A Specter is an AI-controlled ally unit that will fight alongside a player for the duration of a mission. They have their own set of weapons and/or abilities that they can use against enemies and are generally summoned via a consumable Gear item.
Lore[]
- Main article: The Deadlock Protocol
Specters were developed by Corpus Founder Parvos Granum, spearheaded by his research in Specter Particle Theory. The Xoris plays an important role in the creation of specters, being able to trap energy in the form of Specter Particles. This energy is speculated to be used in infusing 'programmed behavior' into bodies such as Warframes.
Tenno Specters[]
- Main article: Specter (Tenno), Specter (Enemy)
Warframe Specters can act as allies or enemies depending on the circumstances. As allies, Specters are AI-Controlled Warframe-replicants employing customizable load-outs (which are configured via the Foundry). They can be summoned via consumable Gear wheel items in all Missions except Archwing and Sanctuary Onslaught. Enemy Specters are primarily encountered as guardians of the Origin System's Solar Rail Junctions, and must be defeated to unlock connections to new planets and destinations on the Star Chart. Specter-like enemy Warframes also serve as enemies during specific Quests.
Warframe Specters were also used to guard a Clan's Solar Rail during Solar Rail Conflicts, before this game mode was discontinued. Contesting Clans would have to face these Specter Regiments in order to seize control of territory. A Specter Regiment was to be created through researching it in the Clan Dojo's Orokin Lab. As mentioned, however, the entire Clan-conflict mechanic and the associated Regiments were eventually removed from the game.
Acquisition[]
The blueprints necessary to build Specters are automatically rewarded by Rescue missions upon completion, with the type of Blueprint dropped depending on the node that was played, and how many points were acquired. In total, three points can be attained in a mission: one point for rescuing the target, another point for not triggering the execution sequence in the process, and one more point for killing all the Wardens.
Points | Easy Rewards Level 1-15 |
Medium Rewards Level 16-25 |
Hard Rewards Level 25+ |
Nightmare Rewards As it Occurs |
1 | None | ★ Vapor Specter BP |
★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
2 | ★ Vapor Specter BP |
★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
3 | ★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
The Vapor Specter (or Bronze Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Easy and Medium difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 10 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
15,000 |
7,500 |
5,000 |
Time: 8 hrs | ||
Rush: 20 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
The Phase Specter (or Silver Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 5 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus three levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30,000 |
750 |
5,000 |
5,000 |
1,000 |
Time: 8 hrs |
Rush: 20 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
The Force Specter (or Gold Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Medium, Hard, and Nightmare difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 3 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus five levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
50,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
Time: 8 hrs |
Rush: 20 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
The Cosmic Specter (or Platinum Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Hard and Nightmare difficulty Rescue missions, and yields a single Specter usage per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus ten levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
60,000 |
500 |
1,000 |
5,000 |
1 |
Time: 8 hrs |
Rush: 20 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
Syndicate Specters[]
Access to Syndicate Specters can be acquired by taking allegiance to the desired Syndicates and attaining the first tier in their ranks. Syndicate Specters can be purchased by spending 2,500 for a bundle of five. Only one instance for each type of Specters can be summoned. Summoning another one while an identical Specter is active will kill the one already out.
Their blueprints can also be acquired from Syndicate death squads, with the type of blueprint awarded depending on their respective Syndicates.
Ancient Healer Volatile Eximus Specter (New Loka) Support: fights in melee, grants damage resistance to nearby allies around 10m radius and can knockdown enemies with a frontal Blast wave |
Charger Venomous Eximus Specter (Red Veil) Offense: fights in melee and drains nearby enemy HP with its Toxin aura |
Corrupted Lancer Arson Eximus Specter (Arbiters of Hexis) Offense: fights from ranged and unleashes waves of bluish-white Heat blasts |
MOA Arctic Eximus Specter (The Perrin Sequence) Support: fights from ranged, slows nearby enemies with its Cold aura and deploys ice globes to protect anyone inside - even from enemy CC |
Roller Energy Leech Eximus Specter (Steel Meridian) Offense: fights in melee and supplies Energy to nearby allies for each enemy it hits at 3 energy/s over 3s |
Shield Osprey Shock Eximus Specter (Cephalon Suda) Support: fights from ranged both with its autoturret and homing Electricity bolts and provides Overshields to nearby allies |
- Syndicate Specter x5
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
Rush: 10 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
Miscellaneous Specters[]
Shockwave MOA[]
- Main article: MOA Cabinet Spawner
Friendly Specter-like Shockwave MOAs can be manually spawned from hackable cabinets located throughout certain Corpus tilesets.
