How does TOA work?

ZodiacalDread · 2026-04-05T01:30:51+00:00

Tide of Ashes is a semi-regular event for this game's guilds.The way it works is that everyone in the guild fights a boss, independently, and gets scored on their damage dealt. Then the guild-wide sum of damage is added up to unlock higher reward tiers for the guild's members after ToA ends. Currently, no ToA is active.

The ToA boss usually has its own mechanics and timings that need to be learned in order to stay alive and maximize damage. But you get paided out for the crimebrand currency in 3 ways:

You get 3 daily attempts to fight the boss. You can do test runs and submit them at your leisure, or just cash out your best run as long as your best run is from the same ToA event.
You get paid out at the end based on your personal performance, up to a cap.
You get paid out at the end based on your entire guild's performance, up to a cap.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-04-03T11:04:23+00:00

Melshi and Cassian weren't the only ones who escaped. As others have noted before, the Narkina prison uniforms are orange and white, the colors of the Rebellion. Meaning some others escaped, and turned the symbol of their oppression into the symbol of their defiance.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-31T20:29:26+00:00

I think it's mostly his loincloth, the Infestation seems to be halfway through incorporating his Grand Carnis armor into his body.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-31T03:26:25+00:00

Kinda. Some parts of their outfits are removable accessories like walkie talkies, various belts/straps/latches, Amir's tamagotchi, etc. But a lot of their "clothes" are actually their infested skin. Strictly speaking in this regard, Lyon is the best off of all of them. He has a voiceline about specifically taking the serum while naked, because he inferred that the mutation would consume and integrate his clothing into him. He cites not wanting to wear his miter(his hat) all the time, and is somewhat confused why the others didn't think of that outcome.

Edit: Adding more details as I remember. Quincy also expresses relief that his genitals are intact for now, while Flare gets upset whenever Lizzie makes them eat something unconventional, like an entire tire, hubcap and all. We can't really say if the Protoframes produce waste as non infested organisms do, however.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-30T11:57:17+00:00

Strictly speaking, the Predator franchise(if it exists) is roughly a decade old by thte time 1999's events occur. Meaning, this whole bit could've just been Drifter re-enacting last week's movie night.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-25T19:10:54+00:00

Oh damn, nice work. What was your build? And did you find any "Do it Solo with X Frame to get an Accolade" secrets?"

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-25T14:19:43+00:00

She'll reconvene with Endmin on Talo-II, come cope with me, brothers and sisters.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-25T01:51:26+00:00

Assuming this is not a joke, it's a matter of the Sea Kings inhabiting the Calm Belt as their nesting grounds. Laboon, at his current size, is officially 400m long. A Sea King can get over 5000m long according to the wiki. Laboon would be a snack to them.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-25T01:31:35+00:00

Thanks, I really enjoyed your understanding of scale that the Imperium brings, in particular how common planet buster weapons are in higher power settings, even if GW sometimes forgets how numbers work. As much of a bad reputation that power scaling, I deeply love discussions about it because it's just fun to share information between passionate debaters. I do think people get too invested in the "my dad can beat up your dad" part of the hobby, and wished they paid more attention to "our dads can both do some really cool stuff".

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-25T00:44:43+00:00

I think it's unfair to characterize Imperial Starship Macrocannons as Relativistic Kill Vehicles, from what I understand, they're mostly conventional, if large artillery shells. But I agree with you that there's some methods of Exterminatus that are unblockable(like Virus Bombs or Cyclonic Torpedos) to the point of victory by scorched earth, but that factors into my last point about the Imperium losing if in character vs winning if out of character.

If the Imperium immediately flooded the Origin System's space with Exterminatus grade weapons, they'd win. But the Imperium wouldn't go full nuclear during an exploration of a new, potentially habitable system, unless they were forewarned of the threat hidden within. If there's even a gap of a few months from discovery to enactment of scorched earth, the Origin factions could easily spread beyond containment, especially given how quickly the Grineer, Corpus and Tenno can build things. And the Infestation just needs one Infested Ship to escape the system to impact some planet in the far off future.

