The Lore's always been kinda murky, but I understand the original frames were made by infecting people with the helminth strain of the technocyte virus (e.g excal umbra, some of the primes), which are what the tenno connected with, but then they were used as blueprints to mass produce frames without the person. The ones you build in your foundry are copies, so you're just returning a lump of infestation to the original mass for it to reabsorb and learn from.
There haven't been many major updates since the new war, so you're not actually all that far behind. Lots of hot fixes, QoL, and updates to bring the content islands closer together. Nothing earth shattering, but some improvements.
Seeing as you're coming back, might as well start with the veilbreaker content that follows on from the new war - archon hunts are the new sorties and Kahl's missions are mini new war sections with various challenges, both weeklies. Zariman kinda sucks as a hub, but the missions are trying something new. Albrecht's lab is similar, but better executed, and has an extreme difficulty weekly if you're into that kind of challenge. Duviri offers a new version of open world without dailies, but the cool stuff from steel path does require a daily rep grind from the Zariman.
I haven't interacted with the Helminth system at all and I still can survive into roughly level 110 enemies mostly because I'm rusty af and nowhere near the level of mechanical input I was at back during the New War; I really don't think it's that necessary-- ad as it is, I don't like breaking up the action theming of my frames in the first place; like how tf my Frost look popping Volt techniques or smth?
Idk, I haven't noticed any real deficits from not interacting with it yet.
the other frames are copies. Umbra is actually the only true warframe you manufacture and use. remember his foundry recipe has kuva. that nears its his original consciousness.
I always thought that was us remotely controlling it. I mean we did earlier in the quest when we had to get out of the reservoir, right?
It's completely unnecessary for all content, but I'm not ashamed to use it for goofy shit like Aquablades Grendel (slicey meatball) or Wrathful Advance Nyx (lets you teleport around while using her ult). In the end I'm here to play a fun game, and the buildcraft opportunities are too good for me to pass up.
That said, it does offer a handful of abilities even if you never feed it warframes (-75% ammo consumption is real fun to fuck around with), and weekly stat boosts to random frames. I think you also need it to slot archon shards, which are little stat boosts you can get post-New-War. Treat yourself to a little extra parkour speed and energy capacity without needing to spend a whole mod slot on it.
There's a handful of abilities that can turn a specific build up to 11, but it's as much a way to replace an ability you don't like with something you will use as anything else. I don't think I have any in my level 300+ builds - the one I use most is the ability that autosolves the next lock you encounter to speed up spy missions even more, and that comes from the helminth itself instead of a frame.
We got a new creative director after new war who's making tons of QOL improvements and reducing content islands. Whatever you liked doing before? Just keep doing it. Standing grinds have been practically decimated. Duviri is the only new content you really need to worry about. the new quest is confusing as hell but the content itself is pretty straight forward. also recommend unlocking steel path and playing some zariman too
Zariman is fun, took me a while to get my head around that and Duviri when I came up after a hiatus since they'd dropped Solaris. Stiiiiiiiiiiiiill kinda miffed they actually did something about debt-bond drop rates after I finished that faction grind, but eh. Also digging heavily on chasing liches, at first I was doing it for the ephemera drops, but their personalities are funny.
Pretty much. I am happy that newer players who choose to do the open world faction grinds will have to spend less time grinding those out; as charming as the Solaris workers are, Fortuna itself can get old quickly if you engage with every method of leveling it. Good change overall, I'm just kicking myself a lil about it lmao.
I've been on a break for a couple months myself to play other shit, nothing negative about the game itself because it's honestly more fun than it's ever been. The design director position was handed over from Steve to Reb and there's been a fuckload of quality-of-life improvements that feel like they're coming from people who love playing the game as much as they love making it. It's still a content archipelago as is the curse of the live service game, but the mission variety has kept improving, enemy design and variety keep improving, new frames and weapons are good fun, buildcraft options are through the roof.
My sense of time is beyond fucked, but I think your next things to check out after The New War are the 3 quests Angels of the Zariman, The Duviri Paradox, and Whispers in the Walls, which all lead to new mission hubs. See if anything catches your interest and branch out from there.
