Warframe headcanon (spoilers)

Collection of Warframe headcanon co-authored with friends.

published 2020-Oct-10, updated 2023-Apr-11

Also see discussion on Reddit.

Collection of headcanon for Warframe, co-authored by friends and myself. This post contains massive unmarked spoilers. By the nature of headcanon, this should only be read by someone who's completed all story quests. If you haven't, get out now and return once you have.

Table of Contents

Non-primes existed in Orokin times

Braton
Braton Prime

Prime warframes and weapons were made exclusively in the Orokin times, while non-primes can be manufactured from scratch right now. Non-primes could be cheap knock-offs of the originals, but they could also be the originals, the prototypes, later refined with superior materials and designs .

The Old War cutscenes feature prime warframes and weapons. However, the Leverian, Chains of Harrow, and the Deadlock Protocol specifically place non-primes in the Orokin era. Both Harrow and Protea, found in their respective quests, are non-primes that have stuck around for hundreds of years.

One sensible explanation is that most warframes and weapons started off as non-prime prototypes. Many weapons are specifically said to be of Tenno design, implying later refinement by the Orokin. Several warframes are attributed directly to prominent Orokin or Archimedians, but there's no reason why they couldn't have iterated on the design. Some weapons, like the Euphona Prime, may have started off as a prime; alternatively, the non-prime prototype blueprints may have been lost.

Corpus and Grineer ships have decoy reactors for Tenno sabotage raids

Infested versions of Corpus and Grineer ships tend to be dark, implying running on reserve power. Reserve power implies reserve reactors. We supposedly sabotage a ship's main reactor, but does that really detonate the entire ship, or kill the crew due to failing life support? One would expect that after so many raids, they would start installing reserve reactors and decoy reactors, possibly in a ship section that can be jettisoned away. It's just more economical compared to losing entire ships.

(Added 2023-04-11.)

However, if Tenno found this out, cover would be blown. They would start going after real reactors. Corpus and Grineer would be back to square 1. To prevent this, it makes sense to explode ships for real if any Tenno are still present when the fake timer runs out. They even encourage this, by using the oh-so-special caches to bait Tenno into staying until the explosion. By sacrificing a few ships, they spread the word, and then the other Tenno are less motivated to stick around and find out what really happens, which is... nothing.

Mass-produced enemy units are ignorant about the Tenno threat level

Jackal

Corpus and Grineer infantry, as well as mass-produced bosses such as the Jackal, seem suicidally brave when facing Tenno.

Think about it. The kill count of an individual Tenno is often somewhere in the millions. Each is a one-man army that can personally genocide an entire nation, and did so. They can't be killed for good and regenerate from any injuries. They're liable to dismember you within seconds of visual contact, or without visual contact, and that's going easy on you. They will hack off your limbs and watch you bleed to death, infest you with techno-bio-parasites, burn you to death, melt your flesh with horrible chemicals, crush you into smooth paste with force fields, mind control you into killing squadmates and friends, and more. And laugh while doing so. And then they come in groups.

They have pets to match. They show up on the Infested Derelict where nobody dares to set foot without an army, looking for cuddly pets: feral kavats, transformed by hundreds of years among the Infestation into an animal equivalent of warframes. The kavats get further augmented with Orokin Reactors and mods. They can't be killed for good and regenerate from any injuries. These "pets" are liable to tear you in half and feast on you in the middle of a battlefield. And the Tenno consider them cute and hold fashion contests.

A sane person's response in the face of this overwhelming threat? Run away! As far as you can, as fast as you can! Tribunal? Punishment for disobeying orders? Probably better than horrible dismemberment right now. Band with your ship's crew and abscond together! Become a rogue faction or join the Perrin Sequence! Try to ally with the Tenno if you can, because you lost the alternatives the moment they showed up.

Meanwhile, what do we see?

The Jackal:

The Raptors:

The Sergeant:

Corpus infantry (translated):

Grineer infantry (translated):

One logical explanation is that the mass-cloned or mass-manufactured units are intentionally kept ignorant about the Tenno threat level. They know about Tenno in general, but in the best traditions of military propaganda, must be led to believe that the Tenno are weak and cowardly (but somehow also responsible for many atrocities).

