Genshin Impact Character Review – Sangonomiya Kokomi

This review is up to date with Version 3.0

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Sangonomiya Kokomi is a 5-Star Hydro Catalyst character from Inazuma. She can only be obtained via the “Drifting Luminescence” Event banner. Kokomi is a dedicated healer with a mix of off field and selfish gameplay.

Base Kit

Let’s first address the elephant in the room: yes, Kokomi can’t really CRIT. This is due to a passive ability of hers called “Flawless Strategy”, which gives her 25% Healing Bonus but decreases her CRIT Rate by 100%. Kokomi can land CRITs if you get her CRIT Rate higher than 100% though that requires considerable stacking of that stat in her gear and that then requires luck and/or money. Some characters provide a CRIT Rate buff but the only one you’re guaranteed to have in your account is the Geo Traveler. Food buffs can help but you’ll never have access to them in the Spiral Abyss. Even if you do all that, you might not have Kokomi’s CRIT DMG high enough to take advantage of her CRIT Rate. Kokomi actually has pretty high multipliers to her Talents, particularly her Normal Attacks. If you somehow get her a solid CRIT ratio, she’ll hit extremely hard. Unfortunately, it is impractical for most players to do. 

Kokomi primarily heals with her Elemental Skill, “Kurage’s Oath”. Upon cast, she summons a little jellyfish called the “Bake-Kurage” and for 12 seconds, this critter will deal Hydro DMG to enemies within its radius and heal your active character every 2 seconds. Oddly enough, the Bake Kuragei’s stationary and it will not move alongside your active character. Kokomi therefore lacks the flexible positioning enjoyed by other means of healing such as Barbara’s and Qiqi’s Elemental Skills. That said, this isn’t a drawback exclusive to Kokomi, other healers such as Bennett and Diona have this as well, and the AoE of the Bake-Kurage is decently large. Placement can also be compensated in a couple of ways such as Frozen, taunts, and crowd control.

The main issue with the Bake-Kurage is its split scaling. Its healing scales off of Kokomi’s Max HP but its DMG follows traditional ATK scaling. Even if you do get Kokomi’s ATK high enough, the Bake-Kurage’s DMG outside of Elemental Reactions will still be underwhelming due to the character’s lack of CRIT. Conversely, the Bake-Kurage is an extremely good utility. It not only provides potent healing, it is also one of the best sources of Hydro application found in the entire game. As mentioned earlier, its AoE is decently large; enemies only need to be at the very edge of the radius to get hit. Furthermore, the Bake-Kuage has no Internal Cooldown, meaning it applies Hydro and can trigger its related Reactions with every tick.

While Kokomi heals off field with her Elemental Skill, she takes on a more selfish role when she uses her Elemental Burst, “Nereid Ascension”. After dealing Hydro DMG in proportion to her Max HP, Kokomi puts on a “Ceremonial Garment” made out of water. For 10 seconds, the garment provides a number of effects for Kokomi. First is a DMG boost that scales off of her Max HP. Second is an increased resistance to interruption. Third is the ability to heal her whole team when she hits an opponent with her Normal and Charged Attacks. Last and definitely least is the ability to walk on water, which sounds awesome but it’s useless in combat and it’s too brief to be helpful in exploration. All of these effects disappear immediately if Kokomi dies or leaves the field. If you have Kokomi’s A1 passive, her Burst will also refresh the duration of the Bake-Kurage, provided that the jellyfish is already on the field (so keep a keen eye on it if you want to take advantage of the passive).

For DPS and on field gameplay, Kokomi’s Elemental Burst is her defining Talent. While it might not necessarily make up for the lack of CRIT, the DMG boost Kokomi receives from her Burst is substantial, enough for her to put a dent into an enemy’s HP. Since the DMG boost is based on her Max HP, split scaling shouldn’t be an issue like it is with the Bake-Kurage. That miHoYo chose to make Kokomi’s Burst a selfish one however is questionable. Considering that this is her only means of healing her entire team, it would make for better comfort if the effects of the Burst doesn’t expire once Kokomi leaves the field. Noelle, a 4-Star healer with a similar Burst, has this luxury so why Kokomi doesn’t is a bit puzzling.

