Babylonia Anime Campaign Part Two (NA) - Free 4* Servant Ticket Guide

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Benefits from NP Upgrades as it is her main niche
• Very high base attack, and considering the current track record of Intuition/Instinct upgrades, surely she will receive an upgrade sooner rather than later
• Look, they simply must release that Shinjuku Costume one day right? Right? What do you mean I am delusional?

Cons:

• Her high burst NP Damage can be matched by stacking more offensive buffs on other Servants
• Intuition right now is extremely lackluster
• Frequency of high damage bursts (or continuous high damage) is much better suited for most more difficult nodes

Commentary: Saber Alter is a Servant that has not seen an upgrade since the very release of the game, and her current rather weak state on JP is rather telling in how the meta has passed her by. Still, she is story-locked and otherwise tricky to acquire. Since her main use is to blast something with her amazing NP modifiers, an NP2 is an option, yet not recommended except for those who grailed/want to grail her.

Pros:

• Story-locked
• His recent Rank Up fixed his kit and most importantly made him much more fun to use
• His 3-turn buff stack is remarkably powerful, giving his Gorilla Deck a large punch
• 20% NP Charge with a good AoE NP after Rank Up

Cons:

• When his buffs are not active, he basically picks his nose
• Charging his NP can be a pain given his BBBAQ deck
• His NP Damage is good only if all his buffs are active, and lackluster otherwise

Commentary: It took a while, but the gorilla of Camelot did receive the buff he’s been waiting for. Gawain's triple Buster deck makes him exceedingly compatible with Merlin, but his split focus between being able to do Buster Brave Chains for good single target, and his hard to charge AoE NP makes him less focused than Servants focusing on just one of those roles . In addition, Masters will expose their Servants to Gawain's deadly amazing cooking abilities.

Pros:

• Very strong Anti-Dragon Niche
• Decent performance even against non-Dragon enemies
• Summer Costume and had his animations updated

Cons:

• Can spook on any banner/Starter Servant
• Shows up in plenty of banners, and will show up for the next Summer rerun
• Often overshadowed outside Dragon niche

Commentary: Siegfried's anti-trait capabilities, especially against all those Saberfaces, has always given him plenty to do. His scaling potential is absolutely ridiculous and with enough buff stacks he will even outperform his single target anti-Dragon competition. But, given he is so specialized and that he is a rather common Servant on banners, it is not recommended to use a ticket for him.

Pros:

• Excellent Taunting capability
• Evasion/Debuff cleansing sometimes makes them the best Taunt Tank
• Does not steal your precious Critical Stars
• NP much more useful with NP Upgrades

Cons:

• General pool/Used to be Starter Servant
• Even at NP5, their NP is rather lackluster
• Often Georgios performs just as well or better

Commentary: Given Chevalier d’Eon’s proclivity to spook, and how their role often overlaps with Georgios a tad too much, the Chevalier simply isn’t a very sought after pick for this ticket. At higher NP Upgrades, they do provide a decent NP, and having extra Taunts on hand is always great to make Challenge Quests more predictable.

Pros:

• Fairly self-sufficient with an NP that makes plenty of Critical Stars
• NP Charging
• Decent all-purpose Saber, covering both ST and AoE performance
• She's a JK Saber with fox ears...what more could you want?

Cons:

• Can spook on any banner/new starter Servant
• NP Damage quite weak compared to NP Upgraded competition
• NP Charge is over time
• Demands loads of Evil Bones

Commentary: Suzuka performs quite well at whatever she needs to do, neatly filling the gap for any Master who is desperately in need of a strong JK Saber for both AoE and ST purposes. Unfortunately, her main competition has been buffed over the years, while she has remained rather static. Given she is in the general pool, Masters thus might want to swipe left anyway.

Pros:

• Story-locked
• Refuses to die via Thrice Setting Sun/loads of healing
• She gained a nice 30% NP Charge this year
• Fits neatly in Arts comps
• Long time Masters may still have her costume available to unlock
• Umu

Cons:

• Low Attack Stat
• Damage potential relies heavily on Imperial Privilege
• Imperial Privilege’s 60% chance often frustrating
• Septem

Commentary: With her Story-locked status, Nero makes for a fine pick for any Master looking to broaden their Saber roster. The amount of Arts AoE Sabers are rather limited as well, with only Shiki (Saber) or Jason as alternatives. Plus, she makes for an excellent Last Stand Servant, as she utterly refuses to perish, much like her presence during the Septem Singularity.

Pros:

• Anti-Demonic niche has wide coverage
• Can stretch his burst damage across 2 turns via his NP or his Crit skill. Or unload both at once.
• Very Merlin compatible
• Recently got his animations updated

Cons:

• General Pool/Can spook at any time
• Crit steroid only a single turn
• Low NP Damage outside of anti-trait targets
• Pretty Vanilla kit

Commentary: Rama’s single turn burst is a very impressive sight to behold, mainly by virtue of a very awesome Critical steroid. Still, against non-Demonic opponents, Rama has got some really crazy competition to contend with, especially with Diarmuid, Hokusai (Saber), Saberlot and Yagyu all being ST Saber options as well. Plus, he may spook you eventually.

