Light Kali Team Building and Discussion Guide

Light Kali Kali is one of the most well rounded monsters in the game as she can fulfil both a top tier sub role and an amazing leader role. 36x damage is still significant and should be enough damage to clear nearly all the content available. In addition, she has one of the best active skills and excels when compared to other high end leads who usually have lackluster actives. Kali ‘s playstyle revolves around two prong attacks TPA along with matching red, blue, yellow, and purple orbs. Triggering 6+ matches grants the full 36x damage and should therefore plan your moves carefully. The full board change active lowers the chance of orb troll (although you can be given a board with only 3 light orbs) which is the leading cause of death for rainbow teams. All of her awakenings are relevant and synergetic to her playstyle and the only real fault to be found is that 36x is somewhat considered “low” with the advent of awoken cards and MP Dragons.

Light Kali Stats
So amazing that I made 2 hypermaxes!

Pros:

  • Up to 36x damage when matching red, blue, light, and dark orbs
  • One of the best actives in the game and significantly lowers the risk of orb troll
  • Red subtype allows for more flexible team building
  • Has 2 two-prong attack TPA awakenings which allows for massive burst damage
  • Has a skill lock resist Skill Lock Resist in addition to 2 skill boost Skill Boost awakenings
  • High base stats with an emphasis on recovery which allows for easier stalling
  • Can be a utilized as a sub and worthwhile to invest plus eggs onto
  • Fun and exciting to play
  • Is a very pretty girl

Cons:

  • Vulnerable to binds. This is becoming a more relevant issue with unbindable leaders becoming more common and dungeons having more preemptive binds
  • Ideal team building is quite REM heavy with a reliance on TPA monsters
  • Challenging to play well as you must have 4 specific colours to activate your damage multiplier
  • Being orb trolled through boss mechanics, RNG, or a lack of light orbs (less than 4)
  • 36x damage is somewhat “low” compared to awoken monsters and MP Dragons and needs an enhancing sub to deal critical damage
Kali Bad bind
In a bit of a bind here…

The broad categories of subs to bring and their respective actives are as follows

 SUB
Offensive
orb changers: 
valkpad Chibi Valk Fuma Arthur Rider Gryps Rider Rei Sirius Defoud
Ariel Awoken Anubis Hermes
Orb/damage
enhance:
Awoken Yomi Sun Quan Izanagi Kanna Venus Athena Durga
Muse arcline
Full board
changers:
Kali Dark Kali Fat Chocobo Ragnarok Volsung
Bind clearing: Sakuya Isis Metatron Amate Ame
Damage
mitigation:  
Diza Indra dtron Light Izanami Susano Kush
Gravity: Hathor Hera-Is Sakuya Awoken Hades
Delay: Oku Sun Quan Awoken Oorochi Echidna Christmas Echidna Christmas Siren Christmas Alurane
Christmas Angel Christmas Lilith
Skill lock
Resist Skill Lock Resist:
Gryps Rider Awoken Anubis Awoken Yomi Izanagi Durga Kali Dark Kali
Sakuya Isis Amate Susano Kush Indra Oku
Hathor Ragnarok Volsung

Offensive Orb Changers: Offensive light orb changers make fantastic subs on Kali teams as they will allow you to condense your board along with making numerous TPA matches

