Image: Odyssey Interactive via HGG / Jordan Pagan
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Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Omega Strikers has a pretty large cast of characters, but only a few are unlocked when you first start out. Luckily, one of the starter characters is Kai, and he’s a great character at all levels of play. Kai excels in the goalie position, and he’s no slouch as a forward either. In this Omega Strikers guide, we’ll be going over how Kai works, how to play him, his best build, and other tips to utilize him on the field!
Overview of Kai in Omega Strikers
As the son of the greatest known Corestriker player in the world, Kai has a lot of expectations to live up to. Despite having a relatively simple kit and being one of the first characters available to new players, Kai is living proof that mastery of the basics will take you far in Omega Strikers.
Abilities
Kai has a great set of abilities that can be used in both positions very effectively. Typically, Kai is seen as a goalie character, but this shouldn’t stop you from trying him out as a forward as well.
In this section of the guide, we’re going to cover Kai’s abilities and how they work, along with his strengths and weaknesses in Omega Strikers. Let’s get into it!
Barrage (Primary)
Simply put, Kai’s primary, Barrage, is one of the best abilities in the game. For one, it’s the only projectile that hits multiple times, making it very strong as a defensive tool. Its multi-hit nature also makes it a very strong scoring tool.
It’s worth noting that Barrage’s projectiles are considered light hits, meaning they deal little to no knockback to players. While this ability isn’t very good for knockouts, it’s great at pretty much everything else.
Blazing Pace (Secondary)
Kai’s secondary, Blazing Pace, is a speed boost effect that grants a 35% speed increase for three seconds. As a goalie, this tool is incredibly powerful, especially in combination with Eject Button. Blazing Pace allows Kai to make saves that many other goalies would be unable to make by cutting quickly across the goal, or back to the goal from midfield.
As a forward, the speed boost can be used to push up into enemy territory, or to get to the core before an enemy to maintain possession. Blazing Pace is a an all-around great ability, as is the case with any speed boost in Omega Strikers.
Giga Blast (Special)
Kai’s special Giga Blast is a long range projectile that explodes on impact with the core, an enemy, or a wall. The blast hits outward from the center in all directions. Giga Blast is the highest power ability that Kai has, and it’s his only realistic knockout tool.
This ability is great for sniping opponents off the top and bottom of the map, especially when they’re staggered. It’s also quite strong as a long-range defensive tool, as its explosion covers a lot of area.
Strengths
Kai has a lot of strengths in both positions, but the majority of his biggest strengths are defensive.
As mentioned, Barrage has great defensive utility for stopping core flips, blocking off corner shot attempts, and making stops in general. Both its range and multi-hit nature make it difficult for opponents to force the core past, even when chain-casting their own abilities. Barrage also has a ton of use as a scoring tool if you’re playing Kai as a forward.
As a goalie, Kai’s secondary is another huge strength. Though Kai has less area control than goalies (like Atlas, Dubu, or Ai.Mi), he makes up for it with his speed boost. This ability is also quite strong when Kai plays forward, especially against slower team compositions.
Another unique area control tool he has is his special. Due to its long range nature and explosion on contact, it can take up a lot of space on the enemy side when placed correctly.
Weaknesses
Though Kai is a very strong character in the goalie position, he does get outclassed as a forward by characters that have similar kits. For example, Drek’ar and Era both have a speed boost as well, so they tend to play a similar role to Kai when he’s played as a forward.
Kai is also a relatively small character, especially when compared to Strikers like Atlas and Dubu. This can be a significant weakness when Kai’s secondary is on cooldown. Smaller characters also have a smaller strike radius, meaning they can’t hit the core from as far away.
Plus, the smaller size also comes a lower health pool than the larger characters. This makes Kai susceptible to getting bullied by brawler characters. Since Kai has so many strengths, his lack of size is definitely something to consider when trying to fix his weaknesses.
Best Build for Kai (Gear & Awakenings)
Gear
Before moving forward in this section, we want to acknowledge that picking gear for your character is often based on playstyle. Generally, most gear selections are viable for most characters — it just depends on how you want to play them.
That being said, we’ll still guide you to what’s generally considered the best gear for Kai in Omega Strikers.
Forward
As a forward, Kai’s best gear selections are probably Slick Kicks and Magnetized Soles. One of Kai’s biggest strength as a forward is his speed boost, and these both add additional speed. If you want to play a midfield style as forward, Slick Kicks will likely be the better pick. If you want to play more up close, Magnetized Soles might be the pick for you.
Kai is not a character that focuses on dealing damage and knocking opponents out. But if you really want to try that playstyle, you may want to consider trying Pummelers. Against brawlers, you may want to try Vicious Vambrace or Siphoning Wand.
However, we think that focusing on giving Kai more speed as a forward is the most beneficial option.
