Sentient

“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”

The following article/section contains spoilers.

Factions

Quotes

Not to be confused with Sentinels.

Whispers from the Old War have begun to escape the deepest shadows. What terrible secret calls out to be discovered?

—Official Warframe Website

The Sentients are an artificial race from the Tau System that were the chief enemies of the Orokin during The Old War. Originally suspected to be a truly alien race (whereas the Orokin, Grineer, Corpus and Tenno are all human or trans-human variations originating from Earth, and the Infested are a successive mutation of them), memory imprints provided by Cephalon Simaris revealed that they were originally created by the Orokin as terraforming machines, to be sent to the Tau System.^[1] For this purpose, they were gifted with an extreme degree of adaptability and resilience, bordering on true self-determination. As their name suggests, they inadvertently gained sentience. Coupled with their own innate abilities, they proved to be a formidable threat for the Orokin Empire, almost leading it to its downfall. All Sentients deal Tau damage, alluding to their home system.

Sentient enemies take increased damage from Cold and Radiation, but resist Corrosive. They also have a hidden weakness to Void, as it resets the damage adaptation that some Sentient units have.

Characters

Sentients are unique among the Factions, in that they are, so far, comprised of only a handful of characters.

Natah is the first sentient introduced, although she doesn't acknowledge it until the Natah quest. Although the reawakening of the Sentients in the Origin System has tested both her psyche and her loyalty, she remains a firm ally of the Tenno.

Hunhow is the second sentient to be revealed. Father of Natah, he was the leader of the Sentient invasion force before allowing himself to be destroyed and trapped in his tomb. Although once enraged toward the Tenno for having caused Natah to disobey her precepts and betray him, he is now more neutral towards them.

Erra is Natah's older brother. He used to be an ally of Ballas before finally sacrificing himself for the Tenno when he realized the full extent of Ballas' apocalyptic ambition. After his death, his body became inhabited by Pazuul.

Praghasa is the sentient mothership. She only spoke during the teaser trailer for The New War, although the voice from the Arcane Codices appears to be identical. Though her mind was permanently lost during the Old War, her body remains the most powerful weapon in the Sentient armada and served as the flagship of the second invasion of the Origin System. Her fate is uncertain.

The unnamed sentient that once roamed the Plains of Eidolon was destroyed by the combined efforts of the Unum and Gara, due to it having discovered the Kuva's ability to restore the Sentients' ability to reproduce. Its fragments still roam the plains at night.

Pazuul is the most dangerous, intelligent and unstable of the four Archons, Sentient-Warframe hybrids created by Erra during the Old War. Following the shattering of Narmer, Erra's body was recovered by Narmer loyalists and made into Pazuul's new host, who then took charge of Narmer's remnants and began to rebuild their empire for the glory of Tau.

Lore & History

Sentient wreckage on Gaia Earth. — Sentient remains on Earth, as shown during the Natah quest.

Orokin Era

The Detron Crewman's memory imprint seems to suggest that the Sentients were originally developed as terraforming tools bound for the Tau system. The Orokin crafted them with the ability to adapt to any sort of damage that they would encounter as well as the ability to replicate from damaged components. However, they were developed with a flaw, a weakness to the Void to interfere with their adaptation and replication, which would theoretically have left them stranded in the Tau system once they had finished their purpose. Normally, the Orokin would be opposed to such creations fearing that they would betray their creators, but Ballas feigned vehement opposition to manipulate the other Executors into approving them out of desperation for their dying Origin System and the Sentinent's supposed flaw.

However, the Orokin's fears did come to pass; the sentience they had gained also caused them to realize that their creators would also lay waste to the Tau System^[2], and thus they returned to the Origin System to wage war with the Orokin. With their advanced adaptability they were taking over the most sophisticated Orokin technology, and gradually gaining powerful resistances even to the most advanced of Orokin weaponry. In desperation the Orokin utilized the survivors of the Zariman Ten Zero incident, to whom the Void had gifted immense power, to fight back against the Sentient threat. They were trained in the old ways of battle and given conduits that could withstand, channel and amplify their power. With the use of the Tenno, the Orokin managed to turn the tide of battle.

Hunhow face — Hunhow's ancient body, destroyed and submerged in the depths of Uranus' oceans

However, the Orokin were betrayed by Ballas, who desired his own rule and had grown vengeful over the death of his beloved Margulis. Using information provided to him by Ballas, Hunhow sent his daughter Natah, under a human appearance, to serve as a mole within the Origin System. She would destroy the Empire from within and exterminate the Tenno.

