Fate/Grand Order - Are you my Master?

[Yael]

https://3.ggpht-cache.qoo-app.com/TSst6F-PkOtThWjeSOS-12_vQv6X7ybf1LZNecS4SALYmNoaUavtwlpVKL3UyZWQfg=w30 0

We got Fate/Grand Order finally translated into English and got a server for ourselves, oppened last week.

I started playing and, even though my phone crashes every now and then, I'm still enjoying it as a Nasuverse fan.

If anyone's into the game, add me up, I'm kinda trying to level up some chars, all the way into this waifu game :smallbiggrin:

For convenience's sake, I thought that we could get everyone who's playing their friend codes so we can support ourselves through the orders :smallwink: I'm also adding the JP server for User IDs, but I'm not playing that, so I won't be the first one :smallfrown:

I highly recommend you that, if you like the Nasuverse, give it a try ASAP, as for its launch celebration the game is giving away free Quartz (summoning materials) and a limited-time free Saber Lily.

How's your experience so far? Favorite Servant?

Nick
Code

Ami
442,363,271

Anarion
939,016,565

Callos_DeTerran
559,157,245

DrakeRaids
228,354,945

Fel
932,305,193

Loch
953,769,985

Manticoran
025,817, 326

NeoPhoenix
939,415,749

Nerocite
249,330,879

nightwyrm
938,030,873

Setsuna
859,204,200

Silva
192,524,732

Yæl
079,246,522

Current Singularity
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Current Events (US)
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New Servants (US)https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/9/99/Davinci1.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20160729200954https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/e/eb/Davinci2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20160729201030https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/6/67/Davinci3.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20160729201055https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/6/69/Davinci4.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20160729195544
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/e/e9/DaVinciSprite1.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/229?cb=20170202213408https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/8/82/DaVinciSprite2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/267?cb=20170202212807https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/4/45/DaVinciSprite3.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/271?cb=20170202213129Featured Servants (US)

[Anarion]

Oh sweet, someone started a thread for this. I very much enjoy the assorted Fate series, and I've been playing a bunch since the game came out.

Favorite servant by stats is the Altera I pulled. :smallbiggrin: Favorite servant actually is a tough one, to be honest. In my current run, I'm really enjoying young Alexander the Great, who has some good voice lines, pretty nice art, and solid combat effectiveness for a 3 star. Also, Nero is just actually the best ever and the fact you get to hang with her for a whole chapter is awesome.

My friend code is 939,016,565 and my name there is also Anarion.

[Yael]

Oh sweet, someone started a thread for this. I very much enjoy the assorted Fate series, and I've been playing a bunch since the game came out.

Favorite servant by stats is the Altera I pulled. :smallbiggrin: Favorite servant actually is a tough one, to be honest. In my current run, I'm really enjoying young Alexander the Great, who has some good voice lines, pretty nice art, and solid combat effectiveness for a 3 star. Also, Nero is just actually the best ever and the fact you get to hang with her for a whole chapter is awesome.

My friend code is 939,016,565 and my name there is also Anarion.

I got Atila too in a 3-quartz roll. Altera is pretty much my powerhouse at the moment, even if I have her only at 36.

Also, I rolled everything I had in the Gilgamesh rate-up and got pretty much nothing... *sadlife*

[Kitten Champion]

I started playing it a brief while ago, and just got through the introductory stage of the story.

It's better than I feared, at least in terms of mobile games. I was expecting the profit model to twist it into a convoluted mess, ya'know, like, a patchwork of otherwise unnecessary mechanics thrown in just to screw the whales out there. It's actually pretty comprehensible and straightforward, though - in my opinion - they would've been smarter to go more with a MOBA-type approach with Hero purchases and various aesthetic-only skins as the bread-and-butter. Though the Japanese mobile game market has it's own business philosophy, I guess I can respect that so long as it's not a UI clutterfest asking for money to so much as sneeze in its general direction.

I like the way the game's presented. The VN-lite story campaign isn't blowing me away thus far exactly, but it's not half-assed perfunctory content to glibly skip through either really. The gameplay is fun, there's not much variety yet but it's sufficient to keep me engaged. The real fun is the artwork and variety of heroes with their unique personas, and that's why the MOBA model would work well here I think.

As to me, I got an Elizabeth Bathory (Lancer) first thing and decided to roll with it. I haven't really expended much of the leveling materials the game showered me with straight off, I figured I'd just play along until I felt a genuine sense of struggle and then gradually scoot them forward. She's level 15 now - which is probably too high for my liking - but with lots of Sabers about she needed a relatively decent health pool.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I have given up on rolling Gold Servants but fortunately rarity in this game matters as much for gameplay as power levels do in determining who wins a fight in the original.

I've been grinding mostly but I just started Septem so I can unleash my level 30 Boudica on the unsuspecting Romans. Yes I know Boudica is garbage but the lady needed clothes and Ascension was the only way to get them. To bad Nero's the good guy, but I guess it's Extra Nero who's just kind of endearingly dumb.

[Anarion]

I started playing it a brief while ago, and just got through the introductory stage of the story.

It's better than I feared, at least in terms of mobile games. I was expecting the profit model to twist it into a convoluted mess, ya'know, like, a patchwork of otherwise unnecessary mechanics thrown in just to screw the whales out there. It's actually pretty comprehensible and straightforward, though - in my opinion - they would've been smarter to go more with a MOBA-type approach with Hero purchases and various aesthetic-only skins as the bread-and-butter. Though the Japanese mobile game market has it's own business philosophy, I guess I can respect that so long as it's not a UI clutterfest asking for money to so much as sneeze in its general direction.


I think MOBA style is well out of the Japanese market comfort zone. Making a gacha style game (that is, gain game currency, spend it to roll for random stuff with good stuff having lower appearance chances) is very typical for them, and some of the gacha games have done really well. I also play a lot of Puzzle and Dragons, which pretty much nailed the combination of rewarding whales while making the game playable for everyone else.

We'll see whether this one has staying power. The actual fighting mechanics aren't bad, and the interaction of different skills, class bonuses, noble phantasms, and choice of attack cards may mean that there's some real depth to team-building. Although Zhuge Liang buffing everybody and giving them all NP charge probably hurts option variety a little bit.



I like the way the game's presented. The VN-lite story campaign isn't blowing me away thus far exactly, but it's not half-assed perfunctory content to glibly skip through either really. The gameplay is fun, there's not much variety yet but it's sufficient to keep me engaged. The real fun is the artwork and variety of heroes with their unique personas, and that's why the MOBA model would work well here I think.


It's silly and the translation isn't great, but I'm enjoying it.



As to me, I got an Elizabeth Bathory (Lancer) first thing and decided to roll with it. I haven't really expended much of the leveling materials the game showered me with straight off, I figured I'd just play along until I felt a genuine sense of struggle and then gradually scoot them forward. She's level 15 now - which is probably too high for my liking - but with lots of Sabers about she needed a relatively decent health pool.

Elizabeth has great voice lines. love her.


I have given up on rolling Gold Servants but fortunately rarity in this game matters as much for gameplay as power levels do in determining who wins a fight in the original.


Rarity affects max level and thus max stats. In other words, a 5 star, a 3 star, and a 2 star will all start out not that far apart in stats. But the 5 star can go to level 50 before ascending and will max at level 80 or 90, probably with 11,000-15,000 in each stat. The 3 star requires ascension at 30, and will get to level 70 at most, winding up with stats around 8,000-10,000. The 2 star can only get up to level 60, possibly less if it doesn't have 4 ascensions, and isn't likely to be much higher than 7,500 in any stat.

So they start the same but their potential is quite different. Note, though, that some of the lower rarity guys are really useful. They either have good skills, particularly good noble phantasms, or special class features that give them really good synergy in a team. Hassan of the Cursed Arm, for example, is a 2-star assassin, but he's awesome.



I've been grinding mostly but I just started Septem so I can unleash my level 30 Boudica on the unsuspecting Romans. Yes I know Boudica is garbage but the lady needed clothes and Ascension was the only way to get them. To bad Nero's the good guy, but I guess it's Extra Nero who's just kind of endearingly dumb.

Nero is the best in all circumstances and the dialogue options you get to respond to her in this game are perfect.

[Yael]

Elizabeth has great voice lines. love her.
She's my main party Lancer. I personally like Cu Chulainn, but considering how I got her in the first place, I chose to keep her, and it is paying off against Archers. I love her idolish persona, too.


Rarity affects max level and thus max stats. In other words, a 5 star, a 3 star, and a 2 star will all start out not that far apart in stats. But the 5 star can go to level 50 before ascending and will max at level 80 or 90, probably with 11,000-15,000 in each stat. The 3 star requires ascension at 30, and will get to level 70 at most, winding up with stats around 8,000-10,000. The 2 star can only get up to level 60, possibly less if it doesn't have 4 ascensions, and isn't likely to be much higher than 7,500 in any stat.

So they start the same but their potential is quite different. Note, though, that some of the lower rarity guys are really useful. They either have good skills, particularly good noble phantasms, or special class features that give them really good synergy in a team. Hassan of the Cursed Arm, for example, is a 2-star assassin, but he's awesome.
Potential kinda varies, I think the Grail can break the cap, but the costs are insane and non-profitable for low star Servants, better reserved for SSR ones.


Nero is the best in all circumstances and the dialogue options you get to respond to her in this game are perfect.
I just wanted to get her but I didn't... I just love her as a Servant, and her visuals are just too good.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Actual vs. Potential is a good point, but 1-star Kojiro Sasaki or 2-star Hans Christian Andersen are still going to be some of the most useful Servants in the game for months until more people with their potential single-tartget damage or healing NP respectively come out. Or enemies that go above level 40.

[Anarion]

Potential kinda varies, I think the Grail can break the cap, but the costs are insane and non-profitable for low star Servants, better reserved for SSR ones.


I was leaving out Grail since it breaks cap for everyone. I'm not sure how many times you can grail something though. Is it a one-off to allow ten more levels, or does infinite grails lead to infinite stats?
[/QUOTE]



I just wanted to get her but I didn't... I just love her as a Servant, and her visuals are just too good.

After my initial resets to get something good, I saved all my pulls for after Septem, but alas no Nero. Someday.

I did pull Atalante from the Gilgamesh summons though, which I feel good about, even if she's not Gilgamesh.


Actual vs. Potential is a good point, but 1-star Kojiro Sasaki or 2-star Hans Christian Andersen are still going to be some of the most useful Servants in the game for months until more people with their potential single-tartget damage or healing NP respectively come out. Or enemies that go above level 40.

Oh absolutely. I think it's a sign that the game has some depth: good team setup and effective skill use can and will outdo just picking the things with the largest numbers and spamming the card select button. Kojiro is actually a really good example because he has skills to keep himself alive even with low stats, a strong NP, and the ability to max level that NP with dupes, meaning he'll be awesome for quite a while, even though he's likely to fall off at end tier content.

Also, there are enemies above level 40. Look for the interludes for some of the higher rarity servants. Altera's interlude quest recommends your party be level 70 and it is seriously tough.

[Yael]

Also, there are enemies above level 40. Look for the interludes for some of the higher rarity servants. Altera's interlude quest recommends your party be level 70 and it is seriously tough.

So does Emiya's second Interlude... I'm about to ascend him this weekend (if I can get those damn statues...) but I'm not sure I'm doing its Interlude quest anytime soon.

Also, Heracles' mision in Fuyuki is recommended for a Level 40 party, but I had to go with Level 50s just to get through, Level 62, 200,000+ hp and him stacking evasions is just not fair!

[Anarion]

One more saber statue and I can do Altera's second ascension. I can see this game is going to have a lot of farming.

[Red Fel]

Well, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to give this one a shot. So far? Mixed bag.

I love the art style. And the storyline is funny - several characters have genuinely enjoyable quirks and personalities. The plot twists and turns nicely for my tastes, keeps emotional involvement up. So far, so good.

Now let me talk about one pretty big minus for me - the gacha. Rant incoming.

I've played a number of games with a number of gacha models, to varying degrees of satisfaction. For example, FFRK has a gacha model where the characters are not part of the gacha at all; they're event drops, so you can eventually get all of them for free. Rather, the gacha is for equippable relics. That works for me. Another example is Puzzle & Dragons, which can sometimes be frustrating but if you hold out for Godfests you're probably going to do alright, and can still handle most content with some planning and minimal fuss.

And then there's this lie. This horrible, horrible lie. Gachas that say "Do a 10-pull and get guaranteed results" are great. Gachas that say that with an asterisk are evil. This is evil. "Guaranteed SR or higher! ... which might be an add-on instead of a character."

Right now, my 4-stars consist of Heracles, Saber Lily, and Emiya. Heracles I got from the tutorial pull, and he's awesome, granted. Saber Lily I got for free, so it's understandable if she sucks. And Emiya I got from that ticket thing, because I had an appalling lack of Archer on my team. But that's it. I've done multiple 30-quartz pulls, and gotten multiple 4-star materials, instead of characters. And it's infuriating.

Games like this know why you pull. You pull for your waifu/husbando. You pull for the characters you like. Tales of Link figured that out. Fire Emblem Heroes figured that out. Sure, most gacha pulls were likely to net crap characters, but you were filling your team with characters. This game I can count the number of characters I've gotten across several 30-quartz pulls on one hand, without using all the fingers.

And don't start with rerolling. I know you can reroll and do that entire tedious tutorial all over again. A game in which you feel you have to do that just to be competitive is not a well-designed game.

That's not to say the game isn't fun. It's reasonably entertaining, although combat gets a bit same-y. Most fights are either a steamroll or a wall, with very little in between for me. And I don't mind the farming so much - you get used to it in mobile games. A lot of it isn't terribly intuitive - enhancing isn't well-explained, nor is forming your team - but again, it's fairly standard for mobile games. It's just annoying that one of the core concepts in the Fate universe - having an awesome Servant - is the most RNG thing in this game. I know it's a cash-grab, but does it have to be so blatant about it?

I haven't done any Ascensions yet, because nobody is adequate level. I've done a few skill-ups, and have seen no noticeable change. I have a Holy Grail I'm unlikely to use anytime soon, because that cost is ludicrous. I'm still playing, I'm just... Waiting for something.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah I have literally the same 4-star situation you do except replace Berserkules with the cuter but less generally effective Lancer Elizabeth Bathory. I've just given up on actually rolling higher rarities now.

I will suggest doing some grinding on the "ember gathering" daily quests, though. That's where you get the vast majority of your Servant XP.

[Anarion]

I do hate the current gatcha, but one thing to point out is that when the game released, there was nothing special going on with the gatcha. Red Fel made the comparison to Puzzle and Dragon, and noted that one should only pull that gatcha during a godfest to get good results. With FGO, their version of godfests seems to be some of these special gatchas like the Gilgamesh one that came out a few days ago.

And I have had better results on that machine, pulling two Atalante, as well as hearing anecdotally from some other people who got Gilgamesh in ~30 rolls (which seems to match him having up to 10x his regular appearance rate). So it may be that the thing to do is work through the game with the starting 4 star servant and save all of the premium currency for special events that have the stuff you want, just like saving for PAD godfests.

[Yael]

I've played a number of games with a number of gacha models, to varying degrees of satisfaction. For example, FFRK has a gacha model where the characters are not part of the gacha at all; they're event drops, so you can eventually get all of them for free. Rather, the gacha is for equippable relics. That works for me. Another example is Puzzle & Dragons, which can sometimes be frustrating but if you hold out for Godfests you're probably going to do alright, and can still handle most content with some planning and minimal fuss.

And then there's this lie. This horrible, horrible lie. Gachas that say "Do a 10-pull and get guaranteed results" are great. Gachas that say that with an asterisk are evil. This is evil. "Guaranteed SR or higher! ... which might be an add-on instead of a character."

Right now, my 4-stars consist of Heracles, Saber Lily, and Emiya. Heracles I got from the tutorial pull, and he's awesome, granted. Saber Lily I got for free, so it's understandable if she sucks. And Emiya I got from that ticket thing, because I had an appalling lack of Archer on my team. But that's it. I've done multiple 30-quartz pulls, and gotten multiple 4-star materials, instead of characters. And it's infuriating.

Games like this know why you pull. You pull for your waifu/husbando. You pull for the characters you like. Tales of Link figured that out. Fire Emblem Heroes figured that out. Sure, most gacha pulls were likely to net crap characters, but you were filling your team with characters. This game I can count the number of characters I've gotten across several 30-quartz pulls on one hand, without using all the fingers.

And don't start with rerolling. I know you can reroll and do that entire tedious tutorial all over again. A game in which you feel you have to do that just to be competitive is not a well-designed game.I do feel for you. The SSR* servants "rate up" is still 1% chance of it appearing, it's just that Gilgamesh is mostly granted to appear in case you get a 5*. That being said, it's heartreaking not getting those 5* pulls.
As far as I understand, some events really raise the rate of certain characters (popular ones) such as the Saber Wars, and the Nero's Championship (which I think is next), and so does the /Zero event, and so on.
I just hope for the last two ones, as both rate-up Arturia (I'm sorry, it kills me to call her Altria).I am also kinda dissapointed about the special announcement for today's news.
Gilgamesh was added for 10 days to the Special Summon in the shop, but that's the same as just showing it to you and not letting you buy it. You need to have obtained the same SSR 5* Servant 6 times to obtain 1 medal, and you need 10 of those.

Yeah, thanks for allowing us entry to your treasury, King of Heroes.

[Anarion]

I do feel for you. The SSR* servants "rate up" is still 1% chance of it appearing, it's just that Gilgamesh is mostly granted to appear in case you get a 5*. That being said, it's heartreaking not getting those 5* pulls.
As far as I understand, some events really raise the rate of certain characters (popular ones) such as the Saber Wars, and the Nero's Championship (which I think is next), and so does the /Zero event, and so on.
I just hope for the last two ones, as both rate-up Arturia (I'm sorry, it kills me to call her Altria).I am also kinda dissapointed about the special announcement for today's news.
Gilgamesh was added for 10 days to the Special Summon in the shop, but that's the same as just showing it to you and not letting you buy it. You need to have obtained the same SSR 5* Servant 6 times to obtain 1 medal, and you need 10 of those.

Yeah, thanks for allowing us entry to your treasury, King of Heroes.

I assume the latter thing is for people that dropped a ton of money on the game's release. Like, if you did spend that much cash and didn't get what you wanted randomly, all options are available. Though why on earth they'd make that a separate announcement instead of just a minor part of the event is beyond me.

[Hunter Noventa]

How's the game for someone who doesn't really know about the Nasuverse much? (I tried to play Fate/Extra and just couldn't get into the gameplay at all)

[Anarion]

How's the game for someone who doesn't really know about the Nasuverse much? (I tried to play Fate/Extra and just couldn't get into the gameplay at all)

The game itself is average, overall. There's enough gameplay in the class, skill, and card system that paying attention to your team setup and attack choices will significantly improve how you do, but there aren't that many hard battles, so you wind up doing a lot of farming where it doesn't really matter. If you don't know any of the characters, the question I have is whether you like the art at all. If you don't find the universe aesthetics charming in some way, you'll probably get bored with this game after a few days.

[Red Fel]

Okay, so having spent a couple of days level-farming, and having gotten several Ascensions under my belt... I don't retract what I ranted earlier, but I do soften it somewhat. Again, the game does a poor job of explaining just how important it is to farm levels (and, seriously, why can't characters just level normally from use?) but once you've done so, a lot opens up.


How's the game for someone who doesn't really know about the Nasuverse much? (I tried to play Fate/Extra and just couldn't get into the gameplay at all)


The game itself is average, overall. There's enough gameplay in the class, skill, and card system that paying attention to your team setup and attack choices will significantly improve how you do, but there aren't that many hard battles, so you wind up doing a lot of farming where it doesn't really matter. If you don't know any of the characters, the question I have is whether you like the art at all. If you don't find the universe aesthetics charming in some way, you'll probably get bored with this game after a few days.

This. There are a lot of mechanics which, while not hidden, aren't entirely obvious. The simplest explanation is that you build a team of characters (two, plus a friend, plus substitutes when your characters get massacred) with a very Rock-Paper-Scissors feel between character classes. But beyond that, you consider the fact that certain characters get certain attacks more often (for example, Heracles gets three Buster cards, one Quick, and one Arts, while Gilgamesh gets one Quick, and two each of Arts and Buster) which lends somewhat more strategy to team composition.

But the gameplay itself is exceedingly same-y, as I mentioned above. Fight starts. You receive five cards from the combined pools of your on-screen characters, and put together a chain of attacks. Do it right, things die and you move on. Do it less than right, things attack you. Occasionally perform a special attack. Repeat until either your enemies or your characters are dead.

Yes, there are active skills that do things like boost DEF or charge your special gauge. But those don't feel particularly special in terms of gameplay; they're just a nice boost. And the special attacks I mentioned above - called Noble Phantasms - can be quite powerful, but frequently take long enough to charge that you may rarely use them.

Compare this with Puzzle and Dragons, where gameplay varies based on what kind of team you field, how they synergize, and how you overcome enemy strengths and tricks. Compare it with Final Fantasy Record Keeper, where you outfit your team with equipment, multiple slottable abilities, and chargeable specials with great utility and versatility; and fight enemies with various strengths, weaknesses, abilities and gimmicks.

By comparison, the gameplay in this game is... Tame. Simple to learn, straightforward to use. A bit RNGish at times. As Anarion notes, if you don't like the feel of the game's aesthetic, the mechanics probably aren't going to grab you.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Most of the nuance in this game comes down to team construction rather than in-battle strategy. There's a lot of variables to account for there, as every Servant is a different combination of Class, Attack/HP, Card loadout, Noble Phantasm, Skills, and Passive Skills No One Actually Looks At But Are Actually Important, plus some hidden stats for the truly grognard out there......but early game, you don't have that many options and are largely relying on Class and maybe card layout, until you start rolling more Servants or Ascending them to get more skills.

[Anarion]

Most of the nuance in this game comes down to team construction rather than in-battle strategy. There's a lot of variables to account for there, as every Servant is a different combination of Class, Attack/HP, Card loadout, Noble Phantasm, Skills, and Passive Skills No One Actually Looks At But Are Actually Important, plus some hidden stats for the truly grognard out there......but early game, you don't have that many options and are largely relying on Class and maybe card layout, until you start rolling more Servants or Ascending them to get more skills.

That's appropriate though. PAD as a point of comparion starts out with almost no monsters on your team and you can clear everything with one or two combos. There are plenty of servants through the friend machine that allow for mixing and matching of teams and types after a couple weeks of play, even without spending money. We'll also have to see if, like other gacha games, they start giving away more and more premium currency over time to allow people to constantly make new rolls as new stuff releases.

[Red Fel]

So, I finally picked up another 4-star (is that SR?) Servant. Unfortunately, it's Lancelot (Berserker). While he's legitimately decent, I already have Heracles, who is legitimately awesome. Zerkalot is good if you have no other Zerker, but he doesn't stack up to the OG.

I've decided I'll stay with the game awhile, at least until Iskandar's event comes along. Gilgamesh may be the King of Heroes, but Iskandar is my favorite, and I will entirely rage quit if I end up not pulling Big Red.

Anybody else still playing?

[Anarion]

So, I finally picked up another 4-star (is that SR?) Servant. Unfortunately, it's Lancelot (Berserker). While he's legitimately decent, I already have Heracles, who is legitimately awesome. Zerkalot is good if you have no other Zerker, but he doesn't stack up to the OG.

I've decided I'll stay with the game awhile, at least until Iskandar's event comes along. Gilgamesh may be the King of Heroes, but Iskandar is my favorite, and I will entirely rage quit if I end up not pulling Big Red.

Anybody else still playing?

4* is SR, yeah. And I'm still playing. Once you hit the mid level 50s, the game doesn't really take much commitment. Even with the daily quest costs halved during this Gilgamesh event, you just run a few things until you're out of stamina and then done for the day, and you level up once every other day or so and get another round of farming.

Which is good, actually. I've cleared all the story missions and free quests for saint quartz already. So I'm on farming stuff for ascensions and skill ups, and they're all rare drops. Nothing to do but clear the hardest daily quests or Germany chimeras until they released the next story update.

[Yael]

I'm also still at it.

As far as I understand, the game is easy for the time being, but when more events in the future begin to pop the importancy of your party composition (aside from its classes) will be important. At the moment there's a summer event in the japanese server where you fight a big hermit crab that takes 1-3 damage per attack from non-divine servants. Which gets interesting (and I also have Basaka in a decent, high level.)

[Red Fel]

I'm also still at it.

As far as I understand, the game is easy for the time being, but when more events in the future begin to pop the importancy of your party composition (aside from its classes) will be important. At the moment there's a summer event in the japanese server where you fight a big hermit crab that takes 1-3 damage per attack from non-divine servants. Which gets interesting (and I also have Basaka in a decent, high level.)

I mean, you say "easy for the time being," but there's a bit of a spectrum of easy, there. Like, I can do a lot of the dailies, plenty of story modes, but Interludes are still a bear. I managed to clear Berserkules' Interlude thanks to a high-level Zhuge Liang friend, but now EMIYA's is giving me trouble.

With you in terms of party planning, though. Unless you're prepared to run Shielder/Berserker/Ruler on everything, you need to take class affinities into account, as a bare minimum. And then there are the Four Cavalries (translation errors bedamned, Calvary is something completely different) fights with a freaking Dragon at the end; you really don't want to bring a Berserker to that at all, if it can be avoided. (For my party, it basically cannot.)

Side note, I really like the aesthetic with the Dragon fights. The whole concept in-universe that Dragons are so magically charged and powerful that just one existing is a huge and terrifying deal is really well-communicated in the fact that their attacks are all AoEs and they don't even fit on the screen. I like that.

[Gastronomie]

ohai. I'm a Japanese user who started this year February, and am genuinely interested in how the English version's going so far. May I ask several questions?

Do the Servants have English voices, or are their voices still Japanese? Becaue if it's the latter, I would probably find it incomprehensible if I were American/British/whatever.
How far is the story so far? Fuyuki (prologue) only, or further in?
Is the Servant list limited? Up to what number servant (in the ServantDex) has been opened up?
Have there been any special events?

Japanese smartphone social games are generally designed so that you need to throw in tens of thousands of yen (= hundreds of dollars) to get the highest-rarity character you want. Indeed it's a frustrating system for some, and whoever thought it up first is a terrible person, but it's still simply how Japanese social games are. It's designed for people to drop money into it anyways. On first glance, thugging that much money into a social game seems pretty stupid, but you could argue card games and other hobbies are not that much different.
Rather, FGO is much better than a majority of other Japanese social games in how low-rarity characters are, if used right, just as powerful as high-rarity ones. Arash, Anderson, and Hassan are examples of low-star Servants which remain powerful until the present day, as are almost all the 3-star Archers (Euryale, Robin Hood, David, etc.)
Add how, since 3-star and lower Servants are easier to raise their Noble Phantasm level, at times, lower-star characters may have more powerful Noble Phantasms than high-star ones.
Also, by participating in certain events, you can obtain certain special (event only) 4-star Servants for free (if you get through the event, it also becomes Noble Phantasm Level 5). And a majority of them are hilariously powerful.
Think of it this way: In FGO, if you obtain a 5-star Servant, you're just really, really lucky. In no means is it a requirement to get through the game, but if you do own one, it becomes sorta easier in certain quests.
In the case in which a character you really like from the original series becomes a 5-star and you want to pull it... well, if you really want it, no choice other than to drop your money.
Oh, and one last thing: Skill Level. I doubt it's that much of an issue in the first chapters, but if you feel like raising the skill level of a 5-star servant, beware, because it is living hell. It's probably much more of a living hell than actually pulling out that 5-star; you will need LOADS of time to do it. You could even argue 3-star Servants are better in how they don't take that much time and resources to raise their skill level.This is just my personal opinion, but the storyline gets better at chapter 5, and proceeds to become really, really entertaning and exciting from chapter 6.
I don't know how far the storyline in English has been translated so far, but if chapter 6 is yet to be released, wait for it. It's amazing, and so are the chapters after it.It seems simple and bland on first glance, but once you start leveling up a lot of servants, you'll realize it's more than meets the eye. I do agree it's more about building the team rather than actually playing it during the actual combat, but creating Arts Parties (parties consisting of only characters that have 3 (minimum 2) Arts cards, so that you can go ARTS CHAIN almost every round and constantly hurl Noble Phantasms) or Critical Parties (parties which contain a lot of Quick cards, preferrably with someone who has a skill concerning raisiing the damage of critical attacks and/or someone who can suck in more critical stars than normal using skills) is pretty fun.

[Anarion]

ohai. I'm a Japanese user who started this year February, and am genuinely interested in how the English version's going so far. May I ask several questions?

Do the Servants have English voices, or are their voices still Japanese? Becaue if it's the latter, I would probably find it incomprehensible if I were American/British/whatever.
How far is the story so far? Fuyuki (prologue) only, or further in?
Is the Servant list limited? Up to what number servant (in the ServantDex) has been opened up?
Have there been any special events?

Japanese smartphone social games are generally designed so that you need to throw in tens of thousands of yen (= hundreds of dollars) to get the highest-rarity character you want. Indeed it's a frustrating system for some, and whoever thought it up first is a terrible person, but it's still simply how Japanese social games are. It's designed for people to drop money into it anyways. On first glance, thugging that much money into a social game seems pretty stupid, but you could argue card games and other hobbies are not that much different.
Rather, FGO is much better than a majority of other Japanese social games in how low-rarity characters are, if used right, just as powerful as high-rarity ones. Arash, Anderson, and Hassan are examples of low-star Servants which remain powerful until the present day, as are almost all the 3-star Archers (Euryale, Robin Hood, David, etc.)
Add how, since 3-star and lower Servants are easier to raise their Noble Phantasm level, at times, lower-star characters may have more powerful Noble Phantasms than high-star ones.
Also, by participating in certain events, you can obtain certain special (event only) 4-star Servants for free (if you get through the event, it also becomes Noble Phantasm Level 5). And a majority of them are hilariously powerful.
Think of it this way: In FGO, if you obtain a 5-star Servant, you're just really, really lucky. In no means is it a requirement to get through the game, but if you do own one, it becomes sorta easier in certain quests.
In the case in which a character you really like from the original series becomes a 5-star and you want to pull it... well, if you really want it, no choice other than to drop your money.
Oh, and one last thing: Skill Level. I doubt it's that much of an issue in the first chapters, but if you feel like raising the skill level of a 5-star servant, beware, because it is living hell. It's probably much more of a living hell than actually pulling out that 5-star; you will need LOADS of time to do it. You could even argue 3-star Servants are better in how they don't take that much time and resources to raise their skill level.This is just my personal opinion, but the storyline gets better at chapter 5, and proceeds to become really, really entertaning and exciting from chapter 6.
I don't know how far the storyline in English has been translated so far, but if chapter 6 is yet to be released, wait for it. It's amazing, and so are the chapters after it.It seems simple and bland on first glance, but once you start leveling up a lot of servants, you'll realize it's more than meets the eye. I do agree it's more about building the team rather than actually playing it during the actual combat, but creating Arts Parties (parties consisting of only characters that have 3 (minimum 2) Arts cards, so that you can go ARTS CHAIN almost every round and constantly hurl Noble Phantasms) or Critical Parties (parties which contain a lot of Quick cards, preferrably with someone who has a skill concerning raisiing the damage of critical attacks and/or someone who can suck in more critical stars than normal using skills) is pretty fun.

Hi and welcome! To answer your questions
1. The servants still have all Japanese voices, but they provide English translations of all the Japanese lines you've unlocked if you look up the servant info in My Room. I like it better that way, since you get to hear the sound of the original voice. I also speak some Japanese though, so I'm not sure if my perspective is the same as other peoples.

2. The current story stops at the end of Septem. Okeanos is visible, but selecting it gives a popup that it will be released in a future content update. This allows for farming some servants second or third ascensions, but some items just aren't in the game, like the horseshoes for ascending 3 star Alexander III

3. My current servant list goes up to Jeanne d'Arc at number 59. Orion isn't out, so I think that's where it stops.

4. There's one currently running special event with Gilgamesh. They've got a special gatcha with improved odds for Gilgamesh, Atalante, and a few others. They've also given out a bunch of skill up materials, some ascension stuff, a bunch of summon tickets, and some apples. We might get the Nero event sometime soon as well, but I'm not sure.

Regarding the spoilered stuff, I've already shared my thoughts on the gacha earlier in the thread. I'll add that I think the really important thing for a game like this is that it's possible for a free or low money player to have a good experience. FGO is less reliant on friends than some other games of this type that I've seen, but I still think it's important for the game's success that there's enough players that people are able to talk about the game and there are friends available to play with. These sorts of games don't feel as fun if there's only a tiny community of high spenders. I'm also really happy to hear that as they make more stuff available, there will be options for specialized teams based on specific card sets and skill usage. Team synergy and strategy is the space I see the most room to add strategic depth as the game evolves.

[Blackhawk748]

all, i started this like a week or 2 ago, and i gotta say, i got lucky on my first two pulls. I got Siegfried on the tutorial pull and then i got Saber Lily and Chevalier d'eon on my second. Ad im pretty sure i got Prototype Cu Culihain and Medusa on that same pull.

Also, what is with all the Cu Culihains? Seriously, i swear i've pulled like 3 of them (not complaining hes good for XP)

[Anarion]

all, i started this like a week or 2 ago, and i gotta say, i got lucky on my first two pulls. I got Siegfried on the tutorial pull and then i got Saber Lily and Chevalier d'eon on my second. Ad im pretty sure i got Prototype Cu Culihain and Medusa on that same pull.

Also, what is with all the Cu Culihains? Seriously, i swear i've pulled like 3 of them (not complaining hes good for XP)

That's not terrible, but I wouldn't call it lucky either. You're guaranteed a 4 star servant in your first pull, of which Siegfried is actually not that great among the possible options. Everyone gets a free Saber Lily (I think...did they end that promo already?), and Chevalier d'eon is good, but not that spectacular by any means. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.

Prototype Cu, btw, has an increased appearance rate on the Gilgamesh gacha, which is probably why you got several. I hope when you say good for XP that you're not feeding off dupes though. You want at least 4 dupes of the same servant to max level their noble phantasm.

[Blackhawk748]

That's not terrible, but I wouldn't call it lucky either. You're guaranteed a 4 star servant in your first pull, of which Siegfried is actually not that great among the possible options. Everyone gets a free Saber Lily (I think...did they end that promo already?), and Chevalier d'eon is good, but not that spectacular by any means. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.

Prototype Cu, btw, has an increased appearance rate on the Gilgamesh gacha, which is probably why you got several. I hope when you say good for XP that you're not feeding off dupes though. You want at least 4 dupes of the same servant to max level their noble phantasm.

Huh, didnt know you got Lily for free, neat.

...well wish i had known that earlier. Oh well, live and learn. Frankly im rather happy with Sigfried and i dont have Chavalier as i didnt like her. Really liking the Carmilla i got for free from that promo. She's wrecking everything for me.

[Red Fel]

Huh, didnt know you got Lily for free, neat.

...well wish i had known that earlier. Oh well, live and learn. Frankly im rather happy with Sigfried and i dont have Chavalier as i didnt like her. Really liking the Carmilla i got for free from that promo. She's wrecking everything for me.

You think you like Carmilla now? You're going to love her once you get to Orleans. There's a reason Kojirou Sasaki is referred to jokingly as the "Savior of France." (Hint: Carmilla and Sasaki are both Assassins. Dragons are Riders. Assassins eat Riders.)

But yeah. As has been mentioned, while there are some characters better than others, the key is building a solid team with what you have. I'm actually in the habit of saving one of every Servant I get - even the 1-stars - just because they're cheaper to power up, and even low-level ones can be useful. (Like Kojirou Sasaki, Savior of France, and Hans Christian Anderson, the healbot.) Any duplicates get used to level up NP until they're maxed.

Then they're fodder.

[Blackhawk748]

Oh im already in Rome, and she ate so many Wyverns in Orleans. Hell, she killed Fafnir almost single handedly (hello Phantom Maiden)

[Gastronomie]

-snip-Thanks for the answers~


But yeah. As has been mentioned, while there are some characters better than others, the key is building a solid team with what you have. I'm actually in the habit of saving one of every Servant I get - even the 1-stars - just because they're cheaper to power up, and even low-level ones can be useful. (Like Kojirou Sasaki, Savior of France, and Hans Christian Anderson, the healbot.) Any duplicates get used to level up NP until they're maxed.

Then they're fodder.In Japan it's generally agreed upon that this is the right way to play FGO.

Apart from the obvious of how each servant has his/her own merit, certain servants are given bonuses in special events (for instance, in the Onigashima event, the ATK of Japanese servants increases). In other events, certain servants increase the number of items that drop from enemies. There's no "truly useless" servants in FGO; it's just that some are more useful than others.

[Red Fel]

Also, consider the fact that certain Servants have different curves of utility. Some consider EMIYA to be an inferior servant, for example - and certainly, he pales next to, say, Gilgamesh, but doesn't everybody? - but that's mostly because he builds up at a slow burn.

I now have him Ascended twice, with his upgraded NP, and equipped with Heaven's Feel. If a fight gets so desperate that he winds up solo on the field - which he can, he's pretty darn durable - he turns into a freaking blender. This is from somebody who also has (and very much enjoys) Berserkules - true, the big guy hits hard, but he also takes hits like a chump. Contrast with EMIYA, who is basically an armored gatling gun against most enemies, and also has a great AoE NP, which he charges quickly because, oh right, 3 Arts cards. Yeah, EMIYA started off as a solidly mundane Archer type, but now, as long as he's not up against a Lancer, he freaking dominates things. I'm farming the Advanced EXP daily, and he can solo the entirety of the final wave. Solo. He gives zero craps. It's obscene.

[Gastronomie]

Also, consider the fact that certain Servants have different curves of utility. Some consider EMIYA to be an inferior servant, for example - and certainly, he pales next to, say, Gilgamesh, but doesn't everybody? - but that's mostly because he builds up at a slow burn.

I now have him Ascended twice, with his upgraded NP, and equipped with Heaven's Feel. If a fight gets so desperate that he winds up solo on the field - which he can, he's pretty darn durable - he turns into a freaking blender. This is from somebody who also has (and very much enjoys) Berserkules - true, the big guy hits hard, but he also takes hits like a chump. Contrast with EMIYA, who is basically an armored gatling gun against most enemies, and also has a great AoE NP, which he charges quickly because, oh right, 3 Arts cards. Yeah, EMIYA started off as a solidly mundane Archer type, but now, as long as he's not up against a Lancer, he freaking dominates things. I'm farming the Advanced EXP daily, and he can solo the entirety of the final wave. Solo. He gives zero craps. It's obscene.It's often said in FGO that "there's not a single weak Archer in the game" (literally all of them are amazing in their own way), but even within them, Emiya is one of the best.

Speaking of which, are the "power-up quests" (don't know the official English term) for Emiya already released in the English version? Because if they aren't yet... you'll absolutely jaw-drop when you get there.

Also, in terms of power: Gil is obviously the stronger one when it comes to offense (heck, he remains to this day one of the most broken attackers in the game), but he doesn't have a single defensive skill, whereas Emiya has Eye of the Mind (so useful!). Also note how Emiya's 3-Arts deck is, as you've already mentioned, amazing when it comes to spamming Noble Phantasms. You can Arts Brave Chain by himself when he's alone, but he can also support the entire team by aiding them in creating Arts Chains too.

One cannot simply say that "Emiya is worse than Gilgamesh", because they do completely different things. Each servant has his own merit, and his own weakness. That's what makes this game pretty interesting.

Oh, and a note on Hercules: If you've pulled him, you must, MUST, take him to every single quest and raise his Bond Level ASAP. Guy is already amazing enough from the start, but if you get his Bond Level to 10 (though it will take months)... not gonna say what will happen, but you will never regret it.
(Or is the Bond Level cap still at level 5? In which case you don't need to care about it for now. But if it's already possible to reach higher Bond Levels, you should definitely do it.)


Favorite Servant?I just realized this, so I might as well answer.The favorite servant I own is Mysterious Heroine X Alter (Berserker), which is my first 5-star Servant I pulled right after starting the game this year February. Her skill level is currently 4-10-10, and her Bond Level is maximum (level 10). NP Level is still 1, tho'.

The main reason I like her is because she's so cute (honestly, just go look at her (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Mysterious_Heroine_X_(Alter))), and her attack motions are entertaning (pretty much all of them are Star Wars parodies), but she's also a useful supporter and sub-attacker in Critical Parties. Her Instinct skill nets her 14 stars once in 5 rounds, while Sovereign's Invisible Hand is pretty much an A-Rank Charisma with the additional effect of decreasing a party member's star absorption rate by 100%. Since Berserkers have a low star absorption rate from the start, by using Invisible Hand on party member A, you can make party member B suck in almost all the stars that are there for you this turn, ensuring criticals.

Combining her with servants that can increase their critical damage using skills, such as Jeanne Alter and Artoria Lancer Alter, is quite a hilarious move. Alter parties all the way.

Unlike most Berserkers with their B3 decks, Heroine X Alter has a B2 A1 Q2 deck, and her NP is a Q, meaning she cannot create Buster Brave Chains. Her ATK is also pretty low compared to other 5-star Berserkers (though she increases her entire party's ATK with the A rank Charisma eff of Invisible Hand). Due to this, throwing Heroine X Alter into every battle as a vanguard and hoping she'll wipe out the enemies with her normal attacks is not a very good move. If you're gonna use her like that, there are a ton of better options, including 4-star or even 3-star Berserkers.

Heroine X Alter is a good example of a Servant that is honestly underpowered on her own, and requires the right party set-up to shine, but becomes quite trustworthy when played right. For the first several months, I had no idea how to play her right, and honestly thought she was weak. But now I've realized she can be fun and powerful in the right party, and that's what's truly interesting about her.

[Red Fel]

It's often said in FGO that "there's not a single weak Archer in the game" (literally all of them are amazing in their own way), but even within them, Emiya is one of the best.
No surprise. He suffers from Main Character Syndrome. Main (or major) characters tend to get beefed up in adaptations, whether they deserve it or not.


Speaking of which, are the "power-up quests" (don't know the official English term) for Emiya already released in the English version? Because if they aren't yet... you'll absolutely jaw-drop when you get there.

Interludes, in the NA version. And yes, they are. I have his upgraded NP. It makes me happy.


Also, in terms of power: Gil is obviously the stronger one when it comes to offense (he remains to this day one of the most broken attackers in the game), but he doesn't have a single defensive skill, whereas Emiya has the Eye of the Mind skill, granting protection from enemy Noble Phantasms. Also note how Emiya's 3-Arts deck is, as you've already mentioned, amazing when it comes to spamming Noble Phantasms.

Oh, most definitely. I'm actually thinking of putting together an Arts deck involving EMIYA, Medea, and... I haven't decided on a third yet. Pretty sure I could break an awful lot of things that way.


Oh, and a note on Hercules: If you've pulled him, you must, MUST, take him to every single quest and raise his Bond Level ASAP. Guy is already amazing enough from the start, but if you get his Bond Level to 10 (though it will take months)... not gonna say what will happen, but you will never regret it.

I'm aware of the Craft Material he gets at Bond 10. It is broken. A Zerker who can't die? Glorious. There's a reason everyone loves the big lug.


(Or is the Bond Level cap still at level 5? In which case you don't need to care about it for now. But if it's already possible to reach higher Bond Levels, you should definitely do it.)

I think they've lifted the cap, but raising Bond beyond 5 is frustratingly slow. I've been sitting on Berserkules, Failure Lily, and EMIYA, and that little purple diamond is just creeping along.

[Gastronomie]

No surprise. He suffers from Main Character Syndrome. Main (or major) characters tend to get beefed up in adaptations, whether they deserve it or not.*Takes look at Waver*

Indeed.
Oh, most definitely. I'm actually thinking of putting together an Arts deck involving EMIYA, Medea, and... I haven't decided on a third yet. Pretty sure I could break an awful lot of things that way.You bet. USE WAVER NOW


I'm aware of the Craft Material he gets at Bond 10. It is broken. A Zerker who can't die? Glorious. There's a reason everyone loves the big lug.Almost all the difficult quests in this game can be solved by placing a Bond Craft Hercules at the end of the party. It's truly nuts.


I think they've lifted the cap, but raising Bond beyond 5 is frustratingly slow. I've been sitting on Berserkules, Failure Lily, and EMIYA, and that little purple diamond is just creeping along.If I recall correctly, the XP it takes to get to Bond Level 5 is like, 5% or something (maybe even less? I forgot) of the XP it takes to get to Bond Level 10. It will take months. The first 5-star I pulled got to Bond Level 10 about 4 months after her summoning. But you will eventually get there.

[Anarion]

If I recall correctly, the XP it takes to get to Bond Level 5 is like, 5% or something (maybe even less? I forgot) of the XP it takes to get to Bond Level 10. It will take months. The first 5-star I pulled got to Bond Level 10 about 4 months after her summoning. But you will eventually get there.

I can confirm the bond levels are unlocked. I have Altera at bond level 6. It was a nice surprise that you get 3 Saint Quartz just for reaching bond 6. It's just an absurdly massive gap between 5 and 6. The daily quests give pretty good XP though (especially highest level experience farming). Currently, I'm keeping a couple main people together (my primary party is Altera+Prototype Cu Chulain, with a Vlad III as the reserve member if someone dies), and then tagging in the last two slots to different servants to get them to bond 1-3 so that I can do their first interlude quests.

[Gastronomie]

I can confirm the bond levels are unlocked. I have Altera at bond level 6. It was a nice surprise that you get 3 Saint Quartz just for reaching bond 6. It depends on the rarity of the character. Goes as follows, from reaching bond levels 6 to 9:
5-star: 3 SQ
4-star: 2 SQ
3-star: 1 SQ
2-star: 1 Golden Apple
1-star: 1 Golden Apple
However, the lower the rarity of the character, the faster his/her Bond Level will increase.
Certain characters are more difficult to raise their Bond Level compared to other Servants of the same rarity, Gilgamesh being a prime example (probably due to his personality), but even in those cases, the rewards do not change.

[Red Fel]

*Takes look at Waver*

Indeed.You bet. USE WAVER NOW

No kidding. Lord El-Bishy II is wonderfully broken. Alas, don't have him. Have plenty of friends, though...

Hmm, maybe EMIYA/Medea/HCA? Hans is Arts-heavy, and can self-charge his healing NP.

[Gastronomie]

No kidding. Lord El-Bishy II is wonderfully broken. Alas, don't have him. Have plenty of friends, though...I've heard that at original release, Waver didn't have the 3 NP boosts, and that lots of fans urged the creators to make him stronger.
...They answered their calls by making him one of the most broken servants in the entire game.


Hmm, maybe EMIYA/Medea/HCA? Hans is Arts-heavy, and can self-charge his healing NP.Sounds good to me. Like, HCA is commonly used in high-level quests even in the modern Japanese format.

BTW, if you're gonna use Casters like Medea and HCA, you should raise their skill level. For Casters, skill level is arguably more important than character level.

(Apart from those, Vlad is a good Arts team member, but apart from how he's a 5-star, he does sorta rely on skill levels, and if I recall correctly his most powerful skill is unlocked only after his final ascention, so at the beginning he might be a bit more difficult to use. Jeanne d'arc also qualifies for Arts teams, if your friends have her.

...Or just use your friend's Waver...)

[Red Fel]

I've heard that at original release, Waver didn't have the 3 NP boosts, and that lots of fans urged the creators to make him stronger.
...They answered their calls by making him one of the most broken servants in the entire game.

Sounds good to me. Like, HCA is commonly used in high-level quests even in the modern Japanese format.

(Apart from those, Vlad is a good Arts team member, but apart from how he's a 5-star, he does sorta rely on skill levels, and if I recall correctly his most powerful skill is unlocked only after his final ascention, so at the beginning he might be a bit more difficult to use.)

Yeah. I use Vlad-friends a lot, just because my default team is Mash/Zerkules/friend and I like being class-neutral. And I've noticed that while Vlad is stronger than Zerkules stat-wise, the overall character is just a bit mixed-up. I mean, I get not going full Buster like Zerkules, that's fine. And his self-charge is both useful, and appropriate on an Arts-oriented character. But where Zerkules is all about all the damage, all the time, and has Mind's Eye (False) for survival, Vlad's whole schtick is to charge and spam his NP. Even his Bond Craft is about his NP. It's just weird to me to have an Arts-flavored Zerker.

Also, his Madness Enhancement - while totally appropriate for a Zerker - feels completely out of place on him. It bugs me.

[Anarion]

(Apart from those, Vlad is a good Arts team member, but apart from how he's a 5-star, he does sorta rely on skill levels, and if I recall correctly his most powerful skill is unlocked only after his final ascention, so at the beginning he might be a bit more difficult to use. Jeanne d'arc also qualifies for Arts teams, if your friends have her.


You mean his switch from morph C to the skill that buffs his attack and defense at the same time? It's after his second interlude.

[Red Fel]

You mean his switch from morph C to the skill that buffs his attack and defense at the same time? It's after his second interlude.

I assumed it was a reference to his self-Guts skill, which is after his third Ascension. But that's the same place Zerkules gets his, so...

[Blackhawk748]

Sadly i only have 1 archer (Robin Hood) Thankfully i like him.

[Anarion]

Sadly i only have 1 archer (Robin Hood) Thankfully i like him.

Keep all the different archers you get. Then you'll have more than one!

[Blackhawk748]

Keep all the different archers you get. Then you'll have more than one!

I only got one other one, Arash, but i wasn't a fan of him so i ditched him. And now that i look i realize there are a lot of Archers, its just that they are all 4 stars, so my odds are terrible.

[Anarion]

I only got one other one, Arash, but i wasn't a fan of him so i ditched him. And now that i look i realize there are a lot of Archers, its just that they are all 4 stars, so my odds are terrible.

Why ditch Arash? Even if he's not your favorite character, he's a really common drop from the friend machine and levels and skills really easily, so you can get him to rank 5 NP and fighting fit without much effort. There's no harm in keeping one copy of him in your box for when you really need another archer.

[Blackhawk748]

Why ditch Arash? Even if he's not your favorite character, he's a really common drop from the friend machine and levels and skills really easily, so you can get him to rank 5 NP and fighting fit without much effort. There's no harm in keeping one copy of him in your box for when you really need another archer.

See, i didd't know that when i had him, and now i dont have him. I'm not overly saddened about it, i'll probably get him again anyway.

[Gastronomie]

You mean his switch from morph C to the skill that buffs his attack and defense at the same time? It's after his second interlude.Oh well then, that's a mistake on my part.

Vlad's power relies on his skill level. At 1-1-1 he's not what he can be - at 10-10-6 he becomes a true monster. I don't think English users would be able to raise skill level that much yet, though…
(As for being an Arts Berserker: That's his point. He's one of those guys that adds color and variety to the servant list, opening up new team possibilities. He remains to this day one of the best attackers in an Arts team.)

Arash is IMO sorta overrated. Or rather: he IS amazing, but he's amazing at something wholly different from other servants, and depending on playstyle, he may or may not be worth leveling up.

Arash is the master of "ending quests with the minimum turns possible". With a level 65 Arash (and friend Waver) you can end all your easy 3-round quests in 3 turns, but he will not let you clear difficult quests.

If you find stress in attacking many times to kill rounds of enemies in the level-up quests and other easy quests, you should level him up. If you have no problem with it, not really that important.

And BTW, Berserker + Mash is probably the best way to steamroll through main scenario quests. It does get a bit difficult from Chapter 6 though…

[Red Fel]

And BTW, Berserker + Mash is probably the best way to steamroll through main scenario quests. It does get a bit difficult from Chapter 6 though…

Oh, definitely this. I've read strategies on different Zerkers, and pretty much all of them say "Pairs great with Mash!" Zerkules especially, because between Mash's second skill, Zerkules' second skill, and the Evade buff from the default Mystic Code, you can negate the biggest weakness of Zerkers (takes all the damage) with a cool dose of invulnerability.

Also, apparently we're getting a chance at a special event Mystic Code soon. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't this the first alternate one that NA players get? So far I've only had access to the default.

[Gastronomie]

Also, apparently we're getting a chance at a special event Mystic Code soon. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't this the first alternate one that NA players get? So far I've only had access to the default.That's nice. New Mystic Codes open up new possibilities - the Chaldea Battle Suit (buff entire team's ATK by a bit for one round, stun one enemy for one round, and make a Servant switch with a different Servant in the backrow) being a prime example. The Atlas Code is also helpful.

[Red Fel]

That's nice. New Mystic Codes open up new possibilities - the Chaldea Battle Suit (buff entire team's ATK by a bit for one round, stun one enemy for one round, and make a Servant switch with a different Servant in the backrow) being a prime example. The Atlas Code is also helpful.

Picked up the new one this morning. I am so glad I decided to put together an Arts team. The new Code is Lunar Sea - the one with (1) +Arts damage, (2) +crit stars, and (3) prevent buffs. It's not quite as versatile as the default, but it's great for an Arts or crit star team. And EMIYA and Medea kind of do both. So I'm pretty pumped to level this sucker up.

Sadly, today's EXP daily is Lancer/Assassin; while Medea would be useful, EMIYA is at a serious disadvantage.

[Yael]

We got the /EXTELLA event!

The new Mystic Code's abilities are pretty nice and well appreciated for Arts teams.

I'm currently trying it with Emiya in an arts-heavy team, and the Arts boost is just too good for filling up that NP bar for Emiya. The buff cancel would have been appreciated before I completed the toughest Singularity at Fuyuki (vs Berserker) or Emiya's second interlude (also vs Hercules), as if he buffed evasion twice, making me fail once.
The Critical Star Drop increase is also welcomed, as Emiya has the innate ability to project stars like a boss if a Brave Chain is achieved.So far, Emiya has been my favorite since the series and the Visual Novel.
Unlimited Blade Works was such a good arc and I got to enjoy his past, motives and growth to become what he was until the very end. In F/GO, he is currently my most leveled servant (along with Altera) at 60, and he is pretty much as Ref Fel describes him. He swipes the board if you can boost his NP damage either with Chaldea's Mystic Code or Altera's first ability, he just deals with whatever non-lancer/ruler opposing you.

I also know about Mysterious Heroine X, and I want the Saber Wars event to happen so I can try to grab onto her. But my true objective is to get Ishtar, as a Tohsaka Rin hardcore fan >:)

[Blackhawk748]

So i just Ascended Carmilla (finally) a Caster Cu. Very happy with both of them, working on Proto Cu now, but i need some XP cards to get him to 30, cuz i wasn't blowing a 4 star XP card when i only need half of it for him. So besides dailies, wheres a good place to get those?

[Red Fel]

So i just Ascended Carmilla (finally) a Caster Cu. Very happy with both of them, working on Proto Cu now, but i need some XP cards to get him to 30, cuz i wasn't blowing a 4 star XP card when i only need half of it for him. So besides dailies, wheres a good place to get those?

Dailies are your best bet. Soon as you can do the most stamina-costly Ember dailies, that's where you'll get your best exp - pretty much exclusively gold cards. It's also good player exp, and should level you up pretty quickly. Which means higher team cost, which means bigger team, which means better ability to take on the high-end Ember dailies...

In a couple of days of farming that level, I got enough exp to level all of my Servants to at least their first Ascensions. All of them. Second, in EMIYA's case. From my 4-stars down to my 1-stars, every single one. (I haven't Ascended all of them, but they're now Ascension-ready, at least.) It's as quick a system as you could ask.

[Blackhawk748]

Dailies are your best bet. Soon as you can do the most stamina-costly Ember dailies, that's where you'll get your best exp - pretty much exclusively gold cards. It's also good player exp, and should level you up pretty quickly. Which means higher team cost, which means bigger team, which means better ability to take on the high-end Ember dailies...

In a couple of days of farming that level, I got enough exp to level all of my Servants to at least their first Ascensions. All of them. Second, in EMIYA's case. From my 4-stars down to my 1-stars, every single one. (I haven't Ascended all of them, but they're now Ascension-ready, at least.) It's as quick a system as you could ask.

Oh wow. I havent been able to do the lvl 40s, though i think im gonna give it a shot now with Carmilla and Caster Cu. Also i got Cu Proto Ascended and did his Interlude, does that get me anything besides new speech options?

[Red Fel]

Oh wow. I havent been able to do the lvl 40s, though i think im gonna give it a shot now with Carmilla and Caster Cu. Also i got Cu Proto Ascended and did his Interlude, does that get me anything besides new speech options?

I don't think Protodog's Interlude gets you anything other than what drops, so basically your Saint Quartz and I think some material. Not a lot of Interludes get you more than that - usually, what you get, you get from Ascensions. A couple of Interludes do include an upgrade, such as EMIYA's second Interlude, but those are the exception.

[Blackhawk748]

I don't think Protodog's Interlude gets you anything other than what drops, so basically your Saint Quartz and I think some material. Not a lot of Interludes get you more than that - usually, what you get, you get from Ascensions. A couple of Interludes do include an upgrade, such as EMIYA's second Interlude, but those are the exception.

Well, glad thats clarified. Now to go devise a team to use with Proto Cu, im thinking Crit Spam....

[SuperPanda]

I've just started and am still not clear as to what I'm doing. I'm not all the way through the tutorial yet and haven't faced anything but weak zombies so nothing big has happened. I'm mostly interested in the servants I've nabbed from my free tutorial pull and the one who was sitting in my item box:

So far I have:

Mash (who seems to be story related and so is going to stay in my party for the moment).
Romulus *** Lancer
Elizabeth Balthroy **** Lancer
Artoria Pendragon "Lily" **** Saber
Ushiwakamaru *** Rider

So far I'm running around with Saber (lily) and Shielder (Mash) but the true hero is whoever I snag as a friend code because nothing I've faced can survive a light tap from a support servant.

Also - I've noticed that Elizabeth can grab "upgrade" materials but Lily can't - for the moment I'm hoarding everything since I don't know what I want to do with anything.

[Red Fel]

Lot of responses to you, Panda, so I'm sticking 'em in spoilers.


So far I have:

Mash (who seems to be story related and so is going to stay in my party for the moment).
Romulus *** Lancer
Elizabeth Balthroy **** Lancer
Artoria Pendragon "Lily" **** Saber
Ushiwakamaru *** Rider

You're going to get a lot of Servants. A lot. While some are somewhat better than others, all of them serve a function. All of them. This includes the 1- and 2-star Servants you can get from the Friend gacha. (Have you been pulling on that? You should.) Of the ones you've mentioned so far:
Mash is indeed story-related. And she's also legitimately decent - as a Shielder, she doesn't deal bonus damage to anybody, but she also doesn't take bonus damage, even from Berserkers, which means she can survive well. Her abilities are useful, particularly if you're using Berserkers in your party, and she can later be upgraded.
Romulus is also a good survivable Servant. After his first Ascension (I'll explain that in a moment) he gains the Imperial Privilege EX skill, which heals him, and has a chance to increase his attack or defense or both, which means he's good at staying alive. Also, his Noble Phantasm is AoE, which is great for sweeping waves of enemies.
Elizabeth is a force multiplier. Her Charisma ability is a great party attack buff, and after Ascension she gains a single-target defense debuff. Also, her Noble Phantasm is an AoE, like Romulus'. And because she's a 4-star, she has naturally higher stats.
Lily is not Arturia. She's quasi-Arturia. She's semi-Arturia. She's the margarine of Arturia. She's the Diet Coke of Arturia - just one calorie, not quite Saber enough. Mind you, she's not terrible - she's still a 4-star Saber, a strong class with strong stats. But she doesn't really stand up to any comparable 4- or 5-star Saber. She's still good enough to keep in your party if you need her, but be aware that unless you're pitting her against Lancers, you're probably not going to be impressed with her performance. That said, she can help to generate critical stars for a crit-oriented team.
Ushiwakamaru is another force multiplier. Her first ability increases NP generation for the party, which is great in an NP-oriented party. Her second boosts party attack, which is great for any party. A useful backup for strong characters.

So far I'm running around with Saber (lily) and Shielder (Mash) but the true hero is whoever I snag as a friend code because nothing I've faced can survive a light tap from a support servant.

That will be true for awhile. Until you do some solid leveling of your Servants, what they do will look like love taps compared to friends.

Also, take a moment to go to your Party Formation tab and adjust your own Support Servants. Basically, instead of everyone just having one Servant they share with friends, you can share one of each type, plus an "all" slot for your very best Servant. When selecting Servants, you can also switch between these options via the icons along the top. Useful tip, not really explained at all in-game.


Also - I've noticed that Elizabeth can grab "upgrade" materials but Lily can't - for the moment I'm hoarding everything since I don't know what I want to do with anything.

Okay. There are different kinds of materials.

First, there are Servants and Servant enhancers. Do not throw away or feed duplicate Servants. Under "Noble Phantasms" on your Enhance tab, you can combine a Servant with the same Servant to increase the level of its Noble Phantasm. An orange number icon will show you if you have available duplicates. Try to keep one copy of every Servant, just in case. Only feed duplicate Servants if you've maxed their NPs.

In addition to Servants, there are various enhancers, which may either be class-specific (e.g. Lancer, Berserker) or "All," meaning anyone can use them. There are exp ones, which are the best way to level up Servants, and Fou ones, labeled with the adorable unholy abomination mascot of the game. Fou materials increase a card's attack or HP, so those are useful to hoard.

Short version? Use duplicate Servants to upgrade NPs. Drop exp materials on your best Servants. Hoard Fou materials until you get something pretty amazing.

Next, there are Craft Materials. These are basically equipment. They give boosts to attack or HP (or rarely both), and a special bonus (such as increased Friend Points, or a bonus to Buster Card damage). Craft Materials can be enhanced like characters - feed a duplicate to one to increase its level cap, but otherwise feed lower-star ones to higher-star ones to upgrade them.

Lastly, there are items. Items are used to increase skills or for Ascension. You can tell if you have Servants able to receive a skill-up or Ascension from the orange number icons on "Skills" and "Ascension," respectively, on the Enhance tab. Not all items enhance all characters, so you may have a ton of materials for, say, Saber characters, but nothing for Berserker. Increasing a skill increases its power and sometimes decreases its cooldown.

Ascension is something I've mentioned a few times. It doesn't increase rarity - sorry, but your 2-star Hans Christian Andersen will always be 2-star - but rather increases the level cap. It also gives you a new image and sprite for the character, grants access to new abilities, and unlocks side quests (called Interludes). You will have to prioritize who gets Ascended first, but it's good to try to Ascend your most used and useful characters.

My advice is to level your strong characters, upgrade Elizabeth's skills, and focus on Ascending her. That, and hoard new Servants as they come.

[Blackhawk748]

I have a slight addendum to Saber Lilly, she also has a skill that increases the damage of Buster Cards, so shes good for that as well.

[Red Fel]

I have a slight addendum to Saber Lilly, she also has a skill that increases the damage of Buster Cards, so shes good for that as well.

To be more accurate, it increases her own Buster Card performance for 1 turn. And she only has 2/5 Buster Cards. Assuming you have your full team, that's a 2/15 chance to draw one of Lily's Buster Cards; that's a 2/15 chance for that skill to be of any use.

It's not a bad skill, but it is terribly niche.

EDIT: And, of course, first fight after I type this my Lily pops up with both Buster cards at the ready. So, yeah, grain of salt.

[Blackhawk748]

To be more accurate, it increases her own Buster Card performance for 1 turn. And she only has 2/5 Buster Cards. Assuming you have your full team, that's a 2/15 chance to draw one of Lily's Buster Cards; that's a 2/15 chance for that skill to be of any use.

It's not a bad skill, but it is terribly niche.

EDIT: And, of course, first fight after I type this my Lily pops up with both Buster cards at the ready. So, yeah, grain of salt.

I do that a lot with her, so i figured i'd mention it. You save the skill until you have a full Buster hand and then pop it. Then watch the fireworks.

[Gastronomie]

Since you should level up at least one or two servants per class, if you don't have other Gold Sabers, there's nothing wrong with using Saber Lily.


You're going to get a lot of Servants. A lot. While some are somewhat better than others, all of them serve a function. All of them. This includes the 1- and 2-star Servants you can get from the Friend gacha. (Have you been pulling on that? You should.)This. Especially Anderson (2-star Caster) and Hassan (2-star Assassin), they're powerful far more than their rarity shows.

Cu Chulainn (3-star Lancer) is another example of a non-Gold Servant that's still super-powerful. His second skill is totally broken.

Of course, if you manage to pull Gold (4-star or higher) servants, you should raise their level ASAP. But since it's difficult to get so many high-rarity Servants at the start of the game, leveling up low-rare yet powerful servants is the right thing to do.

Also, 3-star Servant which is of a class strong against the quest enemy > 5-star Servant which inflicts normal damage against the quest enemy.

[Anarion]

Cu Chulainn (3-star Lancer) is another example of a non-Gold Servant that's still super-powerful. His second skill is totally broken.


What's your opinion as between Cu Chulain and Cu Chulain (prototype)? I'm currently usuing Prototype because I got more of him so his Gae Bolg is higher level, but long term it seems like Prototype Cu has higher hp but a tad less attack, and while Guts is maybe better defensively, I like the bonus to crit damage on Prototype.

[Blackhawk748]

What's your opinion as between Cu Chulain and Cu Chulain (prototype)? I'm currently usuing Prototype because I got more of him so his Gae Bolg is higher level, but long term it seems like Prototype Cu has higher hp but a tad less attack, and while Guts is maybe better defensively, I like the bonus to crit damage on Prototype.

Personally, i've found Proto better than Guts Cu. Mostly i've been comparing this between two friends Cu's, cuz my non-proto Cu is only level 14 or something. I just find the Crit damage to mesh better with Cu's fighting style than Guts. Plus Evade helps him just not get to that point in the first place.

[Anarion]

Personally, i've found Proto better than Guts Cu. Mostly i've been comparing this between two friends Cu's, cuz my non-proto Cu is only level 14 or something. I just find the Crit damage to mesh better with Cu's fighting style than Guts. Plus Evade helps him just not get to that point in the first place.

I'm more interested in their late-game potential. Like, at least comparing them at level 50+ and when they get access to their third skill.

[Blackhawk748]

I'm more interested in their late-game potential. Like, at least comparing them at level 50+ and when they get access to their third skill.

Ah, ya i havent seen either one with all 3 of their skills. Id like to find out as well now.

[Red Fel]

What's your opinion as between Cu Chulain and Cu Chulain (prototype)? I'm currently usuing Prototype because I got more of him so his Gae Bolg is higher level, but long term it seems like Prototype Cu has higher hp but a tad less attack, and while Guts is maybe better defensively, I like the bonus to crit damage on Prototype.

Well, there are wikis. Here's Cu (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Cu_Chulainn), here's Proto!Cu (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Cu_Chulainn_(Prototype)).

So, what's the difference? Well, both are 3-star Lancers. Both have the same passive abilities. Both get Protection From Arrows B. Both have Gae Bolg as a Noble Phantasm. Cu has a slightly higher attack, Proto!Cu has a slightly higher HP.

The big difference is one of function. Look at Proto!Cu. His big active is Beast Slayer. His Bond Craft boosts damage versus Beasts. You can see the design concept here.

Contrast that with Vanilla!Cu. In addition to Protection from Arrows B, he also has Battle Continuation A, for Guts, and Disengage C, to remove debuffs and recover HP. Although his health is lower than Proto!Cu's, it's clear that Vanilla!Cu is designed to be more survivable. Some strategies involve putting him at the end of the party, because between his actives and passives he's really hard to kill.

Unless you're a Saber.

[Yael]

http://fate-go.cirnopedia.org/img/us20170725/img_info_170720_01.pnghttp://fate-go.cirnopedia.org/img/us20170725/img_info_170720_08.png

[Red Fel]

Trying to tell us something, Yael?

Yes, an actual event event is coming. There will be three phases, each dropping medals as rewards, which can be traded for exp cards, skill up and Ascension materials, and the special prize, the Nightless Rose Craft Essence, which grants +500 HP and a once-per-battle Guts buff. There will also be a Pick Up Summon, with slightly increased chances at Nero Claudius, Attila, Gaius Julius Caesar, and Romulus.

About two of those should actually interest you. Nero Claudius is a 5-star Saber with some fantastic survivability (two skills that restore HP and one that grants Guts) and an AoE Noble Phantasm. Attila is a fan favorite, a 5-star Saber with great flexibility and an excellent NP, as well as some truly exceptional stats. Caesar is a 3-star Saber who works well on an NP or crit star team; although his Incite skill reduces an ally's defense, it generates some solid crit stars. And Romulus is a 3-star Lancer with good survivability and the ability to grant an ally Guts status - handy if you don't have invulnerability buttons ready.

So, yeah. If you missed out on Gilgamesh, get pumped to miss out on Nero Claudius, too.

[Gastronomie]

What's your opinion as between Cu Chulain and Cu Chulain (prototype)? I'm currently usuing Prototype because I got more of him so his Gae Bolg is higher level, but long term it seems like Prototype Cu has higher hp but a tad less attack, and while Guts is maybe better defensively, I like the bonus to crit damage on Prototype.The two are completely different in usage.

Prototype's first skill is increased critical damage, while his third skill (after his interlude, though it requires his final ascention) has a star-focus effect, which mesh together quite nicely. Like other critical attacks, he does his job much better if you have someone else in the party who can create a lot of critical stars, but considering he's B2A1Q2, you could go for Q-chains by throwing in a Q3 deck Servant next to him.
His third skill also has an attack bonus against Beast-types, such as Chimeras. Blasting criticals into them would be quite some damage.
Do be aware that the original star focus of Lancers is about average, so until you get his third skill, you will need to support him with star-focus Crafts to make him critical-hit constantly, but doing so will probably mean you can't use his Noble Phantasm (since he doesn't have NP charge skills, and the NP he can obtain from attacks is generally not enough to get from 0% to 100% by round 3)... at least, unless you have Waver. Not that Waver's A3 deck is that synergetic with Lancers, but if you use Waver's Improved Critical on Prototype, his criticals become even more devastating.
Anyhow, Prototype needs help from friends (creating a lot of stars) to unleash his full potential. Thus it's better to place him at the frontlines and support him with synergetic servants.

Compared to this, SN Lancer does not rely on support members, and simply keeps on surviving by himself. He's got Guts, and his third skill removes his debuffs and heals his HP. He isn't the synergetic type, but he's good on his own, so it's better to place him at the very end of the party when the enemy is an Archer or a Berserker.

[Gastronomie]

Trying to tell us something, Yael?

Yes, an actual event event is coming. There will be three phases, each dropping medals as rewards, which can be traded for exp cards, skill up and Ascension materials, and the special prize, the Nightless Rose Craft Essence, which grants +500 HP and a once-per-battle Guts buff. There will also be a Pick Up Summon, with slightly increased chances at Nero Claudius, Attila, Gaius Julius Caesar, and Romulus.

About two of those should actually interest you. Nero Claudius is a 5-star Saber with some fantastic survivability (two skills that restore HP and one that grants Guts) and an AoE Noble Phantasm. Attila is a fan favorite, a 5-star Saber with great flexibility and an excellent NP, as well as some truly exceptional stats. Caesar is a 3-star Saber who works well on an NP or crit star team; although his Incite skill reduces an ally's defense, it generates some solid crit stars. And Romulus is a 3-star Lancer with good survivability and the ability to grant an ally Guts status - handy if you don't have invulnerability buttons ready.

So, yeah. If you missed out on Gilgamesh, get pumped to miss out on Nero Claudius, too.If I recall correctly, Nero is a 4-star. Nero Bride is a 5-star though.

Also, a piece of advice: Whenever there is an event, you MUST trade ALL the skill-up materials and Craft Essences, with the exception of Class Pieces and Class Monuments (which can be obtained duing daily quests with not that much difficulty. Of course, if you really need lots of them, you could trade them, but consider them low-priority. QP is more important, for later game play when you're gonna raise Skill Levels).

Event-only Craft Essences are generally powerful. You'll never regret getting them.
Skill-up materials are difficult to obtain in large numbers outside of special events. You will need some for ascentions, and about a dozen times more for raising Skill Level.

[SuperPanda]

I've done my friend point pulls now (somehow started off with a bunch of them and then got a free 10 point pull from the friend pool today which was wonderful).

My full list of servants so far is:
Shielded: Mash

Lancers: Elizabeth ****, Romulus ***, Cu Chulainn ***, Leonidas I * (Of them Elizabeth seems the best though I think I'm partial to Cu Chulainn - once I've finished the quest where he's joining me as a caster NPC I'll probably use him as my main Lancer. I like the idea of Romulus but I hate that he's always doing a YMCA pose).

Riders: Ushiwakamaru *** - I'm not sure why she's dressed quite so fan-servicy but I like her animations. Georgios **

Casters: Mozart * - Aparently an alien elf - I'm tempted to use him because I like the idea of Arts overload charging NPs. Haven't actually tried him yet.

Saber: Lily - Very tempting to main but not sure yet.

Berserker: Sparticus * (got two so his NP is now level 2), Eric Bloodaxe **, Asterios *

Assasin: Mata Hari * (got two so her NP is now level 2)

Haven't used any experience mats yet - still trying to decide what my team is. I feel I should be using Mash since she's the story character so far and I've had Elizabeth with me since she seemed a bit better than Lily for now... going to play with team comp a bit later.

[Anarion]

Haven't used any experience mats yet - still trying to decide what my team is. I feel I should be using Mash since she's the story character so far and I've had Elizabeth with me since she seemed a bit better than Lily for now... going to play with team comp a bit later.

Elizabeth is quite strong. She's a little bit low on defense, but with her attack buff and enemy defense removal, and her just good overall stats as you level her, she can carry a party quite well. She also pairs really nicely with Mash, since you can buff the offense and defense of the whole party.

[SuperPanda]

So, if my experience trying out the daily quest dungeons was any indication - I'm better off trying to balance a team so that I have a strong finisher in the wings than front-loading it?

Also I seem to have the ability to choose 1 of 10 servants from a recruitment thing. Hercules and Fate/Stay archer are very attractive options (and since I only just got a 1 * Arash for Archer and Fate/Stay's archer was pretty cool I'm tempted to grab him). Is he a good choice?

[Gastronomie]

So, if my experience trying out the daily quest dungeons was any indication - I'm better off trying to balance a team so that I have a strong finisher in the wings than front-loading it?

Also I seem to have the ability to choose 1 of 10 servants from a recruitment thing. Hercules and Fate/Stay archer are very attractive options (and since I only just got a 1 * Arash for Archer and Fate/Stay's archer was pretty cool I'm tempted to grab him). Is he a good choice?Hercules is overall the strongest - it's even stronger than a lot of the 5-star Servants. He's also a Berserker, meaning he's versatile. Power-wise Hercules is the best, but SN Archer is also pretty powerful, so you should just choose whoever you want.

[Red Fel]

So, if my experience trying out the daily quest dungeons was any indication - I'm better off trying to balance a team so that I have a strong finisher in the wings than front-loading it?

Short version, it depends on playstyle. If your method is high damage, high risk (e.g. liberal use of Berserkers) then it helps to have a strong, survivable unit in the back. If, on the other hand, you've got a carefully tailored team for the challenge, and are keeping in mind the rock-paper-scissors aspect of Classes, you can put a strong unit closer to the front and simply sweep stages. It depends.


Also I seem to have the ability to choose 1 of 10 servants from a recruitment thing. Hercules and Fate/Stay archer are very attractive options (and since I only just got a 1 * Arash for Archer and Fate/Stay's archer was pretty cool I'm tempted to grab him). Is he a good choice?

I'm with Gastro on this one. Heracles is a unit that remains powerful and effective throughout the game. He requires minimal strategy to deploy - just point him at something that needs to die. And the best teammate for him is someone you already have - Mash, who can do a great job of keeping him alive.

EMIYA, by contrast, is solidly good. Don't get me wrong, he's great, and when he shines it's literally explosive. (His Buster is a literal explosion.) But he does require more tactics to use, somewhat. He's a great Arts Servant with an awesome NP, and goes very well in an Arts team, but you need to figure out how to arrange that. Also, unlike Heracles, who takes on all comers, his shine dulls significantly when pitted against Lancers.

There's also the matter of competition. There are currently about a dozen Berserkers in the game, of which one is 5-star (Vlad) and three are 4-star (Heracles, Lancelot, Tamamo Cat). There are fewer than half that number of Archers, of which one is 5-star (Gilgamesh) and two are 4-star (EMIYA and Atalante). It's not hard to get a decent Berserker if you want one - you get Kiyohime for free as a story reward. Getting a good Archer is harder.

So that's something to keep in mind, too. Heracles is overall an incredibly powerful unit for whom you'll always find use, but EMIYA fills a terrific niche.

[SuperPanda]

Darn. I got great advice here, had decided I'd go for Emiya, then realized I didn't have that item (I do have the craft essence item and haven't made that choice yet, thinking of either Emiya's item or Gilgamesh's) - I some how thought I had the servant item but not the essence.

Currently working with:
Shielder: Mash - Team leader most of the time. She has her quasi NP from the Singularity F storyline
Archer: Arash - my only archer, he's actually pretty strong though I hate that his NP is a suicide attack.
Rider: Ushiwakamaru - pretty happy with her so far. Still haven't used her NP
Caster: Cu Cuchain - He seems much better than Mozart was. Used his NP alot when he was a guest NPC
Lancer: Cu Cuchain - I like his character better than Elizabeth even if she is a more powerful Servant. Haven't used him yet - didn't feel it was right to have him in the same party as caster Cu. Haven't seen Elizabeth's NP yet either and she's at 2/10 bond gems.
Berserker: Sparticus - Haven't seen his NP, he's often in the back of the group and rarely comes out to play so far.
Saber: Lily - Haven't been using her since 4* servants are cost prohibitive in party forming.
Assassin: Kojiro - My other assassin has a 1 star debuff NP that didn't seem as potent, and I like this guy's animations better. Haven't seen his NP yet.

I've used all my xp mats below *** rarity and have a team of ~ level 10s prioritizing these ones above others.

I'm considering a party of:

Mash (Shielder), Sparticus (Berzerker), Support, Koikiro (Assasin), Ushiwakamaru (Rider), Cu Cuchain (Lancer)
The idea here is that Berzerker's should put out a world of hurt, Assassin and Rider are both Quick hit focused so they'll build crit stars for the support and Mash to keep the battle flowing, and Lancer seems hard to kill between Guts and Evade, he seems to be a good one to pull up the end of the line. Also Mash didn't cost any points in Chapter 1 to have in my team.

I think I prefer Saber and Archer to Berzerker both thematically and in character design, so I might switch in my only Saber or my only Archer instead.


Edit2: I keep making little mistakes like the one above on mats here. I think my actual *** lancer is Cu Chulainn Prototype - the one time Berzker Rider (in The France story line) tore through my party he wasn't able to hold much ground - then again he was level 12. Saber (Lily) didn't fare any better.

I keep getting excited when I see an archer of the friend draw, but it's still just Arash (now with a level 3 NP - I'm happy with how powerful he can be but wish he didn't kill him self when using his NP). My Mata Hari has a level 5 debuff NP now but I find her very weak in a team.

I have ~ 96 saint quartz, little interest in Nero at the moment - should I make a pull or two?

[Red Fel]

I have ~ 96 saint quartz, little interest in Nero at the moment - should I make a pull or two?

Well, keep in mind that the special Nero pull isn't up yet. So if you're holding out for a (slightly) increased chance for her or Attila, keep holding out. Otherwise, though, feel free to blow one or two on the regular story pulls. Worst case, you're getting some solid Craft that you can equip eventually.

Right now, I've beaten Rome, so I'm just Ascending and raising Bond levels to access the various Interludes. Yet another reason to hold onto Servants - even if you never use them again, those Interludes are worth at least a Saint Quartz.

[Anarion]

We were so spoiled during the Gilgamesh event. Highest dailies for only 20 stamina was enough to level up continuously until around level 70, and still enough to get most of the way there and level up later in the day. With everything back to 40 stamina, gameplay is down to run a couple dailies and then take a break for 8-10 hours. :smallfrown:

[Yael]

I'm with Gastro on this one. Heracles is a unit that remains powerful and effective throughout the game. He requires minimal strategy to deploy - just point him at something that needs to die. And the best teammate for him is someone you already have - Mash, who can do a great job of keeping him alive.

EMIYA, by contrast, is solidly good. Don't get me wrong, he's great, and when he shines it's literally explosive. (His Buster is a literal explosion.) But he does require more tactics to use, somewhat. He's a great Arts Servant with an awesome NP, and goes very well in an Arts team, but you need to figure out how to arrange that. Also, unlike Heracles, who takes on all comers, his shine dulls significantly when pitted against Lancers.

This is essencially true. EMIYA has its own way to fit into several strategies. His First ability gives him increased survivability with an Evasion and a defense buff, and his second ability increases critical stars drop, which isn't to be compared with Assassins, but his NP actually drops them, so it's pretty easy to quickly generate Critical stars. His deck has 3 Arts, which defines him as a self NP generator. His 10-Bond CE (which is honestly pretty far away to reach) is a beast, increasing his NP damage, fitting even more in a NP-based team, plus the 30% chance to drop 5 Crit stars per attack.

I'm actually trying a Altera, Ushiwakamaru, EMIYA team comp to increase NP generation, also Atila's NP helps with a global Defense debuff and her Tactics allows for even more NP damage. Ushi's abilities are top for this composition as she increases NP generation by a lot, and her Charisma further increases attack.

I've also had Heracles since the tutorial pull, and he has proven over and over to be useful to the very top. His damage output is just insane for single target non-Rulers, and if you get to use his Nine Lives, he bursts nearly whatever you point him to. Mash is amazing at babysitting Berserker, so does the Chaldera Mystic Code.

[Anarion]

His damage output is just insane for single target non-Rulers,

You are mistaken. His damage output is insane in all circumstances. Especially against rulers.

[SuperPanda]

I'm still getting a lot of mileage out of my one and two star servants. I've had Arash's NP doing almost 20,000 AoE a few times in Orleans battle (he's around level 14, my highest level is Mash at 23 - enemies were around level 18). It's a shame he dies when he uses it but it's one heck of a punch - I've had him opening many fights. (NP level 4)

In comparison I've yet to see Saber Lily's NP break 5,000. (NP level 1)

With all the dragons in the Orleans story Kojioro (Assassin **) has gotten a lot of showntime and unlike Mata Hari he's doing solid damage and bringing a strong NP with him. Hari's level 5 NP doesn't seem that strong so far. The debuff's seem to lack punch and the chance to stun (charm) is unreliable at best.

Did one 30 quartz draw (saving two for this event). No new 4 stars but a handful of new 3 stars. Giles saber and Ceaser saber. Darius Berzerker. A couple of Mephistopheles and an Ushi dupe (boosting her 8 boat leap). I'm more in need of xp materials than anything else right now. I'm keeping 5 of the 4 star "any" mats in reserve for a lucky pull but using everything else - no one is near ascension or interludes yet. I'm not dismissing any servants but any low stars who are dupes past getting their NP maxed are getting used as xoxo mats (this happened once to Mata Hari since she shows up a lot).

[Yael]

You are mistaken. His damage output is insane in all circumstances. Especially against rulers.

Oh, my bad. You're right. Since I had Basaka killed before I faced Jeanne Alter. I confused Shielder's vulnerabilities.

By the way, I successfully pulled a Nero >:D

https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/5/5d/Umu_Intensifies.gif/revision/latest?cb=20170417161949

[Kitten Champion]

I haven't been playing much, I increasingly find myself separated from my tablet over the course of the summer.

Regardless, I got an Atalanta today with my quartz draw, which made me rather happy. I only had enough Archer-based XP accumulated to drive her to around level 13, by throwing in an additional 4-star omni-XP cards I got at the beginning to move her to 15 and generally viable at this moment of the story I'm in. Her NP is quite good. Its initial damage is just okay, but equipped with a card increasing her CP star gain on top of her skill and her own enhanced critical attack damage -- the follow-up damage next turn is quite consequential.

I'm still deciding between my available Assassins, Casters, and Sabers which one - and to what degree - I'll invest in them. Caster's particularly hard because I've got at least 2-to-3 of every 3-Star and below Caster except Paracelsus, Geronimo, and Babbage.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The warrior of the Hun is now my one and only 5-star and Best Saber. She will be rewarded with me taking a break from the Arena event to grind Saber XP today and also my undying love. Paternally. Please eat something, child.

I'm debating doing another 10-pull to try and get Nero but I honestly don't trust my luck to go further than getting Altera, Alexander, and NP ups for three of my 3-stars on the same pull, and Cu Chullancer (OG) on a solo Friend roll just previous.

[Red Fel]

By the way, I successfully pulled a Nero >:D

https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/5/5d/Umu_Intensifies.gif/revision/latest?cb=20170417161949

Grats! Nothing of particular note from my pull, alas; just some Caesar and Romulus, and a few nice Crafts.

Somewhat annoyingly, I've become aware of just how much farming this event will require. I'm accustomed to games requiring some farming, and this one is no different in that regard, but this event in particular will require a fairly obscene amount. I mean, 200 medals? That's about 34 runs on hardest difficulty. 34. That's ludicrous. And that's just to get that one Craft.

EDIT: Speaking of that one Craft, apparently Nightless Rose has a chance to drop from the quests. I just got one from the Three Heroes of China fight. So... That happened.

[Anarion]

Does anyone know which difficulty level is the most efficient for farming? I've primarily been running the twenty stamina one since it can drop all three medal types and has good odds of getting them in sets of five. It mostly seems like gold should be the focus though since you need 1100 of those, compared to only 600 silver and 200 bronze.

[Yael]

EDIT: Speaking of that one Craft, apparently Nightless Rose has a chance to drop from the quests. I just got one from the Three Heroes of China fight. So... That happened.
Yeah, well. I've got only the lowest medal drops in every attempt... So no CE so far :/


Does anyone know which difficulty level is the most efficient for farming? I've primarily been running the twenty stamina one since it can drop all three medal types and has good odds of getting them in sets of five. It mostly seems like gold should be the focus though since you need 1100 of those, compared to only 600 silver and 200 bronze.
As far as I am aware of, the 20AP run is the most efficient, as it allows for more attempts, plus it has bronze, silver and gold as rewards. So basically everything you said. That I read somewhere yesterday, and I find not that difficult (except for my lack of an Assassin).
However, 30AP one grants tons of Exp, Bond points and Mystic Code exp as well, plus the augmented amount of gold medals, if you're aiming for the 200 gold Nightless Rose.

[SuperPanda]

I haven't been farming medals in the event yet - I've been working on xp and story progression - got to 20 mana cubes and grabbed a summon ticket only to be disappointed - I don't know what Fou cards are for but I think those are what I'm suppose to use mana cubes for.

Today's archer XP got me to my first ascension (Arash). His C star drop rate care feels undercut by him having only one quick card I in his deck.

I'm at the end of the Orleans story and the fights there have been tough. I've narrowly won a few (h thus: xp up)

I can handle the Rec 25 (30 AP) xp daily so I will try the 20 AP event dungeon. I seriously doubt I'll be able to attempt the Rec 50 dungeon durring this event. (I also have 19 quartz and am wondering if I'll get another 30 - I honestly want more archer variety at this point).

I did get a Marie Antoinette recently but Ushi is still my goto rider by virtue of being leveled.

[Yael]

I haven't been farming medals in the event yet - I've been working on xp and story progression - got to 20 mana cubes and grabbed a summon ticket only to be disappointed - I don't know what Fou cards are for but I think those are what I'm suppose to use mana cubes for.

Today's archer XP got me to my first ascension (Arash). His C star drop rate care feels undercut by him having only one quick card I in his deck.

I'm at the end of the Orleans story and the fights there have been tough. I've narrowly won a few (h thus: xp up)

I can handle the Rec 25 (30 AP) xp daily so I will try the 20 AP event dungeon. I seriously doubt I'll be able to attempt the Rec 50 dungeon durring this event. (I also have 19 quartz and am wondering if I'll get another 30 - I honestly want more archer variety at this point).

I did get a Marie Antoinette recently but Ushi is still my goto rider by virtue of being leveled.

If you feel like the daily misions are too tough, you could add me (MC in the OP), and use my high level servants to farm the 40-AP quest. It helps when you need to level up fast both servants and master/mystic code exp.

Each Fou card increases the servant's maximum stat respectively (either Attack or HP) up to 990 bonus.

Edit: If you're adding me, leave your Master Name so I can accept you, tho.

[SuperPanda]

I'm currently
Nick : Loch
# : 953,769,985

My highest level servants are in the 20s at the moment. Only Arash is ascended (and only once).

Shielded Mash 29
Saber Lily 28
Archer Arash 20
Lancer CuChulainn prototype 19
Rider Ushi 23
Caster CuChulainn 21
Assassin Kojoiro 11
Zerker Darius III 17

[Blackhawk748]

Im currently grinding the Diva with a Beautiful voice mission. I seem to be getting a lot of Gold Medals (which is good as i need 200 hundred, ugh). Im using Mash, Carmilla and Saber Alter, and i am chainsawing through them

[Red Fel]

Should we have an ID thing in spoilers in the OP, for people who want to add friends? A lot of the mobile game threads do that.

Anyway, I'm also farming Diva now. In some ways it's easier than Three Heroes, in some ways it's harder. Easier, because the targets are individually softer than the Three Heroes targets. Harder, because when I take on Three Heroes, I take out Jing Ke and Lu Bu first; Zhuge Liang's NP deals no damage, so if I can beat the others fast, it becomes a safer (if slower because of his defense buffs) fight. By contrast, if any of the Divas fills her NP gauge, that's at least one Servant dead from the hit.

But yeah. Building a nice surplus of medals, and I've gotten some Rider skill-up tokens to boot.

[Yael]

Should we have an ID thing in spoilers in the OP, for people who want to add friends? A lot of the mobile game threads do that.

Well, the ID thing was there from the very start~

[Red Fel]

Well, the ID thing was there from the very start~

That's right, boys and girls, I am perfectly capable of being inattentive, thank you.

[Morcleon]

Ooh, F/GO thread~ :smallbiggrin:

I've been grinding the 30 AP for Nero Fest mostly for the massive XP that lets me get more AP from level ups. I can pretty reliably finish it in 7 turns while focusing on getting NP to 100%+ on Altera and Tamamo Cat (w/ a Lv 96 Jeanne for support) for the first two battles, and then using Buster+Photon Ray+Napping (with all the attack buffs on Tamamo Cat) to take down Jing Ke and Lu Bu in one round.

I'll probably switch to the 20 AP one once I get ~500 gold medals (depending on the ratio of drops from 20 AP), since I do want to eventually get all of the rewards from the event (300 bronze, 400 silver, 1100 gold is needed for all of them, IIRC).

No umu yet though. ;-;

Name: Setsuna
ID: 859,204,200

Any: Altera (Lv. 70)
Saber: Saber Lily (Lv. 60)
Archer: Atalante (Lv. 50)
Lancer: Cu Chulainn (Lv. 40)
Rider: Marie Antoinette (Lv. 50)
Caster: Medea (Lv. 40)
Assassin: Jing Ke (Lv. 40)
Berserker: Tamamo Cat (Lv. 50)

[Blackhawk748]

Should we have an ID thing in spoilers in the OP, for people who want to add friends? A lot of the mobile game threads do that.

Anyway, I'm also farming Diva now. In some ways it's easier than Three Heroes, in some ways it's harder. Easier, because the targets are individually softer than the Three Heroes targets. Harder, because when I take on Three Heroes, I take out Jing Ke and Lu Bu first; Zhuge Liang's NP deals no damage, so if I can beat the others fast, it becomes a safer (if slower because of his defense buffs) fight. By contrast, if any of the Divas fills her NP gauge, that's at least one Servant dead from the hit.

But yeah. Building a nice surplus of medals, and I've gotten some Rider skill-up tokens to boot.

I've changed my line up a bot for tackling it. Its now Siegfried, Carmilla and Saber Alter (shes lvl 70 and i will unashamedly state she is doing a lot of work.) The plan for the three is simple, Buff the team with Charima, and Saber with Mana Burst and the Master Atk Boost, then Torture Mata Hari, Phantom Maiden Marie, and then just nuke everyone else. I 1HKO them everytime.

[Red Fel]

Know what, I'll bite.

Name: Fel
ID: 932,305,193

Any: Mash (40, 4/3/-)
Saber: Saber Lily (50, 3/3/-)
Archer: EMIYA (60, 3/2/-)
Lancer: Proto!Cu (50, 2/2/-)
Rider: Medusa (40, 3/4/-)
Caster: Medea (40, 1/1/-)
Assassin: Jing Ke (40, 2/2/-)
Berserker: Heracles (50, 2/2/-)
I've considered putting Heracles in my Any slot, and Lancelot into Berserker, but Mash is legitimately useful for her abilities.

[Anarion]

Name: Setsuna
ID: 859,204,200


Just friended you, name Anarion. My code is in the OP for anyone who wants to add me, although I'm very close to max friends, so you might want to poke me here first.

I've got
Main: Altera (currently level 73 with Kaleidoscope)
Saber: Lily at 60 saber
Archer: Atalante 50
Lancer: Prototype Cu 50
Rider: Alexander III 40
Caster: HCA 45
Assassin: Carmilla 50
Berserker: Vlad 60

[SuperPanda]

I can plow through Giles and Jeanne or barely survive the three beauties. I barely squeezed out a victory earlier but I had two things going against me:

My I brought Lancer Cu instead of Caster Cu, and he didn't live long enough to cast his NP. Also I had Mozart in the group trying to get his bond to level 2 to open his interlude - probably not the best call on a fight this hard.

Got together my last (I expect) 30 durring this fest and between that and my friend points got a few servants I'm interested in. Shakespeare and Hans Christian Anderson are new casters in my arsenal - I've been rocking Hans support and he's incredibly useful as support. I hope Shakespeare is good because as a literature teacher I want him to be amazing.

From the saint quartz I got: Robin Hood - finally an archer who doesn't kill himself, although he appears to be part mega man. Jin Ke - a 3* Assassin meaning I should now have 3* for every class except Ruler (have none). A few dupes, and I got really excited when I got a 4* saber, a bit less when it turned out to be Siegfried instead though.

Edit: when taking another team including a powerful saber support I ripped through the Divas on the first run and managed to stand strong on the second - looks like I need to work harder on making the best team I can for the given fight. - well and keep hitting the xp dailies - both my 1 star assassins are majorly pulling their weight after one ascension.

[Nerd-o-rama]

My strategy has been to grind the 5 AP quest until I got enough Bronze for all the Ascension Mats (running it several dozen times also got me a Nightless Rose for free), then the 10 AP quest until I got enough Silver for all the Ascension Mats, and now basically alternating between Idols and China to get Gold. I'll probably focus on gold for the rest of the event to get either all those mats or extra copies of Nightless Rose, especially if another one drops and I can hypothetically max limit break it.

Or I'll say screw it and grind Bronze/Silver for XP. I love XP and hate doing dailies.

[Red Fel]

Okay, here's a first world problem - for my daily freebie this morning, I got a summon ticket, which yielded a Kaleidoscope. And now I can't decide who gets this obscene Craft.

In my regular team, my instincts are to give it to Mash (because Lord Chaldeas is a really strong buff) or Heracles (because he only has the one Arts card to charge Nine Lives). I suppose I could give it to EMIYA (because his powered-up UBW is hardcore), but he has three Arts cards and really doesn't need the help.

In my support slots... Well, there, I can't even. Maybe give it to EMIYA, let people use him for sweeping? I'unno.

Thoughts?

[Morcleon]

Okay, here's a first world problem - for my daily freebie this morning, I got a summon ticket, which yielded a Kaleidoscope. And now I can't decide who gets this obscene Craft.

In my regular team, my instincts are to give it to Mash (because Lord Chaldeas is a really strong buff) or Heracles (because he only has the one Arts card to charge Nine Lives). I suppose I could give it to EMIYA (because his powered-up UBW is hardcore), but he has three Arts cards and really doesn't need the help.

In my support slots... Well, there, I can't even. Maybe give it to EMIYA, let people use him for sweeping? I'unno.

Thoughts?

I'd give it to Mash. Heracles can mostly get by with Busters, and if you ever get The Imaginary Element (+60% NP), you can put it on him for the faster damage. Support EMIYA would be pretty good for UBW.

[Anarion]

I'd put Kaleidoscope on Emiya. It means that he gets his NP with one round of arts combos. So you don't need to waste time waiting on early waves. There's nothing hard enough right now that you'd need it on Mash.

[Blackhawk748]

So i just got my second Sexy Nero Nightless Rose card so i could limit break, so thats neat. Also is it just me or is the Muscle mission stupidly easy to blitz through.

[Morcleon]

So i just got my second Sexy Nero Nightless Rose card so i could limit break, so thats neat. Also is it just me or is the Muscle mission stupidly easy to blitz through.

Berserkers basically have effective HP equal to half the listed value, so it's a lot easier than it looks.

[Blackhawk748]

Berserkers basically have effective HP equal to half the listed value, so it's a lot easier than it looks.

Ya, that and im showing up with 2 Casters to fuel Saber Alter's NP, so i just nuke the final 3. Seriously, she does like 70K damage total (which would kill them anyway) but they've all been hit by a Wicker Man and a Final Folio first, so they are super dead.

[Red Fel]

Ya, that and im showing up with 2 Casters to fuel Saber Alter's NP, so i just nuke the final 3. Seriously, she does like 70K damage total (which would kill them anyway) but they've all been hit by a Wicker Man and a Final Folio first, so they are super dead.

Yeah, there are a lot of ways to trivialize this fight. My favorite two are on my friends list. One is a level 80 Lancelot with a level 5 NP and a max Kaleidoscope - so he starts combat with 100% NP gauge, and only goes up from there, and once triggered turns everything into chunky salsa. The other is a level 80 Arturia, and basically everything thereafter is irrelevant - activate all of her skills (or at least the first two), put her NP at the end of a chain, and she one-shots all three bosses simultaneously. (You say 70K total, I've seen her do over 150K. Find a level 80. You'll be glad you did.)

This fight is deliciously easy. Moreover, it's actually dropping some useful Berserker skill tokens, which is a huge plus.

Also, yeah, just learned this bit - apparently once a Craft has had its limit broken the max number of times, it gets a performance upgrade. Not always a massive one (for example, the Guts effect on Nightless Rose goes from 500 to 1000), but still... Kaleidoscope. Am I right?

[Blackhawk748]

Ya, Saber Alter is lvl 70 with a lvl 1 NP, franly id be terrified to see her higher.

[SuperPanda]

I'd been avoiding that fight since it is listed as recommending level 50 and I'm just about able to field teams at 30 (most are 20-30 while some are low 30s). I don't have anyone at 80 on my friend list but I have a few strong at 60. Can bring those with Mash baby sitting and self evasion capable people (CuChulainn caster has his dodge 3 hits skill, Kirijirou has his dodge plus crit up. CuChulainn prototype has evade plus Def up. Just ascended Shakespear with a level 2 first colonialism so he now has self invicible 1 time.

Against level 50 berserkers I expect most my people would take hits about as well as damp tissues - but I could try.

Leveling wise I've been focused more on getting people to first ascension than powering specific people. Saber Lilly is around 35 while Siegfried is only 6. CuChulainn prototype is at 33 while Elizabeth Balthroy is around 28 right now. Story wise I'm in Rome and doing alright (though Ceaser was tougher than I expected).

[SuperPanda]

Usually try to avoid double posting but I just narrowly cleared the highest difficulty in the current event. Next Saber xp day I'm maxing Siegfried and returning to punish that dragon. - I needed to use my command seals to win the fight and even then it came down to Shakespear and Lily facing the Dragon alone.

Also would have helped if I'd grabbed a saber friend - but I didn't know a giant lancer dragon was waiting for me so I took a Gilgamesh and watched him be basically pointless on the first go-round and happily waiting In the wings to smash the "bosses" on the second go round.

Team was Lily, Arash, Gilgamesh (Support), Mash, Robin Hood, Shakespear (I learned you can move your support to the reinforcements and I did - thankfully).

If I go back to this fight with Siegfried and Gaius Julius Ceaser powered up I think it will be much less brutal.

Also finished the first I interludes for Amadeus and Cu Chilainn (Prototype) - I'm liking the idea though Cu's was pretty tame story wise while Amedeus's was a lot more fun. Cu's was a lot harder of a fight but still pretty manageable.

Edit: I'm still nowhere near enough medals for either craft essesnce.

[Anarion]

Man, getting all three crystalized lore is gonna be a challenge. I'm regretting using any gold medals to buy the craft essence, even though I also want all 4 copies of that to max out its level. Might have to burn some golden apples on running the 30 AP today to get only gold medals.

[Yael]

Well, finals are here, and they are so easy...

I've beaten the 30AP one at 5-6 turns at most. Three saber-combo just clears the dragon and two out of the three bosses (lancer and berserker).

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'm lucky enough to be able to run Altera-Caesar-overleveled Support Arturia. Caesar's mainly important for a single-target NP to finish uh...himself off after a Photon Ray+Excalibur. Or as an emergency button if I don't pull off enough Buster Combos against Fakefnir.

Overleveled Support Lancelot in the third slot works too as long as I remember to heal him in between dragon attacks.

[SuperPanda]

Grabbed one Nightless Rose with my silvers after spamming the 10 AP fight. Didn't finish the hardest qualifying round - not sure if that will matter. Hitting saber XP day to go back with Siegfried, Ceaser, Lily, Robin Hood, Mash and a high level support (probably Yael's Altera to make extra sure that dragon dies). - I hate he dragon because I bet on saber monsters and took an Archer team against it last time.

[Anarion]

40 AP Nero finals are here! And actually pretty tough if you're not paying attention. Nero's imperial privilege is really strong if she triggers both bonuses more than once. But the medal return is superb. Spent a golden apple today to get all of the Crystalized Lore for 200 gold medals a pop. How are people finding it?

[Blackhawk748]

40 AP Nero finals are here! And actually pretty tough if you're not paying attention. Nero's imperial privilege is really strong if she triggers both bonuses more than once. But the medal return is superb. Spent a golden apple today to get all of the Crystalized Lore for 200 gold medals a pop. How are people finding it?

It took me two Soul Quartz, so in a word:

https://media.tenor.com/images/bdd59efe9f215f24043c53bc43d0d738/tenor.gif

Lets just say theres a reason im only doing it once.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah I think I'm just going to take the 200 gold medals I have now and call it an event. I don't have any dudes higher than level 42 and my "overpowered support artillery" strat doesn't work on an enemy team of six with no time to build up NP gauge. gg, Emperor No re.

[Yael]

I actually used one of my friend's Lv90 Jeanne d'Arc plus a team composed of Altera, Emiya, Medea, Elizabeth, and Mash, not in that order. The reason I included Medea was to get rid of Cu's multievasion, I ended winning by using all three command spells to increase Jeanne's NP against Gilgamesh, and two Cu Caster's Wicker Man (I killed him literally last, after Nero.)

Pretty difficult, but rewarding, with 16 gold medals and a ton of exp/mystic code exp.

[SuperPanda]

I got more done than I expected while also working on story and daily xp stuff - so I'm likely to call file this under "good enough for a beginner".

I cleared everything but the hardest qualifier round (did wind up eating 2 quartz against the big fight and have no intention of poking it again).

I got ~ 100 golds which means I can clear out the homunculi material. I bought a silver medal copy of rose and have ~ 40 left over for mats/xp - and about 20 copper left to trade. Plan to grab mats over xp since dailies give class specific xp which I think give more than "any class" Xp to the right class but less to the wrong one - so apart from Mash who is maxed at 30 and Jeanne who I don't have - I don't really need them.

I'll be able to scrounge up enough quartz for one final 10 pull soon - how long till the next kind of event? I don't really need and of the increased chance pulls from this one (though an umu would be nice - I already have two gold sabers). Whenever Ishkandar comes out I want at least 2-3 chances to disappoint myself trying to grab him.

[Anarion]

I got ~ 100 golds which means I can clear out the homunculi material. I bought a silver medal copy of rose and have ~ 40 left over for mats/xp - and about 20 copper left to trade. Plan to grab mats over xp since dailies give class specific xp which I think give more than "any class" Xp to the right class but less to the wrong one - so apart from Mash who is maxed at 30 and Jeanne who I don't have - I don't really need them.

I'll be able to scrounge up enough quartz for one final 10 pull soon - how long till the next kind of event? I don't really need and of the increased chance pulls from this one (though an umu would be nice - I already have two gold sabers). Whenever Ishkandar comes out I want at least 2-3 chances to disappoint myself trying to grab him.

If you have time, run the 5 cost for bronze medals to get all the ascension materials that you can exchange bronzes to buy. They're all a pain in the neck to get normally and you'll want them all.

As far as the next event, we don't know yet. They tend to come fairly frequently in games like this because they're a big part of attracting people to spend money and keep playing the game. So, I'd imagine a couple weeks to a month before the next one.

[Blackhawk748]

Why does it feel like my NPs are doing less damage all of a sudden? I mean, Saber Alter 9from a friend) was doing over 45k rather reliably, but now she struggles to get over 35k

[Gastronomie]

Why does it feel like my NPs are doing less damage all of a sudden? I mean, Saber Alter 9from a friend) was doing over 45k rather reliably, but now she struggles to get over 35k You've changed your party composition and are missing an attack buff you relied on till now
Different friend, with a lower NP level or skill level (first skill of Saber Alter) or Fow buff
Your friend changed his Saber Alter's craft to something that has an lower ATK bonus

I dunno.

[Blackhawk748]

You've changed your party composition and are missing an attack buff you relied on till now
Different friend, with a lower NP level or skill level (first skill of Saber Alter) or Fow buff
Your friend changed his Saber Alter's craft to something that has an lower ATK bonus

I dunno.

The weird thing is, none of those happened, thus my confusion. I mean, i screwed with the team once i stopped one shotting Gorgon island, but i always kept Ushi, who was handing out the Atk buff for Saber

[SuperPanda]

Thanks to advice up threat I was able to grab 3 more of each copper medal material and one more silver medal material before Nero closed. I did scrape up enough Quartz for one last pull but got nothing of interest from it. I'll be slowly (very slowly it seems) squirling away quartz for future stuff - I've got to a point where I don't feel I need to pull beyond friend-point pulls and even then that is largely just giving me dupes of Arash, the Saber's Bane and Korjirou, the savior of France.

Something nice that I found - if Arash has Nightless Rose equiped and uses his NP he survives it (albeit with 500 HP which means he's pretty much dead that turn anyway) but paired with a healer (like Hans who is waiting on statues to ascend) and Mash he could recover (Hans NP healing + Chaldea mystic code healing + Mash and mystic code defenses gives him time to recover). Robin is still doing better at archer things over all but Arash is pretty potent at level 30 (and I'm thinking of ascending him a second time once I cobble together the statues).

I've updated my support set-up again to the point where I feel I'm offering something useful - if still not ground breaking:

Any: Mash 30/30 (don't know how some got her to 40). 2/2/-. Kalidescope (NP starts at 80%)
Saber: Seigfried 40/50. skills: 1/2/1/ Nightless Rose (Guts for 500).
Archer: Robin Hood 36/40/ Skills 2/1/- Self-Designated Enforcer (Cstar gather rate +600%)
Lancer: Cu Chulainn Proto 34/40/ Skills: 1/1/- Primeval Curse (debuff resist +25%)
Rider: Ushi 34/40. skills 1/2/- Verdant Black Keys (+10% Quick card)
Caster: Cu Chulainn 32/40/ skills 1/1/- Azure Black Keys (+10% Arts)
Assassin: Jin Ke 30/40 Skills 1/1/- Fate/Extella (+15% crit strength and +3stars/round)
Zerker: Darius III 32/40 skills: 1/1/- Verdant Sound of Destruction (+15% Buster).


I'm pretty happy with my Any spot for the time being though Elizabeth Balthroy (Lancer) who has a level 3 NP seems to be bucking for a spot and Cu Chulainn prototyle has a level 5 Gael Bog and I just like using more. Elizabeth still hasn't reached first ascension as I'm not yet able to reliably get gold servants into my teams along side my higher level crafts - I've been favoring silver servants with the occasional copper (Shakespeare - I've been using him far more often than he actually deserves).

I'm also considering replacing Ushi with either Alexander III (level 30) or Marie Antoinette (not yet 40).

I've got a number of people at bond 5 - and they're gaining experience but I see no visible progress at all - is there a number of ascensions needed their or did the bond xp curve just go exponential after 5?

Lastly - am I crazy for wanting to loosely theme my teams in the story quests - I didn't do it in france but now that I'm in Rome I sort of want to level and then use Romulus, Ceaser + my greek, middle eastern, and Britannia servants. I know there really isn't a point to doing it, but I keep thinking they might get realm synergy for it...

[Red Fel]

Lastly - am I crazy for wanting to loosely theme my teams in the story quests - I didn't do it in france but now that I'm in Rome I sort of want to level and then use Romulus, Ceaser + my greek, middle eastern, and Britannia servants. I know there really isn't a point to doing it, but I keep thinking they might get realm synergy for it...

Realm synergy? What do you think this is, FFRK? :smallamused:

Interestingly, there are classifications of servants along the lines you describe. For example, Caesar has the Roman trait, shared by Nero, Nero (Bride), Spartacus, and Caligula. There's also a Greek Mythology trait for Orion, Hector, Alexander, Iskandar, Heracles, and Asterios. These particular traits rarely come up, but sometimes they become a thing - when I first started, one of the weekly missions included killing a certain number of Roman Servants.

It should be no surprise that there is an entire Arturia trait dedicated to the many, many incarnations of Arturia, including Arturia, Saber Alter, Saber Lily, Arturia Prototype, Arturia Archer, Arturia Lancer, Lancer Alter, Santa Alter, Mysterious Heroine X, and Mysterious Heroine X Alter. Can you say mascot?

I managed to finagle one last full pull before the Nero event ended, and snatched a second Lancelot. So, NP 2 for him. Good times.

[Tsuzurao]

Realm synergy? What do you think this is, FFRK? :smallamused:

Interestingly, there are classifications of servants along the lines you describe. For example, Caesar has the Roman trait, shared by Nero, Nero (Bride), Spartacus, and Caligula. There's also a Greek Mythology trait for Orion, Hector, Alexander, Iskandar, Heracles, and Asterios. These particular traits rarely come up, but sometimes they become a thing - when I first started, one of the weekly missions included killing a certain number of Roman Servants.

It should be no surprise that there is an entire Arturia trait dedicated to the many, many incarnations of Arturia, including Arturia, Saber Alter, Saber Lily, Arturia Prototype, Arturia Archer, Arturia Lancer, Lancer Alter, Santa Alter, Mysterious Heroine X, and Mysterious Heroine X Alter. Can you say mascot?

I managed to finagle one last full pull before the Nero event ended, and snatched a second Lancelot. So, NP 2 for him. Good times.

Usually, such classification traits are there for the sake of those who have skills or Noble Phantasms that get an advantage against the ones carrying that trait (Boudica has a skill that gives her advantage vs Romans, Mordred's NP has advantage vs any version of King Arthur, etc.), but there are rare other cases (IIRC, Jeanne D'Arc Alter has a skill that empowers those with the Dragon trait, for example).

Also, on top of the 'King Arthur' trait, there's also the 'Saberface' trait, for all versions of Artoria, and anyone who is meant to look like Artoria (Mordred, Okita Souji, Emperor Nero [and her variants], and Jeanne D'Arc [plus her variants]).
... Okay, they admit that Jeanne's resemblance to Artoria is not all that strong, but to Mysterious Heroine X, even a minor resemblance is unforgivable, so she'll have to kill Jeanne too.

Also, the most recent event JP-side added yet another Artoria variant.

[Blackhawk748]

Also, the most recent event JP-side added yet another Artoria variant.

Oh for fu-

https://hugelolcdn.com/i/65316.gif

This has long since past ridiculous, waved as it sped past funny joke and just entered beyond idiotic

[Red Fel]

This has long since past ridiculous, waved as it sped past funny joke and just entered beyond idiotic

Punchline? Arturia's NP, spectacular though it may be, isn't always the list-topper. Particularly against big bosses, what you want is a single-target with heavy damage, not an AoE. Believe it or not, a lot of people are giving credit to Caesar as a better Saber. (Some also favor Okita Souji, not yet available and admittedly a Saberface.) Caesar, being a 3-star, has an easier time with Ascensions, skill-ups, and upgrading his NP; the combination of Military Tactics B and Charisma C makes him a great team force multiplier; and a strong single-target NP - particularly one you can level up - really shows its skill against solid bosses.

Don't get me started on Siegfried. He only really shines if you're facing an actual Dragon. Or if you use Georgios (whose NP turns enemies into Dragon-type).

But yeah. Saberfaces are way overdone. Way overdone.

[Blackhawk748]

But yeah. Saberfaces are way overdone. Way overdone.

Completely agree. I use Saber Lily on occasion (though being spoiled with Saber Alter in the Friends list makes her much less useful) but otherwise i don't even use Sabers. Ushiwakamaru, Carmilla, Caster Cu, Prot Cu, and more recently Shakespeare make up my team beyond Saber Alter

[SuperPanda]

I currently have 4 Sabers and I'm begining to think I've focused on the wrong one:

Siegfried 50/50
Artoria Lily 47/50
Ceaser 40/40
Giles De Raine (sp) 30/30

I'd been debating second ascension for Siegfried/lily/Ceaser once I get enough pieces - Siegfried has been, okay most of the time but I'm thinking I should be using Ceaser more instead. I'd like Lilly to be great but I just haven't felt it when I've used her.

I'm also debating a few other ascensions:
Archers - second Ascension Robin (once I get enough pieces) or third ascension Arash - Arash uses materials which Darius also wants for his second Ascension -

Berserkers - Second ascension Darius or Sparticus - Sparty is weaker blow for blow but has interesting abilities. both are NP 5 - and despite the lower HP Sparty tends to last longer - though neither tend to last long enough to use their NP.

Lancer wise - I finally got a Cu Chulainn (Fate/Stay Night) who is at 30/40 with a level 1 NP versus my Cu Chulainn (Prototype) who is at 40/40 with NP 5. I really like the skills on Stay Night's build but am considering a second ascension on Prototype for now (Elizabeth Balthroy is also at 40/50 so I could wait.

Where I can I've been using xp to level all my other servants with the intent of ascending everyone once and unlocking interludes (slowly but surely) - at the same time I'm also working towards having a powerful list of go-to servants and support servants.

[Morcleon]

Well, there is a reason that Takeuchi's NP is Unlimited King of Knights. :smalltongue:

In other news, anyone know how to efficiently farm Dragon Teeth? I've gotten 4 so far, while needing a total of 40 (for now) for ascensions.

[Red Fel]

I currently have 4 Sabers and I'm begining to think I've focused on the wrong one:

Siegfried 50/50
Artoria Lily 47/50
Ceaser 40/40
Giles De Raine (sp) 30/30

I'd been debating second ascension for Siegfried/lily/Ceaser once I get enough pieces - Siegfried has been, okay most of the time but I'm thinking I should be using Ceaser more instead. I'd like Lilly to be great but I just haven't felt it when I've used her.

Lily is considered among the weaker Sabers, just generally. Great as a placekeeper, particularly because she's free and there are no Sabers under 3-star - so if you didn't get Caesar, you'd be pretty much Saber-less. So, again, good that she's free. But you can pretty much replace her.

Gilles is one of the few instances where a character really doesn't have many good selling points. Most Servants have some merit, but Saber!Gilles is just... Bland.

You're probably better off with Siegfried and/or Caesar. Siegfried, being higher rarity, has solid stats at least; Caesar, though, gives you a solid and well-rounded (pun intended) Saber Servant.


I'm also debating a few other ascensions:
Archers - second Ascension Robin (once I get enough pieces) or third ascension Arash - Arash uses materials which Darius also wants for his second Ascension -

Berserkers - Second ascension Darius or Sparticus - Sparty is weaker blow for blow but has interesting abilities. both are NP 5 - and despite the lower HP Sparty tends to last longer - though neither tend to last long enough to use their NP.

Lancer wise - I finally got a Cu Chulainn (Fate/Stay Night) who is at 30/40 with a level 1 NP versus my Cu Chulainn (Prototype) who is at 40/40 with NP 5. I really like the skills on Stay Night's build but am considering a second ascension on Prototype for now (Elizabeth Balthroy is also at 40/50 so I could wait.

Where I can I've been using xp to level all my other servants with the intent of ascending everyone once and unlocking interludes (slowly but surely) - at the same time I'm also working towards having a powerful list of go-to servants and support servants.

Robin is a pretty solid Archer, particularly because his Poison active skill pairs well with his NP. Arash boasts an absurdly destructive and easily NP, which is awesome, but that's offset somewhat by the fact that it kills him. If you can get him Guts, however, he becomes insane, because he survives. So keep that in mind.

Spartacus has the advantage of survivability. All of his abilities (and his NP) work with that. That said, Darius' Golden Rule ability means you get more mileage out of his NP, and being higher rarity, his stats are a bit better. That one is a case of mileage varying.

With respect to Lancers, Cu!Classic is considered Cockroach Cu for his survivability. Proto is nice, but mostly shines against Chimeras. But since you have Idol!Bathory, I wouldn't worry.


In other news, anyone know how to efficiently farm Dragon Teeth? I've gotten 4 so far, while needing a total of 40 (for now) for ascensions.

Here (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Fang) is a list of places where they drop. The number in brackets tells you how many enemies there are of a type that drops them. I've personally farmed Town of Knives, the Thiers free quest, because I was farming Berserker silver statues. The drop rate is abysmal, though; it's really, really tedious to farm in this game.

[SuperPanda]

I'd been piece hunting in the daily dungeons along with xp grinding - I'll need to check out that wiki and use it a bit more - if I can at least try to grind for some of the materials I need then I don't have to wring my hands over who to ascend and I can actually start using skill ups.

Thanks for the advice Red -
On Zerkers - Darius seems to hit the hardest out of those I have tried (haven't tried my 2* ones out yet - might have to once I collect enough Zeker statues to boost them all. That might be about levels though - I'm generally unimpressed with my zerkers (though friend and enemy Zerks are very impressive).

On my Cu question - it was mostly down to how valuable a higher level NP was. Cu proto has been a solid heavy hitter for me for a while when gold servants weren't always easy to fit into my teams along with good equips. Cu roach didn't come along until recently after I already had proto at 40 with NP 5. I've found Cu to be a bit more reliable for damage and survivabiltiy compared to Idol Balthroy, plus I've got plenty of units with Charisma - but it really comes down to what I'm fighting and how hard it is. because of FFRK I tend to turtle behind defenses and Cu, Shakespear, Spartacus, and Marie Antoinette seem built for that kind of strategy - Cu is the only of those who also dishes out pretty good damage.

Will need to use that tool for farming materials though - simply because that's all there is to do. Eventually there should be more story (hopefully it doesn't take too long).

[Anarion]

If you want dragon fangs, the monster hunting on Thursday and Friday that costs 10 stamina drops them pretty reasonably. Maybe one for every thirty stamina that you spend.

[Hunter Noventa]

People keep telling me this is the best way to get into Fate stuff at all beyond the basics, so I'm downloading it again. Shame I've missed over a month of stuff but eh, I'm willing to give it another try. Hopefully they've made it run a little smoother on my older phone.

Oh, and the little progress I'd made wasn't saved at all, how tragic.

But my free opening summon got me a 4* Carmilla, 3* Boudica, and 4* Heracles. This is...good?

[Red Fel]

But my free opening summon got me a 4* Carmilla, 3* Boudica, and 4* Heracles. This is...good?

Heracles is excellent. He's a powerhouse who remains solid throughout the game, and his Bond Craft (the Craft you get at Bond 10) basically renders him immortal. His Mind's Eye (False) B and Battle Continuation A abilities give him even more survivability, which is vital in a Berserker. He pairs well with Mash, whose abilities can keep him alive, and anyone with a party attack boost, which makes him a walking blender.

Carmilla is solid. High-rarity Assassins are still pretty, well, rare, and her single-target NP is incredibly powerful. However, as with most Assassins, she does best against large single targets as opposed to groups of smaller ones. And because of her Quick card focus, you'll want to team her with Servants who can help boost party NP. Or, alternatively, just let her contribute in a crit star party.

Boudica is decent too. Most Servants are, frankly, and she's no slouch. She's a surprisingly capable support Servant, in that her NP boosts party defense (and later, attack), and her third skill also boosts party Arts. She also has a Guts ability, making her very survivable.

So, yeah, good starting hand. Now, let's talk about the upcoming Moon Festival event. Like the Nero event, this one involves drops (here, Dumplings) which you can trade for more goodies. Among them are Craft Essences, most of which serve to increase your Dumpling drop rate. (They do other things too, but that's the big one.) So, yeah, Moony Jewel (increase Charm resist) and Mooncell Automaton (increase all cards' effectiveness) aren't necessarily the strongest Crafts, but that's not what they're there to do. It's the rest of the buyable goods that should have your attention - exp and status cards, and silver and gold ascension materials for Archers, Riders, and Assassins.

Naturally, there is also a pick-up summon. This one features:
Orion: New 5-star Archer! A strong single-target Servant, Orion's ability list is fairly selfish. Actives boost her attack, defense, and debuff resistance, and give her Guts. Her NP is single-target, dealing damage and reducing attack and NP gauge. Powerful, but not overwhelmingly so. She's no Gilgamesh, but she can be effective in the right setup.
Stheno: 4-star Assassin. Stheno is specifically an anti-Male unit; her Siren Song ability can Charm Male units, and her NP has a chance to instantly kill them. That said, her third active skill, Whim of Goddess, is a great force multiplier, boosting party attack, and providing an extra boost to Divine units (looking at you, Heracles). Her passives also give her strong damage; Presence Concealment A+ gives her extra crit star generation, and Goddess' Essence EX gives her a massive damage boost.
Marie Antoinette: 4-star Rider. Marie is a healer, basically. Her actives include two self-heals, and her NP removes party debuffs and (with overcharge) heals the party. That said, her attack is low.
Ushiwakamaru: 3-star Rider. Ushi is an awesome force multiplier. First active, boost party NP generation. Second, boost party attack. And as a 3-star, Ushi is easily upgraded.
Jing Ke: 3-star Assassin. Like most Assassins, Jing Ke is a single-target critmonkey. Jing Ke is particularly effective in this role - actives which boost crit star generation and crit damage, and an NP that generates massive crit stars (at the cost of self-damage). Perfect in a crit star party.
So, you know. Stuff to look forward to.

Stuff that isn't Okeanos.

[Hunter Noventa]

Heracles is excellent. He's a powerhouse who remains solid throughout the game, and his Bond Craft (the Craft you get at Bond 10) basically renders him immortal. His Mind's Eye (False) B and Battle Continuation A abilities give him even more survivability, which is vital in a Berserker. He pairs well with Mash, whose abilities can keep him alive, and anyone with a party attack boost, which makes him a walking blender.

Carmilla is solid. High-rarity Assassins are still pretty, well, rare, and her single-target NP is incredibly powerful. However, as with most Assassins, she does best against large single targets as opposed to groups of smaller ones. And because of her Quick card focus, you'll want to team her with Servants who can help boost party NP. Or, alternatively, just let her contribute in a crit star party.

Boudica is decent too. Most Servants are, frankly, and she's no slouch. She's a surprisingly capable support Servant, in that her NP boosts party defense (and later, attack), and her third skill also boosts party Arts. She also has a Guts ability, making her very survivable.

So, yeah, good starting hand. Now, let's talk about the upcoming Moon Festival event. Like the Nero event, this one involves drops (here, Dumplings) which you can trade for more goodies. Among them are Craft Essences, most of which serve to increase your Dumpling drop rate. (They do other things too, but that's the big one.) So, yeah, Moony Jewel (increase Charm resist) and Mooncell Automaton (increase all cards' effectiveness) aren't necessarily the strongest Crafts, but that's not what they're there to do. It's the rest of the buyable goods that should have your attention - exp and status cards, and silver and gold ascension materials for Archers, Riders, and Assassins.

Naturally, there is also a pick-up summon. This one features:
Orion: New 5-star Archer! A strong single-target Servant, Orion's ability list is fairly selfish. Actives boost her attack, defense, and debuff resistance, and give her Guts. Her NP is single-target, dealing damage and reducing attack and NP gauge. Powerful, but not overwhelmingly so. She's no Gilgamesh, but she can be effective in the right setup.
Stheno: 4-star Assassin. Stheno is specifically an anti-Male unit; her Siren Song ability can Charm Male units, and her NP has a chance to instantly kill them. That said, her third active skill, Whim of Goddess, is a great force multiplier, boosting party attack, and providing an extra boost to Divine units (looking at you, Heracles). Her passives also give her strong damage; Presence Concealment A+ gives her extra crit star generation, and Goddess' Essence EX gives her a massive damage boost.
Marie Antoinette: 4-star Rider. Marie is a healer, basically. Her actives include two self-heals, and her NP removes party debuffs and (with overcharge) heals the party. That said, her attack is low.
Ushiwakamaru: 3-star Rider. Ushi is an awesome force multiplier. First active, boost party NP generation. Second, boost party attack. And as a 3-star, Ushi is easily upgraded.
Jing Ke: 3-star Assassin. Like most Assassins, Jing Ke is a single-target critmonkey. Jing Ke is particularly effective in this role - actives which boost crit star generation and crit damage, and an NP that generates massive crit stars (at the cost of self-damage). Perfect in a crit star party.
So, you know. Stuff to look forward to.

Stuff that isn't Okeanos.

Good information, I'll save the other newbie quartz i'll get for the newbie campaign then. My free FP draws got me a couple more assassins, Mata Hari and Phantom of the Opera, but obviously I'm using my 4*s for the prologue.

Is there any reason to put Mash into the sub group since she doesn't seem to gain bond exp? EDIT: Oh I found out. The backup guys come in if a servant dies, good to know.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Mash gains Bond, NP, and Ascensions through plot events, for the record. All you need to worry about upgrading is her EXP and skill levels. She's good to leave in your party anyway when you're new, though, because she also has 0 Cost and can save your butt when an enemy's damage output is too high.

[Red Fel]

Is there any reason to put Mash into the sub group since she doesn't seem to gain bond exp? EDIT: Oh I found out. The backup guys come in if a servant dies, good to know.

Yeah. As you level, you'll eventually have enough of a point cap to fill the party with actual Servants and Crafts, and Mash being a 0-cost Servant loses its luster. That said, keeping her in your opening party for survivability is frequently a good call - her NP and abilities will let your first three survive longer.

Party composition is very much a strategic thing - you could bring some light hitters and keep your heaviest in reserve, or open with your strongest and hope they don't die. Mash is one option that keeps the latter viable.

Also, if memory serves, Mash's Bond exp is like her Ascensions - story related. I've found that she won't go up a Bond level until after I've cleared a story chapter. So that might be a factor.

EDIT: And Fuuma Kotarou'd.

[ImperatorV]

...On a scale from 1-10, how much would joining right now boost a new player? Asking because I'm interested in joining, but the Kancolle event is going on right now and I'm expecting to dump all my free time into it for the next few weeks. I understand there's something good for new players going on right now though? I'd like to know how much I'd miss out on by waiting a while.

[Red Fel]

...On a scale from 1-10, how much would joining right now boost a new player? Asking because I'm interested in joining, but the Kancolle event is going on right now and I'm expecting to dump all my free time into it for the next few weeks. I understand there's something good for new players going on right now though? I'd like to know how much I'd miss out on by waiting a while.

Ehh... Hard to say. Fact is, you come in now and you're ahead of a lot of things - plenty of time to plow through a prologue and two chapters and fill up on that sweet Saint Quartz, plenty of time to prepare for (insert upcoming event of your choice), plenty of time to build and level a solid team of Servants before most other people do. Game is still pretty young in Global.

There is the "Start Dash Campaign," which lasts for your first week, but that's ongoing. I don't know if they plan to end it at some date in the future, but as of now, whether you start today or next month, it'll still be a thing.

The only upcoming event, presently, is the Moon Dumpling event I mentioned previously. Assuming we follow JP, our next event will be a Halloween one, then Okeanos, so you might or might not feel like bothering until then.

Short version? All you're really missing out on right now is prep time. And the Moon Dumpling event.

[Hunter Noventa]

Yeah. As you level, you'll eventually have enough of a point cap to fill the party with actual Servants and Crafts, and Mash being a 0-cost Servant loses its luster. That said, keeping her in your opening party for survivability is frequently a good call - her NP and abilities will let your first three survive longer.

Party composition is very much a strategic thing - you could bring some light hitters and keep your heaviest in reserve, or open with your strongest and hope they don't die. Mash is one option that keeps the latter viable.

Also, if memory serves, Mash's Bond exp is like her Ascensions - story related. I've found that she won't go up a Bond level until after I've cleared a story chapter. So that might be a factor.

EDIT: And Fuuma Kotarou'd.

Yeah that makes sense after unlocking her NP. I need to do some grinding just to clear the prologue it looks like though. I swear I get nothing but assassins from my friend draw...and then I get Lancer Cu Chalain after running out of AP the other day, so I got that going for me at least.

[Anarion]

Regarding the moon event, I'm mostly meh on it. Getting some gold Cavalier stuff will help, but those monuments are pretty farmable, and XP is the best choice for daily farming anyway. The craft essences are nice for team variety, but otherwise I just see it as a bit of a boost with nothing terribly significant. Show me some chimera claws and I'll get excited.


...On a scale from 1-10, how much would joining right now boost a new player? Asking because I'm interested in joining, but the Kancolle event is going on right now and I'm expecting to dump all my free time into it for the next few weeks. I understand there's something good for new players going on right now though? I'd like to know how much I'd miss out on by waiting a while.

You can join whenever as long as the start dash campaign that was already mentioned is going. If they ever stop that (and they might not), it will be a lot more annoying starting out, since you won't have access to an initial set of good quality pulls.

[Red Fel]

Yeah that makes sense after unlocking her NP. I need to do some grinding just to clear the prologue it looks like though. I swear I get nothing but assassins from my friend draw...and then I get Lancer Cu Chalain after running out of AP the other day, so I got that going for me at least.

Cockroach!Cu or Proto!Cu?

Don't forget, save every Servant you get - they're all useful at some point. If you have duplicates, use them to upgrade Noble Phantasm.

And yeah, you'll see a lot of the same stuff from your Friend Point draws - but don't despair. Sasaki Kojirou is Savior of France! You'll be glad to have him.

[Blackhawk748]

The Friend Draw has Mata Hari and Sasaki featured prominently in it, i got like 7 Mata Haris out of there, and i dont even use her. Sasaki, however, i rather enjoy.

[Hunter Noventa]

Cockroach!Cu or Proto!Cu?

Don't forget, save every Servant you get - they're all useful at some point. If you have duplicates, use them to upgrade Noble Phantasm.

And yeah, you'll see a lot of the same stuff from your Friend Point draws - but don't despair. Sasaki Kojirou is Savior of France! You'll be glad to have him.

I dunno, he has blue armor and his red spear. Thankfully I had some lancer crystals to boost him up with. I also got my first Caster in the form of Mozart.

And yeah, I'm not getting rid of anyone.

[Anarion]

I dunno, he has blue armor and his red spear. Thankfully I had some lancer crystals to boost him up with. I also got my first Caster in the form of Mozart.

And yeah, I'm not getting rid of anyone.

That's regular Cu. There's Prototype Cu, who's a little different, but regular Cu (who has guts and evade) is nice because he's incredibly difficult to kill.

[Nerd-o-rama]

He got tired of the gag in Carnival Phantasm apparently.

[Yael]

He got tired of the gag in Carnival Phantasm apparently.

Ah! They killed lancer!

You're not human!

http://fate-go.cirnopedia.org/img/us20170817/img_info_150925_01.png

We're getting the update and the Do Computers Dream of Electric Sheep?'s parody: Does Moon Goddess Dream of Dumplings?

Full information on the event here. (http://fate-go.cirnopedia.org/quest_event_us_20170817.php#overview)

Although I'm waiting for the halloween event, I'm rolling once maybe for the Rin Craft Essence, and some of the ascension materials (this is for you, Ushi!)

Edit: Manteniance countdown: here (https://countle.com/jv3452185).
It will last 2 hours and 10 minutes, aprox.

[Red Fel]

He got tired of the gag in Carnival Phantasm apparently.

I'mma be totally honest, Carnival Phantasm is my favorite of the various Fate-related animes. It just gives me such a happy.

[SuperPanda]

I'd been planning to completely sit out draws - even tickets - on the mood fest banner because I had 3/4 of the pick up servants already and had already burned my available tickets (but bit precious quartz) on trying to grab Jeanne. Then I got my 7 day in a row ticket and decided to give it one yolo pull just because.

I now need a lot of archer xp cards for Orion who will eventually replace my level 50 Robin Hood. Glad I hadn't done Arash's third ascension yet from Orion's NP I'm guessing she should be paired with arts heavy decks to try and get the most out of her No charge down effect.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well I opened the first event quest and Marie and friends kicked my butt, guess I need to go grind/do story.

[Red Fel]

Well, I have over 45 Saint Quartz, so I decided to blow a bunch on a big pull on this pick-up. And... Nada. Got a couple of 3-star Servants I can use to upgrade NPs (amusingly, none of the featured ones), and two 4-star Crafts - a duplicate Sealing Designation / Enforcer, and a new Be Elegant. And given that the big reward for this event is a crit star Craft... Those two are a little less valuable than they might be.

[Anarion]

I did a 30 quartz 10 pull. Got a new Kaleidoscope (my second), which I think will be going to one of my subs when there aren't event quests going. Got one of the more buns craft essences too. No 4 or 5 star servants though. I might be able to get enough tickets for a 10 pull from that as well, which I'll try later, since I need all of the featured servants this time around.

[Red Fel]

Honestly, I'm just excited over the possibility that I might be able to hit EMIYA's 4th Ascension with this event. All I need are Archer Monuments and a Heart, and those are available as rewards. Then, if I can clear his Strengthening quests, since this event was also kind enough to provide skill-up gems...

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, i did a 10-pull on the Moon Banner. Got some nice stuff like Medea, Ushiwakamaru and Jing Ke.

Then I got Gaius Julius Ceasar and I really don't want this fat ugly jerk as my only Saber. That's not fair.

[Red Fel]

Well, i did a 10-pull on the Moon Banner. Got some nice stuff like Medea, Ushiwakamaru and Jing Ke.

Then I got Gaius Julius Ceasar and I really don't want this fat ugly jerk as my only Saber. That's not fair.

He may be all of those things you said, but he's also a pretty solid Saber in his own right. He certainly dances rings around Lily.

Also, good pulls!

[Yael]

Well, I didn't go for the 10-roll, but used four tickets.

I got twice the 3 star event CE, an Ushiwakamary and Heaven's Feel. Considering I want to build up a Noble Phantasm team, I'm satisfied, although I wanted the Rin CE... And I really wanted that CE...

[Anarion]

I pulled all the summon tickets I got from the event and...got an Orion! :smallbiggrin:
She's my second 5-star along with Altera, and ironically, I just yesterday used all my archer XP and evolution materials on Atalante, thinking that I wasn't going to get anything better. So...I'll be working on that, slow Orion evolution coming up. She seems really neat though, and I love that she gets several defensive buffs while being able to increase her damage in a couple ways (especially against male targets).

[Gastronomie]

I pulled all the summon tickets I got from the event and...got an Orion! :smallbiggrin:
She's my second 5-star along with Altera, and ironically, I just yesterday used all my archer XP and evolution materials on Atalante, thinking that I wasn't going to get anything better. So...I'll be working on that, slow Orion evolution coming up. She seems really neat though, and I love that she gets several defensive buffs while being able to increase her damage in a couple ways (especially against male targets).Orion is quite nice. I don't know how much time it will take the English version to get there, but when you get to the 6th singular point, you will be glad - and I mean glad - that you made that pull.

[Red Fel]

Out of curiosity, a question for those who play / have played JP: When you do a character's Strengthening quest and upgrade their skills (e.g. EMIYA's Clairvoyance -> Hawkeye), do skill ranks carry over, or does the upgraded skill start over at 1?

[Gastronomie]

Out of curiosity, a question for those who play / have played JP: When you do a character's Strengthening quest and upgrade their skills (e.g. EMIYA's Clairvoyance -> Hawkeye), do skill ranks carry over, or does the upgraded skill start over at 1?No worries, the skill level does not change. (If it did... that would be really nasty.)

[Anarion]

Orion is quite nice. I don't know how much time it will take the English version to get there, but when you get to the 6th singular point, you will be glad - and I mean glad - that you made that pull.

Good to know. I'm mostly judging whether to use my quartz and tickets based on the supporting servants. For example, in this case, not only did I need Orion and got lucky, but I also don't have Marie and I had not gotten Jing Ke's or Ushi's noble phantasms to max level, so I figured that even if I hadn't gotten lucky on the 5-star, I wouldn't feel bad about my pulls.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, another summon on the Orion banner got me Prototype Cu, to go with the one I got from a free friend summon, another Medea, Robin Hood and Tamamo Cat, who is awesome because catgirl. And Robin Hood is a better archer than the one I had. Arash is awful, because his NP is a suicide attack and I'm just 'why?'

[Red Fel]

Well, another summon on the Orion banner got me Prototype Cu, to go with the one I got from a free friend summon, another Medea, Robin Hood and Tamamo Cat, who is awesome because catgirl. And Robin Hood is a better archer than the one I had. Arash is awful, because his NP is a suicide attack and I'm just 'why?'

Arash is actually decent, if you can get around his suicide thing. (And there are ways.) That's because his NP is incredibly potent, and easy to max out, given that he's such a common Servant. But yeah, Robin Hood is pretty solid, particularly because of the synergy between his active Poison ability and his NP.

Medea is awesome in an NP-charging team, but a total nuisance to Ascend up properly. Still probably my best Caster.

Tamamo Cat is... Hm. I mean, other Berserkers have their niches - Heracles has Evade and plenty of power, Vlad has Guts and a Def boost and can NP charge well, Lancelot is great for crit-gathering and has an AoE... But Catzerker doesn't have that. Her Atk is lower than some, she only gets a Def boost after her third Ascension, and her NP - while AoE - includes a self-stun. Now, you can counteract that with someone like Marie who removes debuffs, but otherwise, it leaves a naturally vulnerable unit even more vulnerable - and less useful. Still, if she's the only SR Berserker you have, she's at least solid, and her Craft gives a nice party HP buff.

This event... Ugh. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the narrative. (Particularly Georgios, with his "THOU ART A DRAGON?!" outburst.) But on the other, the sheer slog of it. The drop rate for special dumplings was just so low that it took forever to unlock the next chapter, which was incredibly frustrating.

I'm probably not going to invest in the Crafts, but instead grab as many of those gold monuments as I can afford. Probably Rider and Assassin, since I've already max-ascended EMIYA. (Sorry, Robin, but you and Arash go on the shelf.)

[Anarion]

This event... Ugh. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the narrative. (Particularly Georgios, with his "THOU ART A DRAGON?!" outburst.) But on the other, the sheer slog of it. The drop rate for special dumplings was just so low that it took forever to unlock the next chapter, which was incredibly frustrating.

I'm probably not going to invest in the Crafts, but instead grab as many of those gold monuments as I can afford. Probably Rider and Assassin, since I've already max-ascended EMIYA. (Sorry, Robin, but you and Arash go on the shelf.)

Are you sure you're doing it right? The 5 stamina werewolves have the highest chance of gold chests, and with the craft essences that boost drops, you typically should have been seeing 5-10 special dumplings per 5 stamina even before you got anything else due to helpful friends with them equipped. If you did a 10-pull on the special machine or got the initial farming done to get the 5 star event essence, that starts to go way up (you can also get lucky and have the essence drop for you as you're doing the story). In my case, I completed all 4 chapters the first day, only having to farm werewolves a handful of times to get the dumplings needed to unlock the next story.

Honestly, at this point, the challenge is just that the 5 stamina runs are so efficient that the game is consuming too much of my time and I've started running harder ones just to use up my stamina faster.

[Red Fel]

Are you sure you're doing it right? The 5 stamina werewolves have the highest chance of gold chests, and with the craft essences that boost drops, you typically should have been seeing 5-10 special dumplings per 5 stamina even before you got anything else due to helpful friends with them equipped. If you did a 10-pull on the special machine or got the initial farming done to get the 5 star event essence, that starts to go way up (you can also get lucky and have the essence drop for you as you're doing the story). In my case, I completed all 4 chapters the first day, only having to farm werewolves a handful of times to get the dumplings needed to unlock the next story.

Honestly, at this point, the challenge is just that the 5 stamina runs are so efficient that the game is consuming too much of my time and I've started running harder ones just to use up my stamina faster.

See, that's clearly where I went wrong - I farmed the highest difficulty I could each time, assuming (perhaps mistakenly) that higher difficulties had a higher drop rate for special dumplings. I did have enough friends lined up that I was getting at least +5 on my drops, though.

In any event, I managed to get that bit done a day or two ago, now I'm just farming regular dumplings for lack of anything better to do. And let's not forget the chance the 30-stam one has to drop Hearts, which are useful.

[Anarion]

See, that's clearly where I went wrong - I farmed the highest difficulty I could each time, assuming (perhaps mistakenly) that higher difficulties had a higher drop rate for special dumplings. I did have enough friends lined up that I was getting at least +5 on my drops, though.

In any event, I managed to get that bit done a day or two ago, now I'm just farming regular dumplings for lack of anything better to do. And let's not forget the chance the 30-stam one has to drop Hearts, which are useful.

So, here's how's it set up based on my anecdotal experience (which is maybe 30-50 different runs of these things). The 5 stamina mostly gives special dumplings, which are actually worse for getting rewards from the event, they're functionally 1/2 a normal dumpling. You typically get 2 special/1 silver from werewolves, but that can vary. The 10 stamina enemies typically drop 2 regular and 1 special, and usually have 1-2 more per drop. It's less efficient than werewolves with the +3 dumplings craft essences equipped because you're paying twice the stamina for only slightly better odds. Similarly, the 20 stamina gives more dumplings per drop and rarely has more than one special dumpling drop, but even though you're getting more than twice as many dumplings as you might from werewolves, you're paying 4x the cost so it's still less efficient. 30 stamina is even worse, though it drops usually triple regular dumplings and with numbers high enough that if you have multiples of the +100% craft essence rather than the +3 craft essence, you can actually start seeing good returns from it, though it's likely still less efficient than the werewolves since it drops special dumplings sometimes.

Then we have Orion. She always drops 30x regular dumplings as far as I've seen. That costs you 40 stamina, so it's still way less efficient than werewolves. However, if you somehow get a whole team with the +100% craft essence giving you 180 dumplings per 40 stamina, it's actually better than werewolves.

[Yael]

Welp, I finally got everything from the shop, except for the 2000 and 5000 CE, which I'd like to get for next year's Moon Fest, but I'll keep it down as I want to level up other servants.

For the remainder of the Event, my support Emiya (Max Ascended) has the +3 CE, so use him whenever you need to farm the 5AP quest :)

I'm gonna save quarts and items for the Guda Guda event, which should come after the halloween event.

How's farming going?

[Nerd-o-rama]

I now hate dumplings with a passion I normally reserve for hating Gilgamesh. Also werewolves.

[Red Fel]

I am definitely not going to have everything from the store by the time the event ends. I will, however, probably have those gold statues, and likely a number of silver ones.

And I'm with Nerd-o-rama. Hate dumplings.

[Hunter Noventa]

I've barely touched the event, but that's mostly because I'm lacking in levels so I've been focusing my efforts on the daily exp crystal battles.

I also seem to be getting more Berserkers than anything else in the friend draw, it's kind of weird. And slightly annoying.

[Anarion]

I took a break from the event today because I've got 15+ of all the gold statues already and I need one saber gold statue to get Altera to final form. ONE SABER MONUMENT. ONE! (It hasn't dropped in 5 runs so far and I'm out of stamina).

[Blackhawk748]

Frankly my goal is to just get the special craft essence, plus id like to get Orion, but i lack enough tickets or Soul Quartz

Edit: I paid for 2 pulls, and im not happy with them. The first pull was utter crap, i just got a second Projection and Be Elegant, the other 2 pulls i made got me a Marie Antoinette (meh) a Stheno (i have Carmilla so i dont care) and a Romulus with a few nice Craft Essences. SO, nothing i overly care about. I mean the Heaven's Feel and the Formal Craft where nice, but nowhere near what i paid to get them. Im actively angry.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah that's why I'm not pulling. I don't want to spend money and would rather be disappointed by banners that include more than one character I want.

