Warframe Revamped - Warframe Drop Locations, Antitoxins and Eximus Enemies

[ND999]

Greetings Tenno, and welcome to a small series of mine. 

For the first thread relating to "Warframe Revamped", follow this link: 

In these posts I will be merely suggesting changes to some aspects of Warframe that I find either lacking or in need of improvement. Of course, this won't include the obvious stuff that everyone and their space mom's been rattling on about (like Universal Vacuum, which I personally think should be a thing but whatever), but more "quality of life" changes, the more feasible stuff. if you think I'm wrong feel free to add to the discussion, it would be much appreciated. Anyways, with the preamble out of the way, let's get on with it. 

For this thread I shall discuss the topic of the drop locations relating to a few Warframes. You may feel free to disagree with me, but I reckon that some form of change would be, while not necessary, welcome as it would make their acquisition make more sense in-game.

OBERON: Everyone knows that horn-boy here was never the most popular Warframe, and his drop locations had changed drastically over the years. At first he was dropped by the pre-Rework Vay Hek, and then he found himself in the clutches of Eximus enemies everywhere. I've personally never been a big fan of this decision, as it made him ridiculously easy to acquire, compared to practically every other Warframe. To this day, people continue to unintentionally acquire his components, only to sell them for credits immediately afterwords. Coincidentally, the Cicero Crisis (when Oberon was first released) also introduced the Antitoxins, and a great deal of variety of them. However, I only recall ever using an Antitoxin once after the Cicero Crisis event ended, and that was purely out of curiosity. I reckon that the vast majority of players here haven't even bothered using Antitoxins either, and that some of you don't even know what they are. I'll just give a short explanation just to make sure we're all on the same page; Antitoxins are Gear items whose blueprints you acquire from the Market, and then you build them by gathering scans of Earth's flora (Threscones, Dragonlilies and Jadeleaves). After you build an Antitoxin and add it to your Gear slot, you can go to an Earth Sabotage mission (the Cervantes node) and insert the Antitoxin into the Toxin Injector. Upon doing so you have to defend the Injector from attacking Grineer until the Antitoxin is finished diluting the toxin inside of the injector. Once you're finished defending the Toxin Injector, you will receive a small bonus reward for it. The stronger the Antitoxin, the greater the reward (I heard of people getting Forma from it, but such rewards are rare). However, the point I'm trying to make is that Antitoxins are an elaborate mechanic that DE made that people rarely (if ever) use, as the reward simply isn't enough to make it worth the trouble. I know that they tried to "remedy" the situation by creating Apothics, which made scanning flora worth the effort, but that only made Antitoxins even more redundant. 

So, finally, here's my suggestion. Why not move Oberon parts from being dropped by random Eximus enemies, to being dropped as rewards for using an Antitoxin in a Grineer Forest Sabotage mission? The stronger Antitoxin used, the more likely you are to acquire an Oberon part (with a 100% guarantee for an Oberon component or Forma blueprint upon getting the Toxin Injector to 100%). By doing this, Antitoxins would no longer be useless, Oberon wouldn't feel so cheap, and it would all be rather thematic. "You have healed the Earth, and thus the Earth rewards you with a healer". Furthermore, Titania and Oberon having a similar method of acquisition would further solidify their ties (as the Titania and Oberon of medieval and Renaissance literature were usually described as husband and wife). Now, as for the Eximus enemies, I personally think it would be fine if they just had the same drop tables as their regular counterparts, but that would be boring so I tried coming up with something a bit more interesting. The only idea that came to mind was having them drop temporary buffs upon dying, which are consumed upon being picked up by a player. Buffs would come in three tiers, Lesser (common drop, lasts 30 seconds), Moderate (uncommon drop, lasts 60 seconds) and Greater (rare drop, lasts 90 seconds), and an Eximus would only drop one (unless Nekros, Ivara, Pilfering Hydroid and Ore Gaze Atlas were used). The Buffs would come in a variety of "flavors", depending on the type of Eximus it was dropped by, so here's a list: 

-Blitz Buff: Creates a Seismic Shockwave upon using a Ground Slam attack (stacks with Seismic Wave mod), which consumes the buff and ends its duration early.

-Energy Leech/Parasitic Buff: Restores the player's energy slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Energy Siphon mod).

