Valkyr, the Orthelius Way – Warframe

In this Guide I will attempt to outline my current uses for Valkyr, why I believe she is one of the best solo Warframes in the game as well as some of the builds I run, the melee weapons and loadouts I take and finally: how Focus and Arcanes can massively improve your experience with Valkyr.

This will build upon my last Guide which is now far out of date (pre-update 18.13 when Valkyr’s 4 was changed), and hopefully add some new uses and benefits Valkyr has. It will also cover Arcanes, weapons, and Focus, which my last Guide neglected.

This is brought to you by Orthelius, Junior Guide of the Lotus and Valkyr nut head – with over 750 hours invested into playing Valkyr alone. Please, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me in-game or via Steam.

Valkyr and Valkyr Prime Stats – Advantages and Disadvantages

Valkyr Stats:

Normal Valkyr starts off with some pretty spectacular stats – sitting at a base of 600 armor, 1.1 sprint speed, and 300 health.

The 600 armour gives Valkyr a 66.67% damage reduction to damage against her health. As a standard Warframe this immediately sets her leagues above the others in terms of solo effectiveness. With no allies to revive you, dying becomes far more of a penalty, so innate damage reduction of this calibre is a fantastic addition.

The 300 base health is not too noteworthy, but when combined with the armour value of 600, this gives Valkyr the ability to take almost 900 points of damage in total before dying. This tripling of her moderate health pool brings her up massively without the need for any defensive mods.

Valkyr’s disadvantages come in her tiny power, and shield stats. With 150 shields and low energy pool, Valkyr can have a tough time against Slash heavy enemies and must usually forgo energy intensive builds. However, these are not enough to offset her advantages, which allow Valkyr to clear the entire star chart without having to resort to using abilities.

Valkyr Prime Stats:

Valkyr Prime sits above normal Valkyr in terms of armour and the amount of power she has access to.
With an increase of 100 armour, bringing her up to 700 at base, Valkyr Prime sits at a damage reduction of 70% at base.

Her energy pool is what matters most, an extra 75 energy is a massive increase for Valkyr, who is often build to spam low cost abilities or maintain a constantly draining ability build.

The only disadvantage Valkyr Prime shares with regular Valkyr is the low shield stat, however, with the same innate tankiness and more energy this time, Valkyr Prime is able to offset that more easily.

Valkyr Overall:

As a defensive Warframe, Valkyr herself is exceptionally tanky. As I will show with her abilities later on, Valkyr has the ability to outlast most other Warframes in the game, however in a team environment her defensive capabilities fall off somewhat, as she is unable to transfer most of her survivability to her allies. But her high armour and amazing abilities keep her in the running for as long as the playing Tenno can be bothered to mash their E button.

Although she suffers when it comes to defending objectives, there is no better Warframe than Valkyr for tanking disgusting amounts of damage in a solo environment.

Getting Valkyr and Her Prime – Where to Find Them and What You Need

Normal Valkyr:

Normal Valkyr can be purchased in the market for 300 Platinum, or her Blueprint can be bought from the Market which will then require you to farm her other parts, from Alad V, located on Themisto on Jupiter.

Her normal components have the requirements of: 

• 150 Circuits
• 1 Control Module 
• 900 Ferrite
• 2 Morphics
• 1 Neural Sensor
• 400 Plastids
• 200 Polymer Bundle
• 50 Rubedo
• 1000 Salvage

These are spread amongst the 3 components – the Chassis, Systems and Helmet.

Her main Blueprint requires: 

• 35,000 Credits to purchase the Blueprint from the market
• 25,000 Credits to build the Blueprint
• 1 Orokin Cell

Valkyr Prime:

Valkyr Prime parts can be acquired from Relics;
These relics are:

• Meso S3 – For the Blueprint which is a common drop
• Meso C2 – For the Neuroptics which is an Uncommon drop
• Axi V5 – For the Chassiswhich is a Rare drop
• Meso V3 – For the Systems which is a Rare drop

Her Prime components have the requirements of: 

• 2 Argon Crystals
• 12,000 Circuits
• 3 Control Modules
• 18,000 Ferrite
• 3 Morphics
• 3 Neural Sensors
• 5 Nitain Extract
• 500 Plastids
• 15,000 Polymer Bundles
• 6,000 Rubedo
• 15,000 Salvage
• 3 Tellurium

These are spread amongst the 3 components – the Chassis, Systems and Helmet.

