Archwing and Dargyns – Motion Sickness on the Plains of Eidolon

Archwing is a funny thing. It has so much potential, yet it’s so awkward to use. It’s all still the same, nothing has changed with Archwings since I last talked about it,  what with Amesha being the best Archwing if you want to ignore everything and Itzal only being second because if its utility, but we’ve got to consider a few more things, especially the fact that Archwings can be used on the Plains of Eidolon.

When it comes to Archwing on the Plains, generally called Skywing in-game, it’s… weird. Nauseating almost. The controls are kinda different compared to normal Archwing, defaulting to the high speeds, high momentum style of Archwing (rather than the old version of Archwing and whatever Titania has in her pixie form), which you can’t toggle off. So you’re likely going to overshoot your target. It used to be far worse, with the high speeds propelling you through space and time, but it was amusing to use your melee to exit Skywing and fly elegantly across the Plains in one go. You can still kinda do that, but you’ll only travel about a hundred meters, rather than the kilometers you’d fly before. There’s also a really weird ‘ceiling’ which you’ll often crash into. It follows the shape of the terrain, about 100m or so off the ground. This limits how high you can go and actually renders some areas inaccessible via Archwing.

As to what Archwing you use (since your Skywing just uses whatever Archwing you have equipped alongside your normal primary and secondary weapons), Amesha is still pretty amazing. But the Itzal is technically the better frame out on the Plains, simply because its Cosmic Crush ability works like the Vacuum mod, sucking everything towards you. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but when you’ve just hunted some Eidolons and there are Sentient Cores everywhere, or you’ve just done a bounty and can’t be asked to pick up loot, it makes life so much easier sucking them all in one place. The invisibility is good as well because literally every Grineer on the Plains seems to have anti-aircraft missiles and will easily shoot you down, sometimes even though Amesha’s invulnerability.

Before you can use Skywing though, you need to make your Skywing Launchers. Which require random rocks and fish oil to make. For some reason. Like, quite a bit of fish oil. Luckily it’s oil from any fish, and the Iradite required is just the random rocky glowing piles you find scattered on the Plains

But Archwing on the Plains is no longer the only way to get around. The Shrine of the Eidolon update introduced parked Dargyns, the single-seated Grineer personal air vehicles. You can find them scattered among the Plains in pairs, accompanied by Dargyn Pilots. These Dargyn are piss easy to steal. You have the option to just run and grab a Dargyn before the pilots can, but really the best thing to do is kill the pilots and then just jump in. They fly a bit like Archwings except slower and with the turning circle of a large cow. Eidolons turn faster. If you want to get back to Cetus though, they’ll do the job.

One small problem, the Dargyns are really weak. Like, insanely weak. If you do a tier 5 bounty, then their strength picks up a bit, but otherwise you’re going to lose health and fast.

Normally low health wouldn’t be a problem, you’re speeding through the sky, but literally everything starts shooting at you instantly, and with pin-point accuracy. 700 health quickly turns into 0 health when everything around you is shooting at you, sometimes from over 200 meters away. You can’t even properly fight back, as the Dargyn’s blasters are more like pea-shooters and do fuck all, even if you do manage hit something. Sure, you can park a Dargyn and get it later, but it’s so weak it might get blown up by accident! Or you might accidentally blow it up while killing the pilots so you can steal their precious vehicles.

The only bonus is the cool explosion that happens when you crash a Dargyn at high speeds into something.

Really, the Dargyns are there just so that people without Archwing or lacking in Skywing Launchers can get around. And Archwing sometimes isn’t even useful, once you’ve leveled up the right things. Nova can portal her way across the plains with ease, Titania can fly, Volt and Nezha have speed and Zephyr was basically reworked to fly across the sky.

Or, alternatively, for a meager 3 million or so standing in the Naramon and Zenurik schools, you can space-kid your way across the Plains.

But that’s just stupid.