Infested Strains

[(XBOX)Avant Solace]

So I was thinking about some unexplored bits of lore, and came across a rather large rabbit hole: The utility of Infestation.

For starters, we know that there are "Wild" Infested strains. The "Common" strain, "Gray" strain, and "Mutalist" strain are examples of hostile strains. They're essentially the Infested's default programming of "consume and adapt" being set on an untamed loop like a cancer. These strains will occasionally form consciousness like the Jordas Golem and Lephantis, but are overall very simple minded in terms of goals and activity.

But then we also have evidence of truly "intelligent" strains. These are strains that are capable of advanced planning and fine-tuned actions. The examples I've seen are the "Arlo" strain, which baited in subjects by offering a miracle cure to illnesses, and the "Helminth" strain, which performs maintenance on Warframes. To go even further, we have Nidus, a Warframe that specializes specifically in controlling and improving upon its own infestation. So this begs a question: Just how much can the Infested be "programmed"?

We know the Infestation can "cure" diseases. We know we have a Warframe that can control the Infested under its strain. So what is stopping an Operater from going full mad-scientist and using their Nidus to violently cure others of their ailments in a chaotic-good rampage? Heck, what's stopping us from undoing all the clone rot afflicting out friendly Liches? What is honestly stopping me from turning my Lich friends into a harem of attractive super soldiers, and what are the moral implications of doing so?

Discuss.

[Ethorin]

I mean, assuming you trust Helminth to actually be able to heal them into a state you'd find beautiful and keep them there instead of turning on you the moment Helminth realizes "wait, I don't have to rely on the Demon anymore!"

 

And if you think Nidus can do it.... ehhhhhhhh... questionable IMO. Nidus doesn't really seem to do a lot that suggests he can do the Arlo Thing. 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

12 hours ago, (XBOX)Avant Solace said:

So what is stopping an Operater from going full mad-scientist and using their Nidus to violently cure others of their ailments in a chaotic-good rampage?

 the Lotus. regardless of what we think of Her IRL, the truth is that the Tenno we play as still seeks Lotus love and approval and I don't think space mom would approve of us pulling an Alad V. I will admit the idea of having to stop a rogue Tenno and their warframe is really interesting and could make for a good story quest in the future; up until now the only other Tenno we encountered face to face was Rell, so the idea of discovering another canon Tenno and them being an antagonist is quite unique. 

12 hours ago, (XBOX)Avant Solace said:

Heck, what's stopping us from undoing all the clone rot afflicting out friendly Liches? What is honestly stopping me from turning my Lich friends into a harem of attractive super soldiers, and what are the moral implications of doing so?

tempting as that may be, there's a couple of issues:

- if the Infestation could genuinely cure clone rot, I'm fairly sure the brilliant Scientist Tyl Regor would have found out by now, especially since he and Mutalist Alad came to blows in Tubemen of Regor. in truth, whatever fancy stuff Regor had cured the infestation, or at least forced it into a remissive state, so the total opposite of what you intend.

- while you may enjoy the company of Converted Liches IRL, in-game I think the Tenno don't see them as much more than attack dogs and slaves, now in eternal servitude to us following their defeat. the Liches don't really care how they look, only that they serve, and given that they already have some of the best augmentations available, having a fully organic body wouldn't improve them much if at all.. in fact, it can be argued that an organic body has it's downsides; look at Solaris workers: they literally pay- and end up in even more Debt to the Taxmen - to have their organic bodies augmented with mechanical limbs, breathing systems etc so that they can take on more dangerous and more profitable work. say what you want about the Grineer, but they're right about one thing: flesh is a flaw in a universe of advanced biotechnology.

and since I'm basically already there, you may as well praise the omnissiah and enjoy:

 

[PsiWarp]

That is if we can indeed do what the Orokin failed. The Infestation ran rampant as a bioweapon plague that spread like wildfire. As nanotech I suppose that is the reason why Sentients are immune to its effects as they would subvert its programming.

Nidus is like an alpha that directs the Helminth's spread. Is the Helminth strain programmed to be subservient to Nidus? Does it view the Tenno as "Master of the Master" and goes along even though it fears the Void Demon within us?

