EMIYA

"You can certainly fulfill your wish to save everyone. But a wish for you to save yourself does not exist. You will embrace a borrowed ideal that is not yours, and you will probably pursue it until you die."

The original and most iconic Archer, a Counter Guardian who once fought for his ideals and tried to save everyone he saw. Just as Shirou Emiya grew from a weak, talentless magus into one of the most seasoned heroes ever summoned, Heroic Spirit EMIYA has grown from a mediocre Servant on release into one of the most powerful and versatile Archers in FGO. With a triple Arts deck but an AoE Buster NP, the Hero of Justice is a slightly mismatched, but effective damage dealer.

EMIYA's kit is somewhat scattered in focus, but quite good in each of the areas it covers. His Noble Phantasm, the Reality Marble known as Unlimited Blade Works, is notable for its extremely high hit count (10 hits per enemy) and respectable damage after its NP Interlude. With the absurd star generation buff on the post-Rank Up Hawkeye, EMIYA can easily flood the field with stars all by himself on NP turns. Then, the other component of Hawkeye can shine - one of the most powerful Critical Damage steroids in the game, lasting three turns to boot. Combined with his signature magecraft Projection's ability to buff all three card types, EMIYA can potentially put out nightmarish critical Brave Chain damage if one times his skills right. Lastly, Mind’s Eye (True) grants him a hard defensive option with its one-turn Evasion, while also modestly boosting his Defense for three turns, which can make him surprisingly resilient when combined with the Attack down on Unlimited Blade Works.

Unfortunately for EMIYA, he is held back a little by his triple Arts deck, which limits his potential damage output while also not letting him truly spam his NP due to very middling NP gain they possess. In addition, he suffers from being a (still very good) jack-of-all-trades; he has neither the best NP gain and damage with which to be a full NP nuker, nor truly reliable star gathering with which to consistently abuse Hawkeye crits without a trace of external star generation support. Finally, he requires significant investment to begin putting out a strong performance. Newer Masters will have to fully ascend him, complete his Interludes and Rank Up quests, and ideally invest a decent amount into his skills before he can show off his true power.

Though the Archer class boasts heavy competition for strong Servants, EMIYA’s adaptability and post-Rank Up skill set are more than powerful enough to make him worth investing in. His lack of specialization will sideline him for some specific fights, but as a general rule he performs well in almost any situation. Versatility is a strength in and of itself, and when EMIYA enters battle, he has more than enough weapons in stock to bring victory.

High Critical Potential

EMIYA’s second skill, Clairvoyance, was long regarded as useless since it only provided a small star generation buff to a servant with unremarkable hit counts. However, its upgraded version, Hawkeye, puts just about every other critical-based skill currently in the game to shame. Sporting a monstrous 100% buff to both critical star generation and critical damage for a whopping three turns, the sheer power of this skill skyrockets EMIYA’s damage despite his card set being suboptimal for raw damage. As a cherry on top, he also has Archer-class star weight (above average) and a good level of Independent Action to boost his crits even more.

High Versatility

EMIYA’s signature Projection ability enables him to buff all three card types for a turn, in exchange for being slightly weaker than a single-type card buff. This affords him immense flexibility in using it to efficiently buff brave chains or his powerful, Interlude-upgraded NP. Unlike most AoE farming Servants, his strong critical damage also lets him finish off lone high-HP targets with ease. Even if he doesn’t clear a wave with his NP, the large star generation allows anyone on the team to mop up the remnants with crits on the next turn. On top of all this, his triple Arts deck allows him to Arts chain frequently for added NP gain consistency for both himself and his teammates.

Strong Star Generation on NP

Unlike most Servants with a heavy focus on critical damage, the combination of Hawkeye’s immense star generation buff and his AoE Buster NP’s whopping 10 hits allows EMIYA to easily drop at least 30 stars if he hits a full field of enemies. This enables him to go wild with his buffed crits the next turn, potentially with a dose of Projection to bring the pain even harder. It is worth noting this strength falls off dramatically the fewer enemies there are to hit with the NP.

