The idea of a warframe that is based on the philosophical concept of an ever-living creature symbolizing “the death or renewal” cycle has been floating around for awhile. In this case, it’s about the rabbit being reborn annually and eternal life as we know in nature. A picture accompanying this article is from one such iteration with many references to ancient mythology and esoteric symbolism
Hello! I’ve always wanted to see a rabbit-themed Warframe, and with the Year of the Rabbit approaching next year, I wanted to see if I could offer a Rabbit-themed Warframe that would fit in with the existing roster and mythology while still having a distinct kit. Below is what I’ve come up with, and I’d want to share it with you and get some feedback! Please accept my apologies in advance; it’s a little longwinded, and I’ve probably wasted too much time on something that won’t happen.
For begin, coming up with a Warframe just based on the notion of rabbits doesn’t really lend itself to a complete, intriguing kit, so in order to produce a kit possibly distinctive and interesting, I drew thematic concepts from the fabled figure of the rabbit.
Moon Rabbit, a creature from eastern legend, will be used to link the Warframe to Lua and increase kit options, as well as allowing for a return to Lua for a mini-storyline concerning the new Warframe’s inclusion.
In creating a one-of-a-kind kit, I also wanted to look at a frequently overlooked status effect that may work well with this frame’s kit design, which is based on a Moon Rabbit frame: Lifted.
To attempt to ground this kit, I’ve added some Warframe wiki-style math and stats, but I’ll keep them to image links where it makes sense to avoid having too much text here (and to be able to post it). With that, the foundation for the mythology of Lua: Lepus has been laid.
This story is based on a Lua folklore narrative that was formerly considered to be lost. This is Lepus, the arcane and exuberant.
Will you see the hunters become the prey under the moon’s glare, Tenno?
Part 1: Stats & Abilities
Lepus
75 years of good health (225)
150 – Shield (450)
150 lbs. of armor
200 watts of power (300)
Lepus is a passive creature with exceptional leaping ability. Jump strength increased by 200 percent, while hard landing recovery time was reduced by 90 percent.
Lepus derives its strength from Lua, who is shown as a moon silhouette that may be cycled through its phases. Lepus’ energy level is also represented as a distinctive circular gauge surrounding the silhouette, since he is reliant on plentiful energy utilization.
Lunar Vaulting is the first ability.
Cost of Energy: $25
The ability is channeled and drains 3 energy every opponent struck.
Lepus harnesses Lua’s energy to energise his leaping powers, obtaining a 20% boost to Bullet Jumps, a 50% bonus to Bullet Jumps, an additional double jump, and an extra bullet jump. Lepus’ Bullet Jumps and hard landings will also create a fissure of lunar energy, which will lift nearby foes and deliver genuine, scaling damage.
Math and statistics are two subjects that I like.
1st of August – Vortex Spring After a brief interval, enemies caught in Lepus’ bullet leap and shockwave landings are vortexed inwards and carried along Lepus’ bullet jump route. Energy Cost scaling is restricted at 10 opponents struck as a passive.
Lunar Impetus (Augment 2) Lepus may charge his Bullet Leap while crouching and holding jump for increased power, speed, radius, and damage. The radius and damage of shockwave landings are also affected by charging. While charging in mid-air, the aerial velocity is interrupted. Scales up to x3 and appears as a level charge near the shooting reticle.
Apex Sensory Ability 2 (Subsumable)
Cost of Energy: $50
Cost of channeling: 0.85 base per second, 8.5 maximum
When cornered, Lepus retaliates with a vengeance. Within a 14-meter radius, Lepus emits a proximity aura that enhances evasiveness per adversary. When foes are within range of Lepus’ melee, he has guaranteed Lifted status. Lepus also obtains a damage boost for every opponent in range with the Lifted state.
Math and statistics are two subjects that I like.
Lunar Cycle is the third ability.
Cost of Energy: $75
Capacity to be passive
Lepus may manage numerous passive bonuses based on the current Moon phase by drawing from all corners of Lua. Keeping down the ability key cycles among buffs, and holding it down for 15 seconds amplifies the buff at the expense of energy. The following are the phases’ choices and buffs:
New Moon (Invisibility) –> Crescent Moon (Slash) –> Half-Moon (Health & Energy) –> Gibbous Moon (Loot) –> Full Moon (Blinding)
The current RL Moon phase determines the cycle chosen upon mission commencement.
Ability Duration has an impact on the duration of amplified benefits.
New Moon – Kills for 10 seconds on foes afflicted by Lifted cloak Lepus and may be refreshed. Although the held version only offers 5 seconds of invisibility, kills add seconds to the remaining duration, bringing the total to 30 seconds. Ability Duration modifications influence passive, amped, and limit duration, as well as duration delivered on kills. When cycling to subsequent stages, invisibility will carry over its remaining time.
Crescent Moon – Critical strikes with all weapons on adversaries in elevated state have a 20% chance of inflicting a slash condition. A 40% possibility exists for the held version. Ability Strength modifiers impact the chance of creating slash state, which is capped at 90%. Hidden Passive: Gives all attacks a 100% chance to kill with gore.
