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The Drifter is a playable character as a version of the Tenno from an "unrealized possibility", or alternate reality. They are first seen in either The Duviri Paradox or The New War depending on player choice. The Drifter was initially introduced during The New War in Update 31.0 (2021-12-15).
Lore & History
The Duviri Paradox
Trapped in the Void's Duviri in an endless loop failing to escape from the mad ruler Dominus Thrax, one day the Drifter is mysteriously stabbed followed by a strange hand bonding itself to the Drifter and granting them powers and the ability to control Warframes that have arrived from beyond the Void. The Drifter is led by the hand to Teshin, who offers his 
Sun & Moon and teaches them the ways of the Warframe, explaining the origins of the Tenno and the Zariman Ten Zero ship in Duviri's background. They recover a toy figure, which Teshin believes will help them escape Duviri, while peering into Dominus Thrax's emotional states that occurred on the Zariman.
Meanwhile, Dominus Thrax grows increasingly frustrated and eventually has Teshin captured and killed, and dies before the Drifter. They take control of an Orowyrm and raid Thrax's throne, completing the figurine. Recovering the final memory, they discovered Duviri was inadvertently brought to life from the Tales of Duviri storybook through Conceptual Embodiment not by Thrax, but the Drifter, as a result of their emotional anxieties aboard the Zariman. They seize the throne and use its time-rewinding powers to resurrect Teshin but put Thrax back in power, which the Drifter deems to be a fair trade.
No longer shackled by Duviri, the Drifter is now able to leave for the Origin System to repay the aid from beyond the Void's walls. Teshin warns that once they cross over they will not be as who they are now, but as they were then.
The New War
The Drifter eventually makes their way into the Origin System during The New War, which has now been thrown into disarray following Ballas and Narmer's takeover. During the process, the Drifter subsequently lost access the strange hand bonded to them, removing their borrowed capability to Transference like in Duviri. They work together with Ordis to revive the Lotus, and form an unlikely alliance with Hunhow to combat the Archons.
While reviving the Lotus, she fails to recognize the Drifter and turns hostile. They flee long enough for Eternalism to catch up, granting the Drifter Void powers while restoring the Operator, prompting the Lotus to leave. The Operator heads to the Zariman Ten Zero and meets with the Drifter, who explains that they are from a timeline where they were not rescued and were not given the powers of Transference and Warframes. However, the paradox only allows either one of them to continue on to end the threat of The New War.
Zariman Tablets
Within one of the scattered Zariman Tablets discovered in Duviri, there exists an entry implying the existence of an instance during Zariman Void Jump, where the player Tenno accepted their doppelgänger's deal to save everyone, but was the only one not rescued in the process. The exact process of the saving of the other children is left unknown, but the child would be left alone in the Zariman ship adrift in the Void, with no Tenno power inherited from the deal. The adrift child in the ship would soon resort to the Tales of Duviri as a coping mechanism, their emotions and memories reacting with the Void, bringing the Kingdom of Duviri to life via Conceptual Embodiment as an archipelago floating close to the Zariman. That version of the child would become the Drifter.
The Lotus Eaters
The Operator and Drifter meet the Lotus in Sanctum Anatomica. She warns them that she is being influenced by The Man in the Wall who is targeting the former, thus she chooses to send the latter to 1999 and urges them to find Albrecht Entrati.
Notes
- After the The New War quest, the player can be changed to play as either the Operator or the Drifter via a toggle button on the top right corner when accessing the Operator menu. Most of their armor cosmetics are not shared.
- The roll maneuver for the Drifter uses a standard roll instead of sliding like the Operator, which travels slightly further. The distance travelled by rolling 3 times is roughly similar to an Operator sliding 4 times.
- The Drifter is noticeably taller than the Operator, making them a far bigger target.
- The Drifter can carry a different Amp and set of Arcanes to their Operator counterpart, making for a convenient way of quickly switching to an alternate build when necessary (i.e. a specific build for Eidolon hunts for the Drifter, another specific build for Zariman missions for the Operator).