I mean, even on a banner, you have a less than 1% chance of pulling a specific 5-star Servant, although I'm not sure how the 10-pull rule of always getting a gold affects those odds given that it includes thr much more common CEs. The rate up just means you're more likely to get that specific 5-star Servant. You could do a hundred regular rolls or ten 10-pulls before you could reasonably expect one 5-star Servant.

[Red Fel]

Frankly my goal is to just get the special craft essence, plus id like to get Orion, but i lack enough tickets or Soul Quartz

Edit: I paid for 2 pulls, and im not happy with them. The first pull was utter crap, i just got a second Projection and Be Elegant, the other 2 pulls i made got me a Marie Antoinette (meh) a Stheno (i have Carmilla so i dont care) and a Romulus with a few nice Craft Essences. SO, nothing i overly care about. I mean the Heaven's Feel and the Formal Craft where nice, but nowhere near what i paid to get them. Im actively angry.


Yeah that's why I'm not pulling. I don't want to spend money and would rather be disappointed by banners that include more than one character I want.

I mean, even on a banner, you have a less than 1% chance of pulling a specific 5-star Servant, although I'm not sure how the 10-pull rule of always getting a gold affects those odds given that it includes thr much more common CEs. The rate up just means you're more likely to get that specific 5-star Servant. You could do a hundred regular rolls or ten 10-pulls before you could reasonably expect one 5-star Servant.

True. It's why it almost feels like a relief when the Saint Quartz flow slows to a trickle - there's no longer a pressure to pull well on a banner.

I have my handful of 4-star Servants, no 5-stars, and I'm pretty unlikely to get another... Basically ever, barring freebies. My first reaction to that was tremendous frustration - a game like this, all about awesome Servants, should let me have awesome Servants. (See my rant upthread.)

But the fact is, there are very few useless Servants. Even a 3-star or 2-star has particular uses. And once you've reconciled yourself to the fact that you're probably not getting anymore 4- or 5-star Servants without spending real money, there's a certain feeling of relief. You can work on leveling up your best characters and not worry about getting new ones. You can plot out your teams based on what you have, rather than what you might have. And if you do miraculously get another 4- or 5-star, it's an exciting and unexpected treat, not something you were hotly anticipating and whaling for.

It's why, for example, I felt comfortable max-Ascending my EMIYA, despite knowing that there are other more powerful Archers out there (e.g. Gilgamesh). I'm confident that he's basically all I have, other than Robin and Arash, so I feel good building him up.

If it sounds a bit fatalistic, well... That kind of futility is kind of the tone of the franchise. So, appropriate, I guess?

[Blackhawk748]

Honestly I just wanted Orion because I actually like her and my only other Archer is Robin Hood. And no I don't count Arash

[Anarion]

Honestly I just wanted Orion because I actually like her and my only other Archer is Robin Hood. And no I don't count Arash

If you want Orion, you can't reasonably expect her on two 10-pulls. Even with the slightly increased odds and the guaranteed 4 star+, you're looking at like 2% odds of the specific 5 star servant you want. maybe. Possibly even lower. You'd need to drop a good chunk of cash to get specific servants. That's the whole financial structure of the game. Everything is totally playable for free, you can win without stuff, and if you just stick with it over time, you'll eventually get lucky on something. But if you want your waifu, you gotta shell out a bunch of cash.

Edit: For comparison, while I did get lucky and get Orion via 11 summon tickets on this event, I started the game rerolling for a 5-star, and that took me almost 3 hours of constant resetting. I think I wound up doing ~20 rerolls, each of which had 2x10 pull after the starting pull due to the game starting you with 60 quartz at that point. It took me that long to get any 5-star servant.

[Nerd-o-rama]

True. It's why it almost feels like a relief when the Saint Quartz flow slows to a trickle - there's no longer a pressure to pull well on a banner.

I have my handful of 4-star Servants, no 5-stars, and I'm pretty unlikely to get another... Basically ever, barring freebies. My first reaction to that was tremendous frustration - a game like this, all about awesome Servants, should let me have awesome Servants. (See my rant upthread.)

But the fact is, there are very few useless Servants. Even a 3-star or 2-star has particular uses. And once you've reconciled yourself to the fact that you're probably not getting anymore 4- or 5-star Servants without spending real money, there's a certain feeling of relief. You can work on leveling up your best characters and not worry about getting new ones. You can plot out your teams based on what you have, rather than what you might have. And if you do miraculously get another 4- or 5-star, it's an exciting and unexpected treat, not something you were hotly anticipating and whaling for.

It's why, for example, I felt comfortable max-Ascending my EMIYA, despite knowing that there are other more powerful Archers out there (e.g. Gilgamesh). I'm confident that he's basically all I have, other than Robin and Arash, so I feel good building him up.

If it sounds a bit fatalistic, well... That kind of futility is kind of the tone of the franchise. So, appropriate, I guess?

Yeah this is my philosophy. Gold Servants are nice, but the fact of the matter is you've got to gamble large amounts of money to get them with anything short of a miracle (and I did get Altera with one of those miracles. I was TRYING for Nero, but any good luck is still good luck). If I were rich enough to invest in this game, I'd care, but I'm not, so I won't.

At least it isn't Avengers Academy, where you have to specifically buy paid heroes in order to effectively grind the events to get the materials to unlock "free" heroes and do their equivalent of Ascension. And sometimes some of these guys are in gacha crates for no real reason other than to make me angry. Also, everyone who isn't story related is either paid-only or limited. Screw that game. Screw it and the forty bucks or so I dropped on parallel universe Spider-Men.

[Blackhawk748]

I GOT ORION!!!!!!!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--vmUEwWk1RM/U3wWEN2jECI/AAAAAAAABVE/IFn5yVqATYU/s1600/Squee.gif

I just got my Tenth Summon ticket (cuz i thought i could do a 10 pull) so i made my 10 pulls, I got some nice stuff, a few craft essences i wanted, a Robin Hood, and on the last pull, i got Orion. I am so happy i literally 'squeed'

[Yael]

I GOT ORION!!!!!!!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--vmUEwWk1RM/U3wWEN2jECI/AAAAAAAABVE/IFn5yVqATYU/s1600/Squee.gif

I just got my Tenth Summon ticket (cuz i thought i could do a 10 pull) so i made my 10 pulls, I got some nice stuff, a few craft essences i wanted, a Robin Hood, and on the last pull, i got Orion. I am so happy i literally 'squeed'

Congrats!

I'm expecting to be lucky for next events~

By the way, we didn't get an event for Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya's movie that came out yesterday...

So sad....

[Hunter Noventa]

So...is there anything useful I can do with duplicate servants after I've maxed out their Noble Phantasm. I got a 6th Mozart, and the one I have leveled a bit has their NP at max level.

[Nerd-o-rama]

At that point, you can either use them for XP or Sell (Burn) them in the Shop for QP. Silvers also give Mana Prisms when burnt, and I think 4 and 5 stars give other bonuses but no one I know has gotten 6+ of one of those yet.

[Anarion]

At that point, you can either use them for XP or Sell (Burn) them in the Shop for QP. Silvers also give Mana Prisms when burnt, and I think 4 and 5 stars give other bonuses but no one I know has gotten 6+ of one of those yet.

You get rare prisms from selling gold servants, but at the moment, there's nothing you can even buy with them, so there's no point.

[Gastronomie]

You get rare prisms from selling gold servants, but at the moment, there's nothing you can even buy with them, so there's no point.Later on, you can use 1 Rare Prism to unlock a special shop where you can buy a special craft that increases the QP you get from fights by 2%. Merge 5 of them together and it becomes 10%.
During early gameplay, QP is rarely an issue, but once you start raising skill levels, you will want to get that craft ASAP.
However, be careful, because each craft of this type is sold for 1000 mana prisms. To get it to maximum you will need a whooping 5000 mana prisms, and it will take quite a lot of time to get there. (For the record, my Master Level is 129, I've logged in for approx. 200 days, and I'm still not there.)

Then again, 4-star and higher servants are rare, so I advise you not to sell them unless:
a) You already have multiple 4-star or 5-star servants of the same Class and NP type (as in, damage to single or multiple targets), and you are certain you will never use that particular 4-star Servant over them
b) You already have 2 or more Servants of the same name. The damage boost from increased NP level is highest when you raise it from 1 to 2, while the damage amount that increases from NP level 2 to 3 (or 3 to 4, or 4 to 5) is not that much.

[Yael]

Then again, 4-star and higher servants are rare, so I advise you not to sell them unless:
a) You already have multiple 4-star or 5-star servants of the same Class and NP type (as in, damage to single or multiple targets), and you are certain you will never use that particular 4-star Servant over them
b) You already have 2 or more Servants of the same name. The damage boost from increased NP level is highest when you raise it from 1 to 2, while the damage amount that increases from NP level 2 to 3 (or 3 to 4, or 4 to 5) is not that much.

The 3 to 5 is pretty big, but you need a lot to work that off (a full NP chain with 300% charged NP), so it's not worth unless you have NP gain shenanigans (ushi with the maids CE, Formal Craft, and else.)

So, yeah, not worth.

I've got sumanai, but I don't really think I'm using him, as I have Umu, and Altera as Saber AOE NP, so I'm considering burning him later on.

[ImperatorV]

I notice there's a Prisma Illya themed event going on in FGO Japan right now... I wonder if the English version will ever get magical girl Illya.

[Yael]

I notice there's a Prisma Illya themed event going on in FGO Japan right now... I wonder if the English version will ever get magical girl Illya.

We have to wait for the Prisma Corps event, probably in a year. We didn't get the event because it also holds a Strengthening Quest for Kuro-chan, and because you need a fully ascended Servant to get its Strengthening, it would be unfair just to get her and not be able to play the quests.

I am so hyped for the Illya corps event, as Kuro is a free servant, and being one of my favorite characters from the series, she's one I'm expecting (also she's higher in the tier list than Emiya, which I don't get why yet...)

Also, we're having a 1 Million Downloads campaign!


Link
(https://www.facebook.com/FateGO.USA/)Thanks to everyone's continuous support, Fate/Grand Order (English) has reached over 1 million downloads! To celebrate this occasion, we have prepared a special Facebook campaign!
During the campaign period, if THIS Facebook post reaches a certain amount of likes and shares, we will give away amazing prizes for all players!
-
For reaching 10,000 Likes...
Players will receive 18 Saint Quartz, 4 Summon Tickets, and 3 Golden Fruits!
For reaching 2,000 Shares...
Players will receive 10 Mana Prisms a day during a special period for up to 130 Mana Prisms!
* During the Distribution Period, you can receive up to all the above prizes when you log in for 13 consecutive days.
Distribution Period: 2017-09-07 04:00 - 09-21 03:59 UTC
* The first login bonus will be given out after 09-07 04:00 UTC.
* The next login bonuses will be given out at 4:00 UTC each day.
* The login bonuses can be claimed up to 13 times. However, depending on the time you start the game, that number may change.
-
AP Cost ½ Campaign will also commence! The AP Cost for Daily Quests will become ½ during the following period:
"Enter the Treasure Vault" AP Cost ½ Period: 2017-08-31 7:00 - 09-07 3:59 UTC
"Duel with the Three Knights" "Duel with the Four Cavalries" "Monster Hunting" AP Cost ½ Period: 2017-09-07 7:00 - 09-14 3:59 UTC
-
To celebrate the game reaching 1 million downloads, Limited Time Servant "★5 (SSR) Sakata Kintoki" will be available for the first time! Other servants included in the "1 Million Download Pickup Summon include "★4 (SR) Altria Pendragon [Alter]," "★4 (SR) Martha," and more!

The goal was achieved around two hours after the post was published, so we're having 1/2 AP for Ascension materials farm, and a chance to get Limited-Servant Kintoki (one of the best Berserkers as far as I know).

[ImperatorV]

...Do only people who already have accounts get the free stuff?

[Anarion]

...Do only people who already have accounts get the free stuff?

Daily giveaways happen on the day, so you have to have an account on that day. The start dash freebies are for every new account.

[Red Fel]

The goal was achieved around two hours after the post was published, so we're having 1/2 AP for Ascension materials farm, and a chance to get Limited-Servant Kintoki (one of the best Berserkers as far as I know).

Honestly, I'm less excited about Goldzerker (awesome though he may be, I aready have Zerkules and Zerkalot) than I am about the other features on that banner. 5-star Arturia, Attilla, Jeanne, Vlad, and Waver, and 4-star Saber Alter and Martha. Aside from Vlad, all of those fill a slot for me (because Saber Lily does not count and you all know it), and an increased chance to get them is a chance I'm willing to take. The only downside is having to choose a day, since apparently the increased rates for non-Goldzerker pick-up summons change from day to day; I'd probably choose Waver, because come on, kid's adorable.

EDIT: Speaking of, I finally got enough Monuments to pull a third Ascension on either Zerkules or Zerkalot. The latter has his NP at level 2, but the former is a car. Any suggestions as to who gets the Oscar?

[Blackhawk748]

Oooh Martha or Alter. I'm down for either of those.

In other news I have finally figured out my Orion team, cuz she needs a team. It's her with Be Elegant, Carmilla with the Extalia essence and Cursed arm Hassan. All the crits

[ImperatorV]

So, did my first summon and got entirely Lancers and Riders. Marie Antoinette, Alexander, Cu Chulainn and his prototype version, Ushiwakamaru, and Medusa. Does such a narrow range of class types make a reroll desirable, or will I be fine until I can get some more variety? I do notice Cu Chulainn and Marie Antoinette are both highly rated on the "tier lists," how much stock should I put in those?

EDIT: I've decided I like the characters I have for now, disregard reroll question.

[Silva Stormrage]

Honestly, I'm less excited about Goldzerker (awesome though he may be, I aready have Zerkules and Zerkalot) than I am about the other features on that banner. 5-star Arturia, Attilla, Jeanne, Vlad, and Waver, and 4-star Saber Alter and Martha. Aside from Vlad, all of those fill a slot for me (because Saber Lily does not count and you all know it), and an increased chance to get them is a chance I'm willing to take. The only downside is having to choose a day, since apparently the increased rates for non-Goldzerker pick-up summons change from day to day; I'd probably choose Waver, because come on, kid's adorable.

EDIT: Speaking of, I finally got enough Monuments to pull a third Ascension on either Zerkules or Zerkalot. The latter has his NP at level 2, but the former is a car. Any suggestions as to who gets the Oscar?

I suggest Heracles, the battle continuation really helps his survivability.

[Anarion]

So, did my first summon and got entirely Lancers and Riders. Marie Antoinette, Alexander, Cu Chulainn and his prototype version, Ushiwakamaru, and Medusa. Does such a narrow range of class types make a reroll desirable, or will I be fine until I can get some more variety? I do notice Cu Chulainn and Marie Antoinette are both highly rated on the "tier lists," how much stock should I put in those?

EDIT: I've decided I like the characters I have for now, disregard reroll question.

That's a perfectly fine team. I'd recommend that you try a pull on the Orion special summons with all your free newbie quartz before it goes away. Or alternately wait until the 1 million downloads event if you want one of the servants they're increasing the rates for more than Orion.

[ImperatorV]

That's a perfectly fine team. I'd recommend that you try a pull on the Orion special summons with all your free newbie quartz before it goes away. Or alternately wait until the 1 million downloads event if you want one of the servants they're increasing the rates for more than Orion.

I think I'll wait for one of the days with a saber rate-up, since I've heard good sabers are hard to come by.

[Hunter Noventa]

I think I'll wait for one of the days with a saber rate-up, since I've heard good sabers are hard to come by.

Sabers are hard to come by period. I have one, but I'm practically drowning in Berserkers and Assassins.

I'm debating when to summon though. Knowing my luck if I did so today I'd just get another Boudica or Robin Hood.

[Tono]

I did a 10 pull today because I just happened to hit 30 quartz. Got Sakata to replace the Lancelot I had gotten. So much better.

[Yael]

Welp, I spent 5 tickets and 9 quartz and my supply of the ultra rare Shinji CE is finally complete.

Seriously though, I just got the Illya CE and nothing else... I really wanted to pull a Saber Alter, it's kinda sad I didn't~ I still have 30 Quartz, but I'll save those and more for the Saber Wars Event~

This post, blue means sarcasm.

[ImperatorV]

Did the pickup 10-pull twice, was hoping for Saber Alter, or maybe hope against hope Altera or Kintoki. Got Jeanne and Lancelot. I think I'm happier with this outcome. Still need a saber though, and I spent all my quartz. As a new player I can get more, so it's not a big deal, but I was hoping to get that hole closed.

[Red Fel]

Did the pickup 10-pull twice, was hoping for Saber Alter, or maybe hope against hope Altera or Kintoki. Got Jeanne and Lancelot. I think I'm happier with this outcome. Still need a saber though, and I spent all my quartz. As a new player I can get more, so it's not a big deal, but I was hoping to get that hole closed.

Jeanne is amazingly good, frankly. Even better if you can counteract the stun effect of her NP. Fact is, despite the great high-rarity Sabers in the game, you can make due pretty nicely with Caesar - strong single-target NP, lots of party buffs.

Myself, I blew a bunch of tickets on these pickups, so far nothing. Now I'm waiting until Waver to do a 10-pull.

[Blackhawk748]

I'm waiting for Jeane or Saber Alter for my pull. I'd love to get Sherlock, but I don't think he's available yet and my Crits team is gonna be getting Halloween Elizabeth when she shows up, cuz she is an amazing Crit generator

[Red Fel]

Well, did another 1-pull tonight, because I'm weak. No Jeanne, but I did grab a Limited/Zero Over (+25% Buster cards), which is a pretty sweet upgrade.

Gonna save for Waver. This time, I really mean it. I hope.

[Gastronomie]

Gonna save for Waver. This time, I really mean it. I hope.Having played this game for 200 days, I can assure you that it's incredibly difficult to save quartz till the pick-up you want.

[Blackhawk748]

Well, I made my Jeanne pull. Got 2 With One Strike, a Shroud of Magdeline, and the 15 percent Buster card. Oh and 2 Mephistopheles. Used my summon and got a 3rd Mephistopheles, wow game thanks, cuz I just love having a stupid clown mage I don't want.

Still happy with the pull as the essence s are solid

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, I made my Jeanne pull. Got 2 With One Strike, a Shroud of Magdeline, and the 15 percent Buster card. Oh and 2 Mephistopheles. Used my summon and got a 3rd Mephistopheles, wow game thanks, cuz I just love having a stupid clown mage I don't want.

Still happy with the pull as the essence s are solid

I still only have Julius as my only Saber, who I don't even want to to touch when there are tons of cute girls dangit.

Meanwhile every attempt to friend pull just keeps piling more casters, assassins and berserkers on me.

[Red Fel]

I still only have Julius as my only Saber, who I don't even want to to touch when there are tons of cute girls dangit.

Meanwhile every attempt to friend pull just keeps piling more casters, assassins and berserkers on me.

Probably because those are the bulk of 1-star and 2-star cards. There are no Sabers below 3-star, and only one Archer (Arash). I think there are maybe one or two low-rarity Riders? (I know Blackbeard is one.) Which basically leaves Casters, Assassins, and Berserkers aplenty.

3-stars are pretty precious in the Pal Pull, perhaps is my point.

Back onto the waiting, it looks like I won't have to wait much Liang-er - today's featured banner guest is Vlad, which means that tomorrow's is Waver. Chances of actually pulling Waver are low, but hey, I'll take my shot.

[Anarion]

Well, I made my Jeanne pull. Got 2 With One Strike, a Shroud of Magdeline, and the 15 percent Buster card. Oh and 2 Mephistopheles. Used my summon and got a 3rd Mephistopheles, wow game thanks, cuz I just love having a stupid clown mage I don't want.

Still happy with the pull as the essence s are solid

Mephistopheles isn't great, but everything has a use. Just hang onto him for some future level with a bunch of assassins and he might be useful for you.


Probably because those are the bulk of 1-star and 2-star cards. There are no Sabers below 3-star, and only one Archer (Arash). I think there are maybe one or two low-rarity Riders? (I know Blackbeard is one.) Which basically leaves Casters, Assassins, and Berserkers aplenty.


There's a couple of 2-star lancers, which you forgot. But by and large you're correct that you don't see the knight classes at low rarity. The Fate series has always had something of an unspoken rule that the three knights (Saber, Lancer, Archer) are superior in combat ability to the other classes, Caster/Rider/Assassin each have some sort of specialty to make up for their inferior fighting, and Berserker is pure power but giving up everything else.

[Blackhawk748]

Mephistopheles isn't great, but everything has a use. Just hang onto him for some future level with a bunch of assassins and he might be useful for you.

Except I'm already quite happy with Caster Cu and Shakespeare, so I don't need him.

[Red Fel]

There's a couple of 2-star lancers, which you forgot.

To be fair, Lancers tend to be forgettable. ("You're not human!")


But by and large you're correct that you don't see the knight classes at low rarity. The Fate series has always had something of an unspoken rule that the three knights (Saber, Lancer, Archer) are superior in combat ability to the other classes, Caster/Rider/Assassin each have some sort of specialty to make up for their inferior fighting, and Berserker is pure power but giving up everything else.

Not exactly unspoken - Servants have ratings, as in actual attribute ratings, and Sabers and Lancers are consistently high in almost all ratings. Saber's base container ratings, if I remember correctly, are A in Strength, B in Endurance and Agility, C in Mana, and D in Luck; Lancers are just slightly below that. Archers are not traditionally as high (I think the base container ratings are C in Strength, Endurance, Agility, and E in Mana and Luck), but still solid. Servants outside of the Three Knights have abilities which compensate for their lower attributes - Assassins have Presence Concealment, Casters have Territory Creation, Berserkers have Madness Enhancement, and Riders have... well, they have a good Riding attribute. But the Three Knights are known for having generally superior attributes, and Saber in particular generally gets the absolute highest. That last one is explicitly stated - particularly in Fate/Zero, if memory serves, people keep talking about "the power of a Saber" and "Sabers are naturally high in all attributes" and so forth.

Oddly, FGO puts Saber > Lancer, when it really should be Saber > Caster, given a Saber's naturally high magic resistance and a Caster's traditional lack of melee defense.

EDIT: And Waver banner is up... Alas, no Waver. I did, however, get a Why did you say that name?! and two With One Strike CEs. With One Strike is kind of a... niche CE - there are better ways to boost Quick cards, but Sure Hit is potentially useful against certain enemies.

Still, I have a new Rider, who replaces Medusa on my Support list. (You'll still have my heart, Medusa.) While Medusa is a more capable crit-farmer and damage-dealer, Martha is a pretty solid supporter. Not unhappy about that.

And when Iskandar comes along, I can replace Martha. Because the King of Conquerors will always be king of my heart. (Except for you, Medusa.)

[Hunter Noventa]

Well I dropped the quartz on the updated draw and got...3 copies of Gilles. who has a self-debuffing NP.

...

why?

I mean I got some 4* craft essences too, but it's not like i can use those and still be able to have a full party.

[Yael]

Well I dropped the quartz on the updated draw and got...3 copies of Gilles. who has a self-debuffing NP.

...

why?

I mean I got some 4* craft essences too, but it's not like i can use those and still be able to have a full party.

I've rolled three Heaven's Feel by now... I just want a 4* servant... Salter-chan... :smallfrown:

[ImperatorV]

My luck continues to be absurd, with 60 quartz netting me Martha, Sakata Kintoki, and a Kaleidoscope. Still no sabers though.

EDIT: And after doing some free quests and 1-pulls, I get Altria Alter. Weeeee looks like I'm done with this pickup.

[Yael]

It was like 5am (time I usually wake up so I can make it in time to school).
Open Fate/GO, got a free ticket but I didn't roll the day before.

I rolled the ticket and went to the washroom.
https://img.neoseeker.com/mgv/21074/74/114/utw_carnival_phantasm_08_bdh2641080p_flac9ad4509cm kv_snapshot_0756_20111117_100314_display.jpg

So this is what joy feels like.

[Anarion]

My 10 pull had 3x the new 3 star essence, a couple 4 star essences, and no gold servants. :smallfrown:

[Tono]

There is one servant I have not seen or pulled. It bugs the hell out of me to have that 59/60. And Google says I can't get that last until next chapter. Hate.

