4 Star Tier List

Far from being just a token character for story purposes, Mash is a highly reliable support Servant. As a Shielder, Mash has no class weaknesses while packing a skill set that provides plenty of defensive support, making her highly valuable for challenging battles. Her Noble Phantasm, with its powerful party defense buffs, has high uptime thanks to the massive NP generation buff on Shield of Rousing Resolution, and is also upgraded after a certain part of the story. In general, her skill set and NP make Mash one of the best in the business at improving the survivability of the entire party, or protecting a dedicated damage dealer. Her own lack of any Party Cost gives her even more fantastic value as she can be slotted into any backline seamlessly, either to serve as a Craft Essence holder for Bond / Event farming or as an emergency backup when things go south.

While this cute eggplant might have some slight issues, like her story-locked progression and her poor damage potential, they are trivial compared to the sheer defensive value that she brings to the table.

“▂▂▃▃▅▅ーーー！！ ”

Heracles is a Berserker who embodies all of the class’s best traits while covering for its weaknesses to an extreme degree. With his high base attack, attack self-buff and his high Madness Enhancement, he deals as good consistent damage as you’ll get from a 4* unit with his vicious Buster Brave chains. His strong offense is supplemented by an absurd amount of defensive options including his famous Bond Craft Essence, Castle of Snow. His survivability is a trait that very few Berserkers in the game can boast, further cementing his simple but effective gameplay.

While his offensive ceiling is comparatively lower in more specialized teams, and his team utility is virtually nonexistent, Heracles is still an excellent Servant who can carry newer players far into the game.

A highly offensive Berserker, Lancelot has all the tools he needs to deal massive damage to any enemies in his way, be it AoE or Single Target. His Noble Phantasm, Knight of Owner, might not deal very high damage on its own, the pre-applied Attack Self-Buff, his high attack and the Berserker class advantage, add up to a dangerous cocktail especially once he unlocks the ability to launch his NP multiple times via Skadi. With Skadi as his support, Lancelot becomes a powerhouse in farming, his Berserker class granting him extreme coverage in targets. In addition, Knight of Owner generates a veritable explosion of Critical Stars thanks to its ridiculous hit-count and his own Star Generation buff. Lancelot will then gather these Critical Stars easily, and proceed to slam his enemies with his powerful Critical Damage buff. Yet, without dedicated teams to make this potential shine, Lancelot has some extreme playability issues. His base NP generation is amongst the worst in the game, saved only by his immense NP Gain buff and his NP’s hit counts. His survivability is also laughable, competing with Berserker of El Dorado among who can die the fastest. Of course, neither are an issue if the enemy is dead and Lancelot has a Kaleidoscope glued to his lamppost.

Kintoki (Rider) is best described as a Rider who fully abuses his class’s strengths. With strong Quick buffs, impressive base NP gain, inherently high Star Weight and good star generation, he is incredibly self-sufficient and well capable of performing multiple Noble Phantasms back-to-back. His damage output is thus simply outrageous, with a powerful Overcharge effect and naturally high NP level thanks to his welfare status.

While he possesses a clear weakness in his lack of solid defensive options, his otherwise self-sufficient kit means it’s not too hard to provide a strong support option for him, although his compatability with Skadi is exceptionally good. All in all, Sakata Kintoki (Rider) is a powerful Rider for any Master, no matter how diverse and levelled their roster.

A sublime welfare in all regards. Fully exploiting her Arts potential, Shiki benefits from good NP gain while maintaining her class’s high star generation. In addition, she outputs formidable damage due to her welfare status, while her defences and utility remain up to par. With powerful Arts buffs it is particularly easy for her to recharge immense amount of NP gauge from her NP turn with her strong Arts cards, especially as she still has her own NP battery to top off her NP Bar. Her basic attacks are no slouch either as her critical damage buff and Independent Action help to compensate for her inherit 0.9x Assassin modifiers.

Still, Shiki can be rather fragile. While her Evasion protects her against the biggest threat in most battles, her own NP battery and otherwise lack of defensive measures can be a problem in difficult battles. Still, whether used on her own or in the context of an Arts team, she’s a formidable asset to have, capable of inflicting high damage that ignores most of her foes' defensive measures.

Yagyu Munenori's synergy with Arts compositions, good NP Gain, powerful defensive effects and very strong burst damage potential make him a prime Arts Servant for difficult content. His ability to help the entire team survive enemy NPs via his Attack Down debuffs is a unique commodity that few Servants possess, let alone such a high damage Servant. 

His drawbacks are still there though, as extracting Yagyu Munenori's full capability is difficult. With many competing effects on his skills, Masters often need to sacrifice offense for defense or vice versa. In addition, many bosses resist, cleanse or otherwise circumvent his Attack Down efforts. With his buffs lasting for a single turn and often delayed to hit the right timing, Yagyu Munenori typically lacks the on-demand damage potential of competing Sabers such as Lancelot (Saber).

Nonetheless, this Master of the blade has one terrifying sitting posture. 

With a kit overloaded with powerful passives, multiple skill effects and an overpowering Defense-piercing NP, Raikou (Lancer) is at the very forefront of 4* Servants. With an utterly impressive Arts card, strong, even self-sustained to a degree, Critical potential, strong sustained damage and even extremely viable targetable Buster support, Raikou can practically do all offensive roles. 

Still, she is not perfect. She lacks any survival skills whatsoever, and she is fairly draw dependent when it comes to unleashing her full damage potential or charging her NP Gauge with that bonker single Arts card. Either way, she has a firm hold here with an unanimous placement into Tier 1 as her performance at NP1 is exceedingly powerful. 

The de facto Avenger slayer in the game, BB is the only member of the elusive Mooncancer class for now. Despite having relatively mediocre attack and consequently lackluster damage output, BB makes up for it with a stellar supportive skill set that thrives in any stalling or NP spamming team, acting as one of the best NP batteries in the game for lengthy battles. In addition, her status as a welfare servant ensures her NP hurts regardless. 

There are very few Servants in the game that can match what BB offers, and even then her unique combination of class, utility, and welfare status makes her extremely valuable for any Master.

Despite her low Attack, Parvati has a deeply synergistic kit with a cocktail of all the right buffs to be able to NP Loop once Scathach=Skadi is released. However, without access to her favorite Quick Support, Parvati is rather hamstrung in the teams she can fit well in. Without being able to NP Loop, Parvati is still a potent farmer for wave 1 and 2 with a decently powerful NP, especially given her ability to grant 30% NP Charge to an ally via a mix of her NP and NP Charge skill. 

Regardless, her NP Charging, AoE Charm on NP, and excellent combination of hit counts and NP Generation leave her as a solid Servant overall even outside of her farming niche. Until the dawn of the age of Quick Servants, Parvati will simply bide her time until her eventual ascension of the Tier List. 

Lancelot (Saber) possesses incredible self-sufficiency as a critical damage dealer. While he is lacking in fanciful or subtle options such as buff removal or Pierce invincibility, he compensates with sheer power, NP Charging and critical might. The ease with which he drops massive Critical Star bombs upon skill activation gives him an incredible amount of freedom in terms of Craft Essences and team compositons. His proficiency in critical damage dealing doesn’t stop there; as his Eternal Arms Mastery boosts his Star Gathering to such heights that even Rider Servants can hardly steal a single Critical Star from him. When Lancelot makes 20 Critical Stars for himself, he is likely to get all 20 of them.

These existing factors, combined with his pre-NP Arts buff, Raid NP farming potential, and sheer ease-of-use, make him an offensive monster whether in a vacuum or supported by his teammates. His sole weakness is his complete lack of defensive options, which tends to be of little importance if the enemy has been surgically removed from the field.

Chloe is an Archer who more or less eschews the effectiveness of all her other card types to have absolutely absurd Arts cards. With her extremely powerful star generation buff she can use her 6-hit Arts cards like other Servants’ Quick cards, while also gaining an impressive amount of NP gauge. Add in a strong Card Performance boost of all card types and a 50% NP charge, and Chloe can easily set herself up for back to back NPs. Naturally given her welfare status these NPs deal impressive damage, but Kuro can also soak up her stars easily as an Archer class Servant and then deal solid critical damage with her Independent Action and 3-turn Critical buff. 

While Chloe’s intense focus on Arts cards does make her particularly susceptible to poor card luck from her 2 more-or-less useless Quick cards, Chloe's ease of use and usefulness to snipe targets with her NP make her an exceptional addition to any Master's roster.

Mash (Ortinax) first appears during the second part of the Main storyline, and has a distinctive skill set from the normal version of Mash. Her skillset has several notable differences, with arguably the greatest one being the loss of her targetable NP charge skill. She also loses her first skill's party defensive buff, instead gaining a self-Buster and Buster Crit damage buff, which does not quite mesh well with her low attack stat. On the plus side, both her second and third skills have the taunt effect, which enhance her ability to tank damage for allies by allowing her to do so for two turns instead of one. One taunt provides her with 1-turn invincibility, while the other charges her own NP gauge by 20%. Her NP reverts to a state similar to Lord Chaldeas (no ATK buff), still providing the defensive buffs at similar values it used to. Overall, she is not quite as effective as her former self, but she still has most of her kit intact, the pros of being 0 Cost, a 5% bond point sharing bonus for new Main Quests and select events, and a cool new suit.

