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The space ninja adventure known as Warframe, a title where you might encounter bizarre cosmic entities and drive a motorcycle in the year 1999, has unveiled a major update. The Vallis Undermind highlights the unique whimsy that has come to define Warframe in recent years.

This expansion, made available this week, introduces a fungus-inspired character that performs a unique animation, along with a whole new explorable fungal area. However, it also revisits core concepts, with another quest geared at making sure this complicated, expansive long-running online game makes sense to new players.

A Quest Called "The Teacher"

Called “The Teacher,” this is the highly anticipated mission that trains Warframe players on how to use one of the game's most basic — yet most intricate systems: modding.

In Warframe, mods are augments that can be added to your character or your weapons to boost their performance. These can be simple (increase damage or speed up reload rate) to the incredibly intricate. Dedicated players often craft hour-long videos about optimized loadouts that use powerful mods in combination to create overwhelming power.

“I think a lot of people were maybe getting into the early game, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” said a lead narrative designer. “I think it was really important, upon completing the mission, for players to think, ‘Wow, modding is interesting. I want to try more of this.’”

A Collaborative Effort

“The Teacher” was created through a partnership between the core team, who provided the narrative sauce, and an external team, who designed the mission, which will appear early in the game.

In the quest, the player is asked to retrieve a component for their ship, but they’re confronted by a formidable foe called Teshin, who removes the player's powers and close-combat arms, and forces them to engage with the mod system to effectively show its potential.

Many of the external team were longtime players, but some were newcomers, according to a principal games designer. This fresh viewpoint that proved critical.

“The first thing we did was basically sit behind them and have them experience the introduction and take prodigious notes on all points of confusion,” the designer said. Introductory tutorials introduced players to modding. But the team observed these weren't effective for all.

“Some people didn't see basic instructions where it's flashing on the screen saying equip the modification,” he said.

Addressing a Real Need

Warframe’s mods allow players to create stupidly powerful synergies that turn the screen into a blitz of numbers. But "The Teacher" isn’t really about that. There will be some long-time players who wish the quest was geared more towards their needs, like creating powerful and specific builds. But it became clear that “The Teacher” is filling a real and significant gap for early players — and that doing so isn’t as simple as it looks.

“Numerous subtle adjustments and background details there to just demonstrate the possibilities rather than explain it outright,” the designer said. For example, one of the mission's objectives is to show how mods can create powerful elemental status effects; in this case, a magnetic effect that depletes protective barriers.

“Adjustments to the armament to be a burst-fire weapon, because it shows off the proc rate more,” the designer said. “But you don’t want to say to people, 'with a basic modification, you only got a few percentage chance to trigger a special damage type.' So how do you tutorialize that without changing it?”

Veterans will naturally recognize these mechanics and understand how it works, but beginners require instruction to notice these details.

“This type of design work that we've had to worry about as much just because our priorities lay elsewhere,” said a narrative lead. “However, this oversight meant that players weren't properly taught the modding system.”

Significant Investment

“A tremendous amount of work is required for just making a really simple mission that — frankly — you can complete quickly,” said the designer. “But it's months and months of work for many team members.”

The designer was clearly enthusiastic over contributing to a beloved title — and to design content featuring a preferred figure.

“I love Teshin,” he said. “He's my 8-year-old internal self's idea of what's cool.”

Streamlining the Beginning

In the 12 years since its release, Warframe has been in a ongoing struggle with its own new user introduction. There are lots of complex systems that players don’t need to worry about — and won’t even have access to until much later. And others, like modding, that increase in depth depending on your level of engagement. A previous patch streamlined the early game so that players could reach Warframe’s complex narrative arcs with less time on the grind up front.

With “The Teacher,” it’s clear that the developers are reinforcing their dedication to make sure Warframe’s initial hours doesn’t stay locked in 2013. Beginners can find their way — even if they miss the menu prompts.