Plains of Eidolon



The Plains of Eidolon is an expansive, open Landscape located on Earth. In the shadow of an Orokin Tower lies an ancient battlefield, where the Orokin and the Sentient Eidolon fought during the Old War. The Grineer have set up numerous outposts and bases to study the ruins in the area, observing and patrolling the plains for any threat to their operations.

This Landscape was introduced October 12th, 2017 in.

General
The Plains of Eidolon has an area of about 5 square kilometers (2.25km x 2.25km), featuring various fields, hills, caves, and bodies of water in a mostly temperate climate. Unlike other mission nodes, the Plains of Eidolon is not procedurally generated using Tiles, but is instead a massive static map with unique features.

Each server instance of Cetus can hold up to 50 players within the town, however players can only exit onto the plains in the standard 2-4 man squads or Solo. Each map is considered its own separate mission instance, and will not be shared between squads.

The Plains are accessible through two different mission nodes on the Star Chart, both nodes are on Earth. The first is the central hub of the Plains - Cetus, Earth - where the player will spawn at the lake in front of the town. The second mission node will spawn the player directly in front of the gate that connects Cetus to the Plains. Both nodes will be unlocked directly after completing Vor's Prize and are not Mastery Rank locked.

Entering into the Plains from either Cetus or directly from the Star Chart will create a new mission instance of the Plains, with procedural generation applying to objects like resource spawn locations and mineral veins, as well as assigning a random Challenge. Player progress is only saved upon returning to Cetus, which will display the traditional post-mission screen.

Cetus
Cetus is a settlement built by the Ostron people around an ancient Orokin tower, which they dismantle and harvest for various usable parts. This town serves as the central hub for the Plains of Eidolon, where players can interact with various NPC's to purchase items from shops, or accept quests to be accomplished out in the plains.

Upon arriving on Cetus, players are deposited on a landing pad by a lake on the outskirts of town, and they can reach the town by walking along the lakeshore to one of the three inner town entrances. From there, players can exit Cetus onto the greater plains via a large Orokin door on the town's outer wall, leading to a large room which has another door that leads to the plains beyond. The room acts as a loading screen, and players will be unable to exit out the other end until the loading is complete.

Archwing
Mobility in the Plains is granted through the use of Archwings, which the Tenno can use to fly around and reach locales and objectives faster, as well as engage in combat against enemies both on the ground and in the air. Players are able to use all of their Archwing abilities in combat, however they will use their normal ground weapons instead of Arch-gun and Arch-melee weapons. Players can exit their Archwings by performing melee attacks (default ), or returning to Cetus' gates. Additionally, players can be knocked out of Archwing by sufficiently powerful concussive attacks, such as from Grineer surface-to-air heat seeking missiles.

Unlike in specialized Archwing tilesets, players use their Archwings by calling them down using an Archwing Launcher item in their Gear menu, which will place the Archwing on the ground to allow players to move to equip it. The Archwing called down can be used by any player in the squad, allowing all players to use Archwing even if only one player has an Archwing Launcher.

To craft Archwing Launchers players must have an Archwing Launcher Segment installed on the Foundry. The Archwing Launcher Segment can either be researched in the Tenno Lab of a Clan Dojo, or purchased off the Market for.

Day & Night Cycle
Unlike with the Earth tileset's traditional day and night cycle which is set upon entering a mission, the Plains of Eidolon feature a real-time cycle which sees the map seamlessly transition from light to darkness. Daytime in the Plains lasts for 100 minutes, while nighttime lasts only 50 minutes. All players will experience the same time of day at any particular time in the Plains of Eidolon.

The time of day determines the type of enemies as well as the type of fish that players can encounter on the fields, and consequently affect the map's difficulty level. While the day cycle is more directed towards new players, the night cycle is reserved for more experienced players, with the more difficult enemies of the Sentient faction.

Spear Fishing
The Plains of Eidolon feature large bodies of water, which house a wide variety of aquatic life. Players can engage in spearfishing to catch various fish and crustaceans, which can then be used as resources to craft various Ostron items or gifted to Fisher Hai-Luk to increase standing with the Ostron faction. Fish will begin spawning when wielding a spear near a body of water. When fishing with a group, each player is able to see their own fish. The fish are not shared between the group.

Mining
Another means of getting resources in the plains is through mining; players can find mineral veins, visible as bright glowing marks, scattered throughout the landscape. A mining tool is required to extract the minerals. With this tool the player has to trace a pattern on the vein to acquire the resource.

