Digital Extremes has a habit of teasing their bigger updates as “Unannounced” slots for months before anything is confirmed. On April 24, that changed: the mystery 2026 update is Jade Shadows: Constellations, a direct sequel to 2024’s Jade Shadows, and it’s coming in June as a free update on all platforms.
The reveal came through Devstream 195 alongside a dual-perspective anime-style animated short produced in collaboration with BAFTA-nominated animation arthouse THE LINE and progressive metalcore band ERRA, whose track “Crawl Backwards Out of Heaven” plays over what turns out to be a fight between two characters who will mean a great deal to players who finished the original Jade Shadows. Those characters are Orion and Sirius: the Stalker’s children, born from two divergent future timelines, and now colliding in the present. The animated short comes in two versions, one centered on each character, reflecting the branching choice players made at the end of the first quest about which of the Stalker’s potential children to invest in.
Mechanically, Constellations continues directly where Jade Shadows left off. Players control the Stalker again, now navigating the reality that one of these two futures is real, and the two children — raised respectively by Vena (the Protoframe version of Garuda) and Ryoku (the Protoframe version of Ash) — are fighting for the survival of their respective timelines. Both Vena and Ryoku are new Protoframes unlockable through the quest, serving as Railjack crew members across any ship role. New Railjack missions expand into Uranus Proxima as post-quest content. Nidus gets a meaningful ability retouch improving survivability and combat viability. A new Dante Tytonis deluxe skin has also been revealed.
Pre-update: Operation: Belly of the Beast returns May 4 (Ed: Be With You?) through June 1, offering both returning rewards from the original Jade Shadows operation and new gear. The TennoCon 2026 Digital Pack will also go on sale, unlocking exclusive cosmetics and event access.
Warframe doesn’t get enough credit as a PC gaming institution. It has been running continuous, free major content drops since 2013, and the Jade Shadows storyline — with the Stalker’s arc shifting from antagonist to protagonist — has been one of the more ambitious character pivots in live service history. Constellations is leaning further into that by making fatherhood and competing futures the narrative engine, which is not a combination you see often in a looter shooter. The choice-based branching from the first quest carrying forward to this one is also a meaningful commitment to player agency in a genre that often treats narrative as decoration.
June is confirmed, with more details expected at the May Devstream. Let us know which child you chose in the forums.