Half-Moon — Kills on Lifted foes return 10 energy and health each kill. The held version recovers 20 energy and health every kill, with a 50% chance that foes will drop either an energy or a health ball. Ability Strength modifications effect the quantity of health and energy regained as well as the likelihood of foes dropping orbs.
Gibbous Moon – When enemies are slain by Lifted, they have a 40% chance of rolling additional drops. The held variant has an 80% probability and also assures a roll for the ammunition for your current weapon type. Mods have no effect on the chance of rolling drops.
Full Moon – Attacks against adversaries with elevated status have a 20% chance of inducing a radial blind effect on the adversary, blinding enemies within 10 meters for 5 seconds. The held version will inflict a 15-second blind from Lepus’ location, impacting foes in a 20-meter radius. Ability Strength modifications have no effect on the chance of becoming blind. Enemies that are blinded are vulnerable to melee finishers and stealth damage bonuses. Ability Range modifications influence blind range for both passive and amplified versions. Ability Duration modifications impact blind duration in both passive and amplified forms.
Exilus Enhancement – Insanity. The ability key is deactivated when toggled or held down. After 10 seconds, phases are auto cycled at random with no delay in activation and are amplified at no expense.
Moonrise is the fourth ability.
Cost of Energy: $50
Cost of channeling: 50 cents per second
Lepus takes a posture to focus his energies on producing a surrogate Moon that lifts foes within its area of effect. At an extra energy expenditure, Lepus may charge Moonrise to scale the Moon’s size, range, and duration.
Math and statistics are two subjects that I like.
Allies inside the Moonrise radius will gain the full benefits of any passive or active Lunar Cycle boost, with the phase reflected graphically on the summoned Moon.
Eternal Night – Augment Kills on foes impacted by Moonrise add 1 second to Moonrise’s overall duration. Ability Duration has no bearing on the amount of time added.
Part 2: Design Motifs, including User Experience and User Interface
I’m not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, so I can only speculate about Lepus’s prospective design as well as the design philosophy that surrounds his appearance and equipment.
Design ideas in general: Rabbits (ofc), lithe, more constructed around the legs to emphasize agility, with a body form that is more comparable to Volt than Nezha. To enhance leaping ability, ‘Digitigrade’ built feet with rocket heels. While channeling Lunar Vaulting, rocket heels leave rifts of lunar energy behind. Yes, the default helmet has erect ears, but they aren’t overdone to the point of being ludicrous like the Lepus headgear. Nova Prime’s helmet has a similar design idea, with moving pieces rather than hanging mechanics. Instead of a ‘lop earred’ design, an alternative helmet design may have a ‘lop earred’ design. If any artists are interested in working on this ‘project,’ I would be delighted to cooperate with you and commission a design!
Lepus would have a moon symbol with the current cycling phase on display, similar to how Garuda’s passive has a gauge above her ability bar. The circular energy gauge was included to pull more emphasis away from glancing at the bottom right corner too much, since I sought to design a kit around avoiding bottom-right syndrome, with no unusual duration management (i.e. Chroma, Mirage, Octavia) diverting attention away from looking ahead.
I believe that overall sound design for abilities should include more on spatial and ‘night feeling’ elements. Here’s a sampled sound of Moonrise being triggered as a basic baseline for the ability sounds: http://www.sndup.net/hfwb
Thought process on abilities: I felt compelled to include some form of leap ability, but I wanted it to be more intriguing than that. Lunar Vaulting is essentially one of the elemental parkour modifications with the added bonus of being a separate ability. Apex Sensory was also created to address a demand for anything related to rabbits, such as when they are hunted as prey or when a trapped animal fights back. The stacking damage buff should provide an incentive to focus the majority of the damage buff on tougher enemies (i.e. jumping into or meleeing a crowd of enemies and using the damage buff to target an eximus first), and as a consumable, it provides an alternative to, say, Eclipse, where the buff isn’t immediate, but there’s no cap and it gives you a survivability stat of some sort (and for Lepus himself, I can imagine silly subsumable synergies I understand that evasion is a divisive survival trait due to its anti-synergy with mods like Adaptation, but it seemed more appropriate for a rabbit frame than damage reduction. While I think it’s almost tacky to just do a “moon frame uses moon phases and makes a moon” type of deal, I’m pretty happy with how they’re currently tuned, though I think there could be more tuning done with the phases (Crescent buff feels a bit one note) and I fear Moonrise may be overtuned, but I think the uniquely heavy energy cost helps justify it a bit?
In summary, Lepus is a CC frame that either focuses in on targets to take out or locks down a (quite large) region at a significant energy cost. In terms of CC, damage evasion, and bonuses on CC’d adversaries, I’d compare him to Zephyr, with a side of Octavia’s metronome boosts. I’m hoping that his kit will allow for a lot of build variation, like as concentrating on augments or possible helminth synergies.
Please accept my apologies for the lengthy content, and thank you for taking the time to read it all if you did.
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