Iceblade of Narin feels like a world tour of Warframe. We’re headed back to Earth and Yuvan Peak – the snowy mountain where we make The War Within’s game-defining choices. Our latest addition to the roster is Narin, an Ice-themed Warframe – the first since Frost himself. Iceblade of Narin acts as a bridge between the classic Origin system and the highly anticipated Tau, which lurks on the horizon. In many ways, it’s the meeting point of old and new; it’s tinged with nostalgia and the promise of fresh adventures.
Narin herself embodies that temporal meeting point. “Since the dawn of time, Tenno have yearned for the different variants of Warframes when it comes to the element side of stuff,” Warframe Community Director Megan Everett tells me ahead of the update’s launch. “We have the male and female fire, we have the male and female electric – they’re all pretty unique, but they’re all centered around that shared element. That’s always something that people have asked for: same element, but different kind of thing.
“Frost being literally one of the OG Warframes, dating back to 2013, he’s old,” she laughs. “As we go into our 13th year of development, it really felt overdue when you took a step back – you’re like ‘oh my God, he’s really the only true Ice frame.’ It was just time to bring another Ice frame into the mix. Narin obviously brings that Ice element, but in a much more romantic and beautiful twist on ice.”
“Frost is snow globes, snowballs avalanches – he’s very much the quintessential frost frame that one would think of,” Everett continues. “Then you have Narin, who kind of embodies the spirit of an ice crane, and she’s got her ice rapier and she’s dancing and killing enemies – she can fly for a hot minute.
“I really do feel like Narin, in a way, kind of represents how [Digital Extremes] has evolved in its design of Warframes,” she muses. “You look at 2013 frames – with Frost being a great example of that – and you can see how literal they are in terms of their functionality. Obviously that serves a purpose; people still play them to this day. The OGs still have an absolute place and they’re very valued in Warframe because they’re icons. But, the 2026 and beyond DE design is really about taking what is a simple idea – a female Ice frame – and really pushing ourselves to produce something that Warframe hasn’t touched yet.
“With Frost being an old 2013 frame, we definitely could look at him and be like, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to have this kind of texture on him?’ and now we can do that with Narin. Narin has snow and ice texture on her. We’ve got all of this new tech and we’re able to do things that we weren’t able to achieve back in 2013, and really play with it in a more feminine and poetic silhouette.
“You get Frost with his snowballs and that’s great; everyone loves Frost and they’ll still play Frost. But, maybe you want a more poetic Narin, and you have that now.”
But the Iceblade of Narin acts as a bridge between the Origin System and Tau – the multiplayer game’s next big update that, in many ways, kickstarts a new era of Warframe. It gave the team space to “revisit” that Ice thematic that it hasn’t “played around with,” while also handing players a few throwbacks.
“We’re going back to the peak of War Within, which is hopefully a little bit nostalgic for players,” Everett smiles. “We’re going to Tau in a really big way: it’s going to be huge and it’s going to drastically change the game of Warframe. So to do this update that kind of hits a little bit on those nostalgic points was a fun move to do, and hopefully the players will also see it that way.”
In the meantime, keep your eyes on Arturos and Zioa, who are set to activate with Epoch Operation: Taubound on Thursday, October 15.
There are a few more things dropping with the Iceblade update, though. First off, there’s the Yuvan Peak-themed Relay, where players can try to remove Narin’s Iceblade, then there’s Melica’s Lab, a new zone that spawns Entropic Eximus Enemies. These vicious foes appear on Zariman nodes and are vulnerable to both melee damage and your Operator’s powers.
There’s the gorgeous new Citrine Prime model, too, alongside the Banshee ability rework, accompanied by her stupidly stunning Threnodia skin bundle. You can also get Banshee for free if you log in between Wednesday, September 23 and Wednesday, October 7.
Iceblade of Narin was also supposed to launch with the six-player Glacial Defiance mode, but that’s been delayed ever so slightly for a bit more polishing. In her official blog post, Creative Director Rebecca Ford notes that it’ll arrive “somewhere between September 23 and October 15,” so expect it (and our Defiance-dedicated interview with Everett) to appear around then.
Warframe’s Iceblade of Narin update is live now.
