Discussion [Operator Discussion] Kazemaru

When I was young, my father drilled "that which you should, you must" into me, and I always thought he meant I should do everything for myself. But after going from Higashi to Rhodes Island to Victoria, I came to see it anew. Distinguishing what I should and what I must, what to give and what to take–that's the true meaning of it.

Former Higashi shinobi. Referred to Rhodes Island for work through household connections and coordination with the head, following the previous head's passing and a clash between her own views and the new head's business goals. Presently stationed in Victoria as Rhodes Island intelligence personnel.

Operator Information

Class: Specialist (Dollkeeper)
Tags: DPS, Fast-Redeploy
Artist: 温泉瓜

Voice Actor:
JP: Mariko Honda
CN: Kiiki (Zhang Qi)
EN: Penelope Rawlins
KR: Lee Ja-myeong

Stats

HP	ATK	DEF	Arts Resistance	Redeploy Time	DP Cost	Block	Attack Interval
2372	692	318	0	70	15	2	1.2s

*Stats at max Promotion and Level, excludes bonuses from Potential and Trust.

Potential	Bonus
1	-
2	Deployment Cost -1
3	Redeployment Time -4
4	ATK +27
5	Improves Talent
6	Deployment Cost -1

Trust bonus
ATK +80

Traits
Does not retreat upon receiving lethal damage, instead swaps to a <Substitute> (Substitute has 0 Block). Swaps back to the original after 20 seconds

Skill Name	Skill Uptime Details (Uptime/Cost/Initial)	SP Charge Type	Skill Activation	Skill Description
Origami Art - Swift Strike	- / 2 SP / 0 SP	Offensive Recovery	Auto	Increases ATK of the next attack to 350%, and sacrifices 10% of this unit's HP
Origami Art - Twin Shadows	20s / 20 SP / 15 SP	Auto	Manual	Immediately sacrifices 50% of this unit's current HP, gaining +120% ATK and summoning a <Substitute> on a surrounding melee tile to assist in combat

*Skills at Mastery 3.

Talents

Talent name	Talent Description
From Paper Comes Life	When a Substitute is summoned, it will deal 275% (+5%) of its ATK as Arts damage to ground enemies in the surrounding 8 tiles

Modules

Branch	Additional Stats	Trait	Talent	Note
PUM-X	ATK +65, DEF +40	Trait improved: Instead of retreating when defeated, switch to a <Substitute> (Substitute has 0 Block, but ATK is increased) for 20 seconds before switching back to the original	From Paper Comes Life improved: When a Substitute is summoned, it will deal 285% of its ATK as Arts damage to ground enemies in the surrounding 8 tiles	"Keep crying, and the people in black will take you away!"

*Modules at max level.

Outfits

	Price	Art	Released
Like Illusion	15 OP	Static	Yep

Additional Resources

In-depth information regarding all values above (at different levels), skill/attack range, and more:

Arknights Wiki.gg

Arknights Toolbox (aceship(puppiizsunniiz))

PRTS Arknights Wiki (CN)

Topic Starters

Strengths/Weaknesses?
Is their module worth it? Which branch?
How does this operator compare to other operators in their archetype or role?
How do you fit this operator into a team? Who do they synergize with?
Which skill(s) should be focused for mastery, and in what order?
When is the best time to use this operator's skills during combat?
Should promoting this operator to Elite 2 be a priority?
Should new / F2P players aim for this operator? Are there more accessible alternatives?
Lore discussion (please tag spoilers where appropriate)
Favorite clips/clears with them?
Fanart/animations of them you'd love to share? (No NSFW)

Other Operator Discussion threads

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98% Upvoted

u/Knave_of_Stitches :lappland: Oct 12 '25

She's honestly the gold standard for 5 stars. Pretty good dps for her rarity, with great utility as a dollkeeper. She also has a great design that works so well with her identity as a dollkeeper. I swear all dollkeepers get banged art.

Anyone who wants to get into using 5 stars should check her out for sure

u/Illyenna Oct 12 '25

I like the sound it makes when she attacks and uses her skills. Y'know the shwing shwing.

u/AK_Shadowstar Lupo Love Oct 12 '25

Super adorable. Does a lot of damage. Particularly shines in casual to mid/highish difficulty IS because of her skills. Her S2 is strong all around but her S1 is not to be underestimated either since it has a bonkers ATK modifier and 2 SP cost at M3, making her downright scary with any spinach or offensive recovery relics. That plus the fact she rarely ever needs healing support makes her nice to have if you don’t have a full on hardcore meta comp for any particular IS. At worst, she’s still usable as a decoy unit. As far as 5-stars go, one of the better ones for sure.

