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5* Assumptions: SSR Servants are assumed to be at NP1, 10/10/10 Skills. Double Servant compositions are considered.
All 5* Servants are excellent! Their performance often vastly outpaces those of lower rarities and each of them is worth investing in. The tier list is therefore just a comparison tool to judge these Servants by their relative performance. The tier placement is primarily based on a Servant’s current performance, and their placement will often shift with future Interludes and Rank Ups, new competition, and the changing state of the game.

4* Assumptions: Non-Welfare SR Servants are assumed to be at NP1, 10/10/10 Skills. Welfare SR Servants are assumed to be at NP5, 10/10/10 Skills. Double Servant compositions are considered.

1-3* Assumptions: Non-Story Locked Servants are assumed to be at NP5, 10/10/10 Skills. Story-Locked (generally 3 star) Servants are assumed to be at NP1, 10/10/10 Skills. Double Servant compositions are considered.

* Servants in the same tier are listed in descending rarity, and aside from this are in no particular order.

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Check out the change log for details on tier list changes!
A full tier list change log history can be found here.

Tier List

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Tier Explanations
saber
archer
lancer
rider
caster
assassin
berserker
shielder
ruler
avenger
Alter Ego
mooncancer
Foreigner
Pretender
5
4
3
2
1
0
Arts
Buster
Quick
AoE ST Support
EX
★★★★★
AOE
Koyanskaya of Light
Koyanskaya, everyone's favorite NFF sales representative, finally joins the roster, elevating the Buster meta to new heights in the process of doing so. She notably has a targetable 50% NP Charge skill that also reduces skill cooldowns for the target by 2, unlocking a Servant's ability to stack skills that are on shorter cooldowns where it would not be possible prior. She also has a sizable Buster buff that increases Crit and Star Gather for an ally, a +20 crit star drop, and the ability to provide bonus damage against both Human attribute and Human traits. An interesting but slightly more difficult-to-use effect of hers is her buff that grants extra NP Gauge when an ally uses Buster Cards, which in practice can be unreliable due to being dependent on Card draws. To top everything off, she is one of the first Support Servants who also has a damage dealing AoE Buster NP, making her a decent utilizer of her own supportive capacity. Her NP gives her a minor ATK buff for herself before damage, can drain enemy NP Gauge to support stalling, and also provides a small amount of NP Gauge to all allies. Her main demerits are the fact that her NP charge skill decreases HP for all allies by a small amount, and that she has no defensive skills to her name, so she will need to rely on other supports for any defensive measures. However, in most cases, any enemies will be long decimated before those demerits pose an issue. With double Koyanskaya, Buster damage dealers finally join the ranks of being able to loop their NP, with the added bonus of their looping capability no longer being dependent on NP refund.
★★★★★
AOE
Oberon
The King of Faeries joins the roster as the first Pretender Class Servant. He is an extremely potent Support Servant, with a slight favor towards Buster damage support, and a damaging AoE Buster NP of his own. His kit introduces the new NP Boost effect, which essentially works as a non-stackable, multiplicative augmentation to any existing NP damage buffs active on a Servant, which also can include bonuses from Craft Essences (such as The Black Grail), while also giving a sizable Buster buff. However, the skill providing this buff comes with a substantial demerit that essentially permanently disables the Servant the next turn, making this pretty much a skill used only to deal a finishing blow and end a quest, which makes it useful to clear the final 3rd wave of farming quests. His other two skills also provide up to 70% (!) NP Gauge to a single ally, and 20% to all other allies including himself, making his kit capable of the highest targetable NP charge to date on his release. The targeted NP charge does come with a demerit of decreasing NP Gauge for the target by 20% on the next turn, reducing any benefits from NP refund, although this becomes less of a problem when used on the last wave or if the target uses a Buster NP that does not come with a refund. He also provides his own NP Damage buff and a small sum of Critical Stars to help support the offensive performance of his allies. Finally, regarding his NP itself: it removes offensive buffs, inflicts sleep for a turn, deals bonus damage against Lawful alignment, and has a rather interesting, if slightly undesirable effect of also giving Invincibility to all enemies that it hits for a turn. It is also worth noting that Oberon has a passive that makes Merlin's buffs miss 20% of the time while Oberon is on the field, so mixing the two might not be a good idea. Despite having certain shortcomings in his kit, in practice, they can often be circumvented simply by the fact he makes a damage dealer dish out so much damage that the final wave gets killed before any of his demerits can pose an issue. For those graced with the Fairy King's presence in their Chaldea, Masters can look forward to putting even the most fearsome of enemy waves into a deep slumber.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Altria Caster
The featured Servant of the fifth anniversary, Altria (Caster), is a premiere Arts Support Servant with excellent Offensive and Defensive supportive capabilities. Her skills can provide a single target with up to 50% NP Gauge, and the remaining members with 30% NP Gauge, enabling quick access to Noble Phantasms for the party. Her skills also provide a 50% Arts and Invincibility buff to one target, and an ATK + NP Gain buff to all allies. Her NP is the first to have the effect of granting a special type of Invincibility that cannot be pierced by Ignore Invincibility effects, with the number of hits scaling with overcharge. Additionally, her NP will clear debuffs from all allies and provide a three turn ATK boost that scales quite well with NP level. Her introduction to the roster creatly enhances the ease by which Arts-based team compositions loop NPs, while also enhancing their damage output significantly. Additionally, given the strong values on her NP Charge, ATK, and NP Gain buffs, and the wide applicability of her defensive support, she fits quite well in compositions outside of Arts damage dealers as well. Arguments can be made for her being an echelon above the pre-existing Support Servants, and she settles comfortably among the best of the best.
EX-
★★★★★
ST
Melusine
Melusine is a unique Lancer Class Servant that can serve as both an ST Arts Servant, as well as an AoE Buster Servant. She is also a rather unique case where her selected Ascension sprite has gameplay consequences, where 1st and 2nd Ascension are ST Arts, and 3rd Ascension is AoE Buster. Furthermore, her third skill also has varying effects depending on ascension, allowing her to reach 3rd Ascension and charging her NP by up to 100% (!) if used in 1st or 2nd Ascension, or giving her a moderate NP damage buff in 3rd Ascension. In addition, she has yet another 30% NP charge skill, which she can use to help top off her gauge in either form. Her ST Arts NP applies a Damage Taken Plus debuff, provides a burst of Stars, and increases her own NP Gain for 3 turns, and with its decently healthy hit count, refunds a good amount of gauge. Her AoE Buster NP on the other hand applies Ignore Invincibility and a Buster buff before damage, and inflicts Burn on all targets. This gives her practical usage in both farming and challenge scenarios, since she can ignore certain Evade/Invincibility gimmicks some bosses have. The remainder of her kit has a relatively balanced mix of offensive and defensive buffs for herself. She has ATK, Star Gather, Stars per turn, and a burst of Stars to support her offensive gameplay. Defensively, the Ascension-dependent skill always grants her 1 turn of invincibility, and she also has Damage Cut and a Max HP buff on her first skill. Due to her relatively low skill cooldowns, as well as access to all three types of offensive buffs (ATK, Card, and NP damage), she is an excellent and flexible Lancer damage dealer for nearly any occasion. With the right support and proper setup, she becomes one of the strongest AoE options for farming available in the roster.
★★★★★
AOE
Arjuna (Alter)
Arjuna Alter descends from the heavens to grant Masters with the image of what a Berserker Buster AoE Servant can be. At first glance, it may seem that Arjuna Alter's Buster NP is a tad disappointing with its very straightforward damage and Buster Resist debuff effect. However, even at low NP levels, he is capable of hitting high amounts of damage due to his first skill's Special Attack versus "debuffed" enemies. Given his NP applies its 3-turn Buster Resist debuff before damage, the "debuffed" trait will almost always be applicable unless the enemy has Debuff Immunity / high debuff resist. On top of those, he also has a self ATK and Buster Star Gather buffs, both of which last three turns, which can further boost his damage output. He also has a 30% self NP charge, which can help him unleash multiple NPs more quickly, especially when fielded with supports. His self-sustain consists of HP recovery per turn and self Guts, which are helpful, although in many cases his damage is high enough that enemies will be decimated before defensive measures come into the equation. For both farming and challenging encounters that don't involve debuff immunity, Arjuna Alter provides a one-size-fits-all solution by making enemies disappear quickly and effectively, earning him a place among the upper echelons of AoE damage dealers in the roster.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Sima Yi (Reines)
Sima Yi, materializing as a Pseudo Servant via Reines, is a decidedly defensively-focused Supportive Servant, with a Rider classing unlike the typical Caster Support. Pre-upgrade, she provides a party DEF boost, 10% NP Gauge to all allies, and an additional 20% NP Gauge to a single ally of choice with the added bonus of a sizable ATK boost, at the expense of her own ATK (which may not necessarily be a bad thing, since her primary role is not offensive). Her third skill provides a targetable 2-time Invincibility with a small Debuff Resist boost, and after her upgrade, also will grant 20% NP Gauge to a single ally. Her Supportive Arts NP debuffs DEF and Critical Rate for all enemies, clears her own debuffs, and applies a rare ability to ignore defensive class disadvantage for all allies, making her helpful to Berserker allies or others who might be otherwise taking Weak damage. Unfortunately, before her upgrade, there are better supportive options available; her classing in particular interferes with the Critical performance of her allies, given her high innate Rider-class Star weight. She often may end up absorbing most Stars that may be better used by her allies. After her upgrade, she joins the ranks of Supports capable of reaching 50% NP Charge for an ally, making her a much more attractive Support option.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Scathach-Skadi
Skadi arguably introduces a new meta change, greatly increasing the viability of Quick Servants across the board with her targetable 50% Quick buff and Quick Card Critical Damage boost. The Quick boost also increases NP Gain, and in turn, NP refund for Quick-type NPs, which enables 3-turn loop setups. She also comes with a targetable 50% NP Gauge boost, which any Servant would find useful. Her remaining skill provides a 3-turn DEF debuff against all enemies that also reduces their Critical Rate. Her Arts Support NP provides a 1-time Evade to all allies, along with a Critical Damage boost, a small Damage Cut, and an Instant Death Immunity effect. If she has a weakness, it is that among the Support Servants, she is likely the least durable, as her NP is her only means of mitigating damage. However, true to her name as the premiere Quick Support, she can oftentimes end encounters so quickly that her lack of durability is not much of an issue.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Merlin
Merlin is the biggest contender for the title “Best Servant in the Game”. Bringing a plethora of absurdly overpowered team support effects, Merlin raises the performance of all Buster-centric Servants by several levels and allows many team setups to reach unmatched heights. Damage, teamwide NP generation, teamwide protection, sustain, and even passive Star Generation, there is almost nothing this fluffy wizard can’t do. While his kit is not quite as efficient for farming as Zhuge Liang or Skadi once released, Merlin’s value in high difficulty content is unparalleled, being able to function flawlessly in both short-term and long-term battles, in both Arts- and Buster-centric teams.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Zhuge Liang (El-Melloi II)
Zhuge’s ability to fill teammates’ NP bar on demand, combined with the powerful values on his buffs, make him extremely versatile and potent on every team archetype possible. Including Zhuge in any team reduces the difficulty dramatically and he should always be one of the first names on a team for any event or challenge.
★★
AOE
Chen Gong
Chen Gong, tactician of unconventional practice, finally joins during the fourth Anniversary as a new bronze Caster after his intial appearance during the Lostbelt 3 chapter. His claim to fame is his AoE Arts NP, which deals massive damage to all enemies at the cost of the leftmost ally in the party lineup. At first glance, it may seem detrimental to eat into one's own party ranks to damage the enemy, but this also allows their spot to be taken immediately by another Servant in the backline, with skills ready to use. Chen Gong essentially gives the party an additional method to rapidly "Order Change" backline party members to the front, which greatly opens up possibilities for both farming and buff stacking compositions. His skills are also quite powerful, with a targetable Merlin-strength Buster and Max HP buff, which also increases Crit Damage for a Berserker ally, and separately, a DEF buff to all allies that comes with a 10% NP charge. Finally, he is also able to grant an ally the Target Focus effect while decreasing Crit Rate for all enemies. Taken together, his supportive capabilities and the extent to which he increases the party's accessibility to backline Servants' skills are remarkable enough to completely change the way Masters play if they properly build a team with his abilities in mind.
AOE
Arash

Arash often appears as a top farming recommendation for a reason. This great hero is absolutely fantastic at wave clearing and holds a highly valuable and easily exploitable gimmick. Being a 1-Star Servant, Arash’s team cost and investment costs are extremely low, and the potential return is very worthwhile. Not only does he have an absurdly high Noble Phantasm damage modifier, the fact that he sacrifices himself allows Arash to effectively bring in another teammate from the backline, creating numerous possibilities for team building in many farming setups.

Furthermore, Arash has access to an instant NP charge skill that improves this farming niche, allowing him to put his Noble Phantasm to good use a lot faster, especially when combined with NP battery Servants or Craft Essences. However, Arash is not a one-size-fits-all Servant due to his low stats and otherwise poor skill set. His value for lies purely in farming and blowing up a wave of enemies, a talent that can even be used in some challenge quests.

A+
★★★★★
AOE
Morgan
Morgan is an AoE Buster damage dealer of the Berserker Class, making her an excellent all-around wave clearer and farmer. Her NP also deals bonus damage to Human attribute, Knights of the Round, or Fae trait, which covers a somewhat broad spectrum. As an additional bonus, her NP inflicts Curse and increases NP Overcharge level for the party as well. To support her farming capability, she has two NP Gauge charge skills valued at 20% and 30%, giving her access to up to 50% NP charge that she can split as needed, along with a minor party NP Gain buff. The rest of her hit is primarily offensively focused, with party ATK buffs, an AoE DEF debuff, and Crit Damage / Star Gather buffs for herself, along with a small infusion of Stars. Defensively, however, she only has a Guts skill for herself, and minor AoE ATK and Crit Rate debuffs that activate at the end of each turn from her skill. With enough NP Gauge from supports, she becomes a powerhouse for farming, and due to her Class, she works as a viable farmer for almost any enemy aside from Foreigners. Combined with her high base ATK stat, overall, Morgan's offensive capabilities are highly impressive and cement her as an extremely solid option for wave clearing on nearly any occassion.
★★★★★
AOE
Ashiya Douman
Ashiya Douman, the irksome Alter Ego constantly causing trouble for Chaldea throughout the Lostbelts, unexpectedly joins the playable Servant roster as the first Alter Ego with an AoE Quick NP. His greatest claim to fame is his 80% NP charge skill, along with the ability to buff ATK and Crit Damage for both Evil and Chaotic allies (with both buffs doubling in value when both traits are present). He also can debuff DEF and ATK for enemies, and has a multitude of maladies he can inflict upon the enemy including Terror (Stun), Confusion (Skill Seal), Curse, and increased Curse damage. Defensively, he has a 2-time, 5-turn Guts, which is surprisingly effective. His NP has a chance of inflicting instant death on all enemies, while also cursing enemies and applying the Curse Damage Up debuff. All told, he makes for an extremely effective farming Servant, applicable to many situations due to his Alter Ego Class, while also offering impressive offensive support to Chaotic Evil allies. His attitude may be unsavory, but his capabilities as a mixed support and offense Servant are undeniable.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Van Gogh
Van Gogh, a Foreigner with a non-damaging NP, is one of the more unique supportive Servants in the game. Their entire kit is centered around the Curse debuff, and her skills are somewhat order-dependent in their effects. She is capable of inflicting multiple stacks of Curse on herself, on all allies, and also capable of absorbing all Curse stacks on the field unto herself. In exchange, her first skill gives her up to 10% NP Gauge for every Curse stack she has available. She also notably has a passive that makes her unable to die from Curse damage (surviving with 1 HP). Her NP provides impressive Critical Damage and ATK buffs for all allies, with further enhanced Crit Damage buffs specifically for allies with the "Entity of the Outer Realm" passive (mostly other Foreigners), while also providing a flat 10 Stars per turn and inflicting Terror on all enemies. Offensively, she also has an additional ATK buff from her third skill, the ability to grant increased Star Gather to a single ally, decrease DEF and Quick Resist for all enemies, and the ability to stack ATK buffs on herself with every Quick attack in exchange for removing a Curse stack from herself. Defensively, she has a Guts skill, a 1-time party Evade, and a very minor party HP regen that mostly offsets Curse damage. All told, she is a very mechanically unique take on a Critical damage Support Servant for the party and is very powerful in practice, being particularly potent for Foreigner allies, but still effective in other teams. Her ability to absorb Curse stacks to her advantage also makes her a great ally to other Servants capable of inflicting the Curse status effect.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Super Orion
Superhuman Orion is a unique Card damage-centric Archer, who has an Supportive Arts NP that buffs himself, while having everything in his kit to support massive Buster Crit damage. His NP provides sizable 3-turn ATK, Crit Damage, Debuff Immune, and Ignore Invincible buffs, while providing a flat 10 Stars per turn. His skills include 3 turn Star Gather, Buster Crit Damage, and ATK buffs, flat star generation, and 1-turn of Buster and anti-Demonic / Wild Beast bonus damage. Taken together with his 3-Buster Card deck, he is capable of devastating damage, particularly after his NP turns, especially combined with Buster Supports that also improve Critical performance. Defensively, however, he has less at his disposal, with only a Guts and perhaps the Debuff Immunity from his NP. As a whole, however, the amount of damage he is capable of using his Cards makes him a worthy asset for almost any scenario, and he particularly excels in encounters where enemies have NP damage resistance.
★★★★★
AOE
Space Ishtar
From the far reaches of the galaxy comes Space Ishtar, an AoE Avenger debuting during Saber Wars 2. She has the unique ability to change the card type of her NP between Arts (Default), Buster, or Quick, as desired. This allows her to take advantage of the best supportive options offered by a player's roster. Being an Avenger, she deals neutral damage in most cases, and with her high ATK stat she has an easier time clearing waves than many other Servants in neutral damage scenarios. Her kit consists of an ATK buff for all allies, with self buffs including NP damage, a 50% NP charge, a chance-based rainbow buff, and a unique Extra Card buff on her NP. Defensively, she grants allies Charm immunity, and has a 1-time Invincible skill for herself. Her NP looping capability is quite good; she is capable of looping with Skadi, although ease of looping greatly improves with the presence of premiere Arts supports. Space Ishtar's performance even without Arts support is still excellent, however, and makes her an excellent option for wave clearing that covers many enemy classes. Her value only increases once stronger Arts Support with NP Charge capabilities becomes available. It should be noted that a large part of her rating comes from her kit's innate and unique meta resilience, since given her NP-type shifting capability, she is capable of staying relevant even when the best Support options available may change.
★★★★★
AOE
Demon King Nobunaga (Oda Nobunaga)
The Demon King Nobunaga is an AoE Buster Avenger with a 3-Buster deck, decidedly focused on offense. She is one of the first Servants capable of changing the field attribute, where in this case, she is capable of applying the Burning field attribute (albiet burning herself in the process), making her also capable of indirectly supporting other Servants that have bonuses on burning fields, such as Nobunaga Berserker. She also comes with Stars per turn, a self 20% NP charge (30% post upgrade), and a self ATK buff that gradually builds in strength across 3 turns. Defensively, she has a self Invincibility skill that comes with 100% buff removal resist, which can help circumvent buff removal-before-damage NP effects. Her AoE Buster NP itself deals bonus damage against Divine enemies and can remove Divine enemies' defensive buffs before damage, and applies Burn to all enemies. Unfortunately at base, damage wise, even with her self ATK buff at max, she comes up short compared to her competing Avengers (even those of lower rarity at this time), and her class further makes it less likely for her to benefit from class advantage. After her upgrade, however, she additionally deals bonus damage against Heaven attribute enemies, which can stack with her anti-Divine damage, giving her better usage cases. Additionally, with the release of Nobukatsu, her performance ceiling becomes remarkably higher. Furthermore, the 30% charge upgrade enables her to loop effectively with Koyanskaya and Oberon setups, making her one of the Servants with the biggest glowups in the roster, and among the strongest omni farmers available.
★★★★★
ST
Kama
A premiere heavy-hitting Quick Single-Target Assassin damage dealer, Kama is capable of paralyzing enemies with her Charm. Her NP has a base 80% charm rate, which can be boosted up to 120% (essentially guaranteeing the effect for many enemies). Her NP additionally has high hit counts and a three turn Quick buff, setting her up for future NPs and greater damage with each successive NP. She also comes with a plethora of self-buffs, including a 50% NP Gauge boost, rare class bonus against Alter Ego tied to a skill, a small Critical Strength boost, a self ATK boost, and Guts for herself that permanently stays until it is consumed. She also can provide an NP Overcharge buff to an ally of choice at the cost of 1000 Max HP from her target, which also heals herself. This toolkit in combination makes her a powerful single target damage dealer for many challenging encounters, capable of longer-term survival, heavy damage dealing, and lockdown of enemies. Her performance is further boosted with Quick supports such as Skadi, enabling looping of her NP and essentially charm-locking any opponents, although her performance is respectable even without support. She will serve Masters well across a multitude of scenarios (and enemies perhaps will come to appreciate being ended whilst being in a continuous state of enrapturement).
★★★★★
ST
Enkidu
Having a quite unique playstyle amongst Lancers, the dearest friend of the King of Heroes has a lot of tricks to his game. From a powerful single-target Noble Phantasm, strong Star and NP generation to one of the best self-heal skills in the game, Enkidu can fulfill multiple roles in the party to a good degree, while also being able to effectively solo encounters, particularly against Divine trait enemies. Their kit contains a self Buster buff that can randomly increase their Quick or Arts effectiveness, a large heal with debuff cleanse, and a Crit Rate debuff that can also remove Evade while applying Evade to themselves for a turn. Their single target Buster NP post-upgrade at NP1 will outdamage even NP5 Servants of lower rarity, such as welfares, with its 3-turn DEF debuff that applies before damage. In addition, against Threat to Humanity trait enemies, the damage is elevated even further to astronomical levels. As a final kicker, their NP can also inflict Stun against Divine enemies, with essentially guaranteed probability, making Enkidu a hard counter solo option for encounters against the right enemies. Even in cases that do not fit those conditions, in most scenarios with class advantage, they rank at the very top of single target Lancer damage dealers; they just happen to have additional niches they can perform well in.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Tamamo-no-Mae
Tamamo does not work nearly as well outside of Arts teams, but she is a staple for dedicated Arts teams. Her unique combination of cooldown reduction, team NP charge, party heal and a targetable Art’s performance up buff is unmatched in the current state of the game. Tamamo allows any Arts team to either stall their way to victory, or chain offensive Noble Phantasms endlessly in quick succession.
★★★★★
ST
Vlad III
Vlad draws many similarities to Orion. He is a fantastic Arts Damage Dealer with strong damage output and consistent performance when the team is built around him. He excels particularly in heavy Arts teams during Challenge Quests where his NP can be used liberally and defense buffs can be stacked. Outside of Arts teams and for general farming, Vlad is much less powerful. His poor NP generation becomes far more noticeable and detrimental outside of Arts teams in particular.
★★★★★
ST
Sakata Kintoki

Sakata Kintoki holds the very rare niche of being the one of the few Berserkers in the game who can unleash his Noble Phantasm immediately without being overly reliant on a Craft Essence and teammates’ support. His raw damage is incredibly high and terrific for one-shotting small bosses, but it is offset by his extremely poor survivability.

★★★★
AOE
Habetrot
The little spinster Faerie, ally to all brides, is an AoE Arts Rider with a largely supportive skill set focused on providing defensive enhancement particularly to female allies. One of the most notable abilities Habetrot touts is their ability to self sacrifice, removing themselves from the field a turn after using their third skill. Since they also have an AoE damage-dealing NP, this means they can help clear a smaller wave before self sacrificing to make way for additional Servants from the back line. Combined with their own hefty 80% NP Charge skill, they provide this service with ease and can slot in comfortably in many teams as a sacrificial first-wave clearer. Additionally, she works perfectly well in the role of an NP looper as well, although her damage may be on the lower side. Support-wise, she can provide a turn of debuff immunity, increased star drop rate, and a minor heal to an ally. For female allies, she also provides a turn of invincibility, Guts, removal of ailment debuffs, and HP regeneration for 5 turns. Their NP also notably generates a healthy sum of Stars, which can help Servants dish out critical hits in the next wave. For her own offensive performance, Habetrot has a modest Arts buff that comes with her NP charge skill, and her NP ignores DEF while also gaining an NP damage buff before dealing damage. Habetrot is a helpful addition to any Master's roster, capable of performing a similar role as Arash without the requirement of as much NP charge frome external sources, in exchange for higher Cost. Masters in need of a quick wave clearer for weaker waves, particularly against Casters, should remember to bring Habetrot along!
★★★★
ST
Yu Mei-ren (Lancer)
Yu Mei-ren, welfare of the Summer 2022 event, is an ST Quick Lancer that acts as a certified male Servant killer. Her NP gains bonus damage against male targets, which stacks multiplicatively with the various offensive buffs and class advantage. She also has a self Quick buff and powerful party Critical Strength buff, the ability to charge 20% NP gauge, and minor NP Gain buffs that increase in potency on certain fields (either near water or sunlight). Her one means of survival is her Guts skill, which somewhat clashes with the taunt effect on her NP charge skill; she may need defensive support to stay for prolonged periods on the field. However, with her damage multipliers and her welfare status giving her easier access to NP5, she is an excellent damage dealer to keep handy, especially if a male Archer needs to be dispatched.
★★★★
ST
Astraea
Astraea is yet another entry into the SR Ruler roster, continuing the inexplicable trend of such Rulers belonging in the wrestling ring, this time touting an ST Arts type NP. She has self buffs for Arts, Star Gather, and Critical Strength, albiet all of which last a single turn. She also has a 20% NP Gauge charge move that requires 5 stars to use, which is offset by her ability to also generate up to 20 Stars on demand with a separate skill. She also comes with a slight bit of ally support with her first skill, which can increase ATK, DEF, and NP Gain for a single ally for 3 turns. Her NP will generate 20 stars upon use, and deals bonus damage against Evil alignment enemies. Her kit altogether gives her notable Arts Crit performance, and makes her a great option to bring when fighting Evil enemies. Outside of Evil trait, she otherwise suffers slightly from her class not having offensive advantage very often (against only Moon Cancer/Berserker enemies), making her the non-optimal pick for many scenarios, but still a workable pick for most.
★★★★
AOE
Nitocris

If there is one particular Servant that embodies the concept of instant wave-clearing, that would be Nitocris. Having one of the strongest NP battery skills in the game, accompanied with an AoE Arts Noble Phantasm and a situational Instant Death niche makes her a fantastic option for taking out waves 1 and 2 of low-level enemies. Her relatively low damage can at least be compensated for via offensive support, grails or high level CEs in case wave 2 is especially beefy. Just being able to fill her NP gauge from scratch on turn 1 is a special niche that proves invaluable for speeding up Event farming, or indeed any farming.

On the other side, Nitocris’s poor sustained damage makes her a less than ideal option for longer and more difficult nodes. In addition, relying on her Instant Death niche against silver and gold enemies is generally just an exercise in frustration/ Regardless, Nitocris is a prime example of not bringing a lawnmower to a knife fight. Let her stick to mowing the lawn.

★★★★
ST
Sakata Kintoki (Rider)

Kintoki (Rider) is best described as a Rider who fully abuses his class’s strengths. With strong Quick buffs, impressive base NP gain, inherently high Star Weight and good star generation, he is incredibly self-sufficient and well capable of performing multiple Noble Phantasms back-to-back. His damage output is thus simply outrageous, with a powerful Overcharge effect and naturally high NP level thanks to his welfare status.

While he possesses a clear weakness in his lack of solid defensive options, his otherwise self-sufficient kit means it’s not too hard to provide a strong support option for him, although his compatability with Skadi is exceptionally good. All in all, Sakata Kintoki (Rider) is a powerful Rider for any Master, no matter how diverse and levelled their roster.

★★★★
AOE
Helena Blavatsky

Helena is a great example of a Servant with a simple, but a highly effective skill set that does what they are supposed to do well. Being a rare Servant capable of charging the entire team’s NP bar by up to 20%, Helena is invaluable for farming for any Master without the top gacha farming Servants. She further supplements this niche with a teamwide Card Performance buff and a few Critical Stars to go with it. Notably though, Helena is one of the strongest AoE Casters when it comes to pure NP Damage, provided her NP Damage Up buff actually triggers (fortunately at 80% odds).

Still, Helena suffers from obscenely long cooldowns, poor survivability, and lackluster NP gain that thoroughly debilitate her for quests that require more sustain. Yet, her usefulness for day-to-day and event farming is more than valuable enough to make her a remarkably valuable Servant to own.

★★★
AOE
Cu Chulainn (Caster)

On their own, each of Caster Cu’s skills are good. However, they have almost no synergy, and he fails to carve out a niche for himself, resulting in a mediocre Servant that is hard to fit in most teams.

Primordial Rune is a great skill for Critical Damage Dealers, but is wasted on a Caster with low Star Weight and weaker base Attack. After Rank Up, this skill becomes his NP battery as well, which does go well with his AoE Noble Phantasm for farming purposes. However, the lack of strong offensive self-buffs makes him less desirable for farming compared to other Casters and Berserkers.

Protection from Arrows and Disengage grant him good survivability, but Cu himself does not provide any lasting benefits being on the field due to his lackluster generation stats and nonexistent team support.

Last but not least, Cu has very poor availability compared to other low rarity Servants due to his status as a Story Locked Servant; thus, on average, most players will end up with a lower NP level Cu Caster.

After clearing Lostbelt 6, Cu gains an upgrade to his third skill, allowing him to gain up to 80% NP Gauge per skill use along with an ATK buff. This flips his usability on its head, making him among the best AoE Buster farmers when combined with premiere Buster Support such as Koyanskaya of the Light. Masters with Cu Caster in their roster are well advised to reconsider investing in him once his upgrade becomes available!

★★★
AOE
Paracelsus von Hohenheim

Paracelsus's claim to fame is his 3-turn NP Gain buff that he can provide to an ally of choice, with a value of up to +50%. This enables NP spamming for many Arts or Quick NP Servants, making him a valuable asset to farming teams. 

On the flip side, his skill cooldowns are very high. Furthermore, his damage output is poor, even by Caster standards. This is the result of a combination of low attack, poor steroids, and a Noble Phantasm with lower multipliers than usual.

That being said, he still has access to an NP Interlude and his Rapid Casting allows him to quickly charge his NP bar for farming shenanigans, which can be highly valuable for Masters wanting more capable hands to take down Assassin or Berserker waves.

His ease of access and remarkable ability to facilitate farming teams post-Rank Up grants him his current placement.

