Kathigu-Ra

How to Play¶

Fiamma¶

Kath revolves around managing Fiamma, her unique gameplay mechanic.

When you play with Kath, you will quickly notice that her cards are on fire. This represents the Fiamma attached to those cards.

If a card has Fiamma, it gets buffed and gains retain. A card can have up to 3 stacks of Fiamma, with each stack making it more powerful.

If Kath is roused, playing a card with 3 Fiamma will return it to your hand.

You can get Fiamma in the following ways:

• At the start of each turn, 1 Fiamma is added to a random Kath card in your hand.
• When you play a card with Fiamma, 1 Fiamma is added to a different Kath card in your hand.
• If Kath is roused, you get an extra Fiamma at the start of each turn.
• If Kath is E3, all her cards start with 1 Fiamma.
• When you use Kath’s exalt, after you draw the cards, 1 Fiamma is added to 3 random Kath cards in your hand.
• When you use Kath’s posse, Undying Sun, the drawn card gets 1 Fiamma.

Generating Fiamma is the most important thing for Kath. Her E3 and Undying Sun are very important for maximizing her potential.

Kath is a good shielder because the Fiamma boost to her Defense card is multiplicative with other buffs, like Feast from Afar and The Land of Nonexistence. This means that, with the right build, she can produce hundreds of shields with a single Defense card, which can be returned to your hand over and over again.

Combust¶

When you play a card that has Fiamma stacks, you also gain that many stacks of Combust. This is represented by the fire icon which appears under your HP bar.

When you reach 10 or more Combust, you immediately gain 2 arithmetica, and Kath’s Solarflare turns into Hyperflare. This is an AOE nuke which consumes all your arithmetica and all your Combust, and gets additional bonus damage from STR for each arithmetica and Combust consumed.

Kath’s E3 gives her +5% Base DMG every time you get a stack of Combust. This gives her a lot of damage scaling in long fights, if you maximize your Combust generation.

Combust Cycling¶

Playing Kath is about generating as much Fiamma as possible, so that you can generate Combust as fast as possible. When you have 10 Combust stacks, you play Hyperflare for 0 arithmetica, and reset your Combust so you can do it again.

Each time you do this, you get:

• 2 arithmetica from reaching 10 Combust stacks;
• permanent bonus Base DMG from Kath’s E3;
• STR generation from Last Stand Salvo;
• a lot of shield from Kath’s Defense;
• and a bunch of AOE damage from all the Hyperflares you're throwing out.

You should usually play Hyperflare for 0 arithmetica, because the only benefit you get from spending more arithmetica on it is an increased STR bonus. If you have no STR, it doesn’t deal more damage. That arithmetica could be spent to play other cards and generate more Fiamma instead.

A common newbie mistake is to focus on spending as much Combust and arithmetica as possible on a single big Hyperflare. This means you're missing out on the bonus arithmetica from each time you reach 10 Combust, and you're missing out on the 0-cost Fiamma generation from playing 0-cost Hyperflares.

A more effective strategy is to build up Base DMG and STR by cycling 0-cost Hyperflares, and then start tossing out big Hyperflares for higher damage.

Card Manipulation¶

Kath often draws cards with her exalt and the Undying Sun posse. When an effect makes you draw a Kath card, it can only draw cards that aren’t in your hand. This means you can sequence your cards in such a way that you guarantee what card you are going to draw.

For example, if you have all four Kath cards in your hand, you can play her Defense, then use Undying Sun to redraw her Defense. This lets you play the same Defense card two or three times in one turn.

On the flip side, if you have too many Kath cards in hand, you should play them before you activate her posse or exalt, as you won’t draw any cards otherwise.

You can add more Kath cards to your deck with wheels like The Land of Nonexistence or Will Unyielding, but keep in mind that this also lowers your chance to draw specific cards, such as Hyperflare.

Teambuilding¶

Kath needs a lot of arithmetica and time to build up, so she’s often run in Ultra teams to get Insights and extra turns.

She appreciates arithmetica supports like Tinct and Karen. She doesn’t work well with supports that need a lot of arithmetica to work.

When built for shielding, Kath can have issues reaching 100% Crit Rate, and appreciates crit buffers like Tinct, Ryker, and Horla.

Clementine works especially well with Kath because of all the STR she generates, which Kath can put to good use with Hyperflare.

Arachne boosts Kath’s damage a lot, but Singularity: Ultra makes the team harder to play, as you no longer get Insights from Annihilation.

Horla and Erica can provide weakness and vulnerable at a very low arithmetica cost.

High Investment¶

Kath has a good OE that gives two more stacks of Fiamma, speeding up her ramping. The increased aliemus cap is also good for her, since she tends to overcap with her strong aliemus generation.

Her AA is essentially a 15% bonus to her damage and shielding outright, and the increased level cap is also impactful.

Important Stats¶

Build Crit Rate and Crit DMG.

DMG Amplification is a worse but still usable option. Base DMG is good if you can get it from wheels or relics.

Kath can shield for a lot with her Defense card if you give her wheels and covenants that buff it, such as Feast from Afar, The Land of Nonexistence, or Ever Sunward.