On Deluxe Skins and Tennogen

In Warframe, there are four types of cosmetics – syandanas, flowing capes that sit on one’s back; armour sets which go on your Warframe’s legs, arms and chest; alternate helmets for each Warframe and Warframe skins, which change the appearance and texture of your Warframe. All these cosmetics are available in three forms – available for purchase with Platinum, the in-game currency; only available in specific bundles or Prime Access; or available for purchase via Steam through a service called Tennogen.

Recently, a ton of new skins were released, often for under-appreciated characters. Nehza (the awkward result of what would happen if Loki and Volt had a child and Rhino and Ember had a child then those kids had a child) finally got a new skin after bloody forever, and Limbo got some love as well in a series of Tennogen skins designed by the community. Three deluxe skins were also released, for Mag, Nekros and Ember, available for Platinum, all of which drastically change the look of each character while sticking to their themes.

Most of the skins were accepted by the community. The Mag Pneuma skin (NOT pronounced p-nev-mah as I keep on reading it – stupid Greek) has been a nice success, featuring arms and legs that kinda just float, held in place by magnets. The Nekros Irkalla skin has been lovely as well, even if it’s a bit buggy with the chains on his arms and back. The new Valkyr Tennogen skin is adored too, and Mesa’s new Tennogen skin has a lot of metallic, shiny parts that people have painted in gold to make her seem like a Mesas Prime.

The Ember Vermillion skin… not so much. The second it was revealed, everyone called it a chicken skin and a lot of people hated it. Many people said that it didn’t suit Ember’s fire theme, and that it’d be better suited for Zephyr. I can see that. Zephyr is basically a predatory bird. A very ugly predatory bird. But on the flip side, the “doesn’t suit Ember” thing seems weird, because normal Ember looks a lot like a chicken. Well, actually, she’s supposed to look like a phoenix or some sort of flaming bird. And that’s what the new deluxe skin does, it accentuates the flame bird side of her. Also a Vermillion Bird is literally a Chinese flaming pheasant and a representative of the South and of various constellations, to put it in overly simplified terms.

Personally, I like the body, but I don’t like the helmet the Ember Vermillion skin comes with. That crest coming off her head just doesn’t sit right.

But the thing is, I never really use skins. The only skin I own is the Frost Harka skin, a deluxe skin released for, er, Frost last year. It might be because skins are somewhat expensive.

Tennogen skins cost €5.99 each. The money is split between Valve, Digital Extremes and the person who made it, so I can see why the prices are higher than normal. It works out at about 160 platinum, which is almost the same price as a deluxe skin without the extras a deluxe bundle comes with (165 platinum). 170 platinum is €8.99’s worth of real money, but since most people only buy platinum when it’s 50-75% off, it makes Tennogen stuff seem really expensive. That’s also assuming you have €5.99 in your Steam wallet, since you can only buy them in-game through Warframe, via Steam.

And of course, unlike armour sets and syandanas, you can only use a skin on one character. Helmets are the same, even when you often get a helmet with the purchase of a skin. A skin purchase only really works if you regularly use the character the skin is for. Which is a lot of the reason why I haven’t bought many skins.

There’s a skin for Volt, but it’s not a Deluxe skin at all. It’s a proto skin. And unlike deluxe skins, proto skins don’t need to be pretty, they can be as hideous as they want.

That and I honestly just really like the look of primed Warframes.