The Lich System[1] in WARFRAME involves randomized boss-like enemies known generically as Liches, Adversaries[2], or Nemeses[3] who attempt to conquer the Star Chart through their might and influence on the System, stealing players' rewards on mission nodes they control. Taking them down requires multiple missions to determine their Requiem Mod sequence. Only one Adversary can be active for a player at any time.
As of Update 30.5 (2021-07-06), the Grineer Kuva Liches and Corpus Sisters of Parvos are available to be defeated by the Tenno to reap their rewards. This article serves to document similarities in their gameplay and mechanics. Individual differences and details on how to create these Adversaries can be found on their respective pages.
Summary[]
A summary of the Lich System can be accessed from the "Tutorial" button in the Adversary's profile.
You can only defeat this Adversary by equipping your Parazon with a sequence of Requiem Mods that are unique to [ADVERSARY's NAME].
Collect Murmurs by defeating [ADVERSARY'S NAME]'s Thralls (Grineer) or Hounds (Corpus) to learn the Known Requiems.
Equip the Known Requiems on your Parazon and battle [ADVERSARY'S NAME] to determine the correct sequence.
In regions containing the Adversary's territory, [ADVERSARY'S NAME] may steal your rewards. Defeating [ADVERSARY'S NAME] is the only way to recover your losses.
Lure [ADVERSARY'S NAME] out of hiding by defeating Thralls or Hounds in controlled areas.
Viewing Adversaries[]
To view your current Adversary, one can go to the Star Chart or the ESC menu and click on the Adversary icon. Alternatively, the Codex will have a section for your current or previous Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos.
Progenitors[]
Progenitors are a generic term used to describe enemies that can evolve into Adversaries when killing them with a 
Parazon finisher.
Progenitor Warframe[]
Downed Kuva Larvling with Kuva Weapon icon
During normal gameplay or through specific triggers, players may encounter a special enemy that can be mercy killed with the Parazon to create their Adversary. A Kuva Larvling will evolve into a Kuva Lich and a Candidate will evolve into a Sister of Parvos.
The Warframe who created the Kuva Lich/Sister will determine the:
- Elemental damage bonus that their Kuva/Tenet Weapon will have
- The type of Ephemera, should the Adversary spawn with one
- Ability kit of Kuva Liches and Sisters
- Cosmetic helmet that appears on either the Lich's shoulder or the Sister's Hound
The Progenitor Warframe does not need to be used to fight the created Adversary at any point, and can be switched out for one more suited to the task.
*Note that the Primed or Umbra version of a Warframe share the same element
Requiem Mods[]
Requiem Mods
Requiem Mods are a special subset of Parazon Mods, each one an enigmatic phrase fragment of a complete Requiem Sequence, thus the only way to permanently sever a Kuva Lich or Sisters of Parvos's Immortality.
Murmur System[]
Murmur progress; inner ring for Hint 1, middle ring for Hint 2, and outer ring for Hint 3
An Adversary is accompanied by their legion of thralls that take control of the System under their name. These minions have abilities unique from other enemies in the same faction and have additional Damage Reduction over their normal/equivalent counterparts. They can be mercied with the Parazon to increase the player's progress in revealing one of the three Requiem Mods required to defeat the Adversary. This increase in progress is known as a Requiem Murmur. Murmurs can also be obtained by attempting a Requiem Mod sequence on an Adversary during their encounter in missions.
It is important to know, that ignoring the Thralls by leaving them behind without mercy-kill and complete the main mission will result in that mission node remaining open and repeatable for progression. Especially in the case where enough Murmur has been collected and revealed all three Requiem Mods to successfully take down one's Adversary, ignoring the thralls also seems to prevent the Adversary from spawning [This needs more affirmative validation].[citation needed]
A multitude of Requiem Murmurs will update the Adversary's status screen, revealing part of the Requiem Mod combination that will prove fatal to the Adversary. The number of Murmurs needed for each reveal can vary but average to 36, 60, and 84 with the total being approximately 180 Murmurs[4] Note that Murmurs will only reveal the Requiem Mods required to kill the Adversary, not the order they are needed to be in. Players will need to figure out the order by trial-and-error during Adversary encounters in missions.
The old Requiem mod attempt colors.
