Hotori Build Guide

Increases Cosmos DMG by 10% for each Type III Module equipped.

Hotori’s Ultimate stops time for everything except Blossom, which keeps dealing damage, so she’s the best support for Blossom teams. Aside from that, her Skill records three skills cast by allies - one per ally, and repeats them during her Ultimate.

So Hotori fits perfectly with characters who have a very important effects on skill cast. She can record and replicate support skills instead if you switch to a character with full Esper Meter.

Charge Team

Hotori, Zero, Hathor, Jiuyuan/ Iroi

The way Hotori repeats skill casts means she can replicate Zero's skill for double Esper Meter refills. If you align all characters' skills right after Hotori skill, she will repeat them after using her Ultimate.

All repeated skills generate Esper Meter and Ultimate Energy for each character, so the team ramps up pretty fast. The team also proc Charge pretty easy, resulting in faster rotation. And considering she freezes the timer during her Ultimate, the Hotori version of this team clears faster than any non-Hotori version.

Blossom Teams

Nanally, Jiuyuan, Hotori, Zero - Link

Iroi, Jiuyuan, Hotori, Zero - Link

With two Anima and two Cosmos, added to the double cast of Zero's skill, this team triggers Blossom nonstop. To the point that Cycle Intensity becomes the best stat for Zero to maximize Blossom damage.

Nanally takes more field as the main carry while Blossom keep shooting automatically. Blossom keep shooting during the time stop, to maximize the damage done while timer is frozen, thanks to Hotori's passive.

This is still one of the highest DPS team even after the release of many hyper carry DPS characters.

Lacrimosa Nova Team

Lacrimosa, Haniel, Hotori, Sakiri - Link

This team is preferred with A6: Morning Spell allocated on Lacrimosa to enable instant Cycle reactions. Lacrimosa will trigger one reaction with her skill, then Hotori repeat the skill after Ultimate for yet another reaction.

This way, the team can spam Nova repeatedly, with a full Cycle Intensity build on Haniel to maximize the Nova damage.

Daffodill Discord Team

Daffodill, Hotori, Fadia, Sakiri - Link

Another team in bottom side of the Esper Circle, without Hotori causing Cycle reaction. It's still a workaround to build a Discord and break team without Zankou , by repeating team's skills to build Esper Meter faster, and repeat powerful break skills from Daffodill

Zankou Break and Scorch Team

Zankou, Hotori, Sakiri, Daffodill/ Lacrimosa

Since Zankou builds a strong break team without needing Discord reaction, Hotori becomes an instant alternative in place of Psyche characters. This forms a Mono Scorch team, with strong Break.

Hotori records entire team skills, and repeats them - including Lacrimosa's monster skill and Zankou enhanced skill - for high damage and break.

The team DoT and direct damage is not affected by losing Psyche character, and gain all the free damage Hotori brings while time is stopped.

• Limited BiS: Marching Beyond Time
• Paid Alternative: The Rain That Shook the World
• F2P Alternative: Hethereau's Keeper (Max wanted boss),
• Early F2P: The Forgotten

Marching Beyond Time is Hotori’s Limited weapon, which works best with her in the majority of situations. With high Base ATK, Crit Rate, ATK%, and a conditional Ultimate Crit DMG buff for Hotori, based on recorded skill count. And another Def Ignore buff if she records 3 allies skills or support skills. If you skipped Nanally’s signature weapon, getting Hotori's would be easy, even for F2P. However, if you pull for several limited banner Arcs, it becomes expensive.

The Rain That Shook the World the World comes from a $3 starter pack, and is considered a decent alternative if you already bought this pack. It increases Crit Rate, Cosmos DMG, and Cycle Intensity. But it's not worth going out of your way for, as there are more alternatives.

Hethereau's Keeper is the best F2P weapon for Hotori, but it drops from the hardest boss in the game. The Police Boss spawns when a player gets 4 star wanted level from committing crimes in overworld. The boss is level 99 and one- or two-shot most characters, so most players need to reach a higher level before challenging it. This weapon is worth the struggle, as its DPS on Hotori comes very close to her signature weapon. And summons a cool little officer that attacks enemies alongside the player, and scales with the character's own DPS stats.

