1999 is an upcoming expansion that will be released in Update 38.0 (2024-12-XX) in Winter 2024. It follows a group of "Protoframes" known as the Hex as they try to locate Dr. Entrati in the year of 1999. The expansion was teased during the Whispers in the Walls quest.
Whispers in the Walls[]
When the Tenno tried their hand in performing Transference on a Vessel, the Murmur began to redirect the Transference stream, leading to a scene in the perspective of Arthur, a human wearing armor that bears a striking resemblance to 
Excalibur, armed with an 
AX-52 rifle and a 
Skana-like sword, fighting what appears to be Infested humanoids possessing 1990s computers in an abandoned subway. His partner Aoi instructs him to link up with a terminal and find Dr. Entrati. Upon interfacing with a computer, Aoi declares to be under attack as the sound of 
Mag's 
Crush can be heard. Arthur is then attacked by the creatures from earlier, and after finishing the last one, he passes out.
Upon waking up, Arthur is confronted by Dr. Entrati and his Kavat, Kalymos, who grins ominously as The Man in the Wall's Voidtongue can be heard.
The present day reveals that Albrecht Entrati traveled back in time to 1999 to lure The Man in the Wall away from his most valued assistant Loid. Albrecht leaves behind a recording that tasks the Tenno to find him in 1999, with Loid beginning to make preparations for the journey.
TennoCon 2024[]
On December 31st, 1999, inside the Höllvania Central Mall, Protoframe Arthur ( Excalibur) listens to PARTY OF YOUR LIFETIME by superstar boy band On-lyne. He suddenly loses control of his hand which forcibly types "UNDR MIRAS AVE 10 MIN DNT B L8" on the computer. Seeing this as a lead on Dr Entrati, he meets up with the rest of The Hex: Amir (
Volt), Aoi ( Mag), Quincy (Cyte-09), Leticia (
Trinity), and Eleanor (
Nyx). After retrieving his Atomicycle keys from Eleanor, Arthur plans to head out on his own but is joined by the rest of team. He instructs Amir, Aoi, and Quincy as backup while Leticia and Eleanor watch the base.
Riding into the streets of Höllvania, Arthur is accosted by Major Neci Rusalka and her Scaldra, a group of Grineer-esque armed forces who seek to rid the city of the Techrot outbreak. After defeating an H-04 Efervon Tank, the plaza collapses into the tunnels below and Arthur is briefly knocked unconscious, but is quickly awoken by a telepathic message from Eleanor who warns him that Entrati is nearby. Arthur sees Entrati near a Techrot cave, but Albrecht quickly vanishes.
Proceeding through the infested undercity tunnels, Arthur finds a Coda worm terminal and tries to hack it since it might allow him to temporarily take command of the Techrot, but fails to bypass its security breach and is instead swarmed by the proto-Infested until a shutter closes behind him and seals them off - several distinctive Infested screeches play as the Techrot can be heard pounding on the shutter. He then comes across a series of TV that appears to give him immense headache. After resisting, the TVs suddenly explode and reveal an Infested mouth that spits out an Excalibur Warframe. The two brandish their 
Exalted Blades and clash, the screen fading to black.
Meanwhile, in present day Origin System, the Tenno boards their Railjack and is greeted by Cephalon Cy. The sector of space they are in is host to a pair of massive towers that are somehow emitting some form of sonic disruption through the void of space via Infested music, and the towers must be destroyed. Once the towers are eliminated, a massive ball of infested tentacles opens up to reveal what appears to be the Höllvania stadium from 1999. The Tenno exits their Railjack controls, fights off several Techrot and Infested that have boarded, then launch themselves into the stadium using the Archwing launcher. Inside they discover a stage of On-lyne playing PARTY OF YOUR LIFETIME; several infested pods mounted to the framework around the stage open up and dispense infested versions of the band, finishing with Zeke and ending the reveal with the introduction of the Technocyte Coda.
1999 Language[]
The written language on all objects in the subway during the 1999 level is another phonetic version of English very similar to the Orokin and Ostron languages. It is read left to right as per English but with each space containing vertical pairs of top characters then bottom characters, read in order of top to bottom before reading the next pair.
1999 alphabet - Original translation by BrendanatorX
1999 Translation Cipher - Original by BrendanatorX
Trivia[]
- The song used in the opening sequence of 1999 is Into the Void, a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It released on September 21, 1999 as part of the album The Fragile.
- The expansion references the in-real-life event known as the Y2K Problem. When computer programs were being developed, the ones which used 4 digit calendar years had their 4-digit years formatted as 19XX, with XX representing the actual changing year. Meaning the year 2000 and 1900 would look the exact same with the program's formatting. This problem had the potential to halt the production of companies and businesses worldwide which led to a race against time to fix the formatting of those programs. Once the greater public became aware of the problem, many believed that it would result in a total failure of all computers, including those responsible for operating utilities like electricity and water, and, in a panic, stockpiled on food, water, and other amenities.
- The computer that Arthur interfaces displays "Dec 31st, 1999 | 11:55 PM". After meeting with Dr. Entrati, the clock behind him can be seen turning from 11:59 to 12:00, just before the Transference signal is lost.
- During the Arthur segment of the Whispers in the Walls, a radio host mentions the Y2K Problem, claiming they are about to see whether or not it had any merit.
- Concept art of Digital Extremes' previous title, Dark Sector, can be seen on the subway walls.
- The Infested-like technology creatures that Arthur encounters bear a striking resemblance to the Technocyte enemies from Dark Sector.
- On July 11, 2024, the official Warframe X Account posted a cryptic message with a link to a subpage of the Warframe website revealing a chat between teens during the infested apocalypse. During the days before TennoCon, the webpage got updated 5 times with new chatlogs.
- A large TV screen features the names of video games developed by Digital Extremes: Solar Winds, Silverball, Pariah, and Warpath.
- At the end of the reveal demo - before the title reveal - a countdown from 10 can be heard right before hearing "Happy New Year!". This was actually recorded a few hours prior by Digital Extremes, the crowd being the people who attended TennoCon 2023 in person.
- An anime short will be released in collaboration with The Line on 1999's launch.
- Curiously, while everything else exclusively uses 1999 language, stuff related to On-lyne band and PARTY OF YOUR LIFETIME song are in English, including the band logo and the music video Arthur listened to.
- On October 16, 2024, a demo to 1999 will be released. In the demo, the player, as Arthur, will take on the Infested in an Exterminate mission. The demo will remain playable until the full release of the 1999 expansion.