Warframe: Xoris and the Steel Path

After completing all the nodes in the original star map you are continuously harrassed invited to attempt "the Steel Path" which basically lets you do all the nodes again, but this time with super powered enemies (+100 level, armor, etc). Since I'm now Mastery Rank 18 (which is the same level as our guild hall in Neverwinter Online) I thought I'd give it a try - and promptly found myself overwhelmed.

I wasn't ready!

Which is great, as it forces you to learn more about weapons and builds to actually handle the increased threat which now includes acolytes of the Stalker invading every five minutes or so. It's still early days but I've found a solution in the Xoris, the frisbee Nef Anyo gives you during the rather early "Deadlock Protocol" quest. Using a heavy build to capitalize on double explosions (because apparently warframe frisbees can explode AND still come back to you) I've Firewalker Loki'd my way through a few of these now, with a Scourge primary to corrode the ones that need some armor reduction before throwing the Xoris at them.

It's good that there are five steel path alerts that take place regularly too, increasing the odds of finding a squad to go with. What I've noticed though is that in all of them I'm the only one using non-prime / non-lich gear. Maybe that will be my thing, to try beat the steel path without any primes. They're a pain to collect / pay for anyway. We'll see how we go. In the meantime, my reward is the Xoris totally obliterates everything in most normal missions now which is pretty sweet. :)

July 2022: Day 158 of the war

It's been another month of battle and thanks to constant ammo depot explosions near the front and reports of "scoring own goals", Russia needed a brief operational pause this month to steady their supply while simultaneously recruiting (more) felons to boost their ranks and up their war crimes. This possibly also includes quitting from the International Space Station. Maybe they need their cosmonauts in the fight too?

Their ally, Belarus, is also saber rattling against their Polish neighbors while providing Russia with an airfield close to Ukraine's borders while "neutral" party China, who enjoy dictating terms to religions and the USA, has just sent troops and equipment to Russia for some military olympics? That's a real thing and not an "oh, now Russians have new Chinese arsenal/reinforcements"? Cool, I'd watch that if it was televised.

Meanwhile Ukraine is still playing host to international leaders while using any means, including Tindr, to defend their land but they still have time to make funny stamps. They did lose an ally in Boris Johnson who resigned as the UK PM this month, but at least he went out with a "hasta la vista, baby" and not just via an overseas email or by fatal, home-crafted shotgun shot.

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Mom (TV Series)

An addictive series that deals with addiction.

This eight season uplifting comedy follows the lives of a mother daughter duo (wonderfully portrayed by Anna Faris and Allison Janney) who are both recovering addicts that start out vehemently hating each other. The sharp writing excellently handles the light hearted comedy with sudden, very heavy topics being thrown in the mix and back again which makes almost all the characters endearing with loads of room for growth. 

We could watch this show all day.

This trait makes it easy to overlook the lower budget technical stuff (like green screen) used here, as well as how it becomes quite noticeable how little anyone actually eats despite a good chunk of the show taking place at a bistro. Just very minor points on an overall very entertaining and fun series. Highly recommended, and as a plus, the episodes run for a very short 20 minutes which makes it easy to dip your toe in.

Warframe: Archons of the New War

Having just completed The New War, I thought I'd try do a not too spoilerish post for some possible troublesome foes in it. Ok, maybe only I had trouble with them but whatever. :P 

I found the random school tests to be fun!

First up, before you can even think of doing the New War you need to own a railjack and a necramech and be up to date on the main story (unlocked and played through Prelude to War). Now for tips on the some of the big baddies namely Owl, Wolf and Snake - and the order you fight them in is totally up to you. Just don't try melee whichever you pick as the first two.

Owl floats about, firing lasers, creating streams of electricity or going in a shield to heal (which you can walk into to shoot him and stop that process). I picked him first, found him really annoying, literally quit the mission and left him for last. And I'm glad I did because you are in a better position to beat whoever is last.

Wolf is all about being close and tearing you up, so he will charge and leap and deploy fire for some reason. He's pretty simple, just stay far away and dodge when you see him winding up to leap or charge etc. He is also a Narutard and summons clones while he hides and heals. Shoot the real one (the only one holding weapons) to stop that process. You can also quickly find the real him by using your #3 gifted ability to spot his arrow on the mini map.

Snake pretends to be scary with that giant head which occasionally turns you into stone so if you see the eyes light up, look away and if she starts charging a large glowy red sphere around herself, take cover because that's an AoE. Otherwise her attacks go in straight lines that do not track, which makes her simpler than Wolf. I stayed close and just ran circles around her while shooting and "dodging". That is in quotes because simply by running in a circle means she can't hit you with her other attacks.

I feel like that's enough info to get anyone through them. Really cool quest line, and pretty long too. Worth noting that for the entire duration Warframe becomes a single player game until you can finish it though so plan accordingly.

Warframe: The Hungry Helminth

In a back corner of your ship lives a hungry infested creature who you might be able to access if your warframe gains an infested cyst or if you simply are in a Nidus. To make the most use of it though you'll need to unlock its systems from the Entrati family on Deimos.

This hungry worm is a great resource eater and will happily take away all those hard earned materials that you need to build more things, but in return... he lets you modify warframe abilities, provided you let him eat your warframes too (and yes, they are gone - you can even watch them get digested).

Queue me, being slightly annoyed at selling my other warframes when I could have been feeding them to increase the worms power!!! On the flip side, it gives me a reason to farm them again. 

