Warframe – Kuva Survival Guide | Hints and Tips

Warframe Kuva Survival is one of the better ways to farm Kuva in the game. In this article we run through the ins and outs of the mission, and how to ensure a long run.

In Warframe, the Kuva Survival mission, found on the Kuva Fortress, has you interrupt the Grineer’s plans to mine Kuva and acquire it for yourself. It works similarly to a standard Survival mission, but with a couple of essential changes.

Kuva Survival Guide

As per a standard Survival mission, you need to activate life support. But first, players need to make a choice. Each life support can turn on as usual, or you can use a Kuva Catalyst that will drop from a marked enemy to turn it into a Kuva harvester. You kill the enemies, grab the catalyst they drop, and then take it to the life support capsule. The capsule turns red, and you need to defend it for one minute. Enemies are hellbent on destroying it, so keeping up a solid defense is essential.

When the minute is up, you earn 200 Kuva, and 10 percent of the regular life support you would get. New enemies spawn carrying the catalyst, and new life support modules spawn every 90 seconds, making it possible to earn quite a bit of Kuva in short playtime. Your Kuva also doubles if you have a resource booster active. It increases again if you have a Smeeta Kavat Charm ability active, making for 800 Kuva per capsule if you are lucky.

Like a standard Survival mission, the rewards rotation is every 5 minutes. You can solo extract from the mission at any point after the first five minutes if you so choose.

Kuva Survival Hints And Tips

Some Warframes provide a lot of advantages if you run them in this mission. Nekros is a must, as he increases the number of life support capsules that dead enemies drop, allowing you to run the mission longer. Hydroid with Pilfering Swarm or Khora with her Pilfering mod does something similar, but Nekros is the best at it.

Other good Warframes to use are Frost, for his bubble to protect the Kuva harvester, Limbo for the same reason, or Gara. I like to use my Big Stick Energy Wukong build simply for his ability to clear vast numbers of enemies extremely fast. I find people are always willing to run Nekros, and rarely end up in a Kuva Survival group without one, but having intense enemy clear can also be very valuable and that Wukong build will one-shot anything that shows up in this mission with his Iron Staff.

A duo of Hildryn and Wisp is a superb combinations for running any long mission. Their complimentary buffs to health and shields will increase the overall ability of the team to take damage, while also providing strong crowd control when things get tough. Finally, Hildryn’s ability to strip defences from enemies will make the teams damage more effectively as the round goes on.

Finally, due to the 60-second defense, and 90-second spawn window, it is best to stay close to the harvester and defend as a team. This strategy allows the Nekros to re-roll all dead enemies, and make it significantly easier to stay topped up on life support.