Nihil

Quotes

“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”

The following article/section contains spoilers.

The Glassmaker
Information
Voice Actor(s)	Ryan Laughton
Quotes	Nihil/Quotes

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 also known as the Glassmaker, a former Orokin judge who is responsible for "glassing" people throughout the Origin System. He is believed to be the creator of the Cephalons. He was introduced during Nightwave: Series 3 - The Glassmaker.

Lore

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.

—Nora Night

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 black market material from the Tower of Unum. 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 way of living.

The Tenno work with Nora Night and investigate the Crime-simula she pulled 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.

Behavior

•  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 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 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 and throw them via primary fire button at floating glass crystals containing relevant evidence floating around the room. Players must free the evidence that matches evidence they've acquired in previous Glassmaker chapters, which can be different between players. Glass Shards can be picked up if Nihil's Glass Shard attacks miss and hit a solid platform, otherwise they will shatter if they hit the Tenno. 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.

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

Trivia

• Nihil is voiced by Ryan Laughton, who also voiced Boon.
• Grandmother's Naberus folktale mentions that Orokin servants are denied possession of Kuva. Even them just looking at a flask is punishable by glassing.

Media

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