Warframe Companion Rework 2.0: Is Smeeta Kavat getting nerfed?

With Warframe's Companion Rework 2.0 inbound soon, the biggest point of contention is about the most popular pet: Is Smeeta Kavat getting nerfed after all? For the vast majority of players, the answer is no. In a roundabout way, the upcoming changes are actually a buff for everyone's favorite loot-duplication kitty.

Yet still, Smeeta Kavat will likely not reclaim her position as the top meta-favoured pet. This is because her Charm buff is losing the resource-boosing part, which is now a standalone mod slottable on any beast companion. Furthermore, entrepreneurial Tenno, who min-maxed Charm to get high loot multiplication, will have little use for her now.

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Warframe Companion Rework 2.0: Why is Smeeta Kavat on the developers' radar?

A demonstration of Smeeta's abilities (Image via Digital Extremes)

Smeeta Kavat's Charm precept mod is the bread-and-butter of this companion. This mod is the sole reason why Smeeta has been one of the most used companions, regardless of mission type.

So what does Charm do? Every 27 seconds you spend on a mission, Smeeta has a 28% chance to bestow you with "good fortune." This can be any one of six possible buffs, which includes fixing your Critical Chance to 200%, a full energy refund on your next ability cast, instant weapon reload on your next attempt, and so on.

The specific reason is one specific Charm buff among these: Doubled Pickups and Affinity. Each time you get Charm, it has a 10% chance to give you 120 seconds of double resource drops and affinity from all sources. This bonus resource also stacks with Resource Boosters, creating possible scenarios where you can increase your drops manyfold.

For this reason, it's not all too uncommon for players on a static endurance mission like Survival to delay picking up loot. Players will let the tileset full of goodies simmer—including Steel Essence, Riven Sliver, or Vitus Essence—and start collecting only after they get that specific Charm buff.

This is why Smeeta's Charm has long been a subject of careful scrutiny for Digital Extremes. On the one hand, it's the sole reason Smeeta is the fan-favorite. On the other hand, many Warframe players dislike the static gameplay it incentivizes for min-maxing.

As the developers explained in the dev workshop for Koumei and The Five Fates:

"In our fast-paced game about space ninjas, we want to reward players who are mobile and actively engaging with enemies, so we have re-engineered the effect to be always active."

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The most important part of Smeeta's Charm is a standalone mod now

After the Warframe update on October 2, Smeeta Kavat's Charm will only provide 3x Affinity. This update will also introduce an all-new companion mod called Loyal Retriever, which provides a 13% chance that each resource or credit pickup will be doubled. This passive is always active during gameplay, no conditions or downtimes apply.

Originally, Charm only had a roughly 2.8% chance to give you the double resource buff every 27 seconds. In other words, if you equip this new mod, you still get roughly the same loot from regular gameplay in the long run.

Where does this leave Smeeta? No longer at the top of Warframe's pet food chain. The affinity boost buff makes her a good fairweather friend for farming Focus on Sanctuary Onslaught, but no more buff-stacking shenanigans to get quadruple loots.

On the other hand, there's another way Smeeta technically got buffed, alongside all her fellow feline companions. Beast pets in Warframe now get their own moddable weapon, giving them the leeway to be far more effective at combat rather than just utility.

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Check out our other guides on the game:

• Everything we know about Warframe 1999
• All Warframes tier list
• Warframe Incarnon weapons tier list
• Kuva weapons tier list
• Tenet weapons tier list