I’m out at TennoCon 2025 in London, Ontario, the ten-year anniversary of Digital Extremes’ Warframe expo, and the longer term appears to be like vivid.
The group behind the long-running free-to-play motion recreation is clearly pleased with what they’ve bought in retailer for gamers within the coming months, they usually’re not shy about it: this 12 months’s occasion is the most important 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 good things: we’re going to Tau, child! Departing from the photo voltaic system and travelling to the distant Tau System – house to the sometimes-antagonistic Sentients – has been one thing Warframe gamers have been begging to see for years now, and it’s lastly taking place. Properly… type of.
Altered histories
See, Tau ‘correct’ is coming in 2026. What we’re getting close to the top of this 12 months is a type of sneak peek: by way of mysterious means, we’re going to astral-project ourselves right into a previous time interval of Tau, seeing the Sentient civilization at the start went drastically downhill. This replace, scheduled for late 2025, will likely 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 on the Tauron Academy. Adis trains with us, with one coaching session involving a showdown with an unlimited Sentient mech named Hunhullus. We additionally see pleasant Sentient lecturers, pre-collapse Grineer troopers in resplendent golden armor, and a short glimpse on 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 bother, we’re dispatched through orbital drop right into a warzone. Right here, DE showcased a number of new methods: a long-anticipated replace to the parkour system with improved wall-running, new enemy varieties, and a brand new Focus college, which comes with a spectacular means 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’ type of energy, and confirmed in a press Q&A that they might be trying to revamp the present Focus system to match the ability of the brand new Tauron Focus college with new ‘final’ skills.
There was additionally a second when one character broke into tune, due to course there was. It’s Warframe: the sport about area ninjas that additionally boasts an inexplicable ardour for musical numbers. In any case, the final main replace featured evil clones of a 90s boy band.
The satan’s within the particulars
Digital Extremes’ Group Supervisor Megan Everett confirmed to me that The Outdated Peace received’t be fairly as expansive by way of gameplay content material because the precise Tau replace coming in 2026, nevertheless it nonetheless appears to be like to be a reasonably meaty enlargement to the sport. A navigation console seen in Tauron Academy appeared to point out at the least three separate areas, and the one explored within the dwell demo was pretty massive in measurement.
The Outdated Peace can even function what DE is asking a ‘facet story’, specializing in mad scientist (and horrible boyfriend) Albrect Entrati. Entrati was accountable for creating the human ‘protoframes’ seen within the Warframe 1999 replace, and extra are on the best way – however these new characters apparently received’t be hanging out at Höllvania Mall with the opposite protoframes.
As an alternative, this ‘facet story’ will deal with the Satan’s Triad: two new protoframes named Father Lyon Allard and Marie Leroux (modelled on current warframes Harrow and Wisp, with some frankly somewhat attractive medieval Catholic aesthetics), together with a completely new body, the devil-themed Uriel. DE weren’t able to share something past his look simply but, however confirmed that Uriel would be the 63rd body added to the sport. The Satan’s Triad will tie into the primary narrative of The Outdated Peace, nevertheless it’s unclear precisely how at this level.
That’s (not) all, people
Any severe Warframe followers could have picked up on one thing necessary there: we’ve at the moment solely bought 61 distinctive frames. That wasn’t a typo, although: there’s a currently-unnamed Fall 2025 replace touchdown earlier than The Outdated Peace, which is able to function a smaller handful of latest content material.
Chief among the many new additions is the 62nd body, and we all know extra about Uriel than the one we’re truly getting subsequent. Megan was steadfastly immune to 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 can even function the long-awaited rework of the Oberon warframe (one thing that was met with riotous cheers throughout the dwell presentation), a really fashionable deluxe pores and skin for Lavos, and a brand new narrative quest, The Instructor. This quest is designed to fit into the brand new participant expertise, offering a type of canonical tutorial for Warframe’s infamously advanced modding system.
Though the advantages for long-term gamers like me will most likely be pretty minimal, I can’t fault this in any respect: as a lot as I benefit from the recreation, there’s no denying that its complexity and sheer wealth of content material imply that it’s not essentially the most pleasant to new gamers. So as to get a real outdoors perspective, DE truly outsourced the design of this quest to UK-based studio Sumo Digital.
Extra to come back?
As somebody who truly performs the sport – and has put loads of hours into a number of comparable live-service titles over time – it’s persistently spectacular to me how DE is ready to up the ante at each doable alternative. From humble beginnings as a grey hall shooter to hoverboards, area fight, and time-travelling shenanigans, the sport seemingly by no means lets up, with one thing newer and cooler continually across the nook.
As for the total Tau replace subsequent 12 months… it seems like a giant one, maybe the most important replace the sport has ever seen. Megan and the group 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 large-scale open-world space – one thing we haven’t seen for the reason that Coronary heart of Deimos replace approach again in 2020 (though the 2023 Duviri replace did arguably function a pseudo-open-world area).
Evidently, DE is tough at work on Tau. CEO (and former Warframe recreation director) Steve Sinclair famous within the press Q&A that The Outdated Peace serves as a stop-gap of kinds, giving the group extra time to excellent the 2026 replace whereas additionally letting gamers get an early style of Tau. It sounds just like the present-day Tau system we’ll be visiting subsequent 12 months received’t be fairly as nice, nonetheless…
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