Excalibur

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

The following article/section contains spoilers.

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For the China-exclusive variant, see Excalibur/Umbra Prime.

Release Date: June 15th, 2018

Excalibur Umbra is the Umbra variant of  Excalibur, sporting higher armor and energy, as well as three polarities while losing a . Unique to Umbra is his display of sentience, allowing him to fight on his own when not piloted by the Operator.

He was first released in the Chinese build of WARFRAME as  Excalibur Umbra Prime and was later added to the Global build in Update 23.0 (2018-06-15) as a non-prime. He can be acquired through the The Sacrifice quest.

Acquisition

The blueprint for Excalibur Umbra is given to players upon completing the first mission of The Sacrifice quest, and the ability to build the Warframe is granted on completing the second mission. Unlike other Warframes, Umbra requires no further components and is crafted entirely from the single blueprint. However, even after being crafted, he cannot be used until the penultimate mission, where he is automatically Rank 30 with a free, pre-installed Orokin Reactor and Warframe slot.

A second blueprint will not be given on replays. Also unlike other quest-tied Warframes, Cephalon Simaris does not sell Excalibur Umbra blueprints. Thus the player can only own one copy of Excalibur Umbra.

Manufacturing Requirements
10,000	1	60	1,200	1,600	Time: 10 s
					Rush: 0  0
Market Price: N/A			Blueprints Price: N/A

Notes

• Excalibur Umbra, compared to  Excalibur:
  • Higher Armor (315 vs. 240)
  • Higher Energy (175/225 vs. 100/150)
  • Higher Starting Energy (100 vs. 50)
  • Different Polarities ( vs. )
  • Different Aura Polarity ( vs. None)
• Excalibur Umbra, compared to  Excalibur Prime:
  • Different Polarities ( vs. )
• Umbra, along with the  Skiajati, will be obtained by the player already fully ranked. All the Mastery Rank points that would normally be granted from ranking up Warframe and weapon will be automatically received upon acquiring them.
  • Due to their unique nature both are also unable to be sold from the inventory.
• Excalibur Umbra comes with three mod slots polarized with the unique Umbra polarity. He also comes with 3 Umbral Mods:  Umbral Intensify,  Umbral Fiber, and  Umbral Vitality fusioned to rank 5 out of 10. His  Skiajati Nikana and Exalted Umbra Blade each have two polarity slots and come with  Sacrificial Pressure and  Sacrificial Steel equipped.
• In place of  Radial Blind, Umbra has  Radial Howl, which not only blinds enemies, but also removes any active damage resistances from Sentient units and Shadow Stalker within range.
• Unlike other Warframes, Excalibur Umbra's sentience allows him to remain active after using Transference, supporting the Operator with abilities and equipped weapons. However, Umbra can be damaged, and will stop moving once all of his health is depleted.
  • Excalibur Umbra is incapable of using Archguns when in autonomous mode, as transferring out with the Operator will make him switch back to using his primary weapon.

Known Bugs

Due to Umbra's sentient passive, the following bugs can be observed:

• If Exalted Blade is used and the player goes into Operator, on Transference into Umbra the ability will be toggled off. The same happens with any subsumed channeled ability like Silence, Gloom, etc.
• If Mania applies the Lifted status effect on Umbra while Exalted Blade is active and the player switches to Operator and back into Umbra, he will be unable to use both Exalted Blade and the equipped melee weapon. Only the first few frames of the animation will play out, before the attack is canceled.
• If Combo Counter is built with Weeping Wounds, Blood Rush or the Gladiator set bonus and Power Spike is used to maintain it, once the player switches to Exalted Blade and hits at least one enemy then let its combo duration reset, either on its own over time or by using a Heavy Attack, he will lose the Gladiator set bonus applying to Exalted Blade in addition to Weeping Wounds, Blood Rush and the Gladiator set bonus applying to the equipped melee weapon, even if combo remains on it. This seems to be the case for all exalted weapons.

In order for those mods to begin working properly again, the player must either use a Heavy Attack on the equipped melee weapon to lose all combo or wait for Power Spike to drop the combo to its previous multiplier. Another solution is to use negative combo duration mods so that combo is never built up on the Exalted weapon.

• If the Operator goes through a Conduit in Sanctuary Onslaught but Umbra does not, switching back to Umbra after the Conduit has closed will make Umbra invisible and unable to use his abilities or Transference, weapons are unaffected.

Lore

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

The following article/section contains spoilers. Please complete The Sacrifice quest before proceeding.

x

Main article: The Sacrifice

Excalibur Umbra was originally an Orokin Dax soldier who was punished by Ballas for attempting to interfere with his betrayal. Similar to the description of the Warframe creation process previously recorded by Ballas in the Vitruvian, he was shown to be exposed to the Infestation to become an anti-Sentient weapon - a Warframe. However, it was a "miracle" that required the "sacrifice" of Umbra's son Isaah, at his own hands, forced by Ballas through a unique Transference Bolt. This memory of filicide was permanently stored in Umbra to be replayed endlessly as punishment for spying on Ballas.

As a result of Umbra's torment, he retains most of his sentience and is capable of acting on his own without the Tenno's control, even initially rejecting the Operator's Transference and going rogue. Umbra also carries the memories of his final moments before transforming into a Warframe, which the Operator discovers to contain codes that unlock Ballas's Vitruvian recordings of the Sentient's betrayal, the creation of Warframes, and the Tenno.

Umbra is first seen in a courtyard on Earth battling his creator and his allied Sentients, but due to Transference influence he is unable to disobey Ballas, leading him to be easily destroyed by Natah. The Operator discovers Umbra's remains on Earth, which leads them to a containment cell on Lua housing Ballas's Vitruvian, allowing the Operator to rebuild Umbra from the contained data. However, Umbra immediately goes rogue and flees across the solar system, but not before the Operator taps into his memories.

After seeing all of Umbra's memories, the Operator reassures Umbra that they will fight Ballas together. In a strange and surreal sequence in his mind, Umbra calms down and finally accepts the Operator's Transference. Together they battle Ballas on Earth, whose attempts to subdue Umbra prove futile when the Operator's Transference overpowers Ballas's control, allowing Umbra to significantly wound his creator.

Trivia

• Umbra is the Latin word for "shadow".
• Excalibur Umbra is the first Umbra variant of a Warframe to be released in WARFRAME.
• Excalibur Umbra is the only quest Warframe that cannot be purchased from the Market or be sold.
• Excalibur Umbra's Agile and Noble animation sets are the only animation sets that are able to be used on other Warframes without prior purchase.
• According to its Codex entry, the Skiajati, Umbra's signature weapon, is a  Nikana "grafted" from Umbra's flesh.
• In the Chinese build, Excalibur Umbra originated as part of their Founder's pack exclusive, as Excalibur Umbra Prime, gameplay-wise identical to Excalibur Prime. The pack also included the  Nikana Prime and the  Spira Prime, as well as the Gauvan Prime Sekhara, a shoulder accessory obtainable only through that Founder pack.
• Upon release, Excalibur Umbra had the passive ability of Prime Warframes to gain energy from Orokin Void Death Orbs, as an erroneous leftover from his data origins as Excalibur Umbra Prime. This was later removed in Hotfix 23.0.3 (2018-06-19).
• Umbra utilizes a different sword design for his  Exalted Blade, which is named Exalted Umbra Blade. The stats for both weapons, however, are identical.
• Upon completion of The Sacrifice quest, players will receive an Excalibur Umbra-exclusive Excalibur Umbra Sunder Helmet in their inbox, which is a battle-damaged version of the regular Umbra helmet.
• Excalibur Umbra is a frame released with the first quest that confirmed Warframes to originally be "human beings". He is also the first frame to have had his face exposed due to self-inflicted damage to his helmet in the Arsenal area.
  • Ballas confirms that Warframes were originally designed from human subjects as Infested-hybrids cultivated by the Helminth.
  • Aside from his facial features exposed from his damaged helmet,  Xaku is the second Warframe that also has facial features when using the ability,  The Vast Untime.
• When interacting with Baro Ki'Teer, Baro will treat Umbra as he would be any other non-Prime frame.
• Umbra's scarf and torso lining, along with his Orokin ornaments, remain visible when other Excalibur skins are equipped, similar to the Prime details of Prime Warframes when using TennoGen skins. Hotfix 25.4.1 (2019-07-24) added a "Toggle Prime Details" option, which removes his scarf, torso lining and ornaments on other skins when toggled on.
• Looking closely, Shadow Stalker uses a unique variant of Excalibur Umbra's body, which lacks the Orokin ornaments and Umbra's signature scarf, along with a different loincloth design.
• In the "The Sacrifice" teaser of TennoCon 2017, Umbra wielded a regular Nikana on the Orokin Moon tileset.
• It was revealed at TennoCon 2018's Sound Panel that Excalibur Umbra's howls were voiced by [DE]Steve Sinclair, Game Director of Warframe.^[1]
• Before Update 24.6 when DE introduced the Two-Energy Colors, Excalibur Umbra used to have gold energy on Radial Howl and Exalted Umbra Blade. The gold energy can still be seen on Radial Howl when using different colors. This can be seen in The Sacrifice quest when Umbra goes berserk when equipping him the first time and also only in public sessions.
• Despite having sentience, Umbra will become immobile during cutscenes of most cinematic quests, using Transference inside the Orbiter and when approaching Orphix fields like any other Warframes. This is likely to avoid any pressure to use Umbra in such quests and due to the additional animation work.
• If a account with Excalibur Umbra is merged with one with out, the player will be able to do The Sacrifice to get another, resulting in another unranked Umbra. (note: the player cannot use their original Excalibur umbra until they complete The Sacrifice)
• As a Dax, Umbra notably has a unique crest not seen in any other older male Daxes such as the likes of Teshin(more notable during The Awakening opening cutscene and the Erra quest, though it could be possible that the identical Daxes' appearances were merely asset reuses), as seen in his helmet's concept art as well as his portrait. Anything that the crest possibly signifies in the lore is currently unknown.

Media

Umbra on official The Sacrifice info page header.

Umbra's introduction picture on The Sacrifice info page.

Launcher (English Version)

Dax Umbra and his son

Warframe - The Sacrifice Teaser

Warframe The Sacrifice 'Umbra' E3 Trailer

The Sacrifice "Umbra" E3 2018

WARFRAME - Excalibur Umbra Spoilers

External Links

• Umbra Warframes Megathread

References