Okay I'm doing this as much out of boredom as actual productivity here are the materials that you can get by just roaming around in the Umbriel reef
COMMON
Hermitweed (contained in Hermitweed Rafts which appear in mid-water and near the surface) A common and useful plant. Its bulbous buoyant bladders contain drinkable fresh water and its fibrous leaves can be used to make textiles. Naiads also cook and eat various parts of the plant.
Serpentine (contained in Serpentine Deposits which appear along the reef, ocean floor, and inside of caves & tunnels) an opaque green semi-precious stone used by the Naiads to make jewelry and accessories. It is believed to be imbued with the power of the sea.
Petrichor (contained in Petrichor barrels which occasionally appear on the sea floor and commonly appear on Grineer constructs) a thick slurry waste product left over from underwater mining. It can be chemically refined to extract useful minerals.
UNCONMON
Calcicrete (contained in Calcicrete Formations which commonly appear on the seafloor and rarely appear in caves & tunnels) a pale lightweight sedimentary stone composed mostly of animal bones and shells. Calcicrete's physical and chemical properties make it a very versatile material, as useful for construction as it is for fertilizing crops.
Wireless Transmitter (contained in Monitoring Devices which exclusively appear on Grineer constructs) extraordinarily durable pieces of tech used to relay data between probes and stations. Modular construction makes underwater devices easy to maintain.
RARE
Apocalyptase (contained in Flash Coral which is occasionally found along the reef and in caves & tunnels, and rarely found on the ocean floor) a highly reactive organic compound produced by Flash Coral. Very useful for industrial and military purposes. Naiads have been sustainably harvesting Apocalyptase from flash Coral for centuries, but Corpus and Grineer interests are threatening the survival of wild flash coral.
Been thinking about that Neptune open world zone I joked about on that post with the funky fish costumes. What if that like.... actually happened? A new open world zone.... but here’s the twist: it’s underwater. It’s the first (and if I know three or more things about the warframe community) only open world zone that is exclusively archwing. Also, I did misspeak, the canon ocean planet in Warframe is actually Uranus not Neptune. Because the Orokin just did whatever the fizzidyuck they wanted with terraforming.
I’m gonna call Uranus’ underwater open world zone the “Umbriel Reef”
The hub town - Prospero - is some like Little Innsmouth place built on some perpetually stormy rock spire sticking out of the ocean with a bunch of docks, rafts, and boats tethered around it to build a little makeshift city, and you accept your bounties and then dive off the edge with your archwing. The dock-village of Prospero is populated by a syndicate of Uranian humans who wear heavy ceremonial garb and call themselves The Naiads.
The Naiads have loose connections to Steel Meridian with the town of Prospero acting as a secret hub for Grineer defectors, and it is Cressa Tal that first contacts the player about helping the Naiads.
The Naiads are peaceful Tenno sympathizers, and have been threatened repeatedly by the presence of both the Grineer led by Tyl Regor and the Corpus led by a previously unknown member of the Board of Directors the Angel of Avarice; Lady Amei Axevi. The Umbriel Reef’s ‘day/night’ cycle is defined by which of the two factions is currently occupying it, with bounties and rewards being slightly different depending on whether the zone is besieged by Regor’s Grineer or Axevi’s Corpus.
I think it could be a fantastic accompaniment to the currently incomplete archwing rework including the modular archwings. This scenario would link the modular archwings system (or at least a bunch of parts for it) to this new open world zone and hub village.
Listen, I know I am in a pretty isolated camp when I say this but I freaking love underwater zones in videogames. And the solution to AW sucking is not to shelve it, it’s to fix it.
More posts to come probably. (Umbriel and Prospero are two of Uranus’ moons and Naiads are aquatic nymphs)
Thought about writing some new unique materials for the Umbriel Reef and then I was like naah man that’s just homework. That’s not an exciting new warframe, or an overpowered new weapon, or even a boss with deep lore. That’s just fucking filler text.
No fucking body needs to know about Hermitweed, an ocean plant that grows in midwater suspended by bladder-like leaves filled with fresh water so thoroughly filtered that Uranians use it as a source of drinking water during long trips, nor do they need to know its hardy stems are an organic carbon fiber which makes a highly durable, flexible, and renewable building and crafting material.
The number of people that would have even a detectable amount of unironic excitement about the existence of Hermitweed wold fit in the back seat of my 2014 Hyundai Accent. And they’d probably start making out.
Oh I absolutely need to make at least one of my original warframes available through Umbriel Reef bounties, don’t I? Uhhhhhhh lets go through the list and pick a couple candidates...... Since it’s an underwater archwing zone it’s kinda weird to tie new warframes to it but like what’s a Warframe update without a new warframe, right?
