Kusunoki Talent Tree and Guide

Kusunoki is a powerful commander in Rise of Kingdoms and has some tremendous skills that make him a valuable character in the game. However, what sets him apart from the other commanders is his massive damage potential. His four skills mainly focus on increasing damage and attack, and this means that he is an excellent commander to use on the battlefield. 

If you have been considering investing in a new commander that has these qualities, perhaps Kusunoki is for you. Keep reading, and you’ll have a bit more clarity on whether or not Kusunoki is a commander you want to invest in. We will talk about his skills, talent trees, and pairings in this article. 

Let’s get started!

Kusunoki Masashige Talent Tree Build

You can go two different routes in building Kusunoki Masahige’s talent tree, and they depend on how you want to use him. If you want to get the highest damage output in order to devastate your opponents in PvP, then go for the Field Fight build. If, however, you prefer going the more tactical route by utilizing him as a garrison commander, then you’ll be better served by the Garrison build. 

Before we take a look at these builds, do remember that these are suggestions, and you can use any build that you are comfortable with.

Kusunoki Masashige Field Fights Talent Tree Build

For the Field Fight build, you’ll want to max out the following talents; Full Quiver, Arrows Nocked, Thumb Ring, Rapid Fire, Armed and Armored, Phoenix-Tail Arrows, Venomous Sting, Whistling Arrows, Burning Blood, Heraldic Shield, All For One, Tactical Mastery, and Rejuvenate. This is one of the most powerful builds you can make for Kusunoki, giving you stats like 12.5% attack, 4.5% defense, 7% health, and 18% march speed, making Kusunoki a walking nuke.

Kusunoki Nuke Talent Tree Build
Main Talents	Talent Points
Full Quiver	3/3
Arrows Nocked	3/3
Thumb Ring	3/3
Rapid Fire	3/3
Armed and Armored	3/3
Phoenix-Tail Arrows	4/4
Venomous Sting	4/4
Whistling Arrows	5/5
Burning Blood	3/3
Heraldic Shield	3/3
All For One	3/3
Tactical Mastery	3/3
Rejuvenate	3/3
Stats
Attack:	12.5%
Defense:	4.5%
Health:	7%
March Speed:	18%

Kusunoki Masashige Garrison Talent Tree Build

For the Garrison build, put maximum points into the following talents; Empty Fortress Stratagem, Impenetrable Fortifications, Impregnable, Adamantine Walls, City Guardian, Nowhere To Turn, Know Thy Enemy, Divine Favor, Burning Blood, Heraldic Shield, Latent Power, All For One, Tactical Mastery, Rejuvenate.

If you look just at the stats this build gives Kusunoki, 4.5% attack, 5% defense, 4.5% health, and 0% march speed, it might not look like the strongest build, but that’s because it trades damage output for utility, making Kusunoki seem weak on his own, but a formidable garrison commander.

Kusunoki Garrison Talent Tree Build
Main Talents	Talent Points
Empty Fortress Stratagem	3/3
Impenetrable Fortifications	3/3
Impregnable	3/3
Adamantine Walls	3/3
City Guardian	3/3
Nowhere To Turn	3/3
Know Thy Enemy	3/3
Divine Favor	5/5
Burning Blood	3/3
Heraldic Shield	3/3
Latent Power	3/3
All For One	3/3
Tactical Mastery	3/3
Rejuvenate	3/3
Stats
Attack:	4.5%
Defense:	5%
Health:	4.5%
March Speed:	0%

Is investing in Kusunoki a good idea in 2023?

Kusunoki is a commander that is actively gaining more and more popularity in 2023. His skills make him a valuable character in the game, and along with his pairings and builds, he has a lot of potential to be one of the best commanders. 

Hence, investing in him is, without a doubt, a good idea. He has major attack and damage potential. His skills are strong, especially his active skill, which hits up to 3 enemies at one time and deals extra damage. His passive skills, too, focus on increasing damage, attack, and defense. If these are things you are looking for in a good rise of kingdoms commander, I suggest Kusunoki is the one for you. 

Kusunoki Pairings

So, in short, you should definitely consider investing in Kusunoki as a commander in 2023 because his high damage potential will bring a lot of value to your game!

Here, we will talk about some pairings that will make Kusunoki even more powerful. These are Rise Of Kingdoms pairings with epic commanders as well as legendary commanders. It is important to note that these are merely suggestions, and whichever commanders you want to use in the game totally depends on you. If you have a good experience with some other pairings, do not hesitate to use them.

Yi Seong Gye

Before we look at the pairing of Kusunoki and Yi Seong Gye, it is important to note that this is an ideal scenario where you already have a legendary commander. In this case, the best pairing for Kusunoki would be Yi Seong-Gye in canyon, because he’s a legendary archer commander, and his skills will give a massive boost in damage to your archer troops similar to Kusunoki.

So if you pair these two together, they’ll be amazing as garrison commanders, and their damage boosting skills acting together will give your troops and archers a giant edge against the opposition, owing to the massive damage boost. However, if you do not have Yi Seong-Gye, then we have a few other good pairs, both with other epic commanders, as well as legendary commanders. To get most from this pair use Yi Seong Gye talent tree.

