Lotus Mom Rebecca is in China again!
This time it was in Xi'an, and the Tenno gathering, TennoVip, also landed in China for the first time.
No joke, this TennoVip 2026 offline trip to Xi'an was really lively.
There were local bands performing "Desperate Measures" from "Warframe: 1999" and the "Tau Hit" "On Top of the World," and there was a live lottery session giving away 100,000 Platinum and a PlayStation 5 Slim as prizes—I know what you want to ask, I didn't win.
Moreover, with the assistance of the Tencent team, Warframe pulled off a big stunt this time, inviting a local folk orchestra in Xi'an to remix Solaris United's "Together We Stand," and a group of "Terracotta Warriors" wearing Warframe masks danced mechanically on stage, earning cheers from the Tennos present.
Every Tenno who attended the TennoVip offline event in Xi'an received five Star Credit vouchers, which could be used for the Warframe Wall wish activity and the favorite Warframe ring toss game—I was very lucky and casually tossed a ring to win Director Gao's poster.
The most interesting part was that there were many small activities mixing traditional Xi'an old-brand arts with Orokin style, such as Warframe rubbings, Void paper-cutting, and Orokin sugar paintings, all available for just one Star Credit. Not to mention anything else, just for the handsome avatar specially reset for this TennoVip Xi'an event, I experienced it without hesitation.
Of course, speaking of what has been consistent between this first Chinese TennoVip event and previous ones—it is naturally taking advantage of the good opportunity that Lotus Mom Rebecca, Community Director Megan, and Chinese Community Manager Zi are all on site, allowing the players present to throw various difficult questions to "grill" them.
For example, will Warframes get Riven Mods, when will our Ming Shen be reset, and regarding the Chinese-style Warframe Chang'e mentioned at the last Shanghai player meetup, when will it be released.
Tennos eagerly raised their hands to ask questions on site
The answer is revealed in advance: Warframes will not get Riven Mods, Ming Shen will compete for Revives with Dragon Frame and Loki next year, and Chang'e is already in design.
As for other content, feel free to check out the interview below.
Q: Warframe can continue to attract new players and retain old players. What do you think is the core of this game? If Warframe were re-examined in today's gaming environment, what do you think is the hardest part to replicate now?
Rebecca:Haha, I think the key to our success is mainly players' trust and our ability to respond quickly. Players have many demands, and we try to respond quickly. Doing this obviously makes the workload very large, and we therefore can never slack off, must always work hard—I think this is our unique point.
In addition, we will continue to strive to keep the game fun, exciting, and full of surprises, quickly bringing players what they like.
In short, welcome everyone to play Warframe.
Q: From focusing on developing Warframe to focusing on promoting Warframe and achieving better market performance—looking back, what product development and operational insights have you gained over these years? In terms of long-term operation methodology, what experiences can be learned by the industry?
Rebecca:This is a very good question. In terms of gameplay and experience, Warframe is actually a bit special, even strange. First, it doesn't have high competitiveness; second, somehow, we luckily got the market's attention with the combination of "strange" and "non-competitive," gradually achieving success and product growth.
In the process of developing the product, we make decisions very cautiously because we don't want to make wrong decisions—such as catering to PvP or other mainstream types, making players feel that we betrayed the core experience of the game and the core vision promised at the product's launch.
So ultimately, I think our secret lies in the fact that the entire team firmly believes in the positioning of this product and the vision we set for it at the beginning. Over the past years, each member of the team, as individuals, has formed a very special bond with this product, growing up with it because it is too important to us and our players.
Therefore, we never take the next update for granted.
We hope that in the future, while releasing new content, we can maintain the most core and essential things of the game—these new contents must come from us and must be sincere.
Q: This year's TennoCon finally officially announced the Tau System. Warframe has introduced many different gameplay styles over the years, such as open worlds, Empyrean, Duviri, and "Warframe: 1999." So, what new changes will there be in the gameplay of the Tau System? And how will you prepare to create new high-difficulty content and endgame gameplay that players find both fun and challenging?
Rebecca:This might need to be emphasized. We are about to launch a major version update for the Tau System. In this version, we have prepared a lot of new content, including new clans, new storylines, new worldviews, etc.
In terms of gameplay, we have incorporated many new things while also wanting to retain the sci-fi urban elements to create a brand-new in-game world for everyone. The new version includes some underground organization or gang elements, as well as card game elements, etc.
