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Help Baro Ki'Teer raid an ancient Martian tomb for a mysterious treasure.
—Quest Description

Sands of Inaros is an optional Quest introduced in Update 18.5 (2016-03-04), involving Baro Ki'Teer's interest in the hidden treasures underneath Mars. Completing this quest will reward the blueprint and parts to craft the InarosIcon272 Inaros Warframe.

Walkthrough[]

AladVPortrait d
“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”
The following article/section contains spoilers. Please finish the quest before proceeding.

To unlock the quest, players must first reach Mastery Rank 5, then acquire the quest blueprint. They can do so by either trading it from another player, or from Baro Ki'Teer when he visits once every 2 weeks for OrokinDucats 100 and Credits64 25,000. This is an "evergreen" offering meaning Baro always offers it each visit, and if desired can even be purchased in multiple copies (e.g. for subsequent Clan distribution or resale). Once acquired, the blueprint must be crafted in the Foundry under the KEYS tab (4th from the right, or search for sands in the top-left search box).

Manufacturing Requirements
Credits64
5,000
NanoSpores
5,000
Oxium
400
NitainExtract
1
Time: 6 hrs
Rush: Platinum64 15
MarketIcon Market Price: N/A Blueprint2 Blueprints Price: OrokinDucats 100 + Credits64 25,000

Upon claiming the item, the Quest will appear in both the Codex and in the World State Window under the Quest tab, where it will then prompt players to read the new inbox message from Baro Ki'Teer, which will then start the quest.

Explore the tomb on Desert Tomb, Mars[]

Baro explains that Mars was a desolate backwater colony, which used to be the home of the 'sky worshipers', a group of colonists that the Grineer exterminated in the past. Despite this, the relics left behind became valuable antiques, and thus the object of interest for Baro. Players must fight through a small contingent of Infested as they proceed.

The Tenno soon reach a temple carved on the side of a mountain, where Baro scoffs his disbelief at the stories of the 'God King' called "Inaros". As the Tenno explore deeper inside, a disembodied female voice begins to narrate a story to her child about the 'Golden Skymen' — presumed to be the Orokin — who would abduct people from them, until the arrival of Inaros. The voice unnerves Baro, who can apparently also hear it speaking, asking the Tenno to stop it.

At the end of the temple path lies a large chamber with a shrine of the God King, where a large jar — the Sacred Vessel — lies at its feet, which players must take. Baro preemptively placates the Tenno by justifying the taking of a burial vessel as creating riches instead of defiling a tomb, and orders them to extract.

The blueprint for InarosIcon272 Inaros is rewarded at the end of the mission.

Fulfill the vessel's inscription[]

On returning to the ship, Baro exclaims his surprise at the inscriptions on the vessel being a blueprint of sorts, and wonders if a Warframe was entombed there. He then reads an inscription on the vessel, which suggests that they may need to defeat an enemy in order to fulfill its condition, and suggests carrying the vessel into battle. Players can re-examine the vessel by interacting with it in the Orbiter, next to the Codex.

For this part of the quest, players must kill a number of the specified enemy that is represented by the glyph on the vessel, while the vessel is equipped in the player's Gear inventory. (Teammates' kills within Tenno Affinity range also count.) Upon killing an example of the correct enemy, the screen will momentarily flash with the Warframe's energy color, accompanied by a distinct guttural sound (similar to a thrown stone hitting against a rock). As these enemies are killed, the image on the vessel begins to fill, serving as a status bar indicating how many are left to kill.

The progress of the vessel can be seen beside the codex table in the orbiter. It may not be clear which part of the glyph will light up to signify progress; here is an example half-full:

Seeker half

Seeker Half-full

There are three types of enemies that can be designated by the glyph — a Corpus, a Grineer, and an Infested type — which will be different between individual players. The enemies associated with a particular glyph, as well as the required number of kills, are shown below:

60 kills
VesselDetronCrewman
Detron Crewman
VesselSeeker
Seeker
VesselVolatileRunner
Volatile Runner

Once the required number of kills of the specified enemy has been made, Baro's transmission will immediately appear in the mission and instruct the player to return to the Orbiter to further examine the vessel, where they will find the vessel's glyph now glowing in cyan.

Players must then go to the temple in Ara, Mars to return the vessel. From the main shrine chamber, players must proceed to a designated door where they must lay down the Sacred Vessel, which will cause the door to open, and reveal another Sacred Vessel at the center of the room inside. Upon players taking the Sacred Vessel in the room, the female narrator from the previous visit continues the story, revealing that Inaros was once a warrior of the 'Golden Skymen' until he could no longer withstand the abductions taking place, with the latest one being that of a child. This culminated in Inaros killing the child's abductors and returning him to the colony, after which Inaros 'ascended' to watch over the colony as their King. Unusually, Baro becomes unnerved the more he hears of the story, asking whether the story might be true. At this point, a large number of Feral Kavats (around 50 or so) will attack, which players must eliminate before they can proceed. All the Kavats can be scanned - including the possibility of being rewarded with Kavat Genetic Codes (feel free to read Gathering Tips and Notes). After the last Kavat is killed, Baro nervously asks the player to return to their ship.

