“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”

The following article/section contains spoilers.

For the Infested Kubrow, see Helminth Charger.

The Helminth is a being residing in the Helminth Infirmary of the Orbiter, behind a sealed door that requires special access methods to enter. It is responsible for the ship's "biological functions", namely the behind-the-scenes repair and maintenance of the Warframes.

While the Infestation in the room as a whole is a part of the Helminth itself, the "main body" of the Helminth can be considered the big mouth attached to the back wall, which it uses to swallow resources. The Tenno can interact with the Helminth's core functions by having their Warframe sit down on the infested chair in the center of the room.

Lore[]

It is revealed during The Sacrifice by Executor Ballas that the Helminth was created by the Orokin to convert human subjects into Infested-hybrids, giving birth to Warframes to be used in The Old War against the Sentients. According to Ballas' Vitruvian, when a subject is exposed to a Helminth strain, it transforms their skin into sword-steel, as well as interlinking their internal organs with untold resilience, while at the same time preventing the same Infestation from completely destroying their mind, or so the Orokin thought. However, the Helminth-strain Warframes, like the Sentients before them, proved impossible to control by their Orokin creators until the Operators came to pacify them and Transference technology was developed.

Helminth Cyst[]

The Helminth room becomes accessible for the first time after obtaining a Helminth Cyst from another infected player or by equipping  Nidus or  Nidus Prime.

At the center of the Helminth Infirmary is a chair that Nidus can sit on. Should the player choose to sit on the chair (in spite of Ordis's protests), a needle will inject the left side of the Nidus' neck and will release it afterward. This will infect him with the Helminth virus, and also "awaken" Helminth in the Infirmary, triggering its communications to the Tenno. 24 hours after the injection, a small, pink, Infested cyst will start growing at the site of injection. The cyst will continue to grow in size until 6 more days have passed, at which point it will be fully matured, as seen by the small tendrils sprouting from its surface. The player may drain the mature cyst while incubating a Kubrow to breed a new type of Companion, the Helminth Charger, from the Orbiter's Incubator Segment; a new cyst will appear 24 hours after draining it.

The injection will only occur once, and will not happen again to additionally built Nidus. However, Nidus can still receive the cyst from another infected player.

As long as Nidus is infected, any Warframes that come into contact with him will also contract the Helminth Virus. Players will know if they have been infected when they hear an 'injection' sound, and are briefly surrounded by a light, brown cloud. After 24 hours, the same cyst will appear on the newly infected Warframe. The now-infected Warframes can also spread the virus to other Warframes the same way as Nidus.

However, the virus can only be spread during missions, in a Clan Dojo, or in a player's Orbiter, and cannot be spread in Relays. Infected players can also spread the virus to players who have yet to complete The Glast Gambit or any of its prerequisite quests (namely The War Within). If a player's Warframe is infected during a mission, the mission must be completed in order for the virus to successfully be spread. Aborting the mission will prevent the Warframe from being infected in that mission, although they can still get infected at a later time.

In order to cure an infected Warframe of the virus, the player can enter any Warframe carrying a cyst, regardless of whether it is immature or has fully grown, into the Helminth Infirmary and interact with the chair and cure them of the infection. This not only removes the cyst from the Warframe but also inoculates them against further infection. This also prevents the inoculated Warframe (except  Nidus) from accessing the Helminth Infirmary until the Helminth Segment is acquired.

Other than affecting the Warframe's appearance, the Cyst has no positive or negative effects.

Ability Replacement[]

The Helminth has the ability to replace Warframe Abilities with those of other Warframes or even unique ones. It can be accessed through the Helminth Infirmary on the Orbiter, requiring the Helminth Segment whose blueprint is purchased from Son in the Necralisk for 15000 Standing and requires Mastery Rank 8 and Rank 3 - Associate with the Entrati. Alternatively, a built Helminth Segment can be purchased from the Market as part of the Helminth Segments Bundle for 300 Platinum.

Once the segment has been built and installed, the Helminth Infirmary will be permanently open, even without the Cyst or Nidus, and the ability to Fast Travel to the Helminth becomes available. Upon sitting on the chair to install the segment, the player is prompted to name the Helminth. The Helminth can be freely renamed using the console to the left of the entrance.

Subsuming Warframes[]

To subsume a Warframe, your Helminth must be at least Rank 1 Metamorphosis. Any built non-Prime/non-Umbra Warframe can be sacrificed to the Helminth, freeing an inventory slot while doing so. After 23 hours, the sacrificed Warframe will have one predetermined subsumed ability, as listed in the chart below, available for use through the Helminth. This permanently unlocks the ability to replace another Warframe's ability with said subsumed ability. For example, sacrificing a single  Mag Warframe will unlock her subsumed ability,  Pull, to be used on any other Warframe. Passives are not affected by the system.

Note that the Warframe does not have to be at max rank in order to be subsumed. Only one Warframe can be subsumed at a time, and the process can be rushed for 50 Platinum. There is also a limited number of subsumed abilities the Helminth can hold, which can be increased with the Helminth's Metamorphosis rank. The same Warframe cannot be subsumed more than once.

To subsume a Warframe, the currently equipped Warframe must be brought to the Helminth Infirmary. Sitting on the chair will prompt an option to "Subsume Warframe", with a note that the chosen Warframe will be consumed. Selecting this option will display the Warframe being sacrificed and their ability being taken, and prompts the player to type CONFIRM to confirm the subsuming. The sacrificed Warframe will then be rendered inert and held in the back of the room by the Helminth's tendrils to be slowly absorbed into its biomass, and the player will have their oldest Warframe auto-equipped.

