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The smashing is like music.

PFFT, CRACK.

My machine’s striking pin rams the rock in front of me. A rush of bits crumbles from the rock and rolls over my boots. I see glinting in the rubble. I like it when it shines, it means I’m serving well. I thrust my shovel in, its plasma blades slicing clean through the chunks. It vibrates, so I switch on its inducer and the shiny bits clink on. Then I throw them into the sorter and jump out of the way of the next strike.

PFFT, CRACK.

More rumble, more shining. This is a good day. All of us, shovelling to the beat of the machines. Only a fraction of a cycle left on this rock, days really. I keep thinking: What will the next rock be like?

PFFT, CRACK.

The Outer Terminus has many rocks. Good rocks, I like it here. I shovel again and jump out of the way of the next smash.

PFFT…

The machines stop and it goes dark. Why have the machines stopped? Why is it dark? A voice reverberates all around, a thundering whisper:

“MERELY FRAMED”

The rock shakes like never before. Gravel rains in the darkness. I choke on the dust and struggle to find my balance on the shifting ground. The voice booms again. It is in the air. It is in the rock. It is in my head.

“MERELY SHAPED THEY ARE CALLED”

My ears ring like sirens. Then I hear new smashing, it is coming from down the tunnel. Not rhythmic smashing, not the music, something else and I do not like it. There are other voices too, screaming voices. They make me think of the way we scream when there is an accident, when one of us gets caught in a sorter. There is much screaming. The voice grows louder.

“THERE WAS NO THEIR MOTHER”

Out of the darkness a new light rounds the distant corner and shines down the tunnel. Our lights do not look like this. It is apart of something big and it moves wildly. Running? Yes, running through our line. Our machines fly up and then slam back down. Miners are smashed and crushed into tiny pieces. I am scared.

I am angry. Why is this happening? Is that an Orokin? No, we serve the Orokin. The Orokin are golden. This is something else. I pick up my shovel.

“THERE WAS NO THEIR FATHER”

The light is close now. I find my footing and grip my shovel like I do when I chip ore. The light sends a machine flying at me. I jump but I am too slow. It crashes into my chest and pins my legs to the floor. I try to breath but I cannot breathe. I look up and the light charges toward me. I raise my shovel just before it tramples into me. There’s a clink. The light catches itself on my shovel’s blade, forcing the shovel’s butt deep into the hard ground. The light explodes under its own force. All is black.

For a moment there is silence. I pull on the shovel but it is wedged between the ground and that thing. Then, the shovel pulses like it does when I strike a shiny chunk of ore, without thinking, I flick on the shovels inducer. The voice screams. Everything shakes. I like hearing this scream, I do not know why. I use everything I have left to force the shovel in deeper. The thing reels back. I can feel it running. It is running away.

Everything goes quiet again, so I close my eyes.

***

“Over here. I found one,” a wave of pain rushes through my chest, my eyes dart open. There’s a light, I try to get out of the way but I cannot move. The light shouts, “hurry, he’s not going to last very long.”

I try to talk, but a new voice speaks instead, “Doesn’t matter, if he can survive that, then they want his sample for the next batch.”

They are lifting me onto something. I catch glimpses of shimmering gold.

“This is a bad idea. I mean, would you trust a Grineer soldier?” The figure presses something into my arm and I want to sleep again.

The new voice laughs, “Do we have any other choice?”


Lancers are the most basic and prevalent form of Grineer infantry. They wield Grakata Grakatas and occasionally throw Plasma Grenades. Although mostly inaccurate with their grenade throws, they can easily down a Warframe caught in the blast. Their armor is blue-green in color.

Farming Locations[]

These are based on opinions and may not be 100% true. These should be viewed as advice for finding the enemies until better facts are proven. For endless missions, Lancer spawns will be replaced with Elite Lancers the longer you play.

Lancer
Target Planet Name Type Level Tile Set
IconGrineerB Mercury Elion Capture 7 - 9 Grineer Asteroid
IconGrineerB Mercury Odin Interception 6 - 11 Grineer Galleon
IconGrineerB Mercury Caloris Rescue 6 - 8 Grineer Asteroid
IconGrineerB Mercury Pantheon Exterminate 6 - 8 Grineer Galleon
IconGrineerB Saturn Cassini Capture 21 - 23 Grineer Galleon


Arid Lancer
Target Planet Name Type Level Tile Set
IconGrineerB Mars Spear Defense 8 - 13 Grineer Settlement


Drekar Lancer
Target Planet Name Type Level Tile Set
IconGrineerB Uranus Ariel Capture 25 - 27 Grineer Sealab


Behavior[]

  • Lancers possess the most generic combat tactics performed in the game. Shoot-and-run, cover-and-flank, and utilizing covers are the basis of these Lancers.
    • They will most often fire their weapon in bursts, unlike their Corpus counterpart Crewman.
  • Lancers will occasionally take cover and blind-fire at their targets, albeit with suffered accuracy; (a) if ever their cover is half of their standing height, almost completely covering most of their weak spots, (b) if standing near a post or an end of a wall, they will rotate their weapons sideways, hiding most of their bodies until moving sideways reveals them.
  • They occasionally throw grenades, and when behind cover there is an increased likelihood they will throw one.
  • They are the most likely enemies to carry a Blunt pack, a device that provides the Grineer units additional cover whenever the environment is too open to hide from attacks.
    • The Blunt pack spawning is shared along with the Elite Lancer.