On the right side of the Adversary's status screen, the bottom row displays known Requiem mods and Requiem Murmur progress. Top row displays currently equipped Requiem Mods. Middle rows are previous Requiem Mod attempts; correct Requiems correspond to UI Theme (e.g. yellow for the Harrier theme, blue for the Fortuna theme), Requiems highlighted red with a slash signify incorrect mod or position, and Requiems greyed out are untested on the Adversary.
Tax System[]
An Adversary increasingly establishes influence across a set of nodes in the system by commanding their minions, which will appear during missions. The Adversary will gain influence each time it ranks up, and a node will lose its influence after the player defeats the Adversary Controlled Territory mission there. Clearing influence from every node on the Star Chart will cause the Adversary to take control of new planets/regions.
Influence serves to diminish the player's rewards for completing missions in the affected nodes as a part of the reward will be claimed by the Adversary through a Reward Tax. Grineer Kuva Liches will tax almost everything, including Credits, Resources, Blueprints, Void Relics, Ayatan Treasures, Kuva, and Mods, but not Requiem Relics, Requiem Mods, and Pigments. In the case of Sisters, only Credits will be taken, but at a far steeper tax rate. As the number of nodes under influence increases, the Reward Tax will also increase (roughly 0.7% per node). Everything the player loses through Reward Tax will only be reclaimed after they have defeated the Adversary.
Enrage System[]
| Adversary Level | Enemy Level on Controlled Nodes |
Kuva Lich Region | Sister of Parvos Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55-75 | Earth | Venus |
| 2 | 50-60 | Mars | Phobos |
| 3 | 55-70 | Ceres | Jupiter |
| 4 | 75-90 | Sedna | Neptune |
| 5 | 90-110 | Kuva Fortress | Pluto |
| Railjack Confrontation | 63-70 Fighter Level: 31-36 |
Saturn Proxima | Neptune Proxima |
A rage meter can be seen in the Adversary's Profile page, representing the likelihood that the Adversary will appear in the player's missions. The 'angrier' the Adversary, the more likely the player will encounter them. Only killing thralls in nodes occupied by the player's Adversary will further anger the Adversary and increase the meter. Occupied node mission completion will not increase the meter nor will killing thralls in different Adversary-controlled nodes (via taxi), although the latter will still give Requiem Murmur progress.
There are five levels of anger: Indifferent → Annoyed → Fuming → Furious → Enraged. The meter will reset every time the Adversary levels up. Note that a failed assassination attempt on a level 5 Adversary will not result in its rage meter decreasing due to them not leveling up past level 5, therefore maintaining your chance of encountering them in future nodes.
If a Adversary is sufficiently enraged, there is a chance they will appear in the mission for combat. It is entirely possible that an Adversary will appear long before the player has deduced all three Requiem mods; because of this, killing or even fighting the Adversary is not required for mission success (for example, waves in Defense missions will end even if the Adversary is still active).
An Adversary has a shield bar and three health bars. Depleting an Adversary's health bar to 5% will cause them to stumble and begin to gradually recover health for 10 seconds, giving the player a chance to use their Parazon for a Mercy attack. If the Requiem Mod is in the correct sequence, the Adversary's health bar will be destroyed, otherwise, the Adversary will simply despawn and also gain a rank up. Rank 1, 2, 3, and 4 Kuva Liches will respectively drop 150, 200, 250 and 300 
Kuva for all squad members, while Sisters will drop 5,000 - 10,000 
Credits at any rank, when a Parazon is used on them.
Adversaries have variable resistances and weaknesses to damage types, however, as one levels up, the type against which it is vulnerable to, may become one of those it resists. Unlike most bosses, Adversaries are vulnerable to status effects with some restrictions; they can only receive up to 4 stacks of any status effect with the exception of 
Impact which can stack up to 6 times, and 
Radiation only amplifies the damage the Adversary receives from allied units and does not enable friendly fire unless those allies themselves are inflicted by the status.
If an Adversary stumbles three times without attempting to use the Parazon on the Adversary, or all Tenno are in bleedout or are dead, it will automatically flee and leave the mission. This prevents it from leveling up, but will not drop Kuva nor generate Murmur knowledge.
