Warframe's next expansion is a bizarre roguelike journey into a villain's psyche

Warframe's absolutely wild-looking new expansion, The Duviri Paradox, will finally release in April. Fully revealed in developer Digital Extremes' March Devstream, the expansion will include three major play modes: a solo campaign, an endless game mode, and Warframe's fourth open-world environment. It'll also have a time-rewinding death mechanic that introduces a bit of what the developers call "flirting with rogue-like mechanics."

Part of that is surely because the expansion takes place within the mind-like psychic realm of Duviri, which is kind of a science fantasy... opera... western... thing. Everything is in black and white, and there are techno-organic skeleton horses to ride. It's also probably entirely melded with the mind of expansion antagonist Dominus Thrax, who—and this gets real weird real fast—is an absolute drama queen which has somehow bonded itself with this edge of alternate dimension the Void.

"Prepare to experience an emotionally-charged and wondrous world where visual and gameplay experiences shift and transpose as the mood of the Child King ruler Dominus Thrax changes day-to-day, weaving through elements of Fear, Anger, Happiness, Envy, and Sadness. Each mood in The Duviri Paradox is visually represented in environments and combat, where enemies and the citizens of Duviri behave differently and colors shift to create a new experience with each step into this world touched by the Void," said Digital Extremes in a press release.

It's by far Warframe's most aesthetically daring expansion, one where color and shape are being played with and Warframe is willing to really mess with its science-fantasy core by introducing splashes of other genres, removing color itself as a feature, then slowly reintroducing it as you play more of the expansion.

The three game modes coming in The Duviri Paradox are "The Circuit," which is an endless game mode with Warframes only. The open-world area known as "The Duviri Experience," and the narrative campaign "The Lone Story" as a solo experience. All of these new modes will include the expansion's signature Decree system, a bunch of special perks to get for your character.

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Image from warframe expansion The Duviri Paradox — (Image credit: Digital Extremes)

There's also "The Undercroft" coming, which sounds like a fourth game mode to me but I'll let Digital Extremes explain otherwise: "The Undercroft contains a full Warframe experience free from the eyes of Dominus Thrax, featuring custom Warframe arenas where Decrees also matter and a mix of known enemies and different threats of Warframe exist. Completing this Warframe segment of The Durivi Paradox rewards players and sends them back to Duviri while restoring color to the shifting world," they said.

More information and a precise release date for The Duviri Paradox will come soon.

Digital Extremes also announced the return of their live event, Tennocon, to in-person celebration on Sautrday, August 26 of this year in London, Ontario. The event hasn't been in-person since 2019, having been digital-only for 2020-2022. More details will get revealed in Warframe's 10-Year Anniversary Stream on March 22.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.