diff --git a/modules/den/aspects/desktop/_niri/system.nix b/modules/den/aspects/desktop/_niri/system.nix
index 63d748e..0524e9b 100644
--- a/modules/den/aspects/desktop/_niri/system.nix
+++ b/modules/den/aspects/desktop/_niri/system.nix
@@ -167,8 +167,9 @@
 
       # Global blur tuning. Blur itself needs no switch here: niri honours any
       # surface that asks for it over `ext-background-effect` — which is how
-      # noctalia's bar, panels and launcher get theirs — and the window rule
-      # below turns it on for foot, which cannot ask.
+      # noctalia's bar, panels and launcher get theirs. Nothing else opts in:
+      # foot is opaque (stylix.opacity.terminal is 1.0), so it has nothing to
+      # blur behind it.
       #
       # `passes` and `noise` are matched to the Hyprland session's
       # `decoration.blur` so the two sessions look like the same desktop.
@@ -344,21 +345,6 @@
           # left flat on purpose — they tile, so they need no separating.
           shadow.on = _: {};
         }
-        # foot is translucent (stylix.opacity.terminal), and without this it
-        # would be translucent onto whatever happens to be behind it. A
-        # terminal cannot request blur for itself the way noctalia can — there
-        # is no `ext-background-effect` support in foot — so niri is told to
-        # blur it from this side.
-        #
-        # `xray` is left at its default, meaning on: the blur is computed once
-        # against the wallpaper and reused, rather than recomputed every time
-        # anything underneath moves. `xray false` would blur the actual windows
-        # below, but upstream still marks that experimental — it drops out
-        # during open/close animations and while dragging a tiled window.
-        {
-          matches = [{app-id = "^foot$";}];
-          background-effect.blur = true;
-        }
         # The calculator pops up floating, rofi-calc style.
         {
           matches = [{app-id = "^calculator$";}];
diff --git a/modules/den/aspects/home/desktop/_styling/default.nix b/modules/den/aspects/home/desktop/_styling/default.nix
index f664323..51f2dc0 100644
--- a/modules/den/aspects/home/desktop/_styling/default.nix
+++ b/modules/den/aspects/home/desktop/_styling/default.nix
@@ -41,9 +41,12 @@ in {
       #
       # stylix reaches only some of it directly — foot and alacritty from
       # `terminal`, and off that same value it flips btop's and helix's
-      # `transparent` flags, which is load-bearing rather than incidental: a
-      # TUI that paints its own opaque background punches a solid rectangle
-      # through the translucent terminal it runs in. The niri shell's surfaces
+      # `transparent` flags. That coupling is why `terminal` is 1.0: a
+      # translucent terminal makes every TUI that paints its own background
+      # punch a solid rectangle through it, and text over a moving wallpaper
+      # is the one place the effect costs more legibility than it buys. The
+      # shells still get their translucency from `desktop`/`popups`, which
+      # carry no text you read for minutes at a time. The niri shell's surfaces
       # are wired up by hand in _noctalia/home.nix, because stylix's
       # noctalia-shell target is gated on `options.programs ? noctalia-shell`
       # and ours is a wrapped package, not that home-manager module — so the
@@ -53,7 +56,7 @@ in {
       # and a translucent PDF is simply harder to read, while a translucent
       # browser chrome wrapped around opaque page content just looks broken.
       opacity = {
-        terminal = 0.8;
+        terminal = 1.0;
         desktop = 0.8;
         popups = 0.8;
       };