Valkyr-class warframe

Context

This article is about a warframe fighter in the Warframe video game. Some other articles might be best read before it :

1. The article presenting the Warframe setting, if you aren’t familiar with the game.
2. The “base camp” article about what warframes are and how they work. This one is recommended even if you’re well familiar with the game. It has the design notes, for starters.

Overview

Valkyr warframes are optimised for mobility and melee combat. They are fast, strong, durable and agile even by warframe standards.

The litheness of a Valkyr frame is often compared to that of a panther. A *space* panther.

The armour plating might be their strongest point. It is exceptionally robust, yet compact and unhindering.

It is common for Valkyr to fight using a melee weapon, keeping ranged firepower for specific situations. Their speed, ferocity and armouring make them a fine match for weapons that are an extension of the body.

Back in the days, Hirudo claws were a common endgame weapon for Valkyr frames.

Gersemi-class warframes

The forerunner of Valkyr frame fighters seems to have been the Gersemi-class warframe. Blueprints for the Gersemi are largely lost, though it remains possible to reconstruct its outer appearance.

An unclear number of Gersemi frames were stolen by one Alad V, a major Corpus scientist and executive. It seems likely that Alad got to every sleeping Gersemi warframe before the Tenno could. Perhaps these were stockpiled in but a handful of locations.

Alad V (pronounced “AH-lad Vee”) vivisected and experimented upon these frames to build a new kind of robot.

Ravaging the Gersemis did provide the insight necessary to build the Zanuka Hunter prototype, a powerful panther-like combat robot. The Zanuka is more than a match for unprepared Tenno warframes.

Creating the Valkyr

Tenno raids on Alad V’s labs could liberate tortured Gersemi warframes. However, these were further traumatised and bore significant physical damage. Still, it was possible to heal both to an extent.

In keeping with the Gersemi’s Old Norse name  , this salvaged warframe was named the Valkyr.

A redoubtable, rare Prime variant of the Valkyr was later developed. But logically, it cannot be based on an Orokin-era original.

It seems likely that the Valkyr Prime warframes are a Tenno hack, combining bits of Orokin-era Gersemi tech with repaired Valkyr frames. And perhaps some Zanuka additions stolen from Alad V.

Or perhaps some Gersemi frames were found that Alad had missed – or not experimented on yet. But not in a good enough shape to be reactivated as-is.

As to Alad V, he would go on to become a major pain in the arse for the entire Origin System. Though he did collaborate with the Tenno at one key point.

Capabilities

The most distinctive abilities of Valkyr warframes are :

(This merges several in-game abilities for simplicity’s sake. As discussed in the “base camp” article, this is further unified in the game stats.)

The frenzied overclocking and battle rage abilities are a product of the trauma from Corpus torture. The Gersimi frame likely didn’t have such abilities, and it is possible that the Valkyr frame is thus more powerful than her predecessor.

The Gersimi may have had more feline-themed abilities, or perhaps something about treasures (as per the divine portfolio of her mythological namesake).

DC Heroes RPG

Tell me more about the game stats

DEX 09 STR 08 BOD 11

Powers:

Cling: 04, Gliding: 02, Invulnerability: 12, Jumping: 03, Radio communications: 16, Running: 06

Bonuses and Limitations:

• Cling can only be maintained for 3 Phases (if running) or 1 Phase (if stationary).
• Cling doesn’t work on surfaces at more than a 100° angle from the ground (such as ceiling, or protrusions along walls).
• Gliding can only be maintained for 3 Phases.
• Invulnerability – see below.
• Jumping has the Catfall Bonus.
• Radio coms includes video. It also allows The Lotus to anchor her Eye of Cat Power to a warframe. It usually links to the Orbiter and/or Landing Craft, which acts as a relay to the network.

Warframe-Specific Powers:

Claws: 12, Damage Capacity: 12, Shockwave: 05

Bonuses and Limitations:

Claws is Minor Marginal, plus a 2 HPs/Phase fee.

Skills:

Accuracy (Claws power): 10, Acrobatics: 09, Martial Artist: 09, Medicine (First aid): 05, Thief (Security systems, Stealth): 06, Vehicles: 07, Weaponry: 08, Weaponry (Melee): 09

Bonuses and Limitations:

Medicine applies to warframes without penalty.

Advantages:

Area Knowledge (Real-time mapping and positioning), Leadership, Schtick (Paired weapons (all), Fast-Draw (all)).

Equipment:

• SHIELDING [BODY 02, Damage Capacity: 04, Bonus: Damage Capacity has Instant Recovery].
• RIPLINE [BODY 04 EV 08 STR 05, Range: 04, Thief (Stealth): 03, Limitation: Thief only to muffle the shot and impact].
  The cable is reeled (with STR as its, well, strength) with a single Action. It can be an Acrobatics Dice Action to swing around, or an Automatic Action to reel in something that was hit by the EV in the previous Phase.

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Reviving

Invulnerability has Ammo: 04. The Hidden Messages quest in the game implies that it as a shorter range than most Transference functions, but there’s no other context. Maybe 100M kilometers (41 APs) – it’s a round, reasonable number.

If you are using our hypothesis that “revives” mean supercharging the Infestation within, each use would make the warframe visibly more overtaken by the Infestation. It would then have to be scrubbed and repaired in the orbiter’s “Infestation seat”.

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Design notes

Hysteria and Warcry are essentially merged here. As are the seldom-used shield-expanding power and the slow effect from Warcry.

Furthermore, this corresponds to a 2019 version of Valkyr frames.

The durability and speed from Warcry are worked into her baseline numbers, with additional power coming from Hero Points expenditure.

We *could* give a Valkyr preferential HP spending rates. But the current approach strives for a balance between emulating in-Warframe mechanics and not straying too far from DCH norms. As often with the video game stuff.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Warframe vidjagame.

Writeup completed on the 5^th of April, 2019.