-Leech/Sanguine Buff: Restores the player's health slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Rejuvenation mod).

-Guardian Buff: Grants the player Overshields and an increase in shield recharge rate over the course of the duration (stacks with Fast Deflection and Fortitude mods). 

-Arson/Caustic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Heat damage over the course of the duration (similar to Ember's Fireball Frenzy augment mod). 

-Arctic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Cold damage over the course of the duration (similar to Frost's Freeze Force augment mod). 

-Shock Buff: Grants the player an increase in Electric damage over the course of the duration (similar to Volt's Shock Trooper augment mod). 

-Venomous Buff: Grants the player an increase in Toxic damage over the course of the duration (similar to Saryn's Venom Dose augment mod). 

However, this leaves out Warden, Sensor Regulator, and Orokin Spectator Eximus variants, as I have a different idea planned for them. I think that these three Eximus variants should all drop a special Camouflage Buff that renders players invisible while they are standing still. This was merely a random idea I had, as I wanted these Eximus enemies to drop something that is neither too weak nor too strong, but would also contribute to finishing Rescue and Spy missions. If you all have any better suggestions, feel free to write them down. 

As for the Buffs themselves, there is a lot that I'm unsure about. I believe that different buffs shouldn't stack, meaning that once you pick up an Eximus Buff you'll have to wait until its duration runs out before picking up another. But then comes the question of whether or not picking up an Eximus Buff that is the same as the one you've already picked up should extend the buff's duration, merely refresh it, or if you simply can't pick it up until the original buff's duration ends. For this I'd like to see some more feedback, but let's move on. 

HYDROID AND EQUINOX: I've only gotten this idea through a random epiphany I had the other day, so it might not be as well thought out as I'd like it to be but I'll write it down anyways. I think that Hydroid and Equinox should have their drop locations switched. After all, it would make more sense if the water Warframe were to drop from, oh you know, an underwater battle, especially since Lil' Regor likes to flood the place. As for Equinox, I had an idea that would make her grind somewhat more bearable and reasonable. Instead of Vay Hek just dropping all eight parts at once, how about putting a system where Vay Hek would drop parts for Equinox's night form when it's nighttime on Earth, and parts for Equinox's day form when it's daytime on Earth? Now I know what you're gonna say, as a friend of mine had already pointed out. Vay Hek is a terrible boss fight, and I agree, he's probably the worst assassination mission in the game. But I believe that is something that could be moderately corrected if Vay Hek is ever revisited. After all, a flying, fidgeting, whack-a-mole enemy who only has two awkward weak spots is not fun at all. To this reason, I think it'd be best if Vay Hek be given protective armor, similar to the Ambulas that spawns on random missions on Pluto (the kind you get Animo Beacons from). This would make Vay Hek an armored beast, meaning that players would have to chip away at parts of his chassis before revealing his hide bit by bit. Once a portion of Vay Hek is revealed, hitting that spot would inflict damage normally. Though hitting his face and speaker when opened should still have an effect, like maybe stunning him or simply interrupting his ability to buff nearby Grineer. Something along those lines would be nice to see, and it would make repeating his Assassination far less tedious and annoying. 

OCTAVIA AND HARROW: Minor Quest spoilers here, so if you don't want to know anything regarding what happens after you finish the Second Dream,The War Within, Octavia's Anthem, and Chains of Harrow Quests, feel free to stop reading from this point on. 

Now, with that out of the way, let's proceed. My idea is that Octavia should be a purely Lua Warframe while Harrow should be a purely Kuva Fortress Warframe. Allow me to elaborate. Octavia's Chassis and Systems already drop on Lua, but her Neuroptics (for whatever reason) are dropped from Orokin Derelict Survival missions. For Octavia, I think her Neuroptics should instead be dropped from Lua's Survival mission (the Tycho node). I have nothing against the Derelicts, I just think that some consistency should be in place. As for Harrow, he's just a mess and a pain to grind no matter how you look at it. I got lucky and gained all his parts relatively quickly, but I don't think that is the case for everyone. As previously mentioned, I'd like it if he were a Kuva Fortress Warframe, meaning that all of his parts (much like his Neuroptics) should drop from the Grineer Fortress missions. One part (his Chassis or Systems) could be dropped from the Caches scattered around the Kuva Fort Exterminate mission (the Dakata node) while the other part could be dropped as a reward for completing the Kuva Fort Assault mission (the Koro node). As of now, neither the Caches on Dakata nor the Assault mission on Koro drop anything of value that you can't find elsewhere a lot easier. Which is quite a pity, since I think Assault is quite a thrill and a well designed mission that I'd probably play more often if there was any incentive. Placing Harrow components in these locations would not only make him a pure Kuva Fortress Warframe, but would also provide more incentive for people to actually go to the Kuva Fortress and mess around in it. 