Once fully subsumed, a Lotus flower with its colors matching the sacrificed Warframe will appear in the infirmary. The petals will match the primary color, stamen the secondary color, and stem the tertiary color. There will also be a glow emitting from the center of the flower matching the Energy color and petal veins will use the energy accent color. If no colors have been modified, the flower will use the Warframe's default colors.

Secretions[]

In order to subsume a Warframe or replace Warframe abilities with a subsumed one, the Helminth must be fed a certain number of resources from different categories to start the process. Almost all resources in the game can be used to feed the Helminth, which are then converted into specific Secretions which are then spent for various Helminth functions. Different resources generate different types of Secretions, which are consumed when feeding Helminth.

Category	Resources Consumed
Bile
Biotics
Calx
Oxides
Pheromones
Synthetics
Sentient Appetite

The Helminth starts out liking all available resources. Feeding it any resource temporarily reduces its preference to that resource. Thus at any particular moment the Helminth has a preferred diet of resources that it wants which affects the efficiency that the resource is converted into Secretions.

• A green upwards arrow on a resource means that the Helminth currently prefers that resource, thus increasing the amount of Secretions gained, up to a maximum of 30%.
• A red downwards arrow means the Helminth currently dislikes that resource, significantly reducing the amount of Secretions converted, to a minimum of 3%.
  • If a resource is disliked, the Helminth can be fed a resource from Sentient Appetite to restore its interest in its most disliked resource by 50% of the gauge. Sentient Appetite can be used until the disliked resource returns to neutral.
• No arrows means the Helminth is neutral towards the resource, converting it into the median amount of 15%.
•  Lucent Teroglobe (resulting in  Calx),  Pustulite (resulting in  Biotics) and  Ganglion (resulting in  Biotics) always result in double secretion (i.e. up to a maximum of 60% when these resources are preferred).

The Helminth will progress from liking a resource, to neutral, and finally losing appetite if the same resource is fed to it consecutively. Feeding order can also affect the number of resources that are converted: if the Helminth is fed a resource that it likes, feeding it with a different neutral or disliked resource will boost the conversion amount for them by a small amount.

The maximum amount of any Secretion is 100%, exceeding which will cause any excess to be wasted.

Over time, Helminth's appetite for consuming certain resources will gradually increase as long as those resources have not been fed to it. It will take 24 hours for a resource to go from fully red to neutral and another 24 hours from neutral to fully green.

Injecting and Replacing Abilities[]

Once Helminth subsumes an ability, it can replace any chosen Warframe's ability, including those on Prime or Umbra variants, via an injection. However, each Warframe can only have one subsumed ability, from either a Warframe or Helminth, per loadout configuration. Players can choose which mod configurations the injected ability can be used in. For example, an  Excalibur Prime could have  Pull replace their  Radial Javelin on their first mod config slot and keep Radial Javelin on the other two slots as normal. Reordering mod configurations will also move the injected ability with it.

Additionally, when placing a subsumed ability on  Chroma,  Mirage,  Rhino,  Octavia and  Xaku, the damage boosting abilities  Eclipse,  Roar, and  Xata's Whisper can only replace  Vex Armor,  Eclipse,  Roar,  Amp, and  Xata's Whisper respectively. Only the aforementioned combinations are restricted in such way; other damage buffs, for example  Shooting Gallery or  Smite ( Smite Infusion) can be injected into  Chroma to combine their buff with  Vex Armor.

The appropriate Warframe Augment Mods can be installed on the Warframe with the injected ability.

Ability changes are reversible, but Secretions consumed from the injection are not returned and re-injecting the ability will still have costs. Furthermore, while an ability can be injected into multiple configurations, it will always occupy the same ability slot in all configurations. Modifying which ability slot or the number of configurations an ability is injected into will require removal and re-injection of the ability, paying the Secretion cost again. If one wishes to have multiple loadouts ready in which the same ability is injected into different slots, another copy of the Warframe is required.

There is no warning when placing an ability on an already occupied mod config slot. The infusing process goes as usual.

[]

Feeding resources, subsuming Warframes, and injecting abilities using the Helminth will upgrade its Metamorphosis rank. Additional ranks gained will provide new unlocks, such as increase the capacity of subsumable Warframe slots, or unlock new unique Helminth abilities for use.

Rank	Experience From Previous Rank	Experience From Rank 0	Unlocks
0	0	0	Unlock Ability:  Empower Increase the strength of your next ability use. Unlock Ability:  Infested Mobility Increase your parkour velocity. Unlock Ability:  Master's Summons Heal your companion and call it to your side.
1	2250	2250	Warframe Subsuming + 3 Subsume Slots Subsume Warframes into the Helminth to allow infusing one of their abilities into other Warframes. Also grants 3 subsume slots, which are used when a Warframe is subsumed.
2	3375	5625	Unlock Ability:  Rebuild Shields Instantly restore your shields.
3	4500	10125	Unlock Ability:  Perspicacity Automatically succeed at your next hack attempt.
4	5625	15750	10 Subsume Slots Slots used to subsume Warframes into the Helminth.
5	6750	22500	Unlock Ability:  Energized Munitions Increase the efficiency of your ammo consumption.
6	7875	30375	Unlock Ability:  Marked For Death Stun an enemy; a portion of the next damage you deal to it will be dealt to all enemies around it.
7	9000	39375	20 Subsume Slots Slots used to subsume Warframes into the Helminth.
8	10125	49500	Sentient Appetite Feed Sentient resources to the Helminth, to increase its appetite for one resource that it no longer craved.
9	11250	60750	Unlock Ability:  Expedite Suffering Affect enemies in a cone, removing any  Bleed and  Poison status from them and dealing any remaining damage not yet suffered in a single burst.
10	12375	73125	Unbound Subsume Unlimited Subsume Slots.
11	13500	86625	Unlock Ability:  Parasitic Armor Sacrifice Shields to reinforce Armor for a period of time.
12	14625	101250	Unlock Ability:  Hideous Resistance Grant yourself immunity to Status effects.
13	15750	117000	Unlock Ability:  Voracious Metastasis Consume Energy to heal yourself and grant matching Energy to each ally.
14	16875	133875	Unlock Ability:  Sickening Pulse Emit a pulse that adds stacks to Status Effects already afflicting enemies, except  Bleed,  Heat, and  Toxin effects which are duplicated with fresh timers.
15	18000	151875	Unlock Ability:  Golden Instinct Send out a short-lived Void Spark that is drawn toward the nearest Medallion, Ayatan Sculpture, rare crate, unscanned Kuria or unscanned Fragment.

