“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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I am calling it the Specter Particle. As my Archimedians explain, mimicry is in its nature. An echo. Exposed to precept circuits, we are able to imprint behaviors! Like an infant mirroring her surrogate. Only this infant can set the world on fire.
A Specter is an AI-controlled ally unit that will fight alongside a player for the duration of a mission. They have their own set of weapons and/or abilities that they can use against enemies and are generally summoned via a consumable Gear item.
Lore & History[]
- Main article: The Deadlock Protocol
Specter Particle Theory[]
Specters were first developed by 
Corpus Founder, Parvos Granum, spearheaded by his creation of the Specter Particle Theory; an idea of a unique type of particle that, when exposed to preset data, can be imprinted with mimicked behaviors.[1] To accelerate development, Parvos would go on to steal a undisclosed sample from the 
Entrati, stating that they, "kept their secrets long enough."[2] Additionally, Parvos would then use this sample to bait the 
Orokin into raiding his labs, who sent a Warframe assault team as a result. Due to the site being heavily rigged with explosives however, both the labs and the Warframes were all vaporized.
The 
Xoris, presumably designed by Parvos Granum[3], is linked to Specter technology[4], as it contains a unique energy trap that allows it to contain Specter Particles to amplify the explosion of its mid-flight detonation.[5]
After Parvos's attempted assassination, his guardian Warframe 
Protea would use he temporal abilities to preserve him within a region of the Void, resulting in her sacrifice[6], and presumably becoming a Specter as a result.[7]
After Parvos's tomb is discovered, Nef Anyo entrust his Treasurers with safekeeping his 
Granum Crown tributes; these units will fervently defend their crowns from any wayward thief, including the 
Tenno. If not dispatched quickly, the Treasurer will teleport to the Void[8], and presumably become an Errant Specter.[9]
Composition & Construction[]
When defeated, Errant Specters will release a mass of Specter Particles, which can be absorbed by other Errant Specters to increase their strength. If fully discharged of energy, these particles will become piles of inert dust, referred to as 
Spectral Debris. If reenergized, this dust can also be used when creating various robotic tech.
Errant Specter Particles
Gameplay[]
Enemy[]
- Main article: Specter (Enemy)
Enemy Specters are primarily encountered as guardians of the Origin System's Solar Rail Junctions, and must be defeated to unlock connections to new planets and destinations on the Star Chart. Specter-like enemy Warframes also serve as enemies during specific Quests.
Ally[]
- Main article: Specter (Tenno)
Warframe Specters can act as allies or enemies depending on the circumstances. As allies, Specters are AI-Controlled Warframe-replicants employing customizable load-outs (which are configured via the Foundry). They can be summoned via consumable Gear wheel items in all Missions, except Archwing and Sanctuary Onslaught.
Warframe Specters come in 5 tiers (Vapor, Phase, Force and Cosmic). Their blueprints be acquired by completing Rescue missions, with higher-level missions rewarding high-tier Specters.
Some Specters can also be generated by Warframes are weapon abilities, like with 
Wukong's 
Celestial Twin and the 
Ballistica Prime charged shot.
Syndicate Specters[]
Access to Syndicate Specters can be acquired by taking allegiance to the desired Syndicates and attaining the first tier in their ranks. Syndicate Specters can be purchased by spending 
2,500 for a bundle of five. Only one instance for each type of Specters can be summoned. Summoning another one while an identical Specter is active will kill the one already out.
Their blueprints can also be acquired from Syndicate death squads, with the type of blueprint awarded depending on their respective Syndicates.
