Atraks-1, Fallen Exo

"I cast off my carapace to be reborn, just like our glorious Riis."

- Atraks-1

Atraks-1, Fallen Exo (formerly known as Atraks, the Wildcard) is a Fallen commander from the House of Salvation. She is a Baron serving for Eramis, Kell of Darkness and a member of her inner council.

She was ordered by Eramis to secure the Deep Stone Crypt, where she uploaded her consciousness into an Eliksni-based Exomind; giving Atraks the ability to duplicate herself into multiple Replication copies.

Early history
"I am Atraks, the Wildcard, and I have been charged by my Kell to speak to the youth of the Eliksni. Those who, like me, have never known a life that wasn't wandering. Who have no memories of Riis, only tales of glorious cities under glowing green skies passed down from our elders."

- Atraks.

Following the collapse of Riis, known as the Whirlwind, many Eliksni left their homeworld and sought salvation by desperately chasing the Great Machine through space for centuries. During the Long Drift, the Eliksni raised their clans and offspring in their starships and turned them into family homes. Atraks was among a new generation of Eliksni that were born in space and regarded as unlucky since they had no personal memories of Riis.

Demise of the Devils
"You are too young to remember the old house. What the Devils were before."

- Eramis

Following the release of Eramis from the Prison of Elders, the Baroness returned to what remained of the House of Devils and attempted to rebuild them with a return to the old ways. Eramis rallied those loyal to her and appointed Atraks as the youngest member of her council.

After the Devils failed their heist to acquire the SIVA weapon from the Last City, Eramis became frustrated and felt humiliation at losing to the younger Mithrax. Atraks watched the brooding Eramis from a distance aboard her ketch and addressed her as Kell, but Eramis bitterly told her not to take their failure to heart as Atraks was too young to remember the true prowess of the old Devils. Replying with youthful optimism, Atraks stated that her eyes were clear and she could see the new potential of the Devils. Eramis, in a moment of clarity, took inspiration from Atraks' words and declared that the Devils were dead and they must become something new.

The Dark Empire
"Atraks... Kridis and I can handle this. Return to the Crypt and prepare the body."

- Eramis, Kell of Darkness

Alongside fellow councilors Praksis and Variks, she greeted the arrival of Eramis's old friends Phylaks and Kridis. Atraks witnessed the assault of Variks by Phylaks for his past betrayal, before Eramis convinced the two new arrivals to begrudgingly work alongside the House of Judgment scribe for the good of all Eliksni. Later Atraks stood with Eramis and her fellow councilors to welcome the arrival of the obsidian ship on Europa as it persuaded them to choose salvation. A new dark empire is born in the form of the House of Salvation led by Eramis, Kell of Darkness.

Atraks was then instructed by her Kell to be the voice of reason among the youth of the Eliksni and broadcasted a passionate message saying how she is glad the Whirlwind arrived to strip the Eliksni of their dogmatic culture. She also viewed her unlucky birth during Long Drift to be a birth of freedom as she can now see the Light for what it truly is, unlike the nostalgia blinded generations of before who turned their backs on the future. She encouraged the youth to rally under Salvation at Riis-Reborn, to do away with dead dreams and look to the future by wielding the power gifted by the Darkness.

During a ceremony held within the main chambers of Riis-Reborn, Atraks stood amongst the Dark Council as Eramis made her speech against the Traveler. Atraks witnessed the destruction of a Servitor and Phylaks harnessing the powers of Stasis from the Crux of Darkness, but the assembly is interrupted by the Guardians. Following the deaths of Phylaks and Praksis, Eramis held an emergency meeting between Atraks and Kridis, ordering Atraks to return to the Deep Stone Crypt and prepare the body as she believed they could handle the situation.

Atraks took over the Fallen operation within the Deep Stone Crypt, where she cast aside her organic carapace for that of a modified Exo frame based on the research of Praksis. In an attempt to deal with the mental trauma of the Exo transformation process, she stripped the skin off her old face to serve as a reminder that it was nothing but a mask of her past life.

