Awakening

Transcript

Awakening
Information
Introduced	Update 29.0 (2020-08-25)
Type	Main Quest
Requirement	First Login
Rewards	Starter Warframe Starter Weapons
Chronology
Next Quest	Vor's Prize
Replayable

The Tenno: monuments of an ancient warrior caste. For generations you've slept, with no call to awake you. Until now.

—In-game description

Awakening is the introduction quest to WARFRAME, designed to allow players to familiarize themselves with the basics of Warframe control and combat. It was introduced with Update 29.0 (2020-08-25). Players are given a choice between various starting Warframes:  Excalibur,  Mag, and  Volt, along with a small selection of weapons.

Cinematic Intro

The intro, narrated by the Lotus, tells the tale of the Tenno. They were once an ancient warrior caste who controlled the Warframes and brought ruin to the Orokin Empire, before abruptly leaving. However, with the rise of the Grineer Empire, seeds from the ruins of The Old War that now swallow colonies whole, the Tenno begin to awaken.

For generations, you’ve slept. No purpose.... no call... to wake you.

—Lotus

The cinematic opens with a human girl, awakening underwater. Gasping for air, she surfaces, only to find the Grineer burning down the forests of Earth.

Grineer! Seeds from the ruins of the Old War. Swallowing colonies whole.

—Lotus

The girl flees, discovering ruins of an ancient temple where three Warframes are kneeling:  Excalibur,  Mag, and  Volt.

But there's still hope. The Tenno. Monuments of an ancient warrior caste. Scattered across frail worlds.

—Lotus

The girl approaches Excalibur and offers a Lotus flower in front of him. The scene cuts to the past, showing Excalibur petting his Kubrow as they watch a Bolkor dropship land in a Grineer camp. It then shows Excalibur sliding and performing a Stealth Finisher using his  Nikana on a guard; the other guard turns and spots him, but is then attacked by the Kubrow. In the camp, the Bolkor is unloading supplies, and Excalibur drops in the middle and attacks with his Skana and  Kunai. This does not go unnoticed by the rest of the camp, and Excalibur and his Kubrow fight their way through. Excalibur runs along the cliff wall and wields his  Exalted Blade in mid-air, slamming down into the middle of the field and wiping out his enemies. His Kubrow approaches, dropping one of his Kunai next to him.

The girl steps back and places a Lotus flower in front of Mag. The scene then shows Mag flying in her Elytron Archwing before being shot down, under heavy fire from ground troops. Using her  Magnetize as she falls, she stops the bullets in their tracks before throwing them back, the resulting explosion reflected in the visor of her helmet. In the present, the girl wipes the dirt away from Mag's visor.

The girl places her last Lotus flower for Volt. The speedy Warframe is shown using  Speed to rush to Excalibur and support him against the Dax battalion with his  Bo,  Electric Shield, and  Shock, while Excalibur fights off his attackers with his Skana and Exalted Blade. Volt is then shown electrocuting his enemies, while Mag telekinetically pulls several Dax and  Crushes them. The Grineer and Dax, clearly outmatched by the Warframes, begin to flee in their Bolkor and Firbolg ships, but Mag  Pulls some of its troops out who are then cut down by Excalibur. He shoots an arrow from his  Paris at one of the Bolkor's engines, causing it to crash into the other ships. The trio enter the temple that is shown in present day, as the battlefield lingers with the corpses of their enemies and the sounds of retreating ships. The trio bow before particles escape from their bodies and they collapse on their knees, now inactive.

Together, they fought back. Bringing an end to an empire. Then, they left. Forgotten. Like a dream...

—Lotus

Back in the present, the Grineer soldiers have reached the temple. The girl drops her hood and stares at the Warframes, before mysteriously vanishing in the same particles that left the Warframes. Storm clouds suddenly appear in the sky, putting the Grineer on alert, as lightning strikes the trio of Warframes. The scene ends with a close-up of Mag's fist, now reawakened and clenching.

Wake up, Tenno. Wake up.

—Lotus

Synopsis

For countless centuries, the Tenno have been dormant, but with the Grineer Empire on the rise, the Lotus begins tracking down and awakening the Tenno. Unfortunately for the Lotus, Captain Vor has been one step ahead of her so far and has been killing off the Tenno as they awaken, before they are strong enough to stop him. His latest find takes him to Earth, near an Ostron village, where he finds a dormant Tenno just as the Lotus reawakens them.