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| Ancient Healer Volatile Eximus Specter (New Loka) |
Charger Venomous Eximus Specter (Red Veil) |
Corrupted Lancer Arson Eximus Specter (Arbiters of Hexis) |
MOA Arctic Eximus Specter (The Perrin Sequence) |
Roller Energy Leech Eximus Specter (Steel Meridian) |
Shield Osprey Shock Eximus Specter (Cephalon Suda) |
- Volatile Ancient Healer grants 90% damage resistance and stagger/knockdown resistance to all allied units within 10m, denoted with a soft green glow on said units when in range. On allied defense objective, the damage reduction effectiveness is reduced to 50%. It can also knockdown enemies with a frontal
Blast wave. Ancient Healers will naturally follow where players head towards, and will melee attack enemy units that gets closeby. - Venomous Charger will rush ahead and fight independently of where the player heads towards, and will usually melee assault enemies point blank, passively inflicting them
Toxin damage from its Eximus Venomous aura. Due to its sub-optimal AI behavior as well as their tendency to rush towards to melee enemy units, they die quickly and is considered the least useful of the six syndicate specters. - Arson Corrupted Lancer will fight independent of where the player heads towards, and can cast its Eximus
Heat blast ability that will knockdown all enemies that gets caught within line-of-sight of the unit. - Arctic MOA will passively slow down nearby enemies with its
Cold eximus aura, and deploys ice globe to protect everyone inside, even from enemy crowd control. It fights independently of where the player heads towards, and the allied ice globe cannot be shot through. - Energy Leech Roller will cast energy leech aura on enemies, which on hit will grant all allied units nearby an energy regen worth 3 energy / second over 3 seconds, totaling 9 energy restored every hit. Energy regen does not stack. The roller will naturally follow wherever the player heads towards, preferring to stay close and grant its player passive energy regeneration where it can.
- Shock Shield Osprey will provide additional +25% maximum shield to all applicable allied units nearby slightly extending player's shieldgate duration, and upon being in range will instantly restore the shields of said unit. It will passively follow allied units though not necessarily following the player character. It very rarely uses its autoturret to fight back as well as use its homing Eximus
Electricity bolts to attack.
- Syndicate Specter x5
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 7,500 |
 2,500 |
 2,500 |
 2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
Rush:  10
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 Market Price: N/A
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 Blueprints Price: N/A
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Miscellaneous Specters[]
Clem Clone[]
- Main article: Darvo, Weekly Mission
The reward for the final mission of the A Man of Few Words quest is a Clem Clone Blueprint, which works in the same way as specters, deploying a clone of Clem to fight. The blueprint is a one-time use item and produces 5 clones, and like normal specters deploying one in a mission will use one of them up, regardless of whether it is alive at the end of the mission. Additional blueprints can be acquired by undertaking Darvo's weekly "merchandise acquisition" Survival mission.
Clem Clone Specters have similar AI to Tenno Specters and will act as bodyguards.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
| Rush: 10
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| Market Price: N/A
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Blueprints Price: N/A
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Corrupted Bombard[]
- Main article: Corrupted Bombard
The Corrupted Bombard Specter Blueprint was introduced as a Baro Ki'Teer exclusive specter, available for 
100 and 
50,000 between February 24 - 26, 2017 on PC. The blueprint is a one time use (providing 5x specters) and includes a Corrupted Bombard specter and an accompanying Orokin Drone. The drone does not and cannot obtain shields, and the limited 200 shield it gives to the specter will not recharge once depleted unless the Drone is killed and respawns, doing so within 30 seconds of being destroyed.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
2,500 |
Time: 8 hrs | |
| Rush: 10
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| Market Price: N/A
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Blueprints Price:  100 + 50,000
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Corrupted Heavy Gunner[]
- Main article: Corrupted Heavy Gunner
The Corrupted Heavy Gunner Specter Blueprint was introduced as a Baro Ki'Teer exclusive specter, available for 100 and 40,000 between May 4 - 6, 2018 on PC. The bundle provides 5x Corrupted Heavy Gunner specters and an accompanying Orokin Drone. The drone does not and cannot obtain shields, and the limited 200 shield is gives to the specter will not recharge once depleted unless the Drone is killed and respawns, doing so in 30 seconds of being destroyed.
Desert Skate[]
- Main article: Desert Skate
The Baro Void-Signal mission will always reward one Desert Skate Specter, which deploys a Desert Skate to fight.
Stalker[]
- Main article: Stalker
The Stalker Specter Blueprint was a reward from Nightwave's Nora's Mix Volume 7. Unlike other specters, the Stalker blueprint has infinite uses. He is cloned from the pre-The Second Dream Stalker, not the ones players can pilot in Duviri.
Unlike Tenno Specters, the Stalker Specter will prioritize fighting enemies rather than following the player similar to most Syndicate Specters. This makes it a bad choice for missions that involve the player moving to different locations as the Stalker will not follow nor teleport, and even in missions that remain in one room the Stalker may funnel enemies to a point away from an objective in Defense as an example. However, should the Stalker Specter loses all health, he can be revived.