Completing this portion of the quest rewards the blueprint for Inaros Neuroptics.

Fulfill the second vessel's challenge[]

Baro now believes that the story of Inaros was drawn from an actual Warframe, and once more tasks the player with completing the challenge of the second vessel. Identical to the previous challenge, players must carry the Sacred Vessel in their inventory and kill the required number of a specified enemy. This enemy can be one of the following types:

20 kills
VesselRailgunMOA
Railgun MOA
VesselHyekkaMaster
Hyekka Master
VesselBroodMother
Brood Mother

When the challenge is again completed, Baro will once more tell the player to go back to Ara to return the second vessel. This time, however, the Grineer will be present in place of the Infested, whereupon Baro panics at their presence, seemingly scared for both himself and the safety of Inaros, and now wants to hear the rest of the narrator's story.

As before, players must find the designated door and deposit the second vessel in order to collect the third one. The narrator continues her story, where after years of peace, the colony was set upon by the Infested, which nearly wiped out the colonists in spite of their prayers to Inaros. With the end seemingly in sight, the surviving colonists were once again saved by Inaros via a sandstorm that eradicated the Infested, but at great cost to himself. The colonists took Inaros' battered body and hid its parts among the four Sacred Vessels to hide it from thieves and raiders.

The central shrine will now be occupied by a single hostile Tomb Guardian, essentially a gigantic stone Rumbler, which players must defeat. Destroying the Tomb Guardian will make it spawn into numerous smaller versions of itself, and each of these, in turn, will spawn more, smaller copies of themselves upon being destroyed. This process will repeat at least 2 more times before the Tomb Guardians are finally destroyed.

Baro seems distressed and emotional at this point and is eager to find out more about Inaros as he asks players to return.

Inaros Chassis Blueprint is rewarded upon completing the mission.

Fulfill the third vessel's challenge[]

With Baro now believing that the story might be true, he once more asks players to prove themselves as Tenno by completing the third vessel's challenge.

With conditions identical to the previous two challenges, players must kill their third enemy type. As shown on the vessel, the glyphs and their corresponding enemy are as follows:

5 kills
VesselDenialBursa
Denial Bursa
VesselManic
Manic
VesselJuggernaut
Juggernaut

A distressed Baro now pleads to the Tenno to save Inaros as the Grineer have caught wind of the Tenno being in the area, and he claims that he isn't in it for the money anymore. Like before, placing the vessel by the door will open it and a final vessel will appear in the center. Taking it will cause a Tomb Protector to appear, which is essentially a copy of InarosIcon272 Inaros armed with a MutalistCernos Mutalist Cernos and a Lesion Lesion along with its normal abilities. At certain points in the Tomb Protector's health bar it will retreat to its sarcophagus where it cannot be harmed, and this will cause one of the giant statues in the main room to come to life in the form of a Tomb Protector Effigy which takes the form of Inaros wielding the Lesion Lesion. Defeating the Effigy will make the Tomb Protector rise again and summon a Sand Shadow resembling the player while doing so, and this process is repeated until all of the Effigy giants are defeated, and the Tomb Protector is finally able to be destroyed.

In the conversations leading up to and after the battle with the Tomb Protector, it is revealed that the child being spoken to by the disembodied voice is none other than Baro himself, and the voice was his mother's. The final narration sees the mother hide Baro away, telling him to pray to Inaros as the Grineer ultimately kill her, and the rest of the colonists. Baro explains that he had long tried to forget those events and that the Tenno have made him remember his true reason for seeking out the treasure. With the components in hand, Baro tells the Tenno that Inaros will rise again.

Completing the quest will reward the final component for Inaros, the Systems blueprint. Players will also receive the Sacred Vessel as an Orbiter decoration.

