Kuva Lich/Main

Grineer

Kuva Lich

For the resource, see Kuva (Resource).
For the weapon variant, see Kuva (Variant).

We Maggots live… not long. We hope more life… work… kill… maybe Queens notice… Maybe… they share… the Old Blood. We are maggots. But eventually even maggots can fly.

—Introduction to Kuva Liches

The Kuva Lich are Grineer super soldiers that have been spiked with their Queens' Kuva, rendering them all but mortal.

Serving as an individual player's personal enemy, the Kuva Liches will hunt down Tenno and invade the Star Chart using their influence to steal loot and increase enemy levels in controlled territories. A given Kuva Lich has a unique name and randomly assigned elemental resistances and equipment. They are difficult to kill, with the Tenno who created the Kuva Lich being the only one who can defeat said Kuva Lich for good. In order to do so, players will need to modify their Parazon accordingly with the correct sequence of Requiem Mods to purify their Kuva and permanently sever their Continuity.

Creation

Kuva Lich Profile Screen

After the completion of The War Within quest, the player may encounter a Kuva Larvling in a regular level 20+ Grineer mission - this does not include Sorties, Void Fissures, Invasion, Quests or Dark Sectors. The potential for the spawning of a Kuva Larvling in a mission is announced to the player by the level's lighting flickering yellow. When the flickering occurs the player has a hidden time limit to kill enough enemies to force a larvling to be created, similar to the way the Juggernaut spawning works. When enough enemies have been killed, Kuva Larvling will spawn along with a transmission from a Kuva Guardian announcing their presence. Its location will be marked by a red waypoint which is slightly different from the red marker for nearby enemies.

By choosing to kill the Kuva Larvling with a Mercy kill, the player causes a Kuva Lich to arise in the Origin System, thus becoming the Progenitor of that Kuva Lich, and the Warframe used for this is recognized as the Progenitor Warframe​. In a squad, only the last player that damaged the larvling may take the Mercy kill. If no one takes the mercy action, the larvling will despawn after 30 seconds. This does not interrupt the normal course of the mission. Upon return to the Orbiter, regardless of whether the mission was completed or aborted, the player will receive communications from the newly created Kuva Lich.

Once the Larvling has been downed, the entire squad will receive 100 on end of mission, even if not mercied. When the player is within mercy distance, the downed Larvling will also display an icon and name of the Kuva Weapon the created Kuva Lich will possess. The displayed weapon is always random, meaning players can attempt the Larvling multiple times before Mercy killing one with their weapon of choice.

Progenitor Warframe

The Warframe that created the Kuva Lich will determine the elemental damage bonus the Kuva Lich weapon will have, as well as the type of Ephemera should they spawn with one. In addition, it will determine the Kuva Lich's ability kit.

Main article: Lich System/Progenitor (edit)

*Note that the Primed or Umbra version of a Warframe share the same element

Behavior & Mechanics

Star Chart Influence and Reward Tax

A Kuva Lich increasingly establishes Influence across a set of nodes in the system by commanding Kuva Thralls, which will appear during missions. The Kuva Lich will gain Influence each time it ranks up, and a node will lose its influence after the player defeats the Kuva Lich Controlled Territory mission there. Clearing Influence from every node on the Star Chart will cause the Kuva Lich to rank up. Influence serves to diminish the player's rewards for completing missions in the affected nodes as a part of the reward will be claimed by the Kuva Lich through a Reward Tax (this includes Credits, Resources, Blueprints, Void Relics, Ayatan Treasures, Kuva, and Mods, but not Requiem Relics, Requiem Mods, and Pigments). As the number of nodes under Influence increases, the Reward Tax will also increase (roughly 0.7% per node). Everything the player loses through Reward Tax will only be reclaimed after they have defeated the Kuva Lich.

