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2026 is about to kickstart a new era of Warframe. We’re within touching distance of Tau, the spacefaring action game’s colossal update that will take us outside of the Origin system for the first time. We’ve seen glimpses of the new Chimera Frames, specifically Brysko. And finally, we got View From the Top, one of my favorite Warframe tracks to date. That’s easily the most important part.
But before we venture off to systems unknown, Digital Extremes dropped the Iceblade of Narin update, which introduced the titular frame, Narin, the first female Ice frame, and took us on a quick journey back through Warframe’s past. One of the update’s main selling points, however, was the six-player Glacial Defiance mode, which got hit with a slight delay, pushing it back by just over a week. Now, however, Glacial Defiance – now renamed The Icebind – has arrived, and I caught up with Community Director Megan Everett to learn more about it.
It’s worth stating right off the bat that The Icebind isn’t a raid. It isn’t a response to the shuttering of Destiny 2, nor is it the return of Warframe’s old eight-player Trials. “We’ve seen the Reddit threads; we’ve seen the situation,” Everett laughs. “The word ‘raid’ in itself holds a lot of weight within any gaming community; we are definitely not calling these raids.”
I ask what the mode’s intent is, and how it’s different from the instances we see in other online titles. “I would say that a typical raid has that kind of climactic conclusion or build-up to the boss. That’s not what this is; that’s what our original raids – our Trials – were. The Icebind is really trying to scratch the itch that players have been asking us to. They have asked us for more coordinated, challenging game modes.
“We’ve been testing it internally, of course, and we’ve had some really fun moments of coordinating and squadding up, and making sure I’ve got my Dante, and someone’s got Trinity. Again, it’s not a raid, but it’s giving the Trials vibe because I’m seeing people like ‘oh, gotta get my Trinity back out because it’s really challenging and I need my healer,’ and I was like ‘man, this is Warframe 2014. This is crazy!'”
One of the elements of Icebind that has caused some slight friction, however, is that it doesn’t use public matchmaking. Instead, players need to find a six-person group to queue up with. If you’re part of an established squad, that’s fine, but newer players, or those with a more solo-focus, may struggle to get into games.
“We see the conversation around not being able to publicly matchmake, and that you can’t do it solo and it has to be six players,” Everett says. “We 100% recognize that is going to be a bit of a hurdle, because it’s something that Warframe doesn’t do. You can publicly matchmake – obviously, the likes of Elite Temporal Archimedia is very restrictive in its loadout, whereas The Icebind isn’t. We’re trying to take bits and pieces of functionality that we know players like and do something a little different.
“We have to try something new, and it’s not going to be for everyone. We recognize that, and we’re of course ready to take that feedback when it does launch to players. We do have intentions to make it not six-player mandatory; it’ll launch with six players for sure, but we definitely want to have people in smaller squads to be able to do it. But that won’t be at launch. We have a lot of ideas and hopes, but it’s going to rely a lot on what players think.”
I’ve also seen concerns on the forums regarding The Icebind’s loot. At the moment, drops are performance-based, which comes with its own set of concerns. Much like other Warframe missions, Everett clarifies that you’ll receive more rewards if you complete side missions and other content, but everyone will still be compensated for completing The Icebind itself.
“If you succeed as a team and do zero of those [additional] challenges, or even if you fail all of those challenges and still succeed at the mission, you’re still going to get the reward in the end,” she stresses. “It’s still pretty tried and true Warframe in that capacity, it’s just if you’re putting in the effort to squad up and pick your Warframes and your key and all that stuff, then one would hope that you’re also coordinating in-game as well to do those challenges if you want those additional rewards.”
As for why that decision has been made, Everett clarifies that it’s “to address ‘griefing’ commentary when it comes to mission side objectives. Considering what the mode is asking of you – dedicated squads, six players, very hard content – we need to ensure any potential griefing options are minimal. If we have the power to alleviate some of those player concerns by making the side objectives a part of the success requirements, then we will. The goal is coordination and teamwork!”
Speaking of coordination and teamwork, there’s one question on all of our minds: what are the most busted combinations? As TennoCon’s designated tribute and one of Warframe’s primary experts, I ask Everett what she suggests – or if she suggests anything at all.
“Honestly, it’s fuck it we ball,” Everett laughs, although she clarifies that you can only pick one of each frame. “You can’t have six Wukongs, you can’t have six Revenants. We want to invoke a little bit of what Trials did when I would bring my Loki Irritadiating Disarm, we’d have a Trinity healer – kind of that strategy. And we’ve seen that kind of come back: it’s really good to have a Revenant, it’s really good to have a Dante – that’s usually me. It’s really good to have a Trinity.
“It’s back to that kind of world, which is crazy to say, because we’ve been saying it’s not a raid – and it’s not – but it’s giving [you] that coordination that you had to do to succeed with Trials. So it’s really interesting, but it’s more of a fuck it we ball – if you find the best six-player loadouts that you want to run every time, that’s great for you, you will succeed, and it will be so fun.”
Warframe’s new six-player mode, The Icebind, is live now. As for all things Tau, I suspect that we’ll hear more about that very, very soon.
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