“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”
The following article/section contains spoilers.
INFESTATION describes both a disease and its victims – a metamorphic affliction without cure. Living organisms are consumed and merged into rabid amalgamations.
Individuals are violent and animalistic yet the larger whole exhibits signs of coordination, with multiple swarms converging on ships and colonies.
Its origins are uncertain but there is historical evidence of a similar outbreak before The Collapse.
—In-game Lore Description
The Infested are a multitude of deformed, twisted creatures, originated from the mutation of normal living beings who have been taken over by the parasites of the Infestation,[1] a microscopic parasitic techno-organic pathogen. The majority of Infested are former Corpus Crewmen or Grineer Lancers, or "Mutalist" versions of Corpus robotic proxies. The eldest individuals, the Infested Ancients, are creatures overtaken by the plague so long ago that their original form is unrecognizable, perhaps dating back to the Old War itself.
Mentioned and referenced through in-game text or by the Lotus, the Infestation turns organisms such as the Grineer and Corpus, as well as machines and robotics, into what is known to the Tenno as the "Infested".
In the past, the Infestation was utilized by the Orokin to combat the Sentients. Much of the game's lore is presented in an ambiguous fashion; however it can be inferred that the virus seems to have no prejudices as to whom it affects, be it Grineer, Corpus, robotic or the normal fauna of a planet; only the Tenno possessing void abilities and their Warframes, as well as the Sentients themselves, appear to be truly immune to the technocyte virus. As such, Warframes were often used to quell Infested outbreaks in the past.[2]. Not even the Orokin themselves are immune to it, as shown by the Entrati family, although they managed to keep their consciousness intact through special treatments.
The Mire references an event called the "Great Plague" in its description. The Great Plague may be a reference to the Infestation itself or a period after its creation. The Mire's resemblance to the Infested suggests a connection between the Great Plague and the Infested themselves. However, it is the only mention of "Great Plague" throughout the game and could be speculated to also be the "Plague Year," as mentioned in Albrecht Entrati's codex entries and by Loid in the Lotus Eaters.
Despite the Infestation being highly dangerous and mutagenic, some beings have learned to live alongside the Infested, such as the Myconians, who harvest and trade Infested matter, and feral Kavats, who reside in infested Derelicts and are able to consume Infested matter without harm. There are also some creatures with a symbiotic relationship with the infested such as predasites, vulpaphylas, and Kubrows incubated with a helminth strain of infested using the cyst on a warframe.
Lore & History
During the Orokin era, before The Old War, the Infestation was created from the Orokin Empire's technological advances in biotechnology.
Old War Era
During The Old War, the Orokin Empire was desperate in defeating their Sentient adversaries, so they rebooted Infestation research to find ways to weaponize the parasite against their enemy.[3] Once notable attempt was the use of bio-bombs filled with Infested matter. During the War, the Sentients would attempt to invade Deimos, a strategically important planetoid. A bio-bomb that contained Infested matter was set off, stopping the Sentient invasion, but releasing an full-on Infestion on Deimos in the process.
Pre-Collapse Era
Their research led to creating Warframes, which were created from of the Helminth strain of the Infestation. These Warframes, manned by their Tenno operators, would be deployed in battle proving effective in defeating their assailants and would lead them to their eventual victory. Not only were the Warframes used in military operations, but they also found a purpose in taming Infested outbreaks and reclaiming Orokin territory affected by the Infested.[4]
However, the Tenno betrayed their Orokin masters, leading to the collapse of the Orokin Empire. During the age of The Collapse, the Infestation was left unmonitored on Orokin ships and research facilities. With time, Infestation outbreaks would be common throughout the centuries as the Infestation assimilates matter and evolves into more sophisticated forms. In worst case scenarios such as with Deimos, the Infestation can swallow entire celestial bodies, infecting every living creature on them.
Tenno Era
After the rise of the Tenno, the Infestion has been somewhat contained to the Dark Sectors, however there are still some outbreaks that happen from time to time.
There has been one event where the Infestion displayed a more sophisticated and advanced form of assimilation, known as Arlo, the "Emissary of Eris". After arising on Eris, the mute Arlo would gather a congregation of believers by spreading his healing word and healing any ailments he came across. However, many of his followers were assimilated into the Infested hivemind, and would willingly expose themselves to the Infestion. This would lead to the creation of an army of Zealots who attempt to invade the System.
