Kashin Koji

“My name is Kashin Koji. So long as I have this temporary life, I shall serve you—from now and onwards.”

Kashin Koji, a mechanical shinobi proficient in the art of illusions, and creator of Danzo, manifests as an AoE Quick Assassin. It provides a mix of debuffs for the enemy and offensive self-buffs, with bonus damage associated with inflicting their special immobilizing debuff, “Bound”.

Kashin Koji’s kit comes with a coveted self NP Gauge charge skill of up to 30% in value on Illusionary Techniques (Gejutsu) EX, which is tied to a Critical Star bomb and a party-wide Invincibility skill that works for 1 hit across 3 turns. Her second skill, Massacre Engine B+, is her primary offensive steroid, giving her both Quick and ATK buffs for three turns, while also providing her with up to 10% extra NP charge each time she attacks normally using a Quick Card. Finally, Mystic Eyes B is her immobilizing debuff skill, which inflicts the Bound status effect on an enemy and also buffs both her Critical Star Gather Rate and Critical Strength. Note the Bound status effect, although it looks similar to Stun, counts as a separate debuff. It is the same debuff applied by the Divine Judgment skills that Amakusa Shirou and Jeanne d’Arc have.

Karakuri Gehou: Frenzied Force is Kashin Koji’s NP, and takes advantage of her ability to inflict the Bound status effect by dealing supereffective bonus damage if enemies are Bound. In addition, it has a chance to inflict Bound on all enemies before dealing damage, starting at a base of 60% and increasing up to 100% at maximum overcharge. Combined with her third skill, she has relatively easy access to her NP’s supereffective modifier. The NP also has a 40% chance to inflict instant death, which applies after damage. The death proccing after damage ensures that Kashin Koji will still get any NP refund from enemies even if the instant death activates.

Given her ability to take advantage of supereffective damage multipliers in most situations, Kashin Koji is among the hardest hitting in the niche of AoE Quick Assassins. She is also capable of looping her NP with premiere Quick Support and an MLB Kaleidoscope or order change with additional NP charge support. She also can lay claim to the title of the first general pool AoE SSR Assassin, making the niche more readily available for Masters who are still in need of a Servant to fill the role. Kashin Koji excels particularly well if Quick Supports such as Skadi / Skadi Ruler are available in the roster. However, she is otherwise relatively straight forward and if other Assassin loopers are present in the roster, Masters may find less of a use case for her. Regardless, she fills the role as an AoE Quick Assassin well, especially due to her great damage from her supereffective damage multiplier. If Masters are jointed by Kashin Koji in their Chaldea, they can delight in ensnaring and eviscerating any Rider waves with Koji’s deadly presence.

Ease of Access to Supereffective Damage

Kashin Koji’s NP deals at base 150% supereffective damage vs Bound enemies, and up to 200% at maximum overcharge. Her third skill and NP itself both can apply the Bound debuff before dealing damage, giving her easy access to this powerful damage multiplier.

AoE Hard Defense

As with many of the shinobi Servants in the roster, she can provide allies with hard defensive buffs. Her version is a 1 time, 3 turn Invincibility for all allies, which can come in clutch in some scenarios to save the party from a powerful enemy NP. Masters need to be cautious that this is tied to her NP charge skill, however.

Quick Looping

Kashin Koji is the first AoE Quick looping SSR Servant to be available in the roster. Masters who are a fan of Quick looping / have both Skadis in their roster can finally access a general pool SSR option for Assassin coverage. She loops with a little bit of extra setup, requiring either an MLB Kaleidoscope or Order Change with additional NP charge support on top of the standard double Skadi setup. She also comes with a 30% NP charge of her own to help support her looping performance.

Debuff-based Supereffective Modifier

If encountering any enemies that have either debuff immunity, or immunity specifically to immobilizing debuffs, then her damage potential is severely dampened. Given her most unique aspect is the ability to inflict the Bound debuff and then deal extra damage from the debuff, if enemies have immunity to Bound, then Kashin Koji would not be the best option for an encounter.

Competition in Niche

Masters may have access to other welfare AoE Assassin options, including the Valkyrie Assassin trio, Kiichi Hogen, or Scathach Assassin. As a result, Masters may find less of a reason to spend resources on Kashin Koji if alternatives at NP5 are available.

All three of Kashin Koji’s skills benefit from levels in a way that significantly improves her performance. Her first skill’s NP charge effect scales with level from 20-30%. For her second skill, all of the Quick, ATK, and NP charge from Quick Cards scale with level, with the Quick buff also helping her NP refund. Her third skill improves the Bound debuff’s success rate with level, and also greatly improves her Critical Damage gained per level. Maxing all of her skills have benefits, although the recommended order is 1=2>3.

• Illusionary Techniques (Gejutsu) EX – A three-for-one skill that includes her party Invincibility, self NP charge (which scales with level) and Stars on demand (which also scales with level). Given the NP charge is helpful for making sure she hits looping thresholds, this skill is worth leveling to max for both the charge and cooldown reduction.

• Massacre Engine B+ – Her primary offensive skill, all of the effects including Quick, ATK, and NP gauge when normal attacking with Quick Cards scale with level. These improve both her damage and looping refund, making this also very much worth maxing.

• Mystic Eyes B – This skill can inflict the Bound status effect on an enemy, while also giving her Star Gather and Crit Damage buffs. All three scale with level, and the Bound effect in particular only reaches 100% chance of succeeding when at level 10. As a result, even though this skill does not directly benefit her looping, it indirectly benefits her damage by guaranteeing her supereffective modifier on one target. Masters who wish to have her Bound work more consistently will want to max this skill.

Kashiin Koji depends on Starting NP Gauge if she wants to loop with minimal setup. She also benefits greatly from Quick Effectiveness, NP Damage, ATK, and Critical Damage buffs for her overall offensive performance. Masters who plan to run a hybrid CE may wish to run her party with an Order Change Mystic Code and an extra NP Gauge Support Servant in the backline to top off her NP charge if planning to loop.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – Kashin Koji’s looping either requires Order Change with extra NP support, or a MLB Kaleidoscope / non-MLB copy and her 2nd Append Skill maxed.

• Holy Night Supper / Mission Start / Empty Garden / Princess’s Pilgrimage – These CEs provide a trio of NP Damage/Quick buffs, Crit Damage buffs, and starting NP Gauge, supporting all of Kashin Koji’s primary desired abilities.

• Knights of Marines / Traces of Christmases Past / Crimson Teacher’s Pointer / Empty Garden / Imaginary Number Attribute / Cherry Icicle / Star’s Day Off / One Summer / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament – These are other options that provide at least two NP Damage / Quick / ATK buffs and starting NP Gauge. Many of these are prior Event CEs and would be easier to acquire an MLB copy of if Masters participated in a past event.

• The Black Grail / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide a pure NP Damage boost, and provide the overall largest damage boost for Kashin Koji, although 3-turn looping is not doable for Kashin Koji with these CEs.