After a few minor hiccups going live, the third-person free-to-play title Warframe is now out on the Nintendo Switch. This version of the game has been handled by port experts Panic Button and was originally developed and published by Canada's Digital Extremes. It originally started out life on PC in 2013. Much like other F2P titles on Switch, this one won't require a membership.
As we have previously explained, this online action game is set in an evolving sci-fi world and gives players the chance to master the 'Warframe' armour as the enigmatic Tenno - a race of ancient warriors who are awakened from centuries of cryo-sleep by the mysterious guide, Lotus. The title features 36 unique Warframes, hundreds of weapons, thousands of customisation options and upgrades, a flexible mod system, and the ability to join clans, nurture pets, and explore massive new open worlds.
In total it delivers more than five years of game content including 23 major updates. From day one, you can team up in 1-4 player cooperative play and enjoy all of the content up to the 'Mask of the Revenant' update. For a limited time, players can also migrate their Warframe accounts across from the PC of the game.
If you want to get involved in some space ninja action, you'll need to download the 12.4GB game file from your local eShop. As part of the game's arrival on the Switch, every Nintendo user who joins will receive a free starter pack containing a bunch of in-game items, which are sent directly to your inbox. Before you can access this content, you'll need to unlock the Comms Segment in-game by completing the first Quest, Vor’s Prize. You can claim this free pack until the 4th of December.
Below are the full list of items in the starter pack:
50,000 Credits
The legal tender of the Origin System. Credits are used to buy new Weapons and Warframes, but they’re also used to upgrade Mods -- the primary source of gear power in Warframe.
3-Day Affinity Booster
With this Booster, all of your gear will rank up faster. As you play, your Weapons and Warframes will gain Affinity and rank up. Ranking up increases the Mod Capacity of an item, so you can equip those upgraded Mods.
Orokin Reactor
Immediately doubles the Mod Capacity of any Warframe. Install this Reactor on your Warframe’s Upgrade screen.
Orokin Reactor
Immediately doubles the Mod Capacity of any Weapon. Install this Catalyst on your Weapon’s Upgrade screen.
Forma
When a Warframe or Weapon reaches max rank, you can choose to install a Forma on the Upgrade screen. Forma resets the rank of an item back to 0, but it Polarizes a Mod Slot to save on Mod Capacity. Forma is mostly used later in the game, but when you’re ready, it’s there for you.
Have you been playing Warframe since went live on the Switch? How are you enjoying this F2P experience so far? Tell us below.
[source warframe.com]
Comments 63
Well I will give this game a shot. Not sure if I will like it or not, but heard good things and that the game developers cares about the players so here I go.
Do you ever pay for anything?
How F2P is this game though really? Is there a point where it's basically an anemic crawl if you don't pay, or is it a true honest F2P setup like Animal Crossing was which is entirely optional?
I can’t remember if it was stated but can anyone confirm if Warfram has cross-platform support?
I'll pick it up for something to hold me over til smash. Maybe I'll really like it who knows. Hopefully Its better than Paladins. Just couldn't latch on to that game
I would download this but damn that file size is humongous and I only got 7.5gb left on my system. Me buying another microSD card just for this game is basically like me buying the physical game itself.
I used to play if on my Xbox, but doesn't look like you can migrate your account over from the platform yet.
Excellent game, plays really well.
if it had an offline mode I'd play it. my internet connection is super sketch
Just hoping the Switch gets Path of Exile next.
@Zach777 You can have fun in this game and not have to spend a dime. The in game currency can be obtained by trading rare parts. There are a few exclusive cosmetics that you pay real money for, but they are not needed.
Kinda want this but I am waiting on smite.
I'm downloading it now. Pretty anxious to give it a go!
I am REALLY not a fan of the free to play model of game design seeping in and tainting consoles. Because it is tempting.
But call me a traditionalist, I prefer to buy a game, and maybe some DLC, and then just be able to play at my own pace, however I want. The free-to-play system warps gameplay habits, or forces purchases to make up for it.
But at the same time, this shooter does look pretty interesting...
@Heavyarms55 A couple years back I would have agreed with you but games like Paladins, League of Legends, Warframe, and even (not that I enjoy it) Fortnite have shown that a free to play game can be a rich experience without having gross predatory micro transactions.
In terms of warping gameplay habits, I feel like that is more the realm of mobile free to play than it is console.
If anyone is looking for a grindy, fun, combat heavy game, I can't recommend this enough. The game itself is pretty easy, however figuring all the systems is pretty tough, but well worth the effort. I played a lot on the PS4 a couple years ago and jumping back in on the Switch is real blast.
I am definitely not downloading this.
No, the game is amazing...but I am not ready to spend hundreds more hours on this. This game is addiction by definition, definitely a suggestion from me.
