Calamity Jane

“Sure they call me ‘Calamity,’ but that’s really just because I get unlucky from time to time!”

Calamity Jane falls into the category of SR Servants who pair a mix of party support tools with their own offensive abilities. These Servants tend to lean towards Quick, and Jane is no exception. With an ST Quick NP and a suite of useful (albeit limited) buffs, Jane comes ready to plug into a Quick team and help it on its way. She has a set of meaningful weaknesses that keep her from really excelling in her role, but in cases where her specific utility is needed, she can truly shine.

All three of Calamity Jane’s skills are supportive in nature. Sabotage and Messenger of the Galaxy both provide modest-but-useful benefits, keeping enemies under control and boosting the party’s overall performance. O Polar Star, Shine My Way is a bit more unusual. While it also supports an ally, its effects depend on the number of critical stars available. With enough critical stars, Jane has access to a set of powerful utility effects, with the skill’s three-turn Ignore Invincible effect being particularly useful for some difficult fights. Jane’s Noble Phantasm, Space Dead Man’s Hand, also has the ability to output damage in a pinch, due to its ST Quick typing.

Jane’s various strengths come paired with some serious drawbacks. Most notably among them, Jane’s supportive value is considerably lessened if she does not have critical stars available. Her party damage buffs are also limited in various ways, from having a fail chance, to being tied to her Noble Phantasm, to having a short duration. Together these mean Jane is unlikely to be an appealing support except in cases where her specific combination of utility is needed. Additionally, despite Jane’s ability to deal damage, her low selfish damage buffs mean her actual damage output will be low, making her a weak pick for a primary damage-dealer.

Jane is not a universally useful Servant. Her value is mostly limited to difficult fights, and she requires access to critical stars in order to be maximally effective. As such, she needs specific teams and specific fights in order to really shine. In cases where she can make good use of her specialized utility, though, she can absolutely be helpful to have on-hand.

Valuable Utility

With 50 critical stars, Jane brings a range of useful utility effects to the team. She can charge one ally’s NP gauge by 30%, which is rare and useful in itself, and she also gives that Servant Ignore Invincible status for three turns. This can help that ally work more reliably in hard fights with many defensive skills. Jane also brings other generally-useful effects, enabling critical attacks and protecting the party from enemy criticals, which helps the team move faster and stay alive longer.

Party Damage Buffs

Jane can increase the entire team’s attack, and her Noble Phantasm reduces a target’s Defense and Quick Resistance. With these effects together, Jane can help support an allied damage-dealer’s Noble Phantasm, while also boosting her own damage (or the damage of another semi-support) in the process.

Strong NP Gain

Jane has unusually high Arts card NP gain for a Servant with two Arts cards. She can reliably use her Noble Phantasm repeatedly, especially with the help of her own NP charge skills.

Critical Star Requirements

While Jane brings a range of useful utility when the team has 50 critical stars, her value diminishes with fewer stars available. In order to guarantee Jane will be maximally effective, masters must bring Starting Critical Stars craft essences or Servants with Critical Star Gain skills to fuel Jane’s third skill. This limits the teams in which Jane works well and requires having specific Servants or Craft Essences on hand.

Damage Boost Restrictions

Each of Jane’s damage boosts is limited in some way. The ally attack boost on Messenger of the Galaxy can miss. Furthermore, Jane’s Defense and Quick Resistance debuffs are tied to her Noble Phantasm, requiring NP charge skills or CEs in order to access them. These debuffs also only last two turns, rather than the standard three, making them less effective than typical supportive effects of their type.

Low Damage Output

Due to her supportive focus, Jane has significantly lower self damage buffs than a typical Single-Target Servant. As such, while she can access her Noble Phantasm fairly easily, her actual damage output will be relatively low, making her a weak dedicated damage-dealer.

O Polar Star, Shine My Way contains most of Jane’s utility, and the NP charge effect on it scales with skill level, so it should be leveled first. Messenger of the Galaxy’s attack buff scales with level also, so this skill should be leveled second. Sabotage is the weakest of Jane’s skills and gains little from levels, so it can be saved for last. Sabotage can be safely left at lower levels if resources are a concern, but Jane’s other two skills should ideally be taken to max level in order to fully leverage Jane’s supportive abilities.

• Sabotage brings two valuable defensive tools in Attack down and Critical Chance down, but both are at such low values as to be not particularly noticeable in practice. At max level, this skill will reliably prevent critical attacks from enemies with low critical attack rates, which can be useful, but aside from that this skill doesn’t do much.
• Messenger of the Galaxy is a good skill with several benefits. It drains the entire enemy team’s NP gauge, helping to delay enemy NP turns. At the same time, its party NP charge effect can enable ally NPs. The skill also increases Jane’s own attack and has a chance to increase ally attack, making this skill a useful damage buff when Jane is on the field.
• O Polar Star, Shine My Way grows in value depending on the number of Critical Stars the party has. With no Critical Stars, all this skill is useful for is guaranteeing Jane’s own attack boost succeeds (or helping an ally with Imperial Privilege or a similar skill with a fail chance). With 10 critical stars, the skill gains a critical damage buff, although the team will likely need more than 10 critical stars in order to actually use that buff. With 20 stars, Jane helps an ally draw stars to crit. With 30 stars, this skill gains an Evade buff, giving it some defensive value. With 40 stars, it gains a three-turn Ignore Invincible buff, which can be important for reliably clearing some difficult fights. At 50 stars, the skill picks up a 20% NP charge effect, maximizing Jane’s supportive value. Masters will need to keep in mind how many stars are required for each of Jane’s effects when deciding when and how to use this skill. It should be noted that the skill does not consume critical stars upon use, unlike some other skills that have star requirements, and can be used even without any stars (albeit without effects that require more stars).

Starting Critical Stars Craft Essences will often be the best choice for Jane, as they increase the power of her third skill. Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences are also useful for helping Jane gain access to the debuffs on her Noble Phantasm. NP Damage Up Craft Essences are a good pick for Masters who want to use Jane as a damage-dealer, while Quick Performance Up and NP Gain Up Craft Essences can complement Jane’s strong base NP gain in longer fights.

• Golden Captures the Carp / Crowning Beauty, Greater Glory / Scenic Beauty: These Craft Essences provide a mix of useful benefits in addition to 20 critical stars. These CEs are also good on other support Servants while using Jane, as Jane does not need to be the source of the critical stars in order to benefit from them.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: These CEs help Jane gain access to her Noble Phantasm quickly in order to ensure her debuffs are available when needed.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: These CEs maximize Jane’s damage output when she is used as a damage-dealer.
• Imaginary Around / Summer Little / Christmas Locus: These CEs increase Jane’s Quick performance, her NP gain, or both, helping her to use her NP more frequently and to deal more damage with each NP use.