Fate/Grand Order IV - Are you my Master? [Rerun - Lite]

[Velaryon]

I think this event would have been better if it was a few days shorter and required about half the materials. I didn't care about the story because I don't like MHX, but I am glad to get Saber Lily and I've made great progress on several of my servants, so overall it's not bad.

[Resileaf]

Think fast! Part 2 starts tomorrow after maintenance is over!

[Velaryon]

Haven't gotten started on the new content yet, but I did discover that Martha got her much needed animation update with this patch.

[Kitten Champion]

Haven't gotten started on the new content yet, but I did discover that Martha got her much needed animation update with this patch.

Oh~

Finally the lazy light-ball animations are almost a thing of the past. Still waiting for Marie Antoinette.

[ellenate]

everything is so new and shiny... kind of felt like i was starting a new game.

dante's animation update also took me by surprise.

[Saambell]

Did a yolo roll on the Anastasia banner. Didn't get Ana or Nyalter. Did FINALLY get Tomoe despite whaling on the Shimosa and Setsubun banners. So that was worth rolling for. Nearly got Umu Bride to level 100, just need to use one more grail. And Ozy is sitting at 96, just need to wait for Tuesday for more rider embers. The high bond points from these new story missions gave me the last push to get Bedivire to Bond 10 for his CE. Now to grind Umu Bride and Lion King to Bond 10. Over all, a good day. Hope to have my NP 5 Ozy at level 100 before the end of April. If I ignore the story, I could have him done by the end of the month. God King of the Sun vs Grand Duchess of Ice. I will bring Light to this frozen land.

[TherianTheorist]

Just starting the new chapter tonight. Might come back and edit with opinions on it.

Tempted to grail Karna for the lostbelts, since I really like the Indian servants, but the QP cost is far beyond what I can afford for now.

[spectralphoenix]

Liking the new story chapter.

Spoiler: Thoughts so far (as of the end of Section 14)

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The servants all seem likeable enough, though having Atalante's giant pig head shoulderpad staring at me is kind of off-putting. I might consider using one of her earlier ascensions' sprites once I get mine leveled. Interestingly, Berserker Alter Atalante seems nicer than Regular Atalante. Anastasia in particular is growing on me a lot since the prologue, where I had her pegged as more of a murderous kuudere type. Avicebron seems alright, though I'm kind of dubious about his actual combat usability. The humans are a little less endearing - I know Goredolf's role is to be obnoxious, but I keep wondering where Lev Lainur is when a bureaucrat needs to be tossed into a black hole. And it would be nice to be able to tell Emo Kid off instead of just letting him go on about how much better a job he would have done if he'd been there. For that matter, were there any casualties after the protagonist started rayshifting other the Director and Romani? Hard to imagine Team A could have prevented either of those, given the circumstances.

All in all, though, I am greatly enjoying the story. The new monsters don't seem anything special, though that Hydra shutting down my skills just about every turn looks to be a pain. Kind of cool having the mission where you did a different fight depending on what you chose in the story section.

Also, Mini Da Vinci is adorable.

Drew NP2 Atalante Alter and Avicebron in 22 pulls. I'm kind of tempted to keep going in hopes of getting Anastasia, but I'm trying to save for Skadi and the summer servants, especially now that I don't really need any more Nyalters.

[Resileaf]

Liking the new story chapter.

Spoiler: Thoughts so far (as of the end of Section 14)

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The servants all seem likeable enough, though having Atalante's giant pig head shoulderpad staring at me is kind of off-putting. I might consider using one of her earlier ascensions' sprites once I get mine leveled. Interestingly, Berserker Alter Atalante seems nicer than Regular Atalante. Anastasia in particular is growing on me a lot since the prologue, where I had her pegged as more of a murderous kuudere type. Avicebron seems alright, though I'm kind of dubious about his actual combat usability. The humans are a little less endearing - I know Goredolf's role is to be obnoxious, but I keep wondering where Lev Lainur is when a bureaucrat needs to be tossed into a black hole. And it would be nice to be able to tell Emo Kid off instead of just letting him go on about how much better a job he would have done if he'd been there. For that matter, were there any casualties after the protagonist started rayshifting other the Director and Romani? Hard to imagine Team A could have prevented either of those, given the circumstances.

All in all, though, I am greatly enjoying the story. The new monsters don't seem anything special, though that Hydra shutting down my skills just about every turn looks to be a pain. Kind of cool having the mission where you did a different fight depending on what you chose in the story section.

Also, Mini Da Vinci is adorable.

Drew NP2 Atalante Alter and Avicebron in 22 pulls. I'm kind of tempted to keep going in hopes of getting Anastasia, but I'm trying to save for Skadi and the summer servants, especially now that I don't really need any more Nyalters.

Spoiler

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Nyantalante's more agreeable attitude is lorewise because she has a more beastial mindset where if you are on her side, she's very friendly. She is however extremely stubborn and will never change her mind, so no matter how rational you are with your arguments, she works completely on emotions and will never be swayed.

Goredolf apparently gets better the further you go in Part 2. We'll see how that goes.

Kadoc refers to the lives lost in the Singularities. Repairing the Singularities may return human history back to normal, it doesn't save the lives of the people who die during the Singularity. Those people die in normal history anyway, just for a different reason than in the Singularity. So he's probably more refering to like... The fall of Babylon during that chapter, or something. Honestly his argument is bullcrap, he and the rest of the Crypters are jealous as hell that you stole the glory of saving the world from them.