And that is the conclusion of my second Warframe Revamped thread. Considering that my first one was a relative success, as I received plenty of good feedback on it, I might continue with this series in the future, but not in any real frequency. With all that said and done, I'll be looking forward to your feedback.

Edited April 4, 2018 by ND999

[SsargonZefryn]

i'll admit that i don't know enough about systems or have any good ideas to add, though since it's brought up regarding Octavia's neuroptic location; i've felt it makes sense by way of, being the Tenno's co-ordinator during the massacre, she was quickly caught and executed, her head being taken away on the ship that ends up being the Derelict. Seems like too specific a part to be separated from Lua, where i'm assuming the massacre started, anyway.

[Skythin]

I haven't read the post yet but I think General Discussion might be the wrong section for this. Fan Concepts seems to be better suited for this revamp.

[ND999]

2 minutes ago, Skythin said:

I haven't read the post yet but I think General Discussion might be the wrong section for this. Fan Concepts seems to be better suited for this revamp.

I've actually asked in the first post whether or not General Discussion was a good place to post it or not, but I had some peeps tell me General was okay. I'd be happy to move it if more people say I should though.

[Skythin]

16 hours ago, ND999 said:

I've actually asked in the first post whether or not General Discussion was a good place to post it or not, but I had some peeps tell me General was okay. I'd be happy to move it if more people say I should though.

Oh ok, didn't knew that 'cause I haven't read your first post either. But there was a mistake on my side. I only saw "posted in General" and immediately thought you posted this in "General Discussion" although you made this thread in the feedback section "General".

As for the revamp itself, it sounds very cool and implementable for me. Switching the way of how to acquire the warframes has always brought some new breath into warframe, especially for newer players. The explanation/elaboration for Hydroid and Equinox is reasonable due to their different themes and the corresponding planets/tilesets, the idea behind Octavia (Lua = Orokin Moon) and Harrow (Kuva Fortress = Grineer Fortress) sounds very interesting because Harrow was always the warframe with this dark and harrowing theme and both a great and sad backstory (Remind the quest and the special character mentioned in there) and the Grineer Fortress matches his dark and harrowing theme.

The revamp of the acquisition of Oberon is (at least for me) the best amongst all I've heard or read. You elaborated it very good, especially with the thematic " You have healed the Earth, and thus the Earth rewards you with a healer".

As for the buffs from the eximus units I think it is the best to keep the buff and not be able to refresh them nor replace them with another buff. If you have at least one of the loot frames in your team and are doing the sortie with the eximus stronghold condition you won't be able to keep one buff because there (may) are literally thousands of them laying on the ground in front of you and your team. This can be even worse if the buffs can be pulled to you by your sentinel. But I still have a small suggestion for the so-called "flavor of buffs": Let them have different colours to distinguish them from each other. So if you want to have a venomous bonus added to your weapon just pick up the green buff item dropped by the corresponding eximus unit.

-Blitz Buff: Creates a Seismic Shockwave upon using a Ground Slam attack (damage stacks with Seismic Wave mod), which consumes the buff and ends its duration early.

-Energy Leech/Parasitic Buff: Restores the player's energy slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Energy Siphon mod).

-Leech/Sanguine Buff: Restores the player's health slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Rejuvenation mod).

-Guardian Buff: Grants the player Overshields and an increase in shield recharge rate over the course of the duration (stacks with Fast Deflection and Fortitude mods). 

-Arson/Caustic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Heat damage over the course of the duration (similar to Ember's Fireball Frenzy augment mod). 

-Arctic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Cold damage over the course of the duration (similar to Frost's Freeze Force augment mod). 