Possesses the abilities 
Smoke Screen, 
Shuriken, 
Absorb, and 
Pull.
On Call Crew[]
- Main article: Railjack/Crew
With Command Intrinsic Rank 9, a reusable On Call Crew Gear item can be used to deploy a selected Railjack Crewmember for 3 minutes, with a 10-minute cooldown between summons.
Aggression & Pathing[]
- All Specters who don't have the "bodyguard" AI type will only follow the player if they do not detect any enemies. If they detect an enemy nearby, they may do the following:
- Corrupted lancers will sprint for cover and stay in that cover until enemies get near or until the enemy it detected dies (even if it is in another room).
- Rollers will roll towards the enemies and continue to attack until (easily) being destroyed.
- MOA specters are one of two Specters that will take the initiative to follow the player, often walking backward as it fires at enemies. It too, however, can get stuck as it notices many enemies, in which it will decide the enemies are a bigger priority than the player.
- Charger specters have a slightly smaller detection range and aggression towards enemies but never attempt to follow the player if enemies are nearby and its weak attacks often miss enemies who walk backward to avoid its attacks.
- Ancient Healer specters will slowly walk towards enemies until they are in range, and then charge as a normal Healer would do.
- Clem will stay close to the player most of the time, and sometimes stop to engage the enemy for a while.
- Shield Ospreys have both the "bodyguard" AI and the normal enemy AI; they will attempt to stay close to other deployed specters, defense objectives, or other high-value allies even if they detect enemies. If there are no high-value allies nearby (players don't count) it will simply drift into the enemies instead.
Notes[]
- Specters have their own ammo and are capable of looting ammo pickups and depleting their reserves.
- Depleting all ammo reserves displays a red ammunition icon above the Specter's head.
- Squad Ammo Restores can replenish the Specter's ammo.
- These specters do not teleport to the player and have limited AI capabilities. As such, they generally act like normal enemies such as taking cover or other similar behavior. If they detect enemies, they will take the initiative to engage them regardless of where the player is.
- Specters of this type are most useful in game modes where the mission takes place in a fixed location, such as Defense or Interception, as they can easily lag behind players or have difficulty navigating certain tiles/rooms.
- Shield Osprey Specters behave differently than all the other specters: They may stay near the objective in defense or decide to protect another specter, and will never take the initiative to actually protect the player.
- The Roller Specter is arguably the weakest of all the specters due to its relatively low health and slow attack speed, despite being able to steal health from enemies.
- Ancient Healer Specters have a short ~15m aura that reduces damage by 90% for all friendly targets such as other players, allied specters, or Defense objectives. When connected to said targets the Healer itself will gain a damage resistance boost as well.
- Damage done to you or linked allies will heal the specter as well as its own occasional healing pulses.
- Oddly enough, a specter's weapon can level up, shown in the media below. It is unknown if it actually affects the weapon or the Specter itself.
- Upon successful defeat of a certain syndicate's death squad/platoon, you may earn the blueprint to build that syndicate's specters.
- Players are able to choose to either make the specters stay in an area or follow them around by pressing X (default keybinding) when close to it.
- Doing this to a Shield Osprey specter will cause it to hold position and fire plasma repeater weapons at enemies.
- The Shield Osprey may also rarely fire its weapons when not told to wait, although this is rare.
- For clients this is unreliable and the osprey may ignore the commands anyway, and continue to fly into crowds of enemies and not be able to defend itself, being destroyed soon after.
- Doing this to a Shield Osprey specter will cause it to hold position and fire plasma repeater weapons at enemies.
- Some Specters may rarely disable alarms.
- Cephalon Suda's shield osprey specter is useful in Hijack missions, as they can instantly restore your shields.
- Its shields will not be affected, however.
- Specters will spawn at the current enemy level, plus a few extra. For endless missions, this allows specters to scale to enemy level; placing one at the beginning of the mission will be lower than later on if spawned again.
- The Corrupted Lancer and Ancient Healer specters become very powerful due to this, becoming massive bullet sponges.
- If the player kills a Specter affected by Radiation, they will receive affinity identical in amount to an enemy unit of the same type (i.e. Ancient Healer Specters will give affinity matching an Eximus unit of the same level).