Pros:

• An absolute unit who needs no support to slaughter anything in his path
• NP Charge
• Very fun play style that weaves Criticals and Arts NPs together seamlessly
• Makes his own Critical Stars
• Functions very well at NP1

Cons:

• General Pool
• The enemy better be dead in 3-ish turns
• With no skills up, he’s just...there
• Made of paper, especially with a Black Grail (which he synergizes with incredibly well)

Commentary: At the end of the day, Lancelot (Saber) is simply a great self-sustained and fun to play Servant. The problem, when it comes to this ticket, is that he is in the general pool, and could potentially spook a Master. Furthermore, he's got some immense competition in Diarmuid (who synergizes extremely well with Skadi), Hokusai (Saber) (Welfare) and Yagyu (who is a more stable pick for high difficulty content).

Sizzle's Comments: Even 2 years on, Saberlot remains great fun, and a good pick. Still, in terms of accessibility, he tends to show up in various banners throughout the year, and might make an appearance next year for the Camelot movie banner (which presumably will appear).

Pros:

• Story-locked
• Sitting EX
• Can debuff Attack Down up to 100%
• Fits incredibly well in Arts-based compositions
• Very high NP Damage with all buffs active
• Can charge NP very quickly with Arts Star Gathering

Cons:

• He just had a banner
• Tricky to time his skills to maximum effect, skills often delayed for appropriate moment
• Not as on-demand, less suited for general purpose/farming as competition

Commentary: There are few encounters that cannot be dealt with by a swift cut from the master Swordman. While his burst damage is impressive, his (de)buffs don't last for very long. Coupled with typically having to wait for the right moment to trigger his skills and NPs, in practice teams formed around Yagyu tend to stall the encounter. Considering his story lock, any Masters who prefers Arts approaches would do well to pick him up here, if they haven't yet rolled him.

Pros:

• Teamwide 1-turn 50% Quick Support
• If you thought EMIYA made a lot of Critical Stars with his NP….
• Excellent Quick NP refund
• Scathach=Skadi NP Looping Potential
• Benefits from NP Upgrades to help with farming
• Saori Hayami

Cons:

• General Pool/new starter Servant
• Glued to a Kaleidoscope/etc.
• Horrible base NP Gain
• Weak Attack Stat and non-Skadi performance

Commentary: Scathach=Skadi makes Atalante a farming powerhouse very few can match. Her performance, even with only a single Skadi, is still rather good as she can unleash a 2nd NP with only a little extra help. With double Skadi, she is one of the best Quick NP looping Servants available. Highly recommended if Masters possess Skadi, but she is available in the general pool.

Ceui's Comments: With Skadi, she is quite good for neutral mob farming as well and not just Saber targets.

Pros:

• Excellent mix between AoE Damage and Critical Capability
• NP produces a great amount of Critical Stars
• Absolutely amazing Critical Damage steroids (100%!)
• Unlimited Blade Works
• Best mom

Cons:

• General Pool/Common Starter Servant
• Very commonly appears in Summon Banners
• Outmatched by specialists

Commentary: With EMIYA being one of the more common Servants in the game especially given just how often he shows up on banners, and many Masters owning a copy, EMIYA isn’t a very tempting pick by default. Yet, he’s still an amazing Archer (..but there are no bad Archers, right?), and a fan-favorite. If he hasn’t spooked you, and you like him, he will not disappoint.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Fun skill set with flexible skill activation
• NP Upgrade puts him at the top for Archer NP Damage.
• Very Arts compatible, with NP Spam capability

Cons:

• Immense competition, especially for Masters who own Chloe or Altria Pendragon (Archer)
• Random Chance to NP Drain can be very frustrating during enemy NP turns
• Needs allied Support to survive most enemy NPs

Commentary: EMIYA (Alter) is mainly a Servant who suffers from having to compete with some very insane competition even as his NP Upgrade shored up his performance nicely. As a story-locked Servant, now is a great opportunity to pick him if one needs an Arts Archer.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Teamwide 1-hit Evasion is amazing.
• Enemy Buff removal and loads of utility (Def Pierce soon, Sure Hit, etc.)
• 50% NP Charge
• Excellent Generation Performance and upgraded NP
• Benefits from Scathach=Skadi support

Cons:

• No Steroids of his own, low damage
• Quite Fragile
• NP Charge seals his NP

Commentary: Tristan is often overlooked, but he has a skill set that is just perfect for so many Challenge Quests. Quite often, even a (borrowed) Merlin cannot provide the amount of Damage Immunities necessary to make it through a Challenge Quest, at which point the utility this flying harp...man provides is rather valuable. He is story-locked, and hard to get otherwise, but he may show up for any Camelot movie banner (presumably...)!

Pros:

• Good skills, stats and performance across the board
• Strong 3-turn Critical steroid with Star Gathering
• Mahatma approved
• Chucking extremely large enemies is very satisfying

Cons:

• Burn niche is about as gimmicky as it gets
• Otherwise lacks a true specialization
• Needs a little bit of extra star generation support to crit well
• Can spook at any time

Commentary: Archer of Inferno performs well in all of the basic aspects of what makes a Servant great. The thing is more than in a game that highly rewards bringing the right Servant for the job, Archer of Inferno is never the best option given her lack of a true wortwhile specialization. She can still chuck and crit things though, but given status as a non-limited Servant, Masters may wish to hope for a spook or banner (surely they will rerun the Setsubun event this winter?).