This time, however, he has a different plan—to capture said Tenno. He attaches an Ascaris device to the Warframe, ordering his soldiers to spare it; he intends to use the Ascaris to control the Tenno, and take it to the Twin Queens as his prize. Presumably the first of many or a proof of concept, Vor would then seek to capture more Tenno; once armed with loyal Tenno soldiers, the Grineer Empire would become unstoppable.

The player must evade Vor and his soldiers, arm themselves, restore a ship to functioning order with the help of ship Cephalon Ordis, and ultimately confront Vor to put a stop to his plans.

Walkthrough

“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”

The following article/section contains spoilers. Please finish the quest before proceeding.

After the cinematic intro, the player is prompted to choose their starter Warframe:

•  Excalibur, a melee-oriented Warframe with balanced mobility and offense.
•  Mag, a caster Warframe with great crowd controlling abilities.
•  Volt, a speedy Warframe that deals  Electricity damage to his surroundings.

The chosen Warframe awakes in the midst of the crowd of Grineer. They are approached by Captain Vor, who intends to capture the Warframe by planting an Ascaris device on them before leaving. The Lotus cannot allow the Warframe to be captured by Vor, as losing them is bad enough already. She surges the Warframe's systems remotely, allowing the Tenno to fight back against the soldiers nearby using their innate powers:

• Excalibur's  Slash Dash has him dash forward to cut enemies with his exalted blade.
• Mag's  Pull magnetically pulls enemies in front of her into melee range while dealing  Magnetic damage.
• Volt's  Shock launches an electric projectile dealing  Electricity damage and chains to nearby enemies.

With the immediate threat dispatched, the Tenno must now find weapons and escape. This level plays out as a tutorial, with weak enemies and gradual progression through gameplay elements continuing into jumping, melee weapons, double jumping, crouching, sliding, secondary weapons, wall dashing, bullet jumping, primary weapons, aim gliding, and finally hacking and timed defense. Only one of each type of weapon can be acquired, and the weapons of choice provided in this mission are:

• Melee
  •  Skana, a Sword class weapon, the standard weapon with moderate damage, range, and speed.
  •  MK1-Bo, a Staff class weapon, a strong and long-ranged weapon, albeit slow in speed.
• Sidearm
  •  Lato, an accurate sidearm, ideal for all-range encounters.
  •  MK1-Kunai, a set of throwing knives, ideal for stealth.
• Primary
  •  MK1-Braton, a full-auto rifle, standard for all situations.
  •  MK1-Paris, a silent bow, ideal for high damage and stealth, but falls short against multiple opponents.

Upon arrival at the checkpoint, Vor uses his Janus Key to destroy the first extraction craft before the Tenno can escape. After fighting back and depleting Vor's shields, he expresses great interest in the Tenno before leaving. The Tenno soon finds their old ship, an Orokin-Era Liset, impounded by the Grineer. Ordis, its onboard AI (or "Cephalon"), originally mistakes the Tenno (referred to as "the Operator") for a Grineer soldier, but quickly comes around when it realizes their true identity, and begins charging the ship's engines. The Tenno must hold out against Grineer soldiers for a couple of minutes whilst the drives charge and then escapes.

Despite the Tenno's escape, Vor nonetheless declares that he has marked them.

Notes

• The cinematic opening cutscene can be rewatched through the "View Cinematic" button, without replaying the quest.

Trivia

• The cinematic opening cutscene of Awakening was directed by Dan Trachtenberg. It was first revealed in TennoCon 2019.

Media

Warframe Cinematic Intro - TennoCon 2019

Patch History

Update 30.7 (2021-09-08)

• Fixed an issue where you could not select a Warframe at the start of the game.

Hotfix 30.0.6 (2021-04-20)

• Fixed rapidly selecting between weapon options during the Awakening tutorial will result in temporary weapon functionality loss.
• Fixed a hitch during the ‘Awakening’ Quest.

Hotfix 29.5.7 (2020-12-10)

• Fixed a crash that could occur if you skip the Tutorial cinematic.

Hotfix 29.0.8 (2020-09-10)

• The ‘Awakening’ cinematic now supports translated subtitles.

Hotfix 29.0.2 (2020-08-26)

• Add a ‘View Cinematic’ button for Awakening in the Quest Codex section! This allows you to view the opening cinematic without going into the full tutorial.

Hotfix 29.0.1 (2020-08-25)

• Fixed a progression stop in the New Player Experience (Awakening) if an enemy gets stuck outside the first room.
• Fixed staying in a squad when playing the Awakening tutorial.

Update 29.0 (2020-08-25)

• Introduced.