EMIYA covers a lot of ground many servants of his caliber can’t manage. Hawkeye B+ gives him both impressive star generation, even on his three Arts cards, and a staggeringly high critical damage for 3 turns. His Noble Phantasm hits for a more than sufficient sum of damage while also ignoring defense buffs, and he can avoid taking immense damage from enemy attacks thanks to Eye of the Mind (True) B and his NP’s attack debuff. Thus, EMIYA is a strong Servant for nearly any situation, whether that is setting it a full round of critical hits for the next turn via his high hit count NP, or combating a fearsome enemy boss. Still EMIYA’s regular card and NP damage can be a little lacking without the backing of his skill set. In addition, the mismatch between his Buster NP and triple Arts deck can make creating optimized teams more difficult. Regardless, EMIYA status as a staple 4* Archer is well deserved.

This huntress embodies Skadi’s Quick-centric farming gameplay to the extreme. After getting all of her Interludes and Rank-up Quests finished, Atalante is a wave 2 clearer for any Critical and Quick-centric teammates through her powerful party Quick-performance buffs and the massive amount of Critical Stars generated from her Noble Phantasm. The final wave can then be cleared by an ally fed with her Critical Stars. But she can do a lot more than that with the arrival of Scathach-Skadi, becoming a notable farmer through her high NP refund and strong AoE Noble Phantasm. Her combination of a high hit count NP and NP Gain buff embodies everything a 3-turn Quick NP looper is looking for. Atalante’s biggest issue ever since her release has always been her terribly low base NP generation per hit. While this issue can be remedied somewhat through her 3rd skill and teammates’ assistance, she will still struggle to charge her NP gauge from scratch. Outside of her NP, her lack of sustained damage also makes her far less powerful compared to the plethora of Strong Servants in the Archer class of any rarity. But that’s no issue. In the right team and setting, all Atalante does is fire her NP. Stick a Kaleidoscope or Starting NP Gauge to her 24/7, and Atalante becomes one of the best farming Servants around in the age of Skadi.

Helena is a great example of a Servant with a simple, but a highly effective skill set that does what they are supposed to do well. Being a rare Servant capable of charging the entire team’s NP bar by up to 20%, Helena is invaluable for farming for any Master without the top gacha farming Servants. She further supplements this niche with a teamwide Card Performance buff and a few Critical Stars to go with it. Notably though, Helena is one of the strongest AoE Casters when it comes to pure NP Damage, provided her NP Damage Up buff actually triggers (fortunately at 80% odds).

Still, Helena suffers from obscenely long cooldowns, poor survivability, and lackluster NP gain that thoroughly debilitate her for quests that require more sustain. Yet, her usefulness for day-to-day and event farming is more than valuable enough to make her a remarkably valuable Servant to own.

It is quite apt to called Emiya (Alter) the four-star equivalent of Altria Pendragon (Archer). Packing fantastic NP generation and powerful NP refund, Emiya (Alter) can spam his strong defense-piercing Arts Noble Phantasm on a frequent basis. Add in his two strong self-buffs, high durability, and good stalling potential with his Noble Phantasm effect, and we get one of the most consistent damage dealers amongst 4 Star Servant.

On the other hand, he does not possess any form of team support whatsoever and his main utility is unreliable with a low base chance of NP draining. Due to his low base Attack stats, his offensive output outside of his Noble Phantasm is also quite lackluster compared to other 4 Star Archer Servants who can do more than just shooting off their Noble Phantasm. Nonetheless, these flaws are quite minor when he is put into the right setup, and Emiya (Alter) remains a highly valuable pick for any Masters lacking a solid single target Archer.

With strong NP Damage from her various Quick boosts, Ishtar packs a strong NP5 welfare punch even amongst the crowded Rider Welfare Servant list. Yet, it's her combination of this AoE damage, critical potential, hard survival and good all-around teamwide support that elevates her from middle of the pack to a great pick. Sadly, her poor Quick card performance and resultant NP Gain does hold her back a bit from being among the cream of the crop. 

If there is one particular Servant that embodies the concept of instant wave-clearing, that would be Nitocris. Having one of the strongest NP battery skills in the game, accompanied with an AoE Arts Noble Phantasm and a situational Instant Death niche makes her a fantastic option for taking out waves 1 and 2 of low-level enemies. Her relatively low damage can at least be compensated for via offensive support, grails or high level CEs in case wave 2 is especially beefy. Just being able to fill her NP gauge from scratch on turn 1 is a special niche that proves invaluable for speeding up Event farming, or indeed any farming.

On the other side, Nitocris’s poor sustained damage makes her a less than ideal option for longer and more difficult nodes. In addition, relying on her Instant Death niche against silver and gold enemies is generally just an exercise in frustration/ Regardless, Nitocris is a prime example of not bringing a lawnmower to a knife fight. Let her stick to mowing the lawn.

The Empress’s high-maintenance personality is well translated into her gameplay, featuring relatively good damage potential and strong team support capacity, particularly in the elusive Quick support category. While, Assassin of the Nightless City’s skills are simple and effective, her game plan is often more selfish, as she requires constant attention from Masters and teammates to function at her utmost capacity, especially given her mediocre generation performance.

While the Empress herself may not be a true powerhouse as of right now, she receives a much-needed upgrade to her Noble Phantasm in the future, bringing her closer to top tier Assassin options.

Santa Altera's performance for a welfare is spectacular, with incredible damage output and a very welcome niche in serving as a superb swap in Servant. Her rare combination of a 30% NP Damage Up and a 20% NP Charge makes her a great substitute for Master's lacking the strongest support options, especially for farming quests with one singularly powerful enemy.

Her own NP5 damage sees her comfortable at the top of the Archer ST damage pyramid, but her main direct damage steroids are rather short-lived even if they are backed up by an amazing combination of passives. In addition, her primary steroid being an NP Damage Up modifiers is hugely detrimental to her support in (Raid) Events with Event Damage boosts, as their additive stacking reduces her damage buff to minimal values.

Atalanta (Alter) is a strong Quick Damage Dealer with a self-sufficient streak. A combination of Critical Star Gathering, Critical Damage, teamwide 50% Quick buff, instant 10 Critical Stars, good NP Gain and a powerful Single Target Noble Phantasm are all the burst ingredients Atalanta (Alter) needs to demolish raids, short boss fights and powerful enemies. 

Still, Atalante (Alter) is not particularly well equipped for sustained offense all on her own. While she has a form of survivability in the form of a 1 turn Evasion, her survivability is still relatively poor, courtesy of Berserker innate frailty. Most of her steroids also last only for a single turn, while her sustained offense may suffer harshly if Masters cannot provide the Critical Stars she needs. Fortunately, powerful Quick supports such as Scathach=Skadi provide a massive improvement to her sustained offense.

 

Sieg is definitely a very powerful AoE Caster option who is a match even for his higher rarity counterparts. Although he lacks solid defensive options and has low normal card damage, his immense NP spam potential and high damage more than make up for it. Despite the often heated arguments surrounding his character, Masters willing to invest in him are sure to find great value in the homunculus-turned-hero’s abilities.

Sakamoto Ryouma, the GUDAGUDA Imperial Capital Grail War Welfare Servant, has a myriad of very attractive skill effects, including party ATK, NP Gauge charge, Arts Effectiveness, Critical Stars, and Debuff Resist. The main issue that holds back his performance are the conservative values on all of his skills (his NP Gauge charge is fixed at 10%, which hurts its utility quite a bit). In addition, as an ST Arts damage dealer, his damage is only decent even at NP5. He slots very well in Arts centric teams and has extremely high synergy with Arts supports, although outside of that context his performance is not as spectacular.

Valkyrie was highly divisive in tier discussion, being a strong AoE Quick type Servant with a Noble Phantasm that has a built-in Sure Hit effect to bypass Evade skills. She excels most in the correct party compositions. She is notably strong with Skadi, who is released at the end of Lostbelt 2, enabling very consistent 3-turn farming setups with her high hit counts, NP Gain, NP per turn, and Critical Star generation. However, without Skadi, her damage tends to be mediocre, and she can struggle to perform. She does have decent staying power, having an HP Regen skill, a 1-time Evade, Debuff Immunity, and Damage Cut. With Skadi in the roster, she is definitively an impressive NP looper, although without Skadi, her performance is notably less remarkable.

Ibaraki-Douji (Lancer), a Lancer with a defense-ignoring ST Buster NP, comes in with devastating crits following her NP turns. Her NP can generate a minimum of 30 stars depending on overcharge, which she can capitalize on the following turn by using her skill that enhances star gathering and critical strength. She has some degree of party support as well, providing an ATK boost to allies while boosting her own NP Strength and NP Gain. Finally, she has access to a self debuff cleanse and max HP increase, which essentially acts as a more flexible heal. She is by all means a very solid Buster Crit Servant, with less fragility by grace of her summer form’s non-Berserker Class.