A
★★★★★
AOE
Koyanskaya of Dark
Koyanskaya's other dark half is an AoE Buster Foreigner Servant, with bonus damage against Earth attribute enemies. Her greatest asset is her party wide 30% NP charge skill, and she also has a whole slew of additional supportive effects. These include Buster buffs, NP Overcharge for an ally, ATK/DEF buffs for any Kemono (animal-like) trait allies, and capability of granting an ally the ability to gain 5 stars with every Buster hit. Additionally for herself, she has Crit Damage buffs, Ignore Invincibility, and the ability to apply and amplify damage of all types of damage-over-time effects (Poison, Curse, and Burn) with normal attacks. Her NP, in addition to its anti-Earth attribute damage, also buffs her own attack, debuffs Buster Resist, and removes offensive buffs from enemies. Altogether she makes for a powerful support for teams that feature multiple damage dealers due to her powerful gauge charger and offensive support. As a dedicated support for a single damage dealer, however, she is not quite stronger than other options (including her Light half), although she firmly carves a niche for herself as one of the top supports in a multi-DPS party setup.
★★★★★
AOE
Sakamoto Ryouma (Lancer)
Sakamoto Ryouma's higher rarity Lancer version is an Arts AoE Lancer, complete with NP looping capabilities. Despite the niche already having some impressive competition, Ryouma carves out a solid niche for himself due to his utility effects. His party Overcharge buff in particular makes him especially effective in teams with Altria Caster, while he also has both Debuff Immunity and Buff Removal Resist that last for a whole 3 turns, making Ryouma impervious to various debuffs and removal effects that enemies may throw at him. His NP has a somewhat niche self DEF buff, and also gives him a 3-turn NP damage buff which allows looped NPs to do progressively more damage. To further support his looping ability, he has a self 50% NP charge, and two sources of Arts buffs in his skill kit. He also provides critical support to allies in the form of stars per turn and critical damage buffs. Altogether, Ryouma's Lancer form is an extremely solid AoE Arts Lancer that works well alone, but is particularly enhanced in the presence of premiere Arts Support.
★★★★★
AOE
Kama (Avenger)
Kama returns with a vengeance as an AoE Arts Avenger, and an extremely capable NP looper. To support her looping capabilities, she has a 50% NP charge skill, giving her quick access to her NP. She also has a passive that gives her 3.8% NP Gauge each turn, which helps with supporting her NP refund. Her NP itself inflicts a DEF buff (albeit after damage), and also has supereffective damage against Charmed enemies, which she can also inflict to all enemies with her second skill. Her other offensive buffs include an Arts buff, NP damage buff, and a special ATK buff based on her own special trait that she can apply to enemies with normal attacks. Defensively, she has a 2-time, 3 turn Evade skill, which is functional enough for its role in most cases. Due to her ability to apply her supereffective modifier, she deals remarkable damage on a wave of choice. Overall, Kama's summer form is an excellent Arts farmer, and due to her class, she comfortably deals with waves of almost any Class aside from Moon Cancer, which are exceedingly rare. Masters who have premiere Arts Supports will benefit greatly from being graced by her presence in their roster.
★★★★★
ST
Galatea
A statue come to life, Galatea is a single-target Arts Berserker with a plethora of defensive and utility effects. She comes with an ever useful 20% charge to help support her NP looping capacity. Defensively, she has a Guts skill, which comes with an impressively-valued 2-time DEF buff. Very notably, she also has a party HP regen skill that also clears debuffs every turn for 3 turns, making her a valuable option for certain challenging encounters. She also has a somewhat situational but useful Buff Removal Resist effect for herself. Unfortunately, despite having an Arts NP, she only has a single Arts Card in her deck, rendering her unable to do NPAA chains. In addition, there is quite a bit of competition in the ST Arts niche, although she is somewhat of a standout among them for her excellent party support capacity. All in all, her looping and damage are excellent, and even stronger in the presence of premiere Arts support, and her Class makes her a great ST option for nearly any node.
★★★★★
AOE
Amor (Caren)
Caren is an AoE Quick Ruler Servant who is both a capable farmer while also providing an arsenal of diverse utility effects. She has the ability to charge her own NP Gauge by up to 50% on demand, an additional 10% Gauge per turn that must be absorbed from allies, both of which support her NP looping capabilities. Offensively, she has all three flavors of buffs, including ATK, Card, and NP Damage, while also being capable of applying a myriad of debuffs including DEF and Quick Resist down. Defensively, she has an invincibility skill that gives her allies 1 hit, and herself 3 hits of invuln across 3 turns, making her one of few with a coveted AoE hard defense option. She also provides many useful effects in her kit, including a taunt, two NP Gauge drains (one AoE, one ST), and a Buff Block effect on her NP, giving her excellent utility coverage if she's available in the party. Caren is an excellent Servant overall, and excels in particular if powerful Quick support is available. Her 10% NP absorption effect from party members can be somewhat awkward to play around, although the coverage of her kit and her capability as a farmer is undeniable, and she makes for an excellent addition to the roster.
★★★★★
ST
Taira-no-Kagekiyo
Taira-no-Kagekiyo, also referred to as Ushiwakamaru Alter, is a single target Quick Avenger that doubles as an excellent last stand Servant. Their second skill has a unique "Grudge" mechanic that gives a buff stack that boosts their NP damage (up to +100% from 4 stacks) every time their Guts activates. Their NP itself notably removes buffs from the target before dealing damage, and inflicts Curse for minor damage over time. With a 30% charge skill, they have relatively quick access to their NP. They also have a plethora of self-offense buffs, including Crit Damage, ATK, and bonus damage against Genji-trait enemies. Their crit performance is also boosted by their ability to lower Star Gather Rate for all allies except themselves. Defensively, aside from the 1-time 3-turn Guts ability, Kagekiyo also has a 2-time, 3-turn Evade, along with up to 100% resistance to Instant Death for 3 turns, making them tough to take down. When combined with premiere Quick Support, Kagekiyo becomes a force to be reckoned with. Alternatively, due to their Evade and Guts skills, they also make for a decent last slot Servant, which makes it easier to activate their Guts for more "Grudge" to enhance their NP damage. Their kit's Guts effect also stacks with other Guts (such as CE or other support buffs), which can be used to further increase the number of damage-boosting stacks that are potentially active. With their Avenger Classing, Taira-no-Kagekiyo makes for a rather flexible damage dealer or last stand choice, since they very rarely have clear Class disadvantage (only against Moon Cancers). When up against an enemy with Genji trait in particular, Taira-no-Kagekiyo's damage multiplier is extremely high (up to +200%), so if Masters are lucky enough to have them in their roster, it's very much worth remembering to bring their resident Genji-slayer to make short work of the opponent.
★★★★★
AOE
Senji Muramasa
The famed blacksmith Senji Muramasa finally arrives as an AoE Arts Saber during the 2023 New Year Campaign. At his arrival, with the presence of premiere Arts Support, along with relatively sparse competition for AoE Arts Sabers, his swordplay carves out a solid niche for himself for many Masters. His NP ignores DEF, has 3-turn offensive buffs that activate before damage, and provide the utility of offensive buff removal, making it an excellent loopable NP that increases in damage when used in succession. Muramasa also has no shortage to NP access, having a healthy 50% battery, along with the ability to gain up to 10% NP Gauge for every normal attack, which stacks on top of Card-generated NP. He also has a very high value 1-turn boost to performance of all his Card colors, which can further enhance his damage on a particularly bulky wave or boss. Additionally, his Crit damage potential is impressive given his sizable Crit Damage, Star Drop, Star Gather, and Crit Star gain buffs, along with a small passive buff to all allies' Crit Damage. Furthermore, he provides some utility by being able to ignore invincibility for a turn, and Crit damage is enhanced even further against any enemies with either Evade or Invincible buffs while this effect is active. As a whole, Muramasa's high intensity focus on an onslaught of NPs and critical blows, and the high values of his buffs make him a standout among Servants in both farming and challenging scenarios. However, he has no options when it comes to hard survival skills, making him entirely dependent on support for defensive options. Additionally, even with all his buffs active, his damage is somewhat middling without his Cards, making him dependent on Arts or other offensive support for consistent wave clearing. Even then, he has excellent NP looping capability, and the ease with which he unsheathes his legendary blade will make him a prime pick for any Lancer nodes should the Master be graced with his presence.
★★★★★
AOE
Ibuki-Douji
Ibuki-Douji joins the roster as an AoE Buster Saber, complete with a 50% NP charge skill. Offensively, she has sizable ATK, Buster, and Crit Damage buffs, with an anti-Undead niche as well. She also can generate a small sum of Stars on demand, and provides a measure of utility via her NP Seal effect. Defensively, however, she lacks any 'hard' defensive options, having only a minor DEF buff to call her own. Her NP has both the Ignore Invincible and Ignore DEF attributes, making her an excellent option to use in quests where enemies may use Evade/Invincibility skills or have high DEF modifiers. Additionally, her NP will inflict a minor 3 turn Buster Resist debuff after applying damage, so subsequent Card hits or uses of her NP can deal more damage. She is a solid entry to the AoE Buster Saber role, and given she is the first to have a 50% NP charge skill, she can fulfill the role as a farmer relatively comfortably as well.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Himiko
Himiko, as a Ruler with a supportive Buster NP, has an interesting hybrid kit of both support and offense. Support-wise, she can provide up to 24 stars per turn, and ATK buffs to allies; via her NP, she provides Buster, Crit Damage, and NP Overcharge buffs to all allies. For herself, she has a 50% Gauge charger, Buster Damage, Crit, and Star gather buffs, anti-Demonic bonus damage, and Invincibility. She is particularly notable as a centerpiece in stall compositions along with Altria Caster, since her NP's overcharge +2 greatly improves Altria Caster's Anti-Enforcement defense skill. She also is capable of dealing impressive Buster Crit damage of her own, acting as the primary damage output in a team that otherwise contains only support. For Masters who enjoy stall compositions, Himiko provides an avenue to be nigh-unkillable in almost all scenarios, with very decent damage output as well.
★★★★★
AOE
Sessyoin Kiara (Moon Cancer)
Sessyoin Kiara's summer form is an AoE Arts Moon Cancer Servant, complete with the ability to loop her NP effectively as well as a special Skill Rank Up ability on her first skill. With her first skill, she can increase the effectiveness of her second and third skills, which enhance NP Gauge for herself, number of Stars gained, and the severity of the DEF, Arts Resist Down, and Crit Rate Down debuffs she inflicts. In addition, she has a party Evade, self Guts, the ability to clear her own debuffs, HP regeneration, and a modest NP strength self buff. Her NP itself has the special ability to do more damage the more Mental Debuffs the enemy has, and her 3rd skill gives a few stacks depending on its rank when used. Her NP also can inflict instant death, thankfully occurring after damage so NP refund will still be available. Overall, she has an immense package of abilities that she brings to the table. Although she may not always be the best offensive pick due to Moon Cancer class advantage being rare (only against Avengers / Berserkers), with Arts support she functions well enough as an all-around farmer.
★★★★★
AOE
Romulus=Quirinus
Bringing the glory of Rome unto all, Romulus Quirinus is a powerful AoE Buster Lancer with the special ability to grant the Roman trait upon all on the field. His NP gains bonus damage based on how many Roman trait stacks are on the enemy, and he has multiple ways to continually stack the Roman trait on enemies up to 10 times. His NP itself also will add a stack of Roman trait to all on the field while increasing ATK for all allies. One of his skills can apply Roman trait to all enemies while buffing ATK and Crit Damage for allies (with a bonus Crit Damage buff for Roman trait allies). His third skill gives him the ability to apply Roman trait stacks when landing a critical hit, while buffing his own Buster performance and Star Gather Rate. Finally, he has a 2-time, 3 turn Invincibility as his primary defensive measure, which also comes with up to 30% NP Gauge and a few critical stars. It should be noted that getting him to reach his damage ceiling can be somewhat difficult, given it can be card draw-reliant. Even so, at base without including his Roman trait-related skills, he provides a strong Buster Crit presence as an AoE Buster Lancer while giving offensive buffs to allies. His performance is only further enhanced with the presence of strong Buster supports.
★★★★★
ST
Dioscuri
The twins, Dioscuri, are Saber-class single target Arts damage dealers with excellent cards and NP hit counts. Their Arts NP ignores both Invincibility and DEF before dealing damage, while inflicting an Arts and Quick resistance debuff after damage. Their Arts, Quick, and NP cards all have high hitcounts, giving them excellent NP refund, especially if they can pull off an NPAA chain. Their most notable skill provides special buffs on attacks, with bonus Stars when using Arts Cards, and bonus NP Gauge when using Quick Cards, further enhancing the strength of their cards. Aside from this, they have the ability to support allies with ATK and NP Damage buffs, along with Debuff Immunity for all allies. They also have a moderate Quick/Arts self buff and a 1-turn Evade as their defensive option. Dioscuri are an excellent single target Saber option that only further improves with the presence of Arts Supports in the party.
★★★★★
AOE
Miyamoto Musashi (Berserker)
Musashi dons a red, white, and blue theme during her tour in Vegas, becoming a Berserker-class AoE Arts Servant for the summer event! She has her signature hit count increasing skill, which affects Arts cards only, while also boosting her NP Gain a respectable amount for three turns. Additionally, she comes with a self ATK buff and AoE DEF debuff, Ignore Invincibility, and can boost her own Crit Strength. Unfortunately, she has the fragility that often comes with the Berserker class, which is compounded by her third skill's fixed 5000 self-damage demerit. This is somewhat offset by her 1-time Evade that lasts until hit, as well the Guts on her third skill. Her AoE Arts NP, aside from inflicting damage, will lower Crit Rate for all enemies and can also NP Seal Saber-class enemies. Given the decent hit counts on her Arts NP, with proper support, particularly with premiere Arts Supports, she becomes capable of looping her AoE NP, making her an excellent farmer for nearly all classes (except Foreigner waves, which are rare). Even without support, her performance is solid, and her wide applicability given her class are a boon.
★★★★★
AOE
Leonardo da Vinci (Rider)
Da Vinci Rider is a mix of an Arts AoE damage dealer with some supportive capacity. Overall, her skill set provides much more to the party than her Caster self, providing an NP Strength and Overcharge buff for all allies, and 10% NP Gauge for all allies. In addition, whenever using her Arts NP, she will grant 20% NP Gauge to all allies as well, making her an excellent asset in most any party. She also has a set of selfish buffs, both defensive in nature, including an Evade, HP Recovery per Turn, and Debuff Immunity, and more offensive in nature, such as Critical Strength, and NP Gauge per turn. In addition, her NP itself will buff her Arts performance before applying damage. Her ATK stat unfortunately is somewhat lacking, with her damage at NP1 being somewhat underwhelming. However, with Arts Support, particularly after Altria Caster is available, her performance is much enhanced. She also has a place in more stall-oriented parties, with the party NP gauge support on her own NP helping to maintain NP rotations.
★★★★★
ST
Beni-Enma
Beni-Enma is a Saber-class Servant with a single target Arts Noble Phantasm, and a plethora of utility and supportive effects. She is capable of debuffing all enemies' DEF, Crit Rate, and can NP Seal, while also buffing all allies' ATK, restoring HP, applying a rare Buff Removal Resist buff, and notably providing a 20% NP Gauge charge for all allies. She also has an Evade as her defensive skill, which provides her with a Critical Damage boost. Her passives are notable for making her Skill Seal immune, such that her arsenal of effects is always available. Her NP, finally, can deal bonus damage against either Chaotic or Evil alignment enemies, and these stack if an enemy has both alignments, making her damage particularly impressive against the right enemies. Her greatest difficulties are her average NP gain, with somewhat average hit counts on her cards aside from her Quick card. As an overall package, Beni-Enma offers a great deal, and will fulfill the role of a Single Target Saber while covering many niches at the same time.
★★★★★
ST
Sitonai
Sitonai is the less common Alter Ego class, and primarily is a single-target Arts damage dealer. She comes with a 30% NP Gauge charge at max skill level, which will help her quickly unleash her Noble Phantasm to remove an unwanted Cavalry or Foreigner-class enemy. Her NP has bonus effects of decreasing DEF and Critical Rate, along with decrease NP Charge for [Dragon] trait enemies, providing a bit of situational stall utility. In addition, she can increase her own Attack and provide Stars (albeit chance-based), increase her own Arts Card effectiveness and grant herself Debuff Immunity (not chance-based). Finally, she has a hard survival option in the form of 1 turn of Invincibility, and a bonus minor Damage Cut effect for all allies. Taken together, she has a decent kit, hampered mainly by her class typing, which ends up making her less than optimal for most situations aside from Foreigner class enemies, as the Alter Ego damage multiplier against Cavalry is only x1.5 rather than x2.
★★★★★
AOE
Jeanne d'Arc (Archer)
Jeanne d'Arc (Archer) makes for an extremely solid AoE Arts Archer, with a kit of all-around solid buffs from all three flavors of Arts, NP damage, and ATK buffs. She also provides an ATK buff for all allies that further boosts Good-aligned Servants (up to 40% value), making her a notable support in specific compositions. Her 40% NP charge also enables her to NP more quickly (or more times), and she has a bit of survival built in with her 2-time, 3 turn invincibility skill. Fans of Jeanne d'Arc,dolphins, whales, and other aquatic mammals alike will find her an asset to any Arts team.
★★★★★
AOE
Napoleon
A strong AoE Buster Archer by all means, Napoleon brings a healthy dosage of damage steroids for both himself and his party, providing both Attack and NP Strength boosts to the party. He also comes with a 30% NP Gauge charge move that also provides stars and a Crit Star Drop Rate buff, making him an effective farmer. However, he lacks any sort of survival options, and has a rather low HP pool for his rarity. His NP has an Ignore Invincibility buff, which is always handy, and also has a unique Ignore DEF effect as a buff rather than a built-in NP effect, which allows his post-NP Cards to also ignore DEF. He functions as a very straightforward, damage focused AoE Buster Servant in a class with steep competition.
★★★★★
AOE
Okita Souji (Alter)
Okita Souji (Alter) provides a decent source of anti-Cavalry damage with her AoE Buster NP and myriad of self buffs, with a very handy 30% self NP charge. Her entire kit is focused around enhancing her own damage, with an added 1-time Evade for some survivability, and some critical star gather capability. However, she suffers from her Alter Ego typing, making her a generally suboptimal choice for damage (despite it being her specialty), particularly against mono-class waves. She would be the more optimal choice during Events where she has a damage bonus, or against waves of multiple Foreigner class enemies, which are unfortunately very rare at this time.
★★★★★
AOE
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible is a highly solid AoE Rider option by all metrics. He comes with effectively two Buster Performance boosts, an NP Gain boost, critical star generation, and the utility of both a self debuff cleanse and AoE buff removal. His Buster cards are sure to deliver heavy blows to his opponents. While his lack of NP Charge lessens his potential as a farming unit, the damage and utility the Emperor of Lightning provides are more than enough to make up for it.
★★★★★
AOE
Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal dips her toes in a bit of everything with a stat budget leaning towards heavily favoring HP. It is a testament to the strength of her skills, NP Gain and sheer survivability that Ereshkigal can still perform very admirably as a main DPS or a defensive hybrid in Challenge Quests, or farm well with her 50% NP Charge as part of a 3-turn farming composition.

Yet, her lack of just sheer Attack stats makes her a second best solution in a game where all-out offense is often more rewarding. She cannot farm as well as her main Lancer competition, she cannot support as well as a full support nor can she handle the role of main DPS as strongly for any fast-paced Challenge Quest. Nevertheless, her flexibility will generally allow her to patch up any hole in a Master's roster with little difficulty.

★★★★★
ST
Ozymandias
Ozymandias’s ability to support his team with two team-wide buffs is both extremely unique and powerful at the same time. Furthermore, the combination between Protection of the Sun God and Imperial Privilege makes him a fantastic damage dealer with consistently high damage output and durability.
★★★★★
ST
Meltryllis

This sadistic Alter Ego is a classic case of how one’s class can tremendously elevate or hinder a Servant’s potential. Meltryllis is not lacking in most aspects, possessing good NP and Star Generation, decent utility, strong sustained damage and better survivability than most. However, her Alter Ego class means her damage is rarely, if ever, the best against certain enemies. Unfortunately, specialization is generally better over the long run as a Master's roster grows ever larger.

Yet, Meltryllis does become more relevant in the future thanks to a combination of a Rank Up that makes her Melt Virus much easier to use, and the existence of better support for Quick Servants. For now, she remains a strong Servant, but one that is still biding her time. 

★★★★★
ST
Quetzalcoatl
With a fantastic skill set across the board and heavy frontal burst damage, Quetzalcoatl is easily one of the best Riders in the game. She is easy to use and set up, and particularly effective at what she does, making her a prime candidate for quickly killing Berserker or Caster bosses. Furthermore, her utility is also fantastic, offering a strong teamwide attack buff, targetable Buster and Guts, and NP seal on her Noble Phantasm. Her Buster-centric kit allows her to stay relevant for a long time with the release of Merlin.
★★★★★
AOE
Ishtar
Ishtar is easily one of the best farming Archers in the game. Boasting a whopping 50% instant NP charge, extraordinary base stats, three steroids jammed into her kit and an AoE Buster Noble Phantasm, Ishtar has everything she needs to make herself useful for farming events. The Queen of Heaven’s kit does have a couple of weak points, as her only survivability tool has but a 80% chance to proc, and her massive attack buff can be tricky to fully utilize for less experienced players. Nonetheless, Ishtar is a very valuable Archer whose usefulness only goes up over time, and is a massive life-saver for any contents requiring powerful AoE Archers.
★★★★★
ST
Mysterious Heroine X (Alter)

MHXA provides multi-class coverage with her Berserker classing and Quick ST NP. Her access to a strong Quick steroid greatly boosts her performance, which is further enhanced in the presence of powerful Quick supports such as Skadi. This is bolstered by her fantastic NP generation rate and decent Star generation rate, which enable her to use her NP multiple times in succession.

While she has a high HP base and a self-heal, MHXA still suffers from the same survivability problems that plague most Berserkers with paper thin durability. Her Anti-Saber niche grants her some special usage, as she can potentially outdamage most Archers, but she lacks their defensive benefits against Sabers. All in all, MHXA performs well as a boss-slayer of all Classes, and further gains skill upgrades to improve her performance.

★★★★★
AOE
Sessyoin Kiara

At first sight, Kiara has some standout skills with a wide array of strong effects tacked on and several amazing passives. However, she is severely hamstrung by her poor damage output and the high cooldown on all of her skills. Being an Arts Alter Ego with wide coverage, Kiara is a decent alternative for Masters with limited Servant rosters and a preference for Arts Servants, but her value diminishes as more options are available. One primary advantage is her strong NP charge opening up some nice farming opportunities via Arts refunding.

Kiara is definitely not a terrible Servant even in her initial state, but her lack of focus on a specialization means she is rarely if ever the best choice for a task. Luckily for this Devilish Bodhisattva, her usefulness will increase notably in the future with two Rank Up quests.

★★★★★
ST
Altria Pendragon (Archer)
One of the best Art Damage Dealers in the game, Summer Altria’s claim to fame is her extraordinary NP refund. Thanks to a combination of Excalibur Vivian’s high hit counts and overcharge effect, Summer Altria can use multiple Noble Phantasm in rapid succession. On top of that she has an excellent supportive skill set to further bolster any Art team’s survivability. Once this lovely King of Knights get going, she is simply unstoppable.
★★★★★
ST
Miyamoto Musashi
It is not an exaggeration to say Musashi has incredible damage potential among Sabers. Thanks to her extremely unique and potent first skill, Fifth Force, Musashi can reliably charge her NP and have surprisingly good Star Generation despite having a triple Buster deck. Add in the steroids from her second skill and Noble Phantasm, and we get one of the best Single Target damage dealers in the game, particularly when accompanied by Servants like Merlin. Considering she also packs great team utility with her ability to clear enemy buffs and having great survivability with debuff clear and invulnerability, Musashi is fantastic in many single target Challenge Quests. However, due to being highly dependent on certain cards and card chains, Musashi can be frustratingly inconsistent when things don’t go her way. In addition, her use outside of Challenge Quests is rather limited given how tricky it is to fully charge her NP from scratch.
★★★★★
ST
Xuanzang Sanzang
Sanzang is currently the best offensive Caster with some nice supportive skills. Her ability to instantly charge her NP bar also makes her fantastic at doing frontal burst damage, especially with her NP Upgrade Rank Up. However, her lack of strong offensive self-buffs severely does hamper her damage output over the course of a battle and she has to rely on her Supports and CEs to compensate for that.
★★★★★
ST
Cu Chulainn (Alter)
Cu Chulainn Alter is a Berserker with high attack stats combined with the ability to do Buster Brave Chains while having an overwhelmingly potent kit for survival. These traits make him a fantastic addition to any team. While he does not have a particularly powerful niche, his performance independent of team setup and his consistency in both surviving and dealing damage land him a well-deserved spot in Tier 1.
★★★★★
ST
Nero Claudius (Bride)

Nero Bride is a strong hybrid attacker/buffer that performs well both independently and in specific setups. Often used in Arts-centric teams, Nero Bride is fantastic at helping a teammate’s NP spamming capacity, while also being capable of dishing out notable damage thanks to her own high NP generation rate and strong Noble Phantasm after her Interlude. Because of her well-roundedness, Nero Bride is also a good backline member to bring out when a frontliner fall in battle, as she can fulfill either Support and/or DPS duty in their stead.

However, her versatility is also her downfall, as Nero Bride is neither the best Arts support nor DPS, and thus can be replaced by Servants with more specialized skill sets in optimal Arts teams.

★★★★★
AOE
Nikola Tesla
Tesla is a fantastic farming Servant thanks to his instant NP charge and high damage AoE Noble Phantasm. Furthermore, his Noble Phantasm has fantastic coverage as it does extra damage to a wide array of Servants, allowing him to fare very well in many boss battles. However, he is rather reliant on his Noble Phantasm to deal meaningful damage, and his skill set isn’t quite powerful enough to make Tier 1.
★★★★★
AOE
Mordred
Mordred is a great farmer thanks to the ability to instantly charge her Noble Phantasm with Secret of Pedigree and her strong upgraded Noble Phantasm. Her base stats are also decent for a Saber, but both her generation stats and her skillset are extremely vanilla and often do not offer her prolonged effectiveness on the battlefield. Furthermore, her Noble Phantasm’s overcharge effect is very niche, and rarely finds use throughout the game.
★★★★★
ST
Okita Souji
Okita draws many similarities to Jack the Ripper. Her high NP generation and Star Generation makes her a consistent and reliable single target damage dealer and Critical Star generator. With the presence of Skadi in the roster, her Quick-oriented deck becomes even more proficient at both NP and Star generation, enhancing her raw performance as a damage dealer to impressive levels. However, it should be noted that Okita's toolkit does not offer any unique niche to the team aside from its focus on damage, provided its selfish and rather straightforward (albeit still effective) repertoire.
★★★★★
AOE
Francis Drake
Drake is easily one of the best farming Servants in the game thanks to her fantastic self-sufficient kit and the ability to chain her AoE Noble Phantasm in quick succession. Drake, however, is not that fantastic at dealing single target damage, as she lacks strong self-buffs as well as any form of bonus damage against certain enemy types to distinguish herself from other AoE Riders.
★★★★★
AOE
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh specializes at two very useful niches. First, he has a powerful AoE Noble Phantasm well suited for both farming and single target damage due to the majority of bosses in the game being Servants. Additionally, he performs well as a Buster Critical Damage Dealer thanks to a combination of on-demand Critical Absorption, high natural Critical Damage, high base stats and the ability to do Buster Brave Chains.
★★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon
Altria’s base skill set is rather vanilla, being quite similar to Iskander in terms of skills and stats, except her skills are all slightly worse value-wise. However, Altria does have access to the most damaging AoE NP among all Sabers. With access to a 30% charge from her Rank Up on her third skill, she provides quick access to Excalibur for Masters in need of a powerful farmer / wave clearer.
★★★★
ST
Hephaistion
Hephaistion is the first Pretender Class Servant available in the general pool, as a single target Arts damage dealer. Her greatest asset is her 120% self NP Gauge charger, which gives her amazing flexibility as a slot in damage dealer against a large boss enemy. She also has excellent Class coverage due to Pretender Classing, giving her damage bonus against Alter Ego, Berserker, Saber, Lancer, and Archer enemies. Additionally, her first skill gives her advantage against Casters, giving her amazing general coverage. She comes with buffs to her Arts, Buster, and NP damage for herself, and also provides herself with NP Gain buffs and a taunt with a respectable DEF buff for herself. Her main weakness is her lack of long term staying power, relying on allies for any hard defensive measures as she lacks any of her own. However, she makes for an effective and widely applicable boss slayer with highly flexible craft essence options due to her full NP charge.
★★★★
ST
Elisabeth Bathory (Cinderella)
The welfare of Halloween 2023, Elisabeth Bathory (Cinderella) is an ST Buster Rider, complete with a handy 30% self NP charge, along with a minor NP Gain buff. Her ST NP notably clears all her own debuffs before damage, and provides a small ATK buff for any Fairy Tale trait allies. Offensively, her skill set has a 3-turn Buster and anti-Wild Beast ATK bonus buff, and she can also provide 30 stars on demand at max skill level. Defensively, she has a 3-time, 3 turn Invincibility for herself. On the flip side, each of her skills has a demerit, the most notable one being her third skill's self-inflicted Skill Seal, generally necessitating that Masters use Skills 1 and 2 before Skill 3. The other demerits (self poison, self DEF down) are relatively minor in comparison. Cinder Elly cements herself as an excellent ST Rider Welfare with a handy NP charge skill. She has somewhat steep competition from other ST Rider welfares such as Kintoki Rider, but provides a fair bit of utility that makes her unique.
★★★★
ST
Charlotte Corday (Caster)
★★★★
ST
Anastasia & Viy (Archer)
★★★★
AOE
Percival
Percival is an AoE Arts Lancer who comes with a skill set that has impressive defensive capabilities. He is capable of protecting allies by both providing buffs as well as redirecting damage from enemies. He has a targetable Invincible skill that also restores a minor amount of health, in addition to a 3-turn Target Focus skill for himself that increases NP Gain when he sustains damage. As an AoE Arts damage dealer, he is also capable of looping his NP relatively well, and also comes with a small 20% charge of his own, in addition to an Arts and NP damage buff. Finally, his NP itself Ignores Invincibility, adds a further NP damage buff, and can restore health to the lowest-HP percentage ally. Percival is a decently effective combination of defensive support and offense, with his greatest weakness arguably being that his damage is on the lower side. However, with the support of premiere Arts support, he can usually reach numbers sufficient for clearing smaller waves, and doubles as a high utility defensive support option on teams as well.
★★★★
ST
Karna (Santa)
Karna enters the boxing ring as Christmas 2022's welfare Servant, changing from Lancer to Saber class. As a single-target Quick Saber, Karna dishes out lightning-fast punch combos that bring him to the top of his class in damage output, partly due to the ease of reaching NP5 with him. In his skill set, he has a multitude of self-buffs, including Quick/Buster Card buffs, and both a general Crit Damage buff and a Quick-only Crit Damage buff, which when stacked, enable him to deal immensely damaging Critical hits. He also has a Star Gather buff, which helps guarantee Stars on his cards when his Crit buffs are active. Karna's third skill provides some measure of support as well, being an ally-targetable 20% NP charge that also gives the target 3 times of Debuff Immunity, which can be invaluable in certain fights. Defensively, Karna has a 2-time, 3-turn Evade, giving him a decent measure for emergencies. His NP itself is relatively straightforward, buffing his own Quick effectiveness before damage, and also has a relatively niche effect of removing Guts before damage. Altogether, his kit is well-rounded and focused on his damage output, with impressive NP and Crit damage, both of which are only further enhanced with premiere Quick Support. Karna is an excellent ST Quick Saber option to keep in the back pocket, even if Masters already have other options, due to his sheer damage output and Quick/Crit synergy.
★★★★
ST
Saito Hajime
Saito Hajime joins the roster as another single target Arts Saber, and like other ST Arts Sabers of his rarity, his performance is impressive. His NP hitcount and refund are high, especially with Arts support. His kit consists primarily of selfish buffs: Arts, Buster, ATK, Crit Strength, and a burst of Stars. He also has decent defensive measures via an Evade and self DEF buff. His NP notably provides a 3-turn, stackable Arts Resist debuff on the enemy, which can further magnify damage dealt to that enemy on subsequent hits, and also provides a minor Crit Rate debuff on the enemy. His kit is relatively straight forward and offensively focused, and for those looking for an ST Arts Saber, he does the job well.
★★★★
AOE
Nightingale (Santa)
Nightingale (Santa) is 2021's Santa Welfare Servant, being an AoE Quick Archer wielding an umbrella-gun. Her damage dealing NP will remove offensive buffs, decrease DEF after damage, and also heal any damage-over-time debuffs the enemies may have (which is a demerit, albeit only a minor one given damage-over-time debuffs deal very minor damage in most scenarios). Her kit particularly key to why she is a unique asset to a Master's roster, with her targetable Guts skill also providing 3 turns of NP Damage boost and 100% Buff Removal Resist. Being a welfare, she provides easier access to 100% Buff Removal Resist for an ally, which is an ability otherwise locked behind other limited or story-locked Servants. In addition, she has a party wide ATK and Crit damage buff, and a heal that also removes one buff from all enemies and one debuff from all allies. Her kit as a whole gives her excellent utility in certain challenging encounters, particularly those with bosses who remove buffs, while also providing decent offensive and healing support to the party. Her AoE NP also hits decently well given her welfare status and easy NP5, making her an extremely well-rounded Servant that also happens to have her own niche.
★★★★
AOE
Mysterious Alter Ego Λ
Borrowing the form of the mystical leviathan hailing from the polar regions, Mysterious Alter Ego Lambda is Meltryllis's AoE Arts Lancer summer form. She has a decidedly selfish skill kit, with an array of offensive self buffs including Arts, ATK, and Crit Star Gather Up. Interestingly, her 5-turn Arts buff at max skill level only has a 4-turn cooldown, giving it essentially constant uptime, plus a single turn of double stacked Arts buffs once the cooldown refreshes. She also has a unique NP charge that drains up to 30% NP Gauge from each ally to charge her own by up to 60%, giving her one of the larger NP charges available, albeit at a high cost. She also comes with invincibility as her primary defensive measure, which also has a built-in turn of Buff Removal Resist, and the unique ability to change the field to be Near Water, which can be helpful for allies that have bonuses on the field type. Her NP itself ignores DEF, and can remove Evasion on enemies so long as the field is Near Water. After applying damage, the NP will also provide a decent sum of Crit Stars, which can help improve the critical output of the party. However, the selfishness of her skill set can be seen as a detriment, and her performance without support is very much in the middle of the pack for her class. With a certain premiere Arts support, however, she hits substantially harder and becomes capable of looping her NP with greater ease (although she still does so decently with other NP Gauge supports, given the 60% NP Gauge charge in her kit). Overall, the leviathan is a worthy AoE Arts Lancer with a hefty charge and the capability to make any location her stage.
★★★★
ST
Katsushika Hokusai (Saber)
The Welfare Servant of the Vegas Summer Event, Hokusaki exchanges brush for blade, becoming an ST Arts Saber damage dealer. Her kit provides multiple ways to boost her Crit performance, including Stars on demand, a Star Gather buff, and a Crit Strength buff that will stack every time she lands a Critical hit. She also comes with a self Arts buff, a 20% NP charge, and Guts as her defensive measure. Her ST Arts NP itself has high hit counts, and will buff her NP Strength before dealing damage. In combination with her Welfare status, her NP is more than likely to hit hard, especially against any Lancer opponents. Her value only increases with the presence of premiere Arts Supports, allowing her to loop her NP with ease while dealing massive damage. Hokusai (Saber) is a worthy addition to the roster, and her sword juggling skills are sure to impress.
★★★★
ST
Nagao Kagetora
Nagao Kagetora is the first welfare ST Arts Lancer, coming with a straightforward and effective kit. She has 1-turn self Arts and Star Gather buffs, party ATK/Crit Damage/Star Drop buffs, and a self 1-turn evade with an NP Gain buff built in. Her 8-hit Arts NP will remove offensive buffs and decrease Critical Rate for the target, while dealing a high amount of damage. She easily reaches impressive damage values due to her status as a Welfare granting her easy access to NP5. Furthermore, her star gather buff, combined with her self Arts and NP Gain buff, allow Nagao to easily fill her NP Gauge after an NP, often enabling her to fire twice in a row even without external help, especially if she can land Critical hits with an NPAA chain. As an offensive Archer boss slayer, Nagao Kagetora is an excellent Servant, and her performance only improves with proper Arts Support.
★★★★
AOE
Gray
Gray is a second welfare AoE Assassin, coming with a Buster-type NP. She has a solid self-focused skill set, capable of buffering her own ATK, Quick, and Buster performance, along with a 20% NP Charge and a 1-time Invincibility for herself. She additionally can deal a sizable amount of bonus damage against Undead trait enemies, which are quite commonly encountered. Her NP is a straightforward nuke that will also debuff Quick and Buster resist of all enemies after applying damage. For Masters in need of an Assassin capable of clearing waves, with her Welfare status granting easier access to NP5, Gray will be more that adequate for getting the job done.
★★★★
SUPPORT
Prince of Lan Ling
The Prince of Lan Ling, Saber class, primarily acts as an excellent damage and critical support Servant, with a support Arts type NP. He has a two-time, 3 turn invincibility skill that also acts as an ATK boost for all allies for three turns, can fill an ally's NP Gauge by up to 20% while increasing their buff success rate, as well as providing Arts, Star Drop Rate, and Critical Strength support to all allies for three turns at decent values. To top off his arsenal, his NP will further increase ATK for allies for three turns based on overcharge, provide some damage cut to all allies, decrease NP Charge of enemies by 1, and decrease critical rate of all enemies. All told, he can provide ATK +50%, Crit Damage +50%, and Arts +20% for all allies with all skills and NP active, making his damage support extremely noteworthy. His presence is welcome in most any team composition, with his primary weakness being a lack of truly effective party sustenance and damage mitigation options (with damage cut being only a flat 500 at NP1).
★★★★
ST
Mysterious Heroine XX
Mysterious Heroine XX is the first SR Foreigner Servant, giving Masters an easier opportunity to obtain a Servant of this class. Her ST Arts NP deals decent damage against Saber and Threat to Humanity enemies, boosted by her own ATK buff and the in-built ATK buff that activates during the NP. She also comes with a 30% NP self charge, the ability to Ignore Invincibility, as well as a self Invincibility skill. However, in most scenarios she is not the optimal pick damage-wise, dealing and receiving neutral damage in most scenarios due to her class typing. As a side bonus, she does provide the situational ability to provide stars to her allies by generating stars while decreasing her own star gathering rate to zero. In most cases, she may not be the optimal pick, but against more difficult Berserker enemies, for Masters who lack a Foreigner, she provides decent value.
★★★★
ST
Jeanne d'Arc (Berserker Alter)
When she unleashes her Noble Phantasm, few can hit as hard as Jeanne d'Arc (Berserker Alter). By courtesy of being a Welfare, she has easy access to NP5, and combined with her high attack, self buffs, and a welcome NP charge skill, her ST Buster NP can come out fast and hit extremely hard against many enemies. Her lower HP pool lends to her Berserker class fragility, however, and although this is somewhat mitigated by her Evade skill, which gives her 1 time evade that refreshes each turn for 3 turns, she can still meet an untimely demise if focused or from an errant critical hit. Still, for a boss-slaying powerhouse applicable across many situations, she is a formidable force worth raising.
★★★★
AOE
Sieg
Sieg is definitely a very powerful AoE Caster option who is a match even for his higher rarity counterparts. Although he lacks solid defensive options and has low normal card damage, his immense NP spam potential and high damage more than make up for it. Despite the often heated arguments surrounding his character, Masters willing to invest in him are sure to find great value in the homunculus-turned-hero’s abilities.
★★★★
ST
Chloe von Einzbern