Hermann

As for epic commander pairings, one of the best commanders to pair Kusunoki with is Hermann, as he covers up for many of the weaknesses that Kusunoki has. For example, Hermann is able to generate extra rage, something Kusunoki is unable to do, but definitely will benefit greatly from. Hermann can also reduce the enemies’ rage, giving you the upper hand over them, and he also has more March speed, which is something Kusunoki is in dire need of. 

Boudica

The last pairing we will be talking about is that of Kusunoki and Boudica. This is a good pairing for damage, as she will give you the damage boost as well as some healing and rage regeneration which will help Kusunoki greatly. On top of that, Boudica also reduces both the rage and attack of the enemy, stifling their damage and helping you survive longer. For fighting against barbarians use Boudica talent tree build.

Kusunoki Masashige Skills

Shichisei Hōkoku

Rage Requirement: 1000

Active Skill
Removes all negative and control effects from Kusunoki Masashige’s troops. In addition, deals direct damage to a maximum of 3 targets in a fan-shaped area, then deals additional damage to targets each second for the next 2 seconds.

Upgrade Preview:
Direct Damage Factor: 150 / 180 / 210 / 250 / 300
Additional Damage Factor: 100 / 130 / 160 / 200 / 250

Kusunokis first skill is an active skill, Shichisei Hōkoku. It deals AOE (area of effect) damage outwards in a funnel-shaped area, hitting up to 3 enemies. The direct damage factor it deals is 300, and then 250 extra damage, every second for the next 2 seconds, adding up to a whopping 800 damage in total.

While that alone makes it an incredible skill considering it only requires 1000 rage, it even strips away all negative effects from his troops such as control, slow down, poison, etc. 

The Worthy Men

Passive Skill
Increases garrison counterattack damage when this commander is service as garrison commander.

Upgrade Preview:
Garrison Counterattack Damage Bonus: 1% / 2% / 3% / 5% / 7%

The second skill, the worthy men, is a passive garrison skill that increases his garrisons counter attack damage, starting with a 1% damage boost and increasing all the way to 7% when the skill is maxed out, allowing the troops to retaliate more effectively if you’re under attack by multiple marches. 

Bravery and Wisdom

Passive Skill
Increases the attack of archer units and defense of archer units.

Upgrade Preview:
Archer Attack Bonus: 4% / 5% / 6% / 8% / 10%
Archer Defense Bonus: 4% / 5% / 6% / 8% / 10%

Bravery and wisdom, the third skill in Kusunoki’s arsenal, is yet another passive skill that bolsters both his archer troops’ attack and defense. It starts with a 4% bonus, increasing to 5%, then 6%, and all the way up to 10% bonus attack and defense for Kusunoki’s archer troops.

Not only that, you are able to enhance this skill, to add an additional 5% increase, meaning this skill can give your archers 15% extra attack and defense. Combined with the second skills bonus to counter attack damage, this makes Kusunoki one of the best garrison commanders.

Tragedy’s End

Passive Skill
Normal attacks of troops have a change to deal additional damage each second to the target for 2 seconds.

Upgrade Preview:
Additional damage factor: 150 / 200 / 250 / 350 / 450

Kusunoki’s final skill, tragedy’s end, gives troops’ regular attacks a possibility of inflicting additional damage each second for the next two seconds to the enemy. Now, this doesn’t sound like much, but when you take into consideration the fact that this additional damage starts at 150 and goes all the way up to a solid 450 when the skill is maxed out. This means just regular attacks from troops have a chance to do 900 damage, making this a very viable skill.

Soul of the Samurai

Enhanced: Bravery and Wisdom
Increases the attack of archer units by 15% and defense of archer units by 15%

Now that we’ve had an overview of the skills, it’s important to know the order in which you should unlock them. Technically speaking, you can unlock and upgrade them in any order you want to, but to get the most out of them, we suggest you follow the following order;

Max out the first skill, then upgrade your Kusunoki to 4 stars, then invest in the rest of the skills. The reason we suggest this is because the first skill is Kusunoki’s most powerful skill. The rest of the Garrison related skills are good. However, they won’t benefit you as much as the first one.

Conclusion

To summarize, if you want a commander that has massive damage ability, Kusunoki is the one for you. Not only will he take your game to the next level with his massive AoE (Area on Effect) that can kill up to three enemies at a time, but he has skills that provide defense too. 

His pairings and talent builds are also very strong and will bring considerable value to your game. He will be a commander you can depend on to destroy enemies. He is probably one of the best Garrison commanders in the game.

So, in conclusion, you should definitely invest in Kusunoki in 2023. If you have decided to do so, you should consider using the pairings and talent builds that we have suggested in order to get the maximum benefit from using Kusunoki as a commander!

Lore

Kusunoki Masashige remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty. His origin has not been validated and it was merely six years between the start of his military campaign in 1331 and his demise in 1336. He received the highest decoration from the Meiji government of Japan in 1880. Legend has it that Emperor Go-Daigo had a dream in which he was sheltering under a camphor tree (“kusunoki”), and that this dream led him to the surname of the warrior who would support him. Kusunoki Masashige is a hero because he “stands in the history of his country as the ideal figure of a warrior, compact of civil and military virtues in a high degree.”