You might have noticed those weird glowing blue balls during your time in Warframe. Maybe you’ve been diligently scanning them to unlock pieces of Warframe’s fragmented lore, or maybe you’ve been ignoring them as strange curiosities but ultimately not worth taking away from your rampant murdering.
Either way, we’re here to help you better understand Warframe’s Cephalon Fragments.
What Is A Cephalon Fragment?
To understand a Cephalon Fragment, first you must understand what is a Cephalon.
Cephalon are essentially powerful artificial intelligences created during the Orokin-era. Some, such as Cephalon Ordis, control a ship’s systems and essentially make it so the occupants needn’t perform any action to maintain the ship. Others, such as Cephalon Suda and Simaris, are just powerful beings that try to acquire as much knowledge as possible, albeit through somewhat different methods.
If a Cephalon is an AI, then Cephalon Fragments are pieces of that AI. Or more accurately, memories. Each Cephalon Fragment is a tiny piece of what was once an artificial intelligence, and each contains secrets to Warframe’s universe. You’re able to access these fragments by scanning them with either your Codex or Synthesis Scanner.
What Do Cephalon Fragments Contain?
In game terms, each Cephalon Fragment contains a piece of a larger picture. Depending on the specific planet you are on in the solar system, you might need 3, 5, or even 7 fragments to unlock a piece of hidden lore. Once completed, each Fragment is displayed in the Universe Tab of your Codex, and each contains a larger picture and a brief description of what the image displays.
Additionally, there’s a hidden audio file on each Fragment. You’ll have to mouse over the picture to find precisely where to click, with an audible clue telling you when you get close. The audio transmissions are all from Cephalon Ordis, and they can be somewhat... disjointed as a result.
Where Can You Find Cephalon Fragments?
This is a tricky question to answer. Technically, Cephalon Fragments can be found on every planet, moon, and asteroid in the star chart. Cephalon Fragments will not appear on missions in the Kuva Fortress, bounties in the Plains of Eidolon or the Orb Vallis, or any defense, interception, or archwing missions.
Every mission besides those will have a Cephalon Fragment in it, but you have to find it. This can be tough, as every Warframe map outside of the open world zones is composed of different tiles that are randomly slotted together to create a different map each time.
However, each individual tile is always the same, and there are only a specific number of spots where a Cephalon Fragment can spawn on each individual tile. Once you’ve gotten familiar with each tile, it’s possible to search every possible spot where a Cephalon Fragment can spawn. This will also come in handy for finding Syndicate Medallions, which will also spawn in the same spots as Cephalon Fragments.
But again, each map is randomly generated using these tiles, so you never know where a Cephalon Fragment will be at the beginning of a mission. Meticulously searching each tile will eventually lead to finding the Cephalon Fragment, but there is a slightly easier way.
Various mods in the game will provide an ability called Loot Radar, such as Loot Detector, Thief’s Wit, and Animal Instinct. Using these mods will cause certain items to appear on your minimap once you get close enough to detect them. Combining all of these mods will allow you to run through a map with a reasonable certainty of spotting the Cephalon Fragment on your minimap.
How Many Cephalon Fragments Are There?
There are a lot of Cephalon Fragments. Specifically, you will need to scan 223 Fragments in total. Each planet has a specific number of Fragments that must be scanned before another entry is loaded into your codex and more of Warframe’s lore is revealed.
Each planet has either two or three pieces of lore requiring you to scan either 3, 5, or 7 Fragments to unlock them. Early planets, such as Earth and Venus, only require 3 scans to unlock a codex entry, while later planets such as Pluto and Sedna require 7 scans.
Earth and Venus have 9 Fragments to scan, while Ceres, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Lua, and The Void all have 10 Fragments. Mars, Phobos, Europa, and Saturn all have 15 Fragments, while Pluto and Sedna have 14. Eris and the Orokin Derelict are the hardest places to complete with 21 Fragments each.
That's a lot of Fragments to find, but the search is most definitely worth it for those looking to get to the very heart of Warframe's complex story.