The Return of Phovos the Excalibur

I used to be known across the internet as Phovos the Raptor, or Phovos for short. Everything I did, every account I made pre-SPUF, I was called Phovos. And so were a lot of things during my SPUF years, since Phovos is often available where Medic obviously isn’t. That bright yellow Volt you see around here all the time? He’s… not called Phovos. He’s called Retvik, because the name Phovos was taken when I created my current Warframe account.

It turned out though, the name Phovos had been taken by me. I sort of rediscovered this when I bought the Rhino Rubedo skin off the Steam Market for 30 cents and couldn’t find it in Retvik’s inventory. Because it had been placed in Phovos’s inventory. I contacted Support and they fixed the issue in a few days, but I found I had another account.

I didn’t log into the account until February last year though, when I was looking to play Warframe with aabicus. I logged in and got confused as heck when I was offered to play Vor’s Prize and was given a choice of Warframe. I got even more confused as I finished the tutorial mission and escaped with Ordis as Volt with a bow, kunai and a stick, only to reappear as a blue and yellow-green Excalibur with an MK1-Braton, a Lato and a Skana.

Of course, back then, I wasn’t really fussed. I had an account with everything I’d worked hard for on it. I had a flamethrower, a wrist-bound rocket launcher and a large array of sharp things to kill enemies with. Not to mention I had my beloved Volt. And my cosmetics. I felt no real desire to actually go back to Phovos when Retvik has everything I need.

That was until I kinda came back to Phovos this year.

I don’t know what made me log in to Phovos’s account. I think I was just pissed off at farming for Hydroid parts that I decided I needed to do something else.

And you know what? It was nice being a newbie. Everything was fresh and new. But more importantly, it wasn’t terrifying and stressful and confusing, because I had an idea what I was doing. At the same time, I could do things properly, take things at my own pace but at the same time being able to keep up, which is what had happened with my main account. I was not frustrated because I didn’t understand. I didn’t feel bad because team mates were leaving me behind. I didn’t feel lost and confused. And I felt proud when I managed to do missions like Spies and Rescues flawlessly, despite my utterly crap weapons.

The only real downside is that I can plainly see where real newbies will struggle. The basic mods that a player needs, Serration, Hornet Strike, Intensify, Streamline and all that, you don’t know when you’re going to get them. Phovos got lucky, he managed to get enough Endo to max out his Pressure Point and found a Hornet Strike early on, but he still hasn’t found an undamaged Serration for his primary weapon. And damaged mods are both mostly not worth leveling up and not worth dissolving into Endo, which is always in short supply.

Not that there’s even anything obvious to tell players how to use mods. There IS a tutorial in the codex, but who looks at the codex?

But that doesn’t matter for me. I had fun. I also got to see things again, like the opening sequence to the Plains of Eidolon, and rediscovered just how fun Excalibur is to play, even without a lot of mods.

Playing as Phovos the Excalibur felt like lovely. Like creating a new character in Skyrim. It was all new, yet familiar at the same time. And maybe you’ll learn something. Like how to get into various Spy vaults more easily.

Honestly, it’s a lot of fun. I recommend giving it a go.