Rabbit’s Reviews #378: Uesugi Kenshin (5* Ruler)

Kenshin is a good unit. She is to Astraea as Summer Castoria is to Kriemhild, more or less—an SSR analogue with more battery and utility in exchange for being, on balance, more expensive. This is less of a good trade for Kenshin than it is for Castoria, though. Kriem is arguably the best ST Arts unit in the game period, and while Astraea is very good, she faces strong competition even at the SR level—not to mention the SSR level. Castoria being a more expensive side-grade to a top-tier unit who’s also fairly hard to get (by virtue of being fairly new and also story-locked) makes her look pretty good. Kenshin being a more expensive side-grade to a high-but-not-top-tier unit who’s been around and spookable for years is a much rougher place to be.

Kenshin isn’t bad by any means. She has some useful things to set her apart, not least of which being that she’s one of a small handful of Servants with buff removal on an easily spammable NP. If you’ve invested heavily in any of the other high-tier or top-tier Arts STs, though, she probably doesn’t bring much of value to your box, leaving her solidly in the category of “will feel strong if you like her and want to use her, but is otherwise easy to ignore.” This isn’t a bad thing—in fact, it’s probably the healthiest place for a new Servant to land, balance-wise—but it does mean she’s not the most exciting new addition.

Kenshin is tied with Melusine and Sherlock for highest attack of the SSR Rulers, and her HP is tied with Sherlock, just below Melusine. This is a good starting point for a DPS—high attack means higher damage, and Rulers get an innate damage bonus on top of that. Her NP gain is also very good, with much better Arts card NP gain than is typical for a Servant with her deck, and with a decent Quick card as well. Kenshin isn’t great at star gen innately, due to her Arts focus, but her hit-counts are high enough that she can generate a decent number of stars if she gets a star gen buff from an outside source (such as Lanling).

Kenshin gets Magic Resistance, for occasional debuff avoidance, and Riding, which mostly serves to slightly boost the effective NP gain of her one Quick card. Divinity is functionally just there to give Kenshin the Divine trait and its associated vulnerabilities. Kenshin closes out her passive set with Treasured Heart, a unique passive that gives a small bit of buff removal resistance and instant death resistance. Neither of these is high enough to count on, but they can potentially save the day in very rare cases.

Mana Loading is, as usual, Kenshin’s best append. It means she only needs 30% external charge to NP immediately, which can be provided by a single Castoria Charisma—allowing you to save Castoria’s other battery for a later turn or use it on a support—or by Xu Fu, if you don’t have your own Castoria. The Extra Attack buff is also decent, as Kenshin has generally strong cards. Anti-Alter Ego attack up is pretty situational. It’s a nice buff if you happen to bring Kenshin to fight an Alter Ego, but Alter Ego bosses aren’t all that common. If you don’t have an ST Pretender you like (which at the time of writing means Hephaestion) you could consider prioritizing this over the Extra Attack buff.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Saber Piece x5 Lancer Piece x5 Rider Piece
3	300,000	x5 Archer Piece x5 Caster Piece x5 Assassin Piece x5 Berserker Piece
4	1,000,000	x5 Saber Monument x5 Lancer Monument x5 Rider Monument
Max	3,000,000	x5 Archer Monument x5 Caster Monument x5 Assassin Monument x5 Berserker Monument

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Saber x5 Gem of Lancer x5 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	400,000	x5 Gem of Archer x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Assassin x5 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Saber x5 Magic Gem of Lancer x5 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	1,600,000	x5 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Assassin x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Secret Gem of Rider
6 → 7	5,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Assassin x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10,000,000	x5 Tsukumo Mirror
8 → 9	12,000,000	x15 Flaming Oni Lantern Plant
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Append Skill Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200000	x5 Gem of Saber x5 Gem of Lancer x5 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	400000	x5 Gem of Archer x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Assassin x5 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1200000	x5 Magic Gem of Saber x5 Magic Gem of Lancer x5 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	1600000	x5 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Assassin x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4000000	x5 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Secret Gem of Rider
6 → 7	5000000	x5 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Assassin x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10000000	x5 Egg of Truth
8 → 9	12000000	x15 Mysterious Divine Wine
9 → 10	20000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Kenshin’s skillset is generically strong, if a bit restrained. It has a lot of good things in it, though none of Kenshin’s skills is exceptional. Recommended skill order is 2>3>1.

In burst setups, Kenshin’s optimal teams are straightforward: two Castorias and a third support. A plug Oberon more or less guarantees Kenshin can loop her NP three times, and if you’re running the Black Grail as your CE, he maximizes turn 3 damage as well—the caveat of course being this requires clearing a fight in three turns. Otherwise, any number of alternative supports makes a good backup. You can start with Xu Fu and immediately plug her out for a Castoria for a little extra charge and damage at low cost, or you can plug in Tamamo, Lady Avalon, Reines—really any support who provides some mix of charge and damage. Arts teams are intrinsically very stable, so even if you can’t win the fight in the burst window, Kenshin can easily transition to a more stall-esque strategy to close out the fight.

It’s also worth noting that Kenshin is one of the best ST point Servants for a Lady Avalon/Castoria team. The biggest drawback of running Lady Avalon over Reines or Himiko in a Castoria team is that you alternate between 4 hits of Solemn Defense and 3, meaning you’ll inevitably be exposed to the occasional hit. If you give Kenshin’s third skill to Castoria, though, and alternate between using that and Lady Avalon’s Charisma to boost Castoria’s overcharge level, a Kenshin->Lady Avalon->Castoria NP chain will alternatively provide 5 and 4 hits of Solemn Defense, which should very rarely leave the team exposed.

Kenshin is a highly self-sufficient unit, so she works well in budget teams if needed. As mentioned earlier, Kenshin only needs 30% charge to NP on her first turn with Mana Loading and her own battery, so Xu Fu is a natural partner. Hans is also a nice pick, as he provides stars and passive charge while also making Kenshin’s crits a little more threatening. Lanling, if you have him, has some nice synergy with Kenshin as well—damage cut goes a long way on a Ruler, he gives better offensive buffs than Hans does, and the star gen up he offers lets Kenshin generate a decent number of stars of her own.

The Black Grail is far and away Kenshin’s best CE. She has no trouble looping even without starting charge, and she has no other innate NP damage buffs, so the benefit is purely multiplicative unless a support gives her something in that bracket. Aside from that, Painting Summer is generally nice for consistency on Arts Servants, making it even easier for Kenshin to loop, and Ocean Flier strikes a nice balance between starting charge and damage.

Crit damage CCs are a natural pick for Kenshin. She has pretty easy crit access, but her actual crit damage buffs are pretty sad. An extra 10-15% crit damage on a card is usually unimpressive given most Servants who want to crit have much more than that innately, but on Kenshin it can bring her up to feeling more like a “typical” Self-mod Servant.

Rulers benefit strongly from grails and Kenshin is a strong Ruler. If you’ve already pulled her and gone to the trouble of raising her, she’s a strong contender for grails, if only because she very much appreciates the extra stats.

Kenshin is very good. The fact that there are many other comparably good or better Servants does not negate the fact that Kenshin is strong and will be more than sufficient for most of what you’d throw her at. The problem here is just one of value—you can accomplish most of what you’d want Kenshin for with older, cheaper units, and if you prioritize other flashy new Servants you’ll end up with better overall performance. That is to say, while she is good, she’s not an optimal use of resources. If you like her and want to use her, she’ll do well for you, but otherwise, you can safely leave her alone.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 8/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 5/10
Defensive Utility: 5/10
Farming Usefulness: 6/10
Motorcycle Horse: 10/10