Let’s be honest—I’ve been a Tenno for longer than some of the Grineer Queens have been ugly, and yet I still find myself crawling back to the infested mess that is Deimos just to gather one more Warframe. But if you’re here, you’ve probably had the same thought I did: “I want to raise the dead, terrify my enemies, and generate so much loot that my Orbiter’s vacuum cleaner files a complaint.” You, my friend, want Nekros. And in 2026, he remains one of the most delightfully morbid frames you can strap onto your Operator. So grab a coffee, or maybe an entire Cetus fish stew, because I’m about to tell you exactly how to unlock this bony loot-goblin with maximum style and minimum controller throwing.

Why Nekros? Because Dead Things are Friends, Not Food

Before I start whining about boss fights, let’s talk about why you’d even want a frame that looks like he lost a fight with a blender full of bones. Nekros isn’t just edgy fashionframe; he’s a walking loot factory with a PhD in psychological warfare. His entire kit revolves around exploiting the dead and the living alike. Soul Punch marks a target and turns them into one of your shadowy minions if they die while marked. Terrify sends enemies screaming like they’ve just seen a Kubrodon with a tax collector’s badge, stripping their armor in the process. Desecrate is the reason you’ll never run out of resources again—every nearby corpse gets an extra chance to drop goodies. And Shadows of the Dead? You get a squad of undead meat shields that were trying to kill you seconds ago. Who needs friends when you can force your enemies into eternal servitude?

Is this morally questionable? Absolutely. Does the Corpus HR department have any jurisdiction over necromancy? Probably not. Am I going to use Nekros to farm Orokin Cells until the Void cries? You bet your Forma stockpile I am.

The Price of Undead Friendship: 100,000 Credits and a Trip to Hell

Now, how do we actually get this skeletal overlord? The first step is deceptively simple. Visit the Market on your Orbiter and purchase Nekros’s main Blueprint for a base price of 100,000 Credits. That’s pocket change for any Tenno who’s sold a few duplicate Oberon parts. But don’t go celebrating yet—the main BP is just the appetizer. To actually bake the cake, you’ll need his Neuroptics, Chassis, and Systems blueprints. And those only drop from one of the most gloriously revolting bosses in the game: Lephantis.

“Wait,” you might say, “I beat Vor when I was still wearing the starter Excalibur and a dream. How bad can one infested boss be?” Oh, sweet summer Tenno. Lephantis isn’t just a boss; he’s a three-headed nightmare that makes the Jackal look like a malfunctioning roomba. And he lurks on Deimos, in the Magnacidium node, specifically the Assassination mission. If you haven’t unlocked Deimos yet, it’s time to progress through the Star Chart and maybe sacrifice a goat to RNGesus while you’re at it.

Meet Lephantis: The Three-Headed Reason You’ll Regret Melee

Lephantis is a massive Infested monstrosity with three distinct heads: the Infested Corpus, the Infested Grineer, and the Ancient Infested. Each head has its own attack patterns, and they all hate you equally. Oh, and the boss fight has two phases. Phase one lets you fight each head one at a time (sort of), and phase two merges them into a single super head that uses ALL attack patterns simultaneously. Because why have one nightmare when you can have an entire sleep paralysis episode?

Here’s the critical mistake I made on my first attempt: I brought a melee weapon. Do you know what happens when you try to hit Lephantis with a sword? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, except you get slapped across the room. Melee is useless in this fight. You absolutely must bring a ranged or projectile weapon. Bows, rifles, shotguns—if it goes pew or boom from a distance, it’s your new best friend. I recommend something with high damage per shot and good accuracy because you’ll be aiming for weak spots.

Lephantis Head Attack Patterns and Cheese Avoidance

Every head has a conspicuous red spot—the universal Warframe sign for “Shoot Here, Genius!” Focus all your fire on these weak points. And when phase two rolls around, you get the joy of dealing with all three attack types at once. My advice? Use a frame that can take a hit or has some form of damage mitigation. In 2026, I still see players bringing Rhino for Iron Skin or Revenant for Mesmer Skin, just to ignore the chaos. I personally used Wisp for the passive invisibility while airborne, but I also died a lot because I was jumping around like a caffeine-addicted Mite.

Farming Lephantis: The Real Endgame

Once you slay the three-headed horror, you’ll be rewarded with one random Nekros component blueprint. Yes, one. It could be Neuroptics, Chassis, or Systems. It could also be the same one you already have, because RNG loves you like the Stalker loves ruining your Lith relic run.

Be prepared to run this mission multiple times. In my 2026 experience, I had to kill Lephantis 9 times to finally get the Systems—and that’s considered lucky. Some Tenno have run it 20+ times. Bring a farming frame like Nekros… oh wait, you don’t have him yet. The irony is not lost on me. Instead, bring a resource booster if you can, but that won’t help the blueprint drops. The only real tip is to bring a strong weapon, a tanky frame, and an audiobook, because you’re going to become very familiar with Lephantis’s screeching.

Lephantis Quick-Farm Checklist for 2026 Tenno

• ☑️ Ranged weapon with high burst damage (Snipers, Vectis Prime, or a well-modded Kuva Bramma if you like explosions near your own face)

• ☑️ A Warframe that can survive toxic clouds and scythe swings (Rhino, Inaros, Revenant, or even Lavos with his chunky health)

• ☑️ Patience. Maybe a comfy chair. Possibly a stress ball.

• ☑️ Access to the Magnacidium node on Deimos (requires completion of the Heart of Deimos quest and the appropriate junctions)

• ☑️ 100,000 Credits sitting in your pocket, and extra for crafting costs later

Crafting Your Own Reaper: From Blueprint to Bone Daddy

After you’ve beaten Lephantis into a puddle of Infested tears and collected all three component blueprints, head back to your Foundry. The crafting requirements for Nekros are standard—Neuroptics, Chassis, Systems require typical resources like Alloy Plate, Nano Spores, Polymer Bundles, and the ever-present Orokin Cells. The main blueprint will then be craftable using those parts. Total build time: 12 hours per component and 3 days for the frame itself, unless you’ve stockpiled enough Platinum to rush it. I never rush. I like to let the anticipation build, like a liche conversion that’s actually going to work this time.

While you wait, why not start practicing your evil laugh? You’ll need it. When Nekros finally steps out of the Foundry, you’ll have a Warframe that turns every survival mission into a loot piñata party and every defense into a moral conundrum for the enemy team. “Are we the baddies?” the Grineer will ask, as their fallen comrades rise to shoot them. Yes, yes we are.

Parting Thoughts from a Salty Veteran

Unlocking Nekros in 2026 isn’t much different than it was years ago. The grind still exists, Lephantis is still gross, and you’ll still occasionally forget to switch from your melee-only loadout and cry softly. But the payoff is worth it. There’s nothing quite like watching a room full of enemies flee in terror while you vacuum up twice the loot. Nekros is a staple for resource farming, and he’s also just fun in a dark, gothic way that makes Harrow look like a choir boy.

So go forth, Tenno. Punch those souls, desecrate those corpses, and remember: the only thing better than killing your enemies is making them work for you afterward. And if RNG is cruel, just remember—every duplicate blueprint is just 3,500 Credits in your pocket. That’s only like 28 more Lephantis kills until you break even on the main blueprint cost. Silver linings, right?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to use Nekros to farm for… more Nekros parts. Because why not? The infested never sleep, and neither does my loot addiction.