Nekros is a Warframe with powers likened to that of necromancers and dark arts practitioners, his abilities exploiting the vulnerabilities of the living and the corpses of the dead. Nekros was disinterred in Update 10.0.
Acquisition
Nekros' main blueprint can be purchased from the Market. Nekros' component blueprints can be obtained from defeating Lephantis on Magnacidium, Deimos.
Drop
Chance
Expected
Nearly Guaranteed
Chassis Blueprint
33.333%
5 – 6
20 ± 6
Neuroptics Blueprint
33.333%
Systems Blueprint
33.333%
Expected refers to total number of attempts a player can expect to need in order to receive at least one of each drop associated with the respective values.
Nearly Guaranteed refers to the total number of attempts a player needs to obtain a 99%, 99.9%, and 99.99% probability to receive at least one of each drop associated with the respective values.
For more detailed definitions and information on how these number were obtained, visit here.
His name comes from the Greek word "νεκρός", meaning "dead".
Nekros is Swedish for Necrosis which is a medical term for the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of the blood supply.
Nekros is one of the two Warframes that does not have an innate aura polarity, the other being Excalibur.
Nekros was released on Friday the 13th.
Nekros is the only Warframe with a base shield stat of 90.
Equipping a maxed out Redirection mod on a rank 30 Nekros will boost his shields to 666.
Nekros is the first Warframe whose alternate helmets were purely cosmetic, as opposed to earlier "Arcane" alternate helmets.
Nekros is one of the few Warframes whose unique animations do not hold a bow with both hands – the other Warframes being Hydroid, Limbo, Mesa and Harrow. He holds the bow with its arrow only in his left hand. With his Agile animation, he will grab the arrow and twirl it around.
Nekros' Noble animation set has an almost identical idle animation for all weapons excluding throwing weapons – he simply looks left and right calmly. With throwing weapons, he will twirl and spin one on his right hand. This animation is also used by the Agile set.
Nekros' unarmed idle animation is identical on both sets – he will perform Shadows Of The Dead. This also occurs while he is holding a one-handed secondary weapon.
Nekros' legs, hands, and feet are far more slender than other Warframes, a trait shared with Oberon.
Also, both Nekros and Oberon seem to have wider torsos than other Warframes, at least in a limbs to torso ratio.
Nekros appears to have six fingers, however the last one only has one bone.
When holstering dual daggers like the Fang and Ether Daggers, Nekros stores them in a cross arrangement, unlike the normal parallel stack that other Warframes do.
Death's new master. Featuring altered mod polarities allow for greater customization.
"Fear is a weed, snaking in the dark. It vines within the mind, corrupting it. It germinates within tribes, dividing them. Your graces, we who are beyond death, have forgotten the simple power of fear. Let us now remember. You will find no greater power than the simple thought of your own name, inscribed upon a grave.
Nekros Prime is the Primed variant of Nekros, possessing higher shields, armor, and energy capacity, as well as an additional polarity. Nekros Prime was released alongside Tigris Prime and Galatine Prime.
Acquisition
Nekros Prime's main and component blueprints are acquired from the following Void Relics.
On June 5th, 2018, it was announced that Nekros Prime, alongside Tigris Prime and Galatine Prime, would enter the Prime Vault and be retired from the reward tables on June 19th, 2018. Any preexisting components or fully-built frames will remain as is.
As a Prime Warframe, Nekros Prime possesses a special passive ability where contact with an Orokin VoidDeath Orb will make them release an energy pulse that grants 250Energy to all nearby allies. This effect can only occur once per Death Orb, and can occur even if the Death Orb has been previously destroyed.
Nekros is the warframe with the highest Polymer Bundle requirement, where he needs 12,000 to build the neuroptics.
Trivia
Nekros Prime is the third prime Warframe introduced via a cinematic lore video, continuing a trend that started with Saryn Prime.
Nekros Prime was revealed at TennoCon 2016.
The shadows Nekros Prime raises will appear more grotesque, like a rotting corpse, as opposed to the normal ethereal like shadows.
