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The popular online game known as Warframe, an experience where you can feed yourself to a giant mouth and drive a motorcycle in the year 1999, has unveiled a new update. This latest expansion showcases the creative flair that has come to define Warframe in recent years.

This expansion, made available this week, brings in a new mushroom-themed warframe that does a little dance, along with a brand-new biome to discover. But it’s also going back to basics, with a new mission designed to making sure this complex, vast long-running online game is understandable by new players.

A Quest Called "The Teacher"

Called “The Teacher,” this is the highly anticipated mission that educates Warframe players on how to use one of the game's fundamental yet complex systems: the mod system.

In Warframe, mods are augments that can be added to your character or your weapons to improve their stats. They range from the straightforward (increase damage or speed up reload rate) to the incredibly intricate. Content creators often produce extensive guides about idealized builds that use synergistic enhancements to create overwhelming power.

“Many players likely started their journey, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” noted a lead narrative designer. “I think it was really important, upon completing the mission, for players to think, ‘Hey, modding is cool. I want to try more of this.’”

Teamwork in Action

“The Teacher” was created through a partnership between the original developers, who provided the narrative sauce, and an external team, who designed the mission, which will be introduced to new players.

In the quest, the player is asked to retrieve a component for their ship, but they’re interrupted by a menacing, powerful warrior called Teshin, who takes away the player’s abilities and close-combat arms, and compels them to use the mod system to handily demonstrate its power.

Several developers were already fans of the game, but others had never played before, according to a lead designer. It was this outside perspective that was essential.

“The first thing we did was basically sit behind them and go right play through the tutorial and take prodigious notes on everywhere they fell out,” the designer said. Introductory tutorials presented the mod system. But the team observed these weren't effective for all.

“Certain players missed fundamental guidance where the game highlights it 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" focuses on different aspects. There will be some long-time players who wish the quest was geared more towards their needs, like creating powerful and specific builds. But it became clear that the mission addresses a genuine oversight for early players — and that executing this is quite complex.

“There’s lots of little tweaks and background details there to just demonstrate the possibilities rather than explain it outright,” 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, a magnetic effect that depletes protective barriers.

“We had to change the weapon to be a rapid-fire gun, because it better demonstrates the effect frequency,” the designer said. “However, the goal isn't to explicitly tell players, 'oh yeah, actually on a base level mod, you only got a few percentage chance to trigger a special damage type.' So how do you tutorialize that without changing it?”

Experienced players will naturally recognize these mechanics and grasp their function, but beginners require instruction to notice these details.

“This type of design work that we previously focused on 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 blast through in about 15 minutes,” said the designer. “Yet it represents extensive development for many team members.”

The designer was visibly glowing with excitement over contributing to a beloved title — and to design content featuring a preferred figure.

“I'm a huge fan of Teshin,” he said. “He embodies everything my younger self found awesome.”

Improving the New Player Experience

In the 12 years since its release, Warframe has been in a ongoing struggle with its own player onboarding process. There are lots of complex systems that players don’t need to worry about — and won't encounter until much later. And others, like modding, that increase in depth depending on how much time you want to invest. An update earlier this year improved the introductory experience so that players could reach Warframe’s mind-bending plot developments with reduced repetitive play up front.

With “The Teacher,” it’s clear that the developers are doubling down on a commitment to make sure Warframe’s initial hours doesn’t stay locked in 2013. New players can get their foot in the door — even if they miss the menu prompts.