Warframe players have been enjoying the party of their lifetimes in 1999, hacking and slashing through Scaldra and Techrot enemies as they bond with the Hex. But the status quo will shift when the Techrot Encore update is released on March 19, 2025
— the next big expansion for third-person sci-fi looter shooter Warframe.
All is not well in the city-state of Hollvania, the area introduced in the last big Warframe 1999 update, and a new menace is about to imperil every uninfested person out on the streets. The Technocyte Coda — the long-awaited infested liches — are the next addition to Warframe’s adversary system. These gruesome foes are looking to grow the Techrot hivemind, and they need you out of the picture to do so.
Luckily, the 60th Warframe is a pyrotechnic phenom. Temple is a rock star with a penchant for flames, and they’re the best bastion against the evolved infestation. Pillars of flame blast from the ground before this Warframe while they wield their guitar as an exalted flamethrower, melting the opposition.
Everything coming in the Warframe Techrot Encore update
The next big Warframe update builds on the groundwork laid by Warframe 1999, introducing a brand-new Warframe alongside new game modes and gameplay mechanics. Here’s what you can expect when the update releases on March 19.
- Infested Liches: The next addition to Warframe’s expansive adversary system will add new Techrot nemeses to the game. Themed around the fictional ’90s boy band On-lyne, players can hunt these foes down for new weapons and cosmetics.
- The Temple Warframe: The 60th Warframe is a glam rock icon, bringing their pyrotechnics prowess to any battlefield in the Origin System. Whether they’re buffing allies, debuffing enemies or wielding their sentient flamethrower guitar, Temple is a force to be reckoned with.
- New Protoframes: Temple, Frost, Saryn and Nova are getting new protoframe skins as their 1999 counterparts arrive in the Hollvania mall. Each new character has unique KIM dialogue as players get a chance to build new relationships and uncover the next piece of this narrative.
- Temporal Archimedea: An expansion of the Deep Archimedea game mode, the Temporal Archimedea brings the multi-stage gauntlet to Hollvania. A new tileset brings new challenges as the Scaldra and Techrot are buffed by randomized mission modifiers that completely change the flow of the game.
- Quality-of-life Changes: Developer Digital Extremes has honed in on problems with the new player experience, making it easier to broach the most important parts of Warframe’s story. Veteran players will be happy with Aura Forma changes and a pseudo-exalted weapon overhaul.
The threat of the Technocyte Coda looms large over Hollvania
The biggest boy band of 1999 has been twisted and warped into biomechanical nightmares.
The On-lyne boy band is finally about to appear in all of their disgusting glory, as Warframe introduces liches for the infested enemy type in-game. The Technocyte Coda are a local threat spawned during Hollvania missions.
Techrot enemies can drop malware that players will need to pick up and bring to local PCs. After a hacking minigame, the player will become the fixation of one of the ex-On-lyne band members, entering into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a powerful infested enemy. The only true defense is a set of new antivirus mods available as rewards from special 1999 bounties.
Once players spawn a lich, the new enemy appears with certain strengths and weaknesses depending on the progenitor Warframe. They also have various personality traits and they can spawn with one of eight different cosmetic ephemeras to claim upon their defeat.
Shipping alongside the Technocyte Coda are 13 different Technocyte Coda weapons, which are greatly improved variants of legacy infested gear. Crucially, the liches themselves no longer carry a particular weapon — instead, they drop a special currency that you can trade in to Eleanor to claim the new addition to your arsenal.
If you want to start battling the Technocyte Coda when they’re released on March 19, you’ll need to make sure you don’t have an active Kuva Lich or Sister of Parvos, which are the lich nemeses from the Grineer and Corpus factions, respectively. If you’re battling one of these adversaries, you have to vanquish or convert them before claiming a member of the Technocyte Coda.
The new Warframe, Temple, is a real space oddity
Flare is the face behind the brand new Warframe. They’ll also look familiar to fans of a certain rock star.
Four new protoframes will be joining the Hex in Hollvania mall, and they’re based on the Temple, Frost, Saryn and Nova Warframes. In order for the new protoframe characters to appear in Hollvania mall, players must complete The Hex quest and reach reputation level five with the Hex syndicate.
Flare is a non-binary rockstar with a sentient guitar, Lizzie. The former frontman for Temple and the Rippers, they found themselves on the path of vengeance after the leader of the Scaldra had their bandmates executed. If you noticed a passing resemblance to legendary musician, fashion innovator and icon David Bowie (especially in his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane eras), you’re not alone.
The Frost protoframe, Velimir, and the Saryn protoframe, Minerva, are a divorced couple reunited in Hollvania mall despite all their differences. The adoptive parents of Major Rusalka, the missing leader of the Scaldra, Velimir and Saryn love their daughter more than they hate each other. These protoframes will be the vendors for blueprints for the new Scaldra-themed weapons and 1999 era Orbiter decorations.
The Necramech grind is now thankfully optional to the story.
A series of improvements for new players and veterans alike will improve the overall Warframe experience once they drop in the Techrot Encore update, which is coming in March.
Planetary mission nodes on the Star Chart are being reconfigured so new players are able to access the Second Dream more quickly. The Second Dream is the quest that really shows off what Warframe is all about, kicking off the game’s true story, so it’s a good idea to usher newer players into that experience as soon as they get their bearings.
Crafting the Necramech is also no longer required to play The New War quest, removing the biggest barrier from one of the most pivotal story moments in Warframe. The Duviri Paradox and The Hex quests are also now replayable for all players.
Rhino, the first Warframe players get the chance to craft, has had its foundry time reduced to 24 hours (it was previously 72 hours, like almost every other Warframe). The Warframe before Temple, Koumei, was also introduced with a 24 hour crafting time — this might be the beginning of a trend where new players won’t have to wait around as long to get their hands on additions to their arsenals.
Finally, there are a series of changes that more experienced Warframe players will surely love. Defense reward rotations are being reduced from five waves to three waves, making every node feel like less of a slog. Pseudo exalted weapons are getting a full rework and will become far more dangerous with stances, mods and arcanes. Aura Forma is changing into Omni Forma, which will allow a mod slot to accept any polarity except Umbra mods. And Riven traders will be happy to hear that the upper limit on Riven mod storage is being increased by 30 slots.
Warframe players will be able to fight the Technocyte Coda, wield the awesome power of Temple’s guitar and enjoy these new quality-of-life changes on March 19, 2025.