- The Drifter can use Operator Arcanes that grant enhancements to Drifter survivability.
- All Amps equipped by the Drifter use the
Sirocco model, even if the skin itself is not equipped.
Trivia
- On their reveal in The Duviri Paradox trailer, the Drifter bared a striking resemblance to Hayden Tenno, the protagonist of Digital Extremes' previous successful video game, Dark Sector. However, Devstream 129 claimed this resemblance was coincidental.
- Even though the Drifter does not have the power of Transference, Ordis still wishes to call them 'Operator' and they are called 'Tenno' by Hunhow, a term that was given to the Zariman survivors by the Orokin after they were rescued.
- It is implied in the Lost Islands of Duviri Fragments that the Drifter is the only survivor of the Zariman Ten Zero's Void jump accident in their timeline.
69 comments
So, is there anywhere that documents SPECIFICALLY the Guiding Hand on the Drifter?
I mention this because- despite it being a bug- it's a weapon that has been available to the playerbase for a while now.
It has some unique aspects to it and... well... we do have articles on things like the Tunguska Cannon and plenty of enemy-exclusive weapons.
Personally, I just think it's funky. It's like a secret unlockable "Hyper Cannon", raw firepower that should not conventionally exist.
Makes me wonder if any games outside of Warframe have toyed with that idea. Weapons so powerful that it's intentionally glitchy... sometime causing permanant save damage as a part of it's "downside"?
Food for thought anyway.
How do you intentionally summon the guiding hand as a weapon?
"How do you intentionally summon the guiding hand as a weapon?"
For the longest time, there's been a bug where dying in the Undercroft multiplies your Intrinsics.
It also enables the "Guiding Hand" as a weapon.
This is how you see those situations where someone gets a bunch of Decree choices or get several minutes worth of Warframe usage.
It's been a bug for some quite some time, so I doubt they'll be fixing it anytime soon.
Not comfy editing the wiki too much myself but can we remove the line "The Drifter can use Operator Arcanes that grant enhancements to Drifter survivability." as this implies an interaction while on Duviri. Also, on Duviri the Drifter is affected by the equipped warframe aura but this doesn't seem mentioned anywhere.
(first part quote) But it does though... Even in the Circuit, I have heal wf and drifter by switching between them. Due to Operator Arcanes.
Plot development in the New War would have had way more weight if the Drifter reveal was a time skip where Narmer ruled for 20 years instead of 'lmao its me Eternalism Rick nothing matters!' It would help explain way theres thousands of other Drifters runnjng around as well. I guess Steve must have been watching way too much multivariate popular media when he was writing New War.
But the Drifter's reveal happens after a time skip, DE has confirmed that, it's just that they haven't told us how much time passed between the Operator going in the hole and the Drifter showing up during the Narmer days. As for the "many" drifters, well, suspense of disbelief I guess, same with the many WoL in FFXIV or Champions of Azeroth in WoW, or the many Guardians that saved the world in D1 and D2, so on and so forth
Does Guiding Hand do anything except resaturating colour and highlighting waypoints?
And sometimes it bugs out and starts working as an actual weapon: https://i.imgur.com/PjWeBJT.mp4
Interesting! It did function as a weapon in pre-release Duviri builds, after which the hand just turned into a utility item and we just grabbed the Sirocco off a guard in the intro. The change makes sense imo as it makes Lotus' lone hand less OP while she's somewhere being an Eidolon-like corpse waiting for the Drifter to find her for The New War.
I would be cool, if we could get the Lotus hand as a cosmetic for our AMPs. Based on that bug video above.
I came looking for this because I just got the same bug with the weapon version. Honestly a nice surprise, I feel like they should make this into a feature.
