Warframe | Why Do New Players REALLY Quit? 

Quick note: on the topic of good things they added for new players, the Dreamer's Bond aura helps to address the issue of early game energy and health generation and also gives players a free +14 capacity because it can be slotted into any aura polarity. HUGE addition that, while not helpful at my point in the game, really does make the experience of actually playing the game much better early on. Auto-install has also been updated in the past, and new players do receive plenty of mods from both Vor's Prize and Junctions, but my point still stands regarding both. Auto-install is an option that encourages laziness instead of learning the system and often throws whatever it can at the wall to fill out capacity. The starter mods are a step in the right direction, but if they were implemented as a tutorial that would be ideal.

The fact that your first warframe and weapons do not have a catalyst built in even after 11 years is a crime.

this just goes to show that reckless financial decisions improve one's enjoyment in a videogame

My boyfriend always thought it was a weird ass gatcha mobile game cus of the crafting times and able to skip the timer, which is sad cus I really wanted to introduce him to the game :(

Slots being a reward for junctions is a great idea and would push people to A get quests unlocked B get slots for the frame they just farmed for C mastery gain D give them a clear line of where to go even just 1 frame slot and 2 weapon slots would be great

Gods, the slots issue is a huge one. I got a group of friends into the game since we were in the middle of a content drought for FFXIV and one of our four man team was legitimately about to quit because of slots, so my boyfriend and I bought him some weapon and frame slots, and now he's at Steel Path. If they just gave starting players more slots it would greatly increase retention on it's own.

Its always confused me that new players only have two warframe slots. Its such an archaic thing to have in this constantly updated and improved game.

One day my online friend, a guy I used to play Valorant with at that time, suggested we play something else - Warframe. I don't usually try new games, but somehow he convinced me, I installed it and went through the tutorial (awakening). We tried to squad up, but I had to go through Vor's price solo as well. At that time the guy had to go for the day. I kept progressing, but he didn't come the next day or the day after... As of today, we've never played or even talked since then, but I found a new passion and I've sunk thousands of hours in.

why is auto-installing ayatan stars only unlocked at mr10

Daily Standing limits are a HUGE problem for early game and endgame. They desperately need to either increase or straight up remove the limit. My biggest suggestion they should do is make Bounties not count towards the daily limit so that new players can grind free roams optimally and not worry about if the limit will make their effort meaningless.

i think another part of what stopped me from staying with the game had to be its lack of communication, most of the level scaling happens through mods that while you know you have to grind for, yet have no where in the game that would tell you where to aquire mods for what you have. leading to what feels like the ai constantly over powering you with no way to know how to improve other than google what mods you have access to thatmay even the playing field. like even with 200+ hours in the game i feel i struggle at enemies who are level 30-40 sometimes and it can get frustrating having to deal with them when i either dont know where to get the mods to improve my gameplay, or if i know where the mod is its locked behind somethign i havent unlocked yet or enemiues to high level for me to handle. also the second dream being where the story begins is kind of jaring as if it was earilier it would have felt like "oh this has always been a part of teh game" but it coming from no where makes it feel like "oh this feels sudden where did this come from?" which i think was part of why they made duviri a startign option as it gives players a glimpse of the story to let you know somethign is there oh wait this was supposed to be funny um- what the sigma???

I started playing Warframe around when Plains of Eidolons got released. I was playing many random free games mostly to kill time and to "challenge myself" trying to get the most out of free games without spending a single cent. I did not particularly care about crafting times as many, many other free games had crafting/waiting times. While I was crafting Rhino, not sure which, I was playing another free game until it asked me to wait in turn. What made me quit Warframe for the first time was the limited slots. I really felt like it was just another free game that wanted to make me pay for what I earned. I quit playing even before doing Natah. Honestly, I was so used to predatory free games that I did not even spend Endo on mods as I thought it would be another premium currency. Hell, I didn't even open the market for weapon/warframe blueprints because I thought it was yet another predatory system (I only leveled market weapons when I reached around MR 20). The reasons I came back was because a friend that was playing Warframe told me it was really, really good and to give it a chance. Honestly, for a free game, the gameplay is more than solid. I spent around 20€ buying my first plat on sale and now I don't regret it, but when I paid back then I was legit PISSED. I did not keep most of the weapons I leveled to max level because I sold them all for inventory space. Only weapons I kept were primes and "non-standard" ones like vandal/wraith/prisma weapons. I got so traumatized by limited slots that I STILL only bother with more slots and investing in weapons that are not "standard". I'm sure some will say you can trade prime parts for easy plat for slots, but honestly you can't ask new players to do that: - New players don't even know the price of prime parts, and no one should have to go through community sites to not get scammed. - When a new player got a prime part, they want to use it for themselves. It feels like the efforts I did to get a new weapons are thrown in the gutter because I have to trade it to someone else to get plat.

