Rock Punch Man

There’s really only one way to describe Atlas. He’s a rocky, punchy guy. He’s also one of those frames which are really fun to play but sit in my foundry, rather unused.

I can see why though. Atlas isn’t hard to obtain. In fact, he’s pretty easy to get, but you need to have the right gear. Atlas’s blueprint is the reward for the Jordas Precept quest, in which you try to save a Cephalon trapped by the Infested, only to find out the Infested are using him to lure ships in and infest them. The quest isn’t hard, but if you don’t get the right drops from Juggernauts, it can really hold you back. The rest of Atlas’s components drop from the Jordas boss fight on Eris, which involves fighting a Juggernaut and then fighting Jordas himself using Archwing.

The problem with the Archwing fight is that the default gun, the Imperator, is damn awful and takes forever to actually kill Jordas. Odonata’s shield actually does help, but Imperator does very little. Almost any other Archwing gun is better but the Grattler and the Velocitus are both very good. With the right gear, you can do the mission in about 3-5 minutes. But for most people with their under-leveled Imperators could take 10 minutes per mission.

What makes the Atlas farm worst is that it’s a boring fight. The normal fight is literally just the end of the Jordas Precept, the last mission. So you hear the same dialogue over and over. I got somewhat lucky with only 9 missions, which I did solo but it could have been like my farm for Hydroid, which took 39 attempts…

It’s a shame though because Atlas is a fun frame. He’s a very punchy guy. Rock solid. Because he is a rock-based Warframe.

Atlas’s abilities include punching people (and becoming invulnerable with combos), turning people to stone, making small stone walls and throwing them at people and summoning two rock dudes to help Atlas punch things.

It’s a simple set of abilities but it’s fun. You punch things, you get armour, you get bursts of invulnerability. The only things that get in your way are Nullifiers and running out of energy.

He wasn’t always fun though. He had a mini rework which gave him a way to get more armour and tweak his abilities. Now though he’s fine.

Unfortunately, Atlas doesn’t have that much of a niche. At least, not without augments. Ore Gaze works similarly to Nekros’s Desecrate and Hydroid’s Pilfering Swarm augment, but Ore Gaze also gives you codex scans. It’s actually pretty useful. Also petrifying enemies also means they won’t move while you try and punch them.

Still, even with Ore Gaze, it’s easier to just to use Nekros and Hydroid.

Another reason why Atlas might not be very popular is that he’s kinda ugly. He has no neck and looks like he has a front cape made of bacon. That being said, Atlas has some of the most amazing cosmetics in the form of the Atlas Graxx skin. It’s a Tennogen skin but it is insanely good. But Atlas is also in line for a deluxe skin, designed by the same butt-loving genius who designed the Nidus and Nezha deluxe skins.

When that happens… Well, there will be Atlas players everywhere. Maybe. Assuming they can be bothered to fight Jordas a billion times.