Warframe, at its core, is a 4 player co-op game where you team up with other Tenno and kill hordes and hordes of enemies all to get materials, blueprints and parts to build new guns, melee weapons, and the titular Warframes. The main gameplay loop is selecting a mission on the Star Chart and finishing the objective before moving onto the next mission.

There are three types of missions:

• Extermination where you must kill an certain number of enemies before the mission is over
• Defense where you are tasked with defending a point against hordes of enemies
• Survival where you must hold out and not let your life support drop to zero and many more

It’s safe to say there is a mission type for almost anyone to enjoy, and that is before we even start talking about the three open world maps they have added over the course of the games life.

Watch the Trailer for the Update here!

The Jade Shadows update brings a new story that is a continuation of the Jade Shadows quest. It follows the Stalker as he finds two mysterious Warframes fighting each other. These frames end up being two different versions of his infant son from two doomed futures. While I will not spoil the story I will say that it touches on some very interesting themes of redemption, family, and sacrifice. It also gives redemption to a character we have seen over the years fail to make amends for their past. The presentation of the story, the music, and the game play are all amazing. I think the music is the best part of this update. Warframes quests are not the longest, but they are very well written. The over all story is some of the best Sci-fi writing I have ever enjoyed in a game.

Now we move onto the main addition to this update, the two new missions taking place in Uuranus Proxima where you are tasked with using a railjack, a 4 manned space fighter, to hunt down and defeat the two of the characters you meet during the Jade Shadow Constellations story quest. These missions differ from normal railjack missions as you are given a preset ship to use and for the most part, the missions will always go the same with slight variations in them. Due to the fact you have to grind these missions to not only get the new Warframe, but to also get weapons, cosmetics and decorations for your home ship, the way they are laid out causes them to become stale much faster than normal missions. Over all they are not the worst missions to have to grind, but they leave a lot to be desired.

On the plus side if you enjoyed the two new NPCs Ryoku and Vena they were added as Protoframe skins for the warframes Ash and Garuda, both of them can be purchased for platinum in the in-game store.

Finally, you have the new Warframe Sirius and Orion. Don’t let the name confuse you this is in fact one Warframe but it’s unique gimmick is that you swap between Sirius and Orion. Sirius, following after his mother Jade, has 3 abilities to help you spread status and support your fellow Tenno.

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Sirius‘s first ability Coronal Ejection has you throwing his scythe and dealing heat damage to any enemies in it’s path while also collecting any pickups and bringing them right back to you. Jade Star’s is Sirius’ second ability that creates motes of jade light around him that automatically attack enemies inflicting heat damage and status effect. For Sirius’ third ability you have Light’s Sanctuary, a giant aoe that heals and reduces incoming damage for your allies.

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Orion is able to control the battlefield with decoys and crowd control. Orion’s first ability Gravic Slash will repel enemies close by dealing slash damage and status effects while also reducing their armor and shields. Astral Shell is Orion’s second ability where he envelops himself in a astral shell, while covered in this shell if he takes damage her negates it and creates a decoy to throw off enemies. Orion’s third ability is Event Horizon, when cast he creates a drifting blackhole can will gather up enemies trapping them inside it, further more by using both Gravitic Slash and Coronal Ejection, the brothers are able to both manipulate and extend Event Horizon’s black hole.

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Lastly, the two brothers share one final ability, the Celestial Clash, where they attack each other clashing over the heads of enemies and catching them in the crossfire doing massive damage to them. While Sirius and Orion are not the strongest frames in the game I found their unique playstyle fun and different enough that I have been playing them on and off when doing longer mission types or opening relics for prime parts.

Along side the Jade Shadows Update 5 new Incarnon’s were added for older weapons. Incarnon’s are special forms you can activate while playing by reaching certain thresholds while using the weapons. The effects of Incarnon’s differ from weapon to weapon so you’ll need to try them out to see if you like them. The weapons that received new Incarnon’s were the Stug, Vectis, Ballistica, Destreza and Obex. The Stug’s Incarnon allows it to create blobs of bouncing corrosive damage, the Vectis’ creates slow projectiles that then explodes upon hitting a head shot, the Ballistica’s make it fire cross shaped projectiles that do high slash damage, the Destreza’s summons extra ghostly rapier’s upon using a heavy attack, and finally the Obex’s creates a big radial attack when using a finisher on an enemy.

With Tenno-con right around the corner this is a smaller update adding 2 new missions and a lot to grind for. The next new big update will be announced at Tenno-con on July 11th 2026, and along side the announcements there is also two twitch drops given away on July 11th, by watching from 11am est to 4:30pm est you can get the Haalvu, a new Sentient artillery weapon. But by watching from 4:30pm est to 6:pm est, the main event of Tenno-con, you can get yourself a Free Mesa Prime warframe, a gunslinger who is also getting a brand new Heirloom Skin soon.

Warframe is a free to play shooter that has been going for 13 years. It has grown to be know as one of the most free to play friendly games out on the market currently. Recently, I got back into the game that I loved all those years ago. I started as a founder and closed beta tester. I had stopped playing around 4 years ago, and a lot has changed since then so allow me to give you my thoughts as returning player in 2026.