Natah completed Hunhow's main objective with the purge of the Orokin but she could not bring herself to kill the Tenno. Instead, Natah chose to adopt them as her own children, as her human predecessor, Margulis, had done before. She hid the Reservoir, the Tenno's only weakness, in the Void, keeping it safe from the retaliation of the Sentient. Denying her old identity, Natah took the name of the flower most beloved by Margulis, the Lotus, and became the Tenno's custodian. The Sentients soon came to believe Natah had been reprogrammed by the Orokin when she encountered her brother Erra on a mission with several Operators, but did not recognize him despite his prodding. This provoked a long-standing disgust Hunhow's family has with Tenno in general, who view Operators as manipulative parasites.

Plains of Eidolon

Sentients — Excalibur facing an army of Conculysts and Battalysts in the 'Tombs of the Sentient' trailer.

Although the majority of Sentient forces were driven back in what is now called the Old War, the Glass Shards encountered during Saya's Vigil tell of one massive Sentient that managed to land on Earth. This powerful being laid waste to all but one of the cities and Towers: the Tower of the Unum. The tower's defenses held firm with the help of its people and Gara, who stayed to help defend the tower while other Tenno had scattered. The Sentient, with its power waxing and waning with the dusk and dawn, would besiege the Unum's Tower by nightfall and retreat by morning. Gara would search for the Sentient's resting place during the daylight as the Unum had forbidden her from fighting the Sentient when it was at the height of its power. To aid Gara's search, the Unum gave her refined Temple Kuva to her followers, and instructed them to feed it to the local wildlife, connecting their consciousnesses to her own and allowing the Unum to discover the Sentient's refuge as the animals roamed.

The Unum's plan had unintended consequences however, as when the Sentient captured one of the infused animals for study, it discovered that Kuva could restore its lost ability to replicate. Emboldened by the hope of rebirth, it escalated its nightly attacks as a result. As the Sentient besieged the Unum, Gara chose to confront the threat, carrying a bomb to its core and falling in battle. As the vile Sentient descended upon the mortally wounded Gara, the bomb detonated, devastating the Sentient in the process and ending its threat on the Unum once and for all.

As testament of this final, climactic battle, the Sentient's fossilized wreckage is littered across the Plains of Eidolon, a peculiar landscape with potent and unique resources. The being's dark power still stains the ground, waxing with the fall of darkness and waning at the crack of dawn, altering the environment each night as the Eidolons, its now-mindless fragments, wander the land in an endless search for completeness.

After Gara's sacrifice, the very site of her decisive battle with the Sentient left what the Ostrons now call Gara Toht Lake, but unknown to all but the Unum and her most loyal followers The Quills, the Sentient's main consciousness lay submerged somewhere in the lake, and it would attempt to make itself whole once more when night fell. However, a Warframe known solely as the Warden would arrive, driving the Sentient back night after night. This trial would continue until one fateful evening, where the Warden foolishly tried to make contact with the Sentient and was overwhelmed. Discovering that the Sentient was using him as a means to reform itself, the Warden cast himself into the lake to seal it. The time spent as an "anchor" to the Sentient would infuse the Warden with its eldritch energies, transforming him into the Revenant.

Present-Day

Although the Sentients have been wiped out, they began to gradually resurface after Tyl Regor unearthed and reawakened Hunhow's remains on Uranus. Despite being beaten back by the Tenno and resealed, Hunhow and the Shadow Stalker are able to reveal Lua's presence to force the Tenno's true form out of hiding.

Ballas eventually returned, reverting the Lotus back to Natah before manipulating both the Tenno and the Sentients into a new war: he deceives the Tenno into believing that Natah is the true villain, and has Erra, who believes his race is being led to peace and prosperity, deceive Natah into rallying the Sentient forces, who also manipulates Alad V into creating Amalgam soldiers for the Sentients. Despite the Tenno unifying with the Grineer and Corpus to fight back against a shared enemy, Ballas succeeds in banishing the Tenno and the Lotus into a Void portal.