Chloe is an Archer who more or less eschews the effectiveness of all her other card types to have absolutely absurd Arts cards. With her extremely powerful star generation buff she can use her 6-hit Arts cards like other Servants’ Quick cards, while also gaining an impressive amount of NP gauge. Add in a strong Card Performance boost of all card types and a 50% NP charge, and Chloe can easily set herself up for back to back NPs. Naturally given her welfare status these NPs deal impressive damage, but Kuro can also soak up her stars easily as an Archer class Servant and then deal solid critical damage with her Independent Action and 3-turn Critical buff. 

While Chloe’s intense focus on Arts cards does make her particularly susceptible to poor card luck from her 2 more-or-less useless Quick cards, Chloe's ease of use and usefulness to snipe targets with her NP make her an exceptional addition to any Master's roster.

★★★★
ST
Minamoto-no-Raikou (Lancer)

With a kit overloaded with powerful passives, multiple skill effects and an overpowering Defense-piercing NP, Raikou (Lancer) is at the very forefront of 4* Servants. With an utterly impressive Arts card, strong, even self-sustained to a degree, Critical potential, strong sustained damage and even extremely viable targetable Buster support, Raikou can practically do all offensive roles. 

Still, she is not perfect. She lacks any survival skills whatsoever, and she is fairly draw dependent when it comes to unleashing her full damage potential or charging her NP Gauge with that bonker single Arts card. Either way, she has a firm hold here with an unanimous placement into Tier 1 as her performance at NP1 is exceedingly powerful. 

★★★★
ST
Oda Nobunaga (Berserker)

With excellent hit counts on her Buster cards, her NP Gain potential is rather good. Factor in her teamwide support, very short cooldown Critical steroid (that synergizes extremely well with Buster Critical supports like Merlin), and decent survival for a Berserker, and Nobunaga's kit works very well as a sustained offensive Buster Berserker.  In addition, she has a wide niche in anti-Divinity bonus damage. 

Still, her pure damage performance by herself is rather lackluster, being dependent on supports to bring her up to par with competing Berserker. Plus, charging her NP Gauge does often mean making use of an ABB chain, which does a fair bit lower damage without the Buster start. Nonetheless a great Berserker for any piece of harder content if provided with the Buster Critical supports. 

★★★★
ST
Ryougi Shiki (Assassin)

A sublime welfare in all regards. Fully exploiting her Arts potential, Shiki benefits from good NP gain while maintaining her class’s high star generation. In addition, she outputs formidable damage due to her welfare status, while her defences and utility remain up to par. With powerful Arts buffs it is particularly easy for her to recharge immense amount of NP gauge from her NP turn with her strong Arts cards, especially as she still has her own NP battery to top off her NP Bar. Her basic attacks are no slouch either as her critical damage buff and Independent Action help to compensate for her inherit 0.9x Assassin modifiers.

Still, Shiki can be rather fragile. While her Evasion protects her against the biggest threat in most battles, her own NP battery and otherwise lack of defensive measures can be a problem in difficult battles. Still, whether used on her own or in the context of an Arts team, she’s a formidable asset to have, capable of inflicting high damage that ignores most of her foes' defensive measures.

★★★★
AOE
Fionn mac Cumhaill
Notoriously underwhelming upon release and often decried as an evil spook, most of Fionn’s strengths are locked behind his Interlude and Rank-Up Quests. Upon finishing these personal challenges, the great Irish hero does become noticeably better and occupies the rare niche of being an AoE Arts Lancer that is capable of performing in both farming and Challenge Quests. Fionn’s eventual use is mostly for farming thanks to his ability to use his Noble Phantasm multiple times in a row in the right, albeit very expensive, Arts teams. His team support is also quite impressive, bringing not only Attack Down debuffs, NP Generation and Critical Star Generation to the team, but also uporading the team’s protection through a Taunt + Evasion combo. His downsides are not so small however. Before receiving all his Rank-Up Quests, Fionn’s poor NP generation, lackluster damage output, and high cooldowns are all highly detrimental to his role as an AoE Arts sweeper. And, even at his full power, Fionn still requires a large amount of support to reach his full potential. Just, don’t turn him into a Rare Prism before seeing his full potential.
★★★★
ST
Heracles

▂▂▃▃▅▅ーーー!! ”

Heracles is a Berserker who embodies all of the class’s best traits while covering for its weaknesses to an extreme degree. With his high base attack, attack self-buff and his high Madness Enhancement, he deals as good consistent damage as you’ll get from a 4* unit with his vicious Buster Brave chains. His strong offense is supplemented by an absurd amount of defensive options including his famous Bond Craft Essence, Castle of Snow. His survivability is a trait that very few Berserkers in the game can boast, further cementing his simple but effective gameplay.

While his offensive ceiling is comparatively lower in more specialized teams, and his team utility is virtually nonexistent, Heracles is still an excellent Servant who can carry newer players far into the game.

★★★★
SUPPORT
Mash Kyrielight

Far from being just a token character for story purposes, Mash is a highly reliable support Servant. As a Shielder, Mash has no class weaknesses while packing a skill set that provides plenty of defensive support, making her highly valuable for challenging battles. Her Noble Phantasm, with its powerful party defense buffs, has high uptime thanks to the massive NP generation buff on Shield of Rousing Resolution, and is also upgraded after a certain part of the story. In general, her skill set and NP make Mash one of the best in the business at improving the survivability of the entire party, or protecting a dedicated damage dealer. Her own lack of any Party Cost gives her even more fantastic value as she can be slotted into any backline seamlessly, either to serve as a Craft Essence holder for Bond / Event farming or as an emergency backup when things go south.

While this cute eggplant might have some slight issues, like her story-locked progression and her poor damage potential, they are trivial compared to the sheer defensive value that she brings to the table.

★★★
AOE
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri is an Arts-based AoE damage dealer who provides various boosts to an Arts-crit hybrid team. While his relative fragility can be a liability, he deals strong damage to all enemy classes, and his general flexibility as a damage-dealer makes him valuable to Masters who lack higher-rarity AoE Arts options or who like using unconventional teams.
★★★
ST
Bedivere

Known as the closest thing to a normal person among the ridiculous Knights of the Round Table, Bedivere’s prowess as a Servant is reflected by his lower rarity. He is defined by his powerful single target Noble Phantasm, which when combined with his skill Tactics, strong Overcharge effect on his NP, and good base Attack can deliver devastating damage at max potential. His Calm and Collected skill also enables any Master access to a good 30% NP charge which proves invaluable for farming during raids or even farming in general.

On the other hand, Bedivere’s skills all last for one turn aside from his mental debuff resistance buff, meaning he has quite poor sustained damage, and building up another NP burst turn often takes a lot of time. Furthermore, he has one of the worst availabilities amongst 3* Servants due to his story-locked status and lack of rate-ups, meaning getting him to NP level 5 can be a huge challenge for any Master.

★★★
ST
Euryale

Behold, the killer of men, the widowmaker of FGO. Euryale is a very iconic Servant and holds a special status amongst the community for her highly specialized skill set.

What makes her stand out is her ability to completely subjugate non-Lancer male bosses thanks to a combination of high bonus damage against Male enemies on her single target Noble Phantasm, NP spam potential, and Charm-locking capability.

While her usage is quite limited outside of difficult male boss content, Euryale’s niche performance can outshine even those of higher rarity.

★★★
ST
Gaius Julius Caesar

Despite his unusual appearance for such a renowned hero, Caesar is a surprisingly effective Servant in his own right. He provides a good variety of party buffs, and serves as a decent single target Saber for Masters who lack higher rarity options.

While his skills are all quite simple in nature and usage, they offer a good amount of firepower to the team, ranging from Critical Damage and Noble Phantasm damage, to overall attack damage. His Noble Phantasm also provides a decent amount of Critical Stars and NP refund, which somewhat compensates for his poor Star and NP generation. With his buffs, and at high NP levels, his NP can deal a good amount of damage as well.

Caesar’s main problem is his very poor survivability, as he lacks defensive skills while also having relatively poor HP values.

Note: After his second Rank Up (February 2022), Caesar's potential NP Damage is incredible, competing in damage output with even 5* rarity Servants. 

AOE
Spartacus

Low rarity, Berserker class, Self-NP charge skill and AoE Noble Phantasm, Spartacus is tailor-made to be a farming machine for almost everyone. With starting NP gauge Craft Essences and/or other NP charging options, Spartacus can clear a wave of mobs instantly, making him a cheap and valuable option for any sort of farming.

His low rarity and Berserker class do make him extremely squishy (despite having a heal-oriented kit), which is often not impactful due to Spartacus’s main usage as a farmer for many 3 Turns farming setups. Outside of his farming niche, Spartacus does find some use in harder content which features multiple enemies in a wave, thanks to his extremely low Party Cost.

All in all, Spartacus has a very specific usage and will help out most Masters a ton when crafting farming teams, but his performance outside farming teams is nothing special.

B+
★★★★★
AOE
Taigong Wang
Taigong Wang, also known as Jiang Ziya, is an AoE Quick Rider with a well balanced skill set. He provides offensive support to all allies, including all of Quick, ATK, NP Damage, anti-Demonic/Divine, and 20% NP charge buffs. He also has a further 30% charge for himself, allowing him to charge up to 50% NP gauge by himself. His NP deals bonus damage against Divine trait, while decreasing Quick Resist after damage. He also provides a small bit of utility via a Skill Seal effect. However, defensively Taigong Wang has nothing to his name, relying heavily on allies for any damage mitigation. Altogether, Taigong Wang makes for a powerful AoE Quick Rider option that further bolsters any other allies on the field, and is a pretty universal and welcome addition to most teams. He is not quite as powerful as a dedicated support, but when facing Demonic/Divine trait enemies, he actually can surpass them in damage within his niche.
★★★★★
AOE
Okita Souji (Saber Alter)
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Miss Crane
Miss Crane is a unique supportive Caster Servant with the rare ability to Order Change herself out of the party using her NP, with a paltry requirement of 20 Critical Stars. Very notably, she has a full 100% NP Gauge Charge skill, enabling her to use her NP on demand so long as enough Stars are also on the field. In addition, her kit provides a plethora of offensive buffs for allies, including increased Star Drop Rate, Star Gather, Crit Damage, ATK, NP Strength, and anywhere from 30-50% NP Gauge to an ally depending on overcharge. She also provides defensive support in the form of Invincibility and Instant Death Immunity. With her Order Change effect, she elevates the flexibility of buff stacking setups to levels that were not possible before. However, if the Master has few other supports in the roster, her utility is somewhat limited. She also struggles to deal damage on her own, being very much not built for offense herself. By the design of her kit, she excels particularly at giving the spotlight to others, and her value increases as more Servants are obtained, making her a poor choice for newer Masters, but an excellent choice for veteran Masters.
★★★★★
AOE
Vritra
Vritra, the serpentine diety, manifests as an AoE Arts Lancer. She comes with both a 30% NP charge and up to 10% NP per turn over 5 turns, which combined with her decent Arts buffs, give her relatively comfortable access to her NP. Similar to others in the somewhat crowded AoE Lancer roster, she is capable of looping comfortably, especially with premiere Arts Support. Her NP additionally decreases Arts Resist after damage, which can help improve Arts performance on subsequent attacks from herself or the party, and also Skill Seals and debuffs Critical Rate, which can indirectly protect the party from enemy skills or crit attacks. She also provides some measure of offensive support for allies, providing a relatively rare NP Damage buff as well as bonus Special Attack against Divine enemies to all allies at modest values. For herself, she also has an Arts performance and Arts Star Gather buff, making her Arts Cards particularly threatening. Defensively, Vritra only has a Guts skill, although this still provides her with a bit of extra survivability. However, Vritra's damage only just barely reaches the benchmark levels required for farming, sometimes requiring external support for beefier waves. In the crowded AoE Lancer niche, she doesn't quite bring anything particularly new to the table, has higher cost compared to some options, and the values on her Divine bonus damage are lower than most others, so she doesn't quite fully carve out a niche for herself. However, for Masters in need of an AoE Arts Lancer, she is more than capable of filling the role with her relative ease of access to her NP.
★★★★★
AOE
Voyager
Voyager is an AoE Quick Foreigner Servant with a strong offering of team support and the ability to loop their NP. Their NP does bonus damage against Heaven attribute, and importantly gives 20% NP Gauge to the entire party, plus an additional 10% for Pseudo-Servant trait allies. In addition, Voyager also comes with a 50% NP Charge skill that also provides him with 3 turns of Debuff Immunity and a few Crit Stars, making him quite decent at filling his (and his allies') NP Gauge when his NP or skills are available. He also can support allies' Critical potential, with Crit Gather buffs for an ally, Crit Damage buffs for all allies, and a Critical Rate Resist buff that decreases the likelihood of sustaining a crit from enemies. Finally, he has a defensive option in the form of Evade, which also acts as his Quick Card steroid and additionally debuffs Quick Resist for one enemy. As a package, Voyager has an excellent assortment of beneficial effects for both the party and himself; his weakness is that his damage is rather poor, and Classes that he has advantage against are somewhat rare with the exception of Berserkers. His Cards also have somewhat poor NP Gain (aside from his NP itself), which can make it difficult for him to fill his NP Gauge if his skills are on cooldown. Overall, although somewhat lacking in damage, Voyager is a solid AoE Quick Foreigner that offers a generous amount of party support in addition to some wave clearing ability.
★★★★★
ST
Yang Guifei
The New Year's Foreigner Servant, Yang Guifei, is a single target Arts damage dealer with a unique ability to capitalize on the Burn status effect. Her NP deals bonus damage if her target is afflicted with Burn, and itself will also Burn the opponent after damage. She also is capable of inflicting Burn and decreasing DEF for enemies that attack her while her third skill is active, which also boosts her own DEF. To facilitate having enemies attack her, her first skill has a 1-turn taunt+invincibility (although taunt only works for male enemies before her upgrade), while also granting her critical stars and NP Gauge every turn. Her second skill provides the interesting effect of draining NP Gauge from enemies, where her own Gauge increases depending on how many enemies actually had NP Bar actively drained by the skill, while also applying an AoE DEF debuff. In practice, however, this requires enemies to have at least 1 tick of charge to be effective. In addition, for her damage to be at full potential, burn needs to be inflicted before her NP, so she requires some setup to utilize her well. She serves excellently as a slayer of Berserker bosses, drawing attacks to herself from allies with invincibility, while being decently durable otherwise thanks to class advantage. Ufufu.
★★★★★
ST
Li Shuwen (Assassin)
Li Shuwen's Assassin form is a solid entry to the single target Arts damage dealer roster. He comes with potent Critical damage performance, having Critical Strength, Star Gather Rate, and instant Star gain skills, with Ignore Invincibility available to his arsenal. He also has a potent self ATK boost that has both a 1 turn and 3 turn component, which also comes with a bonus 1 turn immunity to debuffs. Defensively, however, his kit is relatively sparse, with only a self Evade skill that is tied to his Star Gather and Star gain effects. His NP inflicts a DEF down effect before damage, has the added bonus of Instant Death chance, and receives a damage upgrade. However, it only deals one hit, making its NP refund somewhat underwhelming despite being an Arts card. Li Shuwen (Assassin), despite shortcomings, is a capable addition to the roster for those in need of a single target Assassin class Servant, and will handily solve most any Rider class issues the Master may have.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Qin Shi Huang
The Ruler-class Servant, Qin Shi Huang, has a well-balanced kit with a non-damaging Arts NP. He has a 50% self NP Gauge charge that comes with a heal and debuff cleanse, a skill that decreases NP Gauge and DEF of all enemies, and a chance-based Stun for all enemies with a self ATK buff of decent value lasting three turns. The crowning element of his kit is his Noble Phantasm, which grants himself Invincibility, Taunt, Critical damage boosts, an ATK boost, and a Critical Star gather rate boosts, making his subsequent hits highly damaging while protecting allies. However, as would be for the First Emperor, he excels in solo situations when only his cards are present, and with a proper juggling of his self-sustain and stalling moves, along with the Invincibility on his NP, he is capable of handling many difficult encounters by himself, making him a great Servant to have in the roster.
★★★★★
AOE
BB (Summer)
With serious style and a serious tan, BB (Summer) is the first Moon Cancer Servant available from the Gacha. Her AoE Buster NP offers some stalling utility by decreasing enemy NP charge up to twice each use, and is bolstered by her own Buster and NP Strength buffs, each of which last 3 turns. She also comes with an ever handy 50% NP Charge, giving her quicker access to her NP. She has a nice self critical damage and star gathering buff, with 2 stars per turn passively from her class skill and additional stars from her third skill. The most unique aspect of BB (Summer) is her Faceless Moon skill, which will lock the currently dealt Command Cards for the next 3 turns. However, it should be noted that the support viability of this skill in most cases is not worth sacrificing a true support slot, as BB (Summer) has no other means of support aside from the card lock and Critical Star generation. Another unique trait of BB (Summer)'s is that she is immune to Burn, which is rather niche but still nice. Her kit is solid, and her uniqueness in class and utility combine to make her a solid Servant.
★★★★★
AOE
Achilles
An AoE Quick Rider with an NP battery, strong survivability, and team utility, Achilles is a fantastic Servant with a clear and effective gameplan. His baseline performance can already give most of his Rider peers a run for their money, but he becomes truly ridiculous when properly supported, capable of looping his Noble Phantasm with proper support.
★★★★★
AOE
Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai's overall performance is strong enough that even outside her Foreigner niche, her potential as a cornerstone to any Arts AoE NP spamming team is downright impressive. Even outside of difficult content, or any poor Berserker enemies, her ability to refund and charge her NP can even land her a spot during farming sessions. Sadly, at NP1, this farming potential is often hard to access.

Yet, she suffers from the general problem most Extra class Servants have: a frequent lack of class advantage. Even against Berserkers she still competes against all other classes, if durability is not an issue. 

Still, Hokusai's potential damage (especially against Human attribute opponents) makes her a very strong pick for most mixed class (Challenge) Quests, as all her steroids will then provide enough damage potential to offset any lack of class advantage.

★★★★★
ST
First Hassan
King Hassan is certainly a peculiar Assassin amidst the pool of wacky Quick and Arts murderers. Packing three Buster cards, two strong steroids, a Buster single target Noble Phantasm and the appearance of a Dark Souls boss, one could call him a Berserker in disguise. He is one of the strongest solo Servant in the game thanks to a combination of good damage and fantastic survivability, and can also serve the role of the last man for any challenge quest. However, while his deck heavily improves his capacity for destruction, his Star gen and NP gen take a hit, even with his monstrously high NP gain per hit. Essentially, it makes King Hassan heavily reliant on teammates and getting the right card chains to build up NP charge. Furthermore, his skill set does not provide any relevant form of utility, which is problematic when his class’s damage potential reduces his damage potential.. Ultimately, King Hassan suffers from being a low-utility dedicated damage dealer in a class not very suited for pure damage.
★★★★★
AOE
Caster of the Nightless City

Amongst the populated AoE Caster role, Caster of the Nightless City does hold a specific niche in countering enemies with the “King” trait. Coupled with her strong NP refund potential and Challenge Quest-focused skill set, she is supposed to handle AoE Challenge Quests especially well. Unfortunately, at release, her pitiful base stats and poorly fit together skill set drag her usability down immensely in general situations, as her damage is simply too poor to make use of her NP refund while her utility does not hold together well yet.

All is not lost for this thanatophobic Caster, as she receives Interludes and Rank Ups that improve her NP damage as well as provide her with a unique niche ability to provide Guts to the entire party tied to a skill. Although this is a rare ability among the cast, and has usage in a select few encounters, it is not quite enough to push her to the higher tiers.

★★★★★
ST
Illyasviel von Einzbern
Illya possesses the highest NP damage value of all Casters currently in the game, and by some margin. Her burst damage is impressive, and she is remarkably durable given her access to both a guts and an Invincibility. Her NP Gain is problematic, although fortunately a double dose of NP Gain buffs help to combat the worst of it. Sadly, her Caster class does reduce her overall damage performance by quite a bit, especially if she gets debuffed by her own NP. Nonetheless, if something needs a large beam to the face, Illya is one of the best for the job.
★★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Lancer)
Trading her signature Excalibur for her divine spear, Altria Pendragon’s performance has definitely improved. While an instant 50% NP gauge charge is incredibly useful for farming, it is not enough to propel her to even higher tiers. Her skillset is still fairly one dimensional and as a result, she offers little to the team after launching her Rhongomyniad.
★★★★★
AOE
Nero Claudius (Caster)

Nero Claudius(Caster) is strong overall Servant, but excells especially in her role as farming Servant. With a 50% NP Charge, a powerful targetable steroid, 2 Buster cards, high NP Gain, and multiple steroids to buff herself with, Nero Claudius has all the essential components for an ideal farming Servant. However, even outside of farming her performance is strong, with nice defenses against counter-class enemies, Pierce Invincibility on NP and two exceedingly powerful Arts cards to charge her NP Gauge with.

Still, her unsynced cooldown limit her a bit, while her overall survability competes with applying her steroids for offense. In addition, her damage ceiling does suffer from being placed in the relative offense-unfriendly Caster class. Regardless, Nero Claudius (Caster) adds great quality of life to any Master.

★★★★★
ST
Archer of Shinjuku

Archer of Shinjuku has many tools in his arsenal. Packing exceptional ST Noble Phantasm damage thanks to multiple steroids, strong teamwide offensive utility, and a kit well-suited for Critical teams, this dandy shooter is a versatile Archer that can work in different teams.

However, versatility can be both a virtue and a vice in Fate/Grand Order, and Archer of Shinjuku is a fantastic example of that conundrum. He can work as either an NP spamming Servant with his triple Arts deck and NP battery, or as a Critical Damage Dealer, but he does not particularly excel at either role. Furthermore, his access to only a single Buster card reduces his direct damage potential as well as making it more difficult to choose a right teammate for him. The lack of any form of survivability is also an issue, and without protection from teammates, he can be taken out quickly in tougher missions. As a result, he tends to get sidelined for Archers who excel better at particular niches.

Regardless, Archer of Shinjuku is a solid Archer who can consistently give a passable performance in most scenarios, but does not have enough of a true niche to shine above his more specialized competitors.

