TennoCon 2026 went live today, giving us a full Warframe roadmap for the rest of the year. As expected earlier, we are going to Tau this winter, with an entire new system of planets, new enemy factions, a new Warframe, and a hopefully long-runnning new cinematic saga. However, we also got a few in-between hooks, including a hijacked Nightwave season and an unannounced fall 2026 update!

This won't include everything revealed in the TennoCon 2026 main stage, though. There's a handful of niche tidbits and insights dropped during the initial panels (as well as a deep dive into the Mesa Heirloom skin, which was released today). This one will be more focused on the updates that are coming for Warframe in 2026, including, most importantly, the Tau update unveiled with a longform demo in TennoLive.

While most of you would likely want to read all about the Tau update first, I'll go in order of chronology. There's only two other things to get out of the way - the new Nightwave season coming in August, and the fall update likely in October.

The current ongoing Nightwave Season (Time Tempests) is going to end on August, so you only have a few weeks to zoom to the Escuchon Regalia collection if you haven't played in a while.

The next one is going to be a surprise fourth-wall-breaking DnD-themed season.

During the press preview, we also asked whether these Fables and Frontiers character arts were going to be alternate Gemini Skins, which I would buy in a heartbeat if they were real. Rebecca told us a very decisive no, but in the TennoCon live panel, it seems to be a never-say-never thing.

In any case, for now, these will just be Glyphs, and maybe Noggles or other reskin-flavored decors.

Somewhat related: Dog Days event also coming in August 2026. It's not a particularly lucrative one, though, featuring only the Furax Wraith set and a few Ephemeras that will only last temporarily.

Usually, this is where Digital Extremes has the Unannounced Fall Update running bit. This year, it's an announced update, and it's called the Iceblade of Narin. Further details on it will be revealed in the next Devstream (September 4).

And here's the main piece of the TennoLive 2026 panel. It's been long expected that we are going to go to a Tau system at some point, and this one is it. Those who watched TennoCon this year from the in-game live relay will have noticed the new Vessel deposited into the dry dock.

The new Tau System (Fornax)

New Warframe: Brysko

New Faction

You can also drive your own Sentient flying car through the ringed motorways of Fornax, so there's possibly an open world involved. I say "possibly" because Hollvania also had the Atomicycle, only to end up being a tileset anyway, and wide-open tilesets have been the general trend for major Warframe updates for a long time.

The flashback sequence has some crucial lore drop on Margulis/Lotus, specifically the fact that she struck a deal with the Man in the Wall in order to hide the Tenno in the Lua reservoir.

Moreover, Drifter steps in to protect Lotus from Wally's clutches to some degree, striking another reverse-deal to pave the way for Tau. Also, the little bug that Drifter gets handed is something of a priomordial form of Lotus, who is now immune to the Void.

Portau: New Card game (in Warframe)

Warframe does not have any dearth of a variety in mini-games (including the often-forgotten Frame Fighter). Tau 2026 update is now going to complete the board with a new card game, Portau. This seems to be a poker knockoff with suites of Blooms, Cores, Moons, and Suns, and some of its own ruleset twists to make for a spicier pot.

TennoCon 2026 also included a rather substantial demo for the next major Soulframe Preludes update. You can check out our Devstream summary here.

Before we conclude this roundup, some more miscellaneous news from TennoCon 2026:

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