Subsumable Abilities[]

Warframe	Subsumable Abilities	Applicable Augments	General Gameplay Role	Notes	Secretions For Subsuming	Secretions For Injecting	Experience Gained per Injection
Ash	Shuriken	Seeking Shuriken	Armor Strip	—	Calx 50%  Pheromones 77%  Bile 80%	Oxides 51%  Biotics 38%  Synthetics 17%	848
Atlas	Petrify	Ore Gaze	Crowd Control Farming	Petrified enemies do not drop Rubble.	Oxides 75%  Synthetics 57%  Bile 80%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%	784
Banshee	Silence	Savage Silence	Damage DebuffDisable Enemy Abilities Stealth	—	Biotics 80%  Pheromones 54%  Bile 80%	Oxides 52%  Calx 22%  Synthetics 23%	776
Baruuk	Lull	Endless Lullaby	Crowd Control Stealth	—	Oxides 51%  Synthetics 79%  Pheromones 80%	Calx 33%  Biotics 58%  Bile 10%	808
Caliban	Sentient Wrath	—	Crowd Control Damage Debuff	—	Calx 71%  Synthetics 71%  Pheromones 72%	Oxides 47%  Biotics 14%  Bile 37%	784
Citrine	Fractured Blast	—	Crowd ControlHealing Energy Restore	ALTERED: Diminished Strength Damage reduced to 125 / 150 / 200 / 250, Health Orb drop chance reduced to 25%, and Energy Orb drop chance reduced to 10%.	Oxides 75%  Synthetics 57%  Bile 80%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%
Chroma	Elemental Ward	Everlasting Ward	Support	Elemental Ward versions of the ability are determined by the chosen Warframe Primary Emission Color.	Calx 80%  Synthetics 48%  Pheromones 80%	Oxides 32%  Biotics 34%  Bile 31%	776
Dagath	Wyrd Scythes	—	Crowd Control Damage	ALTERED: Diminished Slow. Slow is reduced to 15% / 18% / 22% / 26%.	Calx 72.5%  Synthetics 55%  Pheromones 65%	Calx 77%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%	?
Dante	Dark Verse	—	Damage	—	Calx 82.5%  Synthetics 55%  Pheromones 65%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%	?
Ember	Fire Blast	Healing Flame  Purifying Flames	Crowd ControlArmor Strip Healing	ALTERED: No Overguard From Healing Flames Augment Armor reduction per cast is capped at 75%. Healing Flame heals for 37 health for each enemy hit and does not grant Overguard.	Calx 80%  Biotics 49%  Bile 80%	Oxides 18%  Synthetics 18%  Pheromones 59%	760
Equinox	Rest & Rage	Calm & Frenzy	Crowd ControlDamage Debuff Stealth	Rest or Rage versions of the ability are determined by the chosen Warframe Primary Emission Color.	Oxides 80%  Biotics 62%  Bile 64%	Calx 16%  Synthetics 15%  Pheromones 72%	824
Excalibur	Radial Blind	Radiant Finish	Crowd Control	—	Biotics 80%  Pheromones 52%  Bile 80%	Oxides 50%  Calx 27%  Synthetics 24%	808
Frost	Ice Wave	Ice Wave Impedance	Crowd Control	—	Calx 68%  Synthetics 70%  Pheromones 70%	Oxides 11%  Biotics 61%  Bile 30%	816
Gara	Spectrorage	Spectrosiphon	Crowd Control Energy Restore	—	Calx 77%  Biotics 55%  Bile 80%	Oxides 28%  Synthetics 27%  Pheromones 49%	832
Garuda	Blood Altar	—	Healing	—	Calx 71%  Synthetics 71%  Pheromones 72%	Oxides 47%  Biotics 14%  Bile 37%	784
Gauss	Thermal Sunder	Thermal Transfer	Crowd ControlNuking Damage Buff	ALTERED: Scaling from  Heat Status on enemies capped to 10x Ability Damage. Damage is equivalent to 50% of Gauss's battery; 225 / 300 / 375 / 450  Cold damage and 450 / 600 / 750 / 900  Heat damage.	Oxides 46%  Pheromones 80%  Bile 80%	Calx 50%  Biotics 15%  Synthetics 35%	800
Grendel	Nourish	Hearty Nourishment	Crowd ControlDamage Buff Energy Restore	ALTERED: Self-Heal Removed and Effect Reduced No self healing, armor applies only 1  Viral stack, energy multiplier is reduced to ? / ? / ? / 1.6x, and  Viral weapon bonus damage is reduced to +?% / +?% / +?% / +45%. Does not have a swallowed enemy requirement, as other Warframes cannot cast  Feast.	Oxides 53%  Biotics 80%  Synthetics 80%	Calx 33%  Pheromones 16%  Bile 50%	792
Gyre	Coil Horizon	—	Damage Crowd Control	—	Calx 67%  Biotics 73%  Pheromones 71%	Oxides 17%  Synthetics 71%  Bile 12%	800
