Like always we are going to start things off with the moveset.

Passive
While not exactly a move I wanted to start off by talking about Kodoki’s passive Germinate. This passive allows the Kodoki to plant their roots and slowly begin to regain health so long as they remain motionless for a moment, This means you can not move, use attacks or summon any minions, although any minions you already have will work as normal. I recommend using this cover on maps like riverside and ruins and if you are hard-pressed to find somewhere to hide for a bit then you can always summon some of your Vines to create a makeshift wall and use stunner flys to help cover you while you heal up a bit. Another good way to use this power is to put your opponent to sleep and then heal for a small amount before using a combo on them.

Basic Attack
Now on to Kodoki’s Basic attack called Gaia Volley, This will be your main way of dealing damage as your other abilities don’t do a lot of damage alone. You can use this attack along with your minions to keep melee characters at bay and if you have good enough aim you can sometimes get away with shooting other ranged Kinfolk annoying them and maybe getting them to try and come in close where you can put them to sleep.

Growth
Growth raises the user's physical and special attack by one stage. As a buff move you need about 2 seconds without being attacked in order to get the move off, this will almost never happen on any map other than ruins. If you choose to use buffs I recommend putting your opponent to sleep before trying to use the buff.

Spore Dance
Now we come to what is one of the if not the best move in the game at the time of writing this guide, Spore Dance. With this move, you have to be very close to hit with it but once you land it you have so many options that you can do while your opponent is asleep. Some of the most basic things you can do are 1. Heal with your passive 2. Get a buff off 3. Summon Wicked Thorns and then knock your opponent into them with a well-placed Twister. In addition to these ideas, you will more than likely have time to use at least two of the things I listed and you have time to switch Kinfolk and use about two moves if you would rather pull a combo like that.

Thrash
With Thrash, you unleash a barrage of 5 long-range melee attacks directly in front of you. While the damage can be good this move does not really suit Kodoki’s playstyle at the time of writing and I would recommend avoiding this move in favor of the others but if you decide to use this move it can be useful to catch your opponent off guard as they round a corner and maybe get a fair bit of damage.

Twister
With Twister, you launch a fast-moving gust of wind that tracks a nearby target. Now the tracking does not really come into play with this move at the time of writing but this move also has a knockback effect that can be used in an emergency situation to keep your opponent from getting too close to you, That being said I think the best use for this move is like a said when talking about spore dance and using it to knock your opponent into your wicked thorns.

Stunner Files
When using Stunner Files you summon a small swarm of files that will chase your opponent and deal a small amount of damage to them, But the real appeal of this move is in the name. With each tick of damage, they stagger your opponent stopping them from moving or attacking for about a second. This can give you a chance to switch kinfolk and hit them with a powerful attack such as Embears explosion or just make life difficult for them as you ping them with your basic attack or hide behind your thorns and heal with your passive.

Wicked Thorn
And last but not least we have Wicked Thorn, You spawn 3 vines that last about 15seconds. These vines strike enemies that come near, dealing damage and knocking them away. This is a wonderful move I recommend you always take with Kodoki. You can use it to keep melee users away, You can use it to provide cover for yourself, and as mentioned before it is useful in sleep combos, One thing that may not be obvious is how you can use your thorns to block your opponent’s path on a map like ruins giving yourself some good map control. Overall this is one of the most versatile moves in the game and you will almost always get at least a little use out of it each game.

In general with Kodoki you want to keep Stunner files on your opponent as much as you can and fall back when you get hurt even if it’s only a small amount so that you can heal with your passive. Kodoki is a great kinfolk to use Ynku’s attack into dodge tech with as it will let you hit your sleep much easier, In brief, you want to use your spore dance a split second before you dodge, and then you will be able to hit your opponent at a much greater range.

Kodoki can get good use out of any item other than black mask but we will talk a bit about each one here.

Peach and Rations
Both of these can go good with making kodoki even hard to get rid of, out of them I would recommend Rations over peach as Kodoki’s low Hp makes peach less useful than on a kinfolk like Embear.

Aole
I would recommend this for healing burns over the poison heal item as you are much more likely to fight an Embear than a Skulken at this time.

Coffee Bean
This can be an odd choice but somewhat useful if you want to win sleep trades with other Kodoki’s making you into an effective Counter to other Kodoki.

Moving on to matchups, I would say that Kodoki is one of the strongest Kinfolk in the game right now but that does not mean that he is unstoppable. So now we will talk about what matchups will be in your favor and how to make the best of the ones that are not.

Embear
Starting with the biggest hurdle for Kodoki we have embear. Pretty much all of embear’s moves can mean trouble for an unprepared Kodoki you have to be careful to watch for the animation before an explosion goes off so you can shield or dodge in time. If you don’t have Aole then getting close is not an option thanks to scorch and even if you do have aole then fire spin can still give you some problems. And to top everything off embear will tear through your minions like they are paper. Your best chance with embear is to run aole and fight him at range until you can get close enough to put him to sleep and finish him off with a combo.

Lumala
When fighting Lumala Kodoki is not a bad choice, your stunner files can be very annoying for Lumala to deal with and your vines can be used to shut down Lumala’s most powerful healing move. Lumala is pretty fast so it may be hard to catch her so that you can use spore dance but once you hit it then they are pretty much done for.

Mechid
Mechid is an odd fight, You can pretty easily keep them away with your moves but you have no real way of killing them before they get lucky enough to hit you with a rush or iron fist. Be careful with using stunner files as they can use them to get buff thanks to rage, This can be used as a way to lure your opponent’s mechid into a trap where you hit them with a status effect but just be careful. At the end of the day, you want to treat mechid kinda like embear in that you want to keep him at range until you see a moment where you can put him to sleep.

Shovlet
Shovlet much like Mechid will be very hard for you to land a killing blow on but stunner files will be much more helpful in this matchup, Be careful when using sleep on a shovlet as they most of the time use coffee bean which will make you waste your cooldown and maybe even lead into a trap. Overall I would recommend dropping stunner files and keeping shovlet at a range, if at all possible you should switch kinfolk after summoning stunner files on a shovlet.

Skulken
Skulken does not have a lot that he can do to fight your minions, all you really have to do is be mindful of caustic cloud and keep up the pressure and you will be fine.

Slyphur
While slyphur may seem scary at first he has almost nothing he can do to get close after you put your wicked thorns down, That being said stunner files will not be very useful as slyphur can easily escape them. If you time your sleep just right you can catch slyphur as he comes in for an attack and with his low Hp he won’t survive a strong sleep combo, otherwise you can just hide around your minions and you will be fine most of the time.

And I think that about covers the basics for kodoki! I expect some aspects such as sleep will be nerfed at some point but even if they are then general ideas here will still serve you well enough. I hope you all enjoyed and until next time this has been Monster Tamer Bloba signing off, I hope you all have a wonderful day goodbye and God bless!