INTRODUCTION

Up to date with changes to [Garuda]'s abilities (March 2022). Now that [Garuda]'s passive has changed from being based on missing health to the number of kills, there is now no reason to run a traditional 2hp/quick thinking/tank build. Helminth options such as Gloom, Breach Surge or Condemn provide much needed crowd control to [Garuda]'s kit, replacing Blood Altar. Gloom has the most synergy as it doubles as both as source of crowd control and insane healing which fuels Bloodletting, which in turn fuels the high energy drain of Gloom. The buff to bloodletting now makes it even easier to sustain Gloom. If not using a helminth with innate healing, you can rely on magus elevate as a consistent source of healing to fuel Bloodletting and therefore energy regeneration.

Update June 2022 : Dread Mirror now gives full knockdown/stagger immunity! This means you can drop [Primed Sure Footed] and run an alternative like [Kavat's Grace] to prevent hard landings.

Survivability is via the combination of complete frontal damage attenuation from Dead Mirror, insane crowd control from Gloom and shield gating with full shield regeneration from Brief Respite or Augur Mods. You also now get i-frames from both [Dread] mirror and Seeking [Talons] casts, and status cleanse from Bloodletting. [Rolling Guard] is now optional given you have sufficient breathing space from Gloom to cast abilities and have inbuilt status cleanse. Catalyzing Shields is also optional since you get sufficient i-frames from casting 4 innately and the shield generated from casting 4. For example, pressing 4 at 100 eff with [Brief Respite] and THREE augur mods (distributed among your warframe and pistol) can generate 270 shield equivalent to approximately 1s i-frame.

VEILBREAKER UPDATE (Archon Shards):
Amber Shards: Run 2 cast speed shards and drop Naural Talent for Catalyzing shields, Augur message or Rolling guard.
Crimson Shards: Can add 1-2 strength shards to hit max slow (272% strength) without Madurai/Zenurik
Azure Shards: Put remaining shards into Energy max

ALTERNATIVE BUILDS
General use high range variant: https://overframe.gg/build/314687/garuda-prime/the-sanguine-heart-general-use-nuke-garuda-non-helminth-and-helminth-variants/
Run and Gun / Weapon Platform / Speedrun variant: https://overframe.gg/build/314689/garuda-prime/the-fast-bleed-weapon-platform-garuda-for-speedrun-steel-path-molt-roar-xata/

PLAYSTYLE

1. Cast Bloodletting (3) twice to hit near max energy (320 energy per 50% health consumed), and recast whenever needed e.g. energy drops below 300
2. Activate Gloom (2) to apply radial slow (optional - use [Nidus] Specter for 1.28x ability strength boost to hit 95% slow). Deal damage to heal health back to full and repeat bloodletting whenever needed.
3. Whenever shields break, tap Seeking [Talons] (4) to get full shield [Regen] (needs TWO augur mods, either two on frame or one on frame and one on pistol or sentinel secondary) as well as radial stun which is prolonged by Gloom.
4. Keep [Dread] Mirror (tap 1 on enemy) active at all times. Charge [Dread] Mirror (hold 1) and release to nuke if needed.

Example of a Levelcap disruption run I did using this build with [Garuda]'s [Talons]:

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Keep duration positive for [Dread] mirror uptime, gloom drain and seeking [Talons] mark duration.

Efficiency
Keep efficiency neutral for bloodletting energy return, gloom drain and for overall energy economy. Using [Blind Rage] and dropping efficiency to 45% is an option, however you will only gain 200 energy on each cast of bloodletting while gloom and [Dread] heart charging has tremendous drain that may become unsustainable. Try this at your own preference.

Neutral efficiency is suggested because the amount of energy returned from bloodletting scales positively with efficiency, meaning you get 364 energy per 50% health at 100% efficiency (2.5 casts to refill whole energy bar from 0), compared to only 228 energy per cast at 45% efficiency (4 casts required to refill whole energy bar from 0). This means you need to spam bloodletting much less often (less vulnerable periods) and one cast provides enough energy to perform multiple combos of Seeking Talons and Dread Mirror/Blood Altar. Neutral efficiency also means you can channel [Dread] Heart + Gloom more efficiently and get more damage for less drain. [Primed Flow] is essential to hold more energy for chaining combos.