Harrow	Condemn	Tribunal	Crowd Control Shield Restore	Other Warframes cannot benefit from the Tribunal augment, due to their inability to cast  Penance and  Thurible.	Oxides 80%  Calx 56%  Pheromones 80%	Biotics 20%  Synthetics 62%  Bile 20%	816
Hildryn	Pillage	Blazing Pillage	Defense StripShield Restore Status Cleanse	Costs 50 Energy instead of consuming Shields. Does not generate shields for  Inaros and  Nidus. Other Warframes cannot benefit from the Blazing Pillage augment, due to their inability to cast  Haven.	Calx 54%  Biotics 74%  Pheromones 80%	Oxides 52%  Synthetics 26%  Bile 24%	816
Hydroid	Tempest Barrage	Viral Tempest	Crowd Control Armor Strip	—	Oxides 79%  Calx 80%  Synthetics 51%	Biotics 36%  Pheromones 34%  Bile 32%	816
Inaros	Desiccation	Desiccation's Curse	Crowd Control	—	Calx 73%  Biotics 80%  Bile 53%	Oxides 17%  Synthetics 14%  Pheromones 70%	808
Ivara	Quiver	Empowered Quiver  Power of Three	Stealth	Tap-cast for Cloak, hold-cast for Noise. Sleep and Dashwire arrows not available. Tap/hold cast inversion in Settings menu still applies.	Calx 67%  Biotics 73%  Pheromones 71%	Oxides 17%  Synthetics 71%  Bile 12%	800
Jade	Ophanim Eyes	—	Crowd Control Defense Strip	ALTERED: Cannot revive allies.	Calx 82.5%  Synthetics 55%  Pheromones 65%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%	?
Khora	Ensnare	—	Crowd Control	—	Oxides 67%  Calx 70%  Synthetics 68%	Biotics 61%  Pheromones 18%  Bile 18%	776
Kullervo	Wrathful Advance	—	Damage Buff Movement	ALTERED: Diminished Range and Melee Critical Chance Range reduced to 10 / 11 / 11.5 / 12.5 meters and melee critical chance reduced to 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%.	Calx 82.5%  Synthetics 55%  Pheromones 65%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%
Lavos	Vial Rush	—	Damage Buff Crowd Control	Costs 0 energy with a 5 second cooldown. Base ability does not include hold-cast to imbue the next ability cast with  Cold damage.	Calx 77%  Biotics 55%  Bile 80%	Oxides 28%  Synthetics 27%  Pheromones 49%	832
Limbo	Banish	Rift Haven	Crowd Control Support	Base ability includes hold-cast to cancel the ability, releasing all affected targets from the Rift. Non-Limbo Warframes remain unable to step into the Rift Plane themselves without another player's Banish,  Cataclysm or portals from Limbo's passive.	Oxides 48%  Synthetics 80%  Pheromones 80%	Calx 30%  Biotics 62%  Bile 10%	816
Loki	Decoy	Damage Decoy  Deceptive Bond  Savior Decoy	Crowd Control	—	Oxides 53%  Pheromones 80%  Bile 80%	Calx 59%  Biotics 18%  Synthetics 18%	760
Mag	Pull	Greedy Pull	Crowd Control	ALTERED: Diminished Range Range reduced to 7.5 / 10 / 11 / 12.5 meters.	Oxides 72%  Calx 71%  Synthetics 68%	Biotics 21%  Pheromones 23%  Bile 61%	840
Mesa	Shooting Gallery	Muzzle Flash	Damage Buff Crowd Control	—	Oxides 80%  Calx 80%  Biotics 48%	Synthetics 35%  Pheromones 51%  Bile 15%	808
Mirage	Eclipse	Total Eclipse	Damage Buff Damage Reduction	ALTERED: Diminished Effectiveness Damage bonus reduced to 2% / 9% / 15% / 30% and damage reduction cap reduced to 75%. Limited to 1 damage buffing ability per Warframe.	Oxides 67%  Calx 72%  Bile 68%	Biotics 50%  Synthetics 34%  Pheromones 16%	800
Nekros	Terrify	Creeping Terrify	Armor Strip Crowd Control	—	Oxides 80%  Biotics 80%  Pheromones 52%	Calx 15%  Synthetics 12%  Bile 71%	784
Nezha	Fire Walker	Pyroclastic Flow	Crowd ControlMovement Speed Status Cleanse	—	Oxides 68%  Calx 68%  Synthetics 68%	Biotics 34%  Pheromones 34%  Bile 33%	808
Nidus	Larva	Larva Burst	Crowd Control	ALTERED: Diminished Range Radius reduced to 5.33 / 6 / 6.67 / 8 meters.	Biotics 80%  Pheromones 80%  Bile 80%	Oxides 80%  Calx 31%  Synthetics 10%	968
Nova	Null Star	Neutron Star	Damage Reduction	—	Oxides 80%  Biotics 69%  Synthetics 63%	Calx 22%  Pheromones 18%  Bile 58%	784