[Leon]

Was pleasantly surprised to see Kiyohime received a update to her animations, now just need Caster Cu Chulainn to get some animation love.

[Kitten Champion]

I really like Kiyohime's visual update now that I've had a chance to try it. It's very flashy and explosive, now makes her feel less like a Caster and more like a fiery Berserker.

I wish they'd put more of these updates on the actual News front page. Aside from Mash's they're all just tucked away in a maintenance summary.

[Resileaf]

I could finish the Lostbelt right now.

But Bannerlord is out and I have to lose myself in Calradia.

[Saambell]

I've been ignoring the lostbelt in favour of grinding a few servants to level 100. Then i got several others to get to 80s and 90s. Story can wait.

[Resileaf]

Cosmos has been successfully denied, Lostbelt 1 over for me. I may have known most of the details ahead of time, it was still a pretty tearful experience.

[DaedalusMkV]

Greetings, all. I got into FGO back during the forum outage. For some reason never thought to actually check whether there were people playing on here. I've been a fan of Fate for a long time now, which is probably what gets me through all the mobile game stuff I'm not a big fan of. Anyways, just wanted to check in and say hello. I'm still new enough that I doubt I'll be of any use to you guys any time soon, but feel free to toss a friend request at me if you want an opportunity to leech some FP from me, or feel like gaining access to a pool of low-level mostly 3* Servants (and one semi-capable Altera). I'm ID 330,451,523, going by Daedalus.

Now, having spent some time being jealous of you guys having such nice things, I'm going to go back to... Trying to save up a few more SQ to do a 10-roll on the Berserker banner, in the desperate hope of getting a halfway decent character in that class to make daily quests a little less slow and grindy, while wondering if I shouldn't be rolling on Caster instead because my only vaguely useful Caster is Medea and her value is super specific (but really good in that niche... Rule Breaker solves so many problems). By continuing my way through Septem, and hoping that it picks up a bit soon. I enjoyed the second half of Orleans pretty well, so fingers crossed Septem comes together in a similar way.

For those better in the know, is there another event coming up soon with a decent array of materials like Garden of Sinners? That one got me a lot of skill ups (unlike Saber Wars, where the materials were pretty specific and kind of out of my reach, thanks to the top-end farming missions requiring me to use Command Seals to get through), and another event like that would be a huge boon to my progression.

[Kitten Champion]

Now, having spent some time being jealous of you guys having such nice things, I'm going to go back to... Trying to save up a few more SQ to do a 10-roll on the Berserker banner, in the desperate hope of getting a halfway decent character in that class to make daily quests a little less slow and grindy, while wondering if I shouldn't be rolling on Caster instead because my only vaguely useful Caster is Medea and her value is super specific (but really good in that niche... Rule Breaker solves so many problems). By continuing my way through Septem, and hoping that it picks up a bit soon. I enjoyed the second half of Orleans pretty well, so fingers crossed Septem comes together in a similar way.

The Caster banner might be a better idea - depending on how patient you feel - just because you're getting two welfare Berserkers this year with Chacha and Jeanne Alter Berserker. Chacha being AOE and Jeanne being ST. While you'll have to wait for August for Jalter Berserker, Chacha's coming pretty soon in May,

Oh, and Bunyan's there too, she's a good farmer.

I had a dearth of Casters to start off with and decided to level Medea, Babbage, and Paracelsus to compensate. Despite them, it still got pretty rough once I got to London just due to general lack of damage. There's a lot of Assassins there I noticed, and they have a nasty tendency to one-shot you.

For those better in the know, is there another event coming up soon with a decent array of materials like Garden of Sinners? That one got me a lot of skill ups (unlike Saber Wars, where the materials were pretty specific and kind of out of my reach, thanks to the top-end farming missions requiring me to use Command Seals to get through), and another event like that would be a huge boon to my progression.

The Journey to the West Event re-run is coming - probably around April 18th - and will have quite a lot of mats in the shop.

[DaedalusMkV]

The Caster banner might be a better idea - depending on how patient you feel - just because you're getting two welfare Berserkers this year with Chacha and Jeanne Alter Berserker. Chacha being AOE and Jeanne being ST. While you'll have to wait for August for Jalter Berserker, Chacha's coming pretty soon in May,

Oh, and Bunyan's there too, she's a good farmer.

I had a dearth of Casters to start off with and decided to level Medea, Babbage, and Paracelsus to compensate. Despite them, it still got pretty rough once I got to London just due to general lack of damage. There's a lot of Assassins there I noticed, and they have a nasty tendency to one-shot you.



The Journey to the West Event re-run is coming - probably around April 18th - and will have quite a lot of mats in the shop.

Thanks for the intel, friend. I might just do that, then. I have good characters in the other Classes, I think, but my Caster and Berserker options are weak (Medea at NP2 for Caster, a single copy of Lu Bu for Berserker, and that's after doing a 10-roll on the Caster banner already! I have like 30 Berserker blazes saved up as a result). I seem to have no luck pulling anything but Sabers and Assassins, really, if I go by numbers so far. Elizabeth was my starting 4* (which sucks, because I really don't like her design or animations), and other than her all of my 4 and 5 star Servants are Sabers and I have gotten enough of basically every 3* Assassin to get them to NP4 or 5 if I wanted to. It's kind of sad.

