Need Tokens for his premium skin or Arcana? Honor of Kings top-up on BitTopup runs through official Midasbuy channels.
Sima Yi Quick Reference (July 2026)
Updated on 2026-07-29: Post-rework mana system, Shadow Force passive, jungle + mid builds, beginner combos.
Role | Class | Power spike | Best lane | Skill priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Assassin / Mage | Magic burst jungler | Level 4 (ult online) | Jungle (primary), Mid (situational) | Skill 2 > Skill 1 > Ult |
Skill | Name | What it does | Beginner takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
Passive | Quiet Whispers | Reveals nearby skill casters (~2000 range, ~5s), builds Shadow Force, enhances next basic attack | Treat it as a free radar. Cast → enhanced AA blinks behind the target |
Skill 1 | Shadow Stings | Spirit dash, CC immunity on body, two damage instances + slow on return | Let spirit touch first, then AA. Do not cancel early |
Skill 2 | Barren Lands | AoE magic damage + silence; heals while inside the zone (phys heal at half) | Approach with 1, silence with 2, stay in the circle |
Ultimate | Death Descends | Charge step, then fly to zone; high landing damage; most cooldown refunded if interrupted | Long engages or finishers. Hide the landing marker from bushes |
Rework changes that matter
Energy is gone. Skills cost mana, so you rotate and farm without waiting on a bar.
Casting a skill gains Shadow Force. The first enhanced basic attack consumes it, extends range, and adds true damage. That first hit deals double the true damage from the consumed stacks.
Skill 2 healing works against physical damage at 50% rate.
Interrupted Death Descends refunds most of its cooldown.
Best Sima Yi Builds and Arcana
Slot | Jungle burst (default) | Mid / safer dive |
|---|---|---|
1 | Runeblade / Guerrilla Machete line | Runeblade or mid AP core |
2 | Boots of the Arcane (or Resistance vs heavy magic CC) | Boots of the Arcane / Tranquility |
3 | Insatiable Tome | Insatiable Tome or HP + AP hybrid |
4 | Staves of Sorcery | Staves of Sorcery |
5 | Savant's Wrath | Breakthrough Robe / Savant's Wrath |
6 | Void Staff | Void Staff / Sage's Sanctuary |
Arcana page | Setup | Why |
|---|---|---|
Standard jungle | Nightmare + Hunt + Mind's Eye | Magic attack, pierce, attack speed, move speed for clears and blinks |
Tankier page | Mix Fate into reds | Extra durability when you dive every fight |
Older “survivability + burst” presets (jungle blade, Resistance boots, Apocalypse-style on-hit, Void Staff, penetration stackers) still hold up if you hate glass-cannon games. Swap in anti-burst or anti-tank pieces when the enemy stacks peel and magic resist.
Spell: Smite in jungle. Flash is optional for mid; jungle Smite slows help lock kills after silence.
For hero stats and alternate pages, see the Sima Yi hero page on BitTopup Wiki. For role-wide picks, cross-check the Honor of Kings tier list.
How Sima Yi Skills Work
Passive: Quiet Whispers + Shadow Force
Enemy heroes who cast inside ~2000 range (about Ult range) light up for five seconds, including stealth casters. Those reveals and your own casts both add Shadow Force.
After any skill, you gain move speed and an enhanced melee basic attack. The first enhanced AA after a skill teleports you behind the target like a Flash, then dumps magic + true damage. Later enhanced AAs in that window still hit hard. They do not blink again.
Stack Shadow Force before a gank. First blink AA is the nuke.
Stacks gained mid-window wait for the next skill, then the next first AA.
Blink through walls by lining up straight with a camp or minion. Diagonal angles stretch the distance and fail.
Clear camps away from wall edges so you do not blink out and reset the monster.
Blind slash: enhanced AA hits brush targets with no vision if they sit in range.
Skill 1: Shadow Stings
You send a spirit forward while the body gains CC immunity. The spirit deals contact damage. When the skill ends (AA or timer), your body snaps to the spirit, deals damage again, and slows enemies on the path.
Let the spirit contact (hitbox is wide; it can clip camps through walls).
Fire the enhanced AA for both skill hits + blink damage.
Cancel early and you lose half the skill. Wait too long and the return hit misses.