  • valkpad Light Valkyrie is one of my favourite (and farmable subs) because of her quick orb change and offensive awakenings. The single TPA and 2 light orb enhance +light orb awakenings contribute significant damage and allows your team to burst higher. Furthermore, the new enhanced heal orb +heart increases your healing or can be converted to enhanced light orbs for even more damage. Lastly, valkpad has well rounded and high base stats. The only drawbacks are a lack of Skill Lock Resist and the green sub colour going to slight waste.
  • Chibi Valk Chibi Valkyrie has the same active as her larger and prettier counterpart. The chibi form does pull ahead due to her triple TPA , Skill Lock Resist , and Skill Boost awakenings but, is very hard to obtain due to being a rare pull from a rare and exclusive REM. If you are fortunate enough to pull her, she should be heavily invested in as she will be most likely your hardest hitting sub.
  • Fuma Fuma is another 5-turn orb changer who converts green to light orbs. This has amazing synergy with Kali ‘s board change as you turn the dead green orbs into your desired light orbs. When compared to valkpad , he has less offensive awakenings along with lower base stats, but a very heavy emphasis on health which is a weaker point for Kali . The main attraction for using Fuma over valkpad is not removing heart orbs because there will be situations where you need to deal lethal damage and heal on the same turn. Sadly, he is also lacking a Skill Lock Resist awakening and you need to find at least 3 elsewhere to achieve 100% skill lock resistance.
  • Arthur Rider The light rider, King Arthur is a powerful sub because of the synergetic awakenings, dark sub colour coverage, and high damage output. The active creates a net affect of hearts to light on a longer cooldown than valkpad . However, it can be used to generate missing dark orbs if used properly. The 2 TPA awakenings provide large burst potential to compliment the TPA playstyle. I always wanted Arthur Rider for the dark coverage when I first began using Kali because he was at the time the only light primary / dark sub colour monster. The main drawbacks of using him are low base stats, a lack of Skill Lock Resist , and a difficult to skill up active.
  • Gryps Rider The dark rider has all the same benefits as his light cousin Arthur Rider, except he is dark based and his active generates a net effect of heart to dark orbs.
  • Rei Sirius Rei Sirius has a unique active in that he transforms the entire left column into light orbs which will guarantee a TPA match. However, you must exercise caution when using the active as you can remove your needed orbs for leader skill activation. It is good to note you can combo Rei Sirius with Kali to generate more damage. With 2 TPA and Skill Lock Resist awakenings, he does provide nice burst damage along with some utility. Main drawbacks are low base stats, an annoying active to skill up, and only 3 awakenings.
  • Defoud Perhaps I am scraping the bottom of the barrel too hard by including Defoud, but he does have a light generating active (along with removing jammers). The main attraction and why I included him is the dark sub type along with the countless enhanced orbs awakenings adding passive damage. His stats are very skewed towards health and this may prove useful on weaker Kali teams. The main drawbacks are a lack of TPA and Skill Lock Resist awakenings along with being challenging to skill up as his base cooldown is too long to be viable.
  • Ariel Ariel will become an interesting sub for Kali once she gains her new ultimate evolution and brings her to a total of 3 TPA awakenings. Being bind immune does not provide too much benefit as she can neither clear binds nor bait out specific colours as she is light / red like KaliAriel ‘s active can be disastrous to use as it has the chance to remove your required colours so use with caution. Furthermore, she is missing a Skill Lock Resist and may cause constraints on team building.
  • Awoken Anubis Awoken Anubis does have a viable orb changer and provides Skill Lock Resist along with 2 time extend Time Extend awakenings. Being unbindable provides the option of baiting out dark binds and granting yourself an extra turn. Lastly, the high and evenly distributed base stats along with 1000 auto heal per turn provides great survivability. Only drawbacks are no light damage and his active is slow to recharge and has less value. However, you can use the counterattack mechanic to help bypass certain perseverance bosses as they will kill themselves upon striking you (provided it does not kill you too).
  • Hermes Hermes does have a viable double orb changer, but sadly to the wrong colour. As such, most of his power goes to waste, but his double Skill Boost and Skill Lock Resist awakenings add some utility. However, he does cover your 2 missing colours and is worth at least mentioning even if unideal.

Damage enhancing (either type or orb enhance): These subs augment your already formidable damage output and are able to be stacked on top of orb changers to ensure you can burst through the tankiest of bosses. With the advent of stronger and more resilient bosses, the dependency on bringing damage enhancing subs is at an all time high. I always bring at least one on my Kali team because the meta of the game is shifting more towards explosive damage and clearing the floor in one turn as it may become too difficult to stall through giant hits.

  • Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi provides a full board enhance along with adding 5 seconds to orb movement time. The bonus time ensures you maximize your matching potential and is best combined with a light orb changer to ensure multiple TPA combos. The high base stats with an emphasis of health provide needed bulk along with providing a Skill Lock Resist awakening. Furthermore, the walloping 3 Time Extend awakenings provide an amazing 1.5s of additional time. Sadly, the green subtype and dark primary colour contribute little to overall damage output, but overall, a great enhancing sub choice.
  • Sun Quan Sun Quan is another powerful sub that can fulfil the role of a delay and damage enhance. Usually when a monster tries to double dip with their active, it results in a higher base cooldown and a combination of two weak abilities. Thankfully, Sun Quan ‘s active is powerful for both the delay and healer type enhance. Even if only himself and your 2 leaders benefit from the damage, it should still be enough to kill a boss. In addition, the damage buff lasts for 2 turns and can carry over to a second floor should you sweep the non-final boss floor. The delay can be used to safely bypass bosses with perseverance or when you need restall for actives. Unfortunately, Sun Quan does not have a Skill Lock Resist awakening and most of his other awakenings do not benefit a light heavy team.
  • Izanagi The new ultimate evolution of Izanagi allows is one of the few light primary / dark sub type monsters available. He provides 1 Skill Lock Resist awakening along with a powerful active that enhances all god type monsters by 2x for 1 turn. Comparing his active to other enhancers, it may seem less flashy, but being only on an 8-turn cooldown can allow for it to be used more than once in a descend. In addition, he has 2 TPA awakenings and high base attack makes him hit harder than Kali . He is one of my favourite subs to bring and made him one of my hypermaxes as he will stay a staple sub in the future. Overall, Izanagi provides great burst potential along with consistent damage output on every other floor while covering the dark attribute.
  • Kanna Kanna is a powerful and rare GFE monster who is very similar to Izanagi as they both enhance god type monsters by 2x (Kanna also enhances dragon type monsters). Kanna ‘s active can be max skilled to a 10-turn cooldown and has the added benefit of 1 turn haste. This may seem more appealing, but I feel it lowers the overall utility as the longer cooldown can be problematic as the haste is not going to be abused as you are either using her on the last floor and your team most likely does not run other haste actives. Haste becomes most powerful with additional haste actives and will go to somewhat waste on a Kali team. However, Kanna has an incredible 3 TPA , 2 Skill Boost , and a Skill Lock Resist making her one of the best awakening subs possible. The sheer damage you can reach with every TPA match is mindboggling and her only drawback would be no additional colour coverage.
  • Venus Awoken Venus is another powerful damage enhancing sub who covers the blue sub colour along with contributing light TPA damage. The synergetic colour and awakenings combined with 1000 auto heal make her an outstanding sub. It can be challenging to cover your blue attribute along with maintaining high damage output and Venus does both. One wonderful aspect of her active is the low cooldown that lines up perfectly with valkpad and Fuma 5-turn orb change. As such, you can convert your dead orbs to light and enhance them all along with having 6 seconds of free movement. In addition, you can also use Venus ‘s active with Kali ‘s full board change to help augment your damage. Only major drawback is a lack of Skill Lock Resist and may force you to alter your team roster to reach 100% resistance.
  • Athena Athena is a powerhouse sub who brings one of the highest base attack values in the game along with a light orb enhance. Combining the incredibly high attack value with 2 TPA awakenings results in amazingly high damage that can easily pierce through the highest defence monsters. In addition to being farmable, Athena provides a unique 2 blind resist Blind Resist awakenings that contribute 40% resistance to board blinding attacks. The major downsides to using Athena as a sub are a lack of Skill Lock Resist , 0 base recovery, green subtype, and an active that is somewhat slower to recharge as it enhances both light and (somewhat worthless) green orbs.
  • Durga Durga was at one point a favourite sub of mine as she covered the two missing colours along with providing a 2x burst to god and devil types. I was very very tempted to hypermax her, but decided to hold off in case something better came along. My main concerns with heavily investing in Durga was the lack of awakenings due to the evolution buffing the leader skill (not very helpful as it makes stalling next to impossible) and not awakenings. Thus she lost value as a sub. Durga does provide useful (albeit only 4) awakenings and still can be utilized on your Kali to great success, but be careful when resetting your health to 1.
  • Muse When I first pulled Muse, I was slightly unaMUSEd. Puns aside, Muse provides 2.5x damage for god type monsters but suffers from low base stats and only 3 awakenings. However, he can provide the needed damage to burst down a boss. Unfortunately, he does not provide much more than a single turn of power so you may need to find another sub to fulfil this role.
  • arcline Arcline shares the same weaknesses as Muse , but instead boosts healer type damage and also covers the blue attribute. The single TPA and +light orb awakenings do provide some damage and is not as dead weight as Muse .

