How much does playing Warframe actually cost?

[Tyrsky]

It's free to play, but you probably would end up buying something. How much do the Warframes/Characters you play as cost for example? They only sell packs on the website which come lots of additional stuff and prices seem quite high in general IMO. But I know nothing of the game, only watched Tennocon yesterday and it seemed interesting to try..

Are those items they gave from watching Tennocon actually useful in game, something you could try starting playing as? (Titania Prime and some weapons)

[uni790]

The most I've ever been tempted to buy are slots, either for warframes or weapons, the base amount is very limiting, they tend to be fairly cheap, though I don't remember their actual cost(I wanna say 50 or 100 platinum each?), been a while since I logged in(all my friends stopped playing, so I did to, it's kinda dull alone)

[Keycha1n10]

literally everything besides some cosmetics can be farmed in game, not a single cent needs to be spent. the prime frames can also be farmed easily.

[zorocancor]

I'm on 636h and haven't bought a thing yet, and never had the intent of doing so

I don't know about the weapon, but i've seen a lot of people using Titania even before the twitch drops, so she must be a good character

[Dondu]

just try its free...

if its worth then buy if its not then go

judge it by your standard...

[Stow]

It's free and you can even get anything for free if you farm and sell stuff.

[KenpoJuJitsu3]

"How much does playing Warframe actually cost?"

$0. Anything useful in the game is acquirable in the game, and unlike a lot of other games it's not ridiculously egregious/grindy to acquire things here. Probably the fairest F2P game I've ever played. If you're spending money it's for cosmetics you really want now, or because you want to save time.

[Ashtrails]

Ballpark:
1k Platinum, 50 bucks.
1 Warframe ~220 Platinum with an installed golden potatothing doubling your mod capacity, so ~10 bucks

What you will be paying most for, as others have said is mentioned 'potatoes' (catalysts and reactors ingame) and weapon / warframe slots which are roughly 1 buck a pop.

Most cosmetics and decorations go for 20-80 platinum.

There is a catch to pricing, since once every blue moon you will get a 75% or 50% off coupon for platinum as a login reward, so buying in bulk then will give you losta mileage.

There is also a catch to paying: you don't _have_ to and the game does not pester you every 10 minutes to do so either.
Every Warframe can be just farmed without paying.
If you see one you think you like after you've infomred yourself a bit, don't hesitate to just buy it, though, if that 'removes' a barrier to having fun or something.


What you got from Twitch, Titania Prime, could technically get you through the whole base game and is very, very viable.
I tried the Fan (weapon) and didn't like it much, but that's a matter of taste I guess.
The way the game works you'll find yourself using plenty of different weapons with easy access to anyway.

Hope that helps, give it a whirl : D

[Kutsuu Mugen]

The game is Free to Play you do not need to spend any money at all, you can earn all Weapons/Warframes and other stuff by playing the game.

Only thing you cannot get without the Premium Currency (Platinum) is Cosmetics.
If you like to collect lots of Weapons/Warframes then you will need Weapon and Warframe Slots which do cost Platinum, but can also be earned in some places by playing the game.
Warframe Slot is 20p, while the Weapon Slot gives 2 slots for 12p.

Platinum is also obtainable ingame by trading with other players with things like Prime Parts and Mods, but to learn more I would use the ingame Q&A chat or the Warframe Wiki page.

If you do ever feel like dropping some money I would only recommend purchasing Platinum when you get a Login Discount like 50% or higher, which can go as high as 75% and it's a 1 time use till you get another via Login Rewards.

It is one of the most fair F2P games out there and if you don't mind the intense grinding then it is a game to enjoy, It also has a great Story.

[Djej Funny]

most things that require money are mostly cosmetic, no need to worry on buying stuff

unless your like me and you loathe forma and you buy forma packs cause you hate farming for a bp then waiting 24 hours for 1 forma

also market stuff, if you do intend on buying play for a early game boost look up some newcommer guides on the best purchases, personally if i were to start with 1k play i would

A - buy a prime version a frame i think looks cool (make sure they're viable tho)
B - slots
C - some materials (again forma OOOOOOOOH I HATE FORMA I HATE WAITING 24 HOURS OOOOOOOO)

[Nibbie]

Every single thing that affect gameplay can be acquired for free in game. Paying is for convenience, cosmetics, or to get stuff faster. A specific example since you asked about it, you can buy the pack to get Titania Prime and her weapons (and a few exclusive cosmetics I assume) instantly.

However, instead, you can also go into the game and run missions. Some missions drop Relics, which contain a selection of Prime parts. Some of those Relics contain the component parts that you need to craft Titania Prime. You then run a different mission to open the relic, and get a random Prime part that relic has (each relic can drop 6 different parts, at different rarities). To summarize, you run a mission to get a Relic and hope you get one that has a Titania part in it, then you run another mission to open the Relic and hope it drops the Titania part. If RNG doesn't favor you in either step, you keep trying until it does.

