Rabbit's Reviews #259: Odysseus (5* Rider)

White Day 2020 introduces the summonable version of Odysseus—a bit late relative to Atlantis, but better late than never, I suppose. As an SSR AoE Arts Rider, Odysseus suffers from a direct comparison with Da Vinci—they do different things, but Odysseus doesn’t have that much to recommend him over the other. His most notable advantage is that he can spook, and the difference in power level is pretty appropriate for the limited-versus-non-limited dichotomy. He’s a strong if unexciting AoE DPS—quite good as generic AoE Servants go, but nothing really special.

Odysseus has a great stat spread, with both high attack and reasonable bulk. He also has absolutely absurd NP gain on his Arts cards, with 2.32% at base on a QQAAB deck—with an Arts-boosting passive and an in-kit Arts buff on top of that. With his first skill active, Odysseus effectively has two King-Hassan-style Arts cards, but with easier crit access and an Arts NP on top of that. He’s not really a looper in the traditional sense, but he builds meter fast regardless. His Quicks aren’t as good, but they aren’t terrible for NP gain in a pinch, especially with his first skill up. His high hit-counts mean he can also generate a fair number of stars actively, especially with a star gen buff in play (from, say, Lanling or CasGil). For passives he has the standard Magic Resistance, along with a more-useful-than-usual Riding passive. He also gets a unique passive that makes him immune to Pig status (from Circe specifically, so it seems it won’t apply if anyone else gets the effect) and boosts his Arts cards by 10%, which is awesome for both sustained damage and NP gain.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Rider Piece Open Rider Piece configuration options
3	300,000	x12 Rider Piece Open Rider Piece configuration options x8 Eternal Gear Open Eternal Gear configuration options
4	1,000,000	x5 Rider Monument Open Rider Monument configuration options x10 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options x4 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options
Max	3,000,000	x12 Rider Monument Open Rider Monument configuration options x8 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options x5 Scarab of Wisdom Open Scarab of Wisdom configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options x5 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x10 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options
6 → 7	6,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x5 Eternal Gear Open Eternal Gear configuration options
7 → 8	10,000,000	x10 Eternal Gear Open Eternal Gear configuration options x4 Dawn Core Open Dawn Core configuration options
8 → 9	12,000,000	x11 Dawn Core Open Dawn Core configuration options x24 Shining Silver Crown Open Shining Silver Crown configuration options
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Odysseus’s skillset is pretty straightforward, but it’s also generally strong. Recommended skill order is 1>3>2.

Odysseus slots well into general Arts teams, though his relative speed and his self-sufficiency make him a uniquely good point Servant for more nonstandard comps—teams involving the likes of Lanling, Sherlock, and CasGil will all appreciate Odysseus as a DPS, as he makes great use of what they bring and doesn’t necessarily need the more traditional buffs of the SSR support Casters in order to work.

Odysseus practically screams “run Painting Summer.” The CE’s starting NP boost combined with Odysseus’s battery puts Odysseus within 20% of a first-turn NP—and any of Lanling, Jinako, Waver, Bride, etc can make up that difference. The Arts and NP gain buffs help Odysseus to do a little more damage and make his Arts cards even more ridiculous, significantly boosting his offensive consistency.

Odysseus is a strong servant and if you like him the grails will help him to hit harder. He’s not really remarkable enough to be a particularly noteworthy grail target, but if you use him a lot he won’t mind the extra stats.

Odysseus really does have a lot going in his favor, with strong (non-interluded) sustained damage, good survivability, a bit of utility, and excellent cards. He’s relatively top-of-the-line as “straightforward” Arts attackers go, with lots of good tools but nothing that really sets him apart (except arguably his cards). He’s a strong pull if you run Arts teams—and a strong spook in general—but probably not a Servant to target for gameplay reasons, especially with Rider Da Vinci as an option.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 5/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 8/10
Fooling Cyclopes: 10/10