So this is a column that I have been putting off for a while because it’s going to take me basically forever and who knows if I will ever be done with it, but I figure now’s the time to start. At the time I am writing this intro, there are 64 different Warframes in Warframe. Some of them are pretty easy to get your hands on. Some of them are not. Picking the Warframe you actually want to play is difficult unless you know how all of them do play. So let’s start talking about what all of the different frames do in broad strokes so you can make that call.
Keep in mind that what I intend to do here is not to provide a great in-depth guide to every single frame in the game (I cannot do that) or to offer builds, but rather I will give a loose overview of the playstyle and what the frame is capable of doing. I am also going chronologically, although once I get through the three starter frames and before the ones that post-date the base game, there is going to just be a pile of stuff I pick an order for and go with it. So let’s get started.
Excalibur
Excalibur is a frame that has to basically be Default Man, the most default man ever while also being an actual frame on his own. He’s the default “balanced” choice for starting fresh and also the most “weapon platform”-ish starter frame, but he’s also either the easiest or hardest one to get a Prime version. That depends on perspective. If you didn’t back the game to get Excalibur Prime back in the day, you can’t now. He’s gone. However, Excalibur Umbra is given to everyone as part of the story, and he’s the equivalent of a Prime-level frame on his own.
So what is Excalibur actually about? Well… the thing is that he’s not a very good frame, because all of that need to be Default Man doesn’t really let him have a great set of abilities and unique tricks. In the broad strokes of things, he is one of the various frames whose kit actually revolves around his fourth ability, which lets him summon a unique weapon and play differently… by which I mean he has a good melee weapon as he dashes around. There are other frames that can also do this.
You are likely to play Excalibur when you have to and otherwise move on from him fairly early. This is not a huge failing, and he gets plenty of story prominence as well as showing up when the developers want you to play a specific frame. Excalibur is fine as Default Man. He will not be your final frame. Even if you basically like “melee fighter” as an archetype, there are other frames that do it better. But he will default well enough, and you can build him to be all right if you want to.
I suppose there’s some reason to pick him as your starter frame just because of how many times the game will say “okay, this section requires using Excalibur” but that doesn’t feel like it parses quite right tome.
Mag
Mag is portrayed very much as the control option when you’re starting out, and that’s not actually totally wrong in terms of what Mag can do. Mag has not been power crept out of the game, although she’s definitely best-suited to specific kinds of maps. Specifically, Mag is happiest in maps that consist of narrow corridors where she can gather enemies, control them, and then set them off into big explosions.
This does cover a lot of maps, to be clear. Open spaces, not so much, but a lot of maps are well-suited for Mag’s approach. The big trick to Mag is to understand that 90% of her gameplay is going to be centered around her abilities and a handful of gunshots. You want to pick a weapon that plays nicely with all of that which has a physical projectile, which allows you to create a damaging bubble of things with her ability that all orbits around a central point.
Now, I think there are definitely frames that do a similar routine to Mag better than she herself does. Heck, on a basic level, “group everything and then spread damage to kill it” is a trick that several different frames rely upon. Mag is the simplest and most straightforward version of it. This does, in ways, make her a good starting frame that’s even better than Excalibur; she’s going to teach you to focus on abilities and interplay between them more than just having a disconnected suite of tricks that are each useful but don’t meaningfully interact much.
If you like battlefield control and don’t mind being a split between damage output and support, Mag is a good pick.
Volt
Out of the three starter frames, Volt is the one who has been power-crept the least, because his fundamental gimmick of go fast and shock things is pretty enduring. The biggest thing that has changed is that his first ability is best used with an augment that turns it into a buff, and frankly you’ll note that his abilities are mostly buffs you deploy rather than tricks you use for offensive damage.
In many ways, Volt is thus a good frame for starting if what you want is a weapon platform. That term is somewhat derogatory, but at its core level it refers to frames where you mostly are using the frame as a means of holding the weapons that are the real stars of the show. With Volt you throw up your buffs, then you lay waste with your weapon while pausing briefly to refresh your status. You’re also able to benefit from having some defensive tools and a whole lot of offensive momentum, meaning that you can get objectives cleared very quickly.
The biggest problem with Volt, then, lies with the fact that when you’re starting out your weapons are a bit garbage, so you may not be able to really make him sing right away. But don’t worry too much about that. You’ll find ones that you like, and it’ll give you a good foundation to explore and test things. After all, with his second ability buffing your speed across the board, a lot of weapons can feel better even if they’re not very good. And most not-very-good weapons have a better version you can play with once you get higher in the ranks.
So if you want to ninja-dash around while opening fire, Volt is your guy. He may not be one of the star frames in the game in every situation, but the fact is that his raw speed and versatility in applicable loadouts rarely make him a bad pick and often let him gain some unique advantages.
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.