Return of Nero Fest 2018: Grand Finale: All-Out Battle

The Grand Finale from the 2018 Nero Fest has returned! An all-out Servant battle that draws upon many of the facets of the previous 2018 Exhibition Quests. Once more, Masters will have to deal with Guts, piercing defense, cleansing debuffs and potentially dispelling enemy buffs.

This fight is more of a puzzle and taking some time to practice the fight and/or read through the toggle-able Servant descriptions below will make planning ahead a lot easier. The fight is less complex than it appears.

Even for relatively new Masters this fight can be won (if not soloed by Servants like Cu Alter) with a combination of good planning, time, effort and a healthy dose of luck. Keep trying.

One of the most valuable resources for this encounter are your Command Seals. If victory is almost within your grasp, Command Seals can be used to charge NPs or restore a Servant to full HP. This is not the time to be stingy!

However, Command Seals are finite and only a limited amount are available before the event ends. Use them wisely especially with the new 2019 Challenge Quests coming up.

Note: The final Challenge Quest for this Nero Fest iteration is the pre-nerfed version of this encounter. Essentially, all effects are stronger and HP pools are larger, but the essence of the fight remains the same. Click on this link to head to its respective Challenge Quest Guide.

The enemy Servants come with additional skills, often apply buffs or debuffs on entering the battlefield and most importantly, buff all remaining enemies with various nasty effects when they perish.

• Jack is generally the first target to take out. Her small regeneration buff on death is hardly a problem and her short charge bar as well as ability to remove buffs are annoying to plan around.

• Medea does little damage even with her Rule-Breaker spam, but the loss of buffs from Rule-Breaker is disruptive at times. Her defense buff on death is absolutely a problem though, so she is often kept alive until the fight is nearly over.

• Altria has no special gimmicks at all until she dies. She then increases her allies’s NP gauge by 1 at the end of every turn which turns all enemies into NP spamming Monsters especially given how many of them have NP charge skills of their own.

• Amakusa enters the field after the first kill and should be dealt with as soon as possible. His Max HP reduction skill use becomes problematic if left unchecked. His NP can be stalled but requires specific comps to survive, so it’s easier to simply get rid of him. He buffs the crit rate of all remaining Servants upon defeat.

• Ozymandias enters with an automatic Imperial Privilege cast. Killing him will grant all the remaining Servants Sure Hit, which is troublesome for Servants relying on Evasion. Ozymandias is very sturdy due to his defensive buffs and additional Imperial Privilege casts can quickly make his defense incredibly high.  

• Nero enters the fray last with boosted critical chance, critical damage and her Thrice-Setting Sun active (reviving her with 53k HP each time). With 3 stacks of Guts and a proclivity to abuse her Imperial Privilege skill, Nero is very sturdy. On death, Nero buffs all remaining Servants with a one time, 20% Guts.  

The fight begins with a 3-time buff negation effect on the frontline. It will not expire until 3 buffs are absorbed, but it can be cleansed (or prevented with a CE). Countering this devastating debuff is crucial to a good start.

Imperial Privilege is especially a pain in this fight. With its random chance to grant buffs, both Nero and Ozymandias can potentially be nearly impervious to normal card damage.

Because of the massive amount of ways the enemy can boost their different NP bars, a quick clear speed is crucial and stalling this fight is very hard to pull off.

The order of killing will depend on the strategy (is it AoE or ST NP-based, does it rely on Evasion and what tools are available in your roster?). Generally, the standard order is:

Jack → Amakusa (Priority) →(Either order: Ozymandias→Altria)→Nero Guts(3x) → (Either Order: Medea → Nero).

With so many different classes and the hard to counter Ruler class, Berserker Servants shine in this Quest. Current offensive Extra Class Servants and AoE Archers also perform well. Whomever you use as your main DPS should have a limit-broken Divine Three-Legged Race CE equipped.

Due to the potential for high % defense buffs from Imperial Privilege, Buster-oriented Servants can still perform well as the bonus damage from Buster chains ignores defense buffs. Alternatively, bringing either Defense-Ignore or a form of buff removal to strip Ozymandias or Nero from the protection of their precious (non-Medea) defense buffs.

To counteract the initial buff absorption debuff, either bring debuff cleansing from Servants, use a debuff blocking-CE (See Table) or resort to cleansing the main (borrowed) DPS with the Atlas Academy Uniform. Alternatively, bring Servants with a lot of buffs in their kit to try to remove the buffs with their least important team buffs.

The amount of damage that needs to be done per each target isn’t that high. Being able to use NPs more often is better than creating one single powerful NP for single target Servants. This makes NP charge skills extra valuable.

In order to protect the main DPS, fill the team with the best defensive measures available. Taunts are incredibly powerful for both their protection and reducing the randomness in this fight.

Last Stand Servants work slightly different with the Sure Hit buff in effect. A Last Stand Servant with the Event CE and a guts in their kit can do some terrific damage to Nero at the end.

In terms of Mystic Codes, the Atlas Academy Uniform is very useful to negate the initial buff absorption debuff and its cooldown reduction/invincibility are incredible for keeping Berserkers alive and their kill potential high.

However, there are multiple options that work here. The Chaldea Combat Uniform has both its Stun and Order Change for strategic purposes, The Mystic Code Chaldea is great for keeping the Berserkers healthy, the Mage Association Uniform can top off NP gauges and retry card draws for speedier kills and finally the Anniversary Blonde Mystic Code is stellar for big Buster critting.

There are 2 main Berserker routes to go with:

A route focused on strategy and removing each Servant one at a time with ST NPs and basic attacks. For this route, Kintoki provides the best damage and defense-piercing capabilities but will need to be babied with taunts/defense up. Cu Alter meanwhile does less damage but is a lot more sturdy until Ozymandias falls. Ibaraki and Heracles are both budget versions for this strategy.

Raikou follows an AoE route where with additional offensive buffs she can remove an entire wave of Servants at once. The fight needs to be finished fast though as both Medea and Altria apply truly dangerous buffs on death. This is easier to pull off with Command Seals, Waver and/or high level support skills. Lancelot is a budget version in combination with Waver only.

Sherlock is a great new option as well. With many of the key challenges at the end of the fight revolving around Defense buffs, Sherlock can enable different kill orders. Not only can he function as the main DPS if  Masters so choose, he makes for a great support for AoE Servants who are often impeded by the Imperial Privilege buffs (and Medea's buff).

Jeanne d’Arc (Alter) can perform really well here too, especially when dealing with Amakusa. Fielding an Amakusa of your own is possible too, although make sure to bring additional damage buffs to be able to clear the Servants fast enough.

Gilgamesh excels in Servant-based fights like this, especially with a final Saber boss. Ishtar and Tesla are very powerful alternatives too, while Arjuna (with his latest Interlude!) isn't half bad either. EMIYA (Alter) is also a bit of a darkhorse option against Nero, with his Defense-ignoring NP.

For cleansing the initial debuff, Medea (Lily) and Saint Martha (Rider) are powerful options. They can even be swapped out afterwards if necessary with Order Change.

Merlin is available this time around, and will of course make the fight a lot easier. His Illusion can greatly reduce the threat of Altria (Lancer Alter), while his Buster Critical support can greatly help Servant who do not have as high a base damage performance (such as Amakusa).

Fielding a debuff-blocking CE is a great choice for initial frontline supports provided they are available, see the table for the current options.

The buff absorption debuff can also be cleared with Servants who have multiple team buffs. For example, Gilgamesh (Caster) has access to 3 teamwide buffs, while Waver, Merlin and Caesar all have 2 team buffs and 1 targetable buff.

Fill the backline and frontline with the type of buffs the Main DPS needs. Trying to field multiple DPS Servants is generally counterproductive with access to an Event CE. NP gauge giving Servants like Waver, Merlin and Shakespeare are incredible here.

CEs that buff after death or affect the Main DPS are great picks. Taunt CEs and other protection CEs can also buy valuable time.

Among taunt Servants, Chevalier d'Eon excels at the early stage of this fight, being able to cleanse and resist incoming debuffs. 

With Sure-Hit on the enemy, Nero Claudius (Saber) becomes a very strong Servant to field for a last stand. Her NP also pierces defense.