The Fallen Exo
"Clarity Control breached. A single unregistered Exo and a single life form of unknown biology detected in the Crypt laboratory."

- Crypt AI

As a fireteam of Guardians entered the Clovis Bray laboratory near Clarity Control, they encountered Atraks near a terminal with the appearance of an Exo and modelled after her previous Eliksni form with four arms and a signature white and black look. She then unleashed the body from a Fallen cryopod to reveal the infamous mercenary, Taniks, the Scarred. Taniks was enraged at the sight of the Guardians and proceeded to violently bash the laboratory glass. His attempt to break the glass ended with failure and he climbed the glass to leave Atraks behind. The Fallen Exo then followed suit and disappeared in a mist.

As the Guardians approached the laboratory launch pods, Atraks returned and spread duplicate clones of herself across the room and the Morning Star orbital station to battle against them. She then summoned Fallen reinforcements and deployed Sentinel Servitors to disable the augment terminals nearby. Immune to all damage and armed with an upgraded white Shock Rifle, she fired Arc bolts against the Guardians from all directions.

With the Servitors defeated, Atraks activated her Extinction Protocol to eliminate the enemy threat, however the Guardians managed to attack the correct duplicate through the use of a scanner augment. Reacting quickly to their attack she dropped a replication orb to allow herself to form another copy and extinguish any Guardian attached to it, but the raid team cleverly used the airlocks of the orbital station to launch the replication orb into space. Atraks then made a final stand by summoning eight duplicates of herself in the orbital station, but her cunning abilities were of no use and her original form was detected and defeated by the Guardians.

Personality and traits
"They called us unlucky to have been born in the dark of deep space, but we were born free!"

- Atraks, the Wildcard

Quiet in nature, Atraks was respectful to those of traditional Fallen authority. She was an Eliksni of few words and optimistic in nature who looked toward a revolutionary future. This optimistic trait may have developed as she never witnessed the horrors of the Whirlwind personally.

She whole-heartedly believed in Eramis and passionately tried to recruit her fellow young Eliksni. Atraks asked them to see to the Light as a distraction and to do away with the dead dreams that blinded the older generations. Viewing her birth in space as a positive, Atraks believed she was born free and did not have to live by the arbitrary customs that previously guided the Fallen.

Atraks demonstrated her high intelligence when she continued the Exo research first set in motion by Praksis and became the first Fallen ever to become an Exo. She bested the likes of Sekris, Taniks, Pirrha, Aksis and his Devil Splicers to truly become one with technology and achieved a status that would be celebrated as godhood among her kind.

Following the deaths of her fellow Council members, Atraks became the last surviving leader of her House and kept a Ketch stationed near the Morning Star space station orbiting Europa.

During her transition to Atraks-1, her cognitive mind deteriorated to the point where she suffered early stages of Dissociative Exomind Rejection. To remedy this, an unnamed Fallen (perhaps another internal voice) instructed her to strip the skin off her former face for others to wear and remind herself that her old organic body was just an imposter to them; its face being nothing other than a mask.

Gameplay


As Guardians journey their way through the red giant veiled statue, they reach a laboratory with "Atraks-1, Fallen Exo" inside.

Upon arrival, Atraks-1 will awaken Taniks, Reborn from his cryopod and point to the Guardians. Taniks reacts with anger as he begins to bash the laboratory glass in rage and disappear by climbing the glass, with Atraks following suit.

To initiate the encounter, players need to approach a purple glowing orb near the four space elevator pods. Atraks will re-emerge with various duplicate clones spread across Clarity Control and Morning Star. She is immune to all damaged and armed with an upgraded Shock Rifle. Getting near Atraks will unleash an Ultra Smash attack.

The objective is to defeat Atraks-1 by locating the correct duplicate to attack through the use of a Scanner augment. It is advised players equip the weapon, The Lament due to its high damage capacity.

There are a total of eight Atraks-1 duplicates, with four in the laboratory and four in the orbital space station. In the laboratory, there is one duplicate by the middle space pods, one by the red room and two by the yellow room; separated into upper and lower. While in the orbital station, there are two duplicates by the middle; front and back, one by the left and one by the right.

