Rabbit's Reviews #305: Caenis (4* Rider)

Introduction

The last of the Summer Servants this year is Caenis, who’s… fine. Caenis is a pretty straightforward Buster crit Servant—good NP steroids, reasonable card damage, no real recursion. To Caenis’s credit, there’s not another ST Buster Rider at the SR level, much less one that does what she does, and her kit is generally better than one of the SSR options in Quetz. Even so, though, there’s not much call these days for an ST Buster Crit unit without battery or any particularly remarkable Burst. The lack of battery limits her 90+ value, and non-Buster ST Riders are going to be a lot better for CQs. Caenis also suffers from needing Waterside Field to reach her full potential. That said, she has a pretty complete and self-sufficient kit, so she’s very much usable. She’s just stuck with a dated type of kit, and nothing she does really sets her apart in ways that would make her appealing despite her flaws.

Servant Data

Rider

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

4

3

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Neutral Summer

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 10,854

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,506

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,584	Base HP	1,736
Max Atk	9,506	Max HP	10,854
Grail Atk	11,510	Grail HP	13,160

Riding EX

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 12%.

Core of the Sea God B

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +225).
Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 8%.

Card Hits	3	3	3	4	3
Per Hit	0.66%	0.66%	0.66%	0.66%	0.66%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.66%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	204
	Star Generation per Hit	9.1%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Rider Piece
3	150,000	x10 Rider Piece x6 Shell of Reminiscence
4	500,000	x4 Rider Monument x24 Fool's Chain x3 Warhorse's Young Horn
Max	1,500,000	x10 Rider Monument x5 Warhorse's Young Horn x4 Heart of the Foreign God

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Rider
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Rider x12 Fool's Chain
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Rider x24 Fool's Chain
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Rider x4 Shell of Reminiscence
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Shell of Reminiscence x5 Meteor Horseshoe
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Meteor Horseshoe x20 Divine Pulse Spirit Orb
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Rider
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Rider x3 Claw of Chaos
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Rider x5 Claw of Chaos
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Rider x3 Black Beast Grease
7 → 8	5000000	x5 Black Beast Grease x5 Shining Silver Crown
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Shining Silver Crown x20 Eternal Ice
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Caenis’s skillset is pretty universally focused on boosting her damage. Recommended skill order is 2>1>3.

Dmg Up

Beach Crisis (Poseidon) EX

Increase ATK for all allies (3 turns).
Increase Critical Strength for all [Male] and [Gender Unknown] allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Attack +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Crit Dmg +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Beach Crisis is a fairly straightforward Charisma variant. The skill boosts the whole team’s attack and also provides a slight crit buff to male and genderless allies. This crit bonus also targets Caenis herself—she’s coded as genderless for lore reasons—and in most practical cases, this is functionally just a selfish boost to Caenis’s damage output. 20% attack and 30% crit is not a ton—both the attack buff and the crit buff are lower than standard buffs of their type, in exchange for being AoE—but more damage is more damage, and Caenis gets good use out of it, at least.

Arts/Buster Up

Sea King Style B

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Stars +	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	15
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Neptune-Style is a split Arts/Buster 30% buff. As with several other Servants this summer, this 30% buff is on a 6-turn cooldown at max level instead of the usual 5. This is a pretty plain skill, too, as the only additional effect is a small star burst. Overall, the skill is nice in that it boosts Caenis’s NP and card damage while also functionally boosting her NP gain, and it’s her most important skill in practice since it’s a general performance buff, but it would be nice if the cooldown were shorter.

Guts

Summertime Combat B+

Apply Guts to self (1 time, 3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars each turn (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate when field is [near water] (3 turns).
Gain additional Critical Stars each turn when field is [near water] (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Revives with HP	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000	2200	2400	2600	3000
Stars per turn +	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
Star Gather +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
Add. Stars per turn +	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Summertime Combat is a fairly bland skill at base. It’s a standard guts with a passive star gen effect. The guts can be good for survival, and the passive star gen helps Caenis’s crits, but all in all this is an unexciting skill. On waterside fields, however, the star gen doubles and Caenis gains a hefty star weight boost, giving her trivial crit access during the skill’s uptime. This is a lot better than the base use case, but being contingent on a field type is never fun.

Noble Phantasm

Sea Serpent, Storm Blue B+

Increase own NP Strength by 20% (3 turns). [Activates first]
Increase own ATK by 20% when field is [near water] (1 turn). [Activates first]
Deal damage to a single enemy.

<Overcharge>

Increase your Critical Strength (3 turns).

