The final member of the former Four Lords, Kyle, arrived in 'Seven Knights Re:BIRTH' (hereinafter SKRB) on October 16. As a fan-favourite star who garnered massive popularity in the original 'Seven Knights' and was teased in official events long before the launch of SKRB, his arrival was highly anticipated. To put it bluntly, he is delivering. He has hit the ground running and is effectively turning the Arena meta on its head. KookminTree has broken down what makes this hero tick.

Q. What kind of hero is Kyle?
A. He is a powerhouse armed with overwhelming hit counts and buff removal capabilities.

Kyle's core mechanic revolves around follow-up attacks. He triggers one every two basic attacks, and another whenever two of any attacks land. This grants him a hit count that puts most other heroes to shame. His passive-based additional attacks are even nastier, scaling with Max HP and ignoring defense. Note that the basic attack follow-up only triggers against enemies marked with the 'Strong Gaze' status, which we'll cover shortly. Plus, he has a cheeky 30% chance to strip a buff from the target.

'Chain Explosion' hits four enemies for damage based on their Max HP. It strikes twice, and the damage climbs by up to 50% based on the target's missing health. Enemies suffering from 'Strong Gaze' take an extra 65% of his physical attack as bonus damage. Successfully upgrading the skill gives a slight boost to his physical attack coefficients and Max HP scaling. At Transcendence 6, all damage from this skill ignores defense entirely.

'Grave of Chains' also targets four foes. It brings two buff removals and pierce to the table. Like 'Chain Explosion', it deals bonus damage to those under the 'Strong Gaze' effect, and hits the same defense-ignoring upgrade at Transcendence 6.

His passive, 'Twin Dagger Dance', is a bit of a kitchen sink. First, it grants him a permanent 27% critical hit chance. If your team starts the battle with three or more Attack-type heroes, he gains immunity to all damage for 3 hits. Then there is the 'Strong Gaze' and the extra damage we mentioned earlier. Maxing the skill increases the damage immunity to 4 hits and buffs his HP-scaling damage from 23% to 32%. The Transcendence 2 effect triggers once per battle when his health drops to 70% or below, mimicking his base passive.

In short, Kyle’s primary job is to shred through the enemy's damage immunity counts with his relentless extra attacks. He makes short work of Kagura’s 8-hit immunity, which is quite the feat. Since the update on October 16, the Arena has entered the era of Kyle. They say humans cannot stop natural disasters; Kyle’s current reign feels exactly like that.

Q. What are Kyle’s key buffs and debuffs?
A. Buff removal and 'Strong Gaze'.

Kyle is all about buff removal and 'Strong Gaze'. You need to wrap your head around the latter: at the start of a round, the enemy with the highest attack power gets 'Strong Gaze'. Once that target dies, the effect does not re-apply. It is a once-per-round deal, so even if they fall, he doesn't just pass the gaze to someone else. The tooltip says 'always', but it is better to think of it as a permanent single-use application per round. By the way, 'Strong Gaze' persists even if the target revives or uses an immortal/indomitable effect, so keep that in mind.

Q. How should I set up Kyle?
A. Go for Assassin and Avenger sets, or Pursuer, and focus your options on attack and critical stats.

For gear, Assassin and Avenger are your best bets. Kyle starts with an 18% crit rate at Transcendence 4, plus 27% from his passive, netting you a base 45% crit rate. Add the 30% from a 4-piece set and 24% per weapon slot, and you’ll easily push past 100%. In this case, set your weapon main options to Critical Damage.

You can mix and match two pieces of Avenger with Assassin to pick up a 15% crit rate and 15% damage boost. If you go this route, lock your weapon main options to Critical Rate. For sub-options, aim for Attack, Critical Rate, and Critical Damage. Since he is a staple in the Arena, Block Rate and Effect Resistance are also solid choices. Given his potential for up to 8 hits of damage immunity, you can even be aggressive and stack Attack on your armor main options to ramp up his threat. Otherwise, sticking to Damage Reduction and Block Rate is the safe, sensible play. Best of luck out there!