Warframe unveils Infested open-world expansion, ability transfer feature

This year's TennoCon presentation was a little different to normal, having fully migrated online due to COVID-19, but there were still plenty of changes announced for the Warframe universe, including a big new open-world area, a Warframe ability transfer feature... and mechs.

Releasing on all platforms simultaneously, the Heart of Deimos expansion is set to land on August 25th, and will introduce players to a new open world centred around the Infested faction. On the second moon of Mars, players can discover more about the Infested faction's origins, "unveiling the lost Entrati family and the marvels of technology and horror it left behind". There's also flying fish and two giant wyrms, with the latter locked in an eternal battle for power (and with one wyrm causing a "surge" in Infested power to keep players on their toes). Underground, players will find an area created from a series of procedurally-generated networked tunnels and vertical spaces to explore.

The K-Drive hoverboards introduced in Fortuna are getting a re-skin on Deimos - literally - as they appear as insects called Velocipods which you can ride over the hellish landscape. You can take them into combat, too, as the Velocipods will allow you to shoot while riding them, creating a "whole new combat dynamic". Or, if you need something with a little more firepower, you can try a Necramech: a pilotable suit of armour that comes with its own abilities, and is particularly effective when it comes to dealing with waves of Infested. They also appear as enemies within the Heart of Deimos expansion, and look pretty terrifying.

Something that may be truly surprising for long-time Warframe players, however, is the Helminth Chrysalis System - a new feature allowing players to transfer specific abilities between Warframes. Players can sacrifice one of their Warframes to a meaty blob called the Helminth, which then absorbs the Warframe and transfers the ability across to another. It's not a complete free-for-all on abilities, however, as Digital Extremes has limited exactly which abilities can be extracted from a particular Warframe, while each Warframe can only take on one Helminth-transferred ability at a time (although the new ability can be placed in any slot).

Also unveiled during TennoCon was new Warframe Xaku, a gender-neutral, community-designed Warframe who wields "the power of the void". If all this sounds good to you, make sure to also check out Eurogamer's interview with Digital Extremes COO Sheldon Carter, covering everything from the struggles of working at home to what's going on with that fleshy Helminth.