Let's Figure Out What Is Prisma Shade's Secret Ability

[DiosGX]

So DE Scott has presented the community with a mini-challenge; 

 

Discover the special benefit of the Prisma Shade Sentinel

 

 

I have seen this community discover all 50~ parts of the Grineer Queen's ballad/poem within a few short days of their release. Surely we can nail this down in a timely manner. I've been checking reddit and the forums, and haven't seen any actual place that seems devoted to figuring this out. It's only conversations about the laser being bad or the Baro mix up with the items, etc. Nothing about this supposed mystery we're intended to solve.

 

We were only told that it does something, and we would not be told what it is. That it is in fact specifically up to us to figure it out. So, let's get cracking.

 

In order to find a secret planted by a developer, you must think like a developer. For the sake of postulating absolutely anything to start us off, let's look at two basic fundamentals to help narrow down exactly what this thing even does.

 

I'm just throwing out some ideas here in an attempt to set a ground floor. Nothing I am stating here is intended to be a statement of fact, nor that I'm some authority on the matter. Sometimes you need an idiot (me, in this case) to say something incredibly stupid, and to have someone wiser on the situation look at things from that incorrect position and apply some sense to it. 

That's kind of how the Gulf Oil spill got solved. Some 16 year old kid on social media saw the faulty attempts to fix it, understood a basic level of what was being presented, and came up with a resolution.

 

We need you, insanely intelligent wise young man. 

 

 

Let's get down to brass tacks:

 

Statistical Benefits, or, Gameplay Mechanic Alteration?

 

I feel that in some way, it must be one of these two. I strongly doubt that the big secret here is something physically, visually on the sentinel itself. Unless I am utterly wrong, and that changing the colors on the sentinel may reveal a hidden message written in the language of the Tenno. I, however, doubt that. If someone is well-versed in that language, attempting to translate it should only take a few minutes to see if anything is even written on it.

 

So where does that leave us?

 

My first, original thought when I heard about this was based on my hope of having a Warframe that could give a party-wide Critial Hit bonus—whether by rate, or damage. Unfortunately, I sold my Nukor which would be the prime candidate to discovering if using the Prisma Shade gave, what I initially just postulated for the sake of the argument, would be a 5% to-hit Critital rate bonus. The Nukor would be the easiest gun to test this out on, as you would definitely notice a crit rate going from 1% to 6%, or higher, or whatever. Next.

 

My other (hopeful) idea was that it would influence drop rates in some way. That maybe the player would see an increase in either resources, credits, energy, health orbs, or mod drop rate for the squad.

 

 

That's all I've really got on the fence for now about what it could be. But just for a moment, let's discussion what it most likely could NOT be:

 

Shade's Precept Mods

 

There is nothing different about these mods from the standard shade. Prime variants of Sentinels follow this same suit, in that the mods used are the same, and that the ability granted to the Sentinel comes from that mod itself.

 

However, since we are taking this into a dissective science-like methodology, it's imprudent to entirely dismiss the idea. There very well could be a modifier embedded into Shade itself that changes the way the basic mod is influenced. Perhaps stealth crit dmg for the first stealth melee finisher performed? Maybe it cranks up the stealth affinity multiplier by more than 100% at a time? Haven't honestly tested that, so I cannot say it is not the case in absolution.

 

However, we've yet to see precept mods' effects altered by Primed Sentinels yet, so that seems a waste of time to pursue the concept for me, personally. All the same, I would encourage others to test it out. Narrowing down the field of possibilities is just another part of this methodology.

 

 

I know that the Shade Sentinel is far from a crowd favorite, but we were very much issued a public challenge, and I for one do not intend to back down from it.

 

o3o

[pauli133]

The special benefit of the Prisma Shade - it came with the Prisma Burst Laser, so you get a total of 9k mastery, instead of just 6! It's amazing!

[(NSW)BlaineKodos]

Its special ability is when it reaches rank 30, the Ghost precept becomes so powerful that it makes Prisma Shade disappear entirely, because you'll never use it again.

 

On a more serious note, I've noticed nothing out of the ordinary with Prisma Shade so far. It doesn't seem to have any unique animations or to be granting me any sort of tactile benefits. The only thing I could think to say is energy color doesn't seem to affect Ghost, but then I haven't used Shade in over a year prior to Prisma so I can't tell you if it ever affected Ghost to start with. As far as I can tell it's just a shiny Shade with a slightly better weapon.

[Bobtm]

As Shade has always been my favorite Sentinel for a long time, I've had a few guesses as to what possible changes could've been made to this alternate variation.  However I do not have Shade to test this out on a personal level (if it's elligible for trade I'll probably go that route).  So for the time being I'll state my own guesses here, should others who own this Sentinel feel the desire to do any testing.

 

 

• Shade's Ghost Precept is tied to his ability to see targets.  Thusly a logical bonus would be to have Shade's range of vision regarding the Ghost Precept extended, either by a fixed X meters, or as a percentage of his current range of sight.
• Shade's Ghost Precept has a delay, after Shade sees a target within its activation range it has a short windup before activating Ghost.  It is possible that this activation time may have been reduced.
• Shade's Ghost Precept has a cooldown, so another logical bonus would be to have this cooldown decreased in length.

