Warframe has come a long way from its Dark Sector roots. The free-to-play game, which once struggled to near-bankruptcy almost a decade ago is now one of the most refined flagbearers of the looter shooter genre. Sure enough, the developers love to reward their loyal community members and new players alike with a show of quality and appreciation, mostly through quests.
Quests in Warframe typically come in the form of periodic updates and are thus bundled with exciting gameplay additions and story developments. Generally, they're just new content, but the fact that they're free hasn't affected their quality one bit. In fact, the quality just kept shooting up significantly, and these quests are the perfect example of Warframe's milestones.
10 Awakening
- Mastery Rank Requirement: None
- Pre-requisite Quest: None
The first time is always special, and that's what typically happens when newbies first step into the shoes of this space ninja RPG. Even back on its release date, Warframe was a pretty game but what made it even more beautiful was its parkour system which allowed unprecedented freedom of movement and speed not typically seen in most video games (even today).
Firing up Warframe for the first time, and witnessing all these flashy animations and fluid movement schemes instantly carved a special place in the player's memory. Of course, the implementation could have been less clunky or more elegant, but one has to consider that developer Digital Extremes was just winging it at this point, which was impressive.
9 Prelude To War Series
- Mastery Rank Requirement: N/A
- Pre-requisite Quest: The Sacrifice
The "Prelude to War" chain consists of a series of three short main quests that lead up to one of the biggest quests in Warframe (more on that one later). Many of these were just cinematics where players didn't really do much but consume the lore dump.
However, it also gives players an update on the situations of the Lotus after the shocking events that took place during the earlier main quests. Players were hungry for answers and explanations, and the Prelude to War served as a good appetizer.
8 Natah
- Mastery Rank Requirement: 3
- Pre-requisite Quest: The New Strange
"Natah" was a rather short and seemingly uneventful quest, but the lore exposition was huge. This was the part of Warframe's story where that shed light on the Lotus's true identity. It came out several years after the game launched.
The players were already used to The Lotus' anonymity so the revelation into who she really was and her role in the past (and future) was a sight to behold. From here on, the developers managed to just keep improving the story and the presentation.
7 Vox Solaris
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- Mastery Rank Requirement: None (Optional)
- Pre-requisite Quest: None
Vox Solaris was the introduction to the second experimental "open-world" area in Warframe and this time around, the developers were better prepared compared to the Plains of Eidolon. There were fewer bugs and glitches this time and the presentation was top-notch.
To date, Vox Solaris' "We All Lift" together song has been Warframe's best original composition. It was the perfect summarization of Fortuna's anguish and toil under the oppressive corporate greed of the Corpus. It's worth playing this quest for the song alone.
6 The War Within
- Mastery Rank Requirement: 5
- Pre-requisite Quest: The Second Dream
"The War Within" was quite a turning point for Warframe's endgame and power creep since it also introduced Riven mods to the game. These are practically endgame mods that let players create broken builds even from underrated weapons.
And of course, the associated story for the quest shed light on the inner workings of the Grineer, a long-time enemy of the Tenno. This was where Warframe started crafting its own uniquely-flavored cinematics tailored for each faction, and the voice acting from the Grineer queens was top-notch.
5 Chains Of Harrow
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- Mastery Rank Requirement: 5
- Pre-requisite Quest: The War Within
Most of the time, warframe-related quests tend to be rather uneventful or even tedious since most players just want to breeze through them to unlock the schematics. But "Chains of Harrow" proved to be a different beast.
Because for the first time, it was a horror-themed quest and not the goofy kind. Chains of Harrow utilized Warframe's dynamic lighting and particle effects to create some rather heart-pounding scares along with a creepy sound design. The quest sadly raised the bar for a lot of other warframe quests that's quite hard to reach.
4 Veilbreaker
- Mastery Rank Requirement: N/A
- Pre-requisite Quest: The New War
After "The New War" quest, it could have been hard to keep the players on their toes or at least sated due to the quality. "Angels of Zariman" fell somewhat short of expectations both in story and gameplay. But thankfully, "Veilbreaker" followed up with a bang.
Veilbreaker takes players back to Deimos where they have to help a lone Grineer operative rescue his brothers. The Saving Private Ryan vibes along with the gameplay rewards and additions (and the new warframe), kept Warframe feeling fresh.
3 The New War
- Requirement: Railjack and Necramech
- Pre-requisite Quest: Prelude to War
So how has Warframe's latest huge story development fare? It was phenomenal. While there were some inconsistencies with the plot and storytelling, "The New War" managed to live up to the heights established by quests like "The Second Dream," more on that one later.
This quest is practically an all-out war mission where the Tenno have to fight their old Sentient enemies for control of the solar system. It also provided an update on the Lotus's whereabouts and true nature.
2 The Sacrifice
- Mastery Rank Requirement: N/A
- Pre-requisite Quest: Apostasy Prologue
"The Sacrifice" holds a special place in many players' hearts due to the mere fact that it finally gave a version of Excalibur that had a scar, Excalibur Umbra. For years now, players have been craving this exact warframe design after seeing it in a Chinese version of the game.
It even had an included story about the origins of the very first warframe and also a big new map tileset to play with. But the cherry on top was the cinematics that came along with it. Needless to say, the quest was screenshot-heaven for a lot of players.
1 The Second Dream
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- Mastery Rank Requirement: 3
- Pre-requisite Quest: Natah
Despite all the bigger quests later down the years, "The Second Dream" remains Warframe's most special milestone. For it was the very first cinematic quest in the game— one that signified better things to come from and to the developers. Whereas before, Warframe's quests were mostly unceremonious, "The Second Dream" finally gave the lore some storytelling justice.
Also, this quest features the Lotus in her full glory in a cutscene, along with a revelation on the true nature of the Tenno. The rewards were also more than satisfying. From this point on, Warframe was changed for the better.
Warframe is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox One Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.