Is this the year we FINALLY have full access to the stalker as a regular warframe ?

[Waeleto]

So a stalker quest was just announced that if everything goes according to DE's plan should release this year, this is a perfect opportunity to release the stalker (FINALL) as a fully moddable and playable warframe, he has a model, abilities, signature weapons and a landing craft coming soon so everything is basically aligned for it 

(duviri doesn't count, it's a single gamemode where the chances of getting him is very low, he isn't moddable or fashionable either and locking a warframe in a single gamemode isn't very nice)

[AuroraSonicBoom]

That would degrade his position in the game. Imagine a squad of four player Stalkers defending themselves against an NPC Stalker invasion. Yeah, not very cool.

[UnstarPrime]

The instant DE releases Stalker as a normal Warframe is the instant he sheds everything that makes him interesting and just becomes another basic Warframe.  Personally hoping that day never comes.

[Zahnrad]

Most people say that it'll degrade his character, but I disagree depending on how it's handled.

 

For instance, every Warframe we obtain (you could argue with the exception of your Starter Warframe) isn't the original Warframe, and I don't personally consider the Primes the "originals" either.

Not all Warframes get a proper story. But I've always seen every Warframe we craft as being a clone, a mimic, a replica of the original idea.

Although I do consider the Warframes "alive" when I subsume for example, Dagath. I don't associate it with the Original Dagath.

Heck, even Umbra we literally rebuild him. The Umbra we take control of isn't the same Umbra from all those years ago, though he does share the memory and pain.

 

Stalker can be handled the same way, we're not "the" Stalker. We're merely a copy or replica of him, like how we took his weapons for ourselves.

Though if you really wanted to make a strong point of leaving Stalker's legacy intact...We could always...Kill him...

I doubt anyone wants that scenario, but that would make a concrete distinction between the Playable Stalker and "The" Stalker. His honor remains intact, even if we decide to turn him Pink and raid a Relay with him.

[Waeleto]

23 minutes ago, AuroraSonicBoom said:

That would degrade his position in the game. Imagine a squad of four player Stalkers defending themselves against an NPC Stalker invasion. Yeah, not very cool.

17 minutes ago, UnstarPrime said:

The instant DE releases Stalker as a normal Warframe is the instant he sheds everything that makes him interesting

Those things already happened a while ago when we started one-shotting him the moment he appears

As for him appearing to hunt players i think this is should stop happening after a certain point in the story (for the same reason i listed above) and just offer us a new way to obtain his drops 

Just now, Zahnny said:

Most people say that it'll degrade his character, but I disagree depending on how it's handled.

 

For instance, every Warframe we obtain (you could argue with the exception of your Starter Warframe) isn't the original Warframe, and I don't personally consider the Primes the "originals" either.

Not all Warframes get a proper story. But I've always seen every Warframe we craft as being a clone, a mimic, a replica of the original idea.

Although I do consider the Warframes "alive" when I subsume for example, Dagath. I don't associate it with the Original Dagath.

Heck, even Umbra we literally rebuild him. The Umbra we take control of isn't the same Umbra from all those years ago, though he does share the memory and pain.

 

Stalker can be handled the same way, we're not "the" Stalker. We're merely a copy or replica of him, like how we took his weapons for ourselves.

Though if you really wanted to make a strong point of leaving Stalker's legacy intact...We could always...Kill him...

I doubt anyone wants that scenario, but that would make a concrete distinction between the Playable Stalker and "The" Stalker. His honor remains intact, even if we decide to turn him Pink and raid a Relay with him.

I always viewed it as, the "stalker" is the person controlling this warframe (the person who became this warframe if he's an umbra) and if we ever got his blueprint we'd be getting the blueprint of the warframe not the stalker himself, it's a bit confusing but i hope you get my point 

[PublikDomain]

I have some doubts since we're getting Jade with that update; we probably won't get two frames from one quest. And while I don't personally like the idea of playable Stalker and miss the days where DE wouldn't even acknowledge his existence, an Acolyte-turned-player-frame would be cool. That'd avoid the narrative ick of freely-playable Stalker while still giving us an edgelord frame to play.

