Dev Workshop: Koumei & the Five Fates - Caliban + Nova Rework

Howdy, Tenno!

The reign of the twin-kingdom Hybrid is upon us. His coronation, drowned in Tau, will cause any foe to reconsider regicide. This is Caliban’s rework, releasing alongside Koumei & the Five Fates.   

Our intentions with Caliban’s rework are to match his power to other Warframes but emphasize his unique Sentient identity and what that power fantasy would feel like to play. To do this, we’re re-working his Ability damage and the utility of his Abilities while emphasizing the adaptability and synergy of a Sentient-Warframe’s kit. When Caliban enters the field, there’s no defense Caliban can’t adapt to.

Plus, when you login between October 2nd and October 16th (specific times coming later), you can earn Caliban and a slot for FREE via an inbox message. Players can also look for an "Arsenal Retuning" inbox message containing 5 Forma with the Launch of Koumei & the Five Fates to help them revisit their builds in the wake of the following Warframe changes!

And remember, everything is subject to change!
Caliban

Formalizing a new Damage Type and Status Effect: Tau Damage

Being of half-Sentient origin, Caliban brings a new element to the fight. He’ll inflict Tau Damage and Tau Status Effects upon the battlefield with his Abilities. Similarly to Void Damage, Tau Damage is neutral so that no enemy will be resistant to it.

Tau’s Status Effect inflicts Status Chance Vulnerability to enemies affected by it, with a max of 10 Stacks culminating in 100% Status Chance Vulnerability (10% per Stack), with each stack individually lasting 8 seconds! 

This mechanic was originally introduced by Dante and his Pageflight Paragrimms, in which you could apply Status Chance Vulnerability to enemies. This mechanic increases the likelihood an enemy receives a Status Effect when being hit.

Passive

Caliban’s Passive is virtually unchanged, but we’ve changed it to gather stacks when Caliban is immune, similar to Adaptation.

Razor Gyre:

Razor Gyre has received a mighty upgrade. Razor Gyre inflicts Tau Status Effects on enemies struck while refunding some of his Health, Shield, and Energy pools - all while traversing the battlefield.

• Razor Gyre is now a Status-inflicting traversal tool with a multitude of synergies.
  • Tap to dash forward as a spinning vortex, hitting every enemy within your radius.
  • Caliban gains 20 Health for every enemy hit, and when your Health is overflowed, it becomes Shields. If your Shields overflow, it becomes Overshield!
    • Razor Gyre will also refund 25% of the Ability's Energy cost when hitting an enemy - allowing for it be refunded!
  • Loot and Energy/Health Orbs can now be collected during Razor Gyre.
• Razor Gyre now inflicts Tau Damage and Status instead of Slash and Impact Damage and Status.
  • Razor Gyre inflicts 500 base Tau Damage and 1,000 base Tau Damage on lifted enemies.
  • These should allow Razor Gyre to become a synergetic staple by debuffing enemies for a low to no cost!

Sentient Wrath:

Sentient Wrath has been brought in line with similar Crowd Control Warframe Abilities while removing the target cap to ensure that the Ability is reliable and effective at its job.

• Enemies suspended by Sentient Wrath will now be locked in place to prevent them from floating away, similar to how Xaku’s Deny and Hydroid’s Tentacle Swarm hold enemies in position.
• Sentient Wrath no longer has a target cap.
• Sentient Wrath now inflicts only Tau Status Damage, instead of Impact, onto affected/lifted enemies.
  • Sentient Wrath deals 2,000 base Tau Damage with 35% Damage Vulnerability, in addition to the Tau Status Effect. 
• Increased the casting speed of the Ability by 25%
  • You can also re-cast the Ability even if the first “wave” hasn’t finished casting. 
    • If the recast hits enemies, you’ll refresh their stun duration. 

Lethal Progeny:

Caliban can now summon three types of Sentients: Ortholysts, Summulysts, and Conculysts (the OG). All Sentient summons will, naturally, adapt to incoming enemy damage. You can only summon a set of Sentients at a time, so no mixing of 1 Conculyst, 2 Ortholysts, or one of each Sentient type.

Each Sentient comes with its own unique mechanic. Conculysts will match your Fusion Strike with one of their own, Ortholysts will deliver a rain of guaranteed Tau Status across the battlefield, and Summulysts, capable of summoning six resilient Choralysts, will draw attention from you and your allies while ensuring your Shields are never depleted.