When she unleashes her Noble Phantasm, few can hit as hard as Jeanne d'Arc (Berserker Alter). By courtesy of being a Welfare, she has easy access to NP5, and combined with her high attack, self buffs, and a welcome NP charge skill, her ST Buster NP can come out fast and hit extremely hard against many enemies. Her lower HP pool lends to her Berserker class fragility, however, and although this is somewhat mitigated by her Evade skill, which gives her 1 time evade that refreshes each turn for 3 turns, she can still meet an untimely demise if focused or from an errant critical hit. Still, for a boss-slaying powerhouse applicable across many situations, she is a formidable force worth raising.

The Prince of Lan Ling, Saber class, primarily acts as an excellent damage and critical support Servant, with a support Arts type NP. He has a two-time, 3 turn invincibility skill that also acts as an ATK boost for all allies for three turns, can fill an ally's NP Gauge by up to 20% while increasing their buff success rate, as well as providing Arts, Star Drop Rate, and Critical Strength support to all allies for three turns at decent values. To top off his arsenal, his NP will further increase ATK for allies for three turns based on overcharge, provide some damage cut to all allies, decrease NP Charge of enemies by 1, and decrease critical rate of all enemies. All told, he can provide ATK +50%, Crit Damage +50%, and Arts +20% for all allies with all skills and NP active, making his damage support extremely noteworthy. His presence is welcome in most any team composition, with his primary weakness being a lack of truly effective party sustenance and damage mitigation options (with damage cut being only a flat 500 at NP1).

Courtesy of her naturally high NP level from being a welfare Servant, a Buster steroid from her Mana Burst, a party wide NP Generation buff and an Interlude that improves her Noble Phantasm’s damage, Lily is a decent Saber for farming purpose, especially for Masters who just start out. She sits at among the highest in AoE Saber NP damage with the assumptions of NP5 Welfares / NP1 Non-welfares, dealing more damage than Altria (Alter), although it should be noted that Altria (Alter) will deal more at NP2.

Altria Lily's downsides can be quite aggravating. Lily suffers from a terribly low base Attack stats and a completely vanilla skill set that makes her quite one-dimensional. She does not offer anything unique nor highly desirable beyond her initial Caliburn, and her poor survivability also limits her challenge quest potential. It is just tough to justify bringing her over other more prominent Servants of the ever-increasing competitive roster of Sabers with AoE Noble Phantasms.

It is rare that a Servant has a skill set as synergistic as Passionlip’s. The combination of Defense buffs, Debuff Immunity, short-cooldown Taunt, Self-Healing and Damage Cut makes Passionlip highly durable, and capable of functioning as a dedicated team protector. Her Buster-centric deck and self-buffs also allow her to dish out decent damage on the side through the use of Buster supports. As Buster options are typically few against Casters and Assassins, this added flexibility is a welcome addition.

Passionlip does have a few minor flaws in return, namely the lackluster damage ceiling on her Noble Phantasm before her NP Upgrade and her Alter Ego classing not granting resistance to any class to synergize with her tanking niche. However, these demerits are not significant enough to devalue her many strengths.

Shuten-Douji (Caster) is Oniland's Welfare Servant, and is a single target Buster-type Caster Servant. By courtesy of her Welfare status, she can reach max NP levels easily, and her NP hits hard. As an added bonus, her NP poisons the enemy and applies Sure Hit before damage, making sure that Evade skills will not pose a problem (which tend to be frequent for Assassins, a common target for her). Her skill kit provides stalling in the form of NP Seal, and damage mitigation in the form of a Critical Rate debuff. She also provides an ATK bonus to all allies. Otherwise, the rest of her abilities buff herself, including Buster, Arts, Crit Star Gather Rate, and Anti-[Demonic] special damage buffs, helping to increase her damage output. Unfortunately, her 13-hit NP is Buster-type, meaning none of the NP hits are capable of generating NP gauge refund, which is the primarily difficulty of running Shuten-Douji (Caster). Her NP Gain woes are partially mitigated by her 3-Arts Card deck, although NP looping will be a difficulty for her without a great deal of support. Additionally, she has zero hard defensive options, and may have trouble staying on the field without defensive support when faced with enemy NPs.

Diarmuid (Saber) brings solid Quick-type single target damage with an NP that removes defensive buffs (unfortunately after damage) and has a small chance of instant death. He also boasts high hit counts and strong base NP Gain, which enables him to synergize well with Quick Supports. He comes with an evade tied to a self Quick and ATK buff that last a single turn to bolster his offense and defense, with his second skill providing stars and an increase to his own star gather rate for critical performance. Finally, he has a self DEF and NP Gain buff that last for 3 turns, which both improves his durability and helps him unleash his Noble Phantasm more quickly. Among SR Sabers, he performs solidly and is an excellent pick particularly if Quick Support is available.

Mysterious Heroine XX is the first SR Foreigner Servant, giving Masters an easier opportunity to obtain a Servant of this class. Her ST Arts NP deals decent damage against Saber and Threat to Humanity enemies, boosted by her own ATK buff and the in-built ATK buff that activates during the NP. She also comes with a 30% NP self charge, the ability to Ignore Invincibility, as well as a self Invincibility skill. However, in most scenarios she is not the optimal pick damage-wise, dealing and receiving neutral damage in most scenarios due to her class typing. As a side bonus, she does provide the situational ability to provide stars to her allies by generating stars while decreasing her own star gathering rate to zero. In most cases, she may not be the optimal pick, but against more difficult Berserker enemies, for Masters who lack a Foreigner, she provides decent value.

Queen Medb (Saber) is an ST Arts Saber, with a rather fabulous NP that has a chance of stacking multiple defense debuffs. She can generate stars and NP per turn for herself (20% NP per turn at max skill level), giving her easier access to NPs on later turns, and has a Charm skill that can affect all targets. She provides team support in the form of ATK and Critical Strength buffs, and an AoE Arts Resist debuff, all with decent numbers. She does lack any survival skills aside from the stall provided by the Charm, however, so she can have trouble staying on the field without support. Being in the ST Arts Saber category, she also faces some steep competition among SR Servants.

Ushiwakamaru's Assassin form fills the more rare AoE Assassin niche with her Quick AoE NP. She comes with a 40% NP Gauge charge as well, enabling her to loop (with some difficulty) with Skadi. She has a 3-turn Quick buff that is unfortunately tied to her 1-turn evasion, which may lead to situations where Masters must choose one or the other. She also can grant herself Debuff Immunity and increase her star gathering for 1 turn, with a rather novel (but niche) 40% chance to remove debuffs when normal attacking for a single turn. She is a solid option for an AoE Assassin, although her damage can be somewhat mediocre given her class.

Chiron, as with many other Archers, suffers from steep competition within the class. Even so, while he may not be the most flashy option, he still proves to be a surprisingly flexible ST Arts Servant capable of supporting his teammates, notably with a targetable triple-color buff and critical damage buffs, while still being capable of dealing damage when necessary.

Asagami Fujino is another strong entry into the Archer class, providing Buster-type ST damage with decent critical potential. Touting a high-utility skill set, she has access to the rare Ignore Defense buff as a skill rather than tied to her NP, giving her the ability to excel in certain challenge quests or encounters where enemies exhibit high DEF. Access to Sure Hit will make enemies with Evade easier for her to deal with. Her NP is also capable of inflicting Buff Block, which can prevent enemies from gaining an otherwise nasty buff. She does have survival options with Guts, Damage Cut, and ATK down, although she still suffers in the face of high burst damage (such as enemy NPs). In light of her unique and challenge quest-handy skill set, she is a welcome addition to the roster.

Caster of Midrash’s Arts NP is a rarity for offensive single target Casters, and Caster of Midrash makes a good case for why that is so. With excellent NP Gain, back to back NP potential, good teamwide offensive buffs, and supreme Arts team synergy, Caster of Midrash is a natural fit for any Arts-heavy Master. Her sustained performance is impressive, yet that is also her main weakness.

Outside of more difficult content, Caster of Midrash lacks the on-demand or burst damage necessary to help clear content quickly especially as she is still dragged down by her Caster class damage modifiers. With strong competition from higher rarity Casters as well, Masters may not find as many opportunities to field her as they would like.

Caster of Okeanos builds upon the foundation of Medea’s playstyle, bringing an Instant NP Charge for her single target NP. Her resulting freedom in CE and support choices affords her a tremendous damage improvement for on-demand farming, even if her base NP Damage is very low. Her ability to cleanse debuffs for the entire team, turn enemies into piglets, and apply a small Defense Down also grant her a small niche for certain difficult encounters.

Still, her sustained damage output and dependency on expensive CEs (and NP Upgrades) make it more difficult to release her full potential.

Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II combines a Buster-heavy kit with one extremely damaging Buster NP. As very burst heavy Single Target anti-Rider and anti-Assassin Servants are often difficult to acquire, especially Buster-based ones, Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II easily carves out a niche for herself as an easily accessible option for cavalry or Foreigner destruction. Charging her NP may prove more challenging, as is keeping her alive, but Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II’s damage potential remains strong enough even as a Master’s roster expands.

Mecha Eli-Chan combines a Buster-heavy kit with one extremely damaging Buster NP. As very burst heavy Single Target anti-Rider and anti-Assassin Servants are often difficult to acquire, especially Buster-based ones, Mecha Eli-Chan easily carves out a niche for herself as an easily accessible option for cavalry or Foreigner destruction. Charging her NP may prove more challenging, as is keeping her alive, but Mecha Eli-Chan’s damage potential remains strong enough even as a Master’s roster expands.

The cute but deadly Kiyohime (Lancer) has a straightforward and highly offense-oriented skill set. Her single target damage can be quite brutal as Kiyohime multiple strong steroids, including a self Buster buff and a DEF Down debuff, especially if she unleashes Buster Brave Chain. She is not an entirely selfish Servant either, as her DEF Debuff helps allies do more damage, while the partywide Critical Rate Down debuff and Skill Seal on her Noble Phantasm give her some utility.

She has some notable flaws, however, that hold her back from being a strong general Lancer. Her survivability is particularly lackluster, having no hard survivability tools to get out of dangerous situations. Furthermore, as Kiyohime is heavily dependent on her high hit-count Buster cards and Extra cards, she is reliant on good card draws to maximize both her NP Generation and Critical Star Generation, which makes her more volatile than most Lancers in said aspects. 

Frankly, her biggest problem is that she shares a very similar kit to Raikou (Lancer) who has an outrageously powerful kit with better supportive options, something Ibaraki-Douji (Lancer) also suffers from.

With skills that cover almost every possible need, Scathach (Assassin) is all set to be a master of none. Fortunately, her welfare status and powerful Quick buff allows her to deal massive damage to any strong Rider wave, an enemy type that usually slows down farming. Her flexibility also makes her useful to round out Assassin teams, as does her ability to generate a lot of Critical Stars on her NP turns.

That said, Scathach (Assassin) does not have anything she particularly excels over other Assassin. While her Noble Phantasm damage is high, her NP generation is fairly mediocre. Masters also have to constantly ask themselves which aspects of her skills are needed most, as each of her skills have longer cooldowns, do two things at once, and last for 1 turn. Still, she is a solid AoE Assassin that will get the job done in general, at least until Masters can replace her with a powerful gacha AoE Assassin, or once Grey is released.

While many may be immediately drawn to his powerful team Evasion from Harp of Healing, Tristan has plenty going for him outside of being a strong defensive team support. As a Quick-focused Archer, Tristan has sufficient Star generating capacity with very high hit counts. On top of that, his NP is frequently available thanks to the large NP battery on Unblessed Birth B (albeit with self-NP Seal) and high NP gain across most of his cards. His NP itself is capable of piercing through pesky Evasion and Defense skills. Tristan’s power does not end there, however, as Tristan rounds out his massive utility by being able to strip any target of their buffs via his skills. 

The knight of self-induced blindness is not without his flaws though - his only direct damage improvements come from his NP Upgrade and passive Riding. The NP Seal from his NP charge also prevents simple plug and play strategies and generally needs an extra turn to set up. Still, with Quick supports becoming more widely available, Tristan’s damage does not have to be a large problem.

Mordred (Rider) has one main focus that she can pull off far easier than most Servants - constant NP looping. Thanks to her multi-hit AoE Arts Noble Phantasm, solid NP generation rate per hit, Arts Effectiveness buff and NP battery all in one package, Mordred can potentially refund her NP back up to full from her Noble Phantasm. With the right team and enemies, she can completely refill her NP gauge and do back-to-back Noble Phantasms with ease, making her a fantastic Servant for farming QP Doors and mid-HP Caster-filled quests.

However, Mordred is severely limited when it comes to more traditional combat. Her sustained damage is low, and she needs a very specific team composition, as well as enemies wave consisting of three enemies to keep her Noble Phantasm chain going. Her skill cooldowns are also fairly long and her Guts is often ignored for its NP Charge. Still, such a farming niche is a nice quality of life buff for anyone that intends to grind Casters, or indeed, QP doors.

An offensive support/damage dealer hybrid that works well with female Servants, Elisabeth Bathory’s main value lies in her ability to grant up to 60% Attack increase to female teammates through her Sadistic Charisma’s teamwide Attack-buff and Torture Technique’s Defense Debuff. Percentages as high as 60% are rare, and often prove particularly useful during raids or Challenge Quests where stacking damage is necessary.

Sadly for Elisabeth, she is quite limited at everything else. Her awkward card deck and low hit count make it difficult for her to generate NP or Critical Stars. Her limited utility such as Ignore Defense, Curse and Buff Success Rate down are also too niche to be of use on a kit that does not deal a lot of damage. As is quite often the case with support-heavy Servants, they tend to buff others harder than they buff themselves. 

Overall, Elisabeth is a good starter Servant, with female support and decent damage that will last a long time before competitive support options for all card types are available. Yet eventually, her launch era performance lags behind her peers.

With excellent hit counts on her Buster cards, her NP Gain potential is rather good. Factor in her teamwide support, very short cooldown Critical steroid (that synergizes extremely well with Buster Critical supports like Merlin), and decent survival for a Berserker, and Nobunaga's kit works very well as a sustained offensive Buster Berserker.  In addition, she has a wide niche in anti-Divinity bonus damage. 

Still, her pure damage performance by herself is rather lackluster, being dependent on supports to bring her up to par with competing Berserker. Plus, charging her NP Gauge does often mean making use of an ABB chain, which does a fair bit lower damage without the Buster start. Nonetheless a great Berserker for any piece of harder content if provided with the Buster Critical supports. 

Frankenstein (Saber) packs both strong base NP Gain performance, good hit counts and an utterly amazing NP Gain boost. Her NP spam potential, especially under the influence of Quick Performance buffs and good card draws, is excellent and her own 3-turn steroids ensure each NP in that 3-turn window seriously hurt. In addition, she packs some ever-useful utility in a targeted buff removal, all the while her NP spam has serious stun-lock potential. 

Still, her various demerits and difficulty using Galvanism optimally at NP1 hold her back a bit, but she's a stellar Quick Servant that will only see her performance become stronger and stronger as better Quick supports arrive. 

The combination of an NP battery, a strong one-turn Buster buff, and a  welfare AoE Noble Phantasm makes this version of Jeanne d’Arc a very capable farmer for most Masters. Next to her farming potential, Jeanne d’Arc (Alter Santa Lily) also packs some nice healing support both from her targetable healing skill and her NP’s Overcharge. She also has access to an Invincibility, but its shared cooldown with her large and only Buster steroid does make using it a bit tricky on more difficult nodes.

In addition, her inconsistent NP generation rate and otherwise lackluster sustained damage firmly makes it so that she excels mainly at farming a strong wave of Archer or Berserker enemies. As long as she is used for her intended purpose, this Jeanne will not let any Master down.

A highly versatile Lancer, Vlad III (Extra) is capable of operating at a stable level in a wide variety of situations. His diverse skill set allows him to act as both a tank and a damage dealer for the team with a Taunt, strong self-buffs, generating a few critical stars and healing while enjoying a wide niche from his Anti-Evil Noble Phantasm. Against enemies with Evil alignment, his Noble Phantasm will hit particularly hard, thanks to his Tactics and Innocent Monster attack buff. 

As reliable as Vlad III is, his damage ceiling is unfortunately not particularly impressive against non-evil enemies, which hamper his overall usage as a damage dealer. Furthermore, as versatile as he is, his kits lack a true focus that could elevate him above other Servants who might be preferred in more specific team compositions.

Even with fierce competition from other Berserkers, Berserker of El Dorado stands out with a strong combination of offensive steroids, NP battery, team support, and even debuff immunity. Furthermore, her simple but clear and destructive gameplay allows her to fit in very well into most Buster composition, and work well even on her own. While her biggest flaw - Survivability - is quite magnified by her lack of defensive option and Berserker inherent frailty, it is not difficult to work around with proper supports and team building.

All in all, Berserker of El Dorado is a strong, well-designed representative of the Berserker’s “Offense is the Best Defense” Philosophy.

One look at Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter) baseline stats is enough to impress any Master, and she combines her high attack with a solid hyper-offensive skill set that can devastate any enemies standing in her way. Her access to a combination of a powerful Noble Phantasm damage multiplier, strong offensive steroids and a formidable critical damage boost gives her an utterly terrifying NPBB chain. She is capable of obliterating most targets in one go, especially if she has top tier offensive supports like Waver or Merlin catering to her. In fact, she is usually capable of spreading out her buffs and NP across two turns for back-to-back devastation.