Rage Meter

A rage meter can be seen in the Kuva Lich Profile page, representing the likelihood that the Kuva Lich will appear in the player's missions. The 'angrier' the Kuva Lich, the more likely the player will encounter them. Only killing thralls in nodes occupied by the player's Kuva Lich will further anger the Kuva Lich and increase the meter. Occupied node mission completion will not increase the meter nor will killing thralls in different Kuva Lich nodes (via taxi), although the latter will still give murmur progress. There are five levels of anger: Indifferent → Annoyed → Fuming → Furious → Enraged. The meter will reset every time the Kuva Lich levels up.

Level

Kuva Lich Level	Enemy Level on Controlled Nodes
1	50-60
2	50-60
3	60-70
4	75-90
5	90-110

Every Kuva Lich starts at Level 1, indicated above their name in their stats screen. As the player progressively fills the Kuva Lich's rage meter they will eventually meet the Kuva Lich in combat during a mission. If the player fails a Mercy attack at any point during the fight, the Kuva Lich will be staggered, swearing vengeance towards the player. After doing so, the Kuva Lich will despawn, though not before increasing in level by one. As a Kuva Lich increases in level so too does the level of missions under their influence. A Kuva Lich can reach a maximum level of 5. Kuva Liches may gain additional resistances and immunities upon leveling up.

Abilities

Kuva Liches have four unique abilities, three of them are variants of existing Warframe abilities and one is a movement ability. The first three abilities that they possess depend on the element associated with the Progenitor Warframe that killed them. Regardless of the Progenitor Warframe, the fourth ability can be one of the following four abilities: Lurch, Stampede, Teleport, or Vault. Thralls will inherit their Kuva Lich's movement ability.

Element	Ability 1	Ability 2	Ability 3	Ability 4
	Carapace ( Iron Skin)	Leash ( Rip Line)	Lich Stomp ( Rhino Stomp)	Lurch, Stampede, Teleport, or Vault
	Plasma Flare ( Fireball)	Ring of Fire ( Fire Blast)	Plasma Eruption ( World On Fire)
	Ice Blast ( Freeze)	Frozen Surge ( Ice Wave)	Frozen Fortress ( Avalanche)
	Lightning Bolt (Unique ability, similar to Captain Vor's beam attack)	Arc Mines (unique ability)	Molecular Annihilation ( Molecular Prime)
	Overload ( Smite)	Cursed Ground ( Hallowed Ground)	Miasma ( Miasma)
	Attractor Wave ( Pull)	Magnetic Snare ( Magnetize)	Magnetic Crunch ( Crush)
	Ruse ( Decoy)	Tactical Inversion ( Switch Teleport)	Decommission ( Radial Disarm)

In addition to the above abilities, Kuva Liches can perform grapple attacks against Tenno, dealing heavy damage to them. The player will be thrown and stuck in a ragdoll animation after these attacks. During the animation other players can damage the Kuva Lich, albeit dealing reduced damage.

Thralls

Thrall waypoint icon

A Kuva Lich does not maintain their territory on their own. Aside from enlisting the aid of Grineer soldiers, a select few of these soldiers are turned into Kuva Thralls, who are behaviorally identical to standard Grineer troops but have various bonuses. Aside from inheriting Kuva Lich's movement Ability, they receive 25% less damage compared to their standard counterparts. Additionally, should a Kuva Lich spawn in a mission, they will convert a nearby Grineer every 20 seconds into a Thrall as well. These Thralls are otherwise identical to "normal" Thralls, though their weapon colors are changed to match the general color scheme of their Kuva Lich.

Thralls are identified by a blue outline that surrounds them, similar to the one found on Synthesis Targets. Their label is changed to "(Kuva Lich Name) Thrall", and their presence is noted by a both a unique Mission Waypoint and a musical sting that plays when they spawn. Ironically enough, the Thralls themselves provide the means to defeat their Kuva Lich once and for all.

Spawning Mechanics

Generally, most Grineer units can be converted to Thralls with the exceptions of Latchers, Hyekkas, Drahk, Rollers, Noxes, and Guardsmen. Kuva Liches may attempt to convert the latter three units, but despite appearances, they will not turn into Thralls. Up to a maximum of 10 Thralls can spawn in a mission naturally, and a Kuva Lich is also limited to enthralling 10 enemies, thus up to 20 Thralls can be encountered in a given Kuva Lich-controlled node should the Kuva Lich spawn in the mission.  However, enthralled enemies count towards the mission's natural Thrall limit, so the maximum of 20 can only be reached if all 10 Thralls have already spawned in the mission before the Kuva Lich enthralls any enemies.

