Theseus

“Ahh, a rainbow appeared. What a beautiful world. I used to think the condition for becoming a hero is to increase the number of people who think the world is beautiful.”

A new silver rarity Servant that joins during the Castle of Dawn and Dusk Grail Front event, Theseus is a solid ST Arts Saber. He sports a solid mix of self-Arts and Critical performance enhancing skills, with an NP that deals bonus damage to Giant or Demonic Beast Servant enemies.

His first skill, Ariadne’s Prayer C, provides his Card type-based offensive steroid. He gains a useful trio of effects, including an Arts buff and Stars per Turn for 3 turns each, while also charging his own NP Gauge for up to 20%. His second skill, Intuition (Labyrinth) B++, is his primarily Arts Crit-based skill. It greatly boosts his Arts Cards’ Star Gather Rate, while also providing a modest boost to his Arts Crit damage and giving him a decent sum of up to 15 Stars on demand. Finally, his third skill, Martial Arts Retribution B, is a self-targeted ATK buff for himself for 3 turns which provides a further drop of another 15 Stars. Additionally, it debuffs the ATK for the targeted enemy by a small amount for 3 turns. Taken together, all three of his skills are a relatively straightforward offense focused skillset.

Theseus’s Noble Phantasm, Ariadne Apolyto Hades, draws upon his mythological fame for defeating the Minotaur of the Labyrinth, also known as Asterios. It provides both a Special ATK bonus against Demonic Beast Servants, and a Supereffective bonus against Giant trait enemies, and deals damage to a single target. Additionally, Theseus boosts his own Critical Damage for 3 turns and gains a flat 20 Stars upon usage of his NP, further supporting his niche as an Arts Crit Servant.

Overall, Theseus is a solid entry to the single target Arts Saber roster, with a focused skill set and decent Arts Crit performance. Although there are also other strong Arts Sabers available, Theseus still carves a niche for himself as being a low cost alternative and with potentially high damage ceilings against his favored traits of Giants and Demonic Beast Servants. Given his addition to the general summoning pool, Masters will likely eventually be able to add him to their Chaldea, giving all Masters a solid free to play Arts Crit Saber option at their disposal.

Arts Crit Performance

Theseus essentially has every effect in his kit that an Arts Crit Servant would want. He has a self Arts buff, a buff that can give up to 10 Stars per turn, an Arts Gather buff, two sources of Crit Damage buffs, and two Stars +15 skills in his kit and another Stars +20 from his NP. All of these combined give him ready access to Critical Hits, and the ability to make them hurt a good amount.

Low Rarity

Being a low rarity Servant, Theseus can provide Masters with an option to give a healthy sum of Stars on demand at relatively low cost. Additionally, since Theseus will be available in the general friend point summon pool, Masters will eventually easily be able to reach NP5 with him, making it easier for him to reach his full potential.

No Hard Defense

Theseus entirely lacks any type of hard defensive option in his entire kit. The only source of damage mitigation comes from his third skill, which can slightly decrease the ATK of a single target for three turns. It is small, but still something. However, in most cases, Theseus will be relying on supports for help with surviving burst damage from the enemy.

All of Theseus’s skills contribute significantly to his role as an Arts Crit Saber, and Masters can invest in all three if they plan to use him. In general, the recommended order for his skills is 1 > 3 > 2.

• Ariadne’s Prayer C – All three effects of this skill, including the Arts buff, NP charge, and Stars per turn scale well with level. Given all three effects also support his role as an Arts Crit damage dealer well, this skill should be prioritized first and maxed if materials allow.

• Intuition (Labyrinth) B++ – Levels in this skill increase all three effects, including the Arts Star Gather, Arts Crit Damage, and Stars gained when using this skill. However, since many of the benefits of this skill are still conditional on landing critical hits and do not apply to his normal attacks or NP, this skill can be left for last.

• Martial Arts Retribution B – This skill provides an ATK buff, a single-target ATK debuff on an enemy, and additional Stars gained, all of which increase with level in the skill. Since the ATK buff is more generally applicable across all of Theseus’s attacks, and scales multiplicatively with the first skill’s buff, this can be prioritized second.

Theseus’s primary damage sources are both his NP as well as any Arts Critical hits that he can land. As a result, he benefits from Starting NP Gauge, Arts Effectiveness, ATK, NP Damage, as well as Critical Damage buffs from Craft Essences.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – These CEs provide a pure NP Gauge boost and help Theseus use his NP more quickly. Using a non-MLB copy of Kaleidoscope, Theseus can NP immediately at the start of battle when combined with the charge from his first skill.

• New Beginnings / Mission Start / Mystery Treasure / Afterimage of a Sand Table – These CEs provide an Arts Effectiveness boost, a Critical Damage boost, as well as Starting NP Gauge. This provides a good mix of helpful effects for Theseus’s overall performance.

• Ocean Flier / Cradle Song / Battle Olympia / Grand Puppeteer / Chaldea Anniversary / Dive to Blue / Painting Summer / Star’s Day Off / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Holy Night Supper – These are other hybrid NP starter CE options that provide a boost to his Arts or other offensive performance.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide the highest NP Damage boost available for Theseus. If a Black Grail is used with Theseus, however, he will need additional support to fire off his NP if desired on the first turn.