Archon Hunts reset weekly at Monday 00:00 UTC.

Access to Archon Hunts requires completion of Veilbreaker. Only rank 30 Warframes or a Mastery Rank 30 player whose Warframe has been polarized once can be brought into Archon Hunts.

Archon Hunt missions can only be repeated after completing all three missions, but will not yield any further Archon Hunt-specific rewards.

Considered to be extremely difficult with many debilitating restrictions and level 130 - 150 enemies, it is recommended to attempt this mission in full squads.

Rewards are similar to Sortie rewards (with Endo Endo and Kuva Kuva being doubled than that of Sorties, and Forma Forma being given in amounts of 3) which are given after the final mission.

In addition, the Archon is guaranteed to reward its Archon Shard, with an 80% chance of being normal and 20% chance of being Tauforged, which are used for the Helminth. If a normal variant is awarded, the chance of receiving a Tauforged increases by 20% which resets upon earning one, tracked individually for each shard type. The color is based on the Archon killed:

Hotfix 36.0.8 (2024-07-25)

Update 35.5 (2024-03-27)

Update 35.1 (2024-02-20)

Hotfix 35.0.9 (2024-01-17)

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)

Archon Hunt Damage Attenuation Changes

Speaking of earning Archon Shards, Damage Attenuation (or “damage pillows”) may be a familiar mechanic for those who frequent Archon Hunts each week.

This was a hot topic, especially near the end of 2022. Since then, we’ve taken our time to assess player feedback and devise a plan to address it -- and we’re finally at a place where we can execute it.

Damage Attenuation is one tool of many to increase enemy difficulty by limiting how much damage they take from player weapons, etc. Our current form of Damage Attenuation has resulted in many weapons feeling lackluster due to the high attenuation values, and damage output was reduced significantly to balance out the post-attenuation modifiers -- meaning that Archon fights felt like a slog if players did not use a limited set of optimal builds.

This is not a favorable outcome, so we have made the following changes:

1 - Maximum Damage Caps have increased

Our goal is to make big hits still feel like big hits, especially for low-rate-of-fire weapons. We’re able to reduce the damage cap significantly because of the next change:

2 - Modifiers now apply before Damage Attenuation

Critical Multipliers (and other modifiers) applying post-damage-cap allowed for many of the One Shot builds to function, and for full transparency, we want to prevent One Shot Archon builds as much as possible. By changing where these modifiers apply, we can increase the Damage Caps to a much less punishing level for players.

Our goals with these changes are to:

We’re excited to see what Archon Hunts look like for players with these changes in the live build! Now that these changes have been released, we'll be keeping a close eye on player feedback and the resulting time-to-kill for Archons to see if further iteration is needed.

Top Fixes:
General Fixes:

Update 33.5 (2023-06-21)

Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)

TAUFORGED ARCHON SHARD PROBABILITY CHANGE

PLEASE NOTE: The following changes to Tauforged Archon Shard probability will officially begin at the weekly Archon Hunt reset on Monday, February 20th @ 00:00 UTC (7:00 PM ET) to not interfere with the current active Hunt.

We have tweaked the Archon Hunt reward system to increase the odds of receiving a Tauforged Archon Shard if not received after a successful hunt. Each player has their own probability per Shard based on their individual Hunt activity.

Each time a specific Tauforged Archon Shard (Amber, Azure, Crimson) is not your reward from completing an Archon Hunt (i.e. you received a regular Amber, Azure, or Crimson Archon Shard), your chance to receive a Tauforged Shard of that variant increases in the next respective Hunt.

The base probability is 20% and increases by 20% (up to 100%) for each Hunt that does not reward that specific Tauforged Shard. The probability resets back to 20% once that Tauforged Shard variant is rewarded. Earning a Tauforged Shard does not alter the probability to receive Tauforged of other variants. The chance % is indicated via the Archon Hunt Navigation panel for the Shard color that is currently available.

Here is an example of how several weeks could play out:
(This is not a reflection of the current/upcoming Archon Hunt rotations)

Week 1: Archon Nira is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Amber Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Amber Shard the next time Archon Nira is active.

Week 2: Archon Boreal is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Azure Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Azure Shard for the next time Archon Boreal is active.

Week 3: Archon Amar is active with a 20% chance of a Tauforged Crimson Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to earn a Tauforged Crimson Shard for the next time Archon Amar is active.

Week 4: Archon Nira is active with a 40% chance of a Tauforged Amber Shard. Completing the Hunt rewards Tauforged - huzzah! Your chance resets to 20% for the next time Archon Nira is active.

Week 5: Archon Boreal is active with a 40% chance of a Tauforged Azure Shard. Completing the Hunt does not reward Tauforged, your chance increases by 20% to a total of a 60% chance to earn a Tauforged Azure Shard for the next time Archon Boreal is active.

Rinse and repeat!

Tauforged Archon Shards are hotly pursued items, understandably so! We made this change to create a healthy reward cycle and expectation for the players interacting with the Archon Shard system and putting in the effort to play through Archon Hunts. Thank you for your patience while we worked on a solution to improve access to the Tauforged Shards.

Fixes:

Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)

Hotfix 32.1.4 (2022-11-09)

Hotfix 32.1.3 (2022-11-08)

Hotfix 32.1.2 (2022-11-04)

Update 32.1 (2022-11-02)

Hotfix 32.0.13 (2022-10-14)

Hotfix 32.0.12 (2022-10-12)

Hotfix 32.0.9 (2022-10-05)

Archon Hunt Boss Sequence Change:
Fixes:

Hotfix 32.0.7 (2022-09-28)

Hotfix 32.0.6 (2022-09-16)

Hotfix 32.0.5 (2022-09-15)

Hotfix 32.0.3 (2022-09-14)

Archon Hunt Changes & Fixes:

As of this Hotfix, the 2nd Archon Hunt is now live for players to attempt! We’re continuing to watch and review feedback around these missions, and are committed to make necessary iterations over the coming weeks.

Hotfix 32.0.2 (2022-09-08)

Archon Hunt Changes & Fixes:

Below are a continuation of our efforts toward the Archon Hunts and getting the balance to a good spot. Expect more to come as we play and read feedback.

Fixes:

Hotfix 32.0.1 (2022-09-07)

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)