Infested Railjack

[Stickman949]

Alright, so, we got Grineer proximias, and we have Corpus proximias. But what about Infested proximias? They gotta come sooner or later, right? Here's my take on what the Infested Proximas would look like, where they're gonna be located, so on and so forth. We were given a teaser about an infested planetoid earlier, right? So, time to start speculating!

The Locations

Now, when it comes to infested, there's not a lot of places for the infested to call home in... uhh... the planet department. However, there are a few key locations that we can look at. For example...

Mercury Proximia

When starting in the Infested path for Railjack, we need to start from the beginning. Infested was introduced in mercury in Once Awake, so it makes sense for Mercury to house the beginner infested Proximia. Here, you'll be able to take on missions located in the orbit of the grineer/infested controlled planet, Mercury. Give it to where they hurt, tenno!

Deimos Proximia

Now, obviously the infested moon known as Deimos has to be the next level up in Infested Railjack. Here, you'll be able to get special transmissions from the Entrati family, and even some support from time to time from them, and this is where you'll be introduced to Squad Link through some special missions, like the infested lich finale when the Infested Liches finally come. Here is where you'll really need your Tactical Intrinsic 5, which allows you to deploy your necramech, as there is some specific missions where you'll only be able to use your Necramech. More on that in the new missions section.

Eris Proximia

And here we come to the advanced part, Eris. Eris is known for missions known as the infested missions; Infested Salvage, and Hive. Here is where your railjack skills will really be put to the test against the infested. In the background will be that infested planetoid we saw as a concept art during one of the Tennocons. This is the updated Eris. Here you'll be taking on much badder infested enemies as you work to complete your goal within the node.

The New Missions

Now, with the Infested Railjack comes new missions. With these missions comes great rewards, as well as new weapons for your railjack. Let's hop right into the first one, shall we?

Barrage
In this mission, you must work your way to a infested ship that has outgrown to the point to where it's starting to become a problem in that region. Your mission is to find and pop the blisters using your railjack in order to gain access to the heart of the beast. Once the blisters has been taken out, your mission truly begins as you delve deep into the heart of the problem: The infested ship. Now, in this ship, the infested has produced a toxin so bad, your Warframe just can't handle it. So, you must rely on your necramech in order to take out the source of the problem within the region. You summon it, and off you go to take care of the problem. Now, the infested won't be easy on you as you make your way down to the heart, so come packin' with some good necramech mods, as well as a good amp build too. (This mechanic is only exclusive to the Barrage missions in the Eris proximia. You won't need your necramech for the Deimos and Mercury Barrage missions. The necramechs are recommended for the Barrage missions, but you aren't required to summon them for the Mercury and Deimos Proximia versions.)

Cure

Now, taking some inspiration from Star trek online here, your mission is to synthesize a cure for a rogue grineer/corpus group, as they have been exposed to the spores of the infested, using your Forge area. This one requires a bit of teamwork, as infested enemies will be barraging you from all sides as you work to find a cure. For this one, you must let ramsled teams board you, as some infested ramsled teams have some sample spores for you to synthesize in your forge. Once you synthesize your cure, you must now head for the ship itself to deliver the cure. Once inside, you must find the group and give them the cure. But that's not all, you must also escort them out.

Assimilate

Now here's where your Parazon can be put to good use, aside from it being used in kuva lich/Sisters of Parvos hounds finishers, hacking, and Jackal takedowns. In this new endless mission, Cy uploads a sort of "Antidote" into your parazon. This antidote will allow you to convert infested and revert them back to their normal state, so basically before they were infested. Each 2 pods restored for your grineer/corpus temporary allies will allow you to have them fight alongside you for a bit, akin to a Rescue mission, and the new Cure mission. However, unlike the Cure mission, you're required to directly board the ship instead of having the ramsleds board you. This is to help with the flow of the Assimilate missions, making them shorter, or longer, depending on how many rounds you want to go for Assimilate.