Clem Clone[]
- Main article: Darvo, Weekly Mission
The reward for the final mission of the A Man of Few Words quest is a Clem Clone Blueprint, which works in the same way as specters, deploying a clone of Clem to fight. The blueprint is a one-time use item and produces 5 clones, and like normal specters deploying one in a mission will use one of them up, regardless of whether it is alive at the end of the mission. Additional blueprints can be acquired by undertaking a weekly "merchandise acquisition" Survival mission for Darvo. This weekly mission can be started by talking to him in his shop and asking if Clem needs help.
Clem Clone Specters have similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as bodyguards.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
Rush: 10 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: N/A |
Corrupted Bombard[]
- Main article: Corrupted Bombard
The Corrupted Bombard Specter Blueprint was introduced as a Baro Ki'Teer exclusive specter, available for 100 and 50,000 between February 24 - 26, 2017 on PC. The blueprint is a one time use (providing 5x specters) and includes a Corrupted Bombard specter and an accompanying Orokin Drone. The drone does not and cannot obtain shields, and the limited 200 shield it gives to the specter will not recharge once depleted unless the Drone is killed and respawns, doing so within 30 seconds of being destroyed.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
Rush: 10 | |||||
Market Price: N/A | Blueprints Price: 100 + 50,000 |
Corrupted Heavy Gunner[]
- Main article: Corrupted Heavy Gunner
The Corrupted Heavy Gunner Specter Blueprint was introduced as a Baro Ki'Teer exclusive specter, available for 100 and 40,000 between May 4 - 6, 2018 on PC. The bundle provides 5x Corrupted Heavy Gunner specters and an accompanying Orokin Drone. The drone does not and cannot obtain shields, and the limited 200 shield is gives to the specter will not recharge once depleted unless the Drone is killed and respawns, doing so in 30 seconds of being destroyed.
Desert Skate[]
- Main article: Desert Skate
The Baro Void-Signal mission will always reward one Desert Skate Specter, which deploys a Desert Skate to fight.
On Call Crew[]
- Main article: Railjack/Crew
With Command Intrinsic Rank 9, a reusable On Call Crew Gear item can be used to deploy a selected Railjack Crewmember for 3 minutes, with a 10-minute cooldown between summons.
Equinox[]
Equinox's Duality augment for Metamorphosis creates a temporary specter of Equinox herself armed with whatever weapon or gear item (the specter will not use gear items of any kind) she is currently using. The specter will take the form of Equinox's opposite half (i.e. swapping to her Night Form results in a Day Form specter and vice versa), will not use abilities, and her Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed, while also dealing increased damage (not modifiable). The specter will only last for a set duration (modifiable via Ability Duration) and will instantly die if it walks in range of a Nullifier Crewman's bubble or a Nul Comba's/Scrambus' aura.
Duality's Specter has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Duality's Specter is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Wukong[]
Wukong's Celestial Twin creates a permanent specter of Wukong himself armed with whatever weapons in his arsenal. The twin will cycle his weapons in response to Wukong's equipped weapons (i.e. swapping to primary or secondary results in the twin using melee and vise versa), is affected by Cloud Walker's invulnerability and health restore per meter traveled, and will mimic Defy and Primal Fury, and his Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed. The twin takes continuous health damage if it walks in range of a Nullifier Crewman's bubble or a Nul Comba's/Scrambus' aura, although nothing will happen to it if Wukong himself is affected by a Nullifier bubble.
Celestial Twin's Specter has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Celestial Twin is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Excalibur Umbra[]
Excalibur Umbra exhibits sentience when not piloted by the Operator, functioning as a specter and will fight on his own with whatever weapons in his arsenal. Sentient Umbra can use abilities (with the exception of Exalted Blade), and will arm himself with a melee weapon (if he has one equipped) whenever an enemy comes within close proximity, and his Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed. Note that he will only use the Primary fire mode of any equipped weapon and not any available Alternate Fire modes.
Sentient Umbra can be harmed and takes full damage from any source, and once his health is depleted, he will stop moving and attacking until the Operator pilots him again. However, Sentient Umbra cannot die and will not use up a revive.
