Phorid is an Script error: The function "Faction" does not exist. boss, found when an invasion takes over the Assassination mission of a planet. After defeating it and finishing the mission, you receive a Nyx Neuroptics, Chassis, or Systems blueprint. Upon death, Phorid has a chance of dropping rare resources of the planet he appears on.
Appearance and Abilities
Phorid is a larger, stronger version of the standard Charger, with bright blue nodes all over its body. Despite its massive size, it is as fast or even faster than the already agile Chargers, and a single melee swipe from it will deal a large amount of damage.
It also has two special abilities in its arsenal: Sonic Scream and Psychic Bolts, the latter known as "spine-strike" to the Lotus. Sonic Scream is an unavoidable attack that will stagger all players in the level while rapidly dealing massive damage – Phorid itself is immobile during this attack. Psychic Bolts launches a cluster of yellow homing bolts, similar to Nyx's, that can ignore shields and deal direct damage to health. While the bolts home in on their target and are virtually guaranteed to down a Tenno if they hit, they are destroyed on impact with terrain and objects.
Like all other Infested bosses, Phorid has no shields to protect itself. However, it has a very large health pool and can also slowly regenerate its health if not attacked, making it ill-advised to disengage from it for too long.
Phorid, like other bosses, has unique taunts. Here is a list of them:
- "(Revoke the frailties of flesh. Let us in.)"
- "(We are the vessel through which immortality is achieved. Assimilate, [player name].)
Strategy
Take equipment and mods that can deal Corrosive Damage, as both of Phorid's health classes take 75% more damage from Corrosive Damage.
As always, it is advised to kill off any other Infested around the boss arena before engaging Phorid. However, this is particularly important against Phorid as, while Phorid itself can't move during its Scream attack, other Infested can.
Phorid is immune to most status effects, however, it has been noted that Ivara's Sleep Arrow does work...
Phorid's claws can deal a massive amount of damage, making a melee standoff extremely dangerous in a solo or duo attempt. However, one should not stray too far from it, as Phorid only uses its Psychic Bolts if its target is not in close range. Since the Bolts are the most dangerous of its abilities, it's best to simply not get too far away or too close to Phorid.
The Scream attack is not particularly threatening as long as you have enough shields to resist it.
It is recommended to use a shotgun when doing a solo run against Phorid, as it is capable of doing massive damage in point-blank range while preventing it from using the Psychic Bolts. The shotgun should have high Puncture and/or Corrosive damage because these are the damage types that the Fossilized armor suffers the most.
Phorid is on the list of bosses that are fully vulnerable to the stasis component of some abilities, allowing him to be stunlocked to death provided the squad has enough firepower to bring him down.
The best way to go about fighting Phorid would be to bait it to a decently open area and lure it in circles with your shotgun. Be careful of its claws and make sure not to accidentally run into terrain and get cornered. If you have a Glaive or Kestrel, you can occasionally throw it to harass Phorid and keep its health from regenerating while you reload. Remember, if you are reloading with at least one bullet still in your clip, the Glaive will not restart the reload on return.
Should Phorid spawn early, before you have time to prepare, your first order of business is to close the distance before he decides to fire his Psychic Bolts. To maximize your chances against the lethal Bolts, you should check your surroundings and the location of crates, pillars or cover. If Phorid does launch the Psychic Bolts, immediately roll and slide behind cover. If possible you should wait for the Bolts to come closer rather than scramble to cover early. If the Bolts are coming from above, rolling can make them crash into the ground. In case you are not confident in your ability to dodge, utilize Warframe abilities such as Slash Dash or Snow Globe to survive the attack.
Another freezing tactic that works quite well is the use of Frost's Snow Globe and lure Phorid into it. Since it is almost constantly using melee, Snow Globe will slow it down considerably, enough to melee without worry, or circle around him while firing.
The Phorid does attack Octavia's Mallet, which since the Phorid does over 1000 damage per hit, can kill it within 5 seconds.
Pathing Exploit: Phorid is perhaps agile, but it is not immune to getting stuck in tight places like other NPCs; players using the Shade sentinel can be used to block off the Phorid by cloaking in front of a small corridor, stopping the Phorid from reaching other players. However, eventually it can squeeze past the cloaked player.
Melee Tactics: If you use Valkyr's Hysteria ability, you can easily rush and beat down Phorid within the duration of the skill at maximum rank, especially if your melee weapon is modded accordingly. Alternatively, with the stealth damage multiplier from Loki's Invisibility or Ash's Smoke Screen, you can make quick work of Phorid with melee weapons like the Dual Ichor. Excalibur's Exalted Blade and then trigger Channeling, as it will take Phorid down fast, and is not very energy demanding.