Range
Decent range is needed for Gloom's slow radius, [Dread] heart explosion radius and [Blending Talons] radius, but don't go overboard since Gloom can slow down enemies too far away.

Strength
Strength is only really needed for Gloom slow and can be adjusted to preference depending on how slow you want enemies. The maximum slow of 95% can be achieved by the combination of [Transient Fortitude], [Umbral Intensify], [Energy Conversion] and [Growing Power]. You don't have to hit the 95% slow cap at 272% strength, and can drop [Growing Power] or [Energy Conversion] or both based on preference. In this build I use just [Transient Fortitude] and [Umbral Intensify] to hit 199% str which gives 70% slow. You can run a [Nidus] specter to boost strength to 254% which gives approx 90% slow or use Zenurik's Hardened Wellspring, Madurai's Sling tree, Molt [Vigor] arcane, Parazon Power Drain or Pax bolt on kitgun to help hit max Gloom easier. Combined with the stun from Seeking Talons/Blending Talons and any cold procs from a primer such as epitaph, this is more than enough crowd control/slow.

Aura
Growing power - Use if you want to hit max gloom slow
Enemy radar - best in slot for general use
Swift momentum - good for use with melee, particularly on hybrid heavy builds
Brief respite - used if you want to shield gate WITHOUT augur mods
Combat Discipline - run if you want to trigger Arcane Avenger for extra crits

Exilus
Kavats Grace - prevents hard landings after using 4 and sometimes 3
Primed Sure Footed - in case you don't want to upkeep dread mirror for knockdown immunity
Vigilante Pursuit - for additional radar and vigilante passive, in case your pet dies
Power Drift - additional gloom slow

Flexible Slots
Augments - all augments are optional and additional augments can be placed over Natural Talent, depending on preference:

• Blending Talons - Tapping 4 gives a radial area of seeking [Talons] which also helps build combo quicker and allows you to target more enemies. This is really nice quality of life for a quick full shield regen and radial stun. Note that you can STILL cast the default seeking talons with 60m range by HOLDING down 4.

• Blood Forge - Allows you to reload your weapon by casting bloodletting. Great with certain weapons hampered by insanely long reloads e.g. [Tenet Plinx], [Felarx], [Strun], [Kuva Zarr], [Trumna], Sepulcrum, Tenet Envoy, Quellor, Gorgon, Komorex, Kuva Chakkhurr, Tenet Arca Plasmor, Akarius. Note: this does NOT work with Hata-Satya on Soma Prime as it counts as a proper reload.

• Dread Ward - gives a long duration of invulnerability if you either kill directly with [Dread] mirror (requires health < 40% threshold) or kill with a weapon a while [Dread] mirror animation occurs. Pairs well with Reave which harvests a set % of health per cast, but is overall a bit of a pain to upkeep for little return.

Arcanes
Flexible for what you like:
Molt Augmented and Molt [Vigor] give free strength to hit gloom cap.
Arcane Strike can free up attack speed on a [Talons] or melee focused build.
Arcane Avenger can give flat crit boost (+45%), best paired with Combat Discipline.

ARSENAL:

TALONS BUILDS
Light Attack Combo Talons: https://overframe.gg/build/314691/
Heavy Spam Talons: https://overframe.gg/build/314738/
Hybrid combo x12 heavy Talons: https://overframe.gg/build/314696/

GLAIVES/CONTAGION
Garuda's +100% dmg passive applieis TWICE to Glaives and Exodia Contagion

Glaive Prime: https://overframe.gg/build/270712/
Pathocyst: https://overframe.gg/build/602033/
Xoris (influence): https://overframe.gg/build/325681/
Cerata: https://overframe.gg/build/325682/
Contagion: https://overframe.gg/build/241631/