Rabbit’s Reviews #393: Hibiki & Chikagi (5* Alter Ego)

Introduction

In light of the sheer kit complexity of the Mahoyo event, I suppose it’s not surprising that the next Servant we got would be utterly ordinary. Outside of being a Nasuverse deep cut—Azumi no Isora is a pseudo-servant of Hibiki and Chikagi, obscure Nasuverse characters most notable for having a cameo role in Carnival Phantasm—there isn’t much going on here. They’re an utterly standard AoE Quick Servant, with great loop specs and a damage niche in exchange for low steroids and the usual Alter-Ego weaknesses. There’s really nothing in this kit we haven’t seen before.

Servant Data

Alter Ego

QQABB (Lancer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

4

3

5

8

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 13,537

HP Rank

Max ATK 12,252

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,893	Base HP	1,985
Max Atk	12,252	Max HP	13,537
Grail Atk	13,412	Grail HP	14,830

Traits

Achi Women's Manners EX

Increase own Buff Removal Resist by 10%.
Increase own Debuff Resist by 10%.

Independent Action B

Increase your Critical Strength by 8%.

Offertory Dance Grounds A

Increase Critical Strength for all allies by 5% while on the field.

Grotesque God B

Apply Damage Plus 100 to self.
Apply Damage Cut by 300 to self.

Great Wani's Protection C

Gain 5 Critical Stars for self each turn while on [Near Water] battlefield.
Gain 5% NP Gauge for self each turn while on [Near Water] battlefield.

Card Hits	3	4	3	5	8
Per Hit	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.55%
	NP when Attacked (%)						4%

	Star Absorption	99
	Star Generation per Hit	9.9%

Overview

Hibiki and Chikagi have a modestly offense-leaning stat spread, with good-but-not-great attack and decent HP. While their stats could be better, this isn’t a terrible start for a damage-dealing Servant. Their internals are not particularly exciting. They have low-ish hit-counts, so they won’t generate a lot of stars outside of their NP turns. Similarly, while their Arts card is about standard for a single-Arts deck, their two Quicks are pretty weak from an NP gain standpoint.

As is often true for Extra class Servants, Azumi no Isora has a wide selection of mostly-unique passives. They start with Achi Woman’s Manners, which gives a bit of both debuff resistance and buff removal resistance. Buff removal resistance is very powerful, though at only 10% it’s not something you can count on. They then get Independent Action for a marginal bit of extra crit damage, and Offertory Dance Grounds which also provides a (mostly-negligible) bit of crit damage for the whole party. Grotesque God is a variation on Divinity, granting the similar mostly-flavor boost to damage, along with a 300 HP damage cut. It’s not enough of a damage cut to really matter, especially on a Servant who will almost never have defensive class advantage, but it’s still not terrible. Closing out their passive list is Great Wani’s Protection, giving passive star gen and NP gain while on waterside maps. In most cases, these are functionally extra effects tacked onto Hibiki and Chikagi’s third skill, which sets near water for 3 turns. It’s a pretty good passive in context—passive star gen is nifty, and passive NP gain is great for consistency and loopage.

Azumi no Isora is in a bit of a weird position in that none of their appends really help them. Mana Loading is probably the most useful, but in a typical Skadi-centric setup, 20% Extra battery on turn 1 doesn’t help a Servant with 50% in-kit charge due to Quick teams’ inability to split up their 50% batteries. Anti-Moon-Cancer attack up only applies to a grand total of five Servants at the time of writing, and none of them turn up in fights all that often, while the Extra attack damage buff won’t do much for a Servant whose damage comes almost entirely from their NP.

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Caster Piece x5 Berserker Piece
3	300,000	x12 Caster Piece x12 Berserker Piece
4	1,000,000	x5 Caster Monument x5 Berserker Monument
Max	3,000,000	x12 Caster Monument x12 Berserker Monument

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Berserker
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Caster x12 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Caster x12 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Caster x12 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10,000,000	x8 Shell of Reminiscence x8 Refined Magatama
8 → 9	12,000,000	x9 Egg of Truth x9 Fragment of a Twinkling Star
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200000	x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Berserker
2 → 3	400000	x12 Gem of Caster x12 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1200000	x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
4 → 5	1600000	x12 Magic Gem of Caster x12 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4000000	x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
6 → 7	5000000	x12 Secret Gem of Caster x12 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10000000	x8 Forbidden Page x8 Ether Light Collector
8 → 9	12000000	x9 Tsukumo Mirror x9 Golden Cauldron
9 → 10	20000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Hibiki and Chikagi have a pretty unremarkable skillset. They have the basics—damage, loopage, battery, defense—but nothing in this kit really stands out. Recommended skill order is 2>1>3.

Quick/Buster Up

Shoreside Offering Dance A

Increase Quick Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns). [10-20%]
Increase Buster Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns). [10-20%]
Increase NP Gain for all allies (3 turns). [10-20%]
Apply Evade to self (2 times, 3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Shoreside Offering Dance is pretty good in and of itself. Its Quick buff caps out at 20% instead of the 30% that can be considered “standard” for 3-turn steroids, but in exchange it comes paired with an equal Buster buff (for slightly better card damage) and NP gain buff (for better loopage)—and the whole thing is AoE. The partywide nature of this skill isn’t hugely useful, but it can help Ruler Skadi do a bit more damage in a pinch and is nice for Quick stall. On top of that, the skill comes with a two-hit evasion buff, which is great for consistency. Hard to complain.

Start Np

Watatsumi Shrine Gate A

Increase own NP Gauge. [20-30%]
Increase NP Gauge for all allies. [10-20%]
Increase Max HP for all allies (3 turns). [2000-3000]

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Watatsumi Shrine Gate is a 50% battery that splashes 20% charge to each teammate. This is really good. 50% charge skills are always really useful for both farming and CQs, and being able to give charge to allies is good for Quick stall and also for some 90++ farming setups. On top of that, it gives the party a solid 3000 Max HP buff, which is really nice considering Castoria stall teams otherwise lack healing. The only drawback to this skill is that it’s on a turn longer cooldown than is typical of a 50% battery, but that’s only an issue for stall.

Np Dmg

Tide-Ebbing and Tide-Flowing Jewel A

Increase NP Strength for all allies (3 turns). [10-20%]
Apply buff to self (3 times, 3 turns): Decrease DEF by 10% for the target (3 turns) when attacking with Quick normal attacks.
Apply buff to self (3 times, 3 turns): Increase own Critical Strength by 10% (3 turns) when attacking with Buster normal attacks.
Apply [Near Water] battle field to self (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Jewel is a less-exciting skill. It gives a partywide 20% NP damage buff, which is nice, and it grants the near water field, activating Azumi no Isora’s final passive. Both of those are good, but it’s a bit rough for a Servant to have both of their skill-based damage buffs cap out at 20%. The skill does let Azumi no Isora apply a small 10% defense debuff with Quick cards, but the fact that it’s limited to Quick cards specifically and that they can only do this 3 times per skill means the value of this is limited—especially considering Azumi no Isora can only apply this to one target at a time, despite being an AoE Servant. The one other effect on this skill is a crit buff on Buster cards, but that has the same limitation as the defense debuff, and, more importantly, it only gives a measly 10% crit damage up per card, which is so low as to not be noticeable in most cases, and especially with Skadis in play.

