Warframe's Hardest Game Mode Gets Bigger in the Techrot Encore Update

One of the biggest Warframe updates of 2024 added the Deep Archimedea game mode, which forced players to plumb the depths of the Sanctum Anatomica to fight special enemies and bring back some of the best rewards in the long-running, free-to-play online shooter. One year and a massive Warframe 1999 update later, this game mode is getting an enormous expansion.

Temporal Archimedea is bringing the challenges of the Deep Archimedea game mode to the Hollvania tileset -- players will need to be on their toes if they hope to beat souped-up versions of the Techrot and the Scaldra.

Here's everything you need to know about the introduction of the Temporal Archimedea game mode, including what it is, how you can start playing it and what rewards you'll be able to earn when it launches with the Techrot Encore update on March 19.

Read more: Warframe 1999 Is About Time Travel, Love and Eldritch Gods – and It's Fantastic

Temporal Archimedea expands the toughest mode in the game

The Dante Unbound update heralded the most challenging game mode since The New War's raid boss-style Archon Hunts. The Sanctum Anatomica's Deep Archimedea (and Elite Deep Archemedea) are special three-mission gauntlets for a highly synergized team of four players to tackle.

Special enemy buffs, player debuffs and mission modifiers make each run of Deep Archimedea a novel experience, hooking Warframe vets as they grinded the mode for some of the game's best rewards. Now, the gauntlet is arriving to the streets of Hollvania as the new Nova protoframe, Kaya, becomes your point of contact for Temporal Archimedea missions in the Techrot Encore update.

While the full list of modifiers is yet to be revealed, we can be fairly certain that Temporal Archimedea will look quite different from Deep Archimedea.

The Sanctum Anatomica has special enemy types, including the Murmur, Necramechs, Culverins and Arcocanids, which means certain modifiers specifically alter only those enemies. For example, certain missions would have Culverins deal five times their normal damage numbers to players with Overguard shields, while other missions would have Arcocanid attacks pull player Warframes into their radius.

New modifiers will likely affect special enemies from the Hollvania tileset, including the Techrot Babau and the Scaldra Dedicant. These enemies are already a thorn in players' sides with their massive Overguard and high damage output, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of scary buffs they might get in Temporal Archimedea.

The new mode retains the core debuffs from Deep Archimedea. There are no self-revives for downed players, and the Operator Last Gasp ability timer is reduced by 2 seconds each time it's activated. Every time you enter the bleed-out state, your revive timer is shortened for the next time you go down. Each piece of restoration equipment carried in the equipment wheel has a 3-minute cooldown before it can be used again.

Temporal Archimedea shares the same pool of search pulses with Netracells and Deep Archimedea, consuming two search pulses for each run. Players gain five search pulses at the start of each week. After all the search pulses are used up, players can continue playing the Temporal Archimedea mode, but will no longer earn any rewards.

The reward pool has some old items and some new shiny goodies

As Temporal Archimedea fills the role of the hardest game mode for Warframe 1999's Hollvania tileset, it carries appropriately valuable rewards for players who are able to complete the missions and accrue enough points each week.

The items carried over into the Temporal Archimedea reward pool include archon shards (both Tauforged and regular variants), arcanes and localized syndicate standing. Certain reward tiers also include Vosfor, which can be traded to Loid in the Sanctum Anatomica for random arcanes.

There's a new reward specific to Temporal Archimedea, though. Peely Pix are special stickers that provide buffs during Temporal Archimedea missions, and they can be bought and leveled up through a special Pix Chips currency earned within the game mode. Exchanging Pix Chips with Kaya in Hollvania mall will let players earn a wider variety of buffs or snatch up some extra endgame rewards.

This game mode is certain to become a mainstay in veteran Warframe players' weekly rotations, becoming a key part of the to-do list alongside Sorties, Archon Hunts and daily Alert missions.