Arbitrations are a special Alert variant hosted by the Arbiters of Hexis, featuring "elite" versions of endless missions with additional modifiers for greater difficulty. They were introduced in Update 23.10 (2018-10-12).
Mechanics[]
In order to access Arbitrations, players must have completed all nodes (excluding Mutalist Alad V and Jordas Golem Assassinates on Eris, and Duviri) on the connected Star Chart, including Dark Sectors, Lua, the Kuva Fortress, the Zariman Ten Zero, and Albrecht's Laboratories. Players can check on what nodes they need to complete by talking to the Arbitration representative in the Arbiters of Hexis' Relay enclave.
Note that this also entails completing the Ropalolyst node, which requires players to have completed the Chimera Prologue and all the story quests leading up to it. Completing the nodes on the Zariman Ten Zero and Albrecht's Laboratories will require the player to complete the Angels of the Zariman and Whispers in the Walls respectively, which requires completion of The New War, meaning players must have acquired both a Railjack and a Necramech.
Once players have Arbitrations unlocked, it will be displayed on the Operation window. From then on, Arbitrations will stay permanently unlocked even when new Star Chart nodes are added in future updates. There is only one Arbitration alert up at any given point on the Star Chart, changing nodes on an hourly basis. Arbitrations will only select nodes with endless missions (Defection, Defense, Disruption, Excavation, Infested Salvage, Interception, Mirror Defense, or Survival) and the enemy level range will start at 60-80.
Rules[]
- A Rank 30 Warframe or a Mastery Rank 30 player whose Warframe has been polarized once is required to play Arbitrations, similar to Sortie Missions.
- Once a player loses all their Health, they do not enter the Bleedout phase; they die instantly. Furthermore, they are not allowed to revive themselves.
- The missions sport modifiers unique to each:
- Excavation: Excavation time is increased from 100 seconds to 180 seconds, and takes two excavations to count for one round of rewards.
- Survival: Life Support Capsules are worth 75% of usual.
- Interception: Enemy towers fill twice as fast.
- Defense: The defense objective is a Hexis Operative NPC armed with
Telos Akbolto. Unlike Sortie Defense, the Operative follows a chosen player instead of roaming by themselves, and can't be given a weapon by a Tenno. Downtime between waves is reduced to 2 seconds. Like players, the Operative will not enter bleedout, and their death will be an instant mission failure.
- There is an exception for Excavation Site defense type in Grineer Sealab tileset, the Operative will be grounded within the area around one of the four cryopods, switching to another in each wave, and will only follow a chosen Tenno within that area.
- Defection: Rescue targets cannot be revived.
- Infested Salvage: Consoles have 15 times their normal health, but can not regenerate it by being exposed to a Vaporizer Bubble.
- Disruption: Demolyst and Demolisher beeping range is halved and are marked when within 15 meters of a Tenno (from 30 meters).
- While quitting the mission will not yield any rewards, failing the mission keeps any rewards earned at the end of a rotation, but not any resources or credits enemies may drop.
Arbitration Shield Drones[]
Arbitration Shield Drones will spawn among the enemy ranks. They function similarly to Shield Ospreys, but with multiple differences.
- Their tether provides complete immunity to Warframe abilities to nearby enemies. The drones themselves are also immune.
- They completely lack any weakspots, thus their shield gating cannot be bypassed and therefore cannot be killed in a single hit.
- Upon death, the drones explode, dealing 3,000
Blast damage to all enemy units in a radial effect, including other Arbitration Drones. - Up to a maximum of 5 Arbitration Shield Drones can appear in the field at any given time.
- Arbitration Shield Drones do not receive Overguard from Ancient Healers.
Bonuses[]
Rewards[]
Mission[]
Arbitration Alerts reward one unit of 
Vitus Essence for every rotation completed. Players can use their collected Vitus Essence to purchase unique items and mods from the Arbitration representative in the Relays' Hexis Enclave. Players will also get a 
50,000 Credit Reward on mission completion.
Arbitration Drones also have a 6% chance to drop Vitus Essence. Dropped essence will despawn after 5 minutes.
Rewards are on an AABBCCCC... rotation, as opposed to the AABC rotation used in normal missions. After the first four rotations (AABB), the Arbitration will continue on the C rotation endlessly.
For Excavation missions, rewards are given out every two completed digs instead of every one dig.
