Kongai FAQ
From Kongregate Wiki
This is a general FAQ for Kongai. If you don't find an answer to your question here, check out Kongai Quirks for more in-depth game oddities, or alternatively you can often find a helpful experienced player in Kongai Game Chat Room #1.
[edit] What starters should I pick?
Don't pick starters yet! The system is a bit weird, so it's actually best to hold on picking starters at first, and instead play some games using a random deck. The odds of winning cards is greatly increases while you have fewer than 10 cards, and playing random also helps you learn what cards you like.
So for best results, win 10 cards playing random, THEN do the current challenge(s), THEN pick your starters to match the other cards you have.
Note that in order to be able to pick item cards as starters you must own at least 3 character cards. Within a deck, multiples of the same character card are not allowed, but multiples of the same item card are allowed. As a result, picking item cards as starters is more beneficial in the long-run. This will only matter if you'll be playing Kongai for a long time, though - for most players, simply picking a combination of characters and items to match what cards you won will work fine. There are some items which are more overall useful than others (and thus, are more useful to have multiple copies of) - Necronomic Tome and Scroll of Inner Focus being the prime examples.
[edit] I just won a card, but it messes up when I add it to my deck.
Refresh the game. There is a bug that causes cards you just won to not be correctly recognized by the game at first, but a simple refresh fixes the problem.
[edit] Popo's Slingshot has 30% chance to crit right?
Critical hits do not work that way. The hit chance and crit chance are rolled on the same die. Think of someone rolling a 100-sided die, with 1-50 being a critical hit, 51-60 being a regular hit, and 61-100 being a miss.
[edit] What is the best deck?
Short answer: Use anybody but Helene.
Long answer: Everybody except for Helene is viable, though some are better than others. Top-rated characters include the likes of Anex, Juju, Cornelius Constantine, and Ubuntu. However, the game is balanced well enough overall that you can do well with pretty much everybody besides Helene, and some non-top characters such as Amaya and Rumiko even tend to do well against many of the top characters.
[edit] What do you mean Helene sucks?
Helene is the worst character in the game. She is a monoranger with expensive moves that have high miss rates and deal poor damage for their costs. Use Onimaru or Ashi instead - they are better in nearly all situations compared to Helene.
And no, she doesn't win against Oni. Oni can go far and use his Ancestral Curse and Spirit options to turn the battle in his favor, then go close once 5 turns have passed and Stalemate kicks in.
And no, the fact that she can deal all 3 types of damage is not very important at all. Any character with strong attacks that are not multi-hit barely cares about defenses anyway, and Helene's options aren't especially good just because they can be physical, light, or dark.
And no, Shield Bash isn't any good either - you're spending a massive 50 energy to do low damage.
[edit] How did my opponent hit me after I cast Shadow Curse 5 times?
Hit rate debuffs do not work that way. If someone has an attack with a 95% chance to hit, for example, you multiply the debuff(s) by this figure -- you do not subtract it. So with a 95% to hit attack, 5 Shadow Curses means you would have a .95 * .8 * .8 * .8 * .8 * .8 = 31.1% chance to hit. (Note that Dodge effects, such as Elusive Feather and Popo's innate ability, ARE subtracted first, not multiplied.)
[edit] I keep on getting matched with higher ranked opponents! It's not fair!
Believe it or not, highly ranked players hate playing you just as much as you hate playing them! This is because of how the ranking system works; it was based on Halo's system, a game which doesn't have the same luck factor. If you're playing someone 15 ranks above you (the highest possible difference), you stand to win 150 rank points if you win but you'll only lose less than 50 points if you lose.
This makes it very difficult for the higher player to win rank points on average from someone of a lower level - in this example they'd need to win 75% of their games just to break even. Winning that often against a decent opponent is very difficult. So, you may be facing a tough opponent, but you will lose very little if you lose and win big if you do win.
Also, as ranks increase very rapidly over low levels, there's a good chance that the person 5 ranks above you has only ever played about that many more games of Kongai than you have. If you are facing someone with a very high number of games played (i.e. level) but low skill rank (say, 25 or less), they're probably not very good at all, as anyone that's played a lot and is a good player should've made it to SR28-29 at least (or higher). (See also: next entry.)
[edit] How good is Skill Rank __?
Skill ranks roughly compare to actual levels of skill as follows:
- Under SR20: Awful or new.
- SR21-24: Below average player, has a lot to learn.
- SR25-26: Average player - still considered pretty bad by anyone good, but can be competitive
- SR27-29: Slightly above average player - starting to get good. (Note that some players consider this range only average, because you can technically achieve Skill Rank 29 with a 50/50 win/loss record if you play enough games.)
- SR30-32: A good player; they probably know what they're doing.
- SR33-36: A top 100 player - one of the best.
- SR37+: A top 25 player, very skilled indeed.
[edit] Why can't we trade cards?
Trading cards would be far too abuseable. Anyone could easily make a new account and earn some quick cards to trade around. Trading will simply never be implemented in Kongai.
[edit] Something weird happened, I think it's a bug.
The most likely culprit is Phoebe disabling your item with her innate ability. If you're positive this isn't the reason, look at the Kongai Quirks page, which covers most of the existing game bugs. Others bugs may be included on the specific relevant page, such as Boomerang Chakkra.