Her Prime Blueprint requires: 

• 25,000 Credits to build the Blueprint
• 3 Orokin Cells

Valkyr’s Nimble – Her Passive Ability

(As shown in-game)

As quoted from the Wikia – ‘Valkyr is nimble, capable of recovering from knockdown 50% faster, as well as having the ability to land from great heights without stopping.‘

This passive gives Valkyr a small amount of Crowd Control resilience, helping against the increasing amount of knockdowns faced in the game.

As a Passive it is fairly basic, but definitely helps Valkyr move more smoothly and can be especially effective against Bombards, Grineer Heavy Ginners, Ancients, Bursas and Moas.

Valkyr’s Rip Line – Her First Ability

Ability Effects – Rip Line drags Valkyr is a direction, or can be fired onto enemies to drag them towards Valkyr. This ability deals damage, fires Valkyr in a single direction, can be refired whilst in the air and can be cast on allies, pulling them towards Valkyr.

Ability Stats

• Energy Cost – 25
• Strength – Rank 1 = 300, Rank 2 = 400, Rank 3 = 500, Max = 600
• Range – Rank 1 = 25m, Rank 2 = 40m, Rank 3 = 60m, Max = 75m
• Combo Duration – 1 second

Mod Effects

Power Strength;

Power Strength will increase only the damage done to enemies when ripline is cast upon them. It will not increase the pull velocity of Valkyr or her enemies.

Power Duration;

Rip Line has a combo meter – if the ability is recast in a set amount of time after the initial cast it will deal 2x the amount of damage before and reduce the energy cost by half. Any further cast will lock the ability into dealing 4x damage and will reduce the energy cost to 25% the initial cost. Power Duration will extend how long this combo meter is active.

Power Range;

Power Range will increase the length at which a Rip Line can be cast, either on enemies, allies or terrain. Do note, that the further from the object tagged with Rip Line Valkyr is, the faster she will be pulled towards them, or they towards her.

Power Efficiency;

Power Efficiency decreases the initial casting cost of Rip Line. Due to its low cost, and the fact that the Rip Line combo meter halves the casting cost every time, builds for Rip Line can skimp on Efficiency.

Augment Mod

Swing Line:

Thoughts:

In my opinion Rip Line is simply a nice touch to her skill set. I have never dedicated an entire build to Rip Line that has functioned effectively in missions, but I do use the ability incredibly frequently in order to correct movement while mid-air, or provide extra momentum when traveling through missions.

Rarely, I do use it in order to incapacitate heavy enemies or seperate enemies out. Bombards, Ancient Healers and Scrambus units come to mind, as they are priority targets; thus dragging them out of a mob of allies at high levels can be more efficient than working around them.

Extras

Rip Line’s interesting features:

• It is completely silent so it can be used for stealth
• It has a high chance to split enemies into two, which can be efficient if farming with Nekros.
• It can be used to latch on to allies
• It can be used during PvP

Valkyr’s Warcry – Her Second Ability

Ability Effects – Warcry provides a slow onto enemies within range while bolstering the melee attack speed and armour values of Valkyr and any allies affected, for the entire duration. Allies must be in range of the initial cast to receive the benefits, but will retain them for as long as Warcry is active.

Ability Stats

• Energy Cost – 75
• Melee Speed Increase – Rank 1 = 15%, Rank 2 = 20%, Rank 3 = 25%, Max = 50%
• Armour Increase – Rank 1 = 25%, Rank 2 = 35%, Rank 3 = 45%, Max = 50%
• Enemy Slow – Rank 1 = 15%, Rank 2 = 20%, Rank 3 = 25%, Max = 30%
• Range of Initial Cast – Rank 1 = 15m, Rank 2 = 20m, Rank 3 = 22m, Max = 25m
• Duration – Rank 1 = 7s, Rank 2 = 10s, Rank 3 =12s, Rank 4 = 15s

Mod Effects

Power Strength;

Power Strength will increase the Melee Attack Speed, Armour bonus and Enemy Slow effect.

Power Duration;

Power Duration will affect the duration of this ability on Valkyr, her allies and her enemies.

Power Range;

Power Range will increase the range of effect of the initial cast, allies do not have to stay within any range of Valkyr to retain the buffs.

Power Efficiency;

Power Efficiency reduces the energy cost of Warcry, and due to it being such a great melee steroid, it is recommended to try and bring the quite severe 75 energy cost down.

Augment Mod

Eternal War:

Thoughts:

In my opinion Warcry is either her second best, or tied best ability with Hysteria. Warcry gives Valkyr such a massive offensive and defensive boost that this ability alone is worth building around. Indeed, the best builds I have seen and experimented with have involved maximising the effect of this ability and Hysteria simultaneously.

Since Warcry hugely increases Attack Speed it is perfect for crit builds, crit weapons and especially when used in conjunction with the Narumon invisibility perk. This is her best ability for melee focused Tenno who do not wish to use her 4.

Extras

Warcry’s interesting features:

• Allies that walk into nullifier shields will not lose the buff, but if Valkyr walks into nullifier shields, all allies will lose the buff.
• The Armour buff can be applied to Cryopods in Defense missions, as well as pets, Sentinels and ally pets.
• With enough Strength and an armour mod (Steel Fibre) at max rank, the Armour Bonus for Warcry can exceed 2000 extra armour, on top of the 1260 armour she would have with Steel Fibre.

Valkyr’s Paralysis – Her Third Ability

Ability Effects – Paralysis throws Valkyr’s shields out in a circle around her. This staggers enemies, opens them up to finishers and deals damage based off of her current shields and the distance the enemy is from her at the moment of casting. It will also use up a third of her current shield to cast, or none if she has no shields at the moment of casting.

Ability Stats

• Energy Cost – 5
• Damage Based off of Her Shield – Rank 1 = 100%, Rank 2 = 125%, Rank 3 = 150%, Max = 175%
• Strength of Knockback – Rank 1 = 400, Rank 2 = 600, Rank 3 = 800, Max = 1000
• Range of Ability – Rank 1 = 5m, Rank 2 = 7m, Rank 3 = 8m, Max = 10m

Mod Effects

Power Strength;

Power Strength will increase the damage done by Paralysis against enemies, as well as the knockback they suffer.

Power Duration;

This has no effect on Paralysis.

Power Range;

Power Range will increase the range of the ability, which is effective as the damage of the ability and knockback decrease the further away from Valkyr the enemy is.

Power Efficiency;

Power Efficiency reduces the energy cost to a minimum of 1.25 energy per cast.

Augment Mod

Prolonged Paralysis:

Thoughts:

This mod can be excellent when paired with a build geared towards Range. It can be paired incredibly well with aoe weaponry such as shotguns or other punch through weapons as it drags enemies to your current location and groups them up.

Extras

Paralysis’ interesting features:

• Overshields (obtained from other Warframes such as a Trinity with Energy Leech mod equipped) will be included in the multiplier for the damage dealt.
• The damage is calculated from the current amount of shield at the time of casting.
• The damage of Paralysis is not blocked by obstacles or walls and is increased by body-part multipliers, such as with Banshee’s ability ‘Sonar’.

Valkyr’s Hysteria – Her Ultimate Ability

Ability Effects – Hysteria causes Valkyr to revert to a claw type melee stance, unable to use her weapons, while becoming invincible and draining her energy over time.

The ability emits an aura which starts at around 6m and scales up to 20m that stores 30% of the damage she ignores and, if the ability deactivates in range of an enemy (the enemy must have line of sight on Valkyr), 25% of the stored damage will be dealt to Valkyr.

The damage of Hysteria’s claws scale off of specific melee mods as well as Power Strength, and a percentage of the damage she deals will be given back to her health.

Ability Stats

• Energy Cost – 2.5p/s at minimum, which scales up to a final cost of 15p/s
• Range After Deactivation – 5m scaling up to 20m
• Base Melee Damage – Rank 1 = 100, Rank 2 = 125, Rank 3 = 200, Max = 250
• Life Steal per Melee Attack – Rank 1 = 1%, Rank 2 = 2%, Rank 3 = 4%, Max = 5%

Melee Stance Stats

Normal Attack Damage – Rank 1 = 100, Rank 2 = 125, Rank 3 = 200, Max = 250
Normal Attack Range – 2m

Wall Attack Damage – Rank 1 = 300, Rank 2 = 375, Rank 3 = 600, Max = 750
Slide Attack Damage – Rank 1 = 300, Rank 2 = 375, Rank 3 = 600, Max = 750
Aerial Attack Damage – Rank 1 = 200, Rank 2 = 250, Rank 3 = 400, Max = 500

Slam Attack Damage – 300
Slam Attack Range – 5m

Critical Chance – 50%
Critical Damage – 200% Multiplier
Status Chance – 10%

Ground Finisher Damage – 1600% Multiplier
Melee Finisher Damage – 6400% Multiplier

Melee Notes

• The stats of the melee weapon Valkyr has equipped will not affect Hysteria, only the mods equipped on the weapon will.
• The ability damage is split equally between all the damage types (Slash, Puncture, and Impact).
• Power Strength and Melee Strength mods will only affect the Damage, not the Lifesteal percentage.
• This Ability has its own stance with different combo attacks. It will unlock more combinations as Hysteria levels up.
• Valkyr is still vulnerable to energy-leech eximus units which will increase the rate of energy loss that she experiences.
• Valkyr will take no damage from current status effects, becomes immune to any further status effects and will not be knocked down under any circumstances. Although slows and Commanders will still affect her.
• Hysteria is not a tactic for Riven mods requiring ‘a mission to completed without being afflicted with a status’, as the statuses will still proc on her. The effects just do not occur while under Hysteria.

Mod Effects

Power Strength;

Power Strength will increase the damage of all of Hysteria’s attacks, and will increase the finisher damage, but not the multipliers. It does not affect the amount of damage Hysteria absorbs, or the amount of damage she takes if the aura pops and damages her. It also does not affect her lifesteal amount.

Power Range;

Power Range will no longer affect the range of the aura Valkyr emits. Power Range has no affect on her melee range either. The aura range will continue to increase regardless of her power range from 6m up to 20m.

Power Efficiency;

Power Efficiency reduces the initial cast energy cost as well as the energy drain that Valkyr takes per second. It appears to also reduce the time it takes for Valkyr’s Hysteria cost to double and the range to increase.

Power Duration;

Power Duration affects the energy cost while the ability is active. A higher Duration will decrease the energy cost per second.

Augment Mod

Hysterical Assault:

Thoughts:

Hysteria not only scales off of Warframe mods, but also regular melee mods which is what helps scale this ability so well. Although it has fallen off with the advent of Acolyte mods, it is still very powerful based on the invincibility it provides, and the innate healing and tanking ability it provides Valkyr. This ability allows Valkyr to be one of the few Warframes who can legitimately head through all content with only a melee weapon in hand. This is due to how powerful and sustainable Hysteria makes her.

Example Melee Mods for Hysteria

• Damage
  Pressure Point, Buzz Kill, Auger Strike, Collision Force, Primed Heavy Trauma, Spoiled Strike Drifting Contact.
• Critical
  True Steel, Organ Shatter. (Blood Rush and Body Count do Not affect Hysteria).
• Elemental Damage
  Fever Strike, Shocking Touch, North Wind, Molten Impact, Focus Energy, Virulent Scourge.
• Usability
  Reach, Primed Reach, Berserker, Fury.

Melee Mods for Hysteria Valkyr – My Builds

This is my standard Melee mod setup when I am running Hysteria Valkyr, or a Hysteria/ Warcry hybrid. Please note: The melee weapon does not matter when using Hysteria, it is merely a carrier for the mods.

Primed Pressure Point/ Pressure Point (+165%/ +120% Melee Damage):

• This is a key mod, as it simply adds a massive boost in damage to Hysteria as well as whichever weapon is being used. Normal Pressure Point is fine, but the Primed variant is particularly potent.

Primed Reach/ Reach (+165% / +60% Range on Melee attacks):

• This mod is the most important one for a Hysteria focused Valkyr build. A maximum, or high-level Primed Reach is able to melee attack Corpus Nullifiers without being hit by the Bubble. This excessive range neutralises one of Valkyr most annoying opponents.

Primed Fury/ Fury (+55%/ +30% Melee Attack Speed):

• This simply increases the attack speed of all of Hysteria’s attacks. This is fantastic (especially the Prime variant) for players who are not happy with the current speed or clumsiness of Hysteria. It also combines well with Drifting Contact, as the attack speed allows the Melee combo to be stacked all the faster.

Drifting Contact (Combo Duration +10 seconds, +40% Status Chance):

• This combo duration mod is one of the best for increasing the potential damage Hysteria is able to deal. Due to Hysteria’s multi-hit attacks in her combos, ground finishers or spin attacks it can be stacked incredibly quickly, and a large damage boost can be sustained for the entire duration of Hysteria. This is also the only Acolyte-type mod to work on Hysteria.

Fever Strike (+90% Toxin Damage) + Shocking Touch (+90% Shock Damage):

• This mod combo gives +180% Corrosive damage, which is a status that removes 25% of a target’s current armour when the unique proc affects the enemy. This is exceptionally useful against heavy armoured enemies, especially with the Grineer and Corrupted, but will also help with the Infested. These can be switched out against other factions for Viral, Gas or Radiation combos, but it is entirely unnecessary due to the innate damage of Hysteria.

Berserker (+30% Attack Speed Bonus for +24 seconds on critical hit):

• This mod synergises well with Hysteria’s incredibly high, base crit chance of 50%. As such, Berserker will proc, and stack up to maximum very quickly. As well as this, Berserker will stack to give a maximum of +75% Attack Speed for 24 seconds. This greatly increases Valkyr’s damage output, especially as it increases the effectiveness of Drifting Contact.

Organ Shatter (+90% Crit Damage):

• This mod will massively boost all of Hysteria’s damage, due to Hysteria starting with a high critical chance of 50%. As such, every other hit Hysteria does will benefit massively from this mod.

Starter Build – Default Build for Valkyr

These mods are those I would recommend for newer players who just pick up Valkyr. For Vitality and Steel Fibre rank 6-8 are good enough to get through most of the star chart. But this is only a rough Guide, and mod setups should always be played around with.

Steel Charge (+60% melee damage):

• Valkyr comes with a V aura Polarity, so Steel Charge naturally suits her. It gives you a larger mod capacity pool as well as benefits Valkyr as a melee oriented frame far more than most Warframes.

Vitality (+440% Health):

• Vitality is a good idea for all missions, especially at lower levels. Without specialised builds, innate survivability is a better idea. Vitality and Steel Fibre pair up to give Valkyr a huge amount of defenses.

Steel Fibre (+110% Armour):

• This too increases Valkyr’s damage resistance. Paired with Vitality it means Valkyr is independent of abilities for most of the game. She can tank huge amounts of damage, then pop into Hysteria and heal it up in one hit.

Streamline (+30% Power Efficiency):

• This mod decreases the energy cost of all abilities and the energy cost per second of Hysteria. A must have mod.

Continuity (+30% Power Duration):

• This mod increases the duration of the buffs of Warcry, and also reduces the energy cost per second of Hysteria. A great mod to have to improve Hysteria’s and Warcry’s efficiency.

Intensify (+30% Power Strength):

• Intensify increases the damage of Valkyr’s Hysteria, Rip Line and Paralysis, as well as increasing the armour and attack speed bonuses from Warcry. This mod too helps in all regards of Valkyr’s abilities.
• 

Build 1 – Hybrid Warcry/ Hysteria Valkyr Build

I use this build for 90% of my time as Valkyr. This carries my way through sorties and out the other side. It only begins to fall off when you have to rely on Hysteria for damage and damage resistance at levels 150+.

Corrosive Projection (-30% Enemy Armour):

• Changing Valkyr’s innate V polarity might seem counter intuitive, however it allows this Valkyr to be used in top level content, such as Trials, high endurance runs, and especially difficult Grineer Sorties. Although it matters little in lower tier content (level 80 and below), so this is personal preference for most players.

Power Drift (+15% Power Strength, +30% Chance to Resist Knockdowns): 

• This will increase the damage of Hysteria, Paralysis, and Rip-Line, and will increase the Attack Speed buff of Warcry. This can be traded for a mobility mod, but I enjoy the knockdown resistance on top of Valkyr’s Nimble passive. This allows her to overcome most cc instantly, or incredibly quickly.

Vitality (+440% Health):

• Vitality is especially effective on Valkyr due to her high armour amount. Increasing Valkyr health pool drastically increases her effective HP, which increases the level of missions she can do without the need of Hysteria. Careful players can take Vitality alone as a defensive mod and will not need to use abilities, except her 4 for the occasional heal from most missions above level 70.

Steel Fibre (+110% Armour):

• Arguably one of the most valuable mods on Valkyr due to her and her Prime having the highest base armour in the entire game. This mod alone brings Valkyr and her prime from 66.67% and 70% damage reduction respectively, up to 80.76% and 83.05% damage reduction. This is a fairly major increase of roughly an extra 13% damage reduction for both Valkyr and Valkyr Prime.

Primed Flow/ Flow (+275%/ 150% Power Max):

• Flow increases Valkyr’s energy pool, which is entirely necessary for this Hybrid build due to the increased drain from Hysteria after it’s last rework. Due to it scaling up massively in cost from 2.5 to 15 without efficiency, the higher energy pool is far better for keeping the cost of Hysteria relatively less harmful to the overall energy reserve of Valkyr. This is especially true with the use of Arcane Energize which I use with this build, as it allows less energy from orbs to be wasted, as more energy can be stored.

Eternal War (While Warcry is active, every melee kill increases its duration by 2 seconds):

• Eternal War is especially effective in a team environment, you can cast it on allies at the beginning of the mission, then sustain it for the entirety. This increases energy efficiency on Valkyr, as well as just providing a nice, constant buff that can drastically improve Valkyr’s normal survivability and increase the speed of Hysteria.

Transient Fortitude (+55% Power Strength, -27.5% Power Duration):

• Combined with Power Drift this gives 170% Power Strength. This is an excellent amount of Strength for Hysteria and Warcry to give her amazing attack power and attack speed, or simple armour and damage increase if only Warcry is being used.

Narrow Minded (+99% Power Duration, -66% Power Range):

• This mod is perfect for a solo oriented Valkyr who isn’t going for CC. Although it decreases her Warcry radius it won’t matter in solo mode as it will still affect Valkyr and any companion. It has no negative affects on her 4. Although it does also decrease the range of her Rip Line and Paralysis, this doesn’t entirely matter due to her tankiness and ability to get up close and personal to enemies. The duration is incredibly effective with Hysteria and Warcry, which for this build is exactly what is wanted.

Fleeting Expertise Rank 5 (+60% Power Efficiency, -60% Power Duration):

• This mod at rank 5 brings the Power Efficiency up to 160%, which for Hysteria and her abilities are entirely necessary. Bringing it up to 175% is preferable, but with only 8 mod slots sacrifices must be made.

Rage (+40% of Health damage returned as Energy)

• Due to Valkyr’s innate tankiness this allows you to sustain damage, then feed the energy you gained back into Hysteria in order to heal yourself up. With Valkyr’s low shield capacity this is an especially valuable mod for infinite Energy, or at least sustainable energy.

(Based on sitting around with level 145 Corpus Tech enemies, Valkyr is able to absorb well over 3 million points of damage in the 2 minutes, 15 seconds you get in Hysteria in this build without access to energy orbs).

Build 2 – Valkyr Warcry/ Naramon Build

I use this build for intense survival missions of if I feel like playing around with Naramon and high critical chance Weapons, or weapons with a Blood Rush and Body Count build on them.

Corrosive Projection (-30% Enemy Armour):

• Changing Valkyr’s innate V polarity might seem counter intuitive, however it allows this Valkyr to be used in top level content, such as Trials, high endurance runs, and especially difficult Grineer Sorties. As I use this build in missions that go far above and beyond Level 120+ it is far more useful for me to use Corrosive Projection to slash enemy armour without ever needing to proc Corrosive.

Power Drift (+15% Power Strength, +30% Chance to Resist Knockdowns): 

• This will increase the damage of will help to increase the Attack Speed buff of Warcry. The knockdown resistance on top of Valkyr’s Nimble passive allow her to successfully navigate any forms of cc that come her way, as she will not have the benefit of Hysteria for the most part.

Vitality (+440% Health):

• Vitality just helps in surviving the off bit of aoe damage that may come your way while using Narumon, it can be replaced but I prefer safe than sorry.

Primed Continuity/ Continuity (+55% / +30% Power Duration):

• This mod is here to increase the duration of Warcry, and simply extend the time which it is up before needing to be recast. However, with Eternal War in this build, this extra duration may not be necessary and can be subbed in for another desired mod.

Blind Rage (+99% Power Strength, -55% Power Efficiency):

• This mod is here to combine with Transient Fortitude and give a build of 269% Power Strength. This massively enhances Warcry to give an incredible attack speed and armour bonus, effectively turning Valkyr into a melee Godess without ever needing to use Hysteria. The lowered Efficiency seems to be a hindrance at first, but for most missions you will only ever cast a single ability: Warcry. As such Efficiency can be sacrificed.

Transient Fortitude (+55% Power Strength, -27.5% Power Duration):

• As mentioned previously, this is to combine with Blind Rage to give Warcry some insane additive stats to Valkyr. It creates the ultimate Melee steroid ability. The small amount of Duration lost is easily made up for by Eternal War.

Narrow Minded (+99% Power Duration, -66% Power Range):

• This mod is perfect for a solo oriented Valkyr who isn’t going for CC. Although it decreases her Warcry radius it won’t matter in solo mode as it will still affect Valkyr and any companion. It has no negative affects on her 4. Although it does also decrease the range of her Rip Line and Paralysis, this doesn’t entirely matter due to her tankiness and ability to get up close and personal to enemies. The duration is incredibly effective with Hysteria and Warcry, which for this build is exactly what is wanted.

Constitution (+28% Power Duration, +40% Knockdown Recovery): 

• This is simply a mod that increases the duration of Warcry, helps keep Hysteria’s energy cost slightly lower for healing purposes and provides some excellent CC resilience. During this build Valkyr has no access to Hysteria for any long periods of time. As such, she is far more vulnerable to crowd control from all sources. This helps recover from all sources of knockdowns.

Streamline (+30% Power Efficiency):

• This mod helps to offset the initial cost of Warcry without jeopardising the duration which is Most important on this build. It also allows Warcry to be cast immediately upon starting in a mission if Valkyr Prime is being used with no Energy drops needed.

Eternal War (Warcry duration increases by 2 seconds for every melee kill performed):

• This mod is especially helpful in this build. It allows you to cast Warcry once at the beginning of the mission, then never again for the entire duration of the mission. It also massively helps in maintaining Warcry for the purposes of building up your Weapon combo. This means you ramp up in damage far faster.