Without the Tenno, the Origin System succumbs to the Sentients as they subjugate all into Narmer, with Ballas at the head. However, this victory is threatened by the Drifter, a paradoxical version of the Tenno's Operator, who recovers the Lotus and receives Hunhow's assistance to save their shared loved one, fighting off Erra's Sentient-Warframe Archons in the process. An enraged Ballas responds by having the Sentient mothership Praghasa devour the Origin System's sun, abandoning Narmer so he can escape to Tau. Erra, realizing Ballas intends to doom the Sentients, defects and sacrifices himself, ultimately allowing the Tenno and the Lotus to kill Ballas once and for all.

Narmer's losses are short-lived, however, as they are regrouped by their new leader Pazuul, a new Archon that hijacked Erra's corpse. Having revived the other Archons, Pazuul continues Narmer's and the Sentient's subjugation of the Origin System.

With the conclusion of the New War, Hunhow has come to regret the circumstances surrounding himself and his family - his daughter effectively abandoning him, and his son being reanimated by forces beyond his control, all while he remains underneath the seas of Uranus, effectively helpless. He advises the Stalker to let go of his own hatred of the Tenno, though to little success. The Stalker eventually leaves Uranus himself after coming to terms with Jade and his own past, leaving Hunhow alone in the depths of the planet.

Tech and Weaponry

Main article: Category:Sentient

Before The Second Dream events, the Sentients were considered a distant memory by most of the Origin System's population, and even though there are Sentients that survived the Old War, they were few and mostly fragments. After Sentients progressively began to be a threat to the Origin System again, their technology has started to be studied and used by many factions, including the Tenno themselves, a good example being the Basmu, crafted with Sentient materials, and the Phantasma. The reclusive Quills in particular, with the assistance of the Unum who witnessed Gara's final battle, have utilized resources from the Plains of Eidolon to develop modular components for a hand-mounted blaster, which allows select individuals to channel the energies of the Void into more coherent forms for combat. Other weapons directly crafted by salvaging Sentient body parts such as the Shedu prove that it is indeed possible to use their technology against themselves, by removing their innate damage resistances. The Paracesis, crafted by using Eidolon Shards, is considered the "Sentient slayer" due to its innate ability to channel void energy, removing their ability to adapt.

Sentient technology as a whole is organic in appearance, emphasizing the use of curves, arches, and symmetry. Even their warships are considered living beings, and are seemingly capable of reconstructing themselves. The average Sentient is formed around a central core of energy which, coupled with their independent development from the rest of the Orokin Empire and its descendants, gives them a suitably "alien" appearance compared to the native technologies of the Origin System. This design philosophy has its drawbacks, as any force capable of ripping a Sentient's "torso" and exposing the core to damage will kill the Sentient easily. Although their ability to replicate from broken components is stunted due to the Void's properties, there's at least one example of a functional weapon created from the remains of a damaged one.

As knowledge of the Sentients has been limited for a very long time, as well as their natural ability to subvert advanced techology, very little progress has been made of developing Sentient-based technology that isn't based on salvaging Sentient remains; Cephalon Simaris has found a means to create artificial copies of Eidolon Shards, though they're nowhere near as potent as actual Shards when it comes to the power they contain. Surprisingly, the Grineer have developed a crude means of containing Sentient energy, which is deployed to troops stationed on the outskirts of Cetus as a means of fending off smaller Eidolons at night. Regardless, the Grineer still err on the side of caution and position their base camps and outposts away from the path of larger Eidolons.

Concerningly, the Corpus are developing their own Sentient-derived projects. One location in the Orb Vallis holds nothing less than a largely intact Conculyst surrounded by several smaller fragments of Sentient devices within a special containment cell, whilst a nearby testing chamber also features a firing range with a Battacor. Their eventual breakthroughs resulted in a garguantan combat platform whose shields possess the same damage adapation ability that the Sentients have, which combined with other factors makes it all but seemingly invulnerable. Sites within the Corpus Gas City under Alad V's command have also created Amalgams, hybridizing Grineer and Corpus alike with Sentient technology. The Corpus's advancements are stated to "chisel weapons from their bones", implying that they are incorporating Sentient bodies to craft weapons. The most evolved Amalgams, however, can be considered part of the Sentients themselves, and will therefore attack their former faction.

