In San Guo Sha, players checking Crickex Login before choosing a new general may be surprised to find that there is actually a Japanese character in the game. Himiko is exactly that unusual presence. Beyond her impressive original artwork and strong skins, how powerful is Himiko herself, and how should players use her properly?

Himiko is a female general with three health points, and after awakening, she has four skills in total. At her core, she is a development and resource management general who relies on marks to draw cards and trigger other effects. Her first skill, Zongkui, is the key marking skill. At the beginning of her own turn, Himiko can choose one character to receive a Puppet mark. In addition, at the start of each round, she automatically finds the character with the lowest health who does not already have a mark and gives that character one.

In an eight player game, Himiko needs at least four rounds to place enough marks across the field. In 2v2 or Landlord mode when she plays as the landlord, however, she may only need one or two rounds. The value of Puppet marks cannot be fully understood through one skill alone, so players need to look at her other abilities as well. Her second skill, Guju, turns marks directly into card draw. It is a locked skill, and whenever a character with a Puppet mark takes damage, Himiko draws one card.

The first thing to note is that Guju draws cards based on damage instances, not damage amount. In other words, whether a marked character is hit by a normal Slash or a Wine boosted Slash, Himiko still only draws one card. Also, it does not matter who causes the damage. The source can be Himiko herself, another player, the damaged character, or even damage with no source at all. As long as a marked character takes damage, the card draw effect can trigger. Because of this, Himiko should actively look for characters who are likely to take damage, attract attention, or willingly trade health for benefits, so she can squeeze extra draw value from the table.

Himiko’s third skill, Baijia, is her awakening skill. During the preparation phase, if Himiko has drawn at least seven cards through Guju, she increases her maximum health by one, recovers one health, gives every other character on the field a Puppet mark, loses Guju, and gains the skill Canshi. After awakening, Himiko’s survivability improves, but she loses her card draw skill. Whether this is good or bad depends on the strength of Canshi. Put simply, Canshi is a skill built around card targets. Himiko can remove marks to add extra targets to her cards, or remove marks to cancel herself as a target.

For example, if a marked character uses Slash on Himiko, she can remove that character’s mark to cancel herself as the target of Slash. If Himiko uses Steal on one character, she can remove marks from other characters she wants to affect and add them as extra targets. Since Himiko can place marks both at the start of each round and at the beginning of her own turn, she becomes extremely difficult to break through in one on one situations when moving second. An enemy removes a mark with one Slash, but by Himiko’s next turn, the mark can return again. That kind of loop is very troublesome.

In real matches, before awakening, Himiko should actively look for area damage cards and create more damage opportunities to draw cards. She can even use repeated Slash attacks with Zhuge Crossbow style pressure to speed up her awakening. After awakening, she can remove marks flexibly to increase her own defense or add extra targets to her cards. It is also worth noting that cards such as Peach and Ex Nihilo can be expanded to multiple targets as well, and marks on teammates can become very useful in the right situation.

Overall, Himiko is very suitable for eight player mode, while her awakened form also performs quite well in smaller modes such as 2v2. For players who plan their character choices after Crickex Login, she offers a strong mix of development, defense and tactical flexibility. Once her marks are placed properly and her awakening timing is managed well, Crickex Login players can turn Himiko into a steady long game general who slowly builds pressure and makes opponents feel like they are fighting an uphill battle.