For Disruption missions, rewards tier is determined by the standard Disruption reward system with no alterations, dependent upon round and conduits defended.
| A | B | C | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Endo x900 |
44% | Endo x1200 |
44.5% | Endo x1500 |
33% |
| Ayatan Ayr Sculpture | 9% | Ayatan Piv Sculpture | 12% | Ayatan Orta Sculpture | 20% |
| Ayatan Sah Sculpture | 9% | Ayatan Vaya Sculpture | 12% | Vitus Essence x3 |
7% |
| Ayatan Valana Sculpture | 9% | Vitus Essence x3 |
7% |  Arcane Blade Charger |
5% |
| Vitus Essence x3 |
7% | Arcane Blade Charger |
5% |  Arcane Pistoleer |
5% |
 Arcane Bodyguard |
5% | Arcane Bodyguard |
5% |  Arcane Primary Charger |
5% |
| Arcane Pistoleer |
5% | Arcane Primary Charger |
5% |  Arcane Tanker |
5% |
| Arcane Tanker |
5% |  Adaptation |
2.5% |  Seeding Step Ephemera Blueprint |
5% |
| Adaptation |
2% | Combat Discipline |
2.5% | Aura Forma Blueprint |
4.5% |
| Aerodynamic |
2% | Shepherd |
2.5% | Combat Discipline |
3.5% |
| Combat Discipline |
2% | Aura Forma Blueprint |
2% | Melee Guidance |
3.5% |
| Aura Forma Blueprint |
1% | Swift Momentum |
3.5% | ||
Arbitration Honors[]
- Vitus Essence is used to buy items from the Arbitrations Vendor NPC in the Arbiters of Hexis room of any relay. Availability of wares are not affected by the player's reputation with the syndicate.
- Vitus Essence is also used to craft Ephemeras of the Body and Step series.
Vitus drop.
Notes[]
- Once the mission is entered and the first rotation is reached, the mission will be counted as completed and will not be available anymore upon returning to the Orbiter, regardless of failing, aborting, or leaving on rotation.
Tips[]
- The most common way to suddenly die is by an enemy grenade. They make a beeping noise and are shown by a red marker. Be wary of them, as they can blast through even the tankiest Warframes.
- At the beginning of the mission, ask how many waves your squad wants to finish. The last thing you want is to press your luck when most of your squad has left.
- During Defense missions, it is recommended to have at least one healer (
Trinity, 
Oberon, 
Wisp, 
Khora or one player using 
Protective Sling) to keep the target's health up. As the NPC will follow players, they can be better protected by huddling up in a narrow dead-end room/corridor, preferably with a single entrance. 
Adaptation, Quick Thinking, and Rolling Guard are useful non-Warframe-specific mods for improving the chance of survival.- Despite the presence of Warframe-specific bonuses, they will rarely make for more viable choices than survivability-focused Warframes. Survival is key to success, so it is helpful to use a Warframe with high survivability capabilities such as
Rhino, 
Nezha, 
Inaros, 
Chroma or 
Revenant.
- The bonus can open up alternative builds however, as it will provide high Ability Strength that would otherwise require several mod slots, capacity, and penalties from Corrupted mods.
- A Trinity for instance can focus entirely on Duration, Range, and her own survivability, while the bonus caps out her
Blessing's scaling.
- A Trinity for instance can focus entirely on Duration, Range, and her own survivability, while the bonus caps out her
- The bonus can open up alternative builds however, as it will provide high Ability Strength that would otherwise require several mod slots, capacity, and penalties from Corrupted mods.
- Arbitration Drones should ideally be taken out as quickly as possible. Weapons with punch through, large projectile hitboxes such as
Arca Plasmor or Catchmoon, area of effect weapons and explosive Glaives, or high damage single-target weapons like sniper rifles are all effective at this task.
- Glaives modded with Volatile Quick Return can hit twice with the initial hit and detonation, bypassing the Arbitration Drone's shield gate.
- Glaives modded with
- Support Specters are highly useful for keeping the party and defense targets alive.
- Trinity and Wisp Warframe specters can provide rapid healing. The former also offers great energy regeneration.
- Ancient Healer specters and Shield Osprey specters provide damage reduction and shield regeneration respectively.
- It isn't advised to use specters that do not prioritize following the player (Ancient Healer specter, Charger specter, etc.) in endless missions where mobility is key (Survival, Defection and Excavation).
- Other specters that have no special abilities or traits, such as the Charger or Roller specter are not recommended as their durability is very low and they tend to not follow the player. However they can serve as a distraction, drawing aggro away from Tenno.
- Vulpaphylas are indispensable in Arbitrations should they have Martyr Symbiosis and their respective Devolution precepts equipped as they can save their masters from certain death several times, provided they are not killed while the Vulpaphyla is reviving itself.
- A Wisp with a Glaive can be useful as the team's designated reviver for fallen allies, as she can safely kill enemies with her Glaive while remaining invisible either through her Passive or
Wil-O-Wisp, collecting the tokens necessary to do so.