Tempestarii Rescue

Another new endless mode exclusive to the infested proximias is Tempestarii Rescue. In this endless mode, you're strictly restricted to space. No crewships to board, no objective ships to board, only you, your crew (Player or AI), and, as the title suggests, the Tempestarii. In this one, you must defend the Tempestarii as it zips in and out of the void in the infested space, collecting life pods from the near-infested wreckage. You can also board the tempestarii here and repair it from the inside, and also take out ramsleds in the Tempestarii, but if you have Engineering 10, or assign a crewmate to the mission-specific Tempestarii Repair command, or in the case of the ramsleds aboard the Tempestarii, Sevagoth, you don't really have to board the Tempestarii to repair it. This is where you can earn the Tempestarii's weapons, and more. Recommended to use in tandem with Void Storms for better effect! And no, this one's not exclusive to void storms. Help the tempestarii all you want, tenno! The ghost rescue ship awaits your help! The tougher the proximia, the tougher the infested enemies will be against the Tempestarii, and that includes the Veil too! Call of the Tempestarii is required to do this mission type. And, who knows? You may get a transmission or two from a certain void-sent captain, maybe they're the one behind the forces attacking the Tempestarii in these missions... Only you can piece together the puzzle, Tenno!

New Railjack Weapons and stats

Of course we can't leave out new weapons to come with new Railjack status effects, now can we? Coming with a void variant for the Tempestarii weapons to call your own comes new weapons for your own railjack and new status effects to watch out for. Let's dive into them, shall we?

New Effect: Phase Shift (Void)

Now, don't think you're safe from the Tempestarii's own weapons too. Think of this as friendly fire exclusive to the Tempestarii Rescue, but only if it's (The Tempestarii) been inflicted with a Friendly Fire status effect. For this effect, you are temporarily placed out of the plane of existence, and you cannot call to your crew for help until you repair the void rift. However, if you have a Limbo, or his prime variant, then you'll be able to fix it no problem using Banish. Or if you have a Xaku on your team or ARE Xaku, you can use their Deny ability to fix that void plane leaking into your railjack. If you don't, better start repairing, Tenno, as you cannot call to your crew for help! Keep an eye out for this as a sampling in Call of the Tempestarii when you're trying to evade the ghost ship! Be wise about who you bring!

New Effect: Hull Corrosion (Corrosive)

Corrosive can dish out some heavy damage to enemy armor in ground areas. But have you ever wondered what it can do to your railjack? The same effect, actually! With this new status effect, keep an eye out on how much damage you're being dealt to here. Corrosive is a nasty thing, and you certainly don't want it on your Railjack.

New Effect: Sickness (Viral)

This one's exclusive to your crew ai. Think your crewmates can't get sick? Think again! With this status effect applied, your crew ai will underperform, and you must apply a antidote from your Parazon (Not stabby stabby, don't worry!) to heal them. The effect of this depends on the job their doing. For Pilot, they will slow down almost to a snail's pace. For Engineering, they'll repair at a slower pace. For gunner, their damage goes down to almost... 50%. For defender, it's basically the same as if you were applied with Viral, their health drops to almost nothing, depending on the stacks it has. The stacks do not apply to anyone manning a gunner or pilot seat, but they do apply to those defending or repairing. Also Cephalon Cy will visibly start coughing too, but that's just cosmetic.

New Status Effect: Hallucination Gas (Gas)

Don't breathe in the air when this is around, Tenno! This status effect will cause your vision to become blurry and start... seeing things. Things that aren't there. Are they real? Are they fake? One thing's for sure, you may want to keep a life support capsule nearby when this is applied. This one is repairable, but it may kinda mess with your vision a bit. It'll also damage you too, just like how Gas works on normal enemies.

New Effect: Lavos's Library (Special)

The infested has taken into account of Lavos and his teachings, and have utilized a special weapon to kick your butt with it! Be wary of this status effect, as it's not only one status effect... It's all of them in one! Don't worry though, you'll only have to deal with one repair node with your Omni-tool. You'll know what it is when you see it. Also, don't worry about Void, as it is not applied in the Lavos's Library effect. Again, that one's exclusive to the Tempestarii.

New Weapon Set: Tempestarii Arsenal

Ever wanted to shoot those homing missiles as guns? Or open void pockets to suck your enemies in? Well, now you can! Exclusive to the Tempestarii Rescue drop table, you will be able to get the Tempestarii's arsenal to use against your enemies. These weapons have the Void status effect applied to them, on the count of them being in the void, of course. However, don't use them against the Tempestarii itself, or you just may get a nasty surprise, Tenno!

