Kuva Lich/Strategy

Strategy


To fight a Kuva Lich, the player must draw them out. To do this, nodes that the Lich has influence over must be completed and their Thralls destroyed. A Lich will also have specific resistances and immunities that are unique to the player. The player will know a Lich is after them when an icon appears in the Navigation and Menu screens. This icon will appear beside the Nightwave button and will allow the player to check details about their Lich, including Lich Level, Requiem Mod attempts, and more.

Kuva Influence will be shown as a red cloud on the Navigation screen. It will start on one planet, clicking it in to view it will show which nodes the cloud is spreading over Nodes. These nodes will give the option to run the standard node mission, the Kuva Lich version, or any other active special version, such as Nightmares or Invasions. Kuva Liches can have Influence over nodes under other faction's control, making the thrall mission become similar to Crossfire missions.

All Defection missions in Lich controlled territories are changed to Exterminate missions.

Endless missions in Lich controlled territories only feature one "round", with Defense lasting five waves, Survival lasting five minutes before extraction is called, Interception lasts one wave, and Excavation requires 500 Cryotic before extraction is called.

Only one Kuva Lich can be after the player at any time, so the current Lich must be defeated before a new one can be made by the player.

Requiem Murmurs
To defeat a Lich, the player must use the Parazon with the correct Requiem mods. The Requiem Mods must be in the correct order to deliver the final blow. Other squad members can weaken a Lich, but only the player the Lich belongs to may kill it.

To find hints about the correct mods and combination the player will need to kill the Lich's Thralls. Any mission under a Lich's influence will spawn Thralls. Thralls will periodically spawn as the squad advances through the mission. Thralls are several levels higher than other enemies in the mission, are immune to most forms of crowd control, and can use their Lich's movement ability. Upon reaching 0% health, Thralls will stumble and become vulnerable to a Mercy Finisher. Upon the Thrall's death, all players in the mission are rewarded a Requiem Murmur, and the Thrall has a 5% chance to drop a Requiem Relic. Testing a Requiem Mod on a Lich also advances Murmur progress, roughly 10x more than a Thrall on average. Each combination can only be tested against a Lich once to be awarded Murmurs, requiring players to change the combination for the next encounter. A multitude of Requiem Murmurs will update the Lich's status screen, revealing part of the Requiem Mod combination that will prove fatal to the Lich. Currently, the number of Murmurs needed for each reveal can vary but average to 36, 60, and 84 with the total being approximately 180 Murmurs.

Murmurs progression carries over from one mod to the next, for an individual Lich. For example, if in a single mission the first mod reveal count is completed with extra Murmurs left over the excess will carry over to the progression of the second mod. Similarly, if a mod is guessed correctly by testing it on the Lich then the Murmurs will transfer over to the next mod reveal. However, after defeating a Lich, any extra Murmurs will not transfer over to the mod combinations for a new Lich.

If a player joins a mission mid-progress, all killed Thralls are instantly added to the Murmur progress.

Note that Murmurs will only reveal the Requiem Mods required to kill the Lich, not the order they are needed to be in. The player will need to figure the order by trial-and-error.

Combat
If a Lich is sufficiently enraged, there is a chance they will appear in the mission for combat. It is entirely possible that a Lich will appear long before the player has deduced all three Requiem mods; because of this, killing or even fighting the Lich is not required for mission success (for example, waves in Defense missions will end even if the Lich is still active).

A Lich has a shield bar and three health bars. Depleting a Lich's health bar to 5% will cause them to stumble and begin to gradually recover health for 10 seconds, giving the player a chance to use their Parazon for a Mercy attack. If the Requiem mods are in the correct sequence, the Lich's health bar will be destroyed, otherwise, the Lich will simply despawn and also gain a rank up.

Liches have variable resistances and weaknesses to damage types, however, as one levels up, the type against which it's vulnerable to, may become one of those it resists. Like most bosses, Liches have complete immunity to Status Effects.

If a Lich stumbles three times without attempting to use the Parazon on the Lich, it will automatically flee and leave the mission. This prevents it from leveling up, but will not drop Kuva nor generate Murmur knowledge.

Rank 1, 2, 3, and 4 Liches will respectively drop 150, 200, 250 and 300 for all squad members when a Parazon is used on them.

Defeating the Kuva Lich
When the right combination of Requiem Mods is found and all three of the Lich's health bars have been destroyed, the Lich will finally be defeated for good. The player will be given two choices: Vanquish the Kuva Lich or Convert it.


