Razorback Armadas and Balor Fomorians – Recurring Tactical Alerts and How to Do Them

All those invasions you do? They do something. They help the Grineer and the Corpus fund their massive projects. Yes, us Tenno have defeated the Balor Fomorians a dozen times. Yes, us Tenno have destroyed the Razorback Armada a dozen times. Yet we keep on helping them, thus they keep on building the funds to restart these projects and have to fight them again. It’s all our fault really, but dag nabbit, we NEED those Detonite Injectors and Fieldrons!

So how do we do these missions? It’s not always obvious. The Lotus pops by, drops an item in our inventory then tells us to do the thing, often with a reward of an Orokin Reactor or something.

These events normally last 3 or 4 days and normally have a reward. When an event starts, you will get a message in-game, and Lotus will send an email to your inbox, delivering a blueprint to make an item if you don’t already have one. The rewards are generally some credits and an Orokin Reactor or Catalyst. To get the reward, you need to defeat the Razorback 3 times during a Razorback Armada event, and do 1 million damage in one mission during the Balor Fomorian event. An Archwing is required for both events, so make sure you at the very least have the basic Odonata and Imperator.

Let’s start with the Balor Fomorian. Because that one is really fucking easy.

Balor Fomorians are essentially massive nukes that Vay Hek, the baddie from Earth, is sending to one of the three remaining relays to blow up. Really, this is the reason why we only have three relays, as he destroyed them all in the original Balor Fomorian event.

To access the mission proper, you need Omega Isotopes, which can be found as drops from enemies on the planet where the Balor Fomorian is heading. The last time the Fomorian attacked, it attacked Mercury, and people did missions on there to get Isotopes. Defense and Mobile Defense missions are generally a good bet because the enemies tend to group up and stick together, making finding loot easier.

Once you have at least 4 Omega Isotopes, you can build a Fomorian Disruptor, which takes a minute to build. You need to equip this in your Gear Wheel. Now you’re set for the mission.

The mission takes place in an Archwing setting. You need to fly to the massive Grineer ship in the distance. Watch out for Zeppelins though, as they’ll form a stupid red shield around you, trapping you with them until you destroy the Zeppelin. As you approach the Fomorian, the Lotus will point out two nodes that need to be destroyed before you can fly inside the Fomorian. Destroy the thingies and then fly downwards, towards the two vertical, no-longer-shielded slits in the side.

Once everyone is in, use your Fomorian Disruptor and try and shoot off as many orange-yellow nodes as possible. There are 16 in total and the more you destroy, the more damage you do and the bigger your score.  If they are all destroyed (or you can’t find the last ones), then shoot at the core in general, as this also increases your score.

Afterwards, all you have to do is get the fuck out of there. Lotus will say that you’re safe and the mission will end, showing you your reward and your team’s score. Get 1 million points and you get your reward, delivered in an inbox message.

The Balor Fomorian mission also gives other loot: finishing the mission earns you one of the following: 400 Endo (about 50% chance), the Imperator Vandal Blueprint, the Imperator Vandal Barrel, the Imperator Vandal Stock (all about 16% chance) or the Imperator Vandal Receiver (2% chance).

The Razorback Armada is a slightly tougher challenge.

Before you can fight the Razorback, you need to get yourself some Cryptographic ALUs so you can build a Razorback Cipher. The Ciphers also cost a good bit of Polymer Bundles and a handful of Galium, so you might want to stock up on those too. The only way to get the Cryptographic ALUs is to kill enemies in Corpus Archwing missions, ideally Salacia on Neptune, a Mobile Defense mission. Make sure you equip a Sentinel with Vacuum before you do your Archwing missions for a better chance at actually picking up loot.

Just like the Fomorian, you need to equip the Razorback Cipher in your gear slot before you can start the mission. I also recommend bringing some normal Ciphers, because you will be doing a LOT of hacking.

The Razorback fight is much, much more difficult than the Fomorian. It is somewhat similar to the Jackal fight, as it’s in a similar arena. But as you rush to the boss arena, there will be Hyenas and Bursas everywhere. It’s not worth trying to fight these bastards, just get yourself to the arena as fast as possible because they constantly respawn.

When you get there, either you or a team mate will have to hack your way in. You will try to hack the panel, but you have to use the Razorback Cipher, because the hack is impossible.

Once everyone is in, the fight will start. The Razorback is immortal most of the time, so don’t waste your ammo on it. You need to hack the consoles on the platforms above the arena to free Bursas and get them to join in on the fight. Defeat the Bursas and hack them, and they’ll charge at the Razorback and die. Just like the Jackal, when the Razorback falls to the ground, you can damage it. Repeat until the bastard is dead.

Luckily, you can speed things up by bringing someone like Valkyr or Inaros, who can drag Bursas into the arena rather than have someone hack the consoles. Tanky characters in general are also useful since they can hack unharmed. Frost can also provide cover with Snow Globes.

The Razorback drops various things. Its main reward is the Gorgon Wraith, a blue and black upgrade of the normal Gorgon. It also has a chance of dropping Puncture mods (which aren’t very useful) and a Heat/Status Chance Archwing mod, which isn’t massively useful but is very valuable.

You can repeat both missions as many times as you have keys, but you’ll only get the main reward from the Lotus once.

But what if we don’t do anything? Well luckily, nothing’s at risk. Larunda will never, ever be destroyed, because it’s required for various quests. And honestly, even though these threats always mysteriously blow up at the last minute, we could do without the Kronia and Orcus relays (as well as their equivalents on Xbox and PS4). So don’t worry about it.

There’s also a tertiary event, the Ghoul Purges on the Plains of Eidolon, but they’re a tedious pain in the ass and are best left for another article.