Warframe Empyrean: Kuva Lich Changes Patch 27.1.0 Patch Notes

The Kuva Lich system is undergoing some changes in Warframe. Update 27.1.0 is packed with Kuva Lich notes, and most of them are very welcome. Hoppers will now give you an indicator of what weapon Kuva Lich will have, so you can decide not to kill her if you have no interest in that particular piece of equipment.

Liches that survive a Parazon Blade will no longer kill you either, removing a very annoying part of trying to deal with them. Instead, they just laugh at you and walk away, which is much more in keeping with the original enemy premise, and a welcome change.

You can use Valence Fusion to combine similar Kuva weapons, increasing their stats to a predetermined cap. Again, extremely welcome news that gives more value to duplicate weapons, and combined with the changes to Kuva Larvae, gives you the chance to get the most out of your Kuva Lich hunt.

There are plenty of other changes and fixes being rolled out as well, so be sure to read the full notes to stay up to date on the state of the game.

Warframe Empyrean: Kuva Lich Changes Update 27.1.0

2020 Picture vision

The very first Kuva Lich was born just over 3 months ago (October 31, 2019)! Many additions, modifications and corrections were made during these 3 months; each of them touching the surface of the feedback, but not fully reaching the depths. Today that is changing!

If you've watched Devstream # 136, the 2019 player survey showed us that of the 27000+ responses, the Kuva Lich system was the least-liked 2019 addition. Many players have reported that the Kuva Lich system gradually becomes less fun the more time and energy he puts into it. While the line between repetition and progress is an issue Warframe has struggled with since day one, Liches pointed out some issues we want to address by following this line.

Let's come to the meaty changes, don't we?

1. The Kuva Larvling that survived
From the very beginning of the conception of Kuva Lich brings us to Larves de Image. Kuva Larvlings will now play a key role in determining your future relationship with your Kuva Lich.

• A downed Kuva Larvling will now display an icon of the Kuva weapon they own, Kuva Lich!
  • This allows players to decide up front whether they wish to pursue this weapon by completing the downed Kuva Larvling, or ignore and tempt another Lich. The Kuva Larvling will be in this downed state for a maximum of 30 seconds before perishing.

As an added benefit of completing the mission even if you choose NOT to kill the Kuva Larvling, a downed Kuva Larvling will grant 100 Kuva at the end of the mission.

2. Break the back on knowledge
The first time my Kuva Lich split my back like celery, I knew I would have to settle the score. But, over time and 100 splits and deaths later, Parazon's requiem attempts started to feel too negative. To relieve some of these back pain, we have prioritized knowledge of chiropractic methods:

• Your Lich Kuva will no longer kill you when you fail a Requiem guess, nor will it attempt to break your back. Parazon's stabbing animation will play, but the UI will show if it was a success or a failure. If a Requiem fails, your Kuva Lich will laugh at you and go, leaving your back and dignity intact!

3. Valence FUSION
First introduced in 26.0.6, Valence Transfer, now renamed Valence Fusion for clarity, has been designed to address possession of duplicate Kuva weapons with different unique innate damage bonuses. Giving you the option to replace an innate damage bonus from Kuva weapons (as well as investments like Forma, Focus Lens, etc.) with another Kuva weapon was a good start, but we can take that even further!

• Valence Fusion Now also increases the innate damage bonus of your Kuva weapons. Examples:
  • Your Kuva Kohm with 25% damage can be injected into your weapon at 40%, making it 44%
  • Your Kuva Kohm with 40% damage can be injected into your weapon at 25%, to make it 44%
  • Your Kuva Kohm with 25% damage can be injected into your weapon at 44%, making it 48,4%

Your duplicate Kuva Weapons now provide a gradual progression to a "Perfect" Kuva Weapon, which would reflect a damage value of 60%, if you choose to continue down that path.

We're also looking at other places we could potentially use this mechanic (Railjack etc)!

As you can see, we broke some eggs to make this omelet! We look forward to your feedback on these Kuva Lich changes!

