Empyrean is coming soon to Warframe, and now is the perfect time to get ready for it. Empyrean is not supposed to be an update to add more places to go; it is a foundation to bring players closer together. For beginners or people that have only played Warframe on and off over the years, Empyrean is just going to add to the confusion. It will just bring them closer to staring at the star map with no clue as what to do next. The new systems implemented with Empyrean might help bring the existing players closer together, but for a casual player that does not have a clan or has not opened half the star map, the new system might as well be a spicy Popeyes chicken sandwich.
Warframe is an extremely fun game, but it takes a lot of the player’s willpower to overcome the dead zones in the game progression system. From my experience playing the game for six years and on four different platforms, I’ve become friends with Warframe burnout in the early game. When you first start the game, the new player tutorial (not the new, new, new one that is coming in the future), you get introduced to the game with the quest Vor’s Prize. Vor’s Prize will take you to three planets and several different mission types to help you understand the basic mechanics of the game. Once you complete Vor’s Prize the game dumps you into the unforgiving grind. At this point, a lot of new players stare at the star map for hours, not knowing what to do next. The game does give the player several options as to what they can do next, but it all becomes overwhelming. This is the point where there is a large falloff of new players in Warframe.
One of the biggest flaws with Warframe now is keeping the momentum of engaging players in the story of the game. There are over a dozen voiced quests in the game that are amazing to play, but finding out how to get to them and play them is the hard part. Warframe is a free to play game, so it has to be designed with some roadblocks in the content to make a player want to get weapons, warframes, cosmetics, and materials through the marketplace. When I first started playing the game, I spent most of my money thinking a new warframe was going to solve the problem of my lack of progression. I believe most new players still think that a different warframe will help them get past the dead spots in the game so they can continue the story. The truth is, all the starter warframes are more than capable of playing all the way through the whole game. It is the expectation that a new warframe or new weapons will magically propel the player’s game forward that makes them stop playing. I have a few simple tips to help new or on-off players to get ready for Empyrean.
Empyrean is going to bring players closer together, but before that happens, players need to be in a comfortable place with their game progression. Warframe takes planning to get through the star map and build a strong loadout to take on the toughest enemies. If you hit a roadblock in your game, take a step back from the way you were going and have fun just killing everything you can.
If you are a veteran of Warframe, what are some tips you have to keep new players progressing through the dead spots of the game?