Bugs[]
- The randomly selected Ability Strength and Weapon Damage bonuses may not consistently apply to all Prime Warframes and Prime Weapons.
- Resurgence tokens collected by players who did not revive the downed player will not always disappear.
- For example, P1 dies, P2 collects 2 tokens, P3 collects none, P4 collects 5 and revives P1.
- After P1 is revived, P2 will still have 2 tokens .
Trivia[]
- Arbitrations were originally known as "Elite Alerts" when they were pitched by the Development Team.
Patch History[]
Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)
- Fixed inconsistent capitalization in Node names when checking with the Arbiters of Hexis which Nodes must still be unlocked to gain access to Arbitrations.
Update 33.5 (2023-06-21)
- Fixed being able to join expired Arbitration missions.
Hotfix 33.0.5 (2023-05-03)
- Fixed Arbitrations being inaccessible due to the new Duviri navigation region.
- Arbitrations, like Steel Path, are unlocked when completing all of the nodes in the Origin System and do not require Duviri interaction.
Hotfix 32.3.6 (2023-03-15)
- Fixed the UI icon for fallen players in Arbitration missions being extremely pixelated.
Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)
- Added a mechanism which permanently unlocks Arbitration missions one you have completed all current mission nodes. Even if we add new mission nodes in the future, you will not lose access to Arbitrations.
- Arbitrations now give +500 Health to the chosen Warframe and 2 additional weapons will appear as buff eligible.
Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)
- FORMA MASTERY RANK CHANGES:
- Sorties and Arbitrations now allow Mastery Rank 30+ players that have put at least 1 Forma into their Warframe to bypass the "Rank 30 Warframe" requirement.
Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)
- Galvanized Mods
Our observation that Arsenal imbalance becomes obvious at higher level content means that we want your progression to this content to matter for your power level. We want to give you the tools to progress to optimal play with a new series of Mods: Galvanized Mods!
The general approach to these Galvanized Mods is that the unconditional upgrade is not quite as good as the non-Galvanized original, but the On Kill conditional increases them well above and beyond what is available with ‘conventional’ Mods in your Arsenal. These will be available from Arbitrations for Vitus Essence.
- New Galvanized Mods:
- Galvanized Crosshairs
- Galvanized Diffusion
- Galvanized Shot
- Galvanized Scope
- Galvanized Chamber
- Galvanized Aptitude
- Galvanized Hell
- Galvanized Acceleration
- Galvanized Savvy
- ARBITRATIONS CHANGES
- Doubled the Vitus Essence drop rate from Arbitration Drones to 6% from 3%!
- Vitus Essence will now remain on the ground for 5 minutes before disappearing. If the UI marker is blinking, be sure to get it before it’s gone!
Hotfix 30.3.2 (2021-05-27)
- Fixed a script error when dying in Arbitration due to a Status Effect.
Update 28.1 (2020-07-08)
- Fixed the 30 second warning Transmission from the Lotus not playing in Arbitration Survival missions.
Hotfix 27.5.4 (2020-05-20)
- Fixed an abrupt Mission Failed due to Arbitration Defense targets dying randomly when attempting to teleport to the player when falling behind or just simply falling through the ground to their demise. As reported here: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1194047-defense-arbitration-missions-spawning-bug-investigating/
Update 27.4 (2020-05-01)
- Fixed multiple script errors related to Host migrations in Arbitration missions.
- Fixed ending up with no UI if you were killed in an Arbitration mission before a Host migration and did not spawn until the migration was complete.
Update 27.3 (2020-03-24)
- NEW ARBITRATIONS MODS (Max Rank)
Add these new Mods to your Arsenal to spice up your life! These Mods can be purchased from the Arbitrations Honors store in Relays.
Preparation (Warframe)
+100% maximum Energy is filled on spawn.
Aerial Ace (Rifle)
On Kill: Refresh Double Jump up to 6x while Airborne.
Mending Shot (Rifle - No AoE)
Shoot Health Orbs to obtain them with +110% extra effect.
Energizing Shot (Pistol - No AoE)
Shoot Energy Orbs to obtain them with +110% extra effect.
Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)
- Fixed Conduit count in Arbitration Disruption missions going above the needed amount to extract (ex. 5/4).
Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)
- Reduced the number of Kavor Defector squads required for a reward in Defection Arbitration missions to match other mission types.
