Kain Highwind

Assassin

Long is his lance’s reach, and swift are his attacks. Moreover, Kain has a unique Jump skill that becomes more potent as his EX Skill gauge fills. Look for the right time to strike and utterly dominate the opposition with trenchant blows.

Original Appearance: FINAL FANTASY IV

*In the USA, this was originally released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as FINAL FANTASY II.

Year: 1991

Role: Kain is a childhood friend of Cecil Harvey and Rosa, Cecil’s love. He also served alongside Cecil as a spear-wielding dragoon for the Red Wings of Baron. When Cecil abandoned his station and turned against the king, Kain would seem to follow, joining Cecil on his quest to protect the crystals on behalf of Mysidia. But Cecil’s brother-in-arms would betray Cecil and Rosa several times in their trials, though not willingly—Golbez’s dark magic swayed Kain against his lifelong friends. However, it was partly the secret of his longing for Rosa that made him susceptible to Golbez’s control in the first place. 

Other Noteworthy Appearances: FINAL FANTASY IV: The After Years (2009), DISSIDIA 012 FINAL FANTASY (2011)

Arsenal

Bravery Attacks

HP Attacks

EX Skills

Bravery Attack Breakdown

Vorpal Thrust

Kain opens with a close-range upward swipe to stun targets, then follows up with an overhead smash into a forceful finishing stab. The stab launches victims a long way away, and Kain can give immediate pursuit to maintain spacing by dash canceling the end of the combo.

If the opponent has a wall nearby behind them, this combo will splat them flat against it, allowing for an immediate follow-up, whether more Bravery Attacks to keep building up strength, or an HP Attack to wipe them out.

When the first swing misses, Kain can’t transition to the follow-up hits. Use this only against enemies up close, and when the first swing whiffs, be ready to evasion cancel away from enemies who might retaliate.

If allies are nearby, don’t finish the three-hit combo. Instead, just perform the first two hits. This holds the enemy in place, helpless, giving teammates a chance to continue the combo by tacking on their own attacks.

Lance Burst

As a polearm warrior, Kain naturally has several lunging spear thrusts with lengthy reach. Kain slides forward quickly, weapon extended. The spear is active the whole time and drags along victims it catches, scoring multiple hits. Be ready to evasion cancel away from aggressive enemies when the spear thrust misses, since Kain cannot continue into follow-up attacks after whiffed spear moves.

When the spear slide successfully catches an adversary who fails to block, Kain can plant the butt end of the spear and transfer his forward momentum into a rising kick to launch the target far away. The launching kick is dash cancelable, allowing for immediate pursuit, whether to continue pressure on an opponent who air-recovers, or to get close enough to capitalize after laying them out on a wall.

Celestial Shooter

This specialized spear thrust begins after Kain gathers up tension for a second on the ground. He then erupts diagonally upward with his lance at about a 45-degree angle. He drags along his enemy when he catches them, carrying them up only to then spike them back to the ground with a downward spear swat.

This spear swat can be dash canceled, and usually bounces the enemy off the ground before they can recover. Dashing immediately after them keeps the initiative in Kain’s hands and allows for combo follow-ups if they don’t recover quickly. It’s possible for Celestial Shooter to flatten a foe against a nearby wall, but usually only very close against it.

When the initial upward thrust of Celestial Shooter misses everyone, Kain is left at about the same height as if he’d simply jumped. From this position, if there are incoming enemy attacks, either guard cancel to fall straight down while guarding, or evasion cancel to redirect away in mid-air. Without attacks incoming, wait for the first part of Celestial Shooter to recover, then double/triple-jump or air-dash to reposition toward the desired landing zone.

The upward trajectory of this spear uppercut means that it’ll whiff over the heads of standing enemies more than a few steps away. It’s also apt to miss if it’s used against enemies on slopes or stairs, because of the sharper angles involved. It’s best to preempt or chase down enemies dashing and jumping in the airspace above Kain. Celestial Shooter’s angled launch isn’t homing and doesn’t adjust downward for low targets, but against enemies who are above Kain, he steepens his launch angle to hit them.

Tornado

From a rapid grounded dash, Kain rises with a spear swing with such lift that a brief tornado is sent spiraling toward the target. The vortex spins straight at them, without veering or exhibiting homing abilities if they move dramatically. On contact, the vortex sweeps targets off their feet, leaving them briefly vulnerable to other attacks.

This attack can be charged before release, which grows the subsequent tornado and greatly improves its effectiveness. A bigger vortex has more dangerous wind-sheering area, the better to sweep up foes in the way, and it can hit the same target multiple times as it bounces them up off the ground.

