devtrackers.gg
Dev Workshop: Koumei & the Five Fates - New Player Experience and Quality of Life
Warframe has introduced more than 10 years of systems and mechanics, leaving players with a variety of content to explore. For players who are just starting their Warframe journey, this depth can be overwhelming, causing many to rely on community tutorials and friendly neighborhood Tenno in Q&A Chat. We’ve made efforts to improve new player onboarding over the years, but 2024 has seen a concerted effort on this front especially.
Recap of New Player Experience Changes Thus Far:
Spoiler-
Update 35.1:
- Solaris United & Vox Solaris Syndicate Sacrifice Changes, added Dreamer’s Bond Aura Mod, and various Quest improvements.
-
Dante Unbound - Update 35.5:
- Reduced Quest crafting build times, reworked Railjack Market bundle, improved Mote Amp Acquisition, and various Quest and Junction improvements.
-
Jade Shadows - Update 36:
- Debt Bond drop rate rework, Voidrig acquisition improvements, added Awakening checkpoints, improved resource and blueprint location descriptions, moved Duviri to Uranus Junction, and various Quest and Junction improvements.
-
The Lotus Eaters - Update 36.1
- New player combat improvements, increased Enemy Sense on landscapes, reworked Excavation objective text and waypoints, and various Quest improvements.
Every major update this year has included New Player Experience improvements of some sort, and Koumei & the Five Fates is no different! Let’s take a look at what to expect:
Quest Changes:
-
When selecting your Starter Warframe in the Awakening Quest, stats will no longer be displayed by default in on-hover Ability descriptions. These stats have been moved to a separate tab in this on-hover pop-up.
- This change is part of an ongoing effort to elevate critical information for new players while reducing extraneous details that could lead to information overload.
-
Reduced the hacking puzzle speed in Awakening and Vor’s Prize.
- Since players are learning how to use Grineer Hacking consoles for the first time, this change allows them to get used to the mechanic without it feeling too punishing or overwhelming.
-
Incubating your first Kubrow in Howl of the Kubrow will now only take 60 seconds instead of the original 48 hours.
- Many Quest crafting requirements were reduced across the board with Dante Unbound earlier this year. Now Howl of the Kubrow also meets this standard!
New Player Quality of Life Changes:
-
Unowned Mods viewed in the Codex will now show their full descriptions and drop locations.
- Currently, undiscovered Mods show the Mod’s name and “??????” in lieu of their description. Players who are interested in these Mods would have to go to external sources to learn more about them. With Koumei’s launch, they can read their Description and Drop location in the Codex regardless of ownership.
-
Selling an unmastered item from your Inventory will now display a pop-up message recommending them to rank it up to Level 30 (or Level 40 for overleveled equipment like the Paracesis) before attempting to sell it!
-
This is another method of educating players on the Mastery Rank system and helping new and old players not miss out on Mastery before selling their gear.
-
This is another method of educating players on the Mastery Rank system and helping new and old players not miss out on Mastery before selling their gear.
-
Unlocking an Ability will now show the Input needed to cast it in the “Ability Unlocked” pop-up!
-
New Tenno who Rank up their Warframes have little context for what “Radial Blind” means without venturing into the Abilities screen, but now they will be directed to test out these unlocks via the input on-screen. This change applies to all players regardless of Mastery Rank, so everyone should benefit from this Quality of Life change while Ranking up new Warframes!
-
New Tenno who Rank up their Warframes have little context for what “Radial Blind” means without venturing into the Abilities screen, but now they will be directed to test out these unlocks via the input on-screen. This change applies to all players regardless of Mastery Rank, so everyone should benefit from this Quality of Life change while Ranking up new Warframes!
-
If a piece of equipment in a player’s loadout has 10+ unused Mod capacity and an unused Mod slot, a warning symbol will appear next to it in the Loadout section of the Navigation screen. This only applies to weapons with 10-30 unused Mod Capacity (or 10-40 for Lich/Sister weapons), and will not appear if you are Mastery Rank 30 or higher.