Of course, these elements are fictional settings, different from reality, but include similar gameplay elements. We hope to make everyone who plays the Tau System feel fresh through the new environment. At the same time, we will launch more new in-game areas, and we will discuss more details about this part in the next live stream.
Q: When players arrive in the Tau System, the first player hub they encounter is "Fornax." The feeling of this city is quite different from any Sentient faction style and environment players have seen before, with some very film noir elements. Why did Digital Extremes choose "Fornax" as the first place players contact after arriving in the Tau System?
Rebecca:The reason we chose "Fornax" is that we hope players can immediately experience a sense of ruin and fragmentation after entering the new world. The atmosphere of this city is decaying, desolate, oppressive, and dark, which might be a bit hard to endure.
But for the story, what's important is—when players arrive as Operators in a very dilapidated city with a terrible history, their task and sense of mission lie in bringing new hope to this city. And during the experience, players will encounter new characters, new villains, etc.
In our plans, the player's mission is to rebuild this city and ultimately restore it to the glory of its golden age.
Q: Many lore-focused players feedback that the volume of many side quests in the game is not sufficient. Besides the main storyline, does the Tau System plan to launch more short side quests, official comics, derivative animations, and other content to complete the worldview?
Rebecca:What I can reveal now is that the entire Tau System has a large content update plan spanning several years in the future, one of which is to rapidly advance the storyline, so that more side missions can be accommodated and added.
I think I can give everyone a spoiler here: Players will encounter new important NPC characters in the Tau System, and we have buried many surprises. At the same time, there might be some "romance" elements, which players will have to discover for themselves.
For many years to come, we will continue to add content to the Tau System, which also means a very large workload in the future. Of course, if energy and capabilities allow, we also hope to create more comics or animations, but we cannot reveal anything at present. Next year, we will do some related exploration and planning.
Q: We see that Warframe actually encourages players to explore and even break through the gameplay boundaries preset by the development team. In the community, we can also see many players calculating the "best solution," which is regarded by other players as the "meta of the season." So I also want to ask, does this freedom encouraging player co-creation also increase the pressure on gameplay balance to some extent?
Rebecca:Balancing Warframe is indeed very difficult. We want players to be powerful enough, and in design, we only set three basic rules: First, as a cooperative game, ensure that everyone can enjoy playing together, and not let one person ruin everyone's experience; Second, we won't let the game "play itself"—this is important because complete automation means boredom, so we will ensure players always need to participate.
The last point is more scientific, which is looking at data. You know Warframe has 66 characters, and if everyone only plays one character, there must be a problem. For example, the way we monitor game health is like monitoring a person's physical condition—Warframe is like a person with vital signs like a heartbeat. If everyone only plays one character during a certain period, it means its heartbeat might be too fast, which is unhealthy.
So from these data, we judge what players like and dislike, striving to balance the game well.
Q: As the Warframe universe continues to expand, the amount of content has become very huge. There are many voices in the domestic community hoping to provide more fast-paced casual gameplay for both new and old players while retaining hardcore challenges, and to reduce the burden of some tedious systems. Of course, we know that the team is currently continuously reducing the burden, and we want to know what specific system optimization plans are being promoted in the future.
Rebecca:Yes, we have always faced a dilemma—should we create more high-difficulty missions targeting the demands of high-level players, or help ordinary players design content that is easier to get started with and oriented towards the early stages of Warframe.
Sometimes we struggle repeatedly with the new player experience issue. For example, in 2025, our focus was on the new player experience, and the results were unexpected—so many newbie-friendly updates, the impact and success were truly surprising to us.
And this year, with the launch of the Tau System, we will concentrate our efforts on creating new endgame gameplay to ensure that deep players have a better experience.
I think we need to balance both aspects, even if due to limited R&D manpower, we can only concentrate our efforts on major tasks. Everyone will definitely experience more hardcore content this year, and next year we might put more energy into reducing the burden for new players.
Q: How does Digital Extremes generally determine when an old system or an old Warframe system needs to be remade? Do you focus more on player data, community feedback, or leave it to the development team to decide?
Rebecca:This is difficult because Warframe is too large in scale. Sometimes we adopt the form of remakes for product optimization, such as Banshee, which we made new adjustments to.