Use Skill 1 to eat stuns, escape after an untargeted enhanced AA, or reset when surrounded. Against lock-on suppressions (Liang, Donghuang), cast Skill 1 as the suppress lands so you leave in spirit form when it ends. Cast half a second early and you snap back into the suppress.
Set Autochase Distance to Close Range. At max enhanced-AA range under tower, you can fire an untargeted hit instead of blinking into turret aggro.
Skill 2: Barren Lands
Silence + magic damage in a circle. Healing amp inside the zone. Damage taken converts into delayed heal (physical at half rate).
Skill 1 in → Skill 2 on the carry → stay in the field. Cast Skill 2 before ally heals, Recovery, or health pickups so you recover more. Skill 2 into AA chains silence and blink in one beat. Silence cuts Marco Polo ult and Liu Bang ult teleport. It does not stop the Teleport battle spell.
Ultimate: Death Descends
Short backstep, then flight to the target zone. Path deals partial damage; landing hits hard. Interrupted casts refund most of the cooldown.
Landing point in a bush (or aimed past the map edge) hides the warning circle.
Flash just before landing to put the final spot on a carry.
Flying immunity: during flight, many skillshots and sticky effects pass through you. Lock-on suppressions still track.
Autotracking: with passive vision live, tap-ult can home onto the revealed hero.
Ult grants true vision at the landing area for brush checks.
How to Play Sima Yi: Combos and Settings
Three practical combos
Combo | Sequence | When |
|---|---|---|
Close-range gank | 1 → AA → 2 → AA → Smite → Ult → AA | Side-lane ganks with Smite slow |
Long-range engage | Ult → AA → 2 → AA → 1 | Target locked or ally CC already landed |
Jump knife | 1 → AA (frontliner) → 2 → AA (carry) | Low HP backline behind a tank |
Early game: clear fast, hit level 4, take solo kills when passive lights someone up. Mid game: pick isolated carries; silence first, then dump Shadow Force. Late game: wait for peel to burn, then Ult or Skill 1 onto the ADC/mage. Dive every ult with no vision and you throw the late fight.
Settings that matter
Autochase Distance → Close Range: untargeted enhanced AAs for poke, tower chip, and safe wall steals.
Hold to Show Skill Description → Off: hold Ult without a text box covering the map.
Skill Picture-in-Picture → On: preview the Ult landing zone before you commit.
How to Get More Out of Sima Yi
Practice wall blinks at blue, lizard, and double wolf. Red buff needs a bush-side angle.
Use passive reveals to invade, steal buffs, or take Tyrant / Overlord with information.
Pair him with hard CC supports so your long-range Ult lands for free.
Buy Tokens when you main him for a season and need skins or Arcana pages. Honor of Kings top-up on BitTopup is the discount route.
Open the Honor of Kings heroes database for counters and lane partners.
FAQ
Is Sima Yi good for beginners in Honor of Kings?
Blink AAs, spirit timing, and Ult landings punish panic clicks, so the floor sits above basic junglers. The rework lowers the pain: mana instead of energy, cooldown refund on interrupted Ult, clearer heal rules. Run normals with Close Range autochase and only the close-range gank combo until the timing sticks.
Should I play Sima Yi jungle or mid?
Jungle is the default. Smite, camp wall tricks, and early ganks fit the kit. Mid gives lane priority and Flash angles; treat it as the secondary role. If your draft needs a jungler, keep him in the jungle.
What counters Sima Yi?
Lock-on suppressions (Liang, Donghuang) ignore flying immunity. Heavy peel, chain CC, and stacked magic resist blunt the one-shot. Bait their control, then engage from fog or a hidden Ult landing.
How do I clear jungle faster on Sima Yi?
Land both Skill 1 damage instances on the camp. Clip the spirit near the wall if you need the contact, then enhanced AA. Stay off the wall edge so the blink does not reset the camp. Drop Skill 2 during the clear once you take damage.
Where can I check Sima Yi win rate and builds?
Open the BitTopup Sima Yi wiki entry for win rate, ban rate, and community presets. Then retune items for the enemy MR and CC.
Conclusion
Post-rework Sima Yi is a mana-based magic assassin: stack Shadow Force, enter with spirit or Ult, silence, delete the carry before peel arrives. Keep this Honor of Kings Sima Yi guide open across patches, and top up Tokens on BitTopup when you unlock the skin or finish Arcana.