-
The goal of this change is to encourage new players to Mod their equipment, and learn about Mod capacity as they continue to level up their equipment.
- Not included in the screenshot above: > MR 5 players will see an “Empty Mods” pop-up and an on-hover tooltip to explain the reason for this icon.
-
The goal of this change is to encourage new players to Mod their equipment, and learn about Mod capacity as they continue to level up their equipment.
-
Open Landscape Maps now feature a Legend for the Advanced Map view and new icons for the Extraction Points (ie. Cetus, Fortuna, and Necralisk).
-
Open Landscapes operate differently from normal Warframe missions, which can be hard for new players to grasp at first. Saya’s Vigil has received changes to reinforce the “Enter and Exit through the Cetus Doors” mechanic, and this addition expands upon that goal.
-
Open Landscapes operate differently from normal Warframe missions, which can be hard for new players to grasp at first. Saya’s Vigil has received changes to reinforce the “Enter and Exit through the Cetus Doors” mechanic, and this addition expands upon that goal.
- Fish resource descriptions have been updated to indicate where players can find the Fish that the resource is earned from. Fish descriptions (accessed via Chat Linking) have also been updated to list relevant information to secure the catch.
- Added illustrative diagrams to modding tips in the Upgrade and Mod menus, and updated these tips to offer relevant information for players learning about Modding.
General Quality of Life Changes:
In addition to our New Player Experience changes, Koumei brings a bevy of general improvements that apply to all Tenno!
1 - Void Relics now display owned and crafted status of their possible rewards!
Players can now easily see crafted/owned status of items from their Relics when viewed in the Void Relic selection screen and on-hover as mission rewards. This functionality also applies to the Relic Reward selection screen upon successfully cracking a Relic.
2 - Tenno can now favorite equipment in their Arsenal!
When browsing equipment in your Arsenal, you now have the option to “Favorite” Warframes, Weapons, Cosmetics, and more. Favorited Equipment appear at the top of the list when equipping items in your Arsenal, ensuring you always know right where to find them. Never lose track of that one Revenant Prime that you love more than the others ever again!
3 - The Fusion screen has received a refresh to simplify UI elements and bring the fused Mod to the forefront.
Players can now also Fuse any non-max rank Mods via the Upgrade Screen. Doing so brings up the same Fusion menu to streamline any changes you make to your builds.
4 - Settings that are not set to Default are now marked with a diamond indicator in the Settings menu.
If you want to reset that particular setting to Default, you can interact with that indicator to do so! Also, the “Reset to Defaults” option in the Settings menu will now only apply defaults to the current Settings tab.
5 - Purchasing Arcanes from a Vendor now displays how many Arcanes you own per rank.
Each filled diamond icon represents one rank! Also added the rank UI element to Arcanes in the Vendor wares to more clearly indicate that they are unranked.
Looking Forward:
If you’ve offered advice to new players, asked questions about what to do next in-game, shared feedback in our Forums / Reddit, or even streamed your first foray into Warframe — you have helped us further refine our New Player Experience. There is still room for improvement, so here’s a look at just some of the changes we’re working on that won’t make it in for Koumei:
- Improving Quests menu in the Codex to clearly distinguish Story, Warframe, and Side Quests.
- Adding small narrative introductions to planets and their Assassination targets as players move through the Star Chart.
- Further adjustments to Awakening, Vor’s Prize, and other early-game Quests.
-
Curating our loading screen tips to player progression.
- Ex: Players during Vor’s Prize will only see tips focused on beginner controls and mechanics.
This is only a small snippet of what our team has been discussing, but we don’t want to over-promise! Should you wish to provide us with feedback on how to improve our New Player Experience, we’ve added a dedicated “New Player Experience” subforum to our Feedback forums:
https://forums.warframe.com/forum/1994-new-player-experience/
Thanks for reading, Tenno! 
