Shadows of the Dead

	4 100	Shadows of the Dead Summons shadow versions of vanquished enemies to fight alongside you for a short period of time. Introduced in Update 10.0 (2013-09-13)	Strength:25% / 50% / 75% / 150% (damage bonus) 15% / 35% / 65% / 100% (shield bonus) 15% / 35% / 65% / 100% (health bonus)
			Duration:6 / 5 / 4 / 3% (health decay per sec)
			Range:N/A
			Misc: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 (shadow copies) 10 m (spawn radius) > 30 m (recall range)

• Info
• Augment
• Tips & Tricks
• Maximization
• Bugs

Info

• Nekros expends 100 energy to summon 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.
  • Shadows of the Dead's damage, shield and health bonuses multiply a shadow copy's total damage, shield and 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 additional 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.
  • Shadows can be healed with  Rejuvenation, most Warframe healing abilities, and  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:

• Shadow Properties
• Summoning Priority

• 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 (e.g. Drahk Master) can add to the number of shadows, even above the max shadow count.
  • 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:

Grineer

• High: Heavy Gunner, Bombard, Manic Bombard, Napalm, Commander, Hellion, Hyekka Master, and Drahk Master.
• Medium: Eviscerator, Scorch, Trooper, Seeker, Shield Lancer, Ballista, Flameblade, and Guardsman.
• Low: Butcher, Powerfist, Scorpion, Lancer, and Elite Lancer.

Corpus

• High: Denial Bursa, Isolator Bursa, and Drover Bursa.
• Medium: Tech, Nullifier Crewman, Fusion MOA, and Anti MOA.
• Medium-low: Elite Crewman.
• Low: Crewman, Detron Crewman, Prod Crewman, Sniper Crewman, Comba, Scrambus, MOA, Railgun MOA, Shockwave MOA, Attack Drone, Leech Osprey, Lynx Osprey, Mine Osprey, Oxium Osprey, Scavenger Drone, Sapping Osprey, and Shield Osprey.

Infested

• High: Juggernaut.
• High-medium: Ancient Disruptor, Ancient Healer, Boiler, Brood Mother, and Toxic Ancient.
• Medium: Mutalist Osprey and Power Carrier.
• Medium-low: Swarm-Mutalist MOA and Tar-Mutalist MOA.
• Low: Crawler, Electric Crawler, Lobber Crawler, Nauseous Crawler, Toxic Crawler, Charger, Leaper, Maggot, Runner, and Volatile Runner.

Corrupted

• High: Corrupted Ancient, Corrupted Bombard, Corrupted Heavy Gunner, and Corrupted Nullifier.
• Medium: Corrupted MOA.
• Low: Corrupted Butcher, Corrupted Lancer, Corrupted Crewman, Drone, and Orokin Drone.

Eximus variants for all factions can be spawned as shadows, often prioritized for spawning due to higher level difference than their normal counterparts.

• Shadows of Eximus units possess Overguard, which isn't considered as a part of their health and will not be drained, making them far more resilient than their normal variants.

Despite some enemies like the Scorch being very powerful, they are not considered in the spawning hierarchy.

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• 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.
• Does not work on Bosses, Desert Skates, Latchers, or Kuva Guardians with one exception: Zanuka can be revived as a shadow copy if Nekros is the one to kill it.
• 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.

Augment

Main article: Shield of Shadows

Shield of Shadows is a Warframe Augment Mod that allows  Nekros to redirect a percentage of damage he receives to any active  Shadows of the Dead minions within 50 meters.

Shield of Shadows

Tips & Tricks

• 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.
• Shadow Toxic Ancients' will provide nearby allies with toxin resistance, Ancient Disruptors will provide magnetic resistance (and perhaps aura resistance), and both Ancient Healers and Corrupted Ancients will grant nearby allies heavy damage reduction.
• 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.
• Can be used to control Rampart.
•  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.
•  Garuda's  Blood Altar will heal shadows quickly, potentially allowing unlimited survivability. This works since Blood Altar heals by percentage of missing health, leading to a fast heal for more damaged shadows. A range build will be helpful here.
•  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.
• Shadows of some enemies (e.g., Crewman) can hack into disabled Ambulas or Bursa, turning them into allies just as if the player had hacked them.

Maximization

This calculator feature is sunsetted on the wiki. It may not see further updates, but will be present on articles for the time being since some people still find use for them. See User blog:Cephalon Scientia/Sunsetting of Maximization Calculators for more details.

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Bugs

• Rarely, a shadow or two will not die when the duration ends, and will continue to exist until they die.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.

See Also

•  Nekros