Notes[]

  • This quest cannot be repeated by getting another Sands of Inaros key from Baro Ki'Teer. Thus, if you sell your Inaros after completing this quest, the only way to reacquire him is either by purchasing him through the Market or purchasing his components from Cephalon Simaris.
  • This quest must be set as your active quest for the enemy kills to count. Simply having the vessel in your gear wheel is not sufficient.
  • This may be the only chance to get Tomb Guardian, Tomb Protector, and Tomb Protector Effigy codex scans.
  • The flames burning in jars throughout the temple will apply a DmgFireSmall64 Heat status on contact, even through the Rift Plane.
  • Kills obtained within the Simulacrum do not count towards the Vessel's goal. Kills in Sanctuary Onslaught however, will.
  • Although the Tomb Protector's abilities are largely identical to Inaros' abilities; there are some slight differences.
    • Desiccation130xWhite Desiccation merely inflicts the damage over time and does not immobilize nor blind any player caught in its wake.
    • Devour130xWhite Devour does not immobilize the player it targets nor does it pull the player towards Inaros. The Sand Shadow is generated even if the player survives Devour, and has access to the Warframe's full set of abilities.
  • Note that hacking Denial Bursas by itself will not count towards the Vessel's goal; they must actually die in order to fulfill the challenge.
  • Buying the "Sands of Inaros Bundle" from the market can start this quest rather than having to purchase it from Baro Ki'Teer.
  • The final fight with the Tomb Protector is timed; the player is given about fifteen minutes to complete the fight before extracting. Failure to do so will result in an overall mission failure.
  • During the second portion of the Sands of Inaros quest up to 50 Feral Kavats will spawn, yielding around 5-10 Genetic Codes.

Tips[]

  • When collecting kills for a given urn, the following tips can help streamline the process;
    • Kills still count if you abort the mission. Kills caused by environmental effects, however, will not.
    • For the first urn, Arid, Drekar, Frontier, and Tusk Seekers will count toward Seeker kills.
    • For the third urn, Juggernaut Behemoths, Demolisher Juggernauts, Deimos Juggernauts and Drekar Manics count toward Juggernaut and Manic kills respectively.
      • While a normal Juggernaut will only have one opportunity to spawn in an Infested mission, Magnacidium on Deimos is a good option where a Juggernaut can spawn at the start (75-90% chance) you can then abandon the mission after kill, Demolisher Juggernauts in Disruption and Deimos Juggernauts in Cambion Drift can appear multiple times.
      • If it requires Manics, the Tyl Regor boss fight on Titania, Uranus spawns Drekar Manics at certain points during the fight, up to four Manics if done solo. As the number of Manics spawned scales with player count, it is recommended to do the fight with a group to complete the objective in a single mission.
    • If the target enemy for the first urn is the Volatile Runner, consider sparing any spawn pods generated by Boilers as they have a chance to spawn Volatile Runners.
    • If the target enemy is the Denial Bursas, it is recommended to go into a Corpus Disruption mission (Laomedeia, Neptune), and deliberately fail a conduit with the 'Robotic Onslaught' modifier, which forces Robotic spawns (barring key carriers) for the rest of the round. Bursas will regularly spawn in pairs allowing for fast farming.
    • If the target enemy is a Grineer unit, Kuva variants will count towards kills. Nightwatch variants, however, will not.
  • Due to the Tomb Guardian's ability to split itself into several smaller Guardians, it is recommended to use explosive area-of-effect weapons (e.g., Penta Penta, Tonkor Tonkor, etc.) to damage or kill as many of them as possible upon being created.
  • Similar to Specters, the Sand Shadow in the last section of the quest will copy your Warframe and loadout, but will only make use of your primary weapon. Equipping a weak or unmodded primary weapon will essentially make the Sand Shadow harmless, allowing you to ignore it and focus on the Tomb Protector.
    • Alternatively, avoid a direct line of sight with the Tomb Protector to prevent it from producing Sand Shadows to begin with.
    • Be careful that the Sand Shadow will also use your abilities as well. For example, Link130xWhite Link can reflect your damage with potentially lethal results.
    • If you're in Operator Mode when the Sand Shadow is created, it will use your Amp instead of your Warframe's Primary Weapon, and it can kill you with it quite easily. The Sand Shadow, however, will still mimic your Warframe's appearance.
  • At all points where the player needs to kill the guardians of the collected urns, the player can simply stand in a place which can only be reached with Maneuvers or certain abilities and pick them off with any gun equipped, as most of the guardians are melee-oriented, with the exceptions of the Tomb Guardians, the Tomb Protector, and the Tomb Protector Effigies.
  • A useful tactic would be to lead the Tomb Protector into one of the side rooms where you obtained the urns, then bait him into the side parts with the shallow water. He cannot jump out of these sections and will be entirely stuck down there, mostly running into one of the corners. He can still shoot you, however.

