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Last updated: 22/May/2026
Best guide and build for Khalipe from Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN). Khalipe is a 5✦ character from the Vanguard class and Instinct attribute, who belongs to the Stella Familia [White Altair] faction.
Last review update
Season 2
Last build update
Season 2
Last profile update*
15/Mar/2026
*Profile update means updates done to reviews/builds/gear within a season - showing the last date we changed anything on this page.
To learn more about Khalipe check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Lashing
Attack
Upward Slash
Attack
Tyr's Vow
Skill
Show Effects
Vulture Ejection
Attack
Show Effects
Greatsword Aquila
Attack
Overpower
Skill
Show Effects
Rally
Skill
Show Effects
Absolute Protection
Skill
Show Effects
Charisma of Resolve
Ego Skill
Epiphany cards are special evolutions for the cards you can obtain while playing the roguelike mode. Only some cards in the character's deck can get Epiphany effects. Since there's quite a lot of them, we don't display them by default - press the button below to show them.
Epiphany Bonus
Potential 1
Basic Card Upgrade
Potential 2
Common Card Upgrade
Potential 3
Basic Card Proficiency
Potential 3-1
Unique Card Upgrade
Potential 4
Critical Chance Proficiency
Potential 5
Basic Card Proficiency
Potential 5-1
Divine Epiphany Adaptation
Potential 5-2
Health Proficiency
Potential 6
Unique Stat Upgrade
Potential 7
Sleeping Memory
Manifest Ego 1
Awakening Memory
Manifest Ego 2
Vivid Memory
Manifest Ego 3
Inner Memory
Manifest Ego 4
Complete Memory
Manifest Ego 5
Liberated Memory
Manifest Ego 6
Review
Khalipe is a 5-Star Instinct Vanguard that functions as a hybrid DPS/Tank that deals AoE Defense-Based Damage whilst still outputting sufficient shielding to protect her team.
Khalipe's cards are incredibly AP expensive, but her best card, Vulture Ejection, can mitigate this with its [Celestial] tag. [Celestial] cards are used for free whenever you use another card that costs 2 AP or more, allowing Khalipe to spend big once and automatically play her most powerful card for free. Her Vulture Ejection card also generates stacks of "Silver Veil", up to a maximum of 3. When it reaches 3 stacks, Khalipe removes all stacks of Silver Veil and deals heavy Defense-Based damage to all enemies.
Outside of this, Khalipe has targeted Card Draw, decent Tenacity Damage and some good utility Epiphany upgrades. Thanks to how much shielding and damage Khalipe can bring to the table, combined with being able to reliably activate her [Celestial] tagged cards on her own, it grants her incredible team flexibility when deciding who to pair her with.
When deciding on a team, Khalipe definitely favors Combatants who can offer low-cost deck cycling to ensure she has as many [Celestial] cards in her hand at once to chain together, as there’s no limit to how many [Celestial] cards can activate after playing a 2-cost card.
Khalipe’s gameplan truly is simple: hold as many copies of Vulture Ejection as possible, activate any 2-cost card and watch her enemies get picked to shreds while setting up huge shields in the process.
Great single target, AoE damage and Shielding all at the same time.
Can cast Vulture Ejection (and Rally Epi 3) for free with [Celestial].
Awesome targeted Card Draw.
Decent AoE Tenacity Damage.
Access to even more supportive capabilities through Epiphanies.
Requires a 2 AP or higher card to trigger [Celestial].
Without [Celestial] activations, she's just left with many high-cost AP cards that often aren't worth their full price.
The ratings below are based on the Season Save Data, Chaos Manifestation, and Great Rift modes. Each of the modes values different mechanics, so some characters may shine in one of them, while being underwhelming in the other.
Defense Scaling: Like other Vanguards, all of Khalipe’s damage-dealing abilities scale off of her DEF stat instead of ATK. This allows her to improve her damage and shielding capabilities all at once, on top of improving the team's general tankiness. Do note that her Potential 7 does require hitting an ATK threshold, so you can’t neglect her ATK entirely.
Celestial: Khalipe’s Signature Card Vulture Ejection has the [Celestial] tag. While a card with [Celestial] is in your hand and you use a card that costs 2 AP or more, it will automatically cast from hand. Avoid playing your [Celestial] cards directly unless necessary; instead, use other high-cost cards to trigger them for free!
Note: Multiple [Celestial] cards can be triggered after using a singular 2-cost or higher card.
Silver Veil: Khalipe’s Signature Resource is a 3 charge gauge called Silver Veil, which is displayed under her character status bar at the top of the screen. Upon gaining all three charges, she deals 400% Defense-based damage to all enemies and loses all charges.
