TennoCon 2026 is tomorrow, and it’s going to showcase a lot of new content for Digital Extremes’ upcoming fantasy MMORPG, Soulframe. The annual event for the company is opening with a new Devstream that will showcase a lot of exciting new stuff for the game. That being said, its latest update last month, Preludes 15, fundamentally changed the game, and I wanted to wait and see what changes would happen in the hotfixes after the fact. Some changes are for the better, some for worse. Let’s start with the good, before the bad and some ugliness.
Revamped Dungeons, a New Siege and Encounters
One of the highlighted additions to the game was the new Siege in Turret Jotar. It’s a short one; it’s not really hard to do, unlike Mirifuir. There was also a new location added to the game. The island at the top of the map is now fully filled out, and you can unfog that part of your map. However, I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I cannot fast travel to the tree there. Otherwise, it’s pretty much empty; it doesn’t have anything particularly interesting to do there yet.
There is also a wealth of new enemy spawns, and a floating Ode machine that can sometimes carry treasure chests. Enemies now spawn more frequently and in randomized groups around the map. It’s all welcome changes, really, especially what they did to dungeons. In my general critique of Soulframe, I said that dungeons felt like they never ended properly. Sure, you had enemies, loot, and sometimes a mini boss here and there. But now every dungeon finishes with a new unique room with a dedicated boss at the end. This boss drops its own loot, and there’s a treasure room just before the exit.
I love this; it’s amazing. It’s given every dungeon run a perfect point A and point B. If they can add matchmaking or something for other players to join a group for a dungeon similar to how the world trees show players, but outside the dungeon entrance? These would be endlessly repeatable and fun to do in groups.
The Runes and Totem System Revamp
In this update, the Runes and Totem system was completely overhauled. Not only is the UI much cleaner and cooler to look at. The Totems themselves now offer so many valuable buffs and are now shared between weapon classes. This means once you have a grace, spirit, and courage totem, you can put them in any weapon you want.
The Totems can now blind enemies with you smite enemies, give more damage to your slotted rune, give you healing capabilities, or just smite enemies around you. It’s a very awesome change, no complaints here. Now with the good out of the way, let’s talk about the bad, then the ugly.
A New Tedious Loot System and UI in Soulframe
Ok, this is the bad part, not because there’s no real good to it, but because of how underbaked it is. Let’s start with what changed. The loot system in Soulframe was a mimic of Warframe. Gather resources, blueprints, and craft on a timer. Now that is no longer the case for weapons, but still the case for armor. Weapons now drop fully built with different rarities and modifiers. I love this change, but there are still a lot of problems with it.
For one, the tempers or modifiers are vague. They need to be clearer on how much a temper adds to a weapon numerically. The inventory system needs a major UI overhaul. You can only sell weapons at Zenith, the microtransaction camel. You cannot filter properly or scrap them for parts before you pick them up. There needs to be a much better loot screen; as someone who plays a lot of looter games, this is not acceptable to me.
Finally, the upgrading system is needlessly confusing; the higher-tier chordstones should just be droppable from Agari. Lampyrite should also be craftable using certain resources as well to take some control away from RNGesus. Also, if you played before the update, if you had weapon fragments, they still appear in Tuvalkane’s menu for weapons that now drop. I would much prefer these fragments being removed to help remove the bloat here, or give me the option to scrap those fragments.
Buyable Droppable Weapons and a Downgrade to Avakot
In my article talking about the news from the Devstream that talked about the changes to weapons, I was lukewarm on the suggestions to the microtransaction store solution. Before, you could buy all weapons in the game because they needed to be crafted, mimicking Warframe’s pay-to-skip option that’s a mainstay in the game. But now, since weapons drop normally and can be built, they now offer a rotation of different weapons at a high rarity with a selection of tempers. This is not what I was expecting for this change.
If there are going to be uncraftable weapons in the future that still use the fragment system, sure, make a tab for them. But the weapons in this microtransactions tab are acquirable outright. Sure, you need to make some investments into the crafting system to make them worth using, but offering a pay-to-skip for the upgrade system is not ideal.
Finally, for some reason, Avakot no longer sells any materials for Dracs. I cannot recall any use for Dracs now. Sure, Avakot was a rare encounter, but spending the excess Dracs you get on resources you need was something I liked. I can no longer do that, and I only see my Dracs getting higher without a way to properly spend them.
Closing Remarks on Preludes 15 for Soulframe
It’s sad that there’s a good, bad, and ugly side to this update. But it is worth noting how much was done right and how much Soulframe still needs improvement. With the reveals at TennoCon on Saturday, I am, of course, very hopeful for what they show, but I hope they go back and give the love and care some of these systems still need.