* PS: It doesn't matter in which order you Valencia them. Merge them. The weapon you START from, the one you click on "Actions", is the one that will be kept with its investments.

* Clarification on "abandonment of lichs": For now, we have removed the prototype, because rather than not fixing the main loop and letting a Lich be banned, we intend to focus on the main loop first.

* Commentary on the whisper hunt - There are questions about Murmur hunting that are outside of the scope of this fix, but we will be looking into them in the coming weeks once the above changes are installed.

NEW KUVA WEAPONS

DISPLAY PRICE (variants)
This powerful Grineer burst rifle has been modernized to add semi-automatic and automatic fire modes.

PICTURE NUKOR (variants)
A highly optimized Nukor that allows the weapon's microwave field to hit up to four additional targets.

KUVA BRAMMA (new)
This Grineer bow delivers revenge in the form of cluster bomb tipped arrows that can explode in mid-air or on impact.

Converted Lich Kuva Changes
Converted Liches have been criticized for their lack of stamina and firepower. They don't use their abilities and leave a low impression.

• Increased minimum Kuva Lich conversion time to 2 minutes.
• Increased converted Kuva Lich damage per second with improved damage bonus of 3x.
• Fixed converted Kuva Liches not using their abilities.

General Kuva Lich changes and fixes:

• Double the chance of a Kuva Lich to get a Vengeful Instant from 10% to 20%!
• Known Requiems / Attempts now also appear in your Parazon Upgrade screen!
• Changed all Kuva Thrall markers to consistently reflect the new icon brought on 27.0.11. This includes the minimap and waypoint of a Kuva Thrall.
• Kuva rewards / rewards are now displayed as a fancy user interface, similar to Argon.
• Kuva Liches can no longer be stabbed in the Parazon when escaping. This resulted in invisible animations and UI unveiling if your Mod Requiem guess was correct but didn't register it, so didn't rank your Kuva Lich.
• Cleaned up visual metal pieces from the Kuva Liches Carapace (Iron Skin) ability.
• You can now search the Codex section of Kuva Lich Story by name, Kuva weapon, and instants.
• Fixed Luse 'Ruse' clones displaying the default Excalibur helmet on their shoulder instead of the same Warframe helmet as their owner.
• Fixed Nidus helmet armor not appearing in grayscale on Kuva Liches.
• Fixed some enemy types that could be spawned as Kuva Thralls that shouldn't be.
• Fixed instances of Kuva Lich ping pong between slots when engaging his target.
• Fixed a script error when changing resolution in the Kuva Lich screen.

IVARA SKATHI SKIN
From the darkest forest, a striking new huntress aims. Also includes an alternate skin for the Artemis Arc.

COLLECTION IVARA SKATHI
Take aim with this amazing collection of Ivara Skathi items. Includes Ivara Skathi skin, Dali Ballistica skin, and Thiazi Syandana.

New Warframe upgrades (at max rank)
Garuda - Increased blood shedding: Bloodforge
The weapon equipped with Garuda is reloaded to 100%.

Baruuk – Lull Augment: Endless Lullaby
Performing a finisher on a sleeping enemy will revive Lull for 100% of the remaining duration. Passive: + 50% lull duration.

Baruuk - Serene Storm Rise: Reactive Storm
Desert Wind gains + 35% status chance and changes its damage type to match enemy weaknesses.

Hildryn - Balefire Augment: Balefire Surge
Fully charged shots restore 250 shields to Hildryn. Impact with Nullifier Shields will destroy them and restore 750 Shield.

CORBU SHAWZIN
Form intricate melodies with this Geometric Shawzin.

A note from our sound team: “We recorded many different real guitars to make this Shawzin electric guitar heavy. The sounds are the result of mixing these different guitar sounds. Each of the notes has a few different variations, so when you play it, it will sound like a realistic electric guitar. "

General additions:

• Drusus has a story to tell! Visit the new Ivara Leverian to find out more and find her Prex card! You can find the Leverian in the Market or the Codex when viewing Ivara!