★★★★★
AOE
Cleopatra
Cleopatra is easily among the best AoE Assassins in the game. She is extremely self-sufficient with fantastic NP generation and Star generation rates. She also has a plethora of buffs and has amazing survivability thanks to both healing and Invulnerability on demand. However, the Egyptian Queen has some noticeable flaws that keep her away from the top tiers. For starters, her chance-based Imperial Privilege is heavily dependent on RNG, making her performance less consistent. Furthermore, the lack of an Interlude for her Noble Phantasm results in a somewhat underwhelming damage output per NP activation. Nonetheless, Cleopatra is still among the most premium AoE Assassins that the game offers and Tier 2 is a well-deserved placement for her.
★★★★★
AOE
Leonardo da Vinci
The genius painter might not be a force to be reckoned with, but her farming ability is definitely above average. The combination of Pioneer of the Stars and Golden Rule (Body) allows Da Vinci-chan to easily charge her NP gauge compared to most of her competition. Regrettably, she does not have much to offer to the team due to her lackluster Caster damage output and a lack of teamwide utilities on her skills.
★★★★★
AOE
Shuten-Douji
Shuten has the rare niche of being an AoE Arts Assassin with a plethora of debuffs. She also has good base stats, and strong NP & Critical Star generation. Her problems lie in her poor base Noble Phantasm damage, the low values on each of her individual debuffs and her lackluster skillset. She also does not function particularly well outside of Arts teams, and even in Arts teams her performance is not strong enough to elevate her to the next tier.
★★★★★
ST
Jeanne d'Arc (Alter)
A devastating skillset that fixes all Avenger weaknesses, along with the best Attack stat in the game, propel Jeanne Alter to the throne of one of the top Buster Critical Damage Dealers. There’s little that needs to be said about Jeanne Alter, as her absurdly high raw damage is so strong it overshadows her relatively poor class advantage and mediocre bulk.
★★★★★
ST
Queen Medb
Queen Medb's performance shifts over time, and with her NP Upgrade she has already gained much more power. While her Anti-Male attribute grants her a good niche, her low Attack and middling skill set ultimately hold her back in terms of general performance. She does have one more Skill Upgrade to look forward to, which helps to shore up her offensive performance in particular.
★★★★★
AOE
Edmond Dantes
By virtue of being an Avenger, Dantes has an extremely high Attack stat. His skillset is also by no means bad, but he is highly held back by the un-upgraded modifier on his Noble Phantasm, a lack of a Critical Star gathering buff, and the lack of Ruler enemies in general to make use of his class advantage.
★★★★★
ST
Brynhild
Brynhild is a good hybrid between damage dealer and support. Her ability to grant allies Critical Absorption is quite unique and her upgraded Noble Phantasm offers strong extra damage coverage. Her Buster nature and good generation performance makes her a consistently strong pick as a primary Lancer even if her anti-trait doesn't cover as many Servants as her direct peers. She does lack a strong survivability tool though, which hampers her ability to stay on the field over time. Will receive a skill upgrade in the future, granting her access to a particularly powerful targetable Star Gathering buff.
★★★★★
ST
Jack the Ripper
With some of the best Star Generation and NP Generation in the game, Jack the Ripper not only works fantastically as a standalone damage dealer, but also as a premier Critical Star generator for the team. Her bonus damage against female enemies and targetable buff removal are also extremely useful, as the game has no shortage of bosses who are female or like to spam buffs.
★★★★★
ST
Scathach
Scathach has great coverage against Undead and Divine enemies, who commonly appear in the game, and which include a lot of Archers and Berserkers. Her Noble Phantasm is also fantastic against bosses thanks to its high damage and guaranteed stun, making her a prominent boss killer. Scathach, however, suffers from the inconsistency of her NP generation rate and the RNG on her first skill, making her hard to fully utilize. Many high profile Archers in the game also possess Divinity, which pushes her damage against those targets through the roof.
★★★★
AOE
Mysterious Ranmaru X
GUDAGUDA 2023's latest welfare, Mysterious Ranmaru X is an AoE Arts Avenger that is capable of Arts looping with double Castoria setups. Her kit also comes with a variety of utility effects, including debuff clear for an ally, a chance-based AoE Charm, and the ability to ignore DEF with her NP. She also can support allies with a small star bomb, targetable star gather buff, and an AoE DEF debuff. To support her own offensive power, she has a self Arts buff and a modest 20% NP charge skill. Her NP, as mentioned, ignores DEF, and also has a minor star drop rate buff. As an Avenger, although she rarely has clear Class Advantage, she also rarely has disadvantage as well, so she makes for a decent welfare general farmer, especially if the Master has premiere Arts Supports available. Her performance isn't quite as powerful as other omni-farmers, but as a welfare with the benefit of easier NP5 access, she does the job.
★★★★
AOE
Kiichi Hogen
Kiichi Hogen, the welfare of the Little Big Tengu event, is an excellent AoE Quick Assassin that also provides the party with a dash of offensive support. Their NP is loopable with setup, dealing damage to all enemies after a Quick buff, and removes defensive buffs after damage, coming in handy for some challenging encounters. They have a targetable 20% NP charge that also boosts star gather rate for the ally, and an ATK and NP Gain buff for the entire party. For themselves, they also have a 3-turn Quick buff and Evade as their defensive option. Their damage is quite good for the Quick AoE Assassin archetype, thanks to their ease of reaching NP5, and they loop more easily than most other existing Servants in the same niche. Although the Assassin Class damage multiplier hurts their viability as an all-around farmer, they still make for an excellent wave clearer against Riders or Berserkers, and additionally provide a modest array of offensive support for the party, making them an excellent balanced addition to the roster. Kiichi Hogen is especially helpful for Masters in need of an AoE Assassin farmer.
★★★★
ST
Murasaki Shikibu (Rider)
Murasaki Shikibu, famed writer and resident horror movie afficionado during the Servant Summer Camp event, is an ST Arts Rider with a variety of utility debuffs and the ability to loop her NP relatively comfortably. Her Arts NP decreases Arts Resist for the NP after damage, and can also decrease NP Gauge for the target, although the NP drain effect is unreliable so it is more of a nice-to-have than a deciding factor. She also provides utility in the form of single target NP and Skill Seal effects, which are enabled by her Debuff Resist debuffs. Offensively, she has DEF and Arts Resist down debuffs. She can also gain up to 20% NP Gauge per turn across three turns, which also comes with a minor infusion of Critical Stars, further bolstering her looping capability. Her damage is somewhat on the mediocre side, although her ability to loop enables her to take advantage of the Arts Resist debuffs that her NP can progressively stack, giving her strong damage over turns with the ability to sometimes stall NPs from bosses via her NP drain effect. As an aside, for those who have the Servant Coins to access her Append Skills, Shikibu's Rider version has a rare advantage against Alter Egos, which can also come in handy given it is relatively rare.
★★★★
ST
Asvatthaman
Asvatthaman rolls in as a new Archer-class ST Buster entry to the roster. Two skills in his kit provide debuffs / buffs when normal attacking, which allow him to stack multiple buffs or debuffs on himself and enemies. With relatively low skill cooldown times on those skills, his uptime is also relatively high. He also has a self invincibility that comes with a 30% NP Gauge charge at max, which gives him better access to his Noble Phantasm. His NP itself will remove defensive buffs after damage, and deals greater damage the lower his HP is. In combination, on-hit effects and low HP bonuses make him an effective solo Servant for some scenarios as well, as greater access to his cards allow him to stack debuffs/buffs more quickly, and being the only target will allow him to more quickly take advantage of his low HP damage bonus. At the same time, however, this means that his effects rely on using his cards, which can be unreliable. It should be noted that Asvatthaman is fully immune to Mental Debuffs due to his passive, which can come in handy when facing quests with special gimmicks. Overall Asvatthaman is an extremely solid ST Archer, being a great choice as a primary Archer DPS.
★★★★
ST
Ibaraki-Douji (Lancer)
Ibaraki-Douji (Lancer), a Lancer with a defense-ignoring ST Buster NP, comes in with devastating crits following her NP turns. Her NP can generate a minimum of 30 stars depending on overcharge, which she can capitalize on the following turn by using her skill that enhances star gathering and critical strength. She has some degree of party support as well, providing an ATK boost to allies while boosting her own NP Strength and NP Gain. Finally, she has access to a self debuff cleanse and max HP increase, which essentially acts as a more flexible heal. She is by all means a very solid Buster Crit Servant, with less fragility by grace of her summer form’s non-Berserker Class.
★★★★
ST
Sakamoto Ryouma
Sakamoto Ryouma, the GUDAGUDA Imperial Capital Grail War Welfare Servant, has a myriad of very attractive skill effects, including party ATK, NP Gauge charge, Arts Effectiveness, Critical Stars, and Debuff Resist. The main issue that holds back his performance are the conservative values on all of his skills (his NP Gauge charge is fixed at 10%, which hurts its utility quite a bit). In addition, as an ST Arts damage dealer, his damage is only decent even at NP5. He slots very well in Arts centric teams and has extremely high synergy with Arts supports, although outside of that context his performance is not as spectacular.
★★★★
ST
Chiron
Chiron, as with many other Archers, suffers from steep competition within the class. Even so, while he may not be the most flashy option, he still proves to be a surprisingly flexible ST Arts Servant capable of supporting his teammates, notably with a targetable triple-color buff and critical damage buffs, while still being capable of dealing damage when necessary.
★★★★
ST
Atalante (Alter)

Atalanta (Alter) is a strong Quick Damage Dealer with a self-sufficient streak. A combination of Critical Star Gathering, Critical Damage, teamwide 50% Quick buff, instant 10 Critical Stars, good NP Gain and a powerful Single Target Noble Phantasm are all the burst ingredients Atalanta (Alter) needs to demolish raids, short boss fights and powerful enemies. 

Still, Atalante (Alter) is not particularly well equipped for sustained offense all on her own. While she has a form of survivability in the form of a 1 turn Evasion, her survivability is still relatively poor, courtesy of Berserker innate frailty. Most of her steroids also last only for a single turn, while her sustained offense may suffer harshly if Masters cannot provide the Critical Stars she needs. Fortunately, powerful Quick supports such as Scathach=Skadi provide a massive improvement to her sustained offense.

 

★★★★
ST
Asagami Fujino
Asagami Fujino is another strong entry into the Archer class, providing Buster-type ST damage with decent critical potential. Touting a high-utility skill set, she has access to the rare Ignore Defense buff as a skill rather than tied to her NP, giving her the ability to excel in certain challenge quests or encounters where enemies exhibit high DEF. Access to Sure Hit will make enemies with Evade easier for her to deal with. Her NP is also capable of inflicting Buff Block, which can prevent enemies from gaining an otherwise nasty buff. She does have survival options with Guts, Damage Cut, and ATK down, although she still suffers in the face of high burst damage (such as enemy NPs). In light of her unique and challenge quest-handy skill set, she is a welcome addition to the roster.
★★★★
ST
Attila the San(ta)

Santa Altera's performance for a welfare is spectacular, with incredible damage output and a very welcome niche in serving as a superb swap in Servant. Her rare combination of a 30% NP Damage Up and a 20% NP Charge makes her a great substitute for Master's lacking the strongest support options, especially for farming quests with one singularly powerful enemy.

Her own NP5 damage sees her comfortable at the top of the Archer ST damage pyramid, but her main direct damage steroids are rather short-lived even if they are backed up by an amazing combination of passives. In addition, her primary steroid being an NP Damage Up modifiers is hugely detrimental to her support in (Raid) Events with Event Damage boosts, as their additive stacking reduces her damage buff to minimal values.

★★★★
ST
Caster of Okeanos

Caster of Okeanos builds upon the foundation of Medea’s playstyle, bringing an Instant NP Charge for her single target NP. Her resulting freedom in CE and support choices affords her a tremendous damage improvement for on-demand farming, even if her base NP Damage is very low. Her ability to cleanse debuffs for the entire team, turn enemies into piglets, and apply a small Defense Down also grant her a small niche for certain difficult encounters.

Still, her sustained damage output and dependency on expensive CEs (and NP Upgrades) make it more difficult to release her full potential.

★★★★
ST
Mecha Eli-chan Mk.II

Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II combines a Buster-heavy kit with one extremely damaging Buster NP. As very burst heavy Single Target anti-Rider and anti-Assassin Servants are often difficult to acquire, especially Buster-based ones, Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II easily carves out a niche for herself as an easily accessible option for cavalry or Foreigner destruction. Charging her NP may prove more challenging, as is keeping her alive, but Mecha Eli-Chan Mk.II’s damage potential remains strong enough even as a Master’s roster expands.

★★★★
ST
Mecha Eli-chan

Mecha Eli-Chan combines a Buster-heavy kit with one extremely damaging Buster NP. As very burst heavy Single Target anti-Rider and anti-Assassin Servants are often difficult to acquire, especially Buster-based ones, Mecha Eli-Chan easily carves out a niche for herself as an easily accessible option for cavalry or Foreigner destruction. Charging her NP may prove more challenging, as is keeping her alive, but Mecha Eli-Chan’s damage potential remains strong enough even as a Master’s roster expands.

★★★★
ST
Assassin of the Nightless City

The Empress’s high-maintenance personality is well translated into her gameplay, featuring relatively good damage potential and strong team support capacity, particularly in the elusive Quick support category. While, Assassin of the Nightless City’s skills are simple and effective, her game plan is often more selfish, as she requires constant attention from Masters and teammates to function at her utmost capacity, especially given her mediocre generation performance.

While the Empress herself may not be a true powerhouse as of right now, she receives a much-needed upgrade to her Noble Phantasm in the future, bringing her closer to top tier Assassin options.

★★★★
ST
Lancelot (Saber)

Lancelot (Saber) possesses incredible self-sufficiency as a critical damage dealer. While he is lacking in fanciful or subtle options such as buff removal or Pierce invincibility, he compensates with sheer power, NP Charging and critical might. The ease with which he drops massive Critical Star bombs upon skill activation gives him an incredible amount of freedom in terms of Craft Essences and team compositons. His proficiency in critical damage dealing doesn’t stop there; as his Eternal Arms Mastery boosts his Star Gathering to such heights that even Rider Servants can hardly steal a single Critical Star from him. When Lancelot makes 20 Critical Stars for himself, he is likely to get all 20 of them.

These existing factors, combined with his pre-NP Arts buff, Raid NP farming potential, and sheer ease-of-use, make him an offensive monster whether in a vacuum or supported by his teammates. His sole weakness is his complete lack of defensive options, which tends to be of little importance if the enemy has been surgically removed from the field.

★★★★
AOE
Parvati

Despite her low Attack, Parvati has a deeply synergistic kit with a cocktail of all the right buffs to be able to NP Loop once Scathach=Skadi is released. However, without access to her favorite Quick Support, Parvati is rather hamstrung in the teams she can fit well in. Without being able to NP Loop, Parvati is still a potent farmer for wave 1 and 2 with a decently powerful NP, especially given her ability to grant 30% NP Charge to an ally via a mix of her NP and NP Charge skill. 

Regardless, her NP Charging, AoE Charm on NP, and excellent combination of hit counts and NP Generation leave her as a solid Servant overall even outside of her farming niche. Until the dawn of the age of Quick Servants, Parvati will simply bide her time until her eventual ascension of the Tier List. 

★★★★
ST
BB

The de facto Avenger slayer in the game, BB is the only member of the elusive Mooncancer class for now. Despite having relatively mediocre attack and consequently lackluster damage output, BB makes up for it with a stellar supportive skill set that thrives in any stalling or NP spamming team, acting as one of the best NP batteries in the game for lengthy battles. In addition, her status as a welfare servant ensures her NP hurts regardless. 

There are very few Servants in the game that can match what BB offers, and even then her unique combination of class, utility, and welfare status makes her extremely valuable for any Master.

★★★★
AOE
Mordred (Rider)

Mordred (Rider) has one main focus that she can pull off far easier than most Servants - constant NP looping. Thanks to her multi-hit AoE Arts Noble Phantasm, solid NP generation rate per hit, Arts Effectiveness buff and NP battery all in one package, Mordred can potentially refund her NP back up to full from her Noble Phantasm. With the right team and enemies, she can completely refill her NP gauge and do back-to-back Noble Phantasms with ease, making her a fantastic Servant for farming QP Doors and mid-HP Caster-filled quests.

However, Mordred is severely limited when it comes to more traditional combat. Her sustained damage is low, and she needs a very specific team composition, as well as enemies wave consisting of three enemies to keep her Noble Phantasm chain going. Her skill cooldowns are also fairly long and her Guts is often ignored for its NP Charge. Still, such a farming niche is a nice quality of life buff for anyone that intends to grind Casters, or indeed, QP doors.

★★★★
ST
Yagyu Munenori

Yagyu Munenori's synergy with Arts compositions, good NP Gain, powerful defensive effects and very strong burst damage potential make him a prime Arts Servant for difficult content. His ability to help the entire team survive enemy NPs via his Attack Down debuffs is a unique commodity that few Servants possess, let alone such a high damage Servant. 

His drawbacks are still there though, as extracting Yagyu Munenori's full capability is difficult. With many competing effects on his skills, Masters often need to sacrifice offense for defense or vice versa. In addition, many bosses resist, cleanse or otherwise circumvent his Attack Down efforts. With his buffs lasting for a single turn and often delayed to hit the right timing, Yagyu Munenori typically lacks the on-demand damage potential of competing Sabers such as Lancelot (Saber).

Nonetheless, this Master of the blade has one terrifying sitting posture. 

★★★★
AOE
Astolfo

Astolfo's kit has numerous problems, yet Astolfo is an example where a single skill can make the difference between hard to use, and awesome farming. With 50% NP charge, the Rider class, and a decent hitting NP, Astolfo is a remarkably useful farming Servant. Next to helping out with the ever-present QP farming of Doors, his NP Charge also helps out while farming Events at speed and while potentially carrying some Event CEs of his own. 

That his NP Damage isn't as high as some of his competitors is also far less of an issue when Astolfo is buffed by Skadi. 

Of course, outside of farming Astolfo still has a kit that is downright ghastly. Whether that is his extraordinarily poor NP Gain, his chance-based Critical potential, or the short duration of his attack buff, it does not truly line up properly. For sustained (AoE) offense for difficult content, Astolfo simply isn't the right fit. 

★★★★
AOE
Lancelot
A highly offensive Berserker, Lancelot has all the tools he needs to deal massive damage to any enemies in his way, be it AoE or Single Target. His Noble Phantasm, Knight of Owner, might not deal very high damage on its own, the pre-applied Attack Self-Buff, his high attack and the Berserker class advantage, add up to a dangerous cocktail especially once he unlocks the ability to launch his NP multiple times via Skadi. With Skadi as his support, Lancelot becomes a powerhouse in farming, his Berserker class granting him extreme coverage in targets. In addition, Knight of Owner generates a veritable explosion of Critical Stars thanks to its ridiculous hit-count and his own Star Generation buff. Lancelot will then gather these Critical Stars easily, and proceed to slam his enemies with his powerful Critical Damage buff. Yet, without dedicated teams to make this potential shine, Lancelot has some extreme playability issues. His base NP generation is amongst the worst in the game, saved only by his immense NP Gain buff and his NP’s hit counts. His survivability is also laughable, competing with Berserker of El Dorado among who can die the fastest. Of course, neither are an issue if the enemy is dead and Lancelot has a Kaleidoscope glued to his lamppost.
★★★★
AOE
EMIYA
EMIYA covers a lot of ground many servants of his caliber can’t manage. Hawkeye B+ gives him both impressive star generation, even on his three Arts cards, and a staggeringly high critical damage for 3 turns. His Noble Phantasm hits for a more than sufficient sum of damage while also ignoring defense buffs, and he can avoid taking immense damage from enemy attacks thanks to Eye of the Mind (True) B and his NP’s attack debuff. Thus, EMIYA is a strong Servant for nearly any situation, whether that is setting it a full round of critical hits for the next turn via his high hit count NP, or combating a fearsome enemy boss. Still EMIYA’s regular card and NP damage can be a little lacking without the backing of his skill set. In addition, the mismatch between his Buster NP and triple Arts deck can make creating optimized teams more difficult. Regardless, EMIYA status as a staple 4* Archer is well deserved.
★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Lily)

Courtesy of her naturally high NP level from being a welfare Servant, a Buster steroid from her Mana Burst, a party wide NP Generation buff and an Interlude that improves her Noble Phantasm’s damage, Lily is a decent Saber for farming purpose, especially for Masters who just start out. She sits at among the highest in AoE Saber NP damage with the assumptions of NP5 Welfares / NP1 Non-welfares, dealing more damage than Altria (Alter), although it should be noted that Altria (Alter) will deal more at NP2.

Altria Lily's downsides can be quite aggravating. Lily suffers from a terribly low base Attack stats and a completely vanilla skill set that makes her quite one-dimensional. She does not offer anything unique nor highly desirable beyond her initial Caliburn, and her poor survivability also limits her challenge quest potential. It is just tough to justify bringing her over other more prominent Servants of the ever-increasing competitive roster of Sabers with AoE Noble Phantasms.

★★★
SUPPORT
Asclepius
Asclepius is a 3-star Caster-class Servant with a healing-centric, supportive kit. His NP provides a rather rare Guts for all allies, although the Guts does not affect himself. It additionally grants Debuff Immunity and HP regen for all allies. He also has a skill with up to 5,000 HP recovery with a Debuff Resist buff for a single ally, making him a potent healer. His other two skills focus more on NP support, providing an NP Gain buff and up to 20% NP Gauge for all allies. They additionally have some utility effects, including an NP Seal and the ability to fully cleanse debuffs from all allies. His NP Support makes him a great NP loop support option, while his healing support make him a candidate for stall teams as well. He serves as an excellent NP 3* support option for those lacking other NP support Servants.
★★★
ST
William Tell
William Tell is an Archer touting an ST Arts NP capable of dealing bonus damage to enemies with Evade active. His kit provides a few utility effects, including Skill Seal and self Debuff Immunity, while also being able to generate Stars, and buff his own Arts, Star Gather, and Crit Strength. Although he does not have a source of NP, his solid card performance gives him strong access to his NP relatively consistently, capable of looping his NP even without support, provided Arts Crits and enough overkill hits. William Tell is another solid entry to the Archer class, complete with a high-tech crossbow and tactical camoflauge.
★★★
ST
Hassan of the Hundred Personas

Good budget single target Assassins are somewhat of a prized commodity, due to the class’s generally poor availability and weaker baseline performance compared to other classes. While Hundred Personas may not be as easy to use as her peers, her ability to spam her NP in Arts-based compositions makes her a darkhorse option against many tough Rider opponents.

She comes with weak NP Generation and decent Star Generation on her basic attacks that is only somewhat patched up by her first skill, a strong self-heal that comes with the demerit of removing her own buffs, while her powerful 3-turn triple Card Performance buff has only an 80% Change to activate. But, its her NP that makes her truly shine. Its 13 hits and NP Gain improvement from both her first and second skill allows it to refund a spectacular amount of NP Gauge all the while inflicting an Arts Resistance Down debuff and reducing their Critical Hit Rate.

The increasing vulnerability to Arts only improves Hassan of the Hundred Personas NP refund further, while the Critical Hit Rate reduction can render Rider enemies toothless. As such, Hassan of the Hundred Personas is great investment for more experienced Masters who wish to experiment with an Arts Assassin. 

★★★
ST
Ushiwakamaru

Being one of the F2P heroes of the masses, Ushiwakamaru distinguishes herself with a powerful single target Noble Phantasm and decent team support capacity on the side. As such, she is often called upon by many Masters looking for powerful single target Riders, and she can even often outperform several higher rarity Servants while requiring low maintenance over the course of battle.

Ushiwakamaru does have some notable drawbacks, namely her poor deck layout and very low hit counts resulting in a combination of subpar damage, NP and Star generation on her normal cards. However, given her status as the most damaging 3* Cavalry Servant for taking out Demon Pillars, and the lack of high-quality F2P single target Riders in general, Ushiwakamaru is a great investment for any new Master.

★★★
ST
Cu Chulainn

It might sound a bit unkind to call this beloved and ultimate bro a “cockroach”, but that is one of the best descriptions of Cu Chulainn. Dying does not exist in his dictionary, and his kit offers fantastic survival potential. It is a frequent sight to see Cu Chulainn being the last man standing thanks to his combination of debuff clearance, hit-based evasion, and guts.

However, Cu Chulainn offers relatively little outside of survivability. While he makes a great backup member for Challenge Quests, his uses outside of tough battles are very limited as he does not offer any form of team utility, high damage potential or farming capacity.

Nonetheless, for Masters who either enjoy soloing or have a limited lineup for tough quests, Cu Chulainn is one of the best insurance policies one can get.

★★★
ST
Robin Hood

If there is anything Robin has in spades, it is nuking potential. In a properly set up team, watching Robin’s Yew Bow decimate an opponent in one fell swoop is a sight to behold. When unleashed on enemies afflicted by the “Poisoned” status, his Noble Phantasm can deal upwards of 3750% damage at NP level 5, making Robin an efficient boss killer, especially when he is the centerpiece of a dedicated Arts team.

However, Robin’s performance outside of a dedicated Arts team is quite mediocre. While his NP damage will remain fairly high, his NP generation rate will heavily suffer. Nevertheless, Robin remains one of the best F2P damage Servants and will carry Masters through many tough fights.

★★
ST
Georgios

Saint George is a highly durable Servant. With his innate high HP, Defense buff and Battle Continuation, this martyr can take a heavy beating and still remain standing on the frontline. However, what makes him truly valuable is his Guardian Knight skill - one of the best Taunt skills available.

With the help of Guardian Knight he is able to put his enormous defense prowess to great use by diverting boss attention from his teammates for up to three turns, allowing more offensive Servants to rampage unhindered. Factoring in his low cost, this defensive power makes him a highly desirable Servant for many setups in tough content, and he pairs especially well with glass cannons like Berserker class Servants.

Outside of this particular role, Georgios offers little in terms of damage except some synergy with anti-dragon Servants. He will generally be sidelined when farming or when more raw power is needed. Still, George is easily both one of the cheapest and best meat shields one can rely on when things get rough.

SUPPORT
Oda Nobukatsu
Nobukatsu joins as a new limited bronze Archer with a supportive Buster NP, and a slight obsession with his sister, Nobunaga. Nobukatsu is yet another bronze Servant in the roster whose NP results in their own death, which comes with its own benefits of making room for another Servant in the backline. His NP does not deal damage, but instead charges 20% NP for allies and provides Buster buffs (which are stronger for Nobunaga allies). Nobukatsu's skill set offers a variety of utility, including Skill Seal via Confusion, Taunt, and an on-death Heal. He also can support offensive performance of allies, decreasing Buster Resist for an enemy, gaining Stars each turn, and buffing Crit Damage for all allies (which also is greatly enhanced for Nobunaga allies). Nobukatsu sports one of the lowest ATK stats among all Servants, however, and won't be doing notable damage on his own. His value, putting it lightly, lies in him getting rid of himself as quickly as possible, while leaving multiple beneficial effects in his wake. He also is in need of NP Gauge support to access his NP sooner than later, since he lacks an NP charge of his own. However, he opens up many team composition possibilities through his NP's order change effect, especially at low cost, making him a welcome addition to the team.
AOE
Paul Bunyan

With an incredibly fast Noble Phantasm animation, Paul Bunyan is a staple for Buster farming compositions. Yet, unlike her many of her AoE Berserker peers, Paul Bunyan provides more value than just her farming alone.

The impressive amount of Buster team support built into her kit makes Paul Bunyan an excellent budget support as well, capable of providing new Masters with cheap-to-level support for use during more challenging content or the more difficult farming quests. Her fragile nature can even be a boon in the right circumstance, allowing her to function as a strategic suicidal support who can make room for a Servant with fresh, new skills. 

Still, her damage output is a fair bit lower than her peers who often have stronger personal steroids, an NP Upgrade or simply much higher base stats.

Either way, Paul Bunyan does everything a low rarity Servant ought to do. It's a shame therefore that her availability is limited to Masters who have cleared her event during either July 2019 or July 2020. 

B
★★★★★
ST
Manannan mac Lir (Bazett)
Bazett is the first Servant in the roster whose gameplay is entirely based around counter-attacking opponents that hit her. As a Quick-type Alter Ego Servant, her NP grants her ATK and Target Focus buffs, along with a special buff that deals NP-level damage in retaliation to any enemy that does an action targeting her. Since enemies can act multiple times a turn, she can hit the same enemy multiple times with her NP, dealing potentially massive amounts of damage. Her skillkit contains many self-buffs, including a 50% NP charge, Quick/Buster/Crit Damage/Star Gather/Caster bonus damage, and defensively she has a turn of Evade and Debuff Immunity, all of which support her primary damage dealing abilities, whether directly or indirectly. Bazett's unique NP does come with some demerits, however, since she often accumulates damage from enemy hits, and also will not activate her counter on enemies that are using skills that buff themselves and do not target her. Despite this, she is capable of filling in for a wide variety of roles, even functioning as a farmer capable of hitting every enemy in a wave if each enemy opts to attack. Bazett makes for a strong if unconventional option against Caster and other Cavalry enemies, particularly if the Master has premiere Quick Support options available.
★★★★★
ST
Izumo-no-Okuni
Izumo no Okuni is the roster's first Quick ST Caster, and her kit is decidedly offensively focused. Her NP debuffs Quick Resist followed by dealing Demonic supereffective damage to a single enemy. To help with activating her NP, she has a handy 50% NP Charge skill. Offensively, she has Buster, Quick, and Crit Gather / Strength / Star bomb buffs at decent values. She additionally can inflict stacks of DEF down on enemies when landing a crit. For allies (or herself), she has a targetable skill cooldown reduction skill. Defensivly, she has a passable 2-time, 3-turn evade for herself. Overall, due to the relative scarcity of single-target Casters, especially of the Quick variety, she carves a unique niche for herself, especially against any Assassins or Berserkers who might also have the Demonic trait.
★★★★★
AOE
Jacques de Molay
Jacques de Molay is a Quick AoE Foreigner with solid looping capability due to her two NP charge skills at 20% and 30%, totaling 50% with the option to split the charges if desired. One of her NP charges also applies to all allies. She also benefits particularly from Curse, having a damage bonus against Cursed targets using her third skill, with her NP also inflicting Curse and Curse Damage Up on all enemies. Offensively, she has the trio of ATK, Quick, and NP Damage buffs, and additionally has both Crit Damage and Star Regen buffs along with decent card hit counts. She also has a measure of party support, providing ATK and Crit Damage buffs to all allies. Defensively, she has a 1-turn Invincibility for herself, and for any Evil alignment allies, she gives a 1-time 1-turn Invincibility. She fortunately can also apply Evil trait to all allies with her first skill. She makes for an excellent option with a highly flexible kit suitable for many situations, while still being a capable farmer. She might not often be the best in slot, but she works particularly well in Curse centric teams and excels particularly well if premiere Quick Support such as Skadi is available.
★★★★★
AOE
Odysseus
The famous Greek king of Ithaca, Odysseus, manifests in the relatively rare role as an AoE Arts Rider. His NP has the useful effect of removing defensive buffs (including Evade and Invincible) before dealing damage, while also providing himself with an NP Damage buff. In his kit, offensively he has a 30% NP charge, modest Quick and Arts buffs, and Star Gather buffs. Defensively, he has a 1-turn Invincible, Buff Removal Resist, Defense Up, and Charm Immunity. He also provides an interesting utility effect of applying Taunt on all allies except for a selected target for three turns, which can be a way to protect a specific team member at the expense of the others for a few turns. His damage is decent, although despite having an Arts NP, the refund he gains from it is relatively poor, making it difficult for him to loop his NP without extensive support or extra Card hits after his NP. Even so, his balanced set of utility effects and offense/defense make him a valuable ally to have.
★★★★★
AOE
Sei Shounagon
Sei Shounagon is a rambuncious, party-happy AoE Quick Archer with a grab-bag of supportive effects. Her Noble Phantasm is notable for having three trait bonuses (Neutral, Human attribute, Shadow Servant), which provide decent coverage and come into use quite often. She can provide ATK buffs, HP recovery, NP Gauge-per-turn, and a few extra Stars on demand for the entire party. For herself, she has a 20% NP charge, Evade, Crit damage, and Quick buffs. She also has the notable passive of 100% Charm Resist, which can sometimes be useful in encounters where applicable. Her kit provides a comfortable coverage of various effects, while at the same time none of them are particularly standout on their own. For this reason, outside of trait damage bonus (particularly against enemies for which multiple are applicable), her damage is middling without Quick support. Even then, due to the coverage of her kit, she fits into teams as a hybrid damage dealer and support very comfortably, being ready to start the party with anyone who's on board.
★★★★★
AOE
Europa
Europa has a mixture of both damage and defensive options throughout her kit. As an AoE Buster Rider, her NP gives her a Buster buff before damage, and also provides her with a sizable 1-turn 50% DEF buff. Her first skill is purely defensive, giving her a 3-time Invincibility with no turn limit, and up to 100% Debuff Resist for 3 times, also with no turn limit, making her nigh invulnerable to various debuffs or damage for a period of time. Her third skill is an AoE Charm, DEF debuff, and Crit Rate debuff, while she also has an up to 30% NP Charge skill that also buffs both Arts and Buster performance. Due to how her kit does not fully commit to damage, she hovers in the middle of the pack for NP damage, although she is still a remarkably durable AoE Buster Rider option.
★★★★★
ST
Astolfo (Saber)
Astolfo (Saber) is the long-awaited SSR incarnation of Astolfo, manifesting as an ST Quick Saber. Astolfo's 9-hit NP is among the higher-damaging of their rarity and class, inflicting a turn of NP Seal and boosting Astolfo's own Quick performance before damage. Their kit also comes with a multitude of offensive tools, including an NP gauge-per-turn of up to 20% per turn over 3 turns, self buffs of ATK, Crit Damage, and Buster Star Gather. It should be noted that the Buster Star Gather buff is relatively minor given Astolfo (Saber) only has a single Buster Card in their deck, although it can still situationally come in handy. Importantly, Astolfo also has a self debuff clear tied to their NP gauge-per-turn skill, which can come in handy in encounters with debilitating debuffs. Astolfo also has a chance-based Stun for some measure of utility, and a 3-time, 3 turn Evade as their defensive measure. Astolfo is slightly held back by their rather mediocre cards and base NP Gain, especially when compared to competing SSR ST Quick Sabers, although their NP and their higher utility in challenge quests are a standout. Additionally, after their upgrade, Astolfo's NP charge and star generation capabilities further increase. Astolfo will more than handily dispatch any Lancer bosses the Master may encounter, while providing some utility in their kit for more challenging situations.
★★★★★
AOE
Ganesha (Jinako)
The great Ganesha (Jinako) is the first Moon Cancer Servant to be made available in the general summoning pool. Her kit comes with a handy party 20% NP Charge, ATK buff, Stars per turn, targetable Invincibility and NP Gain buffs (at the cost of Skill Sealing the target), and a self Taunt, Damage Cut, and ATK buff. Her AoE Arts NP can decrease enemies' DEF, and restore her own HP and grant herself with a turn of Invincibility. Her kit has a multitude of effects, giving her support, tanking, and offensive ability. For Masters with undeveloped rosters, she may be able to help fill in as an NP Charge Support / Tank until alternatives are available. However, unfortunately this also means her kit lacks focus: her NP Gauge support is undeniably flexible, although her offensive support is essentially close to the level of a Charisma skill, without her own damage output being very substantial. Her ability to soak up damage in the place of her allies can also be useful, although there are also other tank options at lower party Cost with arguably greater effectiveness at the role. Finally, her damage suffers from having a classing that rarely sees offensive class advantage (only against Avengers, which do not often come in groups). Ganesha is good at staying on the field and can take damage for allies for a turn, but she might not be the optimal choice to keep on the field given her lower damage output and less effective support.
★★★★★
AOE
Murasaki Shikibu
The famed literary author, Murasaki Shikibu, is a Caster-class Servant that provides an AoE Arts-type Noble Phantasm with bonus damage against Demonic enemies and a 1-turn Buff Block effect, which can come in handy in fights with bosses that might otherwise use threatening self buffs. She also provides a plethora of effects, including DEF down against all enemies, NP Seal against a single enemy, a self 30% NP Gauge charge and self NP damage buff, while also providing to allies a Demonic damage boost, Damage Cut, Debuff immunity, and a 100% Buff Removal Resist buff. She is comfortably capable of looping her 6-hit Arts NP with the help of her own NP charge, which is further bolstered by support, which can be particularly effective given she has no Arts or ATK buffs of her own. Her damage is somewhat on the weaker side, although when placed against Assassin or Berserker waves, she will do fine. Against other classes, she may need higher NP levels to better deal with them (although she will do better versus Demonic trait enemies). She is a respectable addition to the roster, capable of covering multiple utility effects that a Master may need for a challenging encounter while being a respectable farmer.
★★★★★
AOE
Xiang Yu
Xiang Yu is a Berserker-class Quick type AoE damage delaer, with a straightforward kit consisting of selfish Quick/Buster/Crit Strength buffs, the ability to Ignore Invincible and generate Stars per turn, and a 1-turn Evade with a further Crit Strength boost. He can notably reach +100% Critical Damage buffs (or +150% post-upgrade), although he also lacks any way to increase his own Star Gather Rate, which works poorly with his base Berserker class star weight. Having a Quick AoE NP is also attractive for owners of Skadi, however he has trouble looping reliably without extra setup, and his card deck only has a single Quick card aside from his NP, making it somewhat more difficult to take full advantage of Quick support. Even so, being an AoE Berserker means he will likely decimate the battlefield of most any type of enemy aside from Foreigners, and makes for an effective wave-clearer who is applicable to many situations.
★★★★★
AOE
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

A mix of mostly wave clearing and some Debuff-centric Support, Anastasia is a versatile Caster that can fit well in almost any type of Arts set up. Her primary use as a farmer comes from her powerful and rare 50% NP Charge, her strong Arts steroid, and high NP refund potential. Outside of farming, Anastasia’s plethora of debuffs, her Charisma and her Stun make her a good main damage dealer in AoE fights especially when supports can provide the sustained damage and survival she is meaning.

