Valkyr: A guide to the Screaming Warrior

Valkyr: The tormented, the experiment, the really ticked off woman. I’ve played a lot of the screaming berserker, I know a thing or two about her. This guide is intended to be useful for both newbies and veterans alike. This is also not meant as a ‘sit down and read in one sitting’ kind of guide, this is a ‘stop by and read what you want to know’ guide. Now, with that in mind, let’s get hysterical.

Where can I find Valkyr?

Valkyr is found on Jupiter-specifically, in the hands of Alad V. The player will need to gather the blueprints of the three components and build them in the foundry, then purchase the Valkyr blueprint from the market and build that using the components.

Valkyr's Stats

First off, let’s take a look at Valkyr’s base stats, and examine what she does well and what she doesn’t do so well.

The Good: Armor. Valkyr starts with a base of 600 Armor. What this means is that, according to the way Warframe handles armor, Valkyr reduces all damage to her HEALTH (not shields, just health) by 66%. Yes, she only takes one-third of the normal damage to health. We’ll talk mods later, but keep this in mind-the high armor is far and away Valkyr’s best stat.

Speed: Valkyr’s sprint modifier is 1.1, meaning she runs pretty dang fast.

The Average: Health: Valkyr has a base 100 health at level 0 and 300 at level 30. Not bad, but not the greatest either.

Polarities: Mod Polarity is important, and Valkyr comes packing 2 regular slots with “V” polarity and an aura slot with “V” polarity too. This sounds pretty cool, however, the reason it’s on ‘average’ is because as of this writing, there are a grand total of 6 Warframe mods that use V polarity. Five of those are rare, with some of them being in special 'dungeons' that you need to specifically seek out. The 6th is an Uncommon, just to make it even more infuriating to use what Valkyr starts with in any effective manner.

The Bad: Shields, oh god, shields. Valkyr has the absolute worst shields in all of Warframe, and that is not an exaggeration: She has 50 shields at level 0, topping out at 150 at level 30. Nova, Mesa, Limbo, Loki, and Vauban, all of whom are ‘squishy wizard’ archetypes, all have 75 shields at level 0.

Powers

With stats discussed, let’s talk powers. Valkyr is berserker themed, so her powers follow said theme. Here we go:

Power 1: Rip Line. Costs 25 Energy Power levels up at Level (0/7/14/18) Fancy name aside, it’s a grappling hook. It can be used on terrain to launch Valkyr towards the target, or on an enemy (or ALLY!) to pull them towards Valkyr. The Rip Line has a range of (25/40/60/75) meters, and deals (300/400/500/600) Slash Damage to an enemy.

Saying it right now, Rip-Line is way more useful as a navigation tool then a damage dealer. It does take a bit of getting used to, however: Rip Line starts by slowly pulling Valkyr towards her target, then launching her very quickly in an arc towards the target. Using it on terrain will not interrupt reloading or other ‘one handed’ actions, but using it on an enemy will interrupt those actions. Additionally, the Rip Line is silent and can kill without alerting enemies, though it is not considered a ‘stealth’ kill for the purposes of the “Stealth Kill Bonus XP” counter.

Augment: Swing Line: A mod offered by New Loka and The Perrin Sequence, Swing Line enhances Rip-Line’s utility as a movement tool. After using Rip Line, the next Rip Line cast while in the air is free.



Power 2: Warcry. Costs 75 Energy. Levels up at Level (3/12/22/27). Duration of (7/10/12/15) seconds. Range of (15/20/22/25) meters. Warcry increases her allies attack speed by (15/20/25/50)% and their armor by (25/35/45/50)%. This includes her own. Additionally, nearby enemies are slowed by (15/20/25/30)%.

Warcry carries a whole host of buffs with it, and is very useful. It works best when combined with Hysteria (Power 4), but in a tight, melee packed situation, Warcry can turn the tide of a fight. Its biggest drawback is how much Energy it costs, which can be a bit of a downer.

Some facts to keep in mind: Warcry also affects companions (such as Kubrows and Sentinels) as well as Hostages in Rescue missions and Defense objectives. Yes, this means Valkyr can enhance the defense of a cryopod by screaming at it. No I don’t get it either. Also, once the buff is cast, allies can go anywhere and still be affected by it.

Augment: Eternal War: The duration of Warcry is increased by 2 seconds for every melee kill. I do not know if this works on allies as well, and if it does, if only kills made by Valkyr extend the timer or if one player’s kills only extend their own timer. Regardless, since Warcry is meant to combo with Hysteria, which forces Valkyr to go all melee...you can already tell how useful this is, can’t you?




Power 3: Paralysis. Costs 5 Energy plus 33% of Valkyr’s current shields. Levels up at Level (5/16/24/28). Range of (5/7/8/10) meters. Enemies take 50% of Valkyr’s current shields times (200/250/300/350)% as Impact Damage and are affected by a knockback strength of (400/600/800/1000).

Basically, the higher Valkyr’s shields when she casts it, the better. The damage calculation works off how many shields she had when you push the 3 key, not how many shields she has after the 33% drain. However, it’s not the damage you come for with Paralysis, what you want is the stunning effect provided by the knockback strength. Stunned enemies can be hit by Finishers, aka a melee attack that deals a ton of damage. This actually makes Valkyr very good at dealing with ‘heavy’ enemies, as even they aren’t immune to this. This power works best at the tail end of Hysteria-you won’t be taking any damage while Hysteria is active, so why not use the last second of its duration to stun everyone and either cut your way out or run like hell (or, depending, cast Hysteria again)?

Augment: Prolonged Paralysis: Stunned enemies are pulled towards Valkyr and are stunned for longer.



Power 4: Hysteria: Drains 2.5 Energy per second. Levels up at Level (10/20/25/30). Valkyr equips a pair of energy claws, which becomes the only weapon she may use for the duration. Valkyr also gains (1/2/4/5)% lifesteal for the duration. If any enemy is within 5 meters of her when Hysteria ends, she takes 7.5% of the damage she would have taken had she not been invulnerable. Additionally, the player’s screen gains a red filter.

The fourth abilities tend to be the ‘ultimate’ abilities of each Warframe. Valkyr is no exception. Hysteria is insane. Optimizing the claws Hysteria grants Valkyr is a little tricky, I’ll get into it later, but a base damage of 300 PLUS your normal melee weapon’s damage is already hard to stop. Additionally, being immune to all damage means that Hysteria can be happily abused to help revive teammates or take objectives without any chance of being stopped.

Note: Hysteria has recently updated to the new version seen above. The biggest change is the new Energy drain, as Hysteria is now channeled instead of a set duration. Most of the info in this guide related to Hysteria is still applicable, however, I now recommend you build for Power Efficiency and maybe increase your Max Energy.

Mods

Now, let’s talk mods. Warframes are good on their own, but it’s the mods that make ‘good’ turn into ‘great’ (and ‘great’ into ‘awesome!’). What does Valkyr need, and what’s more of a player preference?

Below, I suggest several mods and combinations. I encourage all players to look into potential mods and find their own solutions, after all, isn't that what gaming is all about?

Steel Fiber: The obvious choice. The higher Valkyr’s armor, the less damage she takes to health. With a maxed out Steel Fiber (which is definitely a hard thing to do, but possible), she goes from taking 33% of damage to only 20% damage.

Rush: Rush increases sprint speed, and is good. It’s very useful to have when you need to run around in Hysteria mode and kill things, or just keep up with everyone.

Armored Agility: This is a nightmare mod and is thus out of the hands of a lot of new players. Getting this mod means playing the very difficult nightmare missions or hoping you get an alert that features it. If you get it, however, it enhances both Armor and Sprint Speed-that’s right, Valkyr’s two best things both increased. And yes, it stacks with Steel Fiber. It is very difficult to get a hold of, as nightmare missions reward a random nightmare mod, but if you get it, Valkyr is set. The two mods take a total of 22 Drain, however, so you may want to use some Formas to get some “D” polarity slots to reduce said Drain.

Vitality: Living longer is always nice. More health means living longer, living longer means completing the mission and using less Revives.

Redirection: I will mention this mod, but only briefly: Extra shields are a notion that should only be considered if you want to use Paralysis a lot. Otherwise, pretend Valkyr has no shields-at higher levels, she won’t.

Continuity: Remember how I said those “V” mods were really tough to get? This is one of them and may be the most useful. Continuity increases Power Duration, meaning a long Warcry and Hysteria. Getting it requires any of the following: Cracking Orokin Containers in the Void Towers, beating General Sargas Ruk (Saturn’s Boss) a lot, playing a lot of high level Corpus Defense missions, or doing a lot of Spy 2.0 missions and hoping one of them is the mod you want.

Note: The new Hysteria doesn't work as well with Continuity as it used too, meaning Power Duration is really only useful for Warcry.

Constitution: Another Power Duration increase mod, this, like Armored Agility, is a nightmare mod. It increases Power Duration and reduces the time you spend knocked down. The Knockdown recovery is more icing on the cake, it’s the Duration you need.

Sadly, this mod is now no longer useful with the changes to Hysteria. Stick with Continuity.

Narrow Minded: This is a Corrupted mod and it is the one Corrupted mod I will recommend for Valkyr. It is incredibly difficult to obtain, requiring you to hit up Orokin Derelicts and come packing a key that reduces your abilities-and then after grabbing the mod, getting the hell out while taking ANOTHER ability penalty. If you manage to get Narrow Minded and level it up all the way (good luck, it’s Rare, requiring tons of high level Power Cores and possibly millions of credits), you will get almost double the Duration while reducing the range of your powers by 66%. Using Narrow Minded will require you to rework how you use Rip Line, and will reduce how many allies are affected by Warcry, but damn if the doubled duration isn’t kind of worth it. Now you have a minute of invulnerability. Stack with Continuity/Constitution (or stack all three!) and giggle like a maniac. This is not a very feasible solution, I will say this again and again. If you want the definition of Awesome yet Impractical, here it is.

Streamline: This mod increases Power Efficiency-which reduces how much Energy is needed to activate powers. Maxed out, the power required to activate Hysteria and Warcry together goes from an impossible 175 to a more reasonable ~120-125. It is a Rare mod, but it much easier to find as many common Grineer enemies drop it. It can be combined with another nightmare mod, Fleeting Expertise, in order to hit the 75% efficiency cap, but Fleeting Expertise also reduces duration, which is the exact OPPOSITE of what Valkyr needs.

The mentioned Fleeting Expertise now has some use on Valkyr, the new Hysteria (which drains Energy per second) benefits from the 75% cap far more now.

Flow: Flow increases max Energy. This is what should be combined with Streamline. Again, also a rare mod, but it’s rewarded for Level 20+ Survival missions (excluding tower Survival), and also drops from the many varieties of Grineer Butchers. Which are EVERYWHERE in Grineer missions. The new Hysteria now makes Flow even better!

Hysteria!

Okay, Hysteria’s a little complicated. Some mods on your base weapon apply to Hysteria. A lot don’t. A short list of mods that DO affect Hysteria:

Melee Mods:
Pressure Point (Pure Damage Increase)
Spoiled Strike (Note: Again, a Nightmare mod, however, something to note is that Hysteria only takes the increase to attack damage and ignores the Attack Speed penalty)
True Steel (Increases Crit Chance)
Organ Shatter (Increases Crit Damage)
Smite Grineer/Corpus/Infested (Sort of. According to the wiki, it only increases damage done on slam attacks, so I wouldn’t worry about throwing these on)
Berserker (Another one of those ‘good luck finding it’ rare mods. Berserker increases Attack Speed on Critical Hits, but it will NOT proc while Hysteria is active. Stacks gained prior to activating Hysteria will increase Attack Speed until it wears off)
Any Melee Syndicate mods (these mods only work on specific weapons, and when used with Hysteria, Hysteria only gains the damage increases, it does not trigger Syndicate effects like Blight and Justice)

Warframe Mods that affect Hysteria:
Anything increasing Power Strength (Which includes Intensify and quite a few Corrupted mods)
Steel Charge (An Aura mod that increases everyone’s melee damage)

No other mods affect Hysteria. The wiki notes that Hysteria adds a second layer of damage to its slam attacks, which is where the various Smite mods add their own damage bonus. ‘Finishers’ (attacks performed on stunned or downed enemies) follow the base Finisher Damage formula, with an extra 25% Impact damage.

The damage of Hysteria Claws is evenly divided between the three primary types (Impact, Puncture, and Slash). This includes the amount added by your equipped Melee Weapon.

To maximize Hysteria, get a weapon with a high base damage (aka a weapon that starts with high damage, element does not matter), then slot in a maxed out Pressure Point, adding in True Steel and Organ Shatter if you feel like it. Thankfully, this is something of a breather, all three mentioned mods are Common Mods.

Hysteria can be channeled, though no Channeling mods will affect the claws. Channeling (holding down the weapon fire button) increases the Damage by 50% in exchange for 5 Energy per attack. Useful on really tough enemies.

Suggestion Box:

If you have any suggestions to improve this guide, leave a comment or send a message. I'd be happy to consider any suggestions.

[taylor]

The mod section for Hysteria is incorrect. All melee mods work except the Acolyte mods and Syndicate mods.

[EoK]

Anyone know if this build guide is still useful or no? :/

[Temora]

Fleeting is useless on a Hysteria build, because the efficiency and duration cancel each other out.
And, Hysteria now takes on the mods and (I think) some of the base stats of melee weapons, so taking a crit build melee (e.g. Scindo Prime :D) is an extremely good choice, as the Beserker proc. works extremely well with hysteria.

[CaXmOo]

Continuity/Primed Continuity/Fleeting Expertise still will reduce the power drain for Hysteria... lets say you install max Flow at max lvl that is 375 power, and Hysteria consumes 2.5 p/s it means you have 150 seconds without other mods. So if you install max Continuity it should increase the duation by 30% that is 150+45=195s so the consumption now is calculated by deviding the power by the new duration 375/195 = 1.9 p/s this will also stack with streamline to decrease the consumption to up to 1.33 p/s ( 1.9x[1-30%] = 1.33 ). I don't recommend Fleeting Expertise as it has -60% Power Duration; instead you may use Narrow Minded but it will afect the other abilities so badly but if you build for Hysteria go for it.

[sev]

it actually applies to any ability that uses energy over time.

[☆Arisu Yuki-onna☆]

hey you should probably update this. Hysteria is now a toggle ability and Duration + Efficiency slow down its power drain.
(kinda like Mesa's Peacemaker and Banshee's Earthquake)

[Super Oreo GT Infinity XL]

As someone who mains Valkyr, armour is the best way to go. Hysteria not only has a immortality but also has life steal so having 1410 armour with 700 health + 20 seconds of immortality with life steal is all you really need. Going with a full duration build is only for noobs who can't aim and can only spam the melee button. Learn how to aim and you won't need invincibility for a whole minute.

[Kokone]

thanks for all this building Valkyr now as my 2nd warframe

[Snake Eater]

dat ass

[shadym80]

someone buy me this warframe and ill boost u on csgo thx <3