The Grustrag Three (commonly abbreviated as the G3) are a group of Assassins, founded by Councilor Vay Hek, who come after Tenno that have completed five consecutive Invasion missions against the Grineer.
Lore
The Grustrag Three were formerly regular Grineer marines who (while aboard a troop transport) suddenly slaughtered their comrades, claiming that they were growing "impatient for the killing". After being committed to the Grustrag Reconditioning Facility, Facility Director Dr. Tengus discovered that the marines suffer from a rare mutation brought about by cloning, vastly increasing their combat potential at the cost of deteriorating mental faculties.
Under Vay Hek's order, Tengus reconditioned them, with the intent of focusing their aggression towards the Tenno instead. Although mostly successful, the Three still had lingering violent behavior towards fellow Grineer. To counteract this, Tengus developed the Grustrag Bolt, a device that limited their effectiveness against other Grineer personnel. Tengus had additional Bolts created, to be used against the Tenno during the Three's operations.
With The Grustrag Three now prepared for combat, Vay Hek deployed them with the sole purpose of attacking those who supported enemies of the Grineer. However, Sargas Ruk criticized Hek's actions, reminding Hek of the soldiers The Three have killed and warning him that they would eventually grow out of his control.
Members
Leekter is a member of The Grustrag Three. He wields a Brokk hammer and throws flashbangs to blind players in battle.
Although Leekter does not spawn by himself under normal circumstances, he may individually spawn inside Darvo's weekly mission as a Field Boss if the associated faction of the mission are Grineer.
- "I want to play with these ones." (download, history)
- Tenno, your Warframe looks so... slippery." (download, history)
- "You are going to suffer for that, Tenno!" - Ally is Killed. (download, history)
- "Wait 'til you see what comes next!" - Capturing Target.
- "Did you know this is my favourite part?" - Capturing Target.
Shik Tal is a member of The Grustrag Three. He wields a modified 
Marelok that fires small dumb-fire rockets (akin to those fired by Hellions) and a giant shield similar to Shield Lancers. Similar to the Shield Lancers themselves, he can use his shield to charge forward to knockdown and knockback players.
Although Shik Tal does not spawn by himself under normal circumstances, he may individually spawn inside Darvo's weekly mission as a Field Boss if the associated faction of the mission are Grineer.
- "Boooriiinnnggg!" (download, history)
- "Are we sure these are the targets? They seem so inconsequential." (download, history)
- "Do not waste my time, Tenno!" (download, history)
- "You are beneath us!" (download, history)
- "One of them is wearing a scarf!" (download, history)
- "That one will be difficult to replace." - Ally is Killed. (download, history)
- "Too easy." - Capturing Target.
- "Pathetic." - Capturing Target.
Vem Tabook is the leader of The Grustrag Three. He uses a modified 
Hek that fires electro-shells in bursts of around 10 at its target, each shell dealing electricity damage in a small radius, making them deadly should all of them connect with their target or the surrounding terrain.
Although Vem Tabook does not spawn by himself under normal circumstances, he may individually spawn inside Darvo's weekly mission as a Field Boss if the associated faction of the mission are Grineer.
- "YYYou are the sc-crawniest of them all!" (download, history)
- "Are you the bbbest they have!?" (download, history)
- "SSShiny little pppretty things, you Tenno are!" (download, history)
- "U-U-Unacceptable!" - Ally is Killed. (download, history)
- "Starting capture." - Capturing Target.
- "This one is mine." - Capturing Target.
Each marine is accompanied by a Carabus Sentinel, which are equipped with 
Laser Rifles to provide additional firepower. They do not have a name in game, only a health/shields bar, similar to 
Loki's 
Decoy.
When a player is defeated by the Grustrag Three, one of the three sentinels will detach from its host, then hover and deploy a shield over the downed player. It prevents other teammates from reviving the player while the sentinel attaches the Grustrag Bolt.
It also exists as an alternative skin for Dethcube, which is available for purchase for 
35.
Strategy
In General
Despite their bulky appearance, each member of the Grustrag Three is capable of a quick dash in any direction, which they use to avoid fire and close in on their targets. The Grustrag Three usually attack in turns, making it difficult to focus on a specific marine to take down. Not only that, but they are capable of strategic positioning, movement, and timing of attacks in a more advanced manner than normal Grineer. This includes crouching and hiding behind Shik Tal's shield as he's laying down suppressive fire, launching a sudden aggressive attack as a group after Leekter uses his flashbang, or changing position while Vem Tabook lays down suppressive fire. Their behavior changes vastly, sharing behavioral traits with heavy Grineer units such as Bombards, Napalms and Heavy Gunners, but at the same time taking cover behind objects when necessary.
