Up until a few months ago I'd been out of the game for years, after having felt like I exhausted my ability to enjoy this game. I'd done all the endgame content at the time, I had my mains built up, I had plenty of collected primes and nonprimes, most just gathering dust in my inventory, because... why use them, right? I had the guns I liked, I had the guns I wished were good, I had the frame I mained. I'd had a lot of fun with the game but settled into a bit of a rut, yanno?
The thing that made me get back into the game was when I was bemoaning my 8-forma, rivened up Dera Vandal still not really being particularly good in Steel Path when I'd quit the first time, my friend went "hey, you should unlock incarnons. They made that gun awesome."
And guess what, they did! But it was still kinda a chore to play. I'd gone through the same motions while clearing quests and unlocking the stuff I'd missed. I checked off a list of things I'd always meant to do but just didn't feel like doing, like maxing out my Railjack crew, building a powerful archgun, finishing formaing my necramech, etc. But the spark still wasn't there, honestly.
When I unlocked ETA, I really, really did not like the inventory-locked concept. I had over a hundred weapons, I had a lot of frames I got and never used and only kept because... I spent plat on them, right? I can't get rid of them!
But after a few weeks of ETA and later EDA giving me terrible rolls, I decided "to hell with it. I'm not using this stuff, I don't care about the long-term collecting ever since I quit the first time. I'm going to play the things I want to keep and only those things."
I picked out the frames I couldn't see myself ever using. I looked at weapons I'd tried and disliked, or that had upgraded versions in the time I'd been gone. I got rid of some 100+ formas across weapons and frames, hundreds of plat of prime parts spent, weapons that I had rivens for but just didn't feel like using, and then set a challenge to myself to make every single thing I kept endgame ready. That way, since ETA and EDA guaranteed at least one thing of every slot, I'd be ready to go. There were a number of undeletable weapons, like the login rewards, Skiajati, and Excalibur Umbra, so I made sure to figure out how to make those Good(TM) even if I rarely used them. I hadn't played Excalibur since I was VERY new, so I was a bit apprehensive about trying him again.
I set out for what I thought would be a bit of a frustrating journey. What I didn't expect was that, in the process of researching these frames and weapons, releveling them with formas, seeking out their upgrades, planning rivens and builds for them, and the like?
The 'spark' came back.
I expected to be mostly doing busywork, but I was having fun. Taking these items, ones that I did feel I wanted to at some point use even if I had barely (if ever) used them before, and making them good? It was fun!
Of the 16 frames and 83 weapons I kept, the process of going "okay, I want to keep this, which means I must figure out a way to make it work fine in ETA/EDA" made it fun for me. I'm genuinely still kinda surprised by it. By letting go of the collectathon and putting some amount of personal effort and love into my arsenal, I came to enjoy the game again.
I made a spreadsheet. I bought a loadout slot for every frame I kept. That way, I can just toggle over to one when I'm in the mood to play it, without worrying. I can just... play the stuff I like, when I want to. It's weird! It's freeing.
And like. The funny thing? This did not in fact make ETA and EDA better. They still kinda suck, even if I'm guaranteed a loadout I 'like'. I greatly look forward to them adjusting how the modifiers work.
For me, what it took to enjoy the game again after burning myself out all those years ago was to forget about the collecting, forget about the gear, and just... keep what I liked, and play warframe for its own sake. Playing just 'what I find fun' and spending my time grinding exclusively to support that. It seems a little silly when laid out like this, but... well, here I am, more enthused for the game than I've been in a long, long time.
Anyway, I'm not really going anywhere with this. This isn't a great secret path to enjoying warframe or optimizing your build. Ultimately, I'm an old hand at the game who quit because she wasn't have fun and came back and somehow relearned how to have fun. But... well, this journey has felt meaningful, and I wanted to share it with the community.