Infested weapons are often hideous to behold, visibly pulsing and squirming in their use. Even ones crafted from inactive infested growth are often visually grotesque, with edges made from chitin and bone and flecked with veins that thrum with organic fluids. Ranged weapons using infested material often very literally devour their ammunition. In many ways, Infested weaponry indicate how desperate many factions have become involving the Infested, with the Grineer attempting to fight poison with poison, the Corpus finding the infested altering their existing equipment as Alad V's enhanced Mutalist strains consume mechanical constructs, and the Tenno just trying to find new ways to do their job with the new tools as the Infestation spreads – meaning that the Infested are a great threat, but also promise opportunities to any who can find a way to exploit them against their enemies.
The following article/section is conjecture. Content is subjected to change/removal as the game progresses. Please do not use this article for critical in-game information.
According to Cephalon Cordylon, Infested tissue can be easily grown, thrives in any environment, and is as easy to manipulate for the creation tools and weapons as any non-organic material.[5] Once a host has been infected, the first signs of infection are usually the appearance of small, benign skin growths, usually warts or tumors.
Infested Hivemind
Trachons - An organ found on Infested Ships believed to facilitate communication within the Infested Hivemind.
GET OUT - I AM THEIR VOICE - THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING - NO ONE LEAVES - LOST LITTLE THING - JOIN US - EMBRACE US, WE ARE YOUR FLESH - NOW WE HAVE BECOME IT
Most of the Infested, usually the bosses, refer to themselves in a plural way, which implies the existence of an Infested Hivemind. While not fully encountered, the influence of this elusive aspect of the Infestation can still be felt.
This can be supported when encountering Infested with the near-impossibility of utilizing stealth in an Infested-controlled area; if even one unit in the area detects a Warframe, every single other Infested in the area will become alerted to their presence and begin hunting them down, even from across the entire tileset.
This is further explained by numerous resources found throughout the Origin System, often located in Infested Ships[6] or within Infested entities themselves.[7]
Reproduction and Spread
Infested spores as seen during missions
The Infestation primarily infests or corrupts its victims through swarms of airborne Nano Spores, possibly the same kind of found floating around in the air on Infested tilesets as moving colonies of orange particles.[8] However, no enemy or ally can ever become Infested during gameplay. The only exception is during Defection missions, where it is possible to witness the only current "infestation" of a target in real-time; allowing a Grineer Defector to die to the poisons in the air will eventually cause them to sprout a large Infested mass around them, which explodes in a horrifying display of light gore and rot to reveal a uniquely colored Carrion Charger. The transformation to these combat forms is seemingly quick, likely due to the Defectors weakened state due to the exposure to the spores for extended periods and possibly due to the Grineer's already weakened cloned bodies. Infested will eat mostly anything organic and inorganic with exception being that they are unable to digest crystals and have trouble digesting some ores.
It is uncertain whether the infested can be cured once it infects a host, but it can be treated with remedies as practiced by the Entrati family leaving them in an infected state but still as individuals.
A unique, blue-colored variant of these spores can be in Infested Orokin Derelicts.
Behavior & Psychology
The Infestation's combat strategy is simple: they throw themselves at any potential hosts or threats in large numbers, seeking to drown them in a tide of mutated flesh. One unique behavior of the Hivemind is the fear of Infested hybrids. As a whole, the Infestation displays confusion and fear when encountering the Tenno's Warframes, referring to them as "their flesh" and constantly asking why they would attack their own via transmissions, which implies that the greater Infested believes that the Warframes are just another kind of Infested life-form like them. The Sacrifice would go on to reveal that the original Warframes were actually Orokin men and women that were infected with a unique strain of the Infestation by the Helminth, with this unique strain not only reshaping their bodies to fit inside of the actual Warframes' chassis, but also keeping them safe from the 'Infested madness.' When the player brings their operator into the Helminth room in their orbiter the Helminth will refer to the operator as a demon likely due to their void body making it impossible to infect them. This likely could be considered a likely resentment from infested as they will attack anything that is not a part of the hivemind.
This fear is elaborated upon in The Glast Gambit quest, where The Lotus reveals that the Infested fears hybrids, specifically those that combine themselves with the Infestation without actually succumbing to it. For example, the space-bound colony of Mycona takes advantage of this to harvest Infested materials from the ship on which they live without individual colonists risking death or infection via passing down the Triuna.
