How to be a Hildabeast. A Hildryn Guide – Warframe

I really enjoy Hildryn. I haven’t been able to put her down since I started playing her, but I have noticed a lot of doubts around her kit.

A lot of false information is being casually spread. For example “she is useless against infested”, “one toxin/slash proc it’s over”, “shield champs are bad”. These are just wrong.

I think once you better understand her Kit you will see exactly what she is capable of.

She has some incredible synergies that could be meta defining with the proper comp coordination. She is an absolute support monster. I intend to explain exactly how to build and play her to that effect.

Overview of her abilities, synergies, and their effectiveness

Her kit is very good but it could be more well rounded. He [1] especially relies to much on her shields. IMO her [1] and [4] are a little off par and could be incredibly fun with some tweaks.

Passive

• When Hildryns shields are depleted she becomes invulnerable for a few moments. The ability doesn’t have a cooldown, but is restored/reset once she has fully recovered her shields.
• Running out of shields and triggering her passive will turn off your other channeled abilities.
• This is what makes and breaks her kit. It has unbelievable synergy with many different things. The guardian mod for sentinels. Arcane aegis and barrier. Perrin syndicate mods/weapons that restore shields. Vamp trin, Capacitance volt, Harrow. Anything that regens shields is now uniquely valuable with this warframe. It Also has great synergy with any warframe that relies on their shields, or is just generally squishy. More on this later.
• Playing and building around this ability is everything. I really enjoy that pre existing shield restore items now have a greater strength through this passive. Luckily Hildryns 2 “shield pillage” gives us a baseline way to instantly restore all shields and reset our passive. Using both strategically is very important.

Balefire Build

• Hildryn equips her exalted energy rocket launcher sidearm. It consumes some shields initially to summon it, then only consumes shields per shot. It replaces your secondary. You can charge its shots to fire a more damaging shot that consumes more shields. It does base electric damage that scales with Ability strength.
• IMO this is the soul punch ability of her kit. While it can hit like a truck, it’s generally not worth it. Your usage of this ability will come down to your build. On a max STR build the charge shot can hit over 100k, at the cost of 1k shields. It also slows you to a crawl while you charge/shoot it repeatedly. It’s also the only weapon you can fire while you are flying in your 4. Making it tempting to use, but again not worth it IMO.
• Possibly very useful In sorties that require you to equip a certain weapon type. Gives you a 4th weapon to build another damage type on. It’s not a bad ability but there are better ways to spend your shields. IMO the worst time you want to dump your shields with this, is during your 4th. Sometimes you will need to in order to kill something, but otherwise its better to Use your 4th for longer, or cancel it early to use your 2 and Regen your shields.
• With the right setup you will be overcapping shields, this is a can be a way to spend it in between syndicate procs. Or to even pause your syndicate proc.
• The ragdoll effect is insane on this. Very fun. Was nice on the ambulas sortie shotguns only. Could 1 shot them if that gives you an idea of its damage.
• Building around this can be very satisfying and successful. Depends on the build.
• This is your only way to deal with nullies while flying in your [4]

Shield Pillage

• This ability on use pulses outward and then returns. Every enemy hit, within LOS of you, will be stripped of shields/armor. When the pulse returns to you, it will heal your shields based on the armor/shield damage it did to enemies. Potentially allowing your to full heal yourself, reset your passive, and strip enemies in one button.
• This ability removes ALL status effects from you and your allies. Use it to remove slash/toxin procs.
• This is an excellent ability but its success very much depends on how you build it. The more effective you make this ability the more effective Hildryn will be. It is your mana, your lifepool, and how you control your passives reset. IMO there are different useful Hildryn builds, but building for this ability will take you the furthest.
  *When built correctly you can only hit 1-2 mobs and still fully restore your shield. The idea Is more str and more damage/stripping. If you only strip 20% of the armor and shields off a target you won’t get as much shield back, you will need to hit more targets. If your stripping 80%, you will heal for alot more. This makes a massive difference. It completely changes just how capable you are at healing yourself with just your 2.
• This ability is Partially why people say she’s “bad” against infested. This is a misunderstanding IMO. For starters, there are multiple ways to restore her shield without her 2. Syndicate procs and sentinels guardian mod alone let you reset your passive constantly, making you unkillable before arcanes. Most of the infested you face under level 50 will be getting melted by everything, especially your [3] Haven. Infested do have armor to strip, especially over 50, because Fossilized armor exists. Swarm Mutalist MOA give all light infested units armor. With the right build, you only need to hit a couple runners with your [2] and you’re at full shields again.
• This ability does struggle sometimes. That is why I think building this ability right is so important, giving you room to regen your shields. The only time I really notice my 2 not being a full heal button is when I’m playing with a saryn. They just don’t leave anything left to be stripped. Playing with 4 stacks of corrosive, or another stripping class like mag, will leave you with less regen potential. This is something that can be played around and that has merits to me. You could potentially use your 2 and get your shields back before they strip things, or you could just not play with a saryn. Why bring a saryn nuke when you are already stripping yourself. Instead bring a volt nuke and that regens everyone shield, while you gate those shields for them. Instead of stacking 4 CP you can stack 4 growing power or power donations. On the same note, it’s not very ideal to run Hildryn with 3 inaros. Play around Hildryns strengths like you would In any coordinated comp.
• From what I can best tell this abilitys range is static. Increase range mods do not effect the pulses travel. Duration the pulse travel time and length? You can hit it twice to instantly return the pulse to you.
• This ability is affected by some king of Line of Sight, which hurt its stripping capabilities. I do hope to see it improved somehow but LOS has its benefits. If you have a room with 100 NPCs with armor/shields, Abuse LOS so you only hit 10 of them. You get all your shields back, and now you can do that again 10 more times. If you were to strip everything at once it would reduce the healing potential on the next cast.
• At high strength I am stripping 80% of their shields and armor. If they have 100 armor, I just took 80 of it. So on the recast I will be stripping 80% of their remaining 20 armor. Basically you can never completely strip someone. This means that every cast on your 2 Will heal you, albeit less each time. With enough mobs and STR this will potentially always full heal you and reset your passive. Again adding Corrosive projections and saryns into the mix hinder this and need to be played around.
• Don’t just spam your 2. Don’t always use it when you are full shields. Try and make the most out of it. Sometimes you want to strip things off the bat because everything’s going to die in a second. Sometimes you need to stagger your [2] and reset your passive a couple times before everything dies.

Haven

• When targets are in her direct line of sight and within a specific meter radius, Hildryn drains her own Shields per second for every ally linked, and for every enemy linked. The link damages enemies per second and also effectively heals allies shields per second. Linked allies Do AOE radiation dmg. This works on hostages, specters, pets. Even more impressively; While linked, allies gain extra maximum shield capacity, not overshields, faster shield recharge rate, and the shield wall invulnerability phase from Hildryn’s passive. Once an ally leaves Havens range, the extra shields then turn into overshields. Light and medium enemies are staggered when link makes contact.
• This ability is something you want to keep on all the time. Using your 2 to fund this ability is very important. It is a source of constant passive healing to your allies. It also does pretty good damage with enough str. Can 1-2shot enemies on hydron, basically letting you afk kill enemies as they run up to you. On high 100+ enemies it does constant reasonable damage. The radiation aoe, the tick on the link, all comboing with your [2] stripping them of defenses, and your [4]s damage, makes this a very real damage source. Will it instantly kill 100+? No. But while you are aiming and shooting at people, this ability will be constantly draining all enemies around you. It will also be conveniently marking them for you. I will discuss the damage of this more with her [4] later.
• Personally, this is the reason I play Hildryn. Imagine a meta with volt nuke/ EV trinity or harrow. They are already great warframes on their own. When you add Hildryn to the mix, they now have her passive too. Want to mod your shields as your main line of defense? Play with a Hildryn who uses Haven. Shield gating is Real, OP, and in the game right now. Imagine you are a volt with 3k shields. Instead of getting nuked through them, you become immune at max health for a second. In that second you hit your ult, full heal your shields, and reset your mini Hildryn passive. You just reset the passive for all your allies aswell.
• This scales off range, and costs less per tick scaling off duration. The shield recharge buff scales off duration. The aoe Rad dmg, and bonus shield capacity scale off STR. There are some important points to clarify. This ticks continuously, giving your allies shields every second. You give them shields working up to the cap your own STR has set, as shown in the screenshot. This means higher strength gives more shields per second. It ALSO gives you a shield recharge buff. It works like this; After not taking damage for 3 seconds, a warframes “recharge delay” comes off cooldown. You then start slowly recharging shields. The rate at which you recharge shields from here is called “recharge rate”. Haven also buffs this stat, but this is gated behind “recharge delay”. For that reason I think this buff is underwhelming, and isn’t very worth modding for. The more effective part is the actual shields per second you are getting from strength. More specific testing needed.
• I need to do more testing for specific numbers on STR value. For example, 1500 shield cap vs 500. How long does it take to charge both? if it is the same amount of time, you are getting alot more Shields per second With a 1500 cap. Effectively healing alot more damage per second. This is how I understand it to be working with my experience. I will update this post with more concrete evidence, but I welcome help testing it. I am already building STR for her other abilities but playing around with range could be very viable. I think being in Havens range is required to proc the shield gating effect. So if you have a warframe that can top off shields, combo it with havens gate effect, and range becomes more important so everyone can benefit from it continuously. More testing needed. If anyone can add more information to this I will update the post, and I would appreciate it. EV trin spam healing shields+ Hildryn shield gating eidolon groups sound nice to me. After testing she can take care of the lures nicely. Cant regen shields with your 2 so that sucks.

Aegis Storm

• Hildryn activates her jet thrusters as she lifts off from the ground. She drains shields continuously as she creates an energy field around her. Enemies inside the energy field have fiery pillars of energy erupt from beneath them, forcing the targets to be suspended in midair, receive damage per second, and occasionally drop energy orbs. When she cancels the effect it slams enemies within the field for damage based on STR. Hildryn cannot use her weapons while flying, only her [1].
• While this ability is Hildryns flashiest, and can be very useful, it’s situational. It costs a decent bit of shields to start, and then drains alot of shields per second to channel. Comboing with your [1] will rip through your shields quick. I don’t recommend doing that. The best parts of this ability, and the reason you should be using it IMO, are for the energy orbs for allies, and the CC.
• Using your [2] around this ability is very important. Canceling your [4] with enough time to get a [2] off would let you use this ability alot more often and more effectively. Use your [2] before you go into this form so you can stay longer, and enemies take more damage while you are flying.

• • Honestly its a vauban [4] without a cap on how many people it can CC. And you can move around with the net. If an ally goes down, or you are being overun, or you just want to lockdown an objective temporarily, hit your [4]. If you are overcapping shields and have alot of extra energy to spend, use this more. Then you also drop some extra energy for your teamates, while also giving them breathing room from enemies. Don’t fly all the time, don’t lose track of your passive, and don’t waste passive procs by over staying in your 4.

• I think misusing Hilryns 4, or over using it, or trying to build around it, is a common mistake. You will end up wasting passive procs, coming out of the animation quite slowly, and you won’t have time to reset your passive. Or not having the mods to quickly reset your passive with your 2, and ending up without a passive proc and out of luck. This ability is an Oh shit button that requires you to hit your [2] first. It is not Titania’s razorwing.
• If you build for strength, Use your [2] to strip armor, turn on your [3], then use your [4]. The DPS of both your [3] and [4] melts groups. Canceling the Effect slams enemies and CCs them briefly, allowing you to cast [2] again to restart the process. You can perma CCs enemies until their deaths without using guns or your [1]. Add Perrin syndicate procs for maximum fun.
• While you cannot use your weapons During your [4] you can benefit from syndicate procs. If you do not have your [1] equipped, but instead have a Syndicate weapon in your hand when you start your [4]. The syndicate weapon will continue to proc its effect while you are flying. Giving you its AOE damage and healing your shields, allowing you to stay longer. I really hope DE doesn’t change this or I would 100% not use my ult to maximize my syndicate procs.

Gear and Builds

• Range increases the explosion range on your [1]. It increases the link range on your [3], that has potential. It increases the energy field range on your [4] potentially letting you CC more targets.
• Efficiency Reduces the cost of her [2]. Reduces the initial cost of 3, but only part of the channel cost. Does not effect your [4]?
• Duration Increases pulse duration on [2]. It increases the recharge rate buff on your [3] and reduces its channeled cost.
• Strength Increases the damage of your [1]. It increases the damage and stripping % of your [2] It increases the shield capacity of your [3] and the damage it does to enemies. It also increases the DPS of your [4] and the slam damage.
• There is a possibility for a good range build maxing allies shield gating with your [3].
• There’s Also a very interesting Steins; Gate^tm build as shown here. This build reduces your shield pool with Decaying Dragon Key+shield recharge speed. to quickly reset your passive, letting you reset it while you are still in the immune phase. Very cool and unique interaction.
• I think and hope that any augment mods that come out for Hildryn will shake up the builds. For example, a mod like pilfering swarm. If it make it so enemies who Die In the CC field of your [4] dropped extra loot, [4] would become a much more meaningful part of your kit.

Best Builds

I think it is best to build for STR. The benefits it has on your [2] are very important. It also lets your [3] be much more effective.

• This Is my current build. The only thing I would add are 2 arcane barriers, maybe power drift when I can afford it. You could run without Umbral mods. That would give you more room for other stats.
• Hilryn’s base armor is very good. In this build I am at 720 armor and 720 health. So slash/toxin procs don’t matter at all.
• You don’t have/want to run Zenurik. Vazerin is really nice. Not only can you constantly heal others through your kit, you can use vazerin to do even more and heal objectives/ add further immunities. You can get max shields, have [3] on, lock down a node with your [4], then Jump into OP mode and start healing the objective/rezzing people.
• I cannot recommend syndicate weapons Enough. Perrin Gives you shields when it procs. It is very useful, especially since you cannot otherwise regen shields While using your [4]. Prisma grinlock is one of them!!! Niceee timing DE.
• @ishamep mentioned, Rakta Dark Dagger have a special effect where they restore shields based on damage you do with them.
• There is a dog that can restore a bit of shields. If you arent running a cat for charm, Use your MOA or sentinel. MOAs can be very tanky with Hildryn. Sentinels Will always use Guardian right away as they are within your range.
• This is Taxon’s Time to shine. Build his weapon for firerate/fired up/punch through. Let him give you some extra shields. He misses you tenno. ^{Taxon prime pls}
• Put shield charger before Guardian when modding your robots. Primed regen is ideal also.
• Adaptation is really good, as it works on shields, where armor doesn’t. Redirection is also very good. It not only increases your life force, its also flow in the same mod.
• Hildryn has 300 base armor. This is why toxin procs aren’t a problem, especially with your [2].
• As Marz2604 suggested; Hildryn is a very good point carrier in index. If you carry enough points to lower her shields down to less then 50 she can easily recharge to full before invincibility wears off. You can’t really use abilities but, it makes her an invincible gun platform. Very good point carrier.
• For Builds that use her [4] more, Try aviator exilus mod. its 40% damage reduction while she flies.

A Hildryn playstyle and Priority list

• Keep your passive in mind. Keep your passive reset, and in turn never die. If your passive has been used, your goal is to get max shields.
• Use your 2 to reset your passive and get full shields.
• Use your 2 to remove any slash/toxin procs or status effects.
• Use syndicate procs and play around [guardians] cooldown
• Save up plat for 2 R3 Arcane barriers Or Aegis.
• Keeping your [3] On anytime, except when it isn’t going to touch an ally or enemy.
• Using your [4] to lock down an area or give your allies energy.
• Use your [1] when you can afford it. Keep in mind if you use it during your [4] you can no longer proc syndicate effects.

I hope that we see more staple squad combinations working with her synergies in the meta. It is well worth it. I appreciate all the tenno who take the time to read this guide. I hope you might enjoy her as much as I have!

Original Link – Continuation of discussion