The less Health that Garuda has, the more damage she inflicts; Garuda gains up to 100% additional damage bonus for her abilities and weapons the closer she is to death.
Damage bonus is proportionate to the missing percentage of Garuda's maximum health.
Damage bonus increases or decreases immediately following any changes to Garuda's health.
Maximum damage bonus is reached at 2 health points remaining.
Damage bonus is displayed as a buff icon using Garuda's iconic symbol, shown beside the shield and health bars.
Damage bonus is calculated independent of other damage sources.
When no melee weapon is selected in the Arsenal loadout, Garuda's Talons become available in the Arsenal screen as an exclusive melee weapon that can be modified separately and equipped for combat during missions.
Unlike most frames, when Garuda ranks up she receives a special set of rank bonuses which are indicated at the top-left of the Warframe Upgrade screen:
Dread Mirror Rip the life force from an enemy and use it as a shield that captures damage. Charge to channel the captured damage into an explosive projectile.
Range:30 m (pounce range) 6 / 7 / 8 / 10 m (explosion radius)
Misc:8 m (stagger radius) 40% (instant kill threshold) 10% (health to shield) 20% (health to shield on instant kill) 100 (mirror contact damage) 50%/s (charge damage per sec)
Info
Garuda leaps into the air to pounce at an enemy target within 30 meters, staggering all enemies within an 8 meter radius on landing while violently slashing the victim with her talons to inflict Knockdown. The victim is instantly killed by Garuda if its health was at or below 40% when Dread Mirror was cast.
Stagger radius and instant kill threshold are not affected by Mods.
Garuda must have sufficient space to land next to the victim to cast this ability.
Once Garuda strikes the victim, she rips its lifeforce out to conjure a Dread Mirror in front of her for 13 / 15 / 18 / 20 seconds. The dread mirror is a large hovering invulnerable frontal shield that reorients itself to face the player's camera direction. All incoming enemy ranged and melee attacks are blocked by the mirror on contact, while the damage is absorbed into the Dread Heart beating above the mirror's frame; incoming enemy damage is first multiplied by 1 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 times then absorbed by the heart.
10% of the victim's maximum health is absorbed as initial damage for the heart when Garuda strikes the target.
Maximum health is considered from health classes (e.g. Cloned Flesh, Flesh, etc.), not shield/armor classes.
If the victim is instantly killed, the health absorbed is increased to 20%.
Percentage of health to shield is not affected by mods, but the initial value is affected by the damage capture multiplier as well.
Minimum health threshold is 1000. Meaning, target's maximum health for damage capture will be considered as 1000 if the actual value is lower than this threshold.
The victim receives damage equal to 10% of their maximum health as Slash damage, but these rules apply:
The damage does not bypass Armor and Shield. It will be reduced by damage reduction from the Armor and deal to Shield before health, just like other typical damages.
While the damage is calculated from Health, the instant kill threshold of 40% will be considered from a combination of Health and Shield, regardless of Armor.
Enemies that touch the mirror will take 100Impact damage and stagger backwards away from Garuda. Rolling towards enemies ragdolls them.
Mirror contact damage is not affected by mods.
This damage is also dealt to the mirror, absorbing damage into the Dread Heart.
For example, at 130% Ability Strength (2.6x damage capture multiplier), damage absorbed will be 100 x 2.6 = 260.
The mirror hits once when Garuda strikes the victim, absorbing one instance of contact damage, unless they are instantly killed.
Damage absorbed is displayed in a numeric value above the heart.
Dread Mirror lasts until it expires or the Dread Heart is thrown, while the Dread Heart will persist until thrown, even after the mirror disappears, and can absorb damage from multiple Dread Mirrors indefinitely.
Mirror does not block area of effect abilities, such as Heavy Gunner ground slam.
While the Dread Heart is floating above Garuda, holding down the ability button (default 1 ) causes Garuda to grasp the heart in her talons and drain 50Energy per second to continuously increase the absorbed damage by 50% of the currently stored damage value per second. Releasing the ability button causes Garuda to throw the heart as a high velocity explosive projectile toward the location on the aiming reticle. The heart bursts on impact with an enemy or a surface to inflict the amplified damage as Impact, has 100%Status Chance and a 6 / 7 / 8 / 10 meter radius.
Charging in mid-air will allow Garuda to hover for a few seconds.
The explosion bypasses obstacles in the environment and its damage does not decrease with distance.
Can be recast while active to pounce at a target and refresh the mirror's duration.
Can be cast while airborne.