 

 

Without yet having access to the Sentinel the best I can do is throw my thoughts out at the wall.  At the moment I wouldn't assume that Ghost would allow any additional actions to not break the stealth as such would seem a bit too powerful for the ability.  At the moment Ghost can be up while simultaneously activating abilities as those don't trigger a break, however actual attacks or gunfire will immediately break stealth whether or not they land.  Ghost can also remain up whilst reviving allies.

 

Another obscure possibility would be having Shade reduce the accuracy of any enemies within a given radius by a small degree.  Such a bonus would fit this Sentinel thematically, but it wouldn't be an easy thing to test.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Bobtm

[ArcusVeles]

I think I'd care more if Shade were a sentinel at all worth using.  Never stealths when I want it.  Never shoots when I want it.  It's almost like not having a Sentinel at all.

 

I hope someone else is interested in finding this secret, because I'm already done with the thing.  If I were to hazard a guess though, I'd probably try using it on invis frames and see if it does anything interesting with those.

[4MostlyHarmless2]

When did DE Scott issue the "challenge"? This is interesting to me because I've used Shade as my go-to Sentinel in every mission, and since I'm still leveling him I haven't had the chance to observe anything yet...

[Barkano]

the secret ability is ripp off your ducats

[Your_Very_Best_Friend]

I'm actually VERY interested as to figuring this out, but I have absolutely no clue where to even begin. I'll be using Prisma Shade from now on until this is discovered. I'll reply if I find anything out of the ordinary.

[Cat_Jam]

Honestly, as far as I can tell, his "secret" ability is to detect enemies through walls/objects.

 

Prisma Shade turns you invisible so long as you are within the range and no longer requires shade to have a direct line of sight with the enemy (I think).

[LordOfScrugging]

could it just be one of scott's jokes?

[Archistopheles]

could it just be one of scott's jokes?

 

Yep.

 

@DiosGX we need the context in which Scott said this.

[RextintorZ]

Probably something related to the new Grineer units, the ones that can see invisible players. And seeing how Shade is a sentinel with a cloaking ability, it might be related. Prisma Shade might have an undetectable invisibility when it's used near them.

 

Just my guess but it might be something else, maybe something silly. You know how mischievous Scott can be lol

Edited August 22, 2015 by RextintorZ

[lexuseof]

This seems a little out of left field, but I started noticing that I was getting the "Equilibrium" effect when I picked up energy orbs while I had Prisma Shade equipped. At first I thought my Equinox had Mend activated but you can see from the screenshot it's not (only Pacify is running).

 

http://imgur.com/ybqjtPN

 

I'm going to switch frames, someone without any healing effect and test some more...

 

 

Edit: Ah, well that's interesting. Now I need to read-up on WF passives. But back to the drawing board on Prisma Shade...

Edited August 22, 2015 by lexuseof

[Nikodemos]

This seems a little out of left field, but I started noticing that I was getting the "Equilibrium" effect when I picked up energy orbs while I had Prisma Shade equipped. At first I thought my Equinox had Mend activated but you can see from the screenshot it's not (only Pacify is running).

 

http://imgur.com/ybqjtPN

 

I'm going to switch frames, someone without any healing effect and test some more...

 

That's just a passive Equinox has in general, regardless of her form or ability active.

[Sunder]

Where was it stated Prisma Shade had a special feature?
Was it on the Dev Stream or via a post/twitter?

[Sibernetika]

Now I'm also curious

[Volume]

Curious here. I kind of want to get it, but 500 ducats is a lot :(

[LordOfScrugging]

i think i found out the ability! Shade's secret ability is the ability to:

 

waste everyone's time trying to figure out what ability it might not have

Edited August 23, 2015 by LordOfScrugging

[Brimir]

I'm 110% certain it is the fact that you get a Prisma weapon "for free" when you purchase it.

[Hypernaut1]

Honestly, as far as I can tell, his "secret" ability is to detect enemies through walls/objects.

 

Prisma Shade turns you invisible so long as you are within the range and no longer requires shade to have a direct line of sight with the enemy (I think).

i kind of feel prisma is a bit better at cloaking too, but i think its just a placebo effect.

[321agemo]

Theres a secret room within one of the void parkour rooms that only opens to prisma shade. You have to first complete the room then step on the circular pad. The wall behind will open and you enter a room that wont display on the map (like it wasnt added to to it for something.)

Theres a void wall containers (the ones that require you to press x to open) and its white colour instead of red or green. I tried opening it but nothing dropped from it. it could be that it hasnt been programmed in yet.

btw i made all that stuff up. Sorry to disappoint.

[AM-Bunny]

So DE Scott has presented the community with a mini-challenge; 

 

Sorry, but... source? 

[Omega-Shadowblade]

The secret is that if you use the right set of colors, the reflections off it become so bright it'll actually blind enemies who stare in your general direction too long. 

[searlefm]

The secret is that if you use the right set of colors, the reflections off it become so bright it'll actually blind enemies who stare in your general direction too long. 

My god it is the stunning radiance technique!

[Archistopheles]

Sorry, but... source? 

 

DiosGX vanished as soon as we asked.

 

I'm calling BS on the thread til we get some verification.