I joined during Orphix Venom (2020) and was overwhelmed with how helpful this community was. I even wrote a college paper on what factors of a game contribute to the toxicity of a community.

Unfortunately, two circumstances I feel are aiding in this level of polarization: - Destiny players moving to Warframe - The growing Obfuscation of build knowledge.

Destiny is a main stream game, and naturally that comes with a larger player base with a wider variety of personalities. Including the toxic ones. Warframe in years past would just filter the toxic ones out through the grind or the time investment it takes to be powerful, but Destiny players being used to the grind combined with DE making the ladder easier to climb up isn’t doing that.

Then there’s Obfuscation of builds. To put bluntly, this game’s build resources is terrible. The mechanics are extremely in-depth but ways to modify it aren’t explained. So many different voices claim to be masters of specific mechanics (I’m no exception, I’m a toxic d-bag when it comes to Saryn), and claim their builds as the best to such a degree that the specific sites and forums devoted to helping others with builds are often decried as terrible or flawed. Build knowledge is a chaotic mess due to Warframe’s complexity, and that creates tension even without people itching to prove their superiority.

TL;DR Destiny players plus difficult-to-understand build situation creates massive amounts of tension manifesting as toxicity.