DraconDarknight
Lord of Altera
DraconDarknight
I'm bored, can't sleep , and I think there is currently a campaign for new players.... So why not make this... It's a small introduction though, for details, there is a Wiki and several Youtube Videos explaining things much better. Plus, there is an event re-run which gives an additional free SR Servant.
Anyone who has already seen one of the dozens of Fate/ stories, or played one of the games can probably already imagine what this is about:
What:
FGO is a free Gacha game that will neither spam you with advertisements, nor require you to spend money on the rolls for the higher tiered Heroic Spirits to complete the story. - Yes, you read right, you can actually complete it with free "Servants" (i.E. the Heroic Spirits, see below). It does have a quite unique turn based battle system. You also plenty of free chances at Higher rarity ones.
You also get a at least two free ones.
(F: But I only got one..?! A: See Shielder)
Rated T, on Android.
Where:
In the US, and the other serviced Areas from your local AppStore, in Europe you will need third party sites to download the APK; No idea how this would work on I phones though, you probably have to change your store region there. You can of course also do that for google. (Note: never had problems with the APKs though)
Story:
You are, a mage summoning Heroic Spirits, with the twist that this time, you are not competing for the Holy Grail, but summon them in order to save the world.
You are part of the Caldea Security Organisation, which is using a combination of Magic Time and Space travel to solve so called singularities, unobservable regions which do not exist in recorded history. For that you summon a bunch of Heroic spirits, usually figures out of History or Mythology from around the world.
Solving a singularity causes it to disperse and history correcting itself. - i.E. your job is to restore damaged foundations of history.
Stuff will happen, and there are seven singularities so grave that something called a Grand Servants should be the one dispatched to solve them, however, due to a certain thing the villain's did. So the Counter Force, unable to get the problem itself, just throws a bunch of random Servants at it, to substitute. Most of those Servants will join up with you to solve the singularity (i.e. Free support characters, that give extra Friend Points (See below) ).
The difference between Grand Servants and regular Servants will be made rather clear.
TL;DR:
Part I:
They are basically holes opened up within a timeline and are separate from regular time. However unattended, they might cause a problems later on, or even cause catastrophic events.
Part I.5:
Same, just with a Holy Grail war mechanic of unveiling Servant names added.
Part II:
Versions of History that aren't even worth an alternate reality, due to leading to total stagnation. Those Lostbelts managed to "bleach" Pan-Human History, it's your job to cut the Lostbelt trees down, and restore Proper Human History.
They are usually sustained by a large world tree (as they've already been pruned away), and ruled over by a King.
You'll also be introduced to a moral problem here
- (Who said anime stories can't be deep?)
Example: Ever read the Arthurian legend and wondered: What if Morgan le Fay had her way and became Queen instead of Arthur? - That's an example for a Lostbelt. In fact, it's the sixth one, currently only released in the OV of the game. (JP)
In their essence, they are completely different from singularities.
All of the following also gets explained inside the game piece by piece, so if you want to you can skip to the tipps I'll write over time. Frankly the game is probably better at it than me, I'm just bored and want to do something constructive in my free time, instead of wasting my time playing games for a change.
What is a Servant?
A Heroic Spirit summoned as a familiar by the Magus. When they make a contract, the Servants receives a steady supply of mana to sustain themselves, while the Magus (=Master) receives 3 Command spells. (And no, you can't use them for lewd in this game).
An important note is that the being you summon isn't the actual person who died. Those persons reside in the throne of Heroes, and no memory of the familiar's experience gets transferred over to the main body to avoid corruption of any sort. They are however able to read records of the events. They are usually summoned in their physical prime, meaning their early to late twenties. Though, exceptions exist, such as Andersen, who choose his appearance, or Jeanne d'Arc who died as a 19 year old.
There is also a Servant with an inconsistent age and gender, namely, Jack the Ripper. For the time being, we only get the Assassin, which is just a wraith accumulation of all children who died in the streets of London or were aborted.
Tipp:I'll give you the same advice I got when I got conflicted about whether I even want to roll for her, due to later Ascension designs: Keep her in first Ascension, or don't borrow/ roll her rate-up. She is really just damage and Crit Meta. - That being said, she can still spook you, as she is in the general five star pool.
That being said, the game is still rated T on Android and 12+ on IOS.
Then there is a male Berserker version currently not in the game, probably due to several problems his lore-skills would bring.(Like Mind-Overwriting bodies.)
In FGO they have three skills, at least one passive (Unless your name is Mata Hari, then you don't have a single one), and one Noble Phantasm. Also Alignment and attributes, but we will get to all of that.
Their Important stats are:
ATK,
HP
Attribute
Death Rate : (Not gonna touch that one with a 10 ft pole, sorry, no one knows how it ACTUALLY works)
NP Charge ATK
NP Charge DEF
Crit Star Generation
Crit Star Weight/Absorption
Class
Number of hits / Card Type.
Alignment
Traits
Gender *
*Example: Euryale has special anti-Male damage, and Carmilla special Anti Female; There is also a Genderless Servant.
Command Spells
Within the regular story, three, if used right, pretty much absolute commands.
However, Servants can resist them, depending on how much they go against their principle. You want to tell King Arthur to murder a bunch of children with them? Not gonna happen, in fact, King Arthur would probably swallow the pain of all 3 in succession, void the contract, and cut you down as you stand. Because your last command spell also happens to be the very last defense against that.
The proper use is to support the Servants with them, as they are basically just huge amounts of Mana. During a Holy Grail war, you receive them from the Grail. Their main use is to support or summoning the Servant over a large distance.
In FGO there are 3 uses: >
Restore Spirit Origin: Heal all HP
Revive: Revives the entire team, at the cost of all 3 Strokes.
Release Noble Phantasm
All other uses, one which I can remember, are story bound.
Skills:
Each Servant has 3 Skills, with different Cooldowns, At level 6, and 10 the Cooldowns get reduced by one, in addition to whatever additional advantage the level gives.
Noble Phantasm:
The Servant's trump card and ultimate attack, usually requires invoking it's true name. To continue the example above, you can use Excalibur as a normal sword, but also invoke it's full power. Some Servants have more than one. However, in FGO only one of them counts as their actual Noble Phantasm.
In FGO a NP can be either a Buster, Arts, or Quick Card.
Example:
King Arthur has several weapons associated with him, For example Excalibur and it's Scabbard. You can use the Sword, but not the scabbard(Besides, Morgan stole it, so actually bad example.)
Demi Servant:
A human possessed by a Servant, who is in control, or if they melt depends. Your sidekick, Mash falls under this category. Unfortunately, you don't know which Heroic Spirit she merged, with, so you can't fully utilize her.
Mystic Code:
A piece of clothing deciding your Skills.- You can get them all for free.
Classes:
Rock paper Scissors(FGO only); having class advantage/disadvantage deals/receives double damage:
Knight Classes:
Saber > Lancer > Archer > Saber
Horsemen Classes:
Rider>Caster>Assassin>Rider
Berserker:
Deals 1.5x Damage against all, but receives 2x damage from all, minus Shielders.
Special Classes:
Ruler > Moon Cancer > Avenger > Ruler
All Servants here deal also deal double damage to Berserkers.
Rulers also only half the damage from all Knight and Horsemen classes.
Shielder:
As said before this is Mash's exclusive class.
She deals neutral damage to all, and also receives neutral damage from all.
Disclaimer: Mash's progression is story bound, so while she may seem useless and not worth to level, she gets totally OP later on.... Only to get nerfed for Part II story quests... But more to it later.
It's still suggested to level her, and her skills, as one of the first.
She starts out as a three star Servant, and later upgrades to a four star.
First Half:
Skill 1: Party wide defense buff.
Skill 2: Taunt + NP gain
Skill 3: Targetable Invincibility + 20% NP gauge for the Target.
Second half:
1 Turn Buster card buff + Crit Strength. Sucks because she is an Arts Servant and has just one Buster card, but we'll get to that.
2nd Skill: + 20% NP gauge + 1 Turn Taunt.
3rd Skill: 1 Turn: Taunt + Invincibility + - HP depending on Skill LVL[Demerit]
Note: You don't have to Level her skills again, after she gets her new skill set, and only have to use it during part two story missions.
Super Special:
Foreigner: Strong against Berserker, weak against itself.
Alter Ego: Strong against Foreigner, Deals less damage against Knight Classes.
Currencies (Excluding events):
Friend Points: Totally free, you can gather them during normal gameplay.
QP: Also a free currency, needed for Ascension, and Enhancement.
Saint Quartz: Paid currency, you do get a **t-ton of free ones though. So yes, even free to play you can get the highest rarity Servants. *
Tickets: You get 1 ticket every seven days of login.
Special Tickets: Free Tickets for four or 5 Star Servants, one is guaranteed, sometimes, you can outright pick one, other times you get a random one out of the pool. (Very rare)
*The game will use up Free Saint Quartz first, this is especially important as there are sometimes "Lucky Bag" Gachas that guarantee you a Five Star Servant for half the price of a regular Big-roll (Which is 30 Quartz for 11)
Servant Rarity:
Goes from 1-5 Stars. The higher the rarity, the higher the deployment cost (Cost as in: Counts toward a limit) . While Lower Rarity Servants have worse stats, than higher rarity Servants they also cost less to upgrade, and the Likelihood of getting them to Max NP level is also higher...
Fo example: The best Assassin in the game, only deals 20k* more damage than the best 5 Star Assassin, so Rarity doesn't necessarily mean they are that much worse. Moreover, said Assassin (Koujiro) also has a really low deployment cost, while the other Assassin has the highest possible one.
Special: Mash herself always has a cost of Zero.
This is partially due to the NP's level. To level an NP, you need another copy of the same Servant you can use to strengthen it's noble phantasm. So unless you want to whale it and spend hundreds of USD, the likelihood of getting Five Stars to NP 5 is almost null. (I haven't seen the Servant in question above NP2 yet)
*(Unless, the enemy falls under their special NP attack category, then the five stars gets off the charts.)
Ascension:
Depending on Rarity, Servants haver a level cap, which can be increased by ascension. this usually costs Materials + QP; You can do this four times, then a Servant will reach their final limit, unless you sacrifice a really rare, limited item.
Final:
* = Lv 60
** = Lv 65
*** = Lv 70
**** = Lv 80
**** = lv 90
Palingenesis:
Sometimes, you receive a Holy Grail. If you want to, you can use that to increase a Servants LvlCap by 5(2 for *****) up to 100.
You can see whether a Servant has been "Grailed" by a Grail icon near their rarity. If they exceed the reir own Level Rarity enough to hit the next one's max, their frame will also change color (1-3 Star only)
Welfare Servants:
The Majority of all Events gives you a free Servant, in fact the current event does so too.
You do have to play the event to get them though.
Event Servants have special Ascension materials, which makes ascending them really easy.
Craft Essence:
An equipment item with special effects, counts towards the deployment limit.
Enhancement:
You can Level Enhance Servants with Skill Cards (Farmable, in friend gacha) or increase their skill level. You can do the Same for CEs
Map Mechanics:
You have AP, which can be spend on several things:
Story-Nodes: Visual Novel style reading in between battles.
Free Nodes: For farming, finishing it also grants free Saint Quartz (the paid currency) ONCE; All further repeats of the node won't yield another Saint Quartz.
Out of Story Farming
Each day gives Level Up materials for different classes, additionally you can farm one of the currencies. There are several difficulties, so it's doable. Some of the other required materials also drop there.
Battle Mechanics.
Basics:
Basically each Servant has a deck of 5 cards, which gets randomly distributed to you. However, some Servants have more Cards of a Certain Type then others.
For example: As I already mentioned it, Mash has a deck of
1 Quick Card, 2 Arts Cards, 2 Buster (I really thought it was one, sorry) and an Arts NP.
Another Character we will use as an example (because you really should try to get them on your friend List .
Merlin's deck on the other hand is Quick, 2 x Arts, Buster, with an Arts NP.
Hercules on the other hand has Quick, Arts, Buster, Buster, Buster
Your team will consist of a group of 6 Servants, of which 3 are in the front row, and two are in the Backrow(as backup). One of the Servants you have to bring is borrowed from either other players, or if it's a story quest, the game itself. This is also how you get friend points. So yeah, you can also play with five stars, by borrowing them from other players, even if you don't have one yourself.
Note: If you want to use that Servants NP, you actually have to friend them, and they you, so having just a lv 1 Mash in your support group isn't advisable.
During your turn, there are Several things you can do:
- Use your Mystic Code skills, those are YOUR skills, use them wisely, as they have a long cooldown.
- Use the Servant's skills
- Give battle orders, using the cards
Quick Card: Generates a small amount of NP + A lot of Crit stars. - 0.8x DMG
Arts Card: A large amount of NP, but no crit stars.
Buster: Deals more damage, small chance for a crit star, no NP gain *
The first card you choose, will give all of the following cards its effect as an extra effect. So yes, you can generate NP with a buster card too. You are allowed to choose three per turn, after three turns, everything gets reshuffled.
Chains:
Brave: 3 Cards of any type from the same Servant, gives an extra attack.
Quick Chain (any Servant): +10 Crit Stars at the end of the Turn.
Arts Chain: + 20% NP gauge for all participants
Buster: Increased Damage.
Some Servants can actually form a chain with themselves, since we need her for later examples, we will this time, use Tamamo no Mae as an example. As she has a total of four Arts cards, she can either get those extra 20% with her NP, or just by attacking AS WELL AS the extra attack.
A cards effectiveness is also increased depending on the sequence you use it, and how many hits it has.
For example: Merlin has 2 hits on his arts card, and an active ATK Charge of 0.81%, another Arts Caster, Tamamo, has an ATK charge Rate of 0.32 (Low for a caster), but has FIVE hits on the card. So somehow, she ends up with the same, or more charge, despite Merlin having such a clear advantage... Not accounting for Merlin's special passive, that is.
Going by what we've learned above, for most Servants with just one arts card, the best way to generate NP would be Arts, Quick, Quick, Extra; However there is one exception to this, namely the 5 Star Lancer Scathach, if you ever borrow her, please note that she works differently:
NP: Arts, Buster, Bust, Extra
Stars: Quick, Buster, Buster, Extra
This is again related to the aforementioned hit count issue.
Crit Stars: FGO has a rather unique Crit system. Unlike most games, where there is a fixed crit chance depending on stats, in FGO the Cards get a random crit chance allocated each round, depending on Star Weight, and Absorption rate, which in turn depends on Class and Servant. Usually most stars will get eaten by Assassins and Riders, followed by Archers and Lancers.
A Crit deals double damage, and also yields more Crit Stars or NP Gain.
Single and Multi Target (NP)
ST does more damage, but also effects one target
MT Does less damage, but effects all targets.
Noble Phantasm Chain -> Explained Post #3 @Advanced Battle.
For the Meme:
The Support Kings and Queens.
***** Zhuge Liang: Neutral, Jack of all trades.
***** Merlin: Buster, can Help out with Arts, due to his Arts heavy deck.; Buster Meme.
***** Tamamo no Mae*: Arts; Required for Arts Meme + Looping
***** Skadi: Quick ; required for Quick Looping + Meme
*Will get dethroned next year, at least for shorter fights. The Servant replacing her is really depending on it's cooldowns, so once they are up, you've got a problem. (Which Tamamo can help with)
F2P substitutes:
** Shakespeare - Buster
** Hans Christian Andersen: Budget version of Merlin, including the NP charge.
* Mozart
F2P Tanks (Aside Mash)
Georgius(Rider) (Works Rather well with Siegfried btw)
Leonidas(Lancer): This.Is.SPARTA!
F2P Damage Meme examples:
*** Caesar (Saber), Single Target
*** Robin Hood, Single Target
*** Cu Chulainn(Lancer) Single target, Insta death Chance
** Chen Gong Multi Target
*** Euryale(Archer): Medusa's middle sister is a high damage, Arts Single Target Archer with special damage against males. - A Four Star camouflaged as a 3 Star... And yes, she is free.
Honorable mention (Only 1 Free Copy, + Story locked):
Sir Bedivere (Saber) Single Target Buster - For more copies, Story Gacha,after he gets unlocked.
Can't kill him:
*** Cu Chulainn (Lancer)
Can be Considered:
Attributes:
I deliberately didn't mention them, as even the game tells you to ignore it., as you won't know what attribute an enemy has to begin with, unless you look it up. It only gets important if you are really close to beating an enemy.
The Attributes are:
Man - people who completed Great deeds as normal Humans. Example: Sasaki Kojiro, your friendly neighborhood Savior of France.
Earth: Heroes originating from legends and myths, but still not divine.
Example: King Arthur
Sky/Heaven: Servants with a high level of Divinity
Example: Heracles, Gilgamesh, all gods and goddesses
Star: Mankind's hopes. Servants with this attribute have greatly influenced the course of History. the Majority of them also lacks the attribute "Weak to Enuma Elish"
Examples: Nikola Tesla, Leonardo Da Vinci, Jeanne d'Arc (Weak to Enuma Elish).
Beast: Invert of Star, I'll let the game explain that one. Lets Tl;dr it with Evil's of Man.
Candidates get Bestial authorities even before they truly manifest as Beasts.
Examples: Amaterasu, according to either herself, or Nine-Tailed Tamamo no Mae.
*Explanations will be added in Post #3, as it might be important for F2P players.
Pro Tipps:
- Never Roll on Summer Servants, unless you really want them. For one, you will get one free, namely the one associated with the event.
It's basically just selling you something you already have with a different class and skillset (also in a swimsuit
)
- The story Gacha is a Trap, especially once it gets filled with more Servants.
- Roll for the Servants you want, but don't Wife- or Husband roll. Also, don't Vampire Roll, because they literally suck.
Imho, only two of them MIGHT be worth the money, and both are part of a really rare extra class.
If you discount that one of them is just it's rare class' Four Star version, that only leaves BB, as there are only two Moon Cancers in the game atm, one was a welfare/event Servant, and the other is that Servant's summer version. imho, you are better off looking for someone with either version of BB in their Friend list.
- Get Sasaki Kojiro, Georgius, Leonidas and Andersen out of the Friend Gacha ASAP.
Kojiro in particular, is easy to get (Unless you are me and have shit luck), totally free and is also the aforementioned high damage one Star.
Basically, early on in the game, you have to fight A LOT of Riders, and he is the easiest to get. He may, just like Mash, seem really weak at first, but believe me, he is actually really good, especially after you do his püersonal story and Rank-Up quests.
In case you ever want to roll for a non- Friend Point Servant, go check out G&A reviews, he rates all the Gacha Servants and compares them to others of their rank. He only Briefly touched 1-3 Stars who aren't Quartz-Gacha Content though. Also, only roll on Rate-Ups.
- Don't repeat my mistake: Level Mash
- If you are like me, and don't want to see certain Friend- Servants in their final ascension, turn it off in the options (Through "My room"). If you have them yourself, you can change which sprite is used yourself.
For example, I keep Jack the Ripper in her first Ascension, so she keeps the coat. Makes using her in combat more bearable.
Same goes for "Tamamo Cat".
- The free tutorial roll is actually semi- re-rollable, check online guides on how they work, but backup your account first. Basically you can re-roll by creating a new account.
Note: You can get multiple four Stars out of the pool, only one is guaranteed though.
The best result you can get out of it, is Heracles. Imho you've already won there if you get him.
Stehno on the other hand, is the worst. - Not worth the bother levelling, how in the world did she get four Stars, when Medusa has 3?!
- You only need 50 crit Stars to guarantee a 100% chance of landing a crit on ALL cards.
- Don't use Quartz as AP substitute.
-AP can Overcharge upon Level-Up
- Try to get someone with Tamamo no Mae as well as Merlin on your friend list, if you want to Arts meme. Her NP is really unique as you can easily loop it, and it is the only one in the entire game reducing skill cooldowns.
(Exact effects: Skill CD - 1 , Heal, NP Charge depending on Overcharge) ; Her Skills are also rather OP, when you strengthen them through a quest.
1st: Very High chance to reduce NP charge on enemy + 30%NP strength on all Teammates(Except herself, but who cares, it's not a damage NP); A 3-Turn defense Skill, with 1 turn double defense; And a 50% Arts Card Buff with a 2500 HP heal.
- It takes an average of 300 Saint Quartz to get a 5 Star Servant; note A 5 Star, not the one you want or the one who is on rate up. That being said, you can as well roll 8 5 Stars in single Roll, though you'd be the luckiest person in the world (My max was 3 or 4 with last years lucky bag)
-If you ever buy SQ, and want more than just the 15 for the Guaranteed rolls. Best buy the most expensive package, as it gives you the highest combination of free and paid quartz
Merlin is slightly more OP than that, but still. She is still Meme though, due to breaking a Lore rule, namely "Gilgamesh is the strongest Servant.(Excl. Grand Servants)"
I hope everything is readable enough, it's late, and I wrote this as it is, and only flew over it rather than using MSWord.
As said before, I'm usually not writing guides, so if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Continued in Post 3 And Following.
Anyone who has already seen one of the dozens of Fate/ stories, or played one of the games can probably already imagine what this is about:
What:
FGO is a free Gacha game that will neither spam you with advertisements, nor require you to spend money on the rolls for the higher tiered Heroic Spirits to complete the story. - Yes, you read right, you can actually complete it with free "Servants" (i.E. the Heroic Spirits, see below). It does have a quite unique turn based battle system. You also plenty of free chances at Higher rarity ones.
You also get a at least two free ones.
(F: But I only got one..?! A: See Shielder)
Rated T, on Android.
Where:
In the US, and the other serviced Areas from your local AppStore, in Europe you will need third party sites to download the APK; No idea how this would work on I phones though, you probably have to change your store region there. You can of course also do that for google. (Note: never had problems with the APKs though)
Story:
You are, a mage summoning Heroic Spirits, with the twist that this time, you are not competing for the Holy Grail, but summon them in order to save the world.
You are part of the Caldea Security Organisation, which is using a combination of Magic Time and Space travel to solve so called singularities, unobservable regions which do not exist in recorded history. For that you summon a bunch of Heroic spirits, usually figures out of History or Mythology from around the world.
Solving a singularity causes it to disperse and history correcting itself. - i.E. your job is to restore damaged foundations of history.
Stuff will happen, and there are seven singularities so grave that something called a Grand Servants should be the one dispatched to solve them, however, due to a certain thing the villain's did. So the Counter Force, unable to get the problem itself, just throws a bunch of random Servants at it, to substitute. Most of those Servants will join up with you to solve the singularity (i.e. Free support characters, that give extra Friend Points (See below) ).
The difference between Grand Servants and regular Servants will be made rather clear.
TL;DR:
Part I:
They are basically holes opened up within a timeline and are separate from regular time. However unattended, they might cause a problems later on, or even cause catastrophic events.
Part I.5:
Same, just with a Holy Grail war mechanic of unveiling Servant names added.
Part II:
Versions of History that aren't even worth an alternate reality, due to leading to total stagnation. Those Lostbelts managed to "bleach" Pan-Human History, it's your job to cut the Lostbelt trees down, and restore Proper Human History.
They are usually sustained by a large world tree (as they've already been pruned away), and ruled over by a King.
You'll also be introduced to a moral problem here
- (Who said anime stories can't be deep?)Example: Ever read the Arthurian legend and wondered: What if Morgan le Fay had her way and became Queen instead of Arthur? - That's an example for a Lostbelt. In fact, it's the sixth one, currently only released in the OV of the game. (JP)
In their essence, they are completely different from singularities.
All of the following also gets explained inside the game piece by piece, so if you want to you can skip to the tipps I'll write over time. Frankly the game is probably better at it than me, I'm just bored and want to do something constructive in my free time, instead of wasting my time playing games for a change.
What is a Servant?
A Heroic Spirit summoned as a familiar by the Magus. When they make a contract, the Servants receives a steady supply of mana to sustain themselves, while the Magus (=Master) receives 3 Command spells. (And no, you can't use them for lewd in this game).
An important note is that the being you summon isn't the actual person who died. Those persons reside in the throne of Heroes, and no memory of the familiar's experience gets transferred over to the main body to avoid corruption of any sort. They are however able to read records of the events. They are usually summoned in their physical prime, meaning their early to late twenties. Though, exceptions exist, such as Andersen, who choose his appearance, or Jeanne d'Arc who died as a 19 year old.
There is also a Servant with an inconsistent age and gender, namely, Jack the Ripper. For the time being, we only get the Assassin, which is just a wraith accumulation of all children who died in the streets of London or were aborted.
Tipp:I'll give you the same advice I got when I got conflicted about whether I even want to roll for her, due to later Ascension designs: Keep her in first Ascension, or don't borrow/ roll her rate-up. She is really just damage and Crit Meta. - That being said, she can still spook you, as she is in the general five star pool.
That being said, the game is still rated T on Android and 12+ on IOS.
Then there is a male Berserker version currently not in the game, probably due to several problems his lore-skills would bring.(Like Mind-Overwriting bodies.)
In FGO they have three skills, at least one passive (Unless your name is Mata Hari, then you don't have a single one), and one Noble Phantasm. Also Alignment and attributes, but we will get to all of that.
Their Important stats are:
ATK,
HP
Attribute
Death Rate : (Not gonna touch that one with a 10 ft pole, sorry, no one knows how it ACTUALLY works)
NP Charge ATK
NP Charge DEF
Crit Star Generation
Crit Star Weight/Absorption
Class
Number of hits / Card Type.
Alignment
Traits
Gender *
*Example: Euryale has special anti-Male damage, and Carmilla special Anti Female; There is also a Genderless Servant.
Command Spells
Within the regular story, three, if used right, pretty much absolute commands.
However, Servants can resist them, depending on how much they go against their principle. You want to tell King Arthur to murder a bunch of children with them? Not gonna happen, in fact, King Arthur would probably swallow the pain of all 3 in succession, void the contract, and cut you down as you stand. Because your last command spell also happens to be the very last defense against that.
The proper use is to support the Servants with them, as they are basically just huge amounts of Mana. During a Holy Grail war, you receive them from the Grail. Their main use is to support or summoning the Servant over a large distance.
In FGO there are 3 uses: >
Restore Spirit Origin: Heal all HP
Revive: Revives the entire team, at the cost of all 3 Strokes.
Release Noble Phantasm
All other uses, one which I can remember, are story bound.
Skills:
Each Servant has 3 Skills, with different Cooldowns, At level 6, and 10 the Cooldowns get reduced by one, in addition to whatever additional advantage the level gives.
Noble Phantasm:
The Servant's trump card and ultimate attack, usually requires invoking it's true name. To continue the example above, you can use Excalibur as a normal sword, but also invoke it's full power. Some Servants have more than one. However, in FGO only one of them counts as their actual Noble Phantasm.
In FGO a NP can be either a Buster, Arts, or Quick Card.
Example:
King Arthur has several weapons associated with him, For example Excalibur and it's Scabbard. You can use the Sword, but not the scabbard(Besides, Morgan stole it, so actually bad example.)
Demi Servant:
A human possessed by a Servant, who is in control, or if they melt depends. Your sidekick, Mash falls under this category. Unfortunately, you don't know which Heroic Spirit she merged, with, so you can't fully utilize her.
Mystic Code:
A piece of clothing deciding your Skills.- You can get them all for free.
Classes:
Rock paper Scissors(FGO only); having class advantage/disadvantage deals/receives double damage:
Knight Classes:
Saber > Lancer > Archer > Saber
Horsemen Classes:
Rider>Caster>Assassin>Rider
Berserker:
Deals 1.5x Damage against all, but receives 2x damage from all, minus Shielders.
Special Classes:
Ruler > Moon Cancer > Avenger > Ruler
All Servants here deal also deal double damage to Berserkers.
Rulers also only half the damage from all Knight and Horsemen classes.
Shielder:
As said before this is Mash's exclusive class.
She deals neutral damage to all, and also receives neutral damage from all.
Disclaimer: Mash's progression is story bound, so while she may seem useless and not worth to level, she gets totally OP later on.... Only to get nerfed for Part II story quests... But more to it later.
It's still suggested to level her, and her skills, as one of the first.
She starts out as a three star Servant, and later upgrades to a four star.
First Half:
Skill 1: Party wide defense buff.
Skill 2: Taunt + NP gain
Skill 3: Targetable Invincibility + 20% NP gauge for the Target.
Second half:
1 Turn Buster card buff + Crit Strength. Sucks because she is an Arts Servant and has just one Buster card, but we'll get to that.
2nd Skill: + 20% NP gauge + 1 Turn Taunt.
3rd Skill: 1 Turn: Taunt + Invincibility + - HP depending on Skill LVL[Demerit]
Note: You don't have to Level her skills again, after she gets her new skill set, and only have to use it during part two story missions.
Super Special:
Foreigner: Strong against Berserker, weak against itself.
Alter Ego: Strong against Foreigner, Deals less damage against Knight Classes.
Currencies (Excluding events):
Friend Points: Totally free, you can gather them during normal gameplay.
QP: Also a free currency, needed for Ascension, and Enhancement.
Saint Quartz: Paid currency, you do get a **t-ton of free ones though. So yes, even free to play you can get the highest rarity Servants. *
Tickets: You get 1 ticket every seven days of login.
Special Tickets: Free Tickets for four or 5 Star Servants, one is guaranteed, sometimes, you can outright pick one, other times you get a random one out of the pool. (Very rare)
*The game will use up Free Saint Quartz first, this is especially important as there are sometimes "Lucky Bag" Gachas that guarantee you a Five Star Servant for half the price of a regular Big-roll (Which is 30 Quartz for 11)
Servant Rarity:
Goes from 1-5 Stars. The higher the rarity, the higher the deployment cost (Cost as in: Counts toward a limit) . While Lower Rarity Servants have worse stats, than higher rarity Servants they also cost less to upgrade, and the Likelihood of getting them to Max NP level is also higher...
Fo example: The best Assassin in the game, only deals 20k* more damage than the best 5 Star Assassin, so Rarity doesn't necessarily mean they are that much worse. Moreover, said Assassin (Koujiro) also has a really low deployment cost, while the other Assassin has the highest possible one.
Special: Mash herself always has a cost of Zero.
This is partially due to the NP's level. To level an NP, you need another copy of the same Servant you can use to strengthen it's noble phantasm. So unless you want to whale it and spend hundreds of USD, the likelihood of getting Five Stars to NP 5 is almost null. (I haven't seen the Servant in question above NP2 yet)
*(Unless, the enemy falls under their special NP attack category, then the five stars gets off the charts.)
Ascension:
Depending on Rarity, Servants haver a level cap, which can be increased by ascension. this usually costs Materials + QP; You can do this four times, then a Servant will reach their final limit, unless you sacrifice a really rare, limited item.
Final:
* = Lv 60
** = Lv 65
*** = Lv 70
**** = Lv 80
**** = lv 90
Palingenesis:
Sometimes, you receive a Holy Grail. If you want to, you can use that to increase a Servants LvlCap by 5(2 for *****) up to 100.
You can see whether a Servant has been "Grailed" by a Grail icon near their rarity. If they exceed the reir own Level Rarity enough to hit the next one's max, their frame will also change color (1-3 Star only)
Welfare Servants:
The Majority of all Events gives you a free Servant, in fact the current event does so too.
