Kovik, Splicer Priest

"What a mess. The High Priest wasn't looking to build a Hive slave army. He was just removing their body parts to be joined with SIVA."

- Ghost

Kovik, Splicer Priest was a Fallen High Priest of the Devil Splicers that led an invasion on a Hive nest deep within Bunker Triglav in the Plaguelands. He served as the final boss of the Wretched Eye Strike.

Biography
According to rumors, Kovik was among those responsible for the Devil Splicers' SIVA-fueled evolution. His twisted experiments led to new horrifying developments in Fallen technology, changing them from Ether-starved pirates into part-machine demigods. However, Kovik's ambitions didn't stop there, as the mad Priest’s research took a far more sinister turn when he sought to control and weaponize the more aggressive aspects of the Hive’s mysterious biology. His daring assault on their territory, as well as his torturous experiments on them, initiated a full-scale war between the Devil Splicers and the infuriated Brood.

The High Priest's efforts would soon led him to a Hive nesting ground, hidden within an old missile silo: Cyclone 141G. He and his forces were able to drive out the Hidden Swarm and capture an Ogre, which Kovik began to experiment on personally. The mad Priest dissected the beast and was able to remove its Void eye, which he would he would fuse with a Null Cannon to create powerful new weapon, called the Wretched Gaze. He even gained a degree of control over the abomination.

However, his efforts to experiment on the Hive gained the attention of the Vanguard Scout, Shiro-4, and the Guardians, who began to disrupt Kovik's operations. The Lightbearers descended into the missile silo were the High Priest was hiding, finding him at the heart of the nest. The Splicer battled the insurgents with his modified weapon and the Ogre he had enslaved, dubbed Kovik's Monster. In Spite of his efforts and his morbid creations, Kovik was defeated and killed by the Guardians. Meanwhile, Shiro worried if the Splicers would continue the High Priest's work, but fortunately, his death of brought an end to his depraved experiments.

Gameplay
Kovik is an aggressive foe who constantly pushes on the player's position. He is armed with a Wretched Gaze machine cannon for heavy ranged combat. This weapon fires blindingly fast and can kill from very long ranges due to its high accuracy and damage, allowing Kovik to easily suppress Guardians and melt their shields in an instant. Since it is powered by the Ogre's eye, it becomes even more lethal when Void Burn is an active modifier for the encounter. On top of this, he can teleport vast distances by disappearing for a brief moment and then reappearing a few seconds later, and if faced up close, he will unleash an Ultra Smash that will inflict massive damage and tremendous knockback or cause an outright death. However, despite his formidability, Kovik can momentarily be stunned by high-impact weaponry along with sustained fire, allowing the player an easier time finishing him off.

Trivia

 * Kovik's upper right arm appears to be the only one of his four arms to be natural. The others are either mechanical, wired, or made of SIVA.
 * Kovik's pyramidal helmet design is similar to, a character from the survival horror  video game series.
 * Kovik, as well as Vosik, the Archpriest, are the only Eliksni in Destiny to not have any exposed head pieces.
 * Judging from the appearance of Kovik's modified weapon, it is likely that it was once a Null Cannon.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * Rise of Iron