The Index is a Corpus Arena-style endless Mission organized by Nef Anyo and hosted by Cephalon Sark on Neptune, pitting Tenno and elite Corpus to fight for credits and other prizes.

Mechanics[]

Investment[]

Before entering the Index, the player initiating the mission must select an Investment amount in Credits that each squad member must pay in order to enter. There are three different investments:

Each player in the squad will be asked to invest the same amount of credits, and in public matches, players will be matched with others participating in the same investment tier.

This Investment will determine the Point Target the Tenno team has, which is a designated amount of Index Points that the team must cumulatively deposit and score in the match. If the Tenno team achieves the Point Target during the match, their invested Credits will be returned and they will additionally receive the listed profit. The credit rewards are not split between each player; everyone receives the full amount. However, if the Tenno team wins the match by having more points than the opponent team of Anyo Corp but does not achieve the Point Target, their investment is reimbursed without interest for the last round. Previous rounds that had successfully completed the Point Target will still reward the team with the listed profit. If the team loses the match each player will lose their investment completely.

The listed return reward for winning is affected by a Credit Booster, although it does not appear on the mission complete reward screen (e.g. High Risk will reward 500,000 Credits every round). However, doubled credits from the Daily First Win Bonus, via the first mission completed after receiving a Daily Tribute, does not apply to the winnings from the Index.

Index Points[]

The match consists of an endless number of rounds, with players voting to continue or extract after each successful round. The goal of each round is to earn Index score for the team through the collection of Index Points, which are dropped by participants killed in battle. Represented as green, glowing diamonds, Index Points can be collected by walking over them, and then deposited to a designated bank location in order to earn the actual Index score. Every point deposited will add 10 more seconds to the timer, prolonging the match duration. When an enemy scores, the timer will go down by 10 seconds per point.

A player can hold multiple Index Points at once and will gain bonus points for depositing large amounts at once, as seen in the table below. Bonus points will not affect the duration of the timer. However, holding points will apply the Financial Stress debuff which reduces the player's max health and shields, constantly drains energy, but provides a damage buff. All these effects are proportional to the number of Index Points held and are delivered through the Financial Stress debuff displayed by the player's HUD to the upper right. Health And Shield debuff is capped at 10% of maximum modded values or 10, whichever is greater. Damage buff is capped at +148.5% damage.

Bonus points cap at +10 when reaching 20 points, therefore it is not recommended to carry more than 20 points, as there is no benefit in holding more. It is most efficient to cash in at 15 points, since only 2 additional bonus points are gained by holding 20 points.

The players' team will win if they score more Index Points than the opposing team before time runs out. If by the end of the match the players happen to tie, the tie goes to Nef Anyo.

If players meet the Point Target and are ahead of the opposing team, the game pauses and an extraction menu appears. Should players choose to continue onto the next round, the Point Target resets and can be reached again to yield a bigger credit payout, otherwise, they can leave with all their accumulated rewards. The wager is only subtracted once at the start of the match, and will not be subtracted again for choosing to continue onto the next round. However, enemy levels will slowly increase for the duration of the whole match, and if players continue and lose a round - they will forfeit all rewards, including those for the previous rounds.

Specter Fill-Ins[]

The Index must be played with four players; however, randomized Warframe Specters will assist the player and fill in unused spots on the team. These Specters can be  Mag,  Frost,  Wukong,  Ivara,  Ember or  Volt, each equipped with a small assortment of weapons and various color customizations. Their AI is akin to the advanced AI of the Investors, incorporating strategic use of abilities and parkour maneuvers. Additionally, they will attempt to protect the Specter or player with the highest points, loosely following them to provide some cover.

Warframe Specters will scale, however they can be more easily defeated than the player can in most cases, potentially giving Investors an easy way to obtain points.

Limitations[]

Health Orbs, Energy Orbs, and Ammo are only available at preset dispenser locations throughout the arena, spawning periodically. Companions and Gear cannot be brought into The Index though Warframe weapons, abilities, and mods will still function normally. Players have infinite lives, and will auto-respawn after 5 seconds of being killed or falling out of bounds.

Anyo Corp[]

Anyo Corp, also known as Brokers, are elite Corpus units that participate in the Index to oppose the Tenno. Unlike most bosses they are susceptible to most Tenno abilities, including  Nyx's  Mind Control. However, all of them possess extremely durable armor and shields, and some have certain tricks up their sleeve that make them considerably more formidable than regular Corpus units. These Brokers are divided into 4 different groups, with each group being selected at random as the opponents for each game.