While her inherently selfish playstyle and lack of survivability prowess requires the team to be built around her, Lancer Alter burst potential is simply outstanding, cementing her as a top tier offensive Lancer for general purposes. 

Gilgamesh (Caster) is an effective blend of offensive support and AoE Arts spam that just ends up working spectacularly. He can simultaneously overload any (high hit count) team with Critical Stars, massively improve their damage output and Arts card performance significantly, and even increase the success rate of crippling debuffs originating from his allies. On his own, Gilgamesh is a solid AOE Caster, boasting reasonable damage output, high star generation and respectable NP gain. Melammu Dingir is also a powerful NP, simultaneously raising the team’s defence and reducing the enemy’s for a solid duration, on top of a high hit count - ideal for stalling teams as well.

Gilgamesh isn’t without his flaws, though. He lacks the overwhelming base offensive power of complete offense-oriented Casters, and has no hard defensive options such as an Evasion to keep himself in the field without the aid of his allies. Yet the sheer breadth of Arts teams he can function in (and his frequent Bonus Servant status) make him an awesome addition to any roster.

While the image of a typical Berserker may be that of reckless rampage and mindlessness, Ibaraki’s approach is more measured than is typical in an otherwise-chaotic class. With a good Madness enhancement rank, great base stats and a powerful offensive steroid in Demonic Nature of Oni A, Ibaraki is hardly lacking on the offensive front. Furthermore, Ibaraki boasts surprisingly good durability in spite of her Berserker class weakness thanks to her combination of Healing/Debuff Cleanse and her large defense buff, which synergize incredibly well with the common top supports. Yet, it is her Buff Removal after NP that grants her a very welcome niche for various Challenge Quests.

Yet, her inconsistent NP gain or the very real danger of unavoidable enemy NPs put holes in her otherwise well rounded kit. Thus while Ibaraki may not perform as powerfully to more all-out offense Berserkers in a vacuum, when taken in a team which properly supports Ibaraki’s strengths and utility, Ibaraki will outlast and outperform many more standard Berserkers.

A strong offensive ST Saber all around, Rama has a handful of niches to make himself useful in a team. Whether his focus is high critical damage, a side-dose of team support or intense anti-Demonic NP damage, Rama can do any combination of them at the same time. 

Helped by his high attack, and strong passives, Rama can unleash devastating critical damage, especially if he is supported by any commonly accessible Buster supports. Furthermore, Brahmastra’s anti-Demonic effective damage multiplier is one of the most common enemy traits, making him a neat darkhorse option for many nodes.

While Rama’s offensive power is certainly formidable, he is not particularly self-sufficient and lacks the tools to take himself to the point where he can display it. Both his star generation and NP gain are lacking, often necessitating support from his team members to properly exhibit his worth. Luckily for him, Buster Servants are one of the easier Servant types to support properly.

Notoriously underwhelming upon release and often decried as an evil spook, most of Fionn’s strengths are locked behind his Interlude and Rank-Up Quests. Upon finishing these personal challenges, the great Irish hero does become noticeably better and occupies the rare niche of being an AoE Arts Lancer that is capable of performing in both farming and Challenge Quests. Fionn’s eventual use is mostly for farming thanks to his ability to use his Noble Phantasm multiple times in a row in the right, albeit very expensive, Arts teams. His team support is also quite impressive, bringing not only Attack Down debuffs, NP Generation and Critical Star Generation to the team, but also uporading the team’s protection through a Taunt + Evasion combo. His downsides are not so small however. Before receiving all his Rank-Up Quests, Fionn’s poor NP generation, lackluster damage output, and high cooldowns are all highly detrimental to his role as an AoE Arts sweeper. And, even at his full power, Fionn still requires a large amount of support to reach his full potential. Just, don’t turn him into a Rare Prism before seeing his full potential.

Frankie holds her place for one reason alone - amazing AoE NP damage with potential looping potential in very specific Skadi comps. On top of Blasted Tree’s high NP damage multiplier, Frankie has access to an NP Interlude as well as two steroid skills in Wail of the Living Dead C and Overload C, making her damage potential phenomenal for final waves. While her AOE damage output is her main attraction, Frankie has small uses in other scenarios, including a targetable stun on a decent cooldown and the capacity to generate a large sum of stars on her NP turn for her allies. 

If it weren’t evident from her Berserker nature, self-stun and self-damage effects, Frankie is exceptionally squishy and has no tools to compensate for it. If deployed for any purpose outside of her one-hit-wonder NP then she will need heavy defensive/cleansing support to stay alive. Fortunately, efficient Masters do not get hit at all when farming.

Nobu kit is decidedly non-standard as she lacks the more traditional tools most damage Servants possess. She compensates through raw Anti-Rider and/or Anti-Divine power, or her powerful Critical buffs. Her welfare status grants her a decent NP Damage, and downright impressive damage if her Anti-trait triggers.

Nobu is held back by her poor NP Gain even with her NP Gain buff, being wholly dependent on her Arts cards for NP gain. In addition, her critical prowess are only unlocked if her allies generate the critical stars she needs. 

Her biggest problem is that she is only competitive when her Anti-traits are in play, which requires knowledge of what the upcoming quest contains. Still, if both her anti-Traits allign, the enemy will be utterly crushed under Nobu’s mighty heel.

Carmilla is something of a rarity, being a strong release servant whose Rank-Up Quests bolster her already solid core performance. Carmilla’s strength comes from two simple factors in tandem - her incredibly good NP gain and her strong and widely applicable anti-Female niche, backed by a modest but functional skill set. Carmilla’s Noble Phantasm is a single target nuke capable of hitting hard on common Female enemies, healing her for a moderate sum and also further augmenting her attack on following turns. Her freakish NP gain and Vampirism C then helps to set up the next blood-bath. 

Carmilla’s weakness ultimately lies in her frailty and her own diminished Assassin modifiers. She pays for her good attack stat with a small HP pool, and lacks any strong defensive options to guard against NP’s, making her reliant on her teammates for survival. Furthermore, she is dependent on card draws to pull her singular Arts card to reach peak performance, which may not be particularly reliable in every quest attempt.

Saint Martha is defined by her valuable support/utility. Being one of the few Servants with the capability to cleanse all debuffs from the team, while also being able to strip an enemy of all their buffs, Martha is a darkhorse pick for many high difficulty challenges. Furthermore, with her naturally strong NP generation rate and triple Arts deck, Martha has no trouble charging her decent-hitting AoE Noble Phantasm. Her NP’s Defense Down on top of her skill-based healing and Defense Down adds an extra layer of more basic support.

The holy maiden, however, is particularly mediocre in terms of offense. Lacking powerful  long-lasting self-buffs and possessing a lackluster Attack stat, Martha’s damage output leaves much to be desired. Most problematically, her Rider class will naturally take away critical stars from the damage-dealers that need them more. While these weak points do not trouble her during Challenge Quests, they make her use for more standard content more limited.

The Samba Santa version of Quetzalcoatl is an AoE Buster damage dealer with a bit of offensive support built in. Being Ruler-class, as she reaches NP5 easily due to Welfare status, she can hit high enough damage values even without class advantage to clear a wave for farming. She does lack an NP Gauge charging skill, however, so she will need to be supported properly to farm efficiently. Otherwise, her kit provides ATK buffs to all allies, stars per turn, a targetable Star Gather + Star Drop buff, and a self Buster and Buster Star Gather buff, with her NP providing a Star Drop buff to herself and Critical Damage buffs to all allies. The sum of her kit gives her very respectable performance as a Crit Buster Servant, also providing support for other allies in Crit-based teams. Despite rarely being the pick of choice for damage due to her classing, her solid kit and respectable damage make her a great Servant to have in the roster.

Saber Alter’s kit is built towards blasting the final wave with her extraordinarily powerful Excalibur Morgan. Her high base attack, notably above-average NP damage multiplier, and two powerful steroids allow her to inflict a juicy chunk of damage against all enemies, even with little team support. Her farming ability with the use of a Kaleidoscope CE is good enough to work anywhere, but getting her Noble Phantasm ready again will take some time before her Rank Up.

While she lacks any fancy frills or defensive skills to protect herself, Saber Alter’s sheer offensive might makes her an excellent starter Saber. As other Servants catch up and the average Servant kit slowly grows stronger, Saber Alter struggles to stand out when sheer damage is not required. 

Santa Alter’s game plan, much like her normal Saber counterpart, is simply overwhelming the opponent with sheer AoE damage output. While she packs some support effects such as instant Critical Stars and Saint’s Gift EX’s solid heal and star generation buff, her main focus is the wombo combo of her solid base attack, higher-than-usual NP damage multiplier, welfare NP level and her large Buster steroid. Her star weight also aids in NP gain - while Santa Alter is very much a ‘one and done’ sort of gal, the NP charge refund on Excalibur Morgan and her natural high Star weight means she can push herself to another NP if the opportunity presents itself.

On the other side, Santa Alter doesn’t really have much of a place outside of her power as a massive Rider Excalibur. While she is superb at it and has some uses outside of said role, the overall damage benchmarks become more competitive year by year, diminishing her niche over time.

