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Every Warframe has at its disposal a special blade... A Parazon... as lethal to technology as it is to flesh.
Lotus to the Tenno during the Jackal Assassination Mission

The Parazon is a bladed tool used by Warframes for a variety of functions. It is primarily used for Hacking enemy electronics but is also strong enough to be wielded as an assassination weapon. The weapon is normally hidden when not in use and can be materialized on the in-side of the Warframe's right wrist when needed. It also comes with a tether that allows the Warframe to throw the Parazon out and then retrieve it afterward.

Mechanics[]

The Parazon appears as a weapon in the Arsenal that is permanently equipped on all Warframes. It possesses three Parazon Mod slots, which can be used to enhance its abilities. As with all Warframe weapons, the Parazon can also be color customized as the player desires.

Hacking[]

Main article: Hacking

When hacking a console, the Warframe inserts the Parazon into the console to initiate the hack. Hacking bonuses are applied according to the equipped Parazon hacking Mods.

Mercy[]

ParazonMercy

An enemy that can be Mercy killed.

MercyPrompt

Mercy finisher prompt on Ancient Disrupter when health below 40%

MercyHealthThreshold

Health threshold indicator for Mercy on enemy health bar

Aside from hacking, the Parazon can also be used to perform a lethal Finisher called Mercy, which has more elaborate kill animations compared to normal finishers. Mercy finisher prompts are indicated by a red Parazon symbol above the enemy accompanied by a unique sound cue, and are performed by pressing the Interact button (Default X ) in melee range.

Mercy inflicts armor and shield-bypassing damage equal to the target's total hitpoints, instantly killing the target. The user and their Companion are also considered Invulnerable and their Threat Level is temporarily removed during a Mercy.

During normal gameplay, Mercy finisher prompts will only show up on specific heavy units. These prompts are guaranteed at 40% (60% on Corpus with all their shields removed, 80% on Eximus) of their total health. DmgImpactSmall64 Impact procs increases the Mercy threshold range of heavy units by 8% per proc up to a total of 80% (100% on Corpus and Eximus) of their health. However, heavy units above level 150 decreases the Mercy threshold range by 1% per 5 levels down to a minimum of 10%. The threshold range is indicated by a yellow bracket on the enemy's health bar.

These heavy units are:

Successful Mercy kills can grant combat bonuses to the player depending on the Parazon mods they have equipped. The window for executing using Mercy expires in 10 seconds; the Parazon symbol blinks with three seconds left.

Normal Stealth kills cannot be performed by the Parazon, regardless if the player has a Melee weapon equipped or not.

It can also be used to instantly kill Crewship Pilots and hijack their ships, regardless of the pilot's health. It is also used to defeat the Jackal by disrupting its auto-repair after fully depleting one of its health bars, preventing that health bar from regenerating.

Like normal weapon kills, Parazon Mercy kills give half of the enemy's Affinity value to the Warframe. As the Parazon itself cannot accumulate Affinity, the remaining half goes to the weapon that was equipped before the Parazon Mercy was initiated.

Secret & Requiem Mercy[]

Against Kuva Larvling, Candidates, Thralls, and Hounds, a Mercy attempt against them is called a Secret Mercy. Against Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos, the Mercy is called a Requiem Mercy. These units do not die immediately from their health bar being depleted, instead slumping over to allow a Mercy to finish them off.

Defeating a Lich or Sister with a Requiem Mercy requires a Parazon with a sequence of Requiem Mods equipped. These mods are acquired from Requiem Void Fissure missions, and do not provide any combat bonuses inherently but are instead an essential aspect in defeating Liches/Sisters in combat to sever their Continuity. The Parazon has three Requiem mod slots in addition to its normal slots, which are unlocked upon the player acquiring their first Requiem Mod.

Notes[]

  • Mercy kills are considered as conventional Finishers in-game and thus are eligible for some challenges such as Nightwave acts.
    • Because of this, Mercy kills are also capable of activating Finisher-criteria Arcanes (e.g.ArcaneTrickery Arcane Trickery, ArcaneUltimatum Arcane Ultimatum).
    • Mercy kills against Kuva Lich Thralls however do not count as Finishers for the purposes of said challenges.
    • MarkedForDeath130xWhite Marked For Death can trigger from Mercy kills.
  • Operators cannot use the Parazon, and thus will not benefit from Parazon Mods, particularly those that affect Hacking. They will also be unable to perform Mercy finishers.