You do this three times for the three parts you need, then you can craft her, which takes three real life days to complete, but the crafting works automatically whether you are playing the game or not, and doesn't prevent you from doing anything else. Whether you keep playing the game or take a break, it will be done 72 hours later. Once she is finished crafting, you claim her, and you now have the same warframe the person who payed money for her got (minus an optional upgrade that you can also farm for). You can then play as her, level her, make a build for her, and so on; every warframe is like a different class that you can swap between any time between missions.

That is the basic gameplay loop of Warframe; choose something to farm, play missions until you have what you were farming for, and use that thing to farm for something else. Warframes, weapons, companions, resources, focus, mastery rank, vehicles, mods, standing, there is always something to farm, and the game is constantly expanded with new things. There are story quests, but most are fairly short and many of them aren't that interesting; earning then using new gear is the main reason to play. The key is enjoying the moment to moment gameplay; the shooting, the movement, the abilities; that way, the farm is an excuse to play the game for a while, rather than something to slog through, which all the grinds can definitely turn into if you let it.

[RedEssence]

you can substitute cost with time, because you can spend all your time grinding the rare ♥♥♥♥ and then sell it on the market for plat which is the bought currency

[Saul Panzer]

I've brought some plat and prime accesses but just to support DE, I end up blowing that plat on cosmetic stuff for the sake of it or helping new players/friends..not because I couldn't get the things by playing.

Nearly all of my frames and weapons are earned from either farming the gear or trading in-game for plat.

[Butler]

Originally posted by Ashtrails:

Ballpark:
1k Platinum, 50 bucks.
1 Warframe ~220 Platinum with an installed golden potatothing doubling your mod capacity, so ~10 bucks

What you will be paying most for, as others have said is mentioned 'potatoes' (catalysts and reactors ingame) and weapon warframe slots which are roughly 1 buck a pop.

Most cosmetics and decorations go for 20-80 platinum.

There is a catch to pricing, since once every blue moon you will get a 75% or 50% off coupon for platinum as a login reward, so buying in bulk then will give you losta mileage.

There is also a catch to paying: you don't _have_ to and the game does not pester you every 10 minutes to do so either.
Every Warframe can be just farmed without paying.
If you see one you think you like after you've infomred yourself a bit, don't hesitate to just buy it, though, if that 'removes' a barrier to having fun or something.


What you got from Twitch, Titania Prime, could technically get you through the whole base game and is very, very viable.
I tried the Fan (weapon) and didn't like it much, but that's a matter of taste I guess.
The way the game works you'll find yourself using plenty of different weapons with easy access to anyway.

Hope that helps, give it a whirl : D

This post is dope and based asf.

But I want to add a few things to the equation:

1. Platinum can be acquired through trade. So if you farm up mods, frame parts, etc, you can sell them for platinum and use that to acquire what is desired. I use to make 20-60 platinum an hour back when I played. I can only imagine the market has grown since my time.

2. You can sell rare cosmetics in the steam store for real currency. I sold some a few months ago and made 38 usd off of it.

So the pay aspect of this game can easily be worked around!

[The Big Brzezinski]

Brass tacks.

You pay for storage slots. Warframes, weapons, companions, stuff like that. The number you buy depends entirely on your personal preference and level of interest. Practically speaking, you only need about three frames, seven or eight weapons, and one companion. You do not need to spend any money to have more than this baseline. Every Nightwave (battlepass basically) season has slots in it. You won't have to finish them, and they are not difficult to finish anyway.

You can buy cosmetics if you have extra platinum. They're more fun to mess with than one would think.

The premium currency is also the trading currency. Farming and selling prime parts to other players is a common way of earning platinum and acquiring vaulted primes.

Most importantly, you can't buy power. Your mod collection is the wellspring of your combat strength. You have to actually play the game to find them. And playing the is actually fun.



Think of it like a privately operated art museum with no entry fee. You go in, see some amazing exhibits, have a great time. So of course you're gonna hit the gift shop on the way out.

[Tannas]

Early on you might want to spend some plat on weapon/frame slots. The whole player trading is nearly always you trade/buy X item for X amount of platinum. While there isnt much early on you can farm to trade later in the game there is ALOT you can farm to trade.

The thing that i dont like is people say you can farm everything and its only true because you can trade with others. Prime gear is on a semi-rotation where new relic replace old relic drops (This is kinda needed to keep farming the new gear manageable and not horrible RNG). Yes those relics usually come back with a time limited event but it means not all gear is avaible to farm always. You ofcourse trade with others for the relic's or parts, but they will get more pricy. You can also use this to earn more platinum if you play the game over a long period of time.

In the end id say early on you might wanna spend some platinum for slots so you can swap weapons/frames if they get boring. Its nowhere needed to progress and by the time you would really benefit from having specialized weapons/frames you have options to farm platinum.

My advice is to just start playing. Its not needed to progress, but also the ingame platinum store is kinda ♥♥♥♥. Some prices are set fair others are total rip-off. Currently the Hek is still 225 platinum to insta buy while buying the blueprint and rush the timer (25 plat) + slot (12 plat) + potato (20 plat) is close to 60 platinum. So you somehow end up paying 165 platinum for the materials.