KokardiBuild and Guide

Kokardi is a Reason Affinity DPS, specialized in AoE damage and Turn Meter generation, both for himself and his team.

Skill 1

Kokardi’s first ability is a single-target attack, dealing 200-240% DMG while also granting him one stack of his unique buff, [Calamity Flame], which we’ll explain as we cover S2.

When played as a Burst DPS, Kokardi’s S1 upgrades aren’t particularly impactful, as only level 5 marks a significant power boost in the short term. In the long term, both level 3 and level 5 of this ability are significant power boosts, making it a strong pick-up when using Kokardi in extended fights in PVP stall compositions. 

Skill 2

Kokardi’s S2 is a lengthy Passive that can be broken down into three parts:

• As long as Kokardi has one or more living allies and isn’t Controlled (Freeze, Stun, Slumber, Forgetfulness, etc), he can’t be selected as the main target of any enemy Skill.

• After Kokardi performs two actions himself, he activates [Flame Strike], dealing 240-300% DMG to all enemies. At the same time, allies and Kokardi also receive a 20% Turn Meter boost, a 2-turn [CRIT Rate+] Buff, and lastly, Kokardi also gains 1-2 stacks of [Calamity Flame].

• Whenever Kokardi scores a CRIT while having at least 1 stack of [Calamity Flame], an extra instance of damage is applied to the attack, inflicting True indirect damage based on the enemy’s max HP and the number of stacks he possesses. To keep things balanced, the damage is hard-capped by Kokardi’s own ATK. Each stack of the Buff adds an extra 1.2-1.5% max HP DMG, never exceeding 20% of Kokardi’s ATK (per stack), stacking up to 16 times.

Kokardi’s S2 offers protection, team-wide utility, a ton of extra damage every two turns, and most importantly of all, a way to continually get stronger as the fight progresses, allowing him to serve as a formidable AoE DPS in fights that don’t end too quickly.

It’s important to note that Extra Attacks like Lily’s assist or Battlewill’s triggered basic attack, unfortunately, do not benefit from [Calamity Flame]’s True Damage.

Most of the offensive and team-buffing effects are fully upgraded at level 4 of this Skill, so if the improved stacking isn’t your priority, this can be a great stopping point.

Skill 3

S3 is a straightforward 1-hit AoE that applies a [CRIT Rate+] to Kokardi before dealing 300-360% DMG to all enemies, while also granting him up to a 35% Turn Meter boost and 2-3 stacks of [Calamity Flame].

This skill does not receive any CD reduction from leveling it up, and its maximum damage output and Turn Meter boosting are reached at level 4, making it a fairly cost-effective ability outside of PVP, where the need for level 5 depends on how you plan to use Kokardi.

PVE

In PVE, Kokardi can struggle to justify his inclusion in your team for most of the content available, as his AoE Burst is good but not unmatched, and his potential for single-target Burst isn’t impressive considering that very effective Disorder/Constant Affinity alternatives, or even straight upgrades, already exist.

Still, in content where repeated AoEs are favored, Kokardi can slowly ramp up to be very powerful, although without heavily investing in his Skill levels, his unique buff scale slowly, making him decent but far from ideal for farming in general.

PVP

For PVP, Kokardi has a couple of very strong advantages; however, some flaws inherent to his design also hold him back. One of his greatest advantages is the untargetable component of his passive, which forces his enemies to set up combos of hard CC followed by high damage before the CC wears off, or banking on high AoE damage, which has many ways of being mitigated. Coupled with his scaling true damage, Kokardi can eventually turn from a thorn in the enemy’s side into a very threatening AoE nuker later in the game. Fully stacked, his true damage can inflict as much as 24% of the enemy's max HP as true damage in one attack on top of his regular damage, which can trigger twice in a row if his S3 into S2 AoE combo is triggered.

On the other hand, Kokardi is extremely reliant on his teammates to protect him, both from damage but also from Debuffs, as they can quickly neuter the threat he represents if left unchecked. Optimized Stats from Gear, Immunity, spammable Purification, Healing/Shielding, and external sources of Buffs are all important to him. Because of the fact that Kokardi’s true damage is tied to his ATK stat and his stack generation relies on him taking actions opposing delays, and [ATK-] can seriously hamper his game plan.

Playing with or against Kokardi is likely to end up as a race against the clock. Can he stack fast enough to blow through the entire team? Can you kill him or his teammates before that? With such oppressive firepower in the later stages of the fights, Kokardi’s final Skill levels also become more relevant than in PVE, which makes him one of the more expensive Animus to play effectively.

Conclusion

Kokardi’s damage potential, while potentially extremely high in a PVP setting where fights are often longer, is still not easy to achieve. He not only requires high investment, but also carefully chosen teammates that can cover his flaws while holding out on their own. In PVE, it’s much easier to use other, more widely applicable Animuses that have already proven their versatility and strength in multiple game modes.

All in all, Kokardi positions himself as a situational Animus, with a clear purpose and niche, but many hurdles to overcome in order to be successful.