How To Make Kubrows Genuinely Useful

Kubrows in Warframe aren’t particularly useful. They have a very derpy AI that means they rarely manage to attack things, they don’t have the agility Kavats have, being able to jump off walls, the buffs that Kubrows give are far worse than Kavat or Sentinel buffs and frankly, I’m surprised that we can’t give Kubrows guns the same way we can give MOAs guns. The only Kubrow that sees any real use is the Chesa Kubrow, and that’s only because it can do a far weaker version of Nekros’s Desecrate, getting extra loot.

So how do we make Kubrows better?

Well, aside from buffing their stats and giving them better AI, of course. But those things probably won’t be enough to make Kubrows useful because Kavats give insane buffs (double crit chances, critical damage and giving you double resources are all insane), MOAs are a lot more mix-and-match (once you’ve built all three MOA types, you can use their mods on any MOA you like) and Sentinels have a lot more utility on them.

Kubrows need something that makes them stand out. Something that only they can do. And something that it makes sense to do.

We need to be able to command and train Kubrows. Like we would real life dogs.

See, we can train dogs to do all sorts of tasks. We have trained them to sniff out drugs, follow trails and track people down. We also train dogs to help the elderly and sniff out diseases in bee hive colonies. So surely we could train Kubrows to do more things as well?

Imagine this: We train Kubrows to do a series of tasks. We could train them to constantly knock specific enemies down and keep them down. We could train them to follow and protect specific targets, either ourselves, other players or NPCs. We could train them to run around and open lockers and collect loot while we do all the killing even!

Unlike actual dogs though, you’d be able to put your Kubrow though magic instant training sessions via the power of mods. We already have mods that somewhat control the priorities of actions that pets can take, but Kubrows would probably have a specific extra slot where you give them your commands. The same way you change your Warframe’s mods and weapons before a mission, you would change your Kubrow’s training, depending on what you need doing.

There would be another step to this though. While a Kubrow would have its training chosen before the mission starts, we should also train our Kubrows to follow basic commands. We should be able to tell them to do a series of basic tasks, such as staying and guarding a position, following a specific Warframe or enemy or being able to tell them to not attack and stay back. Heck, you only need three commands: stay, follow, attack, and you’ve already got a working companion rather than a strange, feather-tailed buff machine like a Kavat.

Of course, a lot of this does depend on Warframe’s AI getting a bit better, so this is… more of a pipe dream than anything else.