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Archon Hunts are multi-stage missions in a battle against  Narmer forces to defeat Pazuul's Archons. They have mechanics similar to Sorties, Arbitrations, and The Steel Path.

Archon Hunts reset weekly at Monday 00:00 UTC.

Mechanics[]

Access to Archon Hunts requires completion of Veilbreaker. Only rank 30 Warframes or a Mastery Rank 30 player whose Warframe has been polarized once can be brought into Archon Hunts.

Archon Hunt missions can only be repeated after completing all three missions, but will not yield any further Archon Hunt-specific rewards.

Rules[]

  • Archon Hunts are three-stage missions in a similar vein as Sorties. They also share the same mission-specific conditions, including the inability to use Ciphers.
  • The planet, tileset, and enemy faction is based on the currently available Archon:
  • Enemy level is based on the mission:
    • First Mission: Level 130-135
    • Second Mission: Level 135-140
    • Third Mission: Level 145-150
  • Hacking uses Narmer's split screen inputs that appeared in The New War.
  •  Sentient fighters (and Amalgams in Nira's hunt) provide combat support to Narmer.
  • To encourage gameplay diversity, players are given a +300% Ability Strength bonus, +500 Health bonus, and a +300% Damage bonus to a random Warframe and three Weapons for each Hunt. The affected Warframe and weapon change from one player to another: for example, one player could be given bonuses for playing with  Excalibur and/or a  Skana while another player can be given bonuses for playing with  Mag and/or a  Braton.
    • The bonus can also be applied for Warframes and Weapons the player does not own.
    • Bonuses will also apply to any variants the Warframe or weapon may have (Prime, Syndicate, etc.).

Restrictions[]

The following restrictions apply to all Archon Hunt missions:

Enemy Health and Shields increased by 100% and an additional 50% for each squad member, stacking to a maximum of 300%.

Increased chance of Eximus

NO SELF REVIVE
Can only be revived by other Tenno.

LAST GASP PENALTY
Activating the Last Gasp focus ability reduces the timer by 2 seconds.

BLEEDOUT SHORTENS
The bleedout timer shortens after each revive, to a minimum of 5 seconds.

NO SUMMONS
Summons are disabled for the entire duration of the mission.

COOLDOWN INCREASE
Each type of Restore has a 3 minute cooldown timer applied.

This cooldown affects all sizes of the Restore type.
—In-Game Description

Considered to be extremely difficult with many debilitating restrictions and level 130 - 150 enemies, it is recommended to attempt this mission in full squads.

  • Empowered Enemies:
    • Enemies have their Health and Shields increased by 100%, and an additional 50% for each squad member up to a maximum of 300%.
    • Eximus have a higher spawn rate.
  • Restricted Respawns:
    • Self-revive is not allowed. A player that dies is permanently out of commission and cannot be brought back, making death prevention and prioritizing reviving fallen Tenno from bleedout a necessity. A dead player may also lose their eligibility for rewards once the 2-minute Inactivity Penalty triggers.
    •  Last Gasp's drain begins 2 seconds earlier with each use.
    • Bleedout timer reduces with each revive, down to a minimum of 5 seconds.
  • Restricted Consumables:

Rewards[]

Rewards are similar to Sortie rewards (albeit with  Endo and  Kuva rewards being double that of Sorties, and  Forma being given in amounts of 3) which are given after the final mission.

In addition, the Archon is guaranteed to reward its Archon Shard, with an 80% chance of being normal and 20% chance of being Tauforged, which are used for the Helminth. If a normal variant is awarded, the chance of receiving a Tauforged increases by 20% which resets upon earning one, tracked individually for each shard type. The color is based on the Archon killed:


Rewards
 Ayatan Anasa Sculpture 28%
 Endo x8000 12.1%
 Kuva x12000 12%
 Melee Riven Mod 8.14%
 Pistol Riven Mod 7.61%
 Rifle Riven Mod 6.79%
 Affinity Booster 3.27%
 Mod Drop Chance Booster 3.27%
 Resource Drop Chance Booster 3.27%
Orokin Catalyst Blueprint 2.5%
Orokin Reactor Blueprint 2.5%
 Exilus Warframe Adapter 2.5%
 Forma x3 2.5%
 Kitgun Riven Mod 2%
 Zaw Riven Mod 2%
 Shotgun Riven Mod 1.36%
 Legendary Core 0.18%

Locations: See in-game World State Window, must complete Veilbreaker quest

Drop tables outdated? Readers can update Module:DropTables/data and cross reference with official drop tables on https://www.warframe.com/droptables.


