(PC) Kuva Liches / Parazon / Kuva Weapons / Etc. Feedback

[Leon_Von_Comarre]

Will you be expanding the pool of Kuva weapons as you expand the systm? Any chance for a Kuva Zarr down the road?

Edit: Realized this was the wrong thread. Please delete this post if possible.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Leon_Von_Comarre

[Joezone619]

the kuva lichs are very poorly made. they go down is a few hits but somehow can one shot you if you don't stab them the right way?

i was looking forward to a fight, instead i got a disappointment that went down as easy as the rest, and is coded to 1 shot you past all immunity/adaptation/immortal abilities.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Joezone619

[LOKJAV]

I think the Liches should be seen on profiles so friends can look who is my enemy now, who have I vanqueshed and who am I recruited

[Muxailo]

Using Madurai as your Operator Focus set you won't be able to use AMP alt. fire (Madurai now have AMP Fire, AMP Alt Fire, fireball throw and charged fireball throw.) Either you have to change keybinds.
UPD: It's either your AMP alt. fire or charged fireball somehow.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Muxailo

[MasterControl]

I like the idea of liches, but I don't like the idea of dying because I won the fight but had the wrong password. I mean, I still won the fight, and to be rewarded for that I'm getting instadowned.

Like say, for example, I WANT my lich to be stronger. I want a challenge. To do that I need to actively kill myself, which feels awful.

It would be much better if liches still lost the fight, but didn't die to your parazon and were forced to retreat, and grew stronger from the experience. There's still a "punishment" for guessing wrong, in that you get no rewards and your lich grows stronger, but it's a fun one. Also solves the "how do I kick this guy out of my mission without dying" problem.

[Domaik]

My problems with kuva liches are pretty much what everyone has at the moment and they should be addressed:

-Kuva liches take an insufferable long time to farm and kill...

• on one part you have to do the murmurs and that takes forever
• then you have to farm relics
• then void traces to open the relics and get requiem.

Extremely insufferable long amount of time to do all of this just to get a kill on a lich that requires trial and error and could make you restart the process of relic farm if you're unlucky.

-Not being able to trade kuva lich weapons is a bad thing.

-If you get a weapon repeat there is no way to get rid of a lich fast to hunt for a weapon you want.

Lets hope that the weapon drop chance is 100% at least...

I try to stay positive with the amount of farm and grind in this game but this one might have defeated me after 6 years. I see no way of doing this and getting the weapons or a reliable method for hunting the weapons.. Please DE address this. Hear us out.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Domaik

[Joezone619]

The lichs dont feel like a fight, they feel like a coin flip, "right sequence? no? 1 shot"

[Sati_Vexiata]

You took 3 steps forward and 2 steps back here. The step forward was the variable farmable weapons. That mechanic has the potential to keep players coming back for a very long time. The steps back are because, big surprise, content is locked behind rng, time, or paywall. Seriously? How has your team not learned from your past mistakes... Instead this is one of the grindiest things ever implemented in the game. I'm not afraid of a grind, but come on...S#&$ty relic rng, followed by tons of grinding for murmurs, followed by trying to figure out what ORDER the mods go in... That part particularly blows my mind, what order they go in? Ffs. And then to top that off, the mods aren't permanent. Wonderful, I can repeat the same mind numbingly boring process...13 times? One for each weapon assuming you get your preferred stats the first time, and also a different weapon each time? Wow, very well thought out. Your team needs to put itself in the players shoes once in a while. This update had the potential to be one of the best updates since the one that introduced rivens but instead even after 2 days there is basically no forums/videos/ content related to the new update because nobody has enough time to meticulously grind for things they may not even want.

 

Your team needs to take a step back, and think like gamers. Who wants to spend a week grinding for one weapon? The 8 or so hour grind for the opticor vandal was already pushing the envelope, and that weapon was actually desirable. Now let's go over how this can be fixed.

A: make the mods permanent or

B: make them more easily obtainable, and no not by upping the percentage of the drop chance from relics. Make certain ones a C rotation reward in kuva survival or add them as rewards to the thrall nodes or something. 