Aether, the Cloud warframe is a good candidate, one of the Naiads’ spiritual beliefs is that if you did a real good job in life you get to become part of Uranus’ never-ending ocean storms (more on that later) so a storm-based warframe would be revered by their culture like an angel.
Squala, the Shark warframe I mean how the fuck could I not, right? He’s a shark, the Umbriel reef is a reef. It may not be very thematically deep but the aesthetic is a bullseye.
Lutrin, the Otter warframe not as good as Aether or Squala maybe but he deserves a place in this list too, maybe he can be like the second or even third frame available from Prospero & Umbriel Reef.
Yeah those are the ones currently in my list of original frames that I think are appropriate to be associated with the Umbriel Reef bounties and zone. Again, since the entire zone is archwing based it doesn’t make that much sense to create a whole new warframe specifically to tie into it.
The product of a deranged mind, this highly tactical archwing was sanctioned by the Naiad’s Quill after much scrutiny, on the provision that it would only be used in the Tenno’s hour of great need. Its barbaric design and potent abilities make its wearer feel like a dark angel.
Health: 350 (1050 at rank 30)
Shields: 350 (1050 at rank 30)
Armor: 100
Energy: 125 (225 at Rank 30)
Sprint Speed: 1.2
Ability 1: Lash, 25 energy. When first activated Lash impales the enemy targeted by the player’s crosshairs within 300 meters with a harpoon at the end of a long cable, dealing 400 puncture damage with a guaranteed status proc. This opens a 2.5 second window. Letting the window expire will rip the harpoon from the enemy, dealing 400 slash damage with a guaranteed status proc while dragging them to the player’s location. Holding the ability key for Lash will cause this effect to trigger after only a half-second delay. If Lash is recast within the 2.5 second window and successfully hits another enemy the second enemy will receive all of the original effects, and then after a half-second delay the two enemies will be pulled towards each other, meeting in the middle and inflicting X impact damage (where X is equal to 20% of both units’ combined max health and shields) with a guaranteed status proc to both enemies.
Ability 2: Cloak, 50 energy. Activates a suite of stealth technologies to erase the archwing from enemy detection. The player becomes invisible and un-targetable for 12 seconds. When this ability expires it releases a burst of 500 electric damage with 100% status chance in a 30 meter radius.
Ability 3: Umbilical Cable, toggled ability costs 25 energy to activate, per-second energy cost varies. Latches a tube-like cable to the enemy or ally targeted by the player’s crosshairs within 300 meters. If the target is an enemy the enemy will be disabled, unable to move or attack. Every second the enemy will take 1% of its max health & shields as puncture damage with 15% status chance and the Uropygi will restore 25 health/shields and 3 energy per second. If the target is an ally warframe both players will gain 15% ability strength, ability range, and boost speed at a cost of 3 energy per second for the Uropygi. This effect can be applied to multiple allies but does not stack. Up to four Umbilical Cables can be active at once. Individual Umbilical Cables will break if their target moves more than 450 meters from the Uropygi. Hold the ability key to break all current Umbilical Cables. When an Umbilical Cable is broken on an enemy they will take 300 slash damage with a guaranteed status proc.
Ability 4: Network Spike, 50 energy. When first activated Network Spike impales the enemy targeted by the player’s crosshairs within 300 meters with a harpoon at the end of a long cable, dealing 400 puncture damage with a guaranteed status proc. The cable is released, and has a Tenno hacking probe at its end which will retract the cable until it contacts the enemy unit. The hacking probe retracts 30 meters of cable per second with total time scaling directly with enemy distance. Once the hacking probe has reached the enemy unit they will be disabled for 5 seconds while the probe overrides control. If successful the enemy will be mind-controlled and become the Tenno’s ally for the next 30 seconds. If the enemy dies before the hacking probe can take control 50% of this ability’s energy cost is refunded. If the enemy survives until the end of the control period the hacking probe explodes, dealing 2,000 blast damage in a 125 meter radius.
Had an idea for the Umbriel Reef’s Sentient raid boss, Dhakhan. It’s an underwater Sentient with a serpent-like body and multiple limbs tipped with different Sentient weapons, resembling a nightmarish naga. This boss is fought three separate times with new or enhanced abilities, mechanics, and drop/reward tables.
During the first encounter with the massive serpent Dhakhan he announces himself boastfully, and openly states that his objective is to find the remains of his uncle, Hunhow. His voice-lines include degrading Erra and Natah, saying such things as
“My elder cousin, Erra, nothing more than a joke. A farmer’s boy, unfit for war yet somehow just clever enough to command. My younger cousin, Natah, a living deception. Born to cuckold the man and suckle the babe. Both of them failures and embarrassments. I will succeed where both of my cousins failed, I will bring the Origin system to its knees, deliver Sol to its rightful owners and take my place as head of the family.”