During Tennocon 2019, a free Nekros Prime was given to anyone who watched the second livestream for 30 consecutive minutes
Media
Nekros Prime art showed at Tennocon 2016 and during Tennolive
Soul Punch A blow so powerful, it turns the enemy's very soul into a deadly projectile, damaging all in its path. Enemies that survive the blow are Marked for Harvest and become one of Nekros' Shadows of the Dead if killed while marked.
Misc:Knockback on hit 25 % (instant kill threshold) 50 (projectile Impact damage) 100 (area Impact damage) ? m (explosion radius) 3 s (marked for harvest duration)
Info
Nekros lunges with telekinetic force, dealing 100 / 200 / 350 / 500Impact damage and knockback on a single enemy target within 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 meters. If the target is at or below 25% health, it is instantly killed.
Knockback and instant kill threshold are not affected by mods.
The target's soul is violently ejected from its body, becoming a high-velocity projectile. Enemies that make contact with the projectile are dealt 50Impact damage. When the projectile makes contact with a hard surface, 100Impact damage is inflicted in an area of effect.
Affected enemies are knocked back, and both damage sources can be increased with headshots.
Ability Synergy: A target killed by Soul Punch summons a friendly Shadows Of The Dead Shadow copy of the enemy target. If the target survives, they become Marked for Harvest for 3 seconds, creating their Shadow copy if killed while marked.
If the max Shadows count is reached, all active Shadows are healed to full health instead.
Marked for Harvest duration is not affected by mods.
Despite having a noticeable visual and audio effect, the skill is perfectly silent and can be used as a means of disposing enemies without alerting nearby units during stealth playthrough.
However, if an enemy is not killed by the ability, the enemies will be alerted.
Can be used while performing many actions without interrupting them, including reloading, charging, and shooting.
Soul Survivor is a Warframe Augment Mod that allows Nekros to use Soul Punch on allies in bleedout to revive them with partial health, at the cost of consuming all of Nekros's energy.
Under right circumstances it's possible to exploit physics system to launch ragdolls up with great speed, which will result with dealing additional fall damage to alive enemies. (Usually when enemies are grouped tightly together or there is an object right behind the enemy).
Best effectiveness can be achieved by standing higher than the target.Optimal height difference is when projectile can hit the ground near the target. Using this method will usually send surrounding enemies flying, dealing additional fall damage.
If used correctly, soul punch can be used to send enemies out of the map, which allows players to eliminate dangerous enemies quickly. Also, soul punch can be used to force finishers upon enemies.
The ability will NOT damage other Tenno in the Conclave, however the knock-back effect will still occur. This is useful for stunning the enemy or simply knocking them off the edge of the map.
Reviving allies using Soul Survivor augment mod also counts toward Challenges that count Revives.
Nekros releases a psychic blast that causes up to 7 / 12 / 15 / 20 enemies within 5 / 10 / 12 / 15 meters to enter a state of panic for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds. While panicked, enemies will not attack and will haphazardly flee, exposing themselves and temporarily reducing their Armor by 5% / 10% / 15% / 20%.
Number of affected enemies and armor reduction are affected by Ability Strength.
Can be used to scare enemies off when the Cryopod is hoarded by enemies or used when you need to revive teammates stranded in a horde.
Fully works on Drones in the sense that the AI will attempt to turn away for its duration and also does not trigger alarms even when within their line of sight.
With a low Power Strength build, it is still possible to affect a large room of enemies, it requires only the appropriate amount of casts.
Nekros emits an aura of dark power that affects every corpse within a radius of 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 meters, consuming the corpses and granting a 22.5% / 32% / 42.5% / 54% chance to roll the corpse's drop table again to produce additional loot. After a 2-second delay on the first corpse within range, corpses are consumed one at a time in random order, with subsequent corpses consumed at a rate of 3 corpses per second.
Corpse consumption rate and drop chance are not affected by mods.
Desecrate will consume 10 Energy for every corpse consumed. This ability will remain active for as long as Nekros has energy, or the ability is manually deactivated by pressing the ability key again.
With the DespoilAugment installed, Desecrate will consume 10 Health per corpse instead, affected by Ability Efficiency.
While the ability is active, Nekros can still move around freely.
If toggled on, the ability icon will be grayed out and Nekros will shimmer faintly in his energy color.
