The next big update for space-ninja looty shooter Warframe is just over the horizon. The Jovian Concord, previously known as the Gas City Remaster update, is due out next week, although Digital Extremes are a bit fuzzy on what day exactly. It’ll bring a complete story-driven rework to one of the free-to-play shooter’s earliest environment types (Corpus gas-mining platforms on Jupiter), a new set of enemies, a big honkin’ flying monster boss (above) and a new Warframe. Below, trailers looking at the overhauled industrial zones and a peek at the new Warframe’s powers.
UPDATE 22/5/19: Warframe's fancy-pants Jovian Concord update, which introduces a stunning overhaul of the game's ageing, Jupiter-bound Gas City area, as well as new enemies, weapons, mods, cosmetics, and modes, is out now on PC.
Those that fire up the game post-update can also gain access to Wisp, the new Ethereal Warframe (taking the total number of Warframes up to 40, if you're counting), and all that gets a good airing in developer Digital Extremes' flash new Jovian Concord launch trailer below:
There's no set release date for the Jovian Concord's delights on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch, but Digital Extremes says that it's coming "soon".
Ahead of its arrival next week, Digital Extremes has spilled the beans on Warframe's Jovian Concord update. Like the Plains of Eidolon update in April, the titular area has been given a makeover, and this time it seems even more significant. Graphics, tilesets and audio design have all been overhauled, serving both an aesthetic and practical purpose. It looks quite a bit prettier, but the redesign has also been made with the updates to parkour in mind.
You can see how much it's changed in the before and after trailer.
Accompanying the remaster is a new enemy type that's hanging around the Corpus-controlled Gas City. The Amalgams are a hybrid of Corpus and Sentients created by Corpus experiments. On Ganymede, meanwhile, you'll be able to hit up a new endless Disruption mode, which is also full of Amalgams. Keys can be collected from their corpses that activate conduits you'll have to protect. The conduits are a mixed blessing, handing out random player boons and enemy buffs, as well as triggering environmental hazards.
There's a giant winged boss that you can square up to, new gear and a slew of mods and mod sets that you can get for killing Amalgams and completing missions in the Gas City. Read the full list here.
Another Warframe is also joining the roster. Wisp is a support Warframe with a passive that makes her invisible when she's in the air. You'll need to defeat the Gas City boss to unlock her. If you do, you'll be able to summon helpful Motes that will buff you and your pals, cast a spectral image that baffles enemies and lets you teleport, tear open breaches in reality and create a portal to the sun that blasts enemies with a beam of solar plasma. Crikey. Check out her profile video below.
That Jovian Concord update originally seemed poised to launch this week, but it looks like it's been pushed back to next week instead.
Nightwave challenges were recently introduced to Warframe and the first series of them end in the next few days. Since you only have a short amount of time, you’ll likely not have time to obtain every single rank if you’re just starting now, but we will be going over the principles of completing challenges in order to obtain standing for those ranking upgrades.
Developer Digital Extremes has offered a brisk, but illuminating, look at Warframe's thoroughly remastered Gas City area, which is set to release in a new update soon.
The Gas City tileset is one of the oldest in Warframe, having been introduced a mere nine months after the game's launch in March 2013.
A lot's happened in Warframe since then, and the Gas City tileset, which is used in a variety of missions across the Jupiter map, has inevitably started to look a little long-in-the-tooth, especially when compared with the game's shinier, more recent additions.
Update: We’ve now got the first video showing The Jovian Concord’s changes to Gas City, with some before-and-after comparison footage. You can find it embedded below.
While Warframe‘s next major expansion, Empyrean, is still a way off, players of the free-to-play space-ninja shooter won’t have long to wait for new toys, as the Jovian Concord update hits “very soon”, according to developers Digital Extremes.
Much like April’s remaster of the game’s Plains of Eidolon environment, the Jovian Concord will spruce up the Gas City tileset used for Warframe’s Jupiter maps, providing both a visual touch-up, and larger environments more suited to parkour. Also included will be a new set of baddies: cyber-mutants called Amalgams, who will bother you in regular play, as well as in a new endless survival mode. The update will also introduce a new Warframe, Wisp, with support and stealth chracteristics, as well as a boss fight with an airborne Eidolon known as the Ropalolyst.
I got to have a chat with Ron Davey, art director at Digital Extremes and art lead on the Jovian Concord, about revamping one of Warframe’s oldest environments: