Beautiful blood you have there, too bad if a space ninja came to tear everything from you and turn it into a shield. Hope you don’t live long enough to see her turn your blood into a bomb that she uses to kill your friends. Garuda is arguably the most violent Warframe Digital Extremes ever, but if you’re going to create a blood mage archetype, there has to be blood.
Garuda’s ‘1’ ability causes her to rush towards her target, literally tear them in half, and then form their blood into a square barrier that absorbs fire and charges the bomb. Press 1 again and she lowers the death orb to the size of a basketball and throws it. If she holds the button down to charge it, the impact can send enemies into the impact area flying.
Digital Extremes
Garuda’s ultimate summons summons a storm of spikes of blood that swirl around her, sucking up enemies and dicing them as she floats calmly. Representatives from Digital Extremes showing Garuda’s abilities suggest that this skill could be altered to advance Garuda threateningly rather than passively float. Either way, it messed up the poor Grineer enemies in the demo.
Garuda’s other two powers deal with his health and energy stores, but they’re just as bloody as his offensive powers. His “ 2 ” ability causes a bloody spike to push out of the ground, impaling the targeted enemy. This macabre totem drains the target’s health reserve to heal Garuda and his allies in a circular radius.
Garuda is going to need this healing, as her “3” ability causes her to draw out her own blood. This halves his health but gives him a boost of energy to fuel his other abilities. Garuda also does more damage with low health, so you manage a balance between your energy generation ability and your horrible enemy impaling move. At the top right of the screen, you can see a damage modifier that can reach 200% damage if Garuda is damaged enough
Vampiric
In action, Garuda gives the impression of a cold, fiery killer who rips to brutalize enemies without warning – “royal” is the word Digital Extremes likes to use. She’s still being tweaked, and the blood bomb spray effect seems to do less damage than it actually is, but there’s a strong concept behind her set of vampiric moves.
That said, at first it’s hard to see what she does better than any other Warframe. The rip-in-half feels like an instant kill, which is good, and the healing offers additional help in a team context. We’ll have to see what his finalized stats look like and figure out how much damage this grand ultimate can really do. Warframes aren’t always about raw utility, either. Playstyle matters, and rushing to rip Grineer apart seems like a lot of fun. If all goes according to plan, Garuda is expected to arrive alongside the Fortuna update in early November.
