Tonight, we dine in the Void! Styanax, the 50th Warframe, has been released, alongside the new expansion Veilbreaker. With a tall crest on his helmet and abilities revolving around shields and javelins, Styanax is very clearly designed after the Spartan warriors, famous for their 300-strong defense against the encroaching Persian empire back in 480 BC. Their legacy still echoes within Styanax’s design thousands of years later. But how well do these ancient warriors’ traditions translate into the age of cyborg space-ninjas? Here’s a guide on how to get Styanax and what his abilities are, as well as a Styanax Build to give you ideas.
Be Warned: Spoilers for The New War ahead. If you have not completed The New War quest yet, do that, then return here.
How to Build Styanax
If you missed the opportunity to earn Styanax fully crafted, worry not! He is still obtainable through the Veilbreaker quests. First complete the introductory quest in which you take control of Kahl, a defecting Grineer soldier, to help your brothers escape a Sentient ship with the help of Daughter from Deimos. Afterwards, Kahl will be taken to the Drifter’s camp, wherein you can undergo missions as him again, this time infiltrating a factory in the Orb Vallis Spaceport.
During his time within the Orb Vallis, Kahl will remove the Narmer Veil on a Solaris worker named Chipper. Chipper will join Kahl at the Drifter’s camp, where he acts as a vendor for the rewards earned from Veilbreaker missions. Styanax parts are earned by purchasing them with Stock. Stock is earned by completing challenges within Veilbreaker missions as Kahl. Styanax’s Systems are able to be purchased at rank 2. His Neuroptics are available at rank 3, his Chassis at rank 4, and his Blueprint at rank 5.It’s the standard 12-hour crafting time with each part, then a 3-day wait for the full Warframe
Styanax’s Abilities
Each of Styanax’s abilities each serve their own purpose. Crowd control, armor strip, damage; this Warframe does it all. Here are the abilities he uses to accomplish these tasks:
Note that all of these statistics are taken from an unmodified, level 30 Styanax.
Stats:
Armor: 250
Energy: 225
Health: 300
Shield: 750
Sprint Speed: 1.00
The standout stat here is Styanax’s shields. This will become more clear why when we examine some of his abilities.
Passive
Styanax receives an additive 1% bonus to his weapons’ critical chance for every 40 shields he has. This bonus is doubled for the Speargun class of weapons.
It’s a fairly modest passive, but it could be the tipping point for some weapons to dip into a rounded-out critical chance multiplier without a Riven mod.
Ability 1: Axios Javelin
Energy Cost: 15
Scales with: Duration, Efficiency, Range, Strength.
Styanax throws a javelin up to 50m with great speed and decent tracking, dealing 1,250 piercing damage. When an impaled enemy gets pinned to a wall (or the floor, if you’re above them), the javelin creates a vortex that ragdolls and sucks in nearby enemies, dealing 1,250 blast damage to affected enemies in a 15m radius.
Ability 2: Tharros Strike
Energy Cost: 25
Scales with: Efficiency, Range, Strength.
Styanax summons his shield, Tharros, and strikes at enemies before him. He repels enemies within a 2.5m radius around him, staggering them, and sends out 9 projectiles in front of him. Dealing 1,000 impact damage, Styanax also strips 50% of their total armor and shields on affected enemies. Styanax also receives 100 health for every enemy hit by Tharros Strike.
Ability 3: Rally Point
Energy Cost: 75
Scales with: Duration, Efficiency, Range, Strength.
With a gesture, Styanax draws his enemies’ ire towards himself. In exchange, he and allies within 30m at the time of casting start to regenerate 3 energy per second and gain 50 shields for every kill and assist. These shields will cumulate into overshields. Rally Point lasts for 30 seconds.
Ability 4: Final Stand
Energy Cost: 100
Scales with: Duration, Efficiency, Range, Strength.
