Search Rem

Open a page, find a hero, or look up a player.

Calico
Selected community build

I love cat[girl]s! Skelly's Spirit Assassin Build

Build #266497Latest v189Apr 18, 2026

Fully annotated! This is a spirit build! Still testing new AP order. Check out my melee bruiser Calico build: 209974

Back to Calico
Win rate
51.2%

173 wins / 165 losses

Matches
338

287 unique players tracked

Pick rate
10.6%

Popularity #1 for this hero

Win-rate rank
#8

Ranked within the popular resolved selected builds

Ability Leveling Order

Ability unlocks and upgrades by step.

16 steps
Ability leveling order by ability and step
Ability12345678910111213141516
Leaping Slash
Gloom Bombs
Ava
Return to Shadows

Build items

Guide items grouped by the build categories and labeled with item category, tier, and soul cost.

8 categories

Early Game

Typically get items from left to right.

7 items
Melee Lifesteal

Melee Lifesteal

Vitality T1800 souls

Very common buy. Great healing in lane from punching minions. And we can optionally upgrade this into Lifestrike for more sustain.

Stalker

Stalker

Weapon T21,600 souls

Great damage and stats in lane and gives you move speed for chasing. The foostep sound reduction is also nice. And this gives you wallhacks from the DoT. This is also for the weapon investment bonus.

Spirit Strike

Spirit Strike

Spirit T1800 souls

We upgrade this to Spirit Snatch later. Adds to our burst.

Cold FrontActive

Cold Front

Spirit T21,600 souls

Adds to your burst damage, and the slow is great. We also can upgrade this into Arctic Blast.

Torment Pulse

Torment Pulse

Spirit T33,200 souls

Great damage over the course of a game/fight. And makes you a little tankier. Also helps with farming. Just super good core item for us. Gets us our 4.8k spirit investment.

Sprint Boots

Sprint Boots

Vitality T1800 souls

Must buy for rotating around the map and ganking other lanes. Builds into Enduring Speed for our Vitality investment spike.

Enduring Speed

Enduring Speed

Vitality T21,600 souls

Great for move speed in fights and the slow resist. Hits your 4.8k vitality investment.

Early Situationals

Optional
6 items
Close Quarters

Close Quarters

Weapon T1800 souls

Worth going early now for Point Blank if you prefer that. Nice for melee resist as well.

Extra Regen

Extra Regen

Vitality T1800 souls

Worse than the other lane healing items imo. Plus if you're getting Lifestrike it's useless.

Healing RiteActive

Healing Rite

Vitality T1800 souls

Great for healing if you get really low in lane. Sprint speed is also nice for rotating. If you're going to buy one of these situational healing items, get this one since it stays useful after lane.

Rebuttal

Rebuttal

Vitality T1800 souls

Great against Viscous in lane since it works against Viscous Puddle Punches. Also a very good item against people building melee (Abrams and Billy). Only buy if you can actually parry consistently.

Lifestrike

Lifestrike

Vitality T33,200 souls

So much fun. Use off CD with heavy melee in lane for a 100 health heal on a 4 sec CD. Lets you permafight/push in lane. Also slows for both ult damage ticks.

Improved Spirit

Improved Spirit

Spirit T21,600 souls

Great for damage in lane on your bombs. The regen it gives is also nice. With T2 bombs this gets them to over 80 damage which will proc Mystic Burst.

Mid Core

Roughly left to right.

6 items
Hunter's Aura

Hunter's Aura

Weapon T33,200 souls

Great for one v ones. Probably the best 3.2k weapon item for your 4.8k weapon investment.

Extra Health

Extra Health

Vitality T1800 souls

210 health is kinda insane early, so you could get this in lane. We build this into Fortitude.

Fortitude

Fortitude

Vitality T33,200 souls

The health is great for survivability, the move speed is great for rotating, and the heal lets you stay on the map longer. I prefer this over VW cause it works in the tunnels.

Spirit Snatch

Spirit Snatch

Spirit T33,200 souls

Spirit resist and power steal is amazing. Plus even more melee damage and it procs on your 2.

Compress Cooldown

Compress Cooldown

Spirit T21,600 soulsImbue

You can put this on your 2 or your 4, depends on what you want. 2 is better for snowballing, 4 is better for being able to fight more.

Superior Cooldown

Superior Cooldown

Spirit T33,200 souls

Cooldown reduction is really useful. Gives you way more uptime.

Mid-Late

Get as you want.

4 items
Arctic BlastActive

Arctic Blast

Spirit T46,400 souls

Really great item, great for catching people and for clearing waves in cat form. The combo with it is Arctic Blast, 2 immediately so the AB travels with you, light punch, 1, 4.

Dispel MagicActive

Dispel Magic

Vitality T33,200 souls

Must buy against Slowing Hex. Really great against a ton of characters, especially Vindicta, Infernus, Bebop and others who debuff you. Also great for spirit resist now.