Lack of Clear Focus

Though his multiple strong points are quite evident in theory, in practice they sometimes don’t work so simply. Because Projection is so versatile, it can often be difficult to decide whether it should be used to buff an NP or saved for the potential of rolling a Brave chain. EMIYA ideally wants to use his NP with Hawkeye active to spew out stars and then spit them back out the next turn with a critical Brave chain, but he is heavily reliant on card draws rolling just right to get the most out of his kit. You may find yourself unable to take full advantage of every effect on his skill buffs.

Inconsistent Single Target Damage

EMIYA has average attack for a 4*, reduced further by the Archer class’s .95x damage multiplier. With only one base Buster card, he is incapable of Buster Brave chaining, and his overall damage is worse for it. In addition, since Unlimited Blade Works is AoE, it won’t do as much to damage a single strong target as some competing archers could do. The only time EMIYA puts out strong single target damage is with Hawkeye active and ideally with a Brave chain, which constricts his optimal performance.

Because EMIYA is such a different servant before and after his buffs, we will primarily be analyzing him at full potential, once his Rank Up quests are complete. Given the strength of his buffed skills, we highly recommend maxing both Hawkeye and Projection when possible. 

• Mind’s Eye (True) is an ever-useful survival tool, granting a turn of dodge and a small three-turn defense buff. This is a skill to pop on an enemy NP turn, and it does its job of bailing EMIYA out in that situation just fine without being maxed. If resources allow it, one can max this third to improve the defense buff as well as lower the cooldown, but leaving this skill at rank 6 won’t be too limiting for EMIYA’s performance.
• Hawkeye is what allows EMIYA to run with the big dogs in terms of sustained damage output. Its synergy with his NP as well as the absurd DPS it allows him to put out make it the centerpiece of his post-buff skill set. Maxing it is vital for the large benefit from ranks (doubles in strength from rank 1 to rank 10) but more importantly the reduced cooldown, allowing it to reach 50% uptime. Max this first if you want to focus on EMIYA’s critical potential. Otherwise, max it second.
• Projection serves as EMIYA’s more standalone self-buff, not requiring critical stars to work, and also being available to buff his NP. Due to its versatility and fairly strong values at rank 10 (40% to all card types) on a reasonably low cooldown, having it maxed goes a long way towards achieving EMIYA’s very high performance peak. Max this first if you want to focus on strong AoE damage from his NP. Otherwise, max it second.

Because of EMIYA’s slightly mismatched card set (three Arts cards, but a Buster NP), Craft Essence recommendations tend to be a bit more nuanced. However, the general things EMIYA likes include Starting NP Gauge, to quickly access the star generation from his NP, and NP Damage Up and Attack Up buffs for multiplicative buff stacking. Critical Star Gathering is also rather effective in teams with a competing Archer. Note that with such a massive Critical steroid, adding more Critical Damage is typically less effective than relying on multiplicative stacking from Attack Up buffs or Card Performance.

• Kaleidoscope/The Imaginary Element: Starting NP gauge will allow EMIYA to quickly use his first NP and, depending on the strength of the enemies, either farm waves quickly or put out a hefty sum of stars to get the critical train rolling.
• Golden Sumo / Aerial Drive: Golden Sumo gives a pure attack buff, which stacks multiplicatively with EMIYA’s card type and crit buffs for his basic cards, and also boosts the damage on his NP. It also makes his first NP quicker to access. Aerial Drive is a good alternative for more NP-oriented strategies.
• Conversation on the Hot Sands / Leisure Stroll / Beyond a Wish: Critical Star Gathering is rather effective at getting EMIYA to Critical Hit more often in teams with medium-strength Star Generation, but Masters ideally flood the field with more Critical Stars to enable stronger CE selection choices. Nonetheless, a good band-aid solution. 
• Another Ending: One option for buffing his arts cards that also focuses on his critical performance. One perk of using this CE is that it has a higher bonus attack stat than most other CEs in the game, as well.
• Heaven’s Feel/Black Grail: Though these options don’t provide any card performance buffs, they stack multiplicatively with his Projection to supercharge his moderately spammable NP. This is a strong option if you’re using EMIYA to farm multiple high health enemies.