Rabbit’s Reviews #375: Theseus (3* Saber)

Theseus is our first silver Saber since Bedivere, and only the fifth silver Saber in the game. He’s pretty much exactly where you’d want a silver unit to be: he’s solid but not amazing most of the time, with a particular situation in which he’s truly excellent. He may not be the most exciting Servant, but he’s cool, free, and potentially useful—hard to complain about that.

Theseus has a defense-leaning stat spread, with low-mid attack and high-ish health for a silver Saber, which isn’t an ideal start for a damage-dealer. His NP gain is fairly average, with unremarkable cards across-the-board. As an Arts Servant, he’s not great at active star gen, though he has other ways of gaining stars. His only passives are Magic Resistance and Riding, neither of which do much for him. All three appends benefit Theseus—Mana Loading for the usual reasons of making it easier to get going and loop, the Extra Attack buff for helping Theseus deal a bit more damage and loop more easily, and anti-Berserker damage, which is good on pretty much anyone and specifically boosts Theseus’s damage against his two best-case targets.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	30,000	x4 Saber Piece Open Saber Piece configuration options
3	100,000	x8 Saber Piece Open Saber Piece configuration options x15 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
4	300,000	x4 Saber Monument Open Saber Monument configuration options x7 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options x4 Ball of Rainbow Thread Open Ball of Rainbow Thread configuration options
Max	900,000	x8 Saber Monument Open Saber Monument configuration options x7 Ball of Rainbow Thread Open Ball of Rainbow Thread configuration options x8 Crown of Silvery Light Open Crown of Silvery Light configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	50,000	x4 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
2 → 3	100,000	x8 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
3 → 4	300,000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
4 → 5	400,000	x8 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options
5 → 6	1,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x7 Meteor Horseshoe Open Meteor Horseshoe configuration options
6 → 7	1,250,000	x8 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x10 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
7 → 8	2,500,000	x20 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options x4 Ball of Rainbow Thread Open Ball of Rainbow Thread configuration options
8 → 9	3,000,000	x12 Ball of Rainbow Thread Open Ball of Rainbow Thread configuration options x48 Twilight Ritual Sword Open Twilight Ritual Sword configuration options
9 → 10	5,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Append Skill Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	50000	x4 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
2 → 3	100000	x8 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
3 → 4	300000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
4 → 5	400000	x8 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options x3 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options
5 → 6	1000000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x6 Phoenix Feather Open Phoenix Feather configuration options
6 → 7	1250000	x8 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Giant's Ring Open Giant's Ring configuration options
7 → 8	2500000	x7 Giant's Ring Open Giant's Ring configuration options x4 Crown of Silvery Light Open Crown of Silvery Light configuration options
8 → 9	3000000	x12 Crown of Silvery Light Open Crown of Silvery Light configuration options x10 Fruit of Eternity Open Fruit of Eternity configuration options
9 → 10	5000000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Theseus’s mat asks are mostly pretty friendly, with the exception of the fact that he needs 48 swords per skill. The swords in particular make it difficult to max him out, especially for new players, but you can get Theseus into a decently usable state without too much trouble, at least.

Theseus’s skillset is fairly simple, but it’s entirely coherent and works together well for his role as an Arts crit Servant. Recommended skill order is 1>3>2.

Theseus strongly benefits from double Castoria teams. Castoria buffs make it easier for Theseus to loop, and looping lets Theseus continue to generate stars and scale his crit damage. For a third support, you have options. Oberon makes for the easiest looping, though Tamamo is better for consistent damage and Lady Avalon can be good for leaning into crit functionality.

Alternatively, supports with lots of defense buffs or attack debuffs can be good picks. Reines is a particularly good option, as her NP also provides NP gain up, which helps Theseus loop more easily. Mash and Waver give defense buffs along with other useful things, and even Servants like Hans can work for this purpose. You can also use crit-focused supports, like Lanling and Sherlock, to prioritize card damage if you can’t reliably loop Theseus’s NP. And, of course, Xu Fu and Mozart are great for pretty much any Arts unit.

Theseus benefits from moving quickly, so the Black Grail is usually going to be his best CE. That said, looping also benefits him strongly, so if you can’t loop with BG, you can try running a starting charge CE instead. Kaleid provides the most charge possible, of course, but Painting Summer may be an even better choice, as it provides a fair bit of starting charge and also gives Arts and NP gain buffs.

Theseus has some good in-kit crit buffs, but they don’t start to really ramp up until later turns, so crit damage CCs can help prop up his crit damage on earlier turns. Alternatively, star gen CCs let Theseus crit a bit more reliably with the help of extra stars from his supports.

Theseus is a pretty good Saber, and if you plan to use him actively, grails are a good way of increasing his damage output relatively cheaply. Taking him to level 90 isn’t too difficult and makes him roughly comparable with an SR unit stats-wise, which helps him quite a bit. That said, if you’re only going to use Theseus in niche contexts, he’ll do just fine at 70.

Theseus is not a particularly unique or interesting unit—he does the standard ST Saber things, with some nice Arts crit tools. And he’s free! Saber Hokusai is usually going to be better if you have her (though she’s permanently available now), and there are other strong non-free Servants, like Saito Hajime, as well… but Theseus will do fine if you prefer him or if he’s your only option, and his niche damage gives him a context in which he’s useful regardless. Can’t argue with that.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 8/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 2/10
Offensive Utility: 2/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 4/10
Secretly Being Oberon: 0/10