Karna

“As long as I have this feeling in my heart, my spear shall never fail.”

Karna, son of the Sun God Surya, is arguably one of the strongest Servants in the lore, thanks to not only the arsenal of divine weapons in his possession, but also his noble character and martial prowess. The Hero of Charity manifests these qualities ingame, appearing as an AoE Buster nuker with extreme offensive potential.

Karna’s offensive base can be considered top-notch, as his high natural ATK stat is further strengthened by his Lancer class’ 1.05x damage modifier. His kit further improves on this solid base in multiple ways, from his Mana Burst (Flame)’s Buster and NP Damage buffs, Uncrowned Arms Mastery’s critical buffs, the ability to form a Buster Brave chain, and even a Buster Resistance Down on his NP post Rank Up. Karna’s Anti-Divine niche also has a lot of viable targets, allowing him to compete even in single-boss fights against Divine enemies.

In addition, Uncrowned Arms Mastery’s NP charge allows him to be a valuable farming Servant as well, especially in some harder farming quests where his high damage and Anti-Divine niche become valuable. Knowledge of the Deprived’s NP Seal rounds up the Hero of Charity’s kit, granting him some strategic flexibility.

As with any other Servant, however, Karna also comes with his fair share of weaknesses, though his are unfortunately rather detrimental to his overall potential. While he is capable of generating some amount of critical stars, it is not nearly enough to make up for his low base star weight, making his critical hits unreliable without external aid. Another major crack in Karna’s kit is his lack of survivability, which often forces him to rely on his teammates in longer fights. Lastly, his NP Damage may feel somewhat limited initially, but his NP Upgrade more than fixes this problem.

Despite all his shortcomings, however, Karna is still a highly reliable damage dealer, with his lack of survival skills and low star weight being his only major weaknesses after his NP upgrade. As a powerful AoE nuker with considerable critical presence, he performs comfortably in both farming and difficult quests, and is a valuable asset for any Master.

Anti-Divine Bonus Damage

A lot of notable Archer and Berserker servants possess Divinity, making Karna’s Anti-Divine niche far more relevant in practice compared to other similar trait-based bonuses. Against the correct targets, a combination of this extra NP damage and his critical hits often allows Karna to end stages with little effort.

High Damage Ceiling

Thanks to Karna’s high base ATK, the 1.05x Lancer damage modifier, and multiplicative self-buffs, he already deals excellent damage even self-buffed. His Buster criticals in particular can reach some obscene numbers, and as his critical steroids last for 3 turns, Karna is able to finish up enemies effectively even if the initial burst was not enough.

Strategic Flexibility

With high damage, considerable critical presence, as well as an NP charge and even some potent utility in the form of NP Seal and Debuff Resistance Down, Karna excels in many different situations, ranging from the most difficult quests to daily farming ones. His higher damage makes him a particularly strong choice for high-level farming quests, as he is able to quickly finish waves which would take other farming Servants longer.

Inconsistent Critical Hits

Despite Karna possessing some capability to generate critical stars, the Lancer class’ below-average star weight means that Karna will have a harder time actually getting said stars. With no critical absorption skill to speak of, he needs a well-supported team to perform critical hits rather consistently, which poses a problem when event CEs/Servants are brought into the picture.

No Survivability Skill

While Karna has a respectable HP pool due to his 5-star status, he has no way to mitigate incoming damage, making him relatively brittle compared to his fellow 5-stars. His NP seal is able to delay an enemy’s NP for one turn, but this is often not enough, especially against enemies with hard-hitting normal hits.

All of Karna’s skills benefit from being leveled and should be maxed eventually, but there is an overall order in which they should be leveled. Mana Burst (Flame), as his least situational skill, is generally his first priority, followed by Uncrowned Arms Mastery. While the first two priorities are arguable to some extent, Knowledge of the Deprived is a clear third, and should be left for last.

• While Knowledge of the Deprived A’s NP Seal is incredibly powerful, it doesn’t scale with additional levels, and its Debuff Resistance debuff is rather situational and mostly there to make the NP Seal hit the target. It can be used in combination with particularly low success rate debuffs though, making effects such as Zhuge Liang’s and Shakespeare stun actually hit reliably. The cooldown reduction gained from maxing it may prove important in the hardest quests, but it is generally fine to leave this skill for last.

• At first glance, Mana Burst (Flame) A looks like a weaker version of normal Mana Burst skills, as NP Damage Up doesn’t affect his normal Buster cards. However, for pure NP damage, these buffs not only stack multiplicatively with each other, but also with his Anti-Divine Bonus Damage. As his primary damage boosting skill, this skill should generally be maxed first.

• Uncrowned Arms Mastery should generally be leveled after Mana Burst (Flame), as its reliability is somewhat hurt by Karna’s low star weight. It also doesn’t improve the NP charge with additional levels. If Karna is to be used in well-supported critical teams, however, it can be leveled first, as the critical damage buff lasts for 3 turns.

Karna’s