Show Info/Video

Sea Serpent, Storm Blue

Ride On, My Great Blue Fang

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B+	Anti-Unit	3

Effect	Increase own NP Strength by 20% (3 turns). [Activates first] Increase own ATK by 20% when field is [near water] (1 turn). [Activates first] Deal damage to a single enemy.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
NP Damage +	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%
Atk +	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%
Damage +	600%	800%	900%	950%	1000%

Overcharge Effect	Increase your Critical Strength (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Crit Damage +	50%	62.5%	75%	87.5%	100%

Sea Serpent Blue Storm is very nice as ST Buster NPs go. It starts with a 3-turn NP damage buff, which is great by virtue of being an extra guaranteed steroid, and it lets Caenis’s damage snowball if you’re able to get her looping somehow. The NP gains a further 20% attack buff for a turn on waterside fields, which makes Caenis’s level of NP damage really impressive for her rarity, though again, being contingent on a field type is gross. After damage, the NP buffs Caenis’s crit damage for 3 turns, fueling crits on subsequent turns. As a result of the sustained crit buff, if Caenis is able to spam her NP she can do solid crit damage for a limited time.

Usage Tips

Caenis is an odd Servant in that she wants both NP spam and crit access, and the two goals feed into one another. If Caenis prioritizes crits without spamming her NP, her crit damage will end up not being all that impressive, and conversely she doesn’t really have the tools to reliably spam her NP without help, so she’s typically dependent on crits to fill in the damage gaps on NP-less turns. Without innate batteries or NP refund to rely on, this is a hard balance to strike.

Given that Caenis gets stronger with each NP, Koyanskaya is actually likely to be a stronger partner than Merlin. Koyanskaya guarantees Caenis at least one NP and can facilitate more via NP gain on Busters. Koyanskaya also pushes Caenis’s Buster damage and can provide an influx of stars, and (perhaps most importantly) she reduces Caenis’s cooldowns. Double Koyanskaya lets Caenis stack her skill buffs, further increasing her NP and card damage.

An example of a strong burst-oriented Caenis team would be Koyanskaya/Caenis/Koyanskaya/Oberon. You want Caenis to have Kaleid and Mana Loading, and on the first turn you use Caenis’s skills, as well as Koyanskaya’s non-battery skills. Caenis uses her NP and crits with whatever cards she has. Turn 2, both Koyanskayas use their batteries, Caenis uses her first skill again, and she NPs and crits. Any brave chain should get Caenis enough NP gauge for Oberon to switch in and use his batteries. Oberon can also use End of the Dream here to supercharge Caenis’s damage on the final turn. On turn 3, Caenis has 210% Buster up, 180% NP damage up, 210% crit up plus an additional 100% for Busters, and 100% power mod versus Man enemies. If Caenis can’t kill an enemy with all these buffs, something is very wrong.

Caenis also can work in more traditional stally Buster teams. Caenis’s crit focus means Himiko/Caenis/Castoria will be a solid team, albeit one that doesn’t fully leverage Caenis’s stacking buffs. Merlin is also an option, although Merlin teams will likely lean more into burst damage from Hero Creation rather than stacking Caenis’s own buffs. Jinako will work well as a partner, too, as Jinako provides stars and attack buffs while keeping the party safe.

At the lower end, any supports who can keep Caenis safe, fuel her NP gauge, and feed her stars will be appreciated. Hans, Mash, and Shakespeare are the obvious candidates for this. Barti is also a great partner for Caenis, especially if you’re fighting Casters anyway, as Barti can provide stars and crit damage buffs, and he drops his own star weight to zero to make it easier for Caenis to crit. Barti also has the ability to temporarily amp Caenis’s NP damage via Voyager of the Storm.

While The Black Grail is usually the first recommended CE for a damage-dealer, Caenis’s weak recursion and emphasis on crits mean it’s actually not a great fit for what she brings. Starting NP gauge CEs are generally going to be Caenis’s best friend, since they’ll help her use her NP right away to get her buffs rolling. Since Caenis has no battery, Kaleid is the most natural pick, although 50% charge CEs like Golden Sumo and Aerial Drive can also be nice.

Caenis will function more effectively the higher her crit damage output, so Command Codes that increase crit damage are a natural choice here. You can also consider giving her star gen CCs if you’re not generating enough stars to crit reliably on non-Waterside fields.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Caenis is just okay. She’s an ST Buster Servant with no battery and with some of her value locked to waterside fields, which is immediately unappealing. That said, she has good steroids and high potential damage, so she can be workable if you like her. It takes a lot of work to get her to the point of dealing significant damage—80% crit up on an SR Rider just doesn’t cut it, so you really need to be using her NP repeatedly for her damage to be meaningful—but if you can commit to letting her ramp, she can be solid. Caenis ends up being probably the weakest Servant of this summer bunch, but (unlike in past years) her position as weakest Summer Servant still leaves her as a solid-if-underwhelming addition to the game. She’s usable if you like her and will probably do some silly things with investment, but she’s otherwise forgettable.

Since Caenis is the last of the Summer 6 reviews, a brief observation: this summer has been unusual in that the new Servants were all very tightly balanced. We got two SSRs who are both excellent-but-not-groundbreaking farmers, and all of our SRs have cool and reasonably strong kits that fill niches of varying importance without really shaking up the game balance. It’s especially notable after all the wild new Servants we got over the course of LB6. This summer has felt like a cooldown period in some respects. Every Servant in the bunch can be strong and fun to use if you like them, and is easy to skip otherwise. If that was DW’s goal, I’d say they absolutely succeeded, and we’re left with seven healthy additions to the game.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

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