Players control members of the Tenno, ancient warriors who have awoken from centuries of cryosleep to find themselves at war with the Grineer, a race of militarized humanoid clones; the Corpus, a mega-corporation with advanced robotics and laser technology; and the Infested, disfigured victims of the Technocyte virus. To fight back, the Tenno use advanced exo-armor with unique abilities—the titular Warframes.
In Warframe, up to four players work together to complete missions, such as eliminating enemies, retrieving data from terminals, assassinating high ranking/dangerous targets, defending an artifact, or surviving as long as possible. Players wear a battlesuit called a Warframe, each with its own set of abilities and statistics; and are equipped with three weapons—a primary weapon (such as a rifle, bow, or shotgun), a secondary weapon (typically a pistol), and a melee weapon (such as swords, axes, and hammers). Players earn Affinity (experience points) for killing enemies and completing challenges and missions, which allows them to level up their weapons and armor. Warframes and weaponry have access to modifications, or "mods", that can be installed, removed and upgraded before and after missions; the higher the Affinity rank of any one piece of equipment, the more mods it can accommodate.