You do have to play the event to get them though.
Event Servants have special Ascension materials, which makes ascending them really easy.
Craft Essence:
An equipment item with special effects, counts towards the deployment limit.
Enhancement:
You can Level Enhance Servants with Skill Cards (Farmable, in friend gacha) or increase their skill level. You can do the Same for CEs
Map Mechanics:
You have AP, which can be spend on several things:
Story-Nodes: Visual Novel style reading in between battles.
Free Nodes: For farming, finishing it also grants free Saint Quartz (the paid currency) ONCE; All further repeats of the node won't yield another Saint Quartz.
Out of Story Farming
Each day gives Level Up materials for different classes, additionally you can farm one of the currencies. There are several difficulties, so it's doable. Some of the other required materials also drop there.
Battle Mechanics.
Basics:
Basically each Servant has a deck of 5 cards, which gets randomly distributed to you. However, some Servants have more Cards of a Certain Type then others.
For example: As I already mentioned it, Mash has a deck of
1 Quick Card, 2 Arts Cards, 2 Buster (I really thought it was one, sorry) and an Arts NP.
Another Character we will use as an example (because you really should try to get them on your friend List .
Merlin's deck on the other hand is Quick, 2 x Arts, Buster, with an Arts NP.
Hercules on the other hand has Quick, Arts, Buster, Buster, Buster
Your team will consist of a group of 6 Servants, of which 3 are in the front row, and two are in the Backrow(as backup). One of the Servants you have to bring is borrowed from either other players, or if it's a story quest, the game itself. This is also how you get friend points. So yeah, you can also play with five stars, by borrowing them from other players, even if you don't have one yourself.
Note: If you want to use that Servants NP, you actually have to friend them, and they you, so having just a lv 1 Mash in your support group isn't advisable.
During your turn, there are Several things you can do:
- Use your Mystic Code skills, those are YOUR skills, use them wisely, as they have a long cooldown.
- Use the Servant's skills
- Give battle orders, using the cards
Quick Card: Generates a small amount of NP + A lot of Crit stars. - 0.8x DMG
Arts Card: A large amount of NP, but no crit stars.
Buster: Deals more damage, small chance for a crit star, no NP gain *
The first card you choose, will give all of the following cards its effect as an extra effect. So yes, you can generate NP with a buster card too. You are allowed to choose three per turn, after three turns, everything gets reshuffled.
Chains:
Brave: 3 Cards of any type from the same Servant, gives an extra attack.
Quick Chain (any Servant): +10 Crit Stars at the end of the Turn.
Arts Chain: + 20% NP gauge for all participants
Buster: Increased Damage.
Some Servants can actually form a chain with themselves, since we need her for later examples, we will this time, use Tamamo no Mae as an example. As she has a total of four Arts cards, she can either get those extra 20% with her NP, or just by attacking AS WELL AS the extra attack.
A cards effectiveness is also increased depending on the sequence you use it, and how many hits it has.
For example: Merlin has 2 hits on his arts card, and an active ATK Charge of 0.81%, another Arts Caster, Tamamo, has an ATK charge Rate of 0.32 (Low for a caster), but has FIVE hits on the card. So somehow, she ends up with the same, or more charge, despite Merlin having such a clear advantage... Not accounting for Merlin's special passive, that is.
Going by what we've learned above, for most Servants with just one arts card, the best way to generate NP would be Arts, Quick, Quick, Extra; However there is one exception to this, namely the 5 Star Lancer Scathach, if you ever borrow her, please note that she works differently:
NP: Arts, Buster, Bust, Extra
Stars: Quick, Buster, Buster, Extra
This is again related to the aforementioned hit count issue.
Crit Stars: FGO has a rather unique Crit system. Unlike most games, where there is a fixed crit chance depending on stats, in FGO the Cards get a random crit chance allocated each round, depending on Star Weight, and Absorption rate, which in turn depends on Class and Servant. Usually most stars will get eaten by Assassins and Riders, followed by Archers and Lancers.
A Crit deals double damage, and also yields more Crit Stars or NP Gain.
Single and Multi Target (NP)
ST does more damage, but also effects one target
MT Does less damage, but effects all targets.
Noble Phantasm Chain -> Explained Post #3 @Advanced Battle.
For the Meme:
The Support Kings and Queens.
***** Zhuge Liang: Neutral, Jack of all trades.
***** Merlin: Buster, can Help out with Arts, due to his Arts heavy deck.; Buster Meme.
***** Tamamo no Mae*: Arts; Required for Arts Meme + Looping
***** Skadi: Quick ; required for Quick Looping + Meme
*Will get dethroned next year, at least for shorter fights. The Servant replacing her is really depending on it's cooldowns, so once they are up, you've got a problem. (Which Tamamo can help with)
F2P substitutes:
** Shakespeare - Buster
** Hans Christian Andersen: Budget version of Merlin, including the NP charge.
* Mozart
F2P Tanks (Aside Mash)
Georgius(Rider) (Works Rather well with Siegfried btw)
Leonidas(Lancer): This.Is.SPARTA!
F2P Damage Meme examples:
*** Caesar (Saber), Single Target
*** Robin Hood, Single Target
*** Cu Chulainn(Lancer) Single target, Insta death Chance
** Chen Gong Multi Target
*** Euryale(Archer): Medusa's middle sister is a high damage, Arts Single Target Archer with special damage against males. - A Four Star camouflaged as a 3 Star... And yes, she is free.
