Caliban: Star Summon

TL;DR
Caliban summons allies and deals Tau damage, which increases the status damage enemies take. He is actually pretty good now with a bunch of mechanics that make him viable. Not the highest damage, but he gets things done.
I used to dislike Caliban because he was weak and had problems. Since then, he has changed and improved quite a bit, so I am going into this without a massive amount of past playtime on him.

Weakness: Once again, anything that nullifies your powers breaks your plan, and anything immune to ability damage does the same. Good news is you can just shoot at it.

Archon Shards

Your summons scale with Power Strength, as that is the only way their level scales. Because of this, strength shards are quite helpful. The bad news is that at a certain point, the summons become worthless paperweights, but in normal gameplay you won’t notice that. Do you need Power Strength shards? No, but it is worth mentioning. It would be nice if they scaled with enemy levels directly, but they don’t. It only becomes a problem at extreme levels that take a while to reach in endless missions.

Build

Depending on which Helminth ability you pick, the build changes slightly, but both variants look very similar. I will talk about why later in the Helminth section. First, we are using the augment Razor Mortar. The point of this build is simple: apply Tau status, apply damage, and repeat.

If using Sublime Stars, you run Archon Vitality. If using Nourish, you run Primed Redirection. It comes down to less bulk for more damage, or more bulk for less damage. Because of the core gameplay loop, it is pretty easy to drop Nourish, which I will explain below.

The rest of the build looks like this: Summoner’s Wrath for the aura, then Blind Rage and Umbral Intensify for Power Strength. Augur Reach, Archon Stretch, and Cunning Drift cover your range. Given how we can provide Electricity damage, Archon Stretch gives free energy. Finally, Primed Flow rounds it out.

Arcanes

Molt Augmented, and Arcane Camisado both need to be stacked, power strength from both is worth it.

Helminth

Two main choices here: Nourish or Sublime Stars. Caliban inflicts Tau status, which grants Status Chance Vulnerability up to a 150% bonus status damage cap. Both options provide extra status types, Viral and Heat. The gameplay flow looks like this: apply the Tau debuff, group enemies up, let status proc on them, and deal massive damage.

With the Nourish route, any summon applies Viral damage. It also brings extra energy generation, Power Strength, and bonus weapon Viral damage. Just to be clear, enemies take Viral procs when they hit you.

Considering you get energy refunds on Caliban and have other ways to apply Viral damage (mainly using a companion), you can explore other options. Jade Stars applies Heat procs, and given how we are grouping enemies together, that bonus 150% status damage scaling on Heat looks rather tasty. It is a slightly different playstyle that relies less on the minion damage itself, letting them spread Tau while you do the cleanup.

Both options are worth trying, though they require slightly different mod setups as outlined above.

Other Things

Bring a companion that can apply Viral damage. Dethcube generates energy, and weapons like the Tazicor let you apply as many status types as you want. Magnetic, Viral, and Electricity make for a great support setup, letting you strip Overguard, viral with electric procs for extre energy. You can then build your guns with another damage type like Corrosive and Heat.

For primary and secondary weapons, bring whatever you need. Burston Prime, Laetum, and a melee weapon that provides extra movement speed all work well. You have the flexibility to bring whatever tools you need for enemies immune to abilities. Also, make sure to use the Ortholyst variant from Lethal Progeny.

You can also jump to cancel your 1st ablity if you need too.

Closing Thoughts

As it turns out, Caliban actually does the job he was meant to do now. He is a solid caster frame that deals enough damage and scales well for most content. You aren’t really in danger of dying thanks to invulnerability frames and abilities that make you untargetable. You don’t have to slow down and wait for your summons to kill stuff, nor do you have to rely on them entirely. He turned out to be pretty good, and he went from a frame I disliked to one I enjoy playing from time to time.