The Zealoid Prelate, however, doesn't seem to be afraid of the Warframes, but actually sees them as something "beautiful". It is possibly due to their particular and new strain that he behaves so uniquely.
Strains
Instead of corps or contingents, the Infestation is divided into unique strains, with their creation mainly caused by numerous factors, such as their environment or outside influence.
Technocyte
The basic strain of Infested can be encountered virtually anywhere in the Origin System: from the toxic surface of Earth, to distant Derelicts in space.
The Helminth strain was specifically engineered by the Orokin during The Old War to infect human hosts that would eventually become the basis for Warframes. Developed by Ballas to combat the Sentient threat, it was injected into Dax soldiers[9] and other lower castes of the Orokin empire to transform into Warframes. The Infested growth formed a symbiotic relationship with its hosts, protecting them with an Infested armor as hard as steel while interlinking with its hosts' organs. Originally, these proto-Warframes retained their humanity, but over time, the Infestation took over their minds and made them go berserk.[10] Eventually, with the invention of Transference technology, the Tenno would use these Warframes as a surrogate body, wielding them to fight against the Sentients and to cull Infestation outbreaks.
The Helminth still lives within the Orbiter, and according to Ordis it is responsible for all biological tasks inside of it. It is presented as a non-hostile, voracious creature, that can be fed with every form of resource (and even Warframes themselves) and has the ability to inject with unique or subsumed abilities as well as acquired abilities, proving its deep ties with their genesis.
Mutalist
While the Infestation was always able to seep into electronic and nano-based technology, it was never able to control more than small masses, to the point where systems would simply corrupt and shut down (see non-Infested Ship tilesets) rather than be vulnerable to actual control or influence. With Alad V's Mutalist strain, however, the Infestation became capable of infecting inorganic circuitry to control basic robotics, and even modify their weapons systems to spray payloads of Corrosive Sludge or take advantage of flight technology to Disperse Toxins into the air. While this is an impressive feat even for the seemingly mindless Infestation, it is less impressive when Corpus robotic AI is taken into account, as it is fairly easy even for the Tenno to Hack or Reprogram them, so a complete takeover of their precepts may not be necessary for them to fight for the Infestation.
More impressively however is the ability for the Mutalist strain to adapt and corrupt even cephalons. In the case of the Jordas Golem, it somehow gained control of one despite several times during the game and quests, it was explained that Cephalons exist on a very advanced electronic plane of existence called the "weave", something which Hunhow (who's origin is machine-based) could only barely control and eventually lose when he attempted to take over Cephalon Suda's portion of it.[11] Even in his transmission projections, Jordas is physically Infested with tissue on his portrayal, although this may just be a visual representation of his state and not necessarily prove he is actually Infested. It is possible that the equipment that stores Jordas' information is corrupted instead, essentially the same situation as other Mutalist robotic enemies. Either way, this shows that the Infestation is far more insidious than it was in the past thanks to the meddling of Alad V. So far, only Corpus robotics can become Infested, perhaps due to a lack of complexity in Grineer machinery that would not serve the Infested any real purpose. Although the Mutalist Osprey came about before Alad V's experiments, it can be assumed this timing is not to be considered lore-friendly and instead was part of Alad's work. It can also be said that the early release of this Mutalist enemy was caused by one of Alad's experiments escaping.
Weapons that have become Infested with this modern strain of the Infestation are also Corpus-based, possibly due to the initial exposure of the Infested being almost entirely based around the Corpus thanks to the intentional infection of entire Corpus ships.
Emissary
While the Infestation of other strains were mostly contained, the hive mind on Eris sought to remedy this by dispatching Arlo, believed to be an evolved strain disguised as a young survivor that seemingly had the power to heal an endless variety of sicknesses. Dubbed the "Emissary of Eris", Arlo's so-called healing was actually a bait to lure in human impulse, where he secretly assimilated the ill Kenga and many devoted followers to the Infested hive mind where they would continue to spread Arlo's healing word. The devoted would later become weaponized Zealots, serving as an army for the Infested that would go on to raid the entire Origin System. Though Arlo's forces were eventually defeated, this hive mind had proven itself to be incredibly cunning and intelligent with its scheme, having successfully created a solution to its own problems.
