Overview: Clad in crystal armour, Gara forms molten glass rings then shatters them for massive area damage, while protecting herself and her allies with clouds of razor-sharp crystal. Try Gara if you want a tough, high damage frame with built in crowd-control – you can pick up the blueprint from the Saya’s Vigil quest and parts from bounties on the Plains of Eidolon.

Prime: The primed version of Gara gains additional health and armour. Relics containing her components can be found in most mission types, but I recommend:

• Blueprint: Xini (Eris) interception with a 14.29% chance on round 3 and 4.
• Neuroptics: Paimon (Europa) defence with a 14.29% chance on wave 5 and 10.
• Chassis: Hepit (Void) capture with an 11.11% chance.
• Systems: Xini (Eris) interception with a 10% chance on round 1 and 2.
• Syndicates can also offer these in relic reward packs.

I very much recommend you bring a Saryn or a similar long-distance “nuke” warframe to Xini, since the map is large with poor lines of sight.

Special: Periodically blind nearby enemies when in bright light, opening them to finisher attacks. Quite a powerful ability for a passive.

Pros: Can provide 90% damage resistance for self and team, can generate a barrier around objectives, can deal very high damage by shattering barriers, synergistic interactions between powers, power damage can be boosted by melee weapon mods, nice sound design and looks!

Cons: Can be very annoying to reapply Splinter Storm (2) to your team if you let it lapse, reliant on powers for survival.

Powers: Shattering Lash (1) sweeps a sword of glass in front of Gara, dealing damage based on your equipped melee mods – this ability can’t critically hit or apply status effects, so equip base damage and elemental damage mods on your weapon for the biggest impact. This power can be used to shatter the glass produced by Mass Vitrify (4) to deal a huge burst of damage to anything close to the ring. A good “stat stick” melee weapon choice is the Jaw sword, since it has the maximum riven disposition and a unique +100% melee damage syndicate mod called Blade of Truth from the Arbiters of Hexis.

Protect yourself and allies with Splinter Storm (2) granting a damage resistance buff and a harmful aura that accumulates extra damage from Spectrorage (3) and Mass Vitrify (4) explosions – or cast it on an enemy to increase their vulnerability to damage. The Mending Splinters augment will regenerate the health of buffed allies. You can use this ability to protect Eidolon Lures if you go on an Eidolon Hunt.

Spectrorage (3) conjures a set of floating mirrors that taunt enemies and reflect damage before exploding. Use it as a crowd control by placing it across a choke point, or with the Spectrosiphon augment to generate energy.

Mass Vitrify (4) is the final power in Gara’s arsenal, generating an expanding wall of glass that crystallises any foe caught inside, then solidifying in a defensive wall that enemies will have to batter down. You can detonate the wall with Shattering Lash (1) dealing it’s damage damage plus a bonus to all foes near the edge of the barrier, while any active Splinter Storms (2) that contact the expanding barrier will have their duration refreshed to full. This is a great tool for excavation and defence missions if you place it correctly – try casting it in mid air to increase the effective height of the wall.

Build: There’s a few ways you can build Gara, but there’s some statistical points you’d want to hit. The first is ability strength, since this will boost the damage reduction of Splinter Storm (2) to a maximum of 90% at 129% ability strength. The health of your Mass Vitrify (4) barrier is also affected by ability strength, as is the damage potential of Shattering Lash (1) so consider pushing up this statistic with intensify, blind rage, augur secrets and umbral intensify. You’ll also want to push your ability duration up, since Splinter Storm (2) can be awkward to maintain on multiple allies if you don’t have time to recover energy, and the expansion of Mass Vitrify (4) is governed by duration rather than range – so consider including augur message, continuity or constitution in your build. Range is less of an issue, but it will improve how many things you can hit with Shattering Lash (1) if you have space in your mod slots. Finally you’ll need to consider if you want to improve your armour. Gara prime only manages to reach 190 armour before mods (so it’s not a great way to stay alive, equating to 39% damage reduction, or 57% damage reduction with steel fiber) but any improvement to your armour will also boost the health of Mass Vitrify (4) barriers.

Opinion: Gara is a powerful frame but suffers from being very energy hungry, with Splinter Storm (2) especially annoying to refresh (or recast) if people stay spread out. Consequently I recommend putting at least one duration mod on her, to give you a bit more time before you need to “top up” your allies. Gara performs well in defence, mobile defence, excavation and survival missions, but does fine in any mission type.