- Specters spawned during Nightmare alerts and missions are immediately hostile to the player, indiscriminately attacking Tenno and enemies alike, and cannot be commanded to hold position or follow. These specters are marked with a reddish distorted glow to indicate that they have turned against the player.
Bugs[]
- Telling a specter to hold position may cause the specter to act strangely, including freezing in an animation or tracking but not firing upon enemies. Telling them to follow you and re-hold position can fix the issue temporarily.
- The Corrupted Bombard Specter spawns with a small shield count which will recharge slowly as long as its drone is active. However, having this shield drain completely will prevent it from ever coming back until its drone is destroyed and respawned after a period of time. This has been a bug since the Specter existed and may be due to an issue where Heavy Grineer cannot obtain shields.
Trivia[]
- Warframe Specters were also used to guard a Clan's Solar Rail during Solar Rail Conflicts, before this game mode was discontinued. Contesting Clans would have to face these Specter Regiments in order to seize control of territory. A Specter Regiment was to be created through researching it in the Clan Dojo's Orokin Lab. As mentioned, however, the entire Clan-conflict mechanic and the associated Regiments were eventually removed from the game.
Media[]
Discussing Specters And Their Role In Warframe
Corrupted Bombard - Warframe Specter Review
Roller - Warframe Specter Review
Corrupted Lancer - Warframe Specter Review
Shield Osprey - Warframe Specter Review
Ancient Healer - Warframe Specter Review
Clem - Warframe Specter Review
MOA - Warframe Specter Review
Patch History[]
Update 37.0 (2024-10-02)
- Fixed Stalker Specters dropping Stalker’s loot when killed in Nightmare missions.
- Careful, Tenno. You don’t want him sending you angry inbox messages again, do you?
Update 36.0 (2024-06-18)
- Fixed script errors caused by Frost Specters.
Update 35.5 (2024-03-27)
- Fixed Qorvex Specter not rotating to face enemies when casting Crucible Blast.
- Fixed a Client crash that could occur from Warframe Specters casting an ability.
Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)
- Fixed Specters ignoring ammo drops from Protea’s Dispensary.
Hotfix 33.6.1 (2023-07-31)
- Fixed a crash related to Specters being unable to pick up certain types of ammo.
Update 32.3 (2023-02-15)
- Specters in the “Hold” position will now continue attacking when moving back to their original held position, whenever they are made to move away from it (via enemies, or using movement abilities), instead of casually strolling back.
- Fixed performance issues due to infinitely picking up ammo when spawning in a Specter with Vacuum and Ammo Mutation Mods equipped. Also fixed the repeating ammo pickup sound FX playing.
- Umbra now uses Secondary weapon if the last weapon before Transference is the Secondary or if the Primary weapon runs out of ammo.
- Running out of ammo on the Secondary will also switch back to Primary.
- Meleeing behavior remains the same: always attack in melee range, but otherwise prioritize following the player even if it means not attacking at all.
Hotfix 32.2.10 (2023-01-18)
- Clem Specters and Kahl (spawned from the Skaut’s “Kahl Beacon” Air Support) now have a full 360-degree vision to improve their ability to target enemies more effectively.
Hotfix 32.2.9 (2023-01-11)
- Specters will no longer attempt to reload when they have no ammo to do so. Instead an ammo icon will now appear above their head once they have depleted the ammo pool of all weapons to indicate that they are needing ammo pickups.
- Specters do not share ammo pools with you, so once they run out of ammo they will actively search for pickups nearby. You can also assist with the use of Squad Ammo Restores.
- Fixed Specters in the Hold Position having trouble firing weapons that use ammo but never reload.
- Fixed Voruna Specters not using any abilities.
- Specters casting Ulfrun’s Decent will target a single target at a time.
- Fixed script error caused by Saryn Specters casting Toxic Lash.
Hotfix 32.2.4 (2022-12-07)
- Fixed the Orokin Shield Drones summoned by Corrupted Bombard Specters being larger than they are intended to be.
Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)
- Fixed Yareli Specter not using any abilities (apart from Merulina as intended).
- Fixed Trinity Specter’s Energy Vampire not applying to allies.
- Fixed several issues related to players spawnings Specters using the Gear wheel in mission.