Although Kain is a melee-centric fighter, between Tornado and Cyclone (airborne dashing ), Kain has a few ranged tricks up his sleeves. These give him low-commitment means to pick at enemies from a relatively safe distance, without overextending himself and getting into trouble. (Plus, when the Jump EX Skill is locked and loaded, one can think of Kain himself as a projectile, even better than Cyclone and Tornado.)

Impulse Drive

This is the aerial counterpart to Kain’s grounded Vorpal Thrust chain. Kain drifts forward in mid-air a short distance while bringing down his spear in a quick swipe. If this hits, he can chain into a multi-hit midsection stab, then finally a swinging spear launcher. As usual, if the target slams into a wall after Kain sends them hurtling away, he can combo another attack.

The full chain is only possible if the first attack connects, whether on hit or guarded. When the initial swipe misses, block or sidestep to cut short the recovery and begin a defensive maneuver. If this combo starts hitting up close when friends are around, cut it short after two hits so they have a chance to pick up where Kain leaves off.

Of Kain’s air attacks, Impulse Drive has the worst reach, but it hits the quickest, for the most Bravery damage. Against enemies at extremely close range, or stunned foes, it’s the poke of choice, but against enemies swarming farther away, Kain’s Jumps, spear lunges, and projectiles are needed.

Puncture

Kain rears back with his spear, then surges prone through the air, spear tip outstretched. If the spear tip connects with an enemy, Kain can flip himself from the spear thrust and whack them hard with the length of the weapon, hurling them a good distance forward to the ground on hit.

If the initial spear lunge comes up empty, Kain must simply recover before double-jumping or air-dashing. Otherwise, to act defensively a bit earlier, cancel the end of Puncture’s spear thrust by guarding or sidestepping.

Spiral BLow

On the ground, +  executes a leaping spear lunge, causing Kain to leave the ground. From the air, +  sends Kain whirling toward the ground, his spear’s tip spinning ahead of him. Enemies caught on the tip take multiple hits before Kain caps it off with a grand swing. Neutral dash cancel the follow-up swing to rush after the foe’s body as it bounces across the landscape.

As a ranged, aerial poke against opposing fliers, Spiral Blow is not as well suited as Puncture. It always descends with at least some degree of shallow angle and doesn’t track upward. In mid-air skirmishes, it’ll often whiff under opposing dogfighters, leaving Kain wide open. But for prey underneath an airborne Kain, Spiral Blow adjusts, dropping at a steeper angle when needed. This makes Spiral Blow perfect for dive-bombing targets from above. It’ll still reach the heads of grounded enemies after a quick triple-jump above them (for reference, that’s as opposed to a long triple-jump, holding each jump for the max height, which is a tad too high).

When Dragoon’s Pride is active, giving Kain another jump per airborne period, he can get high enough above standard double-jumpers to harass them with the tip of Spiral Blow from above.

Cyclone

Cyclone is Kain’s other projectile attack, alongside grounded dashing , Tornado. To whip up a cyclone, Kain rapidly twirls his spear, shooting a spherical vortex straight at his enemy.

This airy ball pops the enemy off their feet on contact. Charge it up before release for more hits before the enemy is swept up, dealing more Bravery damage and giving your team more time to follow up before the victim regains control. Kain can dash cancel forward after releasing Cyclone; rushing in after charged Cyclone can give Kain a chance to combo right after his own projectile, when it tags the target.

Cyclone has no homing abilities and can be overpowered by the bigger mainstay fireball and shockwave attacks of marksman characters. But it’s better to have ranged options than not to have them. Cyclone is Kain’s main attack whenever a low-risk option is desired. To quickly get access to Cyclone when standing on solid ground, hold neutral to initiate a lock-on dash at the current target, then tap or hold  to initiate Cyclone barely a hair off the ground.

HP Attack Breakdown

GungNir

After a short windup, Kain hurls his spear forward with a golden glow. It cuts through the air in a lethal straight line, dealing HP damage to anyone in the way.

Gungnir is quick to skewer enemies in range, but it doesn’t have any homing abilities if they’re moving quickly. The reach is also nothing exceptional, on par with many melee attacks, and it only has a little bit of height tracking and doesn’t hit straight up or down. But it’s a perfect send-off just after flattening someone on a wall with a combo, or when an ally uses Bravery Attacks to bounce their victim tantalizingly close to Kain. For a modest range increase, Gungnir can be charged, though this might give a potential victim time to vacate the space, or to beat Kain to the proverbial punch.