Unlike the Stalker, the Grustrag Three are fully vulnerable to Status Effects and most Warframe abilities. As such, they can be easily incapacitated with weapons such as the slam attacks of 
Jat Kittag or the 
Fragor. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. and Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. damage and proc work particularly well on them, reducing their overall durability by a significant amount. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. damage can also be used, as it deals extra damage to their Alloy Armor and if procs, confusing them, causing them to attack each other or fellow Grineer. However, their Carabus Sentinels cannot be damaged by any means, they are only destroyed if its respective marine is killed.
A strong Specter can greatly assist players in combat, either to provide additional damage or to draw attention away from players.
Utilizing Warframe Abilities
They are vulnerable to most abilities, especially abilities which induce ragdoll or stunlock such as 
Hydroid's 
Tentacle Swarm, 
Nekros' 
Soul Punch and 
Mag's 
Pull; 
Zephyr's Dive Bomb also works fine against them. 
Nyx's 
Pacifying Bolts can stun them for an extended period of time. It is important to note, however, that their Carabus Sentinels will still attack players whether or not the Three are on their feet.
The blinding effects of 
Excalibur's 
Radial Blind and 
Mirage's 
Prism can also be used to incapacitate them, albeit with a shorter duration. They can also be distracted by Loki's Decoy and 
Saryn's 
Molt. 
Nova's 
Molecular Prime can slow them down and allow players to deal additional damage.
Loki may very well be the optimal choice against the Grustrag Three, as he can dispatch them with minimal to no effort if one maximizes 
Invisibility's duration, effectively making an encounter with them trivial. With a strong arsenal (e.g. 
Tonkor, 
Tigris (Sancti/Prime), 
Vectis (Prime) or the like), one can easily defeat the Grustrag Three within seconds while cloaked in order to farm 
Brakk parts, should they choose to do so. Additionally, Loki's 
Radial Disarm knocks the Three off their feet in a similar manner to most Infested, providing Loki with a means to regain footing/breathing room should the tide turn against him.
Oberon is a good choice to use against the Three, as almost all his abilities deal Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. damage on top of 
Smite and 
Reckoning having guaranteed chances to inflict confusion on them.
Trinity can indefinitely keep two of the Three stunned at the same time by chaining "Well Of Life" wasn't found in Module:Ability/data and 
Energy Vampire.
The Grustrag Three are susceptible to finisher moves, making the mod Covert Lethality ideal when used in tandem with any ability that causes blind or sleep (e.g. Mirage's Prism, Excalibur's Radial Blind, or 
Equinox's Rest).
As noted above, Loki and 
Ash can use Invisibility and 
Smoke Screen, respectively, to cloak themselves and attack the Three safely. 
Valkyr's 
Hysteria works well against the Three, provided Valkyr has Rage, a fully-ranked Vitality and/or Steel Fiber to improve her energy regeneration and durability. Bear in mind that this "head-on" strategy runs the risk of killing/destroying any Companion you might have with you and poor timing can also leave you vulnerable as well.
Not all Warframe abilities have an effect on the Grustrag Three; 
Vauban's 
Bastille or Zephyr's 
Tornado cannot be used to hold them down and Nekros' 
Terrify will only reduce their armor. Loki's Radial Disarm will treat them like Infested, knocking them down and dealing damage instead of stripping them of their weapons. Nyx's 
Mind Control and 
Chaos will also not affect them.
Certain Warframe abilities have reduced effectiveness towards the Grustrag Three: duration-based crowd-control ability such as 
Rhino's 
Rhino Stomp, Mirage 's Prism and Excalibur's Radial Blind are less effective, cutting their duration by 50% or 75%, as observed. (needs confirmation)
Arrival
Triggering an attack from the Grustrag Three requires the player to have a death-mark. This is acquired by fighting against the Grineer in at least five instances of Invasion missions. Once the death-mark is acquired, the player will receive a message from Vay Hek, stating:
- "Interfering with our operations is unacceptable. You will be shown your place. Your punishment has been ordered."
Acquiring another death mark will trigger this message:
- "You continue to assist our enemies. Your meddling will NOT be tolerated."
Similar to the Zanuka Hunter, the chance The Three will appear on any given Grineer Mission is additively increased with each player in the party with a death-mark.