[Zahnrad]

7 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

I have some doubts since we're getting Jade with that update; we probably won't get two frames from one quest. And while I don't personally like the idea of playable Stalker and miss the days where DE wouldn't even acknowledge his existence, an Acolyte-turned-player-frame would be cool. That'd avoid the narrative ick of freely-playable Stalker while still giving us an edgelord frame to play.

I gotta admit. I do want to play as the Acolytes but I think I remember making a thread along the lines of

"Would you prefer to get Stalker, or would you prefer to get all his Acolytes?" and I think the consensus was a general "neither"

The closest thing I could see happening in regards to Acolytes is some sort of new material, resource or gear that lets us enhance a Warframe with something related to Acolytes. Similar to installing an Orokin Catalyst. That way we can turn any Warframe into an "Acolyte" that's not just "here's roughly 6 new warframes that look slightly different"

[Tukka]

I'm ambivalent about making the Stalker to a full playable warframe.

I do wish we had a way of excluding him from our Duviri selection pool (having an Intrinsic should never be a disadvantage), and a way of customizing him (both in terms of mod loadout, and cosmetics).

[CrownOfShadows]

Ever since he was included in Duviri Circuit we've been anticipating being able to use him in regular content. But I do agree with others that making him a regular warframe would dramatically degrade his presence.

Also, as many many threads have detailed, the Stalker kit itself kinda sucks and is just a hodgepodge of abilities stolen from other frames.

So what I would prefer is something intermittent and unique, if anything. Maybe something tied into invigorations.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

but if he joins us, who's gonna chase us down for every Starmap boss we kill, say silly edgy things and then get rinsed in 0.05 seconds? it just won't be the same without him!

[Zahnrad]

1 minute ago, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

but if he joins us, who's gonna chase us down for every Starmap boss we kill, say silly edgy things and then get rinsed in 0.05 seconds? it just won't be the same without him!

I imagine it'll probably stay the same.
Like how we made "peace" with several Syndicates through quests and they still send literal death squads after us.

[Paroe]

30 minutes ago, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

but if he joins us, who's gonna chase us down for every Starmap boss we kill, say silly edgy things and then get rinsed in 0.05 seconds? it just won't be the same without him!

Literally his acolytes. 
They exist for this purpose, lmao.

[UnstarPrime]

1 hour ago, Paroe said:

1 hour ago, (PSN)robotwars7 said:

but if he joins us, who's gonna chase us down for every Starmap boss we kill, say silly edgy things and then get rinsed in 0.05 seconds? it just won't be the same without him!

Literally his acolytes. 
They exist for this purpose, lmao.

I think if you look up the word "acolyte" you'll find out why that doesn't quite make sense. ^^

[Zahnrad]

5 minutes ago, UnstarPrime said:

I think if you look up the word "acolyte" you'll find out why that doesn't quite make sense. ^^

While cutting the head off of a snake will typically kill the body, certain dreams can live on even without their dreamer.

Narmer is a good example if we wanted to take an in-universe standpoint.

[Waeleto]

2 hours ago, Paroe said:

Literally his acolytes. 
They exist for this purpose, lmao.

This ^

At least acolytes won't be oneshot the moment they appear

[-ShadowRadiance-]

12 hours ago, AuroraSonicBoom said:

That would degrade his position in the game. Imagine a squad of four player Stalkers defending themselves against an NPC Stalker invasion. Yeah, not very cool.

Insert spiderman pointing at spiderman.meme

[UnstarPrime]

13 hours ago, Zahnny said:

While cutting the head off of a snake will typically kill the body, certain dreams can live on even without their dreamer.

I think there's a meaningful difference between "the Stalker becoming our friend" and the idea of "cutting the head off a snake".

Given that the Acolytes have literally no depth beyond simply being followers of the Stalker, Occam's Razor leads me to posit that a shift in the Stalker's goals and alignment would result in a corresponding shift in their goals and alignment as well.

[Raarsi]

I think the biggest issue is that Stalker is mechanically just an Ash with a better version of Nyx's fourth.

If we were to get Stalker as a regular frame, then he'd need a pretty wild overhaul.

[Kronxito]

It would be nice to have the original stalker with dispel and inmunity to abilities. 
 