Nyx	Mind Control	Mind Freak	Crowd Control Support	—	Oxides 80%  Biotics 80%  Bile 49%	Calx 32%  Synthetics 32%  Pheromones 30%	752
Oberon	Smite	Smite Infusion	Crowd Control Damage Buff	—	Calx 80%  Pheromones 49%  Bile 80%	Oxides 14%  Biotics 80%  Synthetics 13%	856
Octavia	Resonator	Conductor	Damage Crowd Control	Uses the default Mandachord song.	Calx 80%  Biotics 60%  Bile 73%	Oxides 34%  Synthetics 36%  Pheromones 32%	816
Protea	Dispensary	Repair Dispensary	Healing Energy Restore	ALTERED: Diminished Duration Duration reduced to 5 / 7.5 / 10 / 12.5 seconds.	Calx 58%  Biotics 80%  Synthetics 74%	Oxides 21%  Pheromones 23%  Bile 60%	832
Qorvex	Chyrinka Pillar	—	Damage Crowd Control	—	Calx 82.5%  Synthetics 55%  Pheromones 65%	Calx 19%  Biotics 19%  Pheromones 60%	?
Revenant	Reave	Blinding Reave	HealingShield Restore Invulnerability	—	Oxides 80%  Calx 80%  Bile 55%	Biotics 35%  Synthetics 32%  Pheromones 34%	808
Rhino	Roar	Piercing Roar	Damage Buff	ALTERED: Diminished Damage Increase Damage bonus reduced to 2% / 9% / 15% / 30%. Limited to 1 damage buffing ability per Warframe.	Oxides 80%  Biotics 80%  Pheromones 80%	Calx 37%  Synthetics 12%  Bile 77%	1008
Saryn	Molt	Regenerative Molt	Crowd Control Healing Movement Speed	—	Biotics 80%  Pheromones 80%  Bile 52%	Oxides 14%  Calx 46%  Synthetics 35%	760
Sevagoth	Gloom	—	Crowd Control Healing	—	Calx 77%  Biotics 55%  Bile 80%	Oxides 28%  Synthetics 27%  Pheromones 49%	832
Styanax	Tharros Strike	—	Crowd ControlDefense Strip Healing	—	Biotics 80%  Pheromones 52%  Bile 80%	Oxides 50%  Calx 27%  Synthetics 24%	?
Titania	Spellbind	Spellbound Harvest	Crowd Control Status Cleanse	Spellbound Harvest augment grants 50 shields if used on  HildrynConfirmation needed	Oxides 63%  Calx 80%  Bile 66%	Biotics 16%  Synthetics 12%  Pheromones 70%	784
Trinity	Well of Life	Pool of Life	Healing Crowd Control	Base ability includes heal over time over large radius. Percentage of damage dealt to the target converts into area healing.	Oxides 50%  Synthetics 80%  Bile 80%	Calx 38%  Biotics 17%  Pheromones 52%	856
Valkyr	Warcry	Eternal War	Attack Speed Buff Crowd Control	ALTERED: Diminished Speed Increase Attack Speed bonus reduced to 9% / 12% / 15% / 30%.	Oxides 72%  Biotics 68%  Pheromones 68%	Calx 30%  Synthetics 59%  Bile 10%	792
Vauban	Tesla Nervos	Tesla Bank	Crowd Control	—	Oxides 48%  Calx 80%  Biotics 80%	Synthetics 52%  Pheromones 23%  Bile 23%	784
Volt	Shock	Shock Trooper	Crowd Control Damage Buff	—	Oxides 80%  Biotics 48%  Pheromones 80%	Calx 31%  Synthetics 10%  Bile 61%	816
Voruna	Lycath's Hunt	—	Healing Energy Restore	ALTERED: Passive Removed Health and Energy Orb drop chance reduced to 50% and cannot activate the Heavy Attack Efficiency passive.	Oxides 72%  Biotics 68%  Pheromones 68%	Calx 30%  Synthetics 59%  Bile 10%
Wisp	Breach Surge	Critical Surge	Damage Crowd Control	Other Warframes cannot benefit from the Critical Surge augment, due to their inability to cast  Reservoirs.	Oxides 45%  Synthetics 80%  Bile 80%	Calx 23%  Biotics 26%  Pheromones 51%	800
Wukong	Defy	—	InvulnerabilityArmor Bonus Status Cleanse	ALTERED: Diminished Max Armor Armor bonus cap reduced to 750.	Synthetics 80%  Pheromones 80%  Bile 80%	Oxides 30%  Calx 62%  Biotics 29%	968
Xaku	Xata's Whisper	—	Damage Buff	Limited to 1 damage buffing ability per Warframe.	Oxides 53%  Calx 80%  Bile 80%	Biotics 19%  Synthetics 22%  Pheromones 57%	784
Yareli	Aquablades	Surging Blades	Crowd Control Damage	—	Calx 60%  Pheromones 60%  Bile 60%	Biotics 36%  Pheromones 34%  Bile 32%	800
Zephyr	Airburst	Airburst Rounds	Crowd Control Damage Buff	Base ability includes tap-cast for wind vacuum, hold-cast for wind explosion.	Oxides 80%  Biotics 80%  Bile 47%	Calx 33%  Synthetics 14%  Pheromones 47%	752

