Warframe Hydroid Pilfering Swarm build guide: Best mods, equipment, and more

Hydroid, the infamously useless Warframe for half a decade, now has become more relevant after receiving a long-awaited rework in the Abyss of Dagath update. Originally introduced in Update 13, its previous ability design suffered from a prominent lack of synergy with itself and the changing pace of the game. Now that these issues have been addressed, Hydroid has reclaimed his place as a loot-accelerant Warframe.

The centerpiece to his reputation as a farming-oriented frame is the Pilfering Swarm, an augment mod on his Tentacle Swarm ability.

The Tentacle Swarm spawns a self-explanatory cluster of tentacles in an area, which assists in crowd-controlling enemies while also dealing a token amount of damage. The augment mod makes it so that all enemies damaged by this ability have a chance to drop extra loot.

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Warframe Hydroid Tentacle Swarm build for farming Steel Path

Best Warframe Hydroid farming build with Pilfering Swarm and Viral Barrage (Image via Digital Extremes)

The Pilfering Swarm increases the loot-drop chance of all affected enemies by 100%. This is, to date, the highest amount of extra chance for a target to drop extra mods or resources in Warframe. For reference, this is comparable to Khora's Pilfering Strangledome, which grants only 65% chance for extra loot in comparison.

The Abyss of Dagath rework has made it so that the Tentacle Swarm is more consistent with grabbing enemies and makes them easier to shoot. However, there are a few caveats you need to be aware of:

• The ability does not affect Eximus units.
• It also does not affect Arbitration drones in Arbitration, meaning it is not useful for farming Vitus Essence.
• The overall efficiency of the abiltiy at dropping extra loot will depend on the placement of the Swarm.

Like the Pilfering Strangledome, the amount of success you gain from the Pilfering Swarm will depend on finding the correct room to camp in. Generally speaking, a room with two openings that lead to a choke point will yield the best results with enemy-spawn traffic if you remain static.

The Tentacle Swarm's range is also an important metric to consider in Warframe. In the average Grineer galleon tileset, making its range too high will lead to Swarms extending its range beyond the room. Meanwhile, too little range will cause issues with the Tempest Barrage's hitbox.

125% ability range is the sweet spot for a good synergy between your Swarm and other abilities in the average close corridor setting. Other than this, you should get as much ability duration as possible without completely sacrificing other stats.

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Warframe Hydroid solo farming setup: Companions and equipment

Nautilus build synergy with Hydroid for farming Steel Path solo in Warframe (Image via Digitial Extremes)

Like Khora, what makes Hydroid truly shine is in a solo farming setup. Thanks to the extra drop chance, you can coast along Survival missions without worrying about life-capsule deficiency.

The newly gained ability to completely armor-strip enemies alongside the companion rework makes Hydroid the most comfortable solo-farm setup in the Steel Path. For this synergy to work, you need a beam weapon that can quickly dispatch enemies without running into ammunition problems, such as the Incarnon Torid or the Gaze Kitgun.

You can use a Helminth ability like Ivara's Quiver to safeguard Hydroid from harm. Then cast Tentacle Swarm along chokepoints in a room, and pop Tempest Barrage as necessary to prime enemies with Viral.

The Nautilus Sentinel is the other piece of this puzzle. The Cordon precept will drag enemies into Swarm's range, while the Manifold Bond will reduce its cooldown for almost permanent uptime. With this setup, you can simply hold a choke point forever sans the Acolyte invasions and resets needed to pick up loot now and then.