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“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”
The following article/section contains spoilers.

I am Nihil. Glassmaker. Order. Shall be. Restored.
—Nihil

See, in the old days, crime and punishment was all in the hands of those Orokin judges, the Seven. Mercy was a quick flash of the Jade light... But - if they wanted to make an example, they'd suck up your soul and make you a prisoner of the glass, forever.

Seems like magic to us nowadays, but dreamers... someone's got it puzzled out again. Waves are buzzing, new glass is showing up. Souls getting snapped up and trapped up. All we've got to go on is this crime-simula I pulled from the weave. No sign of our killer and not a soul to tell us where they went...
Nora Night on the Glassmaker

Nihil is a mysterious serial killer known as the Glassmaker, a former Orokin judge responsible for "glassing" people throughout the Origin System. He is also the creator of the Cephalons, which he designed to be an eternal punishment for those that dare break Orokin law. He was introduced during Nightwave: Series 3 - The Glassmaker.


During Series 3 , after defeating Nihil, the player received an inbox message from Nora Night containing the Vitrica Vitrica blueprint and Nihil's Oubliette as an Orbiter/Clan Dojo Decoration. Following the end of Series 3, Nihil will reward both the Vitrica blueprint and a Riven Mod, while refights will only reward a Riven Mod.

How To Access[]

During Nightwave: Series 3 – The Glassmaker, Nihil was fought after completion of Episode 5's Crime-simula and memory weave. Once the fight was accessed, a crystal would appear in the Crime-simula that would lead directly to the Nihil fight, costing no Cephalite Resonance.

Nihil is now fought after purchasing a Enter Nihil's Oubliette Key and Nihil's Oubliette decoration from Nightwave Offerings, both of which cost Nora'sMixVol5Cred 60. After installing the Oubliette decoration in either the Orbiter or Clan Dojo, interacting with it (default: X ) with the Enter Nihil's Oubliette Key in the player's inventory will display a prompt asking if the player wants to start the boss fight.

Only one Key can be purchased when it is available, and only one key can be owned in the player's inventory before they can purchase another.

Lore & History[]

Dreamer, I think I know who the Glassmaker is... or... who he was... Nihil. Every Ceph you ever met was once a person, before they met him. He made them all. For them. For the Orokin. As a punishment that would never end.

Nihil was the creator of the Cephalons: former humans who violated Orokin law, and were thus punished by being transformed into immortal, digital intelligences after their respective executions. These Cephalons were stripped of their past memories as living beings and were reprogrammed to serve the Orokin in various tasks.

The Glassmaker resurfaced and brought attention to himself after glassing Shigg, an Ostron who attempted to illegally sell material from the Tower of Unum on the black market. His next victim was Bak Vondu, a "selfless" Corpus who attempted a solo gig but accidentally unleashed the Glassmaker in the process. The third known victim was Gral, a Grineer defector who was "chaotic" to Grineer "order". His fourth victim was Cutter, a Solaris United who became a Corpus mole after becoming victim to the Deck 12 incident, and manipulated the other three victims into creating a device to release the Glassmaker across the Origin System. All of the victims shared a pattern: they rebelled against their respective faction's established way of living.

The Tenno work with Nora Night and investigate the Crime-simula she pulls from the Cephalon Weave to investigate the source of the glassing. As they uncover evidence related to the victims, the Tenno enters Nihil's Weave and hears his voice as he explains his motivations for committing the murders; he wants to bring his own form of order to the Sol System.

Nihil is tracked to his former lair, where he proceeds to berate the Tenno for the collapse of the Empire and the subsequent descent of the Sol System into endless chaos and mayhem. In his lair, the Tenno discover a glassed Orokin corpse, realizing the Executor had glassed himself to escape the slaughter of the Orokin by the Tenno and the subsequent collapse of the Empire. Thanks to the actions of his four victims, Nihil is now able to spread his influence across the system and begins glassing numerous victims in an attempt to bring an end to the chaos in his own twisted way. He then glasses Nora Night, before setting his sights on the Tenno. However, the Tenno fight back inside the weave and free the glassed victims, turning them against Nihil and trapping him in his own prison. A freed Nora Night delivers the oubliette containing the Glassmaker to the Tenno, entrusting them to ensure the Glassmaker is never set loose again.

Behavior[]

  • Vitrica Vitrica: Nihil swings his sword once vertically or horizontally. The vertical swing can destroy the glass platforms. Getting hit by this attack will instantly kill the Tenno and bypass bleedout.
  • Glass Shard: Nihil fires a glass projectile from his forehead, slowing the Tenno on impact. If the shard hits a platform, it can be used as a weapon against Nihil. If the shard is allowed to linger, it will eventually destroy the platform it is on.
  • Teleport: Nihil teleports around the field.

Strategy[]

Inside Nihil's weave, the Orokin judge appears as a giant but stationary figure, surrounded by multiple glass platforms. Nihil will attack by throwing Glass Shards which will slow the Tenno upon hit, and the Vitrica Vitrica sword which will instantly kill them regardless of bleedout while also being able to destroy platforms. The Tenno, unable to cast abilities or use weapons, must make extensive use of their dexterous movement to avoid his attacks. If the Tenno fall off the platforms, they will respawn on a temporary platform of higher elevation.

Nihil possesses three health bars and starts out invincible. To remove his invincibility, the Tenno must pick up Glass Shards that hit the platforms and throw them via primary fire button at floating glass crystals containing relevant evidence floating around the room, which must match evidence acquired in previous Glassmaker episodes, which can differ between players. Once the relevant evidence is freed, Nihil will lose his invulnerability, and the Tenno can throw Glass Shards back at him to damage a third of his bar. Since Nihil aims his shards at the Tenno's center of mass, standing at the back end of a platform can make him miss entirely, denying the Tenno a shard to throw back.