 

If the mods become permanent the grind obtains meaning. It would be worth grinding out 20 hours of relics to obtain every mod just so it doesn't have to be done again. On the other hand, making them easier to get will reduce the grind substantially  and adding them as specific rewards will allow players to get the mods they need.

Now for the murmurs 

A: not really sure because I haven't progressed this far. I haven't gotten enough mods... Come on

The killing of the lich

A: you know what you have to do here. Take away the order component. I mean really. It's bad enough that we have to obtain hints on which ones to use. This is an unnecessary and unwanted feature that adds no value and only needlessly increases the grind. You know what you did is bad. 

B: why do we get folded when we fail? Just have it dash off or something. S#&$. 

C: allow a way to cancel or change your lich. I don't want to get 7 liches in a row with a seer. 

Now if you're still with me up to this point, I'd like to say that adding variable stats to weapons like this is great. Nexr step, riven weapons with fully variable stats and fire modes? One can only hope. DE has a long historying of pandering to the casual 20 minute players and veterans have been feeling extremely neglected. This update is a step in the right direction. The grind and rng here is unacceptable however. Anyway as always, I appreciate the work you all do and please keep it up.

Also please give me more discount coupons, that is all

[Sylonus]

11 minutes ago, Alejandrokek said:

Im going to copy paste a comment that I saw on a partner's stream:
 

Farm Kuva for a CHANCE to get a Relic you need to have a CHANCE to get a Requiem mod to use for a CHANCE it is what you need for your Lich for a CHANCE the Lich has an item you want with a CHANCE to have the element you want on it. And I haven't seen what the Thralls even are yet. I see alot of CHANCE, not alot of fun.

Thanks DE, I love you too.

_/s

_{Seriously this is the worst update I've ever seen since I started playing this game 1 year ago.}

you forgot for the CHANCE that the % roll will be halfway decent

[Sdric]

vor 15 Minuten schrieb Sylonus:

you forgot for the CHANCE that the % roll will be halfway decent

That's the worst part. I wouldn't mind the grind if I ended up something halfway decent, DMG being RNG is ultimate BS. There's already enough encouragement to repeat the content due to getting each weapon with different elements, ephemeras and recruiting lichs - adding damage RNG on top is not an incentive, it's the opposite. RNG damage values on weapons make the whole experience utterly unsatisfying and hurts replay-ability FAR more than it helps. 

In 29 out of 30 cases for each weapon you'll think "I missed the spot" - and given how much tiem goes into every attempt this isn't motivating, it'S crushing, it's annoying, it's frustrating and it's boring.

This is not like rolling a riven where some suboptimal stats may lead to an interesting build. It's a pure hit or miss.

Keep the grind if you want, but RNG damage has to go. Weapon damage has to be fixed.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Sdric

[vandald]

The murmur grind is ridiculous. The grind for requiem relics is ridiculous since there's only one flood per hour. The grind for requiem mods is super ridiculous thanks to limited access to requiem relics, and having to keep your trace count up, and having to hope you get the mod you need from the relic. Hours upon hours of grind and I don't even know if what I will eventually get out of it is going to be any good. Since it's a Kuva Seer, I'm not especially motivated. As it stands, my lich can live forever, for all I care.

[GrimAtrament]

reduce the mumur grind, make the requiem relics take kuva instead of void traces which are needed for PRIME stuff. please.

[Steel_Rook]

7 hours ago, Ulvra said:

Ground finishers never had a prompt, so I'd wager they're still the same as they were before, as for the keybind, X correlates to the use keybind as opposed to the melee key. It would be nice to be able to bind finishers specifically so one can choose either or.

I finally saw one, on a level 70 Kuva Bombard. It's exactly as you described it - they need to be REALLY low on health, at which point they seem to crouch and wait to be stabbed. I came out of a 30-minute mission just now, and only ever noticed this once. I haven't been able to try my regular melee weapon finishers because my Inaros is on break right now, but I assume those are still triggered via the melee key on enemies vulnerable to finishers. So far, it seems like a "neat" little system that's ultimately going to see absolutely no use due to how heavily the game emphasises spike-damaging enemies.