[Retain]: [Retain] allows you to hold onto cards for a turn without discarding them. Vulture Ejection is difficult to play without an activator, so its [Retain] tag helps a lot with its consistency. Absolute Protection also allows you to [Retain] your entire hand for a turn, which is great for setting up big burst turns.
Ultimate: Khalipe’s Absolute Protection has the [Finale] tag, which ends the turn immediately upon use.
Khalipe’s signature Potential unlocks are strong but not transformational. Here is a breakdown of what to expect.
3-1: Converts Upward Slash from single target to AoE, at the cost of dealing -40% less damage. Improving its late-game staying power, substantially elevating it to a card worth keeping around even in high-end Khalipe decks.
5-1: A small increase in damage to Upward Slash and Lashing. Khalipe can easily reach the DEF stat threshold.
7: Meaningful increase in both damage and shielding for Vulture Ejection. Requires investment into Khalipe’s ATK.
Base
Ego 1
Ego 2
Ego 3
Ego 4
Ego 5
Ego 6
Charisma of Resolve
Ego Skill
Khalipe’s Ego skill costs a whopping 5 EP to activate, but brings plenty of value to justify its cost. It deals very solid AoE damage and adds a copy of Vulture Ejection to your hand, which will remain in your deck until the end of battle. More Vulture Ejection means more free AoE damage and Shields to cheat out with [Celestial]. Use this skill early on in a long fight, if possible, to reap its maximum benefits.
Lashing
Attack
A standard starter Attack Card. One of the weakest cards of Khalipe’s starting deck. Doesn’t get any meaningful upgrades outside of some stats from Potentials 2 and 5-1.
Upward Slash
Attack
One of your primary activators for [Celestial] cards, especially in the early game. Very powerful starter card after activating Khalipe’s Potential 3-1, which makes it fully AoE at the cost of a heavy 40% less damage multiplier.
Tyr's Vow
Skill
Show Effects
Basic shielding starter card. Nothing special, but shielding is always valuable, especially on DEF-focused characters.
Vulture Ejection
Attack
Show Effects
One of Khalipe’s best cards. Offers solid AoE damage and shielding for a hefty 3 AP, though its [Celestial] tag means you’ll usually cast this for free. Vulture Ejection’s [Retain] tag ensures you can hang onto it until you draw a 2+ cost activator. This attack also grants 1 Silver Veil each time it’s used for passive AoE damage.
Greatsword Aquila
Attack
Deals a solid amount of AoE damage. It increases its own cost and damage when Vulture Ejection is in hand, which makes it a flexible card that only costs 2 AP when it matters most.
Overpower
Skill
Show Effects
Grants a large amount of Shield on use and deals 1 Tenacity Damage to all enemies, allowing her to perform decently regardless of Attribute Weakness. This card benefits from the additional AP, Stress reduction and enemy delay reaped from breaking enemies, especially multiple at once.
Rally
Skill
Show Effects
Provides a decent Shield, but more importantly, draws the highest cost card from your deck. Unless it’s already in your hand or in the Discard Pile, which is basically guaranteed to be Vulture Ejection, making Rally a fantastic tutor card for 1 AP.
Absolute Protection
Skill
Show Effects
An X-cost shielding card that also retains all cards in hand for a turn. The X-cost offers great flexibility and retaining your hand ameliorates the opportunity cost of playing a big X-cost effect with all your AP. The [Finale] tag ends the turn immediately after Absolute Protection is used, but its X-cost means you’ll be on 0 AP and will likely want to end the turn anyway; it’s still an important thing to keep in mind if you want to weave in Ego Skills and 0-cost cards.
Best Epiphanies
Note
We have given a star rating for each Epiphany, showing how strong and useful it is - with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 the highest.
Vulture Ejection I
Attack
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Vulture Ejection II
Skill
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Vulture Ejection III
Attack
Show Effects
Vulture Ejection IV
Attack
Show Effects
Vulture Ejection V
Attack
Show Effects
Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies:
Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: Draw 1 (Vulture Injection II), Vulnerable 2.
Greatsword Aquila I
Attack
Greatsword Aquila II
Attack
Greatsword Aquila III
Attack
Show Effects
Greatsword Aquila IV
Attack
Show Effects
Greatsword Aquila V
Attack
Show Effects
Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies provide negligible value on this card; therefore, an Epiphany that synergizes with your build should be prioritized over Divines.
Overpower I
Skill
Show Effects
Overpower II
Skill
Show Effects
Overpower III
Skill
Show Effects
Overpower IV
Skill
Show Effects
Overpower V
Skill
Show Effects
Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies:
Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: -1 Cost Reduction, Vulnerable 2, 1 AP (Echo V).
Rally I
Skill
Show Effects
Rally II
Skill
Show Effects
Rally III
Skill
Show Effects
Rally IV
Skill
Show Effects
Rally V
Skill
Show Effects
Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies:
Divine Epiphanies provide negligible value on this card; therefore, an Epiphany that synergizes with your build should be prioritized over Divines.