Goalie
As a goalie, Kai thrives the most with either Strike Shot or Eject Button. Since Kai already has two projectiles, adding a third with Strike Shot can be super beneficial if you want to focus more on area control than on speed. It also gives his projectiles an extra 35% travel range, which can strengthen his area control significantly if that’s something you want to focus on.
Eject Button gives Kai two huge benefits. The obvious one is the ability to blink back to the location where you cast your secondary. This can be used to further push an advantage state when the enemy goal is open and yours is not. You can run in, get a strike or two in, and blink back to the safety of your goal.
The sleeper benefit of Eject Button is that it also increases the effectiveness of his secondary by 50% and grants a 20% cooldown reduction on it as well. If you want to focus on being as mobile as possible, Eject Button will be the goalie gear you want.
Momentum Boots and Powerhouse Pauldrons are also decent options for Kai, but we think Eject Button and Strike Shot provide the most utility when playing Kai as a goalie.
Awakenings
Kai benefits from a ton of different Awakenings, but there are a few that stand out from the rest.
Prime Time and Twin Drive are two of the best Awakenings for Kai, hands down. These Awakenings tend to benefit every Striker, so they’re always popular choices. But if you can manage to snag them, Kai becomes even stronger, especially as a goalie.
Chronoboost and Aerials are another set of Awakenings that help Kai out a lot. These both buff the effectiveness of the speed buff from Kai’s secondary. On top of that, Chronoboost makes the speed boost effect last longer, while Aerials also gives his projectiles increased travel distance.
Speaking of projectiles, Missile Propulsion is another great Awakening for Kai. This grants a 70% distance increase on his primary and special, giving Kai more area control and a longer range KO tool. These abilities also hit 15% harder, making his special an even better KO tool.
For more speed increases, you may consider trying to target Stacks on Stacks, Swagger Stagger, and Glass Cannon. If you’re looking to cover Kai’s biggest weakness, which is his size, you may want to target Big Fish and Built Different. Lastly, Quick Strike is a super underrated Awakening for all characters, but we feel it benefits goalies a ton, and Kai is no exception.
How to Play Kai as Goalie
Goalies typically need some mix of speed, size, and area control to be successful. Luckily, Kai has one of the best, most well rounded kits in Omega Strikers when it comes to playing goalie.
Kai relies on speed and area control, as there are plenty of goalies that are larger than him. With Kai, you’ll want to focus on positioning and cooldown management. His speed boost is a huge asset to his playstyle, allowing for speedy repositioning. Kai players need to have good awareness of where the core will be going. If he can effectively predict this, he can almost always make it with Blazing Pace.
Both of his projectiles can be used to control area, with his Barrage being the more reliable tool. Saving Barrage for when enemies have full energy and can flip the core can be quite useful, as Barrage can negate core flips easily with good timing.
As for Giga Blast, it’s best used when there’s an intense back-and-forth between both sides, as players tend to clump up together. Use it to disrupt the opponents’ momentum and create some breathing room when you’re under heavy pressure or to give your team an opening to go on the offensive.
Overall, Kai excels at the speed-based goalie role and is incredibly versatile at responding to any threat thanks to Barrage and its Swiss Army knife value.
How to Play Kai as Forward
Kai also has similar strengths as a forward, speed and area control. He doesn’t have the same level of area control as characters like Ai.Mi and Rune, but his Barrage is just as useful as an offensive tool as it is a defensive one.
When used close to goalies, it can be used to burn their strike cooldown with one of the first projectiles. Once they’ve used their strike, they’re often unable to save the core from the remainder of the Barrage projectiles.
It’s also useful against enemy goalie core flips in a similar manner to its use against enemy forwards. You throw out the Barrage after they core flip, and the projectiles will hit the core multiple times.
(Image: Odyssey Interactive via HGG/Jordan Pagan)
Aside from Barrage, Kai wants to continue to use good positioning and pick spots to use his Blazing Pace effectively. Saving the speed boost for the right moment can make the difference when being used to maintain control of the core.
Kai forwards should also look to strengthen his special when possible. Awakenings like Heavy Impact, Specialized Training, and Built Different can all help to make his special hit harder and create more space. Use it to break the enemy’s defense or to snipe enemies that are hanging out too close to the edges of the map for a surprise knockout.
Join the High Ground!
That wraps up our Omega Strikers guide to Kai and how to play him. Kai is an well rounded character that has a ton of strengths and only a few weaknesses. He shines in the goalie position in all levels of play, and can play forward pretty well too!
We hope that this guide has helped you understand how to best use Kai on the Corestrike field and dominate in Omega Strikers. Have you tried Kai out yet? If so, how are you feeling about him?
Let us know in the comments below, and share topics that you’d like to see us cover in the future. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more gaming content!
Happy gaming!
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