SE.RA.PH - Farming & Servant Recommendations

"Something like a well-mannered fight is boring isn't it?

 I'd like to see more of everyone's suffering faces!"

           -   Naughty Sadistic Unremorseful Kouhai   -

BB Strikes Back: Let’s Meet in the Digital Sea is rightfully amongst the most well-crafted events in the game in terms of story. However, in terms of mechanics and optimizing one’s approach, it can be quite disorienting due to the large amount of free quests and multiple factors to keep track of. Without a good grasp on the event’s overall mechanics, it might take quite a bit more time and AP to get all the missions done in time. The missions are really what it is all about, and the currency shop is relatively simple to clear out once Masters are done. 

Of the two new classes introduced during this event, the Alter Ego class is quite useful for farming during the event as it covers most of the common enemies’ classes. In fact, of the 5 different special enemies commonly encountered in this event, 4 of them are part of the cavalry class! Furthermore, some quests with mixed class enemies also create good opportunities for Alter Ego Servants to shine. Conveniently, the Alter Egos are also the Servants that grant a double bonus to event drops, so there is no big downside to bringing them to most quests.

Since this event is all about Fate/Extra, Servants who are featured in that line of the franchise grant bonus drops to the highly valuable Sakura Chips. These Servants are great to bring in the backline even for Quests that they do not excel in, provided Masters’ frontlines are good enough to clear the Quest efficiently. 

This event also utilizes both bonus drops and CEs that boost the spawn chance of enemies in the vein of events like Halloween 2018 and Kara No Kyoukai. These spawn bonus CEs are incredibly important as they not only boost the rate at which the event missions can be cleared, but they also provide more drops with which to use the bonus Sakura Chips for. In addition, they also increase the drop rates of the materials each spawn is associated with. 

In any case, Masters can achieve a maximum of 100% bonus Spawn rate for each CE type (equivalent to double the enemies of the boosted types). What is fascinating is that the 3* CE, aptly named "the Cage", functions completely on its own and overlaps for any Type I enemy that the 4* and 5* gacha CEs also affect. Thus, it is possible in this event to get 2 extra enemies from a single Type I Shapeshifter or Eater. This makes the 3* CE quite valuable in its own right. 

Each CE gives a 20% bonus spawn rate, while a MLB (max Limit-broken, which requires 5 copies) CE grants a 50% bonus spawn rate. In an ideal world,  Masters would want to borrow an MLB Craft Essence that boosts a specific enemy’s spawn rate that they want to kill (either for missions or maximizing drops), but the event can be comfortably cleared even without being as strict in stacking that bonus spawn rate. There are some nodes for which the walkthrough highly recommends stacking a good spawn rate: this is because there is a mission coming up that will require clearing a certain amount of enemies. Without the extra spawn bonus, Masters might have to spend extra AP to clear the required missions. 

Thus, any Masters with a lot of the event CEs are encouraged to limit-break them. It will greatly help anyone on their friend list!

Lastly, the event Shop contains First Premonition which Masters can purchase very quickly with the Sakura Chips they gather in the first few days in the event. This CE is generally weaker in terms of efficiency than any spawn bonus CE, but it is a great filler for empty CE slots and can be used to great effect to farm Sakura Chips at the end of the event. Generally, do not MLB this CE. 

For a breakdown of the Event CEs (and where to place them on the support list) see below. Consider the 4* and 5* gacha CEs most important, with One Summer often being readily available from non-gacha Masters. Masters can MLB One Summer when they have 5 copies as borrowed MLB copies will be available once most Masters elect to do so as well. 

Due to spawn bonus CEs, 3-turning high-level free quests is impossible to achieve as there are effectively 4 or more waves per battle. Luckily, most of the quests are fairly easy (and remarkably consistent in difficulty) and can be brute forced through it with Servants that have strong normal damage or class advantage. Generally, most Masters will enter quests with maximum currency bonuses, making some quests take quite a long time depending on how diligent Masters have been at improving their Extra-related Servants.

A final addition to the event is BB’s Roulette. A slot machine is activated at the start of every Free Quest and depending on the random result, Masters are buffed or debuffed with a variety of effects. Generally negative of course, BB is a fickle kouhai. The debuffs generally reduce performance by 20%, while the beneficial buffs boost performance by 30-50%. 

Note that the effect of BB's Roulette for the Main Quests are fixed - we've mentioned each effect on the Main Quest and Wanted Quests for each specific quest individually. 

The influence of spawn bonus can be very confusing, and it can be difficult to discern what the actual drop rates are from enemies. Luckily, some smart people at FGOGuru in the Japanese community collected all the data they had from each quest, and divided those drops over all the enemy spawns they noted. 

We've taken that data, verified it with some tests of our own using our own CCC rerun data and videos from other Masters, and increased the sample size of the enemies they had little data for. What resulted is the table below: it shows exactly what the drop rates from each enemy are and we've used those drop rates to figure out the average drop rates for each quest (in addition to any observed non-spawning drops). Masters who are hunting a particular material can maximize that bonus and get a decent farm going. 

Note that this event in general is really rather good for spending AP after clearing the shop! Between all the Bonus Servants, CEs and spawn bonus, Masters can grind a lot of QP by converting currency while also getting ascension materials. Weakness Ear (which features Lu Bu) is the standout example, as all Masters can efficiently farm this given One Summer is rewarded from mission completion. Indeed, Masters with a +11/12 bonus to Sakura Chips and 100% Sakura Spawn Bonus can gain as much QP as 1 to 1.1 million per run - and that's not counting all the Feather and Crystal drops. Yorokobe!

Below are some general recommendations for which Servants to use during the BB Strikes Back! Event.

Supports are the backbone of any team and greatly determine the playstyle of any team. In general, having at least two relevant Supports per team is a good rule of thumb to clear quests efficiently and safely. For this event, supports that provide lasting buffs are generally favored, as each farming quest will take more than just three turns.

Wave Clearers are not mandatory, but they significantly speed up the process of farming as most farming quests will feature multiple enemies per wave. Competent Wave Clearers should be able to wipe out an enemy wave, or/and significantly weaken the bosses while taking out the accompanying mobs at the same time. As 3 turning quests is not feasible with Spawn Drop Rate Craft Essences, wave clearers that do not offer a lot of damage after using their Noble Phantasm are a lot less favored than those who can use their Noble Phantasms several times per battle or have high normal attack damage. In addition, many of the nodes in this event are mixed in enemy classes, making Berserkers and Alter Egos particularly great.

Due to the larger amount of mobs per battle, having Servants with just strong raw damage output across multiple turns is a good way to speed up clear time. Face carding is really not that bad this event if Masters wish to maximize their Sakura Chip income. Servants that can charge their single target damage Noble Phantasm are also good candidates for quests that involve a high HP mob such as a Bicorn or Spriggan.