Pros:

• Story-Locked 
• Excellent AoE Damage with NP Upgrade
• Amazing ST Critical burst damage
• NP Seal & Ignore Defense on NP
• Very high attack stat

Cons:

• Fairly Burst-oriented, although it can be split across 2 turns
• Very Weak NP Gain performance 
• Challenge Quests typically reward sustained bursts of controlled high damage, not heavy burst.

Commentary: Altria (Lancer Alter) is a great example of a focused skill set that aged fairly gracefully. It helps that her Intuition-like skill actually carries some great synergy with our favorite fluffy Buster support and can break a Break bar all on its own. And, uh, isn’t Intuition. She is a decent pick, especially given her story-lock, but Masters looking for AoE Lancers have plenty of (Quick) alternatives that also farm well.

Pros:

• Anti-Evil trait has wide coverage
• Great all-around performance
• Plenty of utility (Taunt/Pierce Invincibility)
• Deus vult

Cons:

• General Pool
• Quite low Attack
• Outside of Anti-trait, often outdone offensively by pure damage Lancers

Commentary: Much of what makes Vlad III (Extra) great, is a bit hidden under his base stats and his Anti-Evil coverage. With excellent Quick and Extra cards, and high base NP Gain, he can charge his NP quite rapidly, especially under an AQQ chain with extra defensive NP Gain from a Taunt against high hit count enemies. Still, he’s not entirely recommended, given his ability to spook you at any time or his new/improved competition.

Pros:

• Excellent female support skill set (+60% effective attack)
• Her selection of traits (Dragon, Evil, etc.) makes her easily insertable in many female compositions
• Ignore Defense on NP
• AOU CAST-OFF

Cons:

• General Pool/Starter Servant
• Fairly weak personal kit
• Only Guts for Survival

Commentary: Elisabeth Bathory's high female Attack Up/Defense Down has always made her a solid hybrid support. Her NP Damage is also fine, although she has some incredible AoE competition in that regard both in terms of sustained AoE or burst damage. Considering she is in the general pool, she might well spook any unsuspecting Master with her cacophony, and is thus not really recommended.

Pros:

• NP Charge after his last upgrade
• AoE Arts NP-looping potential after upgrade, though not easy
• Does decent enough NP Damage
• Powerful teamwide NP Gain/Stargen buff
• Same colour as Rare Prism

Cons:

• General Pool/Will spook you on this banner
• Fairly low base attack and single turn steroid
• Needs maxed skills to avoid RNG on Evasion
• His latest increase in competence makes burning him wasteful
• Poor Diarmuid
• Fionn

Commentary: Fionn’s potential to spook banners is legendary. Luckily (for him), the addition of an NP Charge has given him much more to do and makes him a decent Servant for Arts farming, if Masters can set him up properly/have enough NP Upgrades. While Arts Lancers are thin on the ground, the recent addition of Mysterious Alter Ego Λ has stolen a bit of his AoE Arts farming thunder. With Quick farming options also being very viable for Lancers, he does not come as highly recommended as they are, but Masters heavy on Arts support should consider him for their Lancer farming needs.

Pros:

• After both upgrades, deals very strong NP Damage and can salvage her Quick cards
• Has access to both a Charm and a Stun disable
• Also quite durable
• Very compatible with Scathach=Skadi
• Smol snek

Cons:

• General Pool
• Why did they murder her basic Quick Card in the first place?
• Low base attack

Commentary: It's taken a good long while, but Medusa (Lancer) is in a pretty decent place right now. With plenty of damage boosts from her upgrades, and the ability to actually use her Quick cards well, she fits in rather well with Skadi based compositions. Still, she's a Servant in the general pool that can spook at any time.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• One of the few Arts Lancers
• Currently has the highest 4* ST NP Damage among the Lancers
• High burst damage
• Undeterred by any and all normal Defensive buffs

Cons:

• Masters who acquired Kagetora (Welfare) will need multiple copies to have Li Shuwen compete with her
• Burst heavy, though one can spread his damage buffs over multiple turns
• Sometimes utility is redundant (Putting Sure Hit and Pierce Invincibility on at once)
• Single turn duration on damage buffs

Commentary: With his presence firmly in the story-locked category, Li Shuwen has always been a decent option for these 4* tickets. Being one of the few Arts Lancers in the game, Masters who prefer to unleash their stable Arts (Critical) composition on anything that moves will find Li Shuwen a perfect match to their play style. The main issue there is that unless Li Shuwen is upgraded a few times, Kagetora's NP5 will readily outdamage him.

Pros:

• High NP refund potential despite a relatively low NP hit count
• Excellent Skadi compatibility and farming potential
• Can farm decently even if Masters don't own Skadi, can potentially loop with single Skadi.
• Can Charge other Servants after her NP, helping to top off Servants with an MLB Imaginary Numbers
• Frequent charm application in high refund situations
• Minor NP Charge
• NP Upgrades increase farming potential
• Extra Costume in Mana Prism shop

Cons:

• General Pool/New Starter Servant
• Doesn't create many Critical Stars with NP (which can be annoying for wave 3)
• Has decent burst damage with all her skills active, but largest steroid lasts only a single turn
• If her skills are used for offense, she can be rather fragile if the charms don't land

Commentary: Parvati is basically the premier Quick Servant among the 4* AoE Servants. Considering her baked in NP Refund on NP, it's much easier to create NP Looping situations or compensate for poor CEs/Servants without having to create complicated Servant teams.

