Warframe Update 44.1.0 Adds 6-Player Icebind Missions
The high-level mode pairs randomized missions and optional squad challenges with a guaranteed Riven Splicer reward.
Warframe Update 44.1.0 adds The Icebind, a six-player mission mode built around level 999+ enemies, shifting mission conditions, and rewards for coordinated play. Digital Extremes also brings Riven Splicing into the game, with Riven Splicers earned through The Icebind. The Update 44.1.0 post on the Warframe forums outlines the mode and the rest of the update.
The Icebind is designed for premade squads rather than public matchmaking. Players need to have completed Angels of the Zariman and Whispers in the Walls, and unlocked either Elite Temporal Archimedea or Elite Deep Archimedea. A host can invite five other players, but the squad cannot bring duplicate Warframes.
Cryobells set the mission and its complications
Players collect Cryobells from the ice pillar at Yuvan Peak, then speak with Cephalon Melica to form a squad and start a run. Three bells become available each week after the Sunday reset at Midnight UTC. Unused bells can be saved, up to a maximum of six.
Each bell determines a Personal Bind for the player who selects it, along with a possible mission, location, enemy faction, and set of modifiers. Once everyone has chosen, the squad gets 60 seconds to vote. If the vote ties, the host decides. With no votes, the game selects a bell at random. Players then get 10 seconds to review the choice before the mission starts. Bells are only spent after a successful extraction.
Runs take roughly 10 to 15 minutes and use one of four mission types: Survival, Mobile Defense, Excavation, or Disruption. The enemy faction and location also vary. Binds add further complications, from shorter ability durations and reduced ammunition to enemies with extra defenses or hazards that punish ability use. Standard restrictions can also limit self-revives, increase Restore cooldowns, shorten bleedout timers, or weaken shield-gate protection.
Update 44 introduced Riven Trait Locking, and the new system adds a different way to pursue specific Riven traits. Riven Trait Locking arrived with Update 44, while Riven Splicing lets players combine two specified traits into a preset spliced trait. For example, Toxin and Cold can become Viral Damage. The two original traits are consumed, and the Riven receives the spliced trait plus a random trait. Its existing number of positive and negative traits stays the same.
Side objectives put the mission reward at risk
Up to three optional Squad Side Objectives can appear during a mission. The five launch challenges include collecting Cyphers for a Lockbox, carrying a Cryo Core that damages the holder, charging ice crystals with concentrated fire, avoiding an orb’s pulses, and linking energy between points with Warframes.
Completing an objective earns every squad member a Frozen Key for an extra chest in Melica’s Glacial Laboratory. The challenge must be activated before it begins, and its player requirement varies. There is a real cost to attempting one: failing an activated side objective fails the mission. The mission will wait for an active objective to end before extracting the squad.
Mission completion awards a Crested Frozen Key, Kuva, an additional reward from the reward pool, and a guaranteed Riven Splicer. Crested Frozen Keys open chests in the center of the laboratory, while side-objective keys open chests around its edges. The first completed run also grants a Cryobell Sumdali. Warframe’s drop tables contain the full reward rates.
Riven Splicing locks in a chosen trait
Riven Splicers come exclusively from The Icebind. Splicing consumes two compatible traits and applies a preselected result, with the menu showing the possible combinations before the player confirms. If several results are available, players can choose which one to use.
The spliced trait remains locked on the Riven, but it does not count as a regular locked trait and does not double the Kuva cost of cycling. Players can remove it if they want to cycle it away and make room for another splice. The system also allows a regular trait lock alongside a spliced trait, so two traits can stay fixed while the remaining traits are cycled.
Warframe Update 44.1.0 Patch Notes
Additions
- Added the following items to Cephalon Melica’s Classroom Supplies:
- Glacial Laboratory Captura Scene
- Tethyan Parchment Tatters decorations
- Each individual Tatter is available separately, ensuring you can obtain whichever Tatter(s) you want.
- Added the Complexion B-17 [Legacy] to the Drifter/Operator Complexion menu.
- This Complexion allows players to access the original implementation of Vitiligo, before its changes with the Iceblade of Narin.
Changes
- Players can now purchase 1 Riven Slot for 20 Platinum (instead of 3 for 60).
- Previously, players could only purchase Riven Slots in bundles of 3. The 3 Riven Slot bundle has been removed and replaced with the single purchase option.
- Following a Nightwave issue last year, affected players received an extra Riven Slot, which meant they were prevented from reaching the Riven Slot cap. Now, players can purchase Riven Slots in whatever number they desire (unless that number exceeds the cap).
- Excavators and Defense Objectives (ex: Mobile Defense terminals, Defense Targets, etc.) now have a 90% damage reduction against Blitz Eximus shockwave attacks.
- Defense Objectives now also benefit from shieldgating (like Excavators, which received this change with The Shadowgrapher).
- Entropic Eximus can no longer spawn as Helions, as their flying behaviour can make them difficult to target with melee weapons.
- Reduced the currency cost for Kuva bundles across various Vendors:
- Acrithis’ Wares:
- Increased to 10,000 Kuva for 10 Pathos Clamps (was 5,000 for 10).
- Exchange Scuttler Husks (Acrithis):
- Increased to 14,000 Kuva for 25 Scuttler Husks (was 6,000 for 100).
- Also increased purchase limit from one to three per week.
- Flare’s Memorabilia:
- Increased to 14,000 Kuva for 100 Heartstrings (was 6,000 for 100)
- Reduced purchase limit from seven to three times per week.