Grey Strain
The Grey Strain is an Infested strain that has overrun the Cambion Drift on Deimos, infecting everything both on the surface and underground, generating both unique examplars and variations of common ones, generically referred to as Deimos Infested. This strain is capable of stimulating growth to monstrous dimensions, causing the more powerful Infested produced by the Grey strain to become quite gargantuan in size; this property was also sought for by Albrecht Entrati's creation of the Vessels.
Highly unusual for Infested, the hivemind of the Grey strain appears to be divided, with the Wyrm siblings Fass and Vome constantly fighting each other and capable of influencing the area around themselves, modifying the layout of the underground Infested tunnels and the behaviour of the Infested themselves. The Infested fish biomes do not appear to be entangled in shared consciousness, and the wild Predasites and Vulpaphyla are sometimes assaulted by other Infested hostiles. Finally, the Entrati family are all partially Infested, their "names and ideas" stolen, but are actively resisting the hivemind despite their dysfunction and constant infighting.
Derelict
The Derelict strain is a unique strain of Infested that only appears in Orokin Derelicts. This strain mainly consists of the numerous black-and-blue growths that can be seen growing throughout the Derelicts.
1999 Technocyte biomass in Höllvania Central Mall with flowers, speaker "leaf", and CRT screens and wirings included in the growth
1999 Technocyte
By the appearance of what's revealed in 1999 part of Whisper in the Walls quest and during Tennocon 2024, this strain seems to be an evolved or modified Grey Strain with various advanced features such as having electronic wirings, speakers, and CRT screens included as part of the biomasses and Techrots and use them to form up organs, and the ability to grow flowers, which is the structure only found in plant species at the apex of real-life plant evolution line.
The hivemind also appears to possess the same level, if not higher intelligence than the Emissary strain in deceiving as a boyband and planning for a pandemic over Höllvania city in one go with contaminated pizza and a countdown concert.[12][13]
Missions
Enemies
Walkers
The standard Infested unit. Volatile runners and leapers appear to be bodies of Corpus humanoids and appear to have a fleshy "hand", perhaps made of Infested tissue, latched to their heads. Walker units rush the players and overwhelm them with sheer numbers and brute force.
Chargers are quadrupedal abominations resembling canines made from Grineer (possibly Lancers) that almost always hunt in packs. They will quickly and repeatedly claw at players once in range, and their attacks have a chance to stun their foes (but not players) on hit. If their target is out of range they will hold position and lob balls of mass at their target which do not ignore shields.
Leapers are Infested Corpus Crewmen with glowing blue nodes that try to tackle players from a distance; they will signal this action by stopping a small distance from a player and performing a battle cry. While not difficult to avoid, failing to do so will knock a player down for a few seconds. Leapers will take significantly more damage (ten times the normal amount) while pouncing. After pouncing, or if players go outside their leaping range, they will run towards nearby players and swipe at them; these swipes are incapable of stunning players, but are extremely fast. They can also choose to throw globs of Infested mass at the player, provided they cannot reach the player by normal means.
Runners are Infested Corpus Crewmen that make up the second most common enemy type of the Infested. Like Leapers, Chargers and Volatile Runners, they can lob Infested mass at players who they cannot reach, but otherwise have swipe attacks, similar to that of other Infested Crewmen. The Runner was introduced in Update 12.4 (2014-03-05).
Volatile Runners are orange-colored Infested Crewmen with explosive properties. Volatile Runners will charge the nearest player or objective and detonate themselves after a short delay, dealing damage that scales with level that will stagger the target. They can also throw balls of Infested mass at their enemies that they cannot reach normally.
The Undying Flyer is an Infested form of the Grineer unit Hellion that uses its jetpack to ram opponents at high speeds. Once it dies, the creature leaves behind a pod which, if left alone long enough, will respawn the Undying Flyer at full health.
They can be found at end of the Zealoid Prelate boss fight on Exequias, Deimos, after defeating it. In fact, while extraction is available, enemies will keep on spawning indefinitely.
Crawlers
Infested crawlers are those former walkers whose legs seem to have been removed or Crewmen infested after surviving the removal of their lower bodies. They will 'run' on their hands at a speed similar to the other light Infested and their unusual body structure causes most melee attacks to pass over them unless a Tenno deliberately looks down while attacking.
Crawlers resemble InfestedCrewmen with no lower limbs, which forces them to move with their hands. They are fairly agile and are difficult to attack due to their habit of staying low, but besides that, they do not pose a large threat.