 

5 hours ago, DageWasTaken said:

• No Intel - Head to Head battles: The Lich, without being weakened or killed by the Parazon due to the lack of intel, you just have to fight him at full strength (The best way to bring them out is to again, kill their Thralls without the Parazon to send them a message). If he defeats you, he levels up, if he loses he retreats and is weakened. The Lich's behavior will be fleeing. So what do you want from Thralls? Intel on his location. What could be the best way to find his location? Let Thralls flee? Parazon Thralls for Intel? The choice is there.
• Heavy Intel - Assassination: Complete opposite of the first way to dispose of them, gathering heavy intel on the Lich to figure out exactly what their weakness is and how to kill them in the most efficient manner. The behavior of the Lich won't be passive. He'll not be fleeing or battle hungry like fighting him head to head, but instead he'll be cautious of you. He'll send death squads to take you down, he'll issue surprise attacks, and he'll give you false information through his thralls. You'll have to gather Intel without him knowing; either through stealth and destroy all witnesses. It's a cat and mouse instead of a dogfight.
• Weakening their hold - Taking caches: Now this way isn't necessarily a way to defeat the Lich, but weaken their hold on their respective areas. Go on special missions to eliminate their thralls and soldiers. Raid their caches to get the things they stole from you and then some. It's not necessarily a way to kill the Lich, but instead, it allows you to further amplify the previous two: fewer places to hide or gather more important non-Thrall related intel.

I have an alternate proposal. Let us challenge the Lich right off the gate and simply try to brute-force a guess as to what might kill them. There are 6 mods in 3 slots which gives us 120 permutations - obviously WAY too much to just guess. Then, every time we beat down a thrall we have an option - stab him with the Parazon and he crosses out a few of the 120 options - say 3 of them, ones that we didn't already know were fake. Alternately, intimidate the Thrall and let them escape. This then spawns an Assassination mission where said thrall is a proper boss fight. Finish that mission and the Thralls tells us one of of the three mods which AREN'T used in the Lich kill incantation thing. This immediately cuts out 1/6th of the options, but takes longer and requires a boss fight. Alternately, we can kill the Thrall. This gives us no information but instantly spikes the Lich's "anger" meter.

This is an option for only the first Thrall found in a mission. If Option 1 is chosen, Thralls keep spawning as normal and they will always be stabbed with the Parazon. If Option 2 or 3 is chosen, no more Thralls spawn. In all cases, the information is dropped as "Unidentified" and only sticks if the player completes the mission. *edit* Maybe let the "kill without gaining information" option also have a %chance to drop a T5 Relic, so that we can choose whether we want to make progress on Lich information or progress on Lich-killing items.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Steel_Rook

[Kreegs73]

One thing that would be nice would be making the Kuva Larvling only killable via the finisher from the parazon.

Currently, I DO NOT want to deal with the Kuva Lich system. I am working on other things right this minute to want to have to focus on that. I don't want to either skip 20+ lvl Grineer missions or have to play run away from the Larvling so I don't accidentally kill it, therefore putting me onto the path of having to deal with a Kuva Lich and it taking over systems.

Making it a specific kill type type with a new fancy weapon you introduced in this patch would give it a nice feel and also allow those people who want to opt out of the system a way to do it, it also allows that want to do it, the ability to run into them anytime they want.

Edit:

Or make the Larvling only appear on planets affected by the Kuva fortess, so that of us that want to avoid it for whatever reason can and those that want to get a new lich know where to find it.

Not everyone is ready to do the Lich system after doing the WW quest. Doesn't make any sense to "force" them into that kind of endgame content they might not be ready for.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Kreegs73

[IggySnow]

My opinion is that the liches should be integrated into the rest of the game a lot more, and have them be a looming threat that can strike at any time. It would be really cool if defeating my lich was something I'm always progressing with, something I am constantly getting closer and closer to killing, but it is constantly getting stronger and stronger, like a true nemeses I can't get rid of.

In the kuva lich systems current state, my lich is something I have to choose to go after by doing special missions for the sole purpose of killing the thralls. This makes the whole system seem removed from the rest of the game. As strange as this may sound, we the players have to much control over deciding if we want to pursue our kuva liches, which makes the liches feel less like dangerous villains that want to hunt us down, and more like Eidolons that are just minding their own business until we show up to kick their butts.

 

The way I would go about changing this is:

1. Remove the special "(kuva lich name) controlled territory" missions.

Having to go and do these specific missions in order to progress with my kuva lich really takes me out of the rest of the game.