- Nightcap’s Wares:
- Increased to 14,000 Kuva for 75 Fergolyte (was 7,000 for 75)
- Reduced purchase limit from six to three times per week.
- Hunhow’s Keepsakes:
- Increased to 17,000 Kuva for 35 of both Emerald & Crimson Talents (was 7,000 for 35).
- Reduced purchase limit from seven to three per week.
- Acrithis’ Wares:
- The Events tab in the Navigation menu now sorts recurring events by most recently started.
- Reduced the amount of space the Thermia Fractures event takes up in the World State Window on the Navigation console.
- Updated the Entropic Kuva’s resource description to specify it drops from Entropic Eximus.
- Added the Shedu Day of the Dead Skin to the Nightwave Cred Offerings rotation.
Performance and Optimizations
- Improved performance issues related to Oberon’s Smite.
- Improved performance issues related to Frost’s Avalanche.
- Fixed minor performance issues related to Last Gasp.
- Optimized texture streaming memory usage.
Top Fixes
- Metal Shader Fixes:
- Improvements and fixes towards our Metal Shaders are ongoing. For more information on the limitations related to updating Metal Shaders, please read our official post.
- Fixed metallics appearing plasticy for players with High Shader Quality toggled off.
- Fixes towards certain Warframe Skins appearing light gray when tinted black following our High Shader Quality changes.
- Fixed Oberon’s Renewal no longer slowing bleedout timers.
- Fixed not being able to use Loki’s Switch Teleport on Hacked Drones in the Plains of Eidolon.
- Fixed Balor Fomorian events not being scheduled properly, resulting in repeated Razorback Armadas.
- The pending Balor Fomorian will begin once the current Razorback Armada has concluded.
- Fixed Grendel’s Gastroparesis causing Azima’s alternate fire to stack Secondary Enervate infinitely.
- Fixed the “Hide Owned” toggle hiding different items each time it was toggled on and off.
- Fixed being unable to upgrade Companions via the Navigation Loadout bar if Orion is set as the Primary Son.
- Fixed Shotgun Rivens being listed as “Shotgun” instead of the actual weapon when chatlinked.
- Tentative fix towards cases of controller inputs not functioning correctly when using Steam Input.
Fixes
- Fixed the Aksondol and Nunchasa missing blueprint location descriptions in the Market.
- Fixed moving very slowly resulting in Mining Deposits not updating properly when using Oxylus’ Scan Matter precept.
- Fixed the Caliban Scion Helmet’s metallics and base color not matching base Caliban.
- Fixed a duplicate Catenach appearing when using Uriel in Duviri.
- Fixed the Operator being able to attempt to pull out the Iceblade of Narin.
- Fixed camera flickering if a movement input is pressed when attempting to pull Narin’s Iceblade free.
- Fixed players in Yuvan Peak blocking the screen when attempting to pull out Narin’s Iceblade.
- Fixed Tauron Strike animations being broken if cast while Narin’s Nuranarmin is active.
- Fixed a texture issue on Yuvan Peak.
- Fixed Uriel’s Demons being doubled after using Transference.
- Fixed duplicates of Uriel’s Demons appearing in the Höllvania Central Mall Backrooms Scene if Uriel is also equipped on the Loadout Display.
- Fixed having two full-body Sigils applied resulting in the Sigils’ effects not applying to the head.
- Fixed the Mission Tutorial Transmission toggle hiding introduction transmissions for the Temporal and Deep Archimedea missions.
- Fixed Gemini Skin faces becoming distorted when swapping in and out of Duviri Navigation in the Navigation menu.
- Fixed an unnecessary “Mission 1” appearing over the Hallowed Nightmares alert in the Navigation menu.
- Fixed incorrect capitalization for Voidshell Materials in the Operator/Drifter customization screen.
- Fixed a rare case of Inaros being revived with function loss if he died at the start of casting Sandstorm with an item (ex: power cell) in his hands.
- Fixed a sound crash.
Script Error Fixes
- Fixed a script error when attempting to destroy an Entropic Eximus’ shield.
- Fixed a script error related to Narin’s Nuranarim.
- Fixed a script error related to Nokko’s Sporespring projectiles.
- Fixed a script error related to the Unairu Tauron Strike.
- Fixed a script error related to Nightwave Act popups when transitioning out of missions on the Zariman Ten Zero.
- Fixed a script error related to the Panic Call Peely Pix in Temporal Archimedea.
- Fixed a script error related to Narin’s passive.
- Fixed a script error related to Baruuk’s Serene Storm.
- Fixed a script error related to the Confront Kullervo objective in Duviri.
- Fixed a script error related to Khora’s Venari.
- Fixed a script related to Arcane effects that trigger “on Critical Hit”.
- Fixed a script error related to Yareli’s Sea Snares.
Which of The Icebind’s side objectives would your squad be willing to risk a run for? For updates on how this experimental mode develops, stay connected through X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Warframe
Developed by Digital Extremes
Warframe situates players as members of the Tenno race, newly awoken after years of cryo-sleep into a solar system at war. Reborn into a corrupt era, the Tenno are sought by the oppressive Grineer Empire for annihilation. Warframe armor is the key to overthrowing the Grineer by providing players with unique offensive and defensive powers to explore, upgrade and master during purpose-driven radical raids.
- Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release March 25, 2013
- Publisher Digital Extremes
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Age Rating
