Acolytes

The Acolytes are mysterious, twisted and sinister warriors that follow the Shadow Stalker, taking the appearance and abilities of different Warframes while bearing the distinctive helmet of their master. They were first introduced in the Operation: Shadow Debt event, and would make sporadic reappearances afterwards.
As of , Acolytes became a permanent addition to the game, making appearances in The Steel Path missions and dropping .
==Mechanics==
Acolytes can only receive up to 4 stacks of any Status Effect with the exception of which can stack up to 3 times, and only amplifies the damage the Acolyte receives from allied units and does not enable friendly fire unless those allies themselves are inflicted by the status.
===The Steel Path===
Acolytes typically spawn in any non-Archwing, non-Assassination, non-Ascension, and non-Duviri Steel Path missions once every 3-8 minutes on average. They are guaranteed to drop 2 Steel Essence, as well as one random Steel Path Arcane (, , , , , or ), upon defeat.
===Damage Reduction===
Acolytes possess Damage Reduction that scales based on several static metrics of the weapon and its mods. Firstly, Acolytes possess a 62.5% damage reduction on health and +50% bonus damage to their shields which apply before the below damage reduction is applied. These factors only apply once in status effect damage calculations. The damage reduction for a particular damage instance can be calculated as follows:
:\text{Tier Minimum}=1-\frac{1}{max(1, \text{Critical Tier})}
:\text{DPS Reducer}=\frac{\text{Tier Minimum}}{\text{Modded Critical Multiplier} - \text{Tier Minimum}}+1
:\text{DPS Multiplier}=\frac{(\text{Modded fire rate})\cdot(\text{Modded multishot})}{\text{DPS Reducer}}
:\text{DPS Metric}=(\text{Tier 0 Damage})\cdot(\text{DPS Multiplier})
{
\text{Damage Multiplier}=
\begin{cases}
1,\; & \text{DPS Metric} \leq 3000 \\
0.8 + \frac{600}{\text{DPS Metric}},\; & 3000 < \text{DPS Metric} \leq 7500 \\
1.6/3 + \frac{2600}{\text{DPS Metric}},\; & 7500 < \text{DPS Metric} \leq 22500\\
\frac{14600}{\text{DPS Metric}},\; & 22500< \text{DPS Metric}
\end{cases}
}
Tier 0 Damage is the theoretical non critical damage instance that would be seen in game if there were no static DPS limiter. Note that this factor includes the 62.5% damage reduction on health and +50% bonus damage to their shields.
 is an exception to this DR and uses a different formula.
As can be deduced from the above, output DPS is capped at 14,600, however this limit can be bypassed with critical hits. Critical damage against acolytes have a modified critical scaling equation defined below.
:\text{Modified Critical Multiplier} = 1 + \frac{\text{CM} - 1}{2 \times \text{CM}} \left[ \text{Crit Tier} \times (\text{CM} + 1) - 1 \right]
Where "CM" is the weapon's critical multiplier after mods and other buffs.
==Acolytes==
<tabber>Angst=
|-|Malice=
|-|Mania=
|-|Misery=
|-|Torment=
|-|Violence=
</tabber>
==Notes== 
*Because they are dropped as mystery items in the form of a Mod item, Arcanes dropped by Acolytes in Steel Path can be sucked up and permanently destroyed by Scavenger Drones.
*Acolyte spawns take the place of regular spawns and are not timed. This means you will see them spawn more frequently with more frequent enemy spawns and less often with slow spawns, stopping entirely if normal spawns stop for any reason.
==Tips==
*As of , Acolytes are neutral to every element.
*Due to their damage reduction, certain types of weapons are more effective than others:
**Beam weapons such as the are notably weakest against them.
**AOE (Area of Effect) projectiles such as the () and detonated Thrown Melees perform very well against them.
==Trivia== 
*The Acolytes' appearances are generally a Warframe with attachments either from other Warframes or Warframe Cosmetics such as armor pieces, Syandanas, or skins, and the Stalker's helmet in lieu of their default helmets;
**Angst uses 's body with her Immortal Skin and the Vanquished Syandana.
**Malice uses 's body without his shoulder armor and wears bits of machinery on his arms.
**Mania uses 's body with his Immortal Skin as well as a Daedalus shoulder plate on his left arm.
**Misery uses ' body with the Kyroptera Syandana, 's loincloth and a Daedalus chest plate as an impromptu codpiece.
**Torment uses 's body with some of 's front tassels on her waist, a Naberus shoulder plate on her right arm and an Eos chest plate as an impromptu codpiece.
**Violence uses 's body with Hulta shoulder plates.
*Though their origins are disputed, Alad V calling them "betrayers" implies they may be Tenno themselves. 
**However, Misery states, "Betrayers will die," as well as saying, "These children will not stop us," implying that he knows the Tenno's true nature. All of this pointing that the Acolytes are just as separated from the Tenno as the Stalker himself.
*When played backward, some intelligible speech can be heard in the audio taunts the Acolytes use. The messages contained are as follows: 
*#We are the Stalker's revenge.
