On 30 September, 'The King of Fighters AFK' (hereafter KOF AFK) kicked off the pickup for its third new fighter, 'Mai Shiranui' (hereafter Mai). Following Kyo, she enters the fray as a Legend-grade Rage synergy fighter, bringing with her the massive popularity she commands in the original The King of Fighters series. In KOF AFK, she arrives as a powerhouse dealer armed with a passive that chains Finish skills and a self-buff for attack power. KookminTree has broken down her performance and recommended team compositions.

Q. What defines Mai Shiranui?
A. She is a 'Finish-chaining' dealer who recharges her PG upon using Finish skills.

Mai is a Star-attribute, Rage synergy fighter. She shares the same synergy as Kyo, the first pickup, which grants a 100% to 120% boost to Finish skill damage when activated. Her attack pattern targets the 'nearest enemy', and her skill set features strike-type Normal and Finish skills, while her Active skill is a projectile. Excluding the Finish skill, her Normal and Active skills deal single-target damage.

Her active skill, 'Sui Cho No Mai', deals damage to a single target and grants the 'Shiranui Flame' buff for two turns. At base level, this provides a 20% attack boost, scaling to 30% attack and 10% penetration at 7-star. Unlike the active, her normal 'Hishou Yosenjin' and Finish 'Chou Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi' carry no secondary effects. The real game-changer is her passive, 'Shiranui-ryu Ninjutsu', which restores 75% of her PG after using a Finish skill. At 5-star ascension, this rises to 100%, allowing for consecutive Finish skill chains. Note, however, that the passive does not trigger on the Finish skill used immediately after the effect.

Thanks to her Rage synergy, which boosts Finish skill damage, Mai can unleash rapid-fire barrages of high-powered attacks. Perhaps as a balancing act, her damage scaling per skill level is the lowest among her kit at 84%.

Furthermore, her Collection stats are quite respectable. Level-up rewards boost attack power, while ascension rewards increase attack, HP, defense, and penetration. These ascension rewards follow the same template as Kyo and Terry, with stats increasing by up to 570% at 10-star ascension.

Q. How should one build a team around Mai?
A. We recommend a Kyo or Chizuru pairing.

Currently, the best partners to activate Rage synergy with Mai are Kyo and Chizuru. Kyo excels at multi-target damage and self-buffing, while Chizuru boasts solid survivability thanks to her passive evasion. Chizuru can be reliably obtained through the ongoing 'Rage Synergy Fighter Summon' event. Kyo, unfortunately, is not included in this current synergy pickup, so keep that in mind.

So, how should those who already own both Kyo and Chizuru build their teams? Synergies activate with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 members, and you only have 5 slots total. Subtracting the 1 slot for Special characters (Orochi Iori, Orochi Leona), you are effectively left with 4 spots. You could run Mai, Kyo, and Chizuru to max out the synergy, but the issue is the remaining 1 slot. Unless you add another Special synergy, you are essentially wasting one synergy potential.

A compromise is to run only 2 Rage synergy fighters and fill the remaining 2 slots with Wedge synergy. Wedge provides a boost to 'Penetration + HP'. Unlike Rage, which only applies to fighters of the same synergy, Wedge effects apply to the entire party once active. Therefore, current KOF AFK party structures are effectively built around activating one primary synergy alongside Wedge and Special.

When choosing between Mai and Chizuru, Mai outperforms Chizuru at base level due to her superior offensive self-buffs. Assuming you have Kyo, a 'Kyo+Mai' setup is the gold standard. If you lack Kyo, use the Mai pickup event rewards to roll for the Rage synergy banner to secure Chizuru, and run a 'Mai+Chizuru' composition instead.

Another route is pet optimization. In KOF AFK, pets from Unique grade and up also carry synergies, just like fighters. The Rage synergy pets include Legend-grade Kyo and Anone, plus the Unique-grade Hinakom. If you are aiming for maximum Rage synergy, equip these pets.

For those interested, an opportunity to grab Anone is fast approaching. The 'Tropical Island (ANONE)' event kicks off on 9 October. Use the event gacha during this period to snag her if you are chasing that Rage pet synergy.