Reverse: 1999 Guide | Kaalaa Baunaa

Kaalaa Baunaa is a really powerful but slow Carry who mainly uses Planet and Divination Buffs to empower her own ultimate and also trigger some extra actions. However, despite being generally good, she has her shortcomings as well.

Planet Mechanic

Kaalaa Baunaa has three types of planets. When you use her AOE skill, she will get the Red Orb. When you use her single target skill, she will get the Yellow Orb. And when you use her ultimate, she will get the White Orb. For the Red and Yellow Orb, the amount you get is affected by the rank of the skill.

As of her ultimate, she will get two White Orb at P0, three at P2, and four at P5. These orbs have three functions. First, Kaalaa Baunaa will gain a stat Boost from each orb she owns. The yellow orb will provide 6% penetration, increased to 9% Portray 3. The Red Orb will provide 6% life steel, increasing to 9% Portray 4. The white orb will provide 6% incantation, which might increase to 9% at Portray 5. 

When you use an incantation, it will benefit from the owning effect of the existing orb before the incantation is used. But not be affected by the orb the incantation itself provides. You may also notice that her AOE skill did not have the life-steal effect, as the Red Orb is gained afterward. The second function of the orbs comes from her insight. When you have the maximum number of planets and you acquire more, the oldest orb will be discarded. They will also give you a divination buff, which is the original buff but at 12%. 

This Divination buff will not affect the incantation that caused the discard. Instead, it will affect the attack right after. The attack with a full yellow orb on her also benefited from the Mars Divination, which she got by discarding the Red Orb in her last action. This is giving a 12% life steal. Her Ultimate Will first discards all the orbs she has and consumes all the Divination bonus from the discard immediately. This attack healed her for 84% of the damage, which is the full amount of the seven right divination bonus. The third function of the orb comes with her Insight 3. 

When she uses her ultimate, she will follow up with an effect based on the most discarded orb. If the most discarded is red or yellow, she will follow up with a corresponding incantation. The rank of the incantation will be based on the amount of the same orb discarded by her ultimate. So having three of the same orbs will give her a free rank 3 incantation attack. This follow-up attack will fully benefit from the Brave New World trigger, which, in my opinion, is the best Psychube on her. It will also benefit from incantation might from the White orbs. 

This follow-up attack, however, will not benefit from the discarded life steal or penetration as it is consumed by the ultimate already. If the most discarded orb is the White one, she will instead gain Empower incantation II for up to three rounds based on how many of the orbs were discarded. Empower Incantation II will randomly rank up two of her cards in her hand, and each round will be active.

How to Play Her Effectively

If you do not have her at P1, I highly recommend just being content with rank 2 follow-ups and not worrying too much about having three of the same orbs before her ultimate. Because often, if you try to force rank 3, you're slowing her down from getting her to Ultimate. If you're willing to reset a few times, you can get a quick rank 4, followed by a turn 3.

If you have 2 copies of the skill you want at the beginning, you can fuse them. In this process, you will generate 4 moxie, and you will only need one more copy of the skill you want to get an ultimate with rank 3 follow-up prepared. This all changes, though, when you hit her Portrait 1. Once you get her Portrait 1, her planet slot expands from 3 to 4. It is now a lot easier to get rank 3 follow-ups because when you have 4 slots instead of 3, you can now have an orb of a different color in the middle and still get a rank 3 follow-up. 

So, you no longer have to hold on to the incantation of different colors in order to force a rank 3 follow-up. At least for those who are spending money on the game, I recommend going for P1 if possible. It will make her feel quite a bit better about playing.

Psychube and Resonance

For her Psychube, I recommend Brave New World, especially if you're going with P1, which more or less guarantees a rank three follow-up for each ultimate. You can also go with Luxurious Leisure, Hopscotch, or His Bounden Duty. However, it might be a little hard to stack Luxurious Leisure since she does not have any Moxy generation built-in.

Also, check our Reverse: 1999 review and other guides below:

• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Mercuria
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Kakania
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Lucy
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Windsong
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Isolde
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Charlie
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Jessica
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Shamane
• Reverse: 1999 Guide | Ezra