Nauseous Crawlers are yellow variants of regular Crawlers. Any players that linger too long in front of one will be sprayed with a yellow fluid that will hold them in place for a few seconds, thus stunning them. This is hinted by the crawler stopping in one spot, and it will begin to puff up slightly and shake, before releasing the fluid. This attack is not blocked by effects such as Iron Skin which would otherwise negate the stun effect.
Toxic Crawlers are black and green Infested Crewmen which now contain toxic chemicals within. Killing them will release a small toxic cloud that does constant damage to anyone within, and ignores shields.
Electric Crawlers resemble a grey InfestedCrewman with no lower limbs, forcing them to move with their hands. This crawler will remain at a short distance and use a continuous electrical attack that can proc Electricity. They can target players up to around 10 meters and are not affected by stun.
Lobber Crawlers resemble a light blue InfestedCrewman with no lower limbs, forcing them to move with their hands. It will stop at decent distances away from players, arch up a bit, then spit an explosive toxic tissue that can seem to home in on players slightly, and creates a buff that appears only two meters wide although affecting players up to six meters away. The grenade does damage directly to health, although the effect is fairly weak.
Machines
Mechanical units infested by a mutated strain of the Infestation.
Swarm Mutalist MOAs are Infested Corpus MOA that launch swarms of infested spores which hinder targets by diminishing visibility and dealing minor damage over time, while granting armor to light infested units.
Venin Mutalist is a type of Infested Corpus Osprey that shoots infested spores. It was introduced during The Pacifism Defect event and its normal variant only spawns in Defection missions.
Ancients
These heavy units consist of large Infested that are much sturdier than standard Walkers, implied to be made from long dead Orokin hosts. They tend to be rarer than the other types of Infested, but they have a large amount of health and will charge at players when close enough. Heavies also come with special abilities, making them a nuisance on their lonesome, and a nightmare in groups.
An Infested heavy melee unit, the Ancient Disruptor stands out for the ability to drain away a Warframe's energy. Not only does the Ancient Disruptor possess an aura that allows its nearby allies to drain Warframe energy with each attack, their own melee attacks have a 10% chance[14] of dealing Magnetic proc on players, draining the player's Warframe energy over the duration of the proc and temporarily reducing shields.
An Infested heavy melee unit, the Toxic Ancient stands out for the ability to grant nearby allies a toxic aura, granting them Toxin damage as well as a large resistance to Toxin damage. Along with their toxic aura, these Ancients possess the ability to excrete a deadly toxic cloud when they do their "roar" animation, dealing heavy Toxin damage that can easily kill players caught in the radius.
Boilers are large, corpulent Infested riddled with pulsating boils, which launch an Infested seed occasionally. When killed, it will burst and launch several Infested seeds that grow into spawn pods. Left unchecked, these spawn pods unleash a variety of smaller Infested to overwhelm their enemies.
ies. Brood Mothers will also charge at nearby opponents, and release an additional swarm of maggots upon death. They were introduced in the Operation: Mutalist Incursions event in Update 15.5 (2014-11-27).
Maggots are small Infested units that are usually spawned by Brood Mothers. While each individual Maggot is weak and easily killed, they are spawned in groups of four or more, and multiple Maggots can latch onto players to slowly drain shields and health while reducing their movement speed.
Leaping Thrasher is an Infested unit possessing a mighty arm-flail, and uses it to deadly effect with its surprising agility and powerful leaping attacks.
The Juggernaut is a large, quadrupedal Infested creature armed with formidable ranged attacks and deadly close-quarters combat abilities. Combining these threats with its heavy armor shell, the Juggernaut becomes an intimidating opponent. The Juggernaut's abilities include a charging body attack, a ranged spine strike (a scaled version of the Phorid's similar attack) and the ability to resurrect a number of nearby dead Infested.
Deimos Infested
Unique to the Cambion Drift on Deimos, these unique Infested were originated by the spread of the Grey Strain, which infected and overly mutated everything on its surface.
The Deimos Genetrix is a large slow-floating Infested creature that functions like a dropship, holding smaller Infested enemies in its body and spewing them out of its mouth to deliver them to the surface of the Cambion Drift, Deimos.
The Deimos Tendril Drone is a flying bundle of Infested tissue that hovers around the Cambion Drift, Deimos. They are easily identified by their titular tendrils, and are typically found in groups of at least two. They attack either by launching a projectile, or by charging directly at threats.