Of course, if we optimize specifically for a certain Warframe, such as making its appearance more in line with modern aesthetics or making its experience smoother, this kind of optimization is relatively easier.
If we were to change the entire large system, it would be more complicated.
Because many players may have already invested a lot of time and energy into this system, making sudden major adjustments and changes would be disastrous for the player experience. So when deciding what to change and why, we do a lot of weighing and thinking.
We updated the Clan system this year, and the idea for next year might be to add more systems to "Warframe: 1999," such as Relics and Prime crafting, etc.
I also talked a lot with Pablo this year. We are considering whether to update and adjust elemental damage and damage types, and perhaps update the damage and Mod systems. A lot of work is underway.
Q: We noticed that the upcoming Tau System expansion introduces the first card mini-game, "Portau." What was the source of the idea to add card gameplay to a fast-paced action shooter? And how will it interact with the core combat system?
Rebecca:We think this card game is very special because, in this update, we want players to relax and have fun in the hub besides shooting and action. It's more of a social experience where you can bring your Warframe to play this card game, learn something, and have fun.
Of course, as Warframe grows larger, we hope to bring some unique experiences to players, and cards are an attempt in this regard. The entire team loves this card game very much, and Pablo himself spent a lot of time and energy producing and developing this card gameplay.
We think this card game will bring a social and cool experience, adding many new colors to Warframe. We also hope everyone will experience it and like this new thing.
Q: You previously mentioned being very interested in the image of "Chang'e." Half a year has passed, so what is the current development progress? When is it expected to meet players? Now, does this Chinese-style Warframe have a more Warframe-style interpretation? Compared to the previous two Chinese-style male frames, what different focuses will this female Warframe have in terms of design concept and skill conception?
Rebecca:It has been six months since we last discussed the idea of Chang'e—actually, more than six months. I am personally very interested in the mythological character of Chang'e. I · L O V E · H E R (Thunder Chinese robotic reading).
The character of Chang'e fits very well with the new star system we launched and the positioning of the moon in the storyline—this story and character behind it include immortality, as well as love and tragedy. Therefore, we will interpret Chang'e's story to fit the new solar system, the new moon, and integrate it into the Tau System.
At the same time, I think Chang'e, as a female character, fits very well with some of our product's aesthetic concepts. Because she is not only particularly beautiful and charming in appearance and image, her story behind can also be well integrated into the product's narrative.
I spent a lot of time studying various artistic elements of Chang'e and deeply understood the story behind her. Although Chang'e's story is a love tragedy, there are many artistic and aesthetic aspects that can be applied to Warframe.
Here's a little hint: Chang'e might appear as a Sentient because this faction hasn't had a female Warframe yet.
Q: You just mentioned the Chang'e Warframe. After Chang'e, will Digital Extremes continue to launch Chinese-style or Eastern mythology-related content? For example, Yang Jian, who is highly requested by Chinese players, or the Terracotta Warriors related to the location of this event. In addition, what exclusive benefits or optimized content for Chinese players will be launched in the future?
Rebecca:We attach great importance to drawing inspiration from the Chinese community and Chinese culture. The performance of "Jiujiu Daqin" I watched yesterday really amazed me. While watching the performance, I noticed the weather system—the performance had scenes like rain, using many methods to simulate weather changes on site.
Then I had a sudden idea: maybe in the future, we can incorporate the weather system as an element into game design considerations.
Of course, I also hope to learn more about Chinese mythology and draw inspiration from it. Chang'e is indeed a very unique example for us. In the future, we also hope to listen to the suggestions of Chinese players and the community as much as possible.
Also, I'd like to add that while watching the performance yesterday, I was deeply moved by the story. The protagonist and his lover ultimately ended in tragedy. Just from this plot, I could already think of many ideas that might be integrated into Warframe's subsequent storylines.
Q: Looking back at the development of Warframe over the years, we've noticed a phenomenon: compared to other long-running GaaS games that frequently launch deep in-game collaborations with other IPs—such as exclusive collaboration characters, storylines, and gameplay modes—Warframe seems to have never done similar deep IP collaborations.
Although TennoGen allows players to create cosmetic skins, true deep in-game collaborations with other IPs are still rare. In the current GaaS game market, IP collaborations have become an important operational strategy for acquiring new users and maintaining热度. How does Digital Extremes consider this? Is it due to considerations of maintaining the independence of the Warframe worldview, or is it because a suitable cooperation opportunity has not been found yet? Are there specific plans or ideas for IP collaborations in the future?
