A replicant cloned from a Warframe that can be deployed to assist Tenno on missions.
—In-Game Description
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 SyndicateOperatives, Specters can be commanded to Hold Position or Follow by interacting with them (X ). By default, Specters are set to Follow.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Equinox's Duality augment for Metamorphosis creates a temporary specter of Equinox herself armed with whatever weapon or gear item (the specter will not use gear items of any kind) she is currently using. The specter will take the form of Equinox's opposite half (i.e. swapping to her Night Form results in a Day Form specter and vice versa), will not use abilities, and her Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed, while also dealing increased damage (not modifiable). The specter will only last for a set duration (modifiable via Ability Duration) and will instantly die if it walks in range of a Nullifier Crewman's bubble or a Nul Comba's/Scrambus' aura.
Duality's Specter has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Duality's Specter is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Wukong[]
Wukong's Celestial Twin creates a permanent specter of Wukong himself armed with whatever weapons in his arsenal. The twin will cycle his weapons in response to Wukong's equipped weapons (i.e. swapping to primary or secondary results in the twin using melee and vise versa), is affected by Cloud Walker's invulnerability and health restore per meter traveled, and will mimic Defy and Primal Fury, and his Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed. The twin takes continuous health damage if it walks in range of a Nullifier Crewman's bubble or a Nul Comba's/Scrambus' aura, although nothing will happen to it if Wukong himself is affected by a Nullifier bubble.
Celestial Twin's Specter has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Celestial Twin is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Excalibur Umbra[]
Excalibur Umbra exhibits sentience when not piloted by the Operator, functioning similar to a specter and will fight on his own with whatever weapons are in his arsenal. Sentient Umbra can use abilities (with the exception of Exalted Blade), and will arm himself with a melee weapon (if he has one equipped) whenever an enemy comes within close proximity, and his Warframe and equipment stats will take into account of any mods installed. Note that he will only use the Primary fire mode of any equipped weapon and not any available Alternate Fire modes.
Sentient Umbra can be harmed and takes full damage from any source, and once his health is depleted, he will stop moving and attacking until the Operator pilots him again. However, Sentient Umbra cannot die and will not use up a revive.
Sentient Umbra has similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as a bodyguard.
Umbra is not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
Weapon-spawned specters[]
The Synoid Heliocor spawns one specter of an enemy killed by a heavy attack. Only one specter can be spawned at a time.
The Ballistica Prime spawns a specter-like ghost of any enemy killed by a charged shot.
These specters are not affected by the quirk of Nightmare Mode and will not turn on the player.
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
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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.
Casts Shuriken when enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 15 seconds.
Casts Smoke Screen very sporadically, regardless of enemy presence. Attacking with Warframe weapons will end Specter's invisibility. Operator attacks will not end invisibility. Will cast every 8-12 seconds.
Casts Teleport when enemy is more than 10m away. Cooldown of 10 seconds.
Casts Blade Storm when 5+ enemies are within 50m with at least one within line of sight. Does not necessarily tag all 5+ enemies with the power. Cooldown of 55 seconds.
Casts Elude when enemy is in line of sight. Lasts up to 120 seconds. Cooldown of 50 seconds, starting when Elude's effect ends.
Casts Lull when enemy is within 30m. Cooldown of 35 seconds, often waits up to 20 seconds after cooldown to cast.
Casts Desolate Hands when 3+ enemies are within 25m with at least one within line of sight and has no daggers. Cooldown of 1 minute.
Casts Serene Storm when enemy is within 5m. Freely switches between Serene Storm attacks and weapon attacks for up to 130 seconds. Cooldown of 40 seconds, starting when Serene Storm's effect ends.
Casts Elemental Ward when enemies are within 15m. Cooldown of 55 seconds.
Casts Vex Armor when enemies are within 15m. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Casts Effigy when enemies are within 15m. Seems to recall Effigy immediately the first time it's cast. Otherwise, leaves Effigy out for 15-25 seconds. After Effigy is recalled, cooldown is 1 minute.
Effigy does not use elemental breath, but will use radial pulses. Stun pulse is typically used once per Effigy cast, while knockback pulse is used every 5 seconds if enemies are within 5m.
Casts Fractured Blast when an enemy is within 4m, is normal with unranked stats, and is her second most used ability. Cooldown of 15 seconds that starts after it is used.
Casts Preserving Shell when an enemy is visible, starting at 40% damage reduction and scaling with kills by the specter or nearby allies like normal. Cooldown of 5 seconds when the ability ends.
