Warframe is an ever-evolving game, changing major gameplay systems every couple of months. It can be disorienting to jump back into the game after a break because of this. Thanks to the game's brilliant combat and deep lore, it makes this re-acclimation somewhat easier.

Related: Warframe Continues To Grow, With This Year's TennoCon Breaking Multiple Records

For players that didn't play Warframe in 2020, not much has changed. The core DNA of Warframe—shooting and looting—has seen virtually no changes. New Warframes were added, a new open world was introduced, yet the core gameplay loop is the same as before. For many Warframe fans, this is great news. Burnt-out veterans will disagree. No matter your stance, here is how Warframe is doing in 2021.

Updated August 6th, 2021, by Charles Burgar: Warframe has seen some new additions and announcements since our last update. The Sisters of Parvos update shook up the weapon meta, certain Warframes and weapons have received primes, and the Tennocon reveal gave a meaty gameplay demo of The New War cinematic quest. We've updated this article with information about Warframe's second and third quarter this year, detailing major updates that have occurred, new prime items, and we've updated the "Future Of Warframe" section to discuss content shown at Tennocon 2021.

The Current State Of The Game

Warframe's latest mainline update was the Sisters of Parvos, an expansion of the Lich system that added Corpus Liches and new weapons to chase. Primary and Secondary weapons saw some serious buffs through the addition of Primary and Secondary Arcanes and Galvanized Mods. A second Nightwave intermission, Nora's Choice, is currently active.

If you've taken a break from Warframe for this year, there's been an overall shift towards making Railjack a more integral part of Warframe. Liches are now tied to Railjack, Void Storms give players the option of opening Relics in Railjack missions, and certain ground missions have been integrated into Corpus Railjack nodes. Railjack can still be safely ignored by most players, but those that want to chase Lich weapons or the Sevagoth Warframe will need to build a Railjack of their own.

Beyond those changes, Warframe is still Warframe. There are weapons to chase, Warframes to craft, and Mods to level. With that said, a reward revitalization to Steel Path, Arbitrations, and Railjack have given players new avenues of breaking up the repetitive grind. If you are burnt out of Warframe, it's best to wait until The New War releases before you return. But if you are interested in chasing new loot or increasing the power of your guns, now is a great time to jump back in.

How Railjack Impacted 2020 And Beyond

Digital Extremes, the creators of Warframe, have focused much more on releasing fewer, higher-quality updates ever since the Empyrean update in late 2019. This has resulted in fewer content updates than one would expect, but each update has been much more polished and enjoyable than what Railjack offered. Most fans agree that 2020 was a better year for Warframe overall than 2019, but it was far from eventful. The first half of the year was dedicated to fixing Railjack, although the second half of 2020 focused more on traditional Warframe content drops.

Here's a quick synopsis of what happened in 2020 if you missed it:

• Kuva Lich Changes: Kuva Larvlings show the weapon they'll gain when they become a Lich, making target-farming Lich guns much easier. New weapons and quality of life additions were also added.
• Warframe Revised: This was a massive quality of life patch that added many community-requested features. Shield gating was added, armor scaling was overhauled, Railjack saw some changes, and Arcanes were rebalanced. Many agree that this was one of Warframe's best updates in 2020.
• Operation: Scarlet Spear: Arguably the worst event in Warframe history, players were tasked with defending beacons against waves of Sentients. Alternatively, players could use their Railjack to play an alternate take on this mission. Many critiqued Scarlet Spear for its repetitiveness and horrendous bugs when it was released on PC.
• Deadlock Protocol: The Corpus ship tileset was remastered, Protea was introduced as a new Warframe, and Primary Kitguns were added.
• Steel Path: Effectively New Game Plus for the Star Chart, Steel Path lets players carve through the solar system once more against level 100+ enemies for Steel Essence—a new resource used to purchase new cosmetics and valuable resources such as Kuva.
• Heart of Deimos: Warframe's third open world, the Heart of Deimos update went back to basics. One new Warframe, Xaku, was added alongside an Infested open world tileset that is much smaller than the Orb Vallis and Plains of Eidolon, replacing overall world space for an intricate cave system. Instead of Orb fights and Eidolon hunts, Tenno delve into ancient Isolation Vaults to scavenge parts for a Necramech—an Operator-controlled mech suit. This update also introduced the Helminth system, allowing players to transfer certain Warframe powers onto any Warframe they wish.

If 2020 didn't sound too eventful, that's because it wasn't. Besides the Helminth system introduced in the Heart of Deimos update, Warframe's core gameplay has stayed virtually the same.

2021 So Far

Quarter One: Corpus Proxima And Star Days

Digital Extremes have released one major content update during the first quarter of 2021. Named the Corpus Proxima, this update was the first content addition Railjack has seen since the Scarlet Spear event. More than that, Railjack saw yet another overhaul, this time focusing on streamlining Railjack as much as possible.

Here are the highlights of that update:

• Railjack's damage system was reverted to the damage types fans are familiar with (Slash, Corrosive, et cetera).
• Intrinsics were removed, replaced with a modding interface named the Plexus.
• Whoever pilots the ship gets to use their Plexus Mods to enhance the Railjack.
• Mods use Endo, replacing Dirac.
• Three new zones were added to the Proxima Star Chart:
• Venus
• Neptune
• Pluto
• Orphix has returned as a game type you can start on certain Proxima nodes.
• Core Warframe missions are now part of Corpus Railjack missions.
• Zephyr saw a small rework.
• She's much more intuitive to play now and has seen buffs across the board.

Additionally, Digital Extremes rebalanced Railjack abilities to make other options more viable. Most players agree that this update has drastically streamlined Railjack and made it much more enjoyable to play.

