Variants of the Assault Mission Type

When the War Within came out, it introduced a new planet and tile set called the Kuva Fortress. The Grineer stronghold, an asteroid powered through space by gigantic nuclear engines, is the home of the Twin Queens and the Grineer elite, with everything having a black and red colour scheme. Despite its name, there is no Kuva to be found on it or around it, and you have to go to any nearby planets to find the mystical black and red gas.

Now, most of the missions on the Kuva Fortress are the same as normal. There’s an Exterminate mission, there’s a Capture mission, there’s an awkward Defense mission, all the standard gubbings. But there is one mission that stands out – the Assault mission.

Assault is a bit of a new thing as it combines multiple mission types. It feels more like a mini quest. But there’s only one version of the Assault mission – a mobile defense which turns into a spy which turns into a sabotage mission. There are so many other variants that could be done. This article is dedicated to scenarios that would be perfect for the Assault mission type.

Advanced Rescue Mission

The Rescue mission in Warframe is always the same. You run through a map, hack some things before they kill the hostage because someone always manages to set off the alarms, free the hostage and then run to Extraction as fast as you can. The Assault Rescue mission could have a bit more of a spin on this, having multiple jails and cells scattered across the map. You could just go to each one individually, but there are also two spy vaults that contain information pertaining to their whereabouts. Hacking the vaults would allow you to pinpoint their exact location, right down to the exact cell. Once you free the hostage, the enemy locks the place down and you have to destroy a mainframe (Sabotage style) in order to reset security and escape. As you’re about to leave though, there is a chance that your hostage reveals there are other hostages trapped in a cell near extraction, and a brief Defection section takes place, with you escorting the other hostages to safety too.

Infested Hive Assault

This assault mission would start off with you exterminating hordes of infested enemies in order to lure out a Juggernaut. When it appears, you need to lure it to a specific point on the map, then whittle down its health so you can capture it. Once you’ve captured it, you need to defend the Juggernaut while someone arms it with a bomb – a standard defense mission. As soon as the bomb is armed, you attack the Juggernaut and wound it, then release it, causing the beast to run back to its hive. You then have a minute to get out before everything goes boom.

Assault Assassination Mission

Assassination missions are almost always the same too. Boss battles happen in the same type of room, and the main difference is how you get there. Assault Assassinations would involve you boarding the boss’s ship. You then have to capture a high ranking enemy who knows the boss’s location. You then need to deactivate the ship’s security via a magnetic Sabotage mini mission in order to unlock the room containing the boss (who can either be a normal boss or an eximus miniboss) before you can finally confront them.

Assault Assassinate Fakeout

Sometimes though, the Grineer and Corpus will attempt to lure you into a trap. Just like the Assault Assassination mission, you’ll board a ship and capture your enemy, only to find out that the ship is booby trapped. The ship then deactivated life support and locks down, forcing you into a survival mission. The captured enemy offers to help you escape and will teleport off to try and turn off security. After 5 minutes of survival, your new ally manages to deactivate the lockdown sequence, but has inadvertently deactivated the engines as well, causing the ship to risk crashing into a nearby asteroid/ship/planet. You have five minutes to escape, but before you do, you have the option to hack three data vaults in order to find the boss’s real location – successful hacks would guarantee that your next mission won’t be a trap, or alternatively increases the chance for specific loot when used before the next boss fight.

Settlement Defense

A peaceful settlement is under attack by the Grineer or Infested and require you to defend the settlement’s entrance from enemies while they evacuate. After several waves of defense, you must then help evacuate several groups of trapped enemies. Once they’re safe, you can go on a long exterminate and kill everyone who’s left.

Vault Hijack Assault

This assault mission has little loot but a large credit payout. The Corpus have been hiding huge caches of credits inside a vault deep inside a heavily guarded ship. You need to sneak in and take data from one to three Spy vaults, to deactivate security sensors and pinpoint its location. Once the location has been found, you need to run to the safe and attach a bomb to the vault door, defending it until it’s fully armed. After reaching a safe location, the vault will explode, revealing a huge amount of credit canisters and a large, unknown object in the middle of the room. But the Corpus are now teleporting troops in, so, while half the team defends the object (similar to defending an object in a Hijack mission), the other half have to sabotage the teleportation systems and hack them, changing the coordinates to teleport the Tenno and the unknown object to safety. Once you’re back on your ship, the unknown item is cracked open to reveal a pile of relics, a handful of rare mods, a large amount of credits or a cache of Ayatan sculptures and stars. A similar mission for the Grineer would involve breaking into a ship transporting resources to the Twin Queens.

The idea with all of these is that you have a more natural flow to what you actually do in a mission. Rather than have a single task to complete, you move from place to place, making the most of your ninja mobility, and earn extra loot while doing so. It’s still just the same thing over and over, but the fact there’s mini missions means you’re not so much mindlessly shooting things. Assault missions also have the potential to work alongside or even replace Sorties, being a single, seamless mission rather than three different maps that are exactly the same but with harder enemies.

And maybe some of them can reward Kuva, since that’s such a pain in the ass to get.