Anyways, if there are lots of freebie Berserkers coming up, I can probably hold of for them.

Is the Journey to the West closer to Saber Wars or Garden of Sinners in terms of farming shop items? I had very little difficulty cleaning out most of the shop in GoS, despite being much weaker when I did it, while I struggled hard to get anything but the first one in Saber Wars thanks to AP limitations and the farming nodes being tuned for level ~75-80 while my level 40-60 Servants just couldn't quite compete.

Regardless, I appreciate the assistance!

[Kitten Champion]

Thanks for the intel, friend. I might just do that, then. I have good characters in the other Classes, I think, but my Caster and Berserker options are weak (Medea at NP2 for Caster, a single copy of Lu Bu for Berserker, and that's after doing a 10-roll on the Caster banner already! I have like 30 Berserker blazes saved up as a result). I seem to have no luck pulling anything but Sabers and Assassins, really, if I go by numbers so far. Elizabeth was my starting 4* (which sucks, because I really don't like her design or animations), and other than her all of my 4 and 5 star Servants are Sabers and I have gotten enough of basically every 3* Assassin to get them to NP4 or 5 if I wanted to. It's kind of sad.

Having good luck with Sabers early is the best, I mean in terms of regular summons. They tend to be well-balanced and fairly strong statistically, plus the America Singularity is pretty heavy on Lancers. You presumably have Shiki at NP5, so you already have what's (probably) the strongest SR Assassin in the game at her peak. There's two welfare Riders coming in the Summer, and while I don't know much about Sakamoto Ryouma, Ishtar (Rider) is plenty capable of being your marquee Rider and especially useful for more difficult farming.

What you won't get until the very end of the year is an Archer. Having a good Archer is almost mandatory once you get to Camelot - admittedly a ways from where you are, but still - so if you have the SQ or there's another free SR ticket, that's worth looking into. There's a few limited ones that are coming this Summer who are pretty strong - like Artoria (Archer) and Jeanne d'Arc (Archer) - and for SR Servants, EMIYA, Archer of Inferno, and Tristan seem to be the best.

Berserkers are useful, definitely, especially against those special Class Servants who pop from time to time, but most require a degree of babysitting (healing, defence buffs, targeted evade/invincibility) as to not die to a random attack before you can unload their Noble Phantasm. The HP numbers on the enemies are just going to skyrocket as you go on which makes it much harder for them to survive. So just keep that in mind.

On another note, you should level Cu Chulainn. He's extremely useful for any kind of difficult fight that isn't directly against a Saber. While you have Elizabeth, and there are other strong 1-3 Star Servants to recommend, he's the least expensive path to surviving fights you'd probably have to use Command Seals on otherwise and totally worth the mats. Mostly Chimera Claws unfortunately.

Anyways, if there are lots of freebie Berserkers coming up, I can probably hold of for them.

Is the Journey to the West closer to Saber Wars or Garden of Sinners in terms of farming shop items? I had very little difficulty cleaning out most of the shop in GoS, despite being much weaker when I did it, while I struggled hard to get anything but the first one in Saber Wars thanks to AP limitations and the farming nodes being tuned for level ~75-80 while my level 40-60 Servants just couldn't quite compete.

Regardless, I appreciate the assistance!

This would be my first time through this particular event myself, but based on similar ones from last year - unless someone wants to contradict me - I believe it'll be easier than Saber Wars and Garden of Sinners in terms of farming. This one has the benefit that certain Servants (mostly ones who fit the event's motif) provide additional drops -

Sanzang, Waver/Zhuge Liang.
Nezha, Li Shuwen (Lancer), Assassin of Nightless City, Assassin of Shinjuku.
Jing Ke, David, Lu Bu.
Mordred, Arjuna, Karna, Nightingale, Artoria Lancer Alter, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa (Rider).

These will all provide bonus drops if they're anywhere in your party.

Add on the fact that higher-level Friends who've done this before will likely have MLB CEs during the event, it'll be easier getting a bit more of the shop currency each time.

[NeoPhoenix0]

right until the last chapter, i kept thinking this lostbelt was super easy compared to the singularities in remnant. overall i still stand by that but this last chapter is actual kinda tough. especially with just how many tough fights there are back to back.

On another note, i now realize that i have seemingly missed any decent chance of getting musashi. but that mainly comes from her banners all being right before and after banners with servants i wanted more. i don't regret the servants i went after, but she is probably the servant i don't have that i want the most now. at least when it comes to the gssr this summer i have no reason to go for anything but the saber one. since the only 5 star saber i have is artoria, and the only other ones that make sense for me to roll on are assassin and extra which i already have some choice servants from.

[Red Fel]

Anyways, if there are lots of freebie Berserkers coming up, I can probably hold of for them.

Is the Journey to the West closer to Saber Wars or Garden of Sinners in terms of farming shop items? I had very little difficulty cleaning out most of the shop in GoS, despite being much weaker when I did it, while I struggled hard to get anything but the first one in Saber Wars thanks to AP limitations and the farming nodes being tuned for level ~75-80 while my level 40-60 Servants just couldn't quite compete.

Regardless, I appreciate the assistance!

