Yeah, Really? Yareli

As part of my rush to reach Legendary One, I found myself racing to finish Yareli. As a Warframe, she’s worth 6000 mastery, which is quite a lot. However, I basically went in blind when it came to what Yareli actually does. I essentially believed that Yareli had to be good, or at least middling. After all, her quest had been awful. Surely they wouldn’t make the Warframe awful too?

Her abilities feel lackluster.

I don’t know why, but Yareli kinda doesn’t seem to do much. She has two crowd control abilities, a ring of slashing damage and her own K-Drive. But as I used her, it felt like her entire kit is fighting against itself. Merulina, Yareli’s K-Drive pet, rewards moving quickly, as do Aqua Blades and her passive. But Sea Snares and Riptide seem to work best when you’re standing still. Riptide in particular locks you in place as you cast it.

Sadly, the best part of Yareli’s kit is, oddly, her passive. While moving, you get a 200% critical chance on Yareli’s Secondary weapons. The buff disappears when you stop moving, and does actually tie nicely into using Merulina. But the second you stop, the buff disappears. Which is what will certainly happen, every time you cast Riptide.

Even her lore is rather poor.

In the comic we receive from the Wave Rider quest, we see one of Yareli’s adventures. In it, she helps save a bunch of kids. Except, well, not really? All we see is Yareli running away from some fat Grineer person with a whip, and she doesn’t even manage to do that! The only thing Yareli does is provide a distraction for the enslaved kids, then helps said kids to yeet the bad guy into space.

We don’t see anything else though. All that happens is Yareli riding on her custom K-Drive. I know it’s only a 6 page comic (I suppose if you include the cover and last page) and the art is very good. But it doesn’t at all show the power of a Warframe. Or even the power of Yareli. Compared to the Leverian entries for other frames, and even Sevagoth’s short quest, Yareli might as well just be another random Vent Kid.

At least she looks cool?

I suppose, at the very least, Yareli does look pretty cool. We’ve not had a smaller Warframe in a while, and she’d make a cute couple with Nezha. The design of Yareli is outstanding. However, like a lot of newer Warframes, Yareli isn’t particularly simple. I don’t have a problem with complicated frames – after all, they all mostly look amazing. But when you throw in the more our-era things, like making cute water hearts, it can throw you off a bit. The only way I know how to describe Yareli is “weeb-like”. She’s got an almost Sailor Moon feel to her. Which is kinda odd in a game about space ninjas, millennia into the future.

The ‘weeb’ stuff however isn’t that bad when you realize we have a pair of wings available as an Ephemera.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend spending Platinum on Yareli. She’ll probably get some buffs at some point. Currently though, Yareli could do with a little help. Between her lack of real power, and the tedium of obtaining Yareli, I can’t see her ever becoming too popular.

However, the biggest winner here is Hydroid. Everyone said that Yareli would replace Hydroid as the ‘water-themed frame’. But, somehow, Hydroid just seems to be a tad better in pretty much every way. Except for looks. But Hydroid has a deluxe skin for that.