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Nekros isWarframe’smaster of puppets, a necromancer who reanimates the dead to serve under the Tenno cause. But for most players, he’s mostly known for his ability to desecrate corpses to spawn additional loot. For a game that’s primarily known as a looter shooter, any character that can spawn additional drops is going to be highly sought after, regardless of the rest of their kit.
Thankfully, Nekros is a solid Warframe in its own right, capable of tanking an unholy amount of damage through various augment mods and build choices. Today, we’ll be looking into how Nekros works, covering their abilities and augments, and then showing some of this Warframe’s best builds.
How To Craft Nekros
Nekros' components drop from theLephantis bosson Deimos. For clarity, this isnotthe Zealoid Prelate fight you unlock later in Deimos. Lephantis is a two-stage fight where you’ll need to destroy its mutated heads. This boss has damage attenuation, so bring a weapon with a high fire rate or pellet count to kill Lephantis as quickly as possible.
You’ll find Nekros' main blueprint on the in-game market, costing 25,000 Credits to purchase.
Magnacidium, Deimos (33.33% chance)
12 Hours
How To Craft Nekros Prime
As with all Prime Warframes,Nekros Prime is obtained through Void Relics.This is a consumable item you’ll frequently receive as an end-of-mission reward. You can bring these to Void Fissures throughout the Star Chart to crack them open, revealing a Prime part or Forma blueprint. Nekros Prime’s components are found in certain Void Relics, although the exact Relic roster frequently changes.
If you’re able to’t get one of his components to drop, you can also trade Nekros Prime’s schematics with other players through Warframe’s trading system. Built componentscannotbe traded.
Void Relics (Uncommon or Rare)
Passive
Restores 5 HP with every enemy death within 10m.
Unlisted in the description, Nekros also heals his companion whenever this passive triggers. All enemy deaths trigger this as well, not just kills from Nekros or his companion(s). Bear in mind that summons from Shadows of the Dead donotcount as companions and are thus unaffected by this passive.
Soul Punch
A blow so powerful, it turns the enemy’s very soul into a deadly projectile, damaging all in its path. Enemies that survive the blow are Marked for Harvest and become one of Nekros' Shadows of the Dead if killed while marked.
50 meters
Affects targeting range
Affects cast Energy cost
Affects damage dealt
Soul Punch’s main use is to cherry-pick targets to summon with Shadows of the Dead.Enemies tagged by this ability will be added to Nekros' army of shadows the next time you cast your ultimate.This can be incredibly useful if you’re trying to summon a specific Eximus unit or foe with support capabilities. As an actual damage skill, it’s pitiful at best.
If you have no interest in using Soul Punch to summon specific units, we suggest using this slot for a Helminth ability instead.
Terrify
Cast fear into the hearts of nearby enemies, causing them to run away in terror.
15 meters
25 seconds
20 targets
60%
Affects debuff duration
Affects targeting radius
Affects armor strip and enemy cap
Nekros raises his arms and releases a burst of terrifying energy, forcing a select number of nearby targets to flee in fear. Enemies tagged by Terrify will have a portion of their armor stripped and will run away from Nekros, making them less likely to attack you. Remember that Terror is one of a select few abilities with a target cap. It’s 20 by default, although you can increase it by scaling your Ability Strength stat.
In general, you’ll want toscale Ability Strengthto make Terrify fully strip armor. This armor strip only lasts for the ability’s listed duration, so consider scaling yourAbility Durationstat as well to make the strip last longer.
Drain:10 Energy per enemy desecrated
25 meters
54% chance
Affects looting radius
Affects cast and drain Energy cost
N/A
Desecrate is an aura that follows Nekros wherever he goes. All enemy corpses that make contact with this aura will be desecrated after a short duration, creating a puff of smoke that spawns a cache of loot. This can be ammo, Health Orbs, Energy Orbs, or resources found on that tileset. You can even get Endo or mods from the desecrated target, notably drops that are usually exclusive to that enemy.
It should go without saying, butDesecrate is one of the strongest looting abilities in Warframe. It’s passive, has a moderate chance of dropping extra items, and can drop nearly every planetary resource and enemy mod in the game. Stack this with Khora’s Pilfering Strangledome augment for a shower of items.
Shadows Of The Dead
Summon shadow versions of vanquished enemies to fight alongside you for a short duration.
2.5x
2x
3% per second
Affects HP decay rate
Affects shadow damage and survivability
Nekros summons seven shadowy figures to serve as his personal bodyguards. Each shadow you summon is an enemy you previously killed, prioritizing Eximus units and tougher foes you’ve slain. Shadows from this skill are buffed with enhanced damage and survivability stats, all of which can be scaled with Ability Strength.
Shadows donotcount as companions. You also cannot reanimate bosses with this ability.