Trivia[]

  • The Parazon is used to activate the Railjack's Resource Forge.
  • In Devstream 132, it is mentioned that the Parazon would be used for reviving teammates and capturing targets.
    • As of Update 28.3 (2020-08-12), Warframes now spin their Parazons while reviving. However, it was removed in Hotfix 28.3.3 (2020-08-13) due to a glitch.
    • The Parazon's use in capturing has yet to be implemented.
  • The Parazon is named after the real world Parazonium, a ceremonial dagger from the Roman empire.[1]
  • The Parazon's default appearance and the wrist motions performed by Warframes when hacking appear to be a reference to the titular character from the 1987 film Robocop, who in a similar fashion is shown hacking and controlling electronics by inserting a hidden blade under his wrist into them and moving his wrist.

Parazon Skins[]

Media[]

Patch History[]

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

  • Fixed Parazon getting equipped in hand after Mercy-killing an Eximus enemy while auto-meleeing.
  • Fixed black splotches appearing at the bottom of Parazon Mods.

Update 33.6 (2023-07-27)
Impact Changes:

Stagger Status Effect Changes:

  • Reduced the maximum amount of stacks from 10 to 5.
  • Increased the Mercy Threshold from 4% to 8% per stack.

Functionally, this allows for players to trigger early Mercy kills with less stacks required!

NOTE: These changes should not affect the functionality of Impact Stacks for Mods such as Internal Bleeding or Hemorrhage.

TOP FIXES:
  • Fixed Exodia Might not triggering on Mercy Kills. Previously it would only trigger on Finishers performed by your actual Zaw (versus your Parazon, etc.).

Update 33.0 (2023-04-26)

  • In addition to the 50% of Affinity gained being granted to Warframe, the remaining 50% while using the Parazon is now distributed to the weapon you had equipped before the Parazon Mercy kill started.
  • Fixed Corpus enemies appearing as if they are immune to Mercy kills in the UI due to the indicator overlapping with their Shields in their Health bar.

Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)

  • The other 50% of the Affinity gained from Parazon Mercy Kill will now go to the weapon you had equipped before the Parazon Mercy Kill started.
    • Prior to this change, only 50% of the Affinity gained benefitted the Warframe while the other 50% was not assigned to anything else. Now 100% of the Affinity is distributed, 50% to the Warframe and 50% to the weapon you had equipped before the Mercy Kill.
  • Fixed the Parazon Mercy Kill Health threshold UI indicator showing over Overguard if you hit an enemy with enough Impact procs (which was confusing since you cannot Mercy Kill enemies with Overguard active).
  • Fixed multiple issues with entering a mission with no Melee weapon equipped and then using an Exalted Melee weapon:
    • Fixed being able to Parazon Mercy Kill with an invisible weapon (normally disabled when you have no melee weapon).
    • Fixed Parazon Mercy Kills being disabled.
  • Fixed a red square appearing in place of the Parazon Mercy Kill icon over downed Candidates and Larvlings.

Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)

  • Increased Health threshold for Mercy kills on Eximus.
    • Before they needed to be below 40% Health to be Mercy killed, now that is doubled, so under 80% Health is enough to Mercy kill them.

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

  • Fixed being able to trigger a stealth kill on low health enemies instead of performing a Mercy Kill with your Parazon.

Hotfix 31.5.9 (2022-05-12)

  • Fixed being unable to perform a Parazon Finisher on Crawlers even with the icon appearing.
  • Fixed ‘Mercy Kills’ being written as just ‘Mercy’ in various descriptions.

Update 31.5 (2022-04-27)

EXIMUS REBORN

New Eximus Mercy Functionality

As a part of the Eximus Rework, we have also updated the condition to Mercy Kill certain Eximus that did not have this in the past!

