Nyheder
Warframe’s latest expansion, The Duviri Paradox, is a new beginning for the game. Follow the Drifter’s path and take on the mad king right now on the Epic Games Store
C
Craig Pearson
The Duviri Paradox is a new beginning for Warframe. Literally. For the first time, new Tenno (the player’s avatar in Warframe) will be able to choose whether to load straight into the new expansion content or the current opening mission, Vor’s Prize. This means that The Duviri Paradox could be the first time a new player experiences Warframe.
Players who select The Duviri Paradox will be joining an alternate reality from the main track of Warframe, one that takes them all the way back to the origin story of the Drifter, a playable character from a different timeline of the main game. The Drifter is trapped in a world controlled by a child king called Dominus Thrax, a capricious ruler whose moods alter the game world. Every few hours, the king’s mood will shift, changing the enemies and how you engage with the world. Additionally, procedurally generated narrative and goals, along with randomized Warframes and rewards called Decrees, bring a roguelike element to Warframe, meaning every session should be unique.
The Duviri Paradox offers players the choice of three beginnings. The Duviri Experience is everything the expansion offers in one package, the story, and side-missions in the open world. The Lone Story has no side activities, just the expansion’s story. The Circuit is set in the Undercroft, an area that’s otherwise available in the expansion’s open world through portals in the expansion's open world. This is an arena where you can use a Warframe, not the Drifter, to fight in endless battles of survival and waves of enemies. The setting and combat here are slightly more traditional, so new players can get a feel for what Warframe is all about.
You begin The Duviri Paradox in Teshin’s Cave, a sanctuary that allows you to prepare for the expansion’s additions.
Though the Drifter is known to current players and has been playable in the game before, The Duviri Paradox is the first big opportunity for players to truly customize the character. Along with customizing the Drifter’s looks, there are a number of new skills and powers that you can build while the world changes all around.
First up is Drifter Melee. The Drifter has access to a pair of melee stances for the quest and can unlock more through progression, such as Heavy Melee. Intrinsics bring an element of permanence to the character. You can upgrade Combat, Riding, Opportunity (which upgrades things like loot percentage or Warframe options), and Endurance. Decrees fit into the story. Progress will unlock five randomized Decrees every mood cycle for the player to select one from, giving you a boost such as “Chilling Field: Enemies within 10 meters become slowed.” They’ll reset every cycle, and players will have to choose another one.
To help the Drifter cover the open world, there’s a new mount, Kaithe. The steed can be customized with skins, colors, and cosmetics, and even renamed. You’ll be spending a lot of time with your Kaithe as you try to bring down Dominus Thrax, as it acts as both air and ground transport across the twisted world.
Before heading out, you’ll also have a selection of Warframes to choose from. You have access to three random Warframes to begin with, with up to five available through progression. You can customize these, tweaking your build and weapons, and preparing for what Thrax has built.
The world of The Duviri Paradox is for players to explore. The game will guide them with bounties through the story, but there are plenty of activities outside the story and combat. The player can go Maw Fishing, embodying a maw and zipping through the water to hunt down fish. Conservation is a gentle activity, allowing players to cleanse corrupted creatures who might lead them to treasure as a thank-you.
Portals will lead players to The Undercroft. This is where new players can really test out Warframes, battling it out with the full range of powers and skills Warframes have to offer. In the story, they’re short excursions, but as mentioned before, The Circuit will allow players to take on The Undercroft’s challenges in endless battles. Doing so could earn new customization options for weapons. The Incarnon System previously introduced allowed weapons to unlock a new form, with better stats and alternative fire. The Circuit Players can earn Incarnon Adapters in the new Incarnon Genesis system, increasing the current range of weapons even more.
With the new release, we talked to Megan Everett, Warframe’s Community Director, to talk about how they approached creating a new expansion that could be enjoyed by brand new players and veterans of game, and what’s kept Warframe so vital after a decade of updates.
Warframe is a decade old—you have a lot of content, expansions, story, and gameplay now. Did you start The Duviri Paradox with the goal of bringing new players into Warframe’s detailed and established story and gameplay?
I wouldn't say that the inception of The Duviri Paradox was always going to be a new beginning for players. After The New War, when we established The Drifter and the theme of Eternalism, many people probably thought that The Duviri Paradox Quest would be after that. Where you would need to have already established that you know who the Drifter is, what Eternalism is, and that you've played The New War.
As we started developing it, we thought, “What if a player experiences this before the New War?” Originally we were playing around with putting The Duviri Paradox right after the Second Dream Quest, so at least you established an Operator, and you have some familiarity with the overall introductory story with the Lotus.
Then we asked ourselves, “What if we took it one step further and made it a new beginning for a new player where instead of experiencing the Warframe side of the story, they can start their Warframe journey with The Drifter in The Duviri Paradox?” When we committed to having it as a new beginning for Warframe, we had to ensure that the Quest establishes a story and how the game is fundamentally played and presented. That way, when they eventually go to the Warframe side of the story, they are already familiar with the movement and control of Warframes to a degree.
I do feel like we always kind of hoped that we could introduce The Duviri Paradox earlier in the storyline; that way players who begin with The Duviri Paradox could already know about The Drifter and Eternalism before they get to The New War. They can experience The New War Quest from a different lens than people who have already played it. It was inspiring to imagine that kind of scenario, and we said let's go for it!
