KylinBuild and Guide

Second Square type Lightning Echomancer and very first (and only!) 6 star Lightning Vanguard, Kylin sets himself as an excellent enabler for many burst teams while still offering CC and defensive utility. While his use case is fairly specific, it is far from a niche. Kylin is able to fit in a huge number of teams, while also making it much easier to build multiple teams for content where Echomancers can only be played once.

Kylin’s main draw is of course his exceptional ability to activate the Memory Trace “My Vision Is Clear!”, given that he’s a rare case of Lightning Square Echomancer. He can also keep up Barriers for extended periods of time (another rare trait) and offer Displacement tools to interrupt enemies and prepare the ground for burst of damage output. Whilst not a must-have to clear content in general, Kylin is an good pick-up for any player looking to build multiple MVIC-based teams for multi-team encounters like Echo Hunt or Simultaneous Raids.

Tier list comment

Kylin fits his Vanguard role perfectly. He can recover health in defense mode, provide multi-faceted barriers, and use crowd-control to create a comfortable environment for his allies to unleash as much damage as possible. Although his personal output isn't high, he works as an upgrade to Yuqi and as a "My Vision is Clear" enabler.

Although Kylin possesses a pretty stacked skill set with lots of effects, ranging from stance switch to spammable CCs and passive Barriers, the way you’re going to use him most of the time is very straightforward: do you want to use “My Vision is Clear!”? If so, then he’s currently the best enabler for the Electroconduct reaction, and that alone can make getting a copy of him worth it. Without taking the Memory Trace into account, however, Kylin positions himself as a Jack of all trades, master of none. With a plethora of tools at his disposal, but ultimately the lack of specialization of his kit hurting his potential to excel on his own merits. 

Talking about his skills, Kylin’s abilities have a limited amount of skill uses (4 and 3 respectively), which he compensates with multiple auto-activated abilities. By default, Kylin starts the fights in [Defense] stance and only switches to [Offense] stance by using his Seed skill. After that, as long as he doesn’t use a skill or “Deactivate” to exit [Offense] stance, he shall remain in this mode. He also creates 3 small barriers in front of himself at the start of the fight, which regenerate over time. Be careful though, as the barriers move constantly according to where Kylin is facing, so they’re not exactly the most reliable to stop projectiles. His skill 1, “Electro Web I”, pulls enemies to him and fully restores his Block gauge. This move will be the main way to draw multiple enemies into your Water Zones and pack them up nicely for your Burst, so use it sparingly! 

“Thunder Net”, his skill 2, includes both an auto-activated ability and an active one: Kylin periodically fires off one of his weapons randomly while in [Defense] stance. The active part of the skill on the other hand creates AoEs in two locations, the one where Kylin stands after repositioning and the one that he aims at. For a few seconds, enemies will be damaged and stunned periodically, further improving Kylin’s CC and defensive sides.

Moving on to his Ultimate skill, “Go, Unfallen!” is a lot more simple than it looks when first looking at the amount of text. Kylin switches to his [Offense] stance for a nice boost in personal damage and starts blasting with his randomized weapons, each described in the skill. However, since Kylin immediately exits that stance as soon as he uses any of his active skills. This mode is mostly going to be used to break Block Gauges early (thanks to the 70% charge upon starting the fight) or to keep activating Lightning related Nexus skills once he’s run out of combat skill uses. It’s also worth noting that the range of this skill can reach 1500 radius, and the bombardment can remain active for up to 10 seconds. This large area coverage enables lasting pressure on the enemy waves while keeping your team safe. At the end of the activation, [Deactivate] can be used to restore a percentage of Kylin’s HP, while also restoring some of his Seed Charge. Thanks to these perks, he can be quite self-reliant on the front-line, with constant alternating between [Offense] and [Defense] modes despite the apparent long Seed Skill cooldown.

Even though Kylin looks like a true multipurpose tool, he falls short on multiple aspects as his personal damage is still very low compared to any carry and some other fellow specialists, and his barriers are difficult to capitalize on. His Block Breaking capabilities force him to momentarily give up on his CCs, a bit of a shame really.

When strictly talking about his team building however, much like Lorelle, he does fit into almost any team. Enabling a second MVIC team for multiple team content and being an upgrade to Yuqi is his main use. He is also a welcome addition to any stages that require multiple or consistent barriers or that have large waves of enemies.

• Dupes

  • Kylin doesn’t really need any dupes. Being purely an utility character, the value of his dupes come in small quality of life passives. His most valuable dupe is his first one, which grants him an additional use of his skill 2, “Thunder Net”. It also upgrades its effects, granting it a displacement feature similar to the skill 1, “Electro Web I”, but with a weaker displacement strength. The third dupe may seem tempting, considering its innate ATK boost. However, considering Kylin’s low damage and the fact that this boost is limited to when he’s in Offense stance, this dupe can only be recommended to players who are spenders or want to min-max teams where Kylin is present.

• General Tips

  • Much like other Vanguards, keeping the balance between [Defense] and [Offense] stances is key to using Kylin effectively. In his case, save his ultimate to apply pressure on large waves of enemies or when his barriers breaks, as switching back to [Defense] mode will not only restore them but also restore this Echomancer’s HP by a small percentage. Much like his Seed skill animation, this is a ‘panic button’.

  • Kylin fares better in manual gameplay. His barriers will face the same direction that his mecha is facing. This can be tricky at first due to the mecha’s egg shape, so use the cannon as an arrow to help guide your gaze.

  • His skills have a small amount of uses, avoid using them unless strictly necessary. In most cases, (Electroconduct teams) the periodic stuns will happen passively, while his skill 1 and Seed skill can be reserved for setting up big plays.

• Skill Upgrade Priority

  • The skill 2, “Thunder net” is the easy choice for priority. Its passive damage will be Kylin’s main source of output, while the first skill is used mainly for its grouping utility.