Greetings, Kuva-thirsty Tenno!

Since The War Within launch on November 11th, 2016, Tenno have been introduced to the continually roaming Kuva Fortress. But contrary to its name, no Kuva can be acquired directly from Kuva Fortress missions. Instead, Kuva Siphon/Flood missions on nearby Planets are what offer that delicious Kuva if completed accurately. 

Kuva is a unique Resource with a particular acquisition method, and we want to make sure the addition of Kuva to the Fortress followed that design intent, while offering players a much requested avenue to acquire it outside of the Siphon/Flood mechanic. 

Our solution comes in the form of a permanent Endless Kuva Survival mode on Taveuni in the Kuva Fortress! This mission will start out like any other Survival mission, but now with a twist!


Marked enemies will drop something new: Kuva Catalysts.


*Developer note: A Kuva Catalyst carrying enemy will spawn per Life Support tower as either an Eximus or Kuva Guardian. 

Picking up this Kuva Catalyst and simply walking up to an unactivated Life Support Tower, transforms the Life Support Tower into a Kuva Harvester. Now you must protect this Kuva Harvester for 1 minute (as indicated on your UI) as enemies will now logically and forcefully attempt to destroy it. If they succeed in destroying the Kuva Harvester, you will lose out on both Kuva and the Life Support Tower - they don’t mess around with their Kuva!

Once the Kuva Harvester is complete, you can grab your successfully earned 200 Kuva from the completed Kuva Harvester. Completed Kuva Harvesters also give a small percentage of Life Support to aid in your literal Survival.


*Developer note: Deciding to make the Kuva be a physical Koolaid bottle-looking drop allows for Resource Boosters and Smeeta Kavats Charm to apply! 

*Please ignore the Clem transmission in place of new Lotus transmissions for completing a Kuva Harvester

The design intent and goal for Kuva Survival is for players, both Public and Solo, to balance risk and reward as they sacrifice their Life Support Towers for precious Kuva. Carefully managing available Life Support Towers and Life Support dropped by enemies becomes increasingly important in order to obtain as much desired Kuva possible. 


FAQ from Devstream #108:

  • 200 Kuva is awarded per Kuva Harvester- this value is still subject to change with continued testing/feedback. Considering the Endless Survival aspect, this number will allow Kuva Survival to sit in the middle between Kuva Siphon and Kuva Flood in regards to the amount of Kuva rewarded. Tenno who want a quicker Kuva routine can still play Siphon or Flood missions, but those who want to acquire this Resource via familiar gameplay (with a twist) can jump into an Endless Kuva Survival! 
  • Kuva awarded per successful Kuva Harvester does not increase as the Endless Survival mission progresses. Our intent is for Kuva Survival to mimic the mechanic of Excavation/Defense with the intensity of Survival.
  • Kuva Guardians and Kuva Jesters (as seen on Devstream #108) also have a chance of spawning. These enemies add to the twisted variety for Kuva Survival, and gives you a place outside of Siphon/Flood to fight them. Plus, these enemies have been conspicuously missing from the Kuva Fortress....

Kuva Fortress Survival Improvements:

  • Removed cramped and maze-like Kuva Fortress tiles that felt unsuitable for an Endless Survival with an Excavation/Defense twist.
  • Added a repurposed Fortress Defense tile to Kuva Fortress Survival with improved enemy navigation and traversible areas. 

!!NEW!! Kuva Guardian Changes:
In light of all these changes surrounding Kuva, we felt it necessary to make improvement tweaks to the Kuva Guardians (or onion babies as Megan likes to call them). When faced outside of The War Within quest, their mechanic required to turn them vulnerable has been met with some confusion.

As an overall change, Kuva Guardians are now easier to turn vulnerable, but will become tougher to kill once they are. 

Previously vulnerability flow was: 

  • Operator Void Blast to stun, then Void Dash when stunned to disarm their Kesheg and turn vulnerable.

NEW vulnerability flow:

  • No stun state required. Operator Void Blast OR Void Dash to disarm their Kesheg and turn vulnerable.

General Kuva Guardian Changes:

  • Increased base Health from 300 to 400.
  • Slightly increased the Fire Rate of their Twin Rogga .
  • Guardian Health type is now in line with the rest of Grineer.
    • Weaker against Heat and Viral but more resistant to Gas.
  • Added a red glow around the Kuva Guardian to depict when it is invulnerable.


Please keep in mind that everything you read/see in this Dev Workshop is subject to change as we continue testing and reading feedback up until launch. 

We hope to ship this as early as next week, but we of course welcome your constructive feedback and suggestions!