Yo Kuronaka build, teams and tier

Overview

It's not every day that the main character of a gacha game is a top tier contender, but Yo's kit more than justifies this placement. His kit flows smoothly: his primary attack is fast, and his secondary attack, while a bit committal, activates his unique passive [Burt Drive] which triggers both potential passives and lets him activate his powerful strategy skill Hitting Stride. His first passive gives a massive boost to primary and strategy damage, while his second heals the team based on damage dealt in [Burst Drive]. With excellent passives and high break values, Yo excels in every role, earning him the unique distinction as being the perfect all-rounder.

Primary Attack

Typical 3 stage melee attack. Deals a decent amount of break damage for its speed. Also deals a ton of damage via his passive 1 while Burst Drive is active.

Secondary Attack

Yo leaps at the target while attacking. If you land at least one hit of the attack and aren’t interrupted in any way he enters Burst Drive which lasts for a short duration. Burst Drive lets him use his Strategy Skill and activates his passive 1 and 2. You’ll want to maintain Burst Drive as much as possible, using his strategy skill right before it ends to maximize your DPS and break efficiency.

Counterattack

Deflect counterattack (can only deflect physical attacks). Standard counterattack.

Strategy Skill

Yo leaps forward performing 3 attacks, dealing a massive 600 break damage and immediately ending Burst Drive. Throw this in at the tail end of Burst Drive’s duration, then loop back into his secondary; it's a simple but effective strategy.

Ultimate Skill

Costs 2 Tension Bars. Yo dashes forward, strikes a pose, then enemies who he dashed through take a ton of damage. Deals deceptively high damage since it’s a multi-hit attack. Possibly unique to Yo is its behavior on damaged enemies depending on whether you’re piloting him or not. When piloted, the whole attack functions like a typical ultimate, freezing enemies in place until the damage is finished. However, if Yo is not being operated, he will perform the initial animation, then control returns to the player as Yo strikes the pose. The target seems to suffer from a form of hit stop (similar to Enoki’s strategy skill); not quite locked in place, but heavily slowed down. Currently unclear if this actually matters, but it’s interesting enough to mention.

Chain Skill

Bog standard chain skill. Nothing noteworthy.

Combos (If Operating)

Yo has a very linear combo. Enter Burst drive through his secondary attack, perform his primary attack string until he’s about to exit Burst drive, then finish with his strategy skill. You’ll likely need to adjust depending on how aggressive the enemy is, but otherwise Yo is a fairly simple character to play. To break enemies faster at the cost of some DPS, consider skipping the primary attacks completely and alternate secondary and strategy skill until a break occurs.

Tips

1. Yo’s attacks can be animation cancelled into each other (e.g., primary attack 3 times, then strategy skill right as the third primary attack lands), letting him squeeze out maximum DPS without losing anything.
2. Yo’s stamina costs, especially if you need to counterattack, can feel pretty prohibitive. Avoid overextending if enemies are aggressive.

Potential

Passive 1 is the obvious big one, providing a sizable damage multiplier for his primary and strategy skills while in Burst Drive. Put at least one point in passive 2 if you want a consistent stream of healing. Spare points can go into Fighting Instinct for increased damage or Survival Instinct for more stamina.

Dupes

Yo’s dupes are all really good.

• T1 makes his chain skill do a bit more damage if he’s the operating character (fine, but not essential).
• T3 extends Burst Drive by 3 seconds, giving a nice QoL buff and allowing more primary hits before using his strategy skill.
• T2/T4 potential gems are useful on him.
• T5 is utterly insane if you can afford to ult on him, increasing break damage enemies take by 50%—hugely beneficial if you run him as a breaker.

Operating Character

Rare instance where either choice works. Yo’s AI is generally solid, able to deal break damage optimally. You can still squeeze out more DPS manually, though. Often recommended to let the AI handle Yo while you pilot a more manually intensive character, but your teammate choices might make Yo the best manual pick.

Conclusion

Yo can fill any role well enough but truly shines as a breaker. He’s a universal team player, so build your team and then decide if Yo is the best third option for you.