They have a chance of spawning once every 10 seconds for the first 5 minutes.[citation needed]
Before they appear, the Lotus will try to warn you (with her transmissions distorted), and eventually pleads you to abort the mission (ignoring the mission's original objective in the process). This can even mean ignoring an entirely uncompleted objective, such as Mobile Defense.
Each marine has a chance to drop Neurodes, a component/blueprint for the Brakk, a rare mod (such as Natural Talent), or 80 Endo upon defeat. If The Three are successfully defeated, players may opt to head to extraction without completing the original objective.
Defeat
A Letter from the Lotus following your defeat by The Three and placing the Grustrag Bolt Release blueprint in the Foundry
If the Grustrag Three manage to defeat the player, the session will automatically fail, taking the player back to the main menu. A new inbox message from the Lotus will then appear stating that The Grustrag Three have attached a Grustrag Bolt to the player's Warframe, crippling its powers when attempting to fight them. As long as the bolt is attached, it will lower that frame's damage against Grineer by 50%. Attached to the same message will be a Bolt Release blueprint to release the Grustrag Bolt.
- When the Grustrag Three are spawned by beacon, they are unable to attempt to capture you if you do not have a Grustrag Three Death Mark, and thus cannot give you a Grustrag Bolt. If you do have a mark, they WILL be able to capture you and give you a Bolt.
- During Clem's weekly mission, if fighting Grineer, one member of the Grustrag Three will spawn.
This enemy also does not attempt to capture you, and thus cannot give you a Grustrag Bolt
Notification after claiming the Grustrag Bolt Release
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 5,000 |
 1 |
 1 |
 1 |
 20 |
Time: 1 min |
| Rush: 25
| |||||
 Market Price: N/A
|
 Blueprints Price: N/A
| ||||
Badge that replaces the player's clan badge when a Grustrag Bolt is attached
Tips
- It is possible to destroy the Carabus Sentinels of the G3 to prevent the bolts from being applied, it will instead abruptly end the defeat with a death.
- The Grustrag Three's corpses can be Desecrated to improve your chances of getting Brakk components, and their corpses can also be dismembered with slash weaponry prior to being Desecrated to increase the chances of getting Brakk components or other loot.
- When running a weekly Survival mission with Clem, a random member of the G3 will spawn and attack the Tenno at the five-minute mark so long as the tileset is controlled by the Grineer; however, you can NOT obtain their drops through this method.
- The option to extract after the Three spawn can be used to easily get through missions, including Alerts and other "special" missions and reap the rewards, despite doing virtually no work.
Trivia
- They are the first death mark enemy that consist of multiple entities. The Stalker and The Zanuka Hunter only consist of a single entity.
- Upon spawning all players are contacted by the Lotus. However, only one player will have their mark consumed.
- When spawning, all the players will be taunted, but then one player will be taunted mentioning their name and Warframe. This player will have their mark consumed and must do five invasion missions for the Corpus to regain it.
- At the time of their introduction, The Three were guaranteed to drop a mod, a Brakk component, and Neurodes all at once upon defeat, potentially giving players all the Brakk components in a single encounter. This has since been patched.
- The Grustrag Three appear to have some heavy duty jamming technology somewhere on their persons, preventing the Lotus from properly warning any targeted Tenno, keeping her in the dark as much as possible from what is happening.
- The Grustrag Three currently have the same drop table, differing only in Brakk components.
- The Grustrag Three seem to have similar armor components to those of Lieutenant Lech Kril. This armor similarity could possibly imply a category of those for Grineer Commandos, an even higher tier of Grineer troops than those of the Elite Lancers or the Napalms.
- Their body meshes share arm and leg geometry with Lieutenant Lech Kril. The jarring quality difference is a giveaway.
- Although Leekter wields a Manticore in battle, his codex entry used to depict him using a Brokk instead. This has been fixed for Update 13.2 (2014-05-01).
- According to Shik Tal's Codex entry, the Grustrag Three have apparently cost Ruk an entire battalion of Grineer troops, which Ruk views as incredibly valuable to him, and has stated he'd kill the Three on the spot for their treason, if given the chance.
- Like the Stalker and the Zanuka Hunter, they used to have their own soundtrack.
- It is also used by Syndicate Death Squads.
- Like Vor, Alad V, and Ruk, Shik Tal is voiced by [DE]Skree. It is currently unknown who voices Leekter and Vem Tabook.