With excellent Buster Critical compatibility and an overall powerful skill set that only has minor drawbacks, Archer of Inferno’s largest problem is that she is a Single Target boss specialist with a Burn amplification niche that hardly ever sees any use. As the most challenging encounters often highly reward Servants that can counter the enemy’s various gimmicks, Archer of Inferno is always a solid option, but never an optimal choice.

With little farming capability to draw back on, and with some extremely steep competition including that of both powerful Archer welfares Chloe and Altera the san(ta), Archer of Inferno thus places herself firmly in the middle of the pack.

Being an offensive Ruler, Saint Martha (Ruler) manages to stand apart from her fellow 4 Star Servant, albeit not by much. Her class grants her significant bulk against the majority of the enemies, while her Buster-centric deck, Defense debuff, anti-Demon, Divine and Undead niche, NP Battery, and a future Rank-Up Quest that improve her Noble Phantasm’s modifier allow her to hold her own when it comes to dishing out punishment. On the contrary, by virtue of having neutral damage against the majority of opponents and a lack of a consistent damage buff, Saint Martha’s damage is fairly lackluster against enemies that are unaffected by Jacob’s Limb. Thus, Martha often ends up sidelined for Servants with class advantage by Masters with more developed rosters.

In the midst of the overpopulated AoE Saber roster, Suzuka Gozen does find a way to differentiate herself. Being one of the rare Sabers that packs solid AoE NP damage, NP charging and good Critical Damage potential, Suzuka is a solid choice for farming and general purpose alike. Her other aspects are not as strong, as she has middling NP and Star Generation, poor survivability and limited utility.

Overall, Suzuka Gozen is a strong, but not exceptional Servant. She fulfills her role well and easily avoids the lower tiers, but there are also more potent alternatives for each of her primary aspects. 

Gorgon is a Servant who looks a lot better on paper than in actual practice. On one hand, she has a ridiculously high base attack, strong Critical potential, decent Buster-centric deck, a reliable targeted stun and good effect on her AoE Buster Noble Phantasm. However, her kit struggles to form a coherent identity, at least until she finishes both her Interlude and her Rank-Up Quest. With her Avenger star weight salvaged from her Rank Up, Masters have far more freedom to equip certain stronger CEs to her.

Until then though, Gorgon’s issues are apparent. Her lack of Critical Star weight causes her to require heavy support to unleash her Critical Damage potential. Meanwhile, her high Attack is offset by the fact that the Avenger class rarely has class advantage. Her long-term survivability is also rather subpar because of her rather low HP base, often lack of class advantage, and her only survival tools being a stun and/or guts. All in all, while Gorgon can certainly work, especially after she receives some large improvements, she tends to require a large helping hand from her team.

This variant of Anne & Mary uses its low HP gimmick to enhance an already solid kit. Even without relying on a risky strategy of low HP, Anne & Mary (Archer) function well in their niche of Buster Critical potential. With two Attack buffs, Star Gathering and Critical Stars on demand, the pirate duo can do massive damage with or without their HP. Fortunately, their own Guts will grant a decent safety net, and potentially set up a staggering NP turn if the stars align.

On the other hand, a single Guts is not enough to cater to their risky gameplan, which can turn sour quickly in difficult quests. Furthermore, in any fights without their gimmick being feasible, their overall damage output is slightly behind that of their higher rated allies. Still, the low HP gimmicks distracts from what is at its core, a very decent kit.

With decently strong individual skills, Nitocris (Assassin) ought to be much stronger than she actually is. Without her third skill up, her NP Gain is rather weak, while her AoE farming potential is hamstrung by her Instant Death capability indirectly reducing its hit count and thus refund potential. Her defensive nature is still fairly useful with a Taunt always being a welcome addition, especially to help her gain a bit more NP Gauge to launch her NP with. Her lack of synergy between her skills reduces her potential, but she is still a decent Arts Assassin otherwise. 

On paper, Avenger of Shinjuku seems quite decent. With high base attack, a decent steroid, single target Noble Phantasm, good NP generation and some utility to boot, he seems to have many things going for him. But in reality, this Dark Souls boss in Servant disguise does not excel at any one of those aspects, resulting in a Servant with highly circumstantial usage.

Despite his high attack, Avenger of Shinjuku’s sustained damage is less than ideal due to mostly short-lived skill effects. His own utility suffers similarly, lasting neither long nor accessible very often. His survivability is also quite poor, as he possess no hard survival skills, has low HP, and his main defense tool is tied to one of his offensive skill. Last but not least, the scarcity of Ruler bosses means that rarely will his class advantage be available, and even for those situations, most other Avengers offer more bang for their buck than Avenger of Shinjuku.

Still, the Avenger of Shinjuku carries enough utility in his buff removal and sheer attack, that he can be quite useful as a general damage dealer. In addition, he has a powerful NP Interlude to look forward to.

EMIYA (Assassin)’s kit is one of extremes. His unique targetable Taunt utility has a bunch of fun gimmick uses, but along with his strong Critical Stars Generation, Defense Ignore/Pierce Invincibility, and stalling capacity from his Noble Phantasm, EMIYA fits decently into Arts team. His damage output is also capable, yet compared to a welfare Shiki (Assassin), it does leave a little to be desired. His largest problem is the combination of his utterly atrocious Arts cards, which yield a decidedly poor amount of NP Generation. In contrast, his NP refunds quite well. Masters need to rely on some clever card chains for his Quick and Busters cards to salvage his NP, or stick him in a complete Arts team. All of his utility also comes at a cost, since EMIYA also lacks any form of survivability outside of throwing an ally into Danger via his Taunt. The main problem then, is that EMIYA is more tricky to fix a team around, all the while powerful alternatives can get that job done better.

Much like many launch Servants, Nero’s initial barebones skill set has received several upgrades through Interludes and Rank-Up Quests, resulting in a multifunctional Saber that is capable in most general situations. With an AoE Noble Phantasm and an eventual NP Charge, Nero can be an effective farmer with sufficient damage for various daily and event quests. Furthermore, Nero Claudius is incredibly durable, allowing her to be a highly effective last man standing Servant for difficulty content or even solo content all on her own. 

But, as capricious as her personality, this Emperor of Roses performance is highly volatile. Triggering all effects of Imperial Privilege means relying on the Random Number God, and unfortunately, it is the backbone of her (offensive) skill set. Furthermore, while Nero is capable of both farming and handling challenge quests, especially in Arts teams, her main niche is her severe last man standing potential. While a fun one, it’s not a niche that can be used very often.

Befitting his “No Second Strike” moniker, Li Shuwen has impressive burst potential. Thanks to high single target damage Noble Phantasm, powerful one-turn Critical buff, and Arts Effectiveness buff, few Lancers can match this martial artist in dishing out damage over one turn, even against enemies with Dodge or Invulnerability.

But, as his famous title also implies, Li Shuwen offers little beyond his one-turn burst. Masters may be able to stagger his buffs across two turns, but he also lacks the ability to recharge his NP quickly. Thus, while Li Shuwen has his place as an Arts Lancer option, his offensive performance suffers heavily from having to compete with Lancers with better overall output.

Astolfo's kit has numerous problems, yet Astolfo is an example where a single skill can make the difference between hard to use, and awesome farming. With 50% NP charge, the Rider class, and a decent hitting NP, Astolfo is a remarkably useful farming Servant. Next to helping out with the ever-present QP farming of Doors, his NP Charge also helps out while farming Events at speed and while potentially carrying some Event CEs of his own. 

That his NP Damage isn't as high as some of his competitors is also far less of an issue when Astolfo is buffed by Skadi. 

Of course, outside of farming Astolfo still has a kit that is downright ghastly. Whether that is his extraordinarily poor NP Gain, his chance-based Critical potential, or the short duration of his attack buff, it does not truly line up properly. For sustained (AoE) offense for difficult content, Astolfo simply isn't the right fit. 

An Arts AoE Caster with a dual role, Nursery Rhyme’s skill set allows her to do act as both a Critical Damage Servant and an Arts AoE farmer. Her most unique aspect is her ability to work as a reliable Critical-based Caster through her Self-Modification skill. The resulting critical hits also vastly improves her NP generation capacity thanks to her three Arts cards. Charging her NP is thus not very difficult, especially as she already has a large NP Charge.  Her rather durable nature and chance to drain the NP Gauge of all enemies on NP makes her a good Caster for difficult quests featuring multiple enemies.

As good as her upsides are, Nursery Rhyme suffers from the fundamental flaw of every damage dealing Caster: her low Attack stat and weak Caster attack modifier. In terms of farming, she is one of the weaker Caster farmers as a result of her low damage. Furthermore, Nursery Rhyme relies on her allies to unleash her Critical potential. Still, Nursery Rhyme is often a darkhorse Arts option for many tricky Servant battles.