1. Build times. Over the last two months, we could watch LegendaryDrops' new player experience. And he said roughly this to crafting timers: At first I hated them. I did not understand them. But as I progressed and pushed on, the foundry filled up and I had something to claim every day. This really proves your point: Getting variety more early increases the fun people have. Which means faster build times are likely good for the players as a whole. 2. Slots. Personally, I would love to have this removed even more than I want build times removed. I can swallow the bitter pill of waiting, but paying for my farmed new toy is... weird. Maybe make it so that I can have one thing of everything, but if I want a duplicate, like e.g. another Dante, I need to buy a slot. Then slots could also be rarer and more expensive, and I would consider it.

The main problems all my friends had was slots costing platinum, the market not showing blueprints so they all thought it was pay to win, and veterans nuking the room for them making them basically just not play the game

But Cooblekid, I think you're unaware (I mean how could you know) that within a dev short, they actually address this very issue! I understand not everybody has the attention span to sit through a 15 minute video, but it's okay, I got you!

Crafting time, slot gates, and the story from events that introduced bosses to planets not being worked into the planet progression are the 3 things I feel working on would help. A lot.

You've hit the nail on the head. Things like Slots (and even Orokin Catalysts/Reactors) are money-makers that DE only needed when Warframe was in its VERY early days. It's only function today is inconveniencing veterans and warding off new players.

I wish my boyfriend stuck with Warframe, busted my butt to farm him some primes and slots for him just for him to get back into destiny 2 (still love him tho 😊)

Ive been playing for 5 years, just realized i need to remaster 20 to 30 weapons i didnt fully rank when i was new...

I personally quit warframe a month after starting back in I think 2014. I saw the limited slots and seeing that the only way to get more was to get the premium currency (i was a very recent high school grad/college freshman at the time so expendible income was nonexsistant) I got pissed and quit. Ironically it wasnt until I watched a hate video about Warframe that I learned that platinum could be obtained via in game trading that I came back. DE DESPERATELY needs to revamp most if not all of the early on boarding process so that players know what is on offer.

A potential quit point I think is actually the multi player openness. Sure you can select to multi play or go solo and friend and invite exclusive. But the problem is getting into a game with all these vets and try hards. In early game you want to explore and expand your knowledge experience and a squad helps you stay alive, but getting an experienced player tends to cause mission completion too quickly leading to noob learning and not getting a chance to do and learn how to play

I think nothing is more telling about the crafting timer than me crafting 30+ Formas over an actual month because a Forma takes 23 hours to craft. Everytime I went to bed I brought up the app, claimed my Forma and started crafting another

Slots should be cheaper or more, and players need to realize they have a flow of unlocking by doing stuff while things cook

This guy's video rants really remind me of CoolKid

This video is a banger. I would mention the fact that new players also don't get like a story-based motivation to keep going. There's a whole lot of nothing between starting the game/completing Duviri, and The Second Dream, so there's little motivation to keep going. But I loved this video, it was clear and concise, keep it up!

warframe parts should NOT take 12 hours to craft. And if the crafting times are reduced, they should be like a few minutes at most, because my god is it annoying to wait for parts, then you are doing something else and not playing the game and the frame you want isnt even cooking in the foundry, effectively wasting time. I think just making frame components 1 minute and frames like 3 hours is fair enough. Weapons could take like 1-2h to craft aswell, so yeah you can still rush them if you're impatient but you at least get to try them out relatively soon.

I think the most realistic way for DE to address crafting time problems is to simply make crafting times scale based on how "late-game" they consider a weapon to be. It would not surprise me if they would want to keep primed weapons/warframes at the current timers, since they usually are harder to get for new players and have higher MR requirements but there's no reason why they can't reduce all the basic market/dojo weapons and frames to 30-120 minute craft times across the board to help drive home the fact that they are meant for earlier-game players.

Definitely agree, got more than 2500 hours myself, smart thinking with nightmare slots. I do think that at a couple of mastery ranks and/ or junctions that 1 or 2 of each should be given as no free slots is beyond infuriating, especially early on.

For me, Necramechs became a wall for me. I don't mind grinding for materials, but for some reason, the Necramech grind seemed daunting.

