Being KO'd can be a big setback in your quest to win a game of 100% Orange Juice. You are forced to waste turns reviving while your opponents inch closer to victory. If it happens in battle, you will also lose a lot of stars or worse: give those stars to an opponent. However, there are situations where getting yourself KO'd is the optimal play. Some characters even have their kits designed to accomplish and benefit from this. This guide will explain why this is a good thing, how you can do it safely, and what characters most benefit from it.

Has one of your opponents ever yelled at you for KOing someone with Long-Distance Shot? There's a good reason for that. In fact, it's what makes the strategies discussed in this guide viable. If you take nothing else from this guide, remember this next sentence.

Effects and damage that KO players outside of combat give nothing unless they specifically state so.

Being KO'd in battle is what awards the victor 2 wins and half of the victim's stars. Card effects that deal damage or KO do not give the user any bonuses by default. The card itself must say what the player is given on a successful KO.

To understand this, here are four examples of cards that can KO opponents.



Long-Distance Shot deals one damage to a target, but does not list any other effects. If you use this card on an opponent with 1 HP, they will be KO'd, but you will not receive any stars or wins. Instead, it is much more useful to to drop an opponent to 1 HP before attacking them. Using it this way will force your opponent into a dodge or die situation rather than let them get off scotfree.

X16 Big Rocket on the other hand states that the user will get 2 wins if the damage scores a KO. Notice that it does not mention anything about stars. Therefore, you will not receive any stars for KOing someone with X16 Big Rocket. This also means that they will not lose any stars for being KO'd by it. If an opponent is in the home stretch with enough stars to win, KOing them with this card will stall them, but only for a little while. They will still be able to win once they revive. Luckily, X16 Big Rocket can be used in the same manner as Long-Distance Shot to weaken an opponent before taking them out in battle.

Gamble! is another targeted effect that KOs the victim outright without dealing damage. While this sounds exciting, note that this card mentions neither wins nor stars. Therefore, you will not receive any bonuses for KOing an opponent (or yourself) with it. Although it may not make sense why you would want to do this at first, we will go over it in the following sections.

Finally, we have Magical Inferno. This card is a bit trickier. Anyone caught in it's range will be KO'd and will give the user stars as if they were KO'd in battle. Does this mean you will receive wins too?

Nope.

Since this card does not mention wins, you will not receive any for KOs caused by it. The reason the star clause is worded this way is so that characters like Seagull, Chicken, and Robo Ball will give less stars when they are KO'd by it.

Now that we know how card KOs work, we can move on to why this useful to us.

When you KO yourself outside of battle, you are effectively trading time and usually a card and some stars in order to reset your character. There are a few reasons why you would want to do this.




Unless your name is Shifu Robot, reviving from a KO will fully recover a unit's HP. This can be especially helpful for characters with large HP pools like Marie Poppo or Fernet. Fixed healing effects tend to be far less efficient on them and cards that fully heal have high costs or norma requirements. A few turns spent lying on the ground can be well worth a Pudding effect in an emergency.




When an opponent KOs you in battle, half of your stars are given to that player. They will also receive 2 wins. Even if you are KO'd by an NPC or a boss, you will still lose the stars, which now have a chance to be picked up by the next player to KO that opponent. By KOing yourself outside of battle, you protect your stars from being stolen in a battle you can't win. This is especially helpful when your HP is low or a strong opponent is bearing down on you.




While KO'd, your character is unable to move or be interacted with (for the most part). This can be used to your advantage to give an opponent time to move in front of you. Depending on your rolls and your character's REC, this can let a dangerous foe pass you by or let a potential target catch up and move into a position where you can get the jump on them.

In addition, this technique can be used to force your character to stay put for a few turns. For example, lets say you are on your last norma with 198 stars. You are two panels away from your home panel, have 2 HP, and are holding Cloud of Seagulls. If your opponents aren't close to winning or close to you, it may be in your best interest to try and KO yourself with Cloud of Seagulls. If you do manage to deal damage to yourself, you will be able to wait in front of your home panel for a few turns while the start of chapter star bonus gives you what you need to win the game. Otherwise, you will be forced to make another lap around the board at a dangerously low level of HP.




While far more situational than these other reasons, a self KO can be used to remove a negative stock effect like Wanted or Blazing! that is lost on KO. They can also be used to wait out effects like Accelerating Sky or Delta Field that last a specified number of turns. However, this is more of a bonus in addition to the above effects rather than a reason to try and get KO'd on its own in most situations.

As mentioned before, KOs outside of battle will not impact your character other than forcing for you to wait for the revive roll. There are a number of card and environmental effects that you can take advantage of in order to self KO.




The easiest way for a unit to self KO is with damage. There are a number of damaging effects available to use including cards, field events, and even the board itself in some cases.

Most reliable:

• Damage Panels
  
• Air Raid Field Event
  
• Bloodlust
  
• Crystal Barrier

Semi-reliable:

• Bomber Field Event
  
• Cloud of Seagulls
  
• Indiscriminate Fire Support
  
• Big Bang Bell (your own)

Less reliable:

• Mimyuu's Hammer
  
• Evil Spy Work - Execution
  
• Dance, Long Eared Beasts! (an opponent's)

Too expensive:

• Star Blasting Light
  
• Lonely Chariot

A direct KO has the advantage of doing the job regardless of how much HP you have. (Or they would if half of them didn't require you to have a specific amount of HP...) Most of these effects come from hyper cards, but any character can use the trap card Flamethrower. If it is the last card in your hand, try throwing Flamethrower down next time Ceoreparque hair locks you on a boss panel.

More reliable:

• Gamble!
  