- Reward is now every 2 Defector squads instead of every 4 squads
Hotfix 25.7.6 (2019-09-18)
- Abritrations Revisited
Last week we released a Dev Workshop (link on those words: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1128051-arbitrations-revisited-part-2/) outlining our plans to improve Arbitrations, revisiting the droptables and improving reward frequency to be more consistent between modes. From new players who just completed the Star Chart, to veterans returning for new Arcanes and Aura mods, we hope these changes result in a more satisfying gameplay experience overall.
All changes are potentially subject to later changes based on feedback, so try out a few mission types and tell us your thoughts!
Reward and Rotation Changes:
In the original Arbitrations, Excavation missions were the clear outlier in terms of reward output for time spent. The following changes are intended to bring all other missions to the same level as Excavation, and also iterate on other community feedback:
- Arbitrations now use regular rotation length for their rewards, with the exception of Excavation. Excavation timers have been adjusted to compensate. Example:
- EX: In lieu of a reward every 10 waves of Defense, you will now receive a reward every 5 waves.
- Arbitration rotation cadence has been changed from “ABCCCCC...” to “AABBCCCCC...”, so that the same level of time investment is encouraged.
- Reduced Endo Rewards drop percentage in the drop tables. Rare non-endo reward drop rates are unchanged - you’ll just get twice as many chances!
- Arbiter Drones will now have a small chance to drop Vitus Essence on kill.
- Vitus Essence dropped by destroyed Arbitration drones will have the special pickup notification.
New Arbitration Rewards:
The following rewards have been added to the Arbitrations drop tables:
Stats shown at max rank*
- New Aura Mods:
- Aerodynamic: 6 seconds added to Aim Glide/Wall Latch time, decreases damage taken while Airborne by 24%*
- Swift Momentum: 30% faster Charge Attack speed, 6 seconds added to Melee Combo time*
- Shepherd: Increases Companion Armor by 180 and Companion Health by 300*
- Combat Discipline: Allies gain 20 Health when they make a kill, but the aura bearer loses 10 Health when the bearer makes a kill.*
- Melee Guidance: Reduces Melee Combo timer on Self by 6 seconds, increases Melee Combo timer for Allies by 12 seconds*
- New Arcanes:
- Arcane Primary Charger: On Melee Kill: 20% chance that Primary Weapon damage is increased by 200% for 8 seconds*
- Arcane Blade Charger: On Primary Weapon Kill: 20% chance that Melee damage is increased by 200% for 8 seconds*
- Arcane Pistoleer: On Pistol Headshot Kill: 30% chance to gain 100% ammo efficiency for 4 seconds*
- Arcane Bodyguard: On Six Melee Kills Within 30 seconds: Heal companion by 600*
- Arcane Tanker: On Heavy Weapon Summon: Gain 1200 armor for 16 seconds*
- Per usual rules, an equipped maximum rank Arcane will also grant an extra Arcane Revive
- Note: You may notice that the new Arcanes have default icons - we will be updating these in the near future with unique imagery.
- Added 3 x Vitus Essence bundle to the Arbitrations drop table.
Arbitrations Changes and Fixes:
- With the increased reward cadence resulting in more than double the Vitus Essence Output as before, prices in the Arbiter’s reward manifest have increased by roughly 1.5 times. To offset this change, we have run script to increase players’ existing Vitus stockpiles by an equivalent amount. Your Vitus should be increased to the correct amount upon login!
- Arbitration Disruption Missions:
- Changed the extraction requirements for Disruption missions in Arbitrations from 8 completed Conduits to 4.
- Added “extraction available” pop up when it is ready if the round is reached and 4/4 Conduits were completed.
- Fixed round counter missing from the UI.
Hotfix 25.7.4 (2019-09-05)
- Disruption Arbitration now requires 8 completed Conduits to extract. It was always meant to be 8, but Mainline didn’t include that change!
- Rewards are still given every other round: 4 Conduits per Round = 2 Rounds to extract.
Update 25.7 (2019-08-29)
- DISRUPTION EXPANSION
NOTE: New Nodes have been added which means to be eligible for Arbitrations, you must complete them!
Update 25.0 (2019-05-22)
- Slightly increased the drop rate of the Seeding Step Ephemera and Aura Forma Blueprint in Arbitrations.
Hotfix 24.8.2 (2019-04-30)
- Fixed not receiving rewards at End of Mission if you’re awaiting revival while extraction is triggered by the remaining squadmates.
- Fixed losing Arbitration Warframe/weapon buff each time a player respawns.
- Fixed the Resurgence Burden UI lingering on the screen saying 0/5 if a player is near a Revive tower and doesn't have any Resurgence Burdens and another player performs the Revive.
Hotfix 24.8.1 (2019-04-26)
- In an effort to increase visibility, both the Arbitration Shield Drone beam and Resurgence Burden colors have been changed to a more orange hue! We've also cranked up the contrast and added a more recognizable pulsing FX.