Rebecca:This question is very precise. From your question, I can see that you fully understand the difficulties and dilemmas our product faces when attempting IP collaborations. I think we are still relatively conservative, reserved, and even hesitant in this direction because we actually don't want other IPs to have too much influence and interference on the product—so we are really conflicted.
We love many other excellent IPs, which are very interesting. But Warframe is a very special product, and the team behind us can be described as "control freaks." No one wants to make mistakes in collaborations and bring any negative impact to the product.
Although we all know that IP collaborations can greatly help with marketing and make players happy, we haven't made a firm decision yet, or rather, we haven't found the most suitable IP.
However, maybe one day in the future we will choose to do so, because doing IP collaborations is indeed quite interesting.
Q: Chinese players call you "Lotus Mom." At the previous Shanghai meetup, you also interacted with players in Chinese. What does this cross-language and cultural emotional connection mean to you personally?
Rebecca:It's very special to me personally. I feel very fortunate to be able to interact with Chinese players and receive such love from everyone.
Being able to communicate face-to-face with players in China, telling them in their language how excited we are, and learning through their language how much they like our game—these are experiences filled with personal color and beautiful memories for me.
Language is a very beautiful thing. If you can learn the other party's language and express emotions to them, there will be better interaction and connection. I also feel very fortunate to be able to interact with players from different regions who support Warframe.
We will try to communicate with them actively and continue to improve the Warframe gaming experience.
Q: After the Tau System content goes online, will the game's subsequent stories and updates unfold simultaneously in the Origin System and the Tau System? Or will the Tau System become the main stage for our activities in the coming period?
Rebecca:Both star systems will be updated simultaneously because how the Origin System interacts and connects with the Tau System is also a very important link. Next year, we will simultaneously launch major updates for the Origin System and updates for the Tau System.
Q: Did you visit the Terracotta Warriors when you came to Xi'an this time? Have you considered creating a Warframe or Warframe appearance based on the Terracotta Warriors?
Rebecca:To be honest, I think Atlas fits well because his ability is to manipulate stones. Also, I want to add some traditional weapon elements, materials like bronze... I think yes, everyone should see some new content inspired by the Terracotta Warriors in the future.
Q: We just mentioned that many discussions in the player community help Digital Extremes improve Warframe. With more fan-created content appearing, will we consciously design some gameplay or systems in the future to give players more space for co-creation?
Rebecca:Yes, we closely track and listen to players' voices and feedback every day, but occasionally we also conduct surveys to deeply understand everyone's thoughts and demands.
I remember the last large-scale survey was about two years ago, so we plan to conduct a global survey in about four months. At that time, we will translate the questionnaire into languages of different regions and send it to all players to understand their thoughts.
Since the Tau System is heavyweight content that players have been looking forward to for a long time, we hope to fully understand everyone's thoughts, viewpoints, and opinions during the continued development process to avoid going astray. Therefore, we will soon conduct a large-scale survey across all regions to collect feedback, which may be the largest one in our history.
Q: From the perspective of role allocation, Tencent should only be responsible for publishing and operations. However, in the past year, we have seen a significant increase in activities such as campus tours, city pop-ups, and Chinese player meetups. So, how is the division of labor between the Tencent team and Digital Extremes now? Which matters are led by Tencent, and which require joint completion by both parties?
Megan:It is a massive collaborative process. Our cooperation with Tencent is extensive, and we greatly trust Tencent's professional capabilities, especially in promotion and operations within the Chinese market.
My Chinese isn't very good, and Zi has provided me with a lot of support and help during communication and collaboration. Often, the Tencent team provides us with numerous ideas, and we sit down together to discuss and filter them, looking for fresh and interesting activities to bring to players.
Additionally, Tencent possesses many market insights and channels that we do not have. Since I don't understand Chinese, I have always relied on Zi to inform me about these channels, including what is happening within the Chinese community, interactions on Bilibili, QQ groups, and so on.
We really enjoy collaborating with Tencent and look forward to expanding our cooperation and coordination with Tencent as the Chinese market continues to develop.
Q: Warframe is a very special game for Chinese players. Before Tencent's localization team got involved, content creators and core players had already built a community with a strong discussion atmosphere and its own culture. So, for Digital Extremes and the domestic operations team, what is the most important thing in properly localizing Warframe for the Chinese market?
