Billy the Kid

“Well, I might be good at nothing but shooting. But if that’s what you want, I’ll do my best. I swear on this gun.”

Considered to be one of the fastest gunslingers of America’s Wild West, iconic outlaw Billy the Kid lives up to his quick draw legends thanks to a Quick-focused deck, with a Quick NP and skills designed for immediate burst damage in multiple forms.

Billy’s strength lies in his Critical Damage and NP Damage potential, making him useful in both challenging and farming content. His Critical Damage potential is extremely impressive for his rarity, as he can reach up to 162% Critical Damage Up from Marksmanship, Mind’s Eye (Fake), and Independent Action. This is one of the largest general-purpose damage buff stacking available to any single Servant, and only very few niche opportunity damage buffs can match or beat it. Apart from his critical potential, Billy can also rapidly fire off his ST Quick NP, Thunderer, on a moment’s notice thanks to a maxed Quick Draw providing him a solid 50% NP gauge. Between his easy NP5 and NP Upgrade Rank Up, Thunderer can easily shut down anything that could survive his crit bonanza.

Most of Billy’s weaknesses reside in his QQAAB deck. While this allows him to form a Quick Brave Chain when using his NP and charge his NP, Billy won’t often have a Buster led Brave Chain to improve the damage found on his 2nd, 3rd, and Extra cards, especially on a turn when Billy is in full crit mode. Also, for a crit-oriented Servant, Billy’s regular Quick cards are subpar when it comes to Critical Star and NP Generation, making him reliant on external sources of either active or passive Critical Star Generation for his major crit turn.

All things considered, Billy the Kid’s  weaknesses are easily remedied by Servants/CEs that provide him the Critical Stars he needs to function on his burst turn, alongside any extra Attack Up or Quick Performance buffs.. With the right setup, Billy will end fights before they become drawn-out slugfests. He’s not the fastest gun in the West for nothing.

Good Challenging Content and Farming Potential

As mentioned earlier, Billy is a firecracker when it comes to dealing damage. His Archer class’ passives and high base star weight synergize well with his Critical Damage skills, and he can lay the hurt down with a speedy Thunderer. Thus, Billy is a strong Servant to counter Berserker and Saber boss enemies, both of which are fairly common now and in the future.

Amazing Critical Damage Potential

When the situation presents itself in the form of 20+ Critical Stars and a Brave Chain draw, few can match Billy when it comes to raw Critical Damage, even in the SR and SSR rarities.

On-Demand NP

Because Quick Draw is such a large NP battery skill, Billy can NP practically the turn he uses the skill all the while using stronger CEs than most Servants that don’t have an NP battery.

Low Damage Deck

QQAAB does not lend itself to many strong Brave Chain situations due to a lack of Buster cards for Billy to ready a strong Brave chain. In many cases, Billy will need to use someone else’s Buster card to piggyback off of to empower Billy’s cards when Billy is going for some strong crits.

Poor Critical Star Generation

Due to the low hit counts on Billy’s 2 Quick Cards and having 2 Arts Cards, Billy has it rough when it comes to preparing Critical Stars outside of Quick Chains. This often means Billy will look towards the other 2 members of the party, along with their CEs, to supply him with the Critical Stars he desires.

Billy is all about pumping out oodles of damage in a small time frame, and 2 out of his 3 skills in particular help Billy to do this: Marksmanship and Quick Draw. Both skills are good options to raise to 10, though which to raise to 10 first will depend on how a Master values Billy’s Critical Damage Potential versus Billy’s NP Potential. Billy’s 3rd skill, Mind’s Eye (Fake), is not as important to raise to 10 compared to his other 2 skills, though getting it to 6 for the first cooldown reduction is a good idea.

• Marksmanship A++ is Billy’s main damage buff. It has a great starting and ending value, making it a skill worth leveling to any level independent of the cooldown reductions at 6 and 10. The only downside is its one turn duration, so the skill should be saved for when Billy has plenty of Critical Stars to use. Level 6 is a good minimum starting point, with 10 being an ideal goal after maxing out Billy’s 2nd skill and getting his 3rd skill to 6.

• Quick Draw A+ is a solid battery skill, with level 10 providing enough NP gauge to make taking Quick Draw to 10 an immediate priority. Generally level this first!

• Mind’s Eye (Fake) C is Billy’s only defensive skill, though it also contributes to Billy’s Critical Damage Potential thanks to its scaling Critical Damage Up. Since this skill will normally be used for defensive purposes, it’s best raised to 6 or 10 for the cooldown reduction than for the improved Critical Damage Up. This skill can be leveled last.

Due to his already impressive Critical Damage Up potential from self-buffs, Billy is better off using CEs that provide Attack Up, Quick Performance Up, and/or NP Damage Up more than anything else. In addition, Billy’s Quick Draw gives Billy a wider selection of CE options by being able to forgo Starting NP Gauge for more raw damage buffs and still NP in the same period of time as Servants lacking a battery skill like Quick Draw.

• The Black Grail: The best choice for Billy when it comes to maximizing NP damage outside of events with bonus damage CEs due to its very large NP Damage Up modifier.

• Heaven’s Feel: While not as strong as The Black Grail in terms of NP Damage Up and Attack stat, it has the advantage of no -500 HP/turn demerit.

• Imaginary Around / Gandr: Good for boosting both Billy’s NP and regular Quick Cards, and making his Quick cards a little more likely to generate 2 more Critical Stars than normal.

• Golden Sumo / Holy Night Supper / Knight of Marines: While Billy doesn’t need the starting 50% NP gauge these CEs provides as much as other Servants to NP in a timely fashion, they still provide useful buffs for Billy when it comes to his crits and NP. Not to say that Billy is unable to use that starting 50% NP gauge well, immediate NPs are always a delight.

• Conversation on the Hot Sands / Seal Designation Enforcer: Both of these CEs allow Billy to crit more reliably without a large influx of Critical Stars, though the additional Critical Damage Up provided Sands is only a minor damage boost on Billy’s main crit burst turn.

• Dragon’s Meridian: If all that’s needed is Billy’s NP, this CE, when MLB, gives him just enough starting NP gauge to unleash it when combined with a maxed Quick Draw. Useful for when either Cost limits or needing to save a support’s Waver’s skills for other Servants.