Soulframe, the fantasy action-RPG from Warframe creators Digital Extremes, is getting wolf mounts, a Warsongs quest, and a new Vadagar progression path or “Pact” that transforms your “Envoy” character into the lovechild of Soulcalibur’s Ivy and Tim Curry’s Hexxus from Fern Gully. Unfamiliar with both of those? Think ichor-slathered bone warrior with whipsword. The Vadagar class addition is intriguing because it sees you channelling the powers of the Ode, Soulframe’s space-faring, spellsong-controlled enemy faction, who are trying to harvest or corrupt all the world’s resources and wildlife.

As ever, it’s a little hard to frame all this for public consumption because Soulframe isn’t, strictly speaking, “out” yet. It’s still moving through a series of closed pre-alphas, or “preludes”, but Digital Extremes have been pretty generous with codes. There’s an open sign-up period from now till 12th July, to capitalise on the publicity from this year’s Tennocon expo. If you miss the window, you can also buy a Founder’s pack to gain entry along with some exclusive trinkets.

I was shown a little of the new Pact in action in the run-up to Tennocon. The Vadagar gets three different core stats, or Vespers, in place of the Virtues of the other pacts – Wrath, Doom, and Death. Their abilities include snaring foes with a pillar of goop, sending a conduit of goop through the floor, and summoning goop horses to trample everybody into puddles of goop. Goop: the substance with a thousand uses! There’s also that slimy whipsword, the corrupted remnant of a Goodie weapon, which comes in handy for crowd control. And there’s an extra-special goop horse you can ride once you’ve felled a new boss, the Mendicant Reinbreaker – pictured above, and live in the game right now.

Goop takedowns aside, what interests me about Vadagar is that it’s encouraging you to see life from the Ode’s perspective. Digital Extremes have stressed that this isn’t a rigid binary good/evil thing – you can pick Vadagar without forever losing access to the other pacts. In general, it makes me want to write more about Soulframe’s ecofable, which is opulent and earnest to the point of cutesy and cheesy. This is a game where you start each session slumbering beneath a heap of adorable birds and bunnies. You’ll rescue additional cute critters from crates at Ode camps. It’s all very Disney. Give us a quest where you have to save a bunch of botflies, Digital Extremes! Let me ride around on a massive cockroach pal.

I imagine that the new mounts for Envoys will be characterised as companion creatures, rather than subservient lifeforms. The existing game takes care to avoid the spectacle of animal suffering: when you defeat a wardog, you’ll knock away the sorcerous helm enslaving it, rather than gutting the poor pupper. Soulframe is also getting a fishing minigame, but this was playfully described in a pre-Tennocon 2026 presentation as “vegan fishing”, because you’re actually cleansing fish mutated by Ode mischief. Genuinely, I wonder whether Digital Extremes have thought about adapting the Jain monastic practice of using a broom to harmlessly sweep smaller creatures out of one’s path. It would make for a much slower loot grind, admittedly.

As for the Warsongs questline, it will probably mystify anybody who hasn’t been keeping up with Soulframe’s fast-evolving yarn. Without spoiling too much, it concerns the origins and parentage of your character, and introduces a new villain, a turncoat Envoy called Tempest Bayor, who is voiced by Ben Starr. Lastly, there’s a witchy empress character voiced by Jennifer English of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fame.

The mounts are pencilled in for release later this year. There will be a number of Soulframe updates in advance of Warsong, introducing a new weather system and other supporting features.

A question I keep asking myself: who is Soulframe for? Its more ponderous, duel-oriented melee combat feel like a bid for players turned off by Warframe’s extreme agility and AOE overkill, but its oblique and singsong fairytale world wouldn’t look out of place in the older game’s solar system. It also puts a similar emphasis on loot drops, crafting and grinding. Speaking as somebody who’s barely touched Warframe since reviewing the 2013 version on Xbox One, I do prefer Soulframe’s methodical combat and sleepier vein of fantasy, but it still fundamentally feels like a game for people who love Warframe – i.e. people who are prepared to make it a five thousand hour habit, and memorise all the quirks of the lore together with the arcane in-game economy.

This article is based on a trip to Tennocon 2026, with Digital Extremes paying for travel and accommodation. An earlier version of this article infringed on an embargo for coverage of certain details – it has been updated at Digital Extremes’s request to remove this information. The details in question will be discussed in a future piece.