Despite being a channeled ability, this does not interrupt energy regeneration from any source including Energy Siphon and Energizing Dash, and it is unaffected by Ability Duration.
Bodies that are cut in half or into multiple parts before or after death by Slash damage or a Cold proc are each treated as distinct "corpses", each part with their own chance to yield additional loot.
Desecrate affects the corpses of most enemies as well as dead faction allies from Invasions, The Grustrag Three, Eximus enemy corpses, and Corrupted Vor's corpse if it is left behind. Desecrate also affects the following:
Vaporized enemies as long as Desecrate is cast before they fully disappear.
Enemies vaporized by Nova's Molecular Prime even after the corpses have disappeared. When Desecrate is cast, the corpses appear and disappear quickly.
Shadow corpses from Shadows Of The Dead. Desecrating shadow corpses will only yield health orbs.
Desecrate does not work on enemies that explode on death, such as Volatile Runners, or on certain bosses including Sprag and Ven'kra Tel.
Sometimes, corpses may yield no drops even if Desecrate's attempt at the extra loot roll was successful, because the enemy's loot table can include a chance to drop nothing.
Successfully desecrated corpses will glow with the chosen energy color and turn into smoke before fading away.
Initial activation of the ability has a cast time of 1.8 seconds.
Know the timespan for a body to completely disintegrate:
Grineer and Corpus corpses will disintegrate in 15 seconds.
Infested corpses and Avalanched enemies will disintegrate in 5 seconds.
Corpses from enemies affected with Molecular Prime will disintegrate in 3 seconds.
Corpses from enemies affected with Miasma will disintegrate within a second.
Enemies that do not leave bodies behind cannot be desecrated.
Most useful in Survival missions, due to the large amount of enemies.
Nekros can also desecrate personal life support from bodies.
Weapons with high Slash damage are likely to dismember enemies into multiple body parts.
Desecrate synergizes well with Equilibrium – every energy orb picked up will regenerate health and vice versa, allowing for Desecrate to be constantly active, regardless of whether the player has the Despoilaugment or not.
When using Equilibrium it is beneficial to take a controlled amount of damage, or use Despoil in order to fully benefit from being able to pick up Health orbs (also consider using Rage or Hunter Adrenaline to recover energy while taking damage) Alternatively, a companion with Synth Fiber allows for health orbs to be consumed continuously regardless of health for constant Equilibrium energy benefits. Using this, even a Flawed equilibrium mod can provide constant uptime with enough health orbs present.
Desecrate is also very effective in Excavation missions because it can be used on Power Carriers, possibly making them drop additional power cells.
Because Hydroid's Undertow preserves the bodies of enemies it kills, Desecrate synergizes very well with it if used properly, especially on Defense or Survival missions.
Corpses are consumed upon Desecrate's attempt to roll extra loot, regardless of success or not.
Overlapping Desecrate using two or more Nekroses will not generate more loot. Only one Nekros can successfully Desecrate a given corpse.
Having multiple Desecrating Nekroses is still useful if the Nekroses themselves are spread out or if some corpses would disappear before Desecrate gets a chance.
This is especially useful when corpses are disintegrating faster than 3 per second (such as when an ability like Molecular Prime is being used, in infested missions, or if enemies are simply being killed at a rate of over 3 per second)
Misc:4 / 5 / 6 / 7 (shadow copies) 10 m (spawn radius) > 30 m (recall range)
Info
Nekros summons 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 shadow copies of his most recently slain enemies, prioritizing the strongest enemy groups among those killed to summon. The copies retain the level and stats of their original selves but will gain 25% / 50% / 75% / 150% damage, 15% / 35% / 65% / 100% shields and 15% / 35% / 65% / 100% health, with each copy losing 3% of their health per second while active. The copies spawn randomly within a 10 meter radius and will fight for Nekros until they die either to enemy fire or their own degenerating health.
Damage, shield and health bonus are affected by Ability Strength, while the number of active Shadows is not.
Shadows of the Dead's damage, shield and health bonuses are additive bonuses that are applied to a shadow copy's total damage and total health. For example, +30% Ability Strength will increase the damage and health bonuses to 1.5 × 1.3 = 195% and 1 × 1.3 = 130% respectively at max rank. A copy whose original had 200 total health and dealt 100 damage per attack will have 200 × (1 + 1.3) = 460 health when summoned and will inflict 100 × (1 + 1.95) = 295 damage per attack.
