The Kuva Lich is a Warframe enemy that was introduced with Update 26, The Old Blood. It is an enemy that hunts you down and invades the system. Knowing how to spawn a Kuva Lich, and what to do when you encounter them can earn you a powerful weapon, or a strong ally. This guide will break down how the Kuva Lich works in Warframe.
How to find a Kuva Lich in Warframe
To find a Kuva Lich, you must first kill a Kuva Larvling. These can be found in any regular level 20+ Grineer mission in the Origin System, with some notable exceptions. The level 20 Grineer missions you can not find a Kuva Larling in are as follows:
- Dark Sectors
- Invasion
- Quests
- Sorties
- Void Fissures
The most important thing before generating a new Kuva Lich is to think about which Warframe you want to use to do it. The Warframe that creates a Kuva Lich will determine what elemental damage bonus the Kuva Lich weapon will have and the type of Ephemera they will have if they spawn with one. Finally, the Progenitor Warframe will dictate the Lich’s abilities.
You must also have completed the War Within quest as well before a Kuva Larvling will appear for you. Each Kuva Larvling will become a Lich, and each Lich can grant you their unique weapon when they’re eventually defeated. If you see a Kuva Larvling with a weapon you don’t want or need, then finish the mission and hunt another one.
Below, you can find a table with the Progenitor Warframe for each element. Prime Warframes will generate the same elemental type as the base Warframe.
| Element | Progenitor Warframe |
|---|---|
| Cold | Frost, Gara, Hildryn, Revenant, Styanax, Titania, Trinity |
| Electricity | Banshee, Caliban, Excalibur, Gyre, Limbo, Nova, Valkyr, Volt |
| Heat | Chroma, Ember, Inaros, Nezha, Protea, Vauban, Wisp |
| Impact | Baruuk, Gauss, Grendel, Rhino, Sevagoth, Wukong, Zephyr |
| Toxin | Atlas, Ivara, Khora, Nekros, Nidus, Oberon, Saryn |
| Magnetic | Citrine, Harrow, Hydroid, Lavos, Mag, Mesa, Xaku, Yareli |
| Radiation | Ash, Equinox, Garuda, Loki, Mirage, Nyx, Octavia, Voruna |
How To Fight The Kuva Lich in Warframe
To fight your Kuva Lich, you must draw them out. You do this by doing missions in Nodes that the Lich has influence, and by destroying their Thralls. Killing the Thralls using the Parazon will give you clues on the correct order of Requiem mods that you need to kill your Lich. Your Lich will also have specific resistances and immunities, based on how you created the Kuva Lich to begin with.
You will know a Lich is after you when an icon appears in your Navigation and Menu screens. The icon will appear beside the Nightwave button and will allow you to check details about your Lich, including Lich Level, Requiem Mod Attempts, and more.
Kuva Influence will be shown as a red cloud on your Navigation. It will start in one destination, and when you click to view it, you will see which Nodes the cloud is spreading over. Nodes where the Kuva Lich has Influenced, will have a Reward Tax. The Lich will steal a percentage of all your resources. Once you kill the Lich, all that loot is returned to you.
Only one Kuva Lich can be after you at one time, so you need to kill them outright to get a new one. To kill a Lich, you need to use your Parazon with Requiem mods. The Requiem Mods form a sort of puzzle and must be in the correct order to deliver the killing blow. Your squad can weaken the Lich, but only you may kill it.
To figure out the combination, you will need to kill the Lich’s Thralls and accumulate Requiem Murmers. Once you gather enough of this resource, a Requiem Mod will be unveiled. You will need to figure out the order, so you can either wait until you know all three, or you can do some trial and error when your Kuva Lich arrives in your missions. Each failed attempt to slay a Kuva Lich will have it evolve and grow stronger.
When you finally find the right combination of Mods, the Lich will retreat to a node in the Railjack Veil destinations. Players can follow them in, complete the mission, then board a galleon to fight them. They will not need to use their Requiem Mods at this point, just take the Kuva Lich to zero health, then finish it off. Players will then decide if they wish to kill the Lich to get the weapon it has, or accept the Lich as an ally.
All Kuva Lich Weapons
These weapons will be carried by your Lich and can be acquired when you kill them. The weapons have custom stats and variants, depending on your specific Lich.
- Kuva Karak: The custom weapon of a fearsome Kuva Lich. It has higher reload speed, lower recoil, and greater accuracy than the standard-issue Karak rifle
- Kuva Quartakk: Unlike a standard Quartakk, this Kuva Lich variant fires automatically from the hip and reloads faster while retaining its signature feature: annihilating targets with four simultaneous shots
- Kuva Ogris: The custom weapon of a fearsome Kuva Lich. Unlike the basic version, the Kuva Ogris fires detonate-infused casings semi-automatically, from a smaller clip, while dealing greater damage per shot
- Kuva Kohm: The Kuva Kohm variant has a higher fire rate than the original. For every shot fired in rapid succession, the Kuva Kohm releases an additional bolt and grows more lethal
- Kuva Tonkor: This Lich-variant grenade launcher hurls mayhem and destruction with an increased reload speed
- Kuva Drakgoon: The Kuva Drakgoon flak cannon sends volleys of intensely hot shrapnel ricocheting around the room that do not slow down. Larger clip size and reload speed. Can be fired in wide or concentrated bursts
- Kuva Stubba (AKA Twin Stubba): Double-fist rapid-fire bursts of pain with these dual-wield variants of the Grineer submachine gun. Higher fire-rate and clip capacity
- Kuva Seer: This variant pistol has a higher fire rate and magazine capacity. Superior zoom capabilities, plus projectiles, have a small Corrosive burst
- Kuva Kraken: A custom variant that fires three quick shots with a single pull of the trigger, or can alt-fire burst the remainder of its clip. Higher fire rate, magazine capacity, and reload speed
- Kuva Brakk: This Lich-variant semi-automatic hand cannon delivers a lot of punch in a small package. Higher fire rate, magazine capacity, and reload speed
- Kuva Chakkhurr – A high-damage flintlock rifle that does additional Damage on headshots
- Kuva Shieldeg – A massive hammer for smashing
- Kuva Ayanga – An Arch-Gun that can be turned into a Heavy Weapon with a Gravimag
- Kuva Hind – This powerful Grineer burst rifle has been retrofitted to add semi-automatic and automatic fire modes
- Kuva Nukor – A highly-optimized Nukor that allows for the weapon’s microwave field to hit up to four additional targets
- Kuva Bramma – This Grineer bow delivers vengeance in the form of cluster bomb-tipped arrows that can be detonated mid-air or on impact
