Christmas 2018 Lite Challenge Quest Guide: March of the Holy Reindeer (Santa Alter)

• Masters need to have cleared the Final Singularity to access this Challenge Quest.
• In addition, Masters must have finished the final Main Quest of the Christmas 2018 Lite Event to unlock this encounter.
• Difficulty level: This one really ought not to be very difficult, the strategy is straightforward, there are no hidden surprises and Santa Alter is remarkably fragile.

• Santa Alter is back to retake control of the Christmas event with her, no doubt, evil Reindeer.
• Masters must clear all enemies, simply taking out Santa Alter will not end the fight.
• While Santa Alter is in her standard Rider class, the Reindeer are split across the Assassin, Caster and Saber classes. 
• The main gimmick of the fight is twofold:
• Santa Alter gains a massive Buster, Arts and Quick Card Resistance buff on entry, 1st break and 2nd break respectively. 
• If kept alive, her Reindeer allies are continuously buffed and difficult to kill while their Max HP buffs are up.

Dealing with the Reindeer

• The fight becomes easier to manage if Masters take out all the Reindeer at once or before Santa Alter's first Break Bar is broken as none of the special buffs will go into effect until then.
• Doing so on the first turn will prevent the Reindeer allies from buffing themselves with a large 30,000 Max HP buff to slow Masters down.
• Speed is ideal though, as the Reindeer do indirectly heal up if they reapply their Max HP buffs after they expire.
• For countering the Reindeer focus on bringing Servants that can deal with both the Saber and Caster Reindeer. Typically, the Assassin one dies easily from its low HP pool.
• If the Reindeer are kept alive Santa Alter on break will give them a massive boost to their max HP for 3 turns, either Sure Hit or Pierce Invincibility, and charge their NP bar.
• Furthermore, Santa Alter absolutely loves to further boost their Critical Rate, so be careful.

Dealing with Santa Alter

• Santa Alter herself has a rather small health pool. Attacking her with Command Cards she is not protected against will wear her down very quickly. 
• All her Card Protection Buffs are Removable. This makes Buff Removal incredibly powerful. 
• She is level 90, a Buster card from her will devastate any Caster as she is capable of hitting over 10k in a single Buster card with class advantage. Fortunately, this fight does not need to be stalled.
• Keep in mind that Card Resistance also affects NP Gain from those cards. 
• When to remove her buffs is key. Save the Buff Removal for the card type that your main DPS relies on the most!
• Santa Alter has loads of anti-trait targets! Exploit this weakness with Anti-Female Servants, Anti-Saberface, and so on.

• Focus first on creating a starting team that can quickly clear out all the Reindeer by using either AoE Servants or a mixture of AoE and Single Target. 

• Countering the Saber and Caster Reindeer is key, the Assassin tends to die from neutral AoE.

• Arash is simply incredible here as he can immediately free up his slot for another.

• Otherwise AoE Berserkers, single target Archers with AoE Riders or AoE Archers with single target Riders is ideal. 

• Ideally, the above Servants have an NP Charge and/or Starting NP Gauge CEs. Servants such as Kintoki (Rider), Ozymandias, Spartacus, Chloe von Einzbern, Gilgamesh, Drake, and so on. 

• Additionally, to reach the damage necessary (and quickly) bring NP Charging Supports and/or plenty of Offensive buffs. Merlin, Waver, Helena, Shakespeare, and so on all make excellent starting Servants. Don't be afraid to massively buff your Arash!

• Once the Reindeer have perished, Santa Alter can be countered with all the best Assassins one has. Jack is absolutely amazing here, but Mysterious Heroine X is also excellent. That said, almost any strong Assassin, Alter Ego or Berserker will do, ST or AoE.

• Make sure to include a Servant with additional Buff Removal: Jack, Osakabehime, Meltryllis, Saint Martha, Medea, etc. Masters have plenty of options.

• Buff Block works great as well, though it cannot prevent the Buster Resistance as it is applied on entry.

• Masters who expect to suffer at least one NP from Santa Alter should consider bringing some AoE Evasion/Invincbility from Merlin, Jeanne, David or Tristan. Honestly, Santa Alter is not that sturdy and a good team can clear her quickly enough. 

• Lastly, the Chaldea Combat Uniform's Order Change is excellent for stacking more buffs to clear the Reindeer, in addition to delaying Santa Alter with the Mystic Code's Gandr stun. 

Note that these videos are not affiliated with GamePress, but showcase some lineups that are effective in clearing the final challenge. These can serve as a good reference for how to rotate skills during this quest or simply to have a look at the encounter before diving in.

• A standard composition, featuring Arash + Kintoki for the Reindeer into Jack, Waver, Merlin, and finally Carmilla.
• Same idea, but using Ozymandias.
• Cu Chulainn (Alter) Solo (+Georgios Bond CE) (lvl 100, NP1)
• (4 turns) Hundred-Faced Hassan composition with grailed (90) Arash and expensive supports
• (4 turns + bonus bond 10 ding) Hassan of Serenity Composition featuring Arash, Merlin, Waver, Saint Martha and Tamamo (+expensive CEs)
• Amakusa composition (double Merlin) that shows what happens if you don't kill the Reindeer before breaking Santa Alter (surprisingly hard to find)
• How leaving the Saber Reindeer alive makes life more difficult than it needs to be