Sentient Umbra has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Umbra is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Weapon-spawned specters[]
The Synoid Heliocor spawns one specter of an enemy killed by a heavy attack. Only one specter can be spawned at a time.
The Ballistica Prime spawns a specter-like ghost of any enemy killed by a charged shot.
These specters are not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Aggression and Pathing[]
- All Specters who don't have the "bodyguard" AI type will only follow the player if they do not detect any enemies. If they detect an enemy nearby, they may do the following:
- Corrupted lancers will sprint for cover and stay in that cover until enemies get near or until the enemy it detected dies (even if it is in another room).
- Rollers will roll towards the enemies and continue to attack until (easily) being destroyed.
- MOA specters are one of two Specters that will take the initiative to follow the player, often walking backward as it fires at enemies. It too, however, can get stuck as it notices many enemies, in which it will decide the enemies are a bigger priority than the player.
- Charger specters have a slightly smaller detection range and aggression towards enemies but never attempt to follow the player if enemies are nearby and its weak attacks often miss enemies who walk backward to avoid its attacks.
- Ancient Healer specters will slowly walk towards enemies until they are in range, and then charge as a normal Healer would do.
- Clem will stay close to the player most of the time, and sometimes stop to engage the enemy for a while.
- Shield Ospreys have both the "bodyguard" AI and the normal enemy AI; they will attempt to stay close to other deployed specters, defense objectives, or other high-value allies even if they detect enemies. If there are no high-value allies nearby (players don't count) it will simply drift into the enemies instead.
Tenno Specters Behavior[]
Tenno Specters don't rely on Energy, instead of utilizing a short cooldown system for their abilities. As their health, armor, and shield scales with the mission level, their Effective Health will generally scale far past the player's Warframe. When spawned during a Nightmare Mode mission, specters will attack the player instead of enemies, forcing players to play without an AI partner.
Depending on the Warframe being used, each of these specters has its own specific AIs tailored to assist the player Tenno in their endeavor. Abilities used by Specters have different values from their regular versions.
Warframe | Ability Casting Behavior |
---|---|
Ash |
|
Atlas |
|
Banshee |
|
Baruuk |
|
Caliban |
|
Chroma ( Heat element) |
|
Citrine |
|
Ember |
|
Equinox |
|
Excalibur/ Excalibur Umbra |
|
Frost |
|
Gara |
|
Garuda |
|
Gauss |
|
Grendel |
|
Gyre |
|
Harrow |
|
Hildryn |
|
Hydroid |
|
Inaros |
|
Ivara |
|
Khora |
|
Kullervo |
|
Lavos |
|
Limbo |
|
Loki |
|
Mag |
|
Mesa |
|
Mirage |
|
Nekros |
|
Nezha |
|
Nidus |
|
Nova |
|
Nyx |
|
Oberon |
|
Octavia |
|
Protea |
|
Revenant |
|
Rhino |
|
Saryn |
|
Sevagoth |
|
Styanax |
|
Titania | |
Trinity |
|
Valkyr | |
Vauban |
|
Volt |
|
Wisp |
|
Wukong |
|
Yareli |
|
Xaku |
|
Zephyr |
|
Notes[]
- Specters have their own ammo and are capable of looting ammo pickups and depleting their reserves.
- Depleting all ammo reserves displays a red ammunition icon above the Specter's head.
- Squad Ammo Restores can replenish the Specter's ammo.
- These specters do not teleport to the player and have limited AI capabilities. As such, they generally act like normal enemies such as taking cover or other similar behavior. If they detect enemies, they will take the initiative to engage them regardless of where the player is.
- Specters of this type are most useful in game modes where the mission takes place in a fixed location, such as Defense or Interception, as they can easily lag behind players or have difficulty navigating certain tiles/rooms.
- Shield Osprey Specters behave differently than all the other specters: They may stay near the objective in defense or decide to protect another specter, and will never take the initiative to actually protect the player.
- The Roller Specter is arguably the weakest of all the specters due to its relatively low health and slow attack speed, despite being able to steal health from enemies.
- Ancient Healer Specters have a short ~15m aura that reduces damage by 90% for all friendly targets such as other players, allied specters, or Defense objectives. When connected to said targets the Healer itself will gain a damage resistance boost as well.
- Damage done to you or linked allies with heal the specter as well as its own occasional healing pulses.
- Oddly enough, a specter's weapon can level up, shown in the media below. It is unknown if it actually affects the weapon or the Specter itself.