Transcendent Cooldown

Transcendent Cooldown

Spirit T46,400 souls

Great item once you have 2 actives. It also makes Torment Pulse tick faster! Very good with Ethereal Shift in particular.

ScourgeActive

Scourge

Spirit T46,400 souls

Usually after Arctic Blast. Makes you really tanky and can do a lot of damage if you get into the middle of their team. You can rush earlier if you feel it would be good or have the money.

Situationals

Optional

Pick and choose depending on what you need. Some can be built in lane/early.

16 items
Counterspell

Counterspell

Vitality T33,200 souls

Great against certain characters and abilities. Especially Lash.

Spirit Resilience

Spirit Resilience

Vitality T33,200 souls

If you need anti-spirit. Very common buy although not absolutely necessary since we build many items that have spirit resist already. Really strong at the moment.

Bullet Resilience

Bullet Resilience

Vitality T33,200 souls

For bullet resist. If it's early, probably just go Battle Vest instead though. If it's late and you've got Transcendent Cooldown I would just go Metal Skin instead.

Metal SkinActive

Metal Skin

Vitality T33,200 souls

This since it got buffed is actually kinda really good against some characters, especially Haze and Drifter. I'd get this as an alternative to Bullet Resilience or Plated Armor. Good with trans CD

Veil Walker

Veil Walker

Vitality T33,200 souls

Alternative to Fortitude. Really nice for rotating around the map, ganking, escaping/survivability, and the heal is great. I don't like this too much since it doesn't work in the tunnels.

Enchanter's Emblem

Enchanter's Emblem

Vitality T21,600 souls

Great for more spirit resist early. Cooldown reduction is really rare so this is a great item since it gives you some.

Debuff Reducer

Debuff Reducer

Vitality T21,600 souls

Good if you need debuff reduction and are going to build Spellbreaker later (good if they have heavy spirit burst such as Grey Talon or Lash).

Restorative LocketActive

Restorative Locket

Vitality T21,600 souls

10% spirit resist for 1.6k and the health and the stamina is really nice.

Spirit Shielding

Spirit Shielding

Vitality T21,600 souls

Great against spirit damage. You can get in some lanes.

Reactive Barrier

Reactive Barrier

Vitality T21,600 souls

Great item and good in many lanes. And late game has good spirit scaling, and ends up being like a 500+ barrier.

Healbane

Healbane

Vitality T21,600 souls

Easy to proc anti-heal. The heal on kill is also really great during midgame fights.

Silence WaveActive

Silence Wave

Spirit T33,200 souls

Good item. Very common buy. Silence is very good against many characters and since it's an AoE it can hit many people in a teamfight.

Suppressor

Suppressor

Spirit T21,600 souls

Great at stopping gun carries. Easy to proc and can proc on many people.

Slowing HexActive

Slowing Hex

Spirit T21,600 souls

Good against Mina, and other movement focused people.

Spirit SapActive

Spirit Sap

Spirit T21,600 souls

Builds into Focus Lens, easy to use and great for 1v1s. Makes your burst way stronger.

Point Blank

Point Blank

Weapon T33,200 souls

Feels pretty good. It is now fixed for your 2! Difficult on slots though. Good for melee resist if you need that.

Usual Later Items

Get depending on game state. If you don't know what to get, get Colossus and upgrades.

10 items
ColossusActive

Colossus

Vitality T46,400 souls

Melee damadge and tankiness. Pick between this and Ethereal Shift for your last active slot, or sell Dispel Magic.

Ethereal ShiftActive

Ethereal Shift

Spirit T46,400 souls

They doubled the CD on it so it's way worse, still might be good though on Calico. Helps you live much longer. Great with Transcendent CD. You can skip for more damage if you're not dying.

Lucky Shot

Lucky Shot

Weapon T46,400 souls

Great for damage and ammo, repalces Stalker.

Crippling Headshot

Crippling Headshot

Weapon T46,400 souls

Best item in the game for damage as it shreds resists so your entire team will do more damage. And anti-heal is so good.

Mystic Vulnerability

Mystic Vulnerability

Spirit T21,600 souls

Upgrades into Escalating Exposure. Spirit shred is extremely useful.

Escalating Exposure

Escalating Exposure

Spirit T46,400 souls

This with Scourge is insane. You run into the middle of the enemy team with Scourge and they take like 2-4k damage. Also has shred and gives you even more spirit resist so you're even tankier.

Juggernaut

Juggernaut

Vitality T46,400 souls

Great against gun carries and is good to pick up if you have no free slots.

Boundless Spirit

Boundless Spirit

Spirit T46,400 souls

Gives you some much needed damage in the late game with your ult and gloom bombs. Great if you are trying to oneshot their carries.

