Best Koumei build in Warframe

Koumei, the dice-maiden, is a Warframe that may be a bit confusing to build. Her strengths lie in chance, but with the right setup with mods, subsume abilities, and Archon Shards, she can be the maiden of death.

We’ll have two separate builds for Koumei since she can have multiple ways to play. 

Elliott’s build

In my build, we’re keeping Koumei very basic. Since all of her abilities have the built-in dice roll mechanic, I feel it’s best to not mess with that and let fate decide my mission outcome.

Here’s a mod setup to get started:

Auras: Corrosive Projection or Energy Siphon

Exilus: Primed Sure Footed or Cunning Drift

Mods

• Primed Continuity
• Overextended
• Stretch
• Augur Reach
• Rolling Guard
• Constitution
• Augur Message
• Streamline

With this mod setup, you’re focusing heavily on duration and range, with some emphasis on efficiency. You’re sacrificing a lot of strength here, but that’s okay. There’s more utility in Koumei’s abilities that scale much better than dealing a bit more damage. It’s a fair tradeoff.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Best Archon Shards for Koumei

Since we are not using a Subsume ability with Koumei, we can go directly to her Archon Shard setup. Use the following setup to further increase her abilities:

• 1 Amber Shard: + Casting Speed
• 4 Crimson Shards: + Ability Duration 
  • Use the Tauforged ones if possible!

Koumei playstyle

Since Koumei won’t have a lot of damage output here, you will want to focus more on general weapon play. Her Kumihimo and Bunraku abilities will stack status effects for you, which will be the perfect primers for weapons equipped with Galvanized Aptitude, Galvanized Shot, or Condition Overload.

Additionally, her Omikuji is here more for the Decree and dice-rolling aspect. You’ll be using that constantly for endurance runs since they stack infinitely. You may get a few bad rolls along the way, but that’s negligible. 

And for survivability, the Omamori will keep you alive. Even with bad rolls, that’s where Rolling Guard (no pun intended) will pick up the slack. 

With Arcane Energize, this will encourage you to spam her abilities more, getting more dice rolls and priming more enemies with status effects. Use the other two abilities as soon as you can once they are off cooldown.

Koumei is all about chance, crowd control, and status afflictions in this build. She can soften up her foes and deal tons more with properly-built weapons.

Ruben’s build

In my build, we’re turning Koumei into a weapons platform. The most unique element of her kit is her decree-stacking Omikuji ability, and the plan here is to mow down enemies with your weapons while working on building up decrees.

Arcanes: Energize and Acceleration

Aura: Brief Respite

Exilus: Primed Sure Footed, Sure Footed, or Cunning Drift

Mods:

• Archon Continuity (or Primed Continuity)
• Archon Stretch (or Stretch)
• Primed Flow
• Equilibrium
• Catalyzing Shields
• Adaptation
• Augur Reach
• Narrow Minded

In this setup, you’re focusing primarily on duration, with some range thrown in for good measure. Koumei doesn’t scale well with strength, and considering we’ll be running both Equilibrium as well as Arcane Energize, efficiency isn’t a must-have either, although it certainly can work here.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Best Koumei Helminth ability

Energized Munitions is a great fit for a weapons platform build, especially when coupled with Arcane Acceleration, which will tear through your ammo like there’s no tomorrow. Plus, considering the fairly short duration of Energized Munitions, it’s a great way to keep your shields up.

However, if your weapon of choice doesn’t need Energized Munitions, you can always consider adding in Eclipse for extra survivability when the situation calls for it. Eclipse’s damage reduction works well in duration-focused builds like this one. And it can free up your Adaptation mod slot.

Best Koumei Archon Shards

These aren’t strictly necessary, but there’s some nice quality-of-life to be had with Archon Shards here. Of course, Tauforged is best, but once again, it is not strictly necessary.

• 2 Amber Archon Shards: + Casting Speed
• 1 Amber Archon Shard: + Spawn Energy
• 2 Emerald Archon Shards: + Corrosive Stacks

If you don’t have Primed Flow but do have some spare Azure Archon Shards, extra energy is great to have. Parkour speed from Amber Shards is also a nice bonus.

How to play Koumei

The most important part of a weapons platform build is, well, your weapons. You can use just about anything you’d like, aside from shotguns that don’t work with Arcane Acceleration, but you’ll need Galvanized Aptitude, Galvanized Shot, or Condition Overload to take advantage of the status effects Koumei inflicts with her passive and her Bunraku ability.

Cast your Omamori ability to start, refreshing it as needed for survivability. Then, you’ll cast Bunraku to inflict statuses for your weapons to scale off. Pop Energized Munitions regularly to make sure you don’t run out of ammo and reset your shields. In between inflicting statuses and mowing down enemies, cast Omikuji to stack up decrees through challenges.

This is an ability-heavy build, but thanks to Arcane Energize and Equilibrium, as well as an Amber Archon Shard to give you some starting energy, you shouldn’t run out of energy too often. However, running the Zenurik Focus School is another way to make sure you have enough.

Koumei is great for longer survival missions, or endurance runs thanks to her decree-stacking capabilities, but she can handle just about anything. Considering how often she uses abilities, her shields will regenerate constantly, while Adaptation and Omikuji also work to keep her alive.

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