Prime Unvaulting: Banshee and Mirage Primes (2022)

Redux of an old Unvaulting to tide us over, Banshee and Mirage Primes once again. I personally really liked the Prime Resurgence event late 2021, and I hope that DE uses that as a template for future Unvaultings. The game hasn't changed a huge deal since I last covered the Banshee + Mirage unvaulting.

 

Banshee Prime comes with Euphona and Helios Primes. Banshee is a sound-themed Warframe, with a heavy offensive focus. Minimal survivability makes her a glass cannon, but her incredible damage amplification makes her an extremely potent glass cannon.

Sonic Boom (1) throws forward a wave of sound that ragdolls and pushes away nearby enemies. Sonar (2) creates weakspots on nearby enemies, that when hit massively increase damage dealt. These spots can overlap and their effects will stack, for even more absurd damage. Silence (3) creates an aura around Banshee that temporarily stuns enemies when they enter it. While in this zone, enemies are unable to hear anything, and cannot use any abilities - any abilities already in effect are immediately nulled. Sound Quake (4) locks Banshee in place and drains energy over time, continuously damaging and staggering away any enemies within range.

Banshee's Augments are very strong, and absolutely worth considering for each of their respective abilities. Sonic Fracture (1) temporarily reduces the armour of enemies hit by Sonic Boom, and can easily be modded to fully remove armour. Resonance (2) causes enemies killed by hitting a Sonar weakspot to auto-cast Sonar around them. Savage Silence (3) greatly increases Finisher damage dealt to enemies under the effect of Silence. Resonating Quake (4) replaces Sound Quake's persistent zone with a single quick radial wave that deals increased damage in a much wider range.

Banshee Prime has increased Armour, Energy and Sprint Speed over regular Banshee. Overall, Banshee embodies high-risk, high-reward. She requires significant skill and knowledge of Warframe's mechanics to keep alive in high level content, but when used correctly offers the strongest weapon damage amplification in the entire game.

Euphona Prime is a slow-firing, hard hitting MR14 Secondary. Primary Fire launches high-Crit, low-Status slugs dealing extremely high damage-per-shot, while Alternate Fire fires a very wide spread of low-Crit, high-Status pellets. While Primary Fire notably deals great direct DPS, it is severely lacking in every other aspect. Alternate Fire was hit hard by the Shotgun Status changes, and is now quite unexceptional. The EuphonaP faces immense competition from a wide variety of other weapons nowadays, and in my opinion is largely outclassed in both firing modes. The Sepulcrum, Tenet Spirex, and a Tombfinger Kitgun are all examples of weapons that are, in my opinion, all-round better at the slow-firing handcannon role.

Helios Prime is a variant of the Helios Sentinely, with increased Health and Armour. Its included weapon, Deconstructor Prime, is also a stronger version of the default Deconstructor. Helios' default Precept, Invetigator, automatically scans nearby objects (with an incomplete Codex entry) if you have spare Codex scanner charges, which is useful for filling your Codex and locating rare items. Deconstructor Prime is one of the stronger Sentinel weapons, and notably is the only Melee one so can be used as a Gladiator mod stat-stick. Unfortunately, it can only be used by Helios (Prime).

Mirage Prime comes with Akbolto and Kogake Primes. Mirage is a light/illusion-themed Warframe, with a set of wonky but potentially extremely powerful, mostly offensive abilities. She is another Warframe who could be considered a glass cannon.

Hall of Mirrors (1) creates a number of copies of Mirage around her. These copies draw fire and copy your attacks dealing reduced damage, both greatly increasing your damage output and improving survivability. Sleight of Hand (2) converts certain nearby objects (including lockers, Arc Traps, laser barrier doors, etc) into friendly traps, which will affect nearby enemies. It also creates jewels that attract enemies before exploding, either damaging or blinding them. Finally, it causes some pickups to explode, with the effect depending on the pickup type. Eclipse (3) provides either a weapon damage buff or damage reduction, depending on whether Mirage is in light or shadow, and dependent on the strength of lighting. It is very inconsistent and almost never confers the full bonus, but even so still offers one of two very strong buffs. Prism (4) throws forward a laser-shooting disco ball, that drains energy over time and attacks nearby enemies within line-of-sight. When decast, it emits a bright flash that blinds all remaining enemies within line-of-sight.

Mirage has access to several strong Augments. Hall of Malevolence (1) increases damage dealt by Mirage's copies with each kill achieved. Explosive Legerdemain (2) converts all nearby pickups into proximity mines, instead of randomly detonating them. This can be used to clear maps very quickly at lower levels. Total Eclipse (3) causes nearby allies to gain the full effect of Eclipse, dependent on their own lighting/shadow. Prism Guard (4) is a former Conclave-only mod, that has the Prism hover above Mirage for a short duration, rather than drifting away and draining energy over time.

Mirage Prime has increased Shields and Armour over regular Mirage, neither of which are major. Mirage's abilities can be very strange, many of them dependent on the environment for their full effect. She is always a solid weapons platform, and can offer significant other capabilities in the right situations.

Akbolto Prime is an MR13 Semi-Auto Dual Secondary. It has a heavy Crit focus with a lower but still usable Status Chance. As a Semi-Auto with a high Fire Rate, it can be difficult to achieve peak cabilities with, which is not a problem for Full-Autos or slower Semi-Autos. While the AkboltoP deals quite good DPS, it faces extremely stiff competition from other weapons that can do essentially the same thing, except better and/or easier. The Tenet Diplos and Aksomati Prime are two notable examples.

Kogake Prime is an MR10 Sparring Melee. It is one of the better Sparring weapons, with the highest base Damage and Status Chance, though a sub-par Crit Multiplier. Its main competitor is the faster but weaker Prisma Obex. With an Impact focus however, it is largely overlooked for Melees that scale much better at high levels with Slash procs.

I would prioritise acquisition of the items as such:

1. Mirage Prime - an strong weapons platform Warframe with use as a lower-level map clearer.
   
2. Banshee Prime - a glass cannon Warframe that requires significant effort to survive in high level content, but can be extremely rewarding with her incredible damage amplification.
   
3. Helios Prime - a reasonably tough Sentinel with an arguably useful Precept, and an above-average Companion weapon.
   
4. Euphona/Akbolto/Kogake Primes - weapons that are decent, but in my opinion all outclassed as well.