Only one Adversary can be present at any given time. The present Adversary must be repelled or defeated in order for another player's Adversary to spawn.
Railjack Encounter[]
When the right combination of Requiem Mods is found and all three of the Adversary's health bars have been destroyed, all the Requiem mods used will lose one charge and the Adversary will have a 25% chance to drop the Requiem Mod 
Oull for only their player before retreating to the Saturn Proxima for Liches, or Neptune Proxima for Sisters, appearing in a node dubbed either "Kuva Lich Confrontation" or "Sister Confrontation."
Both missions are Empyrean missions that follow a similar flow as regular Empyrean missions, with the exception of housing the final fight against the Lich or Sister aboard their faction's respective vessels once the secondary objectives are complete (destroying fighters for Liches or Security Nodes for Sisters, and destroying Crewships for both). While Liches are joined by a single Thrall and prefer to fight the player directly with minimal aid from the rest of the Grineer, Sisters will be aided by their Hounds and two Warframe Specters and is invulnerable until all her backup is killed. After their health bar is almost entirely reduced to zero, the Lich or Sister will be defeated and become able to be interacted with the Parazon, prompting a final choice to Vanquish or Convert them.
- Whichever choice made, all "stolen" drops that they were responsible for will be returned to the player. If the Adversary has an Ephemera equipped, their player is also guaranteed to get it. There is also a 25% chance the Adversary will reward a Requiem Ultimatum for only their player. Sisters will also drop a Corrupted Holokey for all players.
- Vanquish: The Adversary will permanently die and award the player their Kuva or Tenet Weapon, which is also named after the defeated Adversary (e.g. "Ulogg Stakk Kuva Quartakk"), and in the case of Sisters the player will also receive a Hound named after her. These will be "Ready to Claim" in the Foundry and bypasses their Mastery Rank requirements. In addition, Sisters will also drop a random Hound component blueprint for all players.
- Convert: The Adversary becomes the player's ally, allowing it to appear randomly in a mission after the player enters bleedout, and can be brought aboard Railjacks as defensive Crew.
- The player can trade a converted Adversary, allowing another player a chance to earn their weapon and/or Ephemera. The trade is performed inside a Clan Dojo's Crimson Branch room, and the recipient must not have any active Adversary.
- The stats of the Adversary being traded can be previewed by right-clicking its token.
- Once traded, the Adversary will become the recipient's active Adversary, and the Requiem Mod combination used to defeat them will change.
- A converted Adversary can only be traded once. If the recipient converts their received Adversary, it will not be tradeable.
- The player can trade a converted Adversary, allowing another player a chance to earn their weapon and/or Ephemera. The trade is performed inside a Clan Dojo's Crimson Branch room, and the recipient must not have any active Adversary.
The player has 20 seconds to choose. If no choice is made, the Lich is automatically vanquished.
Adversary Weapons[]
Adversary Weapons are a class of weapons that can only be obtained by vanquishing the player's own Kuva Lich or Sister of Parvos.
Kuva[]
This weapon is obtained by vanquishing a Kuva Lich who generated with one equipped. After the Lich is vanquished it will be in the player's Foundry ready to claim.
While the weapon itself is not tradeable, a converted Kuva Lich generated with the weapon can be traded to another player. The trade is performed inside a Clan Dojo's Crimson Branch room, and the recipient must not have any active Lich or Sister. Once traded, the recipient must fight and vanquish the Lich to claim its weapon.
Tenet[]
This weapon is obtained by vanquishing a Sister of Parvos who generated with one equipped. After the Sister is vanquished it will be in the player's Foundry ready to claim.
While the weapon itself is not tradeable, a converted Sister of Parvos generated with the weapon can be traded to another player. The trade is performed inside a Clan Dojo's Crimson Branch room, and the recipient must not have any active Lich or Sister. Once traded, the recipient must fight and vanquish the Sister to claim its weapon.
Notes[]
- For weapons obtained from vanquishing the Kuva Lich or Sister:
- The player does not have to meet the Mastery Rank displayed to obtain this weapon. It can simply be claimed from the foundry after the Lich/Sister carrying it has been vanquished.
- The weapon will have a prefix of the name of the Lich/Sister it was acquired from (e.g. a Kuva Kohm might be called "Odizrigg Agekk Kuva Kohm").