 

2. Have the thralls spawn in any mission similar to the Zealots, or Saturn six fugitives.

It stands to reason that your nemeses would send its minions out into the solar system to try and hunt you down. If you are on a node that is controlled by your lich than the thralls have a much higher chance of spawning. This would still give people the opportunity to "farm" the liches if they wanted to.

 

3. Your kuva lich can spawn in any mission.

The more thralls you have killed, the higher the chances of it spawning, because it knows you're getting closer to killing it. Doing missions in its controlled territory also increases spawn chances, since you are threatening its territory. This would still give players the option to ignore the liches if they really wanted to, since players could simply choose not to mercy the thralls, while still making them somewhat threatening since they would still attack you every now and again.

 

These changes in my opinion, would make the kuva lich system a lot more enjoyable and rewarding to the game as a whole, rather than just another thing we have to go out and farm.

 

Obviously if this was a change that would be made some things would need tweaking. For example since killing thralls for the murmurs would be less of a farm, and more of a slower, constant progression, so the amount of murmurs required would need to be lowered, etc. 

Another concern of mine about the liches being something we have to seek out and farm, is that once everyone has farmed all the weapons and gotten what they want out of the liches, it will become just another system/mechanic that gets forgotten. That is until your lich that you've been ignoring for the last 3 months steals something you actually care about. Then you have stop everything you're doing/ want to do and go farm thralls for 10 hours to get it back, just so you can get on with what you actually want to be doing. And at that point the whole system becomes an annoyance, Which I really don't want to have happen. Where as with my changes, even if the lich steals something you care about, you can continue to play the game like normal and still make progress to getting it back.

Edited November 2, 2019 by HerpDerpy

[Br0k3nBl4de]

i got my second Kuva lich and i'am realy disappointed 

 

My old Lich

https://imgur.com/HWG4h15

My new Lich

https://imgur.com/DVDnnSm

 

2 TIMES THE SAME WEAPON ? if there are 13 diffrent weapons ? WTF ist this ?

Edited November 2, 2019 by Br0k3nBl4de

[RedPixel22]

The update's only been out for two days so take my criticisms with a grain of salt, though I hope not to be too critical anyways.

Parazon:
I don't have many mods for it yet so I can't really talk about them. But looks wise, I feel like there should be more "uses" for this multitool. I thought I remember hearing about it being used to revive teammates and I still think it would be an interesting idea. Maybe it can be used to capture targets as well.

Kuva liches:
So far seems great. Still on my first lich and I haven't started requiem farming just yet. But so far I have one slight issue. Failing to kill a lich shouldn't result in an instant kill. They should just knock you away then flee. On the same subject, from the empyrean footage shown at Tennocon, it seemed to be implied that you were able to kill the lich multiple times without fully killing it. What happened to that?

[Joezone619]

Congrats, you beat the kuva lich in a fight. your prize? LOOSING! wait. . .

[papry]

I have a few issue with the lich system :

• The requiem relic acquisition : putting a 30% chance in siphon isn't an incensitive to do these missions. I only got one doing 10 mission. At the end I was just doing the kuva flood getting  a guaranted relic instead of doing any syphon. Suggestion:  Put 100% relic in kuva syphon and a 100% radiant relic in kuva flood.
• The lich creation : based on what I saw the lich seems to be created for the person that deal the final blow to it. I ended up doing adaro sedna alone to get my liches. Maybe activate the lich for any player that at least damage the mob.
• The Thrall farm issues :
  • The experience giving by the thrall seems to be based on the unit type (harder unit giving more experience than easier one), making the process uneven due to rng. Suggestion : Only strong unit should be thrall ( like eximus or other) to spike difficulty and provide good experience gain during the process.
  • The lich nodes doesn't offer any other incencitive than "kill thrall to get to the lich" while I could also do fissure for exemple. Suggestion : Find a way to mix fissure (or other gamemode) with the lich node in order to mitigate that feeling and give more agency when going to a liche node than just "gather information to kill my lich"
• The lich reward : ultimately the only reward for liches are their weapon or a potential ally. The weapon feels like a riven repeat: could you please remove the variance in the addded effect? The weapon choose between the 10 available  elements with a fixed 60% damage added, this would still make 10 possibles weapons variant.
• The lich weapon feel underwelming (at least for the 2 braak I got)(Some seems way beasty, but i don't know when RNG jesus will bless me with them), I feel like you need to iterate on the reward after defeating the lich, just getting back your stuff isn't the best feeling. Plus blueprint aren't given back (I lost a oberon chassis blueprint and a Hate blueprint)