Yet, Anastasia does have some major drawbacks, namely her lackluster damage output and poor survivability. Farming multiple waves especially can be tricky if the enemies have high HP numbers, as her Arts Effectiveness buff only lasts a single turn. Nonetheless, her versatility, Arts compatibility, and farming efficiency make her a desirable Servant for many a roster.

★★★★★
AOE
Semiramis
Semiramis is an Assassin-class Buster-type AoE damage dealer. She touts a non-standard Assassin deck with three Arts cards, allowing her to form Arts chains readily. However, this also indirectly reduces her damage potential, as she cannot NP-B-B chain. She does provide a very potent Buster Resist Down debuff, although this also comes at the cost of 8 Critical Stars. A rare trait is her ability to eliminate her weakness against Caster enemies, making her an Assassin that can stand up decently versus Casters. In the end, however, Masters may often prefer to select a Rider with full class advantage against Casters. She requires specific setups to use correctly, and is not always the best pick for an encounter, so she does not quite make the higher tiers in her current form.
★★★★★
ST
Hijikata Toshizo

The Demon Commander of the Shinsengumi is a prime example of a glass cannon, packing some of the highest damage potential in the game alongside equally poor survivability. Hijikata’s damage comes from two main sources that scale harder the lower his HP gets: his single target Noble Phantasm and his third skill, Law of the Shinsengumi, which grants a strong Critical Damage boost on top of Star Absorption for three turns. He fits incredibly well into modern Buster-centric teams, working as a focal point for the team to support around.

Hijikata, however, is as frail as a Berserker can get, both lacking hard survivability and having a lackluster HP stat for a 5 Star Servant. While this does play into his own niche by helping him reaching critical levels of HP easier to bring out his best offensive capacity, he is extremely prone to getting one-shotted, especially against stray critical hits.

★★★★★
ST
Tamamo-no-Mae (Lancer)
Fantastic NP, Critical Star Generation, and a useful overcharge effect on her single-target Noble Phantasm land Summer Tamamo a spot in many teams dedicated to killing bosses. While her skill set has some amazing effects combined together, their demerits can be quite annoying to fully utilize her skill set, especially for inexperienced players. Nonetheless, Summer Tamamo is a force to be reckoned with, and can easily take over the Lancer spot for many players.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes provides a powerful mixture of Critical Damage, Offensive Team Support and situational Defense-Piercing Utility. With his flexible and durable Ruler class further augmented by an Evasion, Sherlock is great pick for almost any challenging content. Indeed, if supplied with Critical Stars, Sherlock's high NP Gain allows him to rather easily trigger back-to-back NPs, all the while he demolishes the enemy with his own critical hits. 

Yet, while Sherlock offers a significant amount of support on his NP, his skills are largely selfish and mostly serve to help him gain access to his NP. Meanwhile, his Ruler class leaves him without class advantage for most of the content, often making his damage and support inferior to full class encounters. This lack of class advantage and his non-damaging NP also make his use outside of challenging content rather limited.

★★★★★
AOE
Minamoto-no-Raikou
Being a versatile attacker with strong single target and AoE damage at the same time, it is not surprising to see Raikou at the top of the damage dealers’ echelon. Her bonus damage against a vast array of enemies and Buster Critical Damage centric kit ensure that she never falls out of favor and remains consistent for a long time.
★★★★★
AOE
Ryougi Shiki (Saber)
AoE Instant Death is not an amazing niche, but it can be quite useful from time to time, especially for farming. Ryougi Shiki’s offense is not top tier, but on the other hand she makes up for it with her extreme bulk, capable of surviving for a long time on the field and continuing to use her Noble Phantasm.
★★★★★
ST
Mysterious Heroine X
Mysterious Heroine X, as a Quick ST Assassin, has high hit counts (a particularly impressive 12-hit NP), star generation, and respectable NP gain, making her a strong ST Assassin who can reach great heights, especially with Quick support. She notably has collected an upgrade for every single one of her skills as well as her NP, which give her multiple damage boosts as well as a 1-turn Invincibility skill. Post-upgrade, she is among the highest-damaging ST Assassin options available (if ignoring special trait bonus damage). Unfortunately, her anti-Saber and anti-Saberface niches don't often come into play in conjunction with Class Advantage as there are few Saberface Riders, so other Assassin options may at times be more optimal choices. However, she will fill the role of an ST Assassin well, and if Masters invest in her upgrades, her Secret Calibur is a force to be reckoned with.
★★★★★
AOE
Karna
Karna’s kit combines the strong aspects of many Servants without being overly specialized, making him a great jack of all trades Servant. He fares best as a Buster Critical Damage Dealer thanks to his powerful steroids and high Attack stat, while his bonus damage against Divine enemies make him a great pick in many circumstances. Karna’s downsides are his lack of survival tools as well as the lack of any means to reliably gather Critical Stars for himself.
★★★★★
ST
Orion
Orion is one of the best male killers in the game alongside Euryale. This grants her plenty of opportunities to shine, particularly in Challenge Quests with strong male bosses. Her highly defensive skills and the powerful secondary effects on her Noble Phantasm are particularly consistent with her role. Unfortunately, Orion is, quite frankly, much weaker outside of Arts teams. Her reliance on an AQQ chain to generate NP, poor Attack stat and lack of powerful skills make her not worth including in generic teams most of the time.
★★★★★
SUPPORT
Jeanne d'Arc
While Jeanne’s skills are mediocre, if not somewhat weak, her bulk and Noble Phantasm make her an amazing tank that can protect teammates and can fit well in any stall team. With her Interlude available, Jeanne's biggest weakness has been removed and she becomes a powerhouse for any stalling team. Her use outside of the most challenging content remains limited however, and any quests where damage is key remains Jeanne's largest weakness.
★★★★
SUPPORT
Saint Martha (Santa)
Saint Martha is 2023's Santa Welfare Servant, and is a Caster with a relatively rare Quick-type supportive NP. Martha Santa's skill set is decidedly support focused, with her arguably best skill being a targetable ATK buff at above-average values, a 20% NP Gauge charger, and a small Max HP buff. Additionally, she can charge her own NP gauge by up to 30%. She can further support Critical performance of allies with a targetable Star Gather buff and 10-star bomb. Her last skill also inflicts debuffs on all enemies, including NP Seal and DEF down. Her Quick NP does not deal damage, but provides a further ATK buff for allies, 20 stars, a decent chunk of HP restoration, and a bonus damage against Divine, Undead, or Demon enemies. Unfortunately for her NP, the only effect that scales with NP level is the trait-based bonus damage buff, so the effective benefit of reaching NP5 with her isn't particularly impressive (the bonus is 30% when level 1, or 50% at level 5). This does mean that Masters don't have to feel as pressured to raise her to max NP5 level for gameplay purposes, however. All told, she provides a sum of +50% ATK buffs to a single target (or +70% with her NP), making her a decently valued offensive support that is available for free. Even if she won't be dealing much damage to enemies, she still carves a niche for herself as a free offensive support with great ATK buff values to keep in mind for buff stacking setups.
★★★★
AOE
Zenobia
Zenobia is the first non-limited entry into the AoE Arts Archer niche, and her kit allows her to function relatively well in farming applications. To support her looping capability, she has a skill that provides 20% NP Gauge each turn for three turns. Offensively, she has Arts and ATK buffs, bonus damage against King trait enemies, and all of Crit Damage, Stars per turn, self Star Gather, and up to 20 Stars on demand. These make her a relatively competent critical damage dealer as well, despite her Arts Card typing. She also provides support to allies with her ATK buff, along with a relatively minor Crit Rate Resist buff that reduces the chance of sustaining a crit from enemies. Defensively, she has a 1-time, 3 turn Guts, which serves as her hard defensive measure. Overall, Zenobia makes for an excellent AoE Arts Archer for farming applications, and is worth keeping in mind if a Saber with King trait is in the enemy lineup. She is especially effective in the presence of premiere Arts Supports such as Castoria, being capable of looping comfortably.
★★★★
ST
Sei Shounagon (Berserker)
★★★★
ST
Leonardo da Vinci (Ruler)
★★★★
ST
Baobhan Sith
Baobhan Sith is an ST Quick Archer with a balanced mix of offense, defense, and debilitating debuffs in her kit. Her NP has the Sure Hit effect, which renders Evade skills ineffective against her, and she also inflicts minor Curse and Curse Damage Up debuffs. To help support the usage of her NP, she has two separate 30% NP charge skills, totaling up to 60% in her kit alone. She provides some utility via NP Seal, Skill Seal, and NP Gauge Down effects, along with a relatively unique "HP Drain" effect that deals flat damage to an enemy and restores her health by the same amount. She also offers defensive support to allies, providing Evade to all allies (and additionally Invincibility for a turn to herself) at a cost of a small amount of health from her allies. Innately, she only has one offensive boost, from a slightly above-average Quick damage buff from her skill. Overall, her kit covers a broad range of tools, making her a rather flexible Archer option to bring for both the run of the mill battle as well as a challenge / gimmick encounter, and she's an excellent option for those in need of an ST Quick Archer.
★★★★
AOE
Barghest
Barghest is a Saber-Class AoE Buster damage dealer whose skill kit draws some inspiration from Gawain's, up to and including additional benefits from being on a Sunny battlefield. Her AoE NP buffs her Buster performance before applying damage, while also boosting her own max HP and decreasing all her own skill cooldowns by 1 turn. Her second skill is arguably the most unique of her kit, which allows every normal attack to heal herself and remove 1 buff from the target (which can decrease DEF if buff removal succeeds). On top of this, she has a self ATK buff and two Buster Card performance buffs in her kit (although one depends on Sunny field). She also provides some support to allies through up to 15% NP Gauge per turn, and a minor damage cut buff. As a Buster Saber, she has an interesting skill kit that favors concentrating on using her cards, and has delayed or conditional beneficial effects. She can be somewhat unwieldy and difficult to use to her maximum potential, although as an AoE Saber she very much is capable of holding her own, and will fulfill the role of dispatching Lancer waves effectively.
★★★★
AOE
Mysterious Idol X (Alter)
Mysterious Idol X (Alter), the welfare of the Waltz Collab event, is the first Foreigner Welfare Servant in the roster. As a Quick AoE damage dealer, she is capable of looping her NP with the right setups (although her refund is relatively low compared to other Servants, so she loops with some difficulty). Her damage is also quite high due to her welfare status, and she also has both anti-Evil and anti-Mechanical bonus damage. Her kit has an array of offensive buffs, including Quick/Buster, ATK (party), and Crit Damage buffs. Defensively, she has an Evade skill and a party heal. Overall she is a well balanced, straightforward damage dealer, and is particularly helpful for Masters who would like a Foreigner in the roster to help deal with Berserker waves.
★★★★
SUPPORT
Mash (Ortinax)

Mash (Ortinax) first appears during the second part of the Main storyline, and has a distinctive skill set from the normal version of Mash. Her skillset has several notable differences, with arguably the greatest one being the loss of her targetable NP charge skill. She also loses her first skill's party defensive buff, instead gaining a self-Buster and Buster Crit damage buff, which does not quite mesh well with her low attack stat. On the plus side, both her second and third skills have the taunt effect, which enhance her ability to tank damage for allies by allowing her to do so for two turns instead of one. One taunt provides her with 1-turn invincibility, while the other charges her own NP gauge by 20%. Her NP reverts to a state similar to Lord Chaldeas (no ATK buff), still providing the defensive buffs at similar values it used to. Overall, she is not quite as effective as her former self, but she still has most of her kit intact, the pros of being 0 Cost, a 5% bond point sharing bonus for new Main Quests and select events, and a cool new suit.

★★★★
AOE
Archer of Inferno (Saber)
The Archer of Inferno is no longer an Archer this Summer, instead dual wielding B**t S*b*r paraphernalia as an AoE Arts Saber. Her NP buffs her own Arts/Buster performance before dealing damage to all enemies, while also inflicting Burn and her signature Spreading Fire debuff that boosts burn damage, enabling her to participate in rather niche burn stacking setups. Her kit is mostly self-focused offensive buffs, providing herself with Arts and Critical Damage buffs, increased Star Gather on her Arts Cards, and a generous capacity to create Stars on demand, and a smaller amount per turn. Her primarily survival option is a 1 time 3 turn Guts. She also comes with a 1 time Debuff Immune skill, which can either help with offsetting undesirable debuffs from enemies, or to mitigate the delayed self Stun on her Guts skill. Her Arts buffs and hitcounts are sufficient for her to loop her NP with proper support (and can even do it herself if she can get off an NPAA chain with crits enabled by her kit and a few overkill hits) , making her a great option against Lancer waves if she can be properly supported.
★★★★
AOE
Illyasviel von Einzbern (Archer)
Illya's Archer form is a primarily offense oriented Quick AoE Servant, complete with the ability to loop (although with some difficulty). Her NP gains a Sure Hit effect before damage, as well as rainbow Quick/Arts/Buster buffs. Her skill kit has Quick, Crit damage, Quick card star gather, and trait-based (Child Servant) ATK buffs as far as offense goes. Defensively, she has a 1-time Invincibility and a chance-based HP regeneration. Additionally, she has a small NP Gauge charge and a self NP Gain buff, along with a 3% NP gauge per turn passive, which all help support her looping capacity. She's relatively straight forward as a Quick damage dealer, and although her looping capacity isn't quite as consistent as other Quick AoE Archers, she will easily clean up any Saber waves that come her way.
★★★★
AOE
Utsumi Erice
The Welfare of the Fate/Requiem Collab, Utsumi Erice is an AoE Arts Lancer who has an Instant Death gimmick on her NP that also removes defensive buffs after damage. Her skill kit is mostly focused on self buffs, including Arts, Crit Damage, Crit Star Gather, Sure Hit, Death Success Rate Up, and an anti-Servant damage bonus. Her defensive option is an 2-time 3 turn Evade, which is tied to her Arts buff. She fills the role of the relatively sparse Arts AoE Lancer relatively well, in part thanks to her ease of NP5 as a Welfare. However, it's worth noting that her NP refund can be inconsistent due to the Death effect occurring before damage, which on success, removes any NP generation that would have occurred for that given enemy. Even so, she is a solid option, particularly against Archer Servants due to her ability to stack Class advantage and her anti-Servant bonus damage. Her ability to remove defensive buffs further bolsters her utility in a wider variety of encounters, making Erice a welcome addition to the roster.
★★★★
ST
Calamity Jane
Sharpshooter Calamity Jane manifests as a Single Target Quick-type Archer, whose NP has a built in Sure Hit effect with DEF and Quick Resist debuffs. Her skill set contains a mix of utility debuffs and party support, with debuffs including ATK, Crit Rate, and NP Drain debuffs for all enemies. She has a chance-based party ATK buff, as well as a 10% NP Gauge charge skill for all allies. Notably, her third skill has a special condition where the more stars the party has, the more effects it can grant. With 50 stars, it provides to an ally buffs for Buff Success Rate, Crit Damage, Star Gather, Evade, Ignore Invincible, and an additional 20% NP charge. The stars are not necessarily required nor consumed upon skill use, although with fewer stars, fewer effects will be granted (and notably, the 20% NP charge requires 50 stars). Her damage is in the middle-of-the-line for her class, which is somewhat expected given how much support her kit provides. She is a unique option among Archers, and with a proper team (particularly with critical star support), she can provide a plethora of assistance to cheer the party on.
★★★★
AOE
Okita J Souji
After years of countless Nobu clones and Nobu flaunting her summer form, Okita finally receives a swimsuit of her own as an AoE Quick Assassin (but at what cost?). Okita J Souji has excellent values on all her skills, with a hefty Crit Strength, Star Gather, and Quick self buffs, as well as Sure Hit and NP Strength buffs to round out her offensive skills. Defensively, she comes with a hard defensive option with a 1-turn Evade. However, many of her skills have demerits, from removing a defensive buff from herself, to progressively lowering her defense across turns. Her NP is no different, being a decently hard hitting AoE Quick damage source that removes defensive buffs and applies a DEF debuff to enemies, but has a chance of stunning Okita herself afterwards. This can end an Extra chain early, as well as stop her from otherwise being able to loop her NP, making her somewhat unreliable if not properly supported. Overall, Okita, although having a solid skill set, is somewhat held back by her demerits, and requires arranging the party or CEs specifically to act as her support (AKA emergency crash landing repair squad). However, with proper support, she will excel fantastically as an AoE Assassin damage dealer.
★★★★
AOE
Quetzalcoatl (Samba/Santa)
The Samba Santa version of Quetzalcoatl is an AoE Buster damage dealer with a bit of offensive support built in. Being Ruler-class, as she reaches NP5 easily due to Welfare status, she can hit high enough damage values even without class advantage to clear a wave for farming. She does lack an NP Gauge charging skill, however, so she will need to be supported properly to farm efficiently. Otherwise, her kit provides ATK buffs to all allies, stars per turn, a targetable Star Gather + Star Drop buff, and a self Buster and Buster Star Gather buff, with her NP providing a Star Drop buff to herself and Critical Damage buffs to all allies. The sum of her kit gives her very respectable performance as a Crit Buster Servant, also providing support for other allies in Crit-based teams. Despite rarely being the pick of choice for damage due to her classing, her solid kit and respectable damage make her a great Servant to have in the roster.
★★★★
ST
Shuten-Douji (Caster)
Shuten-Douji (Caster) is Oniland's Welfare Servant, and is a single target Buster-type Caster Servant. By courtesy of her Welfare status, she can reach max NP levels easily, and her NP hits hard. As an added bonus, her NP poisons the enemy and applies Sure Hit before damage, making sure that Evade skills will not pose a problem (which tend to be frequent for Assassins, a common target for her). Her skill kit provides stalling in the form of NP Seal, and damage mitigation in the form of a Critical Rate debuff. She also provides an ATK bonus to all allies. Otherwise, the rest of her abilities buff herself, including Buster, Arts, Crit Star Gather Rate, and Anti-[Demonic] special damage buffs, helping to increase her damage output. Unfortunately, her 13-hit NP is Buster-type, meaning none of the NP hits are capable of generating NP gauge refund, which is the primarily difficulty of running Shuten-Douji (Caster). Her NP Gain woes are partially mitigated by her 3-Arts Card deck, although NP looping will be a difficulty for her without a great deal of support. Additionally, she has zero hard defensive options, and may have trouble staying on the field without defensive support when faced with enemy NPs.
★★★★
ST
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Saber)
Diarmuid (Saber) brings solid Quick-type single target damage with an NP that removes defensive buffs (unfortunately after damage) and has a small chance of instant death. He also boasts high hit counts and strong base NP Gain, which enables him to synergize well with Quick Supports. He comes with an evade tied to a self Quick and ATK buff that last a single turn to bolster his offense and defense, with his second skill providing stars and an increase to his own star gather rate for critical performance. Finally, he has a self DEF and NP Gain buff that last for 3 turns, which both improves his durability and helps him unleash his Noble Phantasm more quickly. Among SR Sabers, he performs solidly and is an excellent pick particularly if Quick Support is available.
★★★★
AOE
Valkyrie
Valkyrie was highly divisive in tier discussion, being a strong AoE Quick type Servant with a Noble Phantasm that has a built-in Sure Hit effect to bypass Evade skills. She excels most in the correct party compositions. She is notably strong with Skadi, who is released at the end of Lostbelt 2, enabling very consistent 3-turn farming setups with her high hit counts, NP Gain, NP per turn, and Critical Star generation. However, without Skadi, her damage tends to be mediocre, and she can struggle to perform. She does have decent staying power, having an HP Regen skill, a 1-time Evade, Debuff Immunity, and Damage Cut. With Skadi in the roster, she is definitively an impressive NP looper, although without Skadi, her performance is notably less remarkable.
★★★★
ST
Caster of Midrash

Caster of Midrash’s Arts NP is a rarity for offensive single target Casters, and Caster of Midrash makes a good case for why that is so. With excellent NP Gain, back to back NP potential, good teamwide offensive buffs, and supreme Arts team synergy, Caster of Midrash is a natural fit for any Arts-heavy Master. Her sustained performance is impressive, yet that is also her main weakness.

Outside of more difficult content, Caster of Midrash lacks the on-demand or burst damage necessary to help clear content quickly especially as she is still dragged down by her Caster class damage modifiers. With strong competition from higher rarity Casters as well, Masters may not find as many opportunities to field her as they would like.

★★★★
ST
Tristan

While many may be immediately drawn to his powerful team Evasion from Harp of Healing, Tristan has plenty going for him outside of being a strong defensive team support. As a Quick-focused Archer, Tristan has sufficient Star generating capacity with very high hit counts. On top of that, his NP is frequently available thanks to the large NP battery on Unblessed Birth B (albeit with self-NP Seal) and high NP gain across most of his cards. His NP itself is capable of piercing through pesky Evasion and Defense skills. Tristan’s power does not end there, however, as Tristan rounds out his massive utility by being able to strip any target of their buffs via his skills. 

The knight of self-induced blindness is not without his flaws though - his only direct damage improvements come from his NP Upgrade and passive Riding. The NP Seal from his NP charge also prevents simple plug and play strategies and generally needs an extra turn to set up. Still, with Quick supports becoming more widely available, Tristan’s damage does not have to be a large problem.

★★★★
ST
Archer of Inferno

With excellent Buster Critical compatibility and an overall powerful skill set that only has minor drawbacks, Archer of Inferno’s largest problem is that she is a Single Target boss specialist with a Burn amplification niche that hardly ever sees any use. As the most challenging encounters often highly reward Servants that can counter the enemy’s various gimmicks, Archer of Inferno is always a solid option, but never an optimal choice.

With little farming capability to draw back on, and with some extremely steep competition including that of both powerful Archer welfares Chloe and Altera the san(ta), Archer of Inferno thus places herself firmly in the middle of the pack.

★★★★
ST
Saint Martha (Ruler)
Being an offensive Ruler, Saint Martha (Ruler) manages to stand apart from her fellow 4 Star Servant, albeit not by much. Her class grants her significant bulk against the majority of the enemies, while her Buster-centric deck, Defense debuff, anti-Demon, Divine and Undead niche, NP Battery, and a future Rank-Up Quest that improve her Noble Phantasm’s modifier allow her to hold her own when it comes to dishing out punishment. On the contrary, by virtue of having neutral damage against the majority of opponents and a lack of a consistent damage buff, Saint Martha’s damage is fairly lackluster against enemies that are unaffected by Jacob’s Limb. Thus, Martha often ends up sidelined for Servants with class advantage by Masters with more developed rosters.
★★★★
AOE
Ishtar (Rider)

With strong NP Damage from her various Quick boosts, Ishtar packs a strong NP5 welfare punch even amongst the crowded Rider Welfare Servant list. Yet, it's her combination of this AoE damage, critical potential, hard survival and good all-around teamwide support that elevates her from middle of the pack to a great pick. Sadly, her poor Quick card performance and resultant NP Gain does hold her back a bit from being among the cream of the crop. 

★★★★
ST
Frankenstein (Saber)

Frankenstein (Saber) packs both strong base NP Gain performance, good hit counts and an utterly amazing NP Gain boost. Her NP spam potential, especially under the influence of Quick Performance buffs and good card draws, is excellent and her own 3-turn steroids ensure each NP in that 3-turn window seriously hurt. In addition, she packs some ever-useful utility in a targeted buff removal, all the while her NP spam has serious stun-lock potential. 

Still, her various demerits and difficulty using Galvanism optimally at NP1 hold her back a bit, but she's a stellar Quick Servant that will only see her performance become stronger and stronger as better Quick supports arrive. 

★★★★
ST
EMIYA (Alter)

It is quite apt to called Emiya (Alter) the four-star equivalent of Altria Pendragon (Archer). Packing fantastic NP generation and powerful NP refund, Emiya (Alter) can spam his strong defense-piercing Arts Noble Phantasm on a frequent basis. Add in his two strong self-buffs, high durability, and good stalling potential with his Noble Phantasm effect, and we get one of the most consistent damage dealers amongst 4 Star Servant.

On the other hand, he does not possess any form of team support whatsoever and his main utility is unreliable with a low base chance of NP draining. Due to his low base Attack stats, his offensive output outside of his Noble Phantasm is also quite lackluster compared to other 4 Star Archer Servants who can do more than just shooting off their Noble Phantasm. Nonetheless, these flaws are quite minor when he is put into the right setup, and Emiya (Alter) remains a highly valuable pick for any Masters lacking a solid single target Archer.

★★★★
AOE
Jeanne d'Arc (Alter Santa Lily)

The combination of an NP battery, a strong one-turn Buster buff, and a  welfare AoE Noble Phantasm makes this version of Jeanne d’Arc a very capable farmer for most Masters. Next to her farming potential, Jeanne d’Arc (Alter Santa Lily) also packs some nice healing support both from her targetable healing skill and her NP’s Overcharge. She also has access to an Invincibility, but its shared cooldown with her large and only Buster steroid does make using it a bit tricky on more difficult nodes.

In addition, her inconsistent NP generation rate and otherwise lackluster sustained damage firmly makes it so that she excels mainly at farming a strong wave of Archer or Berserker enemies. As long as she is used for her intended purpose, this Jeanne will not let any Master down.

★★★★
ST
Vlad III (EXTRA)

A highly versatile Lancer, Vlad III (Extra) is capable of operating at a stable level in a wide variety of situations. His diverse skill set allows him to act as both a tank and a damage dealer for the team with a Taunt, strong self-buffs, generating a few critical stars and healing while enjoying a wide niche from his Anti-Evil Noble Phantasm. Against enemies with Evil alignment, his Noble Phantasm will hit particularly hard, thanks to his Tactics and Innocent Monster attack buff. 

As reliable as Vlad III is, his damage ceiling is unfortunately not particularly impressive against non-evil enemies, which hamper his overall usage as a damage dealer. Furthermore, as versatile as he is, his kits lack a true focus that could elevate him above other Servants who might be preferred in more specific team compositions.

★★★★
ST
Berserker of El Dorado

Even with fierce competition from other Berserkers, Berserker of El Dorado stands out with a strong combination of offensive steroids, NP battery, team support, and even debuff immunity. Furthermore, her simple but clear and destructive gameplay allows her to fit in very well into most Buster composition, and work well even on her own. While her biggest flaw - Survivability - is quite magnified by her lack of defensive option and Berserker inherent frailty, it is not difficult to work around with proper supports and team building.

All in all, Berserker of El Dorado is a strong, well-designed representative of the Berserker’s “Offense is the Best Defense” Philosophy.

★★★★
AOE
Gilgamesh (Caster)

Gilgamesh (Caster) is an effective blend of offensive support and AoE Arts spam that just ends up working spectacularly. He can simultaneously overload any (high hit count) team with Critical Stars, massively improve their damage output and Arts card performance significantly, and even increase the success rate of crippling debuffs originating from his allies. On his own, Gilgamesh is a solid AOE Caster, boasting reasonable damage output, high star generation and respectable NP gain. Melammu Dingir is also a powerful NP, simultaneously raising the team’s defence and reducing the enemy’s for a solid duration, on top of a high hit count - ideal for stalling teams as well.

Gilgamesh isn’t without his flaws, though. He lacks the overwhelming base offensive power of complete offense-oriented Casters, and has no hard defensive options such as an Evasion to keep himself in the field without the aid of his allies. Yet the sheer breadth of Arts teams he can function in (and his frequent Bonus Servant status) make him an awesome addition to any roster.

★★★★
ST
Ibaraki-Douji

While the image of a typical Berserker may be that of reckless rampage and mindlessness, Ibaraki’s approach is more measured than is typical in an otherwise-chaotic class. With a good Madness enhancement rank, great base stats and a powerful offensive steroid in Demonic Nature of Oni A, Ibaraki is hardly lacking on the offensive front. Furthermore, Ibaraki boasts surprisingly good durability in spite of her Berserker class weakness thanks to her combination of Healing/Debuff Cleanse and her large defense buff, which synergize incredibly well with the common top supports. Yet, it is her Buff Removal after NP that grants her a very welcome niche for various Challenge Quests.

Yet, her inconsistent NP gain or the very real danger of unavoidable enemy NPs put holes in her otherwise well rounded kit. Thus while Ibaraki may not perform as powerfully to more all-out offense Berserkers in a vacuum, when taken in a team which properly supports Ibaraki’s strengths and utility, Ibaraki will outlast and outperform many more standard Berserkers.

★★★★
AOE
Frankenstein

Frankie holds her place for one reason alone - amazing AoE NP damage with potential looping potential in very specific Skadi comps. On top of Blasted Tree’s high NP damage multiplier, Frankie has access to an NP Interlude as well as two steroid skills in Wail of the Living Dead C and Overload C, making her damage potential phenomenal for final waves. While her AOE damage output is her main attraction, Frankie has small uses in other scenarios, including a targetable stun on a decent cooldown and the capacity to generate a large sum of stars on her NP turn for her allies. 

If it weren’t evident from her Berserker nature, self-stun and self-damage effects, Frankie is exceptionally squishy and has no tools to compensate for it. If deployed for any purpose outside of her one-hit-wonder NP then she will need heavy defensive/cleansing support to stay alive. Fortunately, efficient Masters do not get hit at all when farming.

★★★★
ST
Carmilla

Carmilla is something of a rarity, being a strong release servant whose Rank-Up Quests bolster her already solid core performance. Carmilla’s strength comes from two simple factors in tandem - her incredibly good NP gain and her strong and widely applicable anti-Female niche, backed by a modest but functional skill set. Carmilla’s Noble Phantasm is a single target nuke capable of hitting hard on common Female enemies, healing her for a moderate sum and also further augmenting her attack on following turns. Her freakish NP gain and Vampirism C then helps to set up the next blood-bath. 