- Refraining from Mercy killing an Adversary candidate will remove their weapon from the pool of potential Adversary weapons until each has been refused, but only if the mission is completed. Weapons rejected from aborted missions will remain in the current cycle.
- For weapons obtained from Ergo Glast's shop:
- The player must meet the Mastery Rank displayed to obtain this weapon, as it is claimed from an NPC shop rather than the foundry.
- The weapon's max rank caps at 40 after 5 polarizations (max rank increases by 2 per Forma added).
- Additional polarizations can be added when the weapon reaches its new max rank at that polarization level.
- Each additional rank also gives 100 Mastery Rank experience, giving 4,000 points in total at level 40.
- Mod capacity scales with the additional ranks, and can reach a total of 80 at rank 40 with an Orokin Catalyst installed.
- Without an Orokin Catalyst, the max is 40. Combined with the five polarized mod slots required to reach that point, an Orokin Catalyst might not be required for some beginner-friendly builds as they typically use less mod capacity.
- After polarizing a weapon, any additional mod capacity above 30 (60 with an Orokin Catalyst) will not take effect until the weapon's rank reaches 31 and above.
- Legendary Mastery Rank increases the minimum mod capacity for such weapons, without the weapon needing to be rank 31 and above. For example, Legendary 1 increases the minimum capacity to 31 (62 with an Orokin Catalyst).
- Comes with an additional damage stat.
- For Lich/Sister-obtained weapons this is dependent on the Warframe that summoned the Lich/Sister.
- For Ergo Glast shop a random bonus stat will be offered for each weapon and changed every 4 days (96 hours).
- This damage stat randomly ranges between 25%-60%. It can be upgraded up to its maximum value with Valence Fusion using another copy of the weapon.
- This bonus stat is considered a base damage type and will be applied after all elemental mods for the purposes of elemental combinations.
- Weapons with an innate primary element and a different primary element provided by the progenitor both behave as innate elements and combine with each other. They will also recombine with modded elements in the following order:
- Mod slot 1 → Mod slot 2 → ... → Mod slot 8 → Innate
Heat → Innate 
Cold → Innate 
Electricity → Innate 
Toxin
- Mod slot 1 → Mod slot 2 → ... → Mod slot 8 → Innate
Converted Adversaries Mechanics and Behavior[]
- Converted Adversaries will always spawn at level 75 (if Rank 5) on Railjack missions and through normal missions with the On-Call feature of Railjack. However, they will have limited scaling when they spawn naturally to assist players who have died at least once, going past level 75 in Steel Path missions.
- Liches and Sisters will revive downed Crew Members the same way players do and take time to do so. As they are significantly stronger than normal crew this makes them be able to withstand the toughest punishments while keeping your crew alive.
Kuva Lich Specific[]
- The "Lightning Bolt" ability on Electric Liches is generally ineffective on Converted Liches, they may target an enemy behind a wall or in another cell, then be locked in place for a few seconds as they slowly redirect it, only to stop after a short direction change and not hit anything.
- Toxin Liches with the "Miasma" ability tend to spam it constantly, dealing heavy Viral damage and procs. It is advised to bring high regenerative shields, health and/or effective shield gating. Additonally, if the Lich in question is created from Khora/Prime, it will also spam Hallowed Ground in tandem endlessly.
- The Decoy used by Radiation Liches is effective on Railjack to draw aggro from enemy boarders and away from other crew and the ship, as it has a high threat level.
- "Plasma Eruption" from Heat-based Liches locks the Lich in place, but the pillars of fire will spawn seemingly to all enemies within range, offering excellent stun at the cost of making the Lich vulnerable during casting and the long cooldown.
- "Plasma Fire" from Heat-based Liches will also often miss and only offers minimal damage and a very short stun.
- Liches with the
Kuva Bramma will often aim while moving slowly if they detect enemies, and walk slower than other types of Liches. On Railjack, they will never run as a result and slowly walk around. - Liches with the
Kuva Ogris will often miss as they will target enemies torso's at range, or at enemies feet if they are close enough. They will also only fire 2 rounds before reloading, or oddly enough 3 rounds if their fire rate is boosted by 
Wisp's Haste 
Reservoirs. - Cold Lich's "Frozen Fortress" ability fully removes the armor of enemies they freeze solid, but the duration is rather low and the cooldown is long (like all "ultimate" abilities from Liches). It does however, let them do decent damage against armor in this manner.
