Warframe’s Plains of Eidolon update will be launching later this year, adding the game’s first ‘open world’ area with quests to complete, fish to catch, and a day-night cycle.

Watch the video below to see an exclusive first look at the Plains of Eidolon trailer:

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Since first revealing Plains of Eidolon at TennoCon earlier this year, developer Digital Extremes has been busy filling the area with more combat encounters and things to do. One of the bigger additions is mining, which the developer describes as a “mini-game” of sorts, like fishing, where you can extract resources from around the map.

Digital Extremes' Live Ops and Community Producer Rebecca Ford said “Seeing our players naturally explore and interact so early in the development gave us some chances to tweak and add things.” For example, an achievement was added after watching one player attempt to ‘knee-slide’ as far as they could down Eidolon’s hills.

A look at Warframe's Plains of Eidolon update 8 IMAGES

Ford tells me they “built this update a little differently than, say, the bigger lore-driven cinematic quests, The Second Dream and The War Within.” Where that new content required you to have invested "significant hours" before you could access them, Plains of Eidolon can be found on the first planet in the game and will have content appealing to both low and high level players.

I asked if Digital Extremes was interested in making more open world areas like this in the future, and Ford explained that developing the tech behind Eidolon could potentially lay the groundwork for more like it. “With a bird’s eye perspective on our development,” Ford said, “we have concept art and rough ideas built out for stranger worlds beyond Earth to add.” While Ford said they still aren't sure, she added that whether or not the community embraces Eidolon is a big factor in that decision.

Digital Extremes is hosting a livestream today to show off more of the Plains of Eidolon update, you can tune in here at 11am PT/ 2pm ET to watch.

Tom Marks is an Associate Editor focusing on PC gaming at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter