KAMI GUIDE FOR ARENA 3
Brought to you by The Dark
[Disclaimer: This ended up being insanely long, because I tried to be as comprehensive as possible. If you’re looking for team building advice, just look at that section. Dungeon details, look at that section. There is a fair amount of redundancy, to aid in compartmentalized reading. I wanted to make sure there were enough details for people attempting A3 for the first time, but also some new ideas for A3 veterans who may or may not have tried Kami. Please forgive the length, but hopefully you find something useful below!]
TL;DR: Kami is awesome, especially for A3. Try using LMeta weapon assist evo on her. Otherwise use only board changers and Fujin inherits (one on a board change). Seph is the best pixel option. Almost never need a damage spike (unless your pixel is awful). Use GNey with 5 SDRs or with a redeemable killer. Time extends are your friends for 7c. Kami is so strong that you can dedicate all but one high damage sub to time and utility. Watch out for red predras, Shiva, and Noahdra.
OVERVIEW
Like Yog, for some reason I have heard the following more than a few times: “Kami can’t handle longer dungeons because of the hp threshold”. Obviously this couldn’t be further from the truth, and many people have been using her since her release to successfully (and easily) clear Arena 3. For me personally, she’s perhaps the best A3 farmer, equally consistent to or more so than Ameno (in my hands, at least), and a lot less effort than Anubis. Others will of course have different opinions, as her play style rewards a bit of thinking about team building and practice to get used to. Once you’re over the learning curve, she has the potential for a nearly perfect clear rate, with the only exception being human error (like Anubis or Ameno). Her major advantages are that she’s a lot of fun to play and has reasonably flexible subs that include somewhat common/MP purchasable cards. She’s also exceptionally fast after some practice, with my average A3 runs taking 10-15 minutes on a good day.
Generally, Kami plays like an absurdly strong version of Dark Athena (with hp/rcv traded for a decent shield), largely using orbs on the board, with the occasional active on very specific floors. She has lots of uses outside of Arena, and even as a dark FUA sub, shining as a lead in similar situations to Yog—short dungeons that require insanely strong attack. However, a few seemingly minor tweaks to the leader skill (and sub pool) give her a distinct advantage in longer dungeons, as well. In the first few days after pulling her, I couldn’t help but think she was a bit overhyped, but, after a few weeks of almost exclusively using Kami for A3, I’m now fully on board.
LEADER SKILL
First, let’s look at her leader skill. Above the 80% hp threshold, dual leads give 306.25x atk (just shy of Yog and Ameno) when matching green and dark, and 25x without. Below the threshold she puts out a very respectable 76.56x with wood and dark, and 6.25x without. So, while she’s not going to win any awards for damage control, she does theoretically have the ability to handle Sopdet, for example, by matching green alone. (This is almost always a bad idea, as discussed below, but it’s at least possible.) Additionally, she has a conditional 43.75% shield with dual leads when matching green and dark.
Four things are immediately clear:
1.) She’s very lax in terms of orb hunger, more so than Yog or Ameno. She’s also more lax than Athena, as less orbs are needed to hit phenomenally high numbers. The vast majority of A3 can be handled with one dark and one green 3 orb combo (even below the hp threshold), and 7 combos total. If you can’t make 7 combos, a green tpa and a dark 3 orb combo with a few extra combos is almost always sufficient (depending on your subs).
2) Her max damage output is absurdly high. With the right subs there is absolutely no reason to bring a damage spike for anything in A3, including radar dragons and Kali. This eases team building, making room for more board changers (her preferred orb change actives). There’s also no need for an enhance active, unlike the common use of Ana Valk on Ameno teams to deal with the radars. As stated above, at full health, nearly the whole dungeon can be done with one combo of each color, and 7 combos total, with radars and sometimes predras (if red) being the only exceptions I can think of.
3) Her damage below 80% health is still high enough to handle 95% of A3. At 76.5x, her damage output is still significantly higher than Athena’s max multiplier. This means that the hp threshold, while still important for some enemies, is far less important than other comparable hp reliant leads (e.g. Yog).
4) Her shield is substantial, making it possible to tank some reasonably large hits, including those from Gaiadra and Noahdra if she is at full health. (More on this later.) Her subs are significantly less tanky than Ameno’s or Yog’s (e.g. Xiu Min, Paimon, Yog, etc.), so it’s quite important to have the shield up as much as possible. [Note: Nees and Ragdra are major exceptions to this rule.] My team’s hp sits at about 39k with the hp badge, so my team can tank hits up to around 60k.
Between the lack of orb hunger, massive atk, reasonable conditional tankiness, and the ability to progress below the hp threshold, her advantages over other comparable leads are pretty clear. Her major disadvantage is that, without the shield up, she’s susceptible to larger hits. This makes it essential to both constantly match both dark and green, and to pay attention to your hp and which enemy you are facing to know when it is possible to take a hit while saving an active. [Note: Your HP bar is color coded. Green=100%, Blue=80-99%, Yellow=40-79%, Orange=20-39%, Red<20%. This is an easy way to check if you’re above 80% HP!] The second disadvantage relative to Ameno and Yog, is that there are quite a few dark and/or green absorbs in A3, so running a bicolor team can be harder to use than a mono light team (depending on the spawns). This means potentially stalling for a few turns, and learning when it’s advisable to hit with green or dark only, rather than stalling.
TEAM STAPLES
FUA: None! This is the most unique feature of Kami as a lead. This frees up an extra slot for a useful sub. The current meta’s usual rule of one FUA, one pixel, 2 more subs no longer applies.
Pixel: Pixel Sephiroth is the the best option by far, despite two wasted row awakenings. He brings huge atk and decent hp, a team hp awake, a time extend and s+, a natural machine killer for Gaiadra, and can take god killer latents for the other spawns. While it’s certainly possible to do without him, other options pale in comparison. Pixel Bartz makes an OK substitute if necessary, as he’s balanced type to take dragon killers, but his atk and hp are quite low. One option is to inherit a zuoh assist evo to bump up his atk a little while adding a relevant board change, but a well chosen +297 on-color inherit will usually add more atk. He’ll generally be doing 2/3 of the damage dealt by Seph, so a spike may actually be necessary. Pixel Brachys is pretty similar in most ways, but generally worse. Pixel Zidane or Pixel Noctis are one last set of (bad) options, but can only take machine killers, so additional damage will need to be dealt through a tpa or two if possible. (Note that, while both of these have very high atk, their actives break dark and green, respectively, so a useful low cd inherit is necessary. Noctis also has high cd (13), so he may be a little worse than Zidane.)
Damage absorb null: Two Fujins are essentially necessary for high consistency, while more than this limits your board changers. If you have only one, don’t worry! The best place to put one of the two is on Kami, so it’s pretty easy to find a friend with one inherited. Dark Uruka is more common than Fujin as a Kami inherit. Personally, I prefer Fujin, despite losing stats from the off color inherit, as she has shorter cd (5+19=24) making it generally doable to get her back up for Heradra after using her on Sopdet. Uruka does make dark and green, and 3 of each is always enough for the 4 relevant spawns (Sopdet, Parvati, Vishnu, Heradra) if you’re at full health and hit 7c. This usually isn’t an issue since you’re ideally combining out the board every turn, so (barring orb trolling) I prefer to have Fujin’s lower cd.
Board changers: Most actives are dedicated to dark/green/something boards, with hearts being the best third option. Amazingly, there are 5 tricolor heart boards available (that I can think of): Ishida (13cd with 2 haste), Awoken Oichi (11cd with 3 turn awoken bind/bind clear—always better than non-awoken), Armored Batman (dark main att, 10cd with 1 haste), and most significantly Green Ney (10 cd, 20% heal, 2 turn bind clear). The fifth option is Halloween Verdandi (dark main att, 13 cd and fully heals), but she’s an absurdly rare collab card—however, if you have her she’s probably equal to or better than Ney as a Kami sub (with different trade offs). For non-heart tricolor boards, Romia (dark/green/red, 8cd), and to a lesser extent Zuoh, are great subs. Revo Mei Mei (dark/green/Light, 9cd with 1 haste) is the highest damage option outside of GNey, with 2 tpas and a 7c. Revo Karen (dark/green/blue, 9cd with 1 haste) works as an inherit, though no stats will be transferred due to blue main attribute. Keep in mind that her dark form Halloween cousin (same board, 8cd) makes a better inherit thanks to the stats transfer, and can be played with directly if no other subs are available. Similarly, Gronia (dark/green, 12 cd) makes a great inherit, as a bicolor board almost always produces enough orbs for a pixel. Her new split evo can also be used directly, since she brings a much needed passive bind clear (more on this later), has a 7c, and great stats. Cauchemar (11cd, dark/green/red with 30% shield) is the best farmable option, and is inheritable (pretty much only usable as an inherit). In a pinch, Lumiel (4 color board with dark/green and true damage), and to a lesser extent Famiel, can also be used as inherits, though their true damage is largely unnecessary. Ragnarok Dragon is worth mentioning specifically, as he guarantees dark, green, and heart orbs, has fantastic awakenings, and has huge hp to make the team extremely tanky. Most importantly, he can be purchased for MP, so everyone has him as an option to flesh out a team if other subs aren’t available. Many people use multiple Ragdras on their Kami teams for these reasons. [Note: DKali provides a similar option, acting primarily as a passive bind clear, rather than a large HP stick.] One last notable sub is Awoken Nohime, who gives a relevant board, acts as a major damage source, and adds a large shield. Generally, I suggest using her as a replacement for GNey if you don’t have her. It’s unnecessary to run both, since your damage output is already so high, but having one or the other will make a major difference in A3. (Green Cotton is also a great bind proof substitute, as discussed below.)
In my opinion, Green Ney is the best sub for Kami, by far (with the possible exception of the super rare HVerdandi). If you have Kami and Ney, I strongly recommend building GNey and using her as a sub. You don’t need more than one for damage, so most Kami teams are built around supporting Ney’s damage output by providing time extends and relevant boards to take advantage of her double 7c and/or her tpas.
Non-board changer orb makers: There are a few additional notable sub options. Halloween Ruel, and to a lesser extent both forms of regular Ruel, have great awakenings and make 3 dark and 3 green orbs. Their solid stats and low cd makes them solid options as inherit bases. With the recent release of Nees, who has a perfect active for Kami (dark/green changers, 50% heal, 5 turns awoken bind clear) and incredible weighted stats (1405!!!), many people may choose to use her over full board changers, despite only 4 awakenings. In fact, her HP is so high that she instantly makes Kami teams comparable to Yog and Ameno teams in HP. While her awoken bind clear doesn’t matter for A3, it will come in handy in many other dungeons.
Lots of other subs that make only dark or green can be used, but this is less desirable. Awoken Perseus is one of the best options in the category, with great awakenings, and the additional ability to turn hazard orbs into dark.
Cotton provides 2 options (dark and green) that are alternatives to either Ney or Nohime as a primary damage source. The dark version is worse, as it breaks green, but the cd is so low that it can easily be inherited over (even as an unbindable bind clearer). The green version is a solid option, as it is bind proof, has 1000 weighted stats, makes green and heart orbs without breaking dark, and deals a ton of damage. The FUA is a wasted awakening on Kami teams, but the rest of her awakenings are outstanding and more than compensate. I’m the absence of GNey, Nohime, and HVerdandi, GCotton is one of Kami’s best subs (and is potentially better than Nohime due to higher weighted stats and being bind proof).
Many other options exist, so it’s unlikely that any well developed box will be lacking reasonable Kami orb maker subs. [Note: One very good mono color orb maker with a specific use is Wedding Persephone, but she is best as an inherit. See below.]
It’s clear that there are a LOT of sub options available, thanks to the very flexible leader skill, many of which are easier to obtain than e.g. Ney. It’s worth mentioning that most of the best subs (GNey, Romia, Mei Mei, etc) have green main attributes, so most Kami teams end up being a mix between green and dark, with green comprising the majority of damage. With this in mind, I would recommend focusing on green subs as much as your box allows, with the main exception being Sephiroth.
Bind clearers: Unlike Yog, Kami’s active heals, but does not clear binds. Nearly all of her best subs are bindable (except GNey), so it’s essential to have a way to deal with this. One great option is Odin Dragon, who clears all binds, heals 50% of your health, has unbelievable stats and awakenings, and can be purchased for MP. His major downside is that he doesn’t generate orbs, forcing you to compensate with other actives. Other options like Ceres are strictly worse and have similar problems, so it’s usually worth buying Odindra if this is your primary way to clear binds. Some people inherit Awoken Oichi, but she only clears 3 turns of binds, has no passive bind clear (so it’s not great to play with her directly), and has relatively long cd as an inherit. Similarly, Green Ney, who should always be used directly on the team, clears two turns of binds, but this is almost never enough in practice.
Another possibility is to use DKali as a sub, who adds a passive bind clear, 2 time extends and a minimally useful board. Her cd is also on the short side for inherits.
My favorite solution, and the one I use on my team, is to inherit Light Metatron’s assist evo on Kami (5+4=9cd). This turns Kami into a dedicated bind clearer, adds a passive bind clear, and adds 400 rcv (!!!). Kami, who is already a healer with sizable recovery, ends up with an incredible 1335 rcv. Using the active heals 10680 hp (in addition to clearing 3 turns of binds), which is about 25% on my team’s total hp. In other words, I’m trading the enhance component of Kami’s active for a bind clear, while keeping the heal component and adding both rcv and a passive bind clear. This solves a lot of potential bind-related problems at once, and makes it much much easier to heal to above the hp threshold using hearts on the board. This also gives me space to use more board changers on my team, making my runs much more consistent. After switching to this solution, my clear rate jumped substantially. I haven’t seen anyone else using this particular solution yet (besides those I’ve suggested it to), but if you have an extra unused LMeta sitting in your box I highly recommend trying it to see if it works for you. While LMeta’s assist has largely flown under the radar so far, it makes an extremely powerful option for some teams (try using it on Revo Isis, for example).
Delay and Shields: While many of the best teams at the moment take advantage of either delay, shields, or both, these are largely unnecessary for Kami (thanks to the built in shield). I personally like to use Orochi on most teams to deal with color absorbs, but I’ve found that sacrificing a board changer in favor of either delay or a shield isn’t worth it for Kami in A3, largely thanks to FUA and Fujin. It’s worth noting that if you don’t need time extends, Dark Athena does make a nice high damage sub for Kami, and you can always inherit a board changer. If it’s difficult to stall during color absorbs, and you have the option, Wedding Persephone can be very helpful. For A3, this is worth it specifically for dealing with Noahdra (see below), particularly due to her synergy with Zuoh/Romia, but isn’t necessary for other color absorbs.
Tpas vs 7c and time extends: Regardless of your build, most Kami teams take advantage of either 7c or tpa awakenings to do damage, and generally both (e.g. GNey, Mei Mei, etc). This is partly personal preference, and you should build around whichever you find to be the most fun. (Rows are also an option, but there’s generally less synergy with Kami’s strongest subs.)
Personally, I favor 7c’s, as they allow you to more easily spike hard enough to kill predras. My team has tpas, but I almost always completely ignore them (except on red predras, sometimes Shiva, and Kali, always in combination with 7c), and instead make sure to hit 7 combos every turn. I’m not the fastest comboer in the world, so I designed my team around having enough time extends to guarantee 7 combos, resulting in massive damage from GNey alone.
There are a lot of time debuffs in A3, so if your team is 7c based, it is essential to be able to hit 7 combos, even when time is short. With this strategy, most damage will come from double 7c subs (e.g. GNey or Nohime). Romia makes an incredible support card for this reason, bringing 4 time extends, respectable offensive awakenings (7c and dragon killer), and a great board change.
[Note: It sounds excessive, but I’ve found I’m most consistent when I use two Romias on my team for extra cushioning, since Ney doesn’t bring time extends, but is my primary damage source. This almost guarantees 7 combos, as well as giving me way more than enough time to make a pixel on the radars. Not everyone is willing to trade damage for time, but since Kami’s LS is so strong to begin with, my team is built around making sure Ney hits as hard as possible every turn.]
Depending on the number of te on your team, the hybrid tpa/7c aspect can come in very handy during time debuffs (many of which are on relatively low hp subs), allowing you to naturally switch to tpas temporarily (with the exception of hitting DIza before predras). If you favor tpas in general, you can build a team around double and triple tpa subs (Athena, Vishnu, original Ruel, etc) and deal tons of damage with minimal work. The only downside I can think of (besides a little lower damage in general) is that the team becomes slightly more orb hungry. To deal with this, having at least one high damage 7c sub allows you to switch to 7c’s if you get a board with only 3 dark or green orbs. So, while both 7c’s and tpas are great options, it’s usually worth building a hybrid team with a larger focus on either tpas or the combination of 7c and time extends.
LATENT AWAKENINGS
Thanks to the large variety of viable subs, choice of latents is fairly flexible and somewhat dependent on your team. There are some must-have awakenings, and some relevant general strategies.
Latents on Pixels: It’s absolutely essential to have 3 killer awakenings on your pixel to deal with 2 of the 5 radars (Noahdra, Gaiadra) without a spike. While not strictly necessary, it’s generally much safer to use a pixel on Zeusdra, as well, since Kami has the potential to easily overshoot 20 million damage. Sephiroth needs 3 god killers (vs all but Gaiadra) to go with his natural machine killer (vs Gaiadra). Balanced options like Bartz and Brachys should use 3 dragon killers (or god killers in a pinch). Other physical options like Zidane and Noctis should use machine killers. While it‘s a bit annoying to “waste” a +297 on an extra latent slot, this really is a great investment, and completely necessary. Think of it as trading a +297 for an unlimited supply of killer latents.
SDR, SDR, SDR: Hephdra can be one of the most challenging Radar spawns if you’re not fully prepared for him, as he adds 15 cd to all cards, removing most actives from play. Additionally, he is red, so a primarily green damage team makes it harder to one shot him without a board change. The vast majority of latents should be SDRs dedicated to dealing with him specifically. I use 5 SDRs on GNey and try to go into the radars with her inherit fully charged. This guarantees availability of my best active, making hearts for FUA and dark and green for damage. (More on this below.) For the same reason I have 4 SDRs on Romia. The last “flex” sub (Romia in my case) is ideally a board changer with a Fujin inherit, so that it will be available as a second active to deal with Kali. SDRs are much less important on this card, so this is where I place utility latents. As a rule of thumb, “When in doubt, use an SDR”.
Latents on Kami: While this is generally personal preference, I’ve noticed that most people use 2 dragon killers and 2 SDRs on both Kamis, which is a nice compromise between damage and utility. Many spawns in A3 are dragon type, so this allows Kami to deal some damage, despite not having natural offensive awakenings. Devil killers are an OK alternative, but generally avoided due to Parvati’s devil typing and damage absorb. That being said, you will usually hit Parvati using Fujin, making this a bit less relevant. One Kami will likely carry your second Fujin, so SDRs on this one are much more important. If you don’t want to add a 6th latent slot on the Fujin carrier, I suggest using 3 SDRs and 1 dragon killer, rather than 1 SDR and 2 dragon killers. Luckily it’s pretty easy to find friends with two of each and a Fujin/Uruka inherit, so you don’t need to shell out a+297 for the extra slot. On the other Kami, latents really depend on what utility she is bringing. If you are inheriting a very useful board changer, more SDRs are probably better than multiple dragon killers. My Kami holds an LMeta Assist inherit (see above) which gives a passive bind clear, making her inherit ultimately less important. As a result, I prefer to have dragon killers to many SDRs in case I need to do dark-only damage during a green absorb or if no green orbs are available.
Utility Latents: You should always carry at least one dark resist on your team to deal with Zaerog’s low hp 100% gravity. This can go on your Fujin carrier, or anywhere else with a free slot. Since Kami is an hp conditional lead, HP++ latents can be quite useful to remain above the threshold. I keep 2 HP++ and one HP+ on my Fujin carrier (Romia, in my case, who has respectable base hp). Redeemable killers are worth considering on your highest damage sub, as they can help avoid the need to form a tpa in addition to 7c.
INHERITS
As mentioned above, you should have two Fujin inherits (one on Kami, one on a nice board change for Hephdra). One inherit may be dedicated to bind clearing (e.g. LMeta assist), but all others should be 2 or 3 color board changes. If you use Odindra, for example, to deal with binds, then most people will use a dark tricolor board change (e.g. Armored Batman) or Nees as an HP stick on Kami. Try to inherit these actives on same-color cards, primarily to use the stat boost to increase your team’s hp. This is where it’s helpful to know that both green and dark options exist, with Ishida/Oichi/GNey and Armored Batman/Nees/HVerdandi/WPersephone being the best inherit options, respectively. Zuoh’s Assist evo on a dark card (e.g. Seph) transfers atk and hp stats directly (in addition to natural and 297 inherit stats), but the rows almost always go to waste, and he doesn’t make hearts. The green Lovecraft dragon, Nyarla, can be used as a pseudo SDR inherit when unskilled. This can be particularly handy for high value actives like Ney, and transfers a ton of HP to any green card. [Thanks to u/geldersekifuzuli for pointing this out.]
Akechi is worth mentioning as a possible inherit, since he can be combined with a Zuoh/Romia board and adds damage thanks to the enhance component of his active. This will guarantee enough orbs to make an enhanced dark pixel for the radar dragons.
The recently released Nees provides one of the absolute best orb maker inherits, despite not providing a board change. Her active seems to be designed for Kami, making both dark and green orbs and healing 50% to bring you above the HP threshold. Her stats are also phenomenal (1405 weighted!!), making it worth inheriting her on a dark card if at all possible.
One last inherit, if you have the option and space on your team, is Wedding Persephone. She should be used exclusively for radar dragons and has the very desirable ability to nullify color absorbs. This is amazing for dealing with Noahdra, who is potentially the worst spawn (see below). Outside of this, she almost guarantees enough orbs to make a pixel for Sephiroth, particularly as she makes a 2/3 dark board when used with either a dark/green/red board (e.g. Romia, Zuoh) or with a tricolor heart board (e.g. Ney, Ishida). This is one minor reason why you may prefer not to use Mei Mei, as Wedding Persephone doesn’t change yellow orbs, unlike Revo Persephone.
COMPLETE TEAMS
My Current Team:
Putting all of this together, I use the following build which works for my relatively relaxed combo playstyle. (Parentheses denote inherits and latents.)
Kami(LMeta assist evo with 2 SDR, 2 dragon killers)
GNey(Ishida with 5 SDR)
Romia(Ishida with 4 SDR, 1 dark resist)
Romia(Fujin with 2 HP++, 1 HP+)
Pixel Sephiroth(Armored Batman with 3 god killers)
Friend Kami(Fujin with 2 SDR, 2 dragon killers)
This is my most consistent build by far, but I’ve gone through several iterations that work well, so there’s a good amount of flexibility. This team has 11 time extends (again, usually excessive), allowing me to take my time and hit 7 combos every turn. GNey is the only card with tpas, which are used to break the defense on red predras, or to hit (some stages) when no dark orbs are available or during a dark absorb.
If I pushed myself to combo more quickly (which I can, but don’t enjoy as much), I would use Mei Mei (with hp++ latents) instead of Romia as the Fujin carrier. I like to have Romia’s 8 turn board change as my main active, rather than the haste, but that’s personal preference. If I had a second GNey, I would use that over Mei Mei. And of course if I had Halloween Verdandi, she would find a permanent spot on the team. I recently rolled Nees (yay!) so I will try to incorporate her into my team, most likely replacing Armored Batman as a Sephiroth inherit.
All inherits are on-color and +297. This is important to bump the hp up as much as possible so that smaller hits keep you above the threshold. The exceptions are on my Kami, where I prefer to have the extra rcv and bind clear options to stats, and on my friend’s Kami, where I prefer Fujin’s lower cd over Uruka.
Farmable teams?:
Just for fun, it’s worth theory-crafting a completely farmable set of subs, for those with terrible rem luck who still have Kami. My best guess at a viable team would be something like:
Kami/Odindra, Yomidra, or maybe Azathoth/Ragdra/Ragdra or Cauchemar/Pixel Brachys/Kami
You should always use a friend with a Fujin inherit if you don’t have one. Other inherits would be Cauchemar and whatever heart/dark/green makers are available that don’t destroy the other two, and probably a damage spike (e.g. Gran Reverse) and/or inheritable poisoner (is there a farmable option?). As you can see, most of the best farmable subs are from the MP store, which is not surprising. There may be a handful of other worthwhile farmables (e.g. Aamir might work instead of Odindra/Azathoth as a bind clearer). Losing the second Fujin will essentially guarantee failure some of the time, but that’s not the worst thing in the world for a mostly farmable A3 team.
Whale teams:
Assuming you have the resources, both financial and a well developed box, there are builds that are pretty close to 100% clear rates, barring human error. Something along the lines of the following should work very well.
Kami(Uruka)/GNey(GNey or AOichi)/HVerdandi(HVerdandi)/Romia(Fujin)/Pixel Seph(WPersephone)/Kami(Uruka)
Remember, part of whale life means having multiple Halloween Verdandis and Wedding Persephone. Otherwise you’re doing it wrong. I don’t have the funds or the box to make this team, but it does guarantee enough Fujin actives and heals to have almost guaranteed perfect runs. I worry about binds, but if you’re fast enough to combo without Romia, this is rarely a problem. [Thanks to u/bp1976 for sharing this build!]
DUNGEON DETAILS
As mentioned above, the general strategy is to combo out as much of the board as possible every turn, with a minimum of 7 combos to proc the awakenings. There are only a couple of places where it’s necessary or advisable to stall, so the goal is to use as few actives as possible and end up with almost all of your skills charged for the radars and Kali. That being said, take advantage of every stalling spot that is available to heal and save green and dark orbs for your next hit (e.g. Amon attacks on turn 2 and then does nothing for his first hit if below 50%). Besides these turns, it’s almost always better to clear the board (not save orbs) than to dance around and potentially miss a 7th combo.
The first floor:
No matter who spawns, try to kill both on the first turn (though the yellow guy gives an extra turn). My team has 6 S+ (skill boosts), so Romia isn’t up immediately, but will be up by turn 3 when you need her. As a result, you have to kill this floor with orbs on the board.
This rarely an issue, but there are a couple of combinations of spawns that can be immediately deadly if no darks or greens are on the board. If the red guy is on the left, he does an 80% gravity, and the dark guy and green girl can kill you afterwards if you haven’t killed them (though green just puts up a shield below some threshold) . If you get 2 red guys, this is just 2 gravities so you’re safe. If you see the red guy on the left with dark or green on the right and only have green orbs available, make 7 combos and kill the spawn on the right. This gives you an extra turn to hit the red guy (and heal), who is harder to kill with green orbs. You will also have the non-Fujin Kami available to heal if needed. If you only have dark orbs available, I usually try to kill the red guy with 7 combos (and a tpa if possible).
The second hazard is the blue spawn. His first turn adds a 99 turn blue skyfall, which is extremely bad for Kami who relies on skyfalls for most of the dungeon. If he spawns, do your best to kill him immediately if possible.
Tans (third floor):
You want to make sure that you’re at full health (>80%) and that all of your cards are unbound to have the maximum time available to hit 7 combos (especially if DIza gave you a nasty time debuff). Ney isn’t usually up yet, so I try to use a passive bind clear (heart row) on the previous turn if needed. If you are bound it’s because you had to stall on the second round, so LMeta should be up regardless.
Romia should be up by this turn, so it’s easiest to use her unless you get a really dark and green friendly board. No tpa needed. Even red tans will die from 7 combos, and usually most of the tans die even if you just hit tpas and less than 7 combos.
Latent tama(8th floor):
This is the next time you may want to use an active, though it’s not completely necessary. (All floors between tans and Latents should be doable with orbs on the board and possibly stalling and healing.) You should try to be at full health, though I’ve killed this round below the HP threshold on occasion. If you swept every floor so far, you should have Ney up by now. I usually have Romia up, and use her unless I have a friendly board or need Ney to heal me first. 7 combos is enough without tpas. When in doubt, remember that the latent is light, so you can use dark-heavy combos (and even rows for Seph) to break the defense, even if you can’t hit 7 combos. That being said, Ney is almost always the one who punches through, so any number of green orbs is usually enough if you do hit 7c. Obviously, if you are using Nohime or HVerdandi, any number of dark orbs with green and 7c will easily punch through.
Predras(13th floor):
This is the third floor that usually requires an active. Unlike tans and latents, this one almost always requires an active. That being said, killing them is totally straightforward, and doesn’t require poison, true damage, or defense break. This does assume you have at least one double 7c sub (Ney, Nohime, HVerdandi). If you don’t, put 2 redeemable killers on your highest damage sub with a 7c or many tpas. If Green Ney is your damage source, and a red predra spawns, I tend to make a green tpa and 7 combos to be safe, and aim at the red predra. I have killed them many times with combos alone, but I’ve also failed at times, usually when I’m using a natural board. This is particularly important if both are red. If you’re using Nohime/HVerdandi, or if there are no red predras, 7 combos from a tricolor board will punch through their defense and kill them. The fact that you don’t need a dedicated predra killer allows you to carry more board changers and means that you have more flexibility in terms of which active you use (requires less planning).
Besides these three, try not to use an active unless you’re in danger (low health and/or need to stall out color absorbs with your shield up). The only MAJOR exception is Beelzebub who gives you no choice. The other time to use an active is if you need to make a heart column for FUA immediately, but no hearts are on the board (e.g. Ilsix).
Yo-yo resolve rounds:
There are two specific spawns that can be used to stall indefinitely. These are Kaguya-Hime (floor 2) and Sonia Gran (floor 14). The trick is to hit hard each turn to activate their resolve, which heals them to full with no additional ill effects.
Kaguya is so early that you only need to do this if there aren’t enough hearts to make a FUA heart column. You can “yo-yo” her health until you get 5 hearts, dark, and green orbs. This avoids her 3 turn bind, which can be bad for tans on floor 3.
Sonia Gran, on the other hand, is extremely useful, as she gives you an opportunity to fully recharge all actives and inherits. While this isn’t strictly necessary, it does help a lot when proceeding to the much harder later stages. The mindless yo-yo can be a little boring, but it does improve your consistency by a lot. This is particularly helpful to ensure both Fujins are up, along with a fully charged inherit on Ney, to guarantee an available FUA-ready active in the event Hephdra spawns.
Color absorb floors:
There are several floors that absorb damage from dark, green, or both. The dark absorbs spawns are Voice (dark mystic knight), Heimdalr, and Zaerog. There is a green absorb on floor 11 from a machine dragon that may spawn. Noahdra can absorb dark, green, or both (more on this later). For all of these the strategy is to activate your shield by making both dark and green combos, and healing every turn. Use Kami’s heal (not the Fujin one!!) if your health dips dangerously low and if either no hearts are available or you can’t put up the shield.
Voice can be killed with green only tpas and 7c if you’re above 80% health and feel so inclined, but this risks getting hit when your shield is down. The green machine dragon can be dealt with by killing the second spawn (assuming it isn’t a second green) and letting him regenerate his friend. This avoids any attacks. You can also kill him with dark combos. It’s worth noting that he will use a 99 turn green skyfall as one of his attacks, which can be useful if blue skyfalls are up from floor 1. You may want to stall to allow him to do this intentionally. This helps a lot as you progress, as the boards are much friendlier for Kami’s green subs.
Zaerog can be tricky, since he will randomly choose to absorb either dark or light every 4 turns. A string of dark absorbs is pretty painful, but as long as your shield is up and you heal as much as possible, it’s very doable without using actives. You can use a board change with hearts if you absolutely need to. Turn 1 of the cycle is always a gravity, so save hearts for the second turn. Turn 4 is only a refresh of the color absorb, so use this as a chance to clear the board to get green, dark, and heart orbs ready for the following few turns. On most teams, I inherit Orochi to prevent Zaerog from renewing his color absorb. On Kami’s team, I find this isn’t necessary, as it limits the number of board changers on your team. If you have the option, some people inherit Wedding Persephone, who nullifies color absorbs. If you have her, it’s usually worth saving her active for Noahdra, who is far more dangerous. Make sure you have at least one dark resist latent on your team, since Zaerog has 100% gravity below 30% health. It’s also extremely important that you heal fully when you kill him, since Hera’s very large preempt is on the next floor.
Damage absorb floors:
There are five potential damage absorb spawns, one of which is easy and can be stalled out (Unicorn). The other four (Sopdet, Parvati, Vishnu, Heradra) are best to do with Fujin. While it is technically possible to do Sopdet using only green orbs above 50%, and dark below 50%, it’s very unreliable. It’s usually best to clear bad colors while you stall until the last turn, then use Fujin and green/dark orbs on the board. If you use Fujin as Kami’s inherit, rather than Uruka, it is usually easy to stall enough to have her back up for Heradra, even if either Parvati or Vishnu spawns (but not both).
Parvati can be stalled indefinitely. You should take advantage of this to recharge skills if you have the patience. Because her hits take you below the damage threshold, she can be killed without Fujin if you feel so inclined, by avoiding dark and green combos at the same time. As this leaves you with below full health on most turns, and without your shield, this strategy becomes dangerous in the final turns, and you’re left without your full multiplier on Grisar. Instead, I tend to make dark, green, and heal matches to put up the shield, and stall until I have a good board (potentially on the first turn) to use Fujin. If she spawns after Sopdet, you need to stall until your second Fujin is back up, as Vishnu and Heradra come soon after, and not many later stages can be stalled. Try to use your FUA heart column when you hit her to avoid jammers from her resolve, both healing and giving you the best chance for a decent board for Grisar before his gravity.
Vishnu should be killed immediately with Fujin if possible. He’s pretty difficult to stall on. If you happen to have Orochi or another delay, you could use it, but it’s much harder to control damage than with e.g. Ameno.
Some players use 3 Uruka or Fujin actives, as a run with Parvati and Vishnu followed by Heradra is usually deadly on Heradra. Personally, I’m happy to just chalk the run up to bad spawns (despite having the option of 2 Fujins and one on a friend), since it’s only a 1/80 chance and is one of very few RNG based deaths with my team.
Shiva:
This is probably the only spawn (floor 20) that is worth mentioning specifically, outside of the above categories. Shiva has a preemptive gravity and is red. This means that you are automatically below the hp threshold, and have to hit twice as hard if your primary damage source is green (e.g. GNey). The easiest strategy is to use Kami’s heal, which will take you above the threshold if your shield was up going in to this round. Since I use LMeta’s assist, either Kami or LMeta are almost always up to make this possible. After this, you can kill him with a natural board and 7c. If you don’t have dark and green orbs available, or can’t heal from Kami, use a board change and make sure to make 7 combos including at least one green tpa for Ney. This is one of very few spots where I occasionally die due to human error.
Radar dragons:
This is obviously the most challenging floor in A3 (floor 23), but the combination of new technologies, namely FUA, Fujin, and pixels, have made dealing with radars significantly easier. Regardless of the spawn, you want to go into this floor with a fully charged Fujin inherit, and ideally one other fully charged inherit. Personally, I do my best to have Ney’s inherit (Ishida, in my case) fully charged, since she holds 5 SDR. Regardless of the spawn, use any remaining Fujin actives on the first turn, but after other actives, to take advantage of her haste. [Note: For the description below, I am assuming that you are using Pixel Sephiroth with 3 god killer latents, in which case no damage spike is needed. If you are running a different pixel option, particularly if it doesn’t have dragon/god killers, you may need to use a spike on this round.]
Hephdra: On many teams (e.g. Ameno), Hephdra is the most challenging spawn, but I’ve found that for Kami, it’s usually pretty straightforward, so long as you have a tricolor heart maker with a fully charged inherit, and a Fujin carrier with a fully charged Fujin. Hephdra adds 15 cd, which can be deadly to some teams. You are guaranteed to have your Fujin carrier available, due to Fujin’s long cd. Since Hephdra has resolve, you really want a tricolor heart board available for a simple one hit. In my case, Fujin is on Romia, so this board usually goes to dealing with Kali. When my Ney is fully charged, she is also up, leaving me with an easy FUA+7c kill. You can theoretically stall for a couple of turns on Hephdra, but make sure to have your dark+green shield up each turn. If you do stall, having Kami available to heal is essential, since his hits will take you below the HP threshold, so it’s best to have her inherit fully charged, as well.
Heradra: This is the easiest spawn, by far, so long as you have Fujin available. She fully heals you after her first turn, so stall and collect orbs. Then it’s almost always possible to use Fujin and kill her off of a natural board. Uruka makes this a guarantee. Without Fujin, this spawn is usually certain death for Kami teams.
Zeusdra: This is generally one of the easiest spawns, as his damage null is very forgiving at 20 million. This means that a board change with 7c is usually enough to kill him, with damage from only Ney and other double 7c subs being absorbed. I still try to make a pixel, just to be safe, but occasionally I don’t have enough orbs from a board change. Try to avoid tpas if possible, since Kami is strong enough to take tpa subs past the damage threshold.
Gaiadra: This spawn doesn’t hit until the third turn, so you have 2 free turns to chip her down using a natural board. If you avoid tpas (to stick below the damage null of 6 million), you can often kill her this way. On the third turn, use a board change and make a pixel to one shot her.
Noahdra: This is the hardest spawn for Kami, by far. In addition to her 5 million damage null, she absorbs 2 colors at a time at random, and often chooses either green, dark, or both. [Note: Bicolor teams are harder for this reason, in comparison to e.g. Yog or Ameno who just need to wait until light is not absorbed.] This can go on for a long time, and has the potential to burn through actives like crazy while you stall. Make sure to make dark and green combos to put up your shield each turn, and heal if at all possible. Use actives sparingly, saving at least one board change for a pixel, but try to use them when you can’t otherwise put up your shield. If you don’t, she will take you below the threshold to the point where it is hard to recover enough to do full damage with a pixel. DO NOT HIT HARD WHILE SHE ABSORBS EITHER OF KAMI’S COLORS!! If she absorbs dark, and you do too much damage with green, she will hit hard and put up a 75% shield, making it hard to recover and harder than usual to use a pixel. If this does happen, Kami can tank her first “Judgement” hit, and her second only if you fully heal. If this happens, heal using both Kamis and Ney if possible, then pixel and pray for the best. If you can’t heal enough, game over.
Noahdra also has the nasty habit of binding one sub each turn. For some reason this seems to always be my pixel, meaning I have to either stall through a potentially good color absorb combination, or unbind with an active. This is where GNey really shines, and what makes her, in my opinion, Kami’s best sub. She simultaneously unbinds, heals back above the HP threshold (with help from Kami if necessary), and gives you a great board to work with. It’s almost as if she was made for dealing with Noahdra using HP restricted teams. I’ve heard people complain that her cd is too high because her active does all three things, but this one case is perhaps the best argument for why it is more than worth the wait. Since I often have Ishida up on top of Ney, I don’t have this option. This makes Awoken Oichi a much better inherit if you have her, thanks to her 3 turn bind clear. Instead, I use LMeta’s unbind + heal, and use whatever board I have available. If you get this far, and you are able to make a pixel using an unbound pixel sub during non-green/non-dark absorbs, Noahdra is an easy one shot. This is a lot of “ifs”… A much easier solution, if you have the option, is to use Wedding Persephone on the first turn to make a pixel and kill her. I’m very jealous of people with this card, since Noahdra is the single most likely place for me to die.
Light and Dark Kali:
Both Kalis are surprisingly easy with Kami. They can often be killed from a natural board (or at least taken below the nuke threshold), though it’s much easier with a board change. If you are working with a natural board, try to make a green tpa in addition to 7c, if possible. Sometimes this is your only option, particularly if you just burned through your actives with Noahdra, or had to use multiple actives to get enough orbs for a pixel. More often than not, I have a board change available, making it an easy kill with 7c, no tpa needed. If you don’t one shot Kali, stall by putting up your shield, and use Kami’s active to heal before dealing her a final blow to avoid the low hp nuke.
Pys:
At this point, you are usually out of actives. Luckily the pys can be killed with 7c from a natural board, so long as you’re above the hp threshold. If not, stall with your shield up and heal each turn, until you have a good natural board. Kami is almost always back up by now, so use her active to heal and kill.
CONGRATS! You’ve just beaten A3 with Kamimusubi! After a few runs and a little practice, you’ll quickly realize how powerful she is and why she’s currently one of the very best leads in the game.
Again, my sincere apologies for how long this ended up being. I hope the details are helpful to at least some of you, and that the rest were willing to skip to the relevant sections. I was asked by a couple of people to write this guide, so you can thank them for its existence, and blame me if you hate the content. Thanks to u/downhiil for the initial motivation and for acting as a sounding board.
If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, additional tips, or alternate strategies, please put them in the thread below. I’m sure a healthy discussion of differences between my strategy and that of other veteran players will benefit everyone.
Please let me know if there are any typos or additions you would like me to make, and I’ll try to continue to edit this original post accordingly.
Thanks so much for reading, and may Kami bring you many hours of fun in the future!
