Drifter on the Circuit

So, a few times now, I’ve ended up stuck as Drifter on the Circuit. It’s not particularly fun though. In fact, it’s the opposite of fun. I hate it. And it’s not even how you’re supposed to play the Circuit. Unfortunately, if you don’t load in fast enough, you end up playing as Drifter, having not chosen a weapon or even a Warframe. For reasons unknown, instead of just spawning you in with random gear (or the first option on all weapons and Warframes), you just spawn in as Drifter.

The Circuit is a place designed for Warframes, with their many different flavours, all well-modded. Well, mostly. At least you get some health and can use your abilities, even if you play a Warframe you don’t actually own. On the other hand, Drifter is not designed for the Circuit at all. The first time this happened, I hoped at least I’d get some decrees so I’d be able to survive the onslaught. Decrees do increase your health, but they aren’t enough to survive. Your best bet is to roll around and hope you get that decree that lets you roll to recover from damage. Those Decrees are very much needed though since they are your ONLY source of damage. And even then, they fall off because Drifter wasn’t designed to battle enemies of too high a level.

On the plus side, some Circuit missions aren’t too hard. Excavation will keep on spawning drills until you get 300 cryotic, and Void Flood is basically a free round where all you need to do is catch blue orbs. Except most of them are in the air, and Drifter can’t jump high. At least you can get team mates to help you, since Drifter in the Circuit only really happens while connecting with other players. I mean, I guess you could play solo and use Drifter by simply refusing to pick any items, but that’s insane.

The problem is that you can’t really mod the Drifter. You can’t mod his Sirocco pistol and you can’t mod Sun and Moon (or the other Drifter weapons) either. In fact, aside from Intrinsics, Drifter’s weaponry isn’t modded at all, and you are 100% reliant on getting some good decrees to help carry you. Using Sirocco and Sun and Moon are basically the same as using the starting Skana and Lex during Vor’s Prize, except worse. At one point, while playing as a glitched Drifter, I actually managed to get the Vasto instead of the Sirocco, and it was actually pretty damn good because it had random, pre-defined mods on it. But even that started to falter as levels increased.

You’d think that being on your Kaithe might help. No, it doesn’t. Enemies still target you and mostly ignore the weird, skeletal horse. I suppose the horse does help a tiny bit, with its hoof-smashing attach. But the cooldown on that is insanely long. In fact, all of Drifter’s abilities have kinda long cooldowns. The only things that can save you are Decrees and the kindness of other Tenno, coming along to pick you up.

And if you end up as Drifter on the Steel Path? Good fucking luck. Everything kills you in one shot.