There is currently no way to prematurely kill shadows in order to refresh them, either the shadows or Nekros must die in order for this to happen.
The number of active Shadows is displayed on the ability icon.
Shadows of enemies that summon addittional units, like Drahk Masters, can summon Shadows of their respective minions. These can exceed the number of Shadows Nekros can normally summon, and will be reflected in the number on the ability icon. They also contribute extra damage reduction when Shield of Shadows is equipped.
Health decay of shadows can be reduced or reversed with good duration and Rejuvenation auras.
Most Warframe healing abilities will also heal Shadows, as well as Sancti Magistar's charge attacks.
This can become a problem later on when the Nekros player needs to refresh their shadows to get higher level versions, but cannot do so until they die.
Casting the ability again (default 4 ) while there are Shadows still active performs additional functions:
Fully replenishes active Shadows' shields and health on each recast. If the number of active Shadows are at maximum capacity, Nekros will perform a shortened animation.
Shadows are not healed before the completion of the animation; as such, if recasting at maximum Shadows, some can die before getting healed, and more will not be spawned to compensate.
When the number of active Shadows falls below the maximum, Nekros performs the full summoning animation to create additional Shadows up to the maximum capacity. This function can only be performed when there are slain enemies in Nekros' recently-killed list (see Summoning Priority tab below).
Active Shadows that are more than 30 meters away from Nekros will teleport into Nekros' spawn radius.
Shadow copies are selectively summoned and possess unique properties:
While shadow copies can be different unit types, they possess common characteristics:
As the shadows appear, each one inflicts a small area knockdown which can only affect each enemy once.
Shadow copies have raised Threat Level, causing enemies to prioritize attacking copies over players.
Nekros and his allies are able to walk through shadow copies without being obstructed.
Shadow copies will take cover and organize, while occasionally seeking out to follow the player or the host around.
Enemies that spawn additional enemies can add to the number of shadows.
Kills by a player's shadow copies grant that player 50% of the kill experience to their Warframe.
Shadow copies are black, and have a mist effect that is colored with Nekros' energy color. A pure black energy color will remove the mist effect and leave simply blackened forms.
If a shadow enters inside the sphere of a Nullifier Crewman or Corrupted Nullifier, or gets in contact with the disrupting aura of a Comba or Scrambus, the shadow will be drained of health while remaining inside the bubble or aura. If Nekros is the one making contact with one of the mentioned, his shadows will not die. (Only tested with Nullifier Crewman so far.)
Shadow copies are taken from the last 20 enemies killed by both Nekros and his Shadows; teammate and Companion kills do not count. Once a specific enemy has been copied it is removed from the player's "recently-killed" list. The game does not remember any kills past the 20th (e.g., if you kill 30 enemies and cast this ability four times without killing any more enemies this ability will create 7, 7, 6, and 0 copies). The game is optimized to selectively summon the strongest enemy types available in the list, see below for more information.
When using weapons with Syndicate mods, or weapons with built in syndicate effects, the radial blast will count as the player's kills, which will overwrite any current ones.
Shadows of the Dead summoning selection prioritizes the highest group of enemies first, the levels of enemies slain second, and the earliest available enemy on the recently-killed list third. The list below contains the highest to lowest priority group of enemies for each faction based on playtesting results:
Eximus variants for all factions can be spawned as shadows, often prioritized for spawning due to higher level difference than their normal counterparts.
Despite some enemies like the Scorch being very powerful, they are not considered in the spawning hierarchy.
Ability Synergy: A target killed by Soul Punch summons a friendly Shadows Of The Dead Shadow copy of the enemy target. If the target survives, they become Marked for Harvest for 3 seconds, creating their Shadow copy if killed while marked.
If the max Shadows count is reached, all active Shadows are healed to full health instead.
Marked for Harvest duration is not affected by mods.
Has a very long cast animation, during which shadow copies usually will not attack. Nekros is not immune to knockdown and takes full damage during this time.