 

Regarding the fight and the difficulty, the lich are a breath of fresh air : they gave me a mob that I feel strongly about and that can challenge my gamestyle. The absolute mayhem that can happen when 2 or more lich pop is also very funny. So good job on that DE.

 

Edited November 2, 2019 by papry

[Bocchan_VT]

I don't really agree about the idea of Requiem Mods' only 3 uses.

Maybe to improve and mantain Requiem Relics farming, it can be replaced with an old versions of normal mods (like pre-endo era) and upgrade eventual requiem mods with a copy of themselves

[ZioElsydeon]

Sorry if I don't read the thread, I'm tired and just want to get these thoughts out of my skull...

The idea of these nemeses was intriguing, I had fears for some parts but it was mostly whether others can kill them like synthesis targets (wow is it so much fun when you have one/several folks who just steamroll and shut off their brain just killing EVERYTHING not even waiting for anyone to be in affinity range)...gladly they're not.

Where it gets problematic though is how looooooooooooooooong it even takes to try and get a single Lich...finishing one murmur takes long, there's no detailed information on anything, there's just the run-down. According to update notes there was supposed to be a tutorial for the Parazon, did I just miss it or is it indeed missing? Are all the Requiem Murmurs the same or are they supposed to change names at some point? Does the cycle just begin from the start with the same name? I finished one but I didn't get any info about ANYTHING and it just started anew..And that's still just bare front of this.

Having them steal stuff from occupied missions is one thing, stealing items and EVEN MODS from the regular versions of missions...is another. So far I was lucky not having been robbed of a rare mod I didn't have yet. I wish I never started the damn Lich thing. What's happening now? when I leave them alone do they cover the entire system? This is ridiculous. And I'm not even starting to try and get the individual relics, traces for the relics, the requiems...

Let me just drop the entire update and let me abort the entire Lich thing. Give them the system and leave me alone. I don't want it.

And don't get me started about the respective mission types. I'm just glad they're not punishing you like Sortie missions. Whenever I see a Spy mission there I PASS immediately. Neither sorties nor arbitrations are really worth it for me. It's just adding grind after grind. I can live with things I can chip at from time to time, but Kuva Liches are like a full time job and I'm not willing to put that much concentrated continuous effort into EVEN ONE of them, let alone several to get different weapons/liches...wow I REALLY look forward to NOT continue with that.

I have mixed feelings about the melee rework, I appreciate freeing up combos, but it also just doesn't quite feel right. Finishers aren't as reliable as they used to be and don't pack the same punch they did, at least not animation/enemy reaction-wise. Combos in general now don't make me feel like landing a hit,  lifted status really isn't a kicker either. So far I didn't check if the range problem persists that prevents you from moving an inch forward when you in a (no matter how continuous) combo, even when in front latchers. Only stopping attacking/combos used to help with that. As I said I didn't check that now, only fought with Paracesis and at least thanks to the range upgrade I hit enemies regardless. Lesion definitely suffered from this despite range.
Anyway, a thing I definitely don't like is (I think you called it ragdolling) I can no longer send enemies flying with slam attacks. I can no longer stop any enemy from using their abilities, I can no longer stop Oxium Ospreys from speeding into their death, let alone their infested offspring or any of the others...if even heavy attacks would have a similar effect but they don't. And according to the update notes weapons that had purely elemantal stats were now supposed to have other basic stats, did that not roll out yet? Is it yet to come? Or are weapons excluded from this? Only checked Staticor when I was online and it only had elemental stats.

Phew...good night everyone.

[MinoCiccini]

18 minutes ago, CielPhantomhive96 said:

I don't really agree about the idea of Requiem Mods' only 3 uses.