Railjack changes and fixes:

• The Omni Tool is now available as a Gear item in your inventory (Archwing quest completion required)! This allows you to place the Omni Tool in your favorite Gear slot for quick access!
  • If you forget to equip the Omni Tool in your gear while entering a Railjack mission, it will always be returned to you for the mission.
• Zekti Predator Avionic maximum power increased to 80%, down from 72%
  • This avionics was slightly less efficient than its cheaper equivalent Vidar.
• “Show Equipped” will now display rated avionics that are equipped even when “Show Ranked” is disabled.
• Hijacked Crews now begin the Reactor Fusion Sequence when they reach zero health.
• Gun icons will now turn translucent during cooldown and will reflect a timer icon to better indicate the current cooldown.
• Changed Railjack Engine Component Rating stats from Kilometers Per Hour to Meters Per Second to be consistent in equipped stats.
• Fixed Railjack's speed stats showing a higher number than your in-game movement speed.
  • This fix needs some explanation. First off, a little anecdote, Railjack operates on a different scale than the rest of Warframe. Maybe some of you have seen spacetime crumble in the form of really huge cats… The speed that was displayed in the dry dock of your Stats ship was on the wrong scale and gave inaccurate numbers . This also caused the bonus given by your engine, displayed in kilometers per hour, to be wrong: an engine could say it gave 30 km more per hour, but gives much more than in the stats if you did the calculation convert. This issue has been fixed so that: 1) your stats now show the correct speed for Railjack's world scale, and 2) your motors are rated in meters per second, which is the same as the stats. While it may seem like your ship's speed in the dry dock has dropped significantly, try flying through the missions and seeing how your ship behaves. This only fixes the way the UI reports the numbers in your stats. No change in the speed at which your ship is moving is expected, and if your ship is not flying at the meters per second shown in the stats, it should be carefully measured and reported as a bug.
• Fixed Railjack Advanced Artillery not damaging Crews beyond their engines. You should find that the advanced artillery hits harder and your fire isn't limited to destroying the Crewship engines!
• Fixed Crews not recovering after being disabled by your Railjack pistols.
• Fixed Railjack host being able to use navigation before the mission is complete and clients inability to use navigation when launching from the dry dock.
  • For clarity, the correct functionality is that the host and client can use Railjack Navigation after the mission is completed and neither can use the navigation until the mission is complete.
• Fixed enemy captains appearing in the "Asteroid Base Commander" POI and commanders appearing in the "Kill Galleon Captain" POI.
• Fixed the Galvarc missile launcher not working for clients.
• Fixed Fiery Phoenix not becoming disabled when Flux Energy reaches 0.
• Fixed unimproved full flow burning when placed in a max rank grid.
• Fixed Combat Avionics remaining disabled for Clients after Railjack repaired from Critical Violation.
• Fixed dome fees consumed when a Client enters Advanced Artillery, regardless of firing the BFG.
• Fixed an issue where Clients would see Advanced Artillery reload multiple times while waiting for the Host to place Dome Charges into the weapon.
• Fixed Clients not seeing Shatter Burst Battle Avionic avionics explosion effects.
• Fixed Clients not seeing the missile created by Shatter Burst / Void Hole.
• Fixed omission in space if you were aboard a crew when it disappears at the end of the mission.
• Fixed instances of Railjack Forge UI being lost if attempted to activate by swiping.
• Fixed Railjack ammo and supplies that were spent during a mission and were not being saved at the end of the mission.
• Fixed the loss of custom Railjack skin / colors if a host migration occurs and you are the last remaining player.
• Fixed Avionic / Salvage Railjack pickups sometimes not showing distance markers.
• Fixed camera breaking when warping to another player in the Archwing slingshot.
• Fixed the Chase Camera tactical menu to better reflect the view of the player's camera.
• Fixed dry dock creating blocking volume in a room built below.
• Fixed issues with selecting Veil / Saturn Proxima nodes when using the controller.
• Fixed the Railjack Ordnance explosive firearms reload bar draining and not starting to fill until after the laser fires, rather than when you fire initially.
• Fixed the Railjack Tactical Avionics cooldown tooltip information not applying the intrinsic cooldown reductions of Tactical Response and Quick Tactics.
• Fixed Void Cloak cooldown not updating when viewing in the Tactics menu.
• Fixed Improved Avionics not showing its description and stats, such as Ranking vs. Ranking.