Guess I will have to remove some demo's off of my Switch, since I don't really see much reason to actually purchase a Micro SD Card at least for now. Not really into indies or digital purchases and that is mostly what the Switch is with Nintendo keeps showing we have over 1000 games, but how many of them are actually retail compared to digital only titles, but I do own Zelda, Mario Odyssey, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all retail. And I have the free to play version of Paladins that is like 10 gb's on it's own.
@OberonPrime Ah that’s disappointing. Cross-platform support probably would have pushed me to convince my friends to try it and invest time in it. Ah well.
Do yourselves a favor and play this one! It's better than a ton of games out there on switch, it's also fun and easy as said before in other comments.
Besides, if you don't like it after playing just delete it and that's it. Nothing lost, and you'll at least have encouraged other developers to jump into our Nintendo console by looking at the downloads number. It's a good, free game!
@Heavyarms55 As a person who started playing warframe for the past five months... Gotten to MR 12 (Would be higher if I didn't take a break) and had put in 1.6k hours into this game... Compared to the three years of playing blade and soul.
This game is in no way of a pay 2 win game/forces you to pay up. I do not feel as pressured to play warframe to catch up with the hardcore players like I was doing in bns or any other mmo I played before this one.
This game's endgame is literally fashion... and fashion (dyes, skins, glyphs) majority of it is gated behind the paywall. DE is defiantly a company that cares about their player base...
There was a story of DE literally took out a gacha feature because a player had spent over I think $500 on it. You can play the game at your own pace.
The only negative part I can say, (which doesn't bother me but may bother a lot of you are considering playing this game for the first time)... This game does not handhold your hand... After you are done with the first couple of tutorial missions. You are basically on your own at this point. But if you use your brain you should know what to do next.
(I do not recommend new players trying to rush the story content).
Speaking of quests, you can't do another story quest until you complete or abandon the current one you are on. And crafting things on the game are based on real-life hours.
The game is basically encouraging you to grind for other stuff to craft while you are waiting for your said craft items to finish crafting which may take to 1 minute, 12 or 24 hours or three days. Unless you are impatient that is when the platinum (real money currency) comes to play...
Same can be said for warframes which the community points out that it is not recommended that you spend money on a frame since you can farm them and anything else in the cash shop.
Basically TL:DR : Playing warframe is a mmo that you can play at your own pace. The "ninja plays for free" slogan is on par compared to most MMOs out there.
This game is worth your time and this is coming from someone who doesn't like Sci-fi like games. I hope you give it a chance and enjoy warframe.
I played it over the summer on PS4 so I counderstand get a feel for it as it was coming to Switch. I was impressed. For a F2P game it was quite impressive. Took a bit to get into the systems and understand the locomotion systems. But if you like action loot-fests then this is definitely worth a download.
@mowerdude It's the 21st Century. This particular niche of software is just about the ONLY one where this is a real discussion, and that is LARGELY NOT do to (people who claim to be) "collectors" but people using Retail as Rental.
We will revisit this in 2025
@aznable about the same, no internet at home out side of this phone I'm currently using which belongs to someelse whose currently sleeping and my own phone which has way to limited data as is. when I'm at the library I'm usually busy with other things and I currently can't even stay there for to long the to this back muscle taking so long to heal.
I'm surprised how well optimized this game is. Runs really well. I shouldn't be considering Panic Button helped bring it over.
Glad another f2p game came to the Switch, even if I'm not at all interested in it. It looks like it mostly does the monetization right, but for a loot-based action game, I definitely am not a fan of the real world hours and days you have to wait for something to finish crafting. I'll stick with Diablo, but I'm still very happy the Switch is getting more options like this!
Stuck it on to see how it looked and played compared to Xbox, and it's sweet. Played first mission turned it back off. I'll be back but not quite ready to sink 100s of hours again. Looking forward to migrating my account over bring all my frames over.
@TheMadPolarBear No cross platform yet but it's not out of the questions is what they have said
Excellent !! And it is free! Go to die pls those expensive old port game!!
played fifteen minutes this morning be fore work and am really impressed.
@Wanjia I enjoyed my time with eve online. I'm a sucker for space , but that game is a vocation that's for sure.
@retro_player_22 if you would buy a 16gb card, I could agree... But you can just get a bigger one, which is a future invest. To say it is just for this game, would be very short-sightedly view. It's like saying you just buy a car for the next ride, which would make it a quite expensive ride
@Wanjia Browser Games also had this concept years ago. Made me set an alarm to get up at night and start the next building/upgrade
I am too busy with Pokémon and just grabbed a physical package of starfield on sale (that has been sitting on the floor so far) but after that I will give this boy a go. Don't think I will stay around as multiplayer is not my gem and shooters don't belong on a controller though
Downloaded and played the two first missions. It looks and plays great!! Higly recommend everyone to give it a shot.
Downloaded it at midnight and didn't slept so much the last two days. I'm really impressed. It's a lot of stuff to do and I don't understand the mod thing and how I can spend Plat for more slots, but the community is very helpful and you can always be supported in missions because everyone wants to help you. That's great.