They should hand out potatoes more or make them much cheaper to get in the Nightwave or something that makes them like 5 times easier to get. They have sooo much stuff now, and also so many other ways to further invest into your favorite items (forma, arcane slots, forma, exilus slots, forma, incarnon mutations), that the basic potato should be, well, basic. It once was that holy grail of power, but now it's just a basic necessity that you put in _before_ you make the decision to actually invest in the item. And keep in mind, as a new player, getting them from the Nightwave is A) very expensive, as you first have to go through the whole pass until you get credits regularly, and B) you want/need to buy the other things in the shop as well, such as aura mods, bps or even Nitain extract. And all that I've just said just gets amplified by adding more starter slots and so on.

For me, whenever I get someone into playing warframe I let them do stuff solo and then ask them if they like melee, guns, or casting abilities. When they get their starter frame to level 30 I then gift them a warframe that is based around the aspect of combat that they like. It usually gets more people to keep the game as a passive play at least

these two issuse are the exact reason I quit after getting Rhino in 2016. I just came back in nov of 2023 and have thrown like 350ish hours in and have had a blast the whole time

I think another big factor is grinding resources, there are so much different types, and with so much stuff to craft it becomes easy to run out very quick. And having to grind for them can sometimes take longer than the actual wait time to build warframes, especially for new players who don't know where to farm these resources, and if they do, they do it very inefficiently with most likely no booster. And having some of these resources locked behind high syndicate levels is so demotivating as they can take multiple weeks to get.

The Auto-Install feature should be reworked to add options to focus on specific factions for weapons, and specific play styles for warframes.

Something important to remember is that the amount of default warframe & weapon slots hasn't changed in almost a DECADE. The game has grown its roster by literal MAGNITUDES since then, but the amount of slots has remained the same in all that time. 2 warframe slots might have worked when the warframe selection was closer to a dozen, but not now!

One most important thing that turn off new player is that Warframe is those type of game that "It will get better in xxxx hours" much like PoE or , hell, WoW. You need a dedication to get through the filters which is the grind/crafting to see the meat of the game. People see the crafting timer and think "Damn, 3 days crafting timer? What do i do now?" and log off, not returning and not knowing that you can play/grind other thing while the foundry are cooking.

Genuinely the most important video about WF this year. I hope some DE higher-ups watch the whole thing and take notes.

The thing about Warframe is that it's a grind heavy game similar to RuneScape or Path of Exile Just recommending to your average Destiny or Borderlands player is not gonna work You HAVE to recommend the game to losers like us that are willing to play 25 hours a day to get one weapon that we will use once and never again (But damn it feels good finally having it)

DE should make it so new nlayers have a decent number of slots to start off with it to avoid the limitations they come across quite early into playing. My idea to help out even more would be to make it so players under a certain MR can use 0 plat to speed up of all normal weapons and Warframes or at least have a reduced craft time. Since many weapons are locked until a higher MR anyways, new players being able to experience newer and varied weapons to begin with will help with keeping them hooked. Those so much progression that a player can do that speed running XP to MR4 or 5 shouldnt be that big of an issue. Another solution could be a "free trial" where new players can have benefits like slots and craft time for a certain period of time to use. After the trial, any weapons or Warframes in any "trial slots" become locked and unavailable until obtained. Players should still be able to have limited access to these slots by being able to delete or sell those in the excess slots and to avoid any "My Prime Warframe/Weapon is now locked behind these slots" issues, make it so that after the trial period, the players get a pop up menu which allows to "save" which items they want to keep access to and which ones to keep in these locked slots. Warframe is a great game and after a period of time of playing, you can do soooo much content. But so many things are either locked behind a paywall or a timer that it REALLY throws off any new players to the whole experience. DE does do a lot of free giveaways and freebies, but can be missed if you don't log in much or just simply missed out on it. Even then, some freebies are locked behind content that a new player might not even have access to yet and as a new player a "taxi" isn't a concept that they would be familiar with yet. So these suggestions are, more or less, coming from my experience when I was a new player and getting other new players into Warframe. I wont lie. When I first started, I would've most likely quit if I didn't get freebies and help from already established friends and luckily starting when Warframe was giving out the three set Dex weapons. My SO would probably have quit or are at least been thrown off a heck ton without the help and monetary assistance I gave as well so DE should start thinking about making some changes like these!

I started my warframe journey alone, and I'm still playing it alone. Damn near all my friends have played warframe at one point with 1 of them saying they actually enjoyed it but due to the craft time and slot bs she quit.

As someone currently waiting for jade to craft, I couldn't agree more.

