The Stalker is an ominous, vengeful figure that infrequently appears during missions, armed with powerful weapons and abilities to hunt down Tenno that have been marked for assassination.
In order to attract the Stalker, a Tenno must have a "Death Mark" upon them. Death Marks are obtained by killing Bosses. Upon receiving a Death Mark, the Tenno will receive an in-game message from the Stalker. After receiving this message, there is a 1.5% + (0.5%*player count) chance that the Stalker will appear in any mission the Tenno embarks on (including Void missions).
When the Stalker appears, he will taunt the targeted Tenno with threatening messages. For the duration of these taunts, the targeted Tenno and their team will experience flickering darkness around the edges of their screens and an unstable HUD. After three taunts, the tileset will go into a lockout, the Stalker will appear in a puff of black smoke, and proceed to attack the targeted player.
The Stalker's arsenal, just like the Tenno, includes a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and a melee weapon. The Stalker's weapons are a bow known as the Dread, a scythe called Hate, and throwing knives known as Despair. The Stalker's Warframe armor allows him to use abilities from various Warframes; save for his Dispel, which is his signature ability.
If the targeted Tenno is successfully killed, the Stalker will disappear, vanishing into a cloud of black smoke. However, if the Stalker is forced to flee, he will drop a Mod, resource, and/or sometimes a blueprint of one his unique weapons. The Stalker will only flee if his health drops below 10%. However, if you can deal enough damage, you can kill him instead of having him flee. Whichever exit occurs does not affect the drop table.
Quotes
The Stalker's voice used when taunting players.
The Stalker's Theme when being encountered.
Stalker's list of taunts (one randomly chosen 3 times in the following order):
Stalker
Taunt 1
- (Player's name), you can't run from your past.
- (Player's name) there is no place to hide.
- I know your every move (player's name).
Taunt 2
- The blood of (boss' name) is on your hands. Did you really think there would be no repercussions?
- The murder of (boss' name) will not go unpunished.
- There is no salvation for your crime against (boss' name).
Taunt 3
- You shall not leave this place!
- I am your reckoning!
- Your sentence is death!
Player Defeated
- (Player's name) shall not trouble us again.
- It is done. (Player's name) is no more.
- Justice is served. (Player's name) has been executed.
Stalker Defeated
- What have you...done?
- No?! This is not... possible.
- I have failed. (Player's name) lives.
- I... have failed... this one will remain... unpunished...
Misc
- Your TENNO powers are useless!
Abilities
It is currently not known how many abilities the Stalker can utilize against the Tenno. Among his abilities, his most commonly used one are Slash Dash, Pull, Absorb, Shuriken and Teleport. Despite these however, the Stalker has a unique skill of his own, which is Dispel, an ability that will cancel all warframe skills.
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DispelPurges all kinds of support, rendering all special abilities useless. | Strength:100 (Damage) |
| Duration:N/A | |||
| Range:N/A | |||
| Users:Zanuka Hunter Manic |
- Casts a purging energy which disables all buffs and support, regardless of range. Staggers nearby enemies and deals 100 damage.
- Will be cast shortly after buffs are applied, usually cast in conjunction with
Teleport.
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- The ability itself requires the caster to perform an animation in order for the Dispel effect to work on its victims. Despite the short casting time, teammates of the victim unaffected by the ability can use this opportunity to dispatch said enemy quickly.
- Not all abilities are powerless against Dispel; Trinity's Blessing and Mag's Shield Polarize can be used to restore health and/or shields.
- The stagger effect is applied before removing any buffs; as such, buffs that grant immunity to stagger, such as Rhino's Iron Skin, will at least protect the player from the stagger effect.
- Interestingly, when players are hidden from the Stalker's line of sight when Dispel is cast, players will not be affected by the ability. (Further testing required.)
- Dispel has a casting animation identical to that of Nova's Null Star. The effect animation is identical to Loki's Radial Disarm. Targeted players will have Ash's Smoke Screen effect on them.
Strategy
The Stalker is capable of dealing damage at a rate comparable to a well-equipped Tenno; he can destroy an entire squad if they are caught unprepared. It is especially important to warn your squad-mates when the Stalker begins to taunt you, so they may prepare for the upcoming fight. When the Stalker does appear, you must make sure to keep moving in order to dodge his arrows and abilities; it is not known exactly what kinds of abilities he can use besides his mostly-used abilities, so be ready for all kinds of skills. It should be noted that if the target is the Host of the game, the host will find it much harder if not impossible to dodge attacks from the stalker, as he mainly tracks Tenno through latency, much like other enemies.
As the Stalker targets only one Tenno at a time, it is advised to hide and let your squad assault him. A good starting strategy is to switch to melee and hold block; when the Stalker appears, you can quickly turn to face him and parry his first few ranged or melee attacks, giving the rest of your team time to locate and engage him. If the targeted Tenno chooses to run away, the Stalker will occasionally teleport behind them and engage them in melee, much like a Grineer Flameblade. The Stalker also utilizes several other combat techniques, many of which are similar to to the abilities of other Warframes. When at a moderately long range, the Stalker will occasionally Slash Dash towards his target. Avoid this attack at all costs as it bears potentially lethal damage. The Stalker will also use Pull on a faraway target, pulling its victim back to him. This attack penetrates closed doors, as well as cover, floors, and walls.
Several weapons are especially well-adapted to fighting the Stalker. When combating him, shotguns are an effective weapon. Melee combat is also effective, as Stalker's Hate is less powerful compared to his ranged Dread and Despair attacks, and the latter two can be blocked via Parrying. The Stalker will sometimes attempt to get away from melee range by back-flipping or using Slash Dash, and his Hate can stagger you if he strikes at the right moment.
When low on health, the Stalker will sometimes cast an ability which resembles Nyx's Absorb barring its visual effects. Attackers within the blast range will receive 100% of the damage it absorbed. Keep in mind the damage dealt is Magnetic damage, and will drain your energy.
Utilizing Warframe Abilities
True to his taunt, The Stalker is absolutely immune to all abilities, ranging from support abilities such as Chaos and Ghost or damage abilities such as Miasma, Avalanche or Crush. He is also able to purge buffs such as Iron Skin and Blessing with his Dispel ability.
Mag's Shield Polarize and Trinity's Blessing will charge the squad's shields when in need (and health in Trinity's case). These are beneficial abilities as an unexpected move from the Stalker can be lethal.
Loki's Decoy can distract the Stalker and mask Loki's presence with Invisibility; this will provide a substantial amount of recovery before he casts Dispel.
Valkyr's Hysteria can be dispelled by Stalker, although you can take advantage of his AI by casting a second Hysteria immediately, observation shows that the Stalker will have a less chance to be dispel because of the duration between his spells.
As of U?? Frost's Snow Globe functions normally against the Stalker, slowing him down while he is inside, and blocking any projectiles from the outside.
Other Resolutions
If the victims wish to keep themselves from harm, they can avoid the Stalker when he spawns by maintaining a long distance about 50 meters or more apart between him, as the 50 meters is considered to be the ability limit for all Warframes; this includes the Stalker. However, due to the Stalker's fast frequency of teleporting, this may prove to be a difficult feat to achieve.
Due to the lockdown the Stalker initiated however, depending on the tileset you are on, you will have to use a Cipher to unlock the lockdown. Victims can escape the Stalker's attacks entirely by completing missions accordingly and quickly, in order to minimize the chance of an intrusion by the Stalker.
Notes
- There is a 1.5% + (0.5%*player count) chance that the Stalker will appear in any mission the Tenno embarks on (including Void missions), however the Stalker will only target players with a Warframe rank of at least 5 with an active Death Mark (given after killing any boss, no matter if the mission fails). If there are no valid targets, the Stalker will not spawn.
- There is a delay of 30 to 280 seconds (~4 minutes) before the Stalker will spawn in a given mission.
- He has a base spawn level of 30.
- In a team, he will contact only one player, but all players will see the lights flickering before his appearance. They will flicker again when he leaves.
- Normally, upon reaching 10% health, the Stalker will announce his failure to defeat the targeted player, kneel, and disappear in a puff of smoke. An excessive amount of damage that fully depletes his health before he can do this will cause him to fall over similar to a downed player, but will disappear in smoke either way. He may sometimes glitch in this case; not disappearing, becoming invulnerable and frozen.
- If the Stalker is killed while he is kneeling down, he still has a chance of dropping a blueprint.
- The Stalker can drop mods and rare resources (save for Orokin Cell) of the current planet when defeated, and often drops Heavy Impact.