Biology

As the product of very advanced Orokin technology, the way in which "Sentient life" differs from conventional organic life is unclear. They superficially appear to incorporate elements of both advanced biotechnology, cybernetics and energy manipulation, but whether they are composed of nanorobots or some kind of cell-like structures remains unknown. Sentients are immune to the Infestation and can be amalgamated with both traditional human biology and Corpus robotics, and at least one example of a Sentient-Warframe hybrid exists. Like Warframes, Sentient Archons are referred to as "synthetic lifeforms" and susceptible to the radiation of Archon Shards.

The Sentients are highly adaptable beings, being able to change and morph their bodies in order to withstand whatever damage they take. Their adaptability appears fundamental to their nature and is not affected by their Void-induced reproductive "sterility". However, they are easily damaged by Void energy, which clears away whatever adaption they have gained.

This ability to adapt is not universal to every Sentient, however. Some units, like the Brachiolysts and Tyro units do not possess it, so this ability may only show in older, more developed Sentients.

Sentients appear to (at least occasionally) reproduce via fragmentation, i.e. a broken-off piece of a larger Sentient can sometimes become a new being. In the case of Hunhow, at least, these new beings remain part of his singular mind; he refers to the Conculysts and Battalysts that serve him as both "his fragments", "his body" and "his children". Meanwhile, the Eidolons roaming at night outside Cetus are known to be pieces of a much larger dead Sentient, visible in the distance on the Plains' western horizon. Fragmentation is not the only method of reproduction, however, as Hunhow is also said to have a "womb". According to Pazuul, Natah was pulled out of a "manifold" when she was born/created. Aboard Murex ships, some smaller Sentients can also be seen being 'born' from pools of writhing black biofluid.

Sentient Contingents

Sentients are split into various "divisions" of sorts, which depend on their development, location, and purpose.


A Tyro Battalyst	Tyro	Fledgling Sentients that are sent into battle before fully developing. Due to this, they don't possess any innate damage adaptation.
	Anu	Space-faring Sentient units that are employed in raiding opposing enemy ships.
An Eidolon Teralyst	Eidolon	Eidolons are moribund and heavily fragmented Sentients, and are usually Sentients that are close to death. They generally have a shattered and fractured appearance, with masses of ghostly tendrils taking up the truncated stumps of its limps

Missions

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Enemies

Sentient Drones

Main article: Aerolyst

Aerolysts are flying Sentient combat drones with the ability to heal their allies. They are immune to harm until the eight canisters surrounding their torsos are destroyed.

Main article: Battalyst

Battalysts are Sentient combat drones. Capable of firing explosive projectiles and unleashing large clusters of omnidirectional lasers, Battalysts specialize in ranged combat. They have the unique ability to "adapt" to their enemy's attacks and gain resistances to damage types, facilitating the need to use multiple damage types in order to take them down.

They are first encountered in The Second Dream quest. They can then be encountered on the Orokin Moon tileset on Lua, spawning in pairs after an Oculyst scans a Tenno at the Orokin Moon tileset. They have also attracted the interest of the Corpus and can be very rarely encountered in Orb Vallis's Enrichment Lab, as well as in the Corpus Gas City tileset on Jupiter within the secret laboratories in test tubes and during the last phase of the Ropalolyst fight. They can mainly be found in Murex ships in Veil Proxima, where they dwell together with other Sentient unities.

Damage Adaptation

This section is transcluded from Sentient § Damage Adaptation. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.

Sentient

Variants

General		Drops
Introduced	Update 20.0 (2017-03-24)	Mod Drops: None Other Drops: Intact Sentient Core 50% Orokin Cell 1.29%
Tileset	Orokin Void during Octavia's Anthem
Weapon	Energy-Fork Arms
Codex Scans	5
Statistics
Robotic	1,000
+ ++ + - -
Ferrite Armor	250
++ +++ - -

CODEX

Shielded by Hunhow using Suda's energy

General		Drops
Introduced	Update 27.0 (2019-12-13)	Mod Drops: None Other Drops: None
Tileset	Murex
Weapon	Energy-Fork Arms
Codex Scans	5
Statistics
Robotic	850
+ ++ + - -
Ferrite Armor	150
++ +++ - -

CODEX

A fledgling Battalyst deployed before it had a chance to fully develop.

Unlike the fully grown version, Tyro Battalysts do not benefit from Sentient Damage Adaptation.