Pros:

• Straightforward base kit with decent Buster Critical potential
• NP Charge for farming
• Hopefully, they will release the alternate look from LB4 one day

Cons:

• Low NP Damage, Romulus outperforms her if Imperial Privilege procs
• Average NP Gain, especially if skills are on cooldown
• Long cooldown on NP Charge
• General Pool

Commentary: Nezha has a companion in Li Shuwen in that her most convenient use, NP Charging herself for some quick farming, is shared with a Welfare Servant. In this case, Jeanne d'Arc (Santa Alter Lily) provides the same benefit except at NP5 and with more damage even at equal NP levels. Nezha does have better Command Card damage potential, a cleanse, and the ease with which she can set up a Critical turn. Still, Masters looking for a dedicated AoE Servant or a better Lancer farmer are better off with some of the alternative options rather than a mixture between the two.

Pros:

• Access to the almighty 50% NP Charge
• AoE NP with decent base damage
• Benefits from NP Upgrades
• Extra Costume in Mana Prism Shop
• Scathach=Skadi compatible via pure NP Charging
• Cannot refund, but 2 successive NPs not hard to pull of via Supports/CEs
• QP Farmer extraordinaire

Cons:

• General pool
• Must have expensive CE/Supports to 3-turn farm with Astolfo alone
• Non-farming performance still as bad as ever

Commentary: NP Charging options for AoE Servants, especially very strong ones such as Astolfo’s, are exceedingly rare. Given Astolfo also does decent AoE Damage, his farming potential is rather stellar as he does not need to hit certain overkill targets . Still, he is available in the general pool, and there are quite a few Rider farming alternatives or neutral class options that can do what he does.

Pros:

• High burst damage, especially if set up just right
• Scathach=Skadi compatible for critting goodness
• 2 Servants for the price of 1

Cons:

• General Pool
• Heavy competition especially from Ushiwakamaru
• Their (low HP) niche is not very accessible and risky
• Masters typically require constant heavy damage as opposed to one massive burst

Commentary: The potential burst damage these two pirates can supply is pretty impressive for Servants that were released rather close to launch, especially under the influence of additional (Quick) support buffs. That said, it begs the question when that damage is actually necessary especially given other, more quickly charging alternatives are available. Considering they are available in the general pool, this is not an option we really advise, but gameplay is not the most important factor.

Pros:

• Indestructible
• Provides some healing and cleansing support via NP
• Grants a useful teamwide Critical damage buff on NP
• Scathach=Skadi compatible
• Can somewhat NP Refund with Skadi at higher NP levels
• Kira Kira
• Nostalgic Caster ball animations

Cons:

• General Pool/Starter Servant
• Low NP Damage even after NP Upgrade which makes getting Overkill early more difficult
• Better Rider alternatives available for 3-turn farming
• Lacks damage and steroids in general
• As a Rider, absorbs Critical Stars while not very capable of using them well

Commentary: While Marie’s caster balls don’t quite pack the punch all of us would like it to, her performance with Scathach=Skadi is at least worth a mention. There are plenty of Riders who can supply 3-turn NP looping, but Marie’s capability to do the same (although it generally requires some additional copies) is quite a nice perk. Still, it’s hard to recommend her except to the most devoted fans/Sanson/Mozart.

Pros:

• Instant team debuff cleanse on skill
• Targetable Buff removal with 30% Defense Down
• High NP Gain with 3-turn AoE Defense Down on NP
• Decent NP Damage with a pre-NP Buster buff
• Excellent Order Change Servant for situations in which her cleansing/buff removal is ideal (such as raids or Challenge Quests)
• Saori Hayami

Cons:

• General Pool/Starter Servant
• Upcoming Christmas rerun has her on the main banner (presumably...)
• Overall deals fairly low damage
• Generally, many of the special buffs and debuffs will not be cleansable/removable

Commentary: Saint Martha is a blessing to own during Challenge Quests, especially for content that can still have key buffs or debuffs removed. This utility is much reduced by the plentiful unremovable skill and effects during difficult content, but she can launch a decently hitting NP with respectable Defense Down support as well. A favorite of any person named Kojiro, she will likely show up soon along with her Ruler version for a Martha extravaganza (if one can find the Saint Quartz).

Pros:

• Rare teamwide 20% NP Gauge Boost
• Additional triple Card Performance buff
• Immense value to any Master without a teamwide NP Gauge boost of their own
• Very compatible with NP looping strategies
• Can be used with the Chaldea Combat Uniform to supply both 20% NP Gauge, triple Card Performance and an Attack buff as a direct farming upgrade over the Mage’s Association Uniform
• High AoE upgraded NP Damage
• Can charge NPs and use an offensive NP herself

Cons:

• General Pool/New Starter Servant
• Much less valuable to Masters with access to a teamwide NP Gauge Boost from top supports
• Extremely high skill cooldowns
• 20% Chance to fail her NP Damage buff
• Weak NP Gain (good Quick card though)

Commentary: Helena Blavatsky stands out as one of our recommended options, especially for any Master that hasn’t been lucky enough to get a Waver, Skadi or other Servants with a teamwide or heavy NP Gauge boost. The quality of life improvement that Helena provides to new (F2P) Masters by helping Masters launch their NPs immediately is incredibly high. In addition, her compatibility with Arts teams, to further their refund and supply (more) NP Charging, is also worth a mention, even for Masters with better NP Charging supports. All that aside, Helena herself is no slouch either for farming, given her high NP Damage. Still, for Masters who do have someone that can charge the team’s NP Gauge, she is not as heavily recommended (and she is still in the general pool).