With the previous questions in mind, what are the core pillars that you’re teaching new players?
The core pillars taught in The Duviri Paradox are what you would learn in The Awakening quest: the introduction to Warframe when doing the Warframe side of the story. The Duviri Paradox will require a little bit of a tutorial at the beginning for those new players. They need to understand the movement system, how to bullet jump, how to wall run, how to slide, and all of the core parkour mechanics that make up Warframe, and these are very important. Learning how to control a Warframe and their abilities, how Energy works, how you have a primary, secondary, and melee, and such. It really will explain the core fundamental pillars of how to play Warframe, and then it will guide you into the Quest side of it with The Duviri Paradox Quest.
Does the expansion help new players understand the whole game leading up to that point, or does it act as a place for new players to begin that journey on their own?
The Duviri Paradox acts as a place for new players to begin their journey. So as a new player experiencing Warframe for the very first time with no knowledge of anything, the first thing that they're going to learn is about The Drifter, about Eternalism, and by completing the Quest, some answers are given as to who you are, why you're stuck in The Duviri Paradox and more. After completing The Duviri Paradox Quest, the player has the option to stay in Duviri and continue to develop the story and experience each of the Kings Spirals, or they can choose to go to the other side and start their Warframe journey.
When they start exploring beyond the new expansion, what will they have learned?
They will have learned the fundamental core movement with parkour bullet jumping, sliding, sprinting, and such. They'll have learned how the Drifter handles, how to play as a Warframe with their respective abilities and weapons, and how combat for each of those functions works. They'll perhaps have dipped their toe into the vast world of customization; of course, they will know a little bit about the story and lore of Eternalism and how that applies to the Drifter, and perhaps some backstory on Teshin!
They'll know and understand that there is a story within a story happening here. When they go over to the Warframe Path, they'll have this back pocket information about The Drifter and about Eternalism as they progress through the story, and once they get to the new war though know exactly what's going on.
What were the challenges in building the new expansion with all the previous content in mind?
I think some of the challenges that we face so far in the development of The Duviri Paradox is just establishing how weird we really want to go while also maintaining the core fundamentals of Warframe and, of course, keeping on track with the story so far and making it all make sense. It's really exciting to go a little wild with the narrative and the power-level fantasy and boss fights, but we don't want to go to left field where it doesn't feel connected or familiar in a sense with Warframe. We have so many ideas that we want to implement!
How does The Duviri Paradox feedback into other areas of the game in terms of technical and gameplay changes that current players will appreciate?
What's exciting about The Duviri Paradox update is there’s something for everyone in it. There are obviously narrative-hungry players that are going to enjoy the story we tell within Duviri, but of course, there are those long-standing players who know the ins and outs of Warframe, and there has to be something for them on the other side of the coin. There are some things that will stay in The Duviri Paradox, like Drifter melee combat, but there are opportunities to have your Kaithe in other Open Worlds. The Drifter melee weapons that you can wield also have Warframe-compatible versions; we've introduced more Incarnon weapons that take some existing weapons that can be adapted into the Incarnon family with upgrades. There's The Circuit gameplay which is a Warframe-driven space with endless game mode rounds, all working towards a specific reward at the end.
What did you learn about your own game when making content to onboard new players?
First of all, we learned that it's more complex than inserting a Quest at the beginning, dusting your hands, and walking away! There are many different scenarios that a new player could experience that we need to consider versus a veteran player who knows the ins and outs. We have to be respectful of the difficulty and accessibility and of the amount of guidance that needs to occur for them to have the best experience possible. We've never had a vast world like Duviri accessible to a player who perhaps knows nothing about Warframe, so it's been a learning process to really try and look at the update from the lens of a brand-new player and do the best we can to guide them through that experience.
What will surprise current players of Warframe?
I hope the Quest narrative surprises them! How large the Duviri landscape is with the floating islands and the underground caves, with the Undercroft gameplay space, and just how much the team has put into making The Duviri Paradox feel like a true Eternalism space. That this space is Warframe, but it's also unique enough that it feels almost like you're playing a different game.
What drives your expansion pack directions?
I definitely can't speak for everyone here, but I know that we have 10-plus years of content and an incredible community of players that want to see Warframe continue to develop and expand. The developers are really passionate about giving the players what they want but also keeping them on their toes with the unexpected! There are so many games out there that touch on a lot of different genres, and it's exciting that Warframe has a “something for everyone” aspect to it. You can fly in space, or you can become a walking tank, or you can fly on your horse, or you can have crazy power fantasy with the roguelike decree system, and the list goes on.
With that in mind, what’s the wildest idea in the expansion that you feel brings a fresh, new idea to Warframe?
For me, it goes back to the Decrees and how you start with nothing each session and work your way up to a fun power fantasy level as you play out the rest of that Spiral. There are a lot of roguelike games out there, but for Warframe to do it in a space that allows for it, whereas outside of Duviri, there is a certain degree of balance that needs to happen to keep everyone on fair ground, but Duviri is just wild. Oh! Also, the Orowyrm boss fight, I feel, is pretty wild. I think it's been a while since we introduced a massive boss with multi-arena phases!
The Duviri Paradox is out now.