Koishi Kohinata build, teams and tier

Overview

With a massive burst heal but also a massive cooldown, Koishi is given to players as their first gacha character. Unfortunately, the lengthy cooldown on his strategy skill combined with an extremely expensive ultimate make him a lackluster healer. Ironically, Koishi’s best role is actually as a DPS and breaker, thanks to a surprisingly high-damage secondary attack and passive 2.

Pawy Aid

Koishi’s “meter” grants access to his strategy skill at 5 stacks, but these stacks take 10 seconds each to form. He starts the battle with 3 stacks. With his first dupe, a successful counterattack at 0/1 stacks refills to 2 stacks. Even then, you’ll face at least a 30-second wait between strategy skills if you time a counterattack perfectly. For this guide, we assume you’ll primarily use Pawy Aid stacks to trigger passive 2 and massively increase Koishi’s secondary attack damage.

Primary Attack

A standard 3-hit chain. Decent damage but overshadowed by his secondary attack if you’re piloting him.

Secondary Attack

Koishi’s saving grace. It’s strong, dealing good damage and break. Think of it like a swapped version of Senju’s secondary: slightly less break but more damage. Passive 2 increases its damage further.

Counterattack

A deflect counterattack (won’t deflect non-physical attacks). Average, though if you have his first dupe, Koishi gains 2 Pawy Aid stacks on a successful counter if he was at 0 or 1 stack.

Strategy Skill

If you have 5 stacks of Pawy Aid, Koishi tosses a healing blob onto a targeted area (you can aim by holding the button). It heals for a lot, but requiring 5 stacks is painful. Still, it’s a massive burst heal if you manage to wait that long.

Ultimate Skill

Costs 3 Tension Bars. Koishi’s demon cat leaps out, slamming down with low damage but healing the whole team no matter where they stand. It’s expensive and usually not worth it, but if you have his last dupe, it can revive the team.

Chain Skill

An average chain skill that applies a self-buff for 20 seconds, increasing Koishi’s healing.

Combos (If Operating)

Spam secondary attack, using dodge cancel after the final hit to recover faster and keep spamming. Ideally, you’d have dupe 1, so you can consistently maintain Pawy Aid stacks plus passive 2. The secondary’s high break should enable quick breaks when paired with solid counterattacks.

Tips

1. Koishi is straightforward like Senju: dodge cancel to recover from the secondary faster and counterattack to speed up breaks.

Potential

• Fighting Instincts: +40%, 40%, 40%+80% Primary, +40%×5 hits = +200% Secondary, Counter +10%+20%, Strategy N/A, Ultimate +600%, Chain +240%.
• Survival Instincts: +10% HP, +10% Def, +100 Stamina.
• Coordination: +20 support per point.
• Passive 1: +60+80% per rank (up to 300+400% total) for Strategy Skill healing.
• Passive 2: When you have ≥1 Pawy Aid stack, consuming 1 stack for the secondary attack grants +60% multiplier (+60% per rank, up to +300%).

You’ll want to max passive 2, then put points in Fighting Instincts to supercharge his secondary spam.

Dupes

• T1 (Defibrillator): If Pawy Aid ≤ 1, a successful counter sets Pawy Aid to 2. Vital for maintaining secondary spam with passive 2.
• T2/T4: +2/+3 potential gems, always good for extra points in Fighting Instincts.
• T3 (Stethoscope): If Pawy Aid = 5, using a secondary attack recovers 5% HP from damage dealt. You’ll rarely hold 5 stacks if playing DPS Koishi, so it’s mostly irrelevant.
• T5 (All-Devouring Fangs): On ultimate use, revive KOd party members at 50% HP once. Potentially game-saving if you have EX tension.

Operating Character

To spam secondary effectively, you must pilot Koishi. The AI won’t do it. Highly recommended you play him, especially with dupe 1 for Pawy Aid uptime.

Conclusion

Although originally deemed a support, Koishi’s DPS build is surprisingly competent. Whether this remains relevant once future content has larger health pools is unknown, but for now Koishi is a decent low-rarity DPS alternative.