I’ve been circling around writing this column for a while because it is absolutely the most important possible thing for anyone to decide in Warframe, and I genuinely believe that finding the frame or gun that you want to use is what starts getting you into the game. Finding my first main frame was very much an “oh yeah” moment for me, and when I soon thereafter found a gun I liked… yeah, that was a game-changer. It’s important. But it’s also really hard to talk about because there are a lot of frames in the game, and they are of variable accessibility.
Seriously, you have some frames that are very easy to get pretty much right out of the gate (with a good clan you can research several for basically nothing) and others that require a whole heck of a lot of work to get your hands on. You have Primes that are vaulted and those that are freely accessible, and ones that are currently unvaulted but won’t always be unvaulted, and do you really need a Prime for this? Yes, if you want this to be a main, but do you want to commit to this?
But this is important. So let’s start figuring out how to narrow things down.
You might think that tier lists would be helpful here, and the answer is that they kind of are, but they also aren’t if you really look at them. Over on Overframe, you’ll see that the vast majority of frames (41 out of 60) are either in S-tier or A-tier, and it’s not as if the two lowest-ranked frames are bad. Oh, sure, Nyx is probably not as good all-around as Dante, but if you really like playing as Nyx, you are not going to be stuck with Awful Frame You Cannot Use.
Equally important is that so much hinges also on your weapons and preferred playstyle. I don’t really care for Saryn, for example, but she’s not a bad frame by any means, just not my preferred style. But it’s also hard-to-impossible to try every single frame to figure out what you want, since so many of them require major time commitments in the first place just to decide what feels the best in your hands.
It’s also worth noting that the obvious choice of “buy one for Platinum” is usually a bad call specifically because all but the newest frames have a Prime version that is the one you would actually want, and that version cannot be bought directly like that.
The best option here, then, is to have a friend who knows how you like to play and can guide you by hand. I do not know you very well, so I cannot necessarily do that. What I can do are suggest a few frames that are at least reasonably easy to acquire either as starting options, early blueprint farming, or questlines. These will give you a thing to shoot for out of your early choices, but I want to talk about more in-depth stuff later.
Excalibur: It’s easy to say “Average Man, the most average superhero” but he really is kind of the default frame that others are based around until you get his Umbra variant (through main story progression). He’s a good frame if what you want is primarily to have your abilities be backup in the early experience especially and would rather focus on gunplay; he also has a powered-up melee weapon you can use when necessary.
Mag: Meet your first control frame! If you tend toward party support roles or general crowd control, Mag’s abilities are kind of a broad slice of how the game handles control archetypes and support. She’s good at grouping enemies and limiting their ability to act, but her abilities are not as much about doing damage; you’re there to help batch things up and then take advantage of a small splash zone.
Volt: Volt has the other side of support abilities with allied buffs and providing cover, along with a couple of abilities to unleash a bit of damage along the way. Basically, he’s a good choice if you’re more interested in feeling as if your abilities are your main mechanism for damage or you want to buff your party, with your firearms/melee as more of a backup. He’s also a good example of the non-combat utility you can get with group buffs.
Limbo: One of the things about a lot of frames is that they will encourage entirely alternate playstyles, and Limbo is a great chance to play around with that. His rift-based gameplay is not as complicated as some other frames, but it gives you an idea of how complex a given frame can be and lets you get a feel for what people are talking about when looking at the kit of frames that completely change your basic rotation. He’s not great as a frame, but it’s a good chance to get used to the complexities the game can pack into one passive and four abilities.
Inaros: I wouldn’t say that Inaros is the first frame with a really cohesive kit, and he’s definitely not the only one, but his overall kit is very unified in how it functions, and that’s a good thing. You get a sense from reading his abilities how you’re meant to use them in tandem with his weapon fire, and it epitomizes what I think a lot of the better frames have in a gameplay style where you are constantly keeping up a couple abilities and hitting another couple of them as necessary. It’s a self-contained gameplay loop.
Zephyr: By contrast, Zephyr is a frame whose direct offensive capabilities are not solely based around her weapons, but largely so. You mostly want her abilities to either knock away or defend against enemies while you shred them with weapon fire, and that’s important, too. Some frames do not focus on abilities as damage so much as utility.
Valkyr: Last but certainly not least, it’s worth experimenting with some of the frames that have an “altered state” as their fourth ability and revolve almost entirely around that altered state. Basically all decent Valkyr builds are centered around maintaining her Warcry buff and keeping her in Hysteria as long as possible, with her other abilities being deployed as support. It’s a somewhat frantic playstyle for her, but she’s hardly the only frame with this trait.
My point here is not that these are the best frames for new players so much as a good sampler of different playstyles that you can get without too much investment – a couple questlines, a bit of farming, and so forth. Really getting a total picture of what every single frame in the game feels like will require far more than one column, and yes, I am going to try to do that because this list doesn’t include any of my favorite frames. But I think playing around with this lineup will at least give you an idea of what to start aiming for in terms of playstyle as well as a sense of “is this game even for me.”
Pick a ‘Frame, any ‘Frame! The Warframe galaxy is in danger, Tenno, and Space Mom needs help to combat it. Are you in the right Warframe of Mind to join in? The MOP writers have enlisted, suiting up in their favorite ‘Frames to fight the good fight, blasting the Grineer and Infected into smithereens.
