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The space ninja adventure known as Warframe, an experience where you can feed yourself to a giant mouth and pilot futuristic vehicles, has unveiled a major update. The Vallis Undermind highlights the creative flair that has become synonymous with Warframe in more recent times.

This expansion, released on Wednesday, brings in a fungus-inspired character that performs a unique animation, along with a brand-new biome to discover. But it’s also going back to basics, with another quest geared at making sure this complex, vast long-running online game is accessible for new players.

A Quest Called "The Teacher"

Named “The Teacher,” this is the highly anticipated mission that instructs Warframe players on how to use one of the game's fundamental yet complex systems: the mod system.

In Warframe, modifications are enhancements that can be equipped on your warframe or arsenal to boost their performance. They range from the straightforward (increase damage or speed up reload rate) to the devastatingly complex. Dedicated players often craft hour-long videos about optimized loadouts that use synergistic enhancements to create overwhelming power.

“I think a lot of people were maybe getting into the early game, seeing mods, not really understanding it,” noted a key developer. “We believed it was crucial, at the end of the quest, for players to think, ‘Hey, modding is cool. I'd like to experiment further.’”

A Joint Development

“The Teacher” was developed in a collaboration between the core team, who handled the story elements, and an external team, who crafted the gameplay, which will be introduced to new players.

In the quest, the player is asked to retrieve a new segment for their spaceship, but they’re confronted by a formidable foe called Teshin, who removes the player's powers and melee weapons, and compels them to use the mod system to handily demonstrate its power.

Many of the external team were already fans of the game, but some were newcomers, according to a principal games designer. This fresh viewpoint that was essential.

“The first thing we did was basically sit behind them and go right play through the tutorial and take prodigious notes on everywhere they fell out,” the designer said. Introductory tutorials presented the mod system. But the team noted that they didn’t work on everyone.

“Certain players missed fundamental guidance where it's flashing on the screen saying put the mod in the slot,” he said.

Closing an Important Loop

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 desire more advanced content, like optimizing for endgame challenges. But it became clear that the mission addresses a genuine oversight for early players — and that executing this is quite complex.

“There’s lots of little tweaks and little subtle things in the background there to just demonstrate the possibilities rather than tell you,” 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, Magnetic damage that eats chunks out of enemy shields.

“Adjustments to the armament to be a burst-fire weapon, because it better demonstrates the effect frequency,” the designer said. “However, the goal isn't to say to people, 'oh yeah, actually on a base level mod, you only got a low probability to proc an elemental effect.' So how do you tutorialize that without changing it?”

Experienced players will naturally recognize these mechanics and grasp their function, but beginners require instruction to notice these details.

“It’s not a kind of game development that we've had to worry about as much just because our priorities lay elsewhere,” said a story developer. “But part of it not being our focus that players weren't properly taught the modding system.”

A Labor of Love

“A tremendous amount of work is required for just making a seemingly straightforward quest that — honestly — you can blast through in about 15 minutes,” said the designer. “But it's months and months of work for loads of people.”

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 embodies everything my younger self found awesome.”

An Evolving Onboarding Process

In the decade-plus since launch, Warframe has been in a consistent battle with its own new user introduction. There are many intricate mechanics that players can ignore initially — and won't encounter until much later. And others, like modding, that increase in depth depending on your level of engagement. A previous patch improved the introductory experience so that players could reach Warframe’s mind-bending plot developments with less time on the grind up front.

With “The Teacher,” it’s clear that the developers are doubling down on a commitment to make sure Warframe’s initial hours doesn’t stay locked in 2013. New players can get their foot in the door — regardless of overlooking tutorials.