Hotfix 32.1.1 (2022-11-03)
- Fixes towards ammo pickups getting infinitely stuck to you after summoning a Specter while the Vacuum Mod is equipped. As reported here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/yk9xlv/loot_lag_wouldnt_let_me_finish_the_mobile_defense/
- If you run into this issue, a temporary fix is to clear your ammo from your weapon by shooting to clear the hovering pickups with the same ammo type.
- Fixed crash related to Specters that use player loadouts consuming ammo.
Update 32.1 (2022-11-02)
- Fixed ammo pools not being shared properly across NPCs (Specters).
- Fixed being able to spawn more than 1 of the Cephalon Suda Shield Ospreys and Corrupted Bombard Specters to prevent performance issues.
Update 31.6 (2022-06-09)
- Fixed Crash related to Ash Specters using Bladestorm, it will now be more friendly to Clients.
Update 31.5 (2022-04-27)
- Syndicate Exmus Specters have also had their respective Eximus type updated: Here are the following Eximus Specters and Type:
- Ancient Healer Eximus: Volatile
- Charger Eximus: Venomous
- MOA Eximus: Arctic
- Corruper Lancer: Arson
- Roller Eximus: Energy Leech
- Shield Osprey Eximus: Shock
- Fixed script error related to spawning Specters.
Hotfix 31.1.2 (2022-02-10)
- Fixed script error after throwing a Specter ball, dying and then respawning before it spawns.
Hotfix 31.0.5 (2021-12-21)
- Fixed a script error when using a Specter.
Update 30.2 (2021-05-12)
- Fixed friendly Specters not regenerating their Shields after hitting 0 Shields.
Update 30.0 (2021-04-13)
- Fixed ally Specters getting stuck in perpetual weapon swap animations.
Update 29.9 (2021-02-23)
- Fixed Tenno Specters equipped with certain weapons not needing to reload while told to "hold position", resulting in a higher rate of fire.
Hotfix 29.6.9 (2021-01-28)
- Fixed a script error when spawning a Specter.
Hotfix 29.5.5 (2020-11-27)
- Fixed Khora Spectors only using her Strangle Dome and no other abilities.
- With the exception of Venari, as it is a tap and cycle ability. Venari will simply stick to her default attack mode.
- Fixed a script error that could occur when using a Garuda Specter.
Hotfix 29.5.2 (2020-11-20)
- Fixed an issue with Tesla Coil causing issues with specters.
- Fixed an issue where Harrow Specters casting ‘Condemn’ could cause a game hang.
Hotfix 29.5.1 (2020-11-19)
- Fixed a script error that could occur if a Trinity Specter used Energy Vampire.
Hotfix 29.1.2 (2020-09-22)
- Fixed an issue where deploying a Desert Skate does not remove the prior deployed Desert Skate.
Update 28.3 (2020-08-12)
- Fixed crashing when attempting to spam Specter spawns when in Titania’s Razorwing.
Update 28.2 (2020-07-14)
- Fixed a script error when spawning a Specter.
Hotfix 27.3.15 (2020-04-17)
- Fixed friendly Specters suffering knockdown when deployed and taking entirely way too long to recover.
Hotfix 27.3.11 (2020-04-09)
- Fixed a script crash when spawning a Specter.
Update 25.5 (2019-07-31)
- Any summoned allied Specters in a Nightmare mission will now have a reddish distorted glow to indicate that they have turned against you and you’ve made a huge mistake in trusting them.
Hotfix 22.11.1 (2018-02-06)
- Followers (Specters, Rescue Target, etc) no longer cancel charging if they switch targets while using a charging weapon.
Update 22.10 (2018-01-25)
- Warframe Specters are now much smarter! We've done a general intelligence pass on their proficiency with Weapons, and we've also updated their power-casting logic. Virtually every power is now castable with only a few exceptions!
- Specters CANNOT cast the following Abilities: Vauban's Minelayer, Ivara's Zipline, Titania's Razorwing, Nekros’ Desecrate and Shadows of the Dead, Excalibur’s Exalted Blade, Valkyr’s Hysteria, Wukong’s Primal Fury, Cloud Walker, and Defy, Atlas’ Petrify and Tectonics, Limbo's entire kit (save for the damage aspect of Banish), and finally Zephyr’s Dive Bomb.