While also occasionally calling out to Hunhow’s corpse, which he seeks not with the intention of resurrecting his uncle but draining what remains of his power and stealing his legacy and abilities.
Initiating the first fight with Dhakhan only requires that the player have completed the main story quest The War Within and in this first form he is barely more than a glorified tank-and-spank with a wide vareity of attacks available to him. However, like other Sentients Dhakhan possesses damage adaptation. After taking a set amount of damage of a given type Dhakhan will gain 75% resistance to that damage type, with no limit on the amount of damage types he can become resistant to, however his adaptation is temporary and will expire if he does not take damage of that type within a set window. This will force players to make tactical decisions about how and when to attack the giant serpent and coordinate ahead of battle.
The second fight against Dhakhan requires that players complete both his first fight and also the main story quest The Sacrifice. In the second iteration of his fight Dhakhan is a Sentient undead, an Eidolon. His abilities and fight mechanics have been enhanced by this transformation and defeating him will require more precision and organized tactics than before, including the presence of crystalline Eidolon armor across his body, which must be broken with precise attacks on its vulnerable nodes before damage can be dealt to his health bar. This Eidolon crystal shell will reform after a delay, and must be broken again.
During this fight Dhakhan himself is near-mindless, and only capable of communicating in pained groans and single-word expressions of foggy, far-off emotions and desires. The majority of dialogue is delivered by the same Sentient version of Natah that also narrates the fight with the Ropalolyst on Jupiter. Natah will speak cryptically and poetically about her family, and confirm that Dhakhan is indeed a cousin.
“Child of the Old War, Dhakhan was made to seek and destroy. His purpose from birth was to batter down gates, to crush hope. He knows only hatred for mankind and hunger for power.”
For his final fight, Dhakhan reappears this time as an Archon and once again his defenses and attacks have been upgraded to require even greater skill and preparation on the players’ part. New mechanics include attacks which cause repeated raidation and magnetic status procs, cycling stages with different attack patterns, and greatly improved health. Because of his size and power Dhakhan’s reanimation required several different Archon heads resulting in a mixture of new abilities. This fight features voice lines from the fragmented mind of Dhakhan, the Lotus, and Pazuul. This fight requires the player to have completed both previous fights and also the main story quest The New War. Dialogue reveals that during the occupation of the New War Erra had found Dhakhan’s remains and from them learned of his mission and failure. Erra sought to harness the power of his dead cousin and hastily created three new Archon heads to reanimate his crippled body: the head of a Bear, Crocodile, and Rhinoceros.
“If Dhakhan had been patient and waited for the New War he may have succeeded in his mission. But he was arrogant and bloodthirsty, and came to Uranus alone to search for my father. Now all that remains of his broken mind and twisted body are the aspects that sustain his Archon shards. The rage of the indomitable Bear, the hunger of the vicious Crocodile, and the stubbornness of the unrelenting Rhinoceros.”
While the head of the Bear is active Dhakhan’s energy will be orange and he will become more durable, taking reduced damage and having improved Adaptation. While the Bear stage may represent the lowest threat to the players’ survival it will also drastically reduce their ability to damage Dhakhan.
While the head of the Crocodile is active Dhakhan’s energy will be green and he will use his ranged attacks with greater frequency, even using multiple ranged attacks simultaneously and allowing him to cause devastating status procs to players including slash, electric, heat, radiation, and magnetic. Because of the wide-spread damage of the Crocodile this phase is very risky for players.
While the head of the Rhinoceros is active Dhakhan’s energy will be purple and he will make less use of his ranged attacks and will spend much more time charging at the players and attempting to engage with them at close range with his arms and tail. Players being targeted by the Rhinoceros should focus on evading his attacks while their teammates spread out and take advantage of the opportunity to deal uncontested damage to Dhakhan.
The quest that introduces players to Prospero and the Umbriel Reef is called Somewhere Beyond the Sea and its only prerequisite is the completion of the main story quest Natah. Upon logging into the game after completing Natah the player will receive a message from Cressa Tal, leader of Steel Meridian. The actual content of her message will change slightly depending on the player’s relationship to the Steel Meridian syndicate.
If the player is neutral with Steel Meridian (rank 0 or 1) then Cressa will behave indifferently towards the player, and her request for help will be very transactional.
If the player is well liked by Steel Meridian (rank 2 or higher) her speech will be more familiar and her request for assistance will be more confident, sure that you will be eager to help without hesitation.
If the player is enemies with Steel Meridian (rank -1 or -2) she will instead contact the player begrudgingly, admitting there is no one else she can turn to and offering “more than you deserve” in compensation.