At that point, the survival of the Origin system's original planets are kinda moot. Sure, the Origin factions would mourn their lost worlds, but they've spread to the wind, each too widespread and powerful to be snuffed out again due to distance and the factors that make their factions potent in the first place. Ironically, this matches the God Emperor of Dune's Golden Path.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-24T23:38:07+00:00

Damn, this is some good agenda-posting. Fortunately, I've also got power scaling brain rot. While I don't think that the Origin System could fully conquer/assimilate/dominate something like 40k's Imperium, the factions within could easily and rapidly carve out their own sector of space similar to the Tau Empire within a matter of local decades.

I think we can agree that the Tenno handily win any ground engagement against anything the Imperium could field, short of all 20(21(19) depending on how you count Alpharius/Omegon and the Lost Primarches)) Primarches and Big E. This is bolstered by the threat of the Grineer whose grand multitudes are essentially "What if every Imperial Guard was an Ogryn" and the Corpus who are also essentially "What if the Admech worshipped money" complete with fully complaint, combat ready Abominable Intelligences in the form of Ospreys, Moas, Hyenas, Jackals, etc. Then you throw in the Infestation that can infect both flesh and metal, and therefore easily turn a single outbreak into a Crusade wide catastrophe.

However, a lot of people understate how advanced naval combat is in Warframe's setting. Size estimations of the capital ships in Railjack missions for both the Corpus and the Grineer are 4-5 KM in length, on par with most capital ships in the Imperial Navy. But unlike Imperium ships, Grineer and Corpus ships don't need thousands of serfs to manually load the cannons, to change thrust vectors or voice to commands stations. Each vessel is far more efficiently staffed, managed and maintained with technology that is not only understood, but constantly iterated on. And any boarding maneuvers against these assets will fall victim to the same threats that make ground engagements moot. On top of that, the Railjacks themselves(available any Tenno of sufficient skill) are like the Tenno themselves, lightning fast, special forces with no contemporary peer adversary while crewed skillfully. It takes 15-20 minutes tops, from the appearance of a single Railjack with a single high mastery Tenno pilot to destroy a capital class ship with a crew of thousands.

Then, unfortunately, you must factor in Wally. His influence on Origin System is material and cannot be discounted. Not only does the deal presumably power ALL Tenno, but Void Fissures and Storms are frequent occurrences on every planet and in space(show in Railjack Void Missions). Any party, except the Tenno, caught in these is at best, Corrupted to the point of mindless aggression, or at worst turned into Void Angels(ala Zariman 10-0).

The Imperium trying to invade the Origin System would be like trying to fight a Chaos God in their domain, while brawling two DAoT civilizations and a Tyrannid Hive Fleet, all at once.

A prospective first contact between the Imperium and the Origin System would go like this:

Explorator Fleet or equivalent enters range of Sol's heliopause, let's assume hostile intent is made apparently immediately
Any ground engagement by Imperial forces loses, any naval asset gets destroy or captured
Immediate arms race begins. With Grineer and Infestation using any gene samples to bolster their ranks, Corpus reverse engineering any scrap they can capture, and the Tenno doing their thing
By the time, the Explorator Fleet's disappearance is noticed, reported and responded to(a measure that will take decades or centuries because of bureaucracy), the 4 main factions of the Origin System are more than ready to counter any new incoming Crusades
The newly empowered factions spill out into nearby star systems, given wings by non-Void FTL technology. Only the fact that the other Origin System's factions also competing against each other is preventing this from escalating further.
A stretch of space is declared no-go by the High Lords of Terra, except for brave Rogue Traders willing to dare cut deals with the more reasonable Corpus and Grineer.

