Warframe's Shadowgrapher update is out now, and Digital Extremes isn't scared of your penis drawings

"Rap. Tap. Tap. The man in the wall." Whispers in the darkness of an abandoned spaceship, suspended silently in the depths of The Origin System. Specters of days long past line its halls, illuminated only by white LED light. The metal creaks, the murmurs bouncing off the walls, ominously pointing you towards Rell's relic, all the while warning of the aforementioned man in the wall. This is the Chains of Harrow: a quest that feels completely different to any of its counterparts. This is where Warframe embraced the darkness.

Digital Extremes' long-running MMO is no stranger to horror. The Chains of Harrow is perhaps one of my favorite questlines ever made: it captures the essence of what makes the likes of Amnesia and Outlast so great, while being uniquely Warframe. We've seen those horror elements - albeit more gothic in nature - make a return in The Old Peace with The Devil's Triad and The Descendia, the update's Dante-inspired tower ascension (or well, descension) mode. Now, with the introduction of Follie, Digital Extremes is exploring a new dimension of horror: surrealist, artistic, and clown-esque. "I love when we get to dabble with [horror]," community director Megan Everett tells me with a huge smile; a smile that, in turn, sparks pure excitement.

At the heart of Shadowgrapher is, of course, Follie, the ink blot-inspired Warframe that also serves as the primary antagonist of the all-new Follie's Hunt game mode. Set on the wreckage of the old Vesper relay - a once bustling hive of Tenno activity that was destroyed during the events of Operation: Eyes of the Blight back in 2014 - Follie will stalk you Mr. X-style through the twisted bowels of this once proud beacon of hope. While the latest addition to the roster is certainly worth chatting about, I wanted to take a moment to ask Everett about the team's approach to revisiting this old zone, and how it went about maintaining Vesper's core essence while packing it full of Follie's signature paintings.

"When we were thinking of what this game mode could be, we were thinking 'where could we put it that's really spooky and weird, but not super new?' A lot of the time, and I hope other game devs can relate, you reuse what you have in order to meet your deadline. We were looking at where on the star chart this could go, and then there was the suggestion of Vesper Relay. This thing's been blown up for a million years and is just floating, derelict, and no one's ever thought to do anything with it. This would be perfect: it has the Relay level, everything's already there. We just have to spice it up with the horror elements.

"I also think that it's a nice nod to the players that were there when Vesper Relay was alive and tried to fight for it - it's kind of a nice 'oh, I get to go back, but now it's kind of spooky.' So that's always fun."

The mode itself, however, is quite unlike anything we've seen in Warframe. The MMO is renowned for its high octane, fast-paced action, with speed truly being the name of the game. Follie's Hunt is slower and more methodical, akin to the likes of R.E.P.O and other co-op horror games. I ask about the team's inspirations, and why it's chosen to temper things a little.

Everett tells me that, in the initial concept phases, Follie's Hunt was going to be more of a "prop hunt" mode, inspired by the character's signature Sketchbook ability (more on that later). "We really played with that to see if it would work, but with the time we had we couldn't make it work. Then there was an aspect of it where you were going to be combatting with Follie, then we were like 'no, let's just make her super menacing and just scary.' It does kind of give that Resident Evil, Mr. X coming after you, and you can't kill him, you literally have to avoid him or he'll punch you in the face. Follie is a much prettier version of Mr. X over there!" She does stress that, while the mode isn't directly inspired by Capcom's iconic franchise, the feel is absolutely there.

"It's very different," she muses. "This game mode isn't meant to feel like the normal game mode where you're super fast, rushing in, killing, capturing, doing all of this then you're out. You really need to be methodical, and if Follie catches you, you're dead. You really need to coordinate and stuff. It'll be really interesting to see how players experiment with it and how fast they can do it."

But the star of the show is, of course, Follie and her Shadowgraph. The character can effectively summon 14 different items from a scroll wheel, including everything from element-based explosive barrels to jump pads and ammo. You'll also be able to customize and effectively create your own items using a built in Photoshop-esque tool, with 16 different layers. It's the flagship part of her kit, and perhaps one of the most innovative, unique abilities I've ever seen in a videogame - especially in the live service market.

My question is simple: why? It sparks a laugh. "I would say that this is the time in Pablo [Alonso, Game Design Director]'s life where he got the most DMs of concern from people on the team like, 'are you sure? This is crazy.' In the January devstream Pablo said something about making our programmers cry - that was an exaggeration, but the programmers doing Follie were like, 'how the hell am I going to do this? How can we give her an entire arsenal of a sketchbook that not only spawns things and affects missions, but you can then change it?' It was a lot of work and there were definitely times where we weren't sure it was going to work out and we had to have a contingency plan. But Pablo and Rebb were very like 'we're going to try this, we're going to do it.'

"Yes, we do have a red button to press if people start getting wild with it," she laughs. "We've seen what happens in other games, we're very aware of what people could do." She notes that you can also choose to turn off people's unique designs if they're either annoying or offensive, but Everett notes that, as a game, "you've got to experiment," encouraging players to report anything untoward.

"There could be a situation where one bad apple ruins it for everyone, and we'll just take that leap and be like 'alright sorry, you drew too many duh duh duhs…" she makes the 'duh duh duh' motion. "But Warframe is an M-rated game, what we say on dev streams isn't always sanitary. We know who we are - we're goofy, goofy Canadians. If I see a penis, I'll be like: 'okay, great. Looking cool. Good for you I guess - says more about you than me!' But obviously there's a line that we're not comfortable crossing." I inform her that the first thing I'm doing when I play the Shadowgrapher is drawing a massive male appendage and we dissolve into giggles. "You do you, girl!"

Warframe's Shadowgrapher update is available now. It adds new frame Follie, the eerie Follie's Hunt mode, and new cosmetics for Gauss and Grendel. You can check out the full rundown here.

I've praised Warframe many times for being the most innovative live service game on the market, and Follie just cements that. Digital Extremes' creativity truly knows no bounds, and when I believe it's managed to finally do it all, it somehow keeps surprising me. From Koumei to Uriel, and now Follie, Warframe's unpredictability makes it so, so exciting, and with TennoCon 2026 looming on the horizon, I can't see what shape our adventures on Tau will take. For now, though, the inky darkness awaits.