F/GO Watch!

For the Extella campaign, there was a Mystic Code that's pretty damn helpful at a certain point in the game. Won't go into where, because that's massive spoilers. Aside from that, a CE that increases Mystic Code experience gain, and some log in stuff like tickets, FP, and minor stuff.

NeroFest, however... well, you missed out on the first Event CE you can get (nothing special, just the art is sexy), and ascension/skill materials (REALLY IMPORTANT), alongside a rate up for Nero, Altera, and Caesar.

You're in time for the Moon Festival event, though. Orion gets released and has a rate up, and will be added to the story gacha pool after the event is over. Plus, more ascension mats and some CEs that are actually fairly helpful.

Orion is... a boob-goddess Archer class, right?

Well, depending on who is at least able to be drawn from that pool, I might give it a shot. I get the feeling a lot of the pickup banners won't have Saber Alter available due to story lock. And I'm just saying available, period; I know she wouldn't get a rate up if she was on it.

Technically, "Orion" is two servants in one. The boob-goddes Archer herself is Artemis, who got summoned alongside Orion (who's the little bear that hangs out on her shoulder) due to a botched summon.

Saber Alter will get her first rate up during the Saber Wars event, alongside Nero's second rate up and Mysterious Heroine X being offered as a limited 5 star. Salter doesn't get too many after that, maybe one or two, and that's waaaaay down the line after Saber Wars.

There is absolutely a Saber Alter rate-up before Saber Wars, I know because it's how I got my own Alter in the Japanese version. Took everything I had, but getting her on my final quartz was really satisfying.

Well, I got a little spend happy with my account. All the tickets I had (10-ish?), and a quartz 10-summon (still have 155 Quartz).

Got Atalante, Prisma Cosmos (8% NP/turn), Angel's Song (NP power +25%), Imaginary Element (60% NP Gauge at start), and Shroud of Magdalene (+25% DEF against men). Also, Level 4 NP for Cu Chulainn and Medea, Level 3 NP for Kiyohime and Darius.

Also, I'm aware Saber Alter will get rate-ups, but I was more concerned with whether she'll be present AT ALL in other pickups.

She won't. The only time she will appear is during the rate-ups with her and in the story gacha, world unlocks don't show up outside of those scenarios. It really sucks, since Lancer Artoria Alter and Lancer Artoria are both story unlocks too.

Also Imaginary Element is super good, probably the best 4 star essence in the game right now.

Oh man, you say that about Imaginary Element, but then I finally got enough Dragon's Meridians to take one to MAX form, and it's only slightly worse at decently less cost. And I don't expect to have another 4 Imaginary Elements anytime soon.

Well, I was at least able to get the weekly quests done, within the small frame of time I had.

Oh yeah actually a limit broken Dragon's Meridian is actually super good. Any CE that gives 50 or more starting NP is great because it's an enabler for any servant to have turn one max NP with a Waver Support.

Imaginary Element is good, but I'd argue that it's tied with Angel's Song in utility right now.  The boost to a servant's NP gauge is really helpful, but a 25% increase to their NP damage can't be ignored.  I'd say Imaginary Element only surpasses Angel's Song for any single servant when that servant has an NP that doesn't deal damage, such as Jeanne, Hans, Leonaidas, etc. Or for a Berserker, if you want to be sure that you're going to fire off their NP.

That aside, if you plan on running a crit star gen-based team, do not rule out Be Elegant (Crit Star Drop Rate Up +25%) or Seal Designation Enforcer (Crit Star Gather Rate Up 600%).  Gem Magic: Antumbra is also helpful in this regard (Crit Damage Up +25%).  Pairing BE with SDE or BE with GM:A at this stage, especially when you've got either Kojiro or Cursed Arm Hassan to help generate crit stars, is a sure way to farm crit stars and use them either for a single heavy hitter (like Hercules) or for a single favored servant that fits the team build you're using to get extra damage, building up towards their NP or milking more damage out of them.

DrgnmastrAlex wrote:and ascension/skill materials (REALLY IMPORTANT)

Oof, I just recently saw the list. I probably could've gotten Emiya's third ascension, as well as Lu Bu's second. And Nightless Rose did look to be a decent CE for Berserkers.