While Nekros' shadows are quite powerful, their life essence is fleeting.Your minions will continuously drain HP while alive.you may heal them by recasting Shadows of the Dead, restoring them to full HP while repositioning them on top of Nekros. If you want to heal them in a more passive fashion, you’ll need to rely on weapon gimmicks or Helminth abilities. You can slow this drain with Ability Duration.
Nekros Augments
There are five augments up for grabs, four of which are tied to the Steel Meridian and Red Veil Syndicates. Each augment obtained from either Syndicate costs 25,000 Standing and can only be purchased once you’re rank five. You may also purchase these augments from other players through trading. Nekros' fifth augment, Discharge Strike, is obtained from the Conclave or Nightwave. Discharge Strike may only be used in PvP.
Soul Survivor
Soul Punch Augment:Use on a downed ally to revive them at 30% Health.
There’s not much to explain here. Casting Soul Punch on a downed Tenno or companion will instantly revive them. You can scale your Ability Strength to restore more HP, but we generally recommend you use theVazarin Focus schoolinstead; it does the same thing but with a 100 percent HP restore and is Warframe agnostic.
Discharge Strike
Soul Punch Augment:Depletes up to 25 Energy from the target.
PvE enemies don’t have Energy, so this augment does absolutely nothing for the vast majority of content. Skip this augment entirely.
Creeping Terrify
Terrify Augment:Affected enemies have 60% reduced movement speed.
All enemies affected by Terrify will now also be slowed. This is set to 60 percent by default, but you may get this up to a cap of 80 percent with Ability Strength mods. This stacks multiplicatively with other sources of slow, allowing you to effectively freeze targets in place if you pair it with another slow effect.
Despoil
Desecrate Augment:No longer consumes Energy, but consumes 10 Health per corpse instead.
Desecrate now drains HP instead of Energy when it loots corpses. Since Health Orbs are significantly more common than Energy Orbs, this is somewhat of a benefit from Desecrate. You’ll almost always spawn a Health Orb with this ability, which will then recover any lost HP from Desecrate. In other words, this ability is more or less free if you’re able to keep desecrating targets.
Shield Of Shadows
Shadows of the Dead Augment:Each shadow within 50m take 6% of the damage done to Nekros in his stead.
Shield of Shadows works much in the same way as Trinity’s Link ability.While near your shadows, all damage you receive will be redirected to your minions instead.You can increase the damage redirection by scaling your Ability Strength, although the DR provided by this augment cannot exceed 90 percent.
Unlisted in the augment’s description,Shield of Shadows also redirects status ailments and knockdowns.So long as you’re near a shadow, you won’t suffer from status effects or be knocked down.
Nekros Builds
We’ll be looking at two Nekros builds today, one focused on farming while the other is a melee necromancer. Since Nekros can spawn extra Health and Energy Orbs through Desecrate, he’s a great candidate forEquilibriumandSimaris' conversion mods—Health Conversion and Energy Conversion, respectively. For tanking, we recommendShield Gatingfor Desecrate builds andHP tankingfor summoning builds.
1 (D, only if using Primed Redirection)
Archon Shards
None
This is a fairly standard Desecrate build that focuses on looting as many corpses as possible. The only stat that matters here isAbility Range, so we go all-in on scaling our Desecrate aura, usingOverextended, Stretch, and Augur Reachto get as much range as possible. If you’re willing to put an extra two Forma on the build, you can also use Cunning Drift in the Exilus slot.
There’s not much else this build needs, so we focus on survivability.Primed Redirection and Vitalitygive you a decent HP and shield buffer for most content, although you might want to drop Redirection for Health Conversion if you’re strictly HP tanking. Despoil turns your HP into an Energy meter, andEquilibriumwill ensure that every orb pickup heals you. The last slot can be any mod you please; we opted forPrimed Redirection. Primed Sure Footed is a good option as well.
For Arcanes, we focus on adding more survivability.Arcane Blessingis a no-brainer here, granting an extra +1,200 HP for collecting Health Orbs. The second slot is much more flexible. We’ve opted forArcane Eruptionfor free crowd control, althoughArcane Guardianis also a great pick if you aren’t using Health Conversion or another form of armor scaling.
4 (V [Aura], Umbral, –, double dash)
This build is incredibly expensive, but this is a fun way to make Nekros a tank through hisShield of Shadowsaugment. We use that augment and a high Strength stat—achieved withBlind Rage, Umbral Intensify, and Growing Power—to gain an extra 90 percent DR while shadows are near us.
Doing so comes with a major efficiency penalty, so we need to fix that.Despoilis a safe bet here, draining our HP to spawn Health and Energy Orbs. Equilibrium will then grant both resources from either orb type.Umbral Vitality and Arcane Blessingaggressively scale your HP,Arcane Guardiangrants DR through armor, and b adds another form of DR as you receive damage. All together, you have a great platform for a melee-focused build or a laid-back tank.
You have quite a few subsume options here if you want to tailor this build to your playstyle:
