Shadow Fight Arena - Beginner’s Guide to Kate
Shadow Fight Arena has a sizable character roster filled with unique and interesting heroes you can choose from. From the slow but deadly Shang, to the brutal and stubborn Ironclad; there is a character for every playstyle.
In our ongoing effort to cover the strongest characters in the game, however, we wanted to take a few minutes to talk about Kate, the Liquidator. This character is one of the best options to choose for fighting against enemies who rely heavily on shadow energy and shadow form attacks, mostly because Kate can burn shadow energy with every successful attack, and then use it against the enemy to turn the tide of the battle. In this sense, Kate goes well when fighting against foes like Shang, as she can shut them down quickly, as long as you know what you’re doing.
Knowing about your character in Shadow Fight Arena is half the battle, which is why we’re going to give you all the basic info you need to know about Kate before entering the field, so that you can learn exactly what she can do, and unleash her full potential against your unsuspecting foes.
Introduction to Kate
Kate is a Liquidator armed with a pair of blades, one in each hand. Her status as a Liquidator means that she’s adept at hunting down enemies who rely on shadow energy, and this is reflected in her passive trait, Liquidator’s Daughter, with which she can burn away her enemy’s shadow energy with every successful attack.
Though Kate is armed with a set of swords, her attacks aren’t as fast as you’d expect them to be, which is pretty much in line with the flow and rhythm of Shadow Fight Arena’s gameplay. Regardless, her attacks are usually faster than that of other characters, which makes her a great option for those who enjoy employing an aggressive playstyle and constantly pressuring the enemy against the corners of the screen.
Kate’s basic moves include the following:
- Neutral Attack: A couple of powerful swings, ending with an overhead smash with both swords. This attack can be chained three times for a total of 3 hits. It also moves Kate forward significantly, to the point where she can close the distance to her enemy from the opposite end of the screen.
- Forward Attack: A cross-swipe with both swords followed by a powerful thrust. This attack can be chained twice for a total of 2 hits. The second attack of this combo also ends in a grab, dealing extra damage if it lands.
- Back Attack: A backstep followed by a spinning sword attack. Can be chained twice for a total of 3 hits.
- Down Attack: A single sword swing followed by a dual sword swipe directed at the enemy’s feet. Can be chained twice for a total of 3 hits.
- Up Attack: A fast set of upward swings using both swords. Hits twice.
- Ranged Attack: Kate pulls out her mini crossbow and shoots the enemy for minor damage.
Kate’s attacks are just about average in terms of speed. However, through smart use of her Up Attack to interrupt the enemy’s counter-swings, and by carefully reading and predicting the enemy’s moves, she can easily push them into a wall and keep them pressured throughout the entire match.
Kate’s kicks are somewhat overwhelming, with none of them being able to chain and combo together. This is with the exception of her Forward Kick which, if she confirms the first one, allows her to grab the enemy and slam them on the floor for additional damage.
Kate’s Specialty: Shadow Energy Burn
As we mentioned above, Kate is adept at burning away at the enemy’s shadow energy reserves, potentially preventing them from entering their shadow form, and thus blocking them from employing their strongest abilities. She can then use her own shadow energy to enter shadow form and unleash a devastating grab attack.
Kate’s only shadow form attack in the beginning is Criss-Cross, which consists of a thrust using both blades that is functionally a grab. If this first hit lands, she then follows up with a series of devastating projectile attacks, which results in the enemy suffering major damage and falling on the ground. Kate only has enough shadow energy to land this attack once. However, if she succeeds, this can reset the field by knocking the enemy down, which has high mixup potential as you can throw a follow-up attack as they’re getting back up, and they’ll have to predict it correctly or else suffer more damage if they botch their defenses.
Kate is all about pressuring the enemy at every leg of the fight, and players have to be very aggressive to take advantage of this.
Kate’s Talents
Like every other fighter in Shadow Fight Arena, Kate can learn up to 10 different talents by leveling up, and equip a maximum of 5 (1 per tier). Her talents include the following:
Level 2
- Skillful Liquidator: Increase the amount of energy burnt per attack.
- At the Ready: Greatly increases Kate’s damage output at the start of the round, until she gets hit.
Level 4
- Ballista: Kate unlocks a new shadow form attack, and the duration of her shadow form is increased.
- Coup de Grâce: Instantly eliminates enemies that have
Level 6
- Legionary Jump: Kate unlocks a new shadow form attack, and the duration of her shadow form is increased.
- Legionary Luck: Kate has a small chance with every attack to break through the enemy’s guard.
Level 8
- Father’s Pistol: Instead of a crossbow, Kate uses a pistol with 3 charges.
- Liquidator’s Tenacity: Kate can drain Shadow Energy even when the enemies are blocking.
Level 10
- Residual Shadow Energy: Increases Kate’s shadow power every time she enters shadow form. This effect can stack and persists through rounds.
- Never Surrender: Whenever Kate has
As you can tell, Kate’s talents go from expanding the potential of her shadow form, to magnifying her innate traits by passively increasing her damage and increasing the pressure she can inflict on her enemies. We suggest going for the latter route as Kate isn’t really meant to rely on her shadow form too much, and even without choosing the new shadow form skills, she can still make use of her Residual Shadow Energy boost, which can further boost her damage output.
What are your preferred ways of playing with Kate in Shadow Fight Arena? Leave us your opinions and comments in the section below!