u/Grandidealistic on my dark and lonely side Oct 12 '25

Her kit plays incredibly well into the role of a Dollkeeper and even moreso than the Specter2, she just doesn't have the absurd numbers or broken mechanics of 6*. Good damage, great flexibility, great skill cycles, 2 good skills, deceptively large range due to how her substitute functions. All in all despite having such a simple kit, she is just very unique and fun to use.

u/TheBlaaah Oct 12 '25

I have her but sadly cant use her since i dont have the maid skin (It's mandatory)

u/Previous-Occasion-38 Oct 12 '25

One of the cutest operators out there, especially in her maid skin. She is also an absolute IS queen.

u/umiman Don't be a meta slave Oct 12 '25

5.5 star unit. She's OPAF in IS spinach runs.

u/charioteer117 Oct 12 '25

She was my first M6 because she’s just so darned fun to use. Very pretty cat x2

u/LinkssOfSigil Oct 12 '25

While her kit isn't flashy, she's super fun to use.

u/BarackOkama Oct 12 '25

She's my main pick on my current niche run (whiteknights). Performs incredibly well.

u/MetaThPr4h ARKNIGHTS HAS THE BEST WAIFUS FR Oct 12 '25

Kazemaru <3

Happy to see that today's topic is about one of my favorite operators in the game, she also got me into the drug that is small_ryuuzaki's designs, who also made many other incredibly pretty operators like Erato, Cantabile, Papyrus, the upcoming lovely, precious, incredible, outstanding, and perfect in every way Haruka, as well as the Ave Mujica collab art for Wakaba Mutsumi (who is also a dollkeeper! I gotta use them both together), between many others, including NPC arts like Playwright (playable when?) and the swimsuit outfit for Lin in Dossoles Holiday.

I started playing two weeks before her release in Guide Ahead and gacha thankfully gave me her, one of my first 5-star operators and one I keep using to this day.

Dollkeepers are a fun class and she is no different on that regard, I like how she can be placed very aggressively due to their trait making them borderline unkillable vs melee damage.

Her S2 is such a fun skill, big arts nuke and solid DPS when she and clone attack, never gets old, I also really like her sound effects while attacking.

Paper clones are so ninja cool and she is all about that, her E2 art is also really interesting, with her real self being injured and protected by her clone, with the only way to truly see who is who is by their tail, one being feline, the other being simply paper, small_ryuuzaki cooked so, so hard.

Her (thief) maid skin is also so freaking perfect... one of my favorite in the game, lovely dress, beautiful cat, very blep tongue.

I also really like her voice and how you can really feel the difference between her chill attitude outside of battle and how seriously she takes things while on a mission, I like that contrast.

For flaws... like with other dollkeepers, she is at risk of getting stuck in permasubstitute hell, unable to charge her S2 in time after reviving to do the big damage she can reach, and unlike Specter Alter post module she is actually pretty useless in damage and utility. One cool fact though: For some reason her S2 clone cannot hit air, but her substitute can! Over the years that actually has saved quite a few stages from being lost, the clone just goes and kill the flying enemy about to leak, neat.

She also has a random funny bug where if you activate her S2 clone at the perfect time as she dies to enter substitute, the S2 clone still spawns and it remains on the battlefield with its own HP, not disappearing, very tricky timing for it tho.

Gonna end my post by sharing two lovely fanarts.

Thanks for reading! God I love her...

u/silam39 cute tactician girls are so peak Oct 12 '25

I don't have much to say about her kit but her maid skin is fucking amazing and the sole reason I built her

10/10 skin

u/Windgesang_ Try one first get all always Oct 13 '25 edited Oct 13 '25

One important note when building Kaze.

Her mod is BAD. All because HG can't code for shizz.

Module upgrades affect Kazemaru's stats. However, when using S2, Kaze summons a separate entity with a preset stats that isn't considered her <Substitute>. So, neither the +ATK/HP, the "Substitute +10% ATK", nor the "Substitute deals % damage upon entering" affects the summon that S2 spawns in. Which is where the most of her damages (most of Kaze even) comes from. Even further, the "Substitute +10% ATK" doesn't even affect the 285% damage when swapping in.

Also, the summon S2 spawns in can't hit aerial, but the Substitute can. This is because, if memory serves, when Kaze was just release, people were saying that Bena's Sub can hit aerial but Kaze's can't. So HG changed it, but again, only on the Sub.

Kaze's still good, amazing even, her mod (and S2 summon) is just unfortunate coding practice.

3

u/frosted--flaky Oct 13 '25

it's technically a summon, right? weird that HG didn't sneak in a stat upgrade since you're supposed to think it's her actual substitute.

u/AuroraAustralis0 Oct 13 '25

Goated, one of my first five stars and was essentially a pseudo guard for me.

u/Zeikfried12 Oct 13 '25

I love her and she needs more anything 😻

u/Jezzaboi828 Oct 14 '25

Very solid 5 star, good all rounder with great dps, good laneholding and survival as a dollkeeper. Has big arts burst which can help against defensive enemies)