Ancient Ocean of the Dreadnought Gods

I hope you’re ready for a long review because I have a lot to say about Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis. I also hope you’ve already played through Atlantis, because I’m going to be spoiling just about everything in it.

Now, I want to get something controversial out of the way right here at the start of the review. I think Atlantis was the worst Lostbelt chapter in Fate/Grand Order so far. It’s also not even a close competition for that title. This is definitively the worst chapter.

However, I do realize that Lostbelt 5 isn’t finished yet. Atlantis is only the first half. The second half, Olympus, is going to release some time in April or May if I’m not mistaken. And, yes, I’m expecting Olympus to actually be good based on what I know of it so far.

It’s kind of disappointing that I feel this way about Atlantis, though. I really enjoy ancient Greece. In university, I studied ancient Mediterranean history (Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East). And if you’re wondering, my area of focus was on how these cultures influenced each other’s art with their own.

But, anyway, I had high hopes for Atlantis based on the subject matter. And, unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations for a number of reasons. I think the characters, plot, and gameplay of this story chapter were all sub-par.

Servants of Proper Human History

I can’t think of all the friendly servants we’ve partied up with throughout the Lostbelts so far. But, I don’t think any previous Lostbelt had characters I disliked as much as Atlantis did. I don’t think every character in Atlantis is bad, though.

Off the top of my head, the friendly servants from Proper Human History in this chapter were Super Orion, Charlotte Corday, Jason, Mandricardo, Achilles, Kiyome Mochizuki, Bartholomew Roberts, Paris, and Francis Drake (sort of).

Starting with Drake because she didn’t actually join our party, I think her character itself is fine. But the fact that she just happened to “find” one of Poseidon’s cores made no sense.

Next, let’s go over the good characters. There are two of these, and their names are Mandricardo and Jason. Look, everyone loves Mandricardo; he’s basically Ishigami from Kaguya-sama. But, I also really liked Jason because I felt that he had a good mix of comedic relief and serious character moments.

The characters I’m neutral on are Achilles and Kiyome. They both played their roles and didn’t do much more than that. I have no issues with them, but they didn’t stand out either.

The rest, I disliked. Orion, Bartholomew, and Paris were annoying. Orion and Bartholomew are just womanizers (and not in a charming way like Napoleon was). And Paris is a literal child who whines all the time.

I wasn’t a fan of how Corday was just constantly talking about how useless she was, either. But, the real reason I don’t like Corday is something I’ll get to later on.

Plot of Atlantis

At this stage in the review, I want to point out three issues I had with the plot of Atlantis. These are that Odysseus was a shounen antagonist trope, Caenis didn’t get a real story, and I didn’t care about the people of this Lostbelt.

Starting with Odysseus, he pulled the classic shounen battle series antagonist trope of constantly underestimating us while we made progress through the Lostbelt. Odysseus never really tried to defeat us at any point in the chapter.

He’d send some troops or a Cerberus our way. We’d defeat them. Then he’d say something like, “Well, there’s no way they’ll win in the end so we can just let them keep struggling on their way.” And this happened multiple times. Every time we won a battle, he just acted like it was no big deal.

Now, Caenis was the opposite of Odysseus personality-wise. She (he?) wanted to destroy us as soon as possible and actually attempted to do so. I like that. But, she’s defeated like halfway through the chapter and never gets a good character arc.

Caenis’s whole story was that she hates Wodime for forcing her to fight on the side of the gods. And Wodime views her as disposable in return. That’s it. Nothing more happens with her character. I would have loved it if we somehow recruited her to our side.

Lastly, there are the Atlanteans. The previous Lostbelts, I think, did a good job of making us empathize with the people who lived there. I really didn’t care at all about the Atlanteans. They played such a minor role that they don’t matter.

Gameplay of Atlantis

In this first of multiple gameplay sections of the review, I want to focus primarily on the difficulty of the chapter. Atlantis was the easiest Lostbelt chapter so far. And I can tell you right now, the same isn’t going to be true for Olympus.

But, just because there are going to be harder fights in the Olympus chapter doesn’t mean the Atlantis chapter should have been as easy as it was. In fact, one of the hardest battles of the chapter comes right near the start: the (first) Cerberus fight.

The first Cerberus fight isn’t the hardest. But Cerberus was kind of the hardest “real” enemy of the chapter until the Poseidon cores in the very last section. And, while I’ll discuss Poseidon more, later on, I don’t particularly think the Poseidon cores were hard either.

Cerberus (and most bosses, to be fair) couldn’t touch the team pictured above. Of course, you could argue that using Qin Shi Huang, Tamamo, and Jeanne is unfair in general. But, I think it’s on the game to pit me against opponents that make team compositions like that not effective.

For example, that team composition would never work against Xiang Yu and Yu Mei-ren. SIN had some challenging content that forced me to use a variety of different teams to clear the chapter. Atlantis didn’t really do that.

If Cerberus was a Berserker without the Berserker weaknesses, that would have been better. Or, it would have been cool if each Cerberus head was a separate enemy and they all had to be killed in the same turn. Those are just some of my ideas for how to make it a bit harder.

Forced Setup Battles

The true hardest battle of Atlantis is one I haven’t mentioned yet. But before I get to that, allow me to explain the way Atlantis adds difficulty. It’s not by putting your team up against challenging opponents. It’s by restricting your team formation.

Team formation restrictions aren’t inherently bad. In one of the Halloween events, formation restrictions added a lot of fun. For example, some battles had to be completed with an all-male or all-female team composition. It made players use servants they normally didn’t in order to build a full team.

