Formerly nicknamed “Kingpin”, Digital Extremes has finally unleashed the Kuva Lich upon the Sol system, and no one is safe. There is some nuance to the new system – like most of Warframe’s content – but the Kuva Lich can be easily conquered with the right knowledge.
Complete The War Within to start spawning Kuva Larvlings.
As the heading here mentions, you won’t be picking fights with a Kuva Lich until after you have completed The War Within, found deep within the star chart. Once you have crossed that particular quest off your list, Kuva Larvlings will have a chance to spawn in all regular level 20+ Grineer missions (so, not within Sorties, Nightmares, Arbitrations, etc…). Your screen will flicker when one does spawn, and a Kuva Guardian will deliver some dialog. Follow the red waypoint to the larvling (which looks like an unarmored Grineer troop), and kill it.
*UPDATE* As of a recent patch, you must now opt-in to killing your larvling. The last person to strike it will be given the option to “Mercy Execute” it, so unless you choose to do so, killing a Larvling will not spawn a Lich.
Bear in mind that this is easier to do solo than in a group. A larvling can spawn for anyone eligible, but it only becomes a lich for the person to get the last hit. Go into a mission solo – Extermination works well – and you’ll have a larvling all to yourself. The lich’s weapon bonus will be determined by the frame you kill it with, and redditor u/NooblyUser has compiled a community resourced list of which frames provides which bonuses, if you’d like to use that prior to converting your larvling into mincemeat.
Once the larvling has been slain, your lich will rise.
From the corpse of your baby Grineer a lich will rise: a (mostly) randomly generated nemesis with warframe abilities who will invade nodes throughout the system. You can only have one active at a time, and you must take down the current one to spawn another. If you aim to bury your Kuva Lich you will need to do a few things first.
First, you need to learn what their weakness is: you can’t kill the bastard permanently until you have discovered which three Requiem mods it is vulnerable to. To figure this out, you need to go to the glowing red nodes your lich has “influenced”, and take down its thralls. These influenced nodes will also be taxed, by the way, with your lich stealing end of mission rewards until it is taken down (which is when you’ll reap the stolen goods).
Thralls can be found within the Influenced version of the mission – selectable from the mission list after picking a node under your lich’s influence. Running the normal mission will not spawn thralls, and once you clear the Influenced version it will disappear until you clear the whole region, or the lich moves on. These are higher level missions, by the way (50+), so go in well equipped. Once inside an Influenced mission, red markers will appear to indicate a thrall has spawned: take it out, and execute it when prompted to gain Murmurs.
For every thrall killed the murmur icon will fill, and once it has been completed one of the Requiem mods needed to vanquish your lich will be revealed upon returning to your lander. You repeat this process until you have all three Requiem mods revealed. Killing thralls will also agitate your lich, causing it to randomly spawn during missions. The more annoyed it is, the more likely it’ll appear to harass you. These appearances are also when you’ll be able to tackle the lich once and for all.
The second bit is the fun part: the mods need to be installed into your new “parazon” hacking/assassination blade in a specific order if you wish to finish your lich off permanently. Get the order wrong (or try and execute the lich without the mods) and you’ll die, with the lich growing stronger. Get the order correct and you’ll have two options: vanquish the lich for its weapon, or convert it into a minion that has a chance to appear during your missions to assist you. How then do you figure out the correct order?
You’ll need to get to stabbing. Each attempt on the lich’s life will highlight when a mod is in the correct location, so you’ll need to rely on trial and error to get it right. Thankfully, all your attempts are listed in the lich’s profile, found on the star chart. No one else can attempt an assassination on your lich, so figuring out what mods you need, and their order, is entirely on you.
Vanquishing a lich grants a Kuva weapon.
So, what makes these kuva weapons special? For one, they are enhanced versions of their normal counterparts, with the Kuva Khom firing faster and adding an additional bolt between bursts of rapid fire. Secondly, they have stats unique to your lich. Remember that list of frames I mentioned above? Essentially, you’ll gain a bonus to the weapon based on the bonus your lich possesses. So, if you want that same Khom with a bonus to Toxic damage, you’ll need to kill a larvling with a Saryn or other toxic aligned frame.
Kuva Liches can also be generated with unique ephemera that you’ll gain no matter how you dispatch the lich. These are rarer, but can be seen in the lich’s profile.
Those are the basics concerning the Kuva Lich. To better understand the Requiem mods, how to obtain them, and the parazon check out the guides here.