Fang And Claw

Kain rears back briefly, then springs forward, swinging the polearm overhead. On contact, the initial hit staggers the victim, holding them in place for Kain’s quick four-hit combo to follow, a side-to-side slash to pole clubbing to fully extended kick. Finally, after this five-hit Bravery-damage preamble, Kain delivers the coup de grâce, a spear thrust through the midsection that converts all the accumulated Bravery into HP damage.

Fang and Claw has less range than many HP Attacks, but it’s quick and easy to use, it can reach right above or below Kain, and it boosts the practical damage of any hit thanks to the five-hit Bravery autocombo at the beginning. In a way, using this HP Attack is like a permanent HP damage buff. The only downside (aside from the short range) is that the combo before the finishing touch takes a couple of seconds to dish out, so one of the victim’s allies might interrupt Kain before he’s done. Take advantage of these few seconds by boosting Kain’s Bravery or attack power with an ability like Share Bravery or Mighty Strikes.

Vanquish

Here’s one solution to Kain’s usual spear HP Attack blind spot above or below them. After spinning in place briefly to gain momentum, Kain rockets either straight up or down, depending on where the current target is—he rockets upward if their head comes up to his chest or higher. If they line up lower than that, whether in mid-air or down a set of steps or on sloped terrain, he rockets downward. After triggering Vanquish, Kain can still be repositioned during his initial flip, but after his flip at the start, it’s strictly vertical.

The range (up or down) is slightly (and meaningfully) better than that of Celestial Shooter up or Spiral Blow down—you can do a max-height triple-jump directly above someone on the ground, then Vanquish to hit them, whereas Spiral Blow from that position just barely misses. And while this can’t be mistaken for any kind of ranged attack, the hit box around Kain while he travels is big—the biggest hit box by far of any of his attacks, in fact. If targets are in position to be vulnerable to a steep-angled Bravery Attack from above or below, Vanquish’s vertical shockwave will be wide enough to clip them. 

Avenger

This HP Attack adds a layer of deceptiveness to Kain’s melee game at the edge of spear-lunging range. At the beginning, Kain springs from his feet into a showy acrobatic flip, spinning his spear all around himself. A blue sphere appears around Kain while he dances with the spear. Any Bravery Attacks that hit him while the blue sphere is visible are brushed aside by Avenger’s start-up. After this brief dance, Kain surges forward with a spear attack similar to Lance Burst or Puncture, except it does HP damage.

Like Lance Burst/Puncture, Avenger’s spear-thrust portion unfortunately doesn’t have much in the way of height tracking, so don’t expect to KO foes directly above or below Kain when using this HP Attack. Laterally it has the same range as an uncharged Gungnir toss. The defensive part can be fantastic, giving the enemy even more reason to hesitate up close, and enabling on-reaction interception and punishment of Bravery Attacks, depending on your reflexes and matchup experience.

EX Skill Breakdown

Jump I/II/III & Dragoon’s Pride

Kain is a master of this dragoon-defining skill, and his playstyle revolves around it. During a Jump strike, dragoons launch gracefully up into the air, out of harm’s way for a few moments, before they plunge down on their quarry’s head.

The longer a Dragoon waits between Jump attacks, the more powerful the eventual attack becomes. Therefore, Kain’s Jump EX Skill is actually three slightly different attacks: Jump I, II, and III.

Jump I is the basic Jump attack and has a short cooldown period of only 10 seconds. Accessing Jump II requires an extra 20 seconds of recharge time, for a half-minute total until the EX Skill is ready. The max-power Jump requires twice as much time, 45 additional seconds after Jump II is ready—the total restock time for Jump III is 75 seconds.

During Jump I, Kain simply leaps high, then drops onto the noggin of his target. Although Kain leaps out of the way of anything on his level, attacks that happen to be hitting at high altitude might clip him during his leaping arc. He also might not leap high enough to catch enemies who are way above him, like some characters who can triple-jump or more.

During Jump II and III, Kain leaps so high he briefly leaves the arena altogether—true to his classic RPG form, he’s unhittable off-screen. He also forces anyone targeting him to shift to someone else! When he descends from Jump II or III, Kain’s reentry force is so great that the attack strikes a much wider area than Jump I. His shockwave on the way down deals a little bit of Bravery damage, before the primary earthshaking impact. This shockwave and stronger impact make it much harder for an enemy to dodge charged-up Jumps at the last second, or to interrupt Kain as he drops during them. However, Jump II and III telegraph the attack, whereas Jump I does not.

