The Warframe dev studio Digital Extremes is well-known for its lengthy, fun, and informative devstreams at this point – indeed, you could argue that they’re a big part of the game’s success, as it’s pleasing to see a group of devs who really care about their game gather to openly discuss its future, address thoughts and concerns from players, and tease cool new stuff.
Well, we’ve just had the first devstream of 2025, and oh boy, it was a doozy. I’m usually watching intently during these live-streamed events, but this one had me actually grinning at my screen; hell, I’d go so far as to say that Warframe’s game director Rebecca Ford somehow gazed directly into my brain to assemble the script for the team’s 184th devstream, because this one felt rather specifically curated to me and the things I love most.
First up? David Bowie, obviously. Yes, the next warframe to be added to the game – the 60th unique playable frame – is Temple (not ‘Tempo’ as some people apparently misheard during the stream), an extremely funky glam-rock-styled character who was directly inspired by David Bowie and appropriately uses a guitar as their signature weapon. Oh, and they’re canonically non-binary too, which made me (a queer mess of a human being) rather happy.
Digital Extremes is partnering up with Grammy-nominated American prog-metal band Periphery for some appropriate audio deliciousness for Temple, presumably trying to capture that elusive genre of ‘songs to kill monsters with a guitar to’. Dope. Did I mention the new frame is Bowie-inspired? Sorry, I’ve got Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide playing at maximum volume right now, I can’t hear you.
Shut up about David Bowie, what else?
Alright, I’ll chill. I’ve switched over to Soul Love now. What else did we get in Devstream 184? A whole heap of stuff, actually: Hot on the heels of the game’s excellent 1999 update, the reveal of alchemical frame Lavos’ primed variant, TennoCon 2025 tickets going on sale, and a couple of returning events – Star Days and Belly of the Beast – were among my favorite moments. We also got to see more of Rhino’s Heirloom skin, a peek at upcoming cosmetics including Gyre’s Deluxe skin, and an evil office chair.
More intriguing than all of this, though, were some (long-awaited) reworks to game mechanics: chiefly, the reduction of enemy waves per round in Defense missions from 5 to 3. As anyone who plays Warframe will tell you, this is huge: fewer waves means faster missions and more rewards for anyone grinding out long Defense objectives. We’re also getting a rework to ‘pseudo Exalted’ weapons, increased Riven and mod capacities, and better options for selling or dismantling unwanted duplicate mods. These are all good things.
Perhaps more importantly to me personally is confirmation that we’re getting more conversations with the Hex, the six ‘protoframe’ NPCs (non-player characters) who you can chat with (and smooch, if you’ve got the game for that). Not only that, but your chosen paramour will also keep you company in the Backroom hub area. Presumably all the R-rated scenes involving Quincy and Amir will not be among the desires Rebb scooped from inside my head.
Bad boy band
Lastly (well, I’ve missed plenty of good stuff out here, but this is my article so I get to pick the music) is the hotly-anticipated debut of the Technocyte Coda – formerly a sexy dance-pop boy band known as On-Lyne, now horrendously mutated into a gang of five extremely tentacle-y dudes by the techrot virus infecting the city of Höllvania. Yes, I’d still kiss them, but it looks like I’m going to have to settle for stabbing them repeatedly.
These foes sit within the ‘Adversary’ system already seen in the game with Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos – unique, procedurally-generated rivals to the player who taunt you and steal your stuff until you hunt them down and give them the ol’ double-tap – and they bring with them a selection of grungy Coda weapons and cosmetic items.
In even more good news for time-poor players like me, Digital Extremes has improved the system for obtaining these weapons: rather than farming for an Adversary who happens to have the weapon and element combination you’re looking for, you simply get tokens that can be exchanged for a weapon of your choice from Eleanor in Höllvania, and a new Elemental Vice item will let you swap the element on any Adversary weapon, backwards-compatible with gear you’ve previously obtained from Liches and Sisters. Rebecca, you’re spoiling us.
I could probably keep going, talking about some of the great accessibility changes that are coming to the game or the new Nightwave season starting this week (Warframe’s entirely free season pass reward track), but I’ll wrap it up here. You can read the full patch notes on the game’s website, or you can just go and spend the rest of your day playing Warframe, which is what I’d rather be doing than working.
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christian.guyton@futurenet.com (Christian Guyton)