Carmilla’s weakness ultimately lies in her frailty and her own diminished Assassin modifiers. She pays for her good attack stat with a small HP pool, and lacks any strong defensive options to guard against NP’s, making her reliant on her teammates for survival. Furthermore, she is dependent on card draws to pull her singular Arts card to reach peak performance, which may not be particularly reliable in every quest attempt.

★★★★
AOE
Atalante
This huntress embodies Skadi’s Quick-centric farming gameplay to the extreme. After getting all of her Interludes and Rank-up Quests finished, Atalante is a wave 2 clearer for any Critical and Quick-centric teammates through her powerful party Quick-performance buffs and the massive amount of Critical Stars generated from her Noble Phantasm. The final wave can then be cleared by an ally fed with her Critical Stars. But she can do a lot more than that with the arrival of Scathach-Skadi, becoming a notable farmer through her high NP refund and strong AoE Noble Phantasm. Her combination of a high hit count NP and NP Gain buff embodies everything a 3-turn Quick NP looper is looking for. Atalante’s biggest issue ever since her release has always been her terribly low base NP generation per hit. While this issue can be remedied somewhat through her 3rd skill and teammates’ assistance, she will still struggle to charge her NP gauge from scratch. Outside of her NP, her lack of sustained damage also makes her far less powerful compared to the plethora of Strong Servants in the Archer class of any rarity. But that’s no issue. In the right team and setting, all Atalante does is fire her NP. Stick a Kaleidoscope or Starting NP Gauge to her 24/7, and Atalante becomes one of the best farming Servants around in the age of Skadi.
★★★★
AOE
Nero Claudius

Much like many launch Servants, Nero’s initial barebones skill set has received several upgrades through Interludes and Rank-Up Quests, resulting in a multifunctional Saber that is capable in most general situations. With an AoE Noble Phantasm and an eventual NP Charge, Nero can be an effective farmer with sufficient damage for various daily and event quests. Furthermore, Nero Claudius is incredibly durable, allowing her to be a highly effective last man standing Servant for difficulty content or even solo content all on her own. 

But, as capricious as her personality, this Emperor of Roses performance is highly volatile. Triggering all effects of Imperial Privilege means relying on the Random Number God, and unfortunately, it is the backbone of her (offensive) skill set. Furthermore, while Nero is capable of both farming and handling challenge quests, especially in Arts teams, her main niche is her severe last man standing potential. While a fun one, it’s not a niche that can be used very often.

★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Alter)

Saber Alter’s kit is built towards blasting the final wave with her extraordinarily powerful Excalibur Morgan. Her high base attack, notably above-average NP damage multiplier, and two powerful steroids allow her to inflict a juicy chunk of damage against all enemies, even with little team support. Her farming ability with the use of a Kaleidoscope CE is good enough to work anywhere, but getting her Noble Phantasm ready again will take some time before her Rank Up.

While she lacks any fancy frills or defensive skills to protect herself, Saber Alter’s sheer offensive might makes her an excellent starter Saber. As other Servants catch up and the average Servant kit slowly grows stronger, Saber Alter struggles to stand out when sheer damage is not required. 

★★★
ST
Mandricardo
The somewhat weary and cynical Mandricardo is a Rider-class Servant with a single target Arts NP, and a somewhat self-sacrificial skill set. His second skill is his most unique, being only usable when he is under half health, and providing him with an immense 1-time ATK and Crit Damage buff with the ability to remove Defensive Buffs when attacking, but also inflicting death on himself if he attacks. His third skill provides him with Quick/Arts buffs while also giving him a turn of Taunt, making it more likely for him to reach under 50% health for his second skill. Finally, his first skill is a ATK buff, with an extra bit of bonus DEF for himself. His NP will buff all his own card colors, but will also decrease his own ATK, although the ATK debuff applies after damage and is small in value. In most scenarios, setting up his second skill can be unwieldy since enemies may not reliably bring him under half health, and using his second skill will also cause his death if Guts is not available. Even without his second skill, however, he still can perform the role of a single target Rider damage dealer well enough, and is an easily accessible option available in the Friend Point summoning pool.
★★★
ST
Okada Izo
Okada Izo is an Assassin class ST Arts damage dealer with a specialty in man-slaying (anti-Humanoid damage). His damage is impressive for a three-star Servant, and he comes with a 1 turn Evade for some survivability. Given how common Humanoid trait is throughout the game, the application cases for his anti-Humanoid skill are frequent. He additionally has two buffs to his own Critical Strength and methods of increasing Crit Star Drop rate and his own Star Gather Rate, making him a capable addition to an Arts Crit team.
★★★
AOE
Avicebron

Avicebron is an excellent farming Servant, owing to his AoE Buster Noble Phantasm, up to 30% Buster Performance self-buff and an incredible potential 80% NP Charge. He serves as a great opener for any farming team, and has extreme freedom in terms of what (Event) CEs he can equip himself with. In fact, Masters with a strong selection in CEs can massively boost his damage output in order to clear even third wave enemies. 

Outside of farming, Avicebron provides little value, as the support from his 3rd skill is rather gimmicky to trigger, while the NP Gain from his Overcharge is rather small. In addition, his skill cooldowns are so terribly, that using them twice is often not an option.

Nonetheless, he is a great budget option for farming overall, who in the end can save a lot of time for all Masters.

 

★★★
SUPPORT
Houzouin Inshun

Houzouin Inshun has damage capability and crazy numbers other 1-3* Servants can only dream of. With strong NP Gain and a stacked NP, when the right card draws match up, Houzouin Inshun's performance is downright terrifying.

Yet, that potential requires a playstyle that in practice, either requires a solo or last man standing performance, or a heavily dedicated support composition. His reliance on a good card draw to make full use of his self-buffing non-damaging NP means accessing his potential in a team situation is impractical, and with the accompanying ramp up time that his NP needs to get going, he is not well suited for farming either. 

Thus, what remains is a very fun, very capable Servant, yet one that doesn't see much outside of fun challenges and highlight videos showcasing his immense power. 

★★★
ST
David

Despite having the appearance of a damage dealer with his above average attack and single target Buster NP, David is a fantastic support character. He offers a rare on-demand Party-wide Evasion and a Charisma buff, both of which are highly appreciated for pretty much any team. Thanks to a triple Arts card deck, he also builds his own NP bar fairly quickly and can assist the team with Arts chains as well.

However, David lacks any strong steroids to bolster his single target Noble Phantasm and notably lacks the damage output of his competition. As a result, David is mainly a highly flexible support hybrid who excels at supporting powerful friend support Servants, yet, if need be, he can still offer some decent damage on the side.

★★★
ST
Lu Bu Fengxian

Do not pursue Lu Bu. No, seriously, this guy is a walking nuclear warhead. Lu Bu is infamous for his absurd damage potential, so much so that he outdamages the vast majority of the SSR Servant roster assuming his NP is at level 5 while theirs are at level 1 (which is a very common scenario for most Masters). Not many bosses can survive a Noble Phantasm Buster Brave Chain from this man with all buffs active, making him a highly accessible burst specialist for many 1-turn teams.

However, Lu Bu also possesses some deadly flaws to balance out his sheer power, namely having the durability of a wet paper towel and completely lacking the NP generation or Star Generation to set himself up. Thus, he only truly shines in a team built around him and is still very prone to dying to random critical hits.

All in all, he is a highly valuable Servant with clear strengths and weaknesses who can be used virtually anywhere provided he is given the necessary tools for the job.

★★★
ST
Medea

The Witch of Betrayal offers a combination of an instantaneous nuke and highly desirable utility for hard content. With her signature skill Rapid Words of Divine, Medea can fire off her Rule Breaker whenever it comes off cooldown (just level 4 of the skill offers a whopping 101% NP upon use). Her Noble Phantasm comes with a very rare Buff Removal effect upon use that is pivotal for many quests that feature bosses who spam a lot of annoying buffs.

Furthermore, Medea can also clear debuffs from allies with her third skill upon completing her Rank-Up Quest. This is extremely valuable for many situations, as on-demand, targetable debuff clearance is hard to come by and can trivialize debuff reliant bosses.

To compensate, Medea’s damage potential is on the lower side due to the poor modifier on her Noble Phantasm as well as the low Caster class damage modifier. Her survivability is also quite mediocre, as Medea lacks a hard survivability option (Evade/Invincibility) which is often essential in difficult encounters. Utilized properly though, Medea will be an invaluable asset for many Masters.

★★
ST
Paris
Paris, one of the fourth Anniversary Bronze Servants, is an ST Quick Archer Servant with the special ability to deal bonus damage against enemies he successfully removes buffs from using his skill. The buff removal on his first skill will apply a three turn debuff that boosts his NP damage, in addition to debuffing the enemy's Crit Rate and granting Paris a 1-time, 1-turn Evade. Paris additionally has several self-buffs, including an ATK, DEF, and Debuff Resist buff, and the capability to charge his own NP by 20% with a small heal. His NP provides him with Ignore Invincibility before damage as well, ensuring the damage will circumvent most defensive options. He is a solid entry to the Archer class, being an excellent budget option for ST Quick damage with buff removal on demand.
★★
AOE
William Shakespeare

Shakespeare is a highly accessible offensive support who shines in fast battles. His main features are his powerful single turn team-wide Buster buff and his targetable 20% NP charge. These skills alone make him a fantastic combination with the Chaldea Combat Uniform for Masters who enjoy employing buff stacking setups with high burst damage.

Outside of this particular niche, the playwright sadly does not offer much else. His damage potential is nonexistent until his NP Upgrade and his buffs all fall off after one turn, which makes him mostly deadweight afterwards. Nonetheless, he is still a worthwhile Servant to level up for many one-turn setups for farming and boss killing alike.

★★
SUPPORT
Hans Christian Andersen

Often touted as a budget Merlin, Andersen’s claim to fame is his ability to bring a multitude of highly useful buffs to the table, including healing over time, ATK up, DEF up, Critical Damage up, and star generation. Thanks to his low rarity, Andersen has great availability, incredibly low Party Cost and low investment costs for fantastic returns. He can operate well in most generic team compositions, and thrives in more specialized setups such as Critical-centric teams or stall teams.

Yet Andersen does have some notable downsides, including his lack of hard survivability skills, poor defense, and nonexistent offensive prowess. While these downsides can hamper his effectiveness in longer battles, they can be compensated for with the right team composition and he remains an excellent support for any new Masters.

★★
SUPPORT
Leonidas

As a rare low-rarity Taunter, Leonidas is a highly useful Servant in tougher content. Compared to Saint George who occupies the same niche, Leonidas is less consistent overall. His on-demand Taunt skill only lasts for 1 turn, and while his Noble Phantasm provides a Defense buff, critical stars and a Taunt for 3 turns, getting Leonidas to 100% NP gauge in good health is often fairly challenging and requires help from the team.

That being said, Leonidas does have other merits to make up for it. The King of Sparta has a party-wide Buster buff with nice uptime and decent value, which is quite valuable for offensive Servants such as Berserkers who often employ his protection. He also has Lancer class star weight, which is easier to work with for critical compositions compared to other strong taunt Servants.

Overall, Leonidas is a valuable low rarity Servant who will prove his worth often in Challenge Quests or if some combination of defensive and offensive Buster support is necessary.

AOE
Bartholomew Roberts
The charismatic pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, is available during the fourth Anniversary after his initial appearance at the Meihousou. He is primarily an AoE Quick Rider damage dealer, with the capability of providing some offensive and critical support to allies. His party wide buffs include NP Damage, ATK, and Critical Strength, and he is capable of generating a sum of stars while reducing his own Star Gather rate to 0%, essentially nullifying his own Rider star weight and distributing stars to allies. He also has a self Quick buff, and the ability to reduce Crit Rate for all enemies. His AoE Quick NP has the unique effect of dealing bonus damage to low rarity enemies (indicated by having a Bronze colored class symbol), in addition to applying a DEF debuff after damage. Bartholomew is technically capable of looping with the double Skadi setup as well, although he requires substantial support to do so. Overall, Bartholomew is a solid team addition at his low cost and decent party support.
AOE
Jason
The self-important bronze rarity Saber, Jason, is primarily a supportive Servant with an AoE Arts damage NP. He is capable of granting a multitude of buffs to allies, although several of his buffs, including NP Gauge, Crit Damage, and Star Drop Rate buffs are restricted only to members of the Argonauts. As a result, he is best fielded with the Argonauts for greatest effect, in which his support is quite impressive for a bronze Servant. For all other Servants, he provides a small targeted heal that also removes only one debuff from the ally, as well as a targeted Evade and Star Gather buff, and a standard ATK buff for all allies. His NP will buff his own Arts effectiveness before dealing damage to all enemies, although given his very low base stats, his damage output isn't the most impressive even at NP5. In most cases, he would be brought to the team as a low-cost support option, although he fills this role relatively decently.
C+
★★★★★
ST
Nemo
Captain of the Nautilus, Nemo, primarily operates as an ST Arts Rider with an affinity for waterside battlefields. Nemo's NP gains both increased damage and the Sure Hit effect when near water (or in "Imaginary Spaces", which is specific to his release event, Imaginary Scramble), and his NP also deals bonus damage to Super Giant enemies. Nemo also provides a decent measure of party support that improves in the correct battlefield types, giving NP Damage, ATK, and Arts buffs for all allies, while also being able to generate a small sum of Crit Stars on demand. Defensively, however, he is not as fully-featured, with only a Guts skill and a small damage cut passive when in the right battlefields. He also has access to a 30% NP charge for himself, and a relatively unique effect of up to 50% additional NP charge when his Guts activates. His NP Gain as an Arts Servant, however, is somewhat middling, and the relatively low hit counts on his NP make it so that he requires an extra chain after his NP to get notable refund. His performance outside of his favored battlefield also isn't quite as potent as well, with about half of his additional supportive offensive capacity being locked to near-water / imaginary battlefields. In a relatively competitive ST Arts role, he may not always be the Servant of choice, but if taking on battles where water is involved (especially if a Super Giant enemy is involved), Captain Nemo is an excellent option to keep in mind.
★★★★★
AOE
Kingprotea
Kingprotea is a larger-than-life Alter Ego with a hefty AoE Buster Noble Phantasm. Her unique gimmick is her ability to continually "grow", stacking Max HP buffs over the course until her HP total gets an additional 30,000 HP tacked on. She can choose to consume her HP buff stacks to convert them into NP Gauge, and with at least 5 stacks she can fill her NP gauge fully with the skill alone. It should be noted that her NP deals bonus damage if she still has her growth buffs still active, so it may not necessarily be best choice damage-wise to consume the buffs for NP Gauge, and Masters will have to wield her skills mindfully. She also comes with an impressive self ATK buff that lasts three turns, making her essentially a lumbering tank in both durability and offense. She does lack hard defensive options, however, and her skills make it so that her effectiveness increases slowly over multiple turns, encouraging a more stall-oriented play style, which may discourage Masters from fielding her if they want to play faster. However, she deals respectable damage and makes for a solid addition to the team against any Cavalry waves, being among the higher-damaging AoE Alter Ego Servants. If Masters are willing to make space for her, Kingprotea will be more than happy to make more than a few enemy pancakes.
★★★★★
AOE
Bradamante
Bradamante represents another addition to the AoE Quick Lancer roster, and as is common for the archetype, she is capable of looping her NP with Skadi. Butt, she does it with a bit more difficulty than lower rarity options, while costing more to place in the team by merit of being higher rarity. She does make a place for herself by bringing a targetable 20% NP charge, along with a chance of Stun on her NP, rounded out with self Quick/Arts buffs and a DEF and Guts buff of decent value. As a package, she is a useful addition to teams even without Skadi, and also acts as a NP looper alternative for Masters who do not have access to the other Lancers capable of looping.
★★★★★
ST
Abigail Williams

As one of the few Servants with the Foreigner class, Abigail is a welcome Berserker counter for any Master who dreads their otherwise universal class advantage. Packing a strong Single Target Buster NP, NP Charging over time, heavy team support and stalling utility, as well as Amakusa’s buff removal before her NP activates, Abigail should have all the essential ingredients for a remarkable performance. 

Yet, Abigail suffers from an utterly incomprehensible low base NP Gain, practically destroying how quickly she can charge her NP. As such, she is dependent on Arts chains and team support to (re-)charge her NP, as her own skills also carry a significant cooldown. Nonetheless, her performance is still rather strong especially against any unfortunate Berserkers who see their 1.5x class advantage fall to a 0.5x class disadvantage against Abigail.

★★★★★
SUPPORT
Osakabehime

Despite being overshadowed by stronger supports, Masters who lack any of those (NP Charging) supports will find Osakabehime rather useful during Raid Event or combating Rider bosses. With an NP Charge, hefty Defense Down, and Buff Removal, Osakabehime also thrives with the Chaldea Combat Uniform’s Order Change. Furthermore, her own damage and survival potential is not to be underestimated as she is quite capable of soloing her fair share of difficult Rider bosses.

Naturally, her double dose of upgrades will noticeably improve her performance, expanding her support to Buster Servants in addition to her Quick support, as well as grant her a large teamwide Critical Damage buff on a short cooldown.

★★★★★
ST
Altria Pendragon (Rider Alter)

With what can only be described as ludicrous speed damage potential on her NP, Maid Alter's single target NP Damage stands amongst the highest of all Servants outside of anti-trait shenanigans. In addition, she packs rare targetable cooldown reduction and some Quick support for her allies, while her critical capability is rather decent given her passives. 

It's a good thing she criticals easily, as her NP Gain is rather middling and she lacks an NP charge skill, with her Quick cards being rather weak. Her sustained damage is likewise on the weaker side, relying on her NP to do the heavy lifting. Along with her lack of survival, Maid Alter is thus difficult to support properly. With Skadi, her performance is markedly improved, although she still falls short of lower rarity competition (a certain Rider class Welfare Servant) without higher NP levels. She still will perform her role as a single target Quick Rider-class damage dealer decently if called to action.

★★★★★
AOE
Iskandar
Iskander is a cannon that often can shoot only once, but hits with a truckload of cannon fire. His skills are all short-term buffs and his stats are nothing extraordinary to help carry his weight. He is often used solely as a farmer who is done most of the time after using his extremely damaging Noble Phantasm, as his lack of NP generation puts a big dent in his overall sustained firepower. However, with an upgrade to Tactics in the future, his sustained damage performance will certainly improve.
★★★★★
AOE
Amakusa Shirou
Amakusa Shirou distinguishes himself through his Noble Phantasm’s AoE enemy buff clear, making him a very potent choice for boss fights. His Ruler class also makes him exceptionally tanky against most enemies and also grants him a good base neutral damage output, but his skillset heavily hampers his offensive capability.
★★★★★
AOE
Altera
Altera is a heavy statstick with amazing Attack stats and good skills. What separates Altera from her counterparts, Mordred and Altria, who are quite similar, is that Altera is not just simply an AoE farmer thanks to her strong basic card damage. Once she gets a Strengthening Quest for her second skill, Altera can also perform decently as a Buster Critical Damage Dealer.
★★★★
AOE
Brynhild (Berserker)
Brynhild dons a swimsuit, and with the assistance of her love, Sigurd, wields a daunting blade as an AoE Buster Berserker Servant. Her NP is notable for ignoring Invincible/Evade effects before dealing damage, and also gives her a small Buster buff before damage. She comes with an NP-per-turn skill, which gives her easier access to her NP (albeit slightly delayed), and also gains a sum of stars each turn, although she has no reliable way to gather the stars herself. She also can buff herself and "Loved One" allies' Arts and Buster performance, which is a relatively common trait among Male Servants. To help offset her fragility, she also has a 2-time Evade skill that comes with a Damage Cut effect. Overall, she is a solid entry to the AoE Buster roster, with the Ignore Invincible effect on her NP coming in handy for some quests. She does suffer slightly from her innate class fragility, which is slightly compounded by her relatively low HP pool, despite her evade skill. However, she will clear waves effectively, especially with support from allies.
★★★★
ST
Kijyo Koyo
Kijyo Koyo is an ST Buster Berserker with a split focus between damage and party support. Offensively, she comes with Buster, Quick and ATK buffs, and a Star Gather buff with high enough values to overcome her innately low Berserker star weight. Support-wise, she can increase the Overcharge level for an ally, and restores HP, clears 1 debuff, and applies debuff immunity to all allies. Defensively, she only has a mild DEF buff, and no hard defensive options, so she will be dependent on support from allies to survive harder-hitting enemies. Her NP comes with a mild self-burn demerit, and otherwise is a straightforward damage dealing NP that gives her a small ATK buff before damage. Her damage is decent, although she suffers from Berserker fragility, lack of an NP charge skill, and somewhat niche supportive effects that perhaps would be more powerful on less fragile supports. Kijyo Koyo is still more than capable of filling the role of an ST Berserker for those lacking one, and although she has some tough competition in her role, it is important to note that she also can be a dinosaur.
★★★★
AOE
Osakabehime (Archer)
The NEET princess appears during the summer event as an FPS master in scuba gear, being an AoE Buster Archer Servant. She has an array of self buffs that cement her as a solid Crit Servant, with a strong Crit Strength and Arts/Buster buff, and her innate above-average Archer star weight. She also provides some measure of support for allies, providing ATK and Sure Hit buffs to all party members, although at the cost of causing the Taunt effect on the currently targeted enemy for 3 turns. Her Buster AoE NP will buff Buster effectiveness and Crit Strength for all allies as well (although after damage), which can further enhance both her and her allies' damage output. Unfortunately, given her QAAAB card set, she isn't capable of an NPBB chain, although in exchange she can more easily form Arts chains with allies to help increase their NP Gauge. Overall, she is a respectable Buster AoE Archer with a good measure of support, and will be more than capable of leading her Master and her Chiyogami origami companions to victory.
★★★★
AOE
Carmilla (Rider)
Carmilla drives into Vegas with style as an AoE Quick Rider with plenty of utility in her kit. She provides Skill Seal, Crit Rate down, Crit Stars on demand, and somewhat novel effects such as an HP drain that heals her based on the number of enemies affected, a Critical Resist debuff for an enemy, which enhances critical damage dealt much like a Crit Strength buff would (except as a debuff to the enemy), and a delayed 25% NP charge for all allies. Her AoE NP applies the useful Nullify Buff effect, while also decreasing Quick Resist for all enemies. Unfortunately, looping with Carmilla (Rider) is difficult, and in most cases not possible without Crits on subsequent post-NP normal attacks. Desite this, provided her wide array of utility effects, she can prove useful to have in the roster for some challenging encounters, and would more than competently take the hearts of any Caster enemies.
★★★★
AOE
Lakshmi Bai
Lakshmi Bai's arrival marks the entrance of the very first Saber AoE Quick damage dealer. As a nod to her lore, much of her kit is filled with chance-based effects. The unreliability of her kit can be mitigated using her third skill's Buff Success Rate buff, which will guarantee all chance-based effects at max level. She provides ATK, Star Drop, Crit Strength, and Buff Success Rate support to the party, and can provide Invincibility, HP Regen, and Damage Cut to an ally. She also can grant Guts to herself, at the mostly inconsequential demerit of decreasing her own Debuff Resist. Her AoE NP will remove offensive buffs from enemies and decrease their Critical Rate. Her greatest weakness is arguably her low damage, which makes her extremely difficult to use effectively without extensive supports. She is technically capable of NP looping with Skadi, and is the only AoE Saber who can fit the bill, although her refund amount makes it rather difficult to do consistently without access to copious amounts of NP Support / MLB CEs.
★★★★
ST
Queen Medb (Saber)
Queen Medb (Saber) is an ST Arts Saber, with a rather fabulous NP that has a chance of stacking multiple defense debuffs. She can generate stars and NP per turn for herself (20% NP per turn at max skill level), giving her easier access to NPs on later turns, and has a Charm skill that can affect all targets. She provides team support in the form of ATK and Critical Strength buffs, and an AoE Arts Resist debuff, all with decent numbers. She does lack any survival skills aside from the stall provided by the Charm, however, so she can have trouble staying on the field without support. Being in the ST Arts Saber category, she also faces some steep competition among SR Servants.
★★★★
AOE
Ushiwakamaru (Assassin)
Ushiwakamaru's Assassin form fills the more rare AoE Assassin niche with her Quick AoE NP. She comes with a 40% NP Gauge charge as well, enabling her to loop (with some difficulty) with Skadi. She has a 3-turn Quick buff that is unfortunately tied to her 1-turn evasion, which may lead to situations where Masters must choose one or the other. She also can grant herself Debuff Immunity and increase her star gathering for 1 turn, with a rather novel (but niche) 40% chance to remove debuffs when normal attacking for a single turn. She is a solid option for an AoE Assassin, although her damage can be somewhat mediocre given her class.
★★★★
ST
Kiyohime (Lancer)

The cute but deadly Kiyohime (Lancer) has a straightforward and highly offense-oriented skill set. Her single target damage can be quite brutal as Kiyohime multiple strong steroids, including a self Buster buff and a DEF Down debuff, especially if she unleashes Buster Brave Chain. She is not an entirely selfish Servant either, as her DEF Debuff helps allies do more damage, while the partywide Critical Rate Down debuff and Skill Seal on her Noble Phantasm give her some utility.

She has some notable flaws, however, that hold her back from being a strong general Lancer. Her survivability is particularly lackluster, having no hard survivability tools to get out of dangerous situations. Furthermore, as Kiyohime is heavily dependent on her high hit-count Buster cards and Extra cards, she is reliant on good card draws to maximize both her NP Generation and Critical Star Generation, which makes her more volatile than most Lancers in said aspects. 

Frankly, her biggest problem is that she shares a very similar kit to Raikou (Lancer) who has an outrageously powerful kit with better supportive options, something Ibaraki-Douji (Lancer) also suffers from.

★★★★
AOE
Scathach (Assassin)

With skills that cover almost every possible need, Scathach (Assassin) is all set to be a master of none. Fortunately, her welfare status and powerful Quick buff allows her to deal massive damage to any strong Rider wave, an enemy type that usually slows down farming. Her flexibility also makes her useful to round out Assassin teams, as does her ability to generate a lot of Critical Stars on her NP turns.

That said, Scathach (Assassin) does not have anything she particularly excels over other Assassin. While her Noble Phantasm damage is high, her NP generation is fairly mediocre. Masters also have to constantly ask themselves which aspects of her skills are needed most, as each of her skills have longer cooldowns, do two things at once, and last for 1 turn. Still, she is a solid AoE Assassin that will get the job done in general, at least until Masters can replace her with a powerful gacha AoE Assassin, or once Grey is released.

★★★★
ST
Assassin of Paraiso

Despite a strong set of skills, and fairly impressive NP Spamming capabilities, Assassin of Paraiso is let down by the combination most Single Target Assassins suffer from: a low damage output and having to compete with Ryougi Shiki. In fact, due Assassin of Paraiso having only a single steroid to draw on, Hassan of the Hundred Personas provides a very potent freely accessible alternative for Masters who wish to experiment with an Arts NP spamming Assassins.

Yet, unlike her competition, Assassin of Paraiso provides both stronger stalling compatibility through her NP Seal and comes with relatively short cooldowns. Her problem is mainly one of numbers, and Assassin of Paraiso is desperately in need of an NP Upgrade to shore up her performance.

★★★★
AOE
Suzuka Gozen

In the midst of the overpopulated AoE Saber roster, Suzuka Gozen does find a way to differentiate herself. Being one of the rare Sabers that packs solid AoE NP damage, NP charging and good Critical Damage potential, Suzuka is a solid choice for farming and general purpose alike. Her other aspects are not as strong, as she has middling NP and Star Generation, poor survivability and limited utility.

Overall, Suzuka Gozen is a strong, but not exceptional Servant. She fulfills her role well and easily avoids the lower tiers, but there are also more potent alternatives for each of her primary aspects. 

★★★★
AOE
Passionlip

It is rare that a Servant has a skill set as synergistic as Passionlip’s. The combination of Defense buffs, Debuff Immunity, short-cooldown Taunt, Self-Healing and Damage Cut makes Passionlip highly durable, and capable of functioning as a dedicated team protector. Her Buster-centric deck and self-buffs also allow her to dish out decent damage on the side through the use of Buster supports. As Buster options are typically few against Casters and Assassins, this added flexibility is a welcome addition.

Passionlip does have a few minor flaws in return, namely the lackluster damage ceiling on her Noble Phantasm before her NP Upgrade and her Alter Ego classing not granting resistance to any class to synergize with her tanking niche. However, these demerits are not significant enough to devalue her many strengths.

★★★★
AOE
Gorgon

Gorgon is a Servant who looks a lot better on paper than in actual practice. On one hand, she has a ridiculously high base attack, strong Critical potential, decent Buster-centric deck, a reliable targeted stun and good effect on her AoE Buster Noble Phantasm. However, her kit struggles to form a coherent identity, at least until she finishes both her Interlude and her Rank-Up Quest. With her Avenger star weight salvaged from her Rank Up, Masters have far more freedom to equip certain stronger CEs to her.

Until then though, Gorgon’s issues are apparent. Her lack of Critical Star weight causes her to require heavy support to unleash her Critical Damage potential. Meanwhile, her high Attack is offset by the fact that the Avenger class rarely has class advantage. Her long-term survivability is also rather subpar because of her rather low HP base, often lack of class advantage, and her only survival tools being a stun and/or guts. All in all, while Gorgon can certainly work, especially after she receives some large improvements, she tends to require a large helping hand from her team.

★★★★
ST
Avenger of Shinjuku

On paper, Avenger of Shinjuku seems quite decent. With high base attack, a decent steroid, single target Noble Phantasm, good NP generation and some utility to boot, he seems to have many things going for him. But in reality, this Dark Souls boss in Servant disguise does not excel at any one of those aspects, resulting in a Servant with highly circumstantial usage.

Despite his high attack, Avenger of Shinjuku’s sustained damage is less than ideal due to mostly short-lived skill effects. His own utility suffers similarly, lasting neither long nor accessible very often. His survivability is also quite poor, as he possess no hard survival skills, has low HP, and his main defense tool is tied to one of his offensive skill. Last but not least, the scarcity of Ruler bosses means that rarely will his class advantage be available, and even for those situations, most other Avengers offer more bang for their buck than Avenger of Shinjuku.

Still, the Avenger of Shinjuku carries enough utility in his buff removal and sheer attack, that he can be quite useful as a general damage dealer. In addition, he has a powerful NP Interlude to look forward to.

★★★★
AOE
Gawain

Gawain’s skill set is as straightforward as his play style. Becoming noticeably better upon finishing his Rank-Up Quest, Gawain’s potential raw damage on his triple Buster cards is immense, courtesy of his two Attack buffs and his other Buster self-buff. Furthermore, Gawain is an AoE Saber with an innate NP Battery skill, which makes him a good farming Servant for daily and event quests with a Kaleidoscope.

Until his Rank Up though, Gawain is a crippled Servant with one of the weakest AoE NPs among the Saber roster if he is not fighting on a sunny stage. As his deck is heavily Buster-centric, his NP Generation (let alone his Star Generation) is also rather restricted, despite his excellent Extra card. His main survivability tool, a one-turn Guts buff, is tied to his NP battery skill basically leaving him with no survival tools most of the time.

For now, Gawain waits for his sun-less day to be over, becoming both more fun to play and a more impressive specimen after his Rank Up.

★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter)

One look at Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter) baseline stats is enough to impress any Master, and she combines her high attack with a solid hyper-offensive skill set that can devastate any enemies standing in her way. Her access to a combination of a powerful Noble Phantasm damage multiplier, strong offensive steroids and a formidable critical damage boost gives her an utterly terrifying NPBB chain. She is capable of obliterating most targets in one go, especially if she has top tier offensive supports like Waver or Merlin catering to her. In fact, she is usually capable of spreading out her buffs and NP across two turns for back-to-back devastation.

While her inherently selfish playstyle and lack of survivability prowess requires the team to be built around her, Lancer Alter burst potential is simply outstanding, cementing her as a top tier offensive Lancer for general purposes. 