Arlo's Zealots
Introduced in Nightwave/Series 2, these special units were originally devotees of Arlo, who got infected by the new strain of Infestation and started roaming around the system to spread their leader's "blessing".
Zealot Proselytizers are followers of Arlo, the so-called 'Emissary of Eris', who have exposed themselves to the infestation in order to prove their devotion to his cause. Introduced in the third episode of Nightwave: Series 2 – The Emissary. They are the infested form of Arlo's Devotees.
Zealot Baptizers are followers of Arlo, the so-called 'Emissary of Eris', who have exposed themselves to the infestation in order to prove their devotion to his cause. Introduced in the fourth episode of Nightwave: Series 2 – The Emissary they are the infested form of Arlo's Devotees.
Zealot Heralds are followers of Arlo, the so-called 'Emissary of Eris', who have exposed themselves to the infestation in order to prove their devotion to his cause. Introduced in the third episode of Nightwave: Series 2 – The Emissary they are the infested form of Arlo's Devotees.
The Zealoid Bastion is an Infested enemy accompanying the Zealoid Prelate introduced during the fifth episode of Nightwave: Series 2 – The Emissary. It carries Arlo's Flame, an item that is needed to remove the invincibility of enemies during the Zealoid Prelate boss fight.
The Hemocyte is a gigantic Infested creature that can be encountered during Operation: Plague Star. They only appear on the Advanced and The Steel Path variants of the Plague Star Bounty, with a total of four spawning during the final stage. They drop the Hunter Set Mods.
The Juggernaut Behemoth is the larger, boss variant of the InfestedJuggernaut enemy. This massive quadruped creature is armed with formidable ranged attacks and deadly close-quarters combat abilities, which combined with its heavy armor makes it an intimidating opponent.
The Jordas Golem is a massive combat platform created out of an amalgamation of Infested flesh merged with Corpus ship technology and a corruptedCephalon. It is one of the two bosses of Eris, the other being Mutalist Alad V.
It is found in its own Assassination node on Eris after a player has completed the Jordas PreceptQuest. After defeating the Golem and finishing the mission, the player receives an Atlas component blueprint.
Lephantis is a massive, multi-headed Infestedboss created to fight in the Old War, introduced in Update 10.0 (2013-09-13). This large amalgamated creature consists of three heads called Infested Corpus, Infested Grineer, and Ancient Infested, which can seemingly extend and are attached to a tripod-like body hidden beneath the ground.
It is found on Magnacidium, Deimos. After defeating it and finishing the mission, the player will receive a Nekros component blueprint. Each of its heads are also capable of dropping Neurodes and Orokin Cells in addition to its main body, potentially totaling up to four resource drops.
Mutalist Alad V is a version of Alad V mutated and twisted by the Infestation. From his base on Eris, Alad V invented the Mutalist Strain, allowing the Infested to infect inorganic robotics and weaponry, before succumbing to the Infestation himself.
Upon completion of his assassination mission, player will receive the Mesa Chassis, Neuroptics, or Systems blueprint.
Phorid is an InfestedBoss only found when an Invasion takes over the Assassination mission of a Planet. After players defeat it and reach the extraction point, they will receive either a NyxNeuroptics, Chassis, or Systemsblueprint upon mission completion. Upon death, Phorid has a chance of dropping rare resources of the planet it appears on.
The Zealoid Prelate is an InfestedBoss introduced during the fifth episode of Nightwave: Series 2 – The Emissary. It wields the Pathocyst Infested Glaive and, upon death, it drops one of the Pathocyst components.
It's also implied at the end of The Jordas Precept, and throughout the now-removed Jordas Verdict, that the Infested are capable of making identical "copies" a Cephalon for various uses, such as sending fake distress signals or piloting an enormous mutalist spacecraft.
Despite their description claiming that the Infestation has no cure, the aftermath of Operation: Tubemen of Regor showed that this is somewhat false, as Alad V has cured himself of being Infested after partially succumbing to the virus. Despite this however, a violet scar remains on his cheek, possibly suggesting he isn't completely cleansed.
According to a story told by Konzu, despite the Infested otherwise being a ravenous hive mind, "it" is capable of speaking to others directly via using an Infested victim as a sort of speaker or "vessel".[15]
In Nightwave/Series 2, Arlo becomes a vessel for the new strain of Infestation which he spreads around the system.