Here is a list of the new Eximus types that can be finished with Mercy Kills:

  • Mutalist MOA’s
  • Amalgam MOA’s
  • Deimos Carnis
  • Crawlers
  • Nox
  • Embattor MOA’s
  • Amalgam Heqit
  • Amalgam Machinist

Update 31.1 (2022-02-09)

  • Removed Parazon Finisher prompt on flying enemies, since they have to be grounded to become eligible for said Finisher.
  • Added animations when performing Parazon Finishers on Crawlers.

Hotfix 31.0.3 (2021-12-17)

  • Removed Parazon functionality from a certain character that shouldn't be able to do it.

Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)

  • Fixed unowned Parazon Mods not getting shown as 'NEW' when first picked up.

Hotfix 30.8.1 (2021-10-06)

  • Fixed Mercy animation not properly playing when performed on Sister Hound.

Update 30.8 (2021-10-04)

  • Fixed inability to Mercy downed Hounds.

Hotfix 30.7.6 (2021-09-23)

  • Fixed an issue where you could still do a Mercy kill on a Mind Controlled enemy, except the damage from it was delayed meaning you could perform it over and over.

Update 30.7 (2021-09-08)

  • Fixed missing Client Parazon Mercy animations on Grineer Thralls.
  • Fixed an issue where certain Warframe animations would prevent an enemy from being susceptible to Parazon finishers.
  • Fixed issue where Parazon marker would appear above converted Corpus Liches or Sisters of Parvos’ head when selecting crew the Railjack Crew page.

Hotfix 30.5.5 (2021-07-29)

  • Fixed outdated loading screen tips related to Parazon Mercy eligibility.

Hotfix 30.5.3 (2021-07-09)

  • Fixed friendly Syndicate Specters having the Parazon Mercy icon when they’re below 40% Health.

Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)

PARAZON REWORK

Parazon attacks were introduced in The Old Blood as a way to Mercy kill enemies. This stylish and universal blade has had a clear role in all things Liches, but their role in the game at large has been hard to play around. There are problems in need of solving, and the below outlines how we’ve done just that!

The problem with Mercy kills is they are hard to pull off, making engagement with the system far too low! Mercy kills only have a chance to trigger when an enemy’s health is 20% HP or less. In practice, you really never know if it’s going to happen. And if it does, it is often too late! You’ve riddled them with Status effects, a Squadmate casts an Ability, or your Kavat might be feeling extra bloodthirsty, and you cannot get in for the Mercy kill.

We are changing their design, adding new Mods (thanks Design Council!), and refreshing the system.

The change is based on a core principle: We want to make them more reliable and more strategic so you can actively decide if you want to use a Mercy kill or not.

Our change is rooted in the following:

A Mercy Kill opportunity is guaranteed when an enemy gets below 40% (60% for Corpus, but requires all Shields being stripped), but only on SPECIFIC units in each faction.

The units are:

  • All humanoid Eximus
  • Grineer
    • Heavy Gunners
    • Bombards
  • Corpus
    • Scrambus
    • Nullifiers
  • Infested
    • Ancients

And the logic is rooted in the following common scenario:

Imagine you see a heavy gunner in the distance. You have “Blood for Energy” on your Parazon. You see you need some Energy, so you start shooting the heavy gunner knowing full well once she’s at 40%, she will be open for a Mercy kill and the Energy could be yours!

You can plan and decide!


This also means that Impact Status Effect is changing:

Before: Impact Status Effects used to increase the chance that the random Mercy kill opportunity would happen.

After: Impact Status Effects increases the Mercy Kill threshold range on eligible enemies. So instead of triggering at 40% on the list above, you can apply Impact Status to do a Mercy kill sooner (4% per Status)… up to 80%. Meaning, applying a lot of Impact Status quickly makes an enemy VIP more quickly susceptible to a Mercy Kill. Impact would then be a build strategy for getting the VIPs out of the fight!

But what about really high levels you ask?

We have made changes to this since our original Developer Workshop.

Up until level 150, the Parazon Finisher triggers at 40% Health remaining.

After that, every 5 levels reduces the threshold by 1%, down to a minimum of 10%! Eligible Enemy Health bars will have a notch on them to indicate these thresholds..

This change was made to make it more clear to our players, as well as still approach guaranteed kills at high levels with an amount of balance.