- Doing the same invasions after playing it three times can increase the spawn chance of the G3. Although it is not the most well-rounded way to spend time, it can help to grind Brakk parts.
- If G3's intended target is captured, the mission will fail even if there are squad members alive and uncaptured remaining. There are cases in which this will not work properly.
- The text on the Grustrag bolt, when translated, reads "PROPERTY OF GRINEER".
- If the Grustrag Three attacks during an alert, and the option to escape is taken, the mission will succeed, giving the item reward from the alert. It is unknown if this feature is intended or a bug.
- Leekter might be a nod to the fictional serial killer/cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. This could be supported by the Three's violent actions against fellow Grineer, similar to how cannibals attack and eat members of their own species.
Bugs
- The Grustrag Three appearing in a Survival mission can prevent the five minute interval rewards from being given for the rest of the mission.
- A similar bug can occur during interception missions if the broadcast reaches 100% while you are fighting them. The screen that allows you to continue the fight or end the mission no longer appears and Lotus assumes that you wish to continue to fight, making the mission impossible to complete.
- Being healed by a health restore or an ally's ability whilst simultaneously being downed may leave players in a constant loop of being downed, and also unable to be revived.
- It's possible for The Grustrag Three to spawn in areas that are no longer reachable, such as taking an elevator before starting defense or interception which becomes inoperable. This will cause them to die instantly and their drops unobtainable.
Patch History
See also
- Brakk, the weapon (in form of its components) dropped by The Grustrag Three.
- Councilor Vay Hek, the Grineer responsible for The Three's recruitment.
- General Sargas Ruk, the former commander of the squad.
| Bosses and Mini-Bosses | ||
|---|---|---|
 Grineer
|
Planet | Captain Vor (Mercury/Ceres) • Councilor Vay Hek (Earth) • General Sargas Ruk (Saturn) • Kela De Thaym (Sedna) • Lieutenant Lech Kril (Mars/Ceres) • Tyl Regor (Uranus) |
| Mission | Kuva Liches • The Grustrag Three (Assassin) • Ven'kra Tel and Sprag (Orokin Sabotage) | |
| Quest | Elder Queen (The War Within) | |
| Event | Balor Fomorian (Fomorian Fleet) | |
 Corpus
|
Planet | Alad V and Zanuka (Jupiter) • Ambulas (Pluto) • Jackal (Venus) • Hyena Pack (Neptune) • Raptors (Europa) • The Sergeant (Phobos) |
| Mission | Exploiter Orb (Orb Vallis) • Lynx (Orokin Sabotage) • Profit-Taker Orb (Orb Vallis) • Zanuka Hunter (Assassin) | |
| Quest | Protea Specter (The Deadlock Protocol) | |
| Event | Razorback (Razorback Armada) | |
 Infested
|
Planet | Jordas Golem (Eris) • Juggernaut Behemoth (Eris) • Mutalist Alad V (Eris) • Lephantis (Deimos) • Zealoid Prelate (Deimos) |
| Mission | Juggernaut (Infested Ship) | |
| Quest | Infested Mesa (Patient Zero) | |
| Event | Phorid (Phorid Manifestation) • Hemocyte (Plains of Eidolon - Operation: Plague Star) | |
 Orokin
|
Mission | Corrupted Jackal (The Circuit Assassination) • Corrupted Vor (Tier 4 Void / The Circuit Exterminate) • Nihil (Nightwave/Series 3) |
| Quest | Necramech (Heart of Deimos) | |
 Sentient
|
Planet | Ropalolyst (Jupiter) |
| Mission | Eidolon Teralyst • Gantulyst • Hydrolyst (Plains of Eidolon) | |
| Quest | Suda-Hunhow (Octavia's Anthem) • Typholyst (The New War) | |
| Event | Condrix (Earth - Operation: Scarlet Spear) | |
 Stalker
|
Mission | Acolytes (The Steel Path) • Stalker or Shadow Stalker (Assassin) |
 Wild
|
Mission | Wolf of Saturn Six (Assassin) • Void Angel (Zariman Ten Zero) |
| Duviri | Dax Equitem • Kullervo • Orowyrm | |
 Narmer
|
Mission | Archon Amar • Archon Boreal • Archon Nira (Archon Hunt) |
| Quest | Ballas (The New War) | |
 The Murmur
|
Planet | The Fragmented (Suzerain • Anchorite • Zelator • One) |
| Mission | Scathing Whisper • Mocking Whisper | |