Kukulcan

“It would be nice if I can grant what you desire. If I can grant your wish by beating something, please don’t hesitate to tell me.”

Kukulcan is the Feathered Serpent God of the Mayans - another facet of the magnificent Quetzalcoatl. Befitting the destructive power of one of the major chief gods of the Mesoamerican pantheon, and also an aspect of one of Nasuverse’s most prominent entities, Kukulcan is easily amongst the strongest Buster Servants ever released. She is well-rounded in all aspects demanded of a modern Damage Dealer including farming capacity, challenge quest performance, damage output, and even utility to boot.

To first understand how Kukulcan works, one must know her primary gimmick. Kukulcan essentially has 2 versions for each of her skills, with a base version and an upgraded version if she spends 10 Critical Stars upon activating it. This is completely optional, so there are many circumstances where Kukulcan does not need to upgrade her skills. To facilitate this, Kukulcan has two sources of Critical Stars of her own. One is from her passive which gives 10 Critical Stars per turn, which also grants her 3% NP Gauge per turn and converts any Invulnerability effect cast on her into Anti-Enforcement Defense (Invulnerability that cannot be pierced through). The other source is from her Noble Phantasm - Kinich Ahau Impact EX. This Noble Phantasm is a powerful AoE Buster attack with 4 stacked effects: a 50% Special Attack modifier buff to herself before dealing damage, a super effective damage mod against the extremely common [Earth] attribute enemies, Skill Seal on all enemies hit and a whopping 30 Critical Stars.

Kukulcan’s first skill is Jade Charisma A+. The base version increases Attack and Critical Rate Resist for all allies, and when upgraded by paying 10 Critical Stars it will further increase Kukulcan’s Attack. The total amount of Attack that Kukulcan gets from this skill is 50% which is quite a substantial increase. We Are The Feathered Serpent EX base version is a targeted 50% NP Gauge Charger, and when upgraded, it also doubles as a defensive & utility skill that grants Evade and Sure Hit to the target. Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue EX base version increases Kukulcan’s Buster cards’ effectiveness and Critical Damage for 3 turns, grants her a 1 turn Invulnerability, and when upgraded with 10 Critical Stars will further improve her NP Damage for 3 turns.

It is not an exaggeration to say Kukulcan has everything she needs to excel in all forms of content. Her damage is exceptional, packing all 4 offensive buffs at fantastic value in her kits. Her Noble Phantasm hits an extremely common attribute (Earth) and the NP Gauge Charger ensures she can Buster farming with Koyanskaya of Light and Oberon effectively. Her face cards are stellar as well thanks to the Critical Damage buff and a consistent stream of Critical Stars that she generates from her passive and Noble Phantasm. In challenge quests, Kukulcan packs an incredible amount of utility and defensive effects via Evade, Invulnerability, Critical Resist, Skill Seal, Sure Hit, and even a special attack modifier to Threat to Humanity - a trait very prevalent in high-profile bosses.

Kukulcan is such a well-rounded Servant that it is particularly hard to nitpick any flaw in her. The biggest criticism against Kukulcan as a Damage Dealer is that her class - Foreigner does not have a class advantage very often, hitting only Berserker, Pretender, and Foreigner effectively. Kukulcan mainly makes up for this via her powerful neutral damage that she can be a great omni farmer but generally having class advantages is still better for tackling high HP farming nodes. The other small problem with Kukulcan is that she needs someone to inject a large amount of Critical Stars at the start of 1st turn since both her passive and Noble Phantasm won’t be active on the first turn, which generally is solved by running with Koyanskaya of Light or a Craft Essence that gives Critical Stars instantly.

All in all, Kukulcan is amongst the highest echelon of Servants when it comes to Buster Damage Dealer with a complete package to contribute in any form of content. Any Master lucky enough to secure the service of this legendary goddess will not be disappointed by her enthralling power.

