Kuva Lich: how to spawn one, how to kill it, whether to convert

What a Lich takes

• The War Within finished.
• Mastery Rank 5.
• A Railjack, and one intrinsic at rank 5. Without a ship you cannot finish a Lich: the last fight is in Saturn Proxima, and that region only opens once any one of the five intrinsic trees reaches rank 5. The fastest way there is in the Railjack guide.

Miss any of these and the Kuva Larvling simply will not appear.

How to spawn one

A Kuva Larvling appears in a regular Grineer mission at level 20 or above. Not Sorties, not Void Fissures, not Invasions, not Quests, not Dark Sectors. Crossfire counts, Steel Path counts, Uranus does not.

1. The mission lighting starts flickering yellow. That is the cue.
2. From then you have about 30 seconds to kill 15 enemies.
3. The Larvling spawns, marked by a red waypoint with the Old Blood sigil.
4. Walk up and Mercy it with your Parazon. That is what creates the Lich.

What a Mercy is

This is where newer players stall. The Parazon is a blade every Warframe carries from the start: it hacks consoles, and it performs a special finisher called a Mercy.

You can see the moment: a red Parazon symbol lights up over the enemy with its own sound cue. Walk into melee range and press the interact key, X by default. A Mercy kills instantly, ignoring armour and shields, and you are invulnerable through the animation.

On ordinary heavy units the prompt appears around 40% health. The Kuva Larvling is a special case: it drops to its knees and waits, so there is nothing to grind down first.

The Progenitor: whoever lands the Mercy decides

The Warframe that mercies the Larvling becomes the Progenitor, and it settles several things: the elemental damage on the Lich's weapon, the abilities the Lich uses, and the cosmetic helmet riding on its shoulder.

Prime and Umbra versions carry the same element as the base frame. And usefully: you do not have to fight the Lich with the Progenitor, it is needed for exactly one hit at birth.

What Ephemeras are

An Ephemera is cosmetic: a permanent visual effect on the Warframe, a trail or a glow. Liches are born with one at a 20% chance, matching the Progenitor's element, so a Cold Lich carries a frosty one.

It changes no stats at all, but it is very visible and sought after, which is why plenty of people raise Liches purely for it. You get it either way, vanquish or convert.

Getting the weapon you actually want

The Larvling shows the weapon its Lich would carry. If it is the wrong one, do not Mercy it: let it die and finish the mission. That weapon then drops out of the pool until you have refused all the others.

Which weapons exist

Kuva weapons are special versions of Grineer guns, 21 of them, and every one has an equal chance of turning up.

• Primary: Bramma, Karak, Hind, Quartakk, Ogris, Tonkor, Zarr, Chakkhurr, Kohm, Drakgoon, Hek, Sobek, Grattler, Ayanga.
• Secondary: Nukor, Brakk, Kraken, Seer, Twin Stubbas.
• Melee: Shildeg, Ghoulsaw.

On top of the element, each copy rolls a damage bonus between 25% and 60% of base, at random. That number is what people actually hunt: the gun is the same for everyone, the roll is not.

It can be raised with Valence Fusion: two of the same Kuva weapon merge into one whose higher bonus is multiplied by 1.1. The ceiling is still 60%. A donor cannot be sitting in the Foundry or equipped on a converted Lich.

Star chart influence and the loot tax

Once born, a Lich takes over nodes on one planet. Those nodes spawn its Thralls, marked by a white-blue aura and a red waypoint. Clearing a node removes the influence from it.

While a planet is under influence, the Lich takes a cut of your rewards there: credits, resources, blueprints. That, not just the weapon, is the reason not to leave one sitting.

Clear every node on the planet and the Lich ranks up and moves on by itself. So does a failed Parazon attempt.

Requiem mods: where they come from

A Lich only dies to the right sequence of three Requiem mods in your Parazon. The mods come from:

Oull is the exception: a wildcard that stands in for any Requiem in the sequence. It drops from the Lich itself at 25% once it flees to Saturn Proxima.

Working out the sequence

Killing Thralls builds Requiem Murmurs. Murmurs tell you which three mods you need, never the order. The order comes only from testing: equip them, try the Mercy, and a wrong guess ranks the Lich up and sends it away.

1. Farm Thralls on influenced nodes until the first Murmur resolves.
2. Try the Mercy. A miss is not a loss, it is information about which position is wrong.
3. Each miss raises the Lich's rank, and with it its level and its reward. Up to rank 3 that is fine.
4. Once all three mods and the order are known, the Lich flees to Saturn Proxima and the last fight happens there.

Vanquish or convert

You get 20 seconds to choose, so decide before you get there.

Trading a Lich away

The weapon itself does not trade. A converted Lich does, and the other player gets a shot at its weapon and Ephemera. That is what people mean by selling a Lich.

• The trade happens in the Crimson Branch room of a clan Dojo.
• The recipient must have no active Lich or Sister.
• Right-click the token to preview the Lich's stats before trading.
• After the trade it becomes the recipient's active Lich, and its Requiem sequence changes: they work it out from scratch.
• One trade only. If the recipient converts it again, it cannot be passed on.

The new owner still has to beat the Lich to claim the weapon. How player trading works and where to find a sane price is in the trading guide.

What a Kuva weapon is worth

• The weapon arrives with the Lich's name in its own, something like "Odizrigg Agekk Kuva Kohm".
• Ignore the Mastery Rank on it: it is claimed from the Foundry rather than bought, so the requirement is never checked.
• Max rank grows with Forma, +2 each, up to rank 40 after five.
• Every rank past thirty pays mastery, 4,000 points in total at rank 40, well above an ordinary weapon.
• Mod capacity reaches 80 at rank 40 with a Catalyst installed.

If mastery is what you are chasing, the mastery rank guide has the arithmetic on what to level next.

Where Orikon helps

While you clear nodes under a Lich, those nodes rain relics. Prime parts do not drop from missions themselves: a relic has to be cracked in a Void Fissure, and that is where the prime part comes out. How that works is in the relic guide.

The relics picked up under a Lich are usually worth more platinum than the Lich itself. Orikon prices all four rewards on the pick screen after a relic opens, so the right choice is visible without leaving the game.