A Very Angry Kitty

Once upon a time, I was randomly gifted a Warframe from a very nice person on Reddit who is MR23/4 and has way too much time on his hands, having been around from the very beginning and owning rarities such as Excalibur Prime. I thanked him kindly then spent a long time leveling this Warframe up, only to discover why everyone liked this character so much. Now that I have leveled up Valkyr and have her nice, shiny Prime version, maybe it’s time to talk about her.

Valkyr is normally unlocked by defeating Alad V on Jupiter. Alad V is a right bastard, who apparently captured the original Valkyr Warframe and essentially tore it apart to make robotic dogs. This damaged the original Valkyr, making her into a very angry kitty, with some very scary claws, and somehow did something to make all new Valkyr models built afterwards be as angry as she was.

But how can we tell that Valkyr is angry? Especially before the Second Dream, where we were all happy to believe that we were the Warframes, not ageless space teenagers with magical golden powers. Well, unlike every single other Warframe available, Valkyr screams. Every time you use an ability, you hear a loud, feral scream of pain and anger and suffering. Valkyr has been through some shit.

Speaking of abilities, Valkyr has a nice little set of tricks up her, uh, sleeves.

Being cat-like, she passively gets up from being knocked down faster, and always lands on her feet when falling from great heights. Which is super nice on Jupiter missions, which often have long falls in them, although really, you can avoid the heavy impact landings by rolling before you hit the ground.

Not quite as cat-related is Valkyr’s first ability, Rip Line. This ability is what you think it is, a zipline which shoots out and drags you towards things. A bit like the one in TF2 but with more momentum. But there’s no real cooldown on Rip Line, and you can use it as many times as you want, assuming you have the energy. Multiple uses decrease the energy cost used. The fun thing about Rip Line is that if you aim and use it at an enemy, it latches on to them and throws them over your shoulder, damaging them and causing them to flail like an idiot.

Her next ability is Warcry, which boosts attack speed and armor for allies and slows down enemies. As the name suggests, it’s a screaming battle cry, and it’s a pretty good one. While the attack speed boost isn’t as good as Volt’s Speed, it’s definitely noticeable and the additional slows on enemies means you can hit more of them.

Up next is Paralysis, which isn’t really cat-like at all. Basically, in exchange for 5 energy and 10% of your shields, Valkyr will stun nearby enemies briefly, opening them up to stealth kills and finisher moves. There’s not much to say about it, but it’s a decent ability if you need to clear some space to escape. But, like Rip Line, you often won’t need to, because of Valkyr’s last ability.

Hysteria is amazing. When you activate Hysteria, you turn into an immortal, rampaging monster with arm-long claws, ripping everything to shreds. You’re immune to most forms of damage, but restricted to melee only, using special claws of pure energy to slash your enemies to death, while stealing life from them to heal yourself. While active, Hysteria swiftly drains energy over time, but this can be quickly regenerated via energy orbs dropped from enemies.

The only other downside to Hysteria is that there’s a ring around you. Damage from enemies that attempt to hurt you while immortal and in this ring will build up over time, and when you end Hysteria, that 25% of that damage will be dealt as Impact damage. Luckily, all you have to do is get out of line of sight from enemies who have hurt you and that damage will fizzle away.

As for Valkyr Prime, well, she’s just a pretty version of Valkyr. What’s unusual though is that the original Valkyr was described as not being an angry kitty, but a powerful warrior. Coupled with the Gersemi Valkyr skin, which is apparently what Valkyr looked like before Alad V got to her, it’s all very confusing. Which Valkyr is the original? Why is Valkyr Prime a vicious monster the same way Valkyr is?

Well, that second question can easily be answered because Prime versions in-game are often just fancier counterparts with small buffs. But I suppose this could all be answered very simply as well.

You see, the bog-standard, mass-produced Valkyr looks more like Valkyr Prime than Gersemi Valkyr does. Perhaps Gersemi Valkyr was a prototype new model of Valkyr that never really got released, and was stolen before it could go into production to replace the normal Valkyr.

But before all of that, Valkyr Prime went through some shit (perhaps she saw some sort of disaster, or maybe it’s like how Inaros betrayed the Orokin to protect the people of Mars, who knows?) but it turned out Crazy Cat Frame was more useful than whatever old abilities Valkyr Prime had, so they just… went with that, I guess. I mean, a hyper mobile, immortal monster is pretty useful when it comes to killing things.

Valkyr also proves that Warframes have personalities, or at least something that makes them alive. After all, it was the Warframe that Alad V tortured, not the Tenno.

Anyway, enough lore stuff. You want to be immortal and kill stuff with gigantic claws while screaming at your enemies? Valkyr’s your girl.