- Liches with the "Fear of Space Travel" quirk will cower in the Simulacrum if spawned with the On Call Railjack feature, since the relays are in space. This is despite the fact that the simulacrum is technically not on land or in space but a digital realm.
- Impact Liches will only use their Iron Skin ability once when casting, and do not appear to ever use the ability again, preferring to use their movement ability the most and sometimes pulling enemies with Ripline, and rarely using Stomp.
- Liches equipped with the
Kuva Nukor retain the weapon's perfect accuracy and chaining ability, offering excellent crowd control through Radiation procs but minimal damage to heavy armor, even alloy. - Liches are easily stun-locked by Harrow's Condemn, allowing for close combat without the infamous "backbreaker" as long as it is refreshed during it's Ability Duration.
Sister of Parvos Specific[]
- Toxin Sisters will almost always use
Molt, then use 
Prowl to hide. However, they never move or attack while in prowl and simply stand next to their decoy, which will cause them to still be attacked by stray bullets or AoE. On the Railjack they do the same, limiting their ability to rush to downed human crew members to revive them. - Radiation Sisters will use
Ensnare somewhat often, which will immobilize entire groups of enemies for a short time, however their Magnetize only lasts a couple seconds and is entirely useless while 
Polarize only regenerates a tiny portion of their own shields while temporarily stunning the Sister (by raising herself in the air similar to 
Mag specters in The Index). - Cold Sisters will use a mobile version of
Snow Globe similar to Arctic Eximus enemies, but not only will it block allied fire from going through (if the Sister is between the player and enemies) but the globe is very weak and will very quickly be dispatched even on low level missions. They will also use a non-damaging version of 
Undertow to evade damage for a short time, but on Railjacks this can prove detrimental as they will often hide when crew members need to be revived.
- They will however, attempt to stay close to the player who spawned them in, making the globe somewhat effective at temporarily stopping attacks from reaching them.
- Magnetic Sisters will never create Spectralysts with Soul Punch, despite being able to make one of the player when she is the player's nemesis. This is likely due to Spectralysts being copies of Tenno only, despite the description of the Amalgam Heqet implying it can create Spectralysts of any enemy. This makes the ability largely useless as its very minor damage.
- Heat-based Sister's
Fireball ability travels very slowly, about as slow as a Bombard rocket. As such, it will very often miss any targets not standing still or at near point blank range to the Sister. They will use their 
Spectral Scream ability most often, which locks them in place as they deal low damage heat procs to enemies they aim at in a tight cone, and rarely will use 
Warding Halo. - Electric-based Sisters will use their
Null Star ability the most out of their kit, creating 3 orbiting null stars which presumably give her 15% damage reduction to her health but its very common for them to seek enemies, wasting the DR they could give her. She will use her Radial Blind uncommonly, blinding enemies in a small radius for a few seconds but NOT opening them up for finishers. Finally, she will rarely use her personal 
Electric Shield only when damaged enough, which will block most frontal damage and vanish after a few seconds.
Trivia[]
- The idea of Adversaries dates back to Devstream 88 when they were previously known as the "Kingpin" system.
Name Generation[]
Adversary names are procedurally generated using Markov chains with set number of predefined strings. Because of this, it is possible for two Adversaries to share the same name.[5]
Patch History[]
Hotfix 31.1.7 (2022-02-23)
- Fixed an issue where innate damage bonus of Kuva weapons did not apply to the bonus damage from Galvanized Aptitude.
- Fixed a Sister of Parvos candidate not showing what weapon is offered if the Treasurer is also alive.
Update 31.1 (2022-02-09)
- ADVERSARY WEAPON GENERATION - QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGE
As the pool of Adversary weapons grows and your checklist fills out, the natural chance of finding a Progenitor (Larvling or Candidate) with the exact weapon you desire shrinks. This Adversary Weapon Generation Quality of Life change is meant to reduce randomness over time of what weapon a Progenitor Candidate (Sister) or Larvling (Kuva Lich) can spawn with.