Another concern regarding Kokomi’s Elemental Burst is its high Energy cost of 70. Unfortunately, Kokomi isn’t  terribly good at providing herself with Energy, with the Bake-Kurage only generating one Hydro particle every couple of ticks. Be it for frequent use, an emergency, or to reset the Bake-Kurage’s duration, you’ll need other avenues in order to reliably use Kokomi’s Burst. If she is the only Hydro unit in your team, consider investing in Energy Recharge or utilizing abilities that refund Energy. Alternatively, you can pair Kokomi with another Hydro unit who can act as a battery. Prior to Version 3.0, this wasn’t ideal due to the then lackluster Hydro Resonance providing Incoming Healing Bonus. With Hydro Resonance now providing Max HP, it is much more worthwhile to use a second Hydro unit. Not only will doing so alleviate Kokomi’s Energy needs, it’ll also boost her healing and Burst enhanced DPS. 

Constellations

C1 – Adds an extra attack after Kokomi’s Normal Attack string when her Elemental Burst is active. DMG is proportional to 30% of her Max HP so this Constellation is very valuable for a DPS build.

C2 – Increases Kokomi’s healing in proportion to her Max HP when her teammates are at 50% HP or less. It’s somewhat useful in a pinch though Kokomi’s healing at C0 is already potent and this boost is short-lived anyway as it would heal most other units to full HP.

C3 – Gives Kokomi’s Elemental Burst three extra Levels. This is the better of the Talent Level Constellations if you want to use Kokomi as a carry.

C4 – Increases Kokomi’s Attack SPD by 10% and gives her the ability to restore 0.8 Energy for every Normal Attack she lands while her Elemental Burst is active. This doesn’t necessarily address Kokomi’s Energy needs. Even with the increased ATK SPD, Kokomi needs to land a lot of hits in order to gain a substantial amount of Energy. The usefulness of this Constellation varies depending on your build, your team comp, and the situation.

C5 – Gives Kokomi’s Elemental Skill three extra Levels. If your main use of the Bake-Kurage is its Hydro application, you really don’t need this Constellation.

C6 – Gives Kokomi 40% Hydro DMG Bonus for 4 seconds after her Normal and Charged Attacks heal a teammate with 80% or more HP while her Elemental Burst is active. It’s a very substantial buff and the uptime is pretty much until the Burst expires so long as Kokomi lands her hits and heals.

Like with every 5-Star character, I can only recommend getting Kokomi’s Constellations if you absolutely have the money to burn. As you can probably tell, most of these boost her Elemental Burst and DPS so I suggest settling with a C0 Kokomi if you’re mainly using her as a support.

Build

The best support build for Kokomi is equipping her with Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers and 4-Piece Tenacity of the Millelith. Thrilling Tales is one of the few endgame viable 3-Star weapons. It provides Kokomi with HP% and at R5, it gives a 10 second 48% ATK buff to the next character who takes the field after Kokomi switches out. The buff is synchronistic with Kokomi’s Elemental Skill as both last for 20 seconds. Tenacity of the Millelith’s 2-Piece effect increases Kokmoi’s Max HP by 20% while its 4-Piece effect is a teamwide 3 second ATK and Shield Strength buff. Since it ticks every 2 seconds, the Bake-Kurage is a perfect candidate for consistently proccing the 4-Piece effect. To date, Kokomi is the only HP oriented character who can simultaneously use both Thrilling Tales and Tenacity, making her an extremely competitive buffer. This build does keep Kokomi to a strictly supportive role though her Burst enhanced DPS is still pretty decent due to the amount of HP the build provides.

Besides Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, another F2P weapon to consider for Kokomi is the Prototype Amber. Like Thrilling Tales, this Catalyst has HP% as its secondary stat. At R1, the weapon also gives Kokomi up to 12 Energy after she uses her Elemental Burst. Giving Kokomi this weapon over Thrilling Tales for better DMG and Energy management. The only issue with the Prototype Amber is refining it for an improved passive as Weapon Billets are absurdly hard to come by.

Version 2.5 added the Ocean-Hued Clam set and this is the go-to set for augmenting Kokomi’s DPS and healing simultaneously. The 2-Piece effect is Healing Bonus. The 4-Piece effect periodically generates a bubble that deals Physical DMG in proportion to 90% of the equipped character’s healing and this even includes overhealing. This allows Kokomi to deal substantially more DMG and given the potency of her healing, she can easily reach the DMG cap of this effect. One caveat with this set is that you do need to use Kokomi in close range so that the bubble will land a hit but this won’t pose much of an issue if Kokomi constantly heals herself.

