Rabbit's Reviews #276: Oda Nobukatsu (1* Archer)

Before I jump into the review, I want to preface this with an important PSA: Make sure to pull for NP5 Nobukatsu from the Friend Point gacha while GudaGuda 5 is running. Nobukatsu is a new bronze available in the FP pool, essentially functioning as Guda5’s welfare, but the game doesn’t really draw attention to the fact that he’s available. Don’t miss him—he’s super easy to get, but he’s not going to stick around past the event window.

With that out of the way… Nobukatsu! Pretty much since the original GudaGuda event, there’s been occasional idle speculation about the possibility of Nobukatsu popping up eventually as a 1* Servant. As of Guda5, it’s finally happened. Swapping a presumable SR welfare Servant for a bronze Servant might not sound like a great trade, but not only does Nobukatsu punch above his rarity (in terms of value), but he’s also arguably better off for being a 1*. Nobukatsu’s claim to fame is twofold: he provides absurdly powerful buffs to Nobunaga Servants, and (more importantly) he doubles as a long-awaited self-sacrificial support. Nobukatsu’s Nobu buffs are silly strong and he functions as something of a de facto buff to those three Servants, but even outside of that specific niche, he provides a lot of valuable utility that can help Buster teams get rolling a little faster without taking up a frontline support slot. His low rarity then translates to a low cost that makes him easy to slip into any Buster team for a little extra utility and makes him more flexible than he would be with the same kit at a higher rarity.

Being a bronze instead of a traditional welfare also means Nobukatsu gets three distinct sprites instead of the usual one. What’s not to like?

Fun fact: Nobukatsu has both the second-lowest stated attack (losing to Spartacus) and the second-lowest effective attack (losing to Mozart because of class multiplier nonsense) of any Servant in the game. In exchange, he has the third-highest HP of the 1*s, just behind Jason and Spart. The relative positions don’t inherently matter, but the point is that Nobukatsu has a strongly defensive stat spread. Given his supportive role, this is solidly a good thing, as every bit of extra health makes him more likely to survive a taunt turn when you need him to. Internals-wise, Nobukatsu’s not particularly impressive, with a decent Arts card relative to his deck and a pair of weak-ish Quicks. Nobukatsu wants to use his NP, but he’s pretty reliant on CEs, batteries, and defensive NP gain to get there. His cards are mostly filler for when you don’t have better options on a given turn. For passives he has Magic Resistance and Independent Action, neither of which is likely to matter much.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	10,000	x2 Archer Piece Open Archer Piece configuration options
3	30,000	x4 Archer Piece Open Archer Piece configuration options x5 Void's Dust Open Void's Dust configuration options
4	90,000	x2 Archer Monument Open Archer Monument configuration options x4 Octuplet Crystals Open Octuplet Crystals configuration options x2 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options
Max	300,000	x4 Archer Monument Open Archer Monument configuration options x4 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options x3 Dawn Core Open Dawn Core configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	10,000	x2 Gem of Archer Open Gem of Archer configuration options
2 → 3	20,000	x4 Gem of Archer Open Gem of Archer configuration options
3 → 4	60,000	x2 Magic Gem of Archer Open Magic Gem of Archer configuration options
4 → 5	80,000	x4 Magic Gem of Archer Open Magic Gem of Archer configuration options x2 Octuplet Crystals Open Octuplet Crystals configuration options
5 → 6	200,000	x2 Secret Gem of Archer Open Secret Gem of Archer configuration options x4 Octuplet Crystals Open Octuplet Crystals configuration options
6 → 7	250,000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer Open Secret Gem of Archer configuration options x4 Void's Dust Open Void's Dust configuration options
7 → 8	500,000	x7 Void's Dust Open Void's Dust configuration options x6 Mystic Gunpowder Open Mystic Gunpowder configuration options
8 → 9	600,000	x18 Mystic Gunpowder Open Mystic Gunpowder configuration options x8 Arrowhead of Atonement Open Arrowhead of Atonement configuration options
9 → 10	1,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Nobukatsu’s skillset is solidly competitive with, if not slightly better than, that of the other bronze supports. With a mix of offensive and defensive utility, he’s ready to help any Buster Servant work a little better. Recommended skill order is 1>2>3 for general use, or 2>1>3 for supporting Nobus.

