Warframe: Devstream 179 Q&A With Megan Everett

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A week and a half ago, Digital Extremes held their recent monthly Devstream. Devstream 179 as a whole was very thrilling and held a lot to look forward to for the Warframe community. From new info about Jade Shadows, to a new type of Eximus unit and changes to certain status effects? Also not to mention we got a glimpse at Jade herself and her weapons. As well as an upcoming clan operation that will follow the cinematic quest in Jade Shadows. 

But with so much to look forward to, and with so much still shrouded in mystery until the next Devstream. We were given the opportunity to reach out and ask some questions to Digital Extremes, and Megan Everett, the Community Director and Live Operations for Warframe, took the time to answer some for us!

Devstream 179 Q&A With Megan Everett

I started with the obvious question that I think is on everyone’s mind since the reveal of Jade Shadows: “When it came to making the Jade Shadows update, what drove the team to tackle the story of the Stalker?”

To which Megan replied with the following:

The Stalker is such an important character to Warframe’s legacy, but we still don’t know too much about his past! Jade Shadows will finally address that and answer some burning questions the community have had for years. In true Warframe fashion, we might also pose some new questions along the way, leaving a little more on the table for us to explore later, maybe! Like we said on the April Devstream, we wanted to tell this story last year after The Duviri Paradox, but the timing just didn’t line up as things for Whispers in the Walls started to solidify, and it became our big release for the year. It’s a story the team has wanted to tell for a while, and now felt like the right time to do so.

Jade Shadows is to be a follow-up story for the Stalker after The New War. Which begged the question for me: “Will we see other characters getting similar content updates? There are characters that kind of feel like they are in the background right now, like the remaining Kuva Queen and Pazuul.” 

And Megan answered with:

Our priority for character-focused Updates is to make sure the tone is right. These cinematic single-player experiences are a fine wine to us, and they’re very important to building our world and lore. Our players love getting a little more personal with our characters and this is one way we give them that experience. It feels like the right time to bring Stalker back into the limelight as we take a slight detour from the narrative behind our upcoming Warframe: 1999 Update. Can’t speak on any current direct plans for characters like the Worm Queen, but never say never!

It is good to hear that existing villains and other characters may receive dedicated updates in the future. As there are a lot of characters Digital Extremes can focus on beyond the two I mentioned before.

But to focus back up on Jade Shadows, I asked Megan the following about her design: “When it comes to Jade and her weapons, her design is based off of “Angelic Choir Soloists” and her weapons being a form of inversion of Stalkers. What inspired this decision?”

To which she replied with:

It’ll all make sense when you play Jade Shadows, trust me. Answering the question would be giving a smidge too much away at this point. We are loving everyone’s theories around this right now though, so keep sending them to us, it’s fun!

Backshot of Jade

Jade’s design really piqued my interest, and her reply indicates that the story in the upcoming cinematic quest may subvert everyone expectations. During Devstream 179, there was mention of upcoming cosmetics, and it was confirmed that Lavos would be getting a deluxe skin. So, I asked the following: “There was a mention of a Lavos Deluxe skin during the stream. Will that be coming with Jade Shadows? Or is it just Yareli that is getting a Deluxe skin?” 

And Megan was able to clarify with:

Yareli Deluxe Skin is what’s coming with Jade Shadows. We have a few others coming before Lavos Deluxe, so stay tuned.

It seems like the mention of Lavos Deluxe was an accident. But Creative Director for Warframe, Rebecca Ford made an accident a while back and confirmed Protea Prime before an official announcement could be made.

To cap this all off, they went in depth during Devstream 179 about status chance changes. Primarily surrounding the Cold and Blast status effects. This had a lot of time dedicated to it on stream, so naturally I was curious, and asked: “With the upcoming changes for certain damage types, especially Cold. Are there any other damage types on the radar for upgrades? Slash is very useful comparatively to both Impact and Puncture in the end game.” 

Megan replied with the following:

With this Status Rework, we’re currently focusing on changes to Blast, Cold, Gas, and Magnetic, with Blast and Cold getting the biggest facelifts of the group. Our intention with this Rework was to address Status that weren’t as useful as ones like Slash and bring them up a bit.

As confirmed on Devstream 179, there will be a new Kuva Sobek and Tenet Glaxion. So, the idea of buffing the Cold Status effect seems to go hand and hand with the new Tenet weapon. But I also had some warframe’s on my mind. Considering some are reliant on Cold, so I followed up with: “When it came to buffing the Cold status effect, were there any considerations with certain warframe abilities? Frost and Chroma came to mind when I heard about the changes for Cold specifically.”

And she was able to confirm some exciting information:

With these changes to Cold, we’re keeping Frost in mind and will update everyone on our May Devstream. It’s too early at the moment to divulge details! 

But considering Frost is very underrated in the current meta. I followed up one more time with: “On the topic of Frost… Someone like Styanax with the augment for his 4 can offer a lot of Overguard when compared to Frost’s augment with his 4, will there be any adjustments in the future now that Overguard is becoming a big deal for endgame content?”

With Megan answering with:

That’s a great question, but nothing is planned at the moment regarding Overguard. We’re very interested to see how players feel about the Enemy Resistances and Status Rework and how it might change the gameplay.

Which does mean that for Frost mains, there may be some improvements to him in the future. With some being announced on the next Devstream.

Special thanks to Digital Extremes, and Megan Everett for taking the time and for the opportunity to ask these questions.