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Tenno,
As seen briefly on Devstream #160 and #161, we are re-working one of our oldest foes in the game: Eximus units! Introduced in Update 12, Eximus units were added as ‘Enemy Leaders,’ meant to bolster their allies with improved stats and support abilities. While that core design intention still rings true, we felt it was time they were given a refresh to bring them up to speed both in terms of their gameplay and their appearance in-game. Dress for success, especially when you’re a top enemy in the field.
We’ve also put together a handy Dev Workshop video that provides a broad overview of the changes listed here, check it out to get a feel for all the changes coming
The main objective of this Eximus Rework is to make them stand out more in battle, both in how they function and in how formidable they are to face against. We aim to achieve this in 2 ways:
- Amplify their threat with increased time-to-kill - accompanied with justifying rewards!
- Enhancing their visual and mechanical functions to be more identifiable in combat.
These two shifts for Eximus units should make them more challenging to kill, but also make their specific threats easier to identify, giving players a more tactical way to evade them.
To amplify the Eximus threat and increase the time-to-kill we’ve made tweaks to their:
- Warframe power resistances - which we are calling Overguard
- Health, Shield, & Armor scaling
Currently, the different Eximus types have slightly different resistances and combat advantages. For instance, Arson Eximus will reduce Fire Damage taken; Leech Eximus will add extra Puncture Damage to its damage dealt. These stat changes are invisible to a player and don’t really have any noticeable impact on gameplay. Instead of keeping unique but forgettable specific resistances to Eximus units, we’re adding a new universal type of Eximus resistance and tweaking the way their Health, Shields & Armor scale across the board to turn them into more formidable adversaries.
Warframe Power Resistance: Introducing Overguard
As seen on Devstream #161, Eximus units will now have a new kind of defense called Overguard, which is a new Health pool on top of their regular stats that a) must be removed before players can take down their Health/Shields, and b) offers additional immunities to the Eximus, making them a priority target in-missions.
While Overguard is active, it will keep Eximus units immune to Warframe crowd control abilities and anything that will stagger, knockdown, stun, mind control, ragdoll, and blind. Additionally, Overguarded enemies will be unaffected by Radiation Status Effects and will be susceptible to a maximum of 4 Cold Status Effects at one time. However, Overguard is particularly susceptible to Void damage, which will overall improve the flow and synergy between Warframe and Operator combat flow when engaging with Eximus units. This will encourage you to engage with them more interactively as opposed to easily overpowering them with abilities alone. It should shift the focus of fighting Eximus units to using a mixture of weapons and teamwork, and make Eximus units feel like more of a true threat to Warframes.
Overguard is an additive amount independent of Enemies Health/Shield scaling, and is indicated with a bar overtop of their existing Health/Shields. With the goal of making Eximus units more consistent in terms of difficulty, Overguard will scale by level but will be the same amount across all Eximus enemy types.
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Once an Eximus has their Overguard taken out, they will be fully susceptible to crowd control abilities. Once taken out, Overguard does not regenerate! An important note for Hound Companions Null Audit functionality: Hounds will now copy Eximus Auras, as opposed to stealing. If an Eximus with active Overguard is struck by a Hound wielding a copied Eximus ability, they will strip the Eximus’ Overguard by 50%.
Overguard was introduced as a means to make Eximus units feel more formidable, while also providing Tenno a way to crush their defenses with some solid teamwork and concentrated firepower.
With the addition of Overguard, we’ve updated the scope of which abilities are considered to be crowd control. Note that these abilities will still do their intended damage -- it is only the crowd-control effect of the abilities that won’t apply while Overguard is present
- Sevagoth’s Gloom
- Chroma’s Effigy: Sentry
- Xaku’s Gaze
- Garuda’s Seeking Talons
- Mirage’s Sleight of Hand
- Mirage’s Prism
- Khora’s Ensnare
- Volt’s Discharge
- Baruuk’s Lull
- Harrow’s Condemn
- Excalibur’s Radial Blind
- Ivara’s Quiver: Sleep arrow
- Revenant’s Reave
- Revenant’s Mesmer Skin
- Inaros’ Desiccation
- Yareli’s Sea Snares
- Limbo's Banish
- Eximus ignore the knockdown effect of Banish while Overguard is active, however they can still be sent to the Rift plane regardless of Overguard.