If servants could be divided into traditional RPG archetypes, then Medea Lily would easily be the White Mage. Lacking any offensive capability whatsoever outside of her card damage she dedicates her heart and soul to healing her allies and cleansing them of any ailments. Capable of charging her NP on demand whenever, Medea Lily serves as an instant heal/cleanse button to the team in difficult challenge quests where hard-hitting bosses and crippling debuffs are thrown left, right, and centre.

Still, Medea heals that which already occured, a niche even her Rank Up will not change. As the most difficult bosses tend to be the ones that straight up destroy a team and/or massively outdamage Medea (Lily)’s healing, knowing when it is safe to rely on her can be tricky.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read are a highly one-dimensional Servant pair. Their biggest appeal lies in their powerful one turn burst from their Noble Phantasm gimmick, augmented by their high Critical Damage buff. When the stars align, they can hit for an astounding amount of damage, having one of the hardest-hitting Noble Phantasm in the game at low HP.

Unfortunately, their problems are numerous. Their Noble Phantasm’s gimmick is hard to materialize in actual situations, while their generation stats are particularly subpar. In addition, their lack of defensive options is particularly troublesome for a kit with such a high risk / reward playstyle. 

Sure, their potential damage ceiling is impressive, but actually reaching said ceiling is rather impractical in most situations and team compositions.

Contrary to her more aggressive Rider peers, the Queen of France’s main focus is on survival. Marie has notably high HP for a 4 Star Servant, with one of the best defensive skills in her 3-hit based Invincibility, two HP recovery skills, a Charm, and a Noble Phantasm that removes all teammates debuffs and recovers their HP. While her durability and team support makes her a decent option for lengthy battles or solo Servant, she has another use later for Masters who can run Scathach-Skadi farming composition, as Marie can loop her Noble Phantasm through Caster enemies, albeit there are more reliable and powerful options.

Marie’s offense is her biggest downside. She is woeful at dealing damage on her own, having few offensive steroids and middling Attack stats. Her high Star Weight adds further complications, as she has no way to make good use of the Critical Stars that she can hog from other teammates, which given her hard-to-kill nature, she will do for a long time. 

Still, her niche farming uses and good starter value can make her Kira Kira valuable enough

An epitome of a modern knight, Chevalier D’Eon specializes in protecting their allies. Their three-turn Taunt, high HP pool, on-demand Easion, defense self-buff and even debuff clearance make them a very capable tank that can soak in damage and take attention off their teammates, which can be lifesaving in high-difficulty content.

Outside of their particular blend of survival that they particularly excel in, D’eon does not have much presence in battle when their Taunt wears off. Dealing damage is simply not their job. What defines d’Eon eventually is providing the debuff cleansing/Saber class/Evasion that their competition Georgios does not. And Georgios or Leonidas cost much less to field.

Still, Taunt Servants are amazing at making unpredictable fights predictable. Masters with (grailed) Berserker Servants should especially cherish their tanks

Underwhelming at launch, Siegfried has been vastly improved through multiple Rank Up Quests and Interludes. Despite his low Attack stats, Siegfried’s powerful anti-Dragon buff, Buster Performance buff, and Anti-Dragon Noble Phantasm are enough to let him evaporate most Dragon-trait enemies in one fell swoop regardless of class. Fortunately for Siegfried, many Servants qualify as a Dragon Servants, notably all variants of Altria and Elisabeth.

Even against non-Dragon enemies, an upgraded Balmung boosted by Dragon-Slayer A++ will still deal respectable damage, allowing him to function fairly well as a wave clearer. His Golden Rule skill and Balmung’s NP generation buff also helps him a lot in quickly reaching 100% NP gauge, which is rather helpful in extended anti-Dragon fighting. 

Unfortunately, outside of Dragon enemies, his performance is simply average. His low Attack means he hits like a wet noodle against non-Dragon enemies on his normal cards. His lack of hard survivability options and non-existent team support also results in him being a less popular pick once Masters can have their picks of (AoE) Sabers

Brave Elisabeth’s game plan is simple, get to 100% NP gauge and demolish the enemies with her welfare single-target Noble Phantasm. Her high Attack, Hero’s Principle large NP generation buff and Mana Burst (Courage)’s strong Buster self-buff all contribute to this one purpose. With Ignore Defense as additional utility, and an Invincibility, Brave Liz is a solid all-purpose Saber for anyone lacking powerful gacha alternatives. Outside of this straightforward but effective playstyle, Elisabeth suffers from a very problematic third skill. Her third skill is very impractical and unreliable in most circumstances, requiring a sacrifice of her NP Gauge to randomly reward her with, admittedly, powerful (team) buffs. The duration of her skills is a problem as well, as her sustained damage output is rather lacking.  Yet, if Masters simply want brutal single target damage that obliterates a Lancer boss, then Elisabeth (Brave) is a very good choice.

A walking definition of a niche Servant, Stheno has two roles that she can do quite nicely: being a prominent member of the “Charm-Lock” snek team, and being a support for Divine Servants. With a skill set fully dedicated to making male bosses utterly miserable and an incredibly fast NP generation rate, Stheno is best used alongside her sister - Euryale - to consistently lock down male bosses with her Noble Phantasm. In fact, the charm strategy occurs often enough against male bosses that Delightworks frequently adds a Charm Immunity to certain male bosses to prevent the strategy from working entirely. Her strong Charisma buff also allows her to improve the Attack of allies with Divine trait for a nice 40% for 3 turns, giving her some non-niche uses as Divinity is one of the most common traits. Outside of her aforementioned niche usage though, Stheno brings very little to the table. Her damage output is pitiful, mainly due to her Assassin modifier, low base Attack, lack of strong self-buff and most importantly, her Buster Noble Phantasm deals zero damage. Furthermore, as the majority of her kit only comes into play against male enemies, she is essentially dead weight against enemies of a different gender. All in all, Stheno is the very definition of a niche Servant, but that does not mean she does not have some fun usages whenever a Master is feeling impish.

Tamamo Cat’s Powerful AoE Noble Phantasm, her Attack Up, and her Berserker class all set the stage for a Servant that can clear most common enemy waves a Master will face every day. With Rank Ups that greatly improve her quality of life, notably providing an option to circumvent her self-stun, Tamamo Cat is an all-purpose Berserker that can easily nap her way into many Masters’ general farming teams. 

Her high hit count and decent NP generation per hit also make her capable of using her Noble Phantasm back-to-back with the arrival of Scathach-Skadi, a huge boon to her farming capacity. Furthermore, despite her inherent frailty from her Berserker class, Tamamo Cat can be deceptively tanky through the healing from her Noble Phantasm once her Rank Up grants her Invincibility as well

Similar to most launch Servants, Tamamo Cat’s biggest problem is how vanilla her skill set is. She is only truly competent at one aspect, and lacks the versatility and buff percentages to compete with more rounded Berserkers. Furthermore, her damage output is lackluster outside of her Noble Phantasm, especially given her lower stat and card deck mismatch

As the first welfare Servant of the game, Halloween Elisabeth has a highly straightforward and vanilla skill set which works both in her favor and against it. On one side, her AoE damage is good enough to wave clear effectively. Her welfare status grants her a high NP level, which along with her standard Buster steroid will tend do be sufficient for medium health wave clearing. In addition, she has a minor niche in providing critical stars to team, which works decently with her own Dragon/Female traits to set up a few, fun team set-ups with Servants like Jeanne d’Arc (Alter). 

Elisabeth’s other aspects are, sadly, not up to par. Her launch era competition has received massive upgrades (Charles Babbage for example) while many Berserker or Extra Servants can deal more damage than her. Her own sustained damage is also very poor, as her single steroid lasts for a single turn and affects her NP and single Buster card at most. All in all, Halloween Liz is a solid pick for wave clearing and some Critical Support, but outside of that, she will get outclassed fairly easily.

A peculiar Support/stalling Servant, Thomas Edison has some highly interesting mechanics and support potential. Edison has some unique skills that can boost Overcharge, or after Rank Up reduce skill cooldowns, while at the same providing some extreme debuff-based stalling potential. 

While the Presi-king may often be seen as an example of a joke Servant, in the right hands, he is anything but. His AoE stalling potential is so severe that he can guide an Arts team through some of the most challenging multi-enemy fights that exist. 

Of course, his massive drawback is that he is utterly slow whilst doing. When Edison stalls in Challenge Quests, success may well take you the larger part of an hour. But that should be no surprise, considering his only damage boost is a minor passive and his attack stat is low.

Despite access to a skill set that is pretty decent, Katou Danzou's Noble Phantasm damage is incredibly underwhelming, only holding up against her primary Demonic targets. With heavy competition from both Scathach (Assassin), Gray(in the future) and Scathach=Skadi's Quick support buffing her Quick peers, there is little offensive performance to be gained from Katou Danzou in the long run. Her Story-locked status doesn't help in acquiring additional copies either. 

Until then, her Buster compatibility grants her some additional power, while her targetable mix of both Evasion and Invincibility can help with creating some interesting Order Change strategies. 