Maybe to improve and mantain Requiem Relics farming, it can be replaced with an old versions of normal mods (like pre-endo era) and upgrade eventual requiem mods with a copy of themselves

I agree about that and in my opinion, to improve Requiem Relics farming, Requiem Mods can decay becoming weaker and weaker for every powerup lost through use.

[SpaceSheepie]

Please lower the grind on getting to kill your Lich, it is utterly daunting to get relics, to get mods, then farm mobs until you know the code, to be able to use the mods (if you even have the right ones at that point!).

I'd take them out of relics entirely and just have the mods drop from kuva floods/siphons, especially since these things expire after 3 uses. Or have them drop from the thralls so there's another reason to be killing them other than to fill up a bar. Also lower the murmur requirement, it is too much to fill up one, let alone 3.

There are a fair amount of weapons to get from these Liches all of which that need to be forma'd to get full mastery out of. It's just grind, so you can grind, so you can grind, so you can grind, so you can grind.

EDIT: Good lord, the Lich can also steal your Kuva relics, how on Earth are you meant to defeat him with that in place? Absurd!

Where is the bounty board/room for the dojo so you can give up your Lich? Having to go through all this just to get a new one if it has a duplicate weapon is ridiculous.

Also using void traces to rank up your Kuva relics just puts more strain on that system. How about we use Kuva to rank them up? Or we can use Kuva to convert normal relics to Kuva ones? I have tons of normal relics that are pretty useless. Side note: It'd also be pretty great if I could use these to rank up other relics by converting them to traces or something.

Overall this system is pretty frustrating and not very rewarding, at the moment the only point of killing a Lich is seemingly for Mastery fodder and its a mountain climb to do them.

EDIT 2: Well with idiots failing Kuva Floods, them not dropping in Siphons, him stealing them, or them being the wrong relic and I know the Lich's stupid code now, I can't get any relics - so I guess killing all those thralls was for nothing. As soon as I've skinned my pig of a Lich, which at this rate isn't going to happen, I'm not touching this again until its actually fun.

This system is nothing but frustrating, especially as your Lich can also ruin your progress in other parts of the game, Vitus essence, sortie rewards etc. but you have to stick to dull, unrewarding mission to kill thralls just to fill up a meter to defeat him. If he can steal your stuff in any mode, you should be able to progress toward defeating him in any mode. So you're funneled into these boring meter filling missions before you can play the game you want to play and you'll only get to do that if you're LUCKY to be able to get rid of him.

Edited November 3, 2019 by SpaceSheepie

[Zebiko]

Warning, Big changes which would require major work.

-Kuva warrior influence nodes start appearing after the war within quest

-There can be more than one kuva lich active with their own minions and areas of influence

-The liches fight other lich leaders, over resources and kuva, so only one can hold a node

-We can convert the liches to help us fight other liches

-Liches or their hit squads spawn into regular missions, like how stalker does to interrupt the tenno's mission (not a separate mission from the normal)

-Each lich general has lesser minions, 2nd or 3rd in command, that we need to take down, interrogate for info, loot, or convert to our cause before having access to the kuva general

-Intel can lead us to a known operation of the lich in a specific node, which we can infiltrate and take down more lich warriors and leaser minions

-Once enough intel is acquired, we can find the lich general to fight, or if we upset the lich general too much, they will interrupt a random mission we are doing, like the stalker, can be any mission, except special missions (like sorties)  

-All new kuva lich mods drop from the lesser lich minions

-Retain the trial and error method of taking down the kuva liches, and have to redo acquiring intel of the lich's next location

-Kuva general stats, info, and weapon type need to be found out by interrogating their lesser leaders

-Each lich general need a special weakness to take down, a specific proc to hurt them (elemental, knocking down, melee heavy hit, certain warframe they are afraid of, etc)

-Dropped weapon from a killed lich has other interesting effects on the warframe (reload speed, warframe sprint speed, bullet flight speed, silent attacks, extra gore, head shot bonuses, chance to stun, etc.) which only activate after using a forma, increasing stat strength for each forma, like how forma increases rank by 2.

-possibly make the lich drop the blueprint to make the weapon, instead of rng mechanics (because everyone is sick of the myriad rng layers on top of more rng layers). The mats for the weapon can be new from the lich's mobs.

