The next Warframe update lets you control two Warframes at once - but they keep fighting each other

The next chapter of Warframe is almost upon us, and Digital Extremes has just given us a deep dive into everything coming with the Jade Shadows: Constellations update, from confirmation of its launch date through to a close look at the new two-in-one Warframes, Sirius and Orion. The cast for Warframe Devstream 196 is a familiar one: Creative Director Rebecca Ford, Community Director Megan Everett, Design Director Pablo Alonso, DE CEO Steve Sinclair, and Soulframe Director Geoff Crookes. Let's see what they had to say.

As its name suggests, the next chapter of Warframe is following on from the popular 2024 Jade Shadows questline. It lands in the action game on Wednesday June 17. If you want an early glimpse of what's in store, we do get one here, although Ford warns that you'll be "flirting with spoilers" despite the voiceover being muted for the demonstration. Arriving alongside this main quest will be the introduction of Stayanax Prime, and our newest frame - or should that be two?

Rather than a single unit, the 65th Warframe is actually a two-in-one pairing that you play together. Sirius and Orion are brothers who aren't always on good terms, but they fight side by side, with you swapping between them on the fly. Both can be fully customized independently of one another; "You can make your Sirius look like Orion and your Orion look like Sirius," Ford remarks. By default, the one you favored during the original Jade Shadows quest will take the lead, but you're able to swap this out after completion if you wish.

Each comes with their own signature scythe: Wrath for Orion, and Pride for Sirius. Their swaddles also become syandanas, with Sirius just getting the right wing, and Orion the left. Once you've crafted both, you'll have the option to bring them together as the Jade's Victory syandana. But that's enough about cosmetics for now; it's time for Alonso to take the wheel and walk us through exactly how this deadly duo act on the battlefield.

We start as Sirius, whose first ability is Coronal Ejection. It hurls the scythe ahead, before it returns like a boomerang. Any enemy hit will be set on fire, while pickups along its path will be collected. Hold the button down, however, and Orion will boot his brother out of the way to perform his first skill, Gravitic Slash, a sweeping horizontal attack that significantly cuts enemy armor. This concept works across their whole suite of moves; just tap the key to use the current brother's ability, or hold it down to swap out and use the other's instead.

The second ability for Sirius is Jade Stars, which summons a collection of miniature unstable stars above both brothers. These amplify the damage you deal, with the full set being consumed if you use a skill. Orion's equivalent move is Astral Shell, a defensive trick that creates a decoy when you take damage, pulling aggro away from you.

Rounding out the base kit, Sirius has Light's Sanctuary, a wide zone that heals allies. As you stay in it for longer, you'll also build up an increasing damage reduction factor. It's even capable of resurrecting an ally that dies within it, albeit on a one-minute cooldown. Orion's alternative is a little more aggressive. Event Horizon is a beautiful black hole that he lifts above his head and hurls forward, pulling any enemies unfortunate enough to stray nearby in towards its center.

Event Horizon will grow stronger and extend its duration as it kills enemies, and to add some bonus synergy, the brothers can work together to ferry it around the battlefield. Sirius's Coronal Ejection will pull the black hole towards your location, while Orion's Gravitic Slash will knock it away, allowing you to control exactly where it's going.

To encourage you to swap regularly, each switch will bestow your next two skills with a 45% ability efficiency bonus, making them cheaper to use. The other factor that this impacts is the constellation in the bottom right, which lights up with red and green stars as you use abilities on each brother. These are utilised for their shared ultimate, Celestial Clash, which causes the pair to start fighting each other, creating devastating explosions as they slam together.

With each subsequent clash during the ultimate, you need to match a button press to the respective star in the constellation. Getting it right will grow the effect's power, boosting their crit chance and damage. You are able to trigger the ultimate without filling the full constellation first, but you'll want to do so for maximum output. To ensure this is friendly for any colorblind players, both have a specific screen side and shape along with their respective colors.

"We tried our very best to make it as smooth and fast as possible to swap between them," Alonso concludes. He notes that the developers started with Wukong's Celestial Twin clone as the base for building Sirius and Orion, but adds, "The tech itself was a nightmare and I'm really sorry to the team that I made you do all of this. But it's amazing."

You'll earn Sirius and Orion through the Jade Shadows: Constellations quest line, with their parts becoming available in a set of new Railjack missions that unlock afterwards. This will force you to choose between the two new Protoframes, Ryoaku (Ash) and Vena (Garuda), and you'll use the ship of whoever you side with. The battles take place in Uranus Proxima, with you going up against the other Protoframe's Railjack as you complete objectives.

"If you're disappointed that you can't use your Railjack, we had to try something different here, because we wanted to see how far we could go with an equalized character experience," Ford explains. However, she offers some good news: "If you want to use your own Railjack and give it something new to do, guess what? Come on back. There is a 99% chance that we're shipping Steel Path Railjack." It has a few "checks and balances" in the works to make sure it's ready in time, but the team is hopeful.

Digital Extremes teases a handful of other welcome additions, including the next five Incarnon weapons. There's also a new customization trick: the ability to randomize tints per channel. "It is shockingly good for the choice paralysis," Ford notes. The team showcases just how effective it can be by altering the new-look Mesa Prime Heirloom on the fly - that one gets here a little after the new update, arriving on Saturday July 11 during TennoCon.

The next Warframe update, Jade Shadows: Constellations, launches on Wednesday June 17. It will include the 65th Warframe, the dual pairing of Sirius and Orion.

That's all for Devstream 196, although Digital Extremes reveals that you can earn the classic Dante Warframe as a free Twitch Drop by watching the Summer Game Fest livestream for at least 30 minutes. You'll also need to make sure to sync up your Warframe and Twitch accounts, if you haven't already done so.