Warframe Plains of Eidolon Small

At the Heart of Warframe’s Open Zones Lies the Sentients of Eidolon

The day before we held TennoCon 2017, our second annual Warframe convention, in July, I worked late into the night. Of course I wasn’t the only one! Our team here at Digital Extremes burned the midnight oil polishing the Plains of Eidolon demo while trying to calm their nerves before presenting the biggest reveal we’ve ever done to our players; our Community team and I went over our panels, convention duties, and various interviews, and all of it was done to ensure that our players, community, and attendees would have an incredible Warframe-themed experience that took months of planning and organization.

Warframe Plains of Eidolon Screenshot

On the day of the show, when we rolled TennoLive and Plains of Eidolon was revealed, people were blown away by the reveal of an Open Zone addition to the game. We hit a nerve and our community reacted with the surprise and thrill we had hoped for – and with a collective sigh of relief by our entire team, we absolutely shared in that thrill with them. For me personally, it was one of the most memorable moments working on Warframe so far!

Warframe Plains of Eidolon Screenshot

In our 98th Devstream, we’ll have delivered, by the time of this writing, the second major reveal on Plains of Eidolon — the introduction of new mini-games, more exploration in the town of Cetus along with new gameplay of the Eidolons. During the first reveal at TennoCon, we introduced spearfishing. Now we have shown how players can fish day or night, catching different kinds of fish that may require different types of spears and spearheads depending on the day cycle. Another mini-game added is mining. Mining operates as a resource extraction where the better players are at extracting resources, the better quality gems they’ll get! Players can place these deposits throughout the Plains so there’ll always be a point of interest in between exploring the rolling hills and engaging in combat. We also revealed how the town of Cetus will collectively react to players’ behavior. And, last but certainly not least, we showed the first part of the game’s most titanic new enemies, the Eidolons.

Warframe Plains of Eidolon Screenshot

Technically, Eidolons aren’t new to Warframe, but players will never have faced them before. Ten stories high, emerging from the water only at night, oblivious to their surroundings, these behemoths march like massive golems hypnotically drawn to a target that you’ll have to uncover. It will take a collective effort from your squad of four to formulate a strategy to take them down, prepare the right weapons and armor, and then coordinate that attack as a team.  Even the most skilled players will need to have their best game on when facing their first Eidolon. And even if that first attack damages the Eidolon, that’s just the beginning. They don’t go down easy in round one, or maybe not even in round two… or three.

Warframe Plains of Eidolon Screenshot

With Plains of Eidolon we hope to give new players who haven’t yet given Warframe a try a new reason to give us a look…after all, it’s free! And, for players who have stuck by us for four-plus years, we’re giving them something they haven’t experienced in Warframe before — a gameplay update that ties together the mysterious evolving story of the Origin System’s ancient battles with a colony town that’s tied inexplicably to you, Tenno — to your battles as a Warframe.

Warframe Plains of Eidolon Screenshot

The citizens of Cetus revere the Warframes because they are the very people you and the Lotus (Spacemom) have tried to protect all these years. Their kids play “Warframes and Grineers” like kids used to play “cops and robbers.” The citizens of Cetus live off an ancient living structure that’s a relic of the old wars. If you saw the first 17-minute demo from TennoCon, you’ll have seen them hauling a giant slab of ‘something’ down and then carving it up into what we internally call “a meat mattress.” Their very existence is due to the efforts of your Warframe and others like it. You are in Cetus for a reason, and it’s up to you to find out why.

With your dedication to exploring the Open Zone, your experience haggling and conducting agreements and taking on jobs with the inhabitants, battling Grineer for resources and territory, facing the Eidolons, and making sense of Plains of Eidolon, your experience, be it day or night, will be a deeper dive into the ongoing story of the Tenno, and a cooperative one with friends. We’re working hard to make it a fulfilling one. Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the release of Plains of Eidolon.