I’m out at TennoCon 2025 in London, Ontario, the ten-year anniversary of Digital Extremes’ Warframe expo, and the future seems vibrant.
The crew behind the lengthy-operating free-to-play motion recreation is clearly happy with what they’ve received in retailer for gamers in the coming months, and they’re not shy about it: this year’s occasion is the largest TennoCon ever, with some huge reveals and a complete dwell live performance occasion (dubbed the ‘TennoConcert’) celebrating the music of the Warframe universe.
I’ll get straight to the great things: we’re going to Tau, child! Departing from the photo voltaic system and travelling to the distant Tau System – house to the generally-antagonistic Sentients – has been one thing Warframe gamers have been begging to see for years now, and it’s lastly occurring. Properly… form of.
Altered histories
See, Tau ‘correct’ is coming in 2026. What we’re getting close to the finish of this year is a form of sneak peek: by mysterious means, we’re going to astral-challenge ourselves right into a previous time interval of Tau, seeing the Sentient civilization at first went drastically downhill. This replace, scheduled for late 2025, might be entitled ‘The Old Peace’.
In an prolonged dwell gameplay demo (which you’ll watch in its entirety proper right here), we noticed a pleasant Sentient named Adis enrolled alongside the participant at the Tauron Academy. Adis trains with us, with one coaching session involving a showdown with an infinite Sentient mech named Hunhullus. We additionally see pleasant Sentient academics, pre-collapse Grineer troopers in resplendent golden armor, and a quick glimpse at the subsequent body to get the Primed remedy: Caliban Prime.
It’s not all courses and pleasant sparring at Tauron Academy, although: this can be a navy outfit, and when separatists begin inflicting hassle, we’re dispatched through orbital drop right into a warzone. Right here, DE showcased a number of new methods: a protracted-anticipated replace to the parkour system with improved wall-operating, new enemy sorts, and a brand new Focus faculty, which comes with a spectacular potential that includes summoning a ridiculously gigantic power sword. The devs described it to me (unofficially – no lawsuits for you right here, Sq. Enix) as a ‘restrict break’ form of energy, and confirmed in a press Q&A that they might be seeking to revamp the current Focus system to match the energy of the new Tauron Focus faculty with new ‘final’ skills.
There was additionally a second when one character broke into music, due to course there was. It’s Warframe: the recreation about house ninjas that additionally boasts an inexplicable ardour for musical numbers. In spite of everything, the final main replace featured evil clones of a 90s boy band.
The satan’s in the particulars
Digital Extremes’ Neighborhood Supervisor Megan Everett confirmed to me that The Previous Peace gained’t be fairly as expansive by way of gameplay content material as the precise Tau replace coming in 2026, however it nonetheless seems to be a reasonably meaty growth to the recreation. A navigation console seen in Tauron Academy appeared to indicate not less than three separate areas, and the one explored in the dwell demo was pretty giant in dimension.
The Previous Peace will even function what DE is looking a ‘aspect story’, specializing in mad scientist (and horrible boyfriend) Albrect Entrati. Entrati was accountable for creating the human ‘protoframes’ seen in the Warframe 1999 replace, and extra are on the manner – however these new characters apparently gained’t be hanging out at Höllvania Mall with the different protoframes.
As an alternative, this ‘aspect story’ will give attention to the Satan’s Triad: two new protoframes named Father Lyon Allard and Marie Leroux (modelled on current warframes Harrow and Wisp, with some frankly quite sexy medieval Catholic aesthetics), alongside with a completely new body, the satan-themed Uriel. DE weren’t able to share something past his look simply but, however confirmed that Uriel might be the 63rd body added to the recreation. The Satan’s Triad will tie into the important narrative of The Previous Peace, however it’s unclear precisely how at this level.
That’s (not) all, of us
Any severe Warframe followers might have picked up on one thing necessary there: we’ve at present solely received 61 distinctive frames. That wasn’t a typo, although: there’s a at present-unnamed Fall 2025 replace touchdown earlier than The Previous Peace, which is able to function a smaller handful of recent content material.
Chief amongst the new additions is the 62nd body, and we all know extra about Uriel than the one we’re truly getting subsequent. Megan was steadfastly proof against my questioning about body No. 62, solely repeatedly providing the tidbit that “he’s a enjoyable man”. So… mushroomframe, right here we come?
The Fall 2025 replace will even function the lengthy-awaited rework of the Oberon warframe (one thing that was met with riotous cheers throughout the dwell presentation), a really trendy deluxe pores and skin for Lavos, and a brand new narrative quest, The Trainer. This quest is designed to fit into the new participant expertise, offering a form of canonical tutorial for Warframe’s infamously advanced modding system.
Though the advantages for lengthy-time period gamers like me will in all probability be pretty minimal, I can’t fault this in any respect: as a lot as I get pleasure from the recreation, there’s no denying that its complexity and sheer wealth of content material imply that it’s not the most pleasant to new gamers. So as to get a real exterior perspective, DE truly outsourced the design of this quest to UK-based mostly studio Sumo Digital.
Extra to come back?
As somebody who truly performs the recreation – and has put loads of hours into a number of related dwell-service titles over the years – it’s persistently spectacular to me how DE is ready to up the ante at each attainable alternative. From humble beginnings as a grey hall shooter to hoverboards, house fight, and time-travelling shenanigans, the recreation seemingly by no means lets up, with one thing newer and cooler continually round the nook.
As for the full Tau replace subsequent year… it feels like a big one, maybe the largest replace the recreation has ever seen. Megan and the crew had been canny when it got here to answering press questions on Tau, though she did appear to let slip that we may be seeing a brand new giant-scale open-world space – one thing we haven’t seen since the Coronary heart of Deimos replace manner again in 2020 (though the 2023 Duviri replace did arguably function a pseudo-open-world house).
For sure, DE is tough at work on Tau. CEO (and former Warframe recreation director) Steve Sinclair famous in the press Q&A that The Previous Peace serves as a stop-hole of kinds, giving the crew extra time to excellent the 2026 replace whereas additionally letting gamers get an early style of Tau. It feels like the current-day Tau system we’ll be visiting subsequent year gained’t be fairly as nice, nonetheless…
