Grendel is a tanky, armor-melting Warframe first introduced in The Old Blood. He received a significant update to his kit in Lua’s Prey, changing how he plays quite a bit. This Warframe plays best when you are always sucking in enemies and using the armor gained from devouring them to stay alive. Then, you can spit them back out in a hail of Toxic damage that devastates even the heartiest Grineer armor.
Ever since the rework, Grendel is an extremely powerful solo and group play Warframe with tons of utility surrounding stripping armor from enemies and using those enemies as projectiles, clearing rooms in only a couple of shots. Here is how to find and build out Grendel to be the best ogre he can be.
Related: All new Tenet weapons in Warframe: Lua’s Prey
How To Farm Grendel
You can farm Grendel by checking out his lore in the Leverian. To view the Leverian entry, go to the Codex, then Universe, and Warframes. Search Grendel, and then click on his entry. Finally, click on Leverian in the bottom right-hand corner.
When you are finished checking out his lore, you will need to track down three items.
- Grendel Neuroptics Locator
- Grendel Chassis Locator
- Grendel Systems Locator
These keys are found by completing Arbitrations and will get you access to hidden missions on the planet that each Leverian entry mentions. To get the Locators, visit the Arbitration Honors vendor on any Relay. The Locators cost 25 Vitus Essence each, which are picked up as drops during Arbitrations.
Grendel Abilities
Passive
Each enemy consumed with Feast grants 250 bonus Armor.
Feast
Swallow an enemy whole and store it in Grendel’s gut. You can store up to five live enemies inside Grendel and gain 250 Armor (at base value) per enemy still alive inside Grendel. Hold to vomit any live enemies back out, coating them in Toxic bile.
Nourish
Grendel consumes the swallowed enemy and grants 1,000 Health (does not scale) on himself and the following buffs to himself and nearby allies on use:
- 2x Energy from all sources (scales with Ability Strength Mods).
- Grendel and allies explode with radial Viral damage (two-second cooldown, independent for each player) when enemies attack Grendel in a 12m radius (at max rank). Grants 100% Viral Status and staggers enemies.
- Grendel and all nearby allies gain Viral damage to melee and ranged weapons.
Pulverize
Grendel curls up into a ball and can roll around at high speeds. Jumping creates a shockwave on impact that staggers enemies and casts radial damage outward. Enemies hit by Pulverize suffer a 50% Armor reduction (at max rank). Grendel will also heal for 200 Health per second for five seconds after Pulverize is cast and then decay to half its starting value over the next five seconds (scales with Ability Strength Mods).
Regurgitate
Violently puke out a bile-soaked enemy from Grendel’s gut, turning the unfortunate creature into a toxic projectile. Enemies shot out by this ability are hit with 75% Armor Reduction (scalable with Ability Strength Mods). Any enemy hit by the projectile is also slowed and is hit by a radial blast of Toxin damage.
How to build Grendel
Grendel can largely be built around aspects of strong Armor, damage resistance, and ability range. At the endgame levels, particularly if you are using The Steel Path version of the star chart, you want to slot in Archon Shards. Most builds prefer five Crimson Archon Shards with Ability Strength, but you can also slot in one or two Azure Archon Shards with +50 Energy Max and the remaining ones as Crimson Archon Shards.
For mods, you want to use ones that augment Armor, damage resistance, and ability strength. For the Aura mod, Brief Respite is one of the best choices due to the constant loop of ability casting and earning Shields. Grendel’s best Exilus mod is Catapult, which augments his Pulverize skill with a launching attack. In general, you want to use mods like the Umbral mod set with Umbral Intensify, Vitality, and Fiber for the maximum set bonus. Slot in a Flow or Primed Flow mod for extra Energy for ability casting, as Grendel can get very energy-starved quickly if not managed right. Use Reach to extend the range of all abilities, but Augur Reach can provide some excellent bonuses as well. Stretch mods also stack with Augur Reach for even more range.
For Arcane mods, if you are willing to invest in them, you can use Arcane Energize, which grants additional Energy whenever you pick up an Energy Orb off the ground. The Molt Augmented mod is the best for the second Arcane slot, as it stacks Ability Strength as you rack up enemy kills. Over time this can become extremely devastating as Regurgitate will start dropping even the beefiest enemies coming at you.
