I’m out at TennoCon 2025 in London, Ontario, the ten-year anniversary of Digital Extremes’ Warframe expo, and the longer term seems to be shiny.
The crew behind the long-running free-to-play motion recreation is clearly happy with what they’ve obtained 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 reside 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 – residence to the sometimes-antagonistic Sentients – has been one thing Warframe gamers have been begging to see for years now, and it’s lastly occurring. Properly… kind of.
Altered histories
See, Tau ‘correct’ is coming in 2026. What we’re getting close to the top of this 12 months is a kind of sneak peek: by means of mysterious means, we’re going to astral-project ourselves right into a previous time interval of Tau, seeing the Sentient civilization in the beginning went drastically downhill. This replace, scheduled for late 2025, will likely be entitled ‘The Outdated Peace’.
In an prolonged reside gameplay demo (which you’ll be able to 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 academics, pre-collapse Grineer troopers in resplendent golden armor, and a quick 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 army outfit, and when separatists begin inflicting bother, we’re dispatched by way of orbital drop right into a warzone. Right here, DE showcased just a few new methods: a long-anticipated replace to the parkour system with improved wall-running, new enemy sorts, and a brand new Focus faculty, which comes with a spectacular skill that entails 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’ kind of energy, and confirmed in a press Q&A that they might be trying to revamp the prevailing Focus system to match the ability of the brand new Tauron Focus faculty 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 gained’t be fairly as expansive by way of gameplay content material because the precise Tau replace coming in 2026, nevertheless it nonetheless seems to be to be a reasonably meaty enlargement to the sport. A navigation console seen in Tauron Academy appeared to indicate no less than three separate places, and the one explored within the reside demo was pretty giant in dimension.
The Outdated Peace may even function what DE is asking a ‘facet story’, specializing in mad scientist (and horrible boyfriend) Albrect Entrati. Entrati was chargeable for creating the human ‘protoframes’ seen within the Warframe 1999 replace, and extra are on the way in which – however these new characters apparently gained’t be hanging out at Höllvania Mall with the opposite protoframes.
As an alternative, this ‘facet story’ will give attention to the Satan’s Triad: two new protoframes named Father Lyon Allard and Marie Leroux (modelled on present warframes Harrow and Wisp, with some frankly fairly sexy medieval Catholic aesthetics), together with a wholly 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 principle narrative of The Outdated Peace, nevertheless it’s unclear precisely how at this level.
That’s (not) all, of us
Any severe Warframe followers could have picked up on one thing essential there: we’ve at the moment solely obtained 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 recent 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 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 may even function the long-awaited rework of the Oberon warframe (one thing that was met with riotous cheers throughout the reside 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 brand new participant expertise, offering a kind of canonical tutorial for Warframe’s infamously complicated modding system.
Though the advantages for long-term gamers like me will in all probability 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 probably the most pleasant to new gamers. With the intention to get a real exterior 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 related live-service titles through the years – it’s persistently spectacular to me how DE is ready to up the ante at each potential 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 always across the nook.
As for the complete Tau replace subsequent 12 months… it seems like an enormous one, maybe the most important replace the sport has ever seen. Megan and the crew have been canny when it got here to answering press questions on Tau, though she did appear to let slip that we is likely to be seeing a brand new large-scale open-world space – one thing we haven’t seen because the Coronary heart of Deimos replace method again in 2020 (though the 2023 Duviri replace did arguably function a pseudo-open-world area).
For sure, 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 crew 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 gained’t be fairly as nice, nevertheless…