Naturally converted Thralls usually appear in large groups of Grineer, but they always appear out of line-of-sight from the player (As close as 40 meters has been confirmed). There's a cooldown on how often a natural conversation can take place. Minimum time seems to be 20 secs from spawn to spawn (Same as Kuva Lich enthrallment).

A minimum of 1 Thrall will spawn in any Kuva Lich mission. This first Thrall will spawn right as the mission starts. Spawning more Thralls in a mission requires two things: Movement and killing Grineer. Movement gets you into range of more Grineer, which can then be naturally converted out of line-of-sight. Killing Grineer can also trigger a natural conversion, and seems to be the only way to get more than 2 or 3 Thralls per mission.

Spawning Tips

Fast missions (Spy, Capture, Rescue, and Sabotage) seem to only spawn a small number of Thralls, due to the lack of a high number of Grineer in those missions. Endless missions (Defense, Disruption, Interception, Excavation, and Survival) take a bit longer to complete, but only need to be done once, to kill all 10 Thralls, in contrast to the 3-4 times for the fast missions. Exterminate and Mobile Defense seems to be a medium, between the two other types of missions.

Clearing Contested Territory

A contested territory will only be cleared as soon as all 10 Thralls in that node has been killed. So if only 5 Thralls spawn in a mission, you can just do that mission again and again, until you've killed all 10 of them. However, if 9 out of the 10 Thralls in that node has been killed, only 1 Thrall will spawn next time you do that mission node, since the maximum of 10 naturally spawned Thralls per node cannot be exceeded. Killing or alerting Grineer seems to be required in order to increase the natural spawning beyond the first 2 or 3.

Quirk

Kuva Liches may rarely spawn with a quirk that provides unique voice-lines and behavior when encountered.

View Quirk List▾▾

Quirk	Description
Allergic to Nature	Talks about being allergic to nature.
Always Hungry	Talks about getting a snack after appearing on a mission
Bloodhound	Makes comments when the player turns invisible.
Coward	Can leave the mission at low health.
Deserter	Can leave the mission unexpectedly.
Fear of Being Alone	Is afraid of fighting without backup
Fear of Children	Is afraid of the player's Operator.
Fear of Kubrows	Is afraid of Feral Kubrows and Drahks.
Fear of Space Travel	Upon spawning on a ship, sometimes stands frightened and does not attack first.
Hatred of Corpus	Talks about hating Corpus when spawned on Corpus tilesets.
Hatred of Infested	Talks about hating Infested when spawned on Infested tilesets.
Loner	Talks about preferring to fight alone.
Paranoid	Attacks allied Grineer troops; prevents the conversion of nearby Grineer into thralls.
Poor Sense of Balance	The Kuva Lich will retreat after kneeling down and without stabbing.
Prone to Vertigo	Stays on the ground level of the map. Avoids going up stairs and catwalks.
Pyromaniac	Talks when the player is on fire.
Trophy Hunter	Reward tax is higher than usual, allowing the Kuva Lich to steal more rewards.
Vain	Talks about how beautiful they are after appearing on a mission.

Converted Kuva Liches

“It's taking longer than I calculated.”

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Does Kuva Lich level scale with enemy level? Or is it fixed?

Kuva Liches can be converted instead of being vanquished after the player discovers all three Requiem Mods needed to bring it down. Converted Kuva Liches will keep the weapon they have equipped and will occasionally spawn alongside the player during missions. A greatly increased chance to spawn is triggered if the player spends a Revive. They will fire their weapons and use their abilities similar to Warframe Specters. Unlike Specters, they will attempt to use all their abilities^{[citation needed]}. The level of the Lich when it is converted does not affect its level when it spawns in to help players.

