Few games have changed as radically as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Warframe. What was onc𝔉e a small ninja looter shooter has turned into one of the densest and content-rich titles available. Even with so much content to enjoy, many players feel fatigued with the separate ecosystems each mode brings.
Digital Extremes seems to have taken this feedback into account when developing The Steel Path, Warframe's take on New Game Plus. Players bring their min-maxed loadouts against enemies 100 levels higher than before with 2.5 times the amount of health, armor, and shields. Its a nice change of pace from the instant-killing mayhem the community is used to, but as with most modes in Warframe, it isn't perfect. Here are 5 reasons why Warframe's Steel Path is great alongside 5ꦓ ways it c𒈔an improve.
10 Great: Neꦆw Game Plus 💫
Plenty of Warframe's content revolves around separate ecosystems or hไas a low barrier for entry. Steel Path is anything but, requiring players to have maximized builds and a completed Star Chart to play it.
Replaying through the game with tougher enemies is a refreshing change from staying within a single content island, such as Railjack, or one of Warframe's open worlds. It isn't an endgame mode by any stretch, but Steel Path isn't pretending to be an endgame piece of content nor should it. It's New Game Plus for Warframe, something the community has been clamoring for since the game released in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:open beta in 2013.
9 Can Be ꦰBetter:𒊎 Planet Completion Rewards
As a way to mimic Junction rewards in the main Star Chart, Digital Extremes added planetary completi🍸on bonuses in the Steel Path. Players that complete every node on a planet in this mode can expect an emote, Orbiter decoration, and two Steel Essences.
Simply put, these rewards are underwhelming. The emote is a texture swap of which planet the player cleared, the decoration is only valuable to players that care about interior decorations, and the two Steel Essences are a pitifully small amount. Considering the armor set requires 65 Steel Essence and Relics require 15, the rewards for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:completing a planet need to be increased.
8 Great: No More Lotus Voiceovers ༺
Having Teshin give voice-overs throughout the mission instead of the Lotus is one of the smallest yet most noticeable and welcome changes to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:this game type. Playe✨rs have heard the Lotus's lines for thousands of hours at this point.
It can get fatiguing hearing the same lines repeatedly, which is why Teshin's new lines are a ܫbreath of fresh air for replaying through the Star Chart.
7 ✃ Can Be💖 Better: Boss Fights
Boss fights in Warframe are generally a mixed bag. Most players either kill them before they can finish their ope𝐆ning dialogue or haveꦉ to go through numerous invulnerability phases before landing the killing blow.
When players are on The Steel Path, the latter is much more common. Bosses such as Vay Hek become insufferable with their large health bars and long invulnerability periods. Some players have even been flagged as inactive by spending so much time shooting at a boss without moving. It'🐬s more an issue with the bosses themselves♊ than The Steel Path, but this optional difficulty toggle certainly exacerbates their issues.
6 Great: Enemy Spawns ☂ 🤡
One of the hidden modifiers with The Steel Path is the increased number of enemies that spawn at once. Every mission will spawn enemi🐼es as if the player was in a 4-player squad regardless of how many players are in the lobby.
This makes for intense solo matches where kill efficiency and crowd-control are paramount. Once players find a way to deal with the increased tankiness of each foe, they'll have to also deal with a massive increase in enemy spawns as well. It makes for intense missions that only endurance players experienced in the nor꧃mal Star Chart can complete.
5 🎃 Can Be Bette🌠r: Eximus Spawns
Stra🧸ngely, the spawn rate for Eximus enemies has stayed the same on Steel Path. This normally wouldn't matter, but The Steel Path locks its Steel Essence drops behind these enemies.
Eximus enemies have a small chance of spawning in any mission. Since the drop chance of Steel Essence is so low, many players have been obtaining the new resource at a rate of 1 or 2 drops an hour. The only reasonable way to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:farm this resource is to play endurance missions, waiting upwards of an hour before Eximus enemies be🉐gin to spawn in large amounts. Eximus spawn rates should be maxed out for all mission types just as enemy spawns are for solo players.
4 ♔ ꦛ Great: Crowd Control Has A Place Again
Before Mesa and Saryn dominated every activity in Warframe, players had to use crowd control 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:abilities to complete hard content. Warframes such as Nova and Loki were common picks for raids and endura🔯nce missions.
Power creep has made these frames irrelevant in most pieces of content. Thankfully, the toughness of Steel Path enemies has brought a resurgence of crowd control frames. Slowing down targets and debuffing enemies is now just as viable as blasting everything to smithereens with Mesa. This has resulted in a ඣmuch healthier mix of Warframes and will shift 𒊎up the current meta in exciting ways.
3 𓂃 ♓ Can Be Better: Core Game Integration
As with most recent additions in Warframe, The Steel Path is yet again a content island. Content islands are new pieces of content t🍨hat don't interact with the rest of the game in any meaningful way. Open worlds, Railjack, and Kuva Liches are just a few examples of this phenomeꦜnon.
Unfortunately, The Steel Path only works on core Star Chart nodes. Players cannot increase the difficulty of Fissure missions, Sorties, Arbitrations, Kuva Siphons, Floods, or even Nightmare missions. Steel Path needs to be applicable for more mission types if it hopes to become a core part of Warframe.
2 ꦅ Great: Reignited𒆙 Focus On Co-op
For a game that prides itself on co-op action, much of Warframe can be played solo with little consequence. The game rarely becomes difficult enough to warrant playing alongsideꦺ others.
With how tanky enemies are in The Steel P🍨ath, bringing others along in a squad has💎 become much more appealing. Synergizing Warframe abilities makes this content much more bearable. Solo players can still tackle this content with their min-maxed builds, but the shift towards playing in a group is both noticeable and welcome.
1 Can Be Better:🤪 Rewards
Warframe has struggled time and time again with debuting a game mode with a good reward pool. The Steel Path is yet another entry in the long🎃 list of unrewardi🌠ng modes for players to invest their time into.
Besides the low drop chance of Steel Essence, the rewards tied to this resource are uninspired. Players can expect to purchase Kuva, Relics, and cosmetics with their Steel Essence. Unfortunately, Kuva and Relics are easier to farm elsewhere while cosmetics are a one-time purchase. Worse, every planet's drop tables are the same in Steel Path as they are in normal mode. This means that players can expect the same 3,000 Credit Caches 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:and common Mods from completing missions.
Planets should have unique drop pools that encourage target-farming endgame resources such as Endo and Relics. Additionally, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:adding Conclave rewards to Teshin's offerings would be a great start towar♚ds giving Steel Essence a purpose. If Dig🥃ital Extremes don't expand on The Steel Path's rewards, this mode will be yet another abandoned content island in a few months.