By the way, something I never understood- what is meant by "card performance?" Something like "improved Buster Card performance" means higher attack power from Buster cards, more NP from Arts cards, more Critical Stars from Quick cards?

You've almost got it. Improved Buster performance means more damage from it, improved Arts performance means more NP gain (and I think slightly more damage, not sure), and Quick performance means more crit stars generated and NP generated (and again, possibly a bit more damage).

Part 2 of the 2017 Summer event will be up in less than a day, so here are the details regarding that.

Death Jail Summer Escape: Medb's Great Prison of Sin & Despair 2017
Event Duration: 16th August Night ~ 30th August 12:59 JST

Event Details: Perform support quests, gather items, and help the imprisoned Servants escape. You can only participate in this part 2 after completing the part 1 main story quests. Complete part 2 and Ishtar (Rider) will permanently join. Like part 1, this will be divided into four sections, the first section being immediately available and all later sections unlocking after all teams have finished each section in succession.

Playing Tips:

Three boost items in this event: Star Soup Spoon (star-gen up), Calorie Meat (NP-gain up) & NP Hammer (NP damage up). It will work on the entire party in battle and effects last until a battle ends.

Each team will again gain different amount of support points based on the affinity for boost items used.

Boost Item Team
Star Soup Spoon Satisfaction E∴T∴E, The Terrifying Dai Rokuten Maou X
Calorie Meat Tyrant: Shooting Star, Desert Beauty
NP Hammer Steam Electrical with Papa, Stablemaster & Reverend Sanzang

Event-related Servants will also receive bonuses for event drops. Servants that debut in this event will have a greater drop bonus than other Servants.

Bonus Servants
Class Rarity Name
Rider 5★ Artoria Pendragon (Alter)
Caster 5★ Nero Claudius
Saber 4★ Frankenstein
Archer 4★ Helena Blavatsky
Lancer 4★ Minamoto Yorimitsu
Rider 4★ Ishtar
Assassin 4★ Nitocris
Berserker 4★ Oda Nobunaga

Other Bonus Servants
Class Rarity Name
Archer 5★ Artoria Pendragon
Archer 5★ Archer of Shinjuku
Archer 5★ Nikola Tesla
Lancer 5★ Enkidu
Lancer 5★ Tamamo no Mae
Assassin 5★ Mysterious Heroine X
Rider 5★ Quetzalcoatl
Rider 5★ Medb
Caster 5★ Xuanzang Sanzang
Caster 5★ Caster of the Nightless City
Archer 4★ Anne Bonne & Mary Read
Lancer 4★ Kiyohime
Rider 4★ Mordred
Assassin 4★ Carmilla
Assassin 4★ Scathach
Assassin 4★ Assassin of Shinjuku
Caster 4★ Thomas Edison
Caster 4★ Marie Antoinette
Ruler 4★ Martha
Avenger 4★ Gorgon
Caster 3★ Charles Babbage

Equip the event shop CE 5★ "Dive to Blue" to increase the event drops. The event gacha CEs will also respectively increase the drop counts for a particular part.

5★ Single Midsummer's Moment: Connaught Coin

4★ King, Joker, Jack: Instant Noodles

3★ Chaldea Beach Volleyball: Piece of Candy

Event gacha CEs from part 1 will also respectively increase drops.

Like before, there will be a challenge quest for those who have cleared Season 1. Da Vinci workshop will have another 10 sets of gold All exp cards.

Gacha Details

Rotating Gacha
Duration Rate Up Content
16th August Night ~ 22nd August 23:59 Maid Alter (Rider), Helena (Archer), Raikou (Lancer)
23rd August 0:00 ~ 24th August 23:59 Maid Alter (Rider), Helena (Archer)
25th August 0:00 ~ 26th August 23:59 Maid Alter (Rider), Raikou (Lancer)
27th August 0:00 ~ 30th August 23:59 Maid Alter (Rider), Helena (Archer), Raikou (Lancer)

CE Details

5★ Dive To Blue: Arts 8% up & NP damage 8% up and start with 30% NP charge (+1 drop to Connacht Coin, Instant Noodles & Piece of Candy)

