Brace yourselves, Warframe lore heads: We're finally going to Tau in 2026
At its tenth TennoCon fan conference on Saturday, Digital Extremes revealed its plans for the next era of Warframe. Following a major update that'll close out 2025, Warframe will finally chart a course for a destination that's been teased for years: In 2026, the Tenno are headed to Tau.
The Tau system is, to put it lightly, a pretty big deal for Warframe. It's where many of the core conflicts of Warframe's storytelling were first set in motion: A far-off star where, thousands of years before in-game events take place, the synthetic race of Sentients rejected their lot as terraforming serfs for the Orokin empire and returned to the Sol system in violent rebellion.
In the Old War that followed, only the Warframe-equipped Tenno proved capable of resisting the Sentient onslaught, until they too turned on their Orokin overlords and delivered a bloody coup de grace that toppled the oppressive empire. After the game opens with their Tenno character waking from ensuing centuries of suspended animation, everything the player sees is fallout from the attempted colonization of Tau—and for years, the arc of Warframe's plot has hinted we'd eventually travel there ourselves.
After countless teases, winks, and nudges, 2026 is when Warframe will make that long-awaited interstellar jump.
Digital Extremes didn't offer many details about what to expect from next year's expansion, but a major story update landing at the end of 2025 will act as a prelude for Tau. Called The Old Peace, the update will see players reliving archived memories from a tenuous truce during the Old War, when the Orokin and Sentient forces attempted to negotiate a ceasefire.
Given how the rest of Warframe history plays out, it seems like those negotiations didn't end well. But living through the peace talks—and, presumably, their collapse—on the moon of Perita will give us our first real glimpse of the Tau system.
You might want to check in on any Warframe lore heads in your life. They're probably hyperventilating pretty hard.
The Old Peace will also add a sidequest called The Devil's Triad, which will introduce Uriel—a new demon-themed Warframe—and a pair of extremely Catholic-coded space weirdos that I'm sure everyone will be very normal about.
That's not all the Warframe we're getting before the year's out. Digital Extremes said there's also a currently-untitled update arriving in the fall, which will bring an ability refresh for the long-neglected Oberon Warframe. It'll also add a new tutorial quest for the Mod system—a crucial part of Warframe gameplay that can be pretty impenetrable for new players.
The year ahead looks like it'll maintain Warframe's status of being the widest and weirdest sci-fi live service game on the market, and I could not be more thrilled. So if you'll excuse me, I've got a few months of grinding to do if I want to get all my Tau prep squared away.