Not noted about the mod is that the time you gain on Warcry scales with strength, as such, every melee kill you perform, with this high Strength build, will return more seconds to your Warcry.

Build 3 – Valkyr Prolonged Paralysis Build

I use this build when I feel like playing with some friends in Defensive type missions. Although not too effective, it can be fun, and fully capable of dragging enemies far away from Defense objectives while locking them down. It is a spammable and more CC effective version of Nidus’ Third ability.

Corrosive Projection (-30% Enemy Armour):

• Changing Valkyr’s innate V polarity might seem counter intuitive, however with this team oriented build, Corrosive Projection is far more effective.

Power Drift (+15% Power Strength, +30% Chance to Resist Knockdowns): 

• This can be traded out for Cunning Drift, but I enjoy the knockdown resistance, as well as the slight damage boost gained on Paralysis.

Vitality (+440% Health):

• Vitality combined with Steel Fibre just massively increases Valkyr’s Effective Health pool. This just means Valkyr doesn’t need Hysteria to survive and can tank shots while acting as a Crowd Control machine.

Steel Fibre (+110% Armour):

• Arguably one of the most valuable mods on Valkyr due to her and her Prime having the highest base armour in the entire game. This mod alone brings Valkyr and her prime from 66.67% and 70% damage reduction respectively, up to 80.76% and 83.05% damage reduction. This is a fairly major increase of roughly an extra 13% damage reduction for both Valkyr and Valkyr Prime.

Primed Continuity/ Continuity (+55% / +30% Power Duration):

• This mod increases the duration of the Prolonged Paralysis effect on enemies, locking them in place for roughly 12 seconds. As this effect can be spammed and will effect large groups of enemies this is like a mini range, cheap version of a Rhino ultimate. It is a fantastic ability to invest in.

Blind Rage (+99% Power Strength, -55% Power Efficiency):

• This mod is simply there to offset the effects of Overextended. This allows Hysteria to be used, Warcry to be used and Paraysis to have some damage on it. As Paralysis is a cheap ability the lower Efficiency is acceptable.

Overextended (+90% Power Range, -60% Power Strength):

• This will drastically increase the effective Range of Prolonged Paralysis. This will just help this build succeed as a Crowd Control machine.

Constitution (+28% Power Duration, +40% Knockdown Recovery): 

• This is simply a mod that increases the duration of all her abilities. This will also decrease the energy cost of Valkyr’s Hysteria, but will help Prolonged Paralysis far more.

Fleeting Expertise Rank 5 (+60% Power Efficiency, -60% Power Duration):

• This mod at rank 5 allows the Efficiency to be left at 105% – this leaves an entirely reasonably low cost on Paralysis, while also not restricting Valkyr’s other abilities.

Prolonged Paralysis (Enemies are pulled to Valkyr, cast to the floor, and the stun Duration is doubled):

• This mod is core to this build. It provides Valkyr with a cheap method of providing good ranged, spammable Crowd Control that drags enemies to an easy to deal with location. It can be used in a team setting, costs little energy, can be recast, lasts for a decent amount of time and fits nicely into the build.

Focus Schools and Valkyr

For Valkyr I have three schools exclusively that I use on her: Madurai, Naramon and Zenurik. Depending on which build I am running, or what mood I’m in I will use any one of the three, however this choice is mostly subjective; my own personal preference. Other players may enjoy Vazarin or Unairu far more than I do, but for me I have three I focus on.

Madurai:

• I tend to use Madurai when running my Warcry/ Hysteria hybrid build when I plan to spam Hysteria. The percentage increase in damage for all damage types works exceptionally well for Hysteria due to it having equal splits amongst all types of damage.

Naramon:

• Naramon I tend to use for the Warcry/ Narumon build (as it is aptly named). This build sacrifices defense on the presumption that Naramon will keep you safe from harm for the most part. As such, this is the crucial focus school to use.

It is less effective when using Hysteria builds, as Hysteria already grants damage immunity – this means that the primary use of Naramon becomes complete overkill, and a waste of a focus school.

Zenurik:

• Zenurik is my go-to Focus School the majority of the time. I will run this with my Hybrid build as well as Prolonged Paralysis. Although the Hybrid build does not need it due to the Rage mod, it does help with keeping up a full tank of energy, especially effective in higher tier missions where enemies can appear at any time and can almost one shot your Valkyr – making the rage mod, and preparing for Hysteria useless.

