Wobbling Around on Warframe on the Switch
The other day, I decided to do something stupid and smart at the same time. I decided to spend €10 on a 64GB microSD card, so I could play Warframe on the Nintendo Switch. I have actually played on the Switch before, but with Warframe’s recent updates, it only just exceeds the 40GB of inbuilt memory within the bright yellow Switch Lite that I own. At the same time, I also have Pokemon Violet installed and I didn’t want to have to uninstall that. When I first tried Warframe on the Switch, I started a brand new account, with a level 0 Volt, and I couldn’t do anything. Were things better now?
Definitely. But not for any real technical reasons.
Honestly, the controls aren’t great. There are like five different mobility things tied to the left shoulder buttons, and to use abilities, you need two button presses. Aiming is hard to do, and I haven’t found the sweet spot yet for my right joystick. People say to use gyro controls, but I don’t know what that is, nor do I think my Switch Lite has it. Basically, I can’t aim for shit. It took me, I kid you not, three minutes to land one tranq dart on a Kubrowdon that spawned behind Fortuna.
A big reason why things were better was because we have Crossplay now. Meaning I’m not stuck with other Switch players with awkward Switch controls. I get matched up with people who are used to console controls, as well as PC players. I noticed though that you can’t see specifically what console other people are on though. In chat, you only get two icons – one matching whatever console you are using and one for everyone else.
I did try a few missions. My biggest mistake was starting with a level 70 survival mission in the Entrati Labs, while using weapons that required fine aim. Thankfully, I was playing Dante and could just spam abilities (side note: Dante is fucking amazing) and I only just managed to finish the mission, but damn, I don’t think I landed a single shot with my Twin Stubbas. Bulletjumping is fucking hard as well. Doable, yes, but I am fighting muscle memory and struggling with the joysticks. On PC, I have crouch bound to M3, but on my Switch Lite, crouch, roll, and dash are all on the L button. It’s awful.
Really though, the ONLY reason I’m playing on the Switch now is because of Cross Save. I merged my PC and Switch accounts, so now my Switch account is MR32. The only thing that didn’t carry over though is my Platinum, so my Switch account only has 50 Platinum. If I want anything, I gotta buy it on PC, and Tennogen is only available on whatever console I bought it on – while most of my Tennogen was bought before the cut-off date, my Repala isn’t available on my Switch account. What I find most weird though is that my name didn’t carry over. I am called Arkay on PC, but my Switch account is called Litvir. Not my first choice of username, but since Litvir is one of my protagonist Phoviverse characters now
Still, at least I have all my gear on Switch. I recently played on my alt PC account (Phovos the MR5 Excalibur) and that account was using a MK1-Furis and ugh that was hell. I don’t want to do that but on a console where I can’t aim at all. On the plus side, I can now idle in Fortuna 69 while not ruining my laptop.
Overall, I won’t be moving completely to the Switch, but I will definitely use it to log in and and play occasionally. It is fun, but I miss aiming with a mouse.