Casts Prismatic Gem when 4≥ enemies are visible and towards 1 that's within 15m, boosting status and applying status effects like normal. Cooldown of 30 seconds when the ability ends.
Casts Crystallize when 4≥ enemies are visible and towards 2 that's within 10m, offering minor crowd control and boosted crits for a short time on effected enemies. Cooldown of 60 seconds that starts right after it is used.
Triumph is cast most frequently, granting players up to 15,000 Overguard, regardless of enemy level. Granted Overguard total can be repaired on kill while ability is active.
Semi-frequently grants Wordwarden to allies in range for 45 seconds. Will not summon Noctua copy for itself.
Casts Mach Rush when enemy is in line of sight. Does not cast if set to Hold Position. Maintains until targeted enemy is knocked down. Can cast other abilities while active, but cannot use weapons. Cooldown of 5 seconds, starting when Mach Rush's effect ends.
Casts Kinetic Plating when enemy is within 12m. Cooldown of 1 minute.
Casts Thermal Sunder when enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 28 seconds.
Casts Redline when enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 70 seconds.
Casts Feast when enemy is within 10m. Cooldown of 40 seconds.
Casts Nourish when holding an enemy with Feast. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Casts Regurgitate when holding an enemy with Feast, and another enemy is in line of sight within 10m. Cooldown of 5 seconds.
Casts Pulverize when holding an enemy with Feast, and another enemy is in line of sight within 45m. Maintains for up to 1 minute. Cooldown of 1 minute, starting when Pulverize's effect ends. Uses Roller AI when in this form.
Ignores Hold Position command while rolling, but will return to position after ending the ability.
Casts Condemn when enemies are within 15m. 15 second cooldown.
Casts Penance when enemies are in line of sight. 25 second cooldown.
Casts Thurible off cooldown. 52 second cooldown. Tries for 13.5 energy return, but will sometimes cut it shorter. Hits a lower value for the first cast after being summoned.
Casts Covenant when any enemies are in line of sight. 55 second cooldown.
Casts Balefire when enemy is within line of sight. Maintains until shields run out. Cooldown of 25 seconds, starting when Balefire's effect ends.
All shots are fully charged before firing.
Casts Pillage when any shielded enemy is in line of sight, even if too far away to affect with the ability. Cooldown of 45 seconds.
Casts Haven when enemy is within line of sight and shields are above 50%. Maintains until shields run out. Cooldown of 30 seconds, starting when Haven's effect ends.
Specter corpses do not despawn. Likely tied to Inaros' passive ability.
Casts Desiccation when enemy is in line of sight within 5m. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
Casts Sandstorm when 5+ enemies are within 25m with at least one in line of sight. Maintains for up to 10 seconds. Cooldown of 1 minute, starting when Sandstorm's effect ends. Casting Sandstorm will disable the Hold Position command.
Casts Prowl off cooldown. Lasts indefinitely, until Specter fires an Alarming weapon or until player attacks with any Warframe weapon, even if silenced. Abilities and Operator attacks do not cancel Specter's Prowl. Does not steal from enemies. Cooldown of 13 seconds, starting when Prowl's effect ends.
Casts Artemis Bow when 4+ enemies are within line of sight. Maintains for up to 20 seconds. Cooldown of 50 seconds, starting when Artemis Bow's effect ends.
Casts Whipclaw when any enemy is in line of sight within 5m. Cooldown of 9 seconds.
Casts Ensnare when any enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 25 seconds.
Specter Venari behaves like a regular Kavat, without parkour maneuvers and only uses Protect stance. Specter Venari will follow the summoning player, rather than the Khora specter.
Venari's health does not scale with enemy level.
Venari will attack enemies even if Inactivity Penalty has been triggered.
After death, Venari will be respawned after 45 seconds.
Casts Strangledome when 3+ enemies are within 8m, with at least 1 in line of sight. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Casts Decoy when enemy is in line of sight, placing Decoy on top of targeted enemy. Lasts 25 seconds, or until death. Cooldown of 10 seconds, starting when Decoy is cast.
Casts Invisibility off cooldown. Lasts for 11 seconds, or until player attacks with any weapon Cooldown of 3 seconds if Invisibility ends via reaching its maximum duration, or cooldown of 7 seconds if Invisibility ends due to player using a weapon.
Casts Peacemaker when enemy is in line of sight. Fires for up to 10 seconds. Cooldown of 45 seconds, which begins upon casting Peacemaker, not upon ending it.