It is especially effective with Prolonged Paralysis, the build with no Rage mod and no inbuilt energy regeneration. The 4 energy per second regeneration from Zenurik allows you to regain enough energy to essentially infinitely spam Paralysis. More spam means more enemy control, which massively increases the overall effectiveness and impact of the build-in missions.

Arcanes and Valkyr

For Valkyr the Arcanes can be mostly up to personal preference:

For me however, I see 5 Arcanes as especially effective:

Arcane Energize:

Arcane Energize is an Arcane I have on a Syandana. It is too powerful and too rare to be confined to Valkyr alone, and is in fact used on all but the most energy independent builds I have in Warframe.

As it is not clear in Energize’s description, the chance shown by the mod is the chance to add an extra +100 energy to the pickup of an energy orb. At the same time as giving an ally Energy from the orb, everyone will gain an extra 100 energy. This is an Arcane that can single handedly sustain a Hysteria build Valkyr indefinitely.

This is a must have on all my Valkyr builds Except for Prolonged Paralysis.

This Arcane is exceptionally rare, I would not advise buying it solely for Valkyr or single builds due to how expensive it can be.

Arcane Fury:

Arcane Fury is also an Arcane I have on a Syandana. Although I use it far less than Energize, I apply it to builds similar to my Valkyr Narumon build – builds that are energy independent, instead relying heavily on Narumon or another gimmick to avoid damage and sustain themselves.

This Arcane is exceptionally rare, I would not advise buying it solely for Valkyr or single builds due to how expensive it can be.

Arcane Guardian:

This is a fairly common and standard Arcane that can be used quite nicely on Valkyr, especially players who don’t tend to use Hysteria a lot. It can give excellent armour boosts that nicely add to Valkyr’s damage resistance. I have this on a Syandana so I can put it on other tanky frames.

Arcane Strike:

I have this Arcane on Valkyr’s helmet. I am a sucker for Attack speed, so this Arcane is a must have for me. It is simple to get, fairly common and excellent on any Valkyr build focused on melee. It works great with Hysteria and Narumon builds alike.

Arcane Ultimatum:

This is a variant of Arcane Guardian that works even better for players well used to taking advantage of Paralysis. It is also fairly common, effective and nice to have. Although it is more niche, I still class it as one of the best Arcanes to have on Valkyr if you enjoy using Paralysis and are able to keep tabs on the armour increase.

My Melee Weapons of Choice

Just as a latter addition to the Guide I will briefly go over what Melee weapons and builds I like to run on Valkyr.

As I showed in the Melee Mod section I have a standard Mod setup when utilising Hysteria. However, I neglected to cover my other two builds, or what other weapons I enjoy running.

I don’t play favourites, so I shall list everything alphabetically:

Atterax – 2 Forma

(Please note, you can swap Berserker for Maiming Strike, which gives some amazing damage at the cost of speed, but I am a sucker for attack speed I’m afraid).

The Atterax is a weapon not seen to often anymore, however it is a truly incredible weapon. It can be modded for status or crit, or in my case; both. On paper the damage of the weapon is nothing too special, however it is when the critical damage and 100%+ critical chance begins to kick in that the true damage can be seen.

I have it modded for Gas, as I treat the Atterax as an Area of Effect nuke. Its entire purpose to me is to wipe everything out in a 20 metre radius around my character, and as such I primarily use this in Defense missions.

When paired with Valkyr it synergises exceptionally well with her Warcry, as well as Narumon. So I will primarily use this with a Narumon Valkyr setup.

Galatine Prime – 2 Forma

(Cleaving Whirlwind is the better stance if you wish to completely destroy enemies, but I personally prefer using Tempo Royale)

Although a fairly boring build the Galatine Prime really requires nothing extra. The weapon itself already has some of the most powerful stats in the game, with a 20% critical chance, the highest damage of all melee weapons and a 20% status chance. As such this weapon requires nothing fancy to supplement its damage.

I primarily use this with the Warcry/ Narumon build or with my Prolonged Paralysis Valkyr.

Extras

Evening Tenno,

As I finish writing this my eyelids droop and head lolls with sleep, but this was incredibly fun to make, and really nice to put something together.

I sincerely hope the Guide helps, and if people would like to ask me any questions, contact me about anything or send some improvements or corrections my way, please leave your comments here or contact me on the forums or in-game: my username is Orthelius.

I am a Junior Guide of the Lotus with 1800+ hours of in-game playtime, and many, many more spent in chat in game answering questions in the EU region.

Valkyr is my most played frame of all time, as well as my favourite (even with the release of Nidus), as such I enjoy posting Guides, suggestions, and comments about her on the forums if anyone would like to join me in that endeavour!

Once again, thank you for reading, please enjoy!

Original Link – Continuation of discussion