• When you cast to summon Caliban’s Sentients, you’ll summon all three of the chosen Sentients with one cast instead of previously needing to cast three separate times. Players can now recast the ability to refresh their Sentient count or summon different Sentient types. 
  • Recasting will replace existing Sentients and summon new ones where Caliban is aiming. 
• Conculyst
  • As Melee-oriented summons, the Concluysts retain their role as the primary damage dealers of Caliban’s trifecta.
    • Conculysts “Tornado” Ability lasts 6 seconds and a cooldown of 4 seconds, and they’ll spin to win more often.
      • The Tornado Ability also had its base Damage bumped to 1,000 from the previous 50.
    • These do not scale with any Warframe Mods.
  • Concluysts will now cast Fusion Strike alongside Caliban for 0.5x the effectiveness of Caliban’s Fusion Strike.
    • Conculysts will target their Fusion Strike wherever Caliban’s was fired.
  • Conculysts’ target priority has been slightly reduced.
    • Conculysts target priority was lowered to incentivize using the Summulyst as the premiere distraction noodle!
  • Caliban can summon up to three Conculysts simultaneously for the same Energy cost as just summoning one in his previous iteration (much more efficient)!
  • As stated above, Conculysts no longer recharge Shields, which lies solely with the Summulysts.
• Ortholyst
  • As long-ranged summons, the Ortholysts inflict only Tau Damage and Tau Status Effects onto the field en masse with their Cannon and Mortar forms.
    • The Ortholyst’s Cannons have a 100% Status Chance, guaranteeing Tau Status Effects
      • The Ortholysts Mortar form has 300% Status Chance
      • These numbers do not scale with any Mods.
  • Ortholysts’ target priority matches that of Conculysts.
  • Caliban can summon up to three Ortholysts simultaneously for the same Energy cost.
• Summulyst:
  • Summulysts are portal-based Sentients that summon Shield-regenerating Choralysts that’ll distract your foes while recharging your and your allies' Shields.
    • Summulysts will summon six Choralysts. These Choralysts, when killed, will be immediately replaced if the Summulyst is still active.
    • These Choralysts have the highest possible target priority, ensuring enemies target them whenever possible instead of the players.
  • Choralysts Shields recharge at a base of 25 Shields per second, scaling with Ability Strength.
    • Choralysts will also apply this Shield recharge to you and your allies.
    • The range to receive the Shield recharge scales with Ability Range!
  • Caliban can summon one Summulyst at a time.
• His Sentients will benefit from a 10x Damage multiplier against all non-Sentient Factions/enemies whenever a Sentient unit deals Sentient Damage.
• Removed collision on summons so Caliban’s Progeny does not get in his way, similar to Nekros’ Shadows. 
• You can now see your Sentient summons through walls, similar to how Khora can see Venari.
• Squad members will see Caliban’s Sentients with some dithering to make it clear they’re allies!

Fusion Strike:

Fusion Strike is one Ability that benefits most from some quality-of-life changes, alongside a few recalculations of how damage is delivered!

• Changed damage type from Blast to Tau and inflicts Tau Status Effects.
  • The beam itself deals a base of 15,000 Tau Damage per second, scaling with Ability Strength. In addition to the Beam dealing damage, struck enemies will explode with further damage after the cast!
    • The Convergence Explosion deals 750 base Tau Damage, scaling with Ability Strength.
    • The Enemy Detonation deals 5,000 base Tau Damage, scaling with Ability Strength.
    • The beam has a Status Chance of 20%.
• Enemies can now be damaged by more than one Fusion Strike beam per cast.
  • Defense Reduction (Armor + Shields) strip occurs only once.
    • 50% Defense Reduction at 100 Ability Strength or 100% at 200 Ability Strength.
  • Fusion Strike's beam now applies the Armor Strip, not the radial field.
    • Previously, the damage field left behind is what enabled Armor Stripping, which felt awkward if enemies left before it could apply. Now, it applies when the Beam hits an enemy, making it much easier to work with.
  • Fusion Strike’s beam can now deal damage multiple times in one instance (meaning the Beam can proc multiple damage ticks in one activation) to support damaging enemies more than once.
• Reduced the player’s turning speed when casting Fusion Strike. 
  • The beam handles similarly to Qorvex’s “Crucible Blast. " The intention was to ensure that Fusion Strike felt like a committed cast while helping the player strike enemies effectively due to the beam's increased lethality.
• Casting Fusion Strike now makes Caliban immune from damage for the duration of the cast.