5★ Single Midsummer's Moment: Quick 10% up & critical damage 10% up & 3 stars/turn (+2 drop to Connacht Coin & Mag Wheel)

4★ King, Joker, Jack: Buster 8% up & NP damage 8% up & defense 3% up (+2 drop to Instant Noodles & Titanium Plate)

3★ Chaldea Beach Volleyball: Sure Hit & star-gen 2% up & critical damage 2% up (+2 drop to Piece of Candy & Junk Parts)

I think I'm going to forego Nitocris in favor of Lancer Raikou. o.o

And the Moon Festival has now been announced. I do find it convenient that this ends up occurring around the time lots of people (including myself) get the chance to witness a total eclipse. Too bad the only ascension materials this time around are class pieces/monuments; it's the monster parts I need most, and those are what I missed in Nero Olympics. -.-

Also, screw it, I'm going to keep working on Saber Lily while I have the materials, since there isn't really anyone else to adequately strengthen right now (And Proof of Hero is pretty much the most common material).

I have no idea why the part two to a racing event is a prison event, but Medb is looking pretty great in her warden outfit.


Already some corruptiony art of Mashu related to it as well.
https://leebigtree.deviantart.com/art/Warden-Mashu-699325300

Race to see who escapes the prison first, of course!

Anyways, I've cleared up to the third chapter of the Moon Festival quest, though for some reason, the Expert level repeatable hasn't given me any rare dumplings, only regular. Beyond that, I'm almost wondering if there's a better value from farming the Advanced level anyways (since it would also give me a chance at getting Ghost Lanterns). Also, I find the Daemon in Expert harder than the servant trio, oddly enough. But if I can farm that God Heart from it, I may just stick with Expert for the most part (especially with the EXP it'll give me). Man, too many reasons to farm different difficulties (though since I haven't gone too far in evolutions, I probably won't be able to handle the hardest difficulty).

Surprisingly, I hear the lower difficulties are the best to farm for dumplings. I definitely plan on getting at least one copy of special CE, though I'd have to get two copies to drop from the highest difficulty stage to get it to MAX rank.

Too bad I still won't likely be able to ascend Emiya (3rd) or Carmilla (2nd) to their fourth stage until London. Goddamn, I really needed to be around for that Nero event.

ALMOST beat the Goddess level Grand Battle without Command Seals. I was at about 30k HP left on her. No CE drop, just 30 dumplings. I think my biggest issue was that I didn't take down the Shadow Archer (Euryale?) first, she's vampiric and only requires 3 charges for her special, definitely regretted not taking her down first.

Oh well, I was mostly going for the clear and the Crystallized Lore that comes with it.

... If I hadn't been kicked out for a month, I would've totally been able to clear that without CS revival. >_>

I've heard that someone beat that node with little trouble using two Jeannes and a Cu. Probably not going to try that myself, as my Cu is at level 40, and I'd have to do some leveling for him before I could get him to 50 and attempt it at a level I find comfortable.

Just grinding the 5 AP node right now. Getting a lot of dumplings for the cost, considering the CE loadout I've currently got.

I just got a second copy of the CE. From Altera in the Expert node, rather than Orion in the Goddess node. I was under the impression that it would only drop from the hardest node. But hey, I'll take it. Still going to farm Expert for a while for Daemon stuff and EXP. And you know, Expert seems to have a much lower rate of the Special Dumplings appearing, which is good, once you've cleared everything and no longer need them, since they trade at 2 per Moon Dumpling.

I stopped running Expert difficulty, I wasn't making enough dumplings to get all the necessary stuff, so I switched over to Easy. I've now bought most of the Monuments, then after that, it'll probably go Archer Pieces, Fou Cards, Rider/Assassin pieces, then back to Expert until the end of the event.

Oh wow I got the CE drop in Moon Festival of the 5AP mission as I tried to quickly do like half the event in these last few hours. Nero CE dropped too during that event, never had this luck back in the Japanese version.

Damn, now that's some luck.

I just ran Goddess level again earlier, this time was able to clear it without using Command Seals. I'm wondering if I should do it one more time, or if I should just stick to Expert for the remainder.