 

 

 

[TARINunit9]

OK so now that I've had a day to ruminate on the Kuva Liches, I think I can provide som real feedback

And my overall impression is... I don't feel like they're cool.

The Liches could stand to feel a lot cooler.

So the driving theme behind Kuva Liches seems... schitzophrenic. They are simultaneously a "nemesis" (a la Shadow of Mordor) who has a specific beef with you and wants to hunt you down, but are also Grineer "kingpins" who are starting to tighten Grineer control around crucial hotspots using platoons of elite troops. I feel it should have focused on one or the other, because both halves feel limp, especially the "nemesis" half.

Step 1 in creating a Kuva Lich is to run around on Grineer mission and hope that a Larvling spawns. The Kuva Guardians will loudly proclaim that this is a deliberate trap and that the player killing the Larvling is necessary for the Lich to rise at all. Two quick question: why are they boasting about the trap to me, and why do I have to go along with this? This really feels weird from a storytelling point where I not only have a choice about whether to arm a weapon the Grineer have set up, but I very much know what and where the choice is and can ignore it entirely with no risk to myself. These are no longer aspiring and promising champions that the Kweens have given a second chance, they are now sparring partners that I have issued a challenge to, and done so entirely voluntarily.

I feel that the spawning of a Kuva Lich should be less in a player's hands. Maybe like, I dunno, after clearing a Sortie there's a chance that a Kuva Lich rises. Or maybe Nora can call in warning you about a team of them and task the player with taking one down or something. This whole indication and telegraphing just makes them less of a predator out for revenge, and more like a sort of weird game the Grineer are playing

Step 2 in Kuva Liches is to watch them claim some territory on the starmap. Then you run around on in that territory clearing out their level 60 troops to decrease their territory. This works alright, this is fine, this fits the "kingpin" idea of a promising Grineer general throwing their weight around. I like how the troops are slightly more threatening than base starmap missions. The only weird part is that an unproven former Larvling is immediately put in charge of a entire legion, but whatever, I can understand not making players wait an hour or a day for any Lich territory to appear.

Step 3 in Kuva Liches is to hunt down their thralls. There's no real ludonarrative gripes I have about this, it just gets REALLY BORING having to hunt down 150 thralls when at most 12 can spawn per mission. I get that it's incentive to clear out more territory, but I thought "reducing the number of planets you can have loot stolen from" already did that. And that brings us to our next point:

Step 4 in Kuva Liches is to watch them steal all your loot. Or rather, about 3% of your loot. At first this feels really weak, until you inevitably have a bombshell and watch them steal your Sortie reward or your rare mods. Now you have the player saying "oh it's ON!"

But I have one huge gripe: Liches can steal Requiem relics and mods from the player's drops. This is dumb. This is vicious cycle, and you don't want that in your game. How about, to make the whole story aspect even cooler, the Liches have already tracked down the Requiem relics/mods and tried to hoard them -- after all, these mods are the only thing that can kill them. And the player has to track down the treasury ship that's carrying the relics/mods. Maybe the player can spend "murmurs" to unlock these missions, maybe they're unlocked after completing Kuva Siphons. Maybe you don't add any new steps, just don't do the current system where Liches and steal Requiem relics and mods. Don't put the key behind the lock.

Step 5 in Kuva Liches is to randomly find them pop up in your missions when you're trying to do something else. While this does make them feel like assassins hunting you down, it's half-baked, boring, and it's really not cool. Either you have all the mods and you're getting another chance to brute force the Requiem order, or you don't have all the mods and you just ignore them. They're not a threat, they can't chase you beyond about 100 meters or so -- which I assume was deliberate because what else do you do with an unkillable enemy? There's no "fend them off temporarily" mechanic, so they never despawn like Stalker or his Acolytes do. And there's no penalty to ignoring them, they don't rank up or reclaim their territory. This entire "Grustrag-style assassin" mechanic needs to go back to the drawing board.

Step 6 in Kuva Liches is to actually kill them with your Parazon. This should have been the epic climactic Raid-style supermission that was in Railjack. But then Railjack was delayed. Big sad faces all around. I hope you guys still have something cool lined up for Railjack. 

With that all said, I think I've said everything I wanted to say about Kuva Liches, for now