There are two types of mineral veins:
 * Red veins give metal ores; Auron, Coprun, Ferros, Pyrol,
 * Blue veins give gems; Azurite, Devar, Veridos, Crimzian, Sentirum, Nyth

Both ores and gems can be refined using Foundry blueprints obtained from Old Man Suumbaat, and are used in a variety of crafting recipes. Uncut gems can also be traded in to Old Man Suumbaat to increase standing with the Ostron faction.

Hunting
The Plains also features several indigenous species of wildlife that roam around the field, such as large birds-of-prey. These species can be hunted and killed to drop resources unique to said animals.

Bounties
Bounties are randomly generated quests in which the player completes a series of short objectives. Upon completion of a set of missions, the player will be randomly receive a reward from the reward pool.

Incursions
Incursions are random optional mission objectives that can occasionally pop up in the Plains, that give various rewards upon completion. Unlike Bounties, Incursions can only occur during daylight hours.

Grineer
The Grineer, comprised of the special Tusk Corps, are the primary enemy faction in Plains of Eidolon during the daytime and can be found in either small patrol groups roaming the plains, or stationed at one of several outposts and firebases they have set up in the area. The Grineer firebases are heavily fortified with various defenses, including Ramparts and automated heavy defense turrets. For added firepower, these firebases are also capable of using mortars that lob high explosive shells at long range towards their targets. These Grineer units are unique as Eximus variants can posses the Venomous and Shock versions, normally only used with the Infested and Corpus respectively. They also use special Cold, and Fire grenades not found on other Grineer units in the system.

The Grineer units can spawn at the Plains in different ways, either via Tusk Firbolg dropships or descending from orbital drop pods. They can also be deployed from Tusk Bolkor troop ships, which are armed with rotary cannons for close air support. All the dropships on the Plains are vulnerable to attacks and can be destroyed before they deploy the units they transport. If a sufficiently large patrol is engaged in combat, the Grineer units will deploy Tusk Seeker Drones that will signal for reinforcements, which then will proceed to spawn via the aforementioned options. The drones will continue to call in additional enemies unless they are destroyed.

Finally, the Grineer can also field airborne units such as Dargyns and Ogmas to patrol the plains and attack players from the air. Once these air units are defeated, the Dargyn Pilot may drop to the ground.

During nighttime, the Grineer will retreat to the safety of their outposts, reducing the number of Grineer that can be encountered on the field during that period, though in turn raising the difficulty of a nocturnal assault on a base. Grineer are hostile towards the Sentient and will attack if they encounter them, even against the massive Teralysts.

Sentient
During the Old War, a major battle between the Orokin and the Sentients took place on the Plains. The Sentients were defeated, scattering their fragments all over the area, resulting in the appearance of the Spectral Sentients. Those are absent during the day cycle and show up only at night, increasing the difficulty of the Plains.

The main Sentient threat on the Plains during the nighttime are the Eidolon Teralysts, gigantic Sentient units equipped with powerful weapons and formidable defenses. Taking down a Teralyst is no small feat, requiring concentrated firepower from Operators and their Warframes. A full squad is recommended for this fight, though it is also possible - though extremely difficult - to defeat a Teralyst solo. Also roaming the plains at night are the smaller Eidolon Vomvalyst Sentients. Should a Vomvalyst be reduced to zero health it will shed its outer armor and turn into a glowing spectral form, complete with a fresh pool of health impervious to weapons fire but vulnerable to an Operator's Void powers. Eidolon Lures will absorb Vomvalyst sentients after the outer shell is destroyed, relieving the requirement of an Operator to destroy them.

Armored Vaults
Grineer outposts and bases in the area can have Armored Vaults on them, seen as large orange and green tracked carriages with control consoles on them. These Armored Vaults can be opened up to by interacting with the control console (default ), giving a small amount of resources, and sometimes they will have a single Storage Container that can be broken for more drops. Armored Vaults are also used as the objective in Resource Theft Incursions.

Comm Towers
Some Grineer outposts on the Plains have green communication towers with control consoles on them, which nearby Grineer can activate to call in reinforcements. Players can hack these towers to deactivate them.

Energized Water
At night, bodies of water on the Plains will become energized with Sentient energy, which will deal proc on any unit that touches it, temporarily reducing maximum shields and removing 100 Energy.

Geyser
A small lake near the entrance to Cetus has a small geyser at the center of an island, which blows a powerful jet of steam upwards when units step on it, launching them upwards.

Bugs

 * In some of the Lakes scattered around the Plains, most notably the one with a small, Grineer populated island in the middle of it, a player's warframe can become completely submerged in the water, and will be standing on the bottom of the lake. The camera, however, will be unable to pass through the surface of the water. This seems to only happen near the center of the lake, around the edges the correct events occur. Bullet jumping and other forms of movement still allow you to resurface.
 * The stream on the northwest corner of the Plains is permanently magnetized, regardless of time of day.