And then comes pondering what to do after the event. I just got more than enough Yggdrasil Seeds for Cu Chulainn alone, so it'll probably be either Mana Cube farming (Lots of 3* Fou still there) or material farming for Cu.

I just wish that luck would carry over to the Japanese version. I haven't seen a 4 star in like 400 quartz. Cu is super good, definitely recommend putting resources into him since we don't really get a good non-limited Lancer for a long time, and even then he outperforms multiple gold lancers.

Wish my luck with servants translated over to my JPN account as well. Tried for Raikou with a 10 roll about four days ago, got spooked by Beowulf and got a bunch of 3 star CEs along with a 4 star CE spook. It's better than I typically get, but it's still a slap in the face. My Beowulf is at NP5 now. I'm sick of him.

Hmm.... Well, I decided to pull on a whim again, with another 30 quartz on the story summon. Not sure how I should take it though.

The bad:
- No gold servants

The good:
- 2 more Imaginary Elements

The maybe:
- 2 copies of Limited/Zero Over

So if I get 2 more Dragon's Meridian anytime soon, I'll be able to take my entire group with 50%+ NP gauge to start. Though I'm wondering if there's an ideal servant to put Limited/Zero Over onto. I'd guess it would be a Berserker servant with 3 Buster cards. I'm also guessing I'd never use more than one copy at the same time either.

That said, I'm looking forward to Halloween, if we get the 2015 Halloween event. One, it'll get me a decent 4* Caster (with EASY ascension). Two, it'll have a sexy looking 5* CE that pretty much does Dragon's Meridian and Dragonkin (both MAX) all at once (and by sexy, I mean SUCCUBUS IRI), if I can get it to MAX rank.

Limited/Zero Over is good on any Buster-centric servant.  So you could slap it on Artoria, Altera, Herc, Liz, etc. to boost their Buster attack card damage and the damage of their NPs.

Halloween is when you start seeing the game trope of "event shop CEs are REALLY DAMN USEFUL", but they also require a great deal of grinding.  That aside, Caster Liz is a solid early game servant to have, but as you get more (especially casters, such as Helena), you'll find that she slowly stops being as effective as she was before.  Good thing is that the Halloween event also provides plenty of mats to get, so you'll be able to ascend some more of those harder-to-ascend servants.

Saving my quartz in my NA account, though I did buy some with some of the money I got from my birthday.  I'm around 170 quartz right now.  May drop some more cash to get some more.  Yes, I really want Okita, dammit.  

Aside from that, you know that promise I made about abandoning my JPN main for the rerolled JPN account that gave me good stuff from the beginning?  And how I backed off on that?  Going full bore now.  Did a 10 roll about a week ago to try and get anyone from the Rider Swimsuit Salter pool and I get 3 star CE spooks, a 4 star CE that doesn't help me, and Beowulf.  That put me up to NP5 Beowulf.  Beat the odds of getting ANYTHING else, including Raikou or Helena to get a gimped Herc.

I shrugged that off, but last night I had two tickets, and the second ticket gave me another Beowulf, putting him at NP6.  That was the last straw.  Fuck that account, because the reroll account, after two 10 rolls and 5 tickets, has given me an NP2 Rider Swimsuit Salter.  First two 5 star rolls after three 10 rolls and 5 tickets, plus two solid 4 stars for boss-killing (Herc and Kiritsugu), and the 5 star is a Limited at NP2.  I'm sticking with the reroll account from now on. Don't care if I just got Rider Ishtar on that cursed account, and taking this action will mean I don't get her on the reroll account due to time constraints.  :/

Anyway, moving on from that, Crunchyroll is having a convention this weekend and there's going to be an F/GO panel there.  Chances are that they'll either announce Kintoki being released as a servant, or (and I'm hoping more for this) Okeanos having a release date.  It's been about two months since the NA version launched, so I'm thinking we're pretty close to having it come out, likely sometime in September.  I'm hoping for the first half of September.  If that's the case, and the NA version sticks with a "one event per month" approach, we might actually have Honnouji come out in November.  This also raises the question of whether we're going to get both the Christmas event and Londonium out this December.  We'll see how things go.