Helminth: how to unlock it, where the segment comes from, what to subsume
The Helminth is what sends half the playerbase back to Warframes they had shelved: it takes an ability off one frame and puts it on another. The entry barrier looks worse than it is, and the real cost sits somewhere other than where people look for it.
What the Helminth actually does
The Helminth lives in the infested room on your Orbiter. It does three things, and they get mixed up constantly.
- Subsumes a Warframe and permanently takes one of its abilities into a shared pool. The frame itself is gone and the slot is freed.
- Infuses any ability from that pool onto another Warframe, replacing one of its four.
- Invigorates: once a week it hands temporary buffs to three random Warframes. That is a separate segment, covered below.
Passives are not transferable, only active abilities. And a frame cannot be given its own ability back.
What unlocking the Helminth takes
Three conditions, all of them required.
- Mastery Rank 8. Below that the blueprint does not appear at all.
- Rank 3 with the Entrati. And to earn that standing you need the Necralisk on Deimos, which means Heart of Deimos finished.
- 15,000 Entrati standing for the blueprint itself. It is sold by Son in the Necralisk, not by Father and not by Mother.
In a hurry, both segments, the plain one and Invigoration, are sold ready-built in the market as one bundle for 300 platinum. That is the only way to skip both the standing and the build.
What the segment build takes
| What | How much |
|---|---|
| Credits | 50,000 |
| Vasca Velocipod Tag | 5 |
| Adramal Alloy | 20 |
| Saturated Muscle Mass | 5 |
| Ganglion | 15 |
The trap here is the Velocipod tags. That is conservation: they do not drop off enemies, you go out on Deimos and capture the animals alive. Plenty of people find this out having already collected everything else.
The other three are ordinary Deimos drops and accumulate on their own while running Cambion Drift bounties. The build takes 24 hours and rushes for 50 platinum.
How to subsume a Warframe
Subsuming does not unlock immediately: the Helminth first needs Metamorphosis rank 1, which comes from feeding it resources. So the order is: install the segment, feed it, reach rank 1, and only then can you consume frames.
- Any built Warframe except Primes and Umbra can go in.
- Level does not matter, a rank 0 frame works the same as a rank 30 one.
- It takes 23 hours, and rushes for 50 platinum.
- One at a time.
- The same Warframe cannot be subsumed twice: each one has one fixed ability, so a second copy adds nothing.
- You start with three slots for subsumed abilities and gain more with Metamorphosis ranks.
Subsuming a frame burns the mastery it has not given you yet. Level it to 30 first, then take it to the Helminth. How that is counted is in the mastery rank guide.
What it really costs
The Helminth itself is cheap. What is expensive is what you put into it: every ability you want needs its own Warframe, and that frame has to be built first. Blueprints, materials and about three and a half days in the foundry, each time.
| Step | Time |
|---|---|
| Building the segment | 24 hours |
| Feeding it to Metamorphosis rank 1 | minutes, if you have the resources |
| Building the frame you want the ability from | about 3.5 days |
| Subsuming that frame | 23 hours |
| Total | about 6 days |
Six days, five of which are the foundry waiting. So start the frame building immediately rather than after the segment is done.
What to feed it
The Helminth eats almost any resource and converts it into seven kinds of secretion. Each infused ability costs specific secretions, so feeding is targeted rather than random.
The rule behind everyone quoting different numbers: the Helminth has tastes, and they shift with what you fed it.
| What the game shows | Secretions from that resource |
|---|---|
| Green arrow up, it likes it | up to 30% |
| No arrow, neutral | 15% |
| Red arrow down, it is bored of it | only 3% |
- Feeding the same resource drives it from green to red. Rotate.
- The Sentient Appetite category works differently: it restores half the appetite for whatever the Helminth is most bored of.
- Pustulite, Ganglion and Lucent Teroglobe give double secretions, up to 60% while preferred. If you have them, feed those.
- No secretion goes above 100% and the excess is wasted, so do not stockpile by feeding.
Before throwing a rare resource in, check what it is worth: some of what the Helminth eats sells to players, and sometimes selling and buying the other thing is cheaper. Prices are on the prices page.
Metamorphosis: why keep feeding
Feeding, subsuming and infusing all raise the Helminth's Metamorphosis rank, and ranks unlock its own abilities and more slots.
| Rank | What it gives |
|---|---|
| 0 | three Helminth abilities: empower your next ability, faster parkour, heal and recall your companion |
| 1 | Warframe subsuming and the first three slots |
| 2 | instantly restore your shields |
| 3 | automatically pass your next hack |
| 4 | ten slots |
Beyond that the ranks come slower and unlock further abilities, and near the top the cap on subsumed abilities is removed entirely.
The Invigoration segment
The second, separate segment. Once a week it picks three random Warframes and gives each two temporary buffs, one offensive and one utility. It rolls over Monday at 00:00 UTC and the buffs last seven days.
The blueprint is also from Son, but further out: 30,000 standing and rank 5 with the Entrati.
| What | How much |
|---|---|
| Credits | 50,000 |
| Predasite Vizier Tag | 5 |
| Tempered Bapholite | 20 |
| Pustulent Cognitive Nodule | 10 |
| Pustulite | 15 |
Another conservation tag, another animal. If you are going for both segments, catch them in one trip.
The cyst: getting into the room before the segment
The infested room opens without the segment if your frame carries a Helminth cyst. You catch it from Nidus or from any infected player you meet in a mission, a dojo or an Orbiter.
- The cyst appears a day after infection and takes seven days to mature.
- A mature cyst can be drained while incubating a Kubrow to get the Helminth Charger companion. A new one grows back a day later.
- The chair cures the cyst and makes that frame immune. But then it cannot enter the room again until you have the segment.
- The cyst does nothing to your stats, it is purely cosmetic.
A pink cyst is the Helminth. A cyst of any other colour belongs to your Technocyte Coda and vanishes from every frame the moment you put it down.
What it changes in practice
The Helminth changes how you look at old Warframes: a frame you never play stops being dead weight and becomes an ability. The slot it frees is worth platinum on its own.
Orikon helps from the other side: it prices prime parts while you are still in the game, and that platinum is what pays for slots, rushes and the 300 for the segment bundle if you would rather not grind standing. How to earn it from what already drops is in the platinum guide.
Common questions
What mastery rank does the Helminth need?
Eight. Plus rank 3 with the Entrati and 15,000 standing for the segment blueprint from Son in the Necralisk.
Where do I get the Helminth Segment?
Son in the Necralisk sells the blueprint for 15,000 Entrati standing. A built one is in the market, bundled with the Invigoration segment, for 300 platinum.
What does the segment build take?
50,000 credits, 5 Vasca Velocipod tags, 20 Adramal Alloy, 5 Saturated Muscle Mass and 15 Ganglion. The build runs 24 hours.
Can I subsume a Prime?
No. Primes and Umbra cannot be subsumed, only ordinary Warframes. Their level does not matter.
How long does subsuming take?
23 hours, rushable for 50 platinum. One frame at a time.
Why is the Helminth giving me so few secretions?
It is bored of that resource. A red arrow is 3% instead of 30%, so rotate resources; the Sentient Appetite category restores its interest in whatever it likes least.
What is the Helminth cyst and how do I remove it?
A cosmetic infested growth caught from Nidus or another player, seven days to mature. The chair cures it, and a mature one can be drained during Kubrow incubation to get a Helminth Charger.