Star Days

Digital Extremes also created a new event for Valentine's Day this year. Named Star Days, players were able to purchase certain Valentine-themed cosmetics from Ticker in Fortuna. This also debuted wings as a type of Ephemera, a cosmetic that has returned in Nightwave Nora's Choice.

Octavia Prime

Quarter one released the following primes:

• Octavia Prime
• Tenora Prime
• Pandero Prime

Octavia saw no buffs, nerfs, or any changes with the release of her prime. Her release saw the vaulting of the following prime items:

• Equinox Prime
• Stradavar Prime
• Tipedo Prime

Quater Two: Call Of The Tempestarii

Quarter two's major update was Call of the Tempestarii, an expansion of Railjack that aimed to bring the Void FIssure system to the Proxima Star Chart. Known as Void Storms, players can delve into a Fissure variant of a Railjack mission to collect Reactant from corrupted foes to crack open Relics.

Related: Warframe: The Most Powerful Warframes, Ranked

Call of the Tempestarii featured the following:

• Sevagoth: This Warframe has two forms, similar to Equinox. Reap the souls of the dead to release Sevagoth's shadow, effectively a second Warframe with a unique set of abilities.
• He is tied to the "Call of the Tempestarii' questline.
• Void Storms: Railjack Fissure missions were added, giving players a new means of opening Relics. This s also where Sevagoth's parts drop from.

Community reception of Sevagoth and his quest were mostly positive. Void Storms were met with a more critical reception, mostly due to how much visual clutter and bugs were present at launch. They take longer to complete than ground Fissure missions, although Railjack's pool of Avionics and Radiant Relics makes this a solid alternative to farming ground Fissure missions ad nauseam.

Gara Prime

May of 2021 released the following prime items:

• Gara Prime
• Astilla Prime
• Volnus Prime

Gara saw no balance changes with the release of her prime. The following primes were vaulted with this release:

• Wukong Prime
• Zhuge Prime
• Ninkondi Prime

Quarter Three: Sisters Of Parvos

Digital Extremes released the Sisters of Parvos update in early July, introducing Corpus Liches into the game. Known as the Sisters of Parvos, these Liches contain Corpus Lich weapons, a new set of Ephemeras, and unique Companions named Hounds that players can farm for. This update also saw some major buffs to Primaries and Secondaries. Here's what the Sisters of Parvos added and changed:

• Yareli: A K-Drive themed Warframe that is obtained through a Vent Kids quest.
• Corpus Liches: Hunt down the Sisters of Parvos across the Star Chart to obtain Tenet weapons, Lich variants of iconic Corpus weapons.
• Lich Changes: The murmur grind has been reduced, a new Requiem Mod was added that mimics any Reqium Mod a Lich is weak to, and the final confrontation with all Lich types now occurs in a Railjack mission.
• New Kuva Lich Weapons: The Kuva Zarr, Kuva Hek, and Kuva Grattler were added to the Kuva Lich weapon pool.
• Galvanized Mods: Primaries and Secondaries now have Galvanized versions of certain Mods, granting around 3x as much power as their normal counterpart.
• Discussed in more detail in our Galvanized Mods and Weapon Arcanes guide.
• Weapon Arcanes: Primaries and Secondaries now have Arcanes that grant up to +360% damage after killing a certain number of enemies.
• Discussed in more detail in our Galvanized Mods and Weapon Arcanes guide.
• Melee Nerfs: Blood Rush, Condition Overload, and Berserker were nerfed to give weapons more room to shine.
• Melee weapons are still more than capable of tackling Steel Path content.
• Parazon Changes: Finishers can now be executed when enemies reach a certain health threshold. Impact procs increase the HP finisher threshold up to 80%.

Nightwave: Nora's Choice

Acting as a second intermission to Series 3: Glassmaker, Nora's Choice brings back fan-favorite rewards from previous Nightwaves alongside new additions. Check out our Nora's Choice guide to see what the rewards are for this intermission.

Nidus Prime

Announced at Tennocon, this quarter's primed Warframe will be Nidus. Accompanying prime items are currently unknown.

The Future Of Warframe

Tennocon 2021 gave an overview of what players can expect for the rest of the year. With Corpus Liches and weapon buffs making their way to the live realm, Digital Extremes are now setting their attention towards The New War—an expansion focused on the Sentient invasion of the Sol System. Slated to release later in 2021, this update will include a new story mission that continues where The Sacrifice and Erra left off.

Related: Warframe: A Complete Guide To Liches

Beyond The New War, Digital Extremes have also been working on adding crossplay and cross-save to Warframe. Both features are currently in development, although no release date was given. Warframe is also releasing on mobile devices at some point in the future.

Finally, Tennocon also gave fans a glimpse at the next Warframe in development. Named Caliban, this Sentient-themed Warframe has a passive ability that mimics the Adaptation Mod, granting itself and allies damage resistance as Caliban takes damage. Players can farm for Caliban later this year.

Everything We Know About The New War

Spoiler Warning for The New War Quest

Unlike most story quests, The New War will depict the Sentient War through the eyes of three playable characters instead of your Operator. In the New War, you'll get to play as:

• Kahl-175: A Grineer Marine stationed on the Plains of Eidolon.
• Veso: A Corpus engineer aboard a Corpus capital ship.
• Teshin: A Dax soldier who has infiltrated a Sentient capital ship.

Each character has their own gameplay mechanics and quirks. Kahl's gameplay is focused on slower gunplay and movement. Veso relies on Corpus machines to do his bidding. Teshin plays closest to a normal Warframe, using dual nikanas and element swapping to slay Sentients.

Digital Extremes have emphasized that The New War is an expansion for Warframe, so expect more content beyond a cinematic quest when it releases later this year.

Next: Warframe: A Complete Guide To Railjack