Noble Phantasm

Unasaku Hiraku Michi Hiki no Tama A

Increase own NP Gain by 20% if in [Near Water] battlefield (1 turn) [Activates first].
Remove all defensive buffs from all enemies [Activates first].
Deal 150% supereffective damage to [Chaotic] alignment enemies.
Deal damage to all enemies. [600-1000%]

<Overcharge>

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (1 turn) [Activates first]. [10-30%]
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn) [Activates first]. [10-30%]

Show Info/Video

Unasaku Hiraku Michi Hiki no Tama

Ebb-and-Flow Jewels which Open the Boundary of Man and Sea

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A	Anti-Army	8

Effect	Increase own NP Gain by 20% if in [Near Water] battlefield (1 turn) [Activates first]. Remove all defensive buffs from all enemies [Activates first]. Deal 150% supereffective damage to [Chaotic] alignment enemies. Deal damage to all enemies. [600-1000%]

Level	1	2	3	4	5

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (1 turn) [Activates first]. [10-30%] Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn) [Activates first]. [10-30%]

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%

Azumi no Isora’s NP is quite busy, in that it has a bunch of effects. All of the effects are good, but it’s still not quite spectacular as a whole. The NP gives a small Quick and Buster card buff based on overcharge, but it only applies for a turn, meaning Hibiki and Chikagi are unable to ramp. The NP also gives a 20% NP gain buff on near water fields, which is nice for loopage since they can set the field themselves. More interestingly, though, the NP removes defensive buffs before damage—great for consistency in CQs—and it deals niche damage against Chaotic enemies. An NP2 Azumi no Isora with an MLB Black Grail can approach 90++ levels of damage against Chaotic Knights, which is respectable… but the number of nodes for which that’s viable is relatively low. With higher steroids and ramp, they’d be a lot more flexible.

Usage Tips

In a double-Summer-Skadi team, Hibiki and Chikagi refund about 16% per enemy. Given that they also get a passive 5% NP gauge per turn while farming, this means a typical Skadi/Skad/Oberon team can farm 3/2/x or 2/3/x nodes without any overkill. You can get that down lower with enough overkill and against Riders or Casters, to the point where BG looping 1/2/x or 2/1/x nodes are theoretically possible… though the amount of overkill is high enough to be not super feasible in most 90++ nodes. If the stars align and you get a node with Chaotic Casters and not-super-stringent loop, a decently-invested Azumi no Isora can probably clear it. This isn’t the worst place to be in—plenty of Servants can only clear one non-Berserker class in niche, while Hibiki and Chikagi get three (plus Foreigners, I guess)—but they’re far from an all-purpose unit. On the bright side, they should be able to handle most cavalry nodes at 90+ or below.

For CQs, you can either play fast with the usual double- or triple-skadi setup, or you can stall. Fastburn Azumi no Isora is the same as any other AoE Quick looper. They marginally prefer Summer Skadi to Caster Skadi due to their two Buster cards and Summer Skadi’s better steroids, but otherwise there’s not much nuance there. They’re slightly more interesting in stall teams, as one of the better point Servants for a Caster Skadi/Castoria team—they provide partywide NP gauge and healing, which is more or less what you want out of a Castoria stall point.

Aside from that, most of what Azumi no Isora offers is partywide, which makes them a solid Servant for low-budget teams that can’t run a full host of optimal supports. If you pair Hibiki and Chikagi with other Quick Servants who also deal damage and provide party buffs—Barti, Taigong Wang, Laksmibai, et cetera—the Servant can keep each others’ damage up and all contribute damage themselves.

If the enemy setups will allow for CE-less looping, The Black Grail is their best option for damage. It can be worth it even in stall contexts, though if you’re worried about a fight potentially dragging on, you can substitute it for a starting charge CE or for something like Heaven’s Feel or Imaginary Around, which don’t have The Black Grail’s demerit.

Azumi no Isora has easy crit access but limited crit buffs, which make crit damage CCs the natural pick, especially for their Busters.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Hibiki and Chikagi are deeply unexciting, but they’re certainly not bad—they’ve got loop specs, serviceable-if-not-amazing damage, and good utility. They don’t compare favorably to the best Quick units, much less to top-end Buster or Arts units, but they’re entirely functional if you like them. It’s hard to advocate pulling for them in advance of anniversary and summer, but if you love them as a character, they should do well for you.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 4/10
AoE DPS: 7/10
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 6/10
Defensive Utility: 6/10
Farming Usefulness: 7/10
HibiChika Special!: 10/10