Spirit Burn

Spirit Burn

Spirit T46,400 souls

Anti-heal + more burst damage. If you need to burst carries this is really useful.

Focus LensActive

Focus Lens

Spirit T46,400 souls

Quite strong at the moment, shred is good.

Situational Late Items

Optional

You can get some of these earlier as counter buys.

10 items
UnstoppableActive

Unstoppable

Vitality T46,400 souls

Really great in late teamfights. Especially good if you are really struggling against CC. Or for midboss.

Spellbreaker

Spellbreaker

Vitality T46,400 souls

Incredible against Lash, Grey Talon, and any other spirit burst characters.

Phantom StrikeActive

Phantom Strike

Vitality T46,400 souls

Good for shutting down fliers and gun carries. And for getting on top of the people you need to target in team fights.

Plated Armor

Plated Armor

Vitality T46,400 souls

Great but usually only buy once you already have bullet resist. Great against Haze.

Witchmail

Witchmail

Vitality T46,400 souls

Kind of a meme item. Very situational. Only get against lots of incremental spirit damage (McGinnis turrets, Infernus, Warden Ult) and have Spirit Resilience already.

Siphon Bullets

Siphon Bullets

Vitality T46,400 souls

Might be quite nice against tanks if you've gone into more gun late game.

Stamina Mastery

Stamina Mastery

Vitality T33,200 souls

fun item, good value, mmm mmmmovement. You could buy this in the mid game some time rather than getting resists perhaps.

Warp StoneActive

Warp Stone

Vitality T33,200 souls

Good for movement and the bullet resist is nice.

Cursed RelicActive

Cursed Relic

Spirit T46,400 souls

If you really need to screw over someone in particular.

Tankbuster

Tankbuster

Spirit T33,200 souls

ONLY GET AFTER ARCTIC BLAST. Tankbuster tool tip lies and it actually procs with items such as Arctic Blast. Decent for more burst damage but I don't like it much.

Other Random Situationals and Items I am Testing!

Optional

Most of these suck!

16 items
Magic CarpetActive

Magic Carpet

Spirit T46,400 souls

Fun and silly! Also good escape tool. Just worse to get than other 6ks though.

Radiant Regeneration

Radiant Regeneration

Spirit T33,200 souls

Kind of fun, but not very good. Adds up to a decent amount of heal in longer fights since Torment Pulse and Scourge easily procs it.

Surge of Power

Surge of Power

Spirit T33,200 soulsImbue

It's nice on your bombs. You like all the things it gives you. But before you get Arctic Blast, the bombs are inconsistent to hit, and your bombs don't have that good spirit scaling.

KnockdownActive

Knockdown

Spirit T33,200 souls

If no one else on your team is going to buy this and you really need to stop a Vindicta/GT or Seven ult.

DecayActive

Decay

Spirit T33,200 souls

I don't think this is really all that worth it compared to just getting Healbane. Since any person incredibly reliant on healing will just get Debuff Remover. But maybe get against Mo or Abrams.

Mystic Slow

Mystic Slow

Spirit T21,600 souls

Just feels really nice, makes it super easy to hit your ults second/end damage burst. Probably also nice against like Vyper.

Mystic Burst

Mystic Burst

Spirit T1800 souls

Your bombs can't really proc this anymore. So you can only proc it with Cold Front/Arctic Blast and your ult.

Cheat Death

Cheat Death

Vitality T46,400 souls

If you are actually like the only player on your team doing anything and you have like 65k souls you could get this.

Trophy Collector

Trophy Collector

Vitality T21,600 souls

DO NOT EVER BUILD THIS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE YOU WILL GET LOTS OF STACKS. This is often a trap item, which puts you -3k souls down, without giving you anything much in return until later.

Battle Vest

Battle Vest

Vitality T21,600 souls

Good item at the moment, the bullet resist and regen is great in lane. Later though you should just get Bullet Resilience. Also good for farming denizens.

Return FireActive

Return Fire

Vitality T21,600 souls

Decent item against certain gun carries.

Weapon Shielding

Weapon Shielding

Vitality T21,600 souls

It's nice, but I just prefer to go Return Fire or Suppressor or rush Bullet Resilience early.

Spiritual Overflow

Spiritual Overflow

Weapon T46,400 souls

If you're going more into gun later then this might be good.

Cultist SacrificeActive

Cultist Sacrifice

Weapon T33,200 souls

Possible item for your 4.8k Weapon Investment, but imo it's not that necessary on Calico.

FleetfootActive

Fleetfoot

Weapon T21,600 souls

Not as good since the speed stacking nerf. I still like it though. Good for movespeed in ult and catform. Combine with a 3.2k weapon item to get your 4.8k investment spike.

Monster Rounds

Monster Rounds

Weapon T1800 souls

Good if enemies are pushing to your tower or you need to push and take objectives.