Overview: A traumatised berserker recovered from Alad V on Jupiter, Valkyr vents her madness on any foe foolish enough to get close.

Prime: Valkyr prime is currently vaulted, meaning that you’ll need to ask friends and clanmates for relics, keep an eye on the trade channel or wait for an unvaulting event.

Special: Recover from knockdowns 50% faster and doesn’t trigger hard landings after a long drop – a nice little quality-of-life passive, but not anything special.

Pros: Very high innate armour that can be boosted further with abilities, some crowd-control and can make good use of Rage or Hunter Adrenaline because of her low shield.

Cons: Poor shield and average health, something of a one-trick pony due to Hysteria.

Powers: Rip Line (1) launches a cable that will (depending on the target) drag Valkyr to a piece of terrain or drag an ally/enemy to Valkyr, inflicting a burst of slash damage to an enemy. This ability will also be discounted and deal bonus damage if cast repeatedly in sequence. The Swing Line augment allows Valkyr to recast Rip Line (1) for free for a short period when airborne – good if you want to cosplay Spider-Man.

Warcry (2) boosts the armour and attack speed of nearby allies, while reducing the movement and attack speed of foes. This is a potent support ability that can dramatically improve the durability of a squad. Upgraded with the Eternal War augment, melee kills will increase the duration of the ability by a couple of seconds, allowing you to maintain the buff on you and your squad for a long duration without recasting.

Paralysis (3) drains 33% of your shields to stun nearby foes and deal minor impact damage, setting them up for finisher attacks – notably, this power costs no energy to use. Equipping the Prolonged Paralysis augment will drag foes closer to you and triple the duration of the stun.

Hysteria (4) extends a set of lethal, life-stealing talons with a high critical chance, while preventing Valkyr from suffering incoming damage. The energy drain of this ability increases over time, making it very difficult to maintain, and Valkyr will take a portion of the prevented damage if Hysteria (4) ends with an enemy nearby – a small aura will appear that marks the dangerous area. You can also add in the Hysterical Assault augment, allowing you to leap on foes by aiming while tapping melee – or Enraged, giving Hysteria (4) a 15 duration and cooldown in return for +200% damage and critical chance!

Opinion: Valkyr is a durable frame, capable of surviving most content. She has at least some support capability (though limited) and can provide a bit of crowd-control. Unfortunately, she feels somewhat outclassed these days – quite a few frames can match her in terms of effective health (Inaros) while others possess forms of limited invulnerability (Baruuk) and though her talons are good, a well built melee weapon can deal horrifying amounts of damage too. There are a whole lot of other options out there (often with rather more flashy powers) but Valkyr is fairly usable – and I could see her being a good pick for someone who wants to get up close and personal, switching between Hysteria (4) and a shotgun. I can’t really recommend her for any game type, but she should perform well when raw incoming damage is an issue.