Casting Dread Mirror is full-body animation that relocates Garuda to her target. Charging the Dread Heart is an upper-body animation that reduces Garuda's movement speed and grounds her once landed, as well as preventing other actions until the heart is thrown.
The Dread Heart visually drips blood constantly, beats faster when absorbing damage, and grows spikes when its stored damage is high enough.
The maximum charged damage of the Dread Heart is displayed as 4.29+03eM, which likely represents the value 4,294,967,295. However, when used, it might instead deal no damage.
The Dread Mirror's frame colors are affected by Garuda's chosen Appearance colors.
Dread Mirror, Dread Heart and particle effects are affected by Garuda's chosen Energy color.
Synergizes well with Guardian Derision, making more enemies attack Garuda and her Dread Mirror, allowing quick, indefinite damage build-up for Dread Heart.
Combined with Blood Altar, Garuda can effectively tank and shrug off most damage that comes her way.
Considering how far Garuda can move with her pounce, it can make for an effective means to escape an encounter while defending yourself.
Facing Dread Mirror outward while standing in the corner makes Garuda less vulnerable to direct attacks.
Using the ability multiple times before unleashing the heart will ramp up the damage rapidly, eliminating the reliance on enemy aggro.
Dread Mirror can prevent some AoE damage like an explosion from a barrel.
However, it can't block AoE stagger from self-damage weapons.
It also can't block AoE damage from Nox's toxic blobs.
Dread Mirror can protect Garuda from Arc Traps, providing the Mirror is between her and the trap. The trap will self-destruct after 3 seconds as if it has been activated, but since there is no arc, no damage will be absorbed.
Rolling into enemies with Dread Mirror active will ragdoll them, frequently drag them along for a brief moment, and send them flying for several meters. This is a good makeshift crowd control.
Dread Heart, being a projectile, fully benefits from the buffs of Mutalist Quanta's alternate fire.
Be aware that crossing Nullifier bubbles, falling out of bounds, or activating Archwing will remove Dread Heart, thus losing its accumulated damage.
Bugs
There currently is a very frequent UI bug where you won't see the remaining duration at the ability icon.
Range:30 m (pounce range) 4 / 4.5 / 6 / 8 m (heal radius)
Misc:8 m (stagger radius) 1%/s (damage per sec) 3 (limit of active altars)
Info
Garuda charges to an enemy target within 30 meters, staggering all enemies within a 8 meter radius on reaching her target, then slashing it with a spiraling uppercut that impales the victim upon an altar of talons for 10 / 15 / 15 / 20 seconds. While impaled, the enemy is completely disabled as it stays suspended above the altar helplessly, becomes invulnerable to incoming damage, and bleeds profusely emitting an aura with a 4 / 4.5 / 6 / 8 meter radius; when Garuda or her allies stand within the aura, blood flows from the victim to them, restoring 15% / 17% / 20% / 25% of their missing Health per second, while draining 1% of maximum health per second from the victim. Up to a maximum of 3 altars can be created.
Pounce range and heal radius are affected by Ability Range.
Health restored per second is a percentage of the difference between the current and maximum health of the player or NPC being healed. It is not dependent on the enemy's current or maximum health.
Pressing the ability button (default 2 ) while aiming at an enemy impaled by Blood Altar will release the victim early before duration expires. Damage from outside sources inflicted on the victim while it was invulnerable will be dealt in full when it is released, and all Status Effects it received will resume their effects.
Garuda does not leap to the target to release it from the altar, instead she performs the action from her current position.
Casting Blood Altar is a full body animation that relocates Garuda to her target. Releasing a target does not play an animation on Garuda.
The aura radius is constantly visible to Garuda and her allies.
Enemies impaled on a Blood Altar visually appears to be covered in blood while they bleed constantly.
Altar aura and blood stream colors are affected by Garuda's chosen Energy color.
Subsuming Garuda to the Helminth will offer Blood Altar and its augments to be used by other Warframes.
Tips & Tricks
Can be used to temporarily incapacitate enemies, excluding them from the battle, especially useful with heavy units.
Due to the percentage health drain it will also make said heavy units easier to kill.
Misc:-50% (health deducted) 18 / 22 / 30 / 35 % (energy gain) 2 HP (minimum health threshold)
Info
Garuda slashes herself with her talons as she spins into the air, sacrificing up to 50% of her maximum Health and restoring up to 18% / 22% / 30% / 35% of her maximum Energy capacity. Garuda cannot reduce her health below 2 health points using Bloodletting.
Health cost is 50% of Garuda's maximum HP, including mods.
Energy gain is the listed % of her maximum energy, including mods.