As of Update 27.1 (2020-02-04):

• They will temporarily help the player for a minimum of two minutes.
• Their weapon's elemental damage bonus will be multiplied by three.

Trading

Converted Kuva Liches can be traded amongst players but only once per converted Kuva Lich. To trade Liches, the player must go to the Crimson Branch room in their Clan Dojo to create an item that can be used to trade Kuva Liches. Traded Kuva Liches will keep their Ephemera (if they have one), weapon, and elemental damage bonus. Upon receiving a Kuva Lich in a trade, the Kuva Lich will be reset and the player must start the Requiem Mod process over, after which they can choose to either convert or kill the Kuva Lich. The receiving player must not have a Kuva Lich currently hunting them in order to trade.

Requiem Mods

Requiem Mods

Main article: Category:Requiem Mods

Requiem Mods are a special subset of Parazon Mods, each one an enigmatic phrase fragment of a complete Requiem Sequence, thus the only way to permanently sever a Kuva Lich or Sisters of Parvos's Immortality.

Notes

• The Kuva Lich will despawn without gaining a level nor spread its influence if all Tenno in its vicinity become downed or die.
• Successfully completing all available Kuva Lich mission nodes without failing during the requiem mini-game (or by just ignoring it) will automatically rank the Kuva Lich up and spread their influence to another planet.
• When doing a mercy kill on a Thrall, the player will be temporarily be considered a lower threat than they normally are. As such, any Sentinel the player has will be targeted directly instead and may cause them to be quickly destroyed on the enemy levels where Thralls appear.
• Status Effects can only stack up to 4 times on a Kuva Lich, with the exception of which stacks up to 6 times.
  • does not apply its normal effects. Instead, it increases the damage the Kuva Lich receives from friendly fire.

Trivia

• The idea of Kuva Liches dates back to Devstream 88 when they were previously known as the "Kingpin" system.
  • Originally, the Warframe's color palette, choice of skin, and even whether it was a Prime/Umbra variant or not would affect the Kuva Lich's look and color scheme. In the current build, however, only the Warframe's chosen helmet is attached to one of the Kuva Lich's shoulders, though it also takes into account Deluxe and TennoGen helmets as well.
    • Some helmets are seemingly incompatible, however. In these instances, Excalibur's default helmet will appear instead.
• During the Railjack gameplay during TennoCon/2019, a  Kuva Ayanga Wielding Kuva Lich was present named "Agor Rok" who served as the Railjack Grineer Galleon assassination target.
• As confirmed on Prime Time #267, the first Kuva Lich that rose in the public build was named "Budigg Fugg".
• Prior to Update 27.1 (2020-02-04), using the Parazon on a Kuva Lich with the incorrect Requiem passphrase would result the Kuva Lich grappling the Warframe and snapping their spine, instantly killing them regardless of bleedout and death prevention effects such as  Phoenix Renewal or  Wukong's passive.
• With 8 unique Requiem mods, there are 336 possible permutations that can be created using three of those mods.

More Permutation Details ▾▾

• Thus, if none of the mods needed are known there is a 1 in 336 chance for a random 3 of the 8 mods to be in the correct order. If one mod in the sequence is known, there is a 1 in 126 chance. If two mods in the sequence are known, there is a 1 in 36 chance. And if all three mods in the sequence are known, there is a 1 in 6 chance for them to be in the correct order.
• However, while knowing 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the needed mods, only a maximum of 18, 13, 8, and 3 preliminary fights against a Kuva Lich respectively are needed to determine the correct mod order. In the case where at least one mod is known as the best strategy to minimize the possible number of fights needed is to always check the position of the known mods first. Otherwise, if 0 mods are known, the player must make 7 checks for the first position, 6 for the second, and 5 for the third, resulting in 18 total checks in the worst-case scenario.
  • For example, say only 2 mods are known. These known mods, A & B, should always be placed in the first two positions with the third position being filled by one of the remaining 6 mods. Say position 3 is filled with mod C for the time being. If during the fight with a Kuva Lich the first mod fails, switch the first and second position since both A and B are known. So B is in 1 and A is in position 2, then repeat the fight. If the first position fails again then it is guaranteed that one of the remaining 6 mods must fill position 1, while A & B are in positions 2 or 3. In which case 5 more checks for mods C through G may be necessary to determine the correct mod for position 1, and one more check may be necessary to check the order of A & B in the last two positions. 5 checks for position 1 and not 6 even though 6 mods remain, because if mods C through G fail then it is guaranteed mod H must fill position 1, and as such there is no need to check it. Thus resulting in 13 checks total in the worst-case scenario. This process applies to the other two cases where only 1 mod and 3 mods are known.
  • Because simply testing a combination on a Kuva Lich grants roughly 10 Murmurs on average, the number of checks needed will actually be even lower than described above. It should also be noted that Murmurs collected from Thralls during missions will of course lower this further.