Helminth Abilities[]

The Helminth possesses its own set of unique abilities unlocked by ranking up through Metamorphosis. These abilities have their own stats and functions, allowing the player to customize their loadout further. Only one Helminth ability may occupy one ability slot in a loadout configuration at a time. Helminth abilities also count as an ability replacement preventing other subsumed Warframe abilities from occupying the same ability loadout. Mods that affect Ability Duration, Ability Efficiency and Ability Strength all function normally on them.

Helminth abilities can be cast with the hotkey assigned to the ability slot it occupies (e.g. default 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ).

See Helminth#Injecting and Replacing Abilities on replacing one of a Warframe's abilities with these.

	N/A 50	Sickening Pulse Emit a pulse that adds stacks to Status Effects already afflicting enemies, except Bleed, Heat, and Toxin effects which are duplicated with fresh timers. Introduced in Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)	Strength:N/A
Duration:2 s (expansion duration)
Range:5 m / 6 m / 7 m / 8 m (pulse initial radius)
Misc: 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 m/s (expansion distance per sec) 10 status stacks / 1 status stack ( Heat,  Slash, and  Toxin)
Subsumable to Helminth

Strength Mods	Duration Mods	Range Mods

Invigoration[]

In addition to injecting abilities, the Helminth can be further enhanced to Invigorate a Warframe, providing randomly selected temporary buffs. Invigorations require installing the Helminth Invigoration Segment, whose blueprint can be purchased from Son in the Necralisk for 30000 Standing and requires Mastery Rank 8 and Rank 5 - Family with the Entrati. Alternatively, a built Helminth Invigoration Segment can be purchased from the Market as part of the Helminth Segments Bundle for 300 Platinum.

Three random Warframes, each with their own random set of one offense and one utility buffs from the chart below, are chosen to receive Invigorations per week starting on Monday at 0:00 UTC. The buffs last for seven days.

After ten Invigorations, the Invigoration counter is replaced by an "Override Warframe" button that allows the player to change one of the randomly generated Warframe options to their currently equipped Warframe, including into one that has already received Invigorations. However, Warframes cannot receive a second Invigoration when it already has a previous one active. Once this option is consumed, the Invigoration counter resets, and the player once again needs ten Invigorations to reactivate the override. The override allows four warframes to be invigorated that week (up to seven at the same time).

Warframe Weighting[]

The chance a specific Warframe is chosen to receive an Invigoration for the week is weighted.^[1] A Warframe with a weighting of 1.00 is neutral, a weighting above 1.00 increases their chance to be selected for the week, and a weighting below 1.00 decreases their chance to be selected for the week.

Possible Buffs[]

† Affects Exalted Weapons of the appropriate class. For example, primary buffs will affect  Artemis Bow and secondary buffs will affect  Balefire Charger. Warframe abilities that inherit modded stats of melee weapons will also inherit invigoration buff (e.g.  Whipclaw and  Landslide)
‡ Not eligible for  Hildryn and  Lavos
* Additively stacks with bonuses of the same type
^ Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied

Invigoration Costs[]

Invigorating a Warframe will consume two different types of secretions, each varying between 20% to 90% cost. The costs are randomized each time a Warframe and their buffs are available for invigoration.

Archon Shard[]

The Helminth can be enhanced to imbue Archon Shards obtained from Archon Hunts to the currently equipped Warframe, providing permanent stat bonuses. Archon Shard imbuing requires installing the Helminth Archon Shard Segment, whose blueprint is obtained from completion of the Veilbreaker quest.

Each Shard provides a selection from five stats and only one can be chosen per Shard (though the same bonus can be chosen again if multiple Shards of the same colour are socketed in the same Warframe), and each Warframe has 5 available Shard slots. Tauforged Archon Shards provide 1.5x stronger boosts than their normal counterparts.

Shards can be unsocketed and returned at the cost of 30%  Bile.

Once a shard has been socketed, it will appear in the Arsenal for that Warframe for quicker access to the imbuement system.

There are three primary Shard colors:  Crimson Archon Shard,  Amber Archon Shard, and  Azure Archon Shard

Fusion[]

Upon reaching Rank 2 - Researcher in the  Cavia Syndicate, the blueprint for the Helminth Coalescent Segment becomes available for purchase from Bird 3 for 30,000 Standing. This segment allows the player to fuse Archon Shards to grant them more power.

Coalescent Fusion[]

Coalescent Fusion allows the player to fuse two of the three primary Shard colors to form a new type of Archon Shard, featuring unique upgrades.

When selecting the Coalescent Fusion option in the Archon Shard menu, the player will be prompted to choose from any of the unslotted Shards they own. Normal Archon Shards can only be fused with other normal Shards; likewise, only Tauforged Shards can be fused with other Tauforged Shards to create a Tauforged variant. Once a selection has been made, the Helminth requires a sacrifice of 50  Stela to commence fusion.

The fusion is permanent and cannot be reversed. The player is prompted to type CONFIRM before fusing.

Ascent Fusion[]

Ascent Fusion allows fusing three primary Shard colors to convert them into a Tauforged.

When selecting the Ascent Fusion option in the Archon Shard menu, the player will be prompted to choose from any of the unslotted primary color Shards they own. Once a selection has been made, the Helminth requires a sacrifice of 100  Stela to commence fusion.

The fusion is permanent and cannot be reversed. The player is prompted to type CONFIRM before fusing.

Shard Buffs[]

Stats in parenthesis refer to Tauforged Archon Shards.

 Crimson Archon Shard[]

 Amber Archon Shard[]

• +30% (+45%) Maximum Energy is filled on Spawn
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Preparation
• +100% (+150%) Effectiveness on Health Orbs
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Mending Shot
  • Bonus does not affect  Equilibrium's conversion.
    • Bonus does affect  Equilibrium's conversion on Health Orbs from dispensers in Arena gamemodes.
• +50% (+75%) Effectiveness on Energy Orbs
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Energizing Shot
  • Bonus does not affect  Equilibrium's conversion.
    • Bonus does affect  Equilibrium's conversion on Energy Orbs from dispensers in Arena gamemodes.
  •  Zenurik's  Energy Pulse is applied after the effects. With one Shard, Energy Pulse will grant ⌊25 * 1.5 * 0.5⌋ = 18 energy over 5 seconds, as opposed to ⌊25 * 0.5⌋ = 12.
• +25% (+37.5%) Casting Speed
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Natural Talent
• +15% (+22.5%) Parkour Velocity
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Mobilize

 Azure Archon Shard[]

• +150 (+225) Health
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied
• +150 (+225) Shield Capacity
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied
  • Not eligible for  Inaros,  Kullervo, and  Nidus, as they don't possess Shields
• +50 (+75) Energy Max
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied
  • Not eligible for  Hildryn and  Lavos, as they don't use Energy as a resource
• +150 (+225) Armor
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied
• +5 (+7.5) Health/s Regenerated
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied

 Violet Archon Shard ( Crimson +  Azure)[]

• Gain +10% (+15%) Ability Damage on enemies affected by  Electricity Status.
  • Ability Damage bonus is a unique modifier, and is only given by Archon Shards.
  • Ability Damage bonus does not double dip on Status Damage caused by abilities.
• Gain +30% (+45%) Primary  Electricity Damage. Gain an additional +10% (+15%) per Crimson, Azure, or Violet Archon Shard equipped.
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Stormbringer.
• Gain +25% (+37.5%) Melee Critical Damage. When max Energy is over 500, the damage boost doubles.
  • Critical Damage bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Organ Shatter.
  • Affects Exalted Weapons of the appropriate class, and abilities that inherit modded stats of melee weapons such as  Whipclaw.
• Health pickups give +20% (+30%) Energy. Energy pickups give +20% (+30%) Health.
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Equilibrium.

 Topaz Archon Shard ( Crimson +  Amber)[]

• Gain 1 (2) Health per enemy killed with  Blast Damage. Max 300 (450) Health.
  • Flat value increase after all bonuses are applied
  • Bonus is reset upon consuming a revive.
• Regenerate +5 (+7.5) Shields when you kill an enemy with  Blast Damage.
  • Does not generate Overshields.
  • Does not apply when Shield Gating occurs; players must wait for shields to recharge for the effect to apply.
• Increase Secondary Critical Chance by 1% (1.5%) every time you kill an enemy affected by  Heat Status. Max 50% (75%).
  • Critical Chance bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Pistol Gambit
  • Bonus is reset upon consuming a revive.
  • Critical Chance gained on kill and Maximum Critical Chance bonus stacks with each shard embedded for this bonus. For example, a Tauforged and a normal shard embedded in the same Warframe will grant a per-kill bonus of +2.5%, resulting in a maximum of 125%.
• Gain +10% (+15%) Ability Damage on enemies affected by  Radiation Status.
  • Ability Damage bonus is a unique modifier, and is only given by Archon Shards.
  • Ability Damage bonus does not double dip on Status Damage caused by abilities.

 Emerald Archon Shard ( Amber +  Azure)[]

•  Toxin Status Effects deal +30% (+45%) more damage.
  • Bonus is additive with similar buffs such as  Boreal's Contempt.
• Recover +2 (+3) Health each time enemies are damaged by a  Toxin Status Effect.
• Gain +10% (+15%) Ability Damage on enemies affected by  Corrosion Status.
  • Ability Damage bonus is a unique modifier, and is only given by Archon Shards.
  • Ability Damage bonus does not double dip on Status Damage caused by abilities.
• Increase max stacks of  Corrosion Status by +2 (+3).
  • Increase is applied to Status Capped enemies.

Notes[]

• A fully subsumed Warframe will leave behind a Lotus flower that inherits the colors that were on the Warframe.
  • The upper, broad part of the petals (blade) uses the primary color.
  • The lower, narrow part of the petals (claw) and the pistil uses the secondary color.
  • The stem uses the tertiary color.
  • Energy glow uses energy color.
  • Petal veins uses energy accent color.
• If subsuming completes while aboard the Orbiter, the flower will not appear until the next time the player enters their Orbiter. The Subsumed Warframe will also simply vanish.
• Of the 6 main secretions that Helminth uses, subsuming a Warframe will use three and Infusing that ability will use the other three.
  • For example, Subsuming  Excalibur costs Biotics, Pheromones, and Bile, and Infusing  Radial Blind costs Oxides, Calx, and Synthetics.
• The decoys left by  Decoy and  Molt have their appearances altered to match the Warframe using them.
  • This includes Decoy's  Lato on normal Warframes and  Lex Prime on Prime Warframes.
• Subsuming all 57 Warframes currently in game grants a total of 91,200 cumulative experience; enough to reach Helminth Rank 11 as of Update 36.0 (2024-06-18). Note that this value does not take into account feeding resources to the Helminth to restore Secretions, so players can expect to reach Helminth Rank 11 sooner than expected.

Unique Subsuming Interactions[]

Some Warframes have unique mechanics that affect injected abilities. Alternatively, they may lose access to such mechanics when replacing an ability:

•  Excalibur Umbra will use  Mind Control when autonomous, however, it will prematurely end if the player uses Transference. This is the same with all subsumed abilities, with Umbra preferring to use his first ability when summoned.
•  Splinter Storm from  Gara does not appear to be able to affect the damage absorb on  Mind Control.
• Subsumed abilities injected to  Hildryn will cost shield points instead of energy, with their costs multiplied by 10 times.
• Replacing  Khora's  Venari will only remove the ability to command  Venari, change her posture, resummon her, and the ability to equip  Venari Bodyguard. Venari will still be present and boost Khora's movement speed while alive, due to also being part of her Passive.
• Subsumed abilities injected to  Lavos costs no energy, instead having a 10 second cooldown that begins after the ability was cast.
  •  Transmutation Probe's cooldown reduction affects subsumed abilities.
  • On non-recastable abilities (e.g.  Roar), the cooldown begins after the ability's duration expires, unless modded with an augment that allows it to be recastable (e.g.  Piercing Roar).
  • On channeled abilities (e.g.  Gloom), they instead have a 12 second base duration, affected by  Ability Duration.
  • Subsumed abilities removes Lavos's ability to elementally imbue the original ability it replaced. In addition, Lavos cannot elemental imbue subsumed abilities.
• Replacing  Sevagoth's  Exalted Shadow will remove his Death Well gauge as well as his ability to use  Sevagoth's Shadow's  Embrace,  Consume,  Death's Harvest,  Reunite, and  Shadow Claws. However, Sevagoth will still enter his Tombstone, command his Shadow, and use Consume on Bleedout, due to also being part of his Passive.
  • Sevagoth's Shadow abilities cannot be replaced by Helminth.
• Subsumed abilities removes  Voruna's ability to passive imbue the original ability it replaced.
• Elemental boosting abilities such as  Smite with  Smite Infusion will add damage and procs to  Khora's  Whipclaw and  Atlas'  Landslide.
• Enemies under  Blood Altar will not be targeted by  Null Star, making a combination of both viable on  Garuda or  Nova without fear of losing damage reduction from the latter ability.
• Replacing  Dagath's  Doom will prevent players from modifying the Phantom Wrath debuff generated through  Spectral Spirit.