Meliran's Comments: Helena is best girl.

Pros:

• Powerful Arts Critical Support
• Great compatibility with the Chaldea Combat Uniform
• Good NP Damage due to his high steroids
• Very high Star Generation buff can make any high hit attacks generate immense sums of Critical Stars
• Great replacement for Masters without Tamamo
• Masters may still have his Costume available for unlock after Summer 3
• Rare Debuff Success Rate buff

Cons:

• General Pool
• Has a large downtime between skill activations
• NP Gain lower than normal during NP (low refund)
• If used for offense, lacks raw burst damage

Commentary: A powerful Servant with all-around great Arts support, Gilgamesh (Caster) is a staple for many Arts Critical teams. But Gilgamesh does not need to support others per se, as his steady damage output is rather good while constantly buffing his team. In addition, he has some fun unique uses in buffing debuff success rate, such as with Medb (Saber)’s NP, or the various low-chance Stuns on NP from Servants like Waver. Still, he is in the general pool, and a presence in many popular banners.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Stalling Arts Team Powerhouse
• Packs heavy utility on NP with AoE NP/Skill Seal
• Spammable NP with strong Overcharge
• Unique Overcharge boost
• NP Charge over time
• Very, very sturdy after Skill Upgrade
• Targetable cooldown reduction
• His main stalling benefit it that he can heavily impede all enemy targets that rely on removing buffs, excelling where most normal strategies fail
• ‘Merica

Cons:

• He is not exactly a...fast clearing Servant
• Low NP Damage
• No steroids
• Low usefulness during general farming/clearing
• Turned around, he is ineffective if the enemy is debuff immune or constantly cleansing themselves

Commentary: Edison is often mocked as one of the weaker Servants in the game. On release, that was certainly true. But Edison has a brand of stalling that few can match. While the cost of success is high (it takes so long!) the constant debuffs and sealing will in a proper Arts team eventually lead to success. Fun to mess around with, and as a story-locked Servant, he is not so easy to get.

Pros:

• Upgraded AoE Arts NP Spamming with AoE NP Drain
• NP Charge
• Decent Critical Capability (to spam more NPs with)
• Quite sturdy
• Little girl that with strong support/grails demolishes many AoE Challenge Quests

Cons:

• General Pool / new starter Servant
• No direct damage steroids except after NP
• Low NP Damage
• Chance-based NP Drain can be frustrating

Commentary: The little girl whose NP Spam can demolish even the toughest of enemies in a full Arts team. She’s a decent AoE farmer too, but her low damage does make her refunding and clearing a tad more difficult (less Overkill to trigger refund with). She has some big competition when it comes to AoE Caster Servants though.

Pros:

• Excellent farming Servant
• Full NP Charge skill
• Immense CE flexibility to make up for shortcomings
• Can unleash NP instantly with all Event CEs
• Or Unleash her NP twice with a Kscope and Supports
• Reliable Instant Death capability vs susceptible (bronze, undead, etc.) mobs
• Fairly sturdy with a decent base Attack stat (for a Caster)
• Benefits from NP Upgrades

Cons:

• General Pool
• Mediocre NP Damage
• No direct steroids
• Needs grails, MLB CEs or NP2+ to reliably farm certain nodes without Instant Death
• Instant Death Chance often not reliable
• Instant Death not effective at all versus strong enemies
• Weak performance outside of farming
• So. Many. Evil. Bones.

Commentary: Nitocris stands tall among our recommended Servants as her ability to speed up farming is an amazing quality of life improvement even now. As the only AoE NP Servant with a full NP Gauge boost, Nitocris is a staple among many 3-turn farming teams, even against certain non-Assassin nodes. To truly get rid of her reliability issues does require some additional investments, but even her performance at NP1 is special.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Full NP Charge skill
• Massive Healing capabilty
• Full Team Cleanse on NP
• Recently got new animations
• Gets a unique targetable anti-buff removal skill
• Delicious Pancakes
• One can feed Jason to her

Cons:

• Death cannot be healed; high NP/Crit Damage can kill before it can be healed
• Little use outside of Stalling and Challenge Quests
• No offensive support
• Overshadowed by more powerful defensive supports that can also supply offensive buffs

Commentary: Few Servants can even compete with the sheer healing output that Medea (Lily) can provide. The problem is, healing is generally not a very strong defensive mechanic as the elements that lead to a Servant’s death cannot be healed afterwards. An NP or Critical Hit may well spell death for the undefended after all. Her team cleanse is certainly still useful and Masters can enjoy her animation updates, but her support remains limited.

Pros:

• Piglets!
• 100%+ NP Charge skill
• ...Piglets!
• Extreme CE freedom
• Upgrades over Medea in terms of immediate NP damage to Assassin/Berserker enemies
• Excellent at taking out a powerful single wave 2 enemy
• Decent team support via her teamwide debuff cleansing, 20% Defense Down and Piglet transformation
• You would not dare let her be abandoned once more, would you....piglet?