The NP section of the review bleeding into team comps and usage tips seems to be a theme of the Guda5 Servants, but it just so happens that in all three cases, the specific things the NPs enable are crucial to understanding the significance of the NPs in and of themselves—which is to say, the team comp proposed above (50% charger/Buster DPS/Nobukatsu/Merlin/Merlin/Anchor) fully leverages the unique traits of Nobukatsu’s NP and probably approaches his optimal team. He’ll obviously be at his best if the DPS in question is a Nobu, but the principle is the same regardless of who he’s supporting: fire his three skills, plug the charger out for the second Merlin, have Nobukatsu NP, and then let your DPS go ham starting on turn 2. You might consider giving the charger and the second Merlin star burst CEs (like Golden Captures the Carp) so your DPS can get off some powerful crits on turn 1 if you happen to draw the right cards, though you might also want to let Merlin NP on the first turn instead.

It’s also worth noting that Nobukatsu has some interesting synergy with Himiko. Himiko facilitates strong Buster crits, and she also boosts Nobukatsu’s overcharge. If you’re running a starting NP CE on your DPS instead of Kaleid, you can run 50% charger/DPS/Nobukatsu/Merlin/Himiko/Anchor, have the charger fill the NP gauges of the DPS and Nobukatsu, plug the charger for Himiko, have Himiko use her battery, and then use a Himiko->Nobukatsu->DPS NP chain for strong turn 1 damage that leaves you ready for a brutal crit turn on 2 and/or 3. Bonus points if the DPS’s NP scales well with overcharge (e.g. Nobunaga) as this pushes the DPS to Overcharge 5 for maximum damage output.

In certain fights, it might be worth letting Nobukatsu use his taunt instead of (or in addition to) his NP. While Nobukatsu’s NP is valuable, a turn of guaranteed survival might be even moreso in some situations, especially since Nobukatsu also provides buffs in the process—he’s not as effective a taunter as, say, George, but the combination of extra survival and extra damage is a valuable one indeed. You can also let Nobukatsu stick around for a few turns if you’re running a Nobunaga, since if nothing else he’s an easy source of extra stars.

Most of the time, you’re going to want to run Nobukatsu with a starting NP CE. Kaleid and The Imaginary Element are the obvious picks here, though Carp and Demonic Bodhisattva can both be good, too, if you have the batteries or if you’re confident Nobukatsu can survive taunting for a turn. Alternatively, you can give Nobukatsu a guts CE to let him NP and taunt on the same turn—the guts lets him live through his NP, and then the enemy wastes its turn finishing him off, giving you the best of both worlds—or you can give him a defensive CE like Volumen to let him safely tank for a turn and then NP sometime after.

Archers aren’t good grail picks and supports are also bad picks. Nobukatsu really doesn’t want to ever use his cards if he can avoid it, too, so the only advantage to grails is that it makes him less likely to die while taunting. That said, the added bulk actually is an advantage in this case. Unlike Chen Gong, who you generally want to die when he taunts, Nobukatsu’s ideal case is usually for him to live through his taunt so he can NP afterward. I wouldn’t recommend grailing Nobukatsu as a whole—the benefit is super super marginal—but if you find yourself wishing he was just a little better at taking hits, the first few grails you throw his way do give him a fair bit of extra health.

Nobukatsu is an excellent addition to the game. He has a clear niche—supporting Nobus—and in that niche he’s absolutely phenomenal, to the point where there’s no reason not to bring him. Even outside of that niche, though, he has a unique role and enables legitimately strong Buster setups that weren’t possible before now. He may not be the SR welfare we were expecting, but in a very real sense he’s something better: a strong, cheap, unique Buster support, with great art to boot. Nobukatsu’s the real star of this event—his time in the sun was long-overdue.

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 1/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: -10/10
Offensive Utility: 10/10
Defensive Utility: 7/10
Farming Usefulness: 3/10
Messing Around: 0/10