Almost Permanent Invisibility

There are several ways to turn invisible in Warframe, but despite having tried them all, I’ve always preferred Ivara’s invisibility. I wasn’t sure why at first, but the more I play Ivara, the more I realise just how long I can be invisible for. Okay, sure, it’s not quite forever, but it’s a long time.

There are currently four frames with invisibility in Warframe. Loki and Ash both turn invisible for a set duration. One their invisibility is activated, they remain invisible until that duration runs out, no matter whether they fire their guns or murder things or activate consoles and so on. This invisibility is based on the Warframe’s duration mods, with Loki’s lasting a lot longer than Ash’s, while Ash has an augment to briefly share his invisibility with nearby allies.

Octavia also has duration-based invisibility, invisibility that actually lasts a LOT longer than even Loki’s when modded correctly, but in order to activate it, you have to crouch in time to Octavia’s music. Normally this isn’t too much of an issue but since every Octavia will most likely have a different song, you have to actually listen and pay attention. The plus side is that anyone in Octavia’s squad can make use of her invisibility.

Operators also have invisibility. But theirs is affected by Focus Schools, with Zenurik extending your time invisible and other trees having branches and abilities that drain it further. But they’re way more expensive than just sticking Primed Continuity and maybe Narrow Minded on your Warframe.

Ivara’s invisibility is a channeled ability. You cast Prowl and it slowly drains energy. In fact, Prowl works a LOT like the Cloak and Dagger in Team Fortress 2 (i.e. my favourite invisibility watch for Spy). The more you move around, the more energy you drain. But if you stand still, you can remain invisible for, well, ages. As Ivara has a high energy pool, even just a Flow and a Streamline are enough to keep you invisible for a long time.

Ivara also has Cloak Arrows, which creates bubbles which make allied targets invisible, meaning you can share your invisibility with others the way Octavia and Ash can, but since you have to land the arrow on an ally and most of your allies bullet jump around like sugar-filled kids on a bouncy castle, good luck actually hitting anyone. You CAN use Cloak Arrows on allied NPCs though, like Rescue Targets and Defense Operatives, as well as Specters and Clem Clones, which can be absolutely terrifying at times.

The downside to Ivara’s Prowl though is that you lose most of your mobility. You can’t sprint and you can’t bullet jump. And if you don’t have a silenced weapon, then shooting will break your invisibility briefly. But you can fix those things a little by putting the silencer mods on your primary or secondary weapons and by using the Infiltrate augment, which makes you move a lot faster while invisible. Plus, you can still sometimes bullet jump from a standing start and you can always just roll everywhere.

But I prefer this sort of invisibility. The slow, cautious type. You end up playing a bit more carefully because you have to move slower. It also gives you a chance to look at your enemies in their natural environment and murder them at will. Prowl’s invisibility has another upside though, it simply lasts so much longer. In fact, I’ve left my game un-paused, been to the bathroom and come back to find myself still invisible.

The only other way to remove invisibility on all these frames is to step into a Nullifier field or to fall off a ledge. Like all Warframe buffs, falling off ledges and getting respawned removed your buff and gives enemies a brief opportunity to murder you. But that happens with every frame.

To put it this way though, you’re less likely to bullet jump off a ledge using Ivara with Prowl than you are Loki or Ash or Octavia…