I think there is vast potential in the Helminth in medical applications indeed, but it would take minds more brilliant than the Entrati family to shape and control this virulent mutagenic technology.

[renleech]

In game, we have no actual distinction of the strains at all. Want examples?
Lore-wise, what are mutalist ospreys doing in deimos if the gray strain is there, instead of the mutalist?
Game-wise, it makes sense, less development time just copy-pasting power carriers, right? But we also have there broodmothers, also part of the mustalist strain. How did they get there, lore-wise? Brought as stowaways with Latrox Une's crashed ship?

Things could be much more complicated, or simple, depending on how DE is going to handle this, if they are going to handle this lore AT ALL. Perhaps write a tale, about how the strains intermix to create the overall situation of mutalist types on Deimos. Of couse, made right, will bring further questions, like how the disease is going to evolve, a question we people are facing in real life...

Whatever is going to happen, it will be based on the demand DE has for lore this deep. TBH, do not expect much. It's cheaper to let the gaps be filled by the lore-hungry. Damn, i wish i was ignorant about this.

 I wish the strains were different not only visually, but in stats and behavior too. But, in the current state of the "super turkey punch" power fantasy we have, such differences are meaningless. They die too quickly for the average joe to even notice.

 You don't know how sad i feel when i write the hard truth, lore-hungry as i am.

PS: "Super Turkey punch" is a joke mini-game present in Doom 3 where said mini-game is about punching turkeys until they explode in blood and gore ad eternum. All in old Doom graphics. A very funny metaphor about power fantasy and stress relief.
 How many of the players you know are all about turkey punching and nothing else?

 Using the infestation to cure? You sound like a devotee of the Emissary. And i love the smell of burned zealoids in the morning.

[Kerberos-3]

On a lore end, it makes sense for there to be multiple Strains of Infested. Hell, based on my own observations I've been able to identify at least five different strains in game(Origin, Mutualist, Grey, Helminth, and Myconid). In terms of gameplay practicality, however, all of the Strains are functionally the same, with only a few unique enemy types in certain areas. If the Infested followed their lore Strain setup, for example, the Derelicts would only spawn one or two Infested Ancients, but those Ancients would basically be Lephantis-level bosses. Ancient-type infested, subsequently, would only spawn on the Derelicts, since nowhere else has had Infested long enough for an Ancient to form aside from Deimos and maybe Eris, but that is a different can of worms lore-wise.

[(PSN)ShadowCortax]

The Infested Strains that I can recall/have noticed are; 
Original (Phorid)
Mutalist (made/altered by Alad V)
Grey (Fass seems hostile)
Grey (Vome seems like it could be neutral or friendly, possibly [also think the Entrati are part of this])
Helminth (our friendly wall trashcan mouth)
Myconid (peaceful seemingly?)
Eris (Hemocyte/Plague Star)
Emissary/Zealoid (Eris 2.0)
Jordas? (Jordas Golem, Jordas is captive spokesperson)
Lephantis 

so 3 maybe allies and 7 hostile but lore wise it seems to be just (original, Grey, Helminth, Mutalist, Eris) 
eris is mentioned in both the plague star and emissary nightwave, so I included it as it's own.
 

[(PSN)FunyFlyBoy]

On 2022-01-05 at 8:08 AM, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

- if the Infestation could genuinely cure clone rot, I'm fairly sure the brilliant Scientist Tyl Regor would have found out by now, especially since he and Mutalist Alad came to blows in Tubemen of Regor. in truth, whatever fancy stuff Regor had cured the infestation, or at least forced it into a remissive state, so the total opposite of what you intend.

That doesn't point to Tyl Regor not using the Infestation to Cure Cloning Rot. If anything, an argument that the Infestation can cure it can be made by the fact Tyl has a cure for the Infestation at all. Why would he go about curing the Infestation if he isn't planning on using the Infestation? Using it on Grineer already infected would serve no purpose almost because they are too mutated. Alad V wasn't so far gone he couldn't be cured yet. Most infested Grineer are as their bodies have already been wildly transformed. Now if Tyl was applying the Infestation himself and there were unforeseen complications, wanting to cure the strain makes sense. You do not want to create a rampant new strain of infestation in your own home.