What about the robots, such as the Jackal and the Raptors? One possibility is that their artificial intelligence is too complicated and lifelike; Corpus couldn't separate the combat data from the emotional trauma caused by the Tenno raids. Or even better, after analyzing the combat data, the onboard intelligence correctly concludes that the probability of victory against Tenno is around 0.0001%, and the most effective combat tactic is to play dead until the Tenno leave, nullifying its combat effectiveness. Leaving Corpus with no choice but to reset the data every time.

Feral kavats and Tenno kavats are the animal equivalent of warframes

Feral Kavat

On the Orokin Derelict, feral kavats have lived alongside the Infestation for hundreds of years. By now, all organic materials aboard, along with many inorganics, have been converted to Infested biomass. The kavats survive by feeding on it. There have to be repercussions. Their supposed "immunity" is not absolute; they've been gradually altered, fur being replaced by scales, tails and shoulders forming something resembling cysts, and so on. In Ballas's words: "Transformed, but only just".

One wonders if this alteration affects their genetics. The kavats we breed from their genetic material don't have scales, but one can use a gene-masking kit to bring that back, implying it's still there. It's plausible that the feral kavat genetics have been permanently altered by the Infestation, and our incubator alters their genome to replicate the non-Infested appearance... but only just.

My headcanon is that our kavats retain many Infested alterations in both the genotype and the phenotype. Think back on how much damage your kavat has taken over the course of your missions. No normal animal would be able to survive that many wounds. At best, it would have been horribly maimed and out of commission. Also, how exactly do we install Orokin Reactors and mods in them? It logically follows that their incubation involves a degree of modification using the Helminth, giving them the same properties of durability, regeneration, and mod compatibility as our warframes.

Oh and consider the astronomical 120k Alloy Plate spent on the Incubator kavat module. Where exactly did that Alloy Plate go? Perhaps it's being used to reinforce the kavats.

Vauban is some Corpus guy pretending to be a warframe

Vauban Prime

Every Vauban ability involves deploying small gear such as grenades. In contrast, most warframe abilities involve conjuring things out of nothing; think Ember, Frost, Nova, Saryn, and more. Some do have integrated gear, such as exalted weapons and Protea's deployables. However, Vauban's 100% reliance on deployables should raise suspicion. If Corpus were to create a warframe-alike, this is exactly how it would function!

Building Vauban Prime parts requires ludicrous amounts of materials compared to other frames. It's expensive and luxurious, it flaunts wealth, prosperity, and profit. Reinforced by its Codex entry:

"Lust was my sin. But greed is the blight that weakens our steel. These industrialists have gorged on the harvest of our long war. Their mind drones; Their mechanizations, toil in foundries remote. For what purpose? We must set watch upon them. Baiting our snares with the worms of profit.

Those kneeling at the altar of commerce will be returned.. to the Void.

For your consideration... Vauban."

Ballas

So, what if rather than being a warframe, Vauban combines armor and various weapon systems to allow a regular human to act like one, living out the fantasy? "Hey look guys, I'm totally a warframe!"

A friend suggested that perhaps Vauban is made so expensive in order to bankrupt the Corpus who're baited to manufacture it. (See the Codex entry above.) Alternatively, it's the cost of continuously manufacturing the consumable supplies, unnecessary for most warframes.

Human-looking Tenno associates are "peaceframes"

Relays have many human-looking Tenno or Tenno associates. They can be relay staff, syndicate members, and Tenno rescue targets which Lotus specifically calls "Tenno operatives". More importantly, they're found in something labeled "warframe cryopods".

The most literal interpretation is that these guys are fully-fledged Tenno, using warframes specifically designed for civil life. Those "peaceframes" appear human, but who knows what's under that visor and body-tight suit? Since they're found in cryopods, it follows that some Tenno wake up in peaceframes rather than warframes like Excalibur. Those guys went on to build relays, research technologies, and provide support to the combat Tenno.

If these guys are remote-controlled like regular warframes, their operators might still be sleeping through the Second Dream. They might even believe themselves to be human!

Hypothesis: operators are "peaceframes"

Somatic Link

See the above on Tenno associates and peaceframes. If operators were also peaceframes, this would explain a lot!

In the Second Dream we supposedly awaken as the "real" puppeteer behind the golem. It's not unreasonable to suggest that there's another body behind the Operator, for real this time. But let's keep it simple and suppose the Operator is the "final" body. How could it be a peaceframe?

Option 1: fusion. Chains of Harrow establishes that a Tenno can fuse with a warframe, transferring from the original human body. Perhaps every Tenno transfered to a specially prepared, younger-looking peaceframe.

