Warframe Honors Space Dog With New In-Game Companion

Warframe is a game with many elements and content. One minute you are a space ninja; the next you’re deciding which color goes best with your favorite Warframe, or what to name a companion. However, for an upcoming companion, its permanent name was decided by the community through voting. Names on the voting list included Basker, Eso, Canilyst, Laika, and others. Last week, the results were in, with Laika winning the vote and becoming the official name for Brysko’s companion.

The naming feels like Creative Director Rebecca Ford mentioned in the latest Devshort: an alignment, poetic, and a full-circle moment for the game and community, since Digital Extremes didn’t influence the decision on the name. Rebecca continues to share that Laika was originally the working title for the Cavia Syndicate. For those unfamiliar with Warframe’s lore, Albrecht Entrati is responsible for many of the experiments in the story, including experimenting with animals, which led to the members of the Cavia. The name Laika was originally Albrecht’s connection to the first space animal in his animal experiments. Yes, the man is very complicated.

Back to Laika, in real life, Laika was a dog that was sent to space by the Soviets as part of the tests of living organisms surviving the trip and orbit. However, re-entry technology wasn’t developed by then, and Laika’s return was never part of the plan. Laika sadly died during the trip. In Warframe’s next expansion, Tau, Brysko will be the protagonist, who is accompanied by a hound companion, Laika. This hound goes through a horrible situation as well, being part of yet more experiments by Entrati. While our Laika unfortunately didn’t survive the process, Warframe’s Laika does thanks to Brysko.

“Brysko rescued her from the trash heap where Entrati had consigned her; a fellow experiment, discarded and left for dead. Laika knows who saved her, and her Stena-Zix claws will tear through anything to protect him,” reads the in-game lore that we have received so far about Laika. It is definitely yet another special moment for Warframe, with both the team and the community coming to the same conclusion to honor Laika.