Full board changers: With Kali already providing a full board change, the need to bring a 3rd one (as you have 2 from the leaders) is much lower compared to other rainbow teams. That said, it is never a bad idea to have extra as being able to proc your leader skill is incredibly important and having more access to an ideal board raises your chances of success.

  • Kali Naturally, Light Kali is an ideal sub for herself as she has synergetic awakenings and ideal colour typing. I tell my friends who are fortunate enough to pull a 2nd one to use as a sub because it is hard to top her power and utility. Only potential drawback would be too many board changers (but rarely happens) and cannot stack actives.
  • Dark Kali On the otherhand, Dark Kali fulfils different gaps in your team roster as she has different awakenings and dark typing. The high base stats along with unbindability, Time Extend , 2 Skill BoostSkill Lock Resist and Bind Clear awakening awakenings bring more utility to your team. Being unbindable allows Dark Kali to bait out dark binds and Bind Clear awakening passively clear binds from your other monsters. Her active also generates heart orbs and can be used as a way to heal and deal damage. However, you are more likely to only spawn 3 light orbs, but this can be corrected with other offensive actives. It is hard to find fault in either of the Kalis as they both provide an amazing amount of power and utility.
  • Fat Chocobo Chocobo is an overstuffed chicken can be used as a “farmable” board refresh that is essentially the same as Dark Kali but with a longer cooldown and a 1000 HP heal. He is given out for free during the Final Fantasty Collab and may not be available again until its return so I hope you managed to pick one up. Fat Chocobo is a viable sub; however, the need for a 3rd board refresh may be too situational as he lacks a Skill Lock Resist and TPA awakening along with not fulfilling the blue or dark typing. Fat Chocobo ‘s shining quality is his active, but becomes less valuable on a Kali team as he contributes very little damage and only has a large (albeit handy) health pool.

Bind clearing: When deciding if you should bring a bind clearing sub, you must determine how dangerous the binds are. If the bind is preemptive and impossible to stall through, then of course you must bring bind removal. However, if the bind will only occur at certain health thresholds or specific turns, it may be best try and burst through the floor instead. Generally speaking, bind removal subs do not bring damage to the team and can feel like “dead-weight” if the binds can be avoided. Lastly, if your team has high recovery and the binding floor is not too dangerous, it may be advantageous to stall it out. In addition, all the following subs are bind immune and can be used to bait out specific binds to provide a free turn.

  • Sakuya Awoken Sakuya is a new member of the bind immune, bind clearing monsters and can be successfully used on a Kali team. The single TPA contributes damage along with covering the blue attribute. The other awakenings add utility and defensive capabilities making Sakuya an all-around valuable sub. Her active grants 3 turns of bind removal as well as a 20% gravity on a 10-turn cooldown. This double dipping can be useful as you can use the bind removal as a safety net and if you are able to avoid being bound, you can instead use the 20% gravity to deal damage to a powerful boss. Lastly, you should abuse her bind immunity to bait out water binds and gain an extra turn.
  • Isis Awoken Isis provides Time ExtendSkill Lock Resist , and Skill Boost as beneficial awakenings (along with bind immunity) to your Kali team. Isis ‘s active can be skilled up to a 3-turn cooldown which is simply amazing for a 2-turn bind clear. The 15% damage reduction shield may provide useful, but the ability to use the active every 3 turns that sets her apart. The major downsides of using Isis is the lack of damage potential along with the green sub colour going to waste. It is rare to find a blue / green monster and this niche does go to waste on a Kali team.
  • Metatron Light Metatron was once the queen of bind clearing, but (thankfully?) with powercreep, we have other options. As of now, Metatron provides a large heal along with 3 turns of bind clear on a 5-turn cooldown. However, aside from one of the highest base recovery in the game, provides little other benefit aside from the 2 Skill Boost awakenings. Her damage output is low and she also lacks a Skill Lock Resist which forces you to alter your team composition. Her blue sub typing may provide some ease in team building, but the overall lack of damage potential still hinders her. I go on more of a rant about my love/hate relationship with Metatron HERE.
  • Amate Awoken Ama provides 4 turns of bind clearing along with a substantial heal (based on your team’s maximum health). What sets her apart from Metatron is her double Skill Lock Resist and single TPA awakenings. Yes she does take longer to recharge, but you are most likely using the active for one specific floor; it is rare you would need to clear binds on 2 different floors. 2 Skill Lock Resist is quite unique and allows for more sub flexibility when team building. Lastly, the Bind Clear awakening awakening and haste built into the active can provide extra utility.
  • Ame Ame no Uzume is another bind immune, bind clearing sub who also covers the blue sub type. I would rank her as the weakest of the bind clearers listed here as she contributes no offensive capabilities, average awakenings (no Skill Lock Resist), and a very difficult to skill up active. However, her active is unique as it can allow you to easily stall through high damage due to the recovery boost.

