Kadaj
Character Notes & Recommendations
Have updates or suggestions? Contact us via Reddit or Discord, find our info Behind the Scenes!Summon Board Passive selections:
Odin choose 3 / 6 / 7
Bahamut choose 4 / 5 / 6
Usuals:
Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, Diabolos, Alexander 4 / 5 / 6
For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!
Sphere Recommendations
A Spheres - 100% focus on ATK, Melee ATK, or BRV DMG. Nothing else matters. If you get an ATK/mBRV combination, that’s a convenient bonus since he holds onto a good amount of BRV due to his BRV gain absorb, constant BRV refund, & sap debuff.
E Sphere - Here’s where things get interesting. You have 2 choices, give Kadaj an ATK sphere since he’s a damage dealer, OR exploit his Stigma debuff and get some marginal utility out of an otherwise garbage sphere.
Ultimecia’s sphere (or RF) is the best sphere for him. He can reliably trigger it to inflict 6T of 30% (12% for RF) DEF down on an enemy. Now usually, 30% on a generic debuff is a waste of a debuff slot but because of Kadaj’s Stigma debuff, this 30% DEF down will be framed and gold, so it cannot be removed. Because it is technically still considered a generic debuff, you can use another ally or call to inflict a better DEF down debuff, and their better DEF down debuff will replace Kadaj’s and be gold framed and irremovable!
Faris call works well with this setup, but note that you want to get your other important debuffs like Kurasame, Raijin, Seymour, etc BEFORE using Faris call. Faris call + Kadaj = 7 debuffs, so expect to have no room left after you use her call!
If you still want to use a debuffing sphere, and no Ultimecia sphere is in hand, Laguna/Fran for mBRV is the next best, and you can use Kadaj on the same team as Serah for a 60% framed mBRV down.
How-To-Play Notes
Kadaj gets a free skill use at quest start so pop that AA and follow up with Divinity (EX) to get him going! Be mindful with his Fixation debuff whoever wasn't targeted by Kadaj's last attack will have their stacks reset to 1, this problem goes away once you gain his BT effect.
Volley (S1) is his AoE shaving skill, and importantly refreshes his Fixation debuff on both targets.
Mayhem (S2) only attacks one target, but has splash. Just be careful with this skill since it only refreshes his debuff on one target, so you may lose the debuff on the other target and lose the BRV gain absorb effect on that enemy.
Divinity (EX) is packed with value as it has 100% gravity (reducing enemy BRV to 0) while also dispelling 2 buffs from enemies, getting a free ability use, and dropping his Stigma debuff to gold frame his debuffs.
Divinity recharges in 2 skills. With the free skill after, this gives him incredible longevity to spam skills if he needs it in FR Retain after FR Time
Burial Hour (LD) is his strong single target attack but it also refreshes his Mother's Casket effect which boosts his stats and helps him gain BRV.
Geodegradation (BT) provides the usual BT auras, but it also enables the party to trigger his follow up on enemies with 5 stacks of Fixation. It also keeps his Fixation stacks from lowering which is great since that means you're not limited to an enemy since all enemies will have 5 stacks once Kadaj is set up. Kadaj himself will trigger his follow up twice; that is 12 HP attacks to the target from his follow up alone making him a monsetrous single target attacker and no slouch in 2 target fights.
Due to his 6T BT duration, he wants to BT finisher the turn before he goes into BT phase which usually looks like FR (or Echo) -> BT Finisher -> BT phase.
For BT phase, if you're not running U4, you want :
S2 -> EX -> S1 -> S1 -> LD -> FR (2 Targets)
S1 -> EX -> S2 -> S2 -> FR -> LD (1 Target)
If you do have U4, you want to use EX as often as it happens with S1 as back up and end with FR before the finisher.
If using him as a link attacker, he only needs 1T of BT effect when you BT phase or start stealing turns which makes his BT finisher timing more flexible. Popping it at around 80% FR gauge is probably the best timing.
His first, personal Geophagy follow up occurs before launch while the BT follow up occurs after.
Geotomy (FR) has an easy HP DMG & Limit condition (attacked debuffed enemies), however he really wants melee allies as his conditions ask for:
Melee ability on turn: +40%
Attack a target with a stacking debuff: +40% (his Fixation)
Team Synergy
As mentioned above, he wants melee allies to get the full 80% per turn (100% on echo)
Cor and Weiss are his best buddies with their general plug & play strength and extra damage. Even if they're not boosting Kadaj's BT phase, they + Kadaj will heavily enhance any attacker with their linked attacks.
Leo and Noctis are also great allies especially in single target fights as their follow ups are purely single target and Leo needs to have a specific enemy attacked (his specific debuff).
We recently got Papalymo who LOVES taking turns for himself. Well he also loves Link attackers and Kadaj is great for that role.
For single target focused fights, consider Crystal Passive U6 for some extremely high damage in Force Time/Retain.
Removable Passives
NOTE: Passives should generally only be removed if you lack CP space. There are very rare occasions where a character has a bad passive that disrupts their optimal gameplay.BRV Attack++ HP Attack++ Up (you will never need to use either of these, and even if you do, you won’t need this passive’s effects anyway)
Buff Speed Up (10% SPD) - marginal effect with no other stats associated, but note that it may be hard to upkeep his debuffs if you slow him down!