- Upon successful defeat of a certain syndicate's death squad/platoon, you may earn the blueprint to build that syndicate's specters.
- Players are able to choose to either make the specters stay in an area or follow them around by pressing X (default keybinding) when close to it.
- Doing this to a Shield Osprey specter will cause it to hold position and fire plasma repeater weapons at enemies.
- The Shield Osprey may also rarely fire its weapons when not told to wait, although this is rare.
- For clients this is unreliable and the osprey may ignore the commands anyway, and continue to fly into crowds of enemies and not be able to defend itself, being destroyed soon after.
- Doing this to a Shield Osprey specter will cause it to hold position and fire plasma repeater weapons at enemies.
- Some Specters may rarely disable alarms.
- Cephalon Suda's shield osprey specter is useful in Hijack missions, as they can instantly restore your shields.
- Its shields will not be affected, however.
- Specters will spawn at the current enemy level, plus a few extra. For endless missions, this allows specters to scale to enemy level; placing one at the beginning of the mission will be lower than later on if spawned again.
- The Corrupted Lancer and Ancient Healer specters become very powerful due to this, becoming massive bullet sponges.
- If the player kills a Specter affected by Radiation, they will receive affinity identical in amount to an enemy unit of the same type (i.e. Ancient Healer Specters will give affinity matching an Eximus unit of the same level).
- Specters spawned during Nightmare alerts and missions are immediately hostile to the player, indiscriminately attacking Tenno and enemies alike, and cannot be commanded to hold position or follow. These specters are marked with a reddish distorted glow to indicate that they have turned against the player.
Bugs[]
- Telling a specter to hold position may cause the specter to act strangely, including freezing in an animation or tracking but not firing upon enemies. Telling them to follow you and re-hold position can fix the issue temporarily.
- The Corrupted Bombard Specter spawns with a small shield count which will recharge slowly as long as its drone is active. However, having this shield drain completely will prevent it from ever coming back until its drone is destroyed and respawned after a period of time. This has been a bug since the Specter existed and may be due to an issue where Heavy Grineer cannot obtain shields.
Media[]
Patch History[]
Update 35.5 (2024-03-27)
- Fixed Qorvex Specter not rotating to face enemies when casting Crucible Blast.
- Fixed a Client crash that could occur from Warframe Specters casting an ability.
Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)
- Fixed Specters ignoring ammo drops from Protea’s Dispensary.
Hotfix 33.6.1 (2023-07-31)
- Fixed a crash related to Specters being unable to pick up certain types of ammo.
Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)
- Specters in the “Hold” position will now continue attacking when moving back to their original held position, whenever they are made to move away from it (via enemies, or using movement abilities), instead of casually strolling back.
- Fixed performance issues due to infinitely picking up ammo when spawning in a Specter with Vacuum and Ammo Mutation Mods equipped. Also fixed the repeating ammo pickup sound FX playing.
- Umbra now uses Secondary weapon if the last weapon before Transference is the Secondary or if the Primary weapon runs out of ammo.
- Running out of ammo on the Secondary will also switch back to Primary.
- Meleeing behavior remains the same: always attack in melee range, but otherwise prioritize following the player even if it means not attacking at all.
Hotfix 32.2.10 (2023-01-18)
- Clem Specters and Kahl (spawned from the Skaut’s “Kahl Beacon” Air Support) now have a full 360-degree vision to improve their ability to target enemies more effectively.
Hotfix 32.2.9 (2023-01-11)
- Specters will no longer attempt to reload when they have no ammo to do so. Instead an ammo icon will now appear above their head once they have depleted the ammo pool of all weapons to indicate that they are needing ammo pickups.
- Specters do not share ammo pools with you, so once they run out of ammo they will actively search for pickups nearby. You can also assist with the use of Squad Ammo Restores.
- Fixed Specters in the Hold Position having trouble firing weapons that use ammo but never reload.
- Fixed Voruna Specters not using any abilities.
- Specters casting Ulfrun’s Decent will target a single target at a time.
- Fixed script error caused by Saryn Specters casting Toxic Lash.
Hotfix 32.2.4 (2022-12-07)
- Fixed the Orokin Shield Drones summoned by Corrupted Bombard Specters being larger than they are intended to be.
Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)
- Fixed Yareli Specter not using any abilities (apart from Merulina as intended).