-Shock Buff: Grants the player an increase in Electric damage over the course of the duration (similar to Volt's Shock Trooper augment mod). 

-Venomous Buff: Grants the player an increase in Toxic damage over the course of the duration (similar to Saryn's Venom Dose augment mod). 

[ND999]

On 4/2/2018 at 1:07 PM, Skythin said:

Oh ok, didn't knew that 'cause I haven't read your first post either. But there was a mistake on my side. I only saw "posted in General" and immediately thought you posted this in "General Discussion" although you made this thread in the feedback section "General".

As for the revamp itself, it sounds very cool and implementable for me. Switching the way of how to acquire the warframes has always brought some new breath into warframe, especially for newer players. The explanation/elaboration for Hydroid and Equinox is reasonable due to their different themes and the corresponding planets/tilesets, the idea behind Octavia (Lua = Orokin Moon) and Harrow (Kuva Fortress = Grineer Fortress) sounds very interesting because Harrow was always the warframe with this dark and harrowing theme and both a great and sad backstory (Remind the quest and the special character mentioned in there) and the Grineer Fortress matches his dark and harrowing theme.

The revamp of the acquisition of Oberon is (at least for me) the best amongst all I've heard or read. You elaborated it very good, especially with the thematic " You have healed the Earth, and thus the Earth rewards you with a healer".

As for the buffs from the eximus units I think it is the best to keep the buff and not be able to refresh them nor replace them with another buff. If you have at least one of the loot frames in your team and are doing the sortie with the eximus stronghold condition you won't be able to keep one buff because there (may) are literally thousands of them laying on the ground in front of you and your team. This can be even worse if the buffs can be pulled to you by your sentinel. But I still have a small suggestion for the so-called "flavor of buffs": Let them have different colours to distinguish them from each other. So if you want to have a venomous bonus added to your weapon just pick up the green buff item dropped by the corresponding eximus unit.

-Blitz Buff: Creates a Seismic Shockwave upon using a Ground Slam attack (damage stacks with Seismic Wave mod), which consumes the buff and ends its duration early.

-Energy Leech/Parasitic Buff: Restores the player's energy slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Energy Siphon mod).

-Leech/Sanguine Buff: Restores the player's health slowly over the course of the duration (stacks with Rejuvenation mod).

-Guardian Buff: Grants the player Overshields and an increase in shield recharge rate over the course of the duration (stacks with Fast Deflection and Fortitude mods). 

-Arson/Caustic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Heat damage over the course of the duration (similar to Ember's Fireball Frenzy augment mod). 

-Arctic Buff: Grants the player an increase in Cold damage over the course of the duration (similar to Frost's Freeze Force augment mod). 

-Shock Buff: Grants the player an increase in Electric damage over the course of the duration (similar to Volt's Shock Trooper augment mod). 

-Venomous Buff: Grants the player an increase in Toxic damage over the course of the duration (similar to Saryn's Venom Dose augment mod). 

Sorry for the late reply, I have college so I'm not really looking at the Forums very often.

Still, glad you liked my ideas, and yeah as for the Buffs I think that being able to have only one at a time would most likely be the best course of action, and the least overwhelming one. As for color-coordinating the Buffs in text, I think it looks nice and all so I'll just copy/paste it of you. Thanks for that. 

As for the Oberon idea, it had been circling around my head since forever, so I'm glad people are taking a liking to it. My thought process was that (in addition to making Antitoxins and Grineer Forest Sabotage missions not useless anymore) it would acclimate new players for what Warframe has in store for them. To get Antitoxin blueprints they would have to look through the Market. To craft Antitoxins they would have to learn that just playing a mission from start to finish isn't the only way to play, and that there's a lot they can gain by exploring the map. If they're lucky they might stumble on a Forgotten Grineer Container and say "oh wow, I didn't know rare loot can randomly drop, I should travel off the beaten path more often". Or something along those lines. 

[Raspberry]

As much as I like the ideas put into your post, you do have to remember that this removes a significant source of credit income for newer players, and that could be a huge problem since they have so many mods to upgrade and so many blueprints to purchase. What ideas do you have that could fill this credit void?