Well, let's talk upcoming stuff!

First off, welfare Servants. There's the Apocrypha collab, assuming we get it, with a freebie Caster. (No spoilers as to who!) There's the GUDAGUDA Meiji rerun, with Chacha. There's another GUDAGUDA event, a new one, with a Rider. There's also the rerun of this past summer's event, with Rider Ishtar.

Next, events with mat shops! There's the Sanzang rerun, with plenty of fairly standard mats - like Bones, Gears, and Hearts - and also some new ones, like the Gunpowder introduced in Lostbelt 1. The Apocrypha collab has a mat shop too, but it's a bit underwhelming. The summer rerun also has a decent mat shop.

That takes us up to about August. After that, there's the Bunyan rerun (with welfare Bunyan), the new summer event (featuring Berserker Jeanne and a mat shop), the Fate/Accel Zero event (featuring Iri), and the Battle in New York event (featuring a mat shop and lottery). And that should take us up to about late autumn.

My advice to you, in the interim, is to clear as much story content as you can, and them max out at least a core, reliable team. Level 40-60 is not going to carry you in some of these events, especially the Battle in NY, which is basically another Nerofest.

[DaedalusMkV]

Having good luck with Sabers early is the best, I mean in terms of regular summons. They tend to be well-balanced and fairly strong statistically, plus the America Singularity is pretty heavy on Lancers. You presumably have Shiki at NP5, so you already have what's (probably) the strongest SR Assassin in the game at her peak. There's two welfare Riders coming in the Summer, and while I don't know much about Sakamoto Ryouma, Ishtar (Rider) is plenty capable of being your marquee Rider and especially useful for more difficult farming.

What you won't get until the very end of the year is an Archer. Having a good Archer is almost mandatory once you get to Camelot - admittedly a ways from where you are, but still - so if you have the SQ or there's another free SR ticket, that's worth looking into. There's a few limited ones that are coming this Summer who are pretty strong - like Artoria (Archer) and Jeanne d'Arc (Archer) - and for SR Servants, EMIYA, Archer of Inferno, and Tristan seem to be the best.

Berserkers are useful, definitely, especially against those special Class Servants who pop from time to time, but most require a degree of babysitting (healing, defence buffs, targeted evade/invincibility) as to not die to a random attack before you can unload their Noble Phantasm. The HP numbers on the enemies are just going to skyrocket as you go on which makes it much harder for them to survive. So just keep that in mind.

On another note, you should level Cu Chulainn. He's extremely useful for any kind of difficult fight that isn't directly against a Saber. While you have Elizabeth, and there are other strong 1-3 Star Servants to recommend, he's the least expensive path to surviving fights you'd probably have to use Command Seals on otherwise and totally worth the mats. Mostly Chimera Claws unfortunately.



This would be my first time through this particular event myself, but based on similar ones from last year - unless someone wants to contradict me - I believe it'll be easier than Saber Wars and Garden of Sinners in terms of farming. This one has the benefit that certain Servants (mostly ones who fit the event's motif) provide additional drops

Add on the fact that higher-level Friends who've done this before will likely have MLB CEs during the event, it'll be easier getting a bit more of the shop currency each time.

Yeah, Altera is my primary Saber, and the Servant I've put the most effort into at level 72. She actually does a half-decent job of keeping up with max level support servants already, and I haven't even unlocked her Interludes yet. I know she's probably not meta (I don't see her on my support options very often), but having her has been a real boon. It definitely doesn't hurt that I actually played Extella, and Altera was my favorite character in that game (Nero is also good, obviously, but is not a gigantic alien waifu). I didn't also need Saber Shiki, d'Eon, Siegfried and Lily to back her up, though.

Currently, I'm levelling NP3 Euryale as my Archer. I'm informed that she solves most of the problems in Camelot and Babylon (whatever that means), and that's far enough in the future that I expect I'll have another good Archer by then. Ushiwakamaru is my Rider, and she seems pretty good overall for a 3*. Strong skills, tolerable stats (if a bit squishy) and a NP that maxes out your crit stars and does tons of single-target damage. Seems good.

I rather hope the enemy HP numbers do go up a bit! I currently basically one-shot everything, since my Servants are pumped way above recommended levels thanks to trying to keep up with the events. That said, one of the guides I read mentioned that Camelot is really where the difficulty stats to kick in, so I'm planning for that now.

I latched onto Cu the instant I pulled one! (Proto Cu in this case) I've always liked him, ever since reading the VN back in high school. It was a great excuse to bench Elizabeth forever. Protection from Arrows is love. Protection from arrows is life. Now if only I could get the mats to get it up to level 6 for the cooldown reduction... He's my third highest-levelled Servant, at 56, after Shiki and Altera.

Thanks for the heads-up on the event. Sounds pretty good for me. Of that list, I only have Lu Bu, Medusa and Euryale, and only Euryale levelled at all. But, at least I can stick them in the reserve and call in a big booster from a friend. Just like Saber Wars.

Once more, I appreciate all the help!

Well, let's talk upcoming stuff!

First off, welfare Servants. There's the Apocrypha collab, assuming we get it, with a freebie Caster. (No spoilers as to who!) There's the GUDAGUDA Meiji rerun, with Chacha. There's another GUDAGUDA event, a new one, with a Rider. There's also the rerun of this past summer's event, with Rider Ishtar.