- Limbo's Stasis
Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive to all Warframe abilities that Overguard is resistant to, simply ones that we are now considering Crowd Control.
Limbo’s Rift & Eximus
Limbo can still send Eximus to the Rift plane where their damage will be avoided, but Eximus Abilities will now ignore the Rift plane.
- Originally this Workshop listed ‘Limbo's Rift & Cataclysm’ to now be considered CC, but this was not an accurate description. Limbo can still send Eximus to the Rift plane while Overguard is active.
Overguard: Banshee's Silence
Banshee's Silence will now negate any active Eximus abilities and prevent any Eximus abilities from being cast while it is active. Guardian Eximus Shields (and their AOE resistance), Toxin Clouds from Venomous Eximus, or the Arctic Dome from the Arctic Eximus will all be disabled.
- Note: the friendly 90% damage reduction Aura from Guardian Eximus, and the Arctic Eximus slow aura will not be disabled by Silence (This may be subject to change!)
Overguard: Ancient Healers
Currently, Ancient Healers provide a 90% damage reduction to their allies in range and increased resistance to crowd control abilities. Visually, this is only indicated by a pulsing glow on buffed enemies in range. This is often confusing if you don’t already know that the crowd control resistance and damage reduction is being applied from Ancient Healers.
We have changed Ancient Healers to provide allies in range with Overguard that is applied at 9x their overall Health. This value simply matches the current level of damage reduction and crowd control resistance provided by Ancient Healers, but with Overguard it will now provide a clear visual indicator that the enemies are being boosted by their Ancient ally!
Overguard can be taken out on enemies bolstered by Ancient Healers through a few different ways:
- Dealing damage to Overguard
- Killing the Ancient Healer providing Overguard
- Drawing them out of range from the Ancient Healer
- Currently, any enemy that receives an Overguard buff from an Ancient Healer is one time only, they cannot receive Overguard again when back in range or from a new enemy Healer.
Unlike Ancient Healer Eximus, non-Eximus Ancient Healers provide Overguard to allies in range but do not have it themselves. Overguard from Ancient Healers will not apply and stack with innate Eximus Overguard. Also, friendly Ancient Healers (such as Specters) will not be providing Overguard on players in this rework, but this functionality may come in a future update!
Health, Shield & Armor scaling
Health, Shields, and Armor for Eximus now all scale faster at higher levels up to a point, where it eventually flattens out and doesn’t scale exponentially, giving them a boost to their overall tankiness. Our intent here is to give a slight boost to enemies like Butchers more than Heavy Gunners, and to make difficulty more consistent across enemy types. A Heavy Gunner will still be tougher than a Butcher might be, but the gap between the two will be much closer than if it was affected by a traditional flat multiplier. Across the board, this should make the difficulty of any given Eximus more consistent regardless of enemy type. Note these changes are only for Eximus units, their regular counterparts will retain the same scaling tech.
Armor will also have a similar method of scaling, by boosting low-armored enemies more than high-armored enemies it will help close that difficulty gap between enemy types. For enemies without Armor, they will get additional Health and Shields outside of the regular Eximus scaling to compensate.
As a result, Eximus overall should feel beefier, scale faster at a higher level, and be more consistent across different enemy types.
Visual & Mechanical Enhancements:
We also want to make Eximus stand out more, so we gave unique visual identifiers for each type of Eximus! They now each have their own blend of distinct audio and visual FX that will help you identify them more easily in combat, and also give you a better way to recognize their Eximus type and tactically evade their abilities.
Supported Eximus Type per Faction:
We’ve made changes to widen the eligibility pool of certain Eximus types - all with supporting casting animations:
General Pool for all Factions:
Arctic, Blitz, Energy Leech, Leech, and Shock
Corpus Specific: Guardian
Grineer Specific: Arson
Infested Specific: Venomous
Corrupted versions will use the same pools as their original faction (so Corrupted Ancients could use Venomous, and Corrupted Lancer could use Arson).