The player’s first objective is to meet with Cressa Tal at any relay where Cressa will reveal that the reason she could not offer more details in her remote message was because of the need for secrecy, that she has lost contact with her double-agent within Tyl Regor’s clone labs in the oceans of Uranus and fears he may be compromised. Your primary objective is to determine the state of the mole, and if possible extract him alive.
The player will be sent to a Grineer ship in orbit around Uranus on a rescue mission, the Lotus believing that she has found the Steel Meridian mole’s holding location. However, upon releasing the Grineer prisoner it will become hostile to the player. After dispatching them, an encrypted message is found on their corpse with Steel meridian’s sigil. The player will be instructed to extract so that Cressa can decrypt the message.
The Grineer in the holding cell was a scapegoat framed by Cressa’s mole, Vunder 106, to provide a distraction while he escaped after fearing he had become the subject of suspicion. Cressa decrypts Vunder’s message which says he is fleeing to the neutral city of Prospero. Cressa Tal immediately sends the player to Prospero, a spire surrounded by boats and docks all tethered together to make a floating city. The natives, the Naiads, a race of people who call Uranus home and wear strange heavy garb recognize the Tenno by their Warframe and call them a hero.
Vunder is found hiding somewhere in the town and greets the Tenno hastily, explaining that he has fellow pacifists still inside Regor’s sealab ready to defect and that as part of his emergency exodus he set his terminal to send a time-delayed message to the dozen or so of his fellows ready to follow him. In just a few hours time they will be waiting in a submersible but with Vunder’s cover possibly blown the defectors may already be in danger. With time being crucially short, Ordis fears hope is lost for the pacifists, until the Lotus reminds him that the Tenno can use their archwing to dive into the Uranian sea. Ordis viciously admonishes himself for his oversight.
This begins the player’s first Umbriel Reef bounty, a scripted series of tasks within the underwater open-world zone with extra narration from Ordis, Cressa Tal, Vunder, and one or two of the Naiads. First the player must blind Tyl Regor’s forces with a series of precision strikes to disable sensor probes, which will dramatically slow Regor’s responses and prevent him from pinpointing the Tenno and the refugees. Second the Tenno must terminate Regor’s forces with extreme prejudice, wiping out a significant number of them to clear the waters before the rescue can begin. The third phase is to escort the submarine carrying Vunder’s fellow defectors as it flees the sealabs through the reef. With his standard forces heavily crippled Regor is forced to deploy his special forces to pursue the traitors, making this phase difficult as the player must eliminate powerful enemies while protecting the escape craft.
Eventually Tyl Regor’s forces disengage as Regor offers backhanded praise to the Tenno’s tactics and strength. Cressa Tal informs Vunder that a Steel Meridian transport will be there for him and his refugees within a day, but Vunder apologetically informs her that it won’t be necessary. When Cressa questions him, Vunder shamefully admits to having made “a deal with the devil.” It is now that the previously silent Amei Axevi, lady of the Corpus Board of Directors, reveals that she has been listening, and chastises Vunder for calling her the devil when she is more appropriately known as “the Angel of Avarice.” Axevi goes on to state that she fully intends to honor her agreement to take Vunder and his compatriots into her protective custody in exchange for a large cache of Grineer data which Vunder had extracted from the sealabs. Crestfallen, Vunder admits that he did not believe in Steel Meridian’s ability to rescue his people in time, and hedged his bets on a third party. This initiates the fourth phase, another escort of the refugee vessel but this time protecting it from Corpus attackers. While having far fewer elite units, the Corpus attack waves are larger and more persistent. Cressa and Lotus try to reason with Vunder, having no trust in Axevi’s promises. Axevi takes this defiance as a betrayal on Vunder’s part and sends her personal Zanuka assassin proxy to take the data cache by force while the Tenno is occupied with the refugee submersible.
The mission is completed as the player escorts the Grineer defectors to Prospero, and the Tenno rushes to Vunder’s location. He is found badly wounded but alive, having thrown his data cache into the ocean to save himself from the Zanuka, which followed it beneath the waves. He apologizes for lacking faith in Steel Meridian and the Tenno, and states that if the other pacifists have escaped alive then he can die without shame or regret. Cressa Tal tells Vunder that instead of dying for his sins he should instead live for his people, who now have new hope and purpose. Cressa finishes by thanking the Tenno for their efforts and regretfully states that the work is far from over. Both Regor’s Grineer and Axevi’s Corpus will have their sights set on Prospero and the Umbriel Reef from now on.
Completing the quest rewards the player with 100,000 credits, access to Umbriel Reef bounty missions and Prospero’s various features, and the blueprints of one or more items associated with the new zone.
