Demon King Nobunaga (Oda Nobunaga)

“Me, an Avenger...Wahahaha! How karmic!”

Upon release, Demon King Nobu, or Maou Nobu, was one of the worst Servants in the game. Now, after a multitude of buffs, they have evolved into a powerful Anti-Divinity AoE Buster Avenger Servant, covering one of the three “omnifarmer” niches in the game.

As an “omnifarmer” Nobu is powerful against most all enemy waves, thanks to a large attack boost from Can’t be Helped A- and a Buster boost from Demon King of the Sixth Heaven EX. But their main attraction comes from their powerful and widespread niches of Heaven enemies from It is But a Dream B, and an often times stacking niche of Divinity with their Noble Phantasm, Pāpīyas Reborn, Demon King of the Myriad Heavens A-. This alone made them fearsome, but Strengthen 2 turned them into a true God, making them capable of Buster loop farming thanks to Demon King of the Sixth Heaven EX’s charge. 

If there were a true weakness for Nobu, it would be their defenses are rather shoddy, despite having an invincibility. They also fall off drastically without the right supports, going from a looper to a one-hit wonder. They also, counter to other omnifarmers, have holes in their niche listed below.

Maou Nobu fits best as a farmer against practically any node and composition one throws at them, and especially if it involves Heaven or Divinity type enemies. They also fit best shouting “NOBBU NOBU!” while displaying one eye and running around in tanks and UFOs. 

High Damage

Nobu gets a massive amount of damage thanks to their first skill’s increasing Attack up and their second skill’s Buster bonus. Both of these are on low enough of a cooldown to be cast twice in double Koyanskaya setups at max level.

Widespread Powerful Niches

Nobu has a powermod against Heaven type enemies, and a supereffective mod against Divinity. As 80% of all Heaven type enemies are also Divinity, this means they often get both bonuses, dealing huge damage numbers which cannot be met by other means in other setups. To make matters better, they have a man-Earth-Heaven triangle bonus against man type enemies, and Koyanskaya gives a powermod against man types, so Nobu will also deal loads of damage against them too if they are divinity (only about 10% less than the true man-killer, Morgan, actually). Unfortunately, Man only has 10% of its Servants as divine. Even with only one niche such as non-divine Heaven, non-Divine Man, or Divine Earth Maou hits sufficiently hard most of the time. Between Maou, Morgan, and eventually Kuku, the three of them serve as anti-niche omnifarmers capable of covering most all traits. 

Looping

Maou has a 30% charge on a low cooldown. With a double Koyanskaya and Oberon supporting, this allows them to cast 3 Noble Phantasms in three turns with maxed append 2 and a 50% starting charge CE. Maou’s skills are powerful enough to get extreme levels of double bonuses. 

Low Durability

Maou does have an Invincibility skill for a turn of hard survival, but very little else in the way of damage mitigation. As an Avenger they have to take full damage from most enemy attacks, and with a rather low HP pool for their rarity this could mean a short lifespan. Not to mention, their first skill burns them, lowering their survival even more.

Support Reliant

In order to use Maou Nobu fully effectively, one needs to have both a Koyanskaya and an Oberon of their own. Otherwise they are the type to charge to max fast and use their Noble Phantasm, or attempting to solo with BBB chains in challenge quests.

Holes in Niche

While Morgan can cover the entire Man niche, and Kuku the entire Earth niche, Maou still has 20% of the Heaven niche they don’t do top-tier damage to: the non-Divinity Heaven enemies. As the Heaven bonus is a powermod bonus, and powermod bonuses stack with Noble Phantasm Damage up (from Oberon), it tends to be much less effective. Nobu may have competition when dealing with one of these 20% of the Sky Servants.

Maou’s skills are for one purpose: Damage. By casting their first skill to gain increasing damage and a battlefield, and their second to gain more damage, they start dishing out the hits. Their third skill serves as their looping capacity, enabling that damage to mean something. Suggested skill order is 3 > 1 > 2.

• Can’t be Helped A- is Maou’s primary damage steroid, giving increasing attack each turn and changing the field to a burning type, while also burning themselves in the process. This skill can be double stacked by using double Koyanskaya turn 2. Be aware that damage over time does add up, to the point where Nobu will lose over half health through a typical 3-turn battle when using this, unless cleared with a Command Code. Masters use this turn 1 and turn 2 if using double Koyanskaya. Level this second due to its high scaling, and to at least level 9, preferably 10.

• It is But a Dream B++ is a simple invincibility with Maou’s anti-heaven niche attached to it. Its buff removal is usually pointless outside of challenge quest usage, but still nice. The invincibility in practice is rarely used as this is popped turn one and then Maou lays out the anti-heaven hits (with a second pop turn 3 in a double Koyanskaya setup). If using double Koyanskaya this needs to be leveled to 10 for the cooldown, but otherwise can be left at level 9 if missing mats. Level this last.

• Demon King of the Sixth Heaven EX is Maou’s charge and what changed them from a trash Servant to one of the best in the game. While it does provide some stars for maybe a critical hit or two, its main advantages come from its 30% charge and Buster bonus at max. This is on low enough of a cooldown to stack as well, creating Buster looping. Like most charge skills, level this first and to max.

Maou needs a starting charge of 50% and a maximized append skill 2 to Buster loop, so Mixed Starting NP Gauge / Damage CEs are the best. If not looking to loop, the goal should be to get one powerful hit out, making a fast Starting NP Gauge CE optimal. Alternatively, one could use supports to boost Maou to get one extra-powerful hit out, which would make NP Damage/Specific Damage CEs optimal.

• Aerial Drive / Holy Night Supper / Partake with the King / Starry Nights: Maou is a traditional VVO looper and with a 50% CE and a 20% append can cast the 30% charge turn one, get double Vitch buffs turn 2, and then recast the 30% charge and take Oberon buffs turn three. Any 50% CE enables this, but ones with NP damage are far preferable. 
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: If not looping, it is best to get a Noble Phantasm off as fast as possible. Giving a strong starting gauge can help with this.
• The Black Grail / Versus: If able to give Maou the other 50% gauge they need in other ways, such as through a support, boosting their damage is for the best. As Maou is commonly used in anti-divinity situations, another 100% damage against divine enemies at max limit break from Versus can go a long way, possibly even further than a Black Grail. But most of the time, a Black Grail is the way to go.