[edit] My opponent disconnected when he was about to lose.
Don't worry, he isn't avoiding anything. It still counts as a loss for him and a win for you. All it means is you have to wait a little bit. Feel free to take some satisfaction in causing a ragequit. Also, this behavior gets a lot less common as you get higher in rank. You can still win cards when an opponent quits in this fashion.
[edit] What's the chances of winning a card?
You have a 3% chance to win a card per ranked game you win and a 1% chance per unranked game you win. These odds are significantly higher (say, 30% for ranked or thereabouts) when you have fewer than 10 total cards, which is part of the reason why you shouldn't pick starters until you have 10 cards already.
You can also get cards by completing the weekly game challenges or by purchasing them.
[edit] This game is all about luck!
The game is mostly skill and a bit of luck. If you are losing a lot of games, it's probably because you need more practice. If you lose the occasional game because of luck, you'll win the occasional game because of luck too, and it'll even out in the long run. Simply put, the same people wouldn't be able to consistently keep winning more than the rest if the game was all luck.
[edit] There should be new cards.
There are new cards coming. The new sets are Robots, Pirates, Knights, and Witches. Except them in maybe 2 months or so. (Early December 2009)
[edit] Rumiko + Flash Powder is a good idea!
No, it really isn't. Flash Powder only increases her ability to evade intercept damage to 70%, NOT to 90%, and Rumiko really loses a lot of options when she's not using Scroll of Inner Focus.
[edit] Mindreader's Chalice on Higashi is awesome!
No, it really isn't. In almost all cases, Higashi isn't enough of a threat that someone will be trying to switch out at full health anyway, so the difference between 60 and 75 damage is almost always irrelevant.
[edit] What item should I use with __________?
Note: Items in brackets are clearly inferior choices, generally only worth picking if you want to use the character but don't have any items listed before the brackets. "Standard" choices appear in bold.
- Higashi: Insignia, Crane
- Rumiko: Scroll, [Insignia, Yellow Rock]
- Onimaru: Scroll, [Salve, Totem]
- Yoshiro: Insignia, Scroll
- Amaya: Scroll, Figurine
- Andromeda: Stone, Herbal, [Totem]
- Helene: Don't use Helene. If you must, though: Valk, Stone, Herbal, Candle
- Phoebe: Stone, [Totem]
- Anex: Valk, [Candle, Stone]
- Ashi: Valk, Candle, Stone, Herbal
- Juju: Feather, [Mask, Salve, Girdle, Chalice]
- Ubuntu: Mask, Chalice, Feather, [Claws]
- Popo: Feather, Poison, [Insignia]
- Tafari: Poison, Insignia, Mask, [Feather]
- Zina: Poison, Mask, [Claws, Feather]
- CC: Tome, Vial, [Girdle, Salve]
- Cain: Tome, Phylactery, [Insignia]
- Ambrosia: Tome, Vial, [Girdle]
- MLM: Insignia, Tome, [Ring, Salve, Girdle, Phylactery, Totem]
- VV: Tome, Vial, [Phylactery]
Other items can be used in a pinch (Totem is at least sort of good on everybody for example), but they should generally be avoided if you have the choice.
[edit] This guy keeps taking the maximum time allowed and stalling the game.
Welcome to the internet! There's a good chance that he's actually thinking, though he might just be a jerk. Fortunately, Kongai doesn't take your full attention, so you can do other things while you wait - and even at the max time limits the game still goes quickly. As you gain ranks, the number of people who stall or disconnect reduces dramatically.
[edit] Why would anyone waste money on virtual cards?
While not many people buy cards, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. In no way is "earning" cards better than buying them. All you're doing is exchanging money to increase your enjoyment of the game - if you are enjoying Kongai but would enjoy it more with better card access, then buying cards is a perfectly reasonable choice.
Compare it with going to a movie -- instead of spending $10 for 2 hours of entertainment you could spend a couple bucks for dozens hours of entertainment. The fact that the cards aren't physical and cannot be resold is truly irrelevant.
[edit] What does 'proc' means?
It's the chance of a special effect happening. For example, Rumiko's Eviscerate has a 100% hit rate and a 70% proc. This means (assuming there aren't other outside factors) that she will always hit with the move and deal damage, but will only stun the enemy 70% of the time.
[edit] Juju's Touch of Doom is cheap!
Not so much, no. It's slow, expensive, and need several turns before it activates. It IS powerful, but it can be interrupted, and even someone with ToD cast on them still has 4 turns alive to try and dish out some extra damage.
[edit] Tafari is too strong!
Tafari basically has an amazingly good innate and one moderately good move. While he can give certain characters trouble, most, in fact, have a good match-up against him - and some, such as Ambrosia, utterly dominate him. While he's a good character, he's far from being too strong.
Also note that sometimes it can be a good idea to purposely set off his Leafy Trap, or even to let him Ambush you instead of going far. It's better to take damage to deal some damage than to sit back eating Poison Darts and die without dealing any damage. Characters such as Onimaru, for example, will often want to take the Ambush damage while they're using a strong move like Double Slash.
