[2020] The Helminth: Dev Workshop

THE HELMINTH: DEV WORKSHOP.

Tenno the time has come for our comprehensive Dev Workshop on The Helminth System (formerly known as ‘Helminth Chrysalis System, we reduced the name length for ‘Mouth’feel)! This Dev Workshop is subject to change, but here is everything you need to know about THE HELMINTH!

We debuted this system at TennoCon 2020 - rewatch here:

https://youtu.be/KoKO1nAk0MQ?t=1693

The Helminth System is an expansion of the Helminth room on your Orbiter - you may only know this room as an infested space that allows you to remove the Helminth Cyst. With the ‘Heart of Deimos’ Update, that’s all changing. The Helminth system enables you to customize your Warframes by infusing new Abilities in place of existing Abilities.

How does it work?
To participate in the Helminth, you must obtain the ‘Helminth Segment’. This is acquired in the Heart of Deimos in the Entrati Syndicate and is then installed on your Orbiter in the Helminth Room to begin your Helminth journey!

Once ready, there are 2 key things this System offers:

- You can replace 1 Ability per Warframe.
- Every Warframe can be Subsumed to permanently provide 1 specific Ability to Helminth.


Who is this for?
We consider this a customization system for very experienced Warframe players (Mastery Rank 15 Prerequisite). We do not intend to let newer players unlock this system. We intentionally placed the Segment deep into progression to ensure only experienced players could access the Segment and begin their journey with Helminth.


What are Resources / Secretions?
Virtually every Resource you’ve ever earned can be fed to Helminth - your stockpiles have a new home! This Feeding creates SECRETIONS, which allow you to utilize the Helminth for Ability customization.
Helminth has a diverse appetite - make sure you feed Helminth Resources they want to eat to get the best Secretion results! Your choices on what you’ve fed Helminth will determine its willingness to reward secretions - change it up for best results!
 

Permanent?
Infused Abilities are removable with the click of a button - they will stay within a given Warframe as long as you decide you want it!

Subsuming a Warframe is permanent  - only Subsume Warframes you are sure you do not want to play with. You can always re-earn or re-buy a subsumed Warframe.

Do Configurations matter?
You can deeply customize by only replacing Abilities on certain Configurations, as seen in the Demo! But we would like to expand this further to demonstrate just how deep you can go.

You can have 1 different Ability infused PER config!

So if you have Excalibur in the chair - you could put Shock on Configuration A, Molt on Configuration B, and Firewalker on Configuration C!

For example, if you wanted Shock applied to Excalibur on Configuration A but wanted Configuration B and Configuration C to stay default with Slash Dash, you can do so!

What does Ranking Helminth do?
As you feed and use the Helminth system, you will rank up! Each Rank unlocks something different - from a new power, to more Subsume Slots (max Rank Helminth = unlimited Subsume Slots), make sure you progress through the Ranks by regularly Feeding Helminth, Subsuming, and Infusing your Warframes! 

What are the Helminth Abilities?
Helminth Provides unique abilities of their own - these are subject to change before launch, but here is the current list:
 

"EMPOWER"

"Increase the power strength of your next ability."
 

“ENERGY MUNITIONS"

"Imbue your weapons with ammo efficiency."
 

"INFESTED MOBILITY"

"Increase your sprint and parkour speed."
 

"MARKED FOR DEATH"

“Stun an enemy, next damage you deal to it, will be dealt to all enemies around it."
 

"REBUILD SHIELDS"

"Instantly restore shields."
 

"PERSPICACITY"

"Your next hack will be automatic."
 

"COMPANION HEAL"

"Heal your companion and call it to your side."
 

"EXPEDITE SUFFERING"

"Hit enemies in a cone, affected enemies will have their Bleed and Toxin status removed and their remaining damage dealt in a burst."


What is Infusion?
Infusion is the process of injecting a Warframe with an Ability - whether it be one of Helminth’s own, or another Warframes. Every Warframe can receive 1 Infused ability at a time in any Ability slot (i.e you could place Shock on any of the 4 Ability slots). 

What is Subsuming? 
In addition to Helminth’s own Abilities, you can Subsume a Warframe to obtain 1 specific Ability permanently in Helminth’s memory (list below). We do not allow the Subsuming of any Prime Warframes, but you can Infuse Abilities on Prime Warframes! 

Subsuming is the act of permanently providing a base Warframe into the Helminth’s biology. 1 Warframe can be subsumed every 23 hours. The Warframe can be any Rank. 

What Abilities are earned on Subsuming a Warframe?

The following table outlines the current Ability a given Warframe will provide on the Subsume action. This is subject to change before launch. 

What are my safeguards?

Since you can remove an Ability at any time with the click of a button, you’ll be able to safely experiment with many creative combinations.

For example, if you replace Grendel’s ‘1’, your kit doesn’t really work! If you change around or re-assign Abilities already assigned to Railjack Tactical use, you simply may not have one, or have a new one in its place! If you put Hildryn’s PIllage on Inaros, you don’t get Shields, but you do get diminished Armor/Shields on enemies on cast.

It’s all up to you - have fun experimenting, Tenno!

What about Damage buffing Abilities?

As you can see, we have two Abilities that increase damage: Mirage’s Eclipse, and Rhino’s Roar. We are creating a special case for these Abilities when infused on Warframes with similar Abilities (i.e Chroma, Mirage, Rhino, Octavia). When you infuse these, you will receive a prompt that you can only have 1 Damage Buffing ability at a time, and thus you are limited to replacing said ability type. Which is to say - Damage Buffing abilities can only be swapped with Damage Buffing Abilities on Warframes that already have them. However, that limitation does not apply to the other 30+ Warframes. 

