Grind for frame vs circumvent with trade-frame farm plat to buy frame?

[(PSN)Unstar]

In my personal experience, there hasn't been a frame that has felt like too much of a grind yet; I've earned them all via gameplay.  However, a big part of that is that I don't need to have them now.  And that's also why I don't mind waiting for the Foundry's crafting timers.  It's fun to have something to chase after, fun to have something in the near future to be excited about.

To put that in context though, there are plenty of other things in Warframe that are way too much grind for me and I won't even try to get.  But the Warframes themselves have all been chill enough to get, and I've honestly enjoyed the process of earning them.

That said, it's all relative.  If someone else thinks a grind is too much for them and would prefer to go the platinum route, that's totally fine.  Heck, my spouse does that for some of the frames.  Follow your bliss! ^^

[dudefaceguy]

Honestly, the answer lately is usually "neither." I just returned recently after about 3 years off, and I don't really have any motivation to get the new frames or weapons.

I generally farm for most things I get, but I don't really target farm - I just do fun stuff and get the rewards. The farming serves to give me some direction, but I never really do anything I don't have fun doing.

I've bought a few frames with plat when they were on sale: Mesa, Harrow, Khora, maybe Octavia.

I remember getting fed up with the Khora farm and buying her with plat, then getting her rare drop like 2 hours later when I went to  SO for something else. Well, now I can feed the extra one to the Helminth.

The only thing I have bought with plat since I returned is a k-drive, since I think they're fun and I would rather spend standing on mods. I'm farming the resources for the feverspine now, since I enjoy chilling in open worlds.

An incomplete list of things I have no plans to get any time soon:

Kuva and Tenet weapons

Any new Warframe (I honestly have so many already and none of the new ones seem particularly interesting)

Hema, Knux, Paracesis, and any other weapon that takes lots of resources.

New companions/sentinels

Necramechs

Things I am enjoying:

Railjack

Steel path arcanes

Proboscis Cernos

 

So I just have fun doing what I like, and get the corresponding rewards. If I don't like something I can do without the rewards generally.

[IMP_102]

On 2021-08-15 at 6:16 PM, (XBOX)YoungGunn82 said:

1. Would you rather play the grind for the frame, wait 12 hours to build each part then wait 3 days?  

Or

2. Would you rather farm the plat to buy the frame outright?

why?  

I don't know. Why do you play the game? For me it's collecting stuff, and I'd much rather do it myself. Given a choice, I would always grind for the item. I don't consider trading and grinding for prime parts for trading as a quality gaming time. At that point I would rather put the game down and play something else. Heaven knows my steam library has enough content for next 40 years.

Basically same reason I play SSF in path of exile, when I play the game to grind currency just to buy stuff from other players, it stops being a game for me and I no longer enjoy it. I spend my plat on cosmetics/boosters.

[Jorak_Falconstar]

Grind it..

For me the 12/24 hour build timer work in my favor.

They tick down while i'm sleeping or at work..  so i'm still progressing in a way even when i cant be playing

[GrandLompus]

Easy; arcane grinding isn't my thing, and neither is relic cracking for hours on end.  And my goal is to grind and unlock everything by myself first, solo, as a challenge.  That also includes a private dojo and it's research -- oh boi...  (Just finished the last item, Hema, but now for the pigments.)

Some grinds can be a bit too much though, but I see them as learning opportunities for what I did wrong and how I can make it go faster / more efficient.  Googling there often gives some nice suggestions on faster locations, frames/weapons/mods and strategies.  After that I often find I can improve my efficiency enough to make it bearable or even fun again, and I've learned something new.  And it helps that I most like playing invisible/stealth frames, and they can make some grinds rather trivial, esp. Octavia.

All difficult non-prime stuff I grind passively over time by just doing only a few best-rewarding missions every now and then, which keeps it diverse enough to not be a bore.  I e.g. still need one final part for my Bonewidow (damaged engines), so maybe I'll try 2 more vault runs today, but after that I'll prob. just switch to something else.  I'm not in a hurry to get everything right now.

Once I have successfully solo-finished some content once or twice I sometimes switch to pub games to finish the grind though, and with prime parts I ofc always go for int/radshares.  Then again Harrow I found easy enough to solo (just use Ivara + invis arrows to make the survivors invis too or Octavia + roller ball to distract all infested), but Equinox I def. pubbed after I got a few parts in.

The only exception I ever made once was when I was grinding for my first prime frame (Rhino), and found out it would be vaulted the next day, which made me panic a bit then.  I grinded hard together with some other friendly rando who was in the same boat (nice memories there), and in the end we swapped some parts so we could both build that frame.  In hindsight knowing that vaulted primes eventually return I wouldn't have felt that pressured though; I'm in it for the long haul anyway, and there's always still the non-prime for the in between.

Masochist much?  Maybe, but I just like the challenge I guess, and buying my way out of it just feels wrong.  I only use my plat for slots and for I-need-it-now formas; by not selling anything I still get to support DE by needing to buy plat from time to time anyway.  Though only when I get a nice coupon ofc :)