Casts Parasitic Link when any ally is within 30m, though the max range is 40m. Provides 10-28% Ability Strength boost depending on player's Warframe rank. Cooldown of 20 seconds, starting when Parasitic Link's effect ends.
Does not use Parasitic Link on enemies.
Casts Ravenous when enemy is within 15m. Seems to heal for 23 when casted without link, and 30 with. Cooldown of 50 seconds.
The Specter possesses a passive but does not use it intelligently.
Casts Grenade Fan with Shrapnel Vortex only when any enemy is in line of sight within 30m. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Casts Blaze Artillery when any enemy is in line of sight within 60m. Cooldown of 12 seconds.
Casts Dispensary when player is below 70% energy/health or 70% ammo on primary or secondary (reserves). Lasts 25 seconds with a cooldown of 40 seconds after casting.
Casts Temporal Anchor when Specter's health is brought below 75% and 2+ enemies are within line of sight. Duration up to 10 seconds depending on whether enemies are in close proximity.
The implosion on ability expiration does occur but it is not currently known if the Specter's stockpiled damage has an effect on the implosion's damage. It is also not known if the ability can save the Specter from lethal damage similarly to a player-controlled Protea Warframe.
Casts Containment Wall when enemies are near with a cooldown of 20 seconds.
Casts Disometric Guard giving 5 stacks, and will continue to cast whenever the player is below 10 stacks.
Casts Crucible Blast at a random target with a cooldown of 20 seconds. It will not attempt to targets lines of enemies or irradiated enemies specifically, but will slowly attempt to aim at another target if the initial one is killed before the animation is over.
Casts Danse Macabre when shields are depleted. Maintains until no enemies remain within 20m. Cooldown of 5 seconds. Shields must begin recharging before Danse Macabre will be cast again.
Casts Rhino Charge when enemy is 5-20m away. Cooldown of 15 seconds.
Casts Iron Skin when enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 20 seconds, starting when Iron Skin's effect ends.
Casts Roar when any enemy is in line of sight and 2 or more other Specters are in the mission. Cooldown of 75 seconds.
Companions and other players do not count towards the trigger conditions. These Specters can belong to other players, they do not have to come from you. Note that you can only have one Tenno Specter out at a time, so you will need Syndicate Specters to trigger Roar when solo.
Casts Rhino Stomp when enemy is within 15m. Cooldown of 70 seconds.
Casts Tesla Nervos when enemy is in line of sight. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
Casts Minelayer (any variation, random) when enemy is within 30m. Overdriver affects Warframe or Specter closest to the impact point at time of casting. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Casts Photon Strike when enemy is in line of sight, even if blast will not reach the enemy. Will not cast if there are enemies within 10m. Cooldown of 10 seconds typically.
May sometimes cast multiple Photon Strikes in a row.
Casts Bastille when enemy is within 10m. Cooldown of 30 seconds.
Will cast Vortex variant more frequently than Bastille.
Casts Reservoirs when enemy is within 40m. Reservoir type is random. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
The motes are unreliable at actually providing a buff, while it may seem like you get the buff, health/regen/speed will not increase sometimes.
Extends the timer of a player's motes, without diminishing strength.
Casts Wil-O-Wisp when enemy is within 30m. Teleports to decoy immediately. Cooldown of 12 seconds.
Poor synergy with the Hold Position command, as the Specter will teleport once something is in range, and then slowly walk back towards the holding position without firing.
Casts Breach Surge when 2+ enemies are within 30m. Cooldown of 45 seconds.
Casts Sol Gate when 3+ enemies are within 40m. Maintains for up to 10 seconds. Cooldown of 65 seconds, starting when Sol Gate's effect ends.
Casts Tail Wind when enemy is within 5m. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
Casts Airburst when enemy is within 10m. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
Casts Turbulence when Specter takes damage. Cooldown of 50 seconds.
Casts Tornado when enemy is within 10m. Cooldown of 70 seconds.
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.
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.
They can also revive the objective during Sortie's Defenses.
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.
Warframe Specters were also used to guard a Clan's Solar Rail during Solar Rail Conflicts, before this game mode was discontinued. Contesting Clans would have to face these Specter Regiments in order to seize control of territory. A Specter Regiment was to be created through researching it in the Clan Dojo's Orokin Lab. As mentioned, however, the entire Clan-conflict mechanic and the associated Regiments were eventually removed from the game.
Bugs[]
Deploying the Specter 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
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.