[h2]The Economy of Warframe[/h2]
There are two forms of currency in Warframe: credits and platinum. Credits can be earned by playing missions and platinum can only be bought using real-life money. Players are also given a little starter platinum to get them used to spending it alongside credits. All players are given 50 platinum to start, while PS Plus members start with a total of 150 instead.
To give you an idea of the prices, an Orokin Reactor or Orokin Catalyst costs 20 platinum, while a sentinel will run you 75 platinum. Buying a weapon or Warframe without building it will also cost you. Weapons can cost anywhere between 65 and 240 platinum. Some Warframes — such as Loki or Volt — will only cost you as much as a sentinel, at 75 platinum. More advanced Warframes — such as Ash, Nova, Frost, or Nekros — will run you a total of 350 platinum for each. Mag is the most expensive starting Warframe, at 175 platinum, which is something you should consider when selecting your character at the beginning of the game. But if you can’t earn platinum in the game, and you can only buy platinum with real money, you’re probably wondering how much all of this is actually going to cost you in real life.
Keep in mind that there are ways to build just about everything in the game, so the following should be thought of as the price of shortcuts, not money that is required to be spent to actually enjoy the game. With that said, here’s the breakdown.
$4.99 will get you 75 platinum. $9.99 will net you 170 platinum. $29.99 — or half the cost of a brand new retail game — will get you 570 platinum. And this goes on until you reach the “best” deal, which is $149.99 for 3210 platinum and three mods. To get that much platinum at $4.99 a pop, you would have to buy the cheapest platinum package 43 times. This would would cost $214.57 for 3225 platinum, and no mods would be included. So you can see that you would be stupid NOT to spend $149.99 on the game right away, as it’s clearly the best value. And before I even start another paragraph, let me assure you that I am NOT being serious. Please do not spend $150 on this or any other FREE-to-play game.
At the very least, don’t do so in one transaction. To buy just the seven Warframes that I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, it would cost over half of the platinum included in the $149.99 package, and you would still be missing about half of the available Warframes. And that’s not even including all of the weapons, sentinels, and other purchase options. But at the same time, you shouldn’t neglect your starter platinum. You can get a lot of gameplay out of Warframe without spending a dime, and even more by investing wisely in the occasional platinum purchase.
