Should you pull Kakania?

We’ve said this a lot since 1.8, but probably yes. Kakania is considered one of the best defensive Survival units in the game, with plenty of offensive power and buffing to add. Her primary content is Raids, where her DMG Redirection provides a very powerful defensive anchor and her continuous Genesis DMG quickly ramps up for high personal damage. Kakania strikes the right chord where characters like Ezra and Ms NewBabel fail, being one of the few (if not the only) universally viable Tanks.

Kakania dreams of healing the entire city with her own mirror, even though she never got a formal license to practice. The mirror can reflect problems hidden deep into people's hearts, and her diagnosis and treatment method focus on helping patients understand their true selves and desires. But what mirror has she used to reflect herself? The Storm has fallen over Vienna, washing away all traces equally and extinguishing the fire in Kakania's heart. Her era has been completely destroyed, and she has to regard herself as guilty, but who can respond to her atonement? Maybe the answer will be found in another era, but the guilt will forever coexist with the survivors.

Kakania is a 6-star Arcanist of the Plant Afflatus. One of the first properly defined "Tanks" in the game, Kakania is argued to be one of the top ranking Support/Sustain units. Her kit is geared towards soaking damage from allies and using it to deal tons of damage back and supercharging your Damage Dealer.

When allies take damage, Kakania redirects 50% of it to herself, storing a part of it as [Empathy] (up to a cap) which is the core of her kit. Whenever she stores a certain amount of [Empathy], she heals all allies based on her own HP, and whenever Kakania herself is healed, she deals Genesis DMG to all enemies based on her [Empathy].

But this stacking buff is used for a lot more. It increases the Genesis DMG dealt by "Subconscious", which is her 1-target attack incantation. In addition, the Genesis DMG dealt by "Id, Ego and Superego" (her Ultimate) is massively increased based on [Empathy] stacks; this incantation also records the damage enemies take after casting it, dealing a second instance of Genesis DMG at the end of the round based on the recorded damage.

More importantly, [Empathy] benefits "Association", which consumes Kakania's HP (if cast on an ally) but provides a large ATK buff called [Solace] to an ally that increases its potency based on her [Empathy]. If it is cast on herself, it restores a large chunk of HP instead.

Gameplay:

How does one play Kakania?

Fun fact, Kakania's code name roughly translates to "Shitland". That's a ballsy name for a rights activist.

Ignoring that: straight up redirecting 50% of allied damage taken is probably the most effective form of tanking we have had so far; it doesn't rely on continuous casting like Shields and functions in all content unlike [Taunt]. With Kakania, gone are the days that allies randomly get exploded by bursts of high incoming damage.

Now, defensive supports usually aren't favored in gachas (unless obscenely overpowered) due to the rule of "the best mitigation is killing something before it kills you", so why does Kakania work? Two things: Genesis DMG and [Solace].

Her Genesis DMG output is pretty wild when paired with a passive healer like Tooth Fairy or Vila, and her Ultimate allows her to exploit extremely high bursts of damage coming from units such as Windsong or Spathodea to absolutely erase any health bar standing between you and the victory screen.

Then there's [Solace]. ATK buffs are few and far in between due to how high-value they are. Not only does Kakania have an extremely consistent one, it provides a flat 300 ATK + a percentage of ATK based on [Empathy], meaning that as the fight goes on it becomes stronger and stronger.

This all does mean that she is typically only used in long-form content, and her presence isn't as required in quick burst fights (i.e. UTTU/Story), but as more and more new content is introduced that can facilitate her presence (especially stuff like high diff Roguelike), Kakania continues to see increases in viability (even at her already high status).

Pros & Cons

Kakania works fine at P0.

However, her Portraits are quite viable. Her main one is Portrait 2, which allows her to sustain your team properly. Her other ones are Portrait 3, which lets you stack more [Empathy; and Portrait 5, which increases the damage output of her Ultimate.

Kakania has no strict “gimmick” and benefits basically every team she’s on. She does like passive healers who can trigger her Insights often and allies that benefit from ATK buffs or prefer small instances of healing over burst.

Notable synergies include:

Marcus

Vila

Semmelweis

Future notable synergies:

J

Here are the best Psychubes you can use on Kakania:

The Fighter's Best Wishes

Dawn is Coming

Beyond Wonderland

The Fighter’s Best Wishes (signature), Dawn is Coming (for healing), Beyond Wonderland (last resort)

Level 7

Level 9

Level 10

Standard Teams

Underpaid Professors[GLB]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Vila
• Typical set-up team, though more geared towards long cycles. For short cycles, shift 6 out for someone like Mercuria or a Portraited 37. This team specifically is designed to keep Windsong safe while she and 6 set-up a large hand for her to Ult off of. It does this by relying on 3 passively defensive units: 6 applies a slew of potentially defense buffs at the start of the round, Vila heals passively and Kakania reduces both incoming damage while doing passive healing. This way you can safely set-up large hands for Windsong.

Imagine Playing The Game[CN]

Damage Dealer

Support

Sustain

TEAM EXPLANATION

• 4th slot options: Vila
• Essentially a perfectly synergistic team. Lucy is one of the few characters who can utilize a Portrait 0 Mercuria due to “Conservation of Energy” counting as an Incantation, which helps stack [Cosmic Energy] (she also provides Incantation Might with it at 16+ stacks). Vila, of course, helps by providing Moxie/Eureka for [Advancement] and extra bonuses to the “Conservation of Energy” modifier while Kakania solidifies the defensive core of the team while adding [Solace], an ATK buff, on top of Lucy’s [Data Iteration].