Saṃsāra of Genesis and Terminus

Lostbelt No. 4 – Yugakshetra is “finally” here after six months since the release of Lostbelt No. 3. I get it, the Japanese server went over a year between Lostbelt No. 5 and 6. But, they did have other “main story” chapters within that time.

I wouldn’t exactly say that I had high hopes for Yugakshetra going in. I’d heard that SIN was more difficult overall, but that Yugakshetra had one boss battle that was harder. And as for the story, I knew nothing going in other than that Arjuna Alter (God Arjuna) was the Lostbelt King.

With that in mind, I was hopeful for a good story, but my expectations for the gameplay were a bit low. If you’ve read my reviews of the previous two Lostbelts, I’m definitely a fan of hard content. I want Challenge Quest level difficulty when I go into boss fights.

As always is always the case with these Lostbelt reviews, there are going to be major spoilers. You’ve been warned. Now, let’s get into an overview of Yugakshetra.

Scandinavia Peperoncino is the Crypter of the Indian Lostbelt. However, this time around, he’s an ally for most of the chapter. That’s because his servant, Aśvatthāman, was stolen from him by the Lostbelt King God Arjuna.

God Arjuna’s whole thing is that he collected all of the Indian gods within himself to become the sole god. He then drastically increased the cycle of death and rebirth of the world so that he could eliminate everything he deemed “evil.”

The Good Parts

I’m not going to sugarcoat it; the good parts of Yugakshetra are far outweighed by the bad parts. So let’s quickly run through the few things I genuinely liked about this Lostbelt. First, I like God Arjuna (in theory). And second, I like the Yuga cycle.

God Arjuna (or Godjuna) is really cool. I’m actually not a fan of regular Arjuna. In fact, I burned the copy of Arjuna I summoned years ago. I regret that now, but at the time I knew I wasn’t going to use him because I had better Archers and there wasn’t yet another way to get Rare Prisms.

God Arjuna fixes every issue I have with regular Arjuna. Rather than looking like some class president nerd, God Arjuna is a complete chad. Plus, I’m always a fan of the dark skin/white hair combo. Also, rather than being pretty bad, God Arjuna is one of the best servants in the game.

The Yuga cycle is a pretty cool addition to Lostbelt No. 4. It doesn’t really have any effect on gameplay, though since it changes based on where you are in the story. But basically, it’s just a cool way to keep track of where you are within the world of the Indian Lostbelt.

The Yuga cycle is made up of 10 days split into four Yuga. The first Yuga is four days long, the second is three, the third is two, and the fourth is one. As the world progresses through the cycle, it gets increasingly more dangerous.

And at the end of the final Yuga, God Arjuna destroys the world and recreates it, thus starting the cycle over. When he does so, he also purges everything that he considers “evil” from the previous cycle. It’s cool to have a calendar like that so you always know where you stand compared to the reset.

The Bad Parts

There are a lot of things I don’t like about Yugakshetra. This might be my least favorite Lostbelt. But also I did skip through decent chunks of Lostbelt No. 1. So I don’t exactly have the full story of that. This is my least favorite of the ones I’ve reviewed.

Disappointing Art and Music

Yugakshetra has the Yuga cycle calendar which is cool. But other than that, the cool art of the series really only comes at the very end. Meanwhile, SIN had a bunch of cool art all throughout the chapter, not just at the end.

And by cool art, I don’t mean character sprites with backgrounds. Yes, God Arjuna has a very cool character sprite. But what I mean are all of the special scenes of characters doing cool things — like Napoleon disintegrating away or Spartacus shooting into the sky to fight a meteor head on.

Yugakshetra had Karna vs. God Arjuna at the end. I think there were a few other things, but that’s the only one I remember right now. And if I don’t remember them, were they that good?

The music is a bigger issue for me. While I didn’t like it at the start, the map theme for Yugakshetra has grown on me. However, SIN’s map theme is way better. And while Qin Shi Huang received an amazing theme in SIN, God Arjuna didn’t get the same in Yugakshetra.

I kept waiting for a cool song to start playing accompanying God Arjuna. But it never happened.

Low Difficulty Until the End

As I mentioned earlier, I had heard that this Lostbelt wasn’t as hard as SIN. Those rumors were correct. I was extremely disappointed in the difficulty level of this chapter. It did get harder at the end (which I’ll go into later on), but most of Yugakshetra was pretty easy.

Below, you’ll see a picture from one of the boss fights against Aśvatthāman. The team you see me using here is effectively the team I used for the whole Lostbelt until Verse 19 (the end).

Basically, I brought Qin Shi Huang, a support Merlin, and another random servant who had class advantage — in this case, Tamamo Lancer. Really, I think you could beat the majority of Yugakshetra with just Qin Shi Huang soloing.

Now, I get it. People are going to say that the team I used is kind of OP and not attainable for most players. But, my team isn’t as busted as you may think. Yes, I have Qin Shi Huang and Merlin on it, but there’s more to it you don’t see there.

First of all, there’s no real backline. In the back, I just had some unleveled servants who were there for bond XP. And second, none of the servants on my team, including the support, had “real” Craft Essences. They all had bond, master, or mystic code XP-boosting CEs.

I could have put my max limit broken 2030, Kaleidoscope, or whatever other top-tier CEs on my servants. But I didn’t need to. The fights were so easy that I didn’t actually build a team until the end. I even used Saber Lily in some fights.

Mostly Uninteresting Characters

Would anyone disagree if I said that Yugakshetra had the worst characters of any Lostbelt so far? I was very underwhelmed by everyone except probably Rama. Rama was great just because all of his dialogue eventually ended with him mentioning Sita.

Pepe was an alright character. I expected more from him, honestly. Karna is cool, but he wasn’t there most of the time. Jinako (Ganesha) was pretty cringe. And Lakshmi Bai existed, I guess. None of them wowed me like some of the allies in previous Lostbelts.

The enemies weren’t any better. Asclepius and William Tell each had their own little sections of the story. But I didn’t feel like they really had much of an impact. They were simply there as enemies to be defeated before reaching God Arjuna.

Aśvatthāman was better in that regard. However, I felt that his whole character being “I’m angry because if I stop being angry what will I have left?” was boring. He effectively had Madness Enhancement EX, but an Archer class.

And don’t even get me started on God Arjuna himself. He has such a cool design, and yet they gave him absolutely no personality. He didn’t even come across as a high and mighty god to me. He just seemed robotic. That was a huge waste of the coolest Lostbelt King so far.

A Plot Full of Holes

Time travel can be done well. But there are a lot of things that have to be done right for that to happen. The big concern whenever time travel occurs is the inclusion of paradoxes. And Yugakshetra was full of them.

For example, let’s look at Jinako’s whole story arc. It really makes no sense, which is kind of a big deal when you consider how central it was to the story of the Lostbelt as a whole.

At the start of the chapter, there are three things that are important to take note of: Jinako, Karna, and God’s Skyboulder. When Jinako joins your team, she also hints that there’s some history between her and Karna.

Fast forward to late in the chapter and we learn that Karna sent Jinako back in time to set up a way to defeat God Arjuna. This explains the prior connection between Jinako and Karna. We’re fine so far, but then there’s the Skyboulder.

After being sent back in time, Jinako is encased within the Skyboulder for thousands of years until you awaken her at the end of the story. But since Jinako was part of your team at the start, and the Skyboulder existed then too, there were technically two of her in the same timeline.

But, there’s more. This also means that the Jinako who recognized that she and Karna had a past connection wasn’t the Jinako who had that past connection. That Jinako was in the Skyboulder. It’s all just a big mess without any good explanation.

Verse 19: The Final Dark God

The last section of the chapter (aside from the epilogue) is Verse 19: The Final Dark God. I mentioned that Yugakshetra got difficult at the end — this is when it happens. There are three fights in this section, and they’re all pretty hard.

This is the only time throughout the whole Lostbelt that I actually built teams specifically to overcome a challenge. So, let’s go through how I did it quickly.

The first fight was against Limbo in the first wave and God Arjuna in the second. It took me a few attempts, tweaking my team each time, but the overall concept was the same: Smash Limbo on turn 1 with a Berserker, keep that Berserker alive as long as possible against God Arjuna with Taunters (and Merlin for the first NP), and then Cú in the back.

Fight number two is the one against God Arjuna in which you’re forced to use the support Karna. This can be a hard fight. However, once you realize that Karna is the key, it’s laughably easy. All you need to do is get Karna past God Arjuna’s first NP with his guts intact.

My team was Karna (obviously), Hans because I don’t have Waver, Georgios and Leonidas for taunting with NP battery on death CEs to help Karna, and Shakespeare and Mozart both with taunt CEs on them so they could double as taunters and single-turn buffers.

Yes, you can beat this fight with a team of 1-2 star servants.

The final fight against Aśvatthāman and the Tree was fairly hard. I used Tamamo Lancer, d’Eon, Merlin, Mash, Nero, and Qin Shi Huang. Tamamo was the damage dealer, everyone else had some way to protect her, and then Qin Shi Huang cleaned up solo at the end.

Cosmos Denied

I guess I need to discuss the end result of this Lostbelt chapter before moving on to the conclusion. This conclusion wasn’t as sad or bittersweet to me as the previous three were. And I think a big reason for that is that the outcome was always going to be the same anyway.

In Lostbelt 1, the people of that world were fighting for their future and we were fighting for ours. The reason that ending was good is that despite knowing their world was going to end, they still decided to fight for freedom.

Lostbelt 2 went in a sadder direction. It was an extremely peaceful world, and yet we destroyed it and everyone living in it simply because it wasn’t our own. The Scandinavian Lostbelt was innocent, and we denied it anyway.

With Lostbelt 3, we got in a fight against the Lostbelt King to determine which world was right. In the end we won, so Qin Shi Huang accepted that the Chinese Lostbelt wasn’t the right path for humanity. He tried his best to make the perfect world, but it didn’t work out.

God Arjuna’s world is very different from all of those. In Russia, the people fought for a better life. In Scandinavia, people lived short but peaceful lives. In China, people lived simple but peaceful lives. And in India, everyone gets erased in the end.

I really can’t feel bad about erasing the Indian Lostbelt and all the people who live in it when God Arjuna was already doing that to them. He was literally erasing people. So what’s the difference if I do it? It’s the same outcome, so I don’t really feel bad about it.

Conclusion

In the end, I think I have to give Lostbelt No. 4 – Yugakshetra a 6/10. I enjoyed playing it. But I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous two Lostbelt chapters. There were just way too many things wrong with it that added up over the course of the chapter.

Also, I should mention that God Arjuna released for summoning today. I spent 540 Saint Quartz and 8 tickets to receive 0 copies of him. But, as a consolation, I did get NP5+ Asclepius, NP2 Aśvatthāman, and NP1 Beowulf, Suzuka Gozen, and Medusa Lancer.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you want to discuss FGO (and anime, I guess) with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ (who rolled NP3 God Arjuna) for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis is available now.

This article was last updated on November 27, 2023.

Tier List Introduction

The international version of Fate/Grand Order currently has 16 mystic codes. And there are 4 more (currently known) mystic codes coming in the future. As new mystic codes are released, and I get them to level 10, I’ll update this tier list accordingly.

To start, the 4 mystic codes that we don’t have in the international version of the game are:

• Decisive-Battle Chaldea Uniform
• Souya High School Uniform
• New Year’s Attire
• Summer Street

Now, for this tier list, I’ve split the mystic codes into 5 tiers labeled S, A, B, C, and D. The higher up on the list a mystic code is, the better it is. However, where a mystic code is placed horizontally doesn’t matter. All that matters is the tier the mystic code falls within.

S
A
B
C
D

Pictured above is the complete tier list. If the mystic codes you see here don’t look exactly like yours, you’re playing as the male character. I play as the female character, so I chose to use her variants of the mystic codes in the tier list.

Throughout the rest of this article, I’ll be breaking down the skills of each mystic code. I’ll also be explaining why I placed each one where I did. There are three things to keep in mind, though.

First, this tier list assumes all mystic codes are at level 10. Second, it doesn’t take the experience required to reach level 10 into consideration. And third, it doesn’t take cooldown times into consideration.

S-Tier Mystic Codes

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Chaldea Combat Uniform

The only S-tier mystic code is the Chaldea Combat Uniform. While I wouldn’t say it’s the best one by far, I would say it stands above the rest. The two primary reasons for this are its versatility and signature skill.

Something you’ll notice as we continue through the tier list is that versatility is key. Generally speaking, the more niche a mystic code is, the worse it is. And the Chaldea Combat Uniform is a great generalist option.

Buff All Allies grants a 30% attack buff for 1 turn to all present members of the party. As you might expect, this is a very good skill when you need a burst of power.

Gandr stuns a single enemy for 1 turn. Stuns are some of the most powerful effects in high-difficulty content. They protect your team from incoming damage and can give you 1 more turn to prepare for an incoming NP.

Order Change is what really sets the Chaldea Combat Uniform apart. This skill allows you to switch one of your front-line servants with a back-line servant. Order Change is an extremely powerful skill that you can use in a variety of ways. Most notably, it’s used for buff stacking.

The Chaldea Combat Uniform is the only mystic code with an order change skill, for now. But, another is coming in the future.

A-Tier Mystic Codes

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Mystic Code: Chaldea

As the starting mystic code, you may think Mystic Code: Chaldea isn’t good. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s another great generalist mystic code. But, unlike the Chaldea Combat Uniform, it doesn’t have an overpowered signature skill.

First Aid is a standard healing skill that heals a single servant for 3,000 HP. On its own, healing isn’t the best effect. But, when combined with defense buffs, it can be very good.

Instant Enhancement buffs a single ally’s attack by 50% for one turn. With its higher percentage, this is a better attack buff skill than the party-wide options.

Emergency Evade applies a 1-turn evade to a single servant. This is an excellent way to keep an important servant alive for 1 more turn.

Since these skills can be useful in most situations, Mystic Code: Chaldea is one of the best mystic codes.

Atlas Institute Uniform

In my opinion, the Atlas Institute Uniform is a bit underrated. It’s yet another good, generalist mystic code. But, it also enhances specific niches. Specifically, this mystic code is great for both stall and last-man-standing situations.

Dust of Osiris is an all-around better version of Emergency Evade. Instead of applying evade to a servant for 1 turn, it applies invulnerability to a servant for 1 turn. Invulnerability is a better version of evade because it protects against sure-hit. Both sure-hit and pierce invulnerability hit through evade.

Rain of Isis removes all debuffs from a single servant. This isn’t a bad skill, especially as debuffs become more common and oppressive later in the game. But, it’s the worst of the Atlas Institute Uniform’s skills.

Eye of Medjed is the best skill this mystic code has. It reduces the skill cooldowns of a single servant by 2, which is extremely powerful. Longer battles and last-man-standing situations can make great use of this skill.

As someone who likes to play stall teams myself, I use the Atlas Institute Uniform all the time.

Anniversary Blonde

Anniversary Blonde is one of the highest-tiered specialist mystic codes on this list. It’s designed specifically for Buster-crit teams. And, all its skills work well with Merlin’s kit, which makes this mystic code that much stronger in its niche.

Mana Burst buffs the Buster card effectiveness of 1 servant by a whopping 60% for 1 turn. If you need to defeat a boss right now, this is the skill to use.

Confident in Victory grants 20 critical stars. This pairs very well with Mana Burst so your 60% buffed Buster card can also crit. You can get some insane damage this way without even using any NPs.

Knight’s Oath applies guts to a servant for 1 turn, reviving them with 4,000 HP. Is your Buster servant of choice a Berserker? This skill will keep them on the field a bit longer.

Basically, if you’re using a Buster team that relies on critical hits, this is your mystic code.

Chaldea Uniform – Arctic

Chaldea Uniform – Arctic also finds itself in the A-tier. At first glance, this may seem like a worse version of Mystic Code: Chaldea. They both have very similar skills. But, I’d say the first 2 skills of Arctic are better, while the third skill of the original is better.

Purifying Recovery is a 3,000 HP heal for 1 servant just like First Aid. But, this skill also removes defensive debuffs as well. That may be a bit niche, but an extra effect makes it better.

Illusionary Buff increases the attack of a servant by 40% and their NP damage by 20%. While that’s a lower attack buff than Instant Enhancement’s 50%, this skill is still better. Why? Because of how the NP damage buff stacks with the attack buff.

Predictive Evasion grants evade to a single servant for 1 time over the course of 3 turns. The evade doesn’t get wasted if that servant isn’t attacked on either of the first 2 turns. But, I generally prefer having a full turn of protection over 1 hit.

The primary downside of this mystic code is that it takes the longest time to reach level 10.

Halloween Royalty

Halloween Royalty released with the Halloween Rising! event and is the second Buster-specific mystic code to break into A-tier. It’s basically a Buster version of Tropical Summer, but better. And, while Anniversary Blonde is for Buster crit teams, Halloween Royalty is for Buster NP teams.

Brilliant Escort increases the Buster card effectiveness of a servant by 30% for 1 turn. It also increases their NP damage by 20% for 1 turn. It’s literally the Buster version of Tropical Summer’s Blue Splash skill.

Pure Coordination applies invincibility to a servant 2 times in 1 turn. It’s not the best defensive skill on a mystic code, by any means. But, it’s good enough to get the job done since, in most cases, a single servant won’t be attacked 3 times in 1 turn.

Blessed Regenerate is a better version of Tropical Summer’s Safety Oil skill. Both skills increase the NP gauge of a servant by 10%. But, Blessed Regenerate also clears immobilization debuffs. That second effect is useful in more situations than Safety Oil’s.

The game has evolved over the years to be more NP-focused. So, I’d say Halloween Royalty is a better Buster mystic code than Anniversary Blonde.

B-Tier Mystic Codes

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Mage’s Association Uniform

Mage’s Association Uniform is a fairly general mystic code with a signature skill. Its first two skills are pretty good, but not overly amazing. And while its third skill can be powerful and useful in certain situations, it’s also RNG-based.

Cure-All is a party-wide healing skill that heals for 2,800 HP. That amount of healing isn’t going to put much of a dent in the damage enemies are doing. But, when paired with defensive buffs, it can still help.

Spiritron Transfer is the best skill the Mage’s Association Uniform has. It charges the NP gauge of a single servant by 20%. It’s useful and doesn’t rely on RNG.

Command Shuffle randomly distributes 5 new command cards. This can be good if you draw a bad hand. But, it’s also not guaranteed to give you a great one. And there’s nothing worse than shuffling your cards into a worse hand than you started with.

I should also mention Command Shuffle deactivates BB (summer)’s Faceless Moon EX skill. It’s not a conflict that will come up too often. But, as a BB (Summer) enjoyer, I felt the need to point it out.

A Fragment of 2004

A Fragment of 2004 is another Buster mystic code. But, it’s worse at fulfilling its role than Anniversary Blonde. While powerful individually, this mystic code’s skills are a bit mismatched. They don’t all come together as Anniversary Blonde’s do.

Code: F increases the NP damage of 1 servant by 50% for 1 turn. This is a good skill. But, if single-turn NP damage is what you want, other, better mystic codes can also provide that.

Code: U increases the Buster card critical star gather rate for a servant by 10,000% for 1 turn. That’s nice for critting with a Buster card. But, Buster Crits with Anniversary Blonde are going to hit harder.

Code: H increases a servant’s NP gain by 50% for 1 turn. NP gain buffs are good when critting because they lead to even more NP gain. But, this mystic code is all about Buster crits, not Arts crits. So, it doesn’t help as much as you’d expect for Buster servants.

There’s one thing you may have noticed this mystic code is lacking. It has no way to generate crit stars. So, for most Buster teams, you’re not going to use A Fragment of 2004.

Chaldea Uniform – True Ether

Chaldea Uniform – True Ether is a mystic code I came to appreciate a lot while I was leveling it up. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like having Merlin as your mystic code. The effects of its skills are similar to the effects of Merlin’s Skills and NP.

All-out Charge is a 35% Buster buff for all allies. This is a decent skill. But, it’s definitely the worst of the Buster buffs we’ve seen so far.

Triple Restoration recovers 2,000 HP per turn for 3 turns for 1 servant. As I’ve said before, healing is primarily viable when combined with defense buffs. So, on its own, this isn’t a great skill.

Mana Conversion increases the NP gauge of a servant by 10% and their NP gain rate by 40% for 1 turn. This is the best skill True Ether has. But, as with the others, there’s nothing remarkable about it.

The thing is, what makes Merlin’s kit so good is how you can stack all his buffs over and over again. You can’t do that with mystic code skills due to their long cooldown times.

Tropical Summer

Tropical Summer is the first dedicated Arts mystic code on this tier list. Though, I would argue that the Atlas Institute Uniform is also good for Arts teams that often rely on skills. But, Tropical Summer is better for short, high-damage battles.

Blue Splash buffs the Arts card effectiveness for a servant by 30% and their NP strength by 20% for 1 turn. This can be very helpful for getting an Arts servant to loop their NP.

Surprise Water increases the critical star gather rate for a servant’s Arts cards by 10,000% for 1 turn. Arts crits are amazing for NP gain, so this skill works well with Blue Splash to facilitate looping.

Safety Oil increases the buff removal resist for a servant by 100% for 1 turn and their NP gauge by 10%. Usually, you’re using this skill for the 10% NP battery. However, I did actually use it to resist buff removal once in a Challenge Quest. It’s a niche use case, but it works.

In my opinion, Arts looping is one of the most fun playstyles. And Tropical Summer is a mystic code meant for Arts loopers. But, you can use Chaldea Combat Uniform’s Order Change skill and Arts buffers instead.

Splendid New Year

Splendid New Year is a decent enough mystic code. But, at the same time, it doesn’t do anything all that well. It’s safe to say that Splendid New Year is the worst of the generalist mystic codes.

First Shine is a party-wide NP strength buff of 35% for 1 turn. Party-wide offensive skills are generally worse than single-target options. And this skill is no exception. It’s better to buff a single NP to hit even harder.

Little Gift increases the NP gauge of a servant by 10% and provides 15 crit stars. There are better NP battery skills and better crit star skills. There’s not much of a reason to use this over those.

Osechi Package increases the maximum HP of a servant by 3,000 for 1 turn. This is actually better than a standard heal for 3,000 HP. But, it’s still nothing special.

Really, everything Splendid New Year does can be done better by other mystic codes. You should either choose a specialist mystic code or one of the other generalists.

Captain Chaldea

As you might expect from a B-tier mystic code, it’s not great and it’s not bad. It’s good enough. And if you’re a newer player, it could provide exactly what you need. But, it has one huge flaw: it’s basically a worse version of another mystic code.

Overcharger clears the offensive debuffs of a servant and buffs their NP damage by 50% for 1 turn. The offensive debuff cleanse is a bit niche, but still useful. And 50% is a good NP damage buff.

Star Blaster increases the critical strength of a servant by 50% for 1 turn. I prefer either getting crit stars or gathering crit stars over buffing crit damage. But, this is a fine skill.

Escape Pod applies evade 1 time for 3 turns to a servant and heals them for up to 3,000 HP. This is also a fine skill. But, again, healing skills aren’t great and 1 turn evade is often preferable over 1 time evade.

If you couldn’t guess, the better version of Captain Chaldea is Chaldea Uniform – Arctic. I like Arctic’s defensive debuff removal more than Captain Chaldea’s offensive debuff removal. And while Captain Chaldea has 2 damage buff skills, Arctic’s damage buff skill is better.

Chaldea Pathfinder

Chaldea Pathfinder is the first Quick mystic code on the tier list. It’s also currently the best of the Quick-oriented mystic codes. And that’s unfortunate considering that it’s not a very good option. But, at least Quick teams have a decent mystic code — they didn’t always.

Orienting is the Quick version of Tropical Summer’s Blue Splash skill. It buffs the Quick card performance of a servant by 30% and their NP strength by 20% for 1 turn.

Campfire increases the crit strength of all allies by 30% for 1 turn. And once again, I’ll say that party-wide offensive buffs are inferior to single-target. The opposite is true for defensive buffs.

Survival Kit removes the Poison, Curse, and Burn status conditions from a servant. It also charges their NP gauge by 10%. Status conditions usually aren’t a huge deal. Most other debuff-cleansing skills also remove them.

Now, I know I said I prefer crit star generation or gathering over strength. But, since for Quick servants, that’s not the case. So, Campfire is a decent skill. However, none of these skills are special.

C-Tier Mystic Codes

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Memories of the Lunar Sea

Considering Memories of the Lunar Sea is an Arts mystic code, you might expect me to like it. As I’ve said before, I’m primarily an Arts player. Unfortunately, by the time I got my hands on this mystic code, there were many, far better options.

Spiritron Boost buffs the Arts card effectiveness of a servant by 50% for 1 turn. On its own, this is a good skill and it’s the best skill this mystic code has.

Stepping Stone to Ultimate Victory grants a servant a 100% crit star generation buff for 1 turn. This skill isn’t particularly well-suited to Arts teams. But, I think the idea is for this mystic code to be used with an Arts crit team.

Punishment applies nullify buff for 1 time to a single enemy. This is a niche skill that doesn’t matter much. If an enemy is going to apply a buff to itself, it’s likely going to apply multiple buffs.

The main problem I see with this mystic code is that its skills aren’t very compatible. It’s not like Anniversary Blonde, which has 3 skills perfect for Buster crit teams.

Royal Brand

Royal Brand is an alright mystic code meant for Quick teams. But, it has one major problem: it doesn’t really do anything Quick servants can’t already do on their own. This should be apparent upon looking at its skills.

Reaction Reinforcement buffs the Quick card effectiveness of a servant by 50% for 1 turn. This is a good buff, but a lot of Quick servants already have Quick buffs built into their kits.

Iron Devotion increases the crit star gather rate of a servant by 1,000% for 1 turn. This is a worse version of A Fragment of 2004’s Code: U and Tropical Summer’s Surprise Water.

Inescapable applies sure hit to a servant for 1 turn. Sure hit is a worse version of ignore invulnerability.

Now, let’s use Jack the Ripper as an example of why this mystic code isn’t necessary. Her first skill is already a 50% Quick buff, so that’s the same as Reaction Reinforcement. She can also generate so many crit stars on her own that crit star gather rate doesn’t matter. And, her second skill can remove evasion, so sure hit isn’t needed.

Brilliant Summer

The second Quick mystic code of C-tier is Brilliant Summer. An argument could be made for Royal Brand being the better of the 2 in many situations. But, I prefer Brilliant Summer because it’s useful in more situations.

Rumble Party is a party-wide Quick card buff of 30% for 1 turn. As we know, party-wide offensive buffs are worse than single-target ones. So, this skill is worse than Reaction Reinforcement.

Deadly Trident applies ignore invulnerability to a servant for 1 turn. This is a better version of sure hit because it hits through both evade and invulnerability.

Beach House Shower heals a servant for 3,000 HP and increases their NP gauge by 10%. The NP battery is the effect that makes this a good skill.

Both ignore invulnerability and the NP battery can be helpful in some situations. In general, I’d prefer to have those skills than the skills of Royal Brand.

D-Tier Mystic Codes

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Memories of the Far Side of the Moon

The worst mystic code in the game is Memories of the Far Side of the Moon. It’s not even a question. I think the issue is that when this mystic code was released, Arts was the meta, and Arts teams didn’t need much help.

Spiritron Boost (All) buffs the Arts card effectiveness for the party by 30% for 1 turn. You already know how I feel about party-wide offensive buffs.

Stepping Stone to Survival applies debuff immune to a servant for 1 time. This is almost useless. If an enemy is using debuffs, you’re going to need a lot more than a 1-time immunity. And, cleansing debuffs is already easy. So, there’s no need for this skill.

Dial Down decreases an enemy’s NP gauge by 1. This is a good skill when present on a servant who can use it multiple times, like Tamamo-no-Mae. But, as a mystic code skill, it’s pretty bad.

Stunning an enemy is always a better option than reducing their NP gauge. Both effects prevent the enemy from using their NP for a turn. But, a stun (or charm) also prevents the enemy from using their other attacks and skills.

Realistically, you should never be using this mystic code.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. That’s my Fate/Grand Order mystic code tier list. Do you agree with my placement of the mystic codes? Or are there some you believe belong in a different tier? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

The Synchronized Intellect Nation

This probably doesn’t need saying, but if you haven’t completed Lostbelt 3 and don’t want to be spoiled, you shouldn’t be reading this review. If you’re reading this and are still back in Part 1 of Fate/Grand Order, feel free to follow me (you can’t friend me) if you’d like to use my support servants to help you get caught up. My friend code is: 217,535,152.

With that out of the way, let’s get into Lostbelt 3 – SIN.

After going through two previous Lostbelts featuring regions of snow and ice, the mild-weathered region of China Lostbelt 3 takes place in was a welcome sight. And not only did I appreciate the change in visuals, but the soundtrack for this chapter of the game was probably the best so far.

Scenery and music aside, there are some other good things about Lostbelt 3 that I knew from the outset. First, I knew nothing of the story, just as with the previous two chapters — so I was able to experience it without any sort of spoilers. That can’t really be said of the future chapters though.

And second, I’d heard that Lostbelt 3 is the hardest chapter of the game released to date, even on the Japanese version that has up to Lostbelt 5 released. I love hard content in FGO, so I was really looking forward to this.

Death to all Oppressors!

Before I get into the role that our allied servants played in this chapter, I want to go over some of the viewpoints they bring. Specifically, I want to talk about Spartacus, the savior of China.

Just as Napoleon was the best ally servant in Lostbelt 2, Spartacus was easily the best ally servant of Lostbelt 3. He had some great dialogue, added an interesting subplot, and got to go out in a blaze of glory. All things considered, I think he was actually a more interesting character than Napoleon was.

Unfortunately for Spartacus, he didn’t stick around for as long as Napoleon did.

While Spartacus’ obsession with rebelling against oppressors is definitely meme-worthy, I think it actually added a lot to this chapter’s story that the previous chapter was lacking. For example, the people of the Chinese and Scandinavian Lostbelts lead very similar lives. They’re both protected by an omnipotent figure, kept separated and uneducated, and unknowingly forced to die early.

However, the difference is that the children of Lostbelt 2 remained in this state for the entirety of the chapter. We tell Gerda that her life shouldn’t be tossed away so easily, but in the end, we don’t help her accomplish that.

What Spartacus brings to the people of Lostbelt 3 is a way out of their confined lives. He teaches them that they should strive to be free even if it’s difficult or scary. Spartacus is the embodiment of what we wanted to do in Lostbelt 2 but shied away from because we knew we would be destroying their world in the end anyway.

And along those lines, Spartacus says something else that makes a lot of sense. He believes that the people of the Chinese Lostbelt should fight back against us because just as we’re fighting to restore proper human history, they should have the right to protect their history as well.

The Role of Allied Servants

Spartacus aside, the role of allied servants in this chapter was a bit odd. We had Mordred, Nezha, Jing Ke, Red Hare, and Chen Gong. I think that’s all of them, but I may be missing one. Anyway, I say their role was a bit odd because I felt like none of them mattered much.

Jing Ke mattered somewhat because she had the whole revenge against the emperor story arc. But for the most part, these servants were kind of just there as members of our rag-tag group. Despite being one of my favorite servants, I often forgot that Mordred was even around — and the same goes for Nezha, though she’s not one of my favorites.

What I will say about these allied servants is that at least most of them made sense for the Lostbelt. Nezha, Jing Ke, Red Hare, and Chen Gong all fit within the region. Spartacus doesn’t, but it was obvious why he was summoned — because there were oppressed people in need of a rebellion.

Mordred was technically there for a similar reason as Spartacus, but not really. It felt more like she was added just to have a bit of variety. It hurts me to say this, but I think I would have preferred her not to be included since she served no purpose.

Oh, but one thing I did really like was how Chen Gong mentioned that he would be our ally in the future when he was disappearing at the end of the chapter. He’s not a summonable servant right now, but he will be some time around August of 2021. That was nice foreshadowing.

High-Difficulty Content

Losbelt 3 definitely had harder boss fights than Lostbelt 2. It also had a wider variety of boss fights. While Lostbelt 2 mainly had Saber-class bosses, Losbelt 3 had Saber, Lancer, Assassin, Berserker, and Ruler bosses. I also appreciated that there were fewer fights with “?” class bosses.

The reason I don’t like “?” class boss fights is because it’s effectively a fake higher difficulty. The reason those fights might be hard is that you may bring a team that’s just not good against the class you end up fighting. That doesn’t mean the fight is hard. It just means now you have to waste AP to try again with the correct team if you lost.

That said, I didn’t find most of the boss fights in this chapter to be too difficult, such as the Spartacus one pictured above. Generally speaking, if I lost any boss fights, I was able to make adjustments to my team and win on the second attempt without a problem. However, I will admit that I probably have a better selection of servants and CEs than most other F2P players.

I didn’t find the fight against Yu Mei-ren in which she uses her NP every turn to be that bad. And the same goes for the fight against Li Shuwen (the captain of the guard). But the one fight I did have trouble with was the Xiang Yu and Yu Mei-ren fight pictured above — and I loved it.

I’m not sure how many times I attempted this fight, but it was at least five. And when I did finally beat it, my last remaining servant was my grailed Cu with one turn left before he went down. It was a challenging fight, but I don’t think it’s so challenging that most other F2P players will get completely stuck.

What I really liked about this fight though was that I had to think of it as an event Challenge Quest. A standard team of powerful servants wasn’t going to cut it. I had to build a team with a specific game plan in mind. And so, I used one of my Challenge Quest go-to teams that attempts to NP loop with Hokusai.

I think this was the only fight I didn’t use Mash in.

Qin Shi Huang’s Philosophy

Qin Shi Huang is the other character in this chapter that I really liked. I found him to be much more interesting than either of the previous two Lostbelt Kings. He’s kind of like Skadi in that he’s trying to protect his subjects, but while she uses magic, he uses technology.

His philosophy is that if you keep your subjects uneducated, disconnected, and safe, then they’ll live without worry, fear, or pain. There’s no suffering in Qin Shi Huang’s world. Nobody ever goes hungry, there’s no war, and everyone dies peaceful and painless deaths.

But at the same time, all of the civilians live in the bronze age. They’re simple farmers who live in villages made up of a cluster of huts and they’re forbidden from traveling outside of their bubble. Unlike in the Scandinavian Lostbelt, this ban on travel is in place to halt the spread of information and ideas.

On the surface, Qin Shi Huang’s world is a utopia. But as we can all probably agree, what the people of his Lostbelt are doing isn’t really living. They merely exist in a static environment.

Another thing I found interesting about Qin Shi Huang was his outlook on ruling. It reminded me a lot of the debate in Fate/Zero between Gilgamesh, Iskandar, and Artoria regarding how a king should rule. To Qin Shi Huang, although he’s distanced physically from his people, he sees no reason to hide from them and instead views himself as one of them.

It was a bit odd to see this ruler who’s so disconnected from his people say something like that. But at the same time, it made perfect sense. In his mind, only a ruler who’s afraid of losing their power would hide from their subjects. Qin Shi Huang knows his rule is absolute, and so he apparently has no issue conversing with those under him.

Oh, and before I move on, I also want to mention that I liked the whole side plot about the miniaturization of technology in our world. But I’m not going to go into that.

The Emperor Strikes Back

It probably comes as no surprise that Qin Shi Huang is one of the most broken servants in the game. And as such, you may think that the battle against him would be one of the more difficult ones. After all, he has some good skills and a powerful NP.

However, I found that this wasn’t actually the case. I saw a lot of people saying that they were going to use Hessian Lobo, or maybe even Angra Mainyu to take down Qin Shi Huang because they both have ways to get around his invulnerability. I opted for a different approach.

Rather than removing his invulnerability or hitting through it, I decided that if I click enough red cards, a few turns of invulnerability wouldn’t save him. I have both Hessian Lobo and Angra, but why use them when I have an NP2 Gorgon instead?

I’m not going to say this was the easiest fight. But I did beat it on my first attempt without any major issues. You don’t really even need an Avenger to do it. All you need is a decent Berserker, like the Berserker Jeanne Alter we just got from this year’s summer event.

As long as you have a Berserker that’s leveled, grab a support Merlin if you don’t have one of your own and you’re pretty much good to go. That said, I still thought it was a good fight with a decent level of challenge. His critical hits are very strong though, so that’s the main thing that worried me.

We just Destroyed Another World

Before I touch on the final battle against the Tree of Emptiness, I want to go over how this chapter compared to Lostbelt 2. If you’ve read that review, you’ll know that I really liked Lostbelt 2. However, I also recognize that it had many shortcomings, such as the repetitive boss classes.

As for the story, though, I actually think Lostbelt 3’s story was better for the majority of it. Lostbelt 2 had a lot of going back and forth between locations while not making much progress towards our end goal. Lostbelt 3 fixed that. It was much more linear, which made me feel like I was actually progressing through the story.

I also thought that the ideas and world views presented in this chapter were more interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, I didn’t think the ending was as good.

The end of Lostbelt 2 left me feeling empty and dead inside. How could I possibly go on with the knowledge that I wiped someone as wholesome as Gerda from existence? Lostbelt 3 didn’t give me that same feeling. Instead, Qin Shi Huang was surprisingly agreeable regarding the destruction of his world, and then everything kind of ended suddenly.

Despite the Tree of Emptiness battle not being particularly difficult, it actually took me three attempts. The first time, I just brought a random team because I didn’t know what class it was going to be. The second time, I figured I might as well try to do a support Qin Shi Huang solo since he was available.

Much like the previous Tree of Emptiness fight, this one likes to debuff your team. In Lostbelt 2, I believe it stacked burns, and in Lostbelt 3 it stacked poison or curse. For the previous fight, I just used Martha because she could cleanse my team and had class advantage. I could have used Circe to do the same thing this time around.

But, as you can see, I opted to go back to my roots with a Mash/Tamamo/Jeanne setup. Sure, it was using Ortinax Mash, not the better Mash, but the strategy is the same.

Conclusion

Overall, I think Lostbelt 3 may be better than Lostbelt 2. The Lostbelt 2 boss battles did feel more like boss battles because of the nature of Surtr. And I did think the ending of that chapter was better. But SIN was better in just about every other way.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing Fate/Grand Order with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Lostbelt 4 is available now.

Introduction to the Lostbelt

Originally I was going to review Lupin III (2015) today, but then the second Lostbelt: Götterdämmerung released in Fate/Grand Order and I ended up playing that for four days instead of finishing Lupin. But, I figured I might as well write about my experience playing through Götterdämmerung because I really enjoyed it.

Technically the last time I wrote about FGO was when I reviewed the Babylonia anime series. But if we’re talking about the last time I wrote about the FGO game itself, it would have been back during the original Prisma Codes event back in 2018.

So since I’ve never actually written about the main story of this game, let’s start off with a crash course on what the Lostbelts are. Basically there are three parts to FGO currently. The first (1) part covers (technically) nine Singularities from Singularity F to Solomon. The Epic of Remnant is the second (1.5) part and covers four Pseudo-Singularities.

Then we have the third (2) part, Cosmos in the Lostbelt, which has seven Lostbelts, only two of which are released internationally right now (Japan has five).

The second Lostbelt: Götterdämmerung takes place on the Scandinavian peninsula during an alternate, failed timeline in which the “Age of the Gods” never came to an end. Ragnarok happened, but it didn’t completely wipe out the gods and giants as it did in “Proper Human History.”

And if you’ve played FGO before, you should know that any time the Age of the Gods is involved, it’s probably going to be a fun time with some good fights.

There will be spoilers from here on out.

Sigurd is too Easy

Götterdämmerung is my favorite chapter of FGO so far, but that’s not to say that it’s perfect. One of the most disappointing parts of this chapter for me was the multiple boss battles against Sigurd, the servant of the Crypter Ophelia. The problem with these fights against Sigurd is that the story keeps hyping up how strong he is, but he was way too easy to beat every time.

First of all, Sigurd is a Saber-class servant. That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but I have a lot of Archers leveled up. I have Artoria Archer, Ishtar, Chloe Von Einzbern, Atalante, Robin Hood, and my personal favorite, Euryale. It’s gotten to the point where I purposely avoid rolling on banners with Archers because I don’t need any more.

Now, the fact that I have a lot of good Archers isn’t a problem that will affect all other players. But take a look at this setup I used for the first Sigurd fight.

I went into this fight thinking I was basically going to charm lock Sigurd just as I did to Gawain back in Camelot. But what you’ll notice is that they gave Sigurd an irremovable mental debuff resist so he can’t be charmed. On the surface, it looks like they took preventative measures against people using Euryale in these fights.

But they didn’t go far enough.

Sure, Euryale can’t charm Sigurd (or any Sabers in Götterdämmerung for that matter), but Euryale is still extremely powerful in these fights because she’s an anti-male servant. My level 90 Artoria Archer did around 50k damage with her Noble Phantasm. Can you guess how much damage my level 70 Euryale did?

Over 200k.

And that number is just with her own Arts buff. If you actually set Euryale up here, you could easily one-shot Sigurd with a three-star servant.

The Time of Twilight has Come

The second half of Götterdämmerung is when I think it got really good. I still liked the story in the first half, and there were some good fights, but everything improved in the second half. Once Surtr appeared, the story got even better and the battles got more difficult (but were still reasonable).

Now seems like a good time to also point out that I am entirely free-to-play. Yes, I do actually have a good deal of strong four and five-star servants, but I’ve rolled them solely with quartz I received through playing the game for free. So when I say that fights are too easy or are somewhat difficult, know that I’m coming from a F2P perspective.

Though, it should also be noted that being a whale will not inherently make the game easier for you. Cost caps still exist, as does team synergy.

As you can see from the screenshot above, my game plan for fighting Surtr was very similar to fighting Sigurd. And this leads to the second issue I have with this chapter, which is that there are a lot of similar boss battles. Until the very end of the Lostbelt, every boss battle is either against a Saber or Lancer.

Surtr is a much better boss than Sigurd, though. For one, he’s just cooler (although Sigurd is still cool when he joins your side). But more importantly, Surtr can’t be easily defeated by Euryale alone. In fact, I relied much more on Artoria Archer for the Surtr fights, as you’ll see later on.

One thing that surprised me about Surtr is that he isn’t considered the “True” Saber. Just as King Hassan is considered the True Assassin, I figured Surtr would be revealed as the True Saber. He can literally destroy the planet with one swing of his sword, so how is he not the canonically strongest Saber? Do gods and giants not count?

Really Good Boss Fights

The final three boss fights of Götterdämmerung are really good. First, you go up against Surtr Fenrir. Then you fight Queen Scathach-Skadi and the final remaining Valkyrie, Ortlinde. And directly after that, you fight the Tree of Emptiness.

I wouldn’t say that Surtr Fenrir was an extremely difficult boss. And I actually don’t remember the full team I brought against him, but at the very least I can tell you Artoria Archer, Euryale, and Mash were on the team. I’ll also admit part of the difficulty of this fight came from my team not being the best for it.

Below, you can see how close I came to losing the fight. But if I had built a better team, it wouldn’t have been nearly as close. For example, Euryale got taken out on the second turn right before she was going to unleash her NP. If I gave her a better Craft Essence or even used someone like Robin instead, that wouldn’t have happened.

For the Skadi and Ortlinde fight, I had a much easier time (the second time). I actually lost my first attempt using Lancelot Saber, Mash, D’Eon, Medea Lily, Martha, and Drake. So for the second attempt, I knew exactly what I needed to do: Take out Ortlinde as soon as possible, because Skadi isn’t a threat without her.

So for the second attempt, I swapped out Lancelot for Mordred and Medea Lily for Georgios. Mordred broke Ortlinde’s first health bar on turn one, and Georgios was just a much better pick for this fight over Medea Lily since healing wasn’t necessary. Also, I swapped Drake for Achilles in the final slot, but I actually didn’t need to use him at all. Martha was enough to clean up Skadi.

The final fight against the tree was another good one. Surprisingly, I beat this on the first attempt by guessing what class it was going to be: Caster. This fight is a lot of fun because of the buffs/debuffs the tree uses, and luckily for me, I brought Martha who basically shuts down both of those.

Götterdämmerung Needs an Anime

Fun final boss battles aside, Götterdämmerung was extremely enjoyable to play through. I’ll be honest, I skipped through the story for all of FGO part 1 and the Epic of Remnant. I only actually started paying attention to the story in Lostbelt 1, and even then I only half paid attention.

With Götterdämmerung, I made sure to pay full attention, and I wasn’t disappointed by the story it told. In fact, I think it needs to be animated, and if it is, I think it could end up being the best Fate anime.

Fate is usually known for breaking the rules and pulling things out of nowhere, but that wasn’t the case here. The only thing I would say may count as that is the appearance of Sitonai, but she didn’t really play much of a role. Everything else, even the introduction of Surtr, was set up from the start and made sense in the context of the story.

Of course, I can’t discuss how good the story of Götterdämmerung is without mentioning the characters. I really liked the Brynhild/Sigurd dynamic. I think Skadi, the Valkyries, and even Surtr were really interesting antagonists. And, as we all know, Napoleon is best boy. Napoleon is such a bro that he may be my favorite part of Götterdämmerung.