 

The Queen of the beach France's swimsuit alternative has a solid kit with an emphasis on critical support. Unlike her Rider counterpart though, this Caster class version is a lot more suitable in the role as support given her lack of star-stealing tendencies. With her famous durability intact, and Star Generation per Turn, Critical Damage, and Attack buffs on top, Marie Antoinette (Caster) can fit into any team set up (though preferably Arts). 

Her problem isn't really that her kit does not work well, it's the the modifiers for a support are a bit too weak to compete with the big league. In addition, her own damage is rather low, and none of her skills help her allies survive any better. 

Regardless, she's still a capable Servant, and Summer Servants tend to get plenty of bonus opportunities to be fielded during the recurring Summer Events.

By virtue of being a welfare AoE Berserker, Chacha establishes herself as a decent farming Servant. Furthermore, with both a decent NP battery skill and her innately good NP generation rate, she will generally have that AoE NP ready quickly. She also provides some team support with passive stars per turn and a defense down, but only at a moderate level.

On the other hand, Chacha suffers from several flaws that, while not individually deal-breaking, can be quite problematic in practice. For one, her survivability is particularly terrible - a result of a lackluster HP stat, a Berserker’s inherent frailty and a complete lack of defensive or survivability skills. Furthermore, Chacha’s overall’s damage leaves much to be desired even with her high NP level, as she does not have powerful immediate steroids to compensate for her lower Attack. Last but not least, while not a direct reflection on her, the princess competes with many formidable Servants that occupy the same niche as Berserker farmers, and they either do more damage, have lower cost or charge better. This puts a damper on her relative value.

With difficulty charging her NP bar, with only her good Arts cards to save her, and a terrifyingly long cooldown on Mana Tuning, Helena Blavatsky (Archer) is mainly suited as a support in situations where her teamwide NP Charge is essential to clearing a quest quickly. Her ability to still launch a damaging NP and charge NP Gauges is especially valuable to Masters without any other sources of teamwide NP Gauge boosting. 

Still, her NP Damage is among the weakest of her rarity and her utility, while useful, limits her overall support potential to mainly her NP Charge. A useful farming Servant for sure, but she lacks the enduring performance expected of higher Tiers. 

Despite a strong set of skills, and fairly impressive NP Spamming capabilities, Assassin of Paraiso is let down by the combination most Single Target Assassins suffer from: a low damage output and having to compete with Ryougi Shiki. In fact, due Assassin of Paraiso having only a single steroid to draw on, Hassan of the Hundred Personas provides a very potent freely accessible alternative for Masters who wish to experiment with an Arts NP spamming Assassins.

Yet, unlike her competition, Assassin of Paraiso provides both stronger stalling compatibility through her NP Seal and comes with relatively short cooldowns. Her problem is mainly one of numbers, and Assassin of Paraiso is desperately in need of an NP Upgrade to shore up her performance.

Despite packing a valuable NP Charge with which to help any Master farm, Nezha’s main problem is a numbers one. With relatively low NP Damage, only medium-strength steroids, as well as a lack of a niche of her own, Nezha is outperformed by both AoE Critical specialists such as Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter) as well as high damage AoE Lancers such as Jeanne d’Arc (Santa Alter Lily). Still, her flexibility makes her a great first Lancer while Masters start out on their journey.

A self-support oriented Lancer from the SIN Lostbelt, Qin Liangyu has an Arts-type NP that grants her a myriad of interesting, if somewhat unwieldy on-hit, on-critical, on-receiving damage, and on-receiving critical damage effects. She has a Quick/Arts/Critical Strength buff of modest values, a Star Gather / Debuff Immune / Buff Removal Resist buff, and most notably a 2-time Guts lasting 3 turns that comes with a small NP charge. Her kit is largely selfish, and given her abilities are strongest when her cards are available (for her to land a normal or critical attack so that she can stack debuffs from her NP effects), or when she receives damage from the enemy, along with her 2-time Guts, she works best in solo situations. However, she suffers from low damage, and in comparison to other "Last Stand" options available, can end up lacking. Despite these shortcomings, it is possible for Masters to make her work, and the gimmicks of her kit can be fun to see in action.

An explosive Berserker, Beowulf’s immediate burst from either his upgraded Noble Phantasm or Critical ( upon completing his Rank-Up quest) is quite astounding. With the right setup, he can deal an unworldly amount of damage that few Servants can match up to, and against almost any class. With a Guts from his third skill, Beowulf can somewhat compensate for his Berserker class and avoid freak deaths from his poor survivability in shorter battles. 

Beowulf, sadly, still has very poor sustained damage compared to the top tier Berserkers. All of his offensive tools only last for 1 turn which hurts his sustained damage performance immensely, and a Guts is simply not enough for lengthier battles. He also does not bring any form of team support or utility, which makes him rather hard to fit in team compositions not catering specifically to him. 

As a result, Beowulf is often left out of the fight club entirely, despite a comfortable burst damage performance

Irisviel specializes in keeping her team alive and healthy. She has the rare ability to provide teamwide Guts consistently, which can be lifesaving in high difficulty content. Her healing capacity and her survivability are also quite powerful, which in an Arts teams makes her very hard to kill. 

On the other hand, Irisviel has poor NP Generation. Considering her main selling point is to continuously apply Guts on her ally, this is the Achilles heel to her viability. Even in a dedicated Arts team, there will be times when Irisviel cannot keep up her Guts, especially in extended fights. Furthermore, she offers little utility, offensive support or even damage beyond her stalling power, which makes her a Servant one hardly finds a need for

Assassin of Shinjuku in his release state is a lackluster Assassin whose main flaws are so detrimental and fundamental, that Masters have to expend a lot of extra effort to make him perform well relative to his peers.

To start off, his base Attack is rather poor, with only decent Star Generation and initially weak NP generation. Coupled with his lack of steroids (which will be remedied by a Rank Up Quest in the future), his offensive power is far behind most Assassins of the same rarity, and even behind some of lower rarity options. His skill set does not do much to remedy his problems, as currently his skills all have underwhelming values for their effects. He also lacks any survivability tools needed for tougher content, despite his high base HP.

To sum it up, this handsome martial artist will struggle to earn a place in most teams in his current state. His future update will grant him a notable boost to his performance as a whole, although even with his update, there are better alternatives available for an Assassin slot. In addition, his role as a critical star supplier can often be done better by a support, who typically carry many other useful elements in their kit.

Gawain’s skill set is as straightforward as his play style. Becoming noticeably better upon finishing his Rank-Up Quest, Gawain’s potential raw damage on his triple Buster cards is immense, courtesy of his two Attack buffs and his other Buster self-buff. Furthermore, Gawain is an AoE Saber with an innate NP Battery skill, which makes him a good farming Servant for daily and event quests with a Kaleidoscope.

Until his Rank Up though, Gawain is a crippled Servant with one of the weakest AoE NPs among the Saber roster if he is not fighting on a sunny stage. As his deck is heavily Buster-centric, his NP Generation (let alone his Star Generation) is also rather restricted, despite his excellent Extra card. His main survivability tool, a one-turn Guts buff, is tied to his NP battery skill basically leaving him with no survival tools most of the time.

For now, Gawain waits for his sun-less day to be over, becoming both more fun to play and a more impressive specimen after his Rank Up.

While her cuteness is of the highest level, this innocent version of Medusa sadly could not compete in terms of gameplay to other Lancers. Her defining features are her ability to stun-lock / charm her lock enemies with a kit that already has a high amount of survival tools.

The rest of her potential is locked away behind all her upgrades. Her NP actually becomes frighteningly powerful for a 4* Servant, and Masters will be much less encumbered by her rather poor Quick cards.

Until then though, Medusa’s trails behind the majority of her 4 Stars Lancers peers in most aspects. Her sustained damage output lacks a real punch still, courtesy of her short-lived steroids. Furthermore, her self-sufficiency is also quite damning, having poor NP Generation rate (especially those Quick cards) and mediocre Critical Star Generation. Her basic skill values are also lackluster, while their effects are disjointed enough that Medusa suffers an identity crisis in the sea of strong Lancers until her NP damage takes off. All in all, Medusa (Lancer)’s problematic design causes her to be weaker alternative until her final Rank Up kicks in, as much of a sweetheart she is.

 

Yu Mei-ren presents herself as an Assassin-class Servant with an AoE Buster NP. Her NP is notably unique for removing both buffs and debuffs on herself before granting a Buster buff for herself and dealing damage and Curse. The buff removal can make it difficult for Masters to support her, however, although this can be mitigated by her second skill's Buff Removal Resist effect. She also has HP regeneration, NP regeneration, debuff immunity, NP drain, and a self NP charge of 27%, rounding out her kit of mostly selfish effects. Unfortunately, her damage is far on the low end, and she suffers from a low ATK stat, which compounds with her Assassin class damage modifier, giving her trouble killing even daily farming waves at low NP levels. After her skill upgrade, she becomes more effective, although before then it is as if she purposefully makes herself difficult to use (perhaps as a grudge against the Master's deeds in her Lostbelt chapter).