Shielding / damage mitigation: These subs provide you with the ability to reduce your damage taken and the shield carries over to the next floor provided you sweep your current boss and the subsequent floor has no preemptive ability. In addition, you can use these shields to reduce damage taken from large preemptive strikes. Lastly, it is far better to reduce damage taken compared to heart generation as shields can allow you to survive hits you could generally not live through.

  • Diza Dark Izanami is regarded as an S-rank tier sub and this is partially due to the availability of haste on dark teams. However, she is still amazingly powerful even without haste as she provides 35% damage reduction for 3 turns on a 6-turn cooldown. As such, the shield uptime is amazingly high and 35% reduction combined with her giant health pool should ensure you survive every hit. Low health has historically been a weak point for Kali and Diza easily compensates. Furthermore, her 1,500 HP auto heal passively adds survivability and helps compensate for her own low recovery. In addition, she is farmable and relatively easy to skill up via her descend. I wrote a descend guide for her HERE if you wish to learn some tips and tricks on how to more easily clear. Her only drawbacks are a lack of Skill Lock Resist and offensive awakenings, but she is still overall an amazing sub.
  • Indra Indra is a powerful sub who brings 2 Skill Lock Resist and Time Extend extend awakenings. Having 2 Skill Lock Resist opens up team building and you only need to find 1 more sub to achieve 100% skill lock resistance.  His high base health helps compensate for the slightly lower health pools on Kali teams. Indra ‘s shield grants 75% damage reduction for 3 turns on a 15-turn cooldown. This is slightly overkill as you most likely do not need that much shielding, but with ample skill boosts, you should have him ready for the critical floors. The last thing to keep in mind is he does not have an awoken evolution and has plenty of room to grow.
  • dtron Dark Metatron was one of my staple subs when I first started playing Kali because of the dark and blue colour coverage as well as being heavily invested in a long time ago. dtron has very high base stats along with being unbindable and providing a massive 3  Skill Boost awakenings. As silly as it may sound, having too many Skill Boost awakenings can become redundant as you will have all your actives ready by turn 1 and thus have some awakenings go to waste. Skill Boost only helps for the first turn and afterwards provides no other benefit. Regardless, 35% damage reduction for 1 turn on a 5-turn cooldown is okay. Not as efficient as Diza , but the different awakenings may prove to be useful on the right teams. Currently, dtron does not have a Skill Lock Resist , but will be receiving one in the nearish future.
  • Light Izanami Light Izanami is a weaker form of her dark sister Diza and the only reason I mention her is because of the synergetic light attribute and blue sub typing. Light Izanami is challenging to skill up as she is not a guaranteed drop even on mythical difficulty. Her shield has poor value and only provides 35% damage reduction for 1 turn. However, if in a pinch and need a blue sub and shield, Light Izanami can be a suitable candidate.
  • Susano Awoken Susano has dreamy art and a very well rounded shield. He provides 50% damage reduction for 3 turns along with 1 turn of haste. 50% should be sufficient to survive any preemptive along with many execution abilities. You may only be able to use his active once per descend, but the 3 turns of safety offered should be sufficient. Furthermore, his double Skill Boost , unbindability, green main type (for all attribute dungeons), and Time Extend awakenings all make Susano a dream boatsub. The unbindablity allows Susano to bait out green binds safely and provide you an extra turn. Granted most of his damage will go to waste if you utilize an orb changer who removes green orbs, but you are most likely going to be matching green orbs while trying to proc your leader skill. His other weakness is a lack of Skill Lock Resist so you will need to find other subs to cover for him.
  • Kush I like Kush and I dislike her at the same time. I like her 75% damage reduction shield, high base stats, Skill Lock Resist , Skill Boost , Time Extend , and Bind Clear awakening awakenings. What I dislike is the fact she is bindable (but still has a Bind Clear awakening awakening), a lack of offensive awakenings, and the overall value of her shield. She provides 75% reduction for 1 turn. Only 1 turn and takes 8 to recharge. Comparing to Susano and Diza this is very bad value as 75% reduction is somewhat overkill as you will almost never need that much damage mitigation. Also lasting only 1 turn puts added pressure on her usage as you may only be able to use her once per descend. Don’t get me wrong, Kush is very powerful, but she is being outclassed by other shielding cards even with her newest evolution. Like Susano , she has the wrong colour for your Kali team, but you are most likely still going to trigger green orb matches when procing your leader skill. Not the best sub, but still worth mentioning.