Honorable mention (Only 1 Free Copy, + Story locked):
Sir Bedivere (Saber) Single Target Buster - For more copies, Story Gacha,after he gets unlocked.
Can't kill him:
*** Cu Chulainn (Lancer)
Can be Considered:
Attributes:
I deliberately didn't mention them, as even the game tells you to ignore it., as you won't know what attribute an enemy has to begin with, unless you look it up. It only gets important if you are really close to beating an enemy.
The Attributes are:
Man - people who completed Great deeds as normal Humans. Example: Sasaki Kojiro, your friendly neighborhood Savior of France.
Earth: Heroes originating from legends and myths, but still not divine.
Example: King Arthur
Sky/Heaven: Servants with a high level of Divinity
Example: Heracles, Gilgamesh, all gods and goddesses
Star: Mankind's hopes. Servants with this attribute have greatly influenced the course of History. the Majority of them also lacks the attribute "Weak to Enuma Elish"
Examples: Nikola Tesla, Leonardo Da Vinci, Jeanne d'Arc (Weak to Enuma Elish).
Beast: Invert of Star, I'll let the game explain that one. Lets Tl;dr it with Evil's of Man.
Candidates get Bestial authorities even before they truly manifest as Beasts.
Examples: Amaterasu, according to either herself, or Nine-Tailed Tamamo no Mae.
*Explanations will be added in Post #3, as it might be important for F2P players.
Pro Tipps:
- Never Roll on Summer Servants, unless you really want them. For one, you will get one free, namely the one associated with the event.
It's basically just selling you something you already have with a different class and skillset (also in a swimsuit
)- The story Gacha is a Trap, especially once it gets filled with more Servants.
- Roll for the Servants you want, but don't Wife- or Husband roll. Also, don't Vampire Roll, because they literally suck.
Imho, only two of them MIGHT be worth the money, and both are part of a really rare extra class.
If you discount that one of them is just it's rare class' Four Star version, that only leaves BB, as there are only two Moon Cancers in the game atm, one was a welfare/event Servant, and the other is that Servant's summer version. imho, you are better off looking for someone with either version of BB in their Friend list.
- Get Sasaki Kojiro, Georgius, Leonidas and Andersen out of the Friend Gacha ASAP.
Kojiro in particular, is easy to get (Unless you are me and have shit luck), totally free and is also the aforementioned high damage one Star.
Basically, early on in the game, you have to fight A LOT of Riders, and he is the easiest to get. He may, just like Mash, seem really weak at first, but believe me, he is actually really good, especially after you do his püersonal story and Rank-Up quests.
In case you ever want to roll for a non- Friend Point Servant, go check out G&A reviews, he rates all the Gacha Servants and compares them to others of their rank. He only Briefly touched 1-3 Stars who aren't Quartz-Gacha Content though. Also, only roll on Rate-Ups.
- Don't repeat my mistake: Level Mash
- If you are like me, and don't want to see certain Friend- Servants in their final ascension, turn it off in the options (Through "My room"). If you have them yourself, you can change which sprite is used yourself.
For example, I keep Jack the Ripper in her first Ascension, so she keeps the coat. Makes using her in combat more bearable.
Same goes for "Tamamo Cat".
- The free tutorial roll is actually semi- re-rollable, check online guides on how they work, but backup your account first. Basically you can re-roll by creating a new account.
Note: You can get multiple four Stars out of the pool, only one is guaranteed though.
The best result you can get out of it, is Heracles. Imho you've already won there if you get him.
Stehno on the other hand, is the worst. - Not worth the bother levelling, how in the world did she get four Stars, when Medusa has 3?!
- You only need 50 crit Stars to guarantee a 100% chance of landing a crit on ALL cards.
- Don't use Quartz as AP substitute.
-AP can Overcharge upon Level-Up
- Try to get someone with Tamamo no Mae as well as Merlin on your friend list, if you want to Arts meme. Her NP is really unique as you can easily loop it, and it is the only one in the entire game reducing skill cooldowns.
(Exact effects: Skill CD - 1 , Heal, NP Charge depending on Overcharge) ; Her Skills are also rather OP, when you strengthen them through a quest.
1st: Very High chance to reduce NP charge on enemy + 30%NP strength on all Teammates(Except herself, but who cares, it's not a damage NP); A 3-Turn defense Skill, with 1 turn double defense; And a 50% Arts Card Buff with a 2500 HP heal.
- It takes an average of 300 Saint Quartz to get a 5 Star Servant; note A 5 Star, not the one you want or the one who is on rate up. That being said, you can as well roll 8 5 Stars in single Roll, though you'd be the luckiest person in the world (My max was 3 or 4 with last years lucky bag)
-If you ever buy SQ, and want more than just the 15 for the Guaranteed rolls. Best buy the most expensive package, as it gives you the highest combination of free and paid quartz
Merlin is slightly more OP than that, but still. She is still Meme though, due to breaking a Lore rule, namely "Gilgamesh is the strongest Servant.(Excl. Grand Servants)"
I hope everything is readable enough, it's late, and I wrote this as it is, and only flew over it rather than using MSWord.
As said before, I'm usually not writing guides, so if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Continued in Post 3 And Following.
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