In addition, since Parazons were reworked, Zephyr's Airburst no longer overlaps with finishers.

NEW PARAZON MODS

5 New Parazon Mods are here! Find them all today to add new power and Utility to your Parazon!

  • Power Drain (on Mercy) - 100% chance for next ability cast to gain +50% Ability Strength.
  • Malicious Code (on Mercy) - 50% chance for enemies within 15m to cower in fear for 8 seconds.
  • Hard Reset - Execute 3 Mercy Kills within 40 seconds to revive a fallen Sentinel or Companion.

Design Council Contributions:

  • Swift Mercy - Speed of Mercy kills increased by 50%.
  • Firewall - Reduces damage by 75% during hacking.

These new Parazon mods can be collected by completing Corpus Railjack Spy missions.

Hotfix 28.3.3 (2020-08-13)

  • Reverted some of the new Parazon Revive animations due to Clients becoming stuck Reviving.

Update 28.3 (2020-08-12)

  • Added a Parazon spinning Revive animation when Reviving a player with the Parazon equipped.

Update 28.2 (2020-07-14)

  • Fixed not retaining Kuva Lich mission progress if you Parazon stabbed your Lich during a connection loss.

Hotfix 28.0.6 (2020-06-24)

  • Fixes towards spamming the Parazon Finisher for the Jackal as a Client breaking the Finisher animation.

Hotfix 28.0.5 (2020-06-17)

  • Fixed a script error during the Parazon Finisher cutscene during the Jackal fight.

Hotfix 28.0.3 (2020-06-12)

  • Fixed the Parazon Jackal Finisher not working if you Revived after he landed into his stun, were using an Exalted weapon, or Transferred to the Operator.

Update 28.0 (2020-06-11)

  • Fixed a case where a Kuva Lich could appear to change ownership or identity during a mission, possibly resulting in the Parazon check being incorrect, and/or counting towards a different player's history.
  • Fixed Kuva Liches falling off the level during the Parazon check animation, causing them to sometimes die and break the final choice cinematic.
  • Fixed a case where your Kuva Lich would not level up after failing Parazon Mod order.

Hotfix 27.5.4 (2020-05-20)

  • Fixed Parazon Mods not remaining equipped after a Host migration.

Update 27.5.0 (2020-05-12)

  • Fixed the “Modify Parazon” button in the Kuva Lich menu not appearing when in the Dojo.

Hotfix 27.4.3 (2020-05-05)

  • Fixed Hold cast/charge abilities becoming nonfunctional if interrupted by a Parazon finisher.

Update 27.4 (2020-05-01)

  • Fixed enemies switching their target to your Sentinel while you’re attempting a Parazon Finisher.

Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)

Impact Changes:

Instead of ending in a knockdown or ragdoll, accumulating 5+ Impact Effects will now result in a "big stagger" with smaller staggers leading up to it, which has a random chance to activate a Parazon Finisher if the enemy is under the Health threshold. Each Impact Status adds 10% chance for the Parazon Finisher to be available.

Railjack Changes & Fixes
  • Fixed being equipped with your Parazon or completely unarmed if you use the Crafting Forge in your Railjack while your Omni Tool or Scanner is equipped.
Kuva Lich Changes & Fixes
  • Requiem Murmurs from failing a Kuva Lich Parazon stab will now again be shared with the entire squad!
    • If we take a trip down memory lane, we’ll arrive at The Old Blood: Hotfix 26.0.5, where we fixed all players receiving Kuva Lich Requiem Murmur progress whenever someone in the squad failed to kill their Kuva Lich. Our intentions to have the Kuva Lich tied exclusively to the respective player were genuine, but the feedback has shone light on what is a worthwhile feature for the Kuva Lich system given its pace towards success. We have bigger plans for Liches for connecting them to other Systems, but this change is the only one ready for Mainline!
  • Fixed Clients unable to use the ESC pause menu after Parazon stabbing a Kuva Lich.
  • Fixed becoming stuck on a Rampart after Parazon stabbing your Kuva Lich on it. As reported here: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1156040-stuck-in-rampart-after-using-the-parazon-on-nearby-enemy-investigating/
  • Fixed more instances where Parazon Finishers were applying your Melee weapon’s attack speed with equipped Melee mods in Kuva Lich controlled missions.
Fixes
  • Fixed Arch-Gun not re-equipping after Parazon Finishers and instead equipping Melee weapon.