Next, events with mat shops! There's the Sanzang rerun, with plenty of fairly standard mats - like Bones, Gears, and Hearts - and also some new ones, like the Gunpowder introduced in Lostbelt 1. The Apocrypha collab has a mat shop too, but it's a bit underwhelming. The summer rerun also has a decent mat shop.

That takes us up to about August. After that, there's the Bunyan rerun (with welfare Bunyan), the new summer event (featuring Berserker Jeanne and a mat shop), the Fate/Accel Zero event (featuring Iri), and the Battle in New York event (featuring a mat shop and lottery). And that should take us up to about late autumn.

My advice to you, in the interim, is to clear as much story content as you can, and them max out at least a core, reliable team. Level 40-60 is not going to carry you in some of these events, especially the Battle in NY, which is basically another Nerofest.

Well, it's not like the story quests right now are eating up any AP (half the story nodes are AP2 right now, which is pretty hilarious), so I usually do both max-level dailies every day for Blazes and mats, and on days where I log in more than once I'll usually do them two or three times each. So yeah, I think I'm already following the advice on clearing the story and levelling a team. For reference, right now I have:
Altera - level 72 (Also Saber Shiki at level 45)
Proto!Cu - level 56 (and with his important skills at level 5! So close to CD reduction!)
Euryale - level 48 (and stuck once she hits 50, I don't have the mats to Ascend her)
Ushiwakamaru - Level 50 (Also stuck, stupid horseshoes)
Shiki - Level 65 (With Mystic Eyes at level 8! Thanks easy skill level-up mats. I sometimes see her Death Servants, which is pretty funny, and even when she doesn't her NP hits like a freight train)
... Medea? - Level 40, not stuck but not sure if I want to use limited resources ascending her.
No Berserker, currently

... And, I have Passionlip as my only abnormal Servant, off of a single Summon Ticket into her banner. She is gross looking, and probably sucks, so I mostly just leave her in the box and try to forget she's there.

Once again, thanks for the information! You guys are a big help.

[Hunter Noventa]

... And, I have Passionlip as my only abnormal Servant, off of a single Summon Ticket into her banner. She is gross looking, and probably sucks, so I mostly just leave her in the box and try to forget she's there.

Once again, thanks for the information! You guys are a big help.

Passionlip is the only AoE Alter Ego in the game and is in fact quite good.

I just beat LB1 myself, only the second to last boss ended up using my Command Seals...

Spoiler

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I'm just trying to imagine the look on Kadoc's face when he's used all his seals, Anastasia is on her last life (after her 4th break bar/Guts)...and then i use all my seals to fully revive my party...

[Saambell]

Passionlip is the only AoE Alter Ego in the game and is in fact quite good.

Kiara has questions. AoE Arts, a massive NP battory, and recently a strengthening. Very happy with my Lewd Nun.

[TherianTheorist]

I missed Mecha-Eli, so my only Alter Ego is Kiara. And besides her, my other extra class comes from the three copies of Hessian Lobo I got back when Shinjuku hit. (And BB, but I haven't been using her for anything.)

[Leecros]

So I finished lostbelt 1.

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Overall I found it to be pretty easy, You fight a lot of the same stuff constantly. Like, 85% of the fights are Assassin's or Lancer's with some berserkers mingled in to shake things up a little. I went through pretty much the entirety of the chapter using just Saberlot/Holmes/Merlin. Most of the things that were not in one of those classes were bosses. I switched out Saberlot for Ozymandias during the fights against Anastasia and thoroughly trashed her and used a support Jack against Ivan and Tree

I'm ID 330,451,523, going by Daedalus.

You have my sword(all of them)

[Kitten Champion]

I latched onto Cu the instant I pulled one! (Proto Cu in this case) I've always liked him, ever since reading the VN back in high school. It was a great excuse to bench Elizabeth forever. Protection from Arrows is love. Protection from arrows is life. Now if only I could get the mats to get it up to level 6 for the cooldown reduction... He's my third highest-levelled Servant, at 56, after Shiki and Altera.

... And, I have Passionlip as my only abnormal Servant, off of a single Summon Ticket into her banner. She is gross looking, and probably sucks, so I mostly just leave her in the box and try to forget she's there.

Once again, thanks for the information! You guys are a big help.

Ya' shouldn't bench you're SR/SSR Servants at this point - even if you aren't wildly in love with them - unless you're going to go full whale on FGO.

Three reasons

1. They're generally quite useful. Liz's Charisma Skill for instance can increase the power of surrounding Female Servants by up to 40%, while her debuff can decrease an enemies' Defence by up to 20%, and with relatively low cool-downs she can maintain that for much of a battle. If you use a Friend's Jeanne Alter, Jatler's Charisma can further boost characters with the [Dragon] trait - like Liz - by up to 40%. That's quite a lot of potential damage, and she's reasonably survivable with a Guts skill. If you get CEs to charge her NP and provide the right party composition she can be a more-than-adequate farming Servant throughout the whole game.

