Operation: Orphix Venom - Missions and Rewards (U29.6.1)

Operation: Orphix Venom is a new event, running now until 1400 ET 18th of January 2021. Its main gameplay purpose is to introduce Necramechs into standard gameplay, also taking the opportunity to add some new equipment and cosmetics.

Available Missions

There are three different missions available, the only differences being their milestone rewards and starting level. The first mission starts very low at around level 10-15, while the third endurance mission starts around level 30-35. Achieving a given score in a single run of that particular mission will award its corresponding milestone reward. Naturally, the highest level mission awards the most points.

Mission Type

Op: OV is very similar to the ground phase of Operation: Scarlet Spear, albeit very simplified.

Periodically throughout the mission, every 90 seconds, a Sentient Orphix will be deploy in one of three chosen rooms. Over time, their existence will increase the Sentient Control bar on the left. Your objective is simply to destroy them before that bar is filled. If the bar fills completely, the mission immediately fails.

The Orphixes will spawn in a set order. Labelling the three rooms as A, B, C in order of when they are first used, after the first three spawns the Orphixes will follow either a CABBAC or CBAABC order for the rest of the mission.

There are, however, two complications. The first is that the Orphix emits a field in which Warframes and their abilities cannot be used - entering it with your Warframe will immediately kick you out to your Operator, and any abilities will be immediately dispelled. This is of course circumvented by using Necramechs, who are unaffected. These missions allow you to deploy your personal Necramech without issue, as a lead-up to their full introduction into regular gameplay. If you do not own a Necramech, you will be able to reactivate one of the many Fallen Necramechs in the area, though these are unmodded and are thus drastically weaker than one owned and modded by a player.

The second is that the Orphixes are made invulnerable by these Orphix Resonators. Upon arriving, the Orphix will spawn a number of these within its protective field that must be destroyed. They are, thankfully, quite weak.

Once all of its Resonators are destroyed, the Orphix will expose its core weakspot - it is still invulnerable to damage elsewhere. Depleting half its health will cause it to close up and deploy more Resonators - destroy them and then the Orphix again to finish the job and earn a bunch of points (roughly hundreds, scaling with level like with Op: Scarlet Spear).

Killing each Resonator will slightly reduce the Sentient Control bar (~2%), while killing an Orphix will significantly reduce it (~20%). If there are no Orphixes alive, the bar will immediately drop back to 0.

Killing other Sentient enemies will also award small amounts of score, and if there are no Orphixes on the map, your score will increase over time as well. Note that killing an Orphix will despawn all of its Sentient escorts.

After killing three Orphixes, Extraction is made available however you can continue to a much higher quantity if desired. Like with Op: Scarlet Spear, there is a hard cap of 36 Orphixes before no more will spawn and you will be directed towards extract. The last Orphix (and accompanying enemies) will be around level 110. This will take just under an hour, and will result in around 20,000 score minimum, more if you achieve more Sentient kills.

Rewards

Op: OV has a plethora of different rewards. The score achieved in each run is converted into Phasic Cells, which serve as this event's currency. 10 score will award one Phasic Cell.

Each set of three Orphixes constitutes a single rotation. The rotation rewards include Relics of Lith/Meso/Neo eras, Endo, Lavos blueprints (including alternate helmet), Cedo blueprint and components, and the new Necramech mods.

The Phasic Cells can be turned in at Father in the Necralisk for additional rewards. This again includes Lavos blueprints, Cedo blueprint and components, the new Necramech mods, a new Lavos glyph, and a skin each for the Morgha and Cortege.

The total cost for one of all of these new items is around 15,000 Phasmic Cells, around 20,000 if you intend to build a second Lavos for Helminth to consume. Keeping in mind that all but the glyph and skins are potential mission rewards, the actual total cost will likely end up being much lower.

Additionally, all of the purchasable rewards from Scarlet Spear have returned except for the two decorations. The Ceti Lacera, Basmu, Stance Forma, Ballroom Simulacrum, various Clan Sigils, and of course all of the original Warframe Arcanes are all available again.

My Current Loadout

As the Orphixes disable Warframes when they get too close, Warframe choice is not especially significant. I use Titania to travel between Orphixes as quickly as possible, with a subsumed Dispensary to help keep Necramechs supplied with Energy - one of the few ways to refill their Energy as most other methods do not work. Similarly, since all combat will be performed by your Necramech (and perhaps Operator too), regular weapon choices are not significant.

Hildryn's Aegis Storm (4) causes affected enemies to drop Energy orbs on death. Although she cannot get close to Orphixes, there are more than enough Grineer/Corpus enemies around to litter the floor with Energy orbs.