Banshee Tactic: Silence will both stun Phorid and, while kept in range, protect both the Banshee and other players from its scream attack.
Nyx Tactic: You can use Nyx's Chaos to distract Phorid with the surrounding Infested (if any are available) to go a safe distance away to shoot Phorid at. You can also use Nyx's Absorb to resist Phorid's psychic bolt attack. Although, the damage Phorid will receive from any absorbed damage seems to be minimal.
Trinity Tactic: Phorid's massive health pool and hit locations make him particularly vulnerable to an offensively-built Trinity. By making use of 
Fleeting Expertise and a minimum rank Well Of Life, a Trinity can briefly tag Phorid with a Well before applying Energy Vampire. With a fully ranked Energy Vampire and a significant amount of Ability Strength, while avoiding increases to Ability Duration, Trinity can kill Phorid in a few seconds.
Nova Tactic: Using Nova's Molecular Prime with high Ability Strength makes Phorid move quite slow, giving enough time to aim your shots and circle around him so that he never hits you. With sufficient firepower, this fight is fairly trivial.
Hydroid Tactic: With Hydroid, this fight becomes a simple matter of using Narrow Minded and Streamline in order to cast Tentacle Swarm under Phorid. The tentacles will continually deal Finishing Damage to Phorid so long as he stays near them, and if the player has Shade cloaking them, they can simply recast the ability when it ends, without interruption. Otherwise, they can lure Phorid in a circle while remaining near the tentacles.
Mesa Tactic: Mesa can use her Shatter Shield ability to lessen the blow from Sonic Scream, and use Peacemaker to deliver consistent and fast damage to Phorid.
Oberon Tactic: Oberon can start by using Reckoning to damage or kill all surrounding enemies before beginning to deal damage. He can also use his Renewal to heal allies to quickly recover from Sonic Scream. Alternatively, Oberon can also use Smite on Phorid and surrounding enemies to distract them, similar to Chaos, thanks to the Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Proc caused by the ability.
Nidus Tactic: Nidus can use his Ravenous near Phorid, and it will be completely occupied with the maggots that it spawns, allowing Nidus to attack at range. Virulence is also a good choice if enough stacks are earned, as it can kill Phorid with 3 or 4 casts.
Attack Pattern Exploit: Since Phorid can only melee while still, create a shockwave while still and use psychic bolt while you are fighting at long range, you can just kite while ADS while shooting it and you take virtually no damage. You just have to clear the area of infested while you find them, more specifically the Toxic Ancients as toxic damage is your worst enemy if Phorid attacks you. This strategy is best done solo.
Additional Steam Guide [1]
Bugs
- Killing Phorid as it is casting Sonic Scream will cause the screen distortions to stay even after its normal duration.
- Sometimes (due to an unknown cause) Phorid's walking/movement animation will not be played.
Notes
- According to Lotus a spy cell had gone missing while exploring Phorid's lair, hence the call for its assassination.
- At first Lotus claims she has no idea what attacked her recent scouts which is why you are being sent to kill whatever it is, but after hearing the Phorid's screams, she identifies the monster and describes in great detail how to survive against Phorid.
Trivia
- Phorid is one of four bosses (the others being the Jackal, Hyena Pack and Raptors) that can instantly kill most players with one of its abilities.
- Phorid's Psychic Bolts deal a fatal amount of Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. damage.
- Phorid was formerly the boss of Eris and was located in Naeglar. Update 11.0 (2013-11-20) ultimately changed the ruling faction of Eris to the Corpus and now is reverted to the Infested as of Update 14.0 (2014-07-18). Update 11 also changed much of the mechanics of Phorid's fight.
- Prior to Update 11, Phorid's melee swipes could knock the victim down, and its scream attack would constantly stagger all players for its duration. These qualities were removed to reduce player frustration.
- Update 11 also altered Phorid's arena by removing most, if not all, of the obstacles in the center of the field, likely to prevent pathfinding exploits.
- Phorid is the only boss with regenerating health.
- There is a bug with Vauban's Vortex ability that will permanently ragdoll Phorid, its waypoint will remain stationary and it will have no health.
- Phorid shares its name with a family of flies that have a pronounced hump on their thorax, much like Phorid itself.
- Very rarely, like General Sargas Ruk, Phorid will "double-drop" mods, although it is purely a visual glitch and the second mod is a resource.
- Although Phorid shares his model with the Charger, Phorid does not possess a head hitbox.