Tips[]

Trivia[]

Flavor Text[]

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Mission 1
  • Exterminate: [BOSS_NAME] is deploying troops at [MISSION_NAME] in the belief they will all ascend to Tau in a holy massacre. Break their ranks.
  • Mobile Defense: Pazuul has transferred [BOSS_NAME]'s data to a vulnerable network. His motives are mystifying as always, but we cannot pass up this opportunity.
  • Sabotage: Narmer industrial production in [MISSION_NAME] is in overdrive, causing severe environmental damage. Whatever Pazuul's warped visions are inspiring him to do now, end it.
  • Spy: We cannot tell if Pazuul is receiving visions from Tau as he claims, or if his mind is disturbed. Analysis of data from [MISSION_NAME] may give us an insight.
  • Rescue:
  • Capture:
Mission 2
  • Defense: Narrowing down [BOSS_NAME]'s location from the data you garnered will require a specialist Operative. Keep them alive while they scan.
  • Disruption: Raid the conduits on [MISSION_NAME] where Narmer keep their sacred regalia and artifacts. They may provide clues to Narmer's ultimate objectives.
  • Interception:
  • Survival:
  • Excavation: Pazuul is demanding [BOSS_NAME] provide him with massive amounts of Cryotic in holy tribute. Exhaust the veins, starve the Archon out, and they will be forced to act.
Showdown
  • Description 1: Assuming success in your previous missions, we will have tracked [BOSS_NAME] to their current lair. Destroy the Archon and their complement of Deacons.
  • Description 2: Our prior activities will have pinpointed [BOSS_NAME]. It only remains for you to end the threat.

Patch History[]

Hotfix 37.0.4 (2024-10-10)

  • Fixed the Archon Hunt panel in the world state window having the wrong Suggested Damage types listed.
    • It incorrectly listed Electricity and Magnetic instead of Toxin and Slash as weaknesses, and Blast instead of Magnetic as resistances.

Update 37.0 (2024-10-02)

  • Added Suggested Damage icons to Archon Hunt missions.
  • Fixed Operator facing the opposite direction of Warframe when using Transference after the first cutscene in the Boreal Archon Hunt fight.
  • Fixed a rare case of Archons dying mid-air causing a progression stop.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Defeat the Archon” Objective marker would not clear after defeating the Archon during “Archon Showdown” missions.
  • Fixed auto-failing the mission if the Defense Operative were to ragdoll out of the playable area. This bug was most commonly experienced in an Archon Hunt mission with Chipper.

Hotfix 36.0.8 (2024-07-25)

  • Fixed Archons in Archon Hunts not using their proper Narmer Weaknesses/Resistances.
    • As a refresher, here are the Narmer vulnerabilities/resistances:
      • Vulnerable to Slash and Toxin
      • Resistant to Magnetic
    • The Archons in The New War Quest remain neutral since you don’t know what the “Narmer” faction is until the near end of the Quest, and therefore wouldn’t be able to plan for them given that you are locked into the Quest once started.

Update 35.5 (2024-03-27)

  • Fixes towards Grineer ships appearing in Archon Hunt mission skyboxes for Clients.
  • Fixed a case of broken waypoint pathing in Amar Archon Hunt missions.

Update 35.1 (2024-02-20)

  • Adjusted Riven type drop rates in Archon Hunts to be more proportional to weapon ratios.
    • Drop rates for each type have been adjusted in places where Rivens are only a portion of the drop tables (Archon Hunt). The total chance for a Riven remains the same. For full details, visit the public drop tables.
  • Fixed Endo and Orokin Catalyst/Reactor Blueprints missing from the Archon Hunt rewards UI in the world state window.

Hotfix 35.0.9 (2024-01-17)

  • Fixed Wukong’s Clone being inactive at the start of the first and second phase of the Archon Hunt fight.

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

  • Fixed Enemy Highlights not applying Archon Amar’s clones.
  • Fixed certain multishot alt-fire attacks, namely from the Arum Spinosa and Quassus, dealing unintentionally high damage to Archons.
    • Maximum Damage Per Instance was incorrectly using these weapons’ Primary (single instance) attack instead of its alt-fire (multi-instance) attack in the damage attenuation calculation - which resulted in higher than intended damage numbers for each instance.
  • Fixed a script error in Archon Hunt missions.

Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)

Archon Hunt Damage Attenuation Changes

Speaking of earning Archon Shards, Damage Attenuation (or “damage pillows”) may be a familiar mechanic for those who frequent Archon Hunts each week.