I have like ten people i've introduced to the game but most of the people in my friend circle are not shooter types. One of them found basic missions like exterminate overwhelming because they didn't understand the mission objective and hitting escape doesn't tell you what the mission is. Most of my friends didn't mind the crafting times but many were very easily overwhelmed by enemies and mission types because they want their hand holded which really bewildered me. I really think base slot count needs to be increased and crafting times decreased, there's just so much in this game and farming can be so easy but the slots are struggle for new players. It doesn't help that trading is kind of a nightmare. I've probably spent well over a thousand plat on slots for other people because they're such a problem and most of the people I know are not willing to no life this game unfortunately.

when i started, warframe was so different from anything i had played, it tickled my brain in a way no other game has even come close to. in fact i liked it so much that the build times didn’t really bother me, it just gave me more of a reason to come back the next day. yes, the limited slots were annoying but i learned about trading and got to farming prime junk, which again gave me more reason to play. that being said i’m all for lowering/removing build times and increasing base slots, not everyone is as patient as i was and in an age where every game wants all your time, i want people to spend their time on a good one. an alternative to changing build times could be adding another way to speed them up like “spend x amount of x resources”. this wouldn’t instantly finish it like plat, but would reduce the time needed down to a max of 1 hour. many others have already said this, giving players slots after completing junctions and/or mr tests would be a godsend. load out slots are cool, but new players won’t have weapons and frames to make use of them, and in my case they kind of confused me when i started because i thought they were actual weapon/frame slots. lastly “buy for plat” should be removed from the cover of all items (not including things that can only be bought with plat like cosmetics or bundles) and be replaced by the credit option or a “click to see how to acquire” for items from the dojo or that drop somewhere else. of course the buy for plat button would still be there but it’s no longer the first thing a player sees when looking at weapons/frames in the arsenal/market. i love this game, been playing it for almost 8 years. yes i’ve burned out here and there, but i can always take solace in the fact that when i inevitably comeback, i can pickup right where i left off. it’s one of the few actual good games and one of the fewer good f2p ones. i hate seeing it labeled as pay to win because it genuinely isn’t, like a parent with their child i want nothing but to see this game thrive for as long as time will allow. i want this game to be a “hey lets play *blank*” not a “damn remember *blank*” game

Love the ΔV music, it's so relaxing ❤ And yeah, couldn't agree more. It hurts me every time I see half a buck going out just to be able to claim a weapon or a warframe, but I got past the initial hurdle because I was told not to use my plat on anything else

Every time a new frame comes out, I’m excited then after 3.5 days of crafting I lose all hype. Happens every time. When I was a new player and I was constantly building new items it wasn’t an issue but I’m all caught up and it hurts my reasons to log in every day

I remember back when i first started and started leveling a heat dagger that i didn't really like using it, so i sold it before i fully mastered it so i could grab another weapon from the foundry. imagine my surprise when i get the blueprint for dual heat daggers where, hey... i kinda need that back now...

I had experienced these issues when i started playing. I remember being so frustrated that i had to get rid of some frames just to get a new one, and i constantly complained about it. I remember people just gifting me slots at some point. After replaying the early warframe grind again on Switch (do not recommend btw), i found it strange that the railjack took LESS time to build than a warframe, after all the railjack changes. Im glad i stuck through all the grind, but man it was rough, especially around the time i started playing. Loved the video!

I just want it known that before the "Totally not battlepass" nora wave that replaced the old daily alert system I don't think there was an actual way to get inventory slots that wasn't just selling prime junk for plat

I almost stopped for the same reason

Honestly the main reason why i hate inviting new players is the crazy amount of unlock for us to play together. Honestly you can just gift them stuff and trade mods, but the fact you gotta play a dumb boring story to do content is nuts.

I believe that one of the biggest issues with keeping new players is the same that is keeping me away from the game at the moment The gameplay can be "held hostage" by other players powercreep and AOE nukes got so out of hand that just 1 person can take away all gameplay from the mission as a new player maybe it's cool to see a high level player carry you through the map like a god but after a while it'll just become boring as hell you have nothing to do everything is easy now if everything is easy there is no motivation to get stronger with better gear or higher rank

I've Been saying that About the build time for ever. It takes 23 hours for 1 forma. Sevagoth by himself requires 15.thats 15 day to plus the 3 to make hie and 12 hours for the crafting materials. 2 weeks and 4.5 daaays just for 1 wargrame. Theres still 5oo million weapons to go. They build time is insane

Another way to bring new players into the game is Rent Warframes. I know this sounds stupid but hear me out on this one. Buying the Warframe is stupidly annoying as they are expensive as hell but if you at least get to any relay. You CAN rent Warframes for like 3 days to use them before they take it away from you. The cost would be 100,000 credits to rent them OR buy them for 5,000,000 credits to own the Warframe and a free slot. Yeah, Credits can be hard to get for new players but if they work hard enough. They could get the Warframe they want! Or if your in a faction like red veil for example, Harrow would be in a discount by 50% from 5,000,000 credits to 2,500,000 credits. But other factions that are against you have a 25% tax on a Warframe you probably want in the future. Sounds expensive but it could be a good mechanic that encourages players to grind credits on a Warframe they want when they have enough to either rent or buy the Warframe.

