Image credit: Digital Extremes

Warframe's next update - Jade Shadows: Constellations - has finally arrived, bringing with it two new Protoframes: Ryoku and Vena. A relatively recent addition to the sci-fi shooter's playable repertoire, Protoframes - essentially human versions of the game's familiar Warframes - were a bold swing that won hearts and minds a few years back, and they've remained popular ever since.

When Protoframes were introduced in 2024's Warframe: 1999 expansion, they were accompanied by an in-game romance system to much acclaim. Once players got a taste, they've desired more ever since - but Jade Shadows: Constellations' new Protoframes are different.

Here's a gameplay trailer for Jade Shadows: Constellatons.Watch on YouTube

"What's interesting about Ryoku and Vena is I'm sure people will feel a certain way about them not being romanceable, but they can't all be romanceable," community director and live ops lead Megan Everett told Eurogamer.

This time around, Warframe's new Protoframes play a mentor role for the stars of the update: Warframe brothers Orion and Sirius. Rather than attempting to woo Ryoku and Vena, players can side with one over the other, flying off for a space battle that concludes with a tense boss fight against your chosen foe. This is quite the drastic deviation from the norm with Protoframes, something Everett believes is necessary, even if she understands the demand for love.

"You have to branch out with Protoframes to make sure they still have that freshness, and dabble with what players like. But, I already see feedback about people wanting romance - I think everyone will always want romanceable Protoframes.

"I know if my favourite Warframe got a Protoframe, and I wasn't able to do anything like that, I'd be so upset. But if you play the Constellations quest, you'll understand why these characters are so linked to Sirius and Orion, and why they're not an option to be romanced."

It is worth noting that while a desire for romance is ever-present with Protoframes, it hasn't always been included with the introduction of new ones. During last year's Techrot Encore update, for instance, the game introduced four characters, each with their own narratives that meant romance didn't always make sense. Two of them were divorced, for example.

For Everett, while the presence of romanceable Protoframes has been good for the game, it cannot be so present that it begins to lose its lustre. "Our players love the romance systems - it shows our players can swing different types of ways," she explains. "They aren't all around the metagame; not just about the grind. They are open to different gameplay avenues. That's beneficial to us - the lore ones, romanceable ones, and now these mentors. We don't want to have this Protoframe burnout - if we did it for every one we released people would get annoyed."

There's also the challenge of throwing in an ever-growing collection of romanceable characters to an audience who may already feel happy with a pre-established in-game relationship:

"You can't make players care about a character so much, and then throw them another character they can date," Everett says. "When we released the Triad, we had to emphasise you could still date the Warframe 1999 characters, to make sure people wouldn't feel icky and gross. People got really attached to Protoframes, we're beyond appreciative. We just want to avoid frustration wherever possible."

This concern stretches beyond just the topic of romance, however. Too much of a good thing can have its downsides, and "Protoframe burnout" is an ever-present concern on the minds of Warframe's developers. In Everett's words, they have to "remain special".

"We do four new Warframes a year, plus Prime Warframes. Adding Protoframes into the mix in a consistent way would lead to burnout. So we have to pick-and-choose, and have a strategy for where they go. They have to make sense thematically, and fit into the narrative. It's not to say that Protoframes in the future won't be datable, or some won't have a divorce arc or whatever, but things must stay fresh."