Dying or experiencing a host migration will destroy any shadows you currently had stored.
Battalyst and Conculyst can be summoned as shadows with (usually) the highest priority.
Shield of Shadows is a Warframe Augment Mod that allows Nekros to transfer a percentage of damage he receives to any active Shadows Of The Dead minions within 50 meters.
Shadow copies attract attention from enemies, they are effective at defending objectives or areas of a map.
Actively target and focus your attacks on enemies you want to clone prior to casting the ability.
Because you still take full damage during the long summoning animation, it might be useful to cast Terrify just before using this skill.
Roller will often roll around aimlessly and get stuck, do not use these as your shadows.
Shadow Shield Ospreys will shield all of your shadows and your team, granting additional 200 shield when connected (as of Update 10.3). This buff is not increased by multiple Ospreys and you must be less than 10 meters from a Shield Osprey for it to connect. They will prioritize following your shadows or enemies if not in range of shadows. They will provide shield bonuses to Defense objectives or any other allied unit, including Mind Controlled enemies (besides Grineer heavy units).
Can be used as a temporary survival measure in Survival when the oxygen runs out, as disconnecting/connecting to osprey will instantly regenerate your shield and apply the bonus. It will not stop the draining of shield but can be used as a temporary measure to stay alive, such as waiting in extraction where you are very vulnerable to attacks.
In Void Defense it is recommended to spawn the shadows in the center zone with the cryo pods so that the AI will take cover and increase their survivability.
Oberon's Renewal will heal Shadows and can override their health decay; however, as Renewal's energy drain scales with the number of affected targets, and Shadows are both numerous and constantly under healing, they can very quickly drain all of Oberon's energy. Take this into consideration when playing with an Oberon in the team.
Trinity's Blessing, with at least 125% Ability Strength, can fully heal Shadows and can potentially keep them alive indefinitely.
Rejuvenation will replenish shadows' health, which can offset the constant health decay. This is particularly useful with Nullifier Crewman, or other enemies that can avoid directly taking damage. Some numbers for Reference:
Rejuvenation restores +3 hp/sec, which means at a 3% health drain you will cancel the health drain of a mob with 100 hp. 4 Rejuvenation aura's will increase your heal rate to +12 hp/sec, which would cancel the health drain of a mob with 400 hp with a 3% health drain.
Rejuvenation restores +3 hp/sec, which means at a 1% health drain (near max duration) you will cancel the health drain of a mob with 300 hp. 4 Rejuvenation aura's will increase your heal rate to +12 hp/sec, which would cancel the health drain of a mob with 1200 hp with a 1% health drain.
Some enemies (tested on Crewmans) can hack into Ambulas or Bursa, making this step trivial for the player. (further testing required)
Bugs
Does not properly produce shadow copies when standing on boxes or crates, as the ability will spawn shadows at your current height in the casting range. If there are no surfaces around where you are standing that are close to the height you are at, very little or no shadows will spawn, but it would use energy and waste 'souls'.
Rarely, a shadow or two will not die when the duration ends, and will continue to exist until they die.
If a Corrupted Ancient is queued for your next shadow, casting the ability on solo missions will allow you to become downed instead of dying instantly, as the game recognizes the healer is about to be spawned. You will be revived with a small portion of your health once the Ancient pulses its healing wave. This is a quirk that only occurs if a Corrupted Ancient is queued to be spawned as you use the ability and will not happen in any other case.
A Sapping Osprey shadow's sapping field will not have Nekros' energy colour, and the orb can be destroyed by allies. The field will not damage allies, however.
In solo mode, dying just as the shadows are summoned can result in the shadows not losing health over time, thus existing until they are killed by hazards or enemies. These shadows do not contribute to the "summoned shadows" counter, allowing the player to have more than the usual maximum number of shadows allowed at one time. These shadows remain in this state even when more shadows are summoned.
For whatever reason, shadow Nullifier Crewman of either type decay slower than other enemies, to the point where a couple [Rejuvenation] auras can easily keep them alive (with a decent positive duration) until they are killed by enemies.
If this ability is used to revive a Grineer Prosecutor, the Lotus will prompt you that she is detecting an enemy one. Respectively, she will pronounce that they have been killed once they decay, or the ability ends.
