The Warframe community is preparing itself for drama. With *The Old Peace* expansion on the horizon for next year—inevitably pushing the story in new directions and casting yet more light on the tragic history of the Tenno—players have been busy getting ready for any potential narrative haymakers that come our way. These big moments in Warframe often contain reveals that alter how we have been interpreting decade-old lore, and as we make our way to Tau, there has been a lot of work to do in preparation for what is potentially Warframe’s biggest story moment to date.
There have been multiple heavy shifts in the narrative and character development in recent updates— from learning all about Albrecht Entrati and The Indifference to having the Drifter slowly reveal their origins and how they survived Duviri, and the toll it took on them. Things have been tense, and the journey to Tau promises yet more emotional damage.
For this reason, the recent Vallis Undermind update has been designed to be a bit more fun—some relaxed exploration of the tunnels and caverns that exist beneath Fortuna—and the introduction of a new playful trickster: the Warframe Nokko. We also get to, once again, make Corpus overlord Nef Anyo look like a chump. Perfect.
I sat down with Megan Everett, Warframe’s community director, to chat about the update and what might be next for Warframe. Foremost on my mind was that the return to Fortuna and Orb Vallis follows a recent pattern in Warframe, as the team revisits old in-game geography, bringing new content to familiar locations.
“I think what’s good about our open worlds is that we don’t restrict ourselves in the way that we set it up and make it so that it can’t expand,” says Everett. “Like, Plains of Eidolon, we kind of went back to last year with the Koumei & The Five Fates update, and that’s something that we never thought we would do when we made Plains of Eidolon, right? But it fits the narrative, and I think you see this a lot. When you do these open worlds—when we did Plains or Vallis back in the day—you always hear the comment, ‘Please don’t make this a content island and walk away.’ That’s for sure not our intention, but obviously, we need to pick and choose where we grow the story, but Orb Vallis was one that we wanted to revisit.”
For this update, the brief was simple. The team wanted to revisit Fortuna and Orb Vallis, and they wanted the update to be fun—something of a palette cleanser before more serious business arrives to remind us all that the Origin System is eternally at war with itself.
### Meet Nokko: Warframe #62
A central part of the update, and that fun vibe, has been Nokko—the game’s 62nd Warframe and something quite unique, with his mushroom-themed lore and abilities. Nokko plants small patches of mushrooms that lull enemies to sleep and buff allies before dropping enlarged spores on their heads that can nuke them into oblivion. His idle animations are fun and playful, and his ability to bounce around on his mushrooms, as well as turn into a tiny fungi called a Sprodling, all add some childish mirth to his playstyle.
His interesting kit and fun vibe have led to him being broadly embraced by the community, but realistically, after 62 Warframes, designing them all must become more and more of a challenge for the team.
I asked Everett if they ever worry that some Warframes will just prove to be very divisive and turn off a large portion of the community, but it seems that can simply be the risk of any design.
“I think every Warframe falls into that category ‘cause there are some that I don’t play because it’s simply just not my play style, but someone else might be absolutely obsessed with them, and that’s fine. That’s why we have 62 currently, so you can play the ones you want to play. We’re feeling it now for sure, 12 years into it, where we really have to stretch the creative thinking of what does this Warframe do that sets them apart from the other ones, you know?”
And Nokko is certainly in a league of his own when it comes to gameplay experience—as with the right build, he can run missions without needing to use any weapons at all, blanketing enemies in spores and mushrooms, all while bringing a fun, youthful energy to things.
Interestingly, he developed naturally from the team’s desire to revisit Orb Vallis, according to Everett.
“What came first for us was the setting, because initially we had a different idea for what it was going to be, and it kind of shape-shifted into The Vallis Undermind. From wanting to revisit Orb Vallis, we went, OK, what does Orb Vallis look like? And the first thing was mushrooms, because even in its post-*The New War* state, there’s still fungi everywhere, so we took that element of it.