I quit originally because I felt like this game was going in no direction at all. There was no story, and I felt like everything I was doing was working towards nothing when I came back a year later I apparently was two nodes away from "natah" once I played that, I have been hooked since

The friends that first introduced me this game were around MR16/17 just before Plains came out. In three weeks I was beyond them in MR and had to go start my own clan because most of them had moved on to other games. It's not just new player retention that is he problem. I am not a game dev and I don't have any ideas currently to fix anything. I find myself playing mostly with some friends I have met in my Warframe journey that are Lengendary 2-4.

All of this is great. One other one I can think of is Amps. The power spike you get from going from a mote to a proper amp is TREMENDOUS and I had to learn how to go about making one through trial and error and learning how to proper eidolon hunt too.

tbh wf market should be adviced for any newbie to sell, easier, time efficient, than the chaotic trade chat

Slots are my pain

As a founder i fully support this message. I had an easier time investing because i started so long ago, but having made alt accounts for training videos and guide writing, and having put dozens of friends through the start of the game, i can say that so much of what you say here should go directly to the devs. They are really shooting themselves in the foot with general audience appeal on these choices.

I have to say I'm so glad you made this video. I'm sure 2 slots for frames and 8 for weapons made sense back in... update 8, when I started. And when there was like, 90% less content in the game. DE really needs to revise these numbers. Either just add more to new accounts, or give them out through progression as like, junction rewards or something. It'd be even better for DE in the long run. Maybe someone could argue "they'd be giving away free platinum" but I'd argue in the long run, the extra newbies that did stick around because of more slots would outweigh them not paying for slots.

Ive been saying this for years and I will stand by it: warframes monetization sucks. Slots, Catalysts and Reactors shouldnt exist. Monetization should never be involved in anything gameplay related. Theres so many Games that get by on selling skins and customization, when will Warframe join them... EDIT: My bottom line is this. Games can very well survive and flourish on monetizing cosmetics only and I think Warframe could and should absolutely do the same. And if it helps retain new players in the process, even fucking better. I say this as someone that's spent 4000h and 700€ on this game with no regrets and no want of any refunds. Slots and potatoes are suck, period.

OPEN WORLD STANDING IS CRINGE

just another MR L2 here, i started the game many years ago. nowadays i play on and off and always thought “ah well, it can’t have been that bad back then and they’re already doing a lot of stuff for new players, i’m sure it’s fine.” thanks for reminding me that the crafting times are not, in fact, fine. especially for new players.

Goddamn. Finally. Had the same experience back in the HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC. You know, the horrible event where people got nothing better to do for months on end. Recruited 3 of my friends. They all liked it. After farming for a bunch of stuff and started crafting, that disgusting 12-72 hours of wait. Well what happened? We played another game in the mean time. Monster Hunter World. We totally forgot about the "Warframe Wait Game" and got so engrossed with another grindy game that LETS YOU PLAY WITH THE WEAPON IMMEDIATELY AFTER CRAFTING. Please be a big voice on this issue. PLEASE voice this out vehemently!

1:54 - Casually slurs

This right here. I see all of this so often as part of the Warframe Giveaways community. I give away thousands of mods per year to new players, stuff they need but don't get. That's what I can do to help, aside advice and helping with some ingame activities. And over the past 6 years just in that community, the most frequent complaint/issue I see is always the same: Slots. Straight up half of the things new players ask for is Slots. And I'd love to hand them out, but I'm not made of money either, and I don't want to reward DE for making that so needed.

Duviri as an alternate start did more harm than good to new player retention. It didn't teach new players what to do and how to do it properly, and the little tutorial it did have, was redundant. It tought you how to play void flood, when the quest you need to do to access the gamemode normally already teaches you

Awesome video! You bring up excellent points and you provide sensible solutions! Amazing stuff all around!

The main problem with slot it that they have been the same since Warframe had like 10 frames, meaning that 2 slots were like 20% of own able frames. DE, has they usually do, just keeps adding to the game without taking a look at the base, they expanded the arsenal massively but never bothered/forgot to see that new players only have very limited slots. The game grew so much they forgot the early player (and the endgame one)

True story: I started when the game first dropped on Xbox. I was really excited to get my first Kubrow, that I just called a dog at the time. It took me days of grinding to get an egg due to bad RNG. Then by the time I got him into the incubator and realized it was like a 3 day timer to craft it, I literally uninstalled. Didn't play the game for YEARS. Finally met a friend who was a founder on PC, he got an Xbox and started over on console to play with me and I got hooked. We played for hundreds of hours before I decided to give it all up and restart on PC to play with him on his main account. If it weren't for him giving me a reason to give it another chance I would never have gotten into the game. Now I have over 10k hours on steam. Also, yeah I'd say the slots issue is a massive problem for sure, when I got my boyfriend to play with me I constantly showered him in slots to keep him from having to deal with that. I've got several family members I'd like to introduce to it but I know the lack of slots and the monetization of inventory space would be a major pain point so I just haven't tried to draw them in yet.