Option 2: Helminth. Just like Excalibur Umbra, the Tenno may have been infested with the Helminth to become frame-like. Warframes are known to lose their sanity in the process, but for the Tenno we can handwave it through Void magicks.

Our Operator never makes any statements contradicting any of this, but even if they did, their memory can't be trusted anyway!

Hypothesis: Tenno are digital minds (busted)

Cephalon

This was my original headcanon about Tenno before playing the Second Dream.

The Tenno are digital minds, which allows them to body-surf between warframes. Let's assume they're run locally inside warframes, because this has far more interesting implications compared to remote control.

The Orbiter maintains the "master copy" of the Tenno personality data. Each warframe has a computing core capable of running the Tenno mind, but only one is allowed to run at a time. The active warframe continuously uploads new memories to the Orbiter. Upon critical damage, the core self-erases and breaks the uplink; the Orbiter boots up a spare warframe with the latest copy of the Tenno mind. The illusion of "self" is maintained by the continuity of memories.

Warframes lost during missions are looted by the Corpus or Grineer for experiments such as Zanuka. If the core was successfully erased, they get just the hardware. But if something went wrong and the enemy manages to preserve and boot up the core, Valkyr's origin story suddenly makes sense.

This more or less gets busted by the Second Dream. See operator peaceframes for an alternate interpretation.

Hypotheses about the Zariman children

Zariman in the Vitruvian

Basis. Ember's Codex entry: "Why would you put children on a military ship? — We didn't."

Let's run with this!

Hypothesis: Void temporal anomaly resulting in long journey

It's canon that spaceships travel through the Void, and the Void can cause temporal anomalies. What if the Zariman's journey lasted for one or several generations in onboard clock?

The Zariman being headed for Tau (see next hypothesis) implies it was a colony ship, likely with a lot of surplus space, supplies, and a large genetically diverse population inclined to breed. If the journey was taking decades, they would start having children out of boredom or to ensure the mission continues if the original crew dies of old age. Note that "military ship" doesn't mean "not colony ship": the Orokin empire was highly militarized, and if they were going to wage war, they'd send a fleet.

Various Codex entries, as well as remembrances in the War Within and Chains of Harrow, imply that the Tenno were a relatively tight group of similar age, which makes them more likely to be generation 1 rather than N, because breeding times would diverge over multiple generations.

Getting stuck in the Void for one or several decades, with no apparent way out, could demoralize the crew to the point of madness. The synchronized craze doesn't need any special explanation other than mob effects. If the journey lasted for generations, educational and cultural decay could lead to mad suicidal cults. Note that the ship's systems could be run by a Cephalon, which tend to remain stable over hundreds of years; the crew could have lost any ability to operate the ship, kept alive by its digitized butler.

This doesn't invoke any unnecessary magic, and neatly explains why the Orokin hushed down the story: the risk of ships getting lost due to Void anomalies could demoralize the servant populations, even if such occurrences were rare.

Hypothesis: the Zariman did reach Tau

One of the ingame materials mentions that the Zariman was headed for Tau, possibly to oversee the Sentients' terraforming efforts and start the human colonization. There are no indications of whether the ship got lost before or after reaching the destination. So let's suppose they did.

Could the crew's craze have something to do with the Sentients? Maybe what they saw on the arrival was so terrifying, so devastating, that they chose to end themselves? Or perhaps the Sentients deployed some kind of psychic weapon?

Hypothesis: adults turned into children

The Operator seems to have memories of parents on the Zariman, and of killing the ship's adults. But the Operator's memory is untrustworthy; it's been tampered with, has massive omissions, and what's there is extremely vague. It's remotely plausible that the Void reversed their age and messed with their heads, causing them to form false memories.

One possibility is that the entire Zariman crew got turned into children, forming fake memories of the massacre.

Alternatively, one part of the crew became children, while the rest stayed as adults and took care of them. Eventually, either:

Hypothesis: the Void made them

Perhaps everything was according to procedure. The Zariman's crew consisted of only human adults, they didn't reproduce, didn't reverse-age. Instead, creatures indistinguishable from human children appeared out of the Void, and the rest is history.

Void entity hypotheses

Reaching out

"Void entity" refers to any of:

The Void entity is manmade

Chains of Harrow establishes that the Void has an entity associated with it, possessing a human-like mind and personality. This entity seems particularly interested in Tenno operators, visiting their Orbiters and Railjacks to say hello and remind how we "owe" it.