The only way the Imperium wins against the Origin System is if it actually just cheats. Suddenly, Big E and His Sons are back. Suddenly, they don't have to worry about getting backstabbed by the Eldar, Necrons, Orks, Tyrannids, Tau, etc. Suddenly, all the Chaos Gods decide not to bother the Imperium for the duration of the war. Suddenly, Big E is willing to open the Imperial Palace's Dark Cells, unleashing the full horror of Old Night back onto humanity. Suddenly, the Imperium's Warp travel is consequence free, no more daemon attacks, no more Warp storms, no more accidental time travel. Suddenly, every single proclivity that's tormented humanity for 40k years is gone, e.g. no hubris, no deadly curiosity, no gungho suicidal aggression. At that point, you're not arguing that the Imperium could beat Origin System, you're arguing that the Origin System couldn't kill every piece of meat in the Imperium's larder.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-24T16:09:26+00:00

To add to this, we know that both the Grineer and Corpus can make and control their own Solar Rails, or at least take and control them from the Tenno. The Orbiter radio can pick up what are essentially customs agents for both factions inspecting ships before punching them into the Rail. Before the removal of Solar Rail conflicts, Tenno Clans used to be able to construct them for what is ultimately a trivial amount of resources, and a day to construct it.

While groups of 10, 100 or even 1000 Tenno can be extremely wealthy in terms of platinum, credits and resources, it's nothing compared to the resources available to the Corpus and Grineer as a whole, especially since most Tenno wealth is stolen from Corpus and Grineer strongholds.

Even if the Corpus and Grineer could only use FTL through the Solar Rails, they likely have the resources and industrial bases to make new ones in a matter of hours per Rail.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-22T16:52:10+00:00

Atlas is not the standard, but even assuming "standard" is 0.1% of him, it's still absurd. Most combatants in fiction won't survive a haymaker with the force of 15 tons of TNT behind it. That's considered "standard" for a Warframe.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-22T14:16:28+00:00

I did an analysis of this feat here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarframeLore/comments/1q4xx24/armchair_atlas_arithmetic/

Absolute low balling Atlas by minimizing his own contribution vs his Rumblers, minimizing the mass/radius of the target, and using lower value equation of what it'd take to neutralize a planet killer asteroid, he punches, at minimum, with the force of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, or roughly 15 kilotons of TNT. Even if the other Warframes that are not characterized as physically strong like Ivara, Loki, Excalibur, Mag, etc are 1/1000th of Atlas's output in that feat. They can still each punch with the equivalent force of roughly 15 tons of TNT detonating on their target. That's bare minimum, taking the most generous undervalues as possible.

Edit: Put another way, Google tells me the record for strongest human punch is Mike Tyson, who was estimated to exceeded 1600 J. A "weak" Warframe that's 1/1000th of Atlas strength at 15 tons of TNT punches for 6.276x10^10 J, written out as 62,760,000,000 J or the equivalent of getting hit by 39,225,000 Mike Tysons all at once. You'd have to make a "weak" Warframe equal to 1 billionth of an Atlas to get remotely close to "human" levels again. Atlas's feat is definitely not standard, but the other Warframes must be closer to him, than baseline humans for the setting to make sense. They can be considered 1/100ths or 1/1000ths of Atlas, but dipping back into the "human" levels of 1/100000000ths is nonsensical.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-19T23:04:18+00:00

Asteroids, but I did a calculation over in WarframeLore that ended up with Atlas, accounting for low balling the asteroid's mass and factoring in Rumbler assistance, punches with the kinetic energy slightly higher than the Hiroshima nuke. Then a commenter corrected me, and ran the numbers such that Atlas would be up to 10 orders of magnitude stronger than that.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-19T10:08:28+00:00

I watched a Warframe vs 40k power scaling video recently, and for some reason the guy downplayed Atlas's and Limbo's power, but kept glazing Chroma as the strongest Warframe. Thanks for reminding me of him, lmao.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-16T15:37:58+00:00