New Forward Artillery upgrade: Tempestarii's Wraith

This one is new to the Tempestarii Rescue drop table as well. With this new forward artillery upgrade, turn your dome charges into ghost charges! With the might of the Tempestarii on your side, one Ghost Charge will allow you to launch a projection of the Tempestarii at your enemies, sending them crying back home, having punch through! Very useful against the Corpus indeed! But be wary of your Ghost Charge usage, as each subsequent use will diminish the projection's damage, so think wisely on how you use it, Tenno. That also includes the Artillery Cheap Shot mod too. Both the Dome and Ghost charges have their effects, think about what to bring for the railjack mission, Tenno, as every decision counts for both!

New Weapon Set: Infested Arsenal

Coming with the new statuses comes new weapons, of course! We only got one toxic-like weapon, how about a whole arsenal of them! I'll let DE decide on what to include for Infested Arsenal, but each one will come with a effect similar to the new status effects listed above.

New Infested Railjack Skin: Festering Railjack Skin

Ever wanted your railjack to have that infected look? Well now you can! With this skin, make your enemies feel fear as you drive by in this skin. Or just make them puke. Their choice.

New Infested Railjack Skin: Infected Tempestarii Railjack Skin

Ever wondered what the Tempestarii would look like if not only it got void-touched, but also got taken over by the Infested? Well, once again, now you can! With this skin, make the Tempestarii you call your own even more fearful as infectious blisters adorn the railjack. May or may not cause sickness upon sight.

There's more to come for this post, but this is what I got so far! Lemme know what you think!

[RazerXPrime]

Infested build ships?

[Stickman949]

2 minutes ago, RazerXPrime said:

Infested build ships?

They take over ships. Have you been to the infested ship tiles in Eris?

[RazerXPrime]

Just now, Stickman949 said:

They take over ships. Have you been to the infested ship tiles in Eris?

Ok... and then they fly them and shoot at you? I mean. I'm specifically talking about the Railjack part of the mission. Otherwise it's just another node on a planet with a new mission type if it doesn't bring anything to Railjack itself.

[Stickman949]

Just now, RazerXPrime said:

Ok... and then they fly them and shoot at you? I mean. I'm specifically talking about the Railjack part of the mission. Otherwise it's just another node on a planet with a new mission type if it doesn't bring anything to Railjack itself.

Oh! Right, yes, they take over the fighters and have them shoot at the railjack. They also make ramsleds out of infested cartilage and launch them at your railjack. I have info on that when I update this post, so it should make more sense when I add more sections into the how's and why's and what's.

[xcrimsonlegendx]

They've mentioned infested railjack in a dev stream actually, so we know its coming at some point. Infested liches were also confirmed by Steve in one of his personal streams.

Spoiler

Infested has always taken over something -- Infested Corpus, Infested Grineer. In the following concept art, we are looking at Infested in its pure state. The first image is a space-scale Infested mass that leads to Infested microplanets -- something your Railjack could navigate through, for an idea of scale.

 

[Numerikuu]

32 minutes ago, RazerXPrime said:

Ok... and then they fly them and shoot at you? I mean. I'm specifically talking about the Railjack part of the mission. Otherwise it's just another node on a planet with a new mission type if it doesn't bring anything to Railjack itself.

Jordas Golem is a prime example of an infested ship that flies around after you, shooting at you.

[xcrimsonlegendx]

44 minutes ago, RazerXPrime said:

Infested build ships?

I would imagine that the infested wouldn't have "ships" they'd simple have ship-sized infested creatures. Similar to the sentient fighters from Scarlet spear.

 

42 minutes ago, Stickman949 said:

They take over ships. Have you been to the infested ship tiles in Eris?

Judging by what they said on the dev stream about infested railjack, they're trying not to do the infested takeover theme and going for a pure infestation one.

[RazerXPrime]

5 minutes ago, xcrimsonlegendx said:

I would imagine that the infested wouldn't have "ships" they'd simple have ship-sized infested creatures. Similar to the sentient fighters from Scarlet spear.

 

Judging by what they said on the dev stream about infested railjack, they're trying not to do the infested takeover theme and going for a pure infestation one.

That'd make more sense to me than an ancient pilotting a ship.

[(XBOX)Graysmog]

40 minutes ago, RazerXPrime said:

That'd make more sense to me than an ancient pilotting a ship.