[(XBOX)RabidGoldfish J]

I agree greatly with this set of ideas, save for drivable buffs.  I don't feel that they fit with the current Warframe drops.  Perhaps some mod drops could be shifted around to accommodate this?  Thematic drops, like an exodus for cold has a chance to drop cold related mods, energy leech/parasitic would have streamline and possibly rage, etc.   The chance would need to be slim, however to not glut them out.

[-CoCo-MercurialKara]

1 hour ago, Raspberri said:

What ideas do you have that could fill this credit void?

Maybe have eximus enemies occasionally drop credit caches in addition to the buffs?

[mac10smg--Toa_of_Green]

....took the words right out of my mouth.

Seriously, almost all of these suggestions were dead-on as to what I think the Warframe should drop. Granted, I had a lot more ideas of where certain frames should drop, but this was pretty weird to read regardless.

I can suggest them, if you want.

Edited April 4, 2018 by mac10smg-ToaOfGreen

[ND999]

4 hours ago, Raspberri said:

As much as I like the ideas put into your post, you do have to remember that this removes a significant source of credit income for newer players, and that could be a huge problem since they have so many mods to upgrade and so many blueprints to purchase. What ideas do you have that could fill this credit void?

I remember when I was a new player, and I never really had any issues with gaining credits, and I started playing in U10 (Oberon wasn't even a thing back then). Thing is, we already have plenty of quick and (relatively) easy ways to gain a lot of credits, they're called Alerts. I mean, seriously, when was the last time any of us plaid an Alert mission that only offered credits as a reward? I know I'm sounding condescending here but gaining a couple thousand credits really isn't that much of an issue so long as you continue to progress through the game. 

3 hours ago, (XB1)RabidGoldfish J said:

I agree greatly with this set of ideas, save for drivable buffs.  I don't feel that they fit with the current Warframe drops.  Perhaps some mod drops could be shifted around to accommodate this?  Thematic drops, like an exodus for cold has a chance to drop cold related mods, energy leech/parasitic would have streamline and possibly rage, etc.   The chance would need to be slim, however to not glut them out.

I don't think DE would do that, considering how easy it would be to farm these relatively rare mods on Eximus Strongholds with the right team comp. The idea for buffs was to give something to the player that would instantly reward them for killing what's basically a Shiny Pokemon equivalent of an enemy. The buffs would only be temporary, therefore they would only give the players a slight edge during the mission. 

1 hour ago, mac10smg-ToaOfGreen said:

....took the words right out of my mouth.

Seriously, almost all of these suggestions were dead-on as to what I think the Warframe should drop. Granted, I had a lot more ideas of where certain frames should drop, but this was pretty weird to read regardless.

I can suggest them, if you want.

I can only imagine how jarring it must have been to see something you've thought written down by someone else.

Regardless, I would be very interested in whatever ideas you have to put up on the table, feel free to share.

Edited April 4, 2018 by ND999

[mac10smg--Toa_of_Green]

24 minutes ago, ND999 said:

 

I can only imagine how jarring it must have been to see something you've thought written down by someone else.

Regardless, I would be very interested in whatever ideas you have to put up on the table, feel free to share.

Okay.

First I’ll just state a few differences between your suggestions and my thoughts regarding your ideas.

One, I actually have a different idea regarding what eximus enemies can drop instead of the buffs: the starter warframes. I figured that it’s a bit strange that the starter warframes aren’t easily accessible right after you choose one at the beginning, so this is what I felt makes sense. Plus, it will preserve the whole credit farm aspect.

Additionally, I want to apply the renamed component parts to more of the quest Warframes, and that includes Octavia and Harrow; I would name them the ‘Mysterious’ components and ‘Veiled’ components respectively.

Also, I just think that All of Harrow’s parts should just drop from Assault.

Now for the other things.

Since the starter warframes would be creating gaps in where they previously dropped, I need to fill them.

The sergeant should now drop trinity parts.

Lech Krill should drop Frost parts again.

Vauban should take Volt’s place in the Tenno lab.

And to make up for those Vacancies...

Ash should drop from Kril + Vor on Ceres.

Banshee should drop from Ambulas.

To replace Banshee, Ivara should become a new Tenno lab Warframe.

Then, as a small final thing, the Nidus parts should drop from rotation B rather than C.