For the most potent healing, Kokomi should have HP% on her Sands and Goblet and Healing Bonus on her Circlet. If you want higher DMG, Kokomi’s Goblet should instead have Hydro DMG Bonus. You can opt for an Energy Recharge Sands to reliably get her Elemental Burst off cooldown though it isn’t necessary if you give her a weapon with the aforementioned stat or pair her with another Hydro unit acting as a battery. Sub stats you want for Kokomi at HP%, ATK%, Energy Recharge, and Elemental Mastery. HP% is generally the top priority though you can instead focus on Energy Recharge if you need to address Kokomi’s Energy needs or Elemental Mastery if you want to get better Reaction DMG out of her. Due to Flawless Strategy, you should completely avoid pieces with CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG as those stats are practically useless for Kokomi. This can actually be easier said than done, even with the horrible drop rates of Artifact sub stats. That or I’ve personally been very unlucky with my drops…

Synergy

Synergy varies a bit depending on which Talent you’re using. With Kokomi’s Elemental Skill, Frozen is hands down the best Elemental Reaction to use. The healing is redundant if enemies are immobile but it still makes for solid comfort and by locking enemies in palace, you fix the Bake-Kurage’s stationariness and take advantage of its Hydro application and lack of Internal Cooldown. Combined with the Thrilling Tales/Tenacity build, Kokomi’s Skill makes her one of, if not, the best Hydro supports for Cryo carries such as Ganyu and Ayaka. Alternatively, the Bake-Kurage is good at proccing Bloom on multiple enemies and with Anemo, it can be used with other off field Talents to Swirl into various different Reaction procs. The latter is commonly executed with the so-called “Sukokomon” team, composed of Kokomi, Fischl, Sucrose, and Xiangling. Basically, you have Sucrose Swirl the Bake-Kurage, Guoba, and Oz for simultaneous Electro-Charged, Vaporize, and Overload procs. This can easier said than done as you need Guoba to cooperate but the DMG generally makes the team comp worth using.

With her Elemental Burst, Kokomi can enable all Hydro-related Reactions with her basic attacks to varying degrees of success. Electro-Charged particularly shines here, due to the plethora of Electro Sub DPS units for Kokomi to pair up with such as Fischl and Beidou. With the release of Dendro in Version 3.0, an Electro-Charged comp can transition into a Hyperbloom one. Note however that your options for Dendro Sub DPS are currently limited to just the Dendro Traveler and Collei. Frozen and Vaporize can both work though with these Reactions, Kokomi acts more as an enabler than the premier damage dealer due to her lack of CRIT. You’ll ideally be banking more on your Cryo or Pyro unit to do the heavy lifting.

As mentioned earlier, pairing Kokomi with another Hydro unit to act as a battery can help with her Energy needs. With the release of Version 3.0, Hydro Resonance has been changed to provide Max HP so there’s now a strong incentive to have Kokomi in a double Hydro setup, especially for her DPS. That said, there are some caveats to bear in mind. Yelan is arguably Kokomi’s most synergistic battery. She can provide plenty of Energy with her Elemental Skill, more so at C1 and with a Favonius Warbow. Like Kokomi, Yelan has HP scaling making Hydro Resonance valuable to both characters. That said, Yelan is a 5-Star character so she isn’t exactly a F2P-friendly option. Being a Hydro Sub DPS also makes her strongly desired by other team comps, particularly Vaporize-oriented ones. Aside from Yelan, Mona is another premier candidate who can generate a good amount of particles though she doesn’t benefit too much from Hydro Resonance. If you’re F2P, Xingqiu is your most guaranteed option since he can be obtained with Masterless Starglitter. Like Yelan however, he is a highly desired Sub DPS. Don’t bother with Barbara, she literally can’t generate Energy and you don’t need her healing if you have Kokomi.

Conclusion

Kokomi is both a flawed and solid unit. Yes, she can’t CRIT. Yes, some parts of her kit are a bit mind boggling. Despite all that however, she has become one of my favorite waifus units in the game and one of my most used in clearing the Spiral Abyss. Her healing is potent, her Hydro application is extremely useful, and her ability to carry is surprisingly pretty good. I particularly enjoy using Kokomi as a support in a Frozen comp, her Bake-Kurage rendering enemies immobile with every tick and her build greatly augmenting her carry. Kokomi was an unpopular unit when she first came out in Version 2.1 but Genshin has since catered more to her kit and her utility and versatility has since proven the contrary. Anyone who still thinks she’s a bad character to pull for are frankly out of their minds.

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Thanks for reading!

This post was originally published on September 30, 2021

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