Overview: Turn the infestation to your advantage as Nidus, parasitising foes and regenerating incoming damage. Complete The Glast Gambit quest and infested salvage missions to put him together.

Prime: Nidus Prime is currently available, boasting improved health, energy and armour.

Special: Nidus gains mutation stacks as he deals damage with powers, with each stack empowering his his abilities. In addition, when reduced to 0 health Nidus will consume 15 mutation stacks to activate Undying, restoring 50% of his health and becoming invulnerable for 5 seconds. Finally, Nidus gains additional power strength, armour, health energy and some health regeneration as he gains levels. You can tweak the mutation mechanic with the Abundant Mutation augment, allowing mutation to stack to 200 rather than the baseline 100, but giving Undying a 30 second cooldown.

Pros: Nidus performs extremely well in endless missions, with the ability to produce mutation stacks that multiply power damage – and the ability to sacrifice some mutation to self-revive. You can also support team mates with either bonus power strength or healing, if needed. He is also a great candidate for the Rage or Hunter Adrenaline mods, essentially giving him limitless energy.

Cons: The mutation mechanic fares poorly in short missions, and you may find yourself operating far below your potential. Nidus also lacks any form of shield, meaning that he can’t benefit from shield-gating.

Powers: Begin mutating by casting Virulence (1) to launch a wave of fungal growth in a line, dealing physical damage multiplied by your mutation stacks. Every enemy hit will return a portion of the energy spent casting this ability, meaning that it can pay for itself. The Teeming Virulence Augment will grant you a bonus to your primary weapon critical hit chance stat if you can hit 4 enemies at once.

Gather prey with Larva (2) to launch a ball of infested matter that detonates on impact or reactivation. Enemies near the Larva will be drawn into it, setting them up for a lethal Virulence (1) attack. The Larva Burst augment will allow you to detonate the Larva, dealing toxin damage based on the number of targets trapped inside.

Expend a single mutation stack to apply Parasitic Link (3) to an ally, giving both of you bonus power strength… or link with an enemy to disable them while transferring a portion of the damage you take. This is a pretty potent survival tool – you can resist a lot of fire with this.

Finally, use Ravenous (4) to create a fungal garden that heals allies and spawns maggots to gnaw on enemies at the cost of 3 mutation stacks – a good choice any time you are trying to hold a point. The Insatiable augment grants a chance to double any mutation stack gains while standing in the garden!

Opinion: Nidus can be really strong, but he is very, very dependent on his mutation mechanic. You need to be spamming Virulence (1) and Larva (2) to maintain a high stack count, and this can feel pretty limiting – so consider trying Natural Talent to speed things up. He’s a good pick for survival and defence missions where he has time to build mutation, but much less effective for exterminate and capture.