Tips[]

• Augments or abilities that boost the damage or add damage types to friendly units (such as  Roar or augments like  Shock Trooper) will be applied to  Mind Controlled targets, significantly increasing the damage conversion during the invulnerability period and adding damage not originally possible with  Nyx alone.
• To gain large amounts of Helminth experience use all the tricks at your disposal:
  • Subsume instead of selling any standard Warframe you do not like after you have mastered it.
  • Go through bursts of repeated infusion-then-removal of abilities on the same frame for abilities with a very "even" cost. Given how the Helminth gets tired of eating the same resource in rapid succession (and that resource giving much smaller boosts to the relevant secretion type), you want to spread out your secretion costs as much as possible to get as many infusions as possible between feedings instead of burning out one secretion type in a single shot; Nyx's Mind Control is an excellent example of this with a 32-32-30 spread.
  • Do not waste feed resources that would give more than enough of a secretion to get that type to 100%, the excess is completely lost but the Helminth will still get tired of the resource. You can easily Infuse then remove an ability to open up more capacity for feeding for XP.

Trivia[]

• The word helminth (from Greek: "intestinal worm") is a term used to superficially describe worm-like organisms, some of which are strictly parasitic or worms.
• If you visit the Helmith after regaining the Operator during the New War, the Helminth "mouth" seems to smile.
• Although the community compares it to a virus, the Helminth cyst can be more accurately described as an infectious disease. These include a majority of infectious agents including viruses, plagues, and helminths.
• Helminth has lines that can only be heard depending on the player's moral alignment as determined from their chosen decisions in The War Within, The Glast Gambit, and The Sacrifice quests. Currently, Helminth is the only character who acknowledges this.
• The floor of the Helminth Infirmary features an aquarium containing two Mawfish and a giant, reddish Mortus Lungfish.
• The Helminth shares its model with the Deimos Genetrix.
• After installing the Helminth Segment, the ability to "interact" with the Helminth's mouth becomes available, in which it will interact with the player's Companion.
  • If the companion is a Kubrow, Helminth Charger, or Predasite, it will dance in front of the mouth which gurgles and grunts before blowing air at the playful companion, seemingly appearing as an allergic reaction.
  • If the companion is a Kavat or Vulpaphyla, the mouth shows signs of affection by giving them gentle kisses as the companion nuzzles against it. Alternatively it will inhale them, mouthwash them, and then spit them out.
  • If the player has a Carrion Domestik Drone placed anywhere on the Orbiter, the drone will jump into the mouth to clean it from inside.
• When the Helminth System was first revealed in TennoCon 2020, it was named Helminth Chrysalis System. The "chrysalis" was dropped due to the name being too lengthy.
  • A chrysalis is the pupa of a butterfly in which it metamorphosizes.
• There are 51 basic Warframes available, meaning there are 4[44×(51 - 1) + 13×51 + 3×42] + 3×(5 - 1) = 11,968 different Warframe Power combinations (this accounts for the restriction of only a single damage buffing ability being allowed).
• Fully subsuming every Warframe costs 1,810% Oxides, 1,809% Calx, 1,676% Biotics, 1,117% Synthetics, 1,525% Pheromones, and 1,807% Bile.
• Infusing every Warframe Ability once costs 624% Oxides, 689% Calx, 763% Biotics, 824% Synthetics, 1,036% Pheromones, and 743% Bile.
  • Infusing every Ability, both Warfame and Helminth, once costs 594% Oxides, 773% Calx, 800% Biotics, 795% Synthetics, 976% Pheromones, and 880% Bile.

Bugs[]

• The player can view the cyst in its fully-matured form before the infection is seven days old when switching between  Equinox​'s Day and Night forms.
• The Cyst is completely invisible on  Equinox Prime​ while still opening the door to the Helminth Infirmary and being able to infect other players.
• If the player has been infected before completing The Glast Gambit, Helminth's lines will not play at all.
  • To fix this bug, simply have the mature cyst removed from Nidus's neck, leave the room, re-enter and have Nidus re-infected. Helminth will then "awaken".
• Sitting in the chair as Nidus may immediately trigger the removal of the Cyst, despite Nidus not having sat in the chair to receive the cyst in the first place. Afterward, Nidus will no longer be able to sit in the chair to receive the Cyst and will no longer be able to become infected with the Cyst through other means.
• The player can view the fully matured cyst by looking at someone’s profile if that person has a Warframe with the cyst at any stage. (This also includes the player’s own profile)
• Some Warframes do not result in a lotus flower, even after reloading the orbiter.
• For players with slow internet connections, hovering over multiple abilities in the Helminth menu will cause them to download the videos, and if they attempt to infuse an ability while they are downloading it can cause a softlock where the ability is applied with no animations, and leaving the chair will have the player stand up immediately. All physical interactions on the Orbiter will be disabled until the player relogs, though accessing these through the menu will still work.

Subsume Ability Bugs[]

Media[]

References[]

Patch History[]