🔗 Share this article

The space ninja adventure known as Warframe, an experience where you can feed yourself to a giant mouth and drive a motorcycle in the year 1999, has released a major update. The Vallis Undermind highlights the distinctive charm that has become synonymous with Warframe in more recent times.

This expansion, made available this week, adds a fungus-inspired character that performs a unique animation, along with a brand-new biome to discover. But it’s also going back to basics, with another quest aimed at making sure this complicated, expansive long-running online game is understandable by new players.

A Quest Called "The Teacher"

Called “The Teacher,” this is the highly anticipated mission that educates Warframe players on how to use one of the game's fundamental yet complex systems: modding.

In Warframe, mods are augments that can be added to your character or your weapons to enhance their abilities. These can be simple (boosting power or shortening reload times) to the devastatingly complex. Dedicated players often craft hour-long videos about optimized loadouts that use synergistic enhancements to create devastating effects.

“Many players likely started their journey, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” noted a lead narrative designer. “I think it was really important, at the end of the quest, for players to think, ‘Wow, modding is interesting. I want to try more of this.’”

Teamwork in Action

“The Teacher” was created through a partnership between the core team, who handled the story elements, and a supporting studio, who crafted the gameplay, which will appear early in the game.

In the quest, the player is tasked with obtaining a component for their ship, but they’re interrupted by a menacing, powerful warrior called Teshin, who removes the player's powers and close-combat arms, and forces them to engage with the mod system to effectively show its potential.

Several developers were longtime players, but others had never played before, according to a principal games designer. It was this outside perspective that was essential.

“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. Early-game menu pop-ups introduced players to modding. But the team noted that they didn’t work on everyone.

“Some people didn't see basic instructions where the game highlights it saying equip the modification,” he said.

Addressing a Real Need

Warframe’s mods allow players to create incredibly strong combinations that turn the screen into a blitz of numbers. But "The Teacher" isn’t really about that. Veteran users who desire more advanced content, like creating powerful and specific builds. But it became clear that the mission addresses a genuine oversight for newcomers — and that executing this is quite complex.

“Numerous subtle adjustments and background details there to just sort of show you what it can do rather than tell you,” 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, a magnetic effect that depletes protective barriers.

“We had to change the weapon to be a burst-fire weapon, because it shows off the proc rate more,” the designer said. “However, the goal isn't to say to people, 'oh yeah, actually on a base level mod, you only got a few percentage chance to proc an elemental effect.' How can you teach this mechanic effectively?”

Experienced players will naturally recognize these mechanics and grasp their function, but beginners require instruction to pay attention to these things.

“It’s not a kind of game development that we previously focused on just because our priorities lay elsewhere,” said a story developer. “However, this oversight meant that we never really told people how to use mods.”

Significant Investment

“A tremendous amount of work is required for just making a seemingly straightforward quest that — honestly — you can complete quickly,” said the designer. “But it's months and months of work for many team members.”

The designer was visibly glowing with excitement over contributing to a beloved title — and to craft a mission for one of his favorite characters.

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

An Evolving Onboarding Process

In the 12 years since its release, Warframe has been in a consistent battle with its own new user introduction. There are lots of complex systems that players can ignore initially — and won’t even have access to until much later. And others, like modding, that scale in complexity depending on how much time you want to invest. A previous patch improved the introductory experience so that players could reach Warframe’s mind-bending plot developments with less time on the grind up front.

With “The Teacher,” it’s clear that the developers are reinforcing their dedication to make sure Warframe’s early game experience evolves beyond its origins. New players can get their foot in the door — regardless of overlooking tutorials.