The direction from Reb [Ford, Warframe’s Creative Director and spiritual leader] for the longest time was this Warframe, this vibe does need to feel fun, does need to feel a bit whimsical. I believe she even said on the Devstream that it should feel a bit like Yareli’s younger brother. So we took that and ran with it in terms of having that goofy kind of younger brother vibe for Nokko, and then built the story around that, so it was the tile set first that inspired the Warframe and then the tone of the Warframe that inspired the Deepmines.”
### Build Depth and Community Reception
One of the most interesting things about Warframe from a player perspective is build depth. Some people swear by certain modding techniques, while others are drawn to abilities that add to survival or allow them to go invisible. Nokko seems to be shaking things up a little, appealing to many players who thought they might not enjoy him when he was first revealed.
All in all, the mushroom king is a gentle reminder that fun should probably come first when spending your free time doing something you love.
“It’s so funny, and I’ve seen people play the floor is lava, and you’re only jumping on the mushrooms. Obviously, we didn’t think that would be a new meta; it’s just really fun, and I think it’s just a nice result of what we wanted Nokko to be, you know? When you’re designing a Warframe, you try not to go into the headspace of wondering if it is gonna be the new meta Warframe that everyone’s gonna want to play.”
### The Deepmines: A Polished New Experience
While Nokko is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the tone of recent Warframes, it is the Deepmines—the newly added tunnels that wander beneath Fortuna, and that Nokko calls home—that hint at the never-ending polish being done by the developers.
Believe me when I say that Warframe is a dramatically different game than it was when it first launched. Sometimes the changes along the way have been dramatic, and sometimes they have been gentle, but the Deepmines hint at a subtle change that will have a lasting impact.
Down in the tunnels, players are challenged to run bounties. These are collections of tasks that need to be completed in stages, with each stage dropping a potential reward. It’s a system that has been done before in Warframe, but never this well. Everything is smooth, quick, and polished, and I feel like I am in and out of these bounties in no time, with zero downtime.
Even the physical space of the Deepmines invites fun and feels designed to let people enjoy Warframe’s elegant movement system, allowing me to get from point A to B even quicker than usual.
I told Everett that I feel it is all very respectful of my time, fishing for insight into the current design philosophy in an age where many games are reframing what they consider player engagement to be. Instead, I got something much, much better.
This idea of respecting players’ time is going to be central to something that should have just been revealed on stream before this interview was published—an upcoming mode called *Descendia* that will be included in *The Old Peace*.
### A Glimpse at What’s Next: Descendia
This is not what we are here to talk about, but it’s impossible to pass up a little bit of early information.
“So on this Friday’s stream, we’re showing a new mode that is called The Descendia,” says Everett. “As you know, we have a new Warframe coming, Uriel. He’s the devil Warframe, and in this mode, essentially, you’re going down into hell. It’s 21 floors of hell, so you do floor one, you fall down, then you do floor two, you fall down, and you go down, down, down, and you’re trying to see if you can get to floor 21.
Obviously, things escalate: there’s gonna be mini-boss fights, checkpoints along the way, rewards along the way, characters along the way—like it’s just really cool.”
A mode like that could be a real slog if not designed carefully, with proper spikes of action and respite to stop your brain from instantly burning out. Based on how perfect the flow of the Deepmines is, I predict we’ll be in a good spot with Descendia.
As for what awaits us at the bottom? I would guess either the glory of victory or the ignominy of defeat, as it should be.
### The Strength of Warframe’s Legacy
This is really a part of the core strength of Warframe: the past is built on, not forgotten. While it is not always easy to balance the attention spent on different aspects of such a wildly varied game, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Warframe has survived for 13 years in a market where similar games rapidly fall by the wayside.
The reason for that is the honest attempts by the team who make it to keep things improving, and the ever-willing community, always ready to offer feedback.
For now, we can sit back and enjoy Nokko and the Deepmines. With *The Old Peace* looming, all I can think about are those trenches from the trailer—waiting to be filled with the dead and dying. The Vallis Undermind shall provide us all with a grand distraction before the looming war.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146609/warframe-community-director-interview-nokko-vallis-undermind-megan-everett
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