Unfortunately, Atlantis’s restrictions aren’t like this. They do things like forcing you to use specific, NPC servants or removing your ability to use Mystic Code skills. Not being able to use Mystic Code skills isn’t really a problem, though, considering how easy the battles are. The battle pictured below is one such example.

With that in mind, what was the most challenging fight of the chapter? It was the one where you were forced to solo a fight against Chiron and two mobs with Achilles. Believe me when I say that was literally the only battle I wiped against.

You may have beaten that fight on your first try. That’s fine. However, that fight is entirely up to RNG. I think I did it four times before winning. There’s no strategy, though. You click the same cards every time and just hope to get lucky with the enemy attacks while saving Achilles’s Invulnerability skill for the mob NP before Chiron’s.

That fight illustrates the biggest problem with Atlantis’s gameplay. It’s extremely easy except for the one fight that’s completely reliant on RNG. That’s not fun.

Corday Ruined the Chapter

Moving away from the gameplay aspect of the chapter for a moment, let’s get into the fourth major issue with Atlantis as well as why I didn’t like Corday’s character. Corday makes up her own Deus ex machina to deny us a fight against Odysseus.

Throughout the entire chapter, I was waiting for the fight that would finally be against Odysseus. There was even one time that he said he was going to fight us, the enemy class showed as Rider (which he is), and then it turned out to be another Cerberus fight instead.

A fight against Odysseus could have actually been good and difficult. But, even if we ignore that part of it, don’t you think we should have gotten to fight against the main antagonist of the chapter? Just as I’ll never forgive FGO Arcade for all the servants they get that we don’t, I’ll never forgive Corday for killing Odysseus before me.

On top of everything Corday denied us, I also just wasn’t a fan of how she killed Odysseus. She uses her NP on him once, and he defends against it because he suspected that she might pull something like that. Fair enough, Odysseus.

But then Corday just uses her NP again and there’s nothing Odysseus can do to stop it. That’s so dumb. Okay, Achilles fighting Chiron while being literally dead but not feeling like dying was also dumb. But Corday’s double NP was probably the worst. At least we fought Chiron.

Oh, and I almost forgot, Corday also suddenly got amnesia at the end before disappearing. I really don’t understand why that was included. I guess to give her some sort of emotional goodbye? At that point, I just wanted her gone faster.

Orion Somehow Redeemed Himself

As I mentioned earlier, I really didn’t like Orion’s character. He was introduced with a pee joke, and he wasn’t much better than that for the vast majority of the chapter. Of course, I did like using him in battle thanks to his insane crits. But character-wise, he’s terrible.

I also didn’t really care all that much about his storyline involving the Artemis of the Lostbelt. At least, not until the end. Orion shooting down the Lostbelt Artemis was actually a good scene for a few reasons, and I do think it redeemed him in the end.

He didn’t shoot her down because that’s what needed to be done for Proper Human History. He did it for her. After recognizing that the Artemis he knew wouldn’t want to be up there all alone (and fighting against him), he basically put her out of her misery.

But, I think what really made this scene impactful, for me, was the narration. The narration during this scene was some of the best in all of FGO so far. That, combined with the final scenes we got of Orion and Artemis together really sold me on Orion in the end.

I still count him among the characters I dislike, though. That one scene isn’t enough to erase everything else he did throughout the chapter.

Also, I already knew that Orion was the Grand Archer going into this story chapter. But I thought it was odd that the first we actually heard of this was when he gave up his Grand status to shoot down Artemis. That seemed like a big deal and he just casually dropped that on us — and then it was never mentioned again.

Poseidon and Olympus

Finally, we get to Poseidon. Although I don’t think the Poseidon core fights were that hard (my Qin Shi Huang, Tamamo, and Jeanne team dealt with them easily), I do think these were the most enjoyable fights of the chapter.

I can definitely see these fights being difficult if you don’t have many servants leveled and skilled up. That would restrict your formation and you might not have the right servants leveled up to easily deal with the cores.

But, anyone can use a Support Jeanne. And Jeanne basically makes these core fights a joke. They have AoE NPs, but neither the cores themselves nor the mobs with them have any way of piercing or removing her party-wide invulnerability. As long as you use Jeanne’s NP whenever the core is about to NP, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Now, I think in one of the fights there was a mob that applied NP seal to your entire party. That can be an issue, for sure. But even with that AoE NP seal, I didn’t have any trouble. I think my team just tanked the core’s NP even without invulnerability. So maybe that was an Assassin-class core.

Anyway, the Poseidon core fights were a nice way to end the chapter, even if I wish there were harder fights. But, that’s where Olympus comes in. Poseidon and Artemis are destroyed now, however, there are other gods to be defeated.

I don’t remember what other gods there are left, though. I know there’s at least Zeus. And we also never fought against Dioscuri, who I’m assuming we’re going to face eventually. Also, Wodime has to be beaten after he styled on us by summoning meteors.

Basically, there should be a lot of big fights in Olympus and I’m looking forward to them. I can’t say I’m expecting much from the story after Atlantis, though. My prediction is that the fights are going to carry the chapter.

Conclusion

What did you think of Lostbelt No. 5 – Atlantis? Which characters were your favorites and least favorites? Did you find any of the fights to be hard? And, are you as disappointed as I am about not getting to fight Odysseus? Let me know in the comments.

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 anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively 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 Olympus chapter is available now.

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.

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