During this past weekend’s annual TennoCon convention, a convention dedicated to developer Digital Extremes’ popular sci-fi game Warframe, a number of exciting new features were revealed, including an upcoming open-world zone on Venus and a multi-player cooperative ship combat mode. The new Venus zone will reportedly be a lot bigger than the one open-world zone Warframe currently has, the Plains of Eidolon on Earth, and to help players navigate around quickly Digital Extremes will be implementing a brand new transportation method: hoverboards.
Specifically, Warframe’s hoverboards will be called “Bondi K-Drives,” and they’ll make navigating the new Venus zone’s expansive landscape a lot less time-consuming. Players will also naturally be able to perform stylish tricks while riding their Bondi K-Drives such as 360 spins, backflips, and more. If a player encounters a group of roaming enemies, they’ll even be able to bounce off enemy heads Super Mario style to avoid breaking their momentum.
In the Plains of Eidolon, players can use their Archwing flightsuits as a form of advanced movement, and Digital Extremes confirmed during the TennoCon presentation that Archwings will also be available for use in the Venus zone if a player prefers. It’s not clear yet, however, if Bondi K-Drives will be retroactively added to the Plains of Eidolon. Like virtually everything else in Warframe, Bondi K-Drives will also be highly customizable, with players able to unlock and/or purchase specific models, colors, and underside graphics among other things. Currently, Bondi K-Drives don’t have any offensive capabilities (unlike the Archwing), and Digital Extremes says it’s actually still deciding whether it wants to allow players to shoot their weapons while piloting a K-Drive or not.
The Venus open-world zone, co-op ship combat, and Bondi K-Drives will all be part of a massive new expansion called Fortuna that Digital Extremes plans to release in late 2018. Meanwhile, if you want to check out one of Warframe’s competitors, Destiny 2, we’ve also got the scoop on that game’s upcoming Dreaming City region and new Guardian super abilities.