Passionlip has - above all for your purposes - Target Focus, which is heaven-sent for any single-target NP boss fight. Just toggle Target Focus, give her a targeted evade or invincibility (like from Mash's second skill or your Mystic Code) and she can effectively nullify the highest damaging ability of many a battle. Not only that, on top of her damage mitigation that makes her almost immune to normal attacks and can stay up all-but indefinitely, her NP can also heal (3000 with no overcharge which is quite significant) which will keep her and her party alive and healthy through multiple waves of enemies. While Mash is a very effective tank you get for free, it's quite a ways into the actual story when she unlocks her potential -- Lip doesn't have that issue. She can also prevent any status debuffs to herself (which get worse as time goes on), and can deal more damage against four of the game's Classes.

2. You'll also find the SRs tend to show up as Event Servants fairly often. Liz in particularly has been the star of every Halloween Event for instance, including the rerun later this year. Even if you plan to replace a Servant with a potentially stronger one down the line, it's never bad to have a broad array of them for Events if nothing else.

3. You get SQ from raising Bond level per level for everything after 5. That's 2 SQ for an SR and 3 for an SSR. You're doing the main campaign which yields a tremendous amount of Bond points at a huge AP discount. It's a great time to Bond-up Servants while using Mash to keep your costs low.

[Red Fel]

Okay, first off, what KitChamp said. SR/SSR Servants are, as a matter of baseline stats, typically stronger than your lower-rarity Servants. Not inherently better, but certainly generally sturdier. They also tend to get event bonuses. And perhaps most importantly, the higher the rarity of a Servant, the better the SQ yield for Bond between 5 and 10.

Now for some specifics:

• Altera: Altera is an extremely solid Saber. Her stat line is beefy, her NP is effective, her kit is streamlined. She's definitely worth powering up.
• Euryale: Euryale has one niche, but she's top-notch at it - Anti-Male, specifically Sabers. This is a perfect demonstration of why almost every Servant has value regardless of rarity. That said, outside of her niche, she underperforms. It's why sometimes, you might want David for party Evade, or Kid Gil for Buster on a budget.
• Proto!Cu: Proto!Cu is like Cu in a number of ways, but he sacrifices some of Cucacola Classic's durability for offensive power. And again, Proto has a niche - Anti-Wild Beast. Keep in mind that most bosses tend to not fall into that category. That said, he's still a highly effective Lancer on a budget.
• Ushiwakamaru: Ushiwakamaru is an exceptional team buffer. The Charisma buff is relatively minor, but the NP gain buff is fantastic. Definitely worth keeping around, unless you find someone better.
• Shiki: Assassin Shiki is one of the best 4-star Assassins in the game. That's not hyperbole.
• Medea: I don't think you appreciate how useful buff removal on command can be. Divine Words guarantees her NP is ready when you want it, and that NP is incredibly valuable. It has won me Challenge fights. She's also an incredible contribution to an Arts team, especially a stall team if you need to - again - remove buffs.
• Medusa: Medusa is a very different animal from Ushi. Where Ushi is a team player, Medusa is a solo act. Her kit is basically designed around charging her NP, boosting her NP, and firing her NP. While she doesn't slot into as many teams as Ushi does, she tends to be highly used in events.
• Lu Bu: How do you say you don't have a Berserker? Lu Bu is a tactical freaking nuke! Lu Bu, with the right setup, can consistently hit harder than some SR or SSR Servants. He is definitely worth your time to level up.
• Passionlip: Do not bully Lip. She's a freaking tank. And not just in terms of her skills. Statwise, she's beefy. But there's more. As an Alter Ego, she has no defensive weaknesses except Berserkers. She deals reduced damage to Sabers, Archers and Lancers, but increased damage to Riders, Assassins, Casters, Foreigners, certain bosses, and of course Berserkers. Her AoE Buster NP deals respectable damage and heals the party. In short: She doesn't have any weaknesses, she's beefy enough to take hits and her skills make them negligible, and she's effective against more than half of the enemy types you'll face. You'll learn to love her.

And of course, don't forget to level your beloved eggplant kouhai. While it's less of a problem if you field mostly low-rarity Servants, her 0 Cost becomes priceless once you fill your roster with higher rarity. Moreover, her skills will carry you very, very far. I would recommend leveling Mash as well.

[spectralphoenix]

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Kadoc refers to the lives lost in the Singularities. Repairing the Singularities may return human history back to normal, it doesn't save the lives of the people who die during the Singularity. Those people die in normal history anyway, just for a different reason than in the Singularity. So he's probably more refering to like... The fall of Babylon during that chapter, or something. Honestly his argument is bullcrap, he and the rest of the Crypters are jealous as hell that you stole the glory of saving the world from them.

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Right, I think I remember hearing about that in Camelot or Babylon like a year and a half ago. So I guess that sort of makes sense. Still a jerk, though.

Anyway, finished up the first Lostbelt. Didn't have too much trouble, the last two boss fights got me down to one or two servants left, but I squeaked by with no Command Spells.

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Well, that took a dark turn. I saw where it was going and kept expecting Holmes or Da Vinci to find a way to disentangle the worlds, maybe leave Kadoc there to stay if Caenis or somebody didn't whack him. I kind of hope we're not going to spend the remaining six lostbelts in a state of perma-angst.

Kadoc was a fine villain, though hopefully he's not going to be hanging around the place longterm. I figured for sure he'd be killed by the other Crypters for failure or left stranded, possibly with Anastasia.

As I mentioned, I did like the servants in all this. Billy the Kid and Beowulf were really badass for guys I don't think about much.