Behavior

Similar to their damage adaptation, they are also capable of adapting to debuff-based Warframe abilities such as Nova's Molecular Prime, with each subsequent use reducing the duration linearly by 33%, down to 5%.
- Does not seem to apply with Blind debuff such as Mirage's Prism and Excalibur's Radial Blind. An exception is Inaros's Desiccation, which also works on Conculyst and halves their resistance buffs by 50%.
- Does not seem to apply with proc-based debuff such as Loki's Irradiating Disarm or Oberon's Reckoning.
The Battalyst's main method of attack is to fire explosive Tau based orbs with their tuning fork-like arms, dealing heavy damage.
Battalysts can release a blue orb that unleashes omnidirectional laser beams that deal heavy Tau damage, similar to Mirage's Prism. Small but dangerous explosions will occur around the point of contact with the lasers and the ground.
Sometimes, after adapting to an attack, Battalysts will release several bursts of wavelight that will damage shields, but will not harm health in a similar manner to Laser Barrier. Range: 15m radius centered on the Battalyst.
When near other Sentients, they can use their own version of Link amongst themselves which splits the damage one takes equaly among the rest. Any damage adaptations that the host Sentient develops while linked will also be transferred over to the Sentient recipients.
- If 2 sentients are linked, each will take 50% damage, if 3 are linked, each will take 33%, and so on.
The Battalyst's arms can be removed by shooting them, or with Loki's Radial Disarm. It is possible to remove both of their arms rendering them unable to attack normally, though this does not bar them from using their prism attack.
They are immune to levitating conditions such as Well of Life and ragdoll conditions such as Pull.
Battalysts can use both of their arms to focus individually on multiple targets while using their primary attack.

Strategy

Their weakpoint is the head. Ammunition will pass through their core and their chest.
Balanced damage-type weapons or channeled abilities with equal Impact, Puncture and Slash such as Burston and Exalted Blade may prove to be effective as these type of weapons/ability suffer the least damage loss per adaptation.
- Weapons that deal high damage per hit like sniper rifles are more effective than high fire rate weapons that deal less damage per hit like automatic rifles, as the former can deal more damage beyond a Sentient's health gate, allowing more damage to be dealt with a particular damage type before the Sentient adapts.
As with the Conculyst, their arms can be removed by shooting them. It's possible to remove both their arms, leaving them unable to attack normally, but still able to use their special attack.
A Nyx with Assimilate can attack with ease, as the ability renders her immune to damage and procs while simultaneously allowing her to use her weapons.
Zephyr's Turbulence ability is capable of redirecting Battalyst's primary attack projectiles away from her, though it does not protect from AoE damage if a projectile hits next to her without entering the ability's range.
Be wary when using debuff abilities on this unit as each subsequent use will render them less and less effective. Avoid spamming certain abilities (such as Rhino Stomp) as it will raise their resistance to the debuff even if it is still in effect.
- It is not recommended to use Nekros's Terrify against them, because they can fly and move very quickly, making them difficult to attack while terrified.
- Excalibur's Radial Blind, Mirage's Prism, Loki's Irradiating Disarm and Oberon's Smite and Reckoning does not appear to be affected by this mechanic.
The Battalyst is immobile when it uses its Prism attack. If you can get above it or directly below it, it is possible to fire on a Battalyst during this time.
Their primary attack is inaccurate at a large distance. Use this to your advantage.
Due to their health not having any weakness or resistances to any damage type, weapons modded with full corrosive is most effective, as it will deal bonus damage to their ferrite armor which is weak to corrosive. It will not however, remove any of their armor.
- Despite their immunity to Corrosive procs, a Mag's Polarize should suffice as a substitute to stripping armor.
If Second Dream quest has been completed, using transcendence, provided it finished charging, can quickly and easily dispatch Battlysts, trivializing the fight.
After finishing The War Within quest, using the Operator makes the fight much easier as the Void Beam cannot be adapted to and removes all of the damage adaptations the drone gained during the battle. Amps also makes fights against Battalysts significantly easier by providing additional firepower.

Patch History

Hotfix 32.2.4 (2022-12-07)

Fixed the Battalyst’s laser cluster ability not canceling after being ragdolled.

Update 30.7 (2021-09-08)

Changed the timing of the Sentient’s damage pulse & weapon reattach to occur at a specific time within the animation rather than at the end.
- Previously, destroying both arms on Sentients would cause them to drop weapons. Sentients no longer drop anything when arms are destroyed but will instead regenerate them. This regeneration causes a damage pulse that has been modified to occur during the animation rather than at the end.
(Undocumented) No longer drop their health and energy restoring cores.
(Undocumented) No longer immune against status effects.