 * Whichever choice made, all "stolen" drops that they were responsible for will be returned to the player. If the Lich has an Ephemera equipped, the player is also guaranteed to get it. The Requiem mods used will lose a charge upon a successful kill/convert.
 * Vanquishing it will award the player a Kuva Weapon named after the defeated Lich. (e.g. "Ulogg Stakk Kuva Quartakk"). This weapon will be "Ready to Claim" in the Foundry.
 * Converting it will turn it to the player's side, allowing it to appear in fights beside as an ally.
 * The player can trade a converted Lich, allowing another player a chance to earn their weapon and/or Ephemera. The trade is performed inside a Clan Dojo's Crimson Branch room, and the recipient must not have any active Lich.
 * Kuva Lich History (Previously vanquished and converted Lich) can be viewed in the Orbiter's Codex in the "universe" tab.
 * The stats of the Lich being traded can be previewed by right-clicking its token.
 * Once traded, the Lich will become the recipient's active Lich, and the Requiem Mod combination used to defeat them will change.
 * A converted Lich can only be traded once. If the recipient converts their received Lich, it will not be tradeable.

The player has 20 seconds to choose. If no choice is made, the Lich is vanquished.

Tips

 * Although Kuva Liches are unlockable as early as Mastery Rank 5, it may be wise to hold off on creating a Lich until you have a more varied arsenal; assuming players only do the bare minimum of mission nodes and Junction requirements required to access The War Within, reaching Mastery Rank 5 only takes one fully-ranked Warframe and two fully-ranked weapons which, while a very unlikely circumstance, is a very insufficient arsenal for taking down a Lich.
 * If you feel that you won't be able to handle a Kuva Lich, you can choose not to generate one. Kuva Larvlings are announced by a Kuva Guardian, they wield a, and they will not die immediately even if heavily damaged in one shot, instead of kneeling for a Mercy when their health is depleted. If they're not Mercied, Downed Larvlings will die after 30 seconds without creating a Lich.
 * When a Kuva Lich invades a mission, they will randomly convert any enemy around (currently even Latchers) into a thrall. This can be used to "farm" Requiem Murmur fragments up to the mission's Thrall cap. However this process requires enemies alive around the lich, so care must be taken. Invisibility is a plus at this point as sneaking around the Lich while farming thralls will be much easier.
 * Once you get the first Requiem Mod identified, consider attempting a Mercy with it in the first slot. Whether you manage to destroy a health bar or not, you'll still get a considerable amount of Requiem Murmur progress for the next Requiem Mod.
 * In addition to their randomly generated elemental weaknesses and resistances, all Liches use Shields, Ferrite Armor, and Flesh.
 * Killing 5-20 enemies triggers the creation of a thrall in most missions. Especially for solo hunters, instead of killing every enemy immediately, you can stop killing and focus on the thrall alone, then continue for another 5-20 enemies. Because mostly only 1-2 thralls will be active at a time throughout the map (unless a Lich is active) and a thrall is only converted from an enemy readily on the map.


 * This tip was put on hold after the, due to some inconsistencies from hunts by the OP of this tip. Though the tips now seem to hold true, having a low number of enemies in solo sessions affects the total conversion numbers, and kills between spawns may increase in team sessions.
 * In survival missions, the hunt may continue until the air support reaches to 0 and all enemies are dead.
 * A safe 4 attempt run would entail the following:
 * Collect murmurs until the first hint is acquired. Equip the requiem mod in the first slot, allowing for the second and third to be random, then try your combination. If this fails, move it to the second slot.
 * Collect murmurs until the second hint is acquired. Equip this new requiem mod into the soonest unknown slot (the first slot if the above step was unsuccessful, otherwise the second slot), then try your combination. If this fails, move it to the third slot. If this is successful, and your second slot fails, move the second slot to the third instead.
 * Repeat the above steps for the third hint and slot. By this third attempt, you should have revealed your first slot, making the second and third slot unknown in the worst-case scenario, which only requires that you swap them for your fourth attempt, guaranteeing the kill.
 * Only a single Lich is allowed to be spawned at a time, but multiple, different ones can spawn in a mission. If you're running in a team that hasn't been pre-made, inform them of whether or not you're going to try a mercy attempt on it if it does spawn to make clear what their expectations should be.