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MMM - Plus-sized Patriot Pursues Paleontologist Piloting Pirate Patroller, Plundering Prizes Passingly (2022 Manga De Wakaru Collab)

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Article by GamepressRath
MMM MangaDeWakaru Collab
Table of Contents

The Modern Magus Magazine

Ignoring the fact I misunderstood the announcements which occurred around the previous game update, welcome to the ACTUAL collab event! Boy, that was shameful…

This time, we can all experience a 100% accurate recreation of Mississippi in modern times, including the treasure hunts, giant woodswomen, and eccentric paleontologists with an army of beasts that would make you think their Stand is Scary Monsters.

But hey, it’s not much weirder than Florida.

Learning w Manga Collab
NA Release Date: 04/2024

Super Bunyan

Introduction

Where can I contact Lasengle and serve my lawsuit for making Bunyan attractive? You can’t just take a pseudo-joke Servant in overalls then give them the finest university-age lumberjack look ever conceived. Ah well, at least the bizarreness returns in her 3rd Ascension.

Servant Data
Alter Ego
Magic Resistance C

Increase your Debuff Resist by 15%.

Item Construction C

Increase debuff chance by 6%.

Likes! Power EX

Gain a [Like!] stack (3 turns) when attacking.
Gain a [Like!] stack (3 turns) when taking damage.

Overview

It feels like the Alter Ego lineup has padded out a lot lately, what with Bazette, Taisui Xingjun, and now Bunyan being added. But putting that aside, Super Bunyan doesn’t exactly measure up well on her base stats. With the worst Attack stat of the 5* Alter Ego lineup (though still about average for 5*’s), Super Bunyan only gets compensated with the 3rd best HP, and even then there’s a sizeable gap between her and the 1st and 2nd places of Kiara and Sitonai.

But as always, that sort of thing can be compensated for with strong passives. In Bunyan’s case…well, she has something. Her C-rank Magic Resistance and Item Creation aid her resilience against debuffs and her own ability to dish them out, while Likes! Power EX is more or less part of her gimmick that centers on her NP. It doesn’t provide any tangible benefit besides enabling the gimmick to work.

One thing I should point out from the Append Skills is that Bunyan gets anti-Berserker bonus damage from one of her Append Skills, easily the best Class to get for it. That essentially translates to a 20-30% damage boost against one of the classes she is viable to use against. While not a game changer, it’s a pretty notable benefit.

So Bunyan isn’t working off anything particularly impressive to start with, but that’s hardly a death sentence.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how is Super Bunyan on the whole? On one hand, she’s got big things lined up for her:

Super Bunyan comes packing a good deal of team utility, in the form of her team Buster support, NP Overcharge buff, and NP Seal/Critical Rate Down. While none of these are overwhelming draws, in combination they can make a team a little more consistent, whether offensively or defensively. The overcharge buff in particular is very nice for setting up chunky Castoria Invulnerability, as I’ve found for myself using the Arts support in concert with Morgan or Reines, it’s a very neat combo.

While it takes a while to set up, Bunyan does have a high damage potential. The effective damage bonus from Like!s can create some potent damage scaling, so long as Bunyan has the support from Servants like Merlin or Koyanskaya to keep feeding her NP gauge. Paired with her fairly widespread Alter Ago class advantage, and high damage output versus Berserkers due to her Append Skill, Bunyan has a lot going for her when you can reach her offensive peak.

However, the bigger they are, the harder they fall:

Super Bunyan’s poor damage on the initial turns of a battle is really hard to work with. While some Servants with poor NP damage such as Dioscuri can compensate with unique offensive perks or powerful critical damage, the most Bunyan can claim in that regard is easy BBB Gorilla chains, which lost their charm sometime around mid-2016. That was over 6 years ago. Yeesh, this game is old. Anyways, the point is there are plenty of Servants around who can boast Bunyan’s peak damage output on the first turn, or even higher with the right effective damage, and at the same time, there are even Servants in the Alter Ego class like Meltryllis who can manage a similar gimmick more effectively, since ramping damage simply synergizes better with Arts/Quick Servants than Buster ones.

As is the typical bane of Alter Egos, Bunyan’s damage output has to compete with the handicap of a 1.5x class advantage versus the plethora of Riders/Casters/Assassins out there, while Foreigners are a rare sight, and Berserkers are weak to everyone. Admittedly, Bunyan’s Append Skill boost means she is certainly much better at tackling Berserkers than she would be otherwise, but the fact remains she isn’t truly competing with the 2x class advantage options which step on her shoes.

Upon reflection, it’s funny how there are now two Alter Egos with a specialty in growing big, and it’s sad that the only thing keeping me from saying Kingprotea completely outclasses Bunyan offensively in most cases is that one is ST, the other AOE.

But putting that aside, Bunyan’s issues mostly lie with simply not having enough offensive output to justify using her, even when she has her Like! Stacks set up. Musashi and Jalter can hit Alter Ego class advantage targets for equal or more damage than Bunyan can even when she’s near full power, and they also have the benefit of hard defensive tools and critical damage backing them. And that’s putting aside the various Arts/Quick Servants who pull off the ramping damage exceedingly better than Bunyan ever can.