This was a hot topic, especially near the end of 2022. Since then, we’ve taken our time to assess player feedback and devise a plan to address it -- and we’re finally at a place where we can execute it.

Damage Attenuation is one tool of many to increase enemy difficulty by limiting how much damage they take from player weapons, etc. Our current form of Damage Attenuation has resulted in many weapons feeling lackluster due to the high attenuation values, and damage output was reduced significantly to balance out the post-attenuation modifiers -- meaning that Archon fights felt like a slog if players did not use a limited set of optimal builds.

This is not a favorable outcome, so we have made the following changes:

1 - Maximum Damage Caps have increased

  • Maximum Damage per Damage Instance has been increased
  • Maximum Damage Per Second has been increased

Our goal is to make big hits still feel like big hits, especially for low-rate-of-fire weapons. We’re able to reduce the damage cap significantly because of the next change:

2 - Modifiers now apply before Damage Attenuation

Critical Multipliers (and other modifiers) applying post-damage-cap allowed for many of the One Shot builds to function, and for full transparency, we want to prevent One Shot Archon builds as much as possible. By changing where these modifiers apply, we can increase the Damage Caps to a much less punishing level for players.

Our goals with these changes are to:

  • Increase player damage output, thereby reducing the overall time to kill for Archons
  • Make “big hits” feel impactful by no longer throttling them to such an extreme degree
  • Encourage overall build diversity for Archon Hunts
  • Reduce the ability to use one-shot builds

We’re excited to see what Archon Hunts look like for players with these changes in the live build! Now that these changes have been released, we'll be keeping a close eye on player feedback and the resulting time-to-kill for Archons to see if further iteration is needed.

Top Fixes:
  • Fixed Archon Nira getting downed and stuck in walls during her grapple ability. A small invulnerability phase has been added when she performs this ability to prevent this issue from occurring.
General Fixes:
  • Fixed the “Defeat Archon” objective text in Archon Hunts for Clients appearing in the Host’s language.

Update 33.5 (2023-06-21)

  • Fixed a crash in the Archon Hunt Spy mission.

Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)

TAUFORGED ARCHON SHARD PROBABILITY CHANGE

PLEASE NOTE: The following changes to Tauforged Archon Shard probability will officially begin at the weekly Archon Hunt reset on Monday, February 20th @ 00:00 UTC (7:00 PM ET) to not interfere with the current active Hunt.

We have tweaked the Archon Hunt reward system to increase the odds of receiving a Tauforged Archon Shard if not received after a successful hunt. Each player has their own probability per Shard based on their individual Hunt activity.

Each time a specific Tauforged Archon Shard (Amber, Azure, Crimson) is not your reward from completing an Archon Hunt (i.e. you received a regular Amber, Azure, or Crimson Archon Shard), your chance to receive a Tauforged Shard of that variant increases in the next respective Hunt.

The base probability is 20% and increases by 20% (up to 100%) for each Hunt that does not reward that specific Tauforged Shard. The probability resets back to 20% once that Tauforged Shard variant is rewarded. Earning a Tauforged Shard does not alter the probability to receive Tauforged of other variants. The chance % is indicated via the Archon Hunt Navigation panel for the Shard color that is currently available.

Here is an example of how several weeks could play out:
(This is not a reflection of the current/upcoming Archon Hunt rotations)

Week 1: Archon Nira is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Amber Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Amber Shard the next time Archon Nira is active.

Week 2: Archon Boreal is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Azure Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Azure Shard for the next time Archon Boreal is active.

Week 3: Archon Amar is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Crimson Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Crimson Shard for the next time Archon Amar is active.

Week 4: Archon Nira is active with a 40% chance of a Tauforged Amber Shard. Completing the Hunt rewards Tauforged - huzzah! Your chance resets to 20% for the next time Archon Nira is active.

Week 5: Archon Boreal is active with a 40% chance of a Tauforged Azure Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to a total of a 60% chance to earn a Tauforged Azure Shard for the next time Archon Boreal is active.

Rinse and repeat!

Tauforged Archon Shards are hotly pursued items, understandably so! We made this change to create a healthy reward cycle and expectation for the players interacting with the Archon Shard system and putting in the effort to play through Archon Hunts. Thank you for your patience while we worked on a solution to improve access to the Tauforged Shards.

Fixes:
  • Fixed weapons with negative damage values (mainly through Riven Mods providing a negative damage value ie. -50.6% impact) unintentionally doing massive amounts of damage during the Archon fight in Archon Hunts.
  • Fixed Companions not teleporting with the player during the first phase of the Archon Hunt Assassination.
  • Fixed Companions sometimes freezing in place during Archon Hunts.

Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)

  • Fixed cases of Archon Nira being able to instantly kill you with her choking mist attack during the second phase of her assassination mission in Archon Hunts.
  • Fixed issue of Nira’s Screech VFX/SFX staying on the screen for Client if they are downed and revived during this attack in the Archon Hunt.

Hotfix 32.1.4 (2022-11-09)

  • Chipper in Archon Hunt missions will now teleport to players if he can’t reach them.
  • Fixed Chipper randomly standing up after being downed in Archon Hunt missions.
  • Fixed instances where NPC Defense targets were being called “Hostage” instead of “Operative” when downed (including Chipper in Archon Hunts).

Hotfix 32.1.3 (2022-11-08)

  • Fixed being unable to complete the IO, Jupiter Defense Archon Hunt mission due to a friendly Shockwave Moa spawning.
  • Fixed the default Defense target downed transmission playing instead of Chipper’s in Archon Hunts.

Hotfix 32.1.2 (2022-11-04)

  • Increased Chipper’s base Health for the Archon Hunt Defense mission.
  • Added new Chipper transmissions to the Archon Hunt Defense missions.
  • Added new Chipper transmissions for “Wave Complete” in Archon Hunt Defense.
  • Fixed the default Lotus end of mission transmissions playing in the Archon Hunt missions.

Update 32.1 (2022-11-02)

  • Chipper is now the Defense target in Archon Hunt Defense missions. Protect him as he scans for Narmer’s purpose in the sector!
  • Fixed Archon Hunt enemies applying enemy defense buffs in a different way than Sorties, causing abilities (for example, but not limited to) Nyx’s Psychic Bolts to not strip 100% of an enemy’s Shields or Armor even with the right Mods applied. As reported here: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1325375-nyx-psychic-bolts/
  • Fixed the secondary weapon given to Defense Operative in Archon Hunt missions disappearing after Host Migration.
    • This also fixes for all other instances where a secondary weapon is given to friendly NPC.
  • Fixed Archon Hunts awarding progress towards Sortie Nightwave Acts that are intended only for the (Sortie Specialist and Sortie Expert).
  • Fixed script error in Archon Hunt caused by Clients joining.

Hotfix 32.0.13 (2022-10-14)

  • Fixed Archon Hunts being scheduled to end 1 day too early.

Hotfix 32.0.12 (2022-10-12)

  • Fixed Narmer enemies being hostile towards the door scanners in the Corpus Gas City tileset while playing through Archon Nira’s hunt.

Hotfix 32.0.9 (2022-10-05)

Archon Hunt Boss Sequence Change:
  • Starting this Sunday, October 9th, the Archon Hunt will swap every Sunday moving forward at 8:00 PM ET (Syndicate reset time). The Archons will now also appear at a fixed rotation, as follows: Amar, Nira, Boreal.
Fixes:
  • Fixed the “Waiting for other players: 1/2-4" message staying on the screen even if everyone has left the Archon Assassination arena in Archon Hunts.

Hotfix 32.0.7 (2022-09-28)

  • Removed a specific hallway from the Archon Boreal assasination tileset, as it had a convoluted layout that was affecting the flow of AI.
  • Improved the Narmer Deacon Veil pickup effect to be more obvious.
    • When picking up a Veil, surrounding enemies are momentarily disoriented as their Veil signal is jammed. This wasn’t apparent at first, so we improved the visual effect to telegraph when surrounding enemies are affected.
  • Fixed the Crimson Archon Shard’s Melee Crit Damage buff increasing crit damage on all weapon types, not just Melee weapons.
  • Fixed being unable to replay Archon Hunt if a Kuva Lich/Sister of Parvos is occupying the planet of the weekly Archon and taxed your reward.
    • This fix also applies to Sorties.
  • Fixed placeholder checkerboard material appearing when Narmer enemies are charging up their special long range attack.
  • Fixed a script error in the Archon Nira fight.
  • Fixed script error caused by Archon Nira's Toxin field ability after Host migration.

Hotfix 32.0.6 (2022-09-16)

  • Fixed Amar’s Howl not removing Waypoints for Clients.
  • Made a potential fix towards Clients losing UI after extracting the Shard from an Archon.