Tips[]

  • Lancers can be somewhat difficult enemies for new players soloing. They are somewhat resilient due to their Ferrite Armor and their Grakata Grakata fires fast. This put together means that when a squad of several Lancers come from an alarm, they can overwhelm the newest players. To deal more damage, DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture based weapons and mods can be useful, as can aiming at the head. Playing slower, using cover, learning maneuvers, and interrupting enemies activating alarms can help, as can finding a squad.

Notes[]

  • Elion and Odin on Mercury seem to be good missions to find normal Lancers to farm their Pigments. Beware of them reaching level 15 in Odin though, as they will start spawning as Elite Lancers at that point.
  • These units will be replaced by Elite Lancers once the level has reached 15.

Trivia[]

  • Before Update 7.8 (2013-04-19) Lancers wielded Braton Bratons.
  • On Halloween, only in Update 10.6 (2013-10-30), their heads were replaced by angry pumpkins with a glowing orange light inside, even though Tyl Regor claims that the Grineer have not celebrated Halloween in millennia.
  • During Winter, in Update 11.5 (2013-12-19), Lancers are donned with antlers as a celebration of the Christmas season.

Variants[]

Arid Lancer General Drops
DesertRifleLancerAvatar
Introduced Undetermined Mod Drops:
Mod TT 20px Pressure Point 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Vitality 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Diamond Skin 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heated Charge 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heavy Trauma 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Iron Phoenix 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Streamline 0.015%
Endo Endo 0.015%
Other Drops:
Tree Green Pigment
Tileset Grineer Settlement
Weapon Grakata Grakata / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Frontier Lancer General Drops
ForestLancer
Introduced Undetermined Mod Drops:
Mod TT 20px Pressure Point 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Vitality 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Diamond Skin 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heated Charge 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heavy Trauma 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Iron Phoenix 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Streamline 0.015%
Endo Endo 0.015%
Tileset Grineer Forest
Weapon Grakata Grakata / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Drekar Lancer General Drops
SeaLabLancer
Introduced Update 17.0 (2015-07-31) Mod Drops:
Mod TT 20px Pressure Point 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Vitality 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Diamond Skin 0.2211%
Mod TT 20px Heated Charge 0.2211%
Mod TT 20px Mobilize 0.2211%
Mod TT 20px Heavy Trauma 0.0201%
Mod TT 20px Streamline 0.0201%
Endo Endo 0.0201%
Tileset Grineer Sealab
Weapon Grakata Grakata / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Kuva Lancer General Drops
FortressRifleLancer
Introduced Update 19.0 (2016-11-11) Mod Drops:
Mod TT 20px Pressure Point 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Vitality 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Diamond Skin 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heated Charge 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heavy Trauma 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Iron Phoenix 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Streamline 0.015%
Endo Endo 0.015%
Tileset Kuva Fortress
Weapon Kohm Kohm / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Tusk Lancer General Drops
EidolonRifleLancer
Introduced Update 22.0 (2017-10-12) Mod Drops:
Mod TT 20px Pressure Point 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Vitality 1.1382%
Mod TT 20px Diamond Skin 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heated Charge 0.3318%
Mod TT 20px Heavy Trauma 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Iron Phoenix 0.015%
Mod TT 20px Streamline 0.015%
Endo Endo 0.015%
Tileset Plains of Eidolon
Weapon Hind Hind / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Nightwatch Lancer General Drops
NightwatchLancer
Introduced Undetermined Mod Drops:

Tileset Tactical Alert
Weapon Grinlok Grinlok / Sheev Sheev
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 100
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Affinity 50
Base Level 1

Lancer Survivor General Drops
RifleLancerAvatar
Introduced Update 29.0 (2020-08-25) Mod Drops:

Tileset Cambion Drift
Weapon Karak Karak
Codex Scans 20
Statistics
Cloned Flesh 1000
DmgSlashSmall64 + DmgFireSmall64 + DmgViralSmall64 +++ DmgImpactSmall64  DmgGasSmall64 ‐‐
Ferrite Armor 100
DmgPunctureSmall64 ++ DmgCorrosiveSmall64 +++ DmgSlashSmall64 - DmgBlastSmall64 -
Base Level 1

Media[]

Videos[]

Patch History[]

Update 31.0 (2021-12-15)

  • Increased back away distance for Grineer Lancers finding cover, so that they can shoot for longer.

Update 7.8 (2013-04-19)

  • Grineer Lancers are now deployed with the Grakata assault rifle.
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