John Prodman[]

John Prodman is a legendary Corpus Prod Crewman that can be encountered in The Index after 1 hour has passed at any risk level. Known as Anyo Corp's "Employee of the Month", he drops an autographed poster when defeated, which can be placed in the Orbiter as a decoration once the mission is successfully completed.

Rewards[]

Aside from the bonus Credits earned from completing an Index match, all Brokers have a chance to drop Index Mods. These mods enhance Companions and are special augments for certain Corpus-originating weapons:

Locations[]

Operation: The Index Preview[]

These rewards were available from October 20, 2016 to October 27, 2016 to introduce the game mode for the first time.

Inbox messages[]

Profit Considerations[]

Gameplay considerations aside, one way Index rounds can yield optimal credit profit is by scoring like so:

It is worth noting that in random teams (with few or no  Corrosive Projections or other armor-bypassing mechanics) killing speed is often much better in Low or Medium risk matches than in High risk ones.

Also, it is more profitable to stay in a match for a few rounds rather than leave and enter constantly, since wager is only paid once per match and profit is earned for each round. Staying longer reduces both the wager's effect on earnings and time wasted in transitions between matches. This has to be balanced against the enemy team's levels slowly rising for the duration of the entire match, thus making it more and more difficult to kill them with each subsequent round. E.g. by the end of 1st round enemies would be around (depending on how quickly the round ended) level 70-80, by the end of 2nd around 100-110, and so on.

All things considered, random and less-optimized teams can potentially gain significantly higher overall earnings-per-hour in Low or Medium risk matches rather than in High risk.

Maps[]

 

 Corpus

Gas Works 

 

 Corpus

Outpost 

Tips[]

• Most players will farm Credits often throughout their game progression, for which the Index is currently the best game mode. It's worth dedicating (and perhaps favoriting) an Index-specific loadout slot to.
• Having a credit booster doubles the reward. For example, if a double credits event is active and you hold a credit booster, you get quadruple the reward.
• As stated earlier, it is advised to bank in at 15 index points and no more, leading to the most efficient gains per point. If no carrier or other well-equipped player is present it can be safer to score at 5 points instead.
• Hosting a High Risk Index mission from Clan Dojo navigation will almost always guarantee the Corpus Outpost (ice) tileset.
• Host positions determine enemy spawn locations. Thus, having the host play in a corner of the map will make it more likely for enemies to spawn closer together to reduce need for chasing them around the arena.
• It is advised to use  Enemy Radar,  Enemy Sense,  Stealth Drift, and/or  Vigilante Pursuit to spot enemies from further than the base 30 meters.
•  Rhino's  Iron Skin and  Revenant's  Mesmer Skin allow them to ignore financial stress penalties as long as they can keep these abilities up, making them effective Index point carriers.
  •  Wisp is also a decent point carrier due to her stealth passive while in the air, combined with the buffs provided by her  Reservoirs.
•  Mesa's  Peacemaker and  Protea's  Blaze Artillery are perfect offensive choices to quickly kill the enemies from afar without the need to aim precisely, and let a teammate collect Index Points.
  • Protea's  Dispensary can also help provide crucial ammo and energy pickups for herself and others, given the severely limited supply in an Index combat zone.
• The following Warframes are effective at area denial to prevent Brokers from scoring:
• Khora is able to bring  Venari into The Index as she is a Warframe Ability, who can be modded with  Animal Instinct ( Primed) and  Fetch.
•  Wukong possesses high survivability in his passive and  Cloud Walker, along with his  Celestial Twin dealing significant damage.

Bugs[]

• Doubled credits from the Daily First Win Bonus, via the first mission completed after receiving a Daily Tribute, does not apply to the winnings from the Index, although "Mission Results" will claim that the bonus has been applied.
• Host Migration between rounds (e.g. the Host leaving) will almost every time cause the game to be unplayable for the remaining squad members. This can only be fixed with a restart of the game, therefore losing the progress.

Media[]

A player carrying a large number of index points at once

Warframe The Index (Message And Narration)

THE INDEX PREVIEW - Hooray for Capitalism Warframe

The Index Preview & All You Need To Know (Warframe)

Patch History[]

Last updated: Update 23.10 (2018-10-12)

See Also[]

• Rathuum, the Grineer equivalent arena with Kela De Thaym as host.