- Fixed Trinity Specter’s Energy Vampire not applying to allies.
- Fixed several issues related to players spawnings Specters using the Gear wheel in mission.
Hotfix 32.1.1 (2022-11-03)
- Fixes towards ammo pickups getting infinitely stuck to you after summoning a Specter while the Vacuum Mod is equipped. As reported here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/yk9xlv/loot_lag_wouldnt_let_me_finish_the_mobile_defense/
- If you run into this issue, a temporary fix is to clear your ammo from your weapon by shooting to clear the hovering pickups with the same ammo type.
- Fixed crash related to Specters that use player loadouts consuming ammo.
Update 32.1 (2022-11-02)
- Fixed ammo pools not being shared properly across NPCs (Specters).
- Fixed being able to spawn more than 1 of the Cephalon Suda Shield Ospreys and Corrupted Bombard Specters to prevent performance issues.
Update 31.6 (2022-06-09)
- Fixed Crash related to Ash Specters using Bladestorm, it will now be more friendly to Clients.
Update 31.5 (2022-04-27)
- Syndicate Exmus Specters have also had their respective Eximus type updated: Here are the following Eximus Specters and Type:
- Ancient Healer Eximus: Volatile
- Charger Eximus: Venomous
- MOA Eximus: Arctic
- Corruper Lancer: Arson
- Roller Eximus: Energy Leech
- Shield Osprey Eximus: Shock
- Fixed script error related to spawning Specters.
Hotfix 31.1.2 (2022-02-10)
- Fixed script error after throwing a Specter ball, dying and then respawning before it spawns.
Hotfix 31.0.5 (2021-12-21)
- Fixed a script error when using a Specter.
Update 30.2 (2021-05-12)
- Fixed friendly Specters not regenerating their Shields after hitting 0 Shields.
Update 30.0 (2021-04-13)
- Fixed ally Specters getting stuck in perpetual weapon swap animations.
Update 29.9 (2021-02-23)
- Fixed Tenno Specters equipped with certain weapons not needing to reload while told to "hold position", resulting in a higher rate of fire.
Hotfix 29.6.9 (2021-01-28)
- Fixed a script error when spawning a Specter.
Hotfix 29.5.5 (2020-11-27)
- Fixed Khora Spectors only using her Strangle Dome and no other abilities.
- With the exception of Venari, as it is a tap and cycle ability. Venari will simply stick to her default attack mode.
- Fixed a script error that could occur when using a Garuda Specter.
Hotfix 29.5.2 (2020-11-20)
- Fixed an issue with Tesla Coil causing issues with specters.
- Fixed an issue where Harrow Specters casting ‘Condemn’ could cause a game hang.
Hotfix 29.5.1 (2020-11-19)
- Fixed a script error that could occur if a Trinity Specter used Energy Vampire.
Hotfix 29.1.2 (2020-09-22)
- Fixed an issue where deploying a Desert Skate does not remove the prior deployed Desert Skate.
Update 28.3 (2020-08-12)
- Fixed crashing when attempting to spam Specter spawns when in Titania’s Razorwing.
Update 28.2 (2020-07-14)
- Fixed a script error when spawning a Specter.
Hotfix 27.3.15 (2020-04-17)
- Fixed friendly Specters suffering knockdown when deployed and taking entirely way too long to recover.
Hotfix 27.3.11 (2020-04-09)
- Fixed a script crash when spawning a Specter.
Update 25.5 (2019-07-31)
- Any summoned allied Specters in a Nightmare mission will now have a reddish distorted glow to indicate that they have turned against you and you’ve made a huge mistake in trusting them.
Hotfix 22.11.1 (2018-02-06)
- Followers (Specters, Rescue Target, etc) no longer cancel charging if they switch targets while using a charging weapon.
Update 22.10 (2018-01-25)
- Warframe Specters are now much smarter! We've done a general intelligence pass on their proficiency with Weapons, and we've also updated their power-casting logic. Virtually every power is now castable with only a few exceptions!
- Specters CANNOT cast the following Abilities: Vauban's Minelayer, Ivara's Zipline, Titania's Razorwing, Nekros’ Desecrate and Shadows of the Dead, Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, Valkyr’s Hysteria, Wukong’s Primal Fury, Cloud Walker, and Defy, Atlas’ Petrify and Tectonics, Limbo's entire kit (save for the damage aspect of Banish), and finally Zephyr’s Dive Bomb.