Incidentally, DaedalusMkV, or anyone else who might be interested, two useful resources for FGO -

The grandorder wiki's upcoming events page - has projected future events for the next six months or so based on the Japanese servers. Includes the event rewards and summon banners. This is subject to change (I think we're currently running about a week ahead of schedule) but it's useful to know what's coming down the pipe.

The Gamepress wiki - posts decent guides for events when they come out. This is mostly useful for events like the Garden of Sinners where it's non-obvious how to efficiently complete all the missions or challenge quests that have weird mechanics. Also has a tier list of NA servants. The tiers are, as always, somewhat debatable but each servant also has a writeup detailing their strengths and weaknesses.

[Leecros]

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As I mentioned, I did like the servants in all this. Billy the Kid and Beowulf were really badass for guys I don't think about much.

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I didn't really like Billy the Kid in America. He won a lot of bonus points for me in this chapter. Like, in america, he existed and it was all "hahaha, get it? Wild West Memes in a Wild West town?" and he only really existed as an obstacle to surpass in that singularity. In this chapter it was a lot of Old West memes too, but it's Russia and he actually has a chance to have a bit more of a character.

Likewise for Beowulf, but also less so simply because you spent less with with Beo over Billy.

[DaedalusMkV]

In the end, I did decide to roll on the Caster banner as suggested. I got... Two more Medeas and three Hohenheims, bringing them to 4 copies and 5 respectively. So, the game appears to be telling me to just use Medea already. Got the memo. Loud and clear. Hohenheim's still lame, though. Also got my second real 5* CE, Volumen Hydrargyrum... Which is pretty spiffy. Might just be the thing I needed to make Lu Bu work. Thanks, RNG!

Passionlip is the only AoE Alter Ego in the game and is in fact quite good.

Sorry, what was that? I was too busy imagining actually willingly putting her on the screen, in all her hideous, disgusting splendor, to read your comment. I assume it was probably something about how I was totally right about how she's gross and probably bad, and supporting my decision not to use her.

(In all seriousness, I know she's good. I'll break down and use her if I need to, but... Man, her design is just gross.)

You have my sword(all of them)

Yay! Friendship wins again!

Ya' shouldn't bench you're SR/SSR Servants at this point - even if you aren't wildly in love with them - unless you're going to go full whale on FGO.

Three reasons

1. They're generally quite useful. Liz's Charisma Skill for instance can increase the power of surrounding Female Servants by up to 40%, while her debuff can decrease an enemies' Defence by up to 20%, and with relatively low cool-downs she can maintain that for much of a battle. If you use a Friend's Jeanne Alter, Jatler's Charisma can further boost characters with the [Dragon] trait - like Liz - by up to 40%. That's quite a lot of potential damage, and she's reasonably survivable with a Guts skill. If you get CEs to charge her NP and provide the right party composition she can be a more-than-adequate farming Servant throughout the whole game.

Passionlip has - above all for your purposes - Target Focus, which is heaven-sent for any single-target NP boss fight. Just toggle Target Focus, give her a targeted evade or invincibility (like from Mash's second skill or your Mystic Code) and she can effectively nullify the highest damaging ability of many a battle. Not only that, on top of her damage mitigation that makes her almost immune to normal attacks and can stay up all-but indefinitely, her NP can also heal (3000 with no overcharge which is quite significant) which will keep her and her party alive and healthy through multiple waves of enemies. While Mash is a very effective tank you get for free, it's quite a ways into the actual story when she unlocks her potential -- Lip doesn't have that issue. She can also prevent any status debuffs to herself (which get worse as time goes on), and can deal more damage against four of the game's Classes.

2. You'll also find the SRs tend to show up as Event Servants fairly often. Liz in particularly has been the star of every Halloween Event for instance, including the rerun later this year. Even if you plan to replace a Servant with a potentially stronger one down the line, it's never bad to have a broad array of them for Events if nothing else.

3. You get SQ from raising Bond level per level for everything after 5. That's 2 SQ for an SR and 3 for an SSR. You're doing the main campaign which yields a tremendous amount of Bond points at a huge AP discount. It's a great time to Bond-up Servants while using Mash to keep your costs low.

I mean, I can't get all of my Servants to relevant levels. I need to focus my efforts right now. I can branch out later. It's not like I'm burning them or anything. Just... Y'know, not using the ones I don't like. Elizabeth will still be there, ready to use if a situation comes up to make that important. Like, say, an event that she gives big boosts for. But when I could be levelling Cu, and putting him on the screen, that's what I'm gonna do. I have no intention of getting rid of any 3*+ Servant at this point, period. Even Caster Gilles remains in my possession, despite being utterly terrible. I don't burn Servants, if that's what you're proposing. I'm just not planning to use the ones I don't like unless something comes up to make it necessary. And, really, when I say 'bench', I mostly just mean 'not invest anything into'.

Regarding point 3... Yeah, I'm doing that. It's just really slow, regardless. But I'm definitely going for that sweet extra SQ. Currently d'Eon and Saber Shiki are my highest non-main-party Bond levels (thanks, Saber Wars...), so they'll get finished first before I move on to others. But yeah, I totally get 'stick things in your reserve slots to grind BP' as a game plan.