Cons:

• Very low base NP Damage, although that can be compensated for with a Black Grail or back to back NPs via Kscopes/supports
• Depressing NP Gain, reliant on Arts chains to charge NP outside Rapid Words of Divine
• Fragile, no strong defensive skills whatsoever
• Yandere senses, tingling

Commentary:Caster of Okeanos is very similar to Medea in practice, except that she trades buff removal for debuff cleansing, and frequent but weak NPs for stronger but infrequent NPs. Fortunately, her massive NP Charge lets her bring powerful damage CEs to compensate and she is an excellent Servant for getting rid of beefy Assassins provided she gets buffed. Not suited for hard content given her sustain issues, but a decent pick for Masters lacking a good ST Caster and/or a teamwide cleanse.

Pros:

• Story-locked
• Excellent Arts-based kit that fits in well with Arts compositions for Challenge Quests
• Mixture of teamwide support and personal damage steroids
• Excellent NP Gain and Arts cards
• Fun kit that flows well with constant Arts chains.

Cons:

• She's still a Caster with 0.9x modifiers
• NP Damage on the low side, makes up for it with quantity
• No Survivability outside of her Overcharge's Attack Down
• Don't let that cute exterior fool you, she's a ruthless gangster who bullies other fluffy Casters in Challenge Quests

Commentary: Caster of Midrash is a rarity in the Caster class: a single target Caster with an actual Arts NP. While her various steroids help her deal decent damage, it's her constant Arts chain potential with support Casters that constantly allow her to NP liberally, showcasing just how good ST Casters can be if they get their most desired card type. Still, the situations in which you actually need an ST Caster (and not use a Berserker, etc.) are fairly limited. Nonetheless, she is story-locked, and works well, and comes recommended.

Pros:

• With both Ignore Defense on NP and 3-turn Invincibility Pierce, nothing truly impedes him
• Decent NP Damage (and refund despite lowered NP Gain on NP)
• Guaranteed NP Drain on NP
• Targetable Taunt fun to abuse
• Great Buster, Extra and Quick Card Hit Counts (Start with an Arts card)
• Good Star Generation
• Isn't it sad, Kiritsugu?

Cons:

• General Pool
• Atrocious basic Arts cards
• Fragile
• Heavy competition from welfare Shiki (Assassin) in the Arts Assassin department (although her Event has been a long time ago)
• NP1 performance quite weak versus NP5 3* Servants such as Jing Ke and Hassan of the Hundred Faces

Commentary: Emiya's kit fits quite well together, were it not for the very weak Arts cards (try to avoid them except to infuse other cards with NP Gain). The main trade-off to make on whether to pick him is arguably that other Servants can do what he does, and do it a bit better. In pure damage, provided Imperial Privilege activates, Assassin of the Nightless City blows him out of the water.

Pros:

• Anti-Female NP Modifier is as it should be and scales rather well, especially given how often she can launch it.
• Very High NP Gain, especially an AQQ chain
• Vampirism is also a 27% NP Charge
• Comes with a slice of self-sustain on NP, self-buffs and some team support to round out her anti-female kit

Cons:

• General Pool / Starter Servant
• Unwieldy QQQAB deck
• Mediocre NP Damage against non-females

Commentary: Carmilla’s status as a starter Servant makes her a generally less appealing option to use the free ticket on. However, she's an exceedingly competent Assassin since her NP Upgrade, and her high base NP Gain has scaled incredibly well as the game aged. For Masters who lack a powerfull all-around good Assassin with some niche coverage to boot, Carmilla is the one to go for.

Pros:

• Great Star Generation
• Since his Skill Upgrade, he is competent enough to outperform some of his Quick 3* competition
• Critical Star Manipulation skills are fun to mess around with
• Scathach=Skadi Compatible

Cons:

• General Pool
• Low overall damage output
• Weak NP at low NP levels even after Skill Upgrade 
• Generally, active star generation is far less powerful than relying on passive means (stars/turn) or a CE/Servant with massive Instant Star Generation.

Commentary: Selecting Assassin of Shinjuku this year is a bold move, especially as he can spook Masters at any time. His kit is at least much better than on release, dealing better damage and generating nice amounts of Critical Stars more comfortably. Still, given active Star Generation is not that strong compared to passive star generation from various supports, only Masters with an eye for dashing rogues should pick him. But hey, some Masters always like to ice skate uphill.

Pros:

• Her NP Upgrade gave her fairly spammable buff removal
• NP Defense Down also scales with NP Upgrades
• Charm Lock capability
• Divine team support
• Vampirism is also a 27% NP Charge
• Very high NP Gain
• Smug Gawain bullying

Cons:

• General Pool / Starter Servant
• No Damaging NP
• Weak Offensive Performance
• Support Buster NP with QQQAB deck
• Overall Support weaker than most dedicated Supports

Commentary: With her limited offensive presence and being one of the more common Servants thanks to her starter status, Stheno is generally not a very popular pick for this ticket. The added scaling on her NP is nice, but the NP Upgrade is still minor at best.

Pros:

• Decent (Quick) offensive support
• Very high potential NP Damage for an Assassin, rivalling even 5* Assassins
• Also removes buffs on NP, while further boosting her own Critical potential
• Scathach=Skadi Compatible
• Overall damage potential among the best for 4* Assassins

Cons:

• General Pool
• Imperial Privilege’s 60% Chance often frustrating
• Mediocre NP Gain
• Fragile without Imperial Privilege Defense proc
• Is a bit too selfish in play style to fully slot as support, and cannot generate Critical Stars well at all (not that she really needs to per se)

Commentary: Assassin of the Nightless City’s performance always walks a fine line between her Quick Support and her own decent damage performance given all her steroids. Still, she is reliant on getting that Imperial Privilege to activate to truly unleash those damage numbers. She’s a very solid pick (and the best Quick-based Assassin pick for 4*'s).