The Infested are a hive mind, an Ancient wouldn't be piloting a ship, a literal mass of flesh and gristle would grow over the ship to consume and transmute it into something the Infested can use. They wouldn't be piloting the ship, they'd BE the ship.

[DrivaMain]

2 hours ago, Stickman949 said:

Now, in this ship, the infested has produced a toxin so bad, your Warframe just can't handle it. So, you must rely on your necramech in order to take out the source of the problem within the region.

I don’t know if the “warframe purist” crowd is going to be on board on that idea. Remember Orphix and how vocal they are? They just keep on whining about how they are “forced” to use necramechs.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

2 hours ago, Stickman949 said:

There's more to come for this post, but this is what I got so far! Lemme know what you think!

actually pretty good ideas overall! well done!

- for the common enemies, I imagine The Infested would have their own free-floating infestation (as seen in recent artwork) in space that could be home to unique fighter units, which could leave toxic trails as they fly by, and perhaps be equipped with slashing tentacle-like appendages, so instead of them firing projectiles at you, they could try to get close and a sort of hit and run attack on your hull.

- the Crewships could be giant infested tumours, with their own hive in the center as their "reactor", and emitting toxic gases and projectiles towards your railjack. the Ramsleds would definitely make sense as large spore-like constructs with spikes/hooks on them so they can dig into your hull and allow infested aboard.

- a new side objective, where you have to assist a stranded group of civillians who are holding back the infestation, but are close to being overwhelmed, and in return for helping them, they'll share some of their salvage with you (along with whatever unique drops)

- I would LOVE another Jordas Golem fight, but this time we use our railjack: it can involve using the Forward artillery to blast holes and weak points into the golem, and then follow up with regular guns and ordnance; maybe also have a mechanic that involves getting inside the golem to take out some of it's vital systems, a bit like in the old JV raid.

[Stickman949]

2 hours ago, xcrimsonlegendx said:

Judging by what they said on the dev stream about infested railjack, they're trying not to do the infested takeover theme and going for a pure infestation one.

Akin to Deimos. Gotcha.

[Jarriaga]

 

3 hours ago, xcrimsonlegendx said:

They've mentioned infested railjack in a dev stream actually, so we know its coming at some point. Infested liches were also confirmed by Steve in one of his personal streams.

  Hide contents

Infested has always taken over something -- Infested Corpus, Infested Grineer. In the following concept art, we are looking at Infested in its pure state. The first image is a space-scale Infested mass that leads to Infested microplanets -- something your Railjack could navigate through, for an idea of scale.

 

Didn't this turn into Deimos?

[xcrimsonlegendx]

25 minutes ago, Jarriaga said:

 

Didn't this turn into Deimos?

One of the screenshots is clearly Deimos or inspired it, but the others are labeled infested Railjack.

[Stickman949]

Ey y'all, I added some new stuff. It's still not done as there's more I want to talk about regarding this, but take a gander! I got stuff for elitist, new, and veteran players akin to like.

[(PSN)jaggerwanderer]

I prefer if the Jordas becomes the crewship type. Rather than having ramsleds, have the Infested launch tumors that attach to the railjack then disable the systems. The longer the tumors are attached to the outside of the railjack, the more cripple it becmes. From no more piloting, to can't shoot guns, draining shields/health, even go so far as to preventing railjack repair. Catasphrotic failure... to bad. Destory the ram tumors on the outside of the railjack first.

[Stickman949]

14 minutes ago, (PSN)jaggerwanderer said:

I prefer if the Jordas becomes the crewship type. Rather than having ramsleds, have the Infested launch tumors that attach to the railjack then disable the systems. The longer the tumors are attached to the outside of the railjack, the more cripple it becmes. From no more piloting, to can't shoot guns, draining shields/health, even go so far as to preventing railjack repair. Catasphrotic failure... to bad. Destory the ram tumors on the outside of the railjack first.

That would probably be exclusive to either Assimilate or Tempestarii Rescue.

[Stickman949]

3 hours ago, DrivaMain said:

I don’t know if the “warframe purist” crowd is going to be on board on that idea. Remember Orphix and how vocal they are? They just keep on whining about how they are “forced” to use necramechs.

...They can do other missions too, they're not just restricted to Barrage, y'know.

[DrivaMain]

1 minute ago, Stickman949 said:

...They can do other missions too, they're not just restricted to Barrage, y'know.

