Battle in New York 2020 - Exhibition 1: Rice Ball Franchise Shop No. 1 (Tawara Touta)

• The first exhibition quest for Battle in New York features the famed Rice-type Servant Tawara Touta, who has two health bars with very high HP amounts. Naturally, it would only be fitting that he fights using the very thing he is most well known for, but there’s more; he will throw not just one, but THREE different types of riceballs: Meat, apple and salmon. Yum! That is especially true for your Servants, whose Max HP will decrease by 500 every turn out of… well, starvation.
• These Riceballs (shown ingame as an unremovable buff) apply several buffs and debuffs on each of his Buster attacks, giving the attack target -50% Defense, a Max HP Increase of 5,000, as well as a Card Type Seal (the affected card  type depends on which of the Riceball buffs Touta currently has, as he will rotate through each of them every turn). All buffs and debuffs last for a default duration of 3 turns.
• The above effects will have their duration reduced by 1 turn every time the afflicted Servant performs a normal attack, and when the debuff expires, the Servant gains powerful offensive buffs (again, the exact type of buff received depends on the Riceball type). It should be noted that these offensive buffs are only applied if the debuff expires normally, meaning that they won’t activate with Debuff Removal.
• Touta has two other special skills. The first activates randomly during a Riceball switch, and applies the previous turn’s Riceball buffs and debuffs before performing the switch. The second activates when a Master’s Servant reaches 10% HP, which removes all Riceball debuffs (without activating their offensive benefits) and charges their NP gauge all the way to 300%.
• Upon Break, Touta receives Debuff Immunity as well as a significant Buster Up, both of which are permanent and unremovable. He also retains his normal abilities and NP.
• This fight depends greatly on managing the Master’s use of Servants’ command cards, as Servants who rarely attack can get completely locked out of using their cards, making it very difficult to fight. 
• Fortunately, the Riceballs’ 5,000 Max HP up also increases the Servant’s current HP, which all but guarantees that Servants would be at full HP every turn, though it is not a permanent solution against the Starvation continuous debuff, which would continuously whittle the Servants’ Max HP (as the 5,000 Max HP Up expires along with the rest of the Riceball debuffs).
• Furthermore, getting a Riceball debuff means getting the offensive buffs applied upon its expiration, which is doubly important for damage dealer Servants.
• While these mechanics are very interesting and complex for full team runs, it is far simpler for solo runs, as all the debuffs are guaranteed to go to only a single Servant, who can remove them every turn with Brave chains (and gain the associated offensive benefits).
• Indeed, it can be said that solo Lancer is by far the best, most reliable way to clear this stage.

• The Atlas Academy Uniform is recommended for most runs. Not only does it add a second hard defensive option, its cooldown reduction allows Servants with defensive skills to keep up with Touta’s 3 NP bars far easier (particularly as he doesn’t have an NP Charge of his own to screw with the skill timings). 
• In general, Lancers with hard defensive options are preferred, such as Scathach, Enkidu, and Cu Chulainn*. Brynhildr, whose supereffective is applied to Touta, and Romulus* whose Defense Up allows him to tank Touta’s NP (and recover from it with his multitudes of heals) have also been shown to be able to solo.
• A large selection of Lancers have been shown to be able to solo this stage, and there are potentially many others capable of the feat (for example, Tamamo no Mae (Lancer) and Ereshkigal, both of whom have access to Invincibility).
• It is recommended to use suicide Taunters at as low a level as possible to make it easier for Touta to oneshot them. Ideally, they would be equipped with Battle of Camlann or The Merciless One. However, should the damage dealer be someone without a hard defensive skill (as in the case of Brynhildr) the 500-Year Obsession is a great choice as well, delaying Touta’s first NP by a decent amount of time.
• Full team clears will still mostly be focused around one or two Lancer damage dealers (equipped with the event CE), accompanied by damage supports to provide extra punch to their NPs. Supports with party-wide Evasion/Invincibility are particularly powerful for this stage.

* May need higher NP level, grailing, or the use of Command Codes

• 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.
  • Scathach solo
  • Brynhildr solo 
  • Enkidu solo
  • ROMA solo
  • Cu Chulainn (lv 100) solo