A Beginner's Guide to Kongai

So with the release of Kongai looming, I've noticed a lot of people asking what starters to pick, how to play the game, and why the RNG is hax. Instead of repeating myself a million times, I've decided to write a guide to help new people get started in Kongai.

Step 1. Understanding the interface and how the game works:

First of all, read this (the kongai instructions)
so you have some idea about what "energy" is and how the game plays.

Then, go ahead into practice mode and just play a game (you can use an all random deck or whatever) to again understand the interface and the basic flow of the game. Be sure to note the "______'s Attacks" tab near the bottom right of the screen. If you click this tab, you can read up about what the character you're fighting against does, and which moves are dangerous.


A Crash Course on the damage/armor system:
Physical = Gray Shield
Dark = Purple Flask
Light = Light Blue Flask

Each attack has a type: either light, dark, or physical. Each character has three numbers near their hp and energy bars, which are the amount of armor that the character has.

If my attack does 20 physical damage, and you have 2 physical armor, then you take 20-2=18 damage.

If my attack does 5x4 dark damage, and you have 2 dark armor, then you take (5-2)x4 = 12 damage.

Step 2. Picking your starters:

Every character can be good, but some are just easier to play than others. To make this selection simple, I'm just going to give you a pool of 6 characters, and you can pick any three for a pretty decent deck. These 6 are probably the easiest to use for a new player: they can take a few hits, do good damage, and have a lot of room for error. Remember to pick the CHARACTERS primarily. Also take into consideration which items you have, I'll also list the items for each character from best to worst.


Helene (Valkyrie's Charm, Herbal Remedy) - An up-close only character. Only use enchant blade when your opponent has a lot more dark defense than he does light defense. LOOK at the opponents defenses before you enchant. Use frenzied strikes a lot, slash if you can't. Shield bash when your opponent has a strong move that you think he's going to use.

Ambrosia (Necronomic Tomes) - Spiked boots and vamp kiss should be your main abilities. Vamp kiss makes ambrosia really tanky, and boots has a chance to stun AND heal you with tomes. Spectral choke only when you think they're running, and you can get far and use bleeding vs close range only characters (onimaru/ashi/helene)

Cornelius (Blood Vial, Girdle) - Don't use blood burn (except on juju and cain, try to have 1 blood burn on them so they can't hurt you at far range). Generally only use stare against Ashi/Onimaru/Juju. Both pilebunker and voidstream are really good. Don't feel pressured to being forced to get close pilebunker, voidstream sometimes works better than pilebunker.

Higashi (General's Insignia, Origami Crane) - You generally don't have to change ranges at all. Use open palm most of the time at close, and you can try to rest at far to threaten with chi blast.

Cain (Phylactery, Necronomic Tomes) - Pay attention to your innate. Don't use tantrum. Generally a more far ranged character than close.

Phoebe (Sharpening Stone, Sacred Candle, Stoneheel Totem) - Try to stay far. Hamstring helps accomplish that up close, use deafening crack as a last resort, and rapid lashes a lot.

Step 3: Practice!

After you've done that one game of practice and picked your starters, go ahead and jump into quickplay. Keep on playing, and you'll eventually get the hang of it.