Delays / menace: Even with the advent of more bosses having status void shields, delays are still valuable as you can use them to safely bypass different floors while conserving other actives or restalling for skills. In addition, it can be a way to avoid perseverance mechanics as you can bring the boss down to 1 HP and kill on the subsequent turn without being punished by their special execution abilities.

  • Oku Oku is a powerful sub for your Kali team as he covers your 2 missing colours along with providing synergetic awakenings and a single turn of delay. You can also abuse the 2 TPA awakenings to burst through high defense light monsters. The Skill Lock Resist combined with purple and blue coverage greatly reduces stress when team building and allows for more flexible sub choices. Depending on the length of the dungeon, the number of Skill Boost on your team, and the cooldown of  Oku ‘s active, you may be able to use him twice in one descend. Being on an 8-turn cooldown gives the possibility to use the delay on the first floor because the 2 Kali leaders provide 4 Skill Boost on their own.
  • Sun Quan Sun Quan is a powerful sub as he has an active that can fulfil two roles. Usually when a monster tries to double dip with their active, it results in a higher base cooldown and a combination of two weak abilities. Thankfully, Sun Quan ‘s active is powerful for both the delay and healer type enhance. Even if only himself and your 2 leaders benefit from the damage, it should still be enough to kill a boss. In addition, the damage buff lasts for 2 turns and can carry over to a second floor should you sweep the non-final boss floor. The downsides to using Sun Quan is a wasted green sub colour, no Skill Lock Resist awakening, and somewhat challenging to skill up.
  • Awoken Oorochi Awoken Orochi can be max-skilled to 15 turns and provides an overwhelming 4 turns of delay. This is quite excessive as most things should die within 2 turns but I am sure someone will argue that 4 turns of delay is justifiable. However, as a saving grace, Awoken Oorochi has an unbelievable 4 TPA awakenings which results in amazingly high passive damage with every water two prong activation. This is where you will need to weigh the pros and cons of using an somewhat lackluster active sub who has no Skill Lock Resist awakening and is the wrong colour for Kali teams. He may constrict your sub pool choice, but does provide a substantial blue burst of damage. If given the option (even if max skilled), I do not think I would use Awoken Oorochi on my team as he is slow to charge and somewhat overkill and does not offer much aside from safety on one floor.  However, everyone has a different playstyle and expectations so take my own usage with a grain of salt.
  • Christmas Echidna Christmas Siren Christmas Alurane Christmas Angel Christmas Lilith The 5 Christmas “trash” rolls are actually quite powerful as they share the same active as Echidna Echidna and can also fulfil your colour requirements if you pull the correct ones. Regardless, their 3 turn delays are just as valuable and it is worthwhile to pull at least once on the Christmas REM as they are a boon for newer accounts. For further reading as to why Echidna is valuable, click HERE. Just bear in mind that they have lackluster awakenings and stats when compared to the newest and flashiest monsters.

Gravity: Gravities are starting to come back into style as they can be used to push a boss into specific health percentages and is most useful to either knock them into a favourable colour or to by pass perseverance.