Okay, first off, what KitChamp said. SR/SSR Servants are, as a matter of baseline stats, typically stronger than your lower-rarity Servants. Not inherently better, but certainly generally sturdier. They also tend to get event bonuses. And perhaps most importantly, the higher the rarity of a Servant, the better the SQ yield for Bond between 5 and 10.

Now for some specifics:

• Altera: Altera is an extremely solid Saber. Her stat line is beefy, her NP is effective, her kit is streamlined. She's definitely worth powering up.
• Euryale: Euryale has one niche, but she's top-notch at it - Anti-Male, specifically Sabers. This is a perfect demonstration of why almost every Servant has value regardless of rarity. That said, outside of her niche, she underperforms. It's why sometimes, you might want David for party Evade, or Kid Gil for Buster on a budget.
• Proto!Cu: Proto!Cu is like Cu in a number of ways, but he sacrifices some of Cucacola Classic's durability for offensive power. And again, Proto has a niche - Anti-Wild Beast. Keep in mind that most bosses tend to not fall into that category. That said, he's still a highly effective Lancer on a budget.
• Ushiwakamaru: Ushiwakamaru is an exceptional team buffer. The Charisma buff is relatively minor, but the NP gain buff is fantastic. Definitely worth keeping around, unless you find someone better.
• Shiki: Assassin Shiki is one of the best 4-star Assassins in the game. That's not hyperbole.
• Medea: I don't think you appreciate how useful buff removal on command can be. Divine Words guarantees her NP is ready when you want it, and that NP is incredibly valuable. It has won me Challenge fights. She's also an incredible contribution to an Arts team, especially a stall team if you need to - again - remove buffs.
• Medusa: Medusa is a very different animal from Ushi. Where Ushi is a team player, Medusa is a solo act. Her kit is basically designed around charging her NP, boosting her NP, and firing her NP. While she doesn't slot into as many teams as Ushi does, she tends to be highly used in events.
• Lu Bu: How do you say you don't have a Berserker? Lu Bu is a tactical freaking nuke! Lu Bu, with the right setup, can consistently hit harder than some SR or SSR Servants. He is definitely worth your time to level up.
• Passionlip: Do not bully Lip. She's a freaking tank. And not just in terms of her skills. Statwise, she's beefy. But there's more. As an Alter Ego, she has no defensive weaknesses except Berserkers. She deals reduced damage to Sabers, Archers and Lancers, but increased damage to Riders, Assassins, Casters, Foreigners, certain bosses, and of course Berserkers. Her AoE Buster NP deals respectable damage and heals the party. In short: She doesn't have any weaknesses, she's beefy enough to take hits and her skills make them negligible, and she's effective against more than half of the enemy types you'll face. You'll learn to love her.

And of course, don't forget to level your beloved eggplant kouhai. While it's less of a problem if you field mostly low-rarity Servants, her 0 Cost becomes priceless once you fill your roster with higher rarity. Moreover, her skills will carry you very, very far. I would recommend leveling Mash as well.

I... Don't actually have David or Kid Gil yet. I have Euryale, Robin Hood, Billy the Kid and Touta for Archers, plus Arash (who I understand is excellent later on, but requires late-game interludes and maybe a couple of Grails to reach his potential).

Regarding Medea, I actually disagree. I'm fully aware of how useful she is. That ability is totally sweet, and having it is extremely valuable. The first time I knocked off a stupid damn Guts off of a boss that would heal it to like 40k, I got a nice wave of joy. The only problem is that Medea pretty much is Rule Breaker. She does a bit of damage and makes all the nasty buffs go away. I think she's pretty good, but I'd love to have a more general-use Caster. That said, the game wants me to keep levelling her, so that's what I'll do.

Regarding Lu Bu... I'll admit, I normally don't really look at 3* Servants until I pull the second copy. That said, if he's as good as you say he is (and a quick check on the guides I've been using says that he totally is), I'll maybe throw some XP at him. I've got a few summon tickets for the Berserker banner tomorrow, so we'll see what comes of it, but pulling Volumen to pair with him seems pretty good. Not that it's bad for any Berserker, really.

Regarding Passionlip... Sorry, I was too busy throwing up in my mouth. Were you saying that she sucks and should stay in the box? I think that's the most likely thing.

Ah, Mash. Yeah, I'll try to keep her at max level, and I'll probably dump a lot of resources into her skills at some point. Right now she's capped at level 30, though, and kind of useless outside of her second skill. Story-based progression is a blessing and curse in equal measure.

Incidentally, DaedalusMkV, or anyone else who might be interested, two useful resources for FGO -

The grandorder wiki's upcoming events page - has projected future events for the next six months or so based on the Japanese servers. Includes the event rewards and summon banners. This is subject to change (I think we're currently running about a week ahead of schedule) but it's useful to know what's coming down the pipe.

The Gamepress wiki - posts decent guides for events when they come out. This is mostly useful for events like the Garden of Sinners where it's non-obvious how to efficiently complete all the missions or challenge quests that have weird mechanics. Also has a tier list of NA servants. The tiers are, as always, somewhat debatable but each servant also has a writeup detailing their strengths and weaknesses.

I've been using the second resource already. Including their tier lists and guides, which is why I started levelling Euryale in the first place. The first... Is probably a great resource. I'm sure I'll get some value out of it at some point, but for now I just don't have the context to be able to get much value out of it without doing a lot of research. Thanks for the links, regardless.