Archer of Shinjuku

“To even have the chance to "battle" me, you must have the devil’s luck.”

A dandy criminal mastermind enters the stage as the Archer of Shinjuku. Sporting his coffin machine gun, he can quickly gain access to and mow down enemies with his ST Buster NP, as well as support fellow Evil Servants with an attack boost.

Archer of Shinjuku is an excellent damage dealer with his NP and critical niches somewhat feeding each other. Between Critical hits, Arts Brave Chains from his QAAAB deck, and the 50% NP charge from End of the Spider's Web, Archer of Shinjuku can quickly charge his NP gauge. Due to the his overall high hit counts and 12-hit NP,  Archer of Shinjuku can even generate a decent sum of critical stars if under the influence of star generation buffs or overkill. Then using The Freeshooter to gather these stars, he can charge his NP faster with critical hits while their damage is boosted by Independent Action. All the while, his overall damage is being boosted by his Evil Charisma and the defense down his NP inflicts before it activates, with his NP damage boosted even more by the NP damage buff of  End of the Spider's Web. He additionally prefers teaming up with Evil Servants as his Evil Charisma grants them double the benefit of his attack buff, although his Rank Up will allow him to buff any ally with the evil alignment.

Sadly, our favorite mastermind is a bit too greedy for his own good. End of the Spider's Web, while being his most amazing skill, has a demerit: 10 stars are spent to use it. While our dandy Archer has a good amount of hit counts, his base generation stats aren’t too high. Thus the amount of NP he can gain, as well as the number of stars he can make, aren’t as high as he would want them to be. As a result, even though his star gathering via The Freeshooter can somewhat compensate for this, the 10 stars cost does damage the consistency of his critical niche. After his Rank Up, he will lose the critical stars demerit on End of the Spider's Web, but Masters will still need to gather 10 critical stars to use it. Finally, he is lacking in durability, with no ability whatsoever to mitigate or heal any damage done to him.

Overall, the Archer of Shinjuku carves out a good niche with his NP damage, Evil support, and critical hits. However, he needs some additional external support to increase his consistency in regards to critical hits, whether through Craft Essences or good support Servants.

Gameplay Tip

Archer of Shinjuku is the first Servant to feature a critical star cost in his skills. Due to End of the Spider's Web costing 10 critical stars to use, Archer of Shinjuku can’t fire his NP on turn 1 by himself even if given a CE with Starting NP Gauge (unless it’s an MLB Kaleidoscope or critical stars are instantly generated/Mystic Codes are used).

Fortunately, after his Rank Up the critical stars are at least no longer consumed upon use.

Powerful ST NP

With the ability to stack two different types of steroids (defense down + ATK up, and NP Damage Up), our dandy Archer can deal a monstrous amount of damage to a single target. His NP also profits from its sheer amount of hits if Overkill or a star generation buff is active during his NP, either effect boosts the number of stars he can gain significantly.

Decent Critical Niche

Given his ability to increase his star gathering weight via The Freeshooter, Archer of Shinjuku can be effective as a critical damage dealer even with a smaller pool of critical stars. Coupled with Independent Action buffing his critical damage, he performs decently as a critical damage dealer.

Good NP Uptime

With a maximum of 50% NP charge via End of the Spider's Web and access to an Arts Brave Chain (moreso if they crit), our mastermind can have his NP ready to go in a short span of time. A single Arts Brave chain can generate ~50% NP gauge with no buffs.

Support for Evil Servants

Evil Charisma buffs the attack of Evil Servants with an additional percentage following the initial increase. While not overwhelmingly strong, the added damage can be noted when forming a team with Archer of Shinjuku. After his Rank Up, he can also turn any ally into his evil sidekick, which soundly boosts his overall support potential.

