The Second Dream

So I recently completed a certain quest in Warframe. The Second Dream. It’s an unusual quest and the latest in the Warframe story, which is insane to say the least. Then again, it’s to be expected. This is a game with space ninjas and guns and stuff. A note, this article contains spoilers on the Second Dream quest, so proceed with caution.

Quests in Warframe are kinda weird though, they’re almost like optional side missions. Unlike the normal day to day activity, you just get quests by, well, uh, doing stuff. Apart from the first quest, which is partially a tutorial in playing Warframe, you unlock quests by ranking up and completing junctions. You try and rank up and complete junctions in your day to day journey anyway though. Well, you complete junctions if you have planets you haven’t unlocked yet. Otherwise you just do alerts, farm for credits, xp and other stuff and do Syndicate things. Or sit in relays chatting and dressing up.

Back to quests. Quests don’t flow like the rest of the game. You start the quest by activating it in your Codex (basically a basic DIY wiki in your ship). Sometimes there is a cutscene, sometimes there isn’t. Either way, someone will contact you via video and subtitles on the side of your screen, giving you vague information about something or other, and send you on a mission. You do the mission solo, or invite people to do it with you. Most of the time.

The Second Dream is a bit different.

Second Dream Spoilers start here!

To actually start the Second Dream quest, you need to complete the quest Natah. This quest reveals that 1. Natah is the name of the Lotus (a.k.a Space Mum), 2. the Grineer have accidentally woken up something bad and 3. Lotus has been hiding a ton of shit from you. You have to get help from Teshin (the guy who runs the PvP area) to find out more, after Lotus ditches you mid-mission.

After completing Natah, Lotus seems happy, but worried and slightly pissed off at both the Grineer and Teshin. Then we discover that Hunhow, Lotus’s dad, has managed to put his soul in a sword and has enlisted the Stalker to find the ‘heart of the Tenno’. You can tell this is going to be a somewhat origin-y story. The quest starts with a cutscene of Hunhow telling Stalker (a Tenno hunter) what he needs to do. Stalker gets an upgrade and becomes Shadow Stalker. Imaginative.

So now we start chasing Shadow Stalker around, trying to see what he’s up to. But first, we need to decrypt a signal from someone who wants to help us.

For some weird reason, the person who wants to help us is Alad V, the dishonored crazy Corpus guy who tried to make mechanical dogs out of a tortured Warframe. He helps us a bit, via the same transmissions Lotus talks to us from, until we get on the right track. Then Lotus unceremoniously cuts him off.

Suddenly, we realise we’ve been tricked. Following the Stalker has in fact let Hunhow get into Natah’s mind and he finds out where the Tenno heart is.

It’s on the moon, something I noticed was missing right when I first woke up on the forests of Earth. Which Natah hid in the void. She was supposed to go and kill all the Tenno (i.e. us) because they’re stupidly dangerous, but instead, she hid them on the moon in the Void. And now Stalker knows where they are (and thus I am) and is going to kill us/me.

So off we go to the moon. Shadow Stalker does something and we have to get the moon (now apparently called Lua) out of the void before something happens… I’m not quite sure, to be honest. All I know is that we need to turn on some machines and Lotus will do the rest. It is pretty cool seeing the moon though. I’d wondered where it had gone.

Thing is though, dragging the moon out of the void means that 1. it’s gone back to its normal orbit around Earth and 2. Shadow Stalker knows exactly where he needs to go now. Also, 3. the Corpus and the Grineer are probably going to fight over it now. Which means I have to do a solo mission, and chase down Shadow Stalker on my own. Because apparently I can’t bring other Tenno with me.

I land on the moon, on my own, and run through the place as fast as possible because I really can’t fight the enemies there. Flamethrowers just don’t seem to cut it. Luckily, Speed!, Volt’s second ability, does.

Lotus’s guidance gets me to the important place before Shadow Stalker. It’s incredibly bright.

There are pods in the bright light, and after a lot of faffing around, one of the pods moved forward and opens up, revealing… a human? Yeah, looks like a human in a little black suit and a silly helmet.

Suddenly I as Volt black out and see things from the human’s perspective, crawling towards my collapsed body. Turns out that human was controlling me. As she climbs into Volt’s arms, Volt wakes up again, and I’ve got to waddle around carrying this human back to my ship, while being attacked by random gold enemies (the ones I ran past earlier). I’ve got one ability, by left-clicking but I can’t work out what it does.

Out of curiosity, I test to see if I can die in this state. Nope, I’m invulnerable, my health only goes down to 2 health.

After an eternity of walking, I make it back to my ship, only to find that Shadow Stalker is in my fucking ship. Oh and there’s also a convenient place to put this stupid human, which Shadow Stalker is blocking access to. Rather than just running both Volt and the human through with his giant, Hunhow-powered talking sword, Shadow Stalker just throws waves of energy at me that knock me back. I spent 10 minutes trying to work out how this one ability I have works, and finally work out that it’s a focused laser ability. I power up the device meant for my human, only to be thrown back.

Pansy that my human self is, they lets Shadow Stalker get a hit in and the two of us are separated. Hunhow starts doing a gigantic monologue, about how Tenno are evil and whether Shadow Stalker is a Tenno or not, and Shadow Stalker finally does something smart and stabs Volt in the, uh, shoulder (not the middle of the chest? Or in the head? Seriously?), leaving the Hunhow-powered talking sword embedded in Volt’s chest. Human though is too weak to control Volt anyway apparently.

Of course, Hunhow keeps on talking, and Shadow Stalker just listens. That gives my human enough time to get Volt working and make him tear the sword in two, deactivating Hunhow, making Shadow Stalker flee. Oh and the Lotus is now on my ship too. Where the fuck was she earlier?

I’m then given a screen to customize my human self, which I mostly skip. Lotus asks me a ton of random questions, then I get to pick a focus. Focuses are a whole other article. Mostly because I still don’t get them.

Anyway, now I have this stupid human in the back of my ship, and the sad realization that Volt isn’t his own being, he’s just a tin suit controlled by a stupidly powerful sleepy teenager. I mean, of course, Volt isn’t a living thing, but I kinda wanted someone to be inside the suit. First thing I did was mute this person’s voice, because she randomly talks at me for some reason. Just seems weird that we have two avatars – our Warframe and our teenage Operator self.

Hopefully, the next quest, called War Within (and not yet available) will involve Volt and Ordis finding a way to get rid of this moody child and set them both free. Speaking of Ordis, I forgive him for letting Stalker into my ship. He apologises profusely for it, and gives me the sword used to stab me in the chest so I can use it myself. That’s kind of him.

Rather miffed though that there was no boss battle at the end of all of this.