Jump I and II deal Bravery damage as expected. But Jump III is actually an HP Attack, and Kain’s longest-reaching attack to boot! It’s a lot to ask to refrain from using Jump attacks for over a minute, but the payoff is access to Kain’s strongest maneuver, one that can almost guarantee a knockout if properly used.

Dragoon’s Pride is an agility buff tied to Jump. Kain gains this buff for 30 seconds after successfully hitting an enemy with Jump II, or after using Jump III, hit or miss. During Dragoon’s Pride, Kain gains an additional potential jump in mid-air, for a quadruple-jump overall. While the obvious main reason to save up for Jump III is for a unique killshot, the main reason to save for Jump II (compared to using Jump I as often as possible) is to keep Dragoon’s Pride going, adding a little speed and maneuverability to Kain’s air game.

Battle Plan

The most overarching concern for a Kain player is how to treat Jump: scarce resource to be hoarded, or unique attack to use constantly?

As much as Jump I every 10 seconds sounds fun, holding on to Kain’s EX Skill until Jump III is the right way to go, at least at first. By the time Jump III is ready, it’s possible your team will have scored two points on knockouts. If that’s the case, Jump III becomes tremendously powerful, basically a “win” button if used on reaction to an enemy starting up an attack or being held in place by an ally’s combo.

If the first Jump III killshot misses, at that point it’s up to you to decide what to do: if both sides have stacked up points, there won’t be enough charge time for another Jump III. At least you’ll have Dragoon’s Pride active for the final scramble; abuse the quadruple-jump and Jump I every 10 seconds till the end.

But if 75 seconds and a missed Jump III attempt roll around and the teams are still feeling each other out but not doing real damage, it’s probably best to go back to pocketing Jump, in case another opportunity comes up for it to deliver the win. There’s just no arguing with the chance to deliver an HP Attack with that range and speed. And for opponents who are aware of what you have in your back pocket, their ability to act freely will be severely limited, which of course opens them up to being pressured and defeated by your allies.

Jump concerns dealt with, what about the rest of the guilty dragoon’s arsenal? Kain’s an assassin, tasked with scoring points above all. He’ll want to stalk the perimeter of the fight, looking for opportunities to swoop in and deal meaningful damage to the other team. Kain’s spear is suited to precision attacks against one target, so hunt stragglers and avoid clusters. Rushing in overzealously against groups will get Kain incapacitated, needlessly giving up a point. It’s much better to be a little too patient than a little too aggressive.

From mid-range against coordinated enemy teams or other vanguards/assassins targeting Kain without advancing, use Cyclone and Tornado to give them something to think about. Both attacks are much better charged up, and it doesn’t take a lot of extra time at all. Dash cancel after releasing a projectile to keep dashing around at mid-range, waiting for a chance to safely assault one enemy; or neutral dash cancel straight in for the chance to follow up if the projectile hits the target.

When Jump II and III are stocked, they’re a threat from the same range as Kain’s projectile attacks (Cyclone and Tornado). Either one can punish a target hard from this range, for something as pedestrian as starting their own stalling ranged attack.

When the opposing team is either uncoordinated or successfully split up by your party, it’s time to take the fight up close. Kain has good attacks both for tracking down fleeing enemies and for close sparring. As with many melee-centric warriors, his mainstay > >  combo (ground or air) is the backbone of his attacks. The range is poor, but the hits are quick, and have follow-up potential: use two hits when friends are near, so they can add their blows on the staggering enemy. When a wall is nearby behind the victim, finish off the third hit for a wall splat that allows for more Bravery buildup, or a guaranteed HP Attack hit.

To avoid Kain’s pestering, opposing enemies may flee back to their teammates, especially marksmen. Since Celestial Shooter can track straight up, and since airborne Spiral Blow can track straight down, chasing them down with Kain is sort of like a game of joust in either direction. When even with fleeing foes, airborne or grounded, at the edge of general spear-lunging range (one circle on the minimap), +  (Lance Burst/Puncture) is appropriate.

From far above or below, these rushing spear attacks are also great for mid-range offense. This exploits the reach and steep, awkward angles of Celestial Shooter (upward) and Spiral Blow (downward). Kain has a triple-jump to get above grounded enemies for Spiral Blow; to drop back to the ground and gain access to Celestial Shooter, aiming at an air-dasher’s feet, simply guard in mid-air.

When trying to spear-lunge like this, the tip is the ideal range. If you’re a little above the enemy, you’d prefer to be way above them; if you’re a little below them, you’d prefer to be way below. Closer than that, and it’s safer and more versatile to stick to standard chains with Vorpal Thrust and Impulse Drive.

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