🔗 Share this article

The space ninja adventure known as Warframe, an experience where you might encounter bizarre cosmic entities and drive a motorcycle in the year 1999, has launched a major update. The Vallis Undermind exemplifies the creative flair that has come to define Warframe in more recent times.

The new content, made available this week, introduces a new mushroom-themed warframe that does a little dance, along with a brand-new biome to discover. However, it also revisits core concepts, with a new mission aimed at making sure this complicated, expansive long-running online game makes sense to new players.

The Arrival of "The Teacher"

Titled “The Teacher,” this is the long-awaited quest that instructs Warframe players on how to use one of the game's most basic — yet most intricate systems: modding.

In Warframe, modifications are enhancements that can be added to your character or your weapons to enhance their abilities. They range from the straightforward (boosting power or shortening reload times) to the incredibly intricate. Dedicated players often craft hour-long videos about idealized builds that use synergistic enhancements to create devastating effects.

“Many players likely started their journey, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” explained a lead narrative designer. “We believed it was crucial, at the end of the quest, for players to think, ‘Wow, modding is interesting. I'd like to experiment further.’”

Teamwork in Action

“The Teacher” was developed in a collaboration between the core team, who handled the story elements, and a supporting studio, who designed the mission, which will be introduced to new players.

In the quest, the player is tasked with obtaining a component for their ship, but they’re confronted by a formidable foe called Teshin, who removes the player's powers and melee weapons, and forces them to engage with the mod system to effectively show its potential.

Several developers were already fans of the game, but others had never played before, according to a lead designer. It was this outside perspective that proved critical.

“The first thing we did was basically sit behind them and go right play through the tutorial and take prodigious notes on all points of confusion,” the designer said. Introductory tutorials presented the mod system. But the team noted that they didn’t work on everyone.

“Certain players missed fundamental guidance where it's flashing on the screen saying put the mod in the slot,” he said.

Closing an Important Loop

Warframe’s mods allow players to create incredibly strong combinations that turn the screen into a blitz of numbers. But "The Teacher" focuses on different aspects. Veteran users who wish the quest was geared more towards their needs, like optimizing for endgame challenges. But it became clear that the mission addresses a genuine oversight for early players — and that executing this is quite complex.

“There’s lots of little tweaks and little subtle things in the background there to just sort of show you what it can do rather than explain it outright,” the designer said. For example, one of the goals of “The Teacher” is to show how mods can create elemental damage types; in this case, Magnetic damage that eats chunks out of enemy shields.

“We had to change the weapon to be a burst-fire weapon, because it better demonstrates the effect frequency,” the designer said. “But you don’t want to explicitly tell players, 'oh yeah, actually on a base level mod, you only got a low probability to trigger a special damage type.' How can you teach this mechanic effectively?”

Veterans will instinctively look for that kind of weapon effect and grasp their function, but new players have to be taught to notice these details.

“This type of design work that we previously focused on just because our priorities lay elsewhere,” said a narrative lead. “But part of it not being our focus that we never really told people how to use mods.”

A Labor of Love

“There’s so much that goes into just making a really simple mission that — frankly — you can complete quickly,” said the designer. “But it's months and months of work for loads of people.”

The designer was visibly glowing with excitement over being able to work on a game that he loves — and to craft a mission for one of his favorite characters.

“I love Teshin,” he said. “He's my 8-year-old internal self's idea of what's cool.”

Streamlining the Beginning

In the 12 years since its release, Warframe has been in a ongoing struggle with its own player onboarding process. There are many intricate mechanics that players don’t need to worry about — and won’t even have access to until much later. And others, like modding, that scale in complexity depending on your level of engagement. An update earlier this year streamlined the early game so that players could reach Warframe’s mind-bending plot developments with reduced repetitive play up front.

With “The Teacher,” it’s clear that the developers are doubling down on a commitment to make sure Warframe’s early game experience doesn’t stay locked in 2013. New players can get their foot in the door — even if they miss the menu prompts.