Warframe: Tau will launch in December 2026 as a free update on every PC, console and mobile platform, Digital Extremes announced on Friday 30 October during Devstream 198. It is the first time the 13-year-old shooter leaves its home Origin System for a new star system. The studio has not given an exact release day or launch time.

Community Director Megan Everett called the stream "the first of two detailed looks" at the update and said the next Devstream, on 27 November, will bring "a ton of surprises". Going by how Digital Extremes has dated past updates on stream days, that second show is the most likely place for a firm date, but the studio hasn't said so.

Infographic with a timeline from The Old Peace in December 2025 to Warframe: Tau in December 2026, and cards for price, the new Warframe Brysko, locations and the Nezha Heirloom skin

What Warframe: Tau adds

  • A new star system: Tau gets its own Star Chart. December's launch opens two locations, the mob-run ring city of Fornax and the war-ruined moon Perita.

  • A new story chapter: a single-player cinematic quest, plus new versions of co-op modes, including a revamped Survival mission on Perita.

  • Brysko, the 67th Warframe: voiced by Matthew Mercer as a noir-style inner monologue. He uses the Rain & Shine fist weapons, an Exalted magnum called Corecracker and a Hound companion. Players can unlock him straight away from the in-game Market or earn him by playing. He also launches a new cosmetic type, the Chimera Skin.

  • A new hub and faction: MANIFOLD 90-BF, a social space on Fornax, and the Cleaving Glaive, an allied Syndicate scavenging Perita.

  • Cosmetics: Koumei's first Deluxe Skin, Koumei Enshoujo, arrives with Tau. A Nezha Heirloom Skin, co-designed with Sumo Digital artists, follows in early 2027.

Concept art sheet showing a red and orange armoured Warframe with flame rings, shown from the front and back with separate weapon and accessory designs
Image: Digital Extremes (official Nezha Heirloom Skin concept art, due early 2027).

Why it matters

Tau has been building for a year. The Old Peace update in December 2025 showed what the Tau system used to be. Warframe: Tau picks the story up after "eons of conflict", and Digital Extremes says the system will keep growing with later updates rather than arriving all at once. For returning players, it is the biggest change of setting since the game's 2013 launch on PC. Everett also tried to calm worries that older content will be left behind: "the Origin System is not being left behind."

Everything in the update is free. Brysko can be bought for platinum, the game's premium currency, but he can also be earned through play, which is how Warframes usually work. Digital Extremes says Warframe has more than 90 million registered players.

Confirmed and not confirmed

  • Confirmed: December 2026, free, on all PC, console and mobile platforms, with Fornax, Perita and Brysko at launch, and another Devstream on 27 November.

  • Not confirmed: the exact release day and time, download size, and when Tau's later locations will arrive.

Planning your storage for a busy December? Our guides to installing games on PS5 and installing games on Xbox Series X|S cover space and download settings, and our PlayStation 5 console page has the hardware details. Digital Extremes also announced on the same day that Soulframe opens to all PC players on 6 November.

In India, Warframe: Tau will be free like everywhere else, and we'll add the IST launch time when Digital Extremes announces the date.

Sources & verification

Sources last verified on . This article covers published information, not hands-on testing.

Editorial & update notes

First published 31 Oct 2026 with primary-source citations.

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