Exceptional Neutral Damage Output

At maxed Skill Level, Kukulcan has a total of 50% Attack buff, 30% Buster buff, 30% NP Damage buff, 50% Critical Damage buff, 50% bonus damage modifier against Threat to Humanity enemies, and a super effective modifier against Earth enemies in her Noble Phantasm. With her passive and Noble Phantasm, she is guaranteed 10 - 40 Critical Stars per turn to fuel her Skill upgrade and her triple Buster Cards. This makes Kukulcan a walking nuclear bomb for both farming and challenge quests with consistently high damage in both AoE and Single Target situations.

Kukulcan’s neutral damage is already fantastic, but when she can hit class advantage or the traits that she counters, she has an incredible damage ceiling. It is also worth noting that many Foreigners which Kukulcan does super effective against will also have Threat to Humanity trait, making her easily the best anti-Foreigner Damage Dealer in the game.

Fantastic Utility and Durability For A Damage Dealer

Offensively, all of her skills are monstrously powerful. But on the defensive side, they are also quite stacked. Teamwide Critical Resist Chance, Targeted NP Gauge Charge, Evade, Sure Hit, Invulnerability, and Skill Seal are all amazing defensive and utility tools that not many Damage Dealing Servants have all at the same time. Her passive also transforms any Invulnerability effect into Anti-Enforcement Defense to counter any boss with an Invulnerability Pierce. All these effects make her a highly durable Damage Dealer with a reasonable amount of anti-gimmicks built into her kit.

Need Critical Stars On Turn 1 To Kickstart Her Skills

Due to the Critical Stars requirement, Kukulcan highly appreciates Critical Stars on the first turn as she cannot generate any with her Noble Phantasm or Passive this turn. Generally for farming, Kukulcan only needs 20 Critical Stars as the second skill upgraded version does not provide offensive buffs for her. After turn 1, generally her Noble Phantasm and passive will create more than enough Critical Stars to sustain her throughout the fight. This weakness is partially offset by some premiere Buster Supports, such as Koyanskaya of Light, who provide Critical Stars with their skills.

Kukulcan has three absolutely stellar skills that deserve to be maxed. Of these, her second skill should be raised as soon as possible to level 10 to enable her farming team, afterwards her skill 1 and 3 are both fantastic investments as their buffs scale well with level.

• Jade Charisma A+ - This skill provides a 50% Attack buff to Kukulcan that scales with level so it is influential to Kukulcan’s damage. However, it is less impactful than her other 2 skills so it should be maxed after them.

• We Are The Feathered Serpent EX – 50% NP Gauge at maxed Skill level is pivotal to her farming performance so there is no reason to not raise this as much as possible.

• Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue EX – All the offensive buffs from this skill scale very well with level and thus is a no-brainer to max this after her Skill 2.

Kukulcan joins a small and exclusive club of Servants with all 4 types of damage buffs: Attack, NP Damage, Cards Effectiveness, and Super Effective Modifier. On her own, she already has enough firepower but any more of these buffs on her Craft Essence is never bad. Critical Damage or Buster Critical Damage Boost are also fantastic options to take advantage of her amazing Critical Stars generation.

A 50% Starting NP Gauge Craft Essence is ideal for her to farm with a double Koyanskaya of Light setup. Without Koyanskaya of Light, she might want a Craft Essence with Starting Critical Stars to upgrade her skills on the first turn.

• First Day of Filming / Aerial Drive: These Craft Essences are top-tier Event Craft Essences that are best suited to Kukulcan for endgame farming, providing full offensive stats alongside 50% NP Gauge. Beyond these two, any 50% NP Gauge Charging Craft Essences with offensive stats are acceptable placeholder options for her.

• Golden Captures the Carp / Goddess Fortune / First Drawing: Craft Essence with Starting Critical Stars and offensive stats to help Kukulcan in her first turn. These are more suited for lengthier challenge quests when she might not be paired with Koyanskaya of Light or any teammates without a Critical Star bomb.