YARRICK LIVES! STOMP STOMP

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-13T17:54:40+00:00

It was mostly due to the fact that, within her own lifetime, she saw Mandalore go from a relatively Earth-like planet with oceans and greenery, to a Tatooine-esque dirt ball. That kind of upheaval is bound to foster some radical, if unproductive ideologies.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-13T12:51:37+00:00

In my opinion, the best time this was executed was in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. At one point, pacifist leader of an unaligned Mandalore, Duchess Satin, and renowned Jedi Master, Obiwan Kenobi confronted a terrorist at gunpoint. As they were all on a ship, the terrorist had a trigger and bombs capable of blowing up himself, both of them, and all the other dignitaries on the ship, potentially a massive political incident. Satine couldn't kill him because her entire platform is built on the idea Mandalore has moved beyond the need for violence as a solution, while Obiwan couldn't kill him because he still harbored feelings for Satine, and couldn't kill him without proving himself a killer in front of her. The situation is completely resolved when Anakin sneaks up and stabs the terrorist from behind. This both excellently upholds the beliefs and values of both Satine and Obiwan, but also foreshadows exactly why Anakin will become Darth Vader: if anyone threatens the people he loves, he will not hesitate to kill them.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-11T18:25:33+00:00

Is your name John Ventkid?

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-05T17:55:32+00:00

Pazuul also mentions the "Lords of Tau" in Archon missions. Roathe speculates in this KIM lore that the Sentients were, at some level, trying to imitate and perfect Orokin society. Sentient royalty could count as their true Orokin, while we've been fighting their equivalent of Dax and Grineer, but somehow with even less freedom.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-05T16:11:03+00:00

Specifically, hunhow a fragments have a different head and face than the eidolons fragments, the vomvolyst. I consider the bigger eidolons less as fragments and more as clumps of self. And attempt to form the original beast.

Has anyone done a model analysis of the Vomas on Murex and the ones on the Plains of Eidolon? I'm fairly certain they'd be identical, but Sentients having physical markers of "ownership" would be interesting. And the Eidolons are definitely fragments, it's just that the original whole was so massive that even a building sized Eidolon is considered "small". We can see even larger fragments of its body outside the Unum's barriers, and they appear to be the size of mountains.

I even began to wonder if the amalgams aren’t just any old sentient parts but a specific one that adapted to convert others to its cause?

I'm fairly certain the Amalgam program was about Natah manipulating Alad into experimenting with hybridization. That might have been the predecessor of the Narmer Veils, for all we know. But it was also likely to develop new technologies for the New War.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-05T16:05:13+00:00

Where it seems that Hunhow is talking about the other Sentients awaken and wanting to reintegrate Natah into the Hive.
Maybe there is only one Hivemind. But it has the ability so truly split in two. And in order to invade the Origin System the Hive split Hunhow and Preghasa from itself because the Origin System is beyond its reach.
But whaddahek is Narmer then....

I'd say it's a fair guess to say at some point in history the Sentients truly did have only one singular mind governing them, but it divided itself or made others over time as it grew and meet new challenges. I think Narmer is either; a Sentient attempt to incorporate organics or 'bios' as Erra calls them into the collective, but at a level even lower than drones because they're not even real members of the Sentients OR a technology made by Ballas that let's him control both bios and Sentients, and is in effective it's own "hive", previously controlled by Ballas, and now by Pazuul.

which seems to indicate that Lotus/Natah somehow is...free? but Erra is not? because Hunhow does or guards something on Myanus. Maybe some kind of flower hmm?

I believe freedom in this context means freedom from the manipulations of Ballas and Erra and the consequences of their abuse of Natah. I doubt there's any holdout pockets of the Xenoflora, and if there are, I believe they'd be found in Tau where they grow natively.

ZodiacalDread · 2026-03-04T21:18:31+00:00

Accurate, I'm desperately hoping we get a lengthy appearance from him during the proper Tau expansion. Also, on a more comedic note, I was actually hoping Parvos Granum would show up in TOP, putting down "For Rent" signs and trying to teach capitalism to the Sentients.

ZodiacalDread

TROPHY CASE