[Blackhawk748]

So i just got my free Summon ticket today (i had blown the other 6 i had had the day before and got nothing to show for it) so, on a whim, i decided to use it. And i get Vladd. I'm quite happy with this.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well looks like I'm stuck grinding for a while, Jeanne Alter utterly annihilated my team in Orleans. Must be nice to resist everything. Jerk.

[Anarion]

There is one servant I have not seen or pulled. It bugs the hell out of me to have that 59/60. And Google says I can't get that last until next chapter. Hate.

If you've faced the shadow version of Euryale, the slot will be there in your list, it just won't have a portrait.


Well looks like I'm stuck grinding for a while, Jeanne Alter utterly annihilated my team in Orleans. Must be nice to resist everything. Jerk.

Bring berserkers. They take the same damage berserkers do from anything else, but they also deal their boosted berserker damage to Jeanne, and can kill her at a good enough clip to win the battle.

[Yael]

Bring berserkers. They take the same damage berserkers do from anything else, but they also deal their boosted berserker damage to Jeanne, and can kill her at a good enough clip to win the battle.

I actually did this. I have a Level 90 Heracles in my friend list, which I used to pass on to the Saber Alter Interlude Quest (1st).

I am now eager to get Jeanne Alter, someday...

[Nerd-o-rama]

I also got please-step-on-me-Saber as a random ticket pull. And then nothing but CEs from a 10 pull to try and get Kintoki or Vlad. This game, man.

Also recently picked up Martha and Stheno, so I'm steadily filling out my golds. Also I have way too many pretty Riders and not enough XP.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well I did a 10x on the Fuyuki summon and got...4 dupe servants and Lu Bu. Who had some glitched intro text. But has a good NP, so I will pursue.

On the plus side, Medea's NP is now level 4. On the downside, still no cute Sabers.

Now I have to figure out if I can get enough Quartz for another 10 pull before the banner vanishes.

[Red Fel]

Well I did a 10x on the Fuyuki summon and got...4 dupe servants and Lu Bu. Who had some glitched intro text. But has a good NP, so I will pursue.

On the plus side, Medea's NP is now level 4. On the downside, still no cute Sabers.

Now I have to figure out if I can get enough Quartz for another 10 pull before the banner vanishes.

That's no glitch. That's supposed to reflect how most Berserkers speak - unintelligibly.

Unfortunately, this game has decided to buck the trend with Berserkers like Spartacus, Vlad, Kiyohime, Tamamo... Honestly, there are more intelligible Berserkers than unintelligible ones. At least some of the semi-intelligible ones are still somewhat incomprehensible, like Eric (inarticulate roaring) or Caligula ("Offer..." "Beauty..." "Nero..."). But then you have the ones who will straight-up carry on a conversation. I don't care if you define yandere or "sado mode activate" as Berserker-level crazy, Madness Enhancement should not work that way.

Side note, ever noticed that Lancelot has precisely one semi-intelligible line? When he uses his NP, that is. ("Arrrrr.... thurrrrrrr...") That's a nice touch.

With respect to the Fuyuki banner, I'm passing on that. Tempting as it is to get a dupe Heracles, I know full well I'm getting bubkes on this banner. Saving for the next instead.

[Hunter Noventa]

That's no glitch. That's supposed to reflect how most Berserkers speak - unintelligibly.

Unfortunately, this game has decided to buck the trend with Berserkers like Spartacus, Vlad, Kiyohime, Tamamo... Honestly, there are more intelligible Berserkers than unintelligible ones. At least some of the semi-intelligible ones are still somewhat incomprehensible, like Eric (inarticulate roaring) or Caligula ("Offer..." "Beauty..." "Nero..."). But then you have the ones who will straight-up carry on a conversation. I don't care if you define yandere or "sado mode activate" as Berserker-level crazy, Madness Enhancement should not work that way.

Side note, ever noticed that Lancelot has precisely one semi-intelligible line? When he uses his NP, that is. ("Arrrrr.... thurrrrrrr...") That's a nice touch.

With respect to the Fuyuki banner, I'm passing on that. Tempting as it is to get a dupe Heracles, I know full well I'm getting bubkes on this banner. Saving for the next instead.

Ah I see. Well I finished France and got a third Kiyohime which is nice. Is there somewhere we can see what's coming out so I can know if I want to wait or not on banners?

[Red Fel]

Ah I see. Well I finished France and got a third Kiyohime which is nice. Is there somewhere we can see what's coming out so I can know if I want to wait or not on banners?

Well, the FGO wiki makes projections for global based on when events dropped in JP. You can find the event page here (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Event_List_(US)).

Their projections for upcoming events include:
Okeanos release: This is the new Chapter. I don't think it comes with a banner.
Halloween Event: In addition to the usual token-store goodies, the banner features Tamamo no Mae (Caster 5), Tamamo Cat (Berserker 4), Carmilla (Assassin 4), Darius (Berserker 3), and Mephistopheles (Caster 3). The token shop also sells a Halloween Elizabeth Bathory (Caster 4).
100 Day Anniversary: Bunch of login treats.
GUDAGUDA Honnouji Event: This introduces an event limited Servant, Okita Souji (Saber 5) available on the banner. Banner also features EMIYA (Archer 4), Cu Chuhainn (Lancer 3), Medusa (Rider 3), and Mephistopheles (Caster 3). Additionally, earn enough points during the event to receive Oda Nobunaga (Archer 4).
So, that.

[Yael]

Well, the FGO wiki makes projections for global based on when events dropped in JP. You can find the event page here (http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Event_List_(US)).

Their projections for upcoming events include:
Okeanos release: This is the new Chapter. I don't think it comes with a banner.
It does, with a rate up of Francis Drake, if I recall correctly.https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/8/83/Okeanosevent.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/680?cb=20151030090237

Halloween Event: In addition to the usual token-store goodies, the banner features Tamamo no Mae (Caster 5), Tamamo Cat (Berserker 4), Carmilla (Assassin 4), Darius (Berserker 3), and Mephistopheles (Caster 3). The token shop also sells a Halloween Elizabeth Bathory (Caster 4).
I am hyped for the free Elizabeth Bathory~
Also, materials.

GUDAGUDA Honnouji Event: This introduces an event limited Servant, Okita Souji (Saber 5) available on the banner. Banner also features EMIYA (Archer 4), Cu Chuhainn (Lancer 3), Medusa (Rider 3), and Mephistopheles (Caster 3). Additionally, earn enough points during the event to receive Oda Nobunaga (Archer 4).
So, that.

Sad thing about the Honnouji event, is that it's probably gonna be delayed up until a proper translation of a certain comic is made. Something like that was told during an interview last week or so.

But I do really want NOBU and Sakura Saber :) (saving quartz especifically for her.)


Also, the first event next year should be the Saber Wars (X, I'm aiming for you!!!!!)

[Blackhawk748]

Ya, the talking Berserker thing bugs me as Beowulf is supposed to be able to do that and it's one of the things that make him special

Also hyped for Crit Bathory and Oda, gonna work mu rear off for that

[Red Fel]

It does, with a rate up of Francis Drake, if I recall correctly.https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/8/83/Okeanosevent.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/680?cb=20151030090237

Oooh, right! Forgot about that!

Don't get me wrong, Big Red will always be my favorite Rider, but Francis Drake is straight-up OP. Her NP generation is incredibly solid. I really, really ought to pull on that banner.

[Hunter Noventa]

GUDAGUDA Honnouji Event: This introduces an event limited Servant, Okita Souji (Saber 5) available on the banner. Banner also features EMIYA (Archer 4), Cu Chuhainn (Lancer 3), Medusa (Rider 3), and Mephistopheles (Caster 3). Additionally, earn enough points during the event to receive Oda Nobunaga (Archer 4).[/list]
So, that.

I saw 'Honnouji' and the first thing I thought of was 'Kill la Kill Crossover?!'

And I just realized I can turn Mana Prisms into summon tickets. I had 100+ Mana Prisms. 5 Summon Tickets on the Fuyuki summon got me a second Prototype Cu, a second Boudica, Alexander...And freaking Emiya. Heck yeah!

[Tsuzurao]

It does, with a rate up of Francis Drake, if I recall correctly.https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/8/83/Okeanosevent.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/680?cb=20151030090237

I am hyped for the free Elizabeth Bathory~
Also, materials.


Sad thing about the Honnouji event, is that it's probably gonna be delayed up until a proper translation of a certain comic is made. Something like that was told during an interview last week or so.

But I do really want NOBU and Sakura Saber :) (saving quartz especifically for her.)


Also, the first event next year should be the Saber Wars (X, I'm aiming for you!!!!!)
I don't recall them saying that they'd necessarily push back the Nobunaga event, just that they have to work out how to handle translation of something that's so reference-heavy toward a gag comic series that hasn't been translated (similarly, they have to work out how to deal with references towards Fate/Extra CCC in the Epic of Remnant Extra Chapter event way down the road). There was a big blow-up about that whole thing where people assumed the worst result, but the reddit user who announced the interview did clear up some things later.



That's no glitch. That's supposed to reflect how most Berserkers speak - unintelligibly.

Unfortunately, this game has decided to buck the trend with Berserkers like Spartacus, Vlad, Kiyohime, Tamamo... Honestly, there are more intelligible Berserkers than unintelligible ones. At least some of the semi-intelligible ones are still somewhat incomprehensible, like Eric (inarticulate roaring) or Caligula ("Offer..." "Beauty..." "Nero..."). But then you have the ones who will straight-up carry on a conversation. I don't care if you define yandere or "sado mode activate" as Berserker-level crazy, Madness Enhancement should not work that way.

Side note, ever noticed that Lancelot has precisely one semi-intelligible line? When he uses his NP, that is. ("Arrrrr.... thurrrrrrr...") That's a nice touch.

With respect to the Fuyuki banner, I'm passing on that. Tempting as it is to get a dupe Heracles, I know full well I'm getting bubkes on this banner. Saving for the next instead.


Ya, the talking Berserker thing bugs me as Beowulf is supposed to be able to do that and it's one of the things that make him special

Also hyped for Crit Bathory and Oda, gonna work mu rear off for that
There was also Elizabeth Bathory when she was a Berserker in Fate/Extra CCC. In both her case and Beowulf's, they have a Madness Enhancement skill at such a low rank that it does little more than numb them to pain.

As for others, it's a consistent thing that anyone with Madness Enhancement at Rank EX has kinda gone past the 'too maddened to communicate' line and landed in the zone of 'seemingly able to communicate, but become impossible to reason with when the subject of their madness is involved'. Notable example available in English at present being Kiyohime, who managed a state of madness so intense that she somehow transformed into a dragon! And she doesn't even have any sort of draconic blood in her ancestry or any sort of enchanted artifact to explain it - her madness just went that far.

As for other ranks, the degree of rationality varies on the rank of Madness Enhancement. Pretty much anywhere from Rank E- up to Rank C means they can think close to normally, but towards the C range, they might have some distinct 'crazy' to them, with Lancelot honestly being the most extreme result you get from a rank C. Once you hit Rank B, you usually start seeing significant degradation in communication (Asterios' childish and half-broken speech, Eric Bloodaxe's weirdness - though he's noted to be playing up his madness some to avoid getting on the bad side of his wife's spirit, who is haunting him even as a Servant), and you start seeing wordless roars between Ranks B and A. Caligula can squeeze out words slowly with effort, despite being at Rank A+ (possibly a quirk of his madness being literal lunacy from a Moon Goddess? I mean, his Madness drops off entirely the one time you encounter him somewhere that 'the Moon's influence cannot reach').

Also, keep in mind that the original Japanese term for Madness Enhancement is a pun between 'Madness' and 'Empowerment', so there might be shifts in how it's ranked between different Servants based on which meaning is given more emphasis?

Finally, there are a couple of other words that Berserker Lancelot can barely manage to say.
If you talk to him in the Room on your birthday, one of the things he may say is "Birth...day", in English.
Second, in the Room, one of his lines (listed on his voice list as 'about the Holy Grail'), he'll say "Gala... ha...d".
Also, back to saying "Ar...thur!", it's what he says during his Extra Attack, when using his Noble Phantasm, and are his Room lines regarding 'what he likes' and 'what he dislikes' (the latter two each in a different tone).

[Red Fel]

There was also Elizabeth Bathory when she was a Berserker in Fate/Extra CCC. In both her case and Beowulf's, they have a Madness Enhancement skill at such a low rank that it does little more than numb them to pain.

Yeah... I get that Arturia is the mascot and all, so they have about a dozen of her, but having a multitude of Bathory feels a bit iffy to me. I mean, she's an Assassin, a Lancer, a Caster, a Berserker... and a pretty nasty piece of work. It's a bit "ew," frankly.


As for others, it's a consistent thing that anyone with Madness Enhancement at Rank EX has kinda gone past the 'too maddened to communicate' line and landed in the zone of 'seemingly able to communicate, but become impossible to reason with when the subject of their madness is involved'. Notable example available in English at present being Kiyohime, who managed a state of madness so intense that she somehow transformed into a dragon! And she doesn't even have any sort of draconic blood in her ancestry or any sort of enchanted artifact to explain it - her madness just went that far.

Whoa, whoa, back up. The story of Kiyo actually does involve her turning into a dragon, folklore-wise, so it makes sense that her advancement would do the same, irrespective of Madness Enhancement. Rather, what qualifies her for Berserker is the fact that, again according to the folklore, she went crazy enough to turn into a dragon. Historical crazy frequently translates across to Berserker crazy.

With respect to Madness Enhancement EX, or EX ratings generally, an EX rating isn't so much "greater" than an A rating as it is "cannot be measured." This was established in Fate/Extra CCC, when Sakura is comparing security levels to "Servant stat-measurements."


Security levels should be the same as Servant stat-measurements. The strongest security level is A, the weakest is E, and there’s EX as an exception, but…

So, basically, Madness Enhancement EX isn't a stronger Madness Enhancement than Madness Enhancement A; it's something on an entirely different, immeasurable scale. Hence, Kiyohime, who has an EX stat, isn't under greater influence than, say, Lancelot (C rating), but rather is under an entirely different influence.

That influence, apparently, being concentrated supernatural yandere.

This is supported by a list on the Type-Moon wiki (http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Mad_Enhancement#Mad_Enhancement) - all of the examples of Madness Enhancement EX are capable of some degree of reason, but instead possessed of some other kind of derangement, whether it's Kiyohime's yandere nature, Vlad's vampiric tendencies, or Nightingale's sociopathic sadism.


As for other ranks, the degree of rationality varies on the rank of Madness Enhancement. Pretty much anywhere from Rank E- up to Rank C means they can think close to normally, but towards the C range, they might have some distinct 'crazy' to them, with Lancelot honestly being the most extreme result you get from a rank C. Once you hit Rank B, you usually start seeing significant degradation in communication (Asterios' childish and half-broken speech, Eric Bloodaxe's weirdness - though he's noted to be playing up his madness some to avoid getting on the bad side of his wife's spirit, who is haunting him even as a Servant), and you start seeing wordless roars between Ranks B and A. Caligula can squeeze out words slowly with effort, despite being at Rank A+ (possibly a quirk of his madness being literal lunacy from a Moon Goddess? I mean, his Madness drops off entirely the one time you encounter him somewhere that 'the Moon's influence cannot reach').

That's fair, I think. Although, according to the list I cited earlier, they seem to vary somewhat - A ranks seem to be generally beyond reason, with certain limitations (for example, Caligula able to restrain himself when confronted with elements of Rome), whereas C or D ranks seem to apply more to mental simplicity than madness, like with Tamamo Cat or Frankenstein. And in case of E ranks, it's less of a persistent condition and more of an "on/off" switch.

But yeah. Fair point.


Finally, there are a couple of other words that Berserker Lancelot can barely manage to say.
If you talk to him in the Room on your birthday, one of the things he may say is "Birth...day", in English.
Second, in the Room, one of his lines (listed on his voice list as 'about the Holy Grail'), he'll say "Gala... ha...d".
Also, back to saying "Ar...thur!", it's what he says during his Extra Attack, when using his Noble Phantasm, and are his Room lines regarding 'what he likes' and 'what he dislikes' (the latter two each in a different tone).

I could understand the fixation on Arthur (friend, lord, rival in love) and Galahad (illegitimate son, successful seeker of the Grail). But the fact that he can actually say "Birthday" is almost cute.

He's still not an automobile, though.

[Hunter Noventa]

I had a nice stroke of luck in today's free friend pull and managed to land Medusa. I mean, I already have Ushiwakamaru for a solid Rider, but Medusa has more skills and AoE NP.

I also ascended Medea for the first time too.

[Yael]

Okeanos has been announced to be released next week!

Also, 10 free Saint Quartz.

Anyone rolling for Drake?

[ImperatorV]

Very excited about the new chapter, and free SQ is always good. I'm currently wondering how much I should be saving for the Prisma Illya event - yes I know it's like a year off, but to have a high chance at getting a specific rate-up 5 star you need like 600 quartz, and I'm F2P. I keep trying to figure out about how much SQ total I'd be able to get over the course of a year-ish time period.

In other news I hate ascension materials. I've been unable to find a single chaos claw and ghost lantern farming takes forever.

[Yael]

Very excited about the new chapter, and free SQ is always good. I'm currently wondering how much I should be saving for the Prisma Illya event - yes I know it's like a year off, but to have a high chance at getting a specific rate-up 5 star you need like 600 quartz, and I'm F2P. I keep trying to figure out about how much SQ total I'd be able to get over the course of a year-ish time period.

I am in a bad spot. The Gilgamesh banner took all my quartz from the very start, so I'm around the 60's~ And among the close events coming up are the Saber Wars and Honnouji Guda Guda Order, which both feature a 5* I really want... Sad life, here...


In other news I hate ascension materials. I've been unable to find a single chaos claw and ghost lantern farming takes forever.

Tell me that, took me four days to get 2 tooths, and I'm still 2 claws short to ascend Saber Alter, spent two days just trying to get those claws doing 7AP quests... :smallfrown::smallfrown::smallfrown:

[Blackhawk748]

Im stockpiling Quartz to get the special Saber during the Nobunaga event. Otherwise i'll be getting Caster Bathory at Halloween so im good for the moment.

[ImperatorV]

Yeah Okita does look good... I have to save my quartz though... Maybe my insane luck will pull through again if I do just a few pulls.

[Tono]

I'm saving most of my quartz for when best girl is released NA. I will have Astolfo.

[Yael]

I'm saving most of my quartz for when best girl is released NA. I will have Astolfo Ishtar.

Fixed that for you.

Seriously though, if I don't get X or Ishtar I'll cry :smallfrown:

[Red Fel]

Anyone rolling for Drake?

I got to, baby, I got to.


In other news I hate ascension materials. I've been unable to find a single chaos claw and ghost lantern farming takes forever.

Tell me about it. I've been sitting in the Dark Forest in Germania just trying to get one of those things. Need a bunch - plus Berserker Monuments aplenty - before Heracles will finally be max.

If there's one thing on which this game is totally unforgiving, it's material farming.

[Blackhawk748]

I'm experiencing this right now trying to get Caster pieces for Cu

[Anarion]

I'm saving my quartz for Iskander. Or at least I plan to. We'll have to see what happens, my self-control is not that strong.

[Tono]

If there's one thing on which this game is totally unforgiving, it's material farming.

Supposedly it gets much much better. Like, actually worth your time better.

[Yael]

Supposedly it gets much much better. Like, actually worth your time better.

It does. I'm not entirely sure as to when, but daily misions will feature [class] training ground, with 50-60% drop rate on [Class] Monuments, 70-99% on [Class] Pieces, and a superior increase in [Class] gems.

All these misions similar to the current ones in term of cost: 10-40 AP.

Here's a graph of the current drop rates from Japan, and the second tab helps with USA. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_SlTjrVRTgHgfS7sRqx4CeJMqlz687HdSlYqiW-JvQA/htmlview?usp=drive_web&sle=true#)

[Tsuzurao]

Yeah... I get that Arturia is the mascot and all, so they have about a dozen of her, but having a multitude of Bathory feels a bit iffy to me. I mean, she's an Assassin, a Lancer, a Caster, a Berserker... and a pretty nasty piece of work. It's a bit "ew," frankly.
Elizabeth has a bit of an issue with needing attention - the whole 'held in arrest in her room, and eventually dying in there while being ignored by her captors' thing left her with a major issue with regards to 'not being paid attention to'. As such, she's prone to trying to make appearances whenever she can in F/GO, especially the Halloween events, where Halloween Elizabeth (Caster) and Brave Elizabeth (Saber) appear.

Carmilla (Assassin) is specifically Elizabeth in adulthood, borrowing the name of a vampire from a novel inspired by the tales of 'The Blood Countess', as opposed to all other versions being her at ~14, before she committed her crimes.

And Berserker Elizabeth was a class-change she performed in CCC (while it adjusted her NP, it didn't change much else about her compared to her Lancer self). And on the note of Liz and CCC, note that Elizabeth as we see her in F/GO is her after a significant turn in her character development that happened in CCC (basically, she recognizes that the way she lived was wrong, she wants to do/be better, and wants nothing to do with the 'Elizabeth Bathory who grew up to become the infamous Blood Countess', but knows that she can't exactly undo what she already did in life).




Whoa, whoa, back up. The story of Kiyo actually does involve her turning into a dragon, folklore-wise, so it makes sense that her advancement would do the same, irrespective of Madness Enhancement. Rather, what qualifies her for Berserker is the fact that, again according to the folklore, she went crazy enough to turn into a dragon. Historical crazy frequently translates across to Berserker crazy.
I'm aware of the legend of Kiyohime - have been since before F/GO released in Japan, even. The point I was making is one that F/GO notes - she managed to turn into a dragon despite having no connection to anything draconic before she did it. She didn't have some sort of involvement with a magical artifact (like Fafnir), and she didn't have any dragon ancestry (compare to Elizabeth Bathory, who in the Fate franchise did have a little bit of distant dragon blood, hence part of why she appears with horns and a tail in Fate works) - she just turned into a dragon out of yandere craziness alone.


With respect to Madness Enhancement EX, or EX ratings generally, an EX rating isn't so much "greater" than an A rating as it is "cannot be measured." This was established in Fate/Extra CCC, when Sakura is comparing security levels to "Servant stat-measurements."



So, basically, Madness Enhancement EX isn't a stronger Madness Enhancement than Madness Enhancement A; it's something on an entirely different, immeasurable scale. Hence, Kiyohime, who has an EX stat, isn't under greater influence than, say, Lancelot (C rating), but rather is under an entirely different influence.

That influence, apparently, being concentrated supernatural yandere.

This is supported by a list on the Type-Moon wiki (http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Mad_Enhancement#Mad_Enhancement) - all of the examples of Madness Enhancement EX are capable of some degree of reason, but instead possessed of some other kind of derangement, whether it's Kiyohime's yandere nature, Vlad's vampiric tendencies, or Nightingale's sociopathic sadism.
Actually, EX doesn't represent 'immeasurable', so much as it means 'an extremely high outlier data point', one that would require a reformatting of the Rank system to actually accurately measure. Nasu has given us an example when comparing two particular Noble Phantasms. If, on a scale, Excalibur (Rank A++), had its output measured as 300... then Ea's maximum output mode, Enuma Elish (Rank EX), on that same scale, would measure as 4,000. It's just not feasible to add enough ranks to the scale to measure a point so far above everything else, so it's summed up as Rank EX.

Fate/Extra CCC, in the same scene that refers to EX as 'an exception', tells us what something truly 'immeasurable' comes up as: Rank ★.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Hello, thought i would pop in here since i've been into the game for almost 2 months now.

if you want to add me to your friend's list my ID is 939,415,749 tag: NeoPhoenix.

support settup
Nero Claudius 3/4/- lv 70 NP:2
Artoria Alter 3/3/- lv 50 NP:1
Robin Hood 3/3/- lv 44 NP:5
Cu Chulainn lancer 4/4/- lv 40 NP:5
Medusa 2/4/- lv 40 NP:5
Zhuge Liang 1/1/- lv 70 NP:2 (I swear blue caster gems don't exist)
Jing Ke 3/3/- lv 40 NP:5
Kiuohime 4/4/- lv 40 NP:5

I know 5 of those are friend point drops but this game messes with me. besides Zhuge Liang and Marie Antoinette, this game only gives me sabers for rare servants. I have every 4 star saber, seriously.