The Confused Crazy Cat Lady Frame

Khora was the first Warframe released in 2018, when she was originally teased for release back in 2017, scheduled to be released alongside a Damage 2.5/3.0 update that altered how Impact, Puncture and Slash damage worked. The damage update was completely scrapped, leaving Khora very confused as what she was supposed to do and what her theme was. So we ended up with this strange, confused Khora that came with the Beasts of the Sanctuary update.

Khora is the second Warframe to have her blueprint locked away in a “C Rotation reward” alongside another Warframe component, alongside Ivara, and is the first Warframe in a long time to not have any quest associated with her. While Ivara is obtained by flawlessly doing Spy missions, Khora parts are a possible reward every two waves in the normal version of Sanctuary Onslaught. The chances are pretty low, between five and ten percent per part, and the other rewards consist of endo and relics, making her grind a painful slog.

So Khora has no real theme, no quest and is hard to get. What does she have?

Well, Khora has abilities. That don’t have anything to do with Impact, Puncture and Slash.

Her passive is a speed boost and the fact that she has a partially metal cat called Venari. With enough power strength, Khora can get a constant speed boost that can put Volt, Nezha and Loki to shame. Venari works the same way a normal Kavat does, using the same mods but not using Adarza or Smeeta-specific ability mods, but can be used alongside your normal Sentinel or Companion.

Khora’s first ability, Whipclaw, is a whip attack, very similar to Gara’s glass sword lance attack but more whip-y. It scales off melee mods (aside from rivens and Acolyte mods) but otherwise it’s really basic.

Khora’s second ability, Ensnare, traps an enemy and spreads to other enemies. It’s slow crowd control, not always useful since most enemies die quite quickly.

Khora’s third ability lets her control what Venari does, splitting between Attack, Defend and Heal. By default it’s hold to change Venari’s current command and tap to set a target. Normally it’s best to let Venari do what she wants and make her own decision who to target if she’s in Attack Mode, but you can get Venari to heal things like Rescue Targets and Cryopods, which is pretty unique – currently only Venari heal cryopods, and the metal cat is joined by only Oberon and Trinity when it comes to healing rescued hostages and defense operatives. Personally, I just like leaving Venari on Heal Mode, so she heals both herself and team mates.

Khora’s fourth ability is Strangledome, a dome made out of spikes and chains that covers a wide area and drags nearby enemies towards it. It offers no protection from bullets or projectiles though, unlike Frost’s Snow Globe or Volt’s Electric Shield.

But on release, Khora was considered incredibly weak. Ensnare didn’t spread to enemies right and Venari had to be summoned constantly before she got made into a passive. She was a bit of a mess Even now, people think she’s weak.

And maybe most of her kit is. But Strangledome? Somehow, with just some range and some power strength, that thing is insane.

I’ve done 50% of damage done, consistently, in both sorties and normal missions, simply by keeping Strangledome active around the objective. Somehow that thing does a ton of damage and I don’t know how. The damage is slow and gradual but seems to go on forever as long as you keep spawning more Strangledomes.

The rest of Khora though leaves much to be desired for a lot of people Her other abilities don’t stand out or anything. Khora looks a lot worse when compared to Harrow, Octavia and Nidus, who all have insane amounts of synergy with their abilities. But on the flip side, she does kinda have an identity, even if it’s not as solid as other Warframes.

The saddest thing is that Khora actually does have some interesting lore. During Ghoul Purge events, you can find interesting lore tidbits that follow the story of Venari and a Corpus scientist trying to protect this strange creature. This lore was kinda shunted to one side and Khora was shoved into Sanctuary Onslaught for kinda no reason. I understand her remains not being on the Plains of Eidolon as stated in her lore, but Cephalon Simaris is completely unrelated to the Plains. Was there literally nowhere else they could put Khora? Apparently not.

Khora’s problem is simple. Her main themed were demolished, and in player demands to get a new frame, Khora’s release was rushed. But really, she’s not that bad. Not everyone can be as amazing and synergized as someone like Harrow. But at least Khora looks amazing…