Level 100 Stalker

When you’re new to Warframe, the Stalker can seem scary. He does a huge amount of damage, he has Warframe abilities just like you and, well, he’s a Stalker. The Stalker randomly shows up to avenge a boss you killed recently. That Jackal boss you were killing for Rhino parts? Yeah, this shadowy being that nullifies your abilities wants to kill you for that. And then, when you get to Uranus, the Stalker gets an upgrade! He becomes Shadow Stalker! He gradually resists all the damage you do to him and carries a big, scary sword!

Well, once you’ve completed the War Within, the Stalker no longer seems scary at all. Those resistances he has all disappear when you can switch to a space kid and remove them all with a zap of your hand laser.

But on the Steel Path? Stalker becomes… somewhat scary again.

Just like everything else, Stalker gains 100 levels on the Steel Path.

And, because you’re going around killing bosses, you’re going to attract the Stalker more and more. Normally, at best, you only encounter a boss fight when you’re doing sorties or farming a specific Warframe. Stalker only cares if you attack one of his many uhu… crushes?

Either way, you’re getting more Stalker marks than normal, and because EVERYONE on the Steel Path is getting more Stalker marks than normal, that means Stalker appears more often.

And, of course, he always spawns at the wrong moments.

Of course, Stalker can’t spawn while I’m running the 500m towards the ship’s reactor. He’ll spawn while I’m busy defending a console from a horde of Grineer. Or just after you’ve rescued a target and are making your way to extraction. In the normal Origin System, this would be fine. But on the Steel Path, where everything does more damage, you have a much higher risk of objectives being caught in the crossfire. Sure, you can revive a rescue target, but you can’t quickly heal a defense terminal. So it’s always best to at least lure Stalker away from the objective a little.

The first time I actually faced a Steel Path Stalker was when I was doing a solo Exterminate on Venus. Okay, to be fair, most missions I do seem to be solo, but this was early on. I wasn’t prepared at all, and had happily been mowing down Corpus prior. But even though I was completely caught off guard, I still managed to beat Stalker. It just involved me bullet jumping and dodging more.

The only other time I had trouble with Stalker was when he’d appeared and locked me in a very, very tight space. Luckily, a Specter distracted him long enough for me to hack a console and give myself some room. Whenever you’re with a squad though, Shadow Stalker still dies somewhat quickly.

But what if it was old Stalker?

Shadow Stalker is alright. He has adaptive Sentient armour, but that’s no longer scary when you can remove that adapting armour. However, Shadow Stalker is limited in what he can do, and is mostly melee only. Even with crap gear, you can just keep on dodging and shooting at a distance until he’s dead. Normal Stalker though? At level 100+, he would be terrifying.

After all, normal Stalker has ranged weapons. He has a Dread bow and his Despair Kunai as well as his Hate scythe. But normal Stalker also has a far wider range of abilities borrowed from other Warframes. While Shadow Stalker only really seems to use Rhino Charge and the occasional waves of exalted sword energy, normal Stalker had access to things like Mag’s Pull, a variation of Oberon’s Reckoning and the ability to teleport and go invisible.

Actually, maybe not.

The only problem with normal Stalker is that he can also use Nyx’s Absorb. Stalker will absorb any damage done to him and unleash it in an explosion of death and suffering. Which isn’t too bad if you’re a low MR Excalibur with a Braton. You just need to be careful.

On the Steel Path though? Where our weapons are doing insanely huge amounts of damage? Well, it’s a good thing that Absorb has limited range, otherwise we’d be nuking maps.

Still, it would be cool to see old Stalker again. It’s just such a completely different fight, compared to Shadow Stalker, and it’d be awesome to see how old Stalker works at levels 100+…