The fragmented one, 3 frames in one, spooky scary skeleton - Xaku!
Release date: 2020-08-25
Passive: Xaku has a 25% Dodge chance to harmlessly phase through incoming enemy weapon attacks, while protected by a 25% Damage Reduction against area of effect damage.
Xata’s Whisper - Wield Void damage for all attacks from equipped weapons when activated.
Grasp of Lohk - Void Tendrils steal weapons from nearby enemies to use as your own floating, auto-targeting armament. Damage output increases based on enemy level. The number of weapons grabbed also determines the damage multiplier for The Lost: Deny’s Void beam.
The Lost - Cycle through a trio of lost Warframe powers. Accuse manifests a Void fissure to corrupt enemies into allies. Gaze grasps targets in Void tendrils that capture damage and inflict it when the target is released. Deny annihilates with a beam of Void energy, wiping Sentient resistances.
The Vast Untime - Temporarily shed the outer pieces of Xaku in a destructive blast, then stalk the battlefield in a new, swifter skeletal form. Enemies damaged by the body shrapnel are rendered weaker to Void Damage. Xaku’s other active abilities’ duration is frozen in time and resumes once The Vast Untime expires.
Acquisition: Main blueprint is awarded upon completion of the Heart of Deimos quest. Component blueprints are acquired from Cambion Drift Bounties: the Helmet Neuroptics are obtained from Bounties lvl 15-25, Systems Systems from lvl 30-40 and Chassis Chassis - from either lvl 40-50 or Steel Path lvl 100.
One nice thing I can say about Xaku is that they’ve aged magnificently. Essentially the gold standard for a high performance all-rounder. If you want a chill tank, Vampiric Grasp is great on health conversion tanks, and it might even be possible to get a functioning energy tank going, although the mod requirements for such a build might not fit. I’ll experiment once Xaku Prime is out of the oven.
The worst thing I can say about Xaku is they feel like they’re in the wrong game sometimes. Having six abilities sounds great, but the “ability wheel” style abilities always feel too slow for Warframe for me.
One very specific niche Xaku enjoys is as the best Syndicate mission runner, as combined Golden Instinct and Vast Untime make it very easy to quickly locate medallions while you’re getting a feel for where they can be for a given tileset.
With their Prime just released, I thought it’s a good time to revisit this frame. I have little to say about Xaku myself, I never played them much and I’m not a huge fan of their kit, powerful as it is. Xaku lovers, this is your time to shine!
Xaku is one of my basically never used frames: I use Zephyr for box breaking, and now Caliban’s kit has a lot of convergence with Xaku. Honestly the most exciting thing about Xaku for me is the weapons that came with their release… although I’m kind of sad they passed over the Sepulcrum for the shiny prime buffs.