First of all, thanks for the video, a few things I had in mind while looking this video : - Forma Buidling 23h > 1h - Warframe Parts already crafted if obtained - Warframe Building > 12h (Reduce with Mastery Rank to get something to motivate you getting higher in MR - in the same moment a complete explanation about the mastery system e.g with a pop-up) - Weapon Crafting > 6h (also with reduced time on higher MR - and a complete deletion of these craftable weapon parts e.g Trumna) - Delete the Archwing Quest and add this as a eye-catcher to the tutorial mission - I mean, you need like 2-3 Minutes anyways to build a complete archwing 3x 1min for Parts, Main Blueprint 1Min - Weapon Slots from the current amount for newbies to atleast 40+ (just keep in mind you have to keep some of these weapons for the combinations of crafting e.g Redeemer) - Warframe Slots from the current amount for newbies to atleast 10+ (If you got an good advice from a "veteran" you just spaming the star chart so you collect these frames anyways) - Currencys at the beginning : 250.000 Credits, 50.000 Endo, 100 Platinum (lock the start platinum for cosmetic purchases) - Highlighting System for beginners which simply highlighting base mods (e.g Vitality, Shield, Armor - Damage, Multishot, Elec, Heat etc. with a short explanation about these mods)(For example the current polarization system which was implemented with the new Jade Update) - A better creator overview with good tips and videos about the beginning in warframe. Like a showcase of a helpful youtube / twitch channel as a weekly or monthly highlight creator like lost ark does - The thing which is in my mind the biggest "fucked up" thing is the platinum situation. It's for newbies literally a view in the entirely of our galaxie with no clue what's worth and what's not. And the Game is still playing games with these peoples wallets.

Damn, I almost forgot those first few months of playing where I would just not craft anything because I couldn't afford slots, and had to trash and rebuild Rhino several times just to try some new frames every once in a while...

i didnt expect the realest video topic of them all to be here

My suggestion for the Slot problem would be to make them high tier rewards for the 6 main Syndicates. makes them pretty easily acquirable, but still keeps them somewhat limited. It would still kinda suck for newer players, since that'd be a pretty far away goal, but that could also work to make them more interested, since they now have an easy to understand, long term goal.

Slots need a rework, I think that if DE wants to keep them they should make them similar to how old Kubrow stasis worked. If you have a gun or frame or melee it can be something you actively use if you have it in a slot, if you run out of slots you can send your other weapons off to "storage" which frees up a space and doesn't delete the weapon, but to get an old weapon out of storage you need space for it, and have a 12-24hr wait for it to be "shipped back to you". This would make slots still useful and something I think a lot of vets would buy in bulk, but prevents a lot of the issues that slot limitations causes in game with so so so many options and progression tied to using all of those options for at least 5-50mins each.

I honestly don't even know how i managed to keep playing the game, I started the game when i was around 10 and at the time the game didn't even have junctions to lock you out of high level content before you could finish the first main quest. The game also had much less QOL for players making anything impossible to understand, but i can say they are at least trying to make the starting experience more enjoyable which is good for everyone.

When a couple of my friends convinced me to start playing, i complained about a bunch of stuff and kept thinking i was going to drop it, but i stuck with it and now it’s one of my favorite games and i have more playtime than both the friends that got me into it combined

as someone that helped a ton of new players get into the game i feel like a market tutorial would help a lot. pretty much all of them don't know that you can get blueprints from there. they just see the plat cost and close it. that plus the crafting time pushes a ton of people away.

The "no slots available" pain is so real. I never spend on video games, and so I only have 5 Warframes (Rhino P., Hildryn P., Umbra, Garuda and Volt) when I returned 2 months ago. I had to sell my beginning Excaliber and Rhino to get new frames, and I have 4 more frames sitting in the foundry. Nightwave only giving 2 slots for something that resets every 3+ months is plain stupid, atleast make it give us more slots or add them to the cred store.

