Warframe is heading over to a long-awaited star system this year.
Game developer Digital Extremes’ annual Warframe-themed gaming convention TennoCon 2026 has officially ended, bringing players the usual slate of big announcements and reveals for the game's future. This time around, Digital Extremes revealed Warframe’s long-awaited Tau expansion, which adds a whole new star system for players to explore.
Here’s a trailer for the expansion:
What is in Warframe’s Tau expansion?
Warframe is finally heading over to the long-awaited Tau star system. The star system, which until this point has not been available for player exploration, was once the target of the Orokin faction’s terraforming efforts. Now, it serves as the homeworld of the machine-like Sentient faction.
The Tau System is the centrepiece of Warframe’s upcoming Tau expansion, which is set to launch later this year. The expansion adds a new galaxy, a new enemy faction, and a new playable Warframe. This will be the game’s second explorable solar system all in all, with Digital Extremes planning to continue adding planets and moons to the system over time.
Tau was shown off at TennoCon 2026 with the reveal of its cyberpunk-styled city Fornax. Fornax serves as a hub zone, from which players can either enter procedurally-generated areas, or explore as a hub of its own. Fornax has plenty of its own activities for players to partake in, including gambling machines and card minigames.
The Tau expansion also introduces a brand-new Warframe named Brysko, who is voiced by Matt Mercer (Critical Role). Interestingly, Brysko comes into the story as a fully sentient Warframe, narrating the events and encounters of Fornax with noir-like flavour. He seems primed to be the game’s take on the classic hardboiled detective archetype, even if Warframes typically don’t possess their own individual personalities and voices. That makes him pretty unique in the playable roster.
Warframe is also releasing a couple updates leading up to Tau’s launch in late 2026. First up is a new story quest called the Iceblade of Narin, which adds a new location and an ice-elemental Warframe for players to pick up. An Orokin Vessel is also going to be made available to take players over to the Tau system, and it can be customised much like the player’s Landing Craft.
Finally, several Warframes are getting reworked for the Iceblade of Narin update, and a few more Warframes will get Deluxe and Prime variants.
Warframe’s Tau expansion will launch in late 2026.
