- For the Specters in Junctions, see Specter (Enemy).
Warframe Specters are AI-controlled replicants of Warframes. These Specters act autonomously from the player, and can provide support by engaging enemies with their weapons and Warframe powers. There are four ranks of Specter based on their acquisition difficulty, namely Vapor, Phase, Force, and Cosmic. Specters can be customized with any Warframes and weapons that the player owns, allowing for a wide range of versatility in Specter loadouts.
A Specter is crafted from the Foundry by copying the player's current loadout. However, this does not copy any installed mods or appearance. Instead, Specters utilize the Warframe and weapon's base unranked statistics then scale them according to the Specter's level. Additionally, the more rare the Specters the higher the damage dealt. All weapons and frames will have their default appearance.
Like the Syndicate Operatives, Specters can be commanded to Hold Position or Follow by interacting with them (X ). By default, Specters are set to Follow.
Usage[]
Specters can be crafted in the Foundry (under Gear section) and once crafting is finished they must be equipped from Gear in Arsenal.
Before a Specter building begins, a Specter loadout screen appears where a player must first set the Warframe and loadout that the Specter will use. Specters of a particular Blueprint grade use a template loadout that is derived from a player's current Warframe and weapon loadout in their Arsenal. Players can choose to change a Specter's loadout by changing their own loadout, which the Specter will replicate upon creation.
Once a Specter has begun construction, the template loadout used is saved, and can be used for future Specters to be built, allowing Specters of a certain loadout to be built even if the player changes their own loadout. The template loadout can be changed upon creating another Specter of the same grade, or the player can choose to use their previously saved loadout. Note that the loadout it copies only reflects the base statistics (scaled by level) and not the mods, and the only way to change their loadout is to finish crafting and claiming a new set of specters from the foundry.
Up to four different loadouts can be saved, one for each Blueprint grade; Vapor, Phase, Force, and Cosmic, from lowest to highest grade.
Acquisition[]
- Main article: Specter#Tenno Specters
The blueprints necessary to build Specters are automatically rewarded by Rescue missions upon completion, with the type of Blueprint dropped depending on the node that was played, and how many points were acquired. In total, three points can be attained in a mission: one point for rescuing the target, another point for not triggering the execution sequence in the process, and one more point for killing all the Wardens.
| Points | Easy Rewards Level 1-15 |
Medium Rewards Level 16-25 |
Hard Rewards Level 25+ |
Nightmare Rewards As it Occurs |
| 1 | None | ★ Vapor Specter BP |
★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
| 2 | ★ Vapor Specter BP |
★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
| 3 | ★★ Phase Specter BP |
★★★ Force Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
★★★★ Cosmic Specter BP |
The Vapor Specter (or Bronze Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Easy and Medium difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 10 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 15,000 |
 7,500 |
 5,000 |
Time: 8 hrs | ||
Rush:  20
| |||||
 Market Price: N/A
|
 Blueprints Price: N/A
| ||||
The Phase Specter (or Silver Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 5 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus three levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
30,000 |
 750 |
 5,000 |
5,000 |
 1,000 |
Time: 8 hrs |
| Rush: 20
| |||||
| Market Price: N/A
|
Blueprints Price: N/A
| ||||
The Force Specter (or Gold Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Medium, Hard, and Nightmare difficulty Rescue missions, and yields 3 Specter uses per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus five levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50,000 |
1,000 |
 1,000 |
1,000 |
 1,000 |
Time: 8 hrs |
| Rush: 20
| |||||
| Market Price: N/A
|
Blueprints Price: N/A
| ||||
The Cosmic Specter (or Platinum Specter) blueprint is rewarded from Hard and Nightmare difficulty Rescue missions, and yields a single Specter usage per build. Spawns at the current level of the enemies in the mission, plus ten levels. There are no AI differences between specter ranks.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
60,000 |
500 |
1,000 |
5,000 |
 1 |
Time: 8 hrs |
| Rush: 20
| |||||
| Market Price: N/A
|
Blueprints Price: N/A
| ||||
Behavior[]
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
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Dagath, Dante, Inaros (Rework), Qorvex, Voruna and Yareli
Dagath, 
Dante, 
Inaros (Rework), 
Qorvex, 
Voruna and 
YareliWarframe[]
Tenno Specters don't rely on Energy, instead of utilizing a short cooldown system for their abilities. As their health, armor, and shield scales with the mission level, their Effective Health will generally scale far past the player's Warframe. When spawned during a Nightmare Mode mission, specters will attack the player instead of enemies, forcing players to play without an AI partner.