Archwing Eximus
Archwing Eximus units will not receive Overguard. It is mainly being excluded because Archwing combat is more limited in the ways that you’d be able to take out Overguard. Archwing gear itself does slightly less damage than its ground counterpart and has a smaller pool of crowd control abilities. Overall, we believe it to be a better fit to simply update the Eximus abilities and effects, but leave Overguard for the ground Eximus.
New Eximus Mercy Functionality
As a part of the Eximus Rework, we have also updated the condition to Mercy Kill certain Eximus that did not have this in the past!
Here is a list of the new Eximus types that can be finished with Mercy Kills:
- Mutalist MOA’s
- Amalgam MOA’s
- Deimos Carnis
- Crawlers
- Nox
- Embattor MOA’s
- Amalgam Heqit
- Amalgam Machinist
In addition, we have fixed all Crawler Eximus units so they can now cast their respective Eximus abilities! Watch out for your toes, Tenno.
Below is a list of each Eximus type and a comparison of their current vs reworked versions:
BLITZ / VOLATILE
https://gfycat.com/ultimateobesebrownbear
Current
A Seismic Shockwave knockdown with short range.
NEW
Blitz Eximus units now summon a frontal chain Blast attack by slamming their fist into the ground, applying a knockdown and Blast Status Effect. This Blast attack is signaled by an audio cue and FX of the oncoming Blast erupting from below.
Visual Changes
Blitz Eximus units are now covered in crackling energy, with the addition of small staggered explosions coming from their limbs.
ENERGY LEECH / PARASITIC
https://gfycat.com/conscioushatefulblackfish
Current
An invisible aura that drains Energy over time.
NEW
Energy Leech and Parasitic Eximus units now periodically spawn an Energy Leech Zone near the player. The Energy Leech Zone is detonated within seconds, draining a large amount of Energy if not tactically avoided. This Zone is identified by an expanding energy zone and audible cue on placement & detonation.
Visual Changes
Energy Leech and Parasitic Eximus units now appear shrouded in Void-like energy, manifesting in short tendrils swirling from their body. The Energy Leech Zone spawns with a matching energy style and appearance before imploding in a burst.
ARSON / CAUSTIC
https://gfycat.com/scentedbeneficialblacknorwegianelkhound
Current
A concussive Fire Blast attack that knockdowns and damages enemies caught in its wake.
NEW
Arson Eximus units maintain a Fire Blast attack, but you can now counter the Fire Blast by simply rolling through it to negate its oncoming effect. However, Damage is now higher along with a forced Heat Status Effect when struck.
Visual Changes
Arson Eximus units are now completely engulfed in roaring flames. They occasionally send out these deadly flames in all directions as a slow rolling burst. The Fire Blast attack has been visually refreshed to not only match the fire FX engulfing the Eximus unit, but also to represent a “roaring wave” of fire as opposed to a blinding wall.
GUARDIAN
https://gfycat.com/secretkindlyamazontreeboa
Current
A radial shield charge pulse for allied enemies in range.
NEW
Guardian Eximus now provide significant damage reduction to its allies (your enemies!), which is indicated by a collection of smaller shields circling around them.The Guardian Eximus units have 3 rotating shields that fully block incoming damage on themselves, and also create a similar visual effect on nearby allies that applies a Damage Reduction buff on them. This damage reduction does not affect VIP enemies such as Demolysts, Capture targets, or Bosses, and does not stack with other friendly Guardian Eximus. However, it will affect other Eximus units within a range!
Important Note on Guardian Eximus related to AOE attacks:"Guardian eximus shields are immune to punch through, and Guardians have very high resistance to AOE damage for themself. Units protected by the Guardian's aura are not immune to punch through nor do they have any special resistance to AOE, just the generic 90% resistance to everything." - [DE]Momaw, https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1305472-eximus-reborn-dev-workshop/page/4/#comment-12484843
Visual Changes
Guardian Eximus units now exhibit 3 large blue rotating shields. These shields have visible gaps between them, offering multiple opportunity windows to shoot your foe. Allies with Overguard applied now display a simpler version of the shields with similar rendering but with a different shape to avoid confusion. The smaller shields on buffed allies do not physically block damage like their Eximus counterpart, but act as a visual indicator that Damage reduction is being applied.