• Final Surgery
  
• Magical Massacre

Less Reliable:

• Flamethrower

This is the exception to the "only outside of combat" rule. A few characters have battle card hypers that negate the penalties of being KO'd in combat. These cards can be used to safely reset your HP while dealing a good chunk to your opponent or even KOing them as well.

• Hyper Mode
  
• Self-Destruct

Although every character in the game can take advantage of self KOs, not all of them do well with the cards that make it possible. For example, while Fernet wouldn't mind being KO'd by Indiscriminate Fire Support, she certainly wouldn't want it in the deck. There are some characters in this game who are specifically designed for this style of play. These characters can use their kit to KO themselves outside of battle, with some even getting bonuses for doing so.



Kiriko is the queen of self KOs and is a great character to play if you want to get into that mindset. Although she has a massive health pool, she is unable to heal and using battle cards to preserve her HP will permanently affect her survivability. The only method she has to safely refill her HP is to get KO'd and revive. Her hyper rewards her with stars for KOing herself and synergizes with damaging cards like Indiscriminate Fire Support and Cloud of Seagulls, which are also good tools for attempting a self KO.



Many newer players make the mistake of using Gamble! as an offensive tool to KO opponents. However, it is far better used defensively since Gamble! doesn't give you anything for scoring a KO with it. While she is an offensive powerhouse, Yuki can have trouble surviving attacks due to her low defensive stats, especially when she has already taken damage. If Gamble! is used this way, it can either KO Yuki or KO the attacker, allowing Yuki to escape. Learning how to use Gamble! correctly is an important stepping stone in an OJ player's growth. Remember, your chances of hitting a desired target goes up for each other opponent that is already KO'd.



Store Manager has a tough time gathering stars due to his restrictive passive abilities. Bonus panels and cards like Completion Reward are off limits to him. Since he can only really get stars from the start-of-chapter bonus and capitalistic endeavors, any stars he can steal from players must be protected at all costs. Luckily, one of his "drawbacks" makes for an excellent denial tool in the hands of a skilled player. One of his passive abilities deals 1 damage to him whenever he discards a card. While his hand is full, any draw panel can be used to do this at the end of the turn. In addition, any gift card that gets discarded on use can be played at any time to take 1 damage. This gives Store Manager a lot of control over when he is defeated.



Kyoko's inability to dodge attacks makes her very susceptible to damage in and out of combat. At 1 HP, she is a sitting duck stuffed with stars for the taking. Fortunately, her hyper comes with a built in denial effect. Crystal Barrier will deal 1 damage to Kyoko every time she lands on an encounter, is challenged, or lands on a trap. While paying 20 stars to do so is rather expensive, it is far better than giving half of your stars to an opponent in the mid to late game if you can't heal or escape in time.



Suguri (46BY) has a vast array of damaging cards available to her thanks to Observer of Eternity. While most of these are exclusive to damaging opponents, Suguri (46BY) has excellent synergy with Cloud of Seagulls thanks to her overload passive. By doubling the cost of the card, she can make it deal 4 damage instead of 2. Since Cloud of Seagulls is free and 4 damage is enough to KO Suguri (46BY) unless she is overhealed, it effectively becomes a better Gamble! in her hands. Use this to separate yourself from units with high ATK that would otherwise ruin your day.



Maynie gains stacks of Rage from taking damage and loses them by healing her self. In order to get around this and build large amounts of rage, Maynie can let her self be KO'd to preserve the stacks while gaining her health back. The safest time to do this is in the early game against NPCs when the star loss is minimal and the setback can be easily made up.



Saki is a more specialized case. While she can KO herself on Big Bang Bell once it has had some time to charge, doing so solely for the purpose of a reset is a big waste unless you are really far ahead already. However, since the blast has a two panel radius, triggering your own Big Bang Bell in order to take nearby opponents with you can prove to be an extremely effective way of stealing stars.



Tomato and Mimyuu are a pair that have to be KO'd in order to swap characters. The Evil Spy Work - Execution gift cards that Mimyuu's hyper creates will deal 3 damage to anyone who is still holding them at the end of their turn. These gifts can be used to safely transform Mimyuu since she only has 3 HP. Since she loses less stars from battle KOs, It can sometimes be worth it to KO yourself in battle against an NPC or boss in order to change to Tomato as well.



In addition to the above, there are characters who have tools to mitigate the penalties of being KO'd in battle. These characters can deploy suicide tactics in order to KO themselves during their safety window and prevent opponents from stealing their stars. They can be tricky to use, however, as failing to be KO'd due to a bad roll by the opponent or a good defensive roll by the player will waste the card and potentially leave you in a dangerous position.



Hyper Mode is an extremely versatile battle card. One of its many uses is to save QP's stars. When KO'd in a battle where Hyper Mode was played, no stars are lost and no wins are earned. In addition, QP will revive during her next turn without having to roll, minimizing her down time and giving you an opportunity to strike back if your attacker was low.



Alte's entire game plan is centered around using her hyper to neutralize battle KOs. Self-Destruct will not only negate the usual penalties, but will also cause the opponent to lose half of their stars. This can be used defensively when attacked or offensively against an opponent you know will KO her. Successful detonations even permanently boost her ATK.



Finally, there are a number of characters who lose fewer stars when they are KO'd. Chicken, Seagull, Robo Ball, and Mimyuu will only lose 1/4 of their stars and give 1 win when they lose a battle. While this still isn't ideal, all of these units are extremely frail. In the event that you can't separate yourself from an attacker, you may find it better to risk KO on a boss panel rather than directly give your stars to that player.

Thanks for reading!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you felt this guide was missing something.

Davy Jones: https://gfycat.com/deficientfearfuldiplodocus

Sprites: 100% Orange Juice Wiki[100orangejuice.gamepedia.com]

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