In the early game, before getting any S-Class weapon, use The Forgotten

• Cartridge: Lost Radiance (S)
• Cartridge Main Stat: Cosmos DMG%
• Substats: CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG / Universal DMG% / ATK%

Lost Radiance (S) is Hotori's best-in-slot cartridge for all scenarios, as she’s a support who builds like a DPS. It provides Cosmos DMG and Def Ignore after casting Ultimate, which is when all Hotori’s damage occurs.

Console bonus gives Hotori 10% Cosmos DMG with every Type III module, and Lost Radiance set requires 2x Type III modules. So you can stack a total of four Type III modules for 40% Cosmos DMG. That's a strong DPS multiplier for the direct damage portion of Hotori's kit.

For Main Stat, she prefers Cosmos DMG% even in full Blossom teams. Since Hotori doesn't build up her Esper Meter during her Ultimate, and she doesn't take the field outside Ultimate, so she doesn't trigger Cycle reactions by herself. You can leave all reactions to Zero to handle and leave Hotori with standard ADC build.

The ideal substats are CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, and Universal DMG% and ATK%. With flat Attack following after.

Ultimate > Everything Else 

All of Hotori’s damage counts as Ultimate damage, even the ten attacks after casting Ultimate which appear as Normal Attacks, they are Ultimate damage, not Basic Attacks. So level Ultimate the most, and ignore everything else if you want.

While Hotori’s kit is complicated, her playstyle is surprisingly straightforward.

Hotori’s Simple Rotation

• Always start with Hotori’s Skill
• Switch to your next ally
• Cast all three allies’ skills
• Hotori records all skills cast within 5 seconds of her own skill cast
• Allies’ Ultimates don’t interfere with the rotation, cast them at will
• Wait until Hotori Ultimate is ready
• Switch back to Hotori and cast Ultimate, she causes a time stop
• All recorded skills automatically repeats
• Follow up with 10 Ultimate Normal Attacks
• After time stop ends, spend 10 seconds on your main DPS while Hotori regenerates energy

How Hotori’s kit works

Hotori has a max of 120 Ultimate energy, which appears as a time resource. It generates over time on its own, at a rate of 6 energy per second. Hotori’s own skill and Ultimate doesn’t regenerate her Ultimate Energy faster, but the Charged reaction helps regenerate it faster.

Hotori’s skill doesn’t have a cooldown, but requires 60 energy to cast. That way, Hotori has to wait 10 seconds after finishing her Ultimate to recover enough energy to cast her skill, and wait a total of 20 seconds between each Ultimate. (The time stop period not included)

During her time stop, all allies' cooldown are paused, allies and enemies are frozen, and she can’t switch out. The only exception is Blossom buds, which keep firing and hitting enemies. 

If the enemy is inflicted with Remora and gets hit by Blossom during time stop, Charged is triggered, but it doesn’t regenerate energy. Despite that, outside the time stop, Charged works normally. So the best way to maximize both energy generation and DPS is to renew Blossom more often and use more Anima and Cosmos allies.

Special interactions

• Hotori’s signature Arc requires recording full 3 skills within 5 seconds to trigger the Def Ignore bonus. While her A1 scales up with the number of the recorded skills.
• • If an ally’s skill is on cooldown, you miss weapon bonus and get smaller buff from A1
  • If an ally’s skill takes too long and 5 seconds ends, you miss the weapon bonus and get smaller buff from A1. (e.g: Hathor’s hold skill)
  • Some skills are recorded instantly at the start of animation (Jiuyuan), while others are recorded at the very end of animation (Hathor). So if you cancel the skill animation, you miss.
• Hotori repeats the basic version of any recorded skill. So Daffodill’s enhanced skill repeats as normal, not enhanced. The same for Hathor’s and Sakiri’s hold versions.
• Some character skills have special conditions to trigger special buffs, such as Nanally’s Crit DMG buff after using a skill which requires Nanally to be on-field. So repeating Nanally’s skill doesn’t trigger her buff.

Hotori released in version 1.0 second half, on May 13, 2026