Hotfix 30.3.5 (2021-06-10)

Fixed Tyro Battalyst's disarm behavior; they don't actually support this so it would generate a script error in a variety of cases (ie Loki’s Radial Disarm, Xaku’s Grasp of Lokh, etc).

Hotfix 30.0.7 (2021-04-22)

Fixed script errors that could occur if you killed a Battalyst mid-disco.

Update 30.0 (2021-04-13)

Fixed script error related to the Sentient omnidirectional laser attack.

Hotfix 27.3.10 (2020-04-08)

Fixed Sentient Battalyst laser party ability not respecting physical Shield abilities, such as Frost’s Snowglobe and Atlas’ Tectonics, and instead going through the barriers to injure players.

Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)

(Undocumented) Can now spawn outside of Lua on Mobile Defense missions.

Update 23.0 (2018-06-15)

Slightly lowered the Battalyst and Conculyst's base health from 1300 to 1150.
Slightly reduced the Battalyst's projectile damage.
Stunning or knocking down Conculysts during their whirlwind ability and Battalysts during their omnidirectional laser ability now cancels the ability.

Update 22.13 (2018-02-15)

Battalysts and Decaying Battalysts will now drop either an Exceptional (25%) or Intact (75%) Sentient Core.

Update 18.14 (2016-06-08)

Increased the drop rate of Rare mods on Battalysts.

Behavior

Similar to the Condrix, its larger counterpart, Orphixes are stationary enemies whose only means of attack is to spawn Sentient troops by opening its center blue cavity. Upon spawning and after losing 50% of its health, it will close its center blue cavity until all Orphix Resonators (disabled in the New war) are destroyed. Orphixes emit a field that disables players' Warframes, forcing them into Operator mode whenever players get within the field. Player controlled Necramechs are unaffected by these Sentient pulses.

Damage Resistance

Orphix possess DR that scales depending on your weapon's DPS excluding Critical Hits. DPS is calculated by:

(\text{total damage})\cdot(\text{total fire rate})\cdot(\text{total multishot})\cdot(\text{body part multipliers})

Critical Hits are applied after DR is calculated. Additionally, the average DPS is calculated using Health Modifiers and is quantized.

${\displaystyle { \text{Damage Modifier} = \begin{cases} 1,\; & \text{DPS}_{Average} \leq 1000 \\ 0.7 + \frac{300}{\text{DPS}_{Average}},\; & 1000 < \text{DPS}_{Average} \leq 2500 \\ 0.5 + \frac{800}{\text{DPS}_{Average}},\; & 2500 < \text{DPS}_{Average} \leq 5000 \\ 0.2 + \frac{2300}{\text{DPS}_{Average}},\; & 5000 < \text{DPS}_{Average} \leq 10000 \\ 0.02 + \frac{4100}{\text{DPS}_{Average}},\; & 10000 < \text{DPS}_{Average} \end{cases} }}$

Trivia

Media

Patch History

Update 29.6 (2020-12-18)

Introduced.

Other

Not every Sentient is an enemy. Some are strictly born to perform laborious tasks, while others are simply vestigial organisms that serve no apparent purpose other than decoration or storage

Damage Adaptation

Sentients have the ability to adapt up to 4 damage types from attacks: a Sentient's health is gated such that upon its hit points falling below a fixed percentage, it will grant resistance to the damage type it has received the most. The Sentient will adapt to damage once per health gate, at the percentages listed below:

First gate: 25% Health lost.
Second gate: 45% Health lost.
Third gate: 65% Health lost.
Fourth gate: 80% Health lost.

Subsequent adaptation will be done in descending order of damage proportion for each health gate. A single Sentient can adapt against a maximum of 4 damage types even if another Sentient transfers their adaptation, and Sentients will still receive full damage from any damage that exceeds their health gate before adapting.

On adapting to a damage type, the color of the glowing core on their chest changes to the corresponding damage type they recently adapted to, along with displaying the icon of said damage type below their health gauge.

The adaptation decreases in effectiveness the more damage types it resists.

For the first damage type adaptation, the Sentients will resist that damage type by 90%.
For the second damage type adaptation, the Sentients will resist that damage type by 80%.
For the third damage type adaptation, the Sentients will resist that damage type by 75%.
For the fourth damage type adaptation, the Sentients will resist that damage type by 70%.