Switching from melee requires a key press, so the mouse scroll won't do this? I am not sure I have that key defined other than mouse scroll, but maybe that will fix the inability to reload bug. Even if you are quick shooting, it should still use a shot, but it doesn't. So I don't see how this isn't a bug. Once you lock on with it and do any shooting, the bullets in your mag don't go down and reloading never happens.
Oh, in training room I think I get it. If you ever lock on, it puts you in melee mode and picking up items will do this too. In melee mode, you can only quick shot, and it doesn't consume ammo from your mag. You can't overcharge in melee mode and if you overcharge, then go to melee mode, it looks like you lose it. It makes sense, So if you want to overcharge, you have to turn off autolock and make sure sirocco is out on the right and not your melee. This page was actually pretty helpful.
I like default drifter suit. It has a cool Star Wars vibe.
After playing Duviri I realized the Drifter is taller than some of the Warframes.
A proper growth spurt rather than sleeping inside a pod for most of their life.
He said warframes, not operators. Idk if the dude should be bigger than a Bio-Weapon Immortal Cyber-Warrior.
Finally looks normal
Looking good.
I'm used to the Dax armor having some pretty bulbous features, but now I see it can look pretty good. Now I have to get this.
Noice 👍
Why is the character model for Drifter so overly huge?
The main reason is cause unlike the operator, they aged, no void, no immortality, i guess the operator had a growth spurt ahead of them
The Operators are still teenagers after all it’s likely that their bodies are still growing.
The Operators got to sleep for the longest after the rebellion henceforth stopping their growth spurt almost effectively while The Drifter never encountered any Warframes and had to struggle to survive inside Duviri realm.
Because DE re-used the same skeleton and animation set for warframes. Warframes and drifter have essentially same height. An economic design choice, but not the best one.
If I play "Duviri Paradox" without having played "The New War", will my Drifter still look like my Operator?
No. drifter and operator are seperate
To clarify (I've restarted the game on new account) yes and no. Your Drifter will look exactly like how you made them in Duviri. But you can also customize your Drifter to change how they look ahead of time before The New War. Bear in mind that most missions in New War will force your Drifter to a specific outfit (most commonly Drifter and Zariman suit)
You can make your operator look like drifter, but not play as drifter and look like your operator. Playing as drifter in duviri has different cosmetic options and a completely different body. The operator will always have some exclusive cosmetics that cannot be put on drifter even if they broaden his wardrobe.
(Spoiler) Worth noting, that if you don't unlock the Operator in The New War, and only do Duviri, you won't have access to Focus schools, and won't be able to "5" until you do. And the drifter will only be accessible in Duviri.
Don't know if this has been confirmed, disproved, or if anybody has already said something similar but the reason why DE named this character "Drifter" might have been due to the Japanese term "Rōnin" which apparently can be contextually translated to "wanderer" or "drifter". Now, obviously that could've just been a coincidence but we have seen DE use a lot of Asian, particularly Japanese-inspired, designs and concepts in their game (plus the slogan of the game is literally "Ninjas Play Free") so it wouldn't be far off if the inspiration behind the name of the Drifter also came from the same place. Another supporting reason for why I believe they named the Drifter after old rōnins is because of the nature of rōnins. Respected and honorable samurais become rōnins once they've lost their lord or master, quite similar to how our Operator discovers the Drifter after losing their guiding Lotus in the story. This might all just be nonsense but it's fun to guess.
Fun fact: in modern day japan ronin is used to describe a unemployed person
That is a fun fact, lol.
Y'all two in the replies are being so damn rude for no reason. Y'all can critique his comment without being a jerk about it.
So damn mad over a harmless theory. Come on bruh.
In The New War the name confused me, but after learning about Duviri, the islands drifting through the void with him and the derelict Zariman 10 O, it makes more sense.
Deos the drifter have the same ability has the normal operator
Yea they both use the same Focus system.
(Spoiler) Worth noting, however, that if you don't unlock the Operator in The New War, and only do Duviri, you won't have access to Focus schools, and won't be able to "5" until you do. And the drifter will only be accessible in Duviri.
