Halloween 2019 Challenge Quest Guide: Crime and Punishment (Archer of Shinjuku)

• Masters need to have cleared the Final Singularity to access this Challenge Quest.
• In addition, Masters must complete all 100 missions to unlock this encounter.
• Difficulty level: Very straightforward, exploitable and thus not terribly difficult.

• The evil genius strikes again, gathering a gaggle of Mecha Eli-Chans to enact his evil plans.
• Despite his endless (read: ~100) supply of Mecha Eli-Chans to draw on, this Challenge Quests ends when Archer of Shinjuku perishes. Whatever amount of Mecha Eli-Chans are left alive, is irrelevant.
• While Archer of Shinjuku is an Archer, the Mecha Eli-Chans all cycle through the various classes.
• The main gimmick is that Archer of Shinjuku heavily buffs his own defense for 3 turns on start/Break, while also making his Mecha Eli-Chans increasingly stronger, often turning the encounter more into a damage race. 
• Archer of Shinjuku's allied buffs affect the reinforcements as wel!
• Note: All Halloween Event Servant Bonus Damage buffs are still in effect!

Archer of Shinjuku's HP Bars aren't very impressive and will fall quickly to any Lancer/etc. Servant. Archer of Shinjuku's main gimmick to buff his Defense on start/Break is the main barrier to quickly completing this encounter. There are 5 ways to combat his defense buff, all with varying degrees of effectiveness. 

1. Use Servants with Defense-Ignoring Noble Phantasms. 
2. Unleash Archer of Shinjuku's ultimate nemesis: Sherlock Holmes's teamwide Defense-ignoring Noble Phantasm buff.
3. Simply use Buff Removal or Buff Blocking effects.
4. Stack heavy Attack Up / Defense Down (de)buffs to cancel out the Defense buffs. A 100% Attack Up buff stack will cancel out 100% Defense Up.
5. Lastly, simply wait out the 3 turns of Defense Up.
6. (Bonus: Buster chains add a flat 20% of a Servant's Attack stat to their normal damage which penetrates Defense Buffs).

If Masters can rush this encounter to the end, most of the other elements of the fight are not as problematic.

• Archer of Shinjuku will only act once per turn with his Mecha Eli-Chans allies alive. As such, despite an NP Charge and an Invincibility Pierce, Masters should not be caught unaware unless they killed his minions. 
• Nonetheless, Archer of Shinjuku will unleash his ST NP often, courtesy of his random charging/short NP bar.
• The main damage will come from the Mecha Eli-Chans though. Once Masters have broken 2 of Archer of Shinjuku's HP Bars, the increase Critical Chance will cause them to do devastating damage. 
• However, Archer of Shinjuku's allied offensive buffs are removable. Masters could remove their buffs and keep his unbuffed allies alive. 
• Lastly, the first Berserker Mecha Eli-Chan is rather dangerous if kept alive. Its reinforcement is a Saber Mecha Eli-Chan though, which endangers any Lancer Servant.

• This encounter is more easily cleared with the help of offensive buff stacking in combination with the various 5 ways to deal with Archer of Shinjuku's Defense buffs. As such:
• As it happens, there are plenty of Lancer Servants with Ignore Defense: from Raikou (Lancer) and Li Shuren to Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter), Hektor and Elisabeth Bathory. Masters can even use non-Lancers such as Sakata Kintoki, Lu Bu or even Spartacus.
• Naturally, Sherlock Holmes with a Kaleidoscope can have a field day enabling many powerful (Lancer) Servants to obliterate Archer of Shinjuku.
• Masters can also employ Buff Removal Servants like Osakabehime, Saint Martha, Tristan, or Medea to remove a stack of Defense Buffs (usually after 1st/2nd Break).
• Masters could also use Jeanne d'Arc (Alter) or Mephistopheles to block incoming the Defense Buffs on Break.
• Of course, powerful Single Target Lancers such as Tamamo no Mae (Lancer) (Anti-Male) or Vlad III (Extra) (Anti-Evil) can have a field day if the Defense buffs are taken care of.

Support-wise:

• Heavy offensive buff stacking is generally preferable to stalling out the fight, especially if Masters recharge NP Gauges quickly. As such, the usual cadre of support Servants such as Merlin, Zhuge Liang, etc. are preferable. 
• Since all enemy NPs are Single-target and that the Mecha Eli-Chans are prone to unleash tremendous critical damage at the end of the fight, Taunt Servants are highly ideal to not only tank Archer of Shinjuku's NP, but also buy valuable time in case a Defense Buff needs to be waited out. 
• When rushing the encounter, Instant Star Generation tools such as Mozart/Golden Captures the Carp and Anniversary Blonde are very effective at deleting an HP Bar without an NP.
• Lastly, the Chaldea Combat Uniform is typically the most effective at helping buff stacking strategies and bringing in fresh buffs/Lancer Servants.

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.

• (Heavy firepower): Lancer Alter/Waver/Raikou(Lancer)/Waver 3-turn destruction via Defense Ignore
• (Not Recommended): Slow Osakabehime/Mash/Osakebehime composition that showcases a stalling strategy/Buff Removal capabilities. Useful for checking out a non-rushing encounter.
• (Writer Bias): Berserker of El Dorado carnage featuring Sherlock/Merlin/Waver
• (F2P): Silver/Bronze with Waver Support composition featuring Jaguar Warrior
• (2x Bronze): Bunyan or Spartacus Comps with bronze only Servants (and expensive CEs)
• (Solo): Grailed 90 Bond CE Heracles with 65 Georgios
• (Amusing): Grailed Berserkerlot 3-turn with lvl 1 Sherlock