I hope DE sees this video as well, lots of good points for both sides of the argument. I try hard to get my friends invested as well... Having one or multiple friendly NPCs guide you through the early mechanics would be amazing! Have ordis force you to upgrade and equip a mod. When I played New War, having all the characters I'd met pop in to help was an AMAZING feeling. So it'd be cool to build that up even more with tutorials. I honestly don't think the crafting times are that bad, There's nothing wrong with playing something else for the day, some devs even encourage that. But if you want to keep going the problem is what to do in the meantime. I remember it feeling like the thing you were crafting was the only way to progress, and with things being mastery locked, sometimes it was. There's so much content in warframe, It'd be nice to have something guide you on what to do next, or what you could be doing now to prepare for the future. Maybe small simple quests just to point you in the right direction, earn yourself some slots. Even now I have trouble keeping track of what daily and weekly tasks exist for me to occupy my time. The navigation tabs are still confusing to me.

Another small issue I have with the new player experience that I don't see many people talk about is it's early game story presentation, which is basically non existent. You get Vor's prize which does a good job as an introduction quest but then after it's completion you have basically nothing, the bosses for every planet for example have no build up until you actually do their mission node where the Lotus will only tell you very basic stuff. The bosses have no beef with us other than the fact that we are part of a different faction than them, Lek Krill is just a guy who kills a bunch of people with his hammer, Kela apparently has some relation with the Steel meridian and hosts a competition centered around on killing people, Sargas Ruk is a prostetics freak, Tyl Regor is the boss that is the closest of being an actual character but he only has his boss fight and a sabotage mission that tells us what are his motivations are and why he hates us, most of the Corpus Bosses are just machinery and the one machinery boss that has SOME story is locked behind an event that will never come back, so the average player doing the Ambulas boss will just play through the fight completely clueless as to what Frod and Ergo are yapping about, and the Sargeant is one of the capture missions of all time. Our timeline starts with Vor's Prize and then we do a bunch of stuff we will all forget about until the first cinematic quest. The early game has so little content related to story that the narrative basically starts during the Second Dream because thats where people become interested in the story not only because of the twist but because it also has cinematic cutscenes. A lot of people will even tell newbies "congrats for beating the tutorial" when they complete the Second Dream, as if the game and especially the story JUST STARTED FROM THERE.

THANK YOU for addressing the slot problem! I also had to buy slots for my friends when they started. They just see the out-of-slots message and the following conversation plays: - It says I'm out of slots, should I use my platinum? - Yea, the first 50 plat you get should get you 1 warframe and 2x2 weapon slots. - All right, thanks. How do I get platinum btw? - You either buy or trade. - Oh, with real people? - Yea. - I don't really want to do that. - I can give you some plat. - Oooo, thank you :) Then they play for a few more days, then only return for days in every few months.

Another reason new players quit, which is also not really discussed, is the fact that the game is free to play. That alone means people come in, try it, and dip out at a faster rate than other games of a similar, albeit more expensive, nature because the only investment they need to put in is time. And only a small amount of in-game time equals very little psychological investment/attachment. Making it easier for them to drop Warframe for something else.

I really think if they give new players like 5 Warframe slots and 16 weapon slots would go a long way. I'm glad that DE is talking internally about crafting timers. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but it would help.

that is very understandable and i do understand where ur coming from back when i did start playing i did feel as such but whenever i noticed the nightwaves i saw f2p possibility so that is what i did i grind out nightwave each and every time i can and while i dont need the stuff from it but its still great for free slots which really help

This is from most of my friends experience: - stranded, no idea what to do - too much to do 😂 I also felt that sometimes, and i'm LR4 😂

YES, YES,YES. Everything that was said here in this video was accurate down to a T. I have experienced everything that was mentioned here and I agree with pretty much everything that has been said. This was an amazing video and I pray that DE listens to this or at least touch up on some of the notes that have been mentioned here. please continue to make content

When i started playing Warframe i couldn't figure out how things worked until i was mr 7, i had multiple weapons not at max lvl, still was stuck on Excalibur and right before i quit due to not knowing what i need to do a friend pushed me in the right direction like how to get primed frames and weapons, how to railjack and he carried me through the nechramech grind, so far im the only friend who he helped that stayed past grinding for my second warframe which was Zephyr

Great video. I myself have almost 6k hrs in the game and when I was new and saw the crafting timer for Warframes I didn't turn the game back on till it was done and many times I just forgot I had the game all together. If it wasn't for trade chat being consistent back then I wouldn't have continued to play the game at all because I couldn't afford to buy platinum. The timer killed my interest in playing the game and the slots killed my morale to even try. The only reason I kept playing was because a friend of mine was still playing, I found out about trade chat and it was the only game I had to play at the time.

the market changes mentioned at the end deserve their own pedestal in the video for being potentially bigger turn off than the crafting times. burying vital blueprint purchases under a mountain of microtranactions is the worst part of the first leg of the game.