Can Drifter use the Warframes?
Yes
Why cant we use pistol skins on this guy? seems like a missed opportunity.....
We can
No we can't, wasted opportunity really.
Oh, oops, misread the comment, thought you wanted to be able to use the Sirocco skin, not regular pistol skin. My bad xD
The real question is…
Where does the drifter go when you use operator and vice versa?
Ohio
Bruh they goes to Duviri in Ohio
I don't get this Eternalism nonsense. All I know is that you need to bank those motes brotha!
Gives them an excuse to pull some Michelle Yeoh / James Hong shenanigans.
That movie might have been the last for both of them, but dang if it wasn't epic...
Image not knowing the best drifter, from that hit game destiny 2, which clearly warframe was made to kill ;)
What an incredible foresight from DE to release a game before Destiny 1 in order to kill Destiny 2 xD
Limbo must be on the Dev team. Which would explain the janky coding.
I hope one day maybe during/after the Duviri Paradox that we can summon them/or the operator when not in control to be used as a companion or akin to "On Call Crew" and specters.
Umbra is sentient so he would follow those who controlled him and since has been rescued by Operator, he won't appear to Drifter without any circumstances.
They can't exist together for long, that's why we had to chose 1 of them to finish The New War
Yes, but given that nature and history of their existence they CAN for a short while like that of an "On Call Crewmate" and we have seen the ability to play as both at the same time via Duviri Paradox where they usually mirror our Drifter's movements.
Also my question was toward the person who compared them akin to the "Enchantress in Suicide Squad", which I somewhat still am curious what they meant.
WAIT A MINUTE is the drifter on drugs?
Yes
That was confirmed by DE.
They are adults now so they can swear, doing junks, and become a badass.
The Drifter's walking animation when not in a mission still makes him look like he's holding his pistol. Amps equipped by the Drifter only have the Sirocco skin. Cosmetics are not transferable between Kid and Drifter.
This feels unfinished, like the Drifter was just a one and done character specifically made for The New War. We're still meant to use Kid primarily. Bummer, I kinda wanted to use Drifter primarily, especially since some of Kid's cosmetics would look really cool on an adult.
Well the easter egg in the Dormizone proof that soon the Drifter gameplay might different in the future update
The drifter is going to be able to wield weapon's, Probably the Nataruk and after the Duviri Paradox the Sun and Moon nikana's (love the name of teshin's blade's)
Maybe both the Operator and Drifter will get one Nikana each, where the Drifter gets the longer one and the shorter one goes to the Operator.
Sun & Moon huh, only appeared to Drifter so Operator might unable to wield it let alone to see it.
I understood the "all this" the drifter wasn't saved from as the whole few years of Narmer. This is why Ordis is all why did you lose your 'old Tenno magic'. If the Drifter was on the Zariman for howevermany years, why wouldn't they be all voided out like the Holdfasts? How would they have survived, anyway? And why wouldn't the Holdfasts recognize them, or the Drifter them?
Maybe because the Drifter already "fused" with their different universe selves so basically they are the operator but at the same time also the drifter. The Holdfast cannot recognized the drifter as the one that left behind simply because the operator and the drifter are fused together as one so they see drifter as operator.
Holdfast's are "voided out" because they already died, and were recontructed by the void, then the void's song tried to claim it's creations back. The more you succumb, the more voided out you are. but you need to be a void construct for that to apply. The Drifter/Operator are very much still alive and will not get void markings no matter how long they stay in the void. They have already demonstrated from the moment the Zariman crashed that they are inmune to void exposure
Although you can get small void marking from cosmetics, these are visually different, and i assume that are most likely scars from orokin transference experiements rather than void stuff. Since even after the new war, the drifter cannot be customized with void markings, while the operator can. The drifter never experienced the Orokin transference experiments, thus doesn't have markings