much syndicate stuff you do is tied to how much standing you have. Then you can do some quests or level up some weapons and maybe squeeze in an Eidolon hunt if you have time.

Lately though, there is a whole list of chores that need to be done.

The first thing is the whole Buried Debts event. Alongside the scanning of a bunch of VERY small items scattered across the entirety of the Orb Vallis, you also need to do a bunch of fractures. Each fracture takes about 2 minutes to close, plus a good couple of minutes of travel time. It takes 15 sets of 4 complete fractures to get the Opticor Vandal, the big prize, an item that might not come back for a long time. So you kinda want to do these events right now because you have no idea when you’ll be able to get these rewards again.

We also now have two open world areas rather than one. So if you want to level up with both, you need to split your time wisely. Luckily Cetus standing and Fortuna standing don’t cut into each other but it takes time to do bounties, especially if you keep on getting the Liberate A Camp or Armoured Vault missions. The fastest way to gain standing though with Cetus is to fish, but the best fish spawn at night, when you could be out catching Eidolons. Once you’ve hit max rank on those, you then need to deal with the Quills and Vox Solaris, both of which level up on their own. Sure, you can do bounties at night and maybe kill some Vomvalysts as you do so, but Eidolon hunts need their own slice of time.

And then there’s Nightwave. Nightwave NEEDS to be done now since it’s an episodic thing with a weekly timeline. Sure, you have 3 days to do the daily challenges and a week to do the weekly challenges, but you gotta get them all done. This week’s Nightwave challenges include tasks such as fishing, mining and more mining, as well as doing 5 sorties and 8 Fortuna bounties. Some of these things are things that you might do anyway, but you have to go out of your way to do Lua challenge rooms or Orokin Vaults.

And don’t get me started on mining. With fish, you can buy the baits, but mining is nothing but luck. But whatever the task, it’s normally something you have to go out of your way to do. Some tasks you can do together but most Nightwave tasks so far have been specific things.

Things are faster with a squad, but it’s still slow work.

Either way, there is always a long list of things to do, and frankly that list keeps on getting bigger. Sorties, normal Syndicates, fissures and invasions, Fortuna and Cetus syndicates, Quills and Vox Solaris, Simaris, Ventkids and other standing, Arbitrations, Nightwave and any current events are all things needed to progress. This list of things will get even bigger when things like Rail Jack come out, as well as the Exploiter Orb fight and whatever Fortuna heist comes out afterwards.

Even when you’re an end-game player, it’s still a lot of things to do. You have to really divide up your time and decide what you want to do. And sometimes it’s a little too much.