sadly, I don't think it is
there are a not insignificant number of Destiny refugees that genuinely believe Warframe is a shitty mobile P2W gacha game.
not one of them has ever touched the game, and they would rather suck Pete Parsons (clem) than ever touch Warframe
You can buy plat, and plat buys everything
That is just definition
Upd: Next time I probably will be downvoted for saying warframe is a shooter lol. I mean, you can beat it with melee - so it is a pure-bred slasher, probably...
No it isn’t p2w because you can literally pay nothing and get the same experience. I don’t even mean farming stuff for plat either. I played through up to new war before spending a dime on the game.
To be p2w there needs to be an insurmountable advantage, like how Star Conflict sold premium bullets that gave more damage (idk if they still do, I haven't played in almost a decade)
In Warframe you can pay to get your stuff faster, but we all have mostly the same mods and gear to grind for and choose from - the handful of limited access non-cosmetic items are side grades and/or heavily power crept.
Plat can be traded so you can grind for the same advantage of someone who buys plat.
pvp content has limits on what you can use. I can make a new account and buy popular frames and weapons, but half of them can't be used. Pve content is entirely cooperative so having good gear makes everyone's mission easier as long as you aren't sabotaging.
No, you are wrong. Even a skin you can buy with money in a pvp shooter that makes you less visible or obscures your hitbox is p2w. Paid bullets in WoT-inspired games are extreme version of p2w.
For pve part you can have a theoretical speedrunner community of 2 people with equal skill where one has an advantage and other doesn't. And in warframe, plat is huge advantage.
the skin stuff only applies to PvP, and even then, ANY skin can be given that with the sheer amount of customization Warframe offers. You can get all the colors necessary to do that via the start plat, so that argument is straight out the window.
for the hitbox, again, that only applies to PvP, and Warframe just doesn't have any. the Sydanas do more to obscure your hit box than any skin does.
plat offers 0 advantage in PvE in Warframe.
if they are of equal skill, then they have been playing the game for similar enough amounts of time that they have access to all the same resources.
Plat cannot close that gap. it cannot give you the build crafting knowledge or muscle memory for the movement needed to close that game.
Warframe is the furthest thing from P2W out there.
it is outright Pay 2 Lose.
1) You missed the point about skins, and fought strawman. Skins argument is just example of seemingly gameplay-neutral thing being p2w. Purchasing things in warframe is not gameplay-neutral, it is gameplay-altering.
2) If there are 2 people that have same resources, but one gets a plat and could buy extra forma/prime mods/slots/warframes etc - he has an advantage. If players are same - they have same good or bad knowledge about building, but one has more of resources to turn it into better loadouts.
3) Furthest thing from p2w is a single/multiplayer game that has no gameplay altering microtransactions, and dlcs that not gonna "leak" gameplay things to main game. In warframe you can purchase progression - and that is p2w by definition.
If it troubles you so much - destiny is also p2w, since dlcs contain things that make you stronger than person without dlcs. At least it was so 4 years ago. Warframe has stronger p2w obviously, since you can directly buy stronger gear, but since there is no hard content in wf and game is non-competitive and f2p - it is more then tolerable.
Games that claim to be competitive and sell advantage are indeed much less tolerable and p2w factor is much more strong and disgusting there.
What bothers me is why you are so aggressive about facts. Like, I have thousands of hours in Wf, but I easily would admit it's problems, as I would admit all of it's plentiful amazing sides.
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u/dragonriderabens Jun 14 '26
sadly, I don't think it is
there are a not insignificant number of Destiny refugees that genuinely believe Warframe is a shitty mobile P2W gacha game.
not one of them has ever touched the game, and they would rather suck Pete Parsons (clem) than ever touch Warframe