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Who knows how long this guide will stay relevant, but I've managed to get Kasumi to level 60-ish and I sucked all the way until RANDOMLY one day I got really good with her. So here's a guide with 4 playstyles!!!

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS FOR KASUMI AS OF THE STREETSTYLE WORLD TOUR UPDATE!

Let's go over some universal notes:

1. Yokai Doll
Remember this isn't a shooting weapon as much as you willing damage onto your opponent. This means sometimes it shoots through counter states. It ignores Zhin's counter for one instance, then triggers his counter on the second instance. It's going to take practice to figure out the timing in order to actually be able to hit people. It's not as brainless as it used to be, but it's still easy once you get the hang of it.

2. Curse Stacks
Curse stacks don't give you DR. They make the target have reduced damage output. They also boost ALL of Kasumi's damage, not just Yokai Doll and Savage Tear. Your Spirit Bombs are also affected by the Curse stacks, making her Spirit Bomb Dmg increase card worthwhile.

3. Engaging

Kasumi requires a bit more patience to get value out of. She's a trapper-dualist with very short range. You're not going to win by going in headfirst. You need to wait for them to come to you, or sneak up on them. Most interactions you'll want to start off by using a Spirit Bomb to apply Curse stacks, which will let you get your damage up faster. Savage Tear is a great finisher for fleeing enemies. If you activate it before they leave LOS, it will still deal damage once they're gone. Be aware of characters that can cleanse your Curse Stacks (Koga, Mal'Damba, Grohk). Just wait to use Savage Tear until AFTER they cleanse and you're good.

4. Disengaging
Body and Soul is really weird and mostly bad. You have to be very early to get real value. Typically, if you set a Spirit Bomb, it misses, and they notice you, you should probably run away immediately. If they don't notice you, you can still get the drop on them and try it out.

5. General Playstyle

If you're alone, you literally can only fight in a 1v1. You can literally only attack one target at a time. Two or more targets in your face will spread out your damage and make you pretty much useless. If you're ever in a situation where it's you against more than one opponent, immediately leave. In general, her Ultimate is best used to secure a kill on an escaping target. It's really not that impactful, so don't put too much focus on it. She flat out can't hit invisible champions unless you're close enough to them, so don't try to engage with them if you can.

6. Items
Items are VERY loadout dependent with Kasumi as many of her cards can substitute items. I'll go into more detail in the specific builds. The ones I use most often are:

Nimble, Rejuvenate, Chronos, Armor Plating, Bloodbath, and Veteran.

IMPORTANT NOTE: NEW REJUVINATE WORKS EXCELLENTLY WITH KASUMI AS SHE HAS STRAIGHT SELF HEALING, NOT LIFESTEAL

Now for her cards worth mentioning:

Body and Soul Cards:
All of the cards are pretty viable in specific builds. I usually don't find Soul Siphon (Increase duration of Body and Soul) very useful as more time just gives the enemy more time to kill your husk.

Savage Tear Cards:
Her nerfed Essence Drain (increase Savage Tear dmg) is worthless. At 5 points you get a whopping 75 extra damage at MAX Curse stacks with NO DR. Not worth it in the slightest.
Cursed Doll is also useless due to its short range.

Betrayal (Cooldown reduction) isn't usually worth it on an ability that you're going to use once per interaction anyway.

Unseen Eyes (Increase Healing) is nice cause it works with Rejuv. Not great in every build, but a solid filler card.

Spirit Bomb Cards:
Blood Mist (Increase speed) is useless with Haunted Ground, but otherwise it works nice!
Deadly Trap (Reduce cooldown/increase dmg) is great with Haunted Ground, not much else.
Soulfire (Heal upon trigger) is too small of a heal to be worthwhile. I don't find much value.
Unwilling Victim (increase dmg radius) is good on Spirit Bomb-centered builds, but not worth it elsewhere. Her bombs are usually just a way to get curse stacks moving faster and nothing more.

Armor/Weapon Cards:
Surrounded By Fear (Extra curse stacks) EXCELLENT filler card. Have it at 1 in every deck, and it's even greater at higher levels. By far one of her best cards that can REALLY save you by making your stacking faster.

Sudden Death & Sealed Fate aren't very useful. The default duration is fine, and healing that late into an interaction isn't very helpful due to anti heal.
Folk Tales (Base HP) always solid, even at 1.

Kasumi Guides

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Betrayal

Level 1

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Damage - Death's Howl