Environmental Hazards

Hazards are random chance environmental modifiers, hull breaches, and encounters, which can increase the difficulty of the mission.

Mission-Based

Battle Damage/Self-Destruct

In this hazard, patches of flaming materials are scattered across the map. Standing on the fire for longer than one second will damage the player and any enemies that walk through it; as this is Fire damage, Flame Repellent will reduce the amount of damage taken. As an additional complication, enemies will be alert from the very start of the mission (even if the Tenno have not been spotted yet) and the alarm cannot be shut off until enemies have been allowed to initiate a lockdown.

Some lootable corpses will also be scattered around the map at standard container spawn points.

When this hazard appears in a tileset, the Lotus will say things such as, "This ship has taken a few hits. Stay away from the fires," or "This ship has taken some damage. Rounds are combusting everywhere."

This hazard is guaranteed to occur in Invasions.

Cryogenic Leakage

In this hazard, the maximum amount of shields will be lowered by 50% for the duration of the mission, shield recharge is unchanged. The amount of shields lost to this effect can be reduced with the Warm Coat coat.

Thick patches of ice can be found scattered around, both on the ground and clinging to the surroundings. These ice patches have their own material and collision meshes; Tenno can slide further on ice than metal or rock, as one would expect, though the ice itself is not perfectly smooth and may interfere with said maneuvers.

When this hazard occurs, the Lotus will comment about cryogenic malfunctions or atmospheric issues.

This hazard is also replicated when destroying the Frozen Infested Hive.

Low Gravity

Though originally a potential complication for any mission, this hazard is now exclusive to Nightmare Mode and Hive Sabotage. As the name implies, gravity is significantly reduced, resulting in greater jump distances and similar effects.

This hazard is also replicated when destroying the Stabilizing Infested Hive.

Faction Wars

Corpus invaders on a Grineer Galleon tileset

Rarely during a mission members of the opposite faction will invade, starting small AI fights as the mission slowly transitions from one faction enemy to the other. This can take place on any map however will not happen on Assassination, Defense, or Mobile Defense missions. These events commonly feature fire hazards appearing later in the mission as the faction transition occurs. This hazard is more likely to occur in the Orokin Derelicts.

This is not to be confused with the Invasion mission type. With the addition of Invasions, this mission event has become much rarer.

Hull Breaches

Found throughout the Infested Corpus Ship tileset. these breached segments open directly to space, and as with the Decompression event below, exposure to vacuum results in steady shield/health loss. Unlike regular decompression, these areas are not sealed off via lockdown, and the areas in question cannot be sealed off using console panels either. Simply moving into an adjacent area through a nearby door is sufficient to nullify the effects of vacuum, and Tenno are free to do so at any time, unlike regular decompression events.

Player/Enemy Triggered

Decompression

Unlike the previous hazards, Decompression occurs when a cracked "Reinforced Glass" window has been destroyed by some form of attack (such as stray gunfire). It can be triggered by both players and enemies, and causes the immediate area to lock down, whilst all within the sealed area are subject to steady shield drain followed by health drain if shields are depleted. Players will also be staggered when the glass is broken. The lockdown can be lifted by engaging the external seals using a nearby console - these panels will light up (similar to a regular lockdown) to indicate they can be used to activate the emergency shutters.

Decompression can be used offensively and defensively, as players can shoot out windows to trap a group of enemies or to prevent enemies from giving chase for a short time. Whilst the steady shield/health drain can be effective at lower levels, trying to choke enemies out in this fashion can take an extremely long time at higher levels.

Decompression is currently only a hazard on the Corpus Ship tileset - it is not possible to cause similar decompression events on Grineer Galleons or other space-based tilesets even if they have windows leading directly to space.

Archwing

Archwing missions are not without their own set of environmental hazards. These are, for the most part, currently limited to the Corpus Ship Trench Run tileset.

Plasma Vent

These blue-flame energy vents can be found scattered throughout Corpus Archwing Sabotage and Exterminate missions; they are active for only a few seconds at a time, but whilst active, the 'flame' will deal high amounts of damage to anything in contact with it (upwards of 100 damage per second), and can cause the associated proc effect.

The vents can easily destroy enemies and inflict considerable damage to players, so care should be taken around them. The vent will light up briefly before it becomes active, giving players time to get out of the way.

Energy Barrier

These stationary energy barriers pose little actual threat as they are always active and hard to miss, but casual contact with them will inflict a moderate amount of damage. Extended contact can quickly deplete shields, so caution should still be exercised when fighting near the barriers.

Special Event

Void Storm

Void Storm Visual Effect

Unique to the Arid Fear Event, these periodic Void Storms would occur roughly every 30 seconds. The screen briefly turned purple with an effect in the center of the screen, and all Tenno regained 25 energy - up to their frame's maximum reserve. Aside from any mild disorientation that might arise, the Void Storms seemed to have no other effects on Tenno or Corpus units.