Titania is tasty!

Each warframe has a defined ability the Helminth "learns" after eating it, and afterwards you can plug that into any other warframe, in any of its four power slots. It has a few brand new abilities that it learns as it levels up (eats stuff) that you can plug in as well, with the limit being you can only put one "alien" ability into a warframe. So I can't make an Excalibur use all of Loki's abilities for example, but I have done the following:

Firewalking Loki

Decoy/Invis/Switch Teleport/Firewalk (from Nezha). While this removes the awesome utility of radial disarm, it does give me a power I can use while invisible that actually works on infested, makes me move faster, sets enemies alight, and stat cleanses any allies including myself that walk over the flames.

Since I'm also highly duration built, the firewalk lasts for almost a full minute meaning it doesn't interfere with my perma-stealth build.

Empowered Gara

Shattered Lash/Splinter Storm/Empower (from Helminth)/Mass Vitrify. I never liked Spectorage anyway, and this way I can cast empower first, which gives +50% strength to whatever I cast next which would be mass vitrify (I only use her for defense stuff so shield up!) which makes the glass barrier that much stronger.

Thinking of giving the Revenant Titania's Spellbind in place of Reave, and need something for Excalibur Umbra. I tried Wukong's Defy on him but I'm not sure I'm happy with that so far.

Warframe: Chroma and Xaku

The dragon and the skeleton who are both piece-meal frames.

Chroma

After collecting his main blueprint from the quest "The New Strange", you'll notice Chroma is actually made up of a bunch of other warframe pieces - Volt, Ember, Frost and Saryn. Thanks to that last one being locked behind Kela de Thaym on Sedna who requires you to win Sedna arena matches before you can fight her, it might be awhile before you can make this guy. It is quite thematic though since he can use any of the elements (Lightning, Fire, Ice and Toxin) in his abilities.

He can breathe [element], ward an area with [element], use his pelt like Dr. Strange's cloak as a buddy to guard an area using [element] or Vex Armor which improves your armor if your shields are hit and improves weapon damage if health takes a hit. Do you see a problem with Vex Armor? Yep. You must get hit to benefit from it. Since his pelt is not mobile and doesn't use your weapons it isn't as good as a spectre or Wukong's twin, and the whole mechanic of tap this button to cycle something and hold it down to use isn't great for me. Not a frame I ended up keeping for very long.

Xaku

With the main blueprint available from "the Heart of Deimos" quest, you can collect the rest of his blueprints from Cambion Drift bounties. Lore wise this frame is actually composed from remnants of lost warframes which might explain its unique skeletal look. It is the only frame so far that can add void damage, pull enemy firearms away and then have them float along and fire back at his foes, explode his outer layer and run around as bones which lets him move faster and autododge 75% of any damage, and "cycle through a trio of powers" ugh. Boiled down these are charm, hold person, and damage beam.

While it is an interesting one to use, it mostly caught my attention for the void damage bonus. 75% evasion is not as good as the 100% god-armor (mesmer skin) of the Revenant or 100% not being attacked of an invisible Loki. Eventually I ended up burying this skeleton back in the ground.

Warframe: Solaris United Standing

Since there's a bit of content gated behind maxing out the Solaris United (SU) standing I thought I'd put up some quick tips on how to grind that quickly, though your mileage may vary since there is a daily cap that is directly related to your current mastery rank. More mastery rank lets you gain more standing per day, but gaining mastery rank is a grind in itself! :P

First you absolutely need transportation, so finish the Vox Solaris quest to get a K-drive board at minimum to help do bounties. Realistically I'd say put this off until you've build an archwing launcher though as it really speeds up everything.

Each "level" of friendship with SU also requires a tithe of items that can sometimes be bought from Ticker at a steep cost - but more likely you will need to grind out the bounties for the appropriate debt-bonds as each tier drops the relevant debt-bond. Ideally work on these first so that you don't get "gated" as you rank up.

Buy a Sunpoint Plasma drill from Smokefinger in Fortuna when you can, as it is cheap, a really good mining tool and you can trade mined stuff for minor standing. The cave just North West of the Transit Depot in Orb Vallis is a great place to dig as long as you don't mind the occasional Corpus patrol (usually two by the time you've dug all the spots).

Once you have an archwing launcher also get a tranq rifle, either from The Business in Fortuna or Son on Deimos. Having this pair of items will fast track your standing using this simple method:

-Set your session to friends or solo only
-Go to Orb Vallis and ignore all the hunting markers
-Fly directly North of Fortuna (if you ever need to find it again, just go directly South and look for the black smoke)
-As you fly you will pass a few clusters of giant mushrooms, the furthest being in a valley beside the Temple of Profit
-Go back and forth between this valley and the previous cluster you passed on the nearby mountain ridge
-You are hunting sawgaws (birds) that usually spawn in groups of three that land on said mushrooms, they make a distinct cawing sound. Hard to shoot at from the ground - easy if you are flying.
-Tranq and capture each and repeat going between those two mushroom points. Each normal sawgaw will give you 400-800 standing, and they spawn pretty quickly - sometimes as rares which give even more standing.
-Once they don't give standing on capture you've either reached your cap for the day or the "wall" that needs you to upgrade your standing with Eudico.

That's it. Pretty simple once you are at that point, so your main hurdles reaching it will really be getting the archwing launcher and collecting the debt-bonds from Ticker or Eudico's bounties. Focus on those first and you'll be sweet.