- Resurgence Burdens are no longer affected by Vacuum.
- All Resurgence Burdens will now be removed if the player needing revival leaves/dies, and if you die while carrying Resurgence Burdens.
- Changed the VITUS ILLUMINA EMOTE to its proper name of ILLUMINA JUDICIUM.
- Fixed losing all Resurgence Burdens after a Host migration if a player was still in need of revival.
Update 24.8 (2019-04-24)
- Arbitrations ‘Iteration 1’ Changes
Our goal with this update is to maintain the challenge that Arbitrations promised, while also ensuring that if you or a teammate is knocked out, they still have a chance to jump back into the fight! Iteration 1 brings the discussed Revival mechanic and enemy scaling changes to mirror normal Endless mission modes. We will be watching how these changes play out as we plan to iterate further on the mode in the future, with our next review for Arbitrations focusing on reward pacing.
- BE KIND, REVIVE
The rules of Arbitration death have shifted: players are still downed with no bleedout timer, but a Revive tower is now placed at the player’s spot of death. If any squadmate is awaiting Revival, the Arbitration Drones will begin dropping unique pickups known as a “Resurgence Burden”. These pickups function similar to Index points (otherwise known as “Financial Stress”), debuffing the players who carry them.
In order to revive a player, 5 of these Resurgence Burdens must be taken to their tower simultaneously. These 5 pickups can be delivered by one or multiple squadmates, but cannot be “dropped off” at the tower - it’s all or nothing!
- NEW REWARDS
You can now spend Vitus Essence in the Arbitrations Market to purchase Archgun Rivens (if you are below your Riven cap), as well as new cosmetics! The new cosmetic offerings include:
- AMPREX TELOS SKIN
- ATOMOS TELOS SKIN
- ATTERAX TELOS SKIN
- ILLUMINA JUDICIUM (name showing incorrectly in game. Will be hotfixed)
Let Arbitration begin.
A similar Emote style to the TennoCon 2019 Emote, the Illumina Judicium displays your true dedication to Arbitrations with a looping Vitus Illumina Glyph whilst doing an angsty Meditation pose.
- JUDICIAL OCULUS
Eyewear created by the Arbiters for those they deem worthy.
Also, enemies now have a chance to drop the elusive Aura Forma Blueprint! Craft Aura Forma to further customize your Warframe and fine-tune your Mod builds.
- General Arbitrations Changes
- Removed custom enemy level scaling from Defense, Survival, Interception, Excavation, Defection, and Infested Salvage modes in Arbitrations. Enemy scaling now mirrors normal Endless missions that increase as the missions progresses.
- Reduced Vitus Essence crafting cost for the Amber Star Blueprint from 2 to 1.
Hotfix 24.0.9 (2018-11-21)
- Fixed Arbitration Warframe Mods being usable in Archwing missions.
Hotfix 24.0.2 (2018-11-09)
- Fixed Arbitrations hint not appearing in the World State Window for players that have almost completed the Star Chart.
Update 24.0 (2018-11-08)
- Fixed Infested spore swarms spawned by Swarm Mutalist MOAs applying buffs to non-Infested agents (e.g. the Arbitration Drone).
- Fixed Arbitration Drones taking damage from Gara’s Splinter Storm.
- Fixed Arbitration boon selecting the MK1-Braton.
Hotfix 23.10.8 (2018-10-25)
- Fixed an AI bug in Arbitration Defense missions that was causing enemies to stand around after spawning.
- Slightly increased the hitbox of Arbitration Drones
Hotfix 23.10.7 (2018-10-24)
- Arbitration Drones are now exempt from Infested Ancient Healer Auras.
- Reduced Arbitration Defense Wave length to balance mission time played in comparison to Arbitration Survival missions.
Hotfix 23.10.6 (2018-10-18)
- Fixed loading into a default Dark Sector mission instead of the intended Arbitration mission.
Hotfix 23.10.5 (2018-10-18)
- Fixed Defection missions being unplayable when picked for an Arbitration.
- Fixed cases of Arbitration bonus not being applied to Prime Warframe variants. This applies to weapon variants as well (Cernos vs Rakta Cernos).
Hotfix 23.10.2 (2018-10-12)
- We have live fixed Arbitration missions rewarding the incorrect amount of Vitus Essence at End Of Mission, and inability to complete the Mastery Rank 26 test.
- Fixed earning multiple Ayatan Statues in an Arbitrations mission, but only receiving one once returning to your ship.
Update 23.10 (2018-10-12)
- Introduced.
Last updated: Hotfix 25.7.6 (2019-09-18)