Rabbit’s Reviews #384: Miyamoto Iori (4* Saber)

The Samurai Remnant collab is the first real collab event with something that isn’t just another form of FGO content in ages. The game’s main character, Miyamoto Iori, is naturally the welfare Servant. He’s really good, too—in fact, his kit would be reasonable on a non-welfare Servant, so being automatically NP5 makes him very strong. He has Koyan-compatible skills, good steroids, crit access, and ramp. He even gets a bit of utility, too! Unless you’ve invested heavily in someone like Musashi, there’s a good chance Iori is the best ST Buster Saber you have available, making him well-worth leveling.

Iori has an offense-leaning stat spread, with high attack and low HP relative to SR Sabers as a whole. His Arts card NP gain is about average relative to his deck, though his Quick card is really bad, meaning he’ll be relying on batteries for NP gain. He’s not really optimized for active star gen, though his hit counts are high enough that he can make a few stars with an outside star gen buff in play. For passives, all he has is Magic Resistance for occasionally avoiding debuffs and Riding to slightly boost his pitiful Quick.

Appends-wise, Mana Loading is borderline necessary on a Buster unit with 30% in-kit charge, which is what Iori has. Beyond that, the Extra attack buff is nice for slightly increasing the damage on Brave Chains, while anti-Saber damage isn’t likely to be all that useful, since Iori is best used against Lancers. That said, as a welfare, you can easily unlock all three appends, and even if you don’t bother leveling the non-Mana-Loading ones, even at level 1 they provide some small benefit.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x1 Mizuhiki Netsuke Open Mizuhiki Netsuke configuration options
3	150,000	x1 Mizuhiki Netsuke Open Mizuhiki Netsuke configuration options
4	500,000	x1 Mizuhiki Netsuke Open Mizuhiki Netsuke configuration options
Max	1,500,000	x1 Mizuhiki Netsuke Open Mizuhiki Netsuke configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Octuplet Crystals Open Octuplet Crystals configuration options
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x8 Octuplet Crystals Open Octuplet Crystals configuration options
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x12 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
7 → 8	5,000,000	x24 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options x2 Mysterious Divine Wine Open Mysterious Divine Wine configuration options
8 → 9	6,000,000	x6 Mysterious Divine Wine Open Mysterious Divine Wine configuration options x8 Flaming Oni Lantern Plant Open Flaming Oni Lantern Plant configuration options
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Append Skill Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Saber Open Gem of Saber configuration options
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Saber Open Magic Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x8 Refined Magatama Open Refined Magatama configuration options
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Saber Open Secret Gem of Saber configuration options x4 Soundless Bell Open Soundless Bell configuration options
7 → 8	5000000	x8 Soundless Bell Open Soundless Bell configuration options x5 Divine Leyline Spiritron Open Divine Leyline Spiritron configuration options
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Divine Leyline Spiritron Open Divine Leyline Spiritron configuration options x60 Ashes of Forgetfulness Open Ashes of Forgetfulness configuration options
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Most of Iori’s mat asks are really friendly, and unless you’re out of proofs, leveling his skills should be easy. Appends are harder, as he needs 60 Ashes of Forgetfulness per append. It’s worth spending them on Mana Loading, though probably not for the other two.

Iori’s skillset is quite strong, especially for a welfare. Recommended skill order is 2>3>1.

Iori’s best team is Koyan/Koyan/Oberon. If you don’t want to count on cards, you can give Iori a 50% charge CE (like Cranking or Aerial Drive) and guarantee he tri-loops, or you can give him Black Grail for more damage and accept that you need some good card draws to make up the difference in charge.

Aside from ideal setups, any typical Buster team will work fine with Iori. Himiko/Castoria is a super reliable shell for any Buster DPS, though Iori doesn’t really offer that team anything more than any other Buster damage-dealer would. Merlin teams are also an option, if not as optimal, and budget supports like Hans and Shakespeare also pair nicely with what Iori has. Ultimately, Iori’s just a very standard, generically strong Buster unit, and anything you’d do with another Buster Servant will work with him.

As mentioned above, Iori wants either a 50% charge CE, for loop consistency, or Black Grail, for damage. Similarly, Iori has easy crit access and low in-kit crit buffs, so crit damage CCs are the obvious choice. Standard stuff!

Iori’s great! Especially if he’s going to be your go-to ST Saber, a pair of grails to take him to level 90 is a great idea, and taking him to level 100 will give him an SSR-ish statline. More attack helps Iori do his thing more effectively and is well worth the investment.

Iori is a pretty generic ST Buster unit, but he’s generic in a positive direction—high values, good utility, all the necessary tools, et cetera. On a banner Servant, this would be somewhat less of a good thing, since Iori doesn’t really carve his own niche. As a free unit, though, Iori is basically everything you’d want in an ST Buster Saber and is automatically NP5 on top of that. Excellent all-around as free Servants go.

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 9/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 1/10
Defensive Utility: N/A
Farming Usefulness: 3/10
Rings (Sequel Version): 5/5