*#The end has come to take you, Tenno.
*#You're just a puppet, Tenno.
*#We fight for the Stalker. This is the end for you.
*#You cannot kill what you cannot see.
*#All you know is lost(?). You are nothing.
*#We are Shadows. You are just a suit.
*#You are nothing.
*Acolytes in Steel Path reuse dialogue from Operation: Shadow Debt which references Alad V, despite no longer having anything to do with him.
===Pre- Acolyte Appearance Durations===
 	First Sightings 	Last Acolyte's Defeat 	Total Duration
Operation: Shadow Debt	January 25, 2016 (PC)April 14, 2016 (Consoles)	February 6, 2016 (PC)April 22, 2016 (Consoles) 	1 week, 4 days (PC)1 week, 1 day (Consoles)
First Reappearance 	July 29, 2016 (All Platforms) 	~August 8, 2016 (All Platforms) 	~1 week, 3 days (All Platforms)
Second Reappearance 	February 10, 2017 (All Platforms) 	February 16, 2017 (All Platforms) 	6 days (All Platforms)
Third Reappearance 	December 21, 2017 (All Platforms) 	December 28, 2017 (All Platforms) 	1 week (All Platforms)
Fourth Reappearance 	August 7, 2018 (All Platforms) 	August 14, 2018 (All Platforms) 	1 week (All Platforms)
Fifth Reappearance 	January 25, 2019 (All Platforms) 	February 1, 2019 (PC)February 3, 2019 (PS4/XB1)February 9, 2019 (Switch) 	1 week (PC)1 week, 2 days (PS4/XB1)2 weeks, 1 day (Switch)
Sixth Reappearance 	February 7, 2020 (All Platforms) 	February 14, 2020 (PC)February 18, 2020 (PS4)February 23, 2020 (XB1)March 20, 2020 (Switch)	1 week (PC)1 week, 4 days (PS4)2 weeks, 2 days (XB1)6 weeks (Switch)
===Pre- Mod Drops===
Angst 	
4.04% 	
22.22% 	
22.22% 	
51.52%
Mania 	
4.04% 	
22.22% 	
22.22% 	
51.52%
Torment 	
4.04% 	
22.22% 	
22.22% 	
51.52%
Violence	
4.04% 	
22.22% 	
22.22% 	
51.52%
Malice 	
4.04% 	
22.22% 	
22.22% 	
51.52%
Misery 	Drops all of the above mods.	Drops all of the above mods.	Drops all of the above mods.	Drops all of the above mods.
===Operation: Shadow Debt Mechanics===
Finding and defeating the Acolytes is a community effort. Once an Acolyte is defeated, another one will take its place.
====Hunting the Acolytes====
An Acolyte can randomly appear on the Star Chart, indicated in the World State Window, where players must then hunt down the Acolyte by finding which node on which planet it appears. Once the Acolyte has been found, its location is displayed in the World State Window for all players to see; like the Stalker, acolytes may appear in modified versions of the mission node, such as in Kuva Lich controlled nodes. Unlike other enemies, Acolytes cannot be killed in a single mission. Instead, players must engage the Acolyte in a mission and deal as much damage to it as they can. The damage received by the Acolyte accumulates as more players encounter and deal damage to it over several missions, with its total remaining health displayed on the World State Window. Only when its total health has been depleted will the Acolyte be eliminated. The Acolyte will stay in the node where it is found until it receives a certain amount of damage to its total health, after which it will disappear from the node to relocate to another node, thus requiring players to search for the Acolyte's location again. If the Acolyte switches to a different Node while the players are on a mission to kill it, the Acolyte will still spawn provided it hasn't spawned yet and the right tile is found.
====Spawning====
The Acolyte will only spawn in the mission if one player enters a room of the map randomly chosen at the start of the mission where the Acolyte is supposedly hidden. When a player enters this room, the screen will flicker with a violet hue similar to the warning signs for the Stalker, and the Acolyte will send messages to the player before spawning a few seconds later and engaging in battle. During such an encounter, the Acolyte will disappear after receiving enough damage, if the players go down, or a certain amount of time after the start of the encounter has passed. The Acolyte will only drop a mod from their drop table if they left from receiving enough damage. However, if they leave because too much time has passed or the player(s) are killed, there is no dropped reward.
====Behavior====
All Acolytes, similar to the Stalker, will perform 's on a single target to counteract any Tenno who attempts to avoid their wrath by standing on top of raised objects. They can also teleport any Tenno who tries to flee into another room. Lastly, as a fail-safe, they can teleport directly to a room in which a Tenno hides in instantaneously should they get too far away (as they have been known to spawn across the map by accident), staggering any Tenno they happen to reappear on top of. This fail-safe teleport is different from 's (used by Mania) and 's (used by Angst) as it can only be performed if the Acolyte is in a room with no Tenno present, but is also instant with no animation delay or particle effects.
==Patch History==
==See Also==
*Stalker
*Shadow Stalker
es:Acólito
fr:Acolytes
ru:Послушники Сталкера
Category:Enemies
Category:Stalker
Category:Update 18