Using the Operator's Void Beam, Excalibur Umbra's Radial Howl, a rank 40 Paracesis, Shedu's pulse on expending all ammo, or Xaku's Xata's Whisper will remove and reset all their acquired damage resistances. Sentients can still regain their resistances, however, the aforementioned abilities and weapons will always be able to remove them.

Additionally, the Sentients also receive a 40% resistance to the adapted damage type at each adaptation, which stacks multiplicatively with the previously listed ones. These resistances cannot be removed by any of the methods listed above.

The damage gating also prevents Sentients from being killed in one shot, as the maximum percentage of health removable in one instance is:

25% at full health
20% between 75% & 55% max HP
20% between 55% & 35% of max HP
15% between 35% & 20%, after which there is no limit and the Sentients will take damage normally at every instance

Trivia

Across the various sources and legends mentioning them, the Sentients are, in multiple cases, referred to as having multiple bodies, heads, voices and pairs of eyes. This suggests that a singular "Sentient" is best understood as a single consciousness or guiding mind, inhabiting and controlling multitudes of bodies and platforms with limited independence. This could explain how, even though Hunhow's body was destroyed in the Old War, fragments of him remain, housing his mind so that he is not truly dead.
Likewise, in the case of the Sentient of the Eidolon Plains, the destruction of the central consciousness lays waste to its various bodies. As the main consciousness was destroyed by Gara, the remaining fragments, the Eidolons, are little more than mindless animals.
Although the Sentients were mentioned occasionally in earlier builds of the game, it wasn't until Update 17.0 (2015-07-31) where more detailed information about them was revealed.
While it's never specified which Tau system that the Sentients were destined to go, the most likely candidate would be the Tau Ceti system, as it is a major candidate for extraterrestrial life to develop and possibly thrive, making it a reasonable choice for colonization. This is further reinforced by the name of the Ceti Lacera.
One of the earlier Sentinel Cosmetics is called the "Hunhow Sentinel Mask" and not only does it share Hunhow's name, but its overall design is similar to the faces of the Battalyst and the Conculyst. It remains to be seen if this was a deliberate piece of foreshadowing however.
Hunhow refers to the Sentient enemies as his "Fragments", implying they, like the sword War, used to be part of Hunhow himself.
Despite the Void being "toxic" to Sentients, they can still become corrupted during Void Fissure missions in the secret labs in Corpus Gas City and Lua Omnia Void Fissures Similarly, Caliban's summons from Lethal Progeny also ignores this weakness, and can be even summoned in the Void.
- During the Apostasy Prologue, players meet the Lotus, formerly the sentient Natah, on Lua, which until the events of The Second Dream, was hidden in the Void. It is implied that she had been there for centuries, and no in-game explanation has been given as to how she survived.
In Stolen Dreams, The New Strange, and the Lancer's Synthesis Imprint, the Sentients leave behind cryptic messages that are translated quotes from the Popol Vuh, an ancient Mayan text.
- Hunhow may be derived from Hun-Hunahpu, a Mayan god from the Popol Vuh.
- When the Drifter travels to 1999 and recites one of the cryptic messages to Leticia, she immediately panics and recognizes that the creatures of the far future had quoted sacred text from ancient people.

Gallery

Patch History

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

Fixed certain Sentient enemies being pushed away by Nidus’ Larva, instead of being pulled in as intended.

Hotfix 32.0.5 (2022-09-15)

Sentient resource drop chances reduced from 50% to 7% in Archon Hunts specifically.
- For some brief history on this change: Sentients used to only be found as rare enemies on Lua, so the high drop rate chance for regional resources was justified. On their inclusion in Orphix Venom in 2020, we used a custom override to their drop tables to reduce their high resource drop chance to something more sustainable. On their recent inclusion to Archon Hunts, the drop table custom override was mistakenly not added. This led to players earning over 6x the amount of resources typically collected in a brief window of time, which led to false positive trade bans.
- We will potentially revisit these droptables in the future to prevent needing to use a custom drop chance for these Sentients to avoid this accidentally happening again.
  - Note: this change does not affect the Drop chance probability for Mods or Weapon Components

Hotfix 31.5.3 (2022-04-29)

Fixed crash related to Sentient abilities.

Hotfix 31.0.4 (2021-12-21)

Fixed Sentient kills in the Simulacrum counting towards Protovyre Armor Challenge progress.