The only neg point is pvp maybe cause it's very strange to play imo. But pve is awesome. Nice to see this game on the Switch running smoothly.
I loved this game for a good while. Like any game time came for me to move on but do not regret the many many hours I spent in it. Great community and great developers. The only free to play game I dropped money into because I wanted to support not because the game squeezed it out of you. It's worth everyone at least giving it a try and seeing if it's for you
@OberonPrime how do you migrate accounts? Can't find it on game. Thanks
@Enso You need to go warframe.com and start the migration from your profile.
Btw, do you think they will include crossplay with PC some day?? It would be nice, to be able to play with my friends too.
@the_beaver The devs said they like the idea, but it is not likely to happen.
The PC version is always way ahead of the console versions because of the length of the approval process for the patches on consoles.
Maybe it will be possible with other consoles someday.
Too many gigs
@Medic_alert
200mb/s?
That’s so 2014. Go Fiber, dude.
... I am beginning to believe the people who work at Panic Button must be wizards because they way this thing is running on the Switch is surely some sort of magic.
Also, the need for Mass Effect on Switch has never been more painfully real.
@Medic_alert
Damn, that’s a shame. A 1 gig here is around 15€.
@Wanjia
I'm not really a fan of online only games.
I gave this a shot last night, and wow, it wasn't what I was expecting... in a good way! I was really impressed with just how fluid the combat was. Once again, cheers to you Panic Button, job well done again!
@OberonPrime Thanks, all done now
@Indielink i have to disagree. before the f2p model was so rampant these types of items would be unlockable, greatly extending gameplay. these days you get to a certain point and either the grind is increased to a point where anybody with a job can’t progress in the game or they force you to buy something to progress.
@Medic_alert i feel your pain, it’s $120 here for gig down and ~40mbps up. also it’s “fiber” on this side of the pond 😉
This is actually the only F2P game I have played that isn't garbage.
But it's pretty repetitive. I was pretty excited for this game, but I think I'll continue to play Splatoon for my multiplater online fix.
@Denoloco Where do you live? Damn.
@Medic_alert even with good internet the Switch only gets like 36mb down :/
@mazzel If only Nintendo allow me to use my 2tb hard drive for this I wouldn't have this problem. I bought a 2tb external hard drive for my Wii U but now it's useless since everything on the Wii U can't be transfer to Switch and Switch can't support it. As for microSD card I would snatch up another 256gb or 400gb microSD card but my money to get those are now saved for games I want to get for the holiday so yeah I'll have to wait for Warframe until next year. Gonna make good use of those 7.5gb that are still there.
It's free to get so what does it hurt to have at least. I got the space on the sd card so glad I got a bigger one.
@retro_player_22 Nintendo is not going to go ext hdd what is the point of having it then. If you want ext HDD get a xbox or ps4. I rather get a 2tb microsd card instead when they come out.
@retro_player_22 get your pain... A OTG solution for the USB C port would be awesome....
@SwitchForce Or some time later, when the prices drop
Just got through the tutorial stages and was really hoping for a Destiny-like game for the Switch. Paladins was awesome and I bought the $19.99 starter pack from the warframe marketplace to support the devs. I looked at the Prime Access package but $79 is alot right now with Christmas right around the corner. I go into cettain F2P games knowing I'm going to spend about as much $ as a retail game- have already done that with Paladins- and I can tell Warframe is going to prob be my go to game. It feels alot less "rushy" than Destiny in the sense that if I missed a few months in D1/2, I felt I was way behind other players who could invest more daily grind time. This feels more like you can go at your own pace. Now I just need to find a Warframe Nint Switch clan...
@tekknik Of the games I mentioned, only Warframe has any sort of limiter on progress and that only pertains to new equipment unlocks. Crafting works on a timer so yeah unlocks can slow but you are also not blocked from doing more quests or grinding for other equipment while the first is being made.
Even if you do find yourself in need of premium currency, there is a player market where you can sell weapon mods to other players.
Could Warframe be the first F2P game that fully yanks me in? I've already downloaded it and will test that tonight. The struggle is real for me to find my niche in this type of game.
@Indielink yea for sure, the games you listed are stellar examples of F2P done right. i just wish more studios followed their models
Had to drop Doom to make room. My archives games list is getting enormous. Skyrim, Doom, Paladins. It's a matter of time before I have to drop Zelda
For anyone that has the twitch prime bundles and wants them on the Switch. Redeem them on the PC version, THEN migrate it over to the Switch version. Even if the items aren't available in the current Switch version, they will be when the current version on the PC rolls over to Switch. I did this even though I never played on the pc version for my free stuff.
This game is AMAZING. how is this game FREE??
@Royalblues No cross-play unfortunately. It's something they'd like to do and have thought about, from what I've heard, but don't get your hopes up.
Did anyone else complete Vor’s Prize but not get the Starter Pack for free? Am I missing something?
Also, great game!
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