The Aura Combat Discipline is worth mention. Almost all methods of healing Necramechs have been removed, with U29.6 removing some of the last ones. Combat Discipline however still appears to work, healing your Necramech when you get kills with it.

Corrosive Projection is a more common alternative that makes enemy Sentients easier to kill.

There are of course only two Necramechs to choose from right now - Voidrig and Bonewidow. The relative lack of Necramech mods and some of their awful acquisition methods means that build diversity is practically non-existent. Builds will more likely come down to which mods you actually have, rather than min-maxing.

The combination of new Necramech mods Rage and Repair is extremely strong, granting you practically infinite energy, and with appropriate use of abilities can make you essentially invincible. I strongly recommend acquiring them as soon as possible.

For raw damage output, I favour the Voidrig. Its defensive ability (Storm Shroud [2]) is easier than Bonewidow's, and its Exalted Arquebex (4) is very strong and has an impressive AoE. The Arquebex is great both for clearing out enemies including Sentients and Resonators, as well as bringing down the Orphixes themselves.

It is worth noting that Bonewidow's Meathook (1) is a fantastic healing tool that Voidrig cannot match. Additionally, its Exalted Ironbride (4) seems to largely ignore Orphix weakspot hurtboxes as well as its Damage Reduction, and will deal good damage to it quite easily.

In terms of Archgun, I've had notably good success with the Mausolon. Its Alternate Fire does massive damage to the Orphix, one-shotting its stages up to around level 60 (something like 15 Orphixes in), and it does all-round very good damage. My friends have had good success with the Imperator Vandal as well, as it has almost no recharge delay (unlike the Mausolon's painful 4 seconds), and does solid damage.

The Fluctus is notable for its ability to destroy Orphix Resonators through walls and surfaces, thus eliminating the need to hunt them down with the slow and clunky Necramechs. It is also quite good at destroying Aerolyst canisters. It is however much less effective against regular Sentient units and the Orphixes.

As the vast majority of tougher Sentients are Ferrite-armoured, Corrosive is naturally the best damage type to go for. If playing with a coordinated team, it may be worth mixing up damage types to mitigate the effects of Sentient adaptation (e.g. one goes Corrosive, another goes Radiation). Do note that the Orphix does not adapt, and is weakest to Corrosive.

My Initial Thoughts

• I like the reward structure. The majority of the new rewards can be acquired just from playing the mission and without spending Phasic Cells. If you are unlucky enough to not get the part you need (say Lavos Neuroptics Blueprint), after some runs you will have enough Phasic Cells to buy it anyway. There are no potential mission drops that are not also in Father's Operation store as well. This does have the potential issue of useless drops (e.g. Lavos' Alternate Helmet Blueprint after you've already acquired one...or five). As you continue to earn Phasic Cells throughout the mission reagrdless however, I do not consider this as big an issue as it is for standard gamemodes like Infested Salvage.
  
• As such, unless you have a horrid streak of luck, I find the return-on-effort to be quite reasonable. After spending just a single day playing this event, I have received nearly two full Lavos sets just from mission drops, and am only 500 Cells or so away from completing a set of one of every new item, including a duplicate Lavos for Helminth. My current team setup with my friends can reach 20,000+ score with a full 36 Orphix run, for 2,000+ cells.
  
• I am not a fan of Necramechs in general, I find them much too large, slow and clunky compared to standard Warframe movement, or of course my beloved Titania Prime's flight. I also don't like that they are almost completely unsupported by other equipment, being unaffected by just about every Warframe ability, and being a pain to regenerate Health and Energy to. With only two Necramechs and thirteen Archguns (excluding variants) currently available, there is very little in the way of customisability. The total lack of Necramech mods also makes every build practically the same, varying only with which mods you actually own. As a result, I find this Necramech-only mission type to be rather boring and repetitive, and not really my thing. That said, its rewards are excellent so I will likely be playing a lot of it.
  
• The main bug we have experienced is getting "Ability Not Ready", permanently locking you into your Necramech without abilities or being able to switch back to Warframe/Operator. This is extremely frustrating as it removes the majority of your options, and leaves you with essentially no escape if the situation goes south. Even without abilities though, with a half-decent squad we've been able to get beyond 8,000 points fairly comfortably.
  
• As someone who already has a decent Necramech and Archgun setup, the Fallen Necramechs are nothing but an annoyance. Transferencing into them leaves you stuck in a 20 second cutscene of purely wasted time, as Fallen Necramechs are unmodded and thus do barely anything beyond level 30 enemies. I would like if it was much harder to accidentally activate a Fallen Necramech, perhaps using a hold-to-activate system.