  • Hathor Hathor will be receiving her ultimate evolution some time soon and it will grant her a Skill Lock Resist , Time Extend , and a total of 4 +light orb awakening. The +light orb ensures 4/5 light orbs will be enhanced and adds significant damage to your team overall. The blue subtype is a nice added bonus as Hathor can alleviate stress when team building. The 25% gravity is substantial and at least starts at 18 turns compared to Hera-Is Hera-Is and her 30 turn non skilled base form. However, until Hathor receives her ultimate evolution, she may be too difficult to justify using as a sub due to lackluster awakenings.
  • Hera-Is Hera-Is is the poster girl of farmable gravities and can still be used to clear high end content. Her awakenings are not the best, but she covers all your colour requirements which can help with team building. She still has reasonably high base stats and her largest pitfall will be her 30-turn cooldown if not skilled up. Older players should have max skilled her by now, but newer accounts have probably forgone her usage in favour of more REM or flashier things
  • Sakuya Awoken Sakuya is a new member of the bind immune, bind clearing monsters and can be successfully used on a Kali team. The single TPA contributes some damage along with covering the blue attribute. Her active grants 3 turns of bind removal as well as a 20% gravity on a 10-turn cooldown. This double dipping can be useful as you can use the bind removal as a safety net and if you are able to avoid being bound, you can instead use the 20% gravity to deal damage to a powerful boss. Lastly, you should abuse her bind immunity to bait out blue binds and gain an extra turn.
  • Awoken Hades Awoken Hades is a sub I often overlook even though I own one myself. The 5 second buff to orb movement time in conjunction with a 25% gravity should ensure you sweep the floor with relative ease. His awakenings do not contribute much to overall team utility, but you can abuse his 2 TPA and high base attack to punch through high defence light monsters. I have not used Awoken Hades much, but am confident he could be put to better use with certain team compositions. Although his lack of Skill Lock Resist is a large pitfall that needs compensation from your other subs.

If you feel I missed any noteworthy subs, please feel free to leave a comment and I will reply and add in accordingly =)

Kali Pew

 

Team building:

Team building for Kali revolves around fulfilling your colour requirements, addressing the dungeon mechanics, and adjusting your skill lock resistance accordingly. Keeping this in mind, there is no “perfect” team that can clear all the current content and needs to be fluid and dynamic to adjust to new challenges. I am fortunate in using Sakuya in all her previous forms extensively and this has given me a large pool for highly plused Kali subs as the two teams have many overlapping characters. In an ideal world, you would bring as many light TPA based subs as possible to maximize damage and it is possible to do so, but it may lack utility or Skill Lock Resist . When deciding if you need to bring a bind clearing sub, you need to determine the nature of the binds: is it a preemptive, are you capable of stalling it out, and is it possible to burst through the floor and thus bypass the bind. As a general rule, bind clearing subs lack damage output so it may be advisable to bring a burst oriented sub instead if the bind only occurs at certain health percentages.

Kali Team 1
Most offensive oriented Kali team I can make
Kali Team 2
Added utility for bind clearing
Kali Team 3
Defensive oriented Kali team
Kali Team 4
Enough skill boosts to have Echidna ready by turn 1
Kali Team 5
Outdated team I used to use before

These are some of the more notable teams I have used successfully and the key is adapting to the dungeon’s demands and mechanics. My notable bias towards valkpad is to ensure I have a steady supply of light orbs to two prong attack with. I used to struggle with a dark sub along with covering blue prior to the newer evolutions and is one reason I used dtron so much. With Izanagi gaining the dark subtype, I was overjoyed and quickly began investing heavily into him as he brings large burst and consistent damage throughout the dungeon.

I am quite pleased with my sub pool depth for Kali and I do not have any needs/wants for specific subs as I can cover every kind of threat with what I already have.

Dungeon Playstyle:

Kali plays a bit different than most rainbow teams because of her powerful active. This greatly reduces the chances of orb troll and frees up your sub slots for more utility or damage. However, you will still need exercise careful orb management and be able to decide to try and sweep the floor or stall it out for a better board. You should always enter endless corridors to test your damage output (with a two prong match and without) to give yourself a relative idea of how much damage you can deal. This is important because you may need to stall on a floor to acquire 4+ light orbs to trigger your two prong attacks. The reliance on TPA damage is partially why I enjoy using valkpad or another offensive light orb maker. In addition, you should determine your base recovery (how much healed when matching 3 heart orbs) as each subsequent combo adds 25% healing. For example, 4000 base recovery will heal 8000 HP when matching those 3 hearts and 4 additional combos (5 in total). You will need to stall throughout the dungeon and this information helps you determine if an active is needed. Also, try to make a tentative plan and mental note of which floors you want to use actives. This provides some guideline to your usage and helps you plan out your team composition and awakenings accordingly. When determining how much skill lock resist you should try to achieve, you need to determine how dangerous having your skills locked is. Can you stall through the binding floor without actives? If the answer is yes, you may not have to alter your subs if it hinders your performance on other floors. The same can be applied to monster binds: if the bind will not result in your death, feel free to just stall it out instead of gimping your team with a bind clearing sub.