Hotfix 32.0.5 (2022-09-15)

  • Fixed Titania being able to teleport past the locked Deacon doors while in Razorwing.
  • Fixed Narmer sigils and Narmer Objects not appearing in the Archon Amar Fight as Client.
  • Fixed a script error for Archon Amar's Flame Coil ability.
  • Fixed a script error for Archon Amar's Clone ability.
  • Fixed a bunch of script errors in the Archon Hunts.
  • Sentient resource drop chances reduced from 50% to 7% in Archon Hunts specifically.
    • For some brief history on this change: Sentients used to only be found as rare enemies on Lua, so the high drop rate chance for regional resources was justified. On their inclusion in Orphix Venom in 2020, we used a custom override to their drop tables to reduce their high resource drop chance to something more sustainable. On their recent inclusion to Archon Hunts, the drop table custom override was mistakenly not added. This led to players earning over 6x the amount of resources typically collected in a brief window of time, which led to false positive trade bans.
    • We will potentially revisit these droptables in the future to prevent needing to use a custom drop chance for these Sentients to avoid this accidentally happening again.
      • Note: this change does not affect the Drop chance probability for Mods or Weapon Components

Hotfix 32.0.3 (2022-09-14)

Archon Hunt Changes & Fixes:

As of this Hotfix, the 2nd Archon Hunt is now live for players to attempt! We’re continuing to watch and review feedback around these missions, and are committed to make necessary iterations over the coming weeks.

  • Archons now prioritize players instead of summons (eg: Octavia's roller, Titania's Razorflies, Atlas Rumblers, etc) to prevent too egregious aggro CC.
  • Archon Boreal will no longer target you when Void Sling or go into Void mode as Operator.
  • Removed Aerolyst ragdoll animations.
    • Continuation of our changes to improve targeting of their canisters.
  • Adjusted the positions of the Pazuul drones to stop them from clipping through geometry in some tiles.
  • Fixed Archon Hunt progress getting reset after running Sorties in succession.
  • Fixed script error in the final Archon Assasination mission.

Hotfix 32.0.2 (2022-09-08)

Archon Hunt Changes & Fixes:

Below are a continuation of our efforts toward the Archon Hunts and getting the balance to a good spot. Expect more to come as we play and read feedback.

  • You must now have a Rank 30 (or Forma’d) Warframe equipped to access Archon Hunts.
    • This falls in line with the same Sortie logic we apply. Also assures you don’t accidentally jump into a Hunt unprepared. This logic was always intended to apply to Archon Hunts but broke along the development train.
  • Added complete Status Effect immunity to abilities that grant invulnerability to Archons.
    • Fixes Archons being vulnerable to Status Effects in their invulnerable phase and presenting opportunities to potentially one-shot the Archon.
  • Sentient Aerolyst changes (this applies game wide, but is especially relevant with their presence in the Archon Hunts):
    • Removed reactions to damage from the Aerolysts.
      • Their flailing around animations when being damaged was causing visibility issues when trying to target their canisters.
    • Changed their canister color to red and increased the contrast to make them easier to see/target.
    • Lowered its knees for better canister visibility.
    • Extended the charge period of its seeking missiles attack so that it gives players an opportunity to shoot the cannisters.
    • Added a short delay between its dodging animations.
  • Improved Deacon beam FX to make their attacks easier to telegraph.
  • Made sound adjustments to transmissions from Deacons.
  • Added a HUD message when in the spectator screen to clarify that you’re not eligible for the Archon Hunt reward. Must be alive to get the booty!
  • Fixed Archon Boreal's Shard taking reduced damage when it should be taking more.
  • Fixed double % symbol appearing in the Archon Hunt reward breakdown.
  • Fixed script error with the puzzle failing sound FX.
Fixes:
  • Fixed a script error that could occur when joining an Archon Hunt while someone is using Last Gasp.

Hotfix 32.0.1 (2022-09-07)

  • Made the following changes to Boreal:
    • Added decay on scaling of Boreal’s invulnerability.
    • Added Overguard protection on Boreal’s AoE attack.
      • Both of these are to address the Archons sometimes taking exorbitant amounts of damage.
    • Improved the pillar sound FX in the Boreal fight.
  • Fixed Deacons being immune to Status Effects.
  • Fixed Mobile Defense target and other friendly NPCs getting scaled stats per squad member. This only applies to enemies (Archons, Deacons, Sentients, etc.).
  • Fixed non-Archon Assassination targets transmissions and information showing when hovering over Archon nodes.
  • Fixed script error with Archon Assassination mission.
  • Fixed script error in the Narmer tilesets.
  • Fixed script error with god rays FX from Sentient enemies.
  • Fixed a script error related to Host migration in the second mission of the Archon Hunt.
  • Fixed script error when trying to spawn backup for the Archon/Deacons when they had already died.
  • Fixed the Forma reward in the Archon Hunt Navigation screen not showing the quantity (3x).

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

  • Introduced.

References[]