Rabbit's Reviews #274: Himiko (5* Ruler)

Guda5 brings with it a brand-new SSR Ruler in Himiko. Himiko’s in something of an odd place in that she’s caught in-between being a DPS and a support without doing either especially well, and she doesn’t have a cohesive enough kit to be a particularly worthwhile semi-support either. That said, she has one particularly unique bit of utility—the ability to boost the party’s overcharge levels with her NP—that gives her surprisingly high value for newer players with less-complete boxes. Himiko’s NP buffs Castoria’s NP such as to nearly guarantee three full turns of party invincibility, which means (where friend supports are allowed) native Himiko grants any player access to a remarkably solid stall-oriented shell, regardless of whatever else the player might happen to have.

Himiko’s stats are fairly middling as Rulers go, leaning slightly toward the bulky side with low-ish attack and high HP. Given the way her kit is structured, it’d be nice for her to have higher attack (like Sherlock), but she’s at least not saddled with Jeanne-low attack, so it could be worse. Her internals are decidedly unremarkable, with mid-low Arts card NP gain and underwhelming Quicks. She does have Territory Creation, which helps her NP gain a little, but ultimately her gens don’t stand out much (which is one of her core problems). She also gets Magic Resistance and a unique passive that makes her immune to poison and curse. The status immunity is super niche, but it might help her handle the occasional gimmick fight.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Archer Piece x5 Rider Piece x5 Caster Piece
3	300,000	x5 Saber Piece x5 Lancer Piece x5 Assassin Piece x5 Berserker Piece
4	1,000,000	x5 Archer Monument x5 Rider Monument x5 Caster Monument
Max	3,000,000	x5 Saber Monument x5 Lancer Monument x5 Assassin Monument x5 Berserker Monument

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Archer x5 Gem of Rider x5 Gem of Caster
2 → 3	400,000	x5 Gem of Saber x5 Gem of Lancer x5 Gem of Assassin x5 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Magic Gem of Rider x5 Magic Gem of Caster
4 → 5	1,600,000	x5 Magic Gem of Saber x5 Magic Gem of Lancer x5 Magic Gem of Assassin x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Secret Gem of Rider x5 Secret Gem of Caster
6 → 7	5,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Secret Gem of Assassin x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10,000,000	x12 Refined Magatama
8 → 9	12,000,000	x15 Tsukumo Mirror
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Himiko is a Ruler, which means she’s super easy to raise unless you’re short on gems. At high skill levels, she needs magatama and mirrors. Magatama in particular are a fairly commonly-requested mat, so they can be a gate, but she also doesn’t need a ton of them, so it’s not as bad as it could be.

Himiko’s skillset is pretty good, but it pulls in the direction of Himiko as a selfish damage-dealer, while her NP pulls in the direction of being a support or semi-support. The skills aren’t bad in a vacuum, but it’d be nice if her kit was a little more consistent as a whole. Recommended skill order is 3>1>2.

Himiko basically has to be stapled to Castoria to be worth bringing, whether as a DPS or as a semi-support. As a Buster-crit DPS, double Merlin might seem like an obvious shell for Himiko, but two Merlins is way overkill in terms of star gen in this case, and even with two Merlins Himiko’s not going to be clearing content particularly quickly. The best offensive Himiko team is probably going to be Merlin/Himiko/Castoria. This loses a little bit of speed relative to double Merlin in exchange for huge consistency. A Himiko->Merlin->Castoria NP chain gives you 20 stars per turn, healing, passive NP charge, a nice attack boost, and three turns of nearly guaranteed protection. This is also one setup that can avoid ever taking damage, provided you play defensively, making it a potential solution for true touch-of-death type fights (rare as they are). You can swap Merlin for any cheaper support if you don’t have him—Hans/Himiko/Castoria or Mash/Himiko/Castoria will be slower than the equivalent Merlin team, but it’ll still be super safe.

If you want to run Himiko as a semi-support, you also almost certainly want to run her alongside Castoria. For the third Servant, pick any Buster Servant who wants to crit and has a nice overcharge effect. Squishy Berserkers (like Hijikata, Nagayoshi, and Berserker Nobu) are particularly nice here, as they can use Himiko’s buffs to good effect and Castoria’s invulns negate their survivability concerns. Semi-support Himiko teams will want to balance Buster crits from Himiko and the DPS with liberal use of Arts cards in order to keep the NPs active.

There are a handful of setups where your DPS hits hard enough and benefits enough from crits that you might want to swap Castoria for Merlin. Himiko/Super Orion/Merlin, for example, has the potential to be an interesting fastburn-oriented Buster Crit team, especially for single-target fights. A Himiko->Merlin->Orion chain is roughly equivalent to stacking Orion’s NP with itself, so between Himiko’s cards, Orion’s cards, and Hero creation, you can output a lot of damage in a short period of time. The team falls apart quickly, though, so this will only work for shorter fights.

Himiko needs early access to her NP to be worthwhile no matter how you’re running her. As a semi-support, Demonic Bodhisattva and His Rightful Place are both strong picks, as they let Himiko immediately NP without outside help (or with just Castoria’s buffs, or with Castoria’s and Merlin’s Charismas). Demonic Bodhisattva boosts Himiko’s crit buff, which can be nice for fastplay-oriented Buster Crit setups, while His Rightful Place brings Himiko up to a total star contribution of 28 stars per turn—about enough for anyone with a star weight buff to crit reliably.

As a DPS, Himiko prefers CEs that give her starting NP gauge and also damage. Golden Sumo is a good pick here given Himiko’s limited internal attack buffs, but any starting NP CE that gives Buster up and/or Crit up will also be useful. Just remember that NP damage up is wasted here. Prisma Cosmos is also potentially valuable, especially if you’re trying to stall, as it can help to offset Himiko’s weak NP gain and let you keep her overcharge buff going.

Rulers are good grail targets, but Himiko’s a tough sell as-is. In cases where you want to bring her—i.e. “I’m a new player without strong native supports and I want to clear CQs” or “The enemy one-shots me with any card”—the extra stats won’t actually make much of a difference. She’s not a good enough DPS to really want the extra attack, and her HP is plenty high as-is. I’d recommend skipping this one until/unless she gets a meaningful buff that makes her better at contributing damage reliably.

In case it’s not clear yet, Himiko’s pretty bizarre. She’s a mediocre Buster crit DPS, but in specific team comps she suddenly becomes an integral part of what is arguably the best stall team in the game. She has low supportive value on her face and two of her three skills are selfish, but alongside Castoria and certain Servants she facilitates a surprisingly effective fastplay game. The elephant in the room is that Buster teams are by far the weakest in the current meta—why do you need an awkward sorta-stally Semi-support-ish thing when you could just nuke everything with your preferred Arts DPS of choice?—but overall I think Himiko is still an interesting and healthy addition to the game. There’s a huge difference in power between a cleverly-built Himiko team and a bad Himiko team, but good Himiko teams are pretty unique in terms of the types of things they can do. Himiko isn’t good in the sense that you’d want to bring her over the top-tier supports (or Jinako) if you have them, but she does have the potential to provide an unusual and surprisingly solid answer to many story fights and CQs. She deserves a buff at some point to clarify her role in one direction or the other, but overall I’d call this one a win.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 7/10
Defensive Utility: 1/10 (9/10 with Castoria, 10/10 with Castoria and Merlin)
Farming Usefulness: 1/10
Punch Prediction: 10/10