Overall, Kali is a fun and exciting leader to use as she will test your combo skills and patience. It may take some getting used to if you are not familiar with rainbow teams, but I am confident you will learn fast once you see the damage output for yourself.

Happy puzzling!

17 thoughts on “Light Kali Team Building and Discussion Guide”

  1. Don’t forget about Kanna! 3 2-prongs, 2 skill boosts, and 1 skill bind resist is just icing on top. Haste included in the 2x gods & dragon active, which includes certain subs you mentioned like awoken susanoo.

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  2. Thank you for the great, indepth information about Kali
    I’m still a beginner looking for information about pad.. I.use pad guide and check pads but most of the time I’m left with more questions. I would love to learn how to calculate and understand all the information on each card. PAD Guide has comparison but I’m still uncertain how to follow the information.

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    1. What information are you curious about? Can you be a bit more specific? Somethings that may interest you is how combos and damage are calculated: Each additional combo adds 25% healing or damage. Therefore, at 5 combos you double your output. As mentioned in the testing your team in endless, you can determine how much you will heal with a 3-heart match and X number of combos. If you can provide a bit more detailed question, I will be glad to answer =)

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  3. I’m wondering what your feelings are toward Awoken Bastet. Her awakenings are synergetic (off color green TPA vs. blue pre boss still works). Even though off color, mass attack without tpa allows less orb troll because the whole team is dealing damage without relying on TPA. I use her often, but feel like i’m crazy for doing so.

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    1. The Mass Attack feature from Bastet is only helpful when facing 3+ bosses (which hasn’t happened yet). You should still be striving to match TPA even on a single enemy as you benefit from +50% damage per awakening. Orb troll should be quite low due to the abundant board refreshes and unless your Bastet is heavily invested, another light orb changer will more than compensate for the damage on even blue bosses.

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    1. That is an interesting card I never considered! Their active is quite unique and is one of the few double orb changers that can be used on Kali teams. However, it may not have as strong of a place compared to other subs due to not generating light orbs and being water/dark themselves. With double Kalis, you should be safe in the orb change department and would rather prioritize light orb generation as that is the main source of damage.

      Of course, take any advice with a grain of salt as Shinji&Eva may be the best option you have for dark and water coverage and if it works for you, you can continue to do so until you acquire a more ideal sub =)

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  4. What about Sha Wujing? I know he has awful stats and not that great awakenings , but he does have decent orb changing abilities . Would he work as a farmable sub, assuming I can’t find any other decent water subs?

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    1. Sha Wujing is a large investment for an active (and monster) that is not that valuable. The need for a board refresh is diminished for light kali as she already brings one. You would be better served farming for light izanami who is on colour and covers water with a more beneficial active. You will also be skilling up the valuable diza in the process =)

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  5. Thank you! Kali was my first substantial card in this game, but I admit I’m only just figuring her out now. This has been useful.

    I have a uevo Ganesha as a sub (when all other types are covered). 2 TPA, jammer resist and skill-lock resist seem useful, and the damage void is effectively a one-turn delay (unless the turn is a non-damage attack). Am I missing something, or doesn’t he seem like a decent fit?

    Otherwise, I’m flip-flopping between Awoken Neptune (for poison, but the attacker/devil buff admittedly doesn’t do much aside from Fuma) and Hathor for water typing. Hathor makes it a more light-focused team, especially when alongside Ganesha. But my dark typing is admittedly lacking, so I’m relying on Divine Queen Hera, which makes Hathor’s gravity skill somewhat redundant.

    Finally, what of b/l Sun Quan (1740)? Same delay and healer buff as b/g Sun Quan, but no pesky green typing. Again, when used with Ganesha, the healer buff can be rather useful.

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    1. Ganesha is a better choice than Neptune; however, he is okay at best due to the high CD and low value from his active.

      You ideally want to have a light focused team as it provides the most damage overall.

      Sun Quan is a reasonable option and the delay is quite helpful along with the much needed burst active

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