Intuitively, a force of nature permeating the entire universe wouldn't have an mind of its own, particularly not something as small-scale and specific as a human. It logically follows that it originated from humanity.

Perhaps humanity's existence influences the Void, forming an entity or multiple entities that reflect it. Perhaps this is humanity's gestalt. Alternatively, it could be a specific human, similar to the operators but much more "ascended".

This has obvious parallels with some other franchises; I'll let you invoke them yourself.

Man-in-the-wall vs. Rell

After completing Chains of Harrow and "freeing" Rell, an unidentified entity, seemingly Void-associated, begins visiting the operators. Palatino and Rell make claims about some "man-in-the-wall" in the Void, which may or nay be the same entity. They claim that Rell was keeping MITW away from the other Tenno. However, MITW and Rell were never seen in the same room together. Further, we know that Rell has the propensity to haunt people when emotionally destabilized, as he did when spurring his Red Veil devoted into murder sprees.

One logical conclusion is that Rell, MITW, and our mysterious visitor are one and the same. We "freed" Rell, now he haunts us. One solid counter-argument is that Rell's autistic personality drastically differs from the visitor's extravagant, gallivanting demeanor. This could be explained by a split personality, where only one half is autistic; a stretch, but not implausible, especially considering Rell no longer has a bio-brain.

Alternatively, we might take their claims at face value. We "freed" Rell, now something other than Rell haunts us. It logically follows that Rell had its attention, and now we've attracted its attention.

There is not one man-in-the-wall but many

Let's say the Void has no "will" or "representative" of its own, but is able to "split"/duplicate people, where one "half"/copy stays in the Void, powering your powers. There is not a single MITW but many. Albrecht Entrati had his own. We have our own. At the end of New War, the MITW we "saw" was merely an illusion created by the limits of what our mind could comprehend. A small facet of the whole.

Stalker hypotheses

Stalker

Known Stalker canon:

Hypothesis: Stalker is a renegade Tenno that woke up from the Dream and doesn't use a warframe

Basis. Lotus: "I was trying to protect you from the truth (about the reservoir). This truth drove Stalker mad."

Hypothesis: Stalker is a renegade Tenno that's still in the Dream

Basis. Hunhow to Stalker: "Do you still hate these abominations? Do you hate... yourself?"

Counter-argument: Lotus is likely to keep tabs on all Tenno in the Reservoir. She would have known about Stalker and would have taken measures to disable him.

Hypothesis: Stalker is a warframe that regained its mind, possibly a former Dax

Basis. Hunhow to Stalker: "Are you asking yourself: was I one of those wretched things?"

Hypothesis: Stalker is a normal human wearing armor made of warframes, possibly Dax or Orokin

Perhaps the most "normal" explanation listed here.

The Orokin are made this way rather than born

In The War Within, the Operator recalls some Orokin looking for beautiful young bodies to transfer into, via the Continuity process. Ordis' memories in the Codex contain a scene where the Orokin offer him to become one of them, implying a process involving Kuva.

The Orokin society is still around, in the Void and/or other solar systems

There's no particular reason to think that the Tenno exterminated all Orokin. The extermination couldn't have been instant. The Empire was vast, and the Tenno were a relatively small elite force. While the Tenno managed to collapse the core of the Empire, it seems likely that large groups of the Orokin would have escaped by hiding in the Void or other solar systems. After all, the name "Origin System" implies that other systems have been settled.

It's very plausible that there are vibrant Orokin societies out there.

Baro gets his stuff in the Orokin market

See above on the Orokin society. Why does Baro trade in Orokin Ducats? Because he trades with the Orokin! His "dangerous Void safari" are probably just trips to the discount Sunday market next door.

It's no wonder he looks down on non-prime things. Being in the same solar system as non-prime frames and primitive cultures such as the Corpus must be an emotionally traumatic experience for someone attuned to the Orokin bling.

Why does he also trade in Corpus credits? He must be doing business on both sides. He doesn't just sell primes. Some wares are upgraded versions of "modern" weapons or decorations. Some are decorations of the particular Ki'Teer brand. He probably builds them in the Origin System where it's cheaper, possibly renting workforce and manufacturing plants from the Corpus. Take particular note of the Ki'Teer Domestik Drones; they're basically rebranded Corpus Domestik Drones with a specially-decorated hull. The main difference is spying on you for Baro instead of for Corpus.

