Shadow Stalker spawning when Dread is used?

Question

So, the first time I encountered the shadow stalker was immediately after completing the second dream. Then he never came for me, but I did encounter him when he came for others. Then, I built dread one day, and immediately after I built dread, he started coming after me a lot. It was 4 days ago that I built dread, and after I built dread on the next mission he spawned. I killed him with my melee and abilities, but it was RIGHT after I built and started levelling up my dread. Since I’ve built dread, he comes after me 2-3 times in a day, and I’ve noticed when I don’t use dread he stops, but if anybody in my squad uses dread I’ve noticed he comes very often.

Now this is just a theory, but does using a stalker/shadow stalker’s weapons, (or maybe it’s only dread) increase the chance of him coming after you? I am aware of if your weapon and warframe levels is low or if you have few mods it increases the chance of the stalker/shadow stalker showing up, but could this be a way of baiting a stalker into showing up and a good way to farm him? I could be wrong, and it could just be luck but really. I killed every boss at least once, and in two days, he showed up 7-9 times, but for my primary, secondary, melee, and warframe all my mod slots were full, I used a lot of rare mods, and everything was max level, so I don’t understand how he showed up so many times in very few days, when his appearances are supposed to be extremely rare. Has anybody had things like this happening? Is there an explanation as to why he is showing up so many times in such a short span? Thanks.

Answer 1

According to the wiki, the chance of him spawning are incredibly slim, and meet certain requirements (emphasis mine):

The Shadow Stalker's spawning behavior is identical to his traditional counterpart. The Shadow Stalker can spawn in almost any player-accessible mission with enemies in it, except for Syndicate missions, Assassination missions, Archwing space missions, Open World areas and Sortie Missions. At least one squad member must be marked for death by the Stalker before he will have a chance of spawning.

Stalker and Shadow Stalker are considered the same entity for the purposes of Death Marks; the Mark itself reads "Stalker" in a player's profile regardless of whether the player has completed The Second Dream or not. The following formula is used to calculate if a version of Stalker will spawn:

Spawn Chance = 1.5% + (0.5% × P); P = Number of Squad members.

So the chance of the Stalker/Shadow Stalker spawning is entirely dependent on the number of players. And the possibility of him spawning is based on:

• One or more players being marked for death (Receive a message from "???" in your inbox*)
• The mission you are playing

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^{*I don't know if the messages are 1:1 - I recently went on a boss kill-spree, and I did receive multiple messages from the Stalker - however I don't know if this means he will spawn more than once, or if his chance to spawn is higher - but I do believe it's the former.}