Warframe cross-platform save unites console and PC players at great cost to some

Warframe recently celebrated 10 years since its first launch. Over the last decade, the third-person MMO shooter has changed immensely, but one facet of the game that has been plaguing both players and the developer, Digital Extremes, is cross-platform save. While Warframe got cross-platform play back in December 2022, players have thus far been unable to share progression and save-game data across their various gaming platforms — until now.

Starting on January 30, 2024, Digital Extremes will start rolling out cross-platform save functionality to its sizeable worldwide player base. As is to be expected with something as complex as implementing cross-platform saving, there is some nuance to how players will need to approach things, but fortunately, DE has taken much of the guesswork out of the process of linking or merging the various accounts.

According to Digital Extremes's blog post announcing the functionality, cross save will be implemented in two ways — Merging or Linking — depending on when the accounts were created.

Merging is a permanent method of combining multiple accounts using a One-Time Account Merge. You will select one account to act as the Primary Account, whose Progression will be retained for the final Merged Account. The Items, Customizations, Resources, and Currencies of all the connected accounts will be combined into the final Merged Account.

Linking allows you to permanently select one Warframe account as your Primary Account. You can then link this Primary Account to Warframe accounts you use or create on additional platforms to use its Progression, Items, Customizations, Resources and Currencies to any linked platform.

In both scenarios, Warframe players will basically merge their different accounts into one account, but the results will differ. As is explained in the Cross Progression guide, Merging Warframe accounts results in one account with all of the items, customisations, resources, and currencies of all of the merged accounts — including the player's arsenal and inventory. After the Merge, quest progression will remain as it was on the main account before the process.

Linking, on the other hand, assigns one account as the primary account and erases the items, progression, and inventories of the other accounts in the merge. In other words, only do this if you absolutely need to consolidate your gameplay into one account and don't mind losing progress on a previous platform-specific account.

Which process your accounts are eligible for depends on when they were created. Accounts created before 2 p.m. Eastern Time on November 24 (presumably of 2023, since DE doesn't specify) will be eligible for the account Merge, while accounts created after that date can only be Linked. If either of the accounts you wish to consolidate were created after that cut-off, you will only be able to Link the accounts.

To link accounts, users need to log in on the Warframe homepage and click the "Connect Accounts" button.

Handheld gaming consoles like the Asus ROG Ally (curr. $599.99 at Best Buy) and Lenovo Legion Go (curr. $649.99 on Amazon) are basically perfect for running Warframe, which can be customised to run on modest hardware.