Pros:

• Arts Assassin with NP spam potential
• NP Charge
• NP Seal on a short cooldown
• Honorary snek

Cons:

• Low damage across the board
• Extremely heavy competition from other Arts Assassins, most notably Shiki and Hassan of the Hundred Personas
• Fragile as Evasion and NP Charge share a cooldown
• NP Seal can be resisted
• General pool

Commentary: Assassin of Paraiso's issues all fall back unto one main problem in the end: a lack of damage. Where other Assassins have an NP Upgrade or more/higher modifiers, Assassin of Paraiso only has her 3-turn Arts buff. It's a shame, as her kit otherwise fits together quite neatly.

Pros:

• Story-locked
• Both a targetable Evasion and Invincibility
• Wide coverage with Anti-Demonic
• Fairly useful to protect the team with hard survival while she perishes to the AoE NP

Cons:

• Very low NP Damage, with only decent damage against her anti-trait targets
• Assassin modifiers also impede relying on her normal Buster cards for damage
• Massive competition in the form of Gray (Welfare)

Commentary: Despite her Story-Lock giving her an automatic bonus in priority, her performance as it is at the time of writing leaves too much to be desired to grant her a recommendation. The main issue is that her AoE damage can be readily surpassed by the freely available low rarity Berserkers, while her survivability tools are extremely situational. Still, if one prefers robot girls and thighs, well, now is a good moment to get her.

Pros:

• Strong all-around performance especially in Challenge Quests
• Buff Removal on NP
• Teamwide Charisma
• Good NP Damage
• Sturdy especially with additional support
• Bananas are a source of potassium and a healthy part of any diet

Cons:

• General pool
• Falls quickly if not supported well defensively against high damage output enemies
• Many key buffs are unremovable, reducing the effectiveness of one of her niches
• Lack of hard survival

Commentary: Surely after all the bullying the Banana Oni has received over the years, she is worthy of being selected with the free 4* ticket? Well, sort of. She is a very strong and capable alternative to Heracles, actually being quite similar in performance, yet exchanges his last stand and hard survival for better performance in a full team setting. Given just how common Heracles is (and how often Heracles is advised to start any Master’s journey with), she is a great alternative pick for an all-purpose Berserker Servant.

Pros:

• 60% NP Charge over 3 turns
• High (NP) Damage output
• Strong teamwide Buster steroids
• 3-turn Debuff Immunity
• Good Berserker farming performance
• Scales well with MLB CEs, NP2+ and grails
• Hilarious damage output against Greek Male Mythology enemies

Cons:

• General Pool
• Single Target NP not often necessary during general farming
• No survival skills at all; will die super easily against strong enemies
• Sadly, very few Greek Male Mythology enemies

Commentary: -

Sizzle's Comments: With multiple max grailed copies across servers, any attempt at being unbiased is a bit futile. Berserker of El Dorado’s largest strength is that she can provide her mixture of fast-charging offense and strong team buffs on any (farming) node. Especially for more seasoned Masters, this makes her a superior Berserker option for many quests where safety is not a concern. Even in more difficult quests, her kill-or-be-killed approach is quite viable, as a dead enemy can’t hurt her. This is also why an NP Upgrade works wonders for her overall performance as, unlike many of her Berserker peers, she can use her NP quite often.

Still, she is in the general pool, and Masters might well want to acquire a Servant that is more difficult to acquire normally.

Pros:

• Without her self-stun constantly impeding her, Tamamo Cat balances AoE offense with survivability
• Very sturdy after all her Skill Upgrades, especially as her NP's healing starts to tick
• Decent upgraded Berserker AoE NP
• Scathach=Skadi compatible, although she can't refund well

Cons:

• General Pool / Starter Servant
• Low base Attack with short steroid
• At NP1, 1-3* Berserkers have similar AoE Damage
• What were they thinking with that NP Drain? 40-60% scaling!?

Commentary: Tamamo Cat is a fine Servant given how often AoE Berserkers prove useful for farming, especially if equipped with a strong Starting NP Gauge CE. With no self-stun to worry about (except if another NP is launched too quickly), performing a full Brave Chain is also much easier. Thing is, she is a rather common Servant and she has some strong competition not only from Frankenstein, but also the 1-3* roster. However, that should not stop any Tamamo fan.

Pros:

• Great farming Servant
• Very high AoE NP Damage
• Scathach=Skadi compatible
• Can 3-turn NP Loop with Debuff Immunity/Cleansing (BB/Nightingale/Asclepius)
• Scales well with NP2/NP3 for farming
• Upcoming Nightingale banner (presumably!) will help out any Master looking for Debuff Cleansing/Immunity.

Cons:

• General Pool
• Self-Stun after NP
• Quick NP with triple Buster Deck
• Limited use outside of farming

Commentary: Frankenstein is tailor-made for farming a final wave, yet with Skadi available there are a few specific compositions with which she can also engage in 3-turn NP farming via NP Looping. She is a potent farming alternative for Masters without Lancelot, especially if Masters have the Debuff Immunity Servants required or if their Lancelot is only NP1. Not bad for team Electric Steam (and Papa).