That’s not to say Bunyan won’t perform well with Buster supports backing her. Her potential damage output against Berserkers is actually some of the best in the game, it’s just since every Servant bar Mashu can also hit Berserkers incredibly hard, it’s not exactly a high-demand role. While she’s a fine option for a ST Alter Ego if you lack one, Super Bunyan won’t provide much new to a Servant roster if you already have one in the back pocket. It’s kind of like getting Bazette but without any of the fun gimmicks or CQ-specific utility out of her.

She’s still very cute, though. And you can’t argue with a crazed film director and secret agent being part of the deal.

Daikokuten

Introduction

It’s always wonderful when Fate manages to turn a typical fat, Buddha-like deity into a conglomerate of ratgirl maids without even blinking. To be fair, there’s a reasonable mythological precedent for it, but I wonder when the fat Buddha deity will actually be a fat Buddha deity for once.

Servant Data
Caster
Territory Creation E

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 2%.

Item Construction D

Increase your Debuff Chance Rate by 4%.

Divinity E-

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +95).

Overview

Being a Caster, Daikokuten is already working with a lower base statline than most Servants, but within their class they don’t have it too bad - With the tied 5th best Attack stat for SR Casters, and the tied 6th worst HP stat, you can probably tell they’re largely middle-of-the-road. Possessing the same statline as Helena and Nursery Rhyme, there’s not anything particularly unique to their stats, but they’re certainly better off than some Casters.

The same can’t really be said for Passives, though. Daikokuten possess particularly poor Territory Creation and Item Creation, meaning their boosts to Arts cards and Debuff rate is minimal, and their only personal passive is E- rank Divinity, which arguably gives more weaknesses than it does benefits.

So from the get-go, these rats are looking pretty mediocre.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how is Daikokuten on the whole? On the one hand, they’re clean, orderly, and ready for business:

Daikokuten make for an incredibly consistent Quick farmer, especially in a class where Quick farming options pretty much don’t exist. In fact, hilariously enough, the 3 Quick NP Casters in the game were the last 3 Casters released. I wonder if they’re pushing a memo in Lasengle on the matter. Anyways, Daikokuten have very reliable setups, albeit with some possible issues in damage output. I have checked, and Daikokuten can run Black Grail in 2 Skadi + Reines Battlesuit compositions, so they can compensate for a lack of damage if need be, but with a more costly setup. Among 4* Servants, though, they are one of the best farmers.

Even outside of the farming stage, Daikokuten make for a great offensive option. With their continuous team healing, stargen, NP gain buffs and Critical Damage buffs off their NP, they have plenty to offer to a team in more drawn out fights. Quick teams in particular can suffer from a lack of healing options causing them to burn out in longer CQ’s, which Daikokuten can counteract nicely.

Though not exactly the best option for it, Daikokuten can act as a possible support option for farming setups. 30% NP gauge over 3 turns may be all a more budget setup needs to farm consistently, and 30% NP Gain Up is appreciated by any refund-focused farming setup. With the number of budget support options growing day by day it may seem insignificant, but there’s always someone out there with only a Paracelsus to their name who needs just a little something more to get Habetrot looping.

However, they’re also just a filthy swarm of rats, clamoring about the kitchen:

While Daikokuten’s damage output can be compensated for, that doesn’t erase the issue, just make it a manageable one. Short of fighting all-Earth attribute waves, these mice will have sturdy competition from universal farmers even when tackling their class advantage, and not everyone has a Black Grail, or the fairly hefty support lineup to make it work in regular farming.

All things in consideration…these mice ain’t half bad. Quick farmers have seemed, at least more recently, slightly under-compensated by Lasengle and end up having very strict farming setups with barely-manageable refund for little payoff compared to Arts or Buster setups. Daikokuten’s generous refund numbers and plethora of team support is definitely a move in the right direction, even if they suffer from the curse of the Caster attack stat. But hey, Scheherazade was once the same and now she’s one of the better Arts Caster farmers out there, so who’s to say Daikokuten won’t get some generous strengthenings in the future?

Even with those drawbacks, they make for a very competent Quick farming option with plenty of useful tools to bring into CQ’s. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Mary Anning

Introduction

Intro text here

Servant Data
Lancer
Magic Resistance E

Increase your Debuff Resist by 10%.

Overview

And last, but not least for this MMM, is a new 1* Servant addition (for a limited time) in the FP gacha. Since it’s not a question of spent resources, but how much you’re willing to hit the FP gacha button to get her, I’m going to briefly surmise what Mary Anning can provide to a team, rather than analyze her kit in-depth.

NP Gen, Skills & NP
Analysis
Conclusion

Mary Anning simply makes for a useful low-cost Arts support to keep in your pocket, as well as a reasonable Lancer for farming, should you not have access to the typical options like Percival or Fionn. While she won’t be a mainstay in efficient farming teams, she’s a niche pick that will probably pay off to have raised for when you need extra deployment points. So keep your local Paleontologist and her cute lil doggo in mind, would you? Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Outro

With the ahem collab out of the way for this year, we’ll need our eyes trained on what lies beyond the horizon. That, of course, is the Summer event! Right after we get the Summer rerun…and a random new event…and probably LB6.5…okay, so maybe it’s aways off. But it never hurts to save early, I say. Swimsuit Shuten will come this time, I swear!

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