Rabbit's Reviews #264: Kijyo Koyo (4* Berserker)

Kijyo Koyo is a bit odd, even aside from the whole “is a dinosaur” thing. She’s an ST SR Buster Berserker, which immediately means she’s competing in a highly crowded field, and in practice she doesn’t really distinguish herself from her competition particularly effectively. That said, she has a lot working in her favor, ranging from crit access to passable bulk to remarkably high steroids relative to her competition. She’s sort of like a more modern Ibaraki with a low-ish floor and a very high ceiling—she’ll need high NP levels and lots of support in order for her strengths to let her outshine her competition, but at the higher end she’s among the better Servants in her field.

Koyo’s attack is quite low by SR ‘Zerker standards, with the third-lowest attack for her class and rarity. This is unfortunate, as Koyo’s skillset is designed for full offense—she does have a Morph variant to help her take hits, but Koyo’s strengths lie with her damage potential, and low attack goes against that. She does get some extra health in exchange for her low attack, but a little extra health isn’t going to last that long on a Servant who innately takes double damage from everything. Her internals are pretty good relative to her deck, though, and while she doesn’t have the Buster-NP-genning capabilities of the likes of Summer Nobu, she does have a very good Arts card and also crit access, so she’s not in a bad position on the NP gain front. For passives she gets Madness Enhancement A—which is very nice and goes a long way towards offsetting her low attack—and Magic Resistance C, for staving off debuffs.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Berserker Piece Open Berserker Piece configuration options
3	150,000	x10 Berserker Piece Open Berserker Piece configuration options x15 Dragon Fang Open Dragon Fang configuration options
4	500,000	x4 Berserker Monument Open Berserker Monument configuration options x5 Claw of Chaos Open Claw of Chaos configuration options x3 Black Beast Grease Open Black Beast Grease configuration options
Max	1,500,000	x10 Berserker Monument Open Berserker Monument configuration options x5 Black Beast Grease Open Black Beast Grease configuration options x4 Dragon's Reverse Scale Open Dragon's Reverse Scale configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Berserker Open Gem of Berserker configuration options
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Berserker Open Gem of Berserker configuration options
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Berserker Open Magic Gem of Berserker configuration options
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Berserker Open Magic Gem of Berserker configuration options x3 Claw of Chaos Open Claw of Chaos configuration options
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Berserker Open Secret Gem of Berserker configuration options x5 Claw of Chaos Open Claw of Chaos configuration options
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Berserker Open Secret Gem of Berserker configuration options x10 Dragon Fang Open Dragon Fang configuration options
7 → 8	5,000,000	x20 Dragon Fang Open Dragon Fang configuration options x5 Ring of Giants Open Ring of Giants configuration options
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Ring of Giants Open Ring of Giants configuration options x8 Tsukumo Mirror Open Tsukumo Mirror configuration options
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Koyo’s skillset is solid, if a bit boring and a bit odd in the context of the overall kit. Recommended skill order is 2>1>3.

Koyo is a nuke-type ‘Zerker mostly—even with her small survival tools, she’s not really built to last until her skills cool down, unless you’re protecting her very carefully—so supports who boost her damage and provide batteries are always valuable. Merlin is a particularly good pick (as always), but Waver and Jinako are also both valuable here, and Mash can help keep the pressure off Koyo if you do want her to survive for a second NP. Conversely, Chen Gong can push Koyo’s damage for a turn and then ensure she drops out quickly in order to bring in a more sustained damage-dealer afterward.

As Koyo has no innate battery, Kaleid is a particularly good choice here. With Kaleid, Merlin, and two Wavers, Koyo can NP twice in a row through batteries alone, outputting a very high level of damage in a short time.

‘Zerkers are generally good grail targets and grails help offset Koyo’s relatively low stats. If you don’t have better alternatives, or if you get her to high NP levels, she can be a valuable grail target.

Koyo has a pretty solid kit with some nice high-end potential. Her biggest drawbacks have more to do with the competition than with Koyo herself. Even with better steroids, Koyo’s low-ish attack means she has roughly the same NP5 damage as ‘Zerker Jalter, who is, of course, free. This makes it hard to recommend Koyo for nuking—and even for players who missed Jalter, Lu Bu exists. She’s not all that great for sustained fights, either—not bad, just not amazing—which leaves her in something of a no man’s land. Her high persistent steroids are appealing and all, but ultimately she just doesn’t really stand out from her competition.

Overall: 7/10
Single-Target DPS: 9/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 1/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 2/10
Dinosaur: 10/10