Nightwave is Kinda Naff, Really

We’re on week 9 of Nightwave. It feels like Nightwave has been around forever. Slowly plodding along, being in the background, compelling you to do random tasks for some strange reason. And frankly, after so long, my opinions on Nightwave have dropped lower and lower and lower.

To the point that I miss random alerts.

Random alerts weren’t always great. If you wanted Vauban for example, all you could do was wait and hope that you get an alert. There was no way around it, aside from buying things in the market. But not everything could be bought from the market, some items can only be obtained in specific ways.

But Nightwave doesn’t really tie into alerts at all. Nightwave is in fact more of a replacement of the random tasks you’d get when entering missions. The little tasks would grant affinity when you completed them, while Nightwave tasks (formally called Acts) give you various amounts of standing.

These tasks though are… mundane. They’re described as normal tasks that you would do on a normal basis, except you don’t. Not really.

For example, one of Week 9’s Acts is do to 10 perfect captures on the Orb Vallis. Now someone who is obsessed with floofs and conservation will be able to do that quite quickly, especially if you go after Pobbers (which spawn 3 animals at once, allowing 3 chances at perfect captures). But conservation can be very slow, especially if you can’t really see the footsteps animals lead, or if an animal happens to spawn in a high traffic area and risks being killed by Corpus. But even if you’re good at conservation, it can take you a good 10-20 minutes to get the task done because you have to go back and forth across the Orb Vallis.

Some of them are things you would be doing anyway. Like using Forma on things. But there’s a difference between sticking a Forma in a weapon you like and doing so because you need to get more Nightwave standing. One feels natural, the other feels forced. And some tasks are wholly dependent on RNG, like filling statues. If you do Sorties regularly you might have a pile of Anasas lying around, but trying to find Amber Stars is a chore all on its own.

Even the elite challenges aren’t even interesting. The ONLY vaguely interesting one was to defeat a Hydralyst, and some people do that 3-4 times in one night on the Plains. Defeat Profit-Taker could have been interesting but it’s locked behind Vox Solaris. Most of them are boring and tedious and just not worth it. Do a 60 minute Kuva survival without using life support? Perfectly doable with the right weapons and squad, but INSANELY boring. You’re sitting there, doing the same thing over and over. The same goes for the 40 wave defense mission with a friend or clan mate. It’s so BORING. At least the Do 3/5 Sorties task had a little variation in it.

And then there’s the Wolf. The bad guy no one fucking sees. There’s a whole fucking story about how the Wolf escapes, wants revenge on old prison wardens, reveals that the Grineer have been selling prisoners to the Corpus to use in experiments and then the Wolf goes and runs into Alad V who gives him a Sentient upgrade. But that means fuck all if you NEVER FUCKING SEE HIM!

It’s been 2 months! I’ve seen him 3 times! And only once did he actually drop loot! And I’m a regular player! I’ve been running around with under-levelled gear in the hopes of seeing him!

I wouldn’t mind, but the Wolf has a TON of rare stuff that can’t be found anywhere else!

When you do see him though, it’s a boring slog of a fight, a wall of armour and flesh that’s immune to all Warframe abilities. Again, not a problem to a Veteran, who probably has Radiation on his Archwing Gun, but it sucks ass for an inexperienced players who can do nothing but try and whittle the Wolf down and hope that he doesn’t try and attack the objective.

And even if you do kill him, half the time he’ll just drop a shitty mod. Sure, Stalker has a chance to drop nothing as well, but you can increase your chances of meeting him. With the Wolf, it’s a 6% chance in any non-open world mission.

All of this is going on as you get nagged at by Nora Night. Sure, Nora is a nice homage to something or other, but I’m tired of her now. She’s a pseudo-intellectual pain in the ass with nothing of actual substance to say.

The only real thing going for Nightwave is the reward system. Both the rewards from leveling up and the Cred Shop are all pretty good, but the game’s too stingy when it comes to wolf creds, considering what players will want to buy, and the system is rather punishing if you start missing things. Sure, you can get to level 30 somewhat reliably but it’s a slow, boring process.

What would I improve for next Nightwave? Quite simple. Firstly, give more creds early on, because that’s what the newbies need more than anything else, so they can buy more Nitain and more aura mods. Secondly, give more variation in the tasks, because we started seeing duplicate tasks on about week 5. Which is lame. Thirdly, if it gives mastery, it shouldn’t be locked behind time-gated RNG – sure things like the Braton Vandal and the Opticor Vandal are hard to get, but there’s no time limit on actually getting them. Finally, we need an actual boss or something to fight. Because the Wolf might as well not exist and his fellow prisoners either die instantly alongside everything else or are otherwise a pain in the ass.

It might also be a good idea to give us a reason why we’re doing all this crap as well. Because I don’t know how mining gems on the Plains of Eidolon is going to help stop an angry howling Grineer monstrosity…