★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Santa Alter)

Santa Alter’s game plan, much like her normal Saber counterpart, is simply overwhelming the opponent with sheer AoE damage output. While she packs some support effects such as instant Critical Stars and Saint’s Gift EX’s solid heal and star generation buff, her main focus is the wombo combo of her solid base attack, higher-than-usual NP damage multiplier, welfare NP level and her large Buster steroid. Her star weight also aids in NP gain - while Santa Alter is very much a ‘one and done’ sort of gal, the NP charge refund on Excalibur Morgan and her natural high Star weight means she can push herself to another NP if the opportunity presents itself.

On the other side, Santa Alter doesn’t really have much of a place outside of her power as a massive Rider Excalibur. While she is superb at it and has some uses outside of said role, the overall damage benchmarks become more competitive year by year, diminishing her niche over time.

★★★★
ST
EMIYA (Assassin)
EMIYA (Assassin)’s kit is one of extremes. His unique targetable Taunt utility has a bunch of fun gimmick uses, but along with his strong Critical Stars Generation, Defense Ignore/Pierce Invincibility, and stalling capacity from his Noble Phantasm, EMIYA fits decently into Arts team. His damage output is also capable, yet compared to a welfare Shiki (Assassin), it does leave a little to be desired. His largest problem is the combination of his utterly atrocious Arts cards, which yield a decidedly poor amount of NP Generation. In contrast, his NP refunds quite well. Masters need to rely on some clever card chains for his Quick and Busters cards to salvage his NP, or stick him in a complete Arts team. All of his utility also comes at a cost, since EMIYA also lacks any form of survivability outside of throwing an ally into Danger via his Taunt. The main problem then, is that EMIYA is more tricky to fix a team around, all the while powerful alternatives can get that job done better.
★★★★
AOE
Thomas Edison

A peculiar Support/stalling Servant, Thomas Edison has some highly interesting mechanics and support potential. Edison has some unique skills that can boost Overcharge, or after Rank Up reduce skill cooldowns, while at the same providing some extreme debuff-based stalling potential. 

While the Presi-king may often be seen as an example of a joke Servant, in the right hands, he is anything but. His AoE stalling potential is so severe that he can guide an Arts team through some of the most challenging multi-enemy fights that exist. 

Of course, his massive drawback is that he is utterly slow whilst doing. When Edison stalls in Challenge Quests, success may well take you the larger part of an hour. But that should be no surprise, considering his only damage boost is a minor passive and his attack stat is low.

★★★★
ST
Li Shuwen

Befitting his “No Second Strike” moniker, Li Shuwen has impressive burst potential. Thanks to high single target damage Noble Phantasm, powerful one-turn Critical buff, and Arts Effectiveness buff, few Lancers can match this martial artist in dishing out damage over one turn, even against enemies with Dodge or Invulnerability.

But, as his famous title also implies, Li Shuwen offers little beyond his one-turn burst. Masters may be able to stagger his buffs across two turns, but he also lacks the ability to recharge his NP quickly. Thus, while Li Shuwen has his place as an Arts Lancer option, his offensive performance suffers heavily from having to compete with Lancers with better overall output.

★★★★
ST
Beowulf

An explosive Berserker, Beowulf’s immediate burst from either his upgraded Noble Phantasm or Critical ( upon completing his Rank-Up quest) is quite astounding. With the right setup, he can deal an unworldly amount of damage that few Servants can match up to, and against almost any class. With a Guts from his third skill, Beowulf can somewhat compensate for his Berserker class and avoid freak deaths from his poor survivability in shorter battles. 

Beowulf, sadly, still has very poor sustained damage compared to the top tier Berserkers. All of his offensive tools only last for 1 turn which hurts his sustained damage performance immensely, and a Guts is simply not enough for lengthier battles. He also does not bring any form of team support or utility, which makes him rather hard to fit in team compositions not catering specifically to him. 

As a result, Beowulf is often left out of the fight club entirely, despite a comfortable burst damage performance

★★★★
AOE
Nursery Rhyme

An Arts AoE Caster with a dual role, Nursery Rhyme’s skill set allows her to do act as both a Critical Damage Servant and an Arts AoE farmer. Her most unique aspect is her ability to work as a reliable Critical-based Caster through her Self-Modification skill. The resulting critical hits also vastly improves her NP generation capacity thanks to her three Arts cards. Charging her NP is thus not very difficult, especially as she already has a large NP Charge.  Her rather durable nature and chance to drain the NP Gauge of all enemies on NP makes her a good Caster for difficult quests featuring multiple enemies.

As good as her upsides are, Nursery Rhyme suffers from the fundamental flaw of every damage dealing Caster: her low Attack stat and weak Caster attack modifier. In terms of farming, she is one of the weaker Caster farmers as a result of her low damage. Furthermore, Nursery Rhyme relies on her allies to unleash her Critical potential. Still, Nursery Rhyme is often a darkhorse Arts option for many tricky Servant battles.

★★★★
AOE
Saint Martha

Saint Martha is defined by her valuable support/utility. Being one of the few Servants with the capability to cleanse all debuffs from the team, while also being able to strip an enemy of all their buffs, Martha is a darkhorse pick for many high difficulty challenges. Furthermore, with her naturally strong NP generation rate and triple Arts deck, Martha has no trouble charging her decent-hitting AoE Noble Phantasm. Her NP’s Defense Down on top of her skill-based healing and Defense Down adds an extra layer of more basic support.

The holy maiden, however, is particularly mediocre in terms of offense. Lacking powerful  long-lasting self-buffs and possessing a lackluster Attack stat, Martha’s damage output leaves much to be desired. Most problematically, her Rider class will naturally take away critical stars from the damage-dealers that need them more. While these weak points do not trouble her during Challenge Quests, they make her use for more standard content more limited.

★★★★
AOE
Marie Antoinette

Contrary to her more aggressive Rider peers, the Queen of France’s main focus is on survival. Marie has notably high HP for a 4 Star Servant, with one of the best defensive skills in her 3-hit based Invincibility, two HP recovery skills, a Charm, and a Noble Phantasm that removes all teammates debuffs and recovers their HP. While her durability and team support makes her a decent option for lengthy battles or solo Servant, she has another use later for Masters who can run Scathach-Skadi farming composition, as Marie can loop her Noble Phantasm through Caster enemies, albeit there are more reliable and powerful options.

Marie’s offense is her biggest downside. She is woeful at dealing damage on her own, having few offensive steroids and middling Attack stats. Her high Star Weight adds further complications, as she has no way to make good use of the Critical Stars that she can hog from other teammates, which given her hard-to-kill nature, she will do for a long time. 

Still, her niche farming uses and good starter value can make her Kira Kira valuable enough

★★★★
AOE
Elisabeth Bathory

An offensive support/damage dealer hybrid that works well with female Servants, Elisabeth Bathory’s main value lies in her ability to grant up to 60% Attack increase to female teammates through her Sadistic Charisma’s teamwide Attack-buff and Torture Technique’s Defense Debuff. Percentages as high as 60% are rare, and often prove particularly useful during raids or Challenge Quests where stacking damage is necessary.

Sadly for Elisabeth, she is quite limited at everything else. Her awkward card deck and low hit count make it difficult for her to generate NP or Critical Stars. Her limited utility such as Ignore Defense, Curse and Buff Success Rate down are also too niche to be of use on a kit that does not deal a lot of damage. As is quite often the case with support-heavy Servants, they tend to buff others harder than they buff themselves. 

Overall, Elisabeth is a good starter Servant, with female support and decent damage that will last a long time before competitive support options for all card types are available. Yet eventually, her launch era performance lags behind her peers.

★★★★
AOE
Siegfried

Underwhelming at launch, Siegfried has been vastly improved through multiple Rank Up Quests and Interludes. Despite his low Attack stats, Siegfried’s powerful anti-Dragon buff, Buster Performance buff, and Anti-Dragon Noble Phantasm are enough to let him evaporate most Dragon-trait enemies in one fell swoop regardless of class. Fortunately for Siegfried, many Servants qualify as a Dragon Servants, notably all variants of Altria and Elisabeth.

Even against non-Dragon enemies, an upgraded Balmung boosted by Dragon-Slayer A++ will still deal respectable damage, allowing him to function fairly well as a wave clearer. His Golden Rule skill and Balmung’s NP generation buff also helps him a lot in quickly reaching 100% NP gauge, which is rather helpful in extended anti-Dragon fighting. 

Unfortunately, outside of Dragon enemies, his performance is simply average. His low Attack means he hits like a wet noodle against non-Dragon enemies on his normal cards. His lack of hard survivability options and non-existent team support also results in him being a less popular pick once Masters can have their picks of (AoE) Sabers

★★★
AOE
Tawara Touta

Touta is a highly unusual Servant. All of his skills at first glance are great independently, providing some of the best survivability a 3* Servant has to offer. His Noble Phantasm grants him a good niche in Anti-Demon bonus damage, which is a common enough trait to make it useful.

Touta’s main problem lies squarely in his damage output. While it is by no means bad, his skill set and base stats do not provide enough firepower to back up his Buster-centric kit, resulting in a mismatch in identity as he ends up being just decent at both surviving and doing damage.

All in all, he is still a decent Servant, but aside from killing Demonic enemies, he is often sidelined for Servants who are more specialized at either stalling or/and dealing damage.

★★★
ST
Hassan of the Serenity

As cute as she is, Hassan of Serenity does not hold up quite well in terms of combat prowess. She is essentially a support or utility Assassin despite her single target Noble Phantasm. Packing Critical Chance Down, NP Drain, above average NP generation and NP/Skill Seal on her Noble Phantasm, Serenity can be quite useful in certain fights to cripple the boss.

Sadly, debuffers in general tend to get sidelined for more dedicated supports who offer more to the team. Serenity’s damage output is also quite poor, as she has no powerful buffs to salvage her Assassin modifier and low Attack, resulting in a damage output that is too low to kill Rider targets reliably.

★★★
AOE
Fuuma Kotarou

Chuuni as he might be, one should not underestimate Fuuma’s potential in the Star Generation and team support department. With 3 Quick cards, each hitting 4 times, and an A+ rank in Presence Concealment, Fuuma can easily serve as a dedicated Critical Star battery for any team. His support potential is not to be underestimated either, as a targetable Dodge is hard to come by, while a Star Generation buff, an AoE Skill Seal (on his NP), and an Attack + Critical Rate debuff are all appreciated in many circumstances.

Fuuma’s damage, however, suffers as a consequence, as he lacks any form of steroid to bolster up his already poor attacking prowess. His Noble Phantasm, while highly useful in generating Critical Stars and debuffing enemies, also does not hit particularly hard.

All in all, Fuuma has a very clear and distinct role and playstyle, and will not let you down if he is played to his strengths.

★★★
ST
Jaguar Warrior

Jaguar Warrior is a feast or famine Servant. Her offensive potential is off the charts, and the values on her skills make even some offensive 4-Star or 5-Star Servants green with envy. When the stars align, this fluffy destruction machine can blow the enemies to hell and back with a few critical hits.

However, such power does not come for free. Jaguar Warrior has a steep cooldown on her first skill, which also contains her only survivability option (albeit a very strong one). Furthermore, 2 of the 3 components on her third skill are completely useless if she is not on the correct battlefield, which is the majority of the time. Last but not least, she does not build her NP bar as fast as many other Lancers due to a combination of poor NP gain per hit, lack of an NP charge skill and lackluster hit counts on her Arts and Quick cards.

Nonetheless, for any Masters looking for a strong damage dealer with high burst potential, Jaguar Warrior is the one.

★★★
AOE
Alexander

Alexander is a very straightforward Servant with a simple skill set, decent values, an NP Interlude, and a decent overcharge effect. For F2P Masters, Alexander is an effective budget AoE Rider for farming with decent team offensive support in the side, particularly for more Quick-oriented teams. His accessibility and simplicity make him quite beginner friendly.

Aside from that, he doesn’t bring any particular niche or unique value to the table. His damage output is at best slightly above average, while his generation stats are mediocre. As a result, Alexander tends to be phased out once Masters acquire more powerful AoE Riders or alternative Quick support options.

★★★
AOE
Medusa

Despite fielding somewhat unimpressive damage numbers, Medusa is still quite useful for most Masters. Thanks to her Rank Up granting her a small NP charge through Blood Fort Andromeda, Medusa is a great budget farming Rider when paired with Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences or NP Battery Servants.

However, aside from her farming potential with her Noble Phantasm, Medusa’s overall damage output is quite mediocre. A combination of a QQAAB deck, the current lack of an NP Upgrade, and the low value on her only steroid, results in reduced performance for longer quests.

More often than not, Medusa is relegated to being a farm bot for daily or event quests where she can one shot a wave with her Bellerophon. Outside of that, she is outclassed by other more powerful options.

★★★
AOE
Romulus

Romulus (ROMAAAAA) has a vanilla skill set that does not perform particularly well in either Challenge Quests or in farming content. He also has standard generation stats with accompanying low hit counts, resulting in a mediocre generation performance. While Imperial Privilege is a fantastic boost to both his attack and survivability, it is also inconsistent due to its 60% activation rate per buff. His other two skills are quite decent but do not provide any synergy to his identity as a whole, with Natural Body being only a decent self-heal while Septem Colles has terrible uptime and duration even if it is a good effect.

Romulus is still decent as a filler for AoE damage against Archers, but due to the abundance of AoE Lancers in the game, he is quickly sidelined as Masters increase their Servant roster.

★★★
ST
Cu Chulainn (Prototype)

While packing a highly similar skill set to his Fate/Stay Night counterpart, Cu Chulainn (Prototype) is a lot more well rounded. With his Rune Magic boosting his Critical Damage and his Beast Slayer granting Star Gathering, Proto Cu can serve as a highly effective Critical Damage dealer, assuming he has access to the Critical Stars he needs. Against Beast enemies in particular, his damage potential will rise significantly. Despite this offense, he still retains his counterpart’s excellent survivability through Protection from Arrows, making him a great F2P Servant who can provide both safety and damage potential.

Yet, Proto Cu still has some notable drawbacks. His low hit counts and card set make charging his NP and generating stars difficult, and his lack of any team utility means he may have a tough time finding a place on a team when other damage dealer options are available.

★★
ST
Gareth
Gareth is a new entry to the bronze Lancer Servant list, with an ST Buster NP and a defensive tookit. She comes with a taunt, self defense buffs, and Guts. Additionally, she has a 20% NP Gauge charge, and an NP Gain buff for herself, which can help her access her NP more quickly. Finally, she has a unique skill that buffs her ATK every time she is hit by the enemy, although this ATK buff is consumed with the next Card she uses. Her NP innately ignores Invincibility effects, and will deal damage and decrease defense for a single enemy. She does suffer from low stats, particularly her ATK stat, given her status as a bronze Servant, and it can be hard to use her to her fullest potential given her low HP pool and only one turn of Target Focus, but she still fills in as an ST Buster damage dealer relatively decently. After her upgrade, her Critical performance receives a boost as well.
ST
Sasaki Kojirou

Sasaki Kojirou is a reliable Single Target Assassin for new Masters despite his low rarity. Packing a synergistic skill set that gives him good self-sufficiency as both a Critical Star generator and Critical Damage Servant, Kojirou can deal solid damage at lower levels and carry new Masters through the beginning of the game against Rider bosses.

Unfortunately, he does suffer from poor base stats as a 1* Servant and most Masters will eventually replace him with stronger, higher rarity Assassin.

Nonetheless, due to the poor availability of great single target Assassins, and his low cost to raise and field, Kojirou is a worthwhile Servant to use for those who are still lacking on that front.

SUPPORT
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart has a highly specific use, and one which he is incredibly good at. Often used alongside the Chaldea Combat Uniform Mystic Code, Mozart is an effective facilitator in many 1-turn setups for Critical-centric Servants, as he can guarantee a 100% Critical rate for the entire team on Turn 1, something no other Servant can do by themselves.

Furthermore, his first skill is a powerful one-turn Arts buff for the entire party which greatly aids any Arts-centric team when it comes to one-shotting a target. As one-turn setups are quite effective in many scenarios in the game and Mozart’s material costs and Party Cost are incredibly low, the reward for raising him is tremendous.

However, do not expect him to be of any use after his skills are used, as his terrible base stats and completely nonexistent offensive prowess make him a liability for most teams.

C
★★★★★
ST
Sigurd
A single target Buster Saber with an anti-Dragon niche, Sigurd offers solid Critical damage capabilities in his kit, with a notable +100% Critical Strength boost as well as a targetable Star Drop Rate buff. His ability to give Debuff Immunity to an ally of choice us useful in some situations. He also has a Buster steroid that comes with a Guts effect. His inability to boost his Star Gather also hurts his performance as a critical damage dealer, however. In practice, his damage outside of his niche tends to be mediocre, and given his niche is relatively rare, particularly for cases in which he can also utilize class advantage, in most situations Sigurd may not be the ideal damage pick.
★★★★★
AOE
Arthur Pendragon (Prototype)

This lady-killer version of King Arthur shares many similar traits in terms of gameplay with the original Altria Pendragon. While he packs incredible base stats compared to most Sabers in the game, his skill set is altogether quite simplistic in an increasingly competitive roster. His third skill, Giant Beast Slaying, is what sets him apart from most of his competitors, offering a small NP battery skill and an unusual niche against Giant enemies. As a result, he is quite useful for day-to-day and event farming.

However, it is not enough to offset his otherwise average skill set and relatively low Saber AoE NP Damage. Only after his massive buff to Intuition (ETA: June 2021), will he incorporate a more distinct identity as a Buster Critical Saber. 

★★★★★
SUPPORT
Nightingale
Nightingale possesses a good supportive skillset, being able to keep her teammates alive, provide a powerful targetable Buster buff, and also being able to contribute offensively with her Berserker class. However, the frailty from being a Berserker is often more troublesome than it is worth, as it makes Nightingale a frustratingly inconsistent Servant in most stall teams and relegates her to the short-term buff bot role. Her Noble Phantasm has been much improved, but remains vulnerable to enemy self-buffs all the while even with all debuffs active their damage can prove lethal.
★★★★★
AOE
Arjuna
Arjuna has a relatively poorly optimized kit. His card layout, short steroid, and generation stats are less than ideal for his damage role, while his strongest skill, Hero of the Endowed, is gated by a high cooldown. Arjuna does possess good base stats and a decently strong AoE Noble Phantasm, enough to fulfill the role of a farmer very well. His long-lasting debuff Immunity after his second Interlude will make him more useful for some debuff heavy challenging encounters.
★★★★
AOE
Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich is an AoE Buster Rider Servant, whose kit revolves around dealing bonus damage against Dragon trait enemies. Two of her skills provide anti-Dragon bonus damage, one to herself, and the other applying to all allies. She also provides Critical Damage buffs to all allies, gives up to 10 Stars per turn, and has Buster, Arts, and a 20% NP charge buff for herself. Defensively, she has a 1-time, 3-turn Debuff Immunity along with a Guts skill. Her AoE NP buffs her Buster performance before damage, ignores DEF, decreases DEF of enemies for 3 turns, and inflicts a minor Burn on enemies. Dobrynya's kit is relatively straightforward, although she has somewhat low damage outside of her niche, and it can be difficult to find a Caster-Class Dragon so that both her trait bonus and Class bonus come into play. She also cannot loop effectively due to her NP charge being insufficient, although she still functions well as an AoE Buster Rider for players lacking a Servant in the role.
★★★★
ST
Caenis (Rider)
★★★★
ST
Watanabe-no-Tsuna
Watanabe no Tsuna is an oni-slaying specialist Saber with a single target Buster NP. He has a largely selfish kit, with Buster, Crit Damage, Buster Star Gather, Arts Star Gather, and NP Gain buffs for himself. Defensively, he has an Evade skill, and can inflict a minor Crit Rate debuff on enemies. He also provides a bit of utility via his Sure Hit effect that lasts 3 turns. His NP deals bonus damage to both Oni and Demonic trait enemies, which can stack, making him an excellent ST Saber option to bring when dealing with enemies with both traits. However, outside of his niche, he is not quite as effective as other ST Buster Saber options, and his lack of easy access to Critical Stars / NP Gauge in his own skill kit make his performance somewhat dependent on supports.
★★★★
AOE
Caenis
The fiery Caenis joins the roster as an AoE Buster Lancer with a primarily selfish offensively-oriented kit. Their NP buffs their own NP and Crit damage before dealing damage to all enemies, and these buffs last multiple turns, further enhancing their performance on post-NP turns. Their skill set contains multiple self offensive buffs, including a strong ATK buff, and a special on-attack buff that increases their ATK with every normal attack, up to 3 times. They also are capable of debuffing an enemy's ATK with normal attacks. Their defensive option is the Guts and decently valued Damage Cut on their third skill, although the Damage Cut may not be sufficient to survive certain enemy NP attacks so bringing some defensive support for them may be helpful. Although there are better supportive options in the role, Caenis deals decent damage with all their buffs accounted for, and will fill the role of AoE Buster Lancer decently well with their relatively straightforward kit.
★★★★
SUPPORT
Miyu Edelfelt
Miyu Edelfelt enters the crowded non-damaging Arts-NP Caster archetype with a supportive NP of her own that is somewhat reminiscent of another rather infamous Caster Servant. Her NP provides HP, NP, and Critical Star regeneration (much like Merlin's), although the HP and Crit Star components are at lower values than Merlin's, and she also sustains 3,000 HP damage to herself each time she uses her NP, on top of the NP's effects requiring her to be on the field. Her skills are split evenly between self offense, defense, and support. Her first skill gives herself an Arts and Crit damage buff, which is an odd part of her kit given her subpar attack rating and lack of offensive NP. Her second skill provides her with Guts and Debuff Immunity, which helps her survive the demerit of her NP (or other threats). Her third, arguably most valuable skill, provides a targetable 30% charge to an ally with a rare 40% buff success rate buff. Her kit overall is unfocused, making it difficult to argue for slotting her in, as she provides essentially zero offensive support aside from critical stars on her NP. Arguably, her one saving grace is that she still can provide a 30% immediate NP charge on demand, although that alone has many alternatives, making Miyu more of a novelty Servant sorely in need of a skill or NP upgrade.
★★★★
ST
Elisabeth Bathory (Brave)
Brave Elisabeth’s game plan is simple, get to 100% NP gauge and demolish the enemies with her welfare single-target Noble Phantasm. Her high Attack, Hero’s Principle large NP generation buff and Mana Burst (Courage)’s strong Buster self-buff all contribute to this one purpose. With Ignore Defense as additional utility, and an Invincibility, Brave Liz is a solid all-purpose Saber for anyone lacking powerful gacha alternatives. Outside of this straightforward but effective playstyle, Elisabeth suffers from a very problematic third skill. Her third skill is very impractical and unreliable in most circumstances, requiring a sacrifice of her NP Gauge to randomly reward her with, admittedly, powerful (team) buffs. The duration of her skills is a problem as well, as her sustained damage output is rather lacking.  Yet, if Masters simply want brutal single target damage that obliterates a Lancer boss, then Elisabeth (Brave) is a very good choice.
★★★★
ST
Anne Bonny & Mary Read (Archer)

This variant of Anne & Mary uses its low HP gimmick to enhance an already solid kit. Even without relying on a risky strategy of low HP, Anne & Mary (Archer) function well in their niche of Buster Critical potential. With two Attack buffs, Star Gathering and Critical Stars on demand, the pirate duo can do massive damage with or without their HP. Fortunately, their own Guts will grant a decent safety net, and potentially set up a staggering NP turn if the stars align.

On the other hand, a single Guts is not enough to cater to their risky gameplan, which can turn sour quickly in difficult quests. Furthermore, in any fights without their gimmick being feasible, their overall damage output is slightly behind that of their higher rated allies. Still, the low HP gimmicks distracts from what is at its core, a very decent kit.

★★★★
AOE
Nitocris (Assassin)

With decently strong individual skills, Nitocris (Assassin) ought to be much stronger than she actually is. Without her third skill up, her NP Gain is rather weak, while her AoE farming potential is hamstrung by her Instant Death capability indirectly reducing its hit count and thus refund potential. Her defensive nature is still fairly useful with a Taunt always being a welcome addition, especially to help her gain a bit more NP Gauge to launch her NP with. Her lack of synergy between her skills reduces her potential, but she is still a decent Arts Assassin otherwise. 

★★★★
ST
Rama

A strong offensive ST Saber all around, Rama has a handful of niches to make himself useful in a team. Whether his focus is high critical damage, a side-dose of team support or intense anti-Demonic NP damage, Rama can do any combination of them at the same time. 

Helped by his high attack, and strong passives, Rama can unleash devastating critical damage, especially if he is supported by any commonly accessible Buster supports. Furthermore, Brahmastra’s anti-Demonic effective damage multiplier is one of the most common enemy traits, making him a neat darkhorse option for many nodes.

While Rama’s offensive power is certainly formidable, he is not particularly self-sufficient and lacks the tools to take himself to the point where he can display it. Both his star generation and NP gain are lacking, often necessitating support from his team members to properly exhibit his worth. Luckily for him, Buster Servants are one of the easier Servant types to support properly.

★★★★
AOE
Oda Nobunaga

Nobu kit is decidedly non-standard as she lacks the more traditional tools most damage Servants possess. She compensates through raw Anti-Rider and/or Anti-Divine power, or her powerful Critical buffs. Her welfare status grants her a decent NP Damage, and downright impressive damage if her Anti-trait triggers.

Nobu is held back by her poor NP Gain even with her NP Gain buff, being wholly dependent on her Arts cards for NP gain. In addition, her critical prowess are only unlocked if her allies generate the critical stars she needs. 

Her biggest problem is that she is only competitive when her Anti-traits are in play, which requires knowledge of what the upcoming quest contains. Still, if both her anti-Traits allign, the enemy will be utterly crushed under Nobu’s mighty heel.

★★★★
SUPPORT
Medea (Lily)

If servants could be divided into traditional RPG archetypes, then Medea Lily would easily be the White Mage. Lacking any offensive capability whatsoever outside of her card damage she dedicates her heart and soul to healing her allies and cleansing them of any ailments. Capable of charging her NP on demand whenever, Medea Lily serves as an instant heal/cleanse button to the team in difficult challenge quests where hard-hitting bosses and crippling debuffs are thrown left, right, and centre.

Still, Medea heals that which already occured, a niche even her Rank Up will not change. As the most difficult bosses tend to be the ones that straight up destroy a team and/or massively outdamage Medea (Lily)’s healing, knowing when it is safe to rely on her can be tricky.

★★★★
ST
Anne Bonny & Mary Read

Anne Bonny and Mary Read are a highly one-dimensional Servant pair. Their biggest appeal lies in their powerful one turn burst from their Noble Phantasm gimmick, augmented by their high Critical Damage buff. When the stars align, they can hit for an astounding amount of damage, having one of the hardest-hitting Noble Phantasm in the game at low HP.

Unfortunately, their problems are numerous. Their Noble Phantasm’s gimmick is hard to materialize in actual situations, while their generation stats are particularly subpar. In addition, their lack of defensive options is particularly troublesome for a kit with such a high risk / reward playstyle. 

Sure, their potential damage ceiling is impressive, but actually reaching said ceiling is rather impractical in most situations and team compositions.

★★★★
AOE
Elisabeth Bathory (Halloween)

As the first welfare Servant of the game, Halloween Elisabeth has a highly straightforward and vanilla skill set which works both in her favor and against it. On one side, her AoE damage is good enough to wave clear effectively. Her welfare status grants her a high NP level, which along with her standard Buster steroid will tend do be sufficient for medium health wave clearing. In addition, she has a minor niche in providing critical stars to team, which works decently with her own Dragon/Female traits to set up a few, fun team set-ups with Servants like Jeanne d’Arc (Alter). 

Elisabeth’s other aspects are, sadly, not up to par. Her launch era competition has received massive upgrades (Charles Babbage for example) while many Berserker or Extra Servants can deal more damage than her. Her own sustained damage is also very poor, as her single steroid lasts for a single turn and affects her NP and single Buster card at most. All in all, Halloween Liz is a solid pick for wave clearing and some Critical Support, but outside of that, she will get outclassed fairly easily.

★★★★
AOE
Tamamo Cat

Tamamo Cat’s Powerful AoE Noble Phantasm, her Attack Up, and her Berserker class all set the stage for a Servant that can clear most common enemy waves a Master will face every day. With Rank Ups that greatly improve her quality of life, notably providing an option to circumvent her self-stun, Tamamo Cat is an all-purpose Berserker that can easily nap her way into many Masters’ general farming teams. 

Her high hit count and decent NP generation per hit also make her capable of using her Noble Phantasm back-to-back with the arrival of Scathach-Skadi, a huge boon to her farming capacity. Furthermore, despite her inherent frailty from her Berserker class, Tamamo Cat can be deceptively tanky through the healing from her Noble Phantasm once her Rank Up grants her Invincibility as well

Similar to most launch Servants, Tamamo Cat’s biggest problem is how vanilla her skill set is. She is only truly competent at one aspect, and lacks the versatility and buff percentages to compete with more rounded Berserkers. Furthermore, her damage output is lackluster outside of her Noble Phantasm, especially given her lower stat and card deck mismatch

★★★★
SUPPORT
Chevalier d'Eon

An epitome of a modern knight, Chevalier D’Eon specializes in protecting their allies. Their three-turn Taunt, high HP pool, on-demand Easion, defense self-buff and even debuff clearance make them a very capable tank that can soak in damage and take attention off their teammates, which can be lifesaving in high-difficulty content.

Outside of their particular blend of survival that they particularly excel in, D’eon does not have much presence in battle when their Taunt wears off. Dealing damage is simply not their job. What defines d’Eon eventually is providing the debuff cleansing/Saber class/Evasion that their competition Georgios does not. And Georgios or Leonidas cost much less to field.

Still, Taunt Servants are amazing at making unpredictable fights predictable. Masters with (grailed) Berserker Servants should especially cherish their tanks

★★★
ST
Mori Nagayoshi
Mori Nagayoshi touts a unique kit as a 3 star ST Buster Berserker, having a self-sacrificial kit with notable critical performance with self Crit Damage and Gather Rate buffs at decent values. He is capable of reaching 100% debuff resist, although this also will cause all buffs on him to miss for the next three turns; he has a buff that increases his ATK while decreasing his own DEF when normal attacking up to 3 times, and additionally can grant 20 stars upon death. His NP has both Ignore Invincible and Ignore DEF effects, while applying DEF down after damage for 3 turns. Given his Berserker classing, however, star weight can be an issue for his critical performance, and he is inherently fragile without survival options of his own, requiring support for more reliable performance. In addition, his status as a limited 3 star can make it somewhat difficult for Masters to reach NP5 with him. Overall, he may not be the first choice for Berserker damage dealers given the difficulty of navigating his kit, although he can be effective if a team is properly built to accentuate his strengths.
★★★
AOE
Red Hare
Not-Lu Bu, Red Hare, is an AoE Quick NP-bearing Rider class Servant who notably can perform 3-turn NP looping with Skadi, but is also unfortunately Story-locked. He comes with a solid self Quick and Star Drop Rate buff, a self-Evade that also has a chance to increase Star Gather Rate and apply Ignore Invincible, and finally a Critical Strength and self ATK buff of humble values. His NP, Imitation God Force, will ignore DEF and can Skill Seal enemies, giving him a bit of bonus utility outside of farming applications. He makes for a decent addition for Masters in need of a Rider-class Servant with farming capability.
★★★
AOE
Rider of Resistance

Rider of Resistance certainly has some nifty tools, including an ever useful 30% NP charge and a combination of the holy trinity of damage buffs for his AoE Noble Phantasm: Card Performance , Attack andNP Damage buffs. Sadly, this unrepentant man of action is lackluster at everything else other than firing off his Noble Phantasm, mainly due to his difficulty in getting a high NP level (story-locked) and lackluster base stats. As a result, Rider of Resistance pales in comparison to more accessible AoE Riders of the same or lower rarity.

