Caenis

“I’m not a fan of the ocean. Die, ocean!”

The Golden Hero Caenis rounds out Olympus’s cast of Servants as the only SR for the chapter. Caenis is a fairly standard AoE Buster Lancer with some decent critical-attack-focused tools. While Caenis is not especially remarkable as an AoE damage dealer, critical-focused strategies can lead to more effective performance against single targets.

Despite having an AoE NP, Caenis’s primary strength is dealing damage against a single target with normal attacks. Monstrous Strength and Pillaging Spear increase Caenis’s overall damage output, while Lapithae Caeneus increases Caenis’s critical attack damage output. The NP specifically also allows Caenis’s damage to scale over multiple turns, which is useful for dealing more damage against later bars in hard fights. Caenis also has a strong defensive tool in Poseidon's Blessing, which can make Caenis surprisingly bulky, especially against Archers.

While Caenis has the potential to deal strong damage over time, Caenis suffers from odd buff durations that make it difficult to stack damage buffs to maximum effectiveness. Caenis also relies on critical attacks for damage but has no way to gain access to critical stars until Pillaging Spear’s interlude. Furthermore, Caenis’s limited NP charge and odd buff types do not lead to effective farming performance.

Caenis is a largely unremarkable SR Buster Lancer. While Caenis’s skills and NP have enough value to make Caenis competitive in hard fights, plenty of other Servants can do similar things. As such, Caenis can be effective for masters who want to invest heavily, but otherwise is an easy Servant to skip.

High Single-Target Damage

Lapithae Caeneus increases Caenis’s critical attack damage each time it is used. As such, if Caenis is able to loop this NP, Caenis can execute very powerful critical hits, dealing substantial damage against a single enemy.

Damage Scaling Potential

The damage buffs on Lapithae Caeneus last for 3 turns. As such, if Caenis’s skills are timed well, Caenis’s NP and card damage will both increase turn-over-turn, which can be useful for fights that start with low-HP enemies or break bars and end with high-HP enemies or bars.

Strong Defensive Tools

Pillaging Spear and Poseidon's Blessing both contribute to Caenis’s survivability and both have reasonable cooldown times. Especially with the help of support Servants, Caenis can easily survive through long fights.

Awkward Buff Durations

Monstrous Strength’s attack buff only lasts for 2 turns, and Pillaging Spear’s lasts for 1 turn each time it activates. Most Servants output their damage over the course of three turns, so these shorter durations hurt Caenis’s ability to compete with more standard units.

Limited Critical Attack Access

Caenis needs critical attacks to capitalize on Lapithae Caeneus’s stacking critical attack damage buffs, but until getting an interlude, Caenis has no innate way to gain critical stars. Even with this skill buff, Caenis lacks star gather, making it difficult to crit reliably.

Weak Farming Performance

Pre-buff, Caenis has no NP charge skill, and post-buff, the skill is limited to 20% NP charge. This, paired with Caenis’s odd buff durations, limits Caenis’s ability to function effectively as a farming Servant.

Poseidon's Blessing is a powerful defensive skill on a reasonably short cooldown. Leveling this skill greatly increases Caenis’s durability, so it should be leveled first. Monstrous Strength is a standard damage boost and should be leveled second. Pillaging Spear is a weak skill before its buff, so it should be leveled last. Caenis will be more powerful with higher skill levels, but none of the skills need specific levels to function, so masters are free to level them as they have the needed materials.

• Monstrous Strength increases Caenis’s overall damage, but the effect only lasts for two turns, making this less useful than normal skills of its type. It still scales well with levels, though, so Caenis will be meaningfully more powerful if this is leveled.
• Pillaging Spear is an odd skill, temporarily increasing Caenis’s attack and decreasing enemy attack when Caenis attacks with normal cards. This means Caenis can maximize NP damage by using cards before an NP, which is unusual. At base, this is an underwhelming skill and can be leveled last, but once buffed it gains critical star generation and NP charge, at which point it should be leveled first for easier critical attack and NP access.
• Poseidon's Blessing drastically reduces damage from three attacks and also gives Caenis a substantial guts effect. This skill scales well with levels and benefits from a shortened cooldown, so it is very much worth leveling, especially for Masters who do not expect to clear fights in the minimum possible number of turns.

Buster Effectiveness Up craft essences are good for Caenis, as Caenis has little in-kit Buster up and Buster buffs increase both NP damage and critical attack damage. NP Damage Up and Critical Attack Damage Up craft essences can also be effective if Caenis will be focusing on one or the other. Starting NP Gauge craft essences can be helpful for letting Caenis gain access to Lapithae Caeneus quickly. Critical Star Generation craft essences can also be useful for helping Caenis gain regular access to critical attacks.

• Limited/Zero Over / Victor of the Moon / Aerial Drive: These CEs all increase Buster card performance. Victor of the Moon gives less Buster up in exchange for also boosting crit damage, while Aerial Drive gives 50% starting NP gauge.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Holy Night Supper: These CEs all increase NP damage, making them good picks for standard AoE fights where Caenis needs to maximize NP damage against all targets.
• Bestia Del Sol / Hide Hunter / Knight’s Dignity:  These CEs increase critical attack damage, making them effective choices when Caenis is focusing on critical damage against a single enemy.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: These CEs provide starting NP gauge, letting Caenis quickly use an NP for immediate access to its critical attack damage buff.
• A Fragment of 2030 / His Rightful Place: These CEs provide stars each turn, helping to solve Caenis’s problem of limited critical attack access.