How I’d Change Warframe’s New Player Experience

I won’t deny it, Warframe’s tutorial missions suck. You are very quickly left on an island, not really sure what you can do and where you should go. Sure, there are signposts somewhat pointing you in the right direction, but most of Warframe’s information and guides are outside the game itself. And having barely any inventory makes things worse.

So here is how I’d improve the new player experience. Because, frankly, the recent introduction changes are mostly cosmetic. They just added a cool trailer at the start of the game.

Give more weapon options

Funnily enough, there’s actually quite a few MK-1 weapons. However, in the starting quest, we are only given the choice of a few of them. Really, the option of a shotgun to go alongside both a standard rifle and a bow would be a great idea, gives a few more choices. Of course, the MK1-Strun is also a crap weapon, all MK1 weapons are. But there’s no real reason why we can’t have more options.

The MK1-Furis is also a weapon that exists, but it’s utterly pointless. On the first junction you do, you are rewarded with a blueprint for the normal Furis, which you can build yourself.

What might also be nice is the ability to upgrade a weapon from MK1 to its normal version. This would be done in the foundry, and would just cost an MK1 and a handful of resources. At least that way, you can guarantee a slightly better weapon for new recruits.

More slots

This is a must-have for new players. Slots are few and far between. You can get slots early on in Nightwave, but the vast majority come from the Market, purchased for 12 platinum and 20 platinum for weapons and Warframes respectively. Sure, with the staring platinum you get, you can buy a Warframe slot and two packs of weapon slots, but that’s about it.

A mandatory course on modding

Our power in Warframe doesn’t just come from what weapons and frames we use. It’s the mods we put on our gear that make us bigger and stronger. However, early on, all we get is a hint of what modding can do. At the very least, a guide to basic mods should be made available to the player, explaining what mods are useful and what mods are optional. Because, let’s face it, a lot of mods are optional. No one uses those bullet jump mods, or resistance mods like Warm Coat. But almost every Warframe gets some use out of mods like Intensify (power strength) or Vitality (health).

More starting endo and better starting mods

Honestly the flawed/damage mods are really not what new players need. While they do have very niche uses, it’d be better just to give new players standard mods, right from the start. Or, at the very least, make damaged mods even cheaper. At the same time, new players have very little endo, because they are leveling all their mods up. Especially since many of the mainstream mods require a lot of endo, like Serration and Hornet Strike. At least we have weekly missions from Maroo to find new mods, I guess.

Give more stuff to newbies

Really, what I’m saying here is to just give more starter gear to new players. Because what new players get currently is incredibly limited and you can’t do much with them. Just make the road to leveling up a little bit smoother, until they get their head around things…