Spellblade — each strike inscribes an Arcane Brand on the target. At 5 brands, Iaijutsu detonates them in a hybrid burst.
"The blade does not divide steel from sorcery. Neither do I."
When a Samurai reaches level 10 and you select Kensei, three things change permanently:
Brand Detonate: Each auto-attack stacks an Arcane Brand on the target (max 5). At full stacks, detonates for 1.5× hybrid ATK damage. Without a full brand, probes at a shorter cooldown.
Kensei grants the following ability score bonuses on top of the Samurai base scores:
These bonuses stack with ability score points allocated from levelling. They cannot be removed without retiring the hero.
Each attack applies a Brand stack to the target. At max stacks, the next ability detonates them for massive burst damage.
This passive is always active during combat — no gear or skill tree investment required to trigger it.
Crit (Deathmark for Brand detonation crits), Magic (Arcane Tether for hybrid burst).
See the Skill Tree deep dive for the full 120-node reference and routing advice, or the Samurai build guide for a complete path recommendation for this class.
Both subclasses unlock at level 10. Compare them to choose:
| Kensei | Shogun | |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Spellblade — each strike inscribes an Arcane Brand on the target. At 5 brands, Iaijutsu detonates them in a hybrid burst. | Battle commander — War Cry buffs the entire party. Every kill permanently emboldens allies for the rest of the floor. |
| Stat Bonus | +2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity | +2 Strength, +1 Toughness |
| Details | This page | Shogun page → |
The choice is permanent — use a Scroll of Divergence consumable to re-select without retiring the hero.
Set an Archetype with Kensei as the guild standard for Samurai — all future recruits of that class will automatically receive this subclass at level 10 without any manual selection.