How it works:
By skipping a Progenitor (choosing not to Mercy them) the spawned weapon is then put into a ‘reject’ pile for that round of Adversary generation, meaning that it will not appear again and ultimately reducing the weapon pool each time you ‘reject’.
The list of rejected weapons is cleared once you accept an Adversary and the process would start again from a clean slate for both Sister or Kuva Lich the next time you go looking for an Adversary. This list clearing applies to both Sister and Kuva Lich, meaning once the chosen Adversary is Converted or Vanquished, the list clears for both factions.
Test Cluster change: Kuva Lich/Sister of Parvos weapon reject list will now reset if you reject every possible weapon.
Hotfix 31.0.9 (2022-01-20)
- Fixed a script error when an Adversary fails to spawn after a Host migration.
Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)
- Fixed Larvlings/Candidates spawning when no one in the squad can actually start an Adversary (did not complete the Call of the Tempestarii Quest).
- This also fixes cases of being able to gain a Sister of Parvos when you're ineligible.
Update 30.7 (2021-09-08)
- Kuva Lich/Sister Changes & Fixes:
- Reduced the time between Grineer Kuva Thrall spawns, so that the time to get all 10 to spawn is more in line with the time it takes to get all 3 Corpus Hounds to spawn.
- Made improvements to the Kuva Lich/Sister showdown cinematic:
- Added music befitting a showdown!
- Fixed the cinematic being silent.
- Fixed ability to manipulate the camera during the cinematic.
- Fixed animation popping during the cinematic.
- Changed Sister Candidate waypoint icon to be the Sister icon instead of the Treasurer (Granum Crown) icon.
- Fixed a progression stopper in the Sister showdown fight due to the Sister’s Hound not spawning if the Host player died and went AFK after entering the Capital Ship.
- Fixed an issue where a Kuva Lich with the ‘Ensnare’ ability could potentially prevent the context action for execution from appearing if the ability was cast prior to being weakened.
- Fixed not receiving the Sisterhood Sigil after Converting or the Sisterhood Emblem after Vanquishing a Sister of Parvos.
- Upon login those missing their respective Sisterhood Sigil/Emblem will receive them.
- Fixed Rhino’s Rhino Stomp perpetually stunning both Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos.
- Fixed the Kuva Lich and Sister Vanquish animation not playing correctly, where it would turn the Lich/Sister invisible or fall through the floor during the animation.
- Fixed missing Client Parazon Mercy animations on Grineer Thralls.
- Fixed issue where fusing two partially ranked Kuva or Tenet weapons together appeared to increase the rank of your weapon.
- This was a UI / display only, as the Valence fusion does not increase a weapon rank. Now, the weapon rank does not increase from fusion and the UI does not incorrectly show that it has.
- Fixed an issue in Crew Command where Liches would appear as Grineer Heavy Gunners in the Railjack UI. It now shows the Kuva Lich or Sisters of Parvos badge icons where it previously showed Grineer Heavy Gunners to represent this Crew member.
- Fixed unlocalized Kuva Lich Inbox messages.
- Fixed Kuva Lich names appearing as part of the Ephemera name in Kuva Lich Inbox messages.
Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)
- Introduced Corpus equivalent through Sisters of Parvos.
Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)
- Introduced with Kuva Liches.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.warframe.com/news/what-is-the-lich-system (Archived)
- ↑ "The Sisters of Parvos update will bring your own personal Corpus adversary to the Origin System." - https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1269749-update-305-sisters-of-parvos/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20220212214747/https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1269749-update-305-sisters-of-parvos/)
- ↑ "For years, Digital Extremes’ development team has talked about infusing a new, ongoing threat into Warframe, referencing a “Kingpin” or “Nemesis” system." - https://blog.playstation.com/2019/11/19/confront-your-immortal-nemesis-in-warframes-the-old-blood-update/ (Archived)
- ↑ https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1143971-collecting-murmurs-366084-after-update-261/
- ↑ u/666nicole666 (2022, March 31). Randomly grouped with someone with the same named Sister of Parvos. What are the odds??. Accessed 2022-03-31. Archived from the original on 2022-03-31. Gallery of two different players having their own Lich with the same name.