★★★
ST
Billy the Kid

Billy has a ridiculously strong Critical-focused kit that makes even some SSR Servants jealous. When his passive Independent Action, first and third skills are used together, he can reach a whopping 162% Critical Damage bonus and output seriously impressive damage numbers. His other skill, Quick Draw, is a plain and simple 50% NP charge which is always a fantastic boon to have.

In the right team, Billy can easily function as the primary damage dealer. However, this smooth cowboy has some serious drawbacks to his game, namely his poor NP generation rate per hit and a reliance on others to bring the critical stars he needs to crit. His lack of a way to increase his Star Weight to make his Critical hits more reliable further impedes the ease of use of his critical hits, and he only possesses a single Buster card which greatly limits the potential crit damage he can do.

He is certainly a strong addition for Masters looking for an affordable single target Archer, but he definitely requires a proper team setup to truly shine.

★★★
AOE
Kid Gilgamesh

Kid Gil is a solid AoE Archer with a wide array of positive traits. His damage output is on the higher side amongst 1*-3* Servants due to a balanced BBAAQ deck, strong base attack, Independent Action and a high level of Charisma. After finishing his Interlude, his AoE Noble Phantasm starts outputting notable numbers, with the extra benefits of very strong, albeit short-lived debuffs. Furthermore, Kid Gil’s solid base NP generation is further boosted by a fantastic Golden Rule skill, putting him above many of his competitors in this regard.

That being said, Kid Gil does have quite a few problematic aspects to his game that hold him back from the top. His Star Generation is not particularly outstanding, and he lacks any form of additional Critical Damage self-buff to make great use of his Independent Action and high base Attack. Additionally, Fair Youth is often a dead skill due to its unreliability and poor range of targets. Last but not least, Kid Gil has no powerful self-buffs to amplify his damage output, which may result in some less impressive numbers and clearing time.

In conclusion, Kid Gil is a good solution for Masters who miss out on powerful AoE Archers like Nobunaga, Atalante or EMIYA, but until he gets more tricks up his sleeve or more damage, he won’t be climbing to a higher tier any time soon.

★★★
AOE
Charles Babbage

Babbage is a Saber disguised as a Caster who lacks the raw offensive stats of Saber Servants. While his skills are quite solid, straightforward and have good values for a damage dealer, his poor base Attack, combined with his Caster modifier, hold him down when his skills are on cooldown.

Having early access to an Interlude that upgrades his Noble Phantasm allows him to output some decent damage on his Noble Phantasm when all his buffs are used, and he has decent lasting power on the battlefield due to his durability.

Either way, if one is looking for a good AoE Caster Charles will do an excellent job. 

★★★
AOE
Fergus mac Roich

Low Rarity AoE Sabers are hard to find in Fate Grand Order, as the class is infamous for having no bronze Servants. Naturally, that also raises the value of Fergus, whose claim to fame is being pretty much the only accessible AoE Saber from the Friend Point gacha.

However, Fergus is by no means a pushover. Possessing a heavy Buster-centric deck, decent base stats, a good skill set with reliable steroids and an Interlude that boosts his Noble Phantasm modifier, Fergus can serve the role of an AoE Saber more than adequately for many new Masters.

On the other hand, Fergus has lackluster NP Generation and even after his Interlude, his NP Damage doesn’t really stand out at NP5 compared to higher rarity Servants at NP1. Thus he fails to carve out a long-term niche for himself once a Master’s roster becomes more developed.

★★★
AOE
Hektor

Hektor’s skill set has some notable good points, including a powerful, reliable stun/NP drain combo skill and a reliable AoE Noble Phantasm with decent damage thanks to his Interlude.

His other aspects, however, do not hold up well nearly as well. Hektor lacks strong self-buffs as well as team support, which combined with his lackluster generation stats makes him less desirable for longer fights.

For newer Masters, Hektor is useful as a farming Lancer and can carry some tough fights with his stun, but for more experienced Masters, he won’t be blowing anything out of the water any time soon.

★★★
AOE
Kiyohime

Kiyohime is another member of the F2P farming club. Her Berserker class, high accessibility, and AoE Noble Phantasm make her a good general farmer for most Masters, particularly for those who still lack stronger options.

Aside from that, Kiyohime sadly does not provide anything of particular relevance, although she does pack high NP generation potential for a Berserker. Her skill set is quite vanilla and even as a farmer, her spot is often usurped by lower rarity Servants like Eric Bloodaxe or Spartacus who occupy the same niche but demand fewer resources.

As a result, Kiyohime is often regarded as a stop-gap option, waiting to be sidelined by more effective farmers.

★★★
ST
Jing Ke

Jing Ke is quite useful during the early phase of the game. Packing good offensive stats for a 3 Star Assassin and a decent skill set that makes use of her offensive potential, Jing ke can be used in a variety of scenarios where Masters lack a good single target Assassin.

However, Jing Ke has very poor sustained damage, poor survivability, and lacks a strong specialization that grants her more value as the game goes on. Her low hit counts directly affect her ability to generate Critical Stars and charge her NP bar, and she falls extremely fast without teammate support due to the demerit on her Noble Phantasm and lack of any defensive tools.

As a result, Jing Ke’s usage often decreases as Masters acquire more specialized and/or stronger Assassins.

★★
AOE
Eric Bloodaxe

Lorewise, he might be one of the more forgettable Servants in Chaldea, but for day to day farming, this Viking is a beast. Despite lacking an NP charge skill to help to build up his NP bar, Eric Bloodaxe compensates with raw damage by providing both a single target defense down and an in-built personal damage buff on his NP. Altogether, his NP damage is impressive, especially against waves with two weaker mobs and one stronger. His low rarity thus allows him to be a fantastic budget option for pretty much any Master.

However, it is worth noting that Eric is pretty much limited to this farming niche as his survival skills aren’t enough to keep him alive and his stats do not make him a mainstay in normal teams. Furthermore, Eric’s usefulness is massively reduced if Masters do not have any form of Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences or Servants who can provide NP gauge for him.

★★
ST
Hassan of the Cursed Arm

Few can claim to be better Star Generators than Cursed Arm, especially for his low cost. With a triple Quick deck, solid hit counts, strong base Star Generation and low investment requirements, Hassan hits all the good marks for being a dedicated Star Generator for Critical teams. In addition, he has access to great survivability thanks to Protection from Wind.

Unfortunately, he suffers from the main issues associated with his class. His damage is generally quite poor due to low base stats and Assassin Class modifiers. In addition, while he is very useful for helping powerful Critical Damage Dealers in the early game, once Masters get more tools that can supply Critical Stars he is often relegated to the bench. Still, as a standalone Servant, his kit is quite robust.

★★
AOE
Edward Teach

Despite a seemingly weak base stat line, Edward Teach has some great tricks up his sleeve.

First of all, he offers great team-wide support in the form of Attack and NP damage buffs, and great healing (particularly for female allies). Furthermore, for a low rarity Rider, his burst and damage are surprisingly decent due to his two steroids and how he can make use of the myriad Buster Supports available. Thanks to these tools, he works very well in short battles where he can support the party with strong burst potential during Noble Phantasm chains while not being a complete deadweight after using up all his cooldowns.

On the other hand, Blackbeard has some highly notable flaws: his lack of a way to build up his NP gauge to quickly access Queen Anne’s Revenge, his poor base stats, and the terrible bonus effects on his Noble Phantasm. While he is far from a top tier pick, this otaku pirate might surprise many Masters with how effective he can be.

SUPPORT
Asterios

A highly specialized Servant, Asterios is famed for his ability to completely cripple bosses with repeated use of his Noble Phantasm. But, while the benefits are fantastic against certain bosses, setting him up is not easy.

For starters, Asterios has extremely poor durability due to his class, low base stats, and complete lack of skills that offer hard survivability. He is completely reliant on teammates to keep him alive until he can start the vicious cycle of endless Chaos Labyrinths. His NP generation is not particularly great either, and on his own, he will have a massive problem building up his NP bar in quick succession.

Nonetheless, it is hard to deny his effectiveness when he can pull off his niche, and many tough battles in the game can easily crumble before the might of this Minotaur.

D+
★★★★★
AOE
Abigail Williams (Summer)
Abigail Williams's summer incarnation is an AoE Buster Foreigner, similar to her original self with the exception of her original being ST. Her kit contains an introduction to an interesting new Sleep mechanic, which functions effectively as a 1-hit Stun that has a DEF debuff for the first hit only. She also comes with an extremely handy 50% NP Gauge charge, and another set of DEF debuffs and Buster Resist debuffs to further bolster her offensive power. However, these debuffs tend to only be applicable to a single wave due to cooldowns, which makes her very much a one-shot character with non-trivial downtime. This is further compounded by her Buster-centric card distribution, which leaves relatively sparse opportunities for card-based NP Gain. She does bring utility to the party by providing a delayed stun mental debuff (via the Terror status effect), although this is also somewhat unreliable even at maximum level. Her NP Also provides a helpful effect of removing defensive buffs from enemies before damage, and the sleep skill can also remove all buffs from a single selected enemy. Her kit can come in handy for some fights that are gimmicky, although in most cases there are far more effective options from lower cost Servants for both lockdown as well as buff removal, especially provided her relatively poor performance outside of the single wave that receives her debuffs and sustains the brunt of her NP. Masters who invest in her are cautioned not to be overly optimistic about her performance, although she will usually still be able to grant at least one enemy wave with a visit to the land of dreams.
★★★★★
AOE
Altria Pendragon (Ruler)
Altria now has a Ruler class incarnation, complete with a bunny costume and an AoE Buster NP. Altria Ruler's most unique skill is her command card shuffle skill, which acts similarly to the Mage's Association Uniform Mystic Code skill, shuffling the full 15-card Servant deck and randomly dealing a new set of 5 Command Cards, while also providing a Crit Strength buff to all allies. Aside from this, she has several self buffs, including ATK, Star Gather, an additional 1-turn delayed ATK buff, and the ability to charge her own NP Gauge by up to 40%. Her charge is tied to her defensive tool, which is a 1-turn Evade. Her NP will provide her with a rainbow buff before damage, and refunds a base 20% NP Gauge after damage is done. Although her command card shuffle is unique, in practice it is not particularly powerful, and only after its upgrade does it become a more desirable skill to use (since it can choose to exclude one Servant's cards from the shuffle). In addition, she is somewhat hampered by her Ruler class and middle-of-the-line ATK stat, leading to damage that might not be particularly impressive in most scenarios. However, having an NP charge skill with an AoE NP is still useful, even if it doesn't quite reach the full 50% threshold that makes it work more easily with many of the starting NP CEs. Overall, Altria Ruler leaves some to be desired, although her upgrade greatly increases her usability and the value of her gimmick.
★★★★
AOE
Nezha

Despite packing a valuable NP Charge with which to help any Master farm, Nezha’s main problem is a numbers one. With relatively low NP Damage, only medium-strength steroids, as well as a lack of a niche of her own, Nezha is outperformed by both AoE Critical specialists such as Altria Pendragon (Lancer Alter) as well as high damage AoE Lancers such as Jeanne d’Arc (Santa Alter Lily). Still, her flexibility makes her a great first Lancer while Masters start out on their journey.

★★★★
AOE
Chacha

By virtue of being a welfare AoE Berserker, Chacha establishes herself as a decent farming Servant. Furthermore, with both a decent NP battery skill and her innately good NP generation rate, she will generally have that AoE NP ready quickly. She also provides some team support with passive stars per turn and a defense down, but only at a moderate level.

On the other hand, Chacha suffers from several flaws that, while not individually deal-breaking, can be quite problematic in practice. For one, her survivability is particularly terrible - a result of a lackluster HP stat, a Berserker’s inherent frailty and a complete lack of defensive or survivability skills. Furthermore, Chacha’s overall’s damage leaves much to be desired even with her high NP level, as she does not have powerful immediate steroids to compensate for her lower Attack. Last but not least, while not a direct reflection on her, the princess competes with many formidable Servants that occupy the same niche as Berserker farmers, and they either do more damage, have lower cost or charge better. This puts a damper on her relative value.

★★★★
ST
Medusa (Lancer)

While her cuteness is of the highest level, this innocent version of Medusa sadly could not compete in terms of gameplay to other Lancers. Her defining features are her ability to stun-lock / charm her lock enemies with a kit that already has a high amount of survival tools.

The rest of her potential is locked away behind all her upgrades. Her NP actually becomes frighteningly powerful for a 4* Servant, and Masters will be much less encumbered by her rather poor Quick cards.

Until then though, Medusa’s trails behind the majority of her 4 Stars Lancers peers in most aspects. Her sustained damage output lacks a real punch still, courtesy of her short-lived steroids. Furthermore, her self-sufficiency is also quite damning, having poor NP Generation rate (especially those Quick cards) and mediocre Critical Star Generation. Her basic skill values are also lackluster, while their effects are disjointed enough that Medusa suffers an identity crisis in the sea of strong Lancers until her NP damage takes off. All in all, Medusa (Lancer)’s problematic design causes her to be weaker alternative until her final Rank Up kicks in, as much of a sweetheart she is.

 

★★★★
AOE
Katou Danzo

Despite access to a skill set that is pretty decent, Katou Danzou's Noble Phantasm damage is incredibly underwhelming, only holding up against her primary Demonic targets. With heavy competition from both Scathach (Assassin), Gray(in the future) and Scathach=Skadi's Quick support buffing her Quick peers, there is little offensive performance to be gained from Katou Danzou in the long run. Her Story-locked status doesn't help in acquiring additional copies either. 

Until then, her Buster compatibility grants her some additional power, while her targetable mix of both Evasion and Invincibility can help with creating some interesting Order Change strategies. 

 

★★★★
ST
Assassin of Shinjuku

Assassin of Shinjuku in his release state is a lackluster Assassin whose main flaws are so detrimental and fundamental, that Masters have to expend a lot of extra effort to make him perform well relative to his peers.

To start off, his base Attack is rather poor, with only decent Star Generation and initially weak NP generation. Coupled with his lack of steroids (which will be remedied by a Rank Up Quest in the future), his offensive power is far behind most Assassins of the same rarity, and even behind some of lower rarity options. His skill set does not do much to remedy his problems, as currently his skills all have underwhelming values for their effects. He also lacks any survivability tools needed for tougher content, despite his high base HP.

To sum it up, this handsome martial artist will struggle to earn a place in most teams in his current state. His future update will grant him a notable boost to his performance as a whole, although even with his update, there are better alternatives available for an Assassin slot. In addition, his role as a critical star supplier can often be done better by a support, who typically carry many other useful elements in their kit.

★★★
ST
Diarmuid ua Duibhne

Diarmuid suffers from a skill set that mainly lacks any form of offensive synergy. All of Diarmuid’s skills are highly irrelevant to his special niche - a buff clearer -, despite effort to mirror his legend.

One of Diarmuid’s unique points is buff removal on his Noble Phantasm, which is a relatively rare ability, but he is completely outclassed in this niche by Medea who does so much more efficiently and with much better NP uptime. As a Quick Lancer, Diarmuid either does significantly less damage or has much weaker survivability in comparison to his Irish peers. Worse yet, his generation stats are abysmal when his hit counts are considered.

All in all, due to how abundant strong Lancers are in general, and the easy accessibility of Medea as a buff removal specialist, there are few strong arguments for fielding Diarmuid in a team

★★★
AOE
Darius III

Darius has only one notable role: being a low rarity farming machine. His base Attack is quite decent, and his AoE Noble Phantasm hits hard thanks to a combination of an NP upgrade and how Masters can max his NP level fairly easily over time.

Unfortunately for the Great King of Persia, the AoE Berserker specialization is an incredibly crowded niche and there are quite a few low rarity Servants that achieve nearly the same result. Additionally, his skills and generation stats offer very little sustainable usefulness and his kit lacks synergy with his prime role of dealing damage.

He is useful for newer Masters who need a glass cannon to get through early stages of the story, as well as alleviating farming trouble once equipped with starting NP Craft Essences. His main purpose in the long run is his evenly distributed AoE damage that averages higher damage per target than Eric - who instead can deal more damage to a single target.

★★
ST
Salome
Salome is the bronze Berserker Servant of the fourth anniversary batch, with an ST Arts NP, which is relatively unique among Berserkers. Her NP provides both Curse and increased Curse Damage effects, which alone tend not to too remarkable in most applications. Her skill set consists of a mix of selfish offensive and defensive buffs, with the exception of her notably unique yet difficult-to-use third skill. Her third skill is capable of increasing all allies' NP Gauge to 100% after a whole seven turns pass, while also removing one of her own defensive buffs every turn and restoring a small amount of HP at the same time. In practice, it can be troublesome to stall for an entire seven turns while still capitalizing on her third skill's effects fully, although it allows for Masters to exercise their creativity and experiment with her in setups. Her other skills include a Special ATK buff against Lawful-Good alignment enemies, an ATK buff, and Invincibility, DEF, and Debuff Immune buffs for herself. Note that her third skill will cause her to lose her defensive buffs gradually over turns. Her damage is unfortunately not particularly impressive, and given how unwieldy her unique gimmick is, it can be difficult to utilize her to the fullest extent.
★★
ST
Charles-Henri Sanson

Sanson is a very specialized Servant, having two niches that not many possess, namely a targetable debuff clear and bonus damage against Evil or Human enemies.

While he can achieve rather impressive numbers against the right enemies, his damage output against either Non-Evil or non-Human enemies is pretty much nonexistent, and his NP generation and Star Generation are on the lower side amongst Assassins. His main problem is that there are no enemies who share both of his anti-traits. Outside of extremely specific circumstances where his niches are useful, Sanson is generally outclassed by other Assassins.

ST
Charlotte Corday
Charlotte Corday, an ST Arts Assassin, has an NP that can remove Evasion buffs, ignore DEF, and inflict Instant Death. Her skill set, offensively, includes a self ATK buff, Ignore Invincibility, an Instant Death rate buff, and a random chance of either an Arts, Crit Damage, or NP Damage buff. Defensively, she has a debuff resist buff and a 2-time 3 turn Evade. Although she provides decent utility, she suffers most from her poor ATK stat being a 1 star Servant, so her effectiveness leaves some to be desired. She is still useful to fill in as an ST Assassin if other options are unavailable, although there are some rather powerful Arts Assassin choices among the readily available 3 Star Servants.
SUPPORT
Mata Hari

If Mata Hari had a higher rarity, she’d most likely be much better than she currently is. In contrast to many of her lower rated peers, Mata Hari has a distinct identity as a dedicated debuffer who can layer debuffs on enemies continuously, while also locking them down with her Charm.

The tradeoffs, however, are quite hefty. Mata Hari has the little damage potential and one of the weakest survivability in the game. She has very low base stats, close to zero defensive skills and no strong offensive self-buffs whatsoever to make up for her stats. Even though she packs a Star Generation buff, her Star Generation is quite poor as well due to the low hit counts on all of her cards. The benefits she brings to the team are usually not worth all of these downsides, as she requires particular team compositions to work well in, while her paper-thin defense increases her unreliability. In ideal cases one would have her use debuffs and quickly switch her out with Order Change. Thus, Mata Hari is a sweet girl that is worth cherishing, but generally not one who is well-suited for combat.

D
★★★★
AOE
Yu Mei-ren
Yu Mei-ren presents herself as an Assassin-class Servant with an AoE Buster NP. Her NP is notably unique for removing both buffs and debuffs on herself before granting a Buster buff for herself and dealing damage and Curse. The buff removal can make it difficult for Masters to support her, however, although this can be mitigated by her second skill's Buff Removal Resist effect. She also has HP regeneration, NP regeneration, debuff immunity, NP drain, and a self NP charge of 27%, rounding out her kit of mostly selfish effects. Unfortunately, her damage is far on the low end, and she suffers from a low ATK stat, which compounds with her Assassin class damage modifier, giving her trouble killing even daily farming waves at low NP levels. After her skill upgrade, she becomes more effective, although before then it is as if she purposefully makes herself difficult to use (perhaps as a grudge against the Master's deeds in her Lostbelt chapter).
★★★★
SUPPORT
Qin Liangyu
A self-support oriented Lancer from the SIN Lostbelt, Qin Liangyu has an Arts-type NP that grants her a myriad of interesting, if somewhat unwieldy on-hit, on-critical, on-receiving damage, and on-receiving critical damage effects. She has a Quick/Arts/Critical Strength buff of modest values, a Star Gather / Debuff Immune / Buff Removal Resist buff, and most notably a 2-time Guts lasting 3 turns that comes with a small NP charge. Her kit is largely selfish, and given her abilities are strongest when her cards are available (for her to land a normal or critical attack so that she can stack debuffs from her NP effects), or when she receives damage from the enemy, along with her 2-time Guts, she works best in solo situations. However, she suffers from low damage, and in comparison to other "Last Stand" options available, can end up lacking. Despite these shortcomings, it is possible for Masters to make her work, and the gimmicks of her kit can be fun to see in action.
★★★★
AOE
Helena Blavatsky (Archer)

With difficulty charging her NP bar, with only her good Arts cards to save her, and a terrifyingly long cooldown on Mana Tuning, Helena Blavatsky (Archer) is mainly suited as a support in situations where her teamwide NP Charge is essential to clearing a quest quickly. Her ability to still launch a damaging NP and charge NP Gauges is especially valuable to Masters without any other sources of teamwide NP Gauge boosting. 

Still, her NP Damage is among the weakest of her rarity and her utility, while useful, limits her overall support potential to mainly her NP Charge. A useful farming Servant for sure, but she lacks the enduring performance expected of higher Tiers. 

★★★★
AOE
Marie Antoinette (Caster)

The Queen of the beach France's swimsuit alternative has a solid kit with an emphasis on critical support. Unlike her Rider counterpart though, this Caster class version is a lot more suitable in the role as support given her lack of star-stealing tendencies. With her famous durability intact, and Star Generation per Turn, Critical Damage, and Attack buffs on top, Marie Antoinette (Caster) can fit into any team set up (though preferably Arts). 

Her problem isn't really that her kit does not work well, it's the the modifiers for a support are a bit too weak to compete with the big league. In addition, her own damage is rather low, and none of her skills help her allies survive any better. 

Regardless, she's still a capable Servant, and Summer Servants tend to get plenty of bonus opportunities to be fielded during the recurring Summer Events.

★★★★
SUPPORT
Stheno
A walking definition of a niche Servant, Stheno has two roles that she can do quite nicely: being a prominent member of the “Charm-Lock” snek team, and being a support for Divine Servants. With a skill set fully dedicated to making male bosses utterly miserable and an incredibly fast NP generation rate, Stheno is best used alongside her sister - Euryale - to consistently lock down male bosses with her Noble Phantasm. In fact, the charm strategy occurs often enough against male bosses that Delightworks frequently adds a Charm Immunity to certain male bosses to prevent the strategy from working entirely. Her strong Charisma buff also allows her to improve the Attack of allies with Divine trait for a nice 40% for 3 turns, giving her some non-niche uses as Divinity is one of the most common traits. Outside of her aforementioned niche usage though, Stheno brings very little to the table. Her damage output is pitiful, mainly due to her Assassin modifier, low base Attack, lack of strong self-buff and most importantly, her Buster Noble Phantasm deals zero damage. Furthermore, as the majority of her kit only comes into play against male enemies, she is essentially dead weight against enemies of a different gender. All in all, Stheno is the very definition of a niche Servant, but that does not mean she does not have some fun usages whenever a Master is feeling impish.
★★★
AOE
Mephistopheles

The Demon of Deceit is a very situational pick. His biggest draw is his particularly rare Buff Block capacity (after Rank Up), which is valuable in some challenging battles. Outside of this niche, Mephistopheles’s performance is quite poor, due to a combination of poor card distribution for offense, extremely low damage output from his Caster class modifiers, and a lack of other good utility and steroids to make up for that.

Despite his AoE Noble Phantasm, Mephisto’s complete lack of offensive buffs and low Attack mean he won’t be particularly useful even as a farming Servant, and one should generally look to other AoE Casters or Berserkers for farming.

★★★
SUPPORT
Boudica

Boudica is a sweet elder sister that deserves all the happiness in the world. With that out of the way, her combat performance leaves much to be desired. Her damage potential is nonexistent, as she lacks a damaging Noble Phantasm, has extremely low base stats, niche steroids, and competes with too many powerful Servants of the same class.

As a support, she does not fare much better. While she has a party-wide Arts boost after her Rank Up, and offers defensive buffs on her Noble Phantasm, the values on these are quite weak and many other Servants will pull off whatever form of utility Boudica can grant much better. Most notably, she competes with everyone’s favorite eggplant Servant as an easily accessible defense buffer. Furthermore, her innately high Star Weight is more of a hindrance than an actual benefit, as she pulls away Critical Stars from teammates that could make better use of them than her.

All in all, there might be certain team compositions that can make use of Boudica’s Defense buff on her Noble Phantasm, namely those pairing her with Servants like Mash or Zhuge Liang. However, there are far better alternatives when it come to Defense buff stacking compositions.

★★
SUPPORT
Caligula

A frequently unnoticed Servant, Caligula is a highly hit-or-miss Servant. Despite his low base stats due to his low rarity, Caligula has enough steroids to deal astounding amounts of damage when all of his skills are active. However, this mad emperor can fall down with just a slight breeze, and the inconsistent nature of Imperial Privilege, his strongest skill, makes it extremely hard to maintain a high level of damage output.

Furthermore, Caligula’s non-damaging Noble Phantasm is rather underwhelming considering the amount of effort required to get him to 100% NP bar. Fielding Caligula is usually not worthwhile given there are other Berserker alternatives but dedicated Masters can extract some incredibly juicy damage out of him with the right team composition.

★★
SUPPORT
Musashibou Benkei

Of the low-rarity Taunter squad, Benkei is quite possibly the least useful and hardest to use. While he has some interesting debuffs in terms of NP Seal and Skill Seal, his effectiveness as a Taunter pales in comparison to his peers like Saint George or Leonidas, who pack both better duration on their Taunts and more durability to make it work. To make matters worse, his debuffs are unreliable and can fail quite easily against foes with Debuff Resistance.

All in all, he may be useful in certain battles where NP Seal / Skill Seal and Taunt together are needed for one turn, but those are few and far between and other Servants will generally offer more value to the team.

E
★★★★
SUPPORT
Irisviel (Holy Grail)

Irisviel specializes in keeping her team alive and healthy. She has the rare ability to provide teamwide Guts consistently, which can be lifesaving in high difficulty content. Her healing capacity and her survivability are also quite powerful, which in an Arts teams makes her very hard to kill. 

On the other hand, Irisviel has poor NP Generation. Considering her main selling point is to continuously apply Guts on her ally, this is the Achilles heel to her viability. Even in a dedicated Arts team, there will be times when Irisviel cannot keep up her Guts, especially in extended fights. Furthermore, she offers little utility, offensive support or even damage beyond her stalling power, which makes her a Servant one hardly finds a need for

★★★
AOE
Gilles de Rais (Caster)

Caster Gilles is unfortunately more concerned with being the ultimate COOL than efficiently destroying his enemies.

He is Story Locked, meaning his availability is already poor compared to most of his peers, and his skill set does him no favors either. His Mental Corruption skill essentially only bolsters the success rate of his third skill, Evil Eye of the Abyss (only affecting the chance of the initial delayed debuff working, NOT the turn-by-turn stun success chance), and while the combo can be quite powerful, it has an enormous cooldown and is still not reliable even with both skills maxed. His Aesthetic Appreciation skill’s NP damage down only works on Servants and its values are too low to be practically useful. To top it off, he has an out of place Buster AoE Noble Phantasm with a lackluster Attack Down overcharge effect, compounded by his abysmal base Attack and complete lack of offensive self-buffs.

It is unfortunate that his meme potential is quite high, because it would take an enormous amount of effort to even make him as usable as a standard 3* Caster.

★★★
AOE
Geronimo

It is difficult to get a lot of mileage out of Geronimo. On paper, his skills seem not bad at first, having a Mana Burst variant on each of his skills and an AoE Noble Phantasm that can both damage the enemies and heal the team. But that is all he has.

Past that Mana Burst-coated surface is a Servant with a skill set that completely lacks any form of synergy, utility, hard survivability, or serious damage potential. He does not benefit much from the Buster or Quick effectiveness boosts, which makes two of his skills only marginally effective.

The only thing Geronimo uniquely provides is an NP that heals the party and deals AoE damage at the same time. In most cases, running him for his NP is not worth it considering he mainly has access to a single useful skill.

★★★
SUPPORT
Henry Jekyll & Hyde

It is best to think of Jekyll as a Berserker rather than an Assassin. With possibly the strangest gimmick amongst all Servants, Jekyll is highly difficult to fully utilize even for more advanced Masters.

Once transformed with his Noble Phantasm, Jekyll becomes a monster Damage Dealer with an outstanding HP pool to boot. He is extremely reliant on getting off his Noble Phantasm as soon as possible, preferably with high NP level and Overcharge to further improve his massive damage potential. In addition, Jekyll is a lot more dependent on skill levels than most Servants, which means Masters need to spend quite a lot of resources to reveal his ultimate potential.

Still, Jekyll is a Servant with incredible highs, but he requires heavy investment to make it worthwhile. For some Masters, the sheer lengths to set him up properly may be too much effort.

★★★
SUPPORT
Gilles de Rais

Gilles Saber is definitely not someone who fits in any common mold. He is highly unique and has some fun potential for Masters who enjoy trying out more niche Servants.

However, making him work requires a lot of effort, both in terms of material investment and a supportive cast. Despite being a damage dealer, his Noble Phantasm does not deal any damage by itself, which holds him back tremendously in terms of easy access to high damage output. It is usually not worthwhile trying to turn him into a pseudo-berserker through his Noble Phantasm when there are plenty of Servants around who can boost the performance of the entire team while still doing equivalent damage with their Noble Phantasms. Considering his vanilla hit counts, hard to chain Arts NP, and low base Attack, it is simply more efficient and effective to just use more well-rounded Sabers in his stead.

Still, he can output some hilarious damage numbers if set up right.

★★
AOE
Phantom of the Opera

Few embody existential crisis better than Phantom of the Opera, who not only suffers from relatively poor story representation but also a lackluster kit in terms of gameplay.

To start off, his base stats are underwhelming, which is further aggravated by his Assassin Class damage modifier. His skill set does not particularly counterbalance these downsides either, as Mental Corruption and Siren Song have almost zero impact in most circumstances, and his remaining skill, Innocent Monster, doesn’t improve his own offense much and actively worsens his defense. His Critical Star and NP generating capacity is similarly weak because of his poorly distributed hit counts, and his star generation is only partially remedied by Innocent Monster.

Phantom’s main redeeming quality is having an offensive AoE Noble Phantasm, which is quite rare amongst more accessible Assassins. In addition, his Noble Phantasm grants him unique niche in applying a potent AoE Debuff Resistance Down debuff. Still, for most Masters it is hardly a strong enough Noble Phantasm to justify using him over better Assassins and/or Berserkers.

★★
AOE
Anra Mainiiu

Arguably the rarest Servant in the game, Angra Mainyu is not an unfamiliar face to most fans of the Fate franchise. Angra is a highly unique Servant, holding two peculiar gimmicks that may not be universally practical, but can yield some interesting results and team compositions.

His first gimmick is dealing damage that is entirely unblockable, bypassing defense and damage reduction, based on how much HP he has lost compared to when he first activated his NP. The downside to his NP is that if he dies (easily given his low HP), or if no one attacks him, his NP essentially becomes useless. The other gimmick is his third skill, which increases his Quick card performance for five turns, but in return, he dies when the five turns have passed.

Needless to say, both gimmicks are particularly hard to utilize and require some very specific team compositions to pull off. Angra is generally more or less a “trophy” Servant, one that Masters can take pride in pulling from the Friend Gacha, and is quite valuable as a CE holder for events, as he yields the same amount of Bond Rewards as a 4 Star Servant while having the Party Cost of a 2 Star Servant. His Avenger class may also be useful during events (for drop bonuses), while the typing itself can have some use in underdeveloped rosters - although Berserkers are typically preferred.

Legend

: Tier placement will be considered for moving down in the future (often due to meta shifts or changes in JP content).

: Tier placement will be considered for moving up in the future (often due to future Skill / NP Upgrades).