Zukin

The Zukin is an uncommon head armor in the Ninja set — alongside the Jitte, Fukumen, Grappling Hook, Ninja Bandana, and Obi — that starts each battle with +2 Backflip. Backflip is a status effect that allows the wearer to evade attacks by flipping away, with 2 stacks providing two uses of that evasion before it depletes. It's a reactive survival tool that comes pre-loaded each fight at no action cost.

In the Ninja set it complements the Jitte's melee scaling and the Grappling Hook's mobility. A Ninja-set build using the Zukin opens every fight with both offensive tools and a safety net of two evasions, which is useful for aggressive cats that need to survive being in melee range.

The Backflip stacks are most valuable when the first attacks of a fight would be devastating — use the Zukin on cats that would otherwise get burst down on turn one before they can take their first action. In longer fights the two evasions may deploy during critical moments without any deliberate planning, simply because the cat is targeted repeatedly. For Ninja set builders, the Zukin is a natural head slot pick that keeps the wearer alive long enough to execute the set's aggressive positional strategy.