Hypothesis: Tenno teamed up with Sentients to crush the Orokin

Basis. The Second Dream, Alad V to Tenno (paraphrasing): "The last time you got close with the Sentients, you destroyed an entire civilization. But you don't remember that, do you?"

Derelict capture targets are survivors of Tenno raids

The capture targets on the Infested Derelict will scream "I don't want to die!" and "No, not you, not you, not you!..". (All capture targets do, but hear me out.) Some are elites, equipped with a ridiculously powerful Glaxion that can melt anyone in seconds. These guys must be veterans, survivors of Tenno raids on Corpus ships, who requested assignment to the most remote, most dangerous place, in hopes that Tenno won't show up... and then they show up.

Cephalon Cy is corrhupted by Sentients

Cy has memories of wiping out his ship's crew "to complete the mission" and seems extremely confused about what exactly constituted the mission and why it suddenly required killing the crew.

Obvious logical explanation: the mission was against Sentients; they hacked the Cephalon and overwrote the mission objective with "ensure death of crew by disabling ship systems while blaming enemies". Octavia's quest, dumb as it is, establishes that Sentients can remotely corrupt Cephalons.

Various indications that Cy is either still corrupted or intellectually impeded in some way:

Converted Kuva Liches get caught and imprisoned in Kuva Fortress

This one is rooted in a particular personal experience. At some point I ran a rescue mission in the Kuva Fortress. Upon opening the first prison cell, smack in the middle of the cell, I found one of my converted Kuva Liches, asking me "Are you trying to get yourself killed?". Technically, this triggered because I died once on the way to the prison, but the timing and positioning of the spawn was impeccable.

Converted Liches need maintenance for their flesh and cybernetics. Being Tenno-aligned outcasts, they can't exactly turn to their brethren for help. They might be making deals with Steel Meridian, like running missions for them in exchange for materials. But alternatively, they might willingly get captured, get free maintenance, and then we bust them out!

Grineer get special alarm training

Ever notice how they bumrush to trigger alarms? Even while the alarms are already buzzing, enemies will rush to trigger more! Even better if it triggers a lockdown! Even on mission types where alarms are disabled (Capture missions), they gotta mash that button.

The headcanon is that Grineer undergo a special course in alarms. Can't rely on own strength? There's always backup! Some Grineer take an elective in Corpus tech, just to use alarms on the Corpus ships they raid.

Most ships and space stations are bigger on the inside

This got retconned at some point, but the Orbiter used to be called "landing craft", and prior to that, simply "Liset". Your landing craft is clearly smaller on the outside than the inside of your ship. Now that the Orbiter is supposed to be a separate ship, we don't need this explanation, but the Railjack brings it back. Hop around your Railjack in a dojo; the outside is clearly smaller.

This isn't limited to our ships. During any Railjack mission, deploy into archwing and fly around any ship or space station. Most of them are much smaller on the outside. This includes Railjack, Grineer Crewships, possibly Grineer space stations, boardable Orokin Towers, Murexes. Grineer Galleons might be an exception.

Railjack skins are external holographic projections

The Sungem skin modifies the craft so much that you'd expect the interior to change, but it doesn't. Furthermore, Railjack skins sometimes work and sometimes don't. For example, when looking at the RJ from inside the Orbiter, it uses the default skin. One natural conclusion is that the skin is a holo-projection which doesn't affect the interior and is not always turned on.

Lotus supervises all Tenno operations personally and simultaneously

The Lotus' involvement in your missions is too personal, too low-level for a commander of an entire faction. Even before Natah / The Second Dream / The War Within, I assumed that Lotus is a machine, an AI powerful enough to simultaneously oversee all Tenno missions at once. While the canon doesn't explicitly confirm the "all at once" part, the "machine mind" part is conveniently confirmed.

Quills came up with Eidolon Lures

Eidolon lures are able to consume Vomvalysts and weaken the big eidolons. This kind of tech seems a bit too advanced for the Grineer. It seems a bit... convenient that it only exists on Plains, where the Quills operate.

Kuva Lich murmurs represent tapping into Grineer transmissions and listening to rumors

Pretty much what the name "murmur" implies. We already have access to Grineer comms, you can listen to them in your Orbiter, but filtering the information relevant to your particular Lich could be difficult. Thralls act as a lead, letting us find the relevant comms that reveal useful details about the Lich.

Many warframes acted autonomously for long periods of time

Basis: the legends of Gara, Protea, Inaros; the Sacrifice (quest).

