Loadouts: Defection Oberon

Defection is one of the most disliked Mission Types in Warframe, combining the tedium and frustration of Escort missions with rather poor AI, for a potentially infuriating time. Given it is the only source of Harrow Systems however, as well as being a potential Sortie mission, it is worth preparing for. This is my go-to build for any typical Defection mission, making the majority of them extremely easy.

Overview

Quick overview of the whole loadout, Oberon Prime, with Supra Vandal, a Tombfinger Kitgun, and Plague Kripath Polearm. Carrier Prime as Companion, with Zenurik Focus.

The melee is pretty much personal preference, there mainly as a close range room clearer, as well as emergency healing stick. There are a heap of other melees that can fill the same role with similar effectiveness. In general, I much prefer shooting to melee hence why I tend to skip over melee quickly.

Carrier Prime is mainly there to make sure that the Supra Vandal is always topped up with ammo thanks to Ammo Case. It is also the toughest Sentinel currently available, so lasts a little bit better at high levels. This is another largely personal preference choice, with several other Companions offering their own advantages. For instance, Helios (Prime) has exclusive access to Deconstructor (Prime), which is a very powerful Sentinel weapon, while Wyrm (Prime) offers some close-range CC with Crowd Dispersion.

Zenurik Focus is for a boost of energy at the start of the mission, and to top up energy in-between squads of Kavor. A big disadvantage here is that it does not work while Renewal is active, which you want up most of the time. Vazarin is a fantastic alternative here, as it can be used to heal the Kavor, as well as make them invulnerable for a short time.

Oberon (Prime)

The Oberon build I use is an all-rounder one, leaning towards Strength for a good Renewal. Since most of his abilities can come in handy in Defection, I would generally recommend against dropping any one stat too much. Hunter Adrenaline is your main source of energy, at least at higher levels, and combines fantastically with Renewal's heal-over-time. It is also a way of restoring energy through drain-over-time abilities like Renewal.

Adaptation greatly improves Oberon's survivability at high levels, though also reduces the effectiveness of Hunter Adrenaline. It can be comfortably left off at lower levels, though I've found it very helpful at higher levels, especially against the other factions. Phoenix Renewal essentially gives all affected allies (though sadly seemingly not Kavor) one free, instant revive every 90 seconds. Again, not really necessary at lower levels, but it can be a great help at high levels when some enemies can put out huge bursts of damage.

Arcane-wise, Energise is probably the best choice since Energy Orbs are one of the other ways Oberon can restore Energy with Renewal active. Plus, at lower levels, it is far more reliable than Hunter Adrenaline since a lot of enemies don't deal that much damage.

1) Smite

Smite is by far my least used ability in Oberon's kit. It knocks down the targeted enemy, dealing a small amount of damage with a guaranteed Radiation proc. More importantly, it spawns a group of homing orbs that deal Radiation damage, scaling with the original target's maximum health + shields. This makes it one of the few infinitely scaling abilities in the game, giving it reliable power at levels where most everything else is dropping off.

In Defection however, unless you plan to go for a really long time, Smite is not very notable. Infested are generally considered the squishiest faction, and are easily killable with weapons at any level you might reasonably expect to play at. Additionally, Radiation damage is very poor against Infested, dealing significantly reduced damage to the majority of their units. Ancient Disruptors also massively reduce Smite's damage output due to their natural aura. Smite is perhaps most useful against the occasional Manic spawns, as they can be quite evasive, and are far tougher than any Infested.

2) Hallowed Ground

Hallowed Ground is a very useful ability against Infested. It spawns an arc of radioactive grass, inflicting a small amount of Radiation damage, with reasonable chance of proc to any enemy on it. It also has interactions with Renewal (3) and Reckoning (4) which I will discuss in those respective areas.

The damage dealt by Hallowed Ground is insignificant, but its ability to reliably inflict enemies with Rad procs can be quite useful for distracting enemies. This is especially true for Infested, the majority of which must close to melee range to attack. Additionally, Rad procs prevent the various Ancients from buffing their allies with their aura, making them far easier to kill.

3) Renewal

Renewal is the star of the show here, healing all affected allies over time. Additionally, once an ally has been tagged by Renewal, they will continue to be healed regardless of where they are, so long as Renewal remains active. Renewal also extends the bleedout timer of allies. Finally, any ally under the effects of Renewal who steps on Hallowed Ground, gains some bonus armour so long as Renewal remains active.

Renewal is what makes Oberon so good at Defection. The Kavor Defectors take constant damage over time, and will be attacked by Infested constantly. However, unless you are running really long Defection missions (as was necessary in the introductory event), nothing deals enough damage to hurt the Defectors faster than Renewal heals them. Additionally, since Renewal works at any range once the target has been tagged, once you've tagged a Defector, you pretty much don't have to worry about them until they reach the next Med-Booster.

4) Reckoning

Reckoning lifts up all nearby enemies, slamming them to the ground and dealing some Impact and Radiation damage. Affected enemies are inflicted with a Radiation proc, and will blind nearby unaffected enemies for a short time. Affected enemies who are on Hallowed Ground also have some of their armour permanently removed.

Reckoning is a fairly powerful ability, though is significantly less effective against Infested. The forced knockdown and Rad proc are both quite useful for keeping enemies at bay, however its direct damage types are quite poor against Infested. Additionally, besides a select few special units and a temporary buff from Swarm-Mutalist MOAs, the Infested do not have armoured units.

Supra Vandal

The Supra Vandal is quite a strong weapon overall, though has a few notable features that make it my go-to for Defection. Firstly, it is an excellent weapon against groups, with high RoF and a massive Mag Capacity. More notably however, it has access to an Entropy Syndicate Augment, giving it access to the Entropy Syndicate effect. The Entropy effect restores some energy, and can do so through Renewal, making it useful for semi-periodic energy top-ups.

My go-to build for the Supra Vandal is a standard Corrosive one. Ideally it would use both 90% elementals, but my Forma layout prevents that. Really the important thing here is the Syndicate Augment.

Tombfinger Kitgun

My Tombfinger Kitgun is primarily here as a backup, in case I encounter an enemy that cannot be easily killed by the Supra Vandal, or need something dead urgently. Defection doesn't really have any such enemies unless you get to absurdly high levels, so it's really more of a hedge against surprise spawns like Syndicate Death Squads.

My Tombfinger build is pretty unimportant here, it's my standard Corrosive build.

Alternatives/Substitutes

• Other healing Frames like Trinity can of course take Oberon's role. I personally like Oberon most because he is the lowest effort - Renewal is pretty much set-and-forget on the Defectors.
• Frames that can give allies Damage Reduction (e.g. Gara, Nezha) fill a similar role, making the Defectors nigh invulnerable to Infested attack. However, in Sorties, armour scaling does essentially the same. Additionally, the damage-over-time that Defectors take seems to bypass DR abilities and armour.
• Any weapon that is effective against crowds (e.g. Ignis Wraith, Amprex) can take the Supra Vandal's spot. However, the Supra Vandal is the only one of them with an energy-restoring Syndicate effect.
• The Tombfinger Kitgun is there purely as personal preference, so can be switched for anything else.