Styanax and A Hint of Nostalgia
Styanax is the 50th Warframe, and, as part of the 50th Warframe celebration, was given out for free, meaning a lot of people already own him. If you missed the celebration, then Styanax’s components are sold by Chipper, in Karl’s camp. Styanax’s design resembles that of ancient Spartans, carrying a shield and spear. And personally, I think he’s quite an interesting, yet somewhat simple, Warframe. I’m also pretty amazed that we’re at 50 Warframes now. Well, 51 at the time of writing.
He’s cool.
The 50th Warframe is a pretty neat one. Its abilities involve throwing spears, throwing shields and throwing more spears. But despite that repetition, Styanax actually has a nice collection of abilities, that all offer up something nice. His Axios Javelin can pin enemies to walls and do crowd control damage. Tharros Strike, Styanax throwing his shield, reducing armour and shields, while also knocking back enemies and regenerating health. Rally Point is a buff to both Styanax and nearby allies, granting energy regeneration, and also offers extra shields when you kill enemies with Rally Point active. Final Stand is basically Axios Javelin on steroids, while also giving Styanax the ability to soar through the air briefly.
So yeah, Styanax has a nice bit of everything in his kit. Health and energy regen, increased crit chance from his passive, armour stripping and a hint of crowd control. I haven’t tried Styanax on Steel Path enemies yet, but I feel he’d be pretty comfortable. After all, Styanax can generate his own energy and has armour stripping with his shield, something sorely needed on the Steel Path.
Styanax also got an awesome video about him, where he stops a giant monster. Which adds another 10 points to the cool-o-meter. While it doesn’t show where Styanax came from, it does show us that the Tenno will come to the aid of the innocent. And the video also shows how cool Styanax is with all his throwing spears. leaping through the air and being a space ninja. It also showcases Styanax’s abilities, which is nice.
More natural
You know what I like best about Styanax? He doesn’t look like the 50th Warframe. Standing Styanax up next to other recent characters, Styanax looks like a much older Warframe, even more so when you put an Excalibur in for comparison. Styanax’s design is simple and pretty clean, so the point that he would blend in with both the first ten Warframes and the last ten Warframes.
The only real downside is that you can’t really use Styanax’s javelins and shield. The spears are all made of energy, but Tharros just seems to poof in and out of existence. I think it would have been pretty cool if they had gone the Garuda route and allowed Styanax to fight with his shield and spears like an exalted weapon.
Another minor downside is that Styanax doesn’t take my standard yellow very well. Luckily, he looks great with a light blue and yellow details. But yeah, I can see myself playing with Styanax in the future. Styanax is a nice all-rounder Warframe who can do a bit of everything, and is definitely fun to play as. Plus, I got Styanax for free, so I can’t complain.