Ancient Infested like the Ancient Healer are heavily implied to be Infested hosts of long-dead Orokin by the story told in the Corrupted AncientSynthesis imprint, where an Orokin Healer was Infested and turned into a large corrupted monster that also had healing abilities. While very little of their structure appears Orokin they do have warped crowns on their back, as well as one arm being abnormally long, similar to the arm of Ballas.
Their "Ancient" namesake might hint at their creation during the Old War itself, and not new creations.
Gallery
References
↑The Infestation is more than a disease - it is a horror of twisted flesh, monsters made into reality. The blight consumes its victims, transforming them into unrecognizable atrocities controlled by rabid impulse. The Infested are a single-minded scourge that belongs in the realm of nightmares, but instead chooses to invade ships and colonies, leaving only death and destruction in its wake. - Official Warframe Website
↑"We were forced to older means. Not circuits, nor light... but flesh and disease. Our horrors past, our ravaged outer colonies... became gardens!" - Ballas during The Sacrifice
Margulis, from your winter ashes, there has sprung a field of flowers. Conceived by me, germinated for deadly purpose. You used to dream of old Earth, didn't you? Bathed in gold and solemn blue. I intend to reclaim it now, from the spores and the ruin.It came to me like a proverb: Fight poison with... poison. Cure this sick horde with the greatest of plagues. I will call her... Saryn.
↑"Infested tissue is the only known exception to this parameter as it can be easily grown and thrives in any environment." - Cephalon Cordylon in Entry 12
↑Trachons - An organ found on Infested Ships believed to facilitate communication within the Infested Hivemind.
↑Pustulent Cognitive Nodule - The Infestation provokes the growth of multiple, seemingly redundant brain-like clusters, whose function may be linked to hivemind activity.
↑"While it may seem like venting a room of its atmosphere may be assisting in the overall cleanup of an Infested vessel, the reality is your actions have consequences you have not taken into consideration. The first and most important procedure in handling Infested material is isolation and containment. By venting Infested matter into open space you have already make the task of disinfection nearly impossible. Additionally, you have now threatened Infestation spreading to other remote locations." - Cephalon Cordylon in Entry 24
↑"Infestation. My uncle, Hinmun, sold minerals aboard a market near Eris. Quite popular with deep-system traders. At least, it was. They were broadsided by one of these boils. It spread fast. They could have run; risked taking it with them. Instead, they turned off life support and blew out escape pods. Decades later, it still orbits Eris, writhing. One voice repeating the same message, over and over, 'We are death. Leave us, and do not look back.' My uncle's voice. Fail here, Tenno, and that will be the fate of Cetus. To be warning for the living. From a place where none may tread." - Konzu during Operation: Plague Star
We did not want to overlook the Infested in our review. Infested are close-range enemies that telegraph most attacks - and now if one of those attacks hits you, it simply does more damage. Stay agile, stay moving, and the mission is as good as won!
Why: Having Infested simply deal more Damage encourages you to use mobility in ways that is not the norm for their ranged counterparts. Rewarding mobility is a key part of Warframe.
Fixed Infested units sometimes preferring to vomit projectiles they have the opportunity to melee their target instead. I will take any option that involves less vomit, thank you.
Electric Crawler Attack range fixed, now more likely to attack with his lightning.
Lobber Crawler has new effects on his lobbed grenade, making it easier to see.
Infested Charger move speed increased.
Suicide Runners will no longer explode on death if killed by melee. The death explosion causes stagger, and damage scales up with their level.
Infested Leapers: Their leaping attack can be parried to nullify the stagger. Leap damage scales with their level.
All Ancients can pull targets (Pull can be blocked or dodged).
All Ancients - better anticipation of knockdown attack. It can now be parried to nullify damage and the knockdown.
Toxic Ancients - Do poison damage and gives all nearby enemies poison damage. Ancient and nearby enemies are resistant to poison and gas damage.
Healing Ancients - Links with nearby allies, any damage they take heals the Ancient up to 150% health, and it scales up to reflect having health > 100%. Also reduces damage that nearby allies take.
Healing Ancient now has Fossilized health, to be consistent with the other Ancients (was Infested Armour).
Leaper infested can dodge.
Disruptor Ancients - Aura that reduces radial and power damage taken by nearby allies. Attack damage energy, rather than completely drain it. Attacks of nearby allies have the same effect.