Hotfix 30.8.2 (2021-10-13)

Fixing some Sentients not dropping their energy-restoring core items after changes to their FX.

Hotfix 30.7.2 (2021-09-09)

Missed Change note:

Sentients taking Status Effects is now intentional. In preparation for The New War, we’ve been looking into polishing up and tweaking Sentients in general; this includes the new glowing visual effects on some of them that you may have noticed!

Sentients don’t only adapt, they may even evolve as well...

Previously, Sentients adapting to your damage types could have led to fights drawing out just a little too long at all levels of gameplay. This change allows it so that you don’t need to rely solely on high Critical Chance / Critical Damage weapons to take them out. Time to break out the Stug!

Hotfix 30.7.1 (2021-09-08)

Fixed script error that could occur if a Sentient enemy was killed during its arm-regeneration animation.

Update 30.7 (2021-09-08)

Changed the timing of the Sentient’s damage pulse & weapon reattach to occur at a specific time within the animation rather than at the end.
- Previously, destroying both arms on Sentients would cause them to drop weapons. Sentients no longer drop anything when arms are destroyed but will instead regenerate them. This regeneration causes a damage pulse that has been modified to occur during the animation rather than at the end.

References

↑ The Sentients had won. They had turned our weapons, our technology, against us. The more advanced we became, the greater our losses. - Orokin 'Warframe' Archive (from Excalibur Codex)
↑ "But when you arrived at that distant world, you knew that in time we would bring ruin to it as well. As we had to Earth." - Ballas, according to the Vitruvian in The Sacrifice

[1] The Sentients had won. They had turned our weapons, our technology, against us. The more advanced we became, the greater our losses. - Orokin 'Warframe' Archive (from Excalibur Codex)

[2] "But when you arrived at that distant world, you knew that in time we would bring ruin to it as well. As we had to Earth." - Ballas, according to the Vitruvian in The Sacrifice

[1]

[2]

Sentient Edit
Drone	Aerolyst • Anu Mantalyst • Anu Pyrolyst • Battalyst • Brachiolyst • Conculyst • Eradicyst • Membroid • Mimic • Oculyst • Ortholyst • Summulyst • Symbilyst
Spectral	Anu Interference Drone • Choralyst • Spectralyst • Vomvalyst
Ships	Condrix • Gyrix • Ionyx • Murex • Orphix • Splintrix
Bosses
Teralyst • Gantulyst • Hydrolyst • Ropalolyst • Condrix • Suda-Hunhow • Wolf of Saturn Six (Amalgamized) • Typholyst

Sentient Edit
Drone	Aerolyst • Anu Mantalyst • Anu Pyrolyst • Battalyst • Brachiolyst • Conculyst • Eradicyst • Membroid • Mimic • Oculyst • Ortholyst • Summulyst • Symbilyst
Spectral	Anu Interference Drone • Choralyst • Spectralyst • Vomvalyst
Ships	Condrix • Gyrix • Ionyx • Murex • Orphix • Splintrix
Bosses
Teralyst • Gantulyst • Hydrolyst • Ropalolyst • Condrix • Suda-Hunhow • Wolf of Saturn Six (Amalgamized) • Typholyst

Sentient Edit
Drone	Aerolyst • Anu Mantalyst • Anu Pyrolyst • Battalyst • Brachiolyst • Conculyst • Eradicyst • Membroid • Mimic • Oculyst • Ortholyst • Summulyst • Symbilyst
Spectral	Anu Interference Drone • Choralyst • Spectralyst • Vomvalyst
Ships	Condrix • Gyrix • Ionyx • Murex • Orphix • Splintrix
Bosses
Teralyst • Gantulyst • Hydrolyst • Ropalolyst • Condrix • Suda-Hunhow • Wolf of Saturn Six (Amalgamized) • Typholyst

Sentient

Contents

Characters

Lore & History

Orokin Era

Plains of Eidolon

Present-Day

Tech and Weaponry

Biology

Sentient Contingents

Missions

Enemies

Sentient Drones

Damage Adaptation

Variants

Behavior

Strategy

Patch History

See also

Spectral

Sentient Amalgams

Ship

Bosses

Behavior

Damage Resistance

Trivia

Media

Patch History

Other

Damage Adaptation

Trivia

Gallery

Patch History

See also

References