Alessandro di Cagliostro

"A pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Alessandro di Cagliostro. People tend to address me as follows--Count Cagliostro."

A grand magician behind the scenes of French high society, and known as the mastermind behind the “Affair of the Diamond Necklace,” Cagliostro joins the roster during the second half of the Ordeal Call II: Id chapter. He is an AoE Arts Pretender, and the first in his niche, complete with NP looping proficiency, a sizable NP charge skill, and anti-Lawful bonus damage.

The first of his skills, I Am Acharat EX, is notable for being a rare 50% NP charge skill on an SR Servant. This skill additionally gives him a 3-turn NP damage buff, and inflicts the Confusion debuff on all enemies, which has a small chance to inflict Skill Seal every turn. His second skill is his primary survival skill, Althotas Continuum C, which gives him a Guts effect that has a very notably high amount of HP Revival of up to 10,000 HP, lasting 1 time across 5 turns. Additionally, it gives him a flat 30% NP gauge whenever his Guts activates, and also unconditionally provides him with a lengthy 5-turn NP Gain buff. Finally, Eastern Martial Arts A+ provides him with 3-turn Arts and Crit Damage buffs, along with a more niche effect that allows him to debuff an enemy’s Buff Success Rate by a small amount when normal attacking.

The core of his kit, his Noble Phantasm Rébellion au Monde, removes defensive buffs from all enemies before dealing damage to all enemies. It deals supereffective bonus damage against Lawful alignment based on overcharge, and also debuffs DEF for 3 turns after applying damage. By merit of having decent hit counts, along with having a sizable 50% NP charge skill himself, he is able to comfortably loop his NP, especially if premiere Arts Supports are also in the party.

Overall, Alessandro di Cagliostro’s most unique point is being the first AoE Arts Pretender to join the roster. As an Arts looper, this gives him wide coverage as a farmer against all the Knight Classes, Berserkers, and the rare Alter Ego. He provides useful utility effects, including defensive buff removal before his NP damage, Skill Seal via Confusion, and Buff Success Rate debuffs to the enemy, along with covering the Anti-Lawful niche. Altogether he is an excellent Servant for both farming and a few challenging encounters that fit his specifications.

Arts Looping

With Arts and NP Gain buffs, decent NP hit counts, along with a 50% NP charge skill, Cagliostro has little problem looping his NP, especially with premiere Arts supports. He also additionally has 30% NP charge tied to activation of his Guts skill, although this effect is a bit more difficult to set up. However, it is notable that using Chen Gong can help guarantee that Cagliostro’s Guts effect triggers so long as Cagliostro is placed in the leftmost slot, so Masters can keep this in mind when forming the team lineup. Additionally, his anti-Lawful bonus damage gives him a niche for certain encounters.

Good Utility

Cagliostro’s NP innately removes defensive buffs before applying damage, so this can help ensure his NP deals damage even when enemies have any damage mitigation buffs that are removable. He also has a chance-based effect that can inflict Skill Seal, and a relatively niche but unique ability to decrease Buff Success Rate of enemies with normal attacks, which can cause some key buffs to miss on otherwise threatening encounters.

Low Damage

When hitting without Class Advantage or Lawful alignment bonus damage, his overall damage output is on the low side. Given his Story-Locked status, it can be difficult to get extra NP levels on him, meaning that he does not quite fit the bill for omni-farming purposes in cases where he does not have a Class or Trait advantage.

For looping, Alessandro di Cagliostro’s skills all provide a benefit when leveled. However, when it comes to the most bang for buck, the general recommended leveling order is 1 > 3 > 2.

• I Am Acharat EX – This is his main NP charge skill, which scales from 30% at level 1 to 50% at level 10. The NP damage buff also scales with level. Since 50% NP charge is often a break point for many other sources of NP charge to reach 100%, it is worth leveling this skill first and to max; the additional damage from his NP is a bonus.

• Althotas Continuum C – The effects that scale with level from this skill are the amount of HP recovered from Guts, and the NP Gain buff. Although this skill is primarily his defensive skill, the NP Gain buff helps with his NP refund, which makes this skill also worth leveling. However, if lacking materials, leaving this skill at level 1 still allows him to 3-turn loop successfully with 2x Castoria. This skill is last priority overall.

• Eastern Martial Arts A+ – This skill’s Arts and Crit Damage buffs both scale with level. Since the Arts buff affects both his NP damage and refund, this skill is more effective to level up than his second. This skill can be leveled with second priority.

For Alessandro di Cagliostro in the role as an AoE Arts farmer, CEs such as Starting NP Gauge, Arts Effectiveness, ATK, and NP Damage are the most suitable for him.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – These CEs provide a pure NP Gauge boost and allow Alessandro di Cagliostro to use his NP more quickly. Masters can opt to max his 2nd Append Skill with a non-MLB copy of Kaleidoscope so that he can preserve his self NP charge skill for a later turn. Alternatively, he can fill his NP charge to max out the gate with non-MLB versions of any of the aforementioned CEs.

• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Ocean Flier / Mission Start / Cradle Song / Battle Olympia / Grand Puppeteer / Chaldea Anniversary / Dive to Blue / Painting Summer / Star’s Day Off / Holy Night Supper – These are hybrid Starting NP Gauge CEs that also provide an offensive boost of either Arts, ATK, or NP Damage. Since Alessandro di Cagliostro does not have access to an ATK buff aside from the DEF debuff that applies after NP damage, Masters can opt for prioritizing Golden Sumo.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide the highest NP Damage boost available for Alessandro di Cagliostro. If using these CEs, he will need additional support to fill his NP Gauge, although the requirements are reduced by his own 50% NP charge skill.