Warframe's latest update—Saint Of Altra—is all about contrast. On one hand, you've got Gauss, the latest playable Frame. He's basically The Flash, but with more rocket launchers. He zooms around so quickly that enemies just drop dead in his wake, and crashing into walls causes the wall (and nearby enemies) to explode instead of him. And the icing on the cake? His signature weapons are a plasma-rocket rifle and a pair of homing missile pistols that reload faster when he's sprinting. A fun addition for the twitchiest of space ninjas.
But if all that running around is just too much, you can sit down and play some music. Previously available as a purely decorative item, the Shawzin (inspired by the Japanese Shamisen) is a three-stringed instrument that can now be played through a new emote. You can record songs (of up to 100 notes) for playback later, or even challenge yourself by playing the note chart, Guitar Hero style.
Playing the Shawzin appears initially simple, but if you want to play anything complex on it, there's a lot of work to be done learning its three-string, three-fret controls, especially as you have to quickly change scale to hit the full range of notes.
The official Warframe wiki has a guide on what notes map to which inputs, and unsurprisingly players are already learning how to play whatever they can on it. Here, YouTuber "DNexus" strums along to Boney M's classic disco hit, Rasputin.
It's strange to see how far Warframe has come. From a threadbare shooter with only a handful of enemy types to a weird universe where space ninjas jam to old Earth disco tracks.
Also included in the Saint Of Altra update is a greatly expanded Disruption game-type. Players can now take Disruption missions in a far wider range of environments, and Grineer Ghouls (previously only unearthed for events near Cetus) are available as a standard enemy type there. There's also some new rewards to earn there, including the components to assemble Gauss and his weaponry.
There's also a new fashion-sharing system, a new skin for Harrow, and some new Infested dojo decorations. You can see the the full list of what the update adds here. Warframe is free-to-play, and you can grab it via Steam or its official page here.