Duviri stalker is super meh…

Edited March 24 by Kronxito

[Drachnyn]

Stalker has shown himself to be highly adaptable and with there also being an original frame in the update I think this would be the perfect time for Kitframe alongside that. Stalker is already mostly stealing his abilities from other frames which he can apparently change at will/depending on what he is equipppd with. The sentient infusion gave him a whole new set of abilities while the duviri version uses abilities more in line with our needs. There's a lot of room for creativity with this on DE's side and depending on how they implement it on the player side aswell.

[Greysmog]

I'm more expecting a gamemode where you play as him specifically, similar to Kahl in a way. You just get to use him instead of regular Warframe options for some reason.

[Aerikx]

From a narrative perspective it's time he be playable.

And Duviri DOES count. As the text says he is a mysterious ally. (Meaning that is THE Actual Stalker coming to aid Drifter.)

Also...he isn't rare. Stalker pops as a choice like every 3 runs/loadouts resets. I play as him more than any other Warframe in Duviri content. So much so that I kind of wish Duviri became Stalker exclusive content with the weapons and etc being the player Tenno trying to help him as repayment for his help in The New War.

As for it ruining him?

Naw. After Second Dream, Stalker started to change mentally. And after The New War he seems to have come to understand and accept (not like) the Tenno. 

So Stalker is already ruined. And narratively he stopped hunting Tenno after Second Dream. Him attacking post-dream is purely for gameplay purposes.

That said, someone else said it perfectly...

Unless the Quest has us go full Excalibur Umbra "Take Away it's Pain" on Stalker, we'd be getting a Helminth generated copy of the Warframe.

The Stalker proper is either:

A. A Rogue Tenno who was loyal to the Orokin through and through and rejected by Margulis. (Remember: She rejected Rell, and other Tenno. So no, she was not this perfect being with unending compassion. She was a b🫢h like Ballas and the rest of the Orokin. She just wasn't as cruel as them.

B. An actual Orokin using transference technology 

C. An Orokin who used a one time transference into a Warframe. Similar to how Silvana transferences into The Silver Grove, Rell into Harrow, and etc.

D. A Orokin soldier who never made Dax who got infected by the Helminth and became The Stalker Warframe.

So we (The Player) could get a Stalker Warframe (Basically Ash 2.0/Ash but with his Bandaids uh I mean... Augments built into his kit as most Augments actually should be) and the Real Stalker still exist. 

Honestly...

I would like it to be Option A. I feel like narratively there could be some cool moments and stories told by have the operator interact with a rival operator like Stalker both on the Warframe and Tenno levels. 

Maybe he could be an NPC aboard our Orbiter...one we can swap between at will...I dunno....

[voltocitygel]

The stalker (and acolytes) are a lot of untapped potential narratively, and for gameplay. 

i would be surprised to see a playable stalker frame regardless of how we get it, but I don’t think it would ruin anything. As others have said, there are both story reasons for this and he is too weak to pose a real threat once you progress past a certain point. 

same for the acolytes- if they show up in line of sight where I’m already shooting they often die without me seeing them. They do actually pose a threat if they sneak up on you though. Narratively, they still use all the voice lines from the event they were introduced in, so they’re in a weird place in terms of that. (Mostly I’m thinking of many they have that in short, say “i don’t have a problem with you, but you’re making me do this”, which is a little different from the stalker who certainly has problems with us)

All of them use a hodgepodge of abilities taken from warframes or enemy units. Mechanically, it could be a way to introduce a kitframe that many (myself included) like the idea of. I saw a suggestion for one using the helminth system that has lots of potential as well. 
 

1 hour ago, Aerikx said:

Maybe he could be an NPC aboard our Orbiter...one we can swap between at will...I dunno....

This. Honestly, umbra should have gotten this treatment as well, instead of getting shoved wherever the rest of our gear is stored for us non-excal mains. I liked the post-new war camp with interactable NPCs to really bring home the fact that we, as Tenno, are no longer operating alone. It makes the orbiter feel more like a base of operations rather than just a ship.
Getting a little off track here, I kind of wish steel path used narmer enemies, just to be able to change the star map flavor after the new war, instead of everything being the exact same except archon hunts and narmer bounties. 

[TennoPain]

Back in my day Stalker was somebody you feared now you just walk past him and he insta dies so there is that .... 

PS : I will never forget when he killed me first time I was watching him murder me ...tought It was a part of the quest or something 

Died and went noup ALT + F4 

Veterans know man Veterans know.