Is Koumei Any Good? The Warframe Community Is Split

Warframe’s latest update, Koumei & the Five Fates, is here, and its centerpiece is the titular Koumei, the latest character added to the game. In the first days post-launch, though, the community isn’t quite sure what to make of Koumei. Some argue she’s too inconsistent, while others disagree.

Outside of the new character, though, Koumei & the Five Fates has brought tons of changes to the game, including a major rework to companions. If you don’t know what to make of the chatter around Koumei, the best thing you can do is try a build of her out yourself.

Why is Koumei getting mixed reactions from the Warframe community?

Posts like this are emblematic of the Warframe community’s thoughts on Koumei: Many are criticizing her kit and how she performs, but like the post above, if you dive into the comments you’ll find many defending the character and arguing she isn’t a bad Warframe by any means.

So, what are the complaints? In large part, they boil down to a couple of key points:

• Her dice rolls hit the triple sixes necessary for an ability bonus too rarely
• The defensive Omamori ability is too inconsistent to depend on
• The cooldown for her decree-stacking Omikuji ability is too long
• Some challenges for earning decrees are too cumbersome, like getting wall-latch kills

Although, these issues are by no means universal. Other players argue in the opposite direction:

• A gambling-themed Warframe should only roll perfectly rarely
• Her Omamori ability doesn’t need to be stronger with a proper shield-gating setup
• Decrees can be incredibly powerful, so awkward challenges and long cooldowns are necessary
• Koumei is an easy-to-acquire frame for new players, so it’s important her power has limits

Ultimately, there’s no clear answer to who’s right here. While some gamers argue Koumei is outclassed by many other Warframes, particularly in Steel Path, others have successfully taken her to level-cap missions where she can hold her own against the strongest enemies in the game.

Possible buffs or changes for Koumei

Even those who don’t have problems with Koumei are happy to speculate on possible buffs or changes to her kit, and as a result, tons of ideas are being thrown out there. Here are some of the most interesting proposals we saw popping up online.

• Adding in a damage buff to her weapons or abilities dependent on her dice rolls
• Introducing a ‘pity system’ for her dice rolls that guarantees a perfect roll after X rolls
• Rebalancing abilities, like her Omamori, to more effectively scale off her stats
• Simply reducing the duration of her cooldowns, particularly for her Omikuji ability

Keep in mind, though, that Koumei is a brand-new Warframe that only launched, at the time of writing, a few days ago, so the community is still testing different builds. It’s also entirely possible that in the coming weeks, Digital Extremes will make adjustments to Koumei’s kit. Stay tuned.