Minamoto-no-Raikou / Ushi Gozen

“Since this world is hell anyway, I will destroy and kill everything on this side of the earth, and in doing so, destroy everything! At the very least, I hope you will treasure the Holy Grail in your hands, my new master.”

Ushi Gozen is the tempestuous and demonic side of Minamoto no Raikou. While she keeps a lot of the elements from Minamoto no Raikou’s kits, namely the AoE Noble Phantasm, powerful anti-trait damage, and a focus on Crit Damage, Ushi Gozen is even more offensive and differentiates herself by being a Quick-centric Servant with some of the best Crit Damage output in the game.

Doujigiri Yasutsuna A - Ushi Gozen’s first skill is based on her famed katana with the same name. On a base 8-turn cooldown, this skill grants Ushi Gozen a massive 50% Special Attack modifier against Demonic enemies, another 50% against Servants with the [Earth] attribute, and a 30% Crit Damage buff, all lasting for 3 turns. Mana Burst (Thunderclap) A is another powerful offensive Skill. This skill further improves Ushi Gozen’s Buster and Quick cards’ effectiveness over 3 turns, and gives her a unique buff that lasts for 5 times, 3 turns, which increases her Critical Strength by 20% for 3 turns (stackable) whenever she uses her Quick cards. Unholy Transgressor EX plays even more into her Critical niche, with a 1-turn Star Absorption and Critical Damage buff. Furthermore, it also gives Ushi Gozen a 50% NP Damage buff and an extremely valuable 50% NP Gauge Charge. Ushi Gozen’s Noble Phantasm - Ox-King Inverted - Thundering Tempest is a Quick AoE Noble Phantasm that deals supereffective damage against [Earth] attribute enemies, inflicts a modest 30% Critical Rate Down debuff onto all enemies, and has a 40% chance to inflict a 1-time Stun debuff onto all enemies.

Ushi Gozen is built for damage, and her damage output is quite impressive. Demonic and Earth enemies are ubiquitous, and Ushi Gozen has two sources of bonus modifiers against these foes, making her damage reach Berserker or even better levels quite often, despite being a neutral Damage Dealer. Furthermore, Ushi Gozen can be considered the best Quick Crit Damage Dealers in the game, with a vast amount of Crit Damage buff plastered all over her skill, including another extra 20% Crit Damage on her Quick cards and another 8% extra Crit Damage on all her cards from her passives. With how many Critical Stars she generates with her high hit-count Quick Noble Phantasm, Ushi Gozen’s damage output on her facecards is terrifying.

Specialized is a good word to describe Ushi Gozen, and the goods also come with the bads. Ushi Gozen has practically zero defensive effects and utilities in her kits, further emphasized by how squishy Avengers are in general and the lack of strong defensive options from Quick Support Servants. Furthermore, Ushi Gozen’s NP Generation Rate is not as great as many other Quick loopers, which makes her looping capacity inconsistent and reliant on raw NP Charge.

In conclusion, Ushi Gozen fits the definition of a glass cannon, with incredible firepower in both AoE and Single-Target Damage, and also clear flaws that Masters must take into account when deploying. If Masters is looking for a Servant with sheer power that can brute-force encounters and be useful in both farming and boss fights, they can do much worse than Ushi Gozen.

Incredible Anti-Trait Damage Bonus

Thanks to her excellent first skill, Ushi Gozen has a whopping 50% Special Attack modifier against both Earth attribute Servants and Demonic enemies. Furthermore, her Noble Phantasm has another Supereffective modifier against Earth attribute enemies, scaling with Overcharge. These bonuses all stack with each other, so when Ushi Gozen fights Earth attribute enemies, her damage output skyrockets. Earth attribute enemies are notably common in both farming and challenge quests, meaning Ushi Gozen will have access to her full power extremely often, allowing her to function as a pseudo-Berserker despite being a neutral Damage Dealer.

Exceptional Critical Damage Output

Ushi Gozen has a plethora of Crit Damage boosts in her kits: 20% on her Quick cards and 12% from her passives, a 3-turn 30% Crit Damage buff from her first skill, an extra 3-turn 20% stackable Crit Damage whenever she uses her Quick cards from her second skill, and another 1-turn 50% Crit Damage buff from her third skill. With strong Crit buffers such as Scathach-Skadi whom most players would pair Ushi Gozen with, her Single Target damage output is a sight to behold. This is also very useful whenever she has to farm any nodes with an emphasis on single-target damage, like many 90++ farming nodes.

Lack of Defensive Options and Utilities

Despite her serious damage output, Ushi Gozen has very poor survivability on her own, as well as the inability to tackle different bosses’ gimmicks in the challenge quest. All of her skills are built for damage, and her Noble Phantasm only brings a rather lackluster 30% Crit Rate debuff as well as a low 40% AoE stun. This means that either she needs to end the battle quickly with her raw power, or the Masters will need to compensate for these downsides via her teammates when fighting difficult battles.

Inconsistent NP Refund

Despite having a 50% NP Gauge and a 6-hit AoE Noble Phantasm, due to her lack of NP Generation and poor base NP Generation Rate, Ushi Gozen can get very inconsistent refunds from her Noble Phantasm. She mostly relies on Starting NP Gauge from her Craft Essences and NP Gauge charging effects from her teammates to fill her up, which limits her teambuilding.

Ushi Gozen has three excellent skills that warrant maxing to optimize her damage output. Of the three, her third skill is most important for farming convenience due to its NP Gauge charging effect, but if players use her more for her Critical Damage output, her 1st Skill and 2nd Skill should be prioritized.

• Doujigiri Yasutsuna A - This is an excellent skill and puts a lot of weight behind each of Ushi Gozen’s prowess. Since all of its effects scale with level, Masters should max this as soon as they can.

• Mana Burst (Thunderclap) A – This is another very useful offensive Skill with three excellent effects, albeit the Buster cards’ effectiveness doesn’t come up as much. Of the three skills, it is her weakest Skill, but should still be maxed whenever Master gets a chance.

• Unholy Transgressor EX – For farming, this Skill should be highly prioritized due to both its NP Gauge Charge and NP Damage. This skill buff only lasts for 1 turn, so in general, Master should use this when they need the extra firepower / NP Gauge, compared to her other skills that should be used whenever they are off cooldown.

Ushi Gozen is very reliant on the Starting NP Gauge to kickstart her looping for farming. Attack / NP Damage / Quick Cards’ Effectiveness and Anti-trait Damage Bonus are great choices to improve her overall damage output. Last but not least, Masters can lean further into her Critical niches with Craft Essences that grant Crit Damage.

• Traces of Christmas / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Winner’s Eye / Desert Maiden / Cherry Icicle / Holy Night Supper: 50% Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences with generic offensive buffs and readily available from event/shop. In general, any Craft Essences with the combination of Starting NP Gauge, Quick Cards’ Performance, Attack, Anti-trait Bonus, and NP Damage can be considered.

• Kaleidoscope: For setups that do not have a lot of NP Gauge Charge, Masters can consider Kaleidoscope to get off her first Noble Phantasm.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven’s Feel: Conversely, any setups with an abundance of NP Gauge Charge can consider these Craft Essences to maximize her NP Damage output.

• GUDA-O / Conversation on The Hot Sands / Midsummer Moment / Highway Meteor Shower / Bright Blue: Craft Essences with Crit Damage boost, high base Attack and additional beneficial stats for Ushi Gozen.