- Death marks given upon killing a boss can stack.
- Prior to Update 11.0.5 (estimate), the Stalker had a 5% spawn chance. It has since been reduced.
- It is possible to get two stalker encounters in a single mission. This is done by the host being attacked, then the host leaving, forcing a migration, and another cell member being targeted. This is an extremely rare occurrence, with only a 0.000625 probability.
- As of Update 11.6.0, the Stalker's (and incidentally Zanuka Hunter's) spawn chance was modified from 2.5% flat spawn chance to 1.5% + 0.5% per player. This update also introduced death marks for all existing Assassins.
- If more than one player has a death mark from the Stalker, he might target other marked players and kill them if they engage him, however upon downing his original target he will immediatly leave and his attention will revert back to his original target if it is within line of sight.
- Dispel does not affect the cloaking given by Huras Kubrow's Stalk ability. As Dispel removes the cloak given by Shade's Ghost ability, it is unknown if this is a bug.
Trivia
- The Stalker's taunt is actually played in reverse. The actual message heard is a long, drawn out message that simply and repeatedly says "Death" at varying speeds.
- As of Update 7.11, the Stalker's loadout was altered to the weapons above. Before this update, his arsenal was comprised of a Cronus or a Scindo, and a Braton Vandal.
- Prior to Update 9.6, the Stalker would not appear when the targeted player was standing on a crate. This has since been changed.
- The Stalker appears to be wearing a dark-colored Excalibur suit, with a modified helmet.
- It has been noted that the Stalker does, though rarely, exhibit much higher intelligence, performing wall runs, dive rolls, tracking cloaked players, and even actively avoiding enemies and other Tenno. It is unknown if this is due to certain rooms being designed for his AI, or reasons unknown.
- As of Update 10.5.0, the Stalker has a new ability called Dispel .
- The Stalker will toss his Despair in the air when in an unalerted status (usually caused by a bug).
- If ever the Stalker appears and disappears in one of the victim's missions, his Combat Music will replace the conventional Combat Music for the rest of the mission.
- The Stalker seems to spawn from inside of the cryopod in defense missions if the character he is targeting is somewhat near it or on top of the pod.
- Some people think the Stalker is Tenno. This might be due to his use of the Excalibur Warframe and abilities.
- You will not be marked for assassinating Captain Vor on Mercury, you can get a death mark on Phobos.
- You will not gain a death mark for assassinating Corrupted Vor, who is found in T4 missions.
Bugs
- On rare occasions, the Stalker will glitch when he uses his cloaking ability, becoming permanently invincible to damage dealt by your team, being only damaged by enemies. This seems to be associated with the bug below as well.
- Rarely, the Stalker can spawn in a defense mission but replace the pod health bar with his own health. Even if the pod were to be destroyed as long as the Stalker remains alive, the mission continues. The Stalker then proceeds to attack enemies by itself. Once the Stalker gets downed, he can be revived normally just like a downed teammate.
- When the Stalker is killed during a mission, the mission complete music is replaced with the Stalker theme. Same thing happens to the defense music, you will continuously hear the Stalker music during a wave. After finishing the planet, it will return to the normal music.
- There is a rare bug where the Stalker will be named after the respective boss of the area in his health meter. (i.e. Tyl Regor on Titania, Uranus, or Kela De Thaym on Merrow, Sedna). (Needs Confirmation)
- There have been occasional encounters with level 1 Stalkers, perhaps due to host/client lag or glitches.
- If the targeted Tenno is downed already before the Stalker spawned, the Stalker will freeze and become invincible.
- The Stalker can appear in the Tutorial (if played again by more veteran players).
- The Stalker can appear in the Mastery Rank tests.
- Stalker may become permanently invulnerable after using his Absorb ability.
- The Stalker can kill you while you are at the continue screen of defense and interception missions.
- Sometimes, the Stalker may say that the player has killed a boss other than the most recent one killed (ex.The Stalker may state that the player has killed Lech Kril, despite the player not even having Kril's system unlocked).
- The Stalker will sometimes taunt and attack players below Warframe rank 5 though this occurrence is extremely rare unless the player is in a lobby with another player who has the deathmark.
- If the Stalker taunts you in a Rescue mission, his portrait may be replaced by the portrait of the hostage.
- Sometimes, the Stalker's portrait will have a black bar covering his face.