The process then repeats for each health bar, during which platforms will be repaired and Nihil will start to Teleport, until he is defeated.

Notes[]

  • After defeating Nihil for the first time, subsequent entries into his Oubliette via the key will require players to strike the same glass shards of evidence that they struck the first time around to disable his invulnerabilty. As these items of evidence are unique for each player, they should memorize or record said items for future engagements.

Tips[]

  • The fight may be paused at any time (default Esc ).
  • Equipping rank 3+ Warframe Arcane Enhancements will add an extra self-revive per installed arcane, giving more room for error in case of being killed by the boss's weapon.
  • Equipping Sprint Speed Mods may make it easier to evade attacks and jump between the platforms.
  • Equipping Mod TT 20px Rolling Guard may allow enduring a direct hit of the boss's weapon.
  • ZephyrIcon272 Zephyr's passive ability (slower falling) may be useful in making it easier to reach a far-located platform.
  • The glass shard with the correct evidence is more transparent/white. The incorrect shards reflect blue and red colors.
Nihil fight - glass shard comparison

The glass shard on the right has the correct evidence

  • This is a solo-only boss fight, so no teammates can join to support you.

Trivia[]

  • He wears the Frakta Shoulder Guards.
  • Nihil is voiced by Ryan Laughton, who also voiced Boon.
  • Nihil's name is Latin for "Nothing" or "No".
  • Nora identifies Nihil as an Orokin judge, one of “The Seven”. This means Nihil is an Executor.
  • Following Nihil's defeat by the Tenno, he is bottled up in glass and is given to the player as an Orbiter decoration, Nihil's Oubliette. After placing the decoration, the Oubliette has a prompt to "Tap", causing a trapped Nihil to speak a small selection of lines, mostly taunting the player that his imprisonment was intentionally on his part, or attempting to bribe them to be let out.
  • Nihil is the third Orokin to be defeated in the playable WARFRAME universe. The first being the Elder Grineer Queen, and the second being Ballas.
    • Nihil is the first Orokin Boss to be fought and defeated outside of a Quest, and is instead fought as a Syndicate Boss.
  • Unlike other bosses, the number under Nihil's health bar does not represent his enemy level, as it decreases every time he loses a health bar.
  • Grandmother's Naberus folktale mentions that Orokin servants are denied possession of Kuva and even them just looking at a flask is punishable by glassing.
  • During the fight, Nora discovers that Nihil is in violation of Orokin law Legem 6-243; "No capital sentence shall be passed without the unanimous consent of the Seven on pain of forfeiture of all tools of office and banishment". This means the Glassmaker is a criminal in the eyes of the society he was a part of, making him a hypocrite.
  • In GaraPrimeIcon Gara Prime's reveal video, Ballas reminisces about Nihil demanding that Gara be punished by glassing for "volunteering willingly" to be turned into a Warframe. However, Ballas recognized her great sacrifice and therefore used special crystals to emulate glass while being more durable, seemingly to spite Nihil.
  • For the Zariman Ten Zero's journey, the Orokin bestowed Quinn the Crystal Index, a tablet that would allow him to punish convicts by glassing.

Gallery[]

Patch History[]

Update 35.1 (2024-02-20)

  • Adjusted Riven type drop rates in Nihil’s Oubliette to be more proportional to weapon ratios.
    • In all Riven sources other than Sorties and Archon Hunts, each Riven type has had an equal chance of being rewarded, meaning you are as likely to get a Kitgun Riven as you are a Melee Riven, despite Kitgun Rivens having 6 possible weapons and Melee having well over 100. Now, Kitguns and Zaws are the least likely to be rolled, followed by (in ascending order) Shotguns, Rifle, Pistol, and Melee. This order is applied to both guaranteed and drop table Rivens:
    • Drop rates for guaranteed Rivens (Nihil’s Oubliette):
      • Kitgun 3.5%
      • Zaw 3.5%
      • Shotgun 8%
      • Rifle 25%
      • Pistol 25%
      • Melee 35%

Hotfix 33.6.4 (2023-08-15)

  • Fixed a rare bug where Nihil’s health bar could go missing.
  • Fixed several HUD script errors related to the Nihil fight.

Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)

  • Fixed Nihil's Oubliette mission appearing on top of Taranis Node in the Void.

Update 29.10 (2021-03-19)

  • Fixed broken Nihil fight if the Client player visiting an Orbiter has a Key and initiates the fight. This also fixes being able to bring a squad to the fight.

Update 29.9 (2021-02-23)

  • Removed ability to initiate the Nihil fight from the Oubliette on another player’s Orbiter.
    • This resulted in a crash.

Hotfix 29.8.1 (2021-02-18)

Nihil Boss Fight Rerun

Are you prepared to face Nihil once again, Tenno?

Nora Night’s Cred Offerings will provide both the Nihil Key and Oubliette required to face off against Nihil. Once you have acquired both, interact with the Oubliette Decoration to fight.

The Nihil Key grants you one fight against Nihil, at which you’ll need to acquire another Key to go again. Nora Night will offer the Nihil Key in her Cred Offerings periodically.

For those who did not originally fight Nihil during Glassmaker, using this Key route will grant you the Vitrica heavy blade. Tenno who have already acquired the Vitrica can enjoy an End of Mission Riven Mod reward!

Look for the Nihil Key in next week's Cred Offerings!

Hotfix 29.3.0.1 (2020-10-27)

  • Fixed a script error when being hit by a glass shard in the Nightwave boss fight.

Update 29.3 (2020-10-27)

  • Introduced.

References[]

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