Scathach

“Is there anyone who can kill me? Hehe, I doubt it.”

Deep in the land of shadows beyond the door of darkness, the old Master of Cu Chulainn honed her techniques to fight and search for the one who’d be able to kill her. With a potentially lethal Single Target Quick Noble Phantasm, she comes through as one of the most powerful boss killers in the game, especially against Divine Servants. She also serves as a wonderful guide for Mission Based events right here on Gamepress!

Scathach’s power revolves around her Noble Phantasm, Gae Bolg Alternative. When buffed up with her Primordial Rune skill it is capable of dealing major single target damage. Yet, if she’s going against a Divine Servant (or the rare case of an Undead high-HP enemy) she can cast God-Slayer to dish out Special ATK damage and effectively oneshot almost any enemy she comes across. Not only that but if an enemy survives her Noble Phantasm, they’re guaranteed stunned for the rest of the turn unless they have some sort of immunity. Even without her Noble Phantasm, she’s a danger to enemies with a heavy Crit absorb/damage buff on Wisdom of Dun Scaith along with a survival effect with its evasion.

While Scathach is incredibly strong as a damage dealer, she’s not without her flaws. For one, she is incredibly reliant on external supports and CEs for her NP gauge as her cards do not provide much gauge at all for her. There is one notable exception: An ABB or ABQ chain provides a decent amount of gauge due to 6-hit Buster and 7-hit extra card, but that makes her NP gain reliant on specific card drops, in particular her single Arts card. She also is a chance-based Servant as her first skill only has an 80% activation chance for Critical absorption and/or damage boosts, although this changes with her Rank-Up quest providing her with a means to increase her buff success rate.

Masters generally use Scathach in boss fights and challenge quests for her raw damage, and also for her stun capabilities. Even after her Noble Phantasm turn, she’s a huge threat with crits and even regular damage. And before long she’ll be sure to be narrating another Mission-based Event in a bunny suit!

Burst Damage

Gae Bolg Alternative is one of the most powerful single target Noble Phantasms in the game in terms of raw damage, boosted to insane levels against Divine Servants. To make matters even better, many Servants with the “Divine” trait are also Archers or Berserkers and receive extra damage from her via Class advantage. Even if the Servant is not an Archer or a Berserker, her modifier often allows her to do more damage against a Divine Servant even without class advantage.

Stunning

No, I’m not referring to her amazing looks, but instead her ability to stun any enemy with her Noble Phantasm. This additional benefit could stall an enemy’s Noble Phantasm turn or protect a susceptible support on the team from incoming damage. Her ability to stun combined with huge damage numbers make her a popular pick for many solo-battle situations.

Criticals

If her skill procs, Scathach gets 3-turns of super-buffed Critical damage and Critical gather rate. As she often is partnered with Skadi, this could lead the Noble Phantasm level critical hits and stars from said hits to chain into more criticals.

Survivability

Scathach’s first skill is on only a 5-turn cooldown, giving her a turn of evasion. Against a Caster or Rider enemy (typical for Divine fights) this means she’d be capable of evading every single Noble Phantasm they cast. Even against an Archer, she can evade their first Noble Phantasm and have a full 7 turns to destroy them.

Low NP Gain

Scathach’s cards are, in a word, awful. With only 2 hits on her Quick card, a 1 hit Noble Phantasm and a QQABB kit, she has a very hard time generating any NP gauge. Her only real chance to generate gauge comes from her Extra card, or her Buster card boosted by Arts, but more of that in the next point.

Card Reliant

Scathach has one way out of her NP gain issues: She has high hit counts on her Buster and Extra cards. If she can do a Brave chain on the turn she draws her Arts card, it will lead to significant gains. However, this makes her highly card reliant. Of note, both an ABQ and an ABB chain will generate the same amount of NP gain, a AQQ will generate slightly less than an ABB chain and should only be used if no Buster cards are available.

Chance Based Skills

Wisdom of Dun Scaith is a powerful skill for both Crit Gather and Crit Damage, but both buffs are at a separately calculated 80% success rate. That means her overall buff success rate is only 64% to have both skills activated, and is not entirely reliable. After her Rank-up quest she will be able to use Primordial Rune to guarantee success of this skill. Otherwise, she either needs to risk it or have an ally with buff success up.

Scathach’s skills are primarily centered around a burst turn. Masters may choose to use her second and third skills to create a massive damage burst turn. However, many Masters against Divine enemies with break bars would choose to apply her second and third skills on different turns as the sheer damage of just one is often enough to break the bar. Most Masters will typically only use the latter two skills, but the first can help with her survival.

• Wisdom of Dun Scaith A+ provides a one-turn evasion on a 5-turn cooldown, allowing Scathach to survive high incoming enemy damage. It also provides a huge boost to crit gather rate and crit damage, and can be used for strong non-Noble Phantasm turns. This skill should be leveled third as most Masters use her for Noble Phantasms, but should be leveled to max to take advantage of its 5-turn cooldown.
• Primordial Rune (Scathach) provides any choice ally with a 50% 1-turn Quick boost, one of the highest available in the game and especially high for a non-Caster. While it can be used as support, she almost always benefits from having it on herself. After her rank-up, she also can use this skill for a small charge to her Noble Phantasm gauge and a 20% buff success rate increase, making this a useful skill to use on the same turn as Wisdom of Dun Scaith. This skill applies in all cases, so it should be leveled first. Before rank up, only Quick performance scales with level, although after rank up, it must be at level 10 to guarantee the chance-based buffs on her first skill. For most use cases, it is suggested to go all the way to 10. 
• God-Slayer B is Scathach’s trait-based Special ATK boost, effectively doubling her damage against Divine and Undead enemies. There are no significant Undead enemies in the game outside of a few “Massive Ghosts,” so for the most part this is only used against Divine enemies. It is a large enough boost to at times consider bringing her over a weaker Servant with Class advantage, even if Scathach does not have Class advantage. This should be leveled to 10 and leveled second only for the fact that it doesn’t always apply.

Scathach’s main flaw is her inability to generate a Noble Phantasm Gauge making a Starting NP Gauge CE her best option. If she has support, she can benefit from a Mixed Starting NP Gauge / Damage CE, and wil significant support she can further boost her damage with Attack Up or Noble Phantasm Damage Up CEs. Of note, in the rare case of using her Quick buff as support, her Max Bond CE is also an option to help her allies.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: Scathach has a very hard time boosting her Noble Phantasm gauge so any starting gauge for her goes a long way towards accessing it. 
• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Holy Night Supper / Knights of Marines: Scathach’s skills boost her Quick performance and in the event of a Divine enemy, a Powermod which stacks with Noble Phantasm damage buffs. Because of that, CEs that boost Attack are preferable to either of them. These three will provide more boosts to her damage while also giving a starting gauge.
• GUDAGUDA Poster Girl / The Black Grail: Against Divine enemies, Scathach has a large bonus in the Noble Phantasm Damage Up category as her Special ATK bonus counts additively. Because of this, if she can release her Noble Phantasm by turn 3, it is far better to take a huge boost from GUDAGUDA Poster Girl’s Attack up over The Black grail’s Noble Phantasm Damage up and 2400 raw attack (assuming both are either non-MLB or both are MLB). The Black Grail is still more than worthwhile if one does not have GUDAGUDA Poster Girl, or when facing a non-Divine enemy. 
• Gazing Upon Dun Scaith: Scathach’s second skill is targetable creating a rare situation where she could be used as a support. If one is using her Quick skill to target another Servant, she would benefit to use her Bond CE to give them more damage.