But going back to Skadi and the Valkyries as antagonists, I think this is what made the storytelling so good. They weren’t really antagonists, they were just trying to protect their world. And we saw another side of this with Gerda (RIP) as well.

For the first time, I felt like the Chaldeans may have been the bad guys. Yes, we’re trying to restore Proper Human History, but at what cost? Did Gerda and all the people of this Scandinavia deserve to die? Would it have really been so bad for this Lostbelt to continue on?

Sure, you could argue that killing all humans at the age of 25 is a negative, but once Surtr is defeated, that’s no longer necessary. With Surtr gone, the world can return to “normal” and humans can expand outside of their villages. A new human history could have begun within that Lostbelt. But we destroyed it, and Gerda, instead.

Conclusion

Have you played through the second Lostbelt yet? If so, what did you think about the battles and story? Is this your favorite chapter so far, or do you prefer one of the earlier ones? Let me know in the comments.

I’ll probably do reviews/discussions of the future Lostbelts as well. I don’t know much about the next Lostbelt, so that will be interesting. But I do know the fourth Lostbelt is supposed to be hard so that one should be fun. And of course, the fifth Lostbelt is basically just a bunch of boss battles, so I’m looking forward to that.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And if you like playing FGO, come join our Discord server. We have a channel for gaming, but it’s basically dedicated to FGO because of how much I talk about it in there.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next main story chapter is available here.

Introduction

I just recently got back into playing Fate/Grand Order, and it looks like I picked the right time to get back into this game. The newest event comes straight out of the Prisma Illya timeline, which happens to be my favorite in the entire Fate series.

The story for this event was also written by the writer of Prisma Illya 3rei!! so it’s probably pretty good. I wouldn’t know, however, because I skip all of the dialogue in Fate/Grand Order, even for this event.

As a bonus, for completing this limited time event, you receive a four-star Chloe von Einzbern Archer card, well, actually you receive five of them if you complete everything there is to do. This means you’ll be able to have her NP maxed out. I’ve heard she’s one of the best four-star Archers in the game.

Summons

So you can get Chloe as a servant through completing the event, but what about the other two magical girls, Illya and Miyu?

Well, if you want Illya, you’re in luck! Or, should I say, you’ll need luck. She’s a five-star summon and although her drop rate is increased in the Prisma Codes pickup summon, that still doesn’t mean you’re likely to get her. Unfortunately I haven’t rolled an Illya yet.

Illya will also not be added to the Story Summon once this event is over, so if you really want her, good luck. As for Miyu, she’s not a servant, sorry Miyu fans. However, she is featured prominently on a five-star Craft Essence card which I was lucky enough to roll.

Miyu’s CE card is called Magical Girl of Sapphire and can be seen in the bottom right of the picture below.

So what else can you get from this limited time summon? There’s a four-star CE called ill on Sight and a three-star CE called Zunga Zunga!, but those don’t really interest me too much. What’s really important here are the other servant summons besides Illya, although we know she’s the most important.

Depending on the day, either Illya or Queen Medb will be the featured five-star servant with an increased drop rate. Some days it will even be both of them! I’ve been eyeing Queen Medb ever since she was first released and haven’t gotten my hands on her yet, so hopefully this event helps with that.

As for the four-star servants, Medea (Lily), Nursery Rhyme, and Helena Blavatsky all have increased drop rates. The one here that interests me is Medea (Lily), another card I’ve wanted ever since I first saw her. I think she’d go great with my Altria Pendragon (Lily). I just love her design so much.

Gameplay

So you have terrible gacha luck like me and won’t or haven’t rolled anything you wanted from the summon, what else is there? Well, dear reader, there’s the gameplay of course!

The map is split up into five different parts. The candy, ocean, city, and snow regions are the four main parts of the event, but once all of these are complete it appears you unlock the fifth region which is that large, blue singularity at the top of the screen (pictured below).

So far I’ve completed the candy and ocean regions, and am making my way through the city. I probably could have completed the entire event by now considering I have over 60 Golden Fruit for recovering AP, but I like to save those until the final days of events just in case I need them.

Each of the main four regions, and potentially the fifth, has a boss. For the candy region it was Nursery Rhyme, the ocean region was Medea (Lily), the city is Helena Blavatsky, and the snowy region will be Queen Medb.

Out of the three I’ve faced so far, I found Medea (Lily) to be the hardest simply because she’s so good at recovering both her own, and her ally’s HP. She recovers at least 15,000 HP every turn, so you need to constantly be dealing out massive damage to her.

Now, these battles may not seem all that difficult, and in reality they aren’t, but they are set up a bit differently than the usual battles in the game. For starters, you only need to defeat the boss to win the battle, not their allies. Because of this, I tend to ignore the allies altogether.

Each boss is also either weak to either Arts or Buster cards. This, paired with some of the limited time CE cards, and the fact that certain female servants deal double damage to the bosses, means that if you actually setup your party correctly (unlike me) you can take out the bosses in just a few hits.

But what really makes these battles different is that they’re split up into parts called episodes. Every time you defeat a boss, that chunk of HP you took down is removed from their “total HP.” This means you have to fight each boss multiple times to get their total HP all the way down to zero.

It should come as no surprise that each time you fight the boss they’re also slightly more difficult to defeat.

The Shop

Finally, this event comes with two different limited time shops. The first one is where you can exchange the event items you’ve received throughout your battles for some special CEs or skill/ascension-up materials.

Unfortunately, other than one copy of the CEs Kaleid Ruby and Kaleid Sapphire, there’s nothing in this shop that’s actually limited to this particular event. I say unfortunately, because although those CEs are good for the event, you can get them without going through this shop, and they lose a lot of their potential once this event ends.

However, the other “shop” is the one you should be more interested in. This isn’t really a shop, but that’s what I’m going to refer to it as anyway. Here, you can redeem your completed event missions for a variety of rewards such as Golden Fruit or even Summon Tickets.

As is the custom for events like these, there are 100 different missions to complete over the course of the event. Some of them will be necessary to get further within the event, and others will only unlock after specific, other missions are completed.

There will also be some missions that don’t unlock until a certain date. These are likely going to be tied to the fifth region of the event map, but I don’t know for sure at this time. The final mission is also likely to be unlocked by completing all 99 other missions and will likely grant you a Crystallized Lore.

Conclusion

If you’d like to add me on Fate/Grand Order, my friend code is 217,535,152. I have some nifty servants added to my support setup which you may find useful (although not for this event specifically) such as a level 90 Mordred and level 90 Scáthach among others.

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful in any way, leave a like and a comment down below. I’m not quite sure if posts like this for future Fate/Grand Order events will become the norm, but follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, or subscribe to my blog via email to receive notifications about my new posts.