Pros:

• Very high upgraded ST NP Damage
• Single turn Critical Burst damage impressive after Rank Up
• Can set up a self-sufficient Critical turn
• Strong Critical Chance Down on NP

Cons:

• General Pool
• All steroids last for a single turn
• Only guts for survival
• Only 1% Madness Enhancement reduces overall damage output

Commentary: Beowulf is often forgotten about with only his raw NP Damage to rely on compared to his competition. His Critical steroid is an enhanced version of Altria (Lancer Alter)’s Protection of World End, and will allow him to unleash some nasty burst damage. Still, burst damage isn't a very powerful tactic, although Beowulf could simply spread his NP and Critical turn out over 2 turns. A decent pick, especially if someone likes Fight Club or Jojo's.

Pros:

• Easy to use all-purpose Berserker
• Evasion and Guts, very hard to kill
• Excellent Last Stand Servant
• Very newbie friendly
• Amazing Bond CE
• Allegedly can’t lose to anyone and is the strongest in the world

Cons:

• General Pool / Starter Servant
• Lacks the raw damage output of his peers in team settings
• Early crutch character, but does typically see less use as a Master’s roster develops
• Masters can often rely on their friendly...friend support bond 10 Heracles if they are in a pinch, getting one of your own is an extremely time consuming and lengthy process.
• Cannot be trusted to bring back the right kind of batteries

Commentary: It cannot be denied that for any new Master that did not reroll for a Heracles copy, Heracles is a tempting gameplay target to lean on while a Master widens their roster. Yet, given how he might well be the most common 4* Servant in the game, the 4* ticket is an excellent opportunity to get an otherwise hard to acquire or personal favorite Servant instead. Even his Berserker competition here make for great alternate choices. That said, Heracles is (naturally!) a popular character in his own right, and no Master should feel deterred from getting him for that reason.

Pros:

• Amazing Scathach=Skadi NP Looping potential
• Great NP Refund
• Needs NP Upgrades to fully unlock farming capability
• As a Berserker, can farm almost all quests
• NP creates large sum of Critical Stars
• Massive 3-turn Critical Steroid
• Few Rate-ups to try for more copies, and Accel Zero will not be rerun another time for a long time

Cons:

• General Pool
• Extremely poor non-NP Base NP Gain
• Glued to Starting NP Gauge CEs
• Needs double Skadi
• Weak NP Damage (needs NP Upgrades to reliably Overkill and refund enough)
• NP1 Farming limited
• NP4/5 generally unnecessary

Commentary: If there is one Servant on this list that profits the most from access to Scathach=Skadi, it would be Lancelot. The sheer farming powerhouse team that is double Skadi with Lancelot (NP2-3) is undeniable and a Master looking to increase their convenience may want to snag a copy of him here. Much like Nitocris and Helena, Lancelot’s potential farming capability (*If Masters acquire Skadi!) amounts to such a quality of life improvement that we can’t help but give him a top recommendation.

Yet, even without Skadi, his performance with a Kaleidoscope is alright, especially as he can Critical extremely hard the turn after he launched his NP against a wave of enemies.

Sizzle's Comments: I really do want to stress that an NP1 copy is rather limited in what it can farm, the lack of Overkill makes refunding much more difficult especially against enemy classes that yield lower NP Gain per hit.

Pros:

• Story-Locked
• Rare Avenger Class Servant
• Decent AoE NP Damage
• Teamwide NP Gauge boost on NP
• Due to her Skill Upgrade, she is no longer as dependent on Star Gathering CEs for crits
• Large snek

Cons:

• Avengers are often a second-best solution, especially without an overload of steroids
• Usually lacks class advantage, limiting damage output
• Masters have to support her with some additional Critical Stars to unleash her Critical Damage potential
• Only has guts and a stun for survival with very low base HP

Commentary: The key question from a gameplay perspective is: Does one really need an Avenger? While many Masters would like a class advantaged option for any situation, the value of an Avenger is rather limited unless that Avenger has an extremely strong base kit (much like Rulers and Moon Cancers). It is not uncommon for Masters with a wide roster to never really use their Avengers very often.

But, Gorgon is story-locked and otherwise hard to get. If a Master wants her for personal reasons, all her upgrades have finetuned her into a rather capable Servant with strong enough steroids to offset her lack of class advantage to some extent. Thus, she is well worth picking up with a ticket if any Master wants a Buster or AoE Avenger.

Pros:

• Scathach=Skadi Compatible
• Deals rather powerful NP Damage, especially with Skadi support
• Gains a 20% Critical Damage Up buff for 3 turns on NP to shore up his lack of class advantage somewhat
• Targetable enemy Buff Removal
• Valentine’s CE story is superb

Cons:

• General Pool
• Avengers are often a second-best solution, especially without an overload of steroids
• Usually lacks class advantage, limiting damage output
• Poor Skill duration
• Weak durability, low base HP with single turn Defense Up/Attack Down

Commentary: With Ruler enemies usually showing up alone, Avenger of Shinjuku’s ST nature is quite nice. His overall damage output with Quick support is really rather good with decent Quick Cards to match. Still, very much like Gorgon, Avengers are not actually needed very often and even then alternate options are available (such as Berserkers). For Masters with a preference for a Quick and ST Avenger, Lobo is a fine choice.