Caliban’s adaptation is imminent — and we’re excited to get his reworked kit into the hands of Tenno across the Origin System. Koumei & The Fives Fates releases on October 2nd!

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Wukong

Wukong has developed what we and fellow players have noted is a disruptive playstyle regarding his ability to animation cancel Heavy Attacks with Cloud Walker. This leads to fast spam of max Combo Counter damage, especially on weapons such as the Arca Titron.

When we nerf anything, we follow a set of three points:

• To reduce AFK strategies,
• If the playstyle negatively hinders or disrupts the gameplay of others,
• To minimize a dominant playstyle that players feel they need to play it.

This Wukong combination falls into the disruptive gameplay category of our above philosophy. 

Following this, we aim to remove the problem surgically at its core - the animation cancels. As such, we’re only removing the ability to activate Cloud Walker while a Heavy Slam animation is currently being used. 

Cloud Walker:

• When you Heavy Slam while using Cloud Walker to exit the Ability, you cannot activate Cloud Walker again until the Heavy Slam animation is complete.

Also, Wukong’s Celestial Stomp Augment has a rather unfair advantage, being able to effect normally crowd-control-immune enemies, so we’re adjusting it to meet the standard of other Crowd Control abilities. 

Celestial Stomp Augment:

• Celestial Stomp no longer stuns crowd control-immune enemies, such as Eximus units with Overguard, to bring Celestial Stomp in line with similar crowd-controlling abilities. 

We recognize that Wukong is a popular choice of Warframe, and our intention is to reduce the disruptiveness without an unfair knock-on effect. 

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Hildryn

Hildryn is also receiving a few changes to her kit! Our goal with Hildryn was to add functionality to her Aegis Storm, tying in some nice-to-haves with her Balefire Charger!

Balefire Charger:

• Reduced the max Shield cost of a Balefire charged shot and increased the maximum charged shot damage that can be inflicted.
  • 200 Shield for Max Charged Shot, and now does 1,500 base Damage.
  • With this, charging the Balefire Charger will be a more worthwhile time investment compared to the dominance of fast-firing the weapon.
• Unequipping Balefire Charger will now re-equip your previously selected weapon instead of always your Secondary weapon.

Aegis Storm:

• Balefire Charger is now automatically equipped upon activating Aegis Storm instead of needing to activate it
• Aegis Storm is now much more fluid regarding Ability usage and movement!
  • Hildryn can now use Pillage or any Helminth Ability while Aegis Storm is active!
    • Jade is allowed to use Pillage while using her 4th Ability, so we felt Hildryn deserved to utilize Pillage while she flew around, too!
  • Hildryn can now move around when activating Balefire Charger while in Aegis Storm instead of being locked in place for the duration of the animation.
  • Increased Hildryn’s maximum speed, movement acceleration and hover ascension rate while in Aegis Storm.
• Deactivating Aegis Storm now makes Hildryn invincible for a short period to prevent dying mid-animation.
  • Deactivating Aegis Storm now performs a proper ground slam, similar to Rhino’s “Stomp” or Qorvex’s “Chyrinka Pillar.”
    • Deactivating Aegis Storm now slams all lifted enemies simultaneously, unlike when they dropped with random delays previously.

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Nova

Last but certainly not least, Nova is receiving a few changes to how her kit functions, aiming to bring extra quality of life alongside build variance.

Passive:

Nova’s original passive emitted Blast Damage upon her being knocked down, meaning any Primed Sure Footed users would have seen this nullified entirely. So, we’ve whipped up a new passive that feels more appropriate for 2024 Warframe standards:

• Enemies killed while Slowed have 15% to drop Health orbs. Enemies killed while Sped Up have 15% to drop Energy orbs.

Null Star:

• This ability is now recastable! 
  • As this is Nova’s main source of Damage Reduction, players were incentivized to reduce Ability Range if they wanted to keep as many Null Star particles as possible. With the ability to recast to maximize your Damage Reduction, DR-minded players have more build diversity available to them. 
• Increased base particle count from 6 to 12. 
  • 18 particles are still needed to maintain 90% Damage Reduction, but it’s now much easier for players to hit that cap. 
  • With the increased particle count, the VFX will become more subtle the more particles you have. These particles will also dissolve while aiming down sights to prevent them from obstructing player view. 
• Damage Resistance from Null Star now applies to both Shields and Health (previously only applied to Health). 
• Changed damage type from Slash to Blast damage, with a guaranteed Blast Proc. Base Null Star damage has also been increased from 150 to 300.