Trivia[]

  • Apart from the blueprint itself, all of Inaros' components are marked as Protector components rather than its name, making it the first Warframe to not have its own name in the components. This was temporarily removed in Hotfix 18.5.5 (2016-03-08), then returned in Update 18.6 (2016-03-16).
  • The missions that involve the tomb on Ara are unique in the fact that the level is identical each time it is run, instead of some parts becoming randomly generated with different tiles.
  • The fact that Inaros' components are stored in 4 urns — along with his allusions to Egyptian Mythology — call into mind Canopic jars, which were used by ancient Egyptians to store internal organs (specifically the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines) during the process of mummification.

Bugs[]

  • Killing the specified enemy might not count towards the vessel's challenge.
  • Host transfer might suppress both sound notifications when killing the specified enemy, and Baro's transmission when 60 enemies have been killed, however killed enemies still count towards the quest's progress.
  • During the final boss, it is possible for the Effigy's laser beam to become stuck on players for the remainder of the fight. The only way to remove this proc is to die.
  • The Kavats that appear during the second visit to the temple may spawn in the closed-off sections, making it impossible to attack them without AoE damage.
  • The Sand Shadows generated by the Tomb Protector use the Stalker's helmet, clipping through whatever helmet the copied Warframe is using.
  • Having the queue set to solo can cause the dialog to not appear and make it impossible for missions to be successfully completed.
  • Dialogue looping error occurring in the temple prevents further events to happen.
  • Timing a transference back into the player's Warframe correctly will cause the Tomb Protector to attack at nothing for a period of time before the game corrects itself.
  • Sometimes the Sacred Vessel's Glyph will not appear in the Orbiter; turning up Effects Intensity in Display settings in-game should resolve this.

Media[]

Patch History[]

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

  • Fixed ability to freely move the camera through the locked doors of the Sands of Inaros Quest.

Hotfix 34.0.5 (2023-10-26)

  • Fixed being unable to see the glyph on Sands of Inaros vessel if your Visual Effects Intensity was set too low.

Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)

  • Fixed Glyph on Sacred Vessel from the Sands of Inaros Quest appearing transparent.

Hotfix 33.5.2 (2023-06-21)

  • Fixed a script error in the Sands of Inaros Quest.

Update 33.5 (2023-06-21)

  • Fixed being unable to complete the final fight in the Sand of Inaros Quest after killing a Tomb Protector as it is attempting to revive out of its Sarcophagus.

Hotfix 32.2.10 (2023-01-18)

  • Reduced the amount of damage the Tomb Protector Effigy does in the Sands of Inaros Quest’s final boss fight.
    • The Specters Mutalist Cernos was causing very strong Toxin Status Effects that made it near impossible to survive against and complete the Quest.
  • Fixed the enemy icon on the Vessel in the Sands of Inaros Quest not being visible if the “Visual Effects Intensity” slider in the Accessibilities options is turned all the way down.

Hotfix 31.6.2 (2022-06-15)

  • Fixed the Sands of Inaros quest completion inbox message having incorrect formatting and content in it.

Update 31.1 (2022-02-09)

  • Fixed missing door frame on Sands of Inaros Quest.

Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)

  • Fixed issues with textures in the Sands of Inaros Quest.

Hotfix 27.3.9 (2020-04-07)

  • Fixed a script error when attempting the Sands of Inaros quest.

Hotfix 25.3.2 (2019-07-12)

  • Fixed inability to complete the Sands of Inaros quest due to Denial Bursas not spawning as reported here.

Hotfix 24.5.2 (2019-03-18)

  • Further fixes towards a progression stopper in the Sand of Inaros quest where the enemy Inaros would be invulnerable.

Hotfix 24.5.1 (2019-03-15)

  • Fixed a progression stopper in the Sands of Inaros quest from an inability to defeat the Tomb Guardians.

Hotfix 18.5.5 (2016-03-08)

  • You can now place the Sacred Vessel on your ship as a decoration if you've completed the Sands of Inaros quest!

Hotfix 18.5.1 (2016-03-04)

Sands of Inaros Changes and Fixes
  • Slightly adjusted Baro Ki’Teer’s audio VO during the Quest.
  • Lowered damage of the Rumbler rock throw.
  • Lowered damage of the Inaros Golem’s laser eyes.
  • Improved the targeting of the Inaros Golem.
  • Adjusted the volume of the Onyx Golem’s audio FX.
  • Improved the quality of Kavat spawning VO.
  • Slightly adjusted the quality of all VO within the Sands of Inaros Quest.
  • Slightly adjusted the final boss’s movement AI.
  • Made overall improvements to enemy attacks and AI.
  • Made various audio adjustments to the Sands of Inaros’ Quest levels.
  • Fixed an issue causing unique golem enemies in the Sands of Inaros Quest to get stuck.
  • Fixed an issue that would enable players to kill the final boss of the Quest when playing as Inaros in a pre-death state.

Update 18.5 (2016-03-04)

  • Introduced.
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