Rebecca:We feel that Tencent has contributed a great deal of professional expertise in terms of localization. As mentioned earlier, you may already know that we are about to release new Chinese voice-over content, featuring a brand-new voice for "Lotus Mom."
The Chinese market is huge and is a very important territory for us. Therefore, we have always put in a lot of effort and hard work, hoping to do well in the Chinese market and community. As everyone knows, Warframe is massive in scope, so the workload for this Chinese voice-over localization was extremely huge and complex.
In this regard, Tencent has provided us with very professional support and helped us better understand Chinese players.
Therefore, after completing this localized voice-over, we will conduct player satisfaction surveys to observe feedback and thoughts on this localization initiative. During this process, Tencent has given us full support, so we greatly trust their professional capabilities in this area. Of course, I am also trying my best to learn Chinese, hoping to better handle localization work and understand the Chinese market.
Q: This TennoVIP event in Xi'an is the first official exclusive offline gathering in China, which has excited many players. Compared to the regular TennoCon and TennoVIP tours overseas, Chinese players have previously communicated more through online interactions or small self-organized meetups.
Are there plans by the officials to make such offline events "regular" or "scaled-up" in China in the future? Besides Xi'an, what other cities or forms of community activities are being prepared?
Megan:We really want to hold more TennoVIP-like events in more places across China. In fact, we will be going to Shanghai next week, which is also my first time visiting Shanghai, and I can't wait.
Rebecca:When I came to China in February, I promised everyone that I would definitely bring Megan along, and this time I kept my promise.
Megan:She literally shipped me here in her suitcase (laughs). This TennoVIP event is larger in scale compared to our previous events and far exceeded our expectations. Next, besides Shanghai, we also hope to visit Hong Kong.
In short, I hope to visit more cities in China to understand the local culture and stories. I also hope to come often in the future, although it involves a 15-hour flight and overcoming a 12-hour time difference—it's quite tough, but I feel it's all worth it.
Rebecca:Zi assured me that I would fall in love with Chengdu and Chongqing; she said I would like it there.
Q: This TennoVIP event is in Xi'an, an ancient Buddhist capital with many historical sites. You just mentioned being very excited to see the Terracotta Warriors, and Lotus Mom also mentioned possibly developing new content inspired by the Terracotta Warriors.
Besides the Terracotta Warriors, what other places did you visit? Can you share your impressions?
Megan:This time, we truly had a profound experience. From day one, we attended a Chinese-style banquet (the Wu Huang Feast), which told the story of Wu Zetian. Everyone dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes and watched wonderful performances. I was deeply impressed by Wu Zetian's attire and the story behind it, especially the Empress, war, and various combat elements presented in the performance.
We are storytellers, and Xi'an happens to be a city full of stories. So, I feel that exploring and understanding the cultural heritage here was a very inspiring experience for us. Choosing Xi'an as the venue for the event was truly perfect.
Q: Are there any plans for the future direction of the game? Also, what are your feelings about this TennoVIP event? What message would you like to convey to Chinese players through this event? Do you have anything you'd like to say to offline or online players?
Rebecca:As for future travel plans in China—I think I need to choose carefully next year. I really want to go to Chongqing and Chengdu, and I hope I can. You ask what we want to say to Chinese players—just prepare spicy food for me, but no spice for Megan (laughs).
In short, I am very much looking forward to meeting everyone in these beautiful cities next. I also hope you can persuade the Tencent team to help organize our next city visit—please, let's go to Chongqing, it's really important.
Megan:Since this is my first time here, I had already felt your immense love and passion online, and Zi shared many stories about Chinese players with me. So, I was especially looking forward to meeting everyone in person, seeing that passion firsthand, and hearing your stories.
In short, thank you very much to the Chinese player community for welcoming us to China, allowing us to experience your culture and share it with us. This is very important to us. I am incredibly excited to finally meet all of you tonight.
Zi:You might not know that I've been lurking in your QQ groups, secretly keeping an eye on everyone's activities. At 5 AM this morning, I noticed activity in the group—someone said they couldn't sleep at all, having slept for only about two hours before getting up excitedly (laughs).
We brought a lot of new things and shared many stories this time. I feel very fortunate to participate in this event. Please stay tuned and continue to support Warframe.