Great video. +1 to losing people because of crafting times and slot limitations, def top of the list for early game walls. I feel like we need a very mainstream forum post to flock to along with this video though.

Actually one of the reasons me and my friends got less and less playing warframe toghether comes from what is needed to grind. Way way back in the day the only real progression system was doing star chart and very little else, so the 4 of us could easily check who was at the most progression and make a 4 squad. Now no one is doing the same thing, they may be farming standing, focus, frames, clan, events, endo, kuva, arcanes, currency, vault runs, market, credits, open worlds just to name a few. Now there is almost nothing in common in goals and playing your own grind game is already enough, playing the grind of other 3-4-5 friends is impossible.

Great content, Keep up the good work!

All players should have max capacity, not only MR30. This is such a great qotl. Gatekeeping this feel so bad when people find out.

Firstly, what a great analysis. Good job. I think you're right - if you move the "this sucks, I quit" point further into the game, it's less likely new players will quit. While this possibly reduces revenue for DE at first, I honestly believe it will increase players that stick around, and therefore increase revenue. Like you, I have spent waaaaay more on WF than any other game. I love it. I want DE to survive and keep going, so I'm prepared to spend cash sometimes to help that. But new players aren't invested, so why would they care? There are a lot of improvements DE could make, especially QoL, all over the game. I think the problem is DE is somewhat strapped for cash and can't (or won't?) employ more people to make all these changes. The guardrails idea is great. I remember hating the Gorgon (and still do!), and I deleted it before I maxed it. Once I understood how MR worked, I had to craft another one, and level it up to max. Very annoying - especially when I really fucking hate the Gorgon. Also the levelling up time, especially for warframes, is really really slow for new players. Once you get to Hydron then it's not too bad, but my first frames took days to level. Maybe DE could have an automatic level booster for the first couple of frames? I've often wondered why DE don't improve the trading system. I think it's a real pain in the arse. I realised the answer as I was watching this vid. If they make trading hard, it's more likely you'll just buy plat to avoid the trades - especially when you're selling stuff. Dunno if other people agree with this thought?

I think a good balnce between "3 day crafting kills new player hype" and "DE needs to make money" could just be to make prime frames take 3 days and have base frames not take any time. If DE suddenly starts hemorrhaging money you could make it so the most recent frame released also has a 3 day craft time, which means all the current players who aren't at risk of quitting will probably be making their version with the 3 day crafting timer and will still sometimes want to rush or outright buy the frame to skip the wait, but for a new player, 98% of the frames they could try to make wouldn't be time locked in any way. This seems like the best way to specifically alleviate the new player problem while letting DE still make their money. Obviously as an older player I'd love it if they didn't have crafting times at all, but if DE IS going to keep them, I'd prefer they didn't harm this game's ability to intake new players.

When you said only one of your friends had stuck with the game that hit me hard because it was the same for me. I tried to get my entire friendgroup to play and from them only my partner plays with me to this day. Stings even more because I have a friend that USED to play the game, that was pretty advanced (he played back when the preludes to war were the latest quests released), and whom I PLAYED WITH A COUPLE OF TIMES, but I recently brought it up and he told me he uninstalled because "he wasn't feeling the drive to play by himself cause he felt the game had changed too much for him, it isn't the same game he used to play." That was very rough to hear.

Nice video, I do think it tackles the most important points. Something I have thought about crafting time, would be a crafting time increasing as you progress into the game (linked to MR for instance). That would allow new players to enjoy lower crafting times, and older players that are already hooked, would still contribute to DE income generated from this. But also a decrease of at least a third would be appreciated, a 10th would be great but might be damaging for the revenue generated from it. For the same reason, unless they find a suitable substitute for slot sale revenue, you first solution (increasing base slot number+ retroactively giving slot to returning players) seems to be the one to go.

I’m basically still a noob I’m 2 months in now but basically all your facts is how I felt in the start of my warframe journey. I randomly came to warframe on my own though I knew of 1 person who played it I gave it a go. Everything you said i experienced but I didn’t let it stop me. I just built my helminth like two days ago and I’m MR 15 I knew about it but just didn’t know where to start. Asked for help and watched videos. This game takes a lot of googling and Reddit and asking people how to do this and that but at the end of the day I got this far. I enjoy the game but like you said crafting time and grinding resources just to have to wait hours for something you really want as a noob does make you not want to play. I really enjoyed your video I can relate but I’m still playing and have a way better experience now that I’m more seasoned in warframe.

15:26 This also applies to Prime stuff, when I started playing it was SkillUp's old video (Hydroid prime access) that taught me you can get the primes for free