What exactly is going on here with the Warframe Subsuming?

Warframes that are Subsumed join the Helminth in an eternal bond. They will live on in a Lotus flower that matches the colours of the Subsumed Warframe, as a permanent honor. See below for an example of the Helminth garden after 5 Subsumes:

Is ‘Helminth’ a permanent name?

Don’t like it? You can rename your Helminth at any time!

Is Helminth a Cat or Dog ‘Person’?

Well, you’ll find out… 

Thank you very much for reading our Dev Workshop on the upcoming Helminth Feature - see you in game on August 25 on all platforms!  

Just now, --Q--FSK41 said:

This System is broken and will break the game completely,it shouldn't come into the game so many broken  combinations,for example chroma and eclipse/roar = who the hell thought of this. its completely unbalanced PLEASE DE do NOT put this into the game,since you made enemies paper the game is already quite easy but with this its literally broken

What about Damage buffing Abilities?

As you can see, we have two Abilities that increase damage: Mirage’s Eclipse, and Rhino’s Roar. We are creating a special case for these Abilities when infused on Warframes with similar Abilities (i.e Chroma, Mirage, Rhino, Octavia). When you infuse these, you will receive a prompt that you can only have 1 Damage Buffing ability at a time, and thus you are limited to replacing said ability type. Which is to say - Damage Buffing abilities can only be swapped with Damage Buffing Abilities on Warframes that already have them. However, that limitation does not apply to the other 30+ Warframes. 

2 minutes ago, Circle_of_Psi said:

What happened to taking Wukongs Twin power?, in the China version of the game, this is the case

This was a pre-release screenshot and was not indicative of the final decisions.

AUGUST 19TH UPDATE:

Greetings, Tenno!

The launch of Heart of Deimos grows near, and we have some Helminth updates since we last posted! Below are 2 parts of updated/clarifying information that touches both Infused Warframe Abilities and the Helminth Segment acquisition.  

PART 1 - Changes to select Infused Warframe Abilities

Please keep in mind we’re still testing/playing around with the values for each, hence why the values are not present below:

The following only apply to Infused Warframe Abilities:

Rhino - Roar
Diminished Damage increase

Mirage - Eclipse
Diminished Damage increase and cap Damage Reduction 

Valkyr - Warcry
Attack speed increase reduced

Protea - Dispenser
Duration reduced

Nidus - Larva
Radius reduced

Wukong - Defy
Armor capped

Why do these Infused Warframe Abilities have these rules?
It was apparent in player feedback and play testing that these Infused Warframe Abilities had the potential to be the overwhelming choice; which is not ideal. Instead of changing the Ability outright due to those concerns, we decided to give them slight rules when Infused.

PART 2 - Helminth Segment Acquisition

As already indicated in this Dev Workshops original post, the Helminth Segment is acquired in the Heart of Deimos in the Entrati Syndicate. To expand on that, this means you’ll need to progress within the Entrati Syndicate located within the Necralisk to obtain the Helminth Segment before you can start experimenting with everything Helminth. 

Without spoiling too much, the Helminth Segment is currently obtained in Rank 3 of the Entrati Syndicate. This reminder is simply to set expectations on what you’ll have access to upon logging into the Heart of Deimos. 

That’s all for now!

EDIT: We have also changed the Mastery Rank Prerequisite of the Helminth Segment to 8 (was 15).

To offer further clarification on why we changed the Mastery Rank Prerequisite to MR 8:

There's many factors that come into play in order to engage with the Helminth system, such as:

• Having an ongoing supply of Resources that you don't need elsewhere to feed your Helminth
• Working your way up the Helminth rankings to unlock more features
• Having Warframes your ready/willing to Subsume

Looking at the above, we can see that higher rank players will be more equipped to offer these things to Helminth out the gate, where a MR 8 player will start with more accessible/cheaper Helminth Abilities first before diving deeper. Thus allowing MR 8 players to participate in Helminth and grow as they go.

Tenno, 

The Helminth System has quite a remarkable timeline - from it’s completely unexpected (and grotesque) debut at TennoCon on August 1, to the full Dev Workshop on Aug 12, to a follow up Aug 19. And now, 1 day before release, a recap on where things are.

From Aug 1 to Aug 12 - Helminth was entirely speculation - imaginations wild with base knowledge that only 1 ‘non-ultimate’ nor ‘signature ability’ per Warframe would be offered. 

Aug 12 - we released the Dev Workshop early due to the overwhelming interest in the system, we wanted to provide as much information as possible. This early release without clear and explicit balance stipulations was our first mistake. Even within the workshop, we had extremely guarded and obvious indications we were watching Damage Buffing abilities closely (i.e ‘Only 1 Damage Ability per Warframe section’). 

From Aug 13 - Aug 19 - Helminth was all fact-based excitement in what choices you’d make. In addition to player commentary, our own internal tests skewed intensely toward Damage buffing abilities in this system after the list was circulated. (P.S don’t blame community members). 

From Aug 19 - now - a sentiment detour due to changes to the damage buffing abilities has resulted in a skepticism of how powerful things will actually be, and ultimately the appeal of the system. We have to be straight-forward that transparency can be a double edged sword for us, but our hope is that feedback will be provided in good faith once you’ve had practical experience with the Helminth System. Time has shown us it is always, always, a better practice to start with a baseline power level, and review after practical usage data and stats. 

We are locking this thread, and will re-open a Mega Thread when launch hits! Cheers, Tenno!