Energy gain is affected by Ability Efficiency. For example, 160% Efficiency results in 87.5% Energy gain, while 175% Efficiency results in a 140% gain. This follows the formula:
Total Energy Gain = Base Energy Gain ÷ (2 - Ability Efficiency).
Bloodletting can be cast if Garuda has less than 50% of her maximum HP remaining, but will only restore energy proportionate to the amount of HP sacrificed. For example, if she has 25% of her health left (or 50% of 50%) when Bloodletting, the energy gain will be halved.
Percentage of health deducted is not affected by mods.
High enough armor, Energy, and the use of Quick Thinking can effectively make this ability put the Death's Gate passive at a constant max state with a small failsafe with energy. Additionally, Health Conversion charges cannot be lost, as your HP cannot reduce below 2HP, so you can stack around 90% damage reduction from armour with the eficiencey reduction from a max rank Quick Thinking.
This ability gains no benefits from increasing your max HP. Having lower max HP lets you use flat HP regeneration such as health orbs or Oberon's Renewal to generate more energy more quickly.
Use of Blood Altar and this ability can give Garuda a near infinite supply of energy. Because Blood Altar heals a percentage of your max HP, having higher max HP will make you more durable standing in your altar without impacting your energy generation rate.
Seeking Talons Charge to expand the targeting area, release to send Garuda’s talons careening toward each target in area. Surviving enemies are prone to bleeding.
Misc:2 m (talon knockback radius) 60 m (range) 25° (min charge size) 95° (max charge size) 8 (projectiles)
Info
Garuda channels her sanguine blood beneath herself as her talons quiver in anticipation, as a whirlwind of flying talons spanning a 2 meter radius encircles her. Enemies pierced by Garuda's talons will receive 75 / 100 / 125 / 150Slash damage and be pushed away from Garuda.
Holding down the ability button (default 4 ) sustains the whirlwind around Garuda, while also expanding a focus ring indicating the ranged area of effect of the ability. Initial field of view angle is 25 degrees, which can expand up to 95 degrees when fully charged; the range of ability can expand up to 60 meters based on the charge time. Release the button to unleash 8 flying talons as homing projectiles that cannot be obstructed by walls and the environment, piercing through all enemies within the focus ring.
Each enemy will always be pierced at least once by the projectiles. However, they can also be pierced multiple times in a single skill use.
For an example, using Seeking Talon on a single enemy will damage said enemy 8 times in quick succession.
Range, minimum and maximum charge sizes, and the number of projectiles are not affected by mods.
Targeting expansion and cast animation are affected by casting speed mods from Natural Talent and Speed Drift.
Garuda does not require line of sight to target enemies in her focus ring area.
Enemies damaged by the flying talons are marked with Garuda's symbol for 10 seconds. Attacking marked enemies with weapons and abilities grants a 75% chance to cause a SlashStatus Effect. Marked enemies will still receive status effects from other sources in addition to the Slash proc (if a weapon's status chance triggers and hits an enemy affected by Seeking Talons, the weapon's Status Effect will still be applied, the Slash proc is then added, resulting in the enemy receiving 2 status effects at the same time).
Status chance is affected by Ability Strength, capped up to 100% status chance at 134% Ability Strength.
Weapons do not need to have innate Slash damage in order to inflict SlashStatus Effect.
Marking of enemies will include special enemies such as Stalker.
Garuda cannot perform parkour Maneuvers (except for rolling and sliding) or general interactions while channeling this ability. However, she can still move at walking pace.
Can be cast while airborne, causing Garuda to hover for a few seconds.
Garuda will leap a short distance upward upon release, causing the targeting ring to shift. This needs to be accounted for if you wish to hit targets reliably.
This ability has a long casting and recovery animation. However, this can be bypassed by casting Seeking Talons while airborne.
Holding aimglide while releasing Seeking Talons will allow Garuda to hover after leaping and cancel the falling part of her animation. This does not work when used on the ground.
While aimgliding, you can cast Seeking Talons again or charge and throw her Dread Heart to continue staying airborne.
Each cast while airborne raises Garuda to be higher off the ground. To return back to ground level quickly to maintain mobility, you can use a melee ground slam.
Using melee immediately after releasing Seeking Talons while airborne can also be used to cancel the recovery animation if you are high enough. The recovery animation for this will be longer than if you held aimglide, but is more useful for congested tilesets.
Blending Talons is an Warframe Augment Mod for Garuda's Seeking Talons that grants it the ability to create an area of effect explosion around Garuda as well as giving her Garuda's Talons a passive that grants it additional combo count upon hitting enemies affected by Slash procs.