Neutron Star (Augment):

• Recasting will cause remaining particles to seek out enemies, and then replenish the particles orbiting Nova.  
• Heat Damage and guaranteed Heat Proc now apply to all Null Star particles, not just the ones sent out via recast.

Antimatter Drop:

• Tapping the ability input while an Antimatter Drop orb is active will massively increase its speed, causing it to zoom in the direction of the player reticle. 
  • As a result, only one Antimatter Drop orb can be cast at a time.
  • Antimatter Drop has historically been difficult to control, with its speed only increasing once the orb is “fully charged”. This change gives players the ability to shoot at the slow-moving orb to maximize damage output, and then catapult it towards unsuspecting enemies at their whim.
• Changed damage type from Radiation to Blast, with 100% Status Chance. 
• Only 5 shots will be absorbed by Antimatter Drop to reach full charge (excluding multishot).
  • Teleporting an Antimatter Drop orb via a Wormhole will automatically charge the orb halfway.
• Updated the orb’s appearance to better communicate its charging mechanic:
  • The orb now looks like one sphere contained within another. The inner sphere will grow in size as damage is absorbed, until it reaches the cap. 
• Improved Antimatter Drop's movement logic so it tries to stay within the player's line of sight, to avoid cases of players "losing" the orb after casting.
• Removed collision on the Antimatter Drop orb so it will no longer be blocked by allies. (RIP Orb Surfing 2024) 

Wormhole:

• Removed Wormhole’s duration. 
  • Wormhole will now stay up indefinitely unless a) all of its charges have been used or b) it has been replaced by a recast Wormhole when players have created the maximum number of portals.
• Added icons above each Wormhole indicating how many times it can be used before disappearing. 
  • Each orb represents one use!
• Holding the ability input will display the exit point of the Wormhole, similar to Kullervo’s Wrathful Advance. 

Molecular Prime:

• Added a Tap / Hold functionality: Tap to cast a Slowing effect on enemies. Hold to cast a Speed-Up effect instead.
  • The “Speedva” build has been a long-time staple of Novas everywhere, and is a fantastic example of bug-turned-feature. While we love the quirk that resulted in our beloved Speedva, negative Strength offers little benefit to Nova’s kit beyond this mechanic. After much deliberation, we decided it was best for all Nova players to make this quality of life change: swap between Speed and Slow in-mission as you wish, without worrying about accidentally bringing a Slowva to your Defense Sorties. 
  • Slow and Speed effects are both capped at 75% respectively, and scale the same with Strength. (i.e. a max Slow build will also provide max Speed).  
• Increased base Slow/Speed effect from 30% to 50%. 
• Bonus damage multiplier now applies to Overguard, Health, and Shields.
  • Previously it only applied to enemy Health!
  • This multiplier has also been added to the Ability screen so players can better understand Molecular Prime’s mechanics. 
• Speed-Up effect will bypass crowd control immunity (ex: enemies with Overguard). 
• Killing Primed enemies has a 20% chance to proc Blast on nearby foes.

Molecular Fission (Augment): 

• Null Star will apply Molecular Prime to enemies struck by its particles.

As said earlier, when you login between October 2nd and October 16th, you'll receive a free Caliban sent directly to your inbox! To set expectations, there may be a delay for inbox delivery after the Update releases to prevent us from accidentally Fusion Striking our own servers. Look for more details in the official patch notes.

And, of course, don't forget to check out the other Dev Workshops!

Howdy, Tenno!

Following up on Pablo's message, but we've heard your feedback and are returning Caliban's Fusion Strike defense-stripping radial field with Koumei & the Five Fates! This means we've restored defense stripping found in the radial field from the blast alongside defense stripping with the beam's contact with his rework. 

Also, all of his Sentient summons will get their Shield-recharging components back (with the Shields-per-second scaling identical to each other at a base 25), but Summulysts will do it best thanks to their ability to spawn six Choralysts versus Conculysts and Ortholysts who have a max spawn cap of three!

We also bumped up the Sentients’ base Duration (scaling with Duration Mods, of course) from 25 seconds to 45 seconds! Razor Gyre will also heal 30 Health/Shields/Overshields instead of 20!

Thank you for the feedback, everyone. Once again, all final details and changes will be listed in the official Koumei & the Five Fates patch notes.