Andromeda

“Hi, I’m Andromeda! Technically, I’m a princess, but I don’t like all the formalities. I’m going to do my best to help you and everyone, so… It’s great to meet you, Master!”

The sacrificial maiden from Greek mythology, Andromeda, joins the roster during the Valentine’s 2026 event as an AoE Quick Rider. She has a spread of self-offensive buffs and defensive, taunt-related support in theme with her mythology as a sacrifice to a leviathan.

Aethiopia Cetus is her Noble Phantasm, which decreases DEF before dealing damage to all enemies, while also inflicting them with a turn of Skill Seal and increasing Andromeda’s own DEF by a hefty 50% for a turn. With her decent NP hit counts, she is a capable looper with premiere Quick support, and also has an NP charge of up to 30% of her own as well to help support her in this role.

Her skill kit’s most interesting feature is from Sacrificial Maiden A, which gives her 3 turns of Taunt, Guts, and the ability to further gain up to 10% NP Gauge and a minor Crit Damage buff every time she is hit. This gives Andromeda the ability to take hits for allies across multiple turns, which can come in handy in certain challenging quests or prolonged battles. She also has a minor Damage Cut effect to help her survive during her Taunt turns from Daughter of Cassiopeia A, which also conveniently grants a healthy sum of Crit Stars upon use, along with additional Stars per turn and up to 30% NP charge on use. Finally, Oracle’s Chains, Nereids EX functions as her primary damage steroid, buffing both her Quick and Arts performance along with her NP Damage for 3 turns each. When combined with the DEF debuff on her NP, she is capable of applying all three damage buff types within her own kit alone.

Her kit draws many parallels to another Greek Rider Servant, Achilles, who is also an AoE Quick Rider with a Taunt in his kit and a 30% NP charge skill. Andromeda herself exchanges a bit of damage for a greater ability to act as a sacrificial target, which although is not as suited for the farming niche, can make her a great option in harder quests. The additional utility provided by her Skill Seal on her NP can also come in handy in certain situations. Overall, Andromeda is an excellent Quick Rider farmer for Masters lacking a Servant in the role, and her challenge utility can certainly come in handy, although the areas in which she distinguishes herself (longer battles) somewhat sacrifices a bit of her performance in the farming role.

Three Turn Taunt with Guts

Andromeda comes with a combined 3-turn taunt and 1-time, 3-turn Guts, both of which make her an excellent way to redirect damaging hits from enemies across multiple turns. This can help ensure any damage dealers that might be more fragile will survive for longer. Due to how Guts usually works, if it activates while Taunt is active, the enemy’s turn immediately ends, which essentially guarantees she will be able to have Taunt up for at least 2 turns.

Quick Looping

Andromeda’s decent hit counts on her NP along with her self NP charge skill, and in harder battles, her ability to gain NP Gauge when getting hit, make her a pretty capable NP looper. However, it should be noted that it is much more expensive to get her to loop with Black Grail, and instead will do so much more easily with Starting NP Gauge CEs.

Mediocre Damage

Andromeda’s damage is not particularly the highest in her niche as an AoE Quick Rider. As a result, in farming situations, Masters may opt to go for another option such as Achilles, who is available from the general pool and usually hits harder. However, in many cases her damage will be sufficient when she has Class advantage.

For her overall performance, the general recommended leveling order is 1 > 3 > 2. It should be noted that the most unique aspects of her kit are tied to her second skill, but the most useful effects are generally still functional even without levels.

• Daughter of Cassiopeia A – All effects from this skill scale with level, with the most important being the NP charge effect. The Stars, Star Regen, and Damage Cut effects all still help to support her overall performance however, and supplement the value of leveling this skill first.

• Sacrificial Maiden A – Andromeda’s claim to fame, the most important Taunt effect remains unchanged with level. However, the amount of HP revived with Guts slightly improves, along with the NP Gauge gain when taking damage, which can be particularly handy. Although this is probably the last priority skill, it is still worth leveling if Masters wish to invest in her.

• Oracle’s Chains, Nereids EX – To help maximize Andromeda’s damage output, this skill should also be leveled. All three effects of Quick, Arts, and NP Damage scale with level, making this a very worthwhile skill to invest in for her.

Being a Quick AoE looper with slight difficulty, Andromeda benefits greatly from Starting NP Gauge CE. Any CEs that also bolster her offensive prowess, such as Quick / NP Damage / ATK are all useful.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – These CEs provide a pure NP Gauge boost. Either a non-MLB Kaleidoscope, MLB Winter Crystal / Imaginary Element will allow her to NP immediately out the gate. These CEs can also help support her looping performance, reducing the threshold required to loop across three turns.

• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Holy Night Supper / Knights of Marines / Cherry Icicle / Star’s Day Off / How To Life / One Summer / Imaginary Number Attribute – Hybrid CE options that provide at least 50% starting NP Gauge along with at least one of her favored offensive boost types. These are decent options and still allow Andromeda to NP immediately if she has her 2nd Append Skill maxed.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven's Feel – These pure NP Damage boost CEs provide the largest buff to Andromeda’s overall damage output. However, Andromeda will have difficulty looping without any starting NP Gauge, and will require a more expensive setup to do so.