• All Kuva Liches have a large crimson gem-like container on their bodies, specifically on the chests, on the backs, or covering one of the eyes. This is presumably a vessel that contains the Queens' blood, Kuva.
  • In the execution animation that plays, the Tenno always stabs their Parazon into the orb when vanquishing a Kuva Lich, probably to destroy their source of Kuva, severing their immortality.

Bugs

• Currently it is possible to finish other people's Kuva Lich if they were to spawn during a Thrall hunt. This is possible during a small time window after the original target attempts to kill the Kuva Lich without the correct sequence of Requiem mods. Doing so will kill the interacting player without playing the animation and will grant the Kuva Lich a level for both interactions.
• There is a discrepancy between the stats you see in your Kuva weapon's equip menu (and codex entry) stats and its upgrade menu stats. What this may be is the upgrade menu reflects the actual stats of your Kuva weapon and the equip menu reflects generic Kuva weapon stats for that specific Kuva weapon, before the Kuva Lich modifier is applied.
• Kuva Liches may sometimes appear to have Excalibur's helmet attached to their shoulder, regardless of what Warframe is its progenitor.
• Occasionally, Mercy Finishers may not correctly play against Kuva Thralls, resulting in a simple placeholder animation where the frame stabs their Parazon in the direction they're facing, regardless of the target's actual location; the target simply falls over after the animation completes. This can also be seen by performing a Mercy Finisher as an operator, as the operator lacks animations for it.
• Upon defeating the Kuva Lich the UI to convert or kill the Kuva Lich might be missing. This locks the player's vision and prevents converting and killing the Kuva Lich as well as extracting from the mission. Used Requiem Mods will not be consumed.
• If a Kuva Lich takes over an initial area that is locked on the Star Chart, the Kuva Lich's anger meter will not progress until the area is unlocked. However, if a player kills thralls in another player's game, the murmurs will still unlock mods.
• If player(s) can deal damage fast enough when the Kuva Lich stands up after being incapacitated for the third time, the Kuva Lich will be incapacitated again without having time to retreat/despawn.
• Nova's Null Stars and Baruuk's Desolate Hands will attack downed Kuva Larvlings and Thralls, despite not being able to damage them further. (Thralls however still "die" when killed so Nova's Molecular Fission augment still works to replenish some on doing a mercy kill)
• Players who are not the host will sometimes glitch during a mission in Kuva Lich territory and be able to mercy any enemy they want, however the enemy will not die after the animation unless the conditions to mercy normally are met.
• If you have a Index return stolen under a credit booster and kill the Kuva Lich even if you have a credit booster active you will only receive the original return and not the boosted return (250k return with booster gives 500k return in Index, but the Kuva Lich will only give you 250k even with the booster)

Media

• Female Kuva Lich heads
• Male Kuva lich heads

1/2

Warframe - Kuva Lich Introduction

Warframe THE ULTIMATE KUVA LICH HUNTING GUIDE UPDATED

External Links

• Warframe - Parazon Guide - How To Get And Use Your Parazon
• Warframe - How To Get Requiem Relics and Requiem Mods
• Warframe - Requiem Mod Combination Tracker/Probability Calculator