Published , by Aidan O'Brien
Published , by Aidan O'Brien
Archon Shards are used to upgrade your Warframe via the Helminth system. They can be embedded in your Warframes, giving you more bonuses such as more ability strength, duration, efficiency, cast speed, or any number of other benefits. Used as a complimentary system to standard modding and Arcanes, they allow you to min/max your builds in the late game.
To be able to use Archon Shards, you will first need to play through and complete the Veilbreaker quest, which you can get access to only after you have finished The New War.
To get Archon Shards, you can complete the weekly Archon Hunt. These can be accessed from the mission bar at the top right of the navigation menu once the Veilbreak quest is complete. The type of Shard that drops will depend on the Archon you are hunting, which rotates each week. Amar drops Crimson, Nira drops Amber, and Boreal drops Azure. There is also a chance that the Shard might drop as the more powerful Tau version, giving increased effects.
The standard chance for this is 20%, although there is a pity system that will increase the chance of your next Shard of the same color dropping by a further 20%. This will stack each time and then reset when a Tau Archon Shard drops.
You can also earn Crimson, Amber, and Azure Shards by completing Netracells or Deep Archimedea in Albrecht's Laboratory on Deimos. Visiting Bird 3 in the Sanctum Anatomica will also allow you to buy a random Shard each week for 30,000 Cavia Standing, the Syndicate attached to that area.
The Helminth can be expanded with a function called Coalescent Fusion which allows you to blend Archon Shards together to create new ones. You can buy the Blueprint for the Helminth Coalescent Segment from Bird 3 in the Sanctum Anatomica once you have reached the Researcher rank with the Cavia Syndicate. It will cost 30,0000 Standing. You will need the following resources to build it:
Once you have built it in the Foundry, go to the Helminth, and it will automatically install, adding two new icons to the top right of the Archon Shards screen, Coalascent Fusion and Ascent Fusion. Coalescent Fusion allows you to blend the Shards together to form new colors, while Ascent Fusion allows you to blend three standard Shards of the same color to create a Tau Shard of that color.
You can mix the following colors to make the Violet, Topaz, and Emerald Shard:
For more helpful guides, be sure to check out our Warframe page.