[2] In Warframe, players control members of the Tenno, a race of ancient warriors who have awoken from centuries of suspended animation far into Earth's future to find themselves at war with different factions in the Origin System.

By 2012, in the wake of the success of free-to-play games, the developers took their earlier Dark Sector ideas and art assets and incorporated them into a new project, their self-published Warframe.

Quests afterward would introduce figures such as "The Man In The Wall," a mysterious entity, presumably from the Void, who takes on the visage of whoever sees them, most often as the playable Operator, and Ballas, one of the last living Orokin, assumed to be responsible for creating the Warframes.

[6] Later in the course of the game, the player unlocks the ability to gain direct control of the 'Operator', which is the true Tenno protagonist in physical form (and no longer silent).

The Operator can physically manifest themselves in the environment by projecting out of the Warframe, disappear by resuming control of it (a process called 'Transference'), and possesses abilities of their own.

Late in 2019, an update was introduced to the game letting players pilot and manage a distinct spaceship called 'Railjack', which is a combat vessel, unlike the Orbiter.

Alongside mods, players have other means of improving their equipment, including conditional upgrades called Arcane Enhancements and, for a few weapons, fusing an item with another of its kind to get a superior version.

However, some indirect upgrades can only be bought with Platinum, such as arsenal slots for Warframes, weapons, and certain other equipment, though they can be unlocked via a "Nightwave" battle pass-esque reward system, which is completely free.

[8] Wanting to establish themselves as a lead studio, Digital Extremes came up with the idea of Dark Sector, which they first announced in February 2000, describing the game as combining "the intense action elements of Unreal Tournament with the scope and character evolution of a persistent online universe".

[14] Digital Extremes' creative director Steve Sinclair spent about a year on the road following the re-announcement of Dark Sector to find a publisher, but most rejected the idea; Sinclair said most publishers were not impressed with the science fiction setting and instead encouraged them to change the setting to modern-day, within World War II (which was popular at the time due to the Call of Duty series), and even the American Civil War.

This expansion added Warframe's first open-world experience to the game, the ability for the player to gain reputation with the Ostrons, side-activities of fishing and mining, a Bounty system, consisting of five missions of ascending difficulty, where the player can choose to play any mission they would like regardless of whether the previous ones have been completed, a new quest named Saya's Vigil which rewarded the blueprint for the Warframe Gara, more customization options for the Tenno's combat pets, Kubrows (dogs) and Kavats (cats/ocelots), and the ability for the Tenno themselves to wield their modular weapon, called an Amplifier (or Amp, for short) as well as another modular blade called a "Zaw".

The update focuses on the titular Fortuna Solaris Debt Internment Colony, which serves as a hub for the game's second open-world map, Orb Vallis.

The people of Fortuna (known as the Solaris) were enslaved by a Corpus known as Nef Anyo who uses ancient Orokin devices that made gallons of coolant for the workstation and trade center on Venus.

Said executions are performed with a newly introduced special weapon named the Parazon - a small blade attached to a rope equipped on the Warframe's wrist.

Much like the "Fortuna" and "Plains of Eidolon" updates, Deimos also contains a social hub called the Necralisk that houses the Entrati, an Orokin-era family known for creating the first technologies that could harness the power of the Void.

Additionally, the Heart of Deimos introduced Necramechs to the game, which are mech suits built and controlled by the player that feature their unique abilities.

Lastly, this expansion brought some improvements to the game's new player experience, mainly consisting of a reworked tutorial that includes a new cinematic intro film directed by Dan Trachtenberg, which first premiered at TennoCon 2019.

This time, they have been taught to override Warframes by deploying weaponized pulses cleverly designed to disable them, leaving the Necramechs as Tenno's last option.

Father in the Necralisk on Deimos will have a shop where players can spend their earned Phasic Cells, including a brand-new Warframe, his helmet, and his weapon, new Necramech mods and cosmetics, and items.

The Expansion also introduced the 47th Warframe Yareli, which has an aquatic theme, as well as special "Galvanised" mods for ranged weapons due to player complaints that they weren't performing as well as their melee counterparts in high-level content.

Ballas, along with Hunhow's son Erra wage war against the entire Origin System, prompting former enemies to become allies against a heavy threat, but all is lost after the Sentients successfully manage to take down the alliance.

Kahl is playable during weekly "Break Narmer" missions and features a more traditional cover shooter style of gameplay, in contrast to the fast movement and parkour of the Tenno.

Here, the player can customize Kahl with various colors, materials, and armor pieces, as well as purchase items in exchange for Stock, a trading currency collected from completing challenges during "Break Narmer" missions.

Veilbreaker also made several quality-of-life changes to certain game functions, introduced the 50th Warframe, the Spartan-inspired Styanax, and distributed him for free for a limited time between 7 and 21 September to celebrate this milestone.

The Drifter's gameplay is similar to that of The New War, with the added ability to summon a 'Kaithe', a horse-like creature, and a guiding hand to reveal nearby objectives, as well as use one of six melee weapons.

It explores the escalating threat of a mysterious cosmic entity called the Man in the Wall, and the methods Orokin scientist Albrecht Entrati has taken in order to subdue it.

Players initially take the role of Arthur Nightingale, the Protoframe of Excalibur, during the events of New Year's Eve 1999 in Höllvania, a city under threat of a virus outbreak and paramilitary occupation.

Players then take control of the Drifter as they team up with The Hex, a group of Protoframes led by Arthur, as they attempt to locate Albrecht Entrati in Höllvania.

[70][71][73][69] GameZone's Mike Splechta said of the PlayStation 4 version, "If you already enjoy games like Monster Hunter which require you to farm for items to craft better ones, Warframe follows that very same formula, except with much more satisfying and faster-paced combat.

[77] In July 2016, Digital Extremes launched its first Warframe-dedicated convention, "TennoCon", in London, Ontario, drawing 1000 players, where they announced news of upcoming features and updates to the game.