Uesugi Kenshin

“I am Bishamonten incarnate, the War God of Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin! I will protect you and vanquish everything that stands in your way from this moment onward.”

While the welfare Nagao Kagetora was the youthful version of this famed warlord, this limited Ruler Uesugi Kenshin is a much-anticipated and divine variant that fans of the Japanese Sengoku period have been asking for. Uesugi Kenshin is an extremely solid Single-Target Arts Damage Dealer that can perform in both farming and challenge quests.

Uesugi Kenshin’s skills and Noble Phantasm can be considered a much more powerful version of her welfare version’s skillset. Her first Skill - Fate is in Heaven, Armor is on the Chest, Accomplishment is in the Feet A grants her a 3-turn Crit Damage and a 3-turn Critical Star Absorption buff, alongside an Evade buff for 2 times, 3 turns. White Flame A is another strong self-buff skill and her primary NP Battery. This skill gives her 50% NP Gauge, a 3-turn Arts buff, and 15 Critical Stars immediately. Last but not least, Jeweled Pagoda's Divine Aid C grants a 2 NP Overcharge for 1 time, 3 turns to a targeted ally. That ally will also gain a 30% NP Gain for 3 turns and 20% Attack for 3 turns.

Biten Hassou - Shiranui A is Uesugi Kenshin’s Noble Phantasm. This is a Single-Target nuke that removes all buffs from the target before dealing damage, increases her Arts cards’ effectiveness for 1 turn before dealing damage, and deals extra damage to enemies with Human Attribute. With her fantastic base NP Generation stats and solid hit counts, Kenshin can easily spam this Noble Phantasm when properly supported.

As far as a damage dealer goes, Kenshin does have practically all the tools she needs to perform well. High neutral damage, very wide trait-coverage, high NP Battery, great NP refund, and Critical steroids. Thanks to her ease of use and solid skillset, Kenshin can function very well as both a farmer for nodes that require high Single-Target Damage, and also in Challenge quests where her innate bulkiness as a Ruler, buff dispel, Critical Damage, and NP spam capability shine.

If there are things to nitpick about Kenshin, it is that her Class, while strong defensively, truly hinders her offensive capacity. Ruler Class advantage very rarely, if ever, comes up in farming, meaning it can be hard to field Kenshin in 90++ level farming nodes unless it is against Berserker or bosses with Human Attribute. The Arts Single-Target Damage Dealer niche is also fairly competitive with powerhouses such as Altria Caster (Berserker) or Sodom’s Beast / Draco, meaning that Kenshin might need more investment to keep up.

All in all, Uesugi Kenshin is a great modern Single-Target Damage Dealer with many great things going for her. If players are still lacking a solid boss killer that can also farm single-target content, then Kenshin is definitely a fantastic addition to the roster.

Strong Neutral Damage

Kenshin is blessed with a plethora of strong self-buffs (Arts buff, Attack buff, NP Overcharge, Crit Damage), high base Attack, and a wide anti-trait bonus on her Noble Phantasm, allowing her to dish out impressive damage both with her facecards and Noble Phantasm.

Good Challenge Quest Performance

Ruler has innate bulkiness thanks to her Resistance to 7 basic Classes, and most are very commonly found in Challenge Quests. Combined with her Evade buff to dodge dangerous attacks and a very powerful buff removal effect on her Noble Phantasm, this makes Kenshin a very stable and competent challenge quest damage dealer.

Strong NP Refund and Spamability

With a base 0.62 NP Generation, decent hit counts on both her Arts cards and Noble Phantasm, 50% NP Gauge Charger, two Arts cards performance buffs, and an NP Generation buff, Kenshin’s ability to loop her Noble Phantasm is quite impressive, which further bolsters her performance when properly supported by Arts-centric Supports.

Damage Ceiling is Low Due To A Lack of Class Advantage

While Kenshin’s neutral damage floor is high, her ceiling is lower than many offensive Servants of the same mold. This is due to her Class being only advantageous when attacking Berserker and Moon Cancer. Berserker is common but is already weak to most Classes when attacked, while Moon Cancer is one of the rarest classes to appear in general situations, meaning Kenshin essentially functions without Class Advantage most of the time.

While all of Kenshin’s skills are good, Masters really only need to max her second skill for her to function well; the other skills can be raised when resources are abundant.

• Fate is in Heaven, Armor is on the Chest, Accomplishment is in the Feet A - This skill is Kenshin’s primary Critical steroid, but since most of her damage will be from her Noble Phantasm, this skill can be maxed last. The Master should get it to level 6 for the reduced cooldown to help keep up her Evade in difficult battles.

• White Flame A – This is Uesugi’s strongest and must max skill. Not only does it give her a large amount of NP Gauge, but it also bolsters her looping and damage output considerably.

• Jeweled Pagoda's Divine Aid C – Both the Attack and NP Generation buff from this skill scales with level, which helps her damage output and NP looping capability, so this should be maxed after her second skill.

Generally, Kenshin’s primary chase stat on Craft Essences is Starting NP Gauge, since it alleviates her dependence on teammates for her first Noble Phantasm. Beyond this, offensive stats such as Arts Cards’ Performance, Attack, and especially NP Damage (since she doesn’t have it in her base kits) are viable options. As Ruler has a 1.1x modifier on Attack, Master should always pick high base Attack Craft Essence for Kenshin to maximize the benefits.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven’s Feel: More raw power is exactly what Kenshin needs. Since her looping spec is fantastic, she should not have much trouble generating enough NP gauge and can afford to run full on offense.

• Ocean Flier / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: These two are available from Rare Prism shop / Events with full Attack base stats, a 50% Starting Gauge and offensive buffs that help her in practically all situations.