Fixed Nekros Soulpunching an enemy to raise them as Shadow not respecting modified Shield of Shadows power strength if that enemy is your first Shadow.
Fixed Nekros Soulpunching a victim to death not raising the victim as a Shadow for Clients.
Known issue: using Soulpunch to ‘mark’ a victim and then killing them with a weapon will not raise them as a Shadow for Clients
Soul Punch: Instantly kills targets below 25% Health, and turns them into an extra clone shadow (or heals existing if at max).
Nekros’ Soul Punch now has a new mechanic: Marked for Harvest. Enemies that are hit by Soul Punch but don’t die have a Duration wherein they’ll be eligible to become a Shadow if killed while Marked!
Fixed some intersections and awkward bowstring positions with Nekros’ animation idles.
Why: The conversation surrounding Arcane Guardian led to a significant review of Armor stats on Warfarmes. The Majority of Warframes received an increase in the Armor stat to increase survivability. Compounded with Shield Gating and the numerous other changes covered, we expect a much more fair feeling playing field for all Warframes.
Fixed ally Grineer Napalms (Nekros’ Shadow of the Dead) damaging themselves with their own missiles.
Warframe Loot Abilities will again be able to yield multiple-drops from already looted corpses. A single enemy can be looted by at most one Ability from each group - which is how it worked before, this just clarifies it. Warframe Looting Abilities have been split into separate functionality groups for clarity:
Loot while alive: Ivara
Loot petrified: Atlas
Loot on death: Wukong, Khora, Hydroid. An enemy can only be killed once, they can’t ‘die’ multiple times.
Fixed friendly Mine Osprey Drones from Nekros’ Shadows of the Dead causing a progression stopper in Gas City ‘kill all remaining enemies’ missions due to the Drone not timing out, and not taking allied damage. This also fixes the same progression stopper in Gas City Defense missions due to an inability to end the Wave.
Fixed Nekros’ Shadows of Amalgam Machinists creating Ospreys that are friendly and break progression in Gas City Defense missions. The Ospreys spawned by Machinist Shadows will now be tracked properly as Shadows.
Fixed Chesa Retrieve double dipping with Nekros’ Desecrate.
Fixed Chesa/Desecrate double dipping with Hydroid/Khora.
Added info: When we added the Nightwave challenge for the Silver Grove, we encouraged a return to content that normally would have been fine. A small handful of players found an exploit and as we looked into things, we thought we fixed the issue with the new Chesa behavior that could lead to problems. We didn't. We decided to cut a bit deeper. Ivara's looting ability is now the only one that stacks with other looting because it works while alive. If a target is dead, a successful loot now happens once, no matter the source. However, multiple can attempt to loot the same body. Yes... this is different from how it previously behaved, but this is the new intended behavior.
For consistency, damage link abilities (Trinity, Nidus, Nekros) will no longer transmit self-damage, but you will still get the damage reduction. This is particularly relevant for the healer/support class of Trinity who had become the go-to DPS frame in addition to the intended support roles. The re-release of Mods like Aviator added to some clever but ultimately uncharacteristic roles for Trinity.
50
100,000
Excalibur.
Nekros, possessing higher shields, armor, and energy capacity, as well as an additional 
polarity. Nekros Prime was released alongside 
Tigris Prime and 
Galatine Prime.
Neuroptics
Chassis
Systems
Impact damage)
Ash • 
Atlas • 
Banshee • 
Baruuk • 
Chroma • 
Ember • 
Equinox • 
Excalibur (
Umbra) • 
Frost • 
Gara • 
Garuda • 
Gauss • 
Grendel • 
Harrow • 
Hildryn • 
Hydroid • 
Inaros • 
Ivara • 
Khora • 
Lavos •
Limbo • 
Loki • 
Mag • 
Mesa • 
Mirage • 
Nezha • 
Nidus • 
Nova • 
Nyx • 
Oberon • 
Octavia • 
Protea • 
Revenant • 
Rhino • 
Saryn • 
Titania • 
Trinity • 
Valkyr • 
Vauban • 
Volt • 
Wisp • 
Wukong • 
Xaku • 
Zephyr