They'll complain either way. 

[Stickman949]

Just now, DrivaMain said:

They'll complain either way. 

Eh, fair enough. Though there is enough content I listed for everyone, including the Elitists.

[Stickman949]

3 hours ago, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

actually pretty good ideas overall! well done!

- for the common enemies, I imagine The Infested would have their own free-floating infestation (as seen in recent artwork) in space that could be home to unique fighter units, which could leave toxic trails as they fly by, and perhaps be equipped with slashing tentacle-like appendages, so instead of them firing projectiles at you, they could try to get close and a sort of hit and run attack on your hull.

- the Crewships could be giant infested tumours, with their own hive in the center as their "reactor", and emitting toxic gases and projectiles towards your railjack. the Ramsleds would definitely make sense as large spore-like constructs with spikes/hooks on them so they can dig into your hull and allow infested aboard.

- a new side objective, where you have to assist a stranded group of civillians who are holding back the infestation, but are close to being overwhelmed, and in return for helping them, they'll share some of their salvage with you (along with whatever unique drops)

- I would LOVE another Jordas Golem fight, but this time we use our railjack: it can involve using the Forward artillery to blast holes and weak points into the golem, and then follow up with regular guns and ordnance; maybe also have a mechanic that involves getting inside the golem to take out some of it's vital systems, a bit like in the old JV raid.

1. Thank you! There's still more to be said here as I got a LOT on my mind about this topic.

2. Yes, that's what I was thinking for all the mission types, especially Tempestarii Rescue. Think of them like swarms, if you will.

3. Exactly what I was thinking for Cure and Tempestarii Rescue. You'd have to swap back and forth between your own railjack and the Tempestarii (Only if you don't have a Sevagoth on your team) and take them out on both sides in the Tempestarii Rescue mission type. It'll keep ya busy!

4. Yeah, that can be exclusive to Cure and Assimilate. There will still be loot dungeons though for you to explore in the Infested Proximias, that ain't out of the question.

5. That would be kinda like the infested lich finale, where they've learned to assimilate an entire capital ship, and they use it to try and take you out, you can't board, and you're forced to use unusual tactics, like using your Railjack's Forward Artillery to take out the blisters, then, with a certain gunnery intrinsic, switch to Ghost Charges and use the Tempestarii Projection to take out the heart (If you have the Tempestarii's Wraith upgrade for your Forward artillery, you can still use your Dome Charges if you don't!), weakening it enough for you to use your Archwing to head to the heart and either convert or vanquish it.

[DrivaMain]

14 minutes ago, Stickman949 said:

Eh, fair enough. Though there is enough content I listed for everyone, including the Elitists.

Perhaps a middle ground can be reached while keeping Necramechs relevant in the game mode. You can enter with your Warframe, but it will be severely weakened by the toxic gas. All of the warframe stats will be cut in half. It will at least keep those "I hate necramechs" crowd somewhat happy and can experience the new content.

[Stickman949]

3 minutes ago, DrivaMain said:

Perhaps a middle ground can be reached while keeping Necramechs relevant in the game mode. You can enter with your Warframe, but it will be severely weakened by the toxic gas. All of the warframe stats will be cut in half. It will at least keep those "I hate necramechs" crowd somewhat happy and can experience the new content.

Yeah, that can be arranged for all the tiers of Barrage, or even a bit in Tempestarii Rescue aboard the Tempestarii, just without the Necramech requirement for the Gas Railjack effect.

[xcrimsonlegendx]

1 hour ago, (PSN)jaggerwanderer said:

I prefer if the Jordas becomes the crewship type. Rather than having ramsleds, have the Infested launch tumors that attach to the railjack then disable the systems. The longer the tumors are attached to the outside of the railjack, the more cripple it becmes. From no more piloting, to can't shoot guns, draining shields/health, even go so far as to preventing railjack repair. Catasphrotic failure... to bad. Destory the ram tumors on the outside of the railjack first.

My friend and I had a similar idea, just without Jordas specifically.

Infested crewships being large creatures you can board, the reactor is their heart, the pilot seat is the brain. Mount the brain to control the "ship". Blow up the heart to cause it to self destruct in gooey glory. Deploying "seeds" that ram into the railjack like the mouths on deimos that spawn infested units.