In each of these legends:

It's plausible that among the warframes made from humans using the Helminth process, some had regained their minds, or never completely lost them in the first place. When the Tenno went into stasis, they stuck around. Gara was spending time with Unum, Inaros was tracking down the remaining Orokin survivors and finishing the Tenno's work, Protea was with Parvos in the Granum Void, and so on.

Hostages get recaptured all the time because we leave them behind

At the end of Rescue missions, we rush to the landing craft and fly away, as the hostage just stands there in the extraction zone. If we really wanted to extract them, we'd put them in a pokeball, like Capture targets. Of course they get recaptured. That's why you can rerun the mission!

Teshin can command himself by using the Kuva Scepter

After the War Within, Teshin could have put together a perfectly-functional Kuva Scepter. All he needs is to run a few Synthesis missions, get Simaris standing, buy the Broken Scepter blueprint, grab some Kuva from his endless stash (see Steel Path rewards), and stick it on the Broken Scepter.

Like any Dax, Teshin is hardwired to obey anyone who wields a Kuva Scepter. So, what happens if a Dax wields it themselves? This should give Teshin the perk "Iron Will", a perfect self-geas, a self-command you can't refuse.

Inaros is made of nanobots

Inaros' sand theme doesn't make much sense among high-tech war machines made of living metal. Its visual appearance also doesn't convey particularly high durability; the deluxe skin improves on that, but doesn't look particularly tougher than, say, Chroma or deluxe Frost.

But what if Inaros is made of fast-moving, fast-replicating nano- or micro-bots? This simultaneously explains the high health pool (no vulnerable organs) and the ease of transfering that health around.

Orokin Drones are indoctrination devices

Orokin Drone

In the Corrupted faction, all units are named "Corrupted X", except for these drones. Now consider, how exactly does an Orokin Tower's "neural sentry", likely a Cephalon, maintain the towers? How does it corrupt those who visit its domain? How does it maintain the state of corruption?

It must have tools, mobile drones acting as its eyes and arms. It must have indoctrination devices, numerous and mobile. When deploying squads of Corrupted into remote areas, those eyes, arms, and indoctrination devices must be deployed with them to relay the combat situation, orders, and ensure continuous loyalty. It stands to reason that these drones are responsible for it.

Warframes are silent and communicate only with gestures

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Tenno only ever speak in human form. We never hear or see warframes actually speaking. In Leverian legends, warframes are always silent. We can conclude that they never speak. So how do they communicate? Tenno may be considered telepaths, but they seem to use telepathy only for transference, and on one confusing occasion for Teshin. So either they have some kinda text holo-projectors that we've never heard about, or they use signs and gestures.

Some capture targets are turned into warframes after interrogation

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Various sources, such as the Sacrifice, tell us that warframes are made by infecting humans with the Helminth Infestation strain, transforming them, and near-erasing their minds. Tenno routinely manufacture new warframes, often to immediately feed them back to Helminth. They require a constant supply of fresh victims. The ones most conveniently available on hand are the capture targets.

Lech Kril may be infected with a special Infestation strain, similar to warframes

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Lech Kril wears an armor suit that hides their entire body and face and has some unusual piping, is extremely durable and strong, has powers involving supercooling and superheating, and communicates in the same screeching "language" as some Infestation bosses. It's plausible that Lech Kril is a Grineer equivalent of a Warframe, except their mind is not completely lost.

Orbiter decorations may be holo-projections

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Maybe you place tiny electron cloud projectors, maybe the Orbiter has them already built-in and you simply configure its software, or maybe it's all augmented reality in your HUD.

Failed hacking kills you with reverse hacking

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Dying by failing to hack is actually because the security system hacks you back, shutting down the warframe and requiring a reboot.

We routinely erase Nihil's memories

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Nihil oubliette fight: we wipe his memory after every fight, and he thinks it's the first every time. Later we could restore his memory all at once, spectactularly blowing his mind and making him implode.

Treasurers are impostors and thieves

(Added 2023-04-11.)

Treasurers scurry away, pretending to safeguard Granum Crowns from us, while showering us with tasteful insults and accusations of Crown thievery. Tenno rob rather than steal. Treasurers' words seem like projection. If they were really trying to safeguard Crowns from us, they only needed to... not show up. Yet they come with alarming regularity. One possible conclusion is that they steal Granum Crowns from Nef Anyo's ships on behalf of Parvos, while trying to frame Tenno for it.