Kinich Build and Guide

Kinich is a 5-star Dendro Claymore character who is most commonly played as an on-field DPS. His gameplay consists of charging up points in his Skill state to fire a special Skill, with good maneuvering and Burning enemies aiding in this process.  As a Nightsoul character, he has access to and utilizes Nightsoul mechanics.

Kinich’s Nightsoul mechanics are tied to his Skill state, which upon use grants him his Nightsoul’s Blessing for 10 seconds and allows him to “hook” onto a nearby opponent - creating a tether between himself and the enemy. His goal during this time is to repeatedly generate 20 Nightsoul points, which can be consumed to fire a “Scalespiker Cannon” to deal significant damage to the enemy. A good portion of this occurs passively: he generates 2 points per second by default, while his Ascension 1 Passive then automatically gives Kinich 7 Nightsoul points when the Burning or Burgeon reactions deal damage to an enemy once every 0.8 seconds; while in practice this is closer to once every second even against Burning enemies, this makes maintaining uptime on the reaction very important for him. 

The rest of Kinich’s point generation then comes from his on-field gameplay. When tethered to an enemy, Kinich’s Normal Attacks are replaced by “Loop Shots”; when used, it deals Dendro damage, generates 3 Nightsoul points, and causes Kinich to move rapidly in a circular motion around the enemy. This maneuvering is important, as whenever his Skill is used (including Scalespiker Cannons) Kinich also spawns in large green zones called “Blind Spots” to the side of the enemy, at a 90o angle to his tether - if the enemy is on the left side of the screen, it spawns on their right side, and vice versa. Since these generate 4 points upon entering them, it is well worth using the movement on his Loop Shots to do so; the direction they take can be controlled, though by default Kinich always moves in the direction that would be the closest distance to the Blind Spots he spawns. Altogether, this allows Kinich to consistently fire 4-5 Scalespiker Cannons per Skill, with potential to even get a 6th!

Kinich’s second Ascension Passive powers up his next Scalespiker Cannon after a Nightsoul Burst is triggered. While nice, this is not a strong enough bonus to make running Natlan teammates at the expense of other synergies worthwhile.

Relative to his Skill, Kinich’s Burst is a simple ability that deals consistent Dendro damage to the target every 2 seconds after the ability’s initial hit for 15 seconds, for a total of 6 dragon breaths. While relatively unremarkable, this can allow Kinich to provide Dendro application if necessary for reaction setups. Using the ability during Kinich’s Nightsoul Blessing does extend it by 1.7 seconds, though the ability itself takes 2.2 seconds to cast - while this can seem like a waste, it can occasionally be worthwhile to do so due as Kinich can still passively generate points during its cast time.

Lastly, his standard Normal Attacks are lackluster and hardly ever used.