This year’s TennoCon, the annual convention for free ninja action games Warframe, was the biggest so far. TennoCon 2021 was the most-watched TennoCon in franchise history and more than 540,000 Warframe Players logged in to see what came next for the Origin system.
Developer Digital Extremes revealed an upcoming chapter in the main story quest called The New War, as well as cross-save and cross-platform progression. Polygon spoke to Rebecca Ford, Live Operations and Community Lead, about the future of. consult Warframe in an email conversation.
Polygon: Will the New War change any existing game content that may be out of date or difficult for players to navigate, like the bosses of the Plains of Eidolon?
Rebecca Ford: The New War does not aim to address the difficulty of existing content. There are some content types that could use a logical update (invasions?) But there is currently nothing there to confirm. It will certainly change a system, but to be honest, the spoilers [for the quest’s story] are difficult and I can’t say more.
Are there any plans for Steel Path? Railjack missions, or is the team focused on New War right now?
Actually maybe. Railjack opponents are balanced a bit differently so a few more changes would be needed than just hitting the steel path on it, but a really important goal with The New War update is to bring players an amazing and long awaited story, then there is much to be done after. So Steel Path Railjack, along with a few other additions, could be a part of the to-do.
Are there any plans to update the drop or loot tables while Warframe continues to introduce weapons, companions, arcane, and warframes? Example: the Tenet melee weapons, the new Ambassador grind, etc.
We do this from time to time. We’ve added a second location to get Arkanes with Orphix Venom, we’ve permanently de-vaulted some Primes (Valkyr and Nyx) so changes are always lurking. For now, the Tenet Melee and Ambassador stay where they are as Raijlack rewards.
Is there a way that New War is designed for the seasoned player, or is it a limited story chapter like previous ‘Main Quest’ updates?
There are ways! At this point, many layers of “then-what” are taken into account after the players finish the (longest) cinematic search. The Steel Path Railjack would be a small but powerful way to expand The New War’s update beyond the huge quest itself.
Are there any plans to watch Yareli and her current state of equilibrium, especially when it comes to your K-Drive?
We did a quick buff pass right before TennoCon and will be reporting more on it in the coming weeks. We don’t expect anyone in our constrained tiles to be good at K-driving with 0 practice, but we can do some tweaking to make the speed and navigation easier to handle as well. Her Merulina mount is practically her second health bar and a way to move quickly and quickly, so we’ll make sure we keep balancing and getting things right.
Warframe will continue to receive updates in 2021 and 2022, all of which are free to play. This includes the next Warframe, Caliban, which is partly made up of parts of the antagonistic Sentinel AI.