Gear
The Memory Fragments & Equipment suggestions below are based on calculations we did. If you want to check the damage formula and how scaling the damage works in CZN, check this guide.
The best set-up for Khalipe is usually 2/2/2 due to the fact that a major portion of her damage comes from Silver Veil which isn't considered card damage and can be challenging to scale with other set bonuses. The other advantage of 2/2/2 is it allows Khalipe to run a 2P flex slot which to boost the teams ruvviability elevating her role as a support. However if all you care about is damage and you're specifically playing a DPS Khlaipe team 4P Line of Justice and 4P Instinctual Growth can also be considered.
For more damage use 2P Cursed Corpse (if you can keep Agony on targets at all times) or 2P Black Wing (only a minor damage increase but more consistent). Alternatively for stronger Chaos starts try 2P Seth's Scarab, or if you want more survivability use 2P Healer's Journey. If none of that appeals, you can use any 2 strong sub/main stat pieces instead of a final 2P set bonus as well.
In a lot of cases, flat sub-stats are better than percentage ones when it comes to HP, ATK and DEF. The reason behind this is that in CZN the characters stats are pretty low and you get more value from flat bonus rather than percentage one based on calcs.
CRIT Rate% = CRIT DMG% > DEF > DEF%
To activate the shielding portion of Khalipe's Potential 7, ensure you have at least 301 Defense. Khalipe can also gain a damage increase from her Potential,7, but she needs to reach 701 ATK something, which is quite difficult for her without compromising her main and sub stats, which usually makes this breakpoint not worth going for unless you can hit it without losing too much elsewhere.
Our best Partner recommendation try to balance both the raw damage boost they provide based on our calculations with the additional utility provided by the skill - combined with how it interacts with the character's kit. We have rated each Partner based on how much additional damage and the utility they provide. Read the comments under each Partner to better understand our reasoning.
No calculations in Chaos Zero Nightmare are completely accurate for all scenarios, including the ones below. What team, decks, epiphanies, gear, equipment, and enemies you're facing all impact them. Because of this, take the results as guidelines and combine them with the explanations to make your decisions. Calculations use endgame save data set-ups, including 5 turns of combat using the whole deck with all Ego skills unless otherwise stated.
In most Scenarios E4 Zeta is the best shielding and damaging option available for Khalipe, thanks to her large additive and multiplicative multipliers to Khalipe's damage and shielding potential, all while still having a solid amount of Combat Defense. However, what secures E4 Zeta's top spot for Khalipe is her card draw-based Ego Skill, which is useful in Save Data game modes but exceptional in Chaos-based modes.
When excluding high Ego Level 6-star partners (which are very expensive to acquire) from the equation, the best accessible Partner option in most cases ends up being E4 Wilhelmina, thanks to her exceptionally high Combat Defense, which beats out most of what E0 Zeta can provide outside of her draw-based Ego Skill. Just the Combat Defense alone is usually enough for Wilhelmina to be better than E0 Zeta, but in the event you're able to maintain Vulnerable on enemies consistently, which isn't too hard to do with Divine Epiphanies, Wilhelmina only pulls further ahead thanks to her conditional multiplicative damage boost that activates against Vulnerable enemies.
As mentioned above, E0 Zeta loses out on damage and shielding in most cases to E4 Wilhelmina, but does still have a niche where she feels best to use. That niche is Chaos as her cheap Ego Skill, which adds the highest cost card, which is usually Vulture Ejection, boosting Khalipe's consistency considerably in the mode and making her a lot more powerful. In Chaos, we recommend Zeta, even if, technically, she provides less damage and shielding, the Ego Skill is just that good.
Much weaker at E0 than at E4, but it is really the only accessible Vanguard Partner available, which actually grants meaningful stats to Khalipe, so she's the default baseline option for that reason.
In the Zero System, it's incredibly easy to access all items acquirable via the shop thanks to the five free refreshes you get each shop node - that's why the recommendations below are limited to them only. ATTENTION! Area-specific items can sometimes be more powerful than shop items, but are far less consistent to get or require running a specific world or giving up certain event options. Use the shop list as a starting point for building up your deck saves.
The equipment recommendations are based on items obtainable in Season 2’s Chaos - Burning Life. If you’re running content outside of Season 2, it’s possible some options may not be available for acquisition, or that other options not obtainable in Burning Life may be better.
We're currently working on updating all builds for Season 3.
Deck & Teams
Check the best builds for Khalipe below.
Shielder
Vulnerable Debuffer
Vulture Ejection V
Attack
Show Effects
Overpower IV
Skill
Show Effects
Rally III
Skill
Show Effects
Base performance of the character.