Weak Generation Stats

Despite having a good amount of hit counts on all of his cards, as well as his NP, Archer of Shinjuku doesn’t generate many stars nor much NP charge in fragmented card chains. In regards to his crit niche, while The Freeshooter does help compensate for the lower amount of stars he generates, he still would prefer having more support for his part of his kit to be more consistent. As for his NP generation, he can rely on his Arts Brave chains, general Arts chains and End of the Spider's Web for more consistency.

End of the Spider's Web's Demerit

With Archer’s main NP battery and steroid skill needing 10 stars to activate, there will be times where activating the skill is downright impossible .or interferes with the game plan of a turn. The 3-turn duration of the NP damage increase does allow for some flexibility however, as it can be activated up to two turns prior to using his NP. Note that this weakness becomes less noticeable after his Rank Up. 

Lack of Durability

With no defensive or healing skills whatsoever, our dandy Archer has to rely on other Servants to keep himself alive on the battlefield, especially for harder boss fights and Challenge Quests.

The Archer of Shinjuku would prefer to deal damage with his NP first and crits second, due to their overall better reliability and access to his NP. As such, he wants to charge his NP as fast as possible, while increasing his damage output when deploying it. His less consistent critical niche can follow last.

• Archer of Shinjuku’s star weight is already pretty decent due to his class being Archer, and the enemies who use invulnerability or dodges don’t usually use them right away (i.e. this skill won't be used as soon as it is off cooldown). Thus, while The Freeshooter Ex will help him become more consistent overall, it can be held off for last.

• End of the Spider's Web A++ is our dandy man’s most powerful skill and should be leveled first. The NP battery increase to 50% at max level is one of his best ways to charge his NP. Additionally, the cooldown reduction does wonders to help his NP become more spammable. Note: the NP Damage does not scale with additional levels. After his Rank Up, it also bestows the evil alignment on other Servants in the party, while removing the critical star demerit. 

• Evil Charisma A is one of Archer of Shinjuku’s main damage steroids and should be leveled second to increase his overall damage output. Note that the bonus damage to Evil Servants (or his newly recruited evil sidekicks) does not apply to the mastermind himself, only his allies.

With a Buster ST NP, the Archer of Shinjuku can equip Buster Performance Up CEs, which stack multiplicatively with his own damage buffs. However, other CEs with damage steroids also can be used by him just as well. On his critical aspect, Star Generation Up is quite powerful on him, as it makes use of his good hit counts to boost the number of stars available. Critical Damage Up also boost his overall damage output. Starting NP Gauge and Hybrid CEs with it can also be used to make him fire his NP quickly, but note that the 10-star cost requirement on End of the Spider's Web does generally prevent him from using his NP during the first turn.

• Hero Elly’s Adventure / Limited/Zero Over: The main Buster Performance Up CEs for Archer of Shinjuku. As Archer of Shinjuku doesn’t have this damage steroid built in, it will stack multiplicatively instead of additively, allowing for a bigger damage cap for his NP and Buster card. 
• Victor of the Moon / Joint Recital: The classic Buster Performance + Critical Damage combination CEs.
• The Black Grail: The highest NP damage boosting CE is still highly effective for Archer of Shinjuku even when he already has an NP damage boost in his own kit. Beware of his survival.
• The Classic Three Great Heroes: This CE does multiple things which support the dandy Archer’s kit. NP Damage to boost his damage, Starting NP Gauge to help him fire it faster, and increased critical star generation rate to boost the amount of stars he can make due with his high hit counts.
• Golden Captures the Carp: With an MLB version of this CE, Archer of Shinjuku can fire his NP on the very first turn given a maxed End of the Spider's Web, as in addition to starting with 50% NP charge, it also gives out 20 stars to begin. Note that this may not be the most optimal choice due to him sacrificing other potential buffs just for a quick NP. Consider using other Servants like Mozart or Mystic Codes instead.
• Partake with the King / First Sunrise / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: These Hybrid CEs have both a damage steroid and Starting NP gauge, which can help Archer of Shinjuku fire his NP faster and stronger.