Leaping into the air with the roar of an army, Styanax summons wispy allies from thin air. He and this ethereal army begin to barrage where your reticle points with a horizontal line of 30 Axios Javelins over time. The javelins deal 1,500 slashing damage on a direct hit and 1,500 blast damage to enemies within 6m of its detonation.
Keep these abilities in mind when making your own Styanax build.
Styanax Build Sample
Here is the build I settled on. Note that the Arcanes a currently placeholders, and I’ll explain which Arcanes I will be using when I get them.
Mods:
Aerodynamic and Aviator are great for this build because they both combined provide a sizeable amount of damage resistance while in the air. This is important because, while using Final Stand, Styanax is considered airborne. Final Stand cannot be cancelled either, so these mods helps with survivability while casting the ability. Adaptation will help with this as well.
The reason we can tank Efficiency in the build for the sake of Strength using Blind Rage is because of Rally Point. Since you gain more energy per second the higher your Strength is, and it will of course last longer with higher Duration, all it takes is somewhat careful pacing of your abilities to keep your energy up. Umbral Intensify is, of course, always a welcome addition to any Strength-based build. This gets Styanax’s Strength to well over 200%. This is important because, at 200% Strength, Tharros Strike completely strips armor and shields.
Because Styanax’s critical chance scales with the amount of shields he has, along with regenerating shields based on kills with Rally Point, Redirection is a great choice here too.
Finally, Primed Continuity, Constitution, and Augur Message will increase duration. This is important not just for Rally Point’s energy regen, but also for Final Stand. Final Stand has Styanax throw more spears with a higher Duration stat, allowing for more damage.
Primed Flow is good to give you some ability spam when you need it, making up for the large amount of energy drained by the abilities. It also allows Rally Point to regenerate as much energy as possible.
Arcanes:
Arcane Energizer is always a great choice, especially in this build where Styanax relies on his Rally Point to regenerate energy. This Arcane will give him an extra bump of energy when collecting an energy orb, further negating the Efficiency penalty of Blind Rage.
Although I don’t have it, one Arcane I would use is the new Molt Efficiency, as it works beautifully with Styanax. At max level, it grants up to 36% Duration while shields are active, which synergizes well with Rally Point’s shield regen on kills.
How to Use This Styanax Build
This is an all-around Styanax build. Starting out, immediately cast Rally Point to start your energy regeneration. Once you find a group of enemies you want to delete, use an Axios Javelin to group them together, then wipe them out with Final Stand. If you have the energy for it, need to heal, and/or want to make the enemies squishier, hit them with a Tharros Strike while they’re grouped up by your Axios Javelin’s vortex. Keep an eye on your energy, though. Try to always have enough to recast Rally Point.
Alternative Styanax Builds
Styanax can fulfill multiple roles with his abilities. While this one focuses on an all-around build, you can spec more into crowd control by swapping the Duration mods for Range. This allows for Axios Javelin to pull in enemies from further away. Tharros Strike will also become much more effective at stunning enemies, stripping their armor, and healing you.
If you want pure ability spam with these first two abilities, tank Duration entirely and spec purely into Range and Efficiency, while keeping Strength at least 100%. This will allow for Tharros Strike to completely strip armor in 2 casts. Both Tharros Strike and Axios Javelin can be cast very quickly, so it wont be too difficult to litter the battlefield in helpless enemies you can clean up with your weapons or teammates. The issue with this, however, is that the other two abilities really rely on Duration and Strength, so tanking these will make only two of your abilities really useful.
Conclusion
Styanax is a powerful and fun Warframe. His kit makes him a great all-arounder, but he can also be specialized in a few ways. The shoes of the 50th Warframe are daunting to fill, but they seem to fit Styanax just right. If you’re looking for damage, utility, and survivability, than this is the Warframe for you.
bob peeters
Pretty nonsense build. Just toss out adaptation and augur message and replace with full umbra mod set. 10 times better. How are you gonna have just basic armor and basic health? Is this a regular star chart build? Adaptation is dodgy at the best of times and with no armor and no health you’re gonna die 10 times over before it even kicks in….
Billy Bob
holy holy crap