Third Orb Battle Concept, Theorizing, and Conspiratorial Connections

[IdrisQe]

So, Orb number 3, as many of you know, is situated in a lake near the Orokin Dig Site in the Vallis, just sort of sitting there and roaring at you if you get close. It has yet (as of this post) to get a battle of its own, and its name hasn't even been revealed yet, but it's been there since the beginning. It's around the size of Exploiter, and has smaller spheres around its body that blink in the scanner but cannot actually be scanned- these will almost certainly play a role in its battle. The coolant it sits in seems to be bubbling, maybe even boiling, so it may have a theme of heat to counteract the Exploiter's theme of cold, while Profit Taker is the odd one out, being larger and not themed on any specific element, geared toward a squad as a (form of) raid.

I've been wondering what its battle could be like, given we have yet to see it in action. Each of the Orbs has a weakness, PT with the elemental switching and its legs, Exploiter with its vents and then the panels that get torn off, Orb 3 will almost certainly involve those spheres on it. PT's battle is a multi-stage heist ending in a race against time raid of sorts, Exploiter's battle is a relatively localized affair that feels more of a "1v1" type fight, using her own exploitation against her through Thermia. The third Orb's fight HAS been stated to (in development anyway) take the "best of both fights". Each Orb also has story significance. PT is your "main antagonist" since the opening Quest in Fortuna, Exploiter is an old enemy from Deck 12 - they're the present and the past, so I feel the 3rd Orb will have to do with unsolved mysteries surrounding the Vallis, a future of sorts, unlocking new areas perhaps.

Taking all this into account, I see the 3rd Orb fight as being a semi-mobile battle that can be 1v1'd without massive investment but which requires a squad to be taken down easier, perhaps even utilizing the new Squad Link feature coming with Empyrean. It may even lead into Empyrean. As this Orb (as far as we know) isn't particularily antagonistic toward Fortuna yet, this fight could have a different goal rather than just taking it down "because". Notably, its resting place is decently close to the Orokin Dig Site, where there is a unique, massive door that currently cannot be opened. I see the fight as being a lure, a trap for Orb 3, in an attempt to gain access to the Orokin facility behind the door. Why? Orbital Strike being prepared by Nef using the defense towers surrounding Venus, and the player needs special components to upgrade a Railjack ship in order to combat Nef's forces and stop his control of the Orbital Defense system. Behind the door, an Orokin research facility containing, among other things, blueprints for special motor tech used in various Orokin devices (such as the strange floating Pearl located elsewhere in the Vallis, possibly). This would be a quest, but also a repeatable battle like the other Orbs.

The spheres on Orb 3 remind me of mines, so I could see it being a minelayer, perhaps forging the mines internally, leading to heat buildup (hence the coolant bath). Your goal would be to rouse it and make it follow you, keeping it alive until you get it to follow into the cave, to the door. During this time, if in a squad, other players could be running interference, going to Corpus facilities and causing trouble to stop Nef from focusing on the Orb, making it easier for a designated player or group to kite Orb 3 with less resistance. Orb 3 would keep calling in reinforcements and explosive barrages, occasionally shooting out Mines around it, which you would need to shoot in order to stop them from killing you, and to stop them from exploding around the Orb's legs, slowing it down as it rebalances itself. After it fires its mines, shooting the holes they were in allows you to damage the Orb, gradually making it enrage and begin to overheat from making new mines over and over to protect itself, increasing its frequency of attacks and movement speed. Basically, instead of "kill it as quickly as possible", this mission would instead be "delay it and do everything you can to make it attack more, while also trying to bring it to the designated location".

After a while, its heat would reach critical levels, and it would be time to get it to the door ASAP, where it would get stuck crammed inside, unable to back out. You'd have to squeeze between its legs and escape before it explodes on death like the other orbs, thereby making a hole in the door and partially collapsing the cave around it. Inside would be special loot- you can kill it normally for usual loot such as a unique Toroid, perhaps parts for a warframe like the upcoming Grendel, but if you get it to the right spot and break into the door, other items can drop such as new weapon blueprints, huge caches of resources and endo, etc.

Behind the door you'd get Orokin-Era locomotion technology, including blueprints for the Gauss warframe (also crafted using drops from Exploiter and Orb 3 given their hot/cold theme and Gauss' hot/cold theme as well as his "overheating" type 4th ability and focus on speed i.e. motion) and a component needed to build/upgrade a Railjack ship to be able to travel from planet to planet without using the rails despite its small size, similar to how the Profit Taker heist led to getting the Gravimag (possibly another component of Gauss and the Railjack, requiring all 3 Orbs to be defeated for these) and possibly some new lore about the Orokin and what they were doing around there.

 

Is this all 100% theoretical? Yep. Is it likely to be even 10% correct? Not really. Do I want it to be correct? I dunno to be honest.
This was mostly just an exercise in considering what they could do given conjecture, things we know, things we don't know, things we know we don't know, and trying to fit together currently-unreleased content just for the fun of it.

This isn't to be taken as a suggestion or anything. I just wanted to write this junk out and share it, even though it may be a bit incoherent.

 

My TL;DR line of thought was basically:
-3rd Orb, boiling coolant? = Heat based? Spheres on it = Mines? Explosions?
-3rd Orb near Dig Site, Dig Site has Mystery Door which the Corpus can't get into. Orb Mothers explode violently.
-Orb Vallis-based Railjack trailer mentioned an orbital strike (from the defense system?), makes a sensible starting point.
-Railjack would need to get from Dojo to Venus. Also much smaller than other ships we see doing void-jumps (in general). Using advanced Orokin tech?
-Gauss = Speed, Railjack = Needs to fly between planets fast... Connection?
-Exploiter was Cold based, 3rd Orb Heat maybe? Heat&Cold = Gauss' schtick (along with speed). Connected maybe?
-3rd Orb doesn't seem to have story relevance given the Deck 12 story has already been told with Exploiter and the Tenno Arrival story has already been told with Profit Taker.
-A bunch of other game mechanic analysis, dev-minded theorizing, lore theorizing, and other junk.
-It all comes together???
-?????
-Grofit.

 

Anyway. Enjoy the theorizing. Or don't. Up to you, really.

[Nash]

I'd rather it be a massive gear investment, than a casual engagement. Third orb, is probably coming with gauss I saw that a mile away when I saw gauss's AoE ability. I figure shes going to be fire-based considering how much the coolant is broiling. Honestly I don't know how this boss will turn out hopefully its more raid like.