Syndicates

Syndicates are groups of interest operating throughout the Origin System separate from the Corpus, Grineer, and the Tenno. These factions have their own ideologies and goals regarding the fate of the system, with some inevitably in disagreement with another syndicate. Syndicates are unlocked once a player reached Mastery Rank 3.

Players can choose to perform various quests, missions and alerts for a particular syndicate, raising the player's affinity with that group and earning access to unique offerings. Raising familiarity with one group however can raise the anger of another group, and even lead them to launch hits against a player, so choosing which syndicate to gain standing with is important.

There are currently 6 known Syndicates, each having their own unique themes and goals. Every syndicate has a particular relationship with other syndicates, favourable or otherwise. Earning reputation with a particular group also earns reputation to a group they have favourable relationships with, but decreases reputation with another group that they oppose.

Standing
Standing is a special resource central to the Syndicates mechanic, which indicates a Tenno's favor with a particular syndicate. Players can begin earning Standing once they reach Mastery Rank 3.

Earning Standing with a syndicate is largely a matter of wearing that syndicate's Sigils, a cosmetic item received from Syndicates. When wearing a syndicate's sigil, a portion of any affinity earned will be converted to Standing with that syndicate. Additional Standing can also earned by performing special syndicate-exclusive missions.

Syndicates offerings can be purchased by spending Standing with that syndicate, essentially trading on "favors" that the Tenno has performed for that syndicate. Syndicate offerings are gated by rank within the syndicate, and syndicate rank is gained by achieving certain amounts of Standing. In essence, a Tenno can choose to spend earned Standing on lower-tier offerings, or save up Standing to gain access to higher-tier offerings. Unlocking ranks also requires sacrificing specific items requested by a syndicate in order to unlock the next rank.

Standing with a syndicate can be negative, which occurs if a Tenno has been performing favors for a rival syndicate said group dislikes. However, there is a lower limit on how much negative Standing a Tenno can have with a syndicate. Tenno can achieve two hated rankings within a Syndicate, denoting how much in disfavor said player is.

Death Squads
Syndicates with whom a Tenno has negative favor with is considered hated by that group, which will make them send Death Squads consisting of a large number of their elite Eximus troops to hunt down said Tenno. Similar to Assassins like Stalker, Death Squads can randomly appear in a mission, and will announce their presence via flickering lights and a declaration from the Syndicate leader, though Death Squads will arrive immediately after a single transmission.

At Rank 1 of disfavor, Syndicates will send Eximus Squads, which consist of 15 Eximus units. If a player reaches Rank 2, Eximus Platoons will be sent in instead, consisting of a much larger number of units. Apart from their sheer numbers, these Eximus units are identical to those found in normal missions.

Syndicate Alerts
Syndicate Alerts are special Alert missions that are unlocked by attaining Rank 1 in a particular syndicate. Like normal alerts these missions are time-limited and temporarily replaces the mission for a particular node. The primary reward for performing these alert missions is a set amount of bonus Standing for the Syndicate that posted them, making them ideal for earning further Standing with that group. Also, the higher a player's rank within a particular syndicate, the larger the Standing offerings become. Syndicate alerts can be identified by their mission icons being represented by the Syndicate's emblem.

Offerings
Syndicates offer various items to players who achieve a certain rank. Each rank of offerings consists of Sigils and the items below. These items can be acquired through spending Standing points.

Rank 1
At Rank 1 in a Syndicate, Tenno can purchase Eximus Specters.

Rank 2
At Rank 2, Tenno can purchase a set of five Tower IV Void Keys of one type of missions. Mission type depends on the Syndicate.

Rank 3
At Rank 3, Tenno can purchase Large Team Bonus Consumables.

Rank 4
At Rank 4, Tenno can purchase Weapon Augment Mods, which are mods that are exclusive to an individual weapon.

Rank 5
At Rank 5, each Syndicate sells a selection of Warframe Augment Mods, which are mods exclusive to individual Warframes that modify a particular Warframe ability in unique ways. Each Warframe is favored by two different Syndicates.

Trivia

 * Red Veil, New Loka, and The Perrin Sequence are non-hostile towards each other. Steel Meridian, Arbiters of Hexis, and Cephalon Suda also share this relationship, which means you can boost relations with either of those sets of 3 freely without worrying about losing relations drastically.

Tips

 * To equip a Sigil, the player must go to Arsenal, select Appearance, Regalia, select the location of the Sigil (Front or Back of the warframe) and then select the specific Sigil.
 * It should be possible to have rank 5 standing with a maximum of 4 syndicates by supporting 2 complementary syndicates, for example: Using Cephalon Suda sigil until it and Arbitors of Hexis are both rank 5, then using Steel Meridian sigil until both it and Red Veil are both Rank 5. Supporting any other faction will reduce standing with at least one of the 4 you have chosen, therefore it is much harder to have rank 5 with more than 4 syndicates as it would require tedious micromanagement (as shown in the table below).


 * Supporting a combination of various Syndicates can raise your reputation with four or five groups. There will be some amount of conflict reducing the efficiency.


 * Ranking up in Syndicates to Rank One (5,000 standing) equates to about 6 games of any defence to at least wave 20. The longer you play the more standing you will receive for your Syndicate while wearing the appropriate Sigil. Enemy level also appears to be a contributing factor. If one plays a T1 defence to wave 20 then leaves then one will receive less Standing than if one plays a T4 defence and also gets to wave 20 then leaves.
 * Best way of farming Standings seems to be Interception missions. The higher the rank of the enemys the more Standings you will get. So Cerberus (Pluto) can give you nearly up to 2000 Standing in one hour + 1000 for your allied Syndicate.

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