Also spread across both rooms are three augment terminals to help players transfer their augments between each other. These can be found by the middle, left and right portions of the room, the orbital station is unique for having an extra terminal near the space pods.



Players are advised to split into two groups of three to tackle Atraks from both rooms. Using the space pods will help players enter the orbital station above and also travel to the laboratory below. They also need to acquire the yellow Scanner and red Operator augments to help defeat Atraks. The Operator Vandal will spawn in the laboratory, while the Hacker Vandal will spawn in the orbital station.

The Operator is able to launch elevator pods to and from the orbital station by shooting the panels near it. They also have the important role of shooting the "Atraks-1 Replication" debuff off players carrying the replication orb. While the Scanner will be able to guide their teammates to the correct Atraks to attack, as the duplicate will glow a distinct yellow.

To begin the damage phase against Atraks, players are required to destroy a total of six Sentinel Servitors that spawn near the Fallen Exo. Three will spawn in the laboratory and three will spawn by the orbital station, each spread across to the middle, left and right. The Sentinel Servitors will also disable the augment terminals and need to be destroyed to grant access to it. Hacker and Operator Vandals will also spawn alongside the Sentinels. It is also possible to begin the damage by waiting for a prolonged amount of time.

Following their destruction, Atraks will initiate its "Extinction Protocol". This will first start at the orbital station above and then the laboratory below and will continue this process back and forth to a total of four damage phases. Failure to defeat the correct duplicate in time will result in a wipe mechanic called "Replicated Ruin". After defeating the duplicate in the orbital station, the Scanner then needs to pass their augment through the terminal to a player below so that they too can attack the correct Atraks. The Scanner augment will need to be juggled throughout the individual damage phases and players are advised to delegate Scanner roles accordingly.

When a duplicate despawns, it will drop a purple glowing orb named "Atraks-1 Replication". It is important to pick this orb up and dispose of the replication by entering one of the four airlocks in the orbital station. The Operator has the added duty to first open their doors by shooting the red glowing panel and then shoot the replication off the players carrying it.

Players are given 45 seconds to hold the buff and this can be extended if the Operator shoots the orbs over their heads to reset the timer. If the replication isn't destroyed, a copy of Atraks will spawn and eliminate everyone, resulting in death by "Replication". Players carrying the orb from the laboratory need to use the launch pods and travel to the space station and also enter the airlocks. If the Operator were to mistakenly pick up the orb, they have the option to transfer their augment and allow another player to shoot the orb off them. However, if a player were to stay in the airlock for too long, they risk death as it will be ejected into space.

If her health does not reach the final stand, Atraks will spawn more Sentinel Servitors to initiate another cycle of damage phases until she reaches the final stand. In the final stand, the whole team need to gather by the orbital station and await the final Extinction Protocol. There Atraks will spawn a total of eight duplicates across the room and the Scanner will need to guide their team to the correct Atraks to damage. The duplicates will also drop more replication orbs that need to be sent to the airlock, however, if teams are fast enough, they can defeat Atraks without destroying the orbs and collect the raid chest.

Gallery
Atraks, the Wildcard

Trivia

 * Atraks-1 is the first Fallen Exo encountered in the Destiny franchise.
 * The early release of the Deep Stone Crypt saw players exploiting wall breaches to progress through the Raid faster. Players discovered a Fallen Captain with the name of "Atraks-1, Fallen Exo" and learned it was tied directly to Atraks's health pool. Due to the passive nature of the Captain who wouldn't fight back, players soon began to exploit this by attacking the Captain to complete the encounter without battling Atraks through the intended mechanics. Bungie later resolved this issue by moving the Captain to a remote location that is inaccessible through walls breaches and contained within a box.
 * Atraks-1 was a notoriously difficult boss on Contest Mode Deep Stone Crypt, keeping many teams from completing the raid and spending many hours battling Atraks

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2
 * Beyond Light