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My Equinox builds
Posted by on Tue Aug 15 2023 (Updated: Wed Jun 19 2024)
I play Equinox for the following types of missions.
| Mission | Solo? | Solo Build | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Path Star Chart | yes | any | solo success metric is 25 min. Survival |
| Elite Sanctuary Onslaught | yes | Pull | bring strong explosive weapon |
| Steel Path Circuit (Duviri) | no | untested | |
| Arbitration | no | untested | |
| Archon Hunt | yes | Archon Killer | Ability Strength milestones met w/ 5x Red Shards |
The main scaffold for the builds is as follows.
| Vazarin | Naramon | Madurai | |
| Naramon | Naramon |
By default, Equinox has 1 Vazarin and 1 Madurai polarity slots whereas her Prime variant has 2 Vazarin and 2 Madurai. For both her regular and Prime variants, the aura polarity is Naramon. The forma countsfor Equinox Prime are:
The forma count can be minimized by using cheaper variants of mods.
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Archon Nira queued for
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This is a basic mod configuration for Equinox. All items here can be traded between players.
Anything can go in the free slot. Good mods are:
For players who have not completed the Star Chart or have not progressed into Warframe’s storyline:
Rolling Guard is sold by the Arbiters of Hexiss in exchange for Vitus Essence; it does not require any standing with the Arbiters of Hexis. Vitus Esssence is acquired from Arbitration, which requires completing the Star Chart. An alternative is Rapid Resilience.
Molt Augmented is sold by Cavalero at the Zariman. This requires the completion of the quest Angels of Zariman and its prequisitess. An alternative is to equip the mod Intensify.
Arcane Blessing is acquired from Conjunction Survival on Lua. Lua is an area unlocked after completing the quest The Second Dream. It is also sold by Archimedian Yonta on the Zariman in exchange for Lua Thrax Plasm. An alternative is Arcane Intention from Duviri.
Arcane Blessing grants +24 health per health orb picked up and stacks up to 50 times (+1200 health total). More importantly, this allows the player to pick up health orbs even at full health. Therefore, Equinox can pick up a health orb and restore energy in the process with just her passive ability.
With Equilibrium, health orbs grant (110+10)% energy, vice versa. I generally find Equilibrium more interesting than ability efficiency for both survivability and energy economy. By herself, Equinox however has no utility to increase the rate at which health and energy orbs drop.
With Felarx. Note, my Equinox has an extra +50% Ability Strength from embedding 5 Red Archon Shards.
https://video.hardlimit.com/w/afvzh1nasz7j6gj8HCv9bbIn order to stack more damage, I use Vigorous Swap, Holster Amp, and infused the Helminth ability Xata’s Whisper.. To deal as much damage as possible, use the following to increase ability strength before switching to day form:
In day form, cast Provoke to augment the ability strength of Xata’s Whisper. Trigger Holster Amp and Vigorous Swap by swapping weapons before taking the shot. (This build does not require triggering Primary Deadhad.)
The following is the mod configuration I killed Archon Boreal with.
Any secondary arcane
For Archon missions, Equinox’s auras aren’t as relevant to the objective as they would be in general PvE. Therefore, the carry-over mods from other builds Stretch and Energy Transfer aren’t helpful for Archon Hunts, but they can make the build fun generally.
If you don’t have 5 Red Archon Shards to meet a total of 200% ability strength, replace (Primed) Continuity with Blind Rage and replace Augur Secrets with Continuity.
Ability Strength isn’t as needed with the mod Ambush.
Shade grants invisibility with the Ghost precept which situationally takes the heat off Equinox. Additionally, there is a precept available called Ambush which confers an additional 240% damage bonus when exiting Ghost. Even without this mod, the one-shot kill should still be possible.
(Ambush can be acquired from Cephalon Simaris for 75,000 points.)
The ability Pull pulls enemies in and concentrates them in one spot. This tactic offers the following perks:
Optional.
Greedy Pull allows Equinox to pull in loot items including Health and Energy Orbs. It can synergize with Equilibrium and Arcane Blessing. However, the augment mod is less significant for melee-majority combat in which the loot drops in front of the player regardless.
Without Rest & Rage, Equinox can not put enemies to sleep and has less access to finisher kills and related effects.
This variant involves no changes from the standard mod configuration. It also can be used in Duviri. Even though this section has less words, I prefer this variant over the other.
Without Pacify & Provoke, Equinox can not reduce incoming damage.
This variant is a melee-oriented, finisher kill build; therefore, the melee weapon classes of choice are daggers or dual daggers. In this build, Equinox starts in her night form, she:
With Arcane Trickery, there is a 15% chance to become invisible for 30 seconds. While she is invisible, she can switch to day form to deal more damage.
Because Pacify is not available, this build has lower survivability. Additionally, it is unsuitable for Duviri as the player can not count on melee weapons with finisher kill bonuses to spawn.
I treid this build with the following arcanes:
Between Arcane Blessing and Arcane Double-Back, the former is more reliable than the latter. While Arcane Double-Back can grant 75% damage reduction, 25% upon double jumping, rolling, bullet-jumping, etc, it does not trigger from repeating the same moves. (The player can’t double jump three times to trigger the whole effect.)
Overall, I found Arcane Double-Back more useful for preventing warframes from getting incapacitated while going to a point of interest. It less often triggers to its full effect during combat.
Innodem is an Incarnon dagger acquired from the Zariman, an area that is only available after completing the quest The New War. Innodem’s Incarnon form grants 10% damage reduction stacking four times up to 40% (Incarnon Resilience).
All abilities have different effects depending on her current form. Her day form is themed around augmenting outbound damage while her night form is themed around negating inbound damage.
Passive: When Equinox collects Health Orbs or Energy Orbs, 10% of the restored amount is converted into additional Energy and Health respectively.
Ability Range effectively does the following for Equinox’s abilities.
Ability Duration effectively does the following for Equinox’s abilities.
Ability Strength most importantly increases the damage reduced by Pacify. Ability Strength has a minor effect on the slash damage dealt by Maim.
Ability Efficiency decreases the energy per second spent to maintain her aura among all energy costs related to casting abilities.
Every type of bonus to abilities benefits Equinox. While it is not feasible to include everything, having an ability attribute at an unmodified value (100%, 1.0x) is better than having one below the baseline value (<100%). Therefore, I don’t use corrupted mods.
I don’t use these items in my Equinox builds.
Equinox’s 4th ability benefits from both duration and efficiency. Fleeting Expertise overall doesn’t help her energy economy.
| Mend & Maim | Base | Fleeting E. | Streamline | Continuity | P. Continuity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drain | 50 | 20 | 35 | 50 | 50 |
| Drain/s | 3.5 | 3.5 | 2.45 | 2.69 | 2.26 |
This mod severely reduces Equinox’s capability to mitigate damage, and needs at least two other mods to compensate for the strength penalty.
On Energy Pickup: 60% chance to replenish 150 Energy to self and allies within 15m. 15s cooldown.
I don’t have this item maxed. It’s also expensive (80-100 platinum for one unit). This item is subsituted with Equilibrium (effectively 100% chance to replenish 60 Energy to self on Health Pickup given a maxed mod and Equinox warframe).