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The space ninja adventure known as Warframe, a title where you might encounter bizarre cosmic entities and pilot futuristic vehicles, has unveiled a significant update. This latest expansion exemplifies the creative flair that has become synonymous with Warframe in the past few seasons.

The new content, made available this week, adds a fungus-inspired character that does a little dance, along with a whole new explorable fungal area. However, it also revisits core concepts, with a new mission geared at making sure this complex, vast 12-year-old MMO is accessible for new players.

The Arrival of "The Teacher"

Titled “The Teacher,” this is the highly anticipated mission that trains Warframe players on how to use one of the game's most basic — yet most intricate systems: modding.

In Warframe, mods are augments that can be equipped on your warframe or arsenal to enhance their abilities. They range from the straightforward (increase damage or speed up reload rate) to the incredibly intricate. Content creators often produce extensive guides about optimized loadouts that use powerful mods in combination to create overwhelming power.

“I think a lot of people were maybe getting into the early game, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” explained a key developer. “I think it was really important, at the end of the quest, for players to think, ‘Wow, modding is interesting. I'd like to experiment further.’”

A Collaborative Effort

“The Teacher” was created through a partnership between the core team, who handled the story elements, and an external team, who designed the mission, which will be introduced to new players.

In the quest, the player is tasked with obtaining a component for their ship, but they’re confronted by a formidable foe called Teshin, who removes the player's powers and close-combat arms, and forces them to engage with the mod system to handily demonstrate its power.

Many of the external team were already fans of the game, but others had never played before, according to a principal games designer. It was this outside perspective that proved critical.

“The first thing we did was basically sit behind them and have them experience the introduction and take prodigious notes on everywhere they fell out,” the designer said. Introductory tutorials introduced players to modding. But the team observed these weren't effective for all.

“Some people didn't see basic instructions where it's flashing on the screen saying equip the modification,” he said.

Addressing a Real Need

Warframe’s mods allow players to create stupidly powerful synergies 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 optimizing for endgame challenges. But it became clear that “The Teacher” is filling a real and significant gap for early players — and that executing this is quite complex.

“Numerous subtle adjustments and little subtle things in the background there to just demonstrate the possibilities 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, Magnetic damage that eats chunks out of enemy shields.

“Adjustments to the armament to be a rapid-fire gun, because it better demonstrates the effect frequency,” the designer said. “But you don’t want to explicitly tell players, 'with a basic modification, you only got a few percentage chance to proc an elemental effect.' How can you teach this mechanic effectively?”

Experienced players will instinctively look for that kind of weapon effect and understand how it works, but new players have to be taught to notice these details.

“This type of design work that we've had to worry about as much just because that hasn't been our focus,” said a narrative lead. “However, this oversight meant that players weren't properly taught the modding system.”

Significant Investment

“A tremendous amount of work is required for just making a really simple mission that — honestly — you can complete quickly,” said the designer. “Yet it represents extensive development for many team members.”

The designer was clearly enthusiastic over being able to work on a game that he loves — and to craft a mission for one of his favorite characters.

“I love Teshin,” he said. “He embodies everything my younger self found awesome.”

An Evolving Onboarding Process

In the decade-plus since launch, Warframe has been in a ongoing struggle with its own new user introduction. There are lots of complex systems that players don’t need to worry about — and won’t even have access to until hours into the game. And others, like modding, that scale in complexity depending on how much time you want to invest. An update earlier this year streamlined the early game 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 initial hours doesn’t stay locked in 2013. Beginners can find their way — regardless of overlooking tutorials.