Want to blink through the shadows, dealing death to the unwary? Want to teleport behind foes, give them a Colombian necktie and vanish in a cloud of smoke? Ash might be the frame for you – collect his component blueprints from Grineer Manics, and his main blueprint from the market. Note, Manics announce their presence with a crazed laugh, and tend to spawn in Grineer defection/survival at around 10 mins.

Prime: Ash prime is currently vaulted, so you’ll have to ask friends and clanmates, try your luck on the trade channel or simply wait for an unvaulting event if you want to obtain this variant. Ash prime comes with higher shields, armour and sprint speed.

Special: Any slash status effects you inflict deal 25% more damage and last 50% longer. A solid (if uninspiring) passive that becomes very useful in higher difficulty content.

Pros: Good health and decent speed give you a reasonable baseline to work from, but the ability to turn invisible is the real kicker. Used well, Ash is nigh-on untouchable, with high manoeuvrability and effective damaging powers – along with augment mods to support allies.

Cons: Ash is something of a one-trick pony by default, turn invisible, stab, repeat ad-nauseam. He’s not great for controlling crowds or defending objectives either.

Powers: Hurl a Shuriken (1) at tough foes to inflict a bleed status effect – and if you use the Seeking Shuriken augment, reduce or remove their armour for 8 seconds. The armour reduction of Seeking Shuriken is affected by power strength, with a default of 70%.

What would a ninja would be without a Smoke Screen (2) to render themselves invisible for a short period – and with the Smoke Shadow augment, conceal nearby allies. Use this to escape a dangerous situation or to set up a lethal melee attack – remember that you get a hefty damage multiplier against unarmed enemies with melee strikes.

Ash is designed to be the assassin in a game about space ninjas, so make the most of it by targeting tough enemies and obliterating them with Teleport (3) transporting you to a target and opening them for a finisher attack – try it alongside the Fatal Teleport augment for a more powerful automatic finisher. Finisher attacks have a large damage multiplier depending on the weapon, and bypass armour.

Finally we come to Blade Storm (4) a toggled ability that marks foes you look at while active, reserving energy per victim (less if you are invisible while marking) and generating shadow clones to assault marked targets for armour ignoring damage and bleed status effects. Each target can have up to three marks, and you can cast Teleport (3) on a marked target while the clones are out to join in the killing spree – you could also try out the Rising Storm augment to greatly boost your melee combo counter.

Opinion: Ash is a good choice for a player wanting a stealthy frame that can take a hit and relies on killing rather than trickery – so consider taking him for spy, rescue, and exterminate missions. In short, he’s a solid frame that can deal a lot of damage – but don’t expect him to win any team-player awards without using augments. Because of his focus on bleed attacks, ability to remove armour, access to finisher attacks and invisibility, Ash is also a great contender for Steel Path missions.