Warframe hardmode Vor boss guide (Janus Captain Vor)

Captain Vor is an iconic villain in Warframe and the first boss you’ll encounter in the game. Before the Isleweaver update, there were only two variants of Vor in the game: Captain Vor and Corrupted Vor. Both of them also come in a Steel Path variant. As time went by, fights with them became as simple as any regular mob, but you can now fight a superjuiced version of this boss called Janus Captain Vor.

Fighting the Janus variant is challenging, both solo and in squads, as the boss's HP scales based on the number of players in the team.

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How to summon Janus Captain Vor in Warframe

Console outside boss room (Image via Digital Extremes)

Janus Captain Vor can only spawn during the Assassination mission on Tolstoj, Mercury. To summon the new boss, you must enter a secret code in a console outside the boss's room. To find this code, you need to locate Orokin glyphs within the map.

However, this is the tricky part, as they are invisible to everyone except Operator/Drifter. This means upon entering each room, you must go into the Operator mode and look for the glyphs. There will be a total of four in pairs of two, so you only need to find two.

Code to summon Janus Captain Vor (Image via Digital Extremes)

These glyphs are the codes that will appear on top of the console to help you crack the console security. Finding them can be a hassle, but you can skip the process, as the code remains the same each time you fight the boss. The image shown above is the secret code you need to enter before fighting the boss.

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How to defeat Janus Captain Vor in Warframe

Janus Captain Vor using Janus Key (Image via Digital Extremes)

Summoning the boss was the easy part. Now, you must fight the Level 375 boss with over 5.7 million health and over 375K shields. Janus Captain Vor can also disable Warframe abilities and boasts a 90% damage reduction that cannot be lowered. If that isn’t enough, he also has damage attenuation.

The combination of damage reduction and damage attenuation is what’s going to give you a tough time. Damage attenuation is an in-game mechanic that limits your damage output against certain enemies. This is done to make the fights more challenging and prevent you from one-shotting bosses.

There isn’t an effective way to bypass damage attenuation. Dealing sustained damage will trigger this mechanic. The first bullet from a weapon or the initial hit from a Warframe’s ability will deal the highest amount of damage, following which, the damage will keep going lower.

However, with the amount of HP the boss has, there aren’t many weapons to take him down easily. Incarnon weapons like Dual Toxocyst and Burston Prime are effective in taking down the boss, but the fight will take some time to complete.

Janus Captain Vor boss mechanics

The health bar for the boss is divided into four parts, and the fight is divided into two phases. Here’s a breakdown for the fight:

Phase one

First arena for the boss fight (Image via Digital Extremes)

Janus Captain Vor will fight you solo and start dropping golden bubbles that can disable abilities. Avoid them at all costs and use a weapon with magnetic damage type to strip his shields at a faster rate. Once they are down, you can deal damage to the boss.

After depleting one health bar, the boss will go invincible and spawn eximus units. Defeat them to remove the invincibility and repeat the previous process. During this time, Vor will constantly attack you, so beware.

Phase Two

Jumping puzzle before second arena (Image via Digital Extremes)

After the second health bar is depleted, the boss will run away, and you must complete two jumping puzzles inside a narrow path to reach the next arena. All abilities and Operator mode are disabled during the puzzle, so it’s a matter of skill. All you need to do is jump or slide through the gap through the lasers moving towards you. Touching the laser will reset your location.

Second arena for the boss fight (Image via Digital Extremes)

The second arena is filled with water and five platforms. Captain Vor will spawn electric orbs across the platforms that will fire projectiles towards you. The damage strategy remains the same, and after you deplete the third health bar, the boss will go invincible again and spawn cannons on the arena walls that shoot you constantly.

Break the cannons to remove the invincibility and defeat the boss. During the fight, the platforms will occasionally go down, so take note of them while jumping. The fight will take some time to complete, so prioritize your survival.

Rewards for defeating Janus Captain Vor:

• Janus Key Sumdali
• Accolade Glyphs for defeating the boss solo using Khora (Prime), Hildryn (Prime), Limbo (Prime), Chroma (Prime), Atlas (Prime), and Citrine.

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How to stay alive during the Janus Captain Vor boss fight

Use Shield Gating to stay alive (Image via Digital Extremes)

Apart from dealing damage, you must also stay alive. Since self-revive isn’t allowed, the mission will fail if you die even once, unless you are in a team and someone helps you get up. Stacking up damage reduction and increasing HP is a good idea, but the best way to stay alive is by making use of Shield Gating mechanics.

After an enemy breaks your shield, you gain a few seconds of immortality due to Shield Gate mechanics. If you can increase shield regen and delay the recharge, it’s possible to keep the invincibility up for the majority of the fight’s duration.

Mods like Brief Respite, Fast Deflection, Vigilante Vigor, and Fortitude can massively improve shield recharge. Pairing them with Guardian Break ability for the Operator in the Vazarin focus, along with Arcane Aegis or Arcane Barrier, will improve survival.

Increase the rank for Guardian Break operator ability in Vazarin focus (Image via Digital Extremes)

All you need to do is go into Operator form and use the first ability (Guardian Break) any time you can. Additionally, equipping adaptation will also provide you with 90% damage reduction.

Another survival method is stacking air damage reduction, but the most effective way would be to do the boss fight with a team. This way, there won’t be a mission failure after you go down. Do note that dying while playing in a team will forfeit your reward.

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Check out our other guides for Warframe:

• All Warframes tier list
• Warframe Incarnon weapons tier list
• Warframe Kuva weapons tier list
• Warframe Coda weapons tier list
• Best weapons in Warframe for each Mastery Rank
• Warframe TennoCon 2025 roundup

Edited by Adarsh J Kumar