optimizations:

• Optimizations for the Kuva Fortress tile set. This includes cleaning up unnecessary materials, excessive lighting, volumetrics, exposed mesh and much more. More optimizations to come!
• Micro-optimizations made to a script used in survival missions.
• Improved the performance of Railjack guns.
• Improved performance when using the Imperator Vandal in Railjack.
• Optimized runtime lighting in an Earth cave tile.
• Real-time optimized lighting in the Jupiter Gas City Index tile set.
• Optimized the Omni tool to correct a hitch when equipping it.
• Micro-optimizations made to a script used to control doors.
• Carried out micro-optimizations of HUD performance, in particular on Railjack.
• Micro-optimization of the performance of the user interface, including when piloting the Railjack.
• Completed a micro-optimization Railjack POI once the sub-objectives have been completed.
• Micro-optimization of a script that manages fires on a Railjack.
• Micro-optimization of Chroma's Effigy capacity.
• Realization of a micro-optimization of a script used to animate the Dual Kamas.

change:

• Heavy melee attacks can no longer be triggered by holding "E", they once again live exclusively on Alt-Fire.
  • The loss of Melee Combo Counter comments due to Melee spam caused the huge amounts of Melee Heavy Attack requests not to contain “E”. A toggle for melee heavy attacks is not in the maps, so melee heavy attacks are now essentially reverted to its original mechanic of having to use Alt-Fire.
• NPCs are now about a second late before they can perceive other players or NPCs coming out of invisibility, regardless of the alert state. Previously, combat state enemies would retarget almost instantly in such cases. Seen in:
• Removed Riven Mods from Codex Mod section.
  • There were a few issues here: 1) the Codex Mod section does not display all of your Rivens Mods, and, 2) the Riven Mods it did show would point their acquisition to Cephalon Simaris, which only applies to Compenion Weapon. Rivens. Considering the possible large amount of Rivens, this option in the Codex does not work properly, as it would need to search for unique information.
• All Captura scenes from Gas City, Sanctuary Onslaught, and Elite Sanctuary Onslaught can now be sold for 3500 credits for those with duplicates!
• A fully charged throw of Orvius will now activate his unique enemy suspension mechanism.
• The original default energy colors of the Limbo Limina skin and the Nekros Irkalla skin have been restored to match its original intentions.

Fixes:

• Fixed not being able to invite people to a team if your Matchmaking was set to Solo before joining a public team via Invite.
• Fixed script error and loss of functionality when viewing Archwing weapons without completing the Archwing quest.
• Fixed Garuda charging his Dread Heart at full power from any amount of energy regeneration.
  • This ability now charges at a reduced rate if you are at 0 Energy and the incoming regeneration is not sufficient to keep the amount of Energy the ability wants to drain.
• Fixed Mirage Hall of Mirror clones not pulling the last round of your magazine.
• Fixed Mirage Hall of Mirror clones not animating correctly for double / wall jumps.
• Fixed index enemies not attacking Gara's Mass Vitrify Wall.
• The fixed damage done by Oberon's Holy Ground during Indexing will increase dramatically if the player is in Operator mode.
• Fixed Glaive lifespan timers not working properly for the host.
• Fixed Ivara Navigator not suspending certain life timers for projectiles, allowing the projectile to die of old age while you control it.
• Fixed tracking stat change when Sigma & Octantis and Cobra & Crane are equipped with a Stance Mod.
• Fixed the Sentinel Sanctuary mod and Shelter Companion mod leaving an invulnerable shield lasting forever for the host if used in a No-Shield Nightmare mission.
• Fixed projectile explosion and built-in damage not properly using Status Chance buffs
• Fixed some cases of loss of functionality of the "Deploy Res Extractor" button.