Hotfix 27.1.2 (2020-02-18)

  • Fixed Parazon being stuck equipped after a Host migration occurred during a Kuva Lich Kill attempt.

Hotfix 27.1.0.1 (2020-02-04)

  • Fixed a script error if you viewed a Kuva Lich or Parazon Modding screen with 3 known Requiems.

Update 27.1 (2020-02-04)

  • Known Requiem/attempts now also appear in your Parazon Upgrade screen!
  • Kuva Liches can no longer be Parazon stabbed as they are escaping. This resulted in invisible animations, and the UI unveiling if your *Requiem Mod guess was correct but not registering it, thus not ranking up your Kuva Lich.

Hotfix 27.0.2 (2019-12-13)

  • Fixed a crash that occurred if you opened a locker before the Master Key Parazon Mod triggered.

Update 27.0 (2019-12-13)

SIGMA SERIES PARAZON SKIN

This Parazon model was gifted to the first Warframe Railjack crews.

Fixes
  • Fixed a loss of functionality when attempting to modify your Parazon on another players Orbiter.

Hotfix 26.1.2 (2019-11-25)

  • Fixed failed Kuva Lich Parazon stabs showing as two fails. This was just a UI bug, and not actually counting towards two fails.

Update 26.1 (2019-11-22)

  • Operators can no longer perform Mercy kills on Larvling or Kuva Lich. Your Warframe is armed with the Parazon for a reason!
  • More fixes towards Requiem Mod UI lingering on the screen perpetually after failing to Parazon stab the Kuva Lich.

Hotfix 26.0.8 (2019-11-19)

  • Fixed Requiem Mod UI lingering on the screen perpetually after failing to Parazon stab the Kuva Lich.
  • Fixed Melee swing speed Mods affecting Parazon finishers on the Kuva Lich. Resulting in broken animations.
  • Fixed a missing Parazon finisher animation.

Hotfix 26.0.7 (2019-11-14)

  • Added new Parazon finishers for you to stabby stab the baddies with!
  • Fixed a rare game hang if you somehow managed to use the Parazon on two Kuva Liches in one mission.

Hotfix 26.0.6 (2019-11-07)

  • Fixed Clients being left wielding their Parazon after Vanquishing their Kuva Lich.
  • Fixed Out of Sight Blind mechanic not functioning if the Mercy kill animation doesn’t play due to the target being awkwardly placed (close to a wall, etc). Out of Sight will now trigger if the Mercy animation doesn't play due to those restrictions.
  • Fixed Blood for Ammo Parazon Mod not working if you don't have both a primary and secondary weapon equipped.

Hotfix 26.0.5 (2019-11-06)

  • Fixed ability to equip Taxed Mods that were displayed as new to your Inventory on your Parazon. After this Hotfix you’ll see them vanish as they’ve been properly Taxed by your Lich from which you must get them back!

Hotfix 26.0.4 (2019-11-05)

Parazon Mod Changes & Fixes
  • Untraceable will now refresh it’s 18 second invisibility buff if it activates while already active (ie hacking another terminal within the 18 second window).
  • Increased the Runtime Sprint Speed buff from 50% to 75%, and the Duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Increased the Hit and Run duration from a 12 second to a 15 second Parkour speed boost on Mercy.
  • Live Wire now only Shocks enemies who are aware/alerted within 24 meters, thus not ruining your stealth gameplay.
  • Fixed Untraceable invisibility buff triggering when you fail and abort a Corpus hack panel.

Hotfix 26.0.3 (2019-11-01)

  • Lowered volume of Parazon hacking consoles. Hacking with Operator will have regular interaction sounds.

Hotfix 26.0.1 (2019-10-31)

  • Removed irrelevant Parazon upgrade screen tip.

Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)

  • Introduced.

References[]

  1. Sinclair, Steve (2019, October 16). Thanks for all the replies! I couldn't help myself and went for the more mythological angle... "Parazon" after:. Twitter. Accessed 2022-08-03. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03.


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