With the OB27 update, Garena has changed the Awakening mechanics in Free Fire greatly. All awakened characters' skill now incorporates both their original ability and their new one. This is actually a big deal - you can pretty much get 2 skills for just 1 skill slot.

Hayato vs Kelly
Hayato vs Kelly

So are the new awakened Hayato and Kelly stronger than Chrono and Alok? Let's find out in this article.

1 - New Hayato Firebrand

Hayato Firebrand is the awakened form of Hayato... with a new ability that focuses on melee combat. When active, Art of Blades would reduce all frontal damage taken by 40% - this means you are supposed to activate this and run at your enemies swinging. Overall, it is moderately useful if you are going to do some melee - firing your gun once would stop the effect.

New Hayato Firebrand
New Hayato Firebrand

In the OB27 patch, Hayato Firebrand's ability would gain the effect of normal Hayato's Bushido skill, which increases armor penetration with lower HP. This means instead of wasting 100% of the skill slot for the melee combat ability, you would still gain the armor-piercing effect regardless of the weapon you use.

>>> You might be interested in: Free Fire OB27 Update Leak: 3 New Characters Revealed, List Of All Upcoming Skins

2 - New Kelly 'the Swift'

After awakening, Kelly would get a new ability named "Deadly Velocity". After running for 7 seconds, you would get a buff that increases the damage of your first 2 shots to 125%. The buff lasts for 5 seconds. There is no cooldown for this skill - you can activate it again after running for another 7 seconds.

New Kelly 'the Swift'
New Kelly 'the Swift'

Deadly velocity is already good alone, however, anyone could use a little bit of extra speed. Awakened Kelly players would be able to run around much faster than their foes.

3 - Are they stronger than Alok and Chrono?

While this is definitely a huge improvement over the original, both awakenings are still pretty lackluster - nowhere near the level of true meta characters yet. They are still very useful, of course - miles better than something like Caroline's ability.

Interested in more of our articles about Garena Free Fire? Please check out this post for the Tips And Tricks On Using Grenade Launcher In Free Fire.