ARCTIC / FROZEN
Current
A large protective globe of ice.
NEW
No changes.
Visual Changes
The globe does the job already!
LEECH / SANGUINE
https://gfycat.com/limitedangelickouprey
Current
Life steal from player on damage, but this is negligible due to the scale of Player vs enemy Health.
NEW
Similar to their Energy counterparts, Leech Eximus now spawn Health Leech Zones which tick away at your Health shortly after spawning, healing nearby enemies. Players need to avoid the Zones to avoid the effect!
Visual Changes
Leech Eximus units glow red with a pulsing vortex of energy generated from its core. The Eximus sends out a small zone of the same energy which quickly pulses as it drains a portion of your Health. Killing the Eximus or downing it into a Mercy state will disrupt any active health leech zones.
SHOCK / BIO-ELECTRIC (new)
https://gfycat.com/sphericalconventionalblackbird
We have added a new Eximus variant by allowing Infested enemies to now become imbued with electric energy! Introducing: Bio-Electric Eximus, the newest Infested Eximus threatens to shock any Tenno to their senses if they fail to evade the Infested Eximus or their lethal homing electric orbs.
Current
A small electrical Damage Over Time area. This is difficult to notice until hit with an Electric Status Effect.
NEW
Shock Eximus/Bio-Electric Eximus spawn 3 electrical orbs that will hover in place for a few seconds, dealing increasing electrical damage around the Eximus before being released and homing in on the Player. The damage from these electrical orbs scale with level. Killing the Eximus or putting it into a Mercy state will destroy any active Orbs.
Visual Changes
Shock Eximus have mini versions of the electrical orbs orbiting around them, while they also appear to be covered and crackling with electricity.
VENOMOUS
https://gfycat.com/foolhardyfancycurassow
Current
A small Toxin area. Similar to shock Eximus, but Toxin damage is more lethal since it lingers on players.
NEW
Venomous Eximus units become surrounded by a swirling volume of Toxic gas upon being alerted. Coming into contact with the gas will inflict a Toxin Status Effect. Now, only enemy melee units can become venomous Eximus units. Stay clear of their impending noxious fumes!
Visual Changes
Venomous Eximus are tightly shrouded in toxic fumes. Upon being alerted, these fumes expand into a zone surrounding the Eximus in a deadly haze.
REWARDS
To accompany the increased threat from Eximus units, we’ve further boosted the Affinity gained from killing them by +200%. Additionally, Eximus units now drop Credits and Endo at an increased rate. This will consistently scale as well for their Steel Path counterparts on top of the usual rare chance of a Riven Sliver!
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Considering Eximus enemies are now more formidable, that strength is amplified when encountering Eximus units in a pack. To help counter that in different parts of Warframe we’ve made the following changes:
- There will be 50% less Eximus on ‘Eximus Stronghold’ Sortie conditions
- Syndicate Death Squad/Platoon sizes have been reduced:
- -1 of disfavor Squads reduced from 5-10 to 3-5
- -2 of disfavor Platoons reduced from 10-15 to 5-7
- Warden Eximus units in Rescue missions have not received these new Eximus upgrades, to ensure they are just as easy to stealthily remove as before.
Thank you all for reading this lengthy Developer Workshop! We hope you enjoy the refresh on Eximus units and their new host of updated abilities and effects. While this Dev Workshop can provide a glimpse into the changes, the best way to experience them will be taking on the new Eximus in the field once Angels of the Zariman has gone live!
Caution Tenno, there’s a heavy unit approaching...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
April 20th, 5:30pm - Updates to information on Overguard, Limbo's Rift & Cataclysm, Banshee's Silence, and Guardian Eximus AOE resistance.
April 22nd, 4:30pm - Clarified information on Limbo's powers and Eximus interactions with the Rift
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