Depending on the Warframe being used, each of these specters has its own specific AIs tailored to assist the player Tenno in their endeavor. Abilities used by Specters have different values from their regular versions.
| Warframe | Ability Casting Behavior |
|---|---|
 Ash
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 Atlas
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 Banshee
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 Baruuk
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 Caliban
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 Chroma(  Heat element)
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 Citrine
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| Dagath
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| Dante
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 Ember
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 Equinox
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 Excalibur/ Excalibur Umbra
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 Frost
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 Gara
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 Garuda
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 Gauss
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 Grendel
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 Gyre
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 Harrow
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 Hildryn
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 Hydroid
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| Inaros
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 Ivara
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 Jade
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 Khora
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 Kullervo
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 Lavos
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 Limbo
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 Loki
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 Mag
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 Mesa
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 Mirage
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 Nekros
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 Nezha
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 Nidus
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 Nova
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 Nyx
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 Oberon
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 Octavia
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 Protea
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| Qorvex
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 Revenant
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 Rhino
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 Saryn
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 Sevagoth
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 Styanax
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 Titania
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 Trinity
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 Valkyr
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 Vauban
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 Volt
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| Voruna
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 Wisp
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 Wukong
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| Yareli
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 Xaku
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 Zephyr
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Weapon[]
Tenno Specters will only use their equipped primary, unless an enemy comes within the listed range stat of their equipped melee weapon. Specters will use the secondary weapon only when in a downed state, or when they run out of ammunition in their primary weapon.
Specters will use ammunition from their own hidden pool, equal to the stats of the base weapon being used, then switch to a secondary weapon if they run out of ammo. For example a Specter equipped with the 
Kuva Bramma will only have 6 total ammo and only gain 1 ammo from primary pickups, and this will happen quickly as specters fire without consideration of enemy grouping, then switch to a pistol until they gain primary ammo again.
- While Specters can and will seek ammo pickups on their own, the player who spawned them also can obtain primary ammo pickups, which will be added to the specter as well.
- This can cause bugs where pickups will be stuck to the player and unable to be picked up.
- Primary weapons that use recharging ammo pools instead (Like the Fulmin) will still cause the specter to think it has no ammo, swapping to their pistol for a short time after the magazine is depleted, then switching back again when the magazine is recharged.
Specters do not use alternate fire modes. Specter's weapons are unmodded, and even have certain innate weapon properties considered to be mods (such as Kuva/Tenet weapon's innate damage bonus) removed. Specters will not compensate for lengthy travel time. As such, the most useful weapons are typically hit-scan weapons, or ones with a large radial damage component.
Range-limited weapons might be less effective since Specters do not account for that behavior and do not move around much by themselves. But 
Glaxion, 
Amprex, 
Phage, and shotguns seem to be exceptions and will produce a good "bodyguard" Specter for the cost of efficiency at long distances.
Weapons with innate elemental damage, high base status chance, or CC potential will make Specters useful past being just another source of damage. For example, a Specter equipped with an Amprex will quite often trigger 
Electricity procs, which helps with crowd control in close quarters. (
Proboscis Cernos is an useful option because of its crowd control abilities and high base damage.
Tenno Specters have some specific behavior towards some specific kinds of weapons:
- Bow weapons are an exception for the non-projectile weapon rule, as specters will always charge a full shot before firing and have almost pinpoint precision, meaning they will never miss unless the enemy is behind cover, and will usually land headshots, which does not happen with other weapon types.
- Supra is also an exception since travel time is fast enough.
- Tenno Specters using throwing explosives will only detonate the grenade when the substance limit has been reached. They will, however, detonate the Penta's grenades when it is in the proximity of an enemy. They aim the weapon so as to try to hit the enemy with the projectile. It does not seem that Specters are affected by self-inflicted damage due to close proximity detonation. Generally, specters seem to be better with the Penta than with the Tonkor due to better aiming and sustainability.
- Dera does not have pinpoint accuracy with Specters, instead, it has some deviation per shot, much like a Crewman, although the fire rate and overall damage output is still that of a player's Dera.
Survivability[]
- Tenno Specters are affected by the Rejuvenation Aura and Trinity's Blessing, by Oberon's Renewal, and by Wisp's Reservoirs, however cannot pick up Health Orbs.
- Ancient Healers under Mind Control, or their Shadow and Specter variations can heal Tenno Specters.
- Tenno Specters do not lose shield or health after life support runs out in Survival missions.
- Tenno Specters are not affected by the Shield loss from Cryogenic Leakage, the "No Shields" challenge of Nightmare Mode and the Toxic Ancient's aura.
- It is possible to revive your Specter if it hasn't bled out yet, though they appear to have a negligible bleedout health limit and often die immediately.
- Tenno Specters can revive other downed Tenno Specters, but cannot do so to a teammate.
- Stationed Tenno Specters are quite vulnerable to ground slamming enemies, Arson Eximus and such, since they tend to quickly displace them into bad positions.
Notes[]
- Affinity earned by the specter goes to the player's frame.
- Specters deployed in Nightmare Mode missions will be hostile to the player and defense objectives as well as enemies.
- Killing them gives affinity.
- Tenno Specters are spawned from golden balls. This allows Specters to be spawned at a desired spot by throwing the ball to that location.
- Tenno Specters cannot spawn if the Specter Ball is thrown to an out-of-bounds place, e.g. behind a container or at the corner of the hallway.
- Only a single Tenno Specter per player can be active at any time during a mission. Attempting to summon a second Specter will result in the previously active Specter being killed when the second one spawns. This does not apply to their Syndicate counterparts though, it is possible to use them together.
- Following Tenno Specters will always teleport to a player if left behind far enough.
- Pre-built Specter Gear acquired as special mission rewards will use the previous loadout saved under the player's Specter tab in the Arsenal. If no previous loadout was saved, the Specter will not be able to be summoned.
- Once Crafted, you can view your saved Specter loadouts under Specters in the Equipment menu.
- Vapor specters are logically more efficient, despite the 'default' survivability, due to being able to craft 10 each time instead of waiting the 8-hour crafting timer for a single Cosmic with only marginally higher stats.
- Specters have 100% power strength (with the exception of Nidus having 115 power strength due to his passive - hence the Parasitic Link giving +28% instead of +25%.
- Power Donation is the only aura that can give the specters power strength, up to 120%.
- To change the loadout of a specter, the player must build and claim an entirely new set of that specter type. Until claimed, the specters of that type will remain the original loadout.
Trivia[]
- Each Specter type can be visually distinguished from each other via their color (Which is applied on their Accents):
- Vapor Specters have a bronze energy glow.
- Phase Specters have a silver energy glow.
- Force Specters have a golden energy glow.
- Cosmic Specters have a white energy glow, with thin rings emanating out of them.
- Before their release, specters were referred to as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum specters, matching their current color distinctions.
- If a player has a fishing spear or mining drill equipped while on an open world landscape, specters will kneel or duck when a player is aiming towards them.
Bugs[]
- Throwing the ball on shallow water will make it disappear.
- Specters can be built using Zaws, however they do not seem to use them (or if they can, some don't at all) causing the specter to stop attacking when enemies get close.
- When holding position, melee combat may cause the specter to become unresponsive. This can be fixed by ordering them to follow and hold their position again.
- Due to specters having their own hidden magazine and ammo pool based on the weapon used, this can cause the infamous ammo pickup bug from occurring where ammo is attached to the player but is unable to be picked up as you are not in need of any ammo.
- This can cause other pickups to glitch and be unable to be picked up until the large chunks of ammo in the blob is obtained. Giving a tenno specter a primary with recharging ammo will make this happen constantly, as they will always holster their weapon when the battery runs out, instead of waiting for it to recharge, with the game thinking the specter always needs ammunition.
Media[]
GamesWise GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL Pokemon edition - Warframe Short
Warframe Tenno Specters
Tenno Specters - Warframe Specter Review
Patch History[]
Update 29.10 (2021-03-19)
- Xaku Specters can now cast all four of their Abilities!
Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)
- (Undocumented) Fixed Khora Specters unable to cast certain abilities.
Hotfix 27.3.16 (2020-04-22)
- Fixed a script error when summoning a friendly Saryn Specter.
Hotfix 27.3.11 (2020-04-09)
- Fixed Specter’s accuracy with Bows being quite poor and their fire rate not reflecting realistic usage.
Hotfix 27.0.11 (2020-01-16)
- Grendel Specters can now use all of his Abilities! I prefer my meatballs on the side.
Hotfix 25.7.6 (2019-09-18)
- Fixed enemies in the Simulacrum not recovering from Stomp cast by a Rhino Specter.
- Fixed exploit tied to Tenno Spectres.
Hotfix 25.3.3 (2019-07-16)
- Fixed an issue with Wisp Specters being unable to cast any abilities - Sol Gate is still unusable for now.
Update 22.11 (2018-01-31)
- Improved Specter firing logic during Hold Position.
- Improved Specter fire rate when using Peacemaker.
- Fixed Specters not being able to use Ability weapons with 0 max clip size (eg. Ivara's Artemis Bow).
- Fixed Specters’ trying to melee while using ranged weapons that do not allow it.
- Fixed incorrect Status Effect for Specters using Radial Blind and Radial Javelin.
Update 22.10 (2018-01-25)
- Increased proficiency with Weapons, and power-casting logic. Virtually every power is now castable with only a few exceptions! Specters CANNOT cast the following Abilities: Vauban's Minelayer, Ivara's Zipline, Titania's Razorwing, Nekros’ Desecrate and Shadows of the Dead, Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, Valkyr’s Hysteria, Wukong’s Primal Fury, Cloud Walker, and Defy, Atlas’ Petrify and Tectonics, Limbo's entire kit (save for the damage aspect of Banish), and finally Zephyr’s Dive Bomb.
- ↑ Update 25.8 (2019-10-01) patch notes