Warframe
A space ninja with a grappling hook's worth of momentum, and a free game that means it.
The most generous free game on the Frontier. Ignore the noise, find the movement, and let the story quests surprise you.
Warframe is Digital Extremes' free third-person action game about ancient warriors, the Tenno, sprinting and sliding through short missions across the solar system. It has been updated for more than a decade, it plays with up to three friends, and its shop is unusual: nearly everything it sells can be earned or traded for. The catch is that it explains almost nothing, and there is an enormous amount of it.
The four bearings
- N6Newcomer · 20%
The opening quest and first planet are fine, and then the game hands you a solar system and a hundred systems with a shrug. The community fills the gap that the tutorials leave.
- E8Every session · 35%
Missions are ten to twenty minutes, movement is a joy, and a session with friends is loud and satisfying. Some mission types are repetitive by design.
- S8.5Staying power · 25%
Dozens of warframes to build, a story that takes real swings, and regular large updates. It has outlasted most of its competitors and is still growing.
- W8.5Wallet · 20%
Platinum buys convenience and cosmetics, and players trade it among themselves. Crafting timers are the pressure point, and they can be waited out.
Weighted 20 / 35 / 25 / 20 into an Atlas score of 7.8. How the bearings work.
What you are actually doing
You pilot a warframe, a suit with its own four abilities, through missions on planets around the solar system: exterminate, defend, survive, capture, spy. Missions are short and can be run solo or with up to three others who join automatically. Enemies drop resources; resources build weapons and new warframes in your ship's foundry; new gear opens harder planets and new mission types. Underneath that loop sits the movement, which is the reason people stay: a bullet jump, a slide and a wall run chained together across a level, faster than anything else on the chart.
Beyond the loop there is a story, delivered through cinematic quests that arrive without warning after tens of hours and change what the game is about. We will not spoil them. They are among the boldest things a free game has done.
The first evening, honestly
The opening quest is a decent tutorial for combat and movement. After that, Warframe's biggest weakness shows: the map of the solar system, the crafting, the mods that actually make your gear strong, the trading, the factions and the daily standing caps are all left for you to discover. The community has responded with excellent guides, an official Wiki and a scheme that pairs new players with veterans. Use them; nobody learns Warframe alone.
Why it stays
Every warframe plays differently, and the game keeps adding them: Narin, the sixty-sixth, arrived with Update 44 on 23 September 2026, along with a new hub on Earth and a rework of Banshee, who is free to anyone who logs in before 7 October. Large updates arrive a few times a year, often with a new open zone, a new quest or a new system; 2026 alone brought the Android version in February and the Switch 2 version in March, both with full cross-play. Because almost everything can be earned or traded, the long game is about deciding what you want to build next rather than what you can afford.
Where it shines, where it drags
- The best movement on the chart
- Almost everything in the shop can be earned or traded
- Full cross-play and cross-save on every platform
- Story quests that take real risks
- Explains almost nothing; guides are mandatory
- Crafting timers nudge you towards Platinum
- Mission types repeat, especially early
- A 75 GB download, Windows only on PC, and a lot of menus
The toll: what it costs in the UK
Warframe is free to install and free to play on every platform. Platinum, the paid currency, buys cosmetics, extra storage space for gear, and the option to rush crafting timers. Nearly everything Platinum buys can also be earned by play or bought from other players for Platinum they earned, so a careful player can spend nothing.
- To install and playFree
- PlatinumPacks from 100 to 2,200 Platinum; £ prices shown only in the client or store
- Prime Access packs£34.99 each for the current Weapons and Accessories packs on Steam UK
- Cosmetic collectionsRoughly £14 to £31 on Steam UK
- Extra gear storageA few Platinum each; the one purchase most players make
Randomised items: Mostly no. Relics, which drop in play, open to give a random Prime part from a listed pool, and they are not sold for money. The in-game Market does sell a few Platinum mod packs with random contents, which we would ignore. Cosmetics and Prime Access packs are sold at fixed prices. We would buy gear storage with a small Platinum pack and earn the rest.
Subscriptions and online play: No subscription. Online play is free on PC and Switch; on PlayStation and Xbox it is exempt from the paid online requirement.
Prices checked 24 September 2026 on the UK stores named above. See Paying for games in the UK for the rights that apply to each payment route.
Who it suits
Players who like fast movement, co-op with strangers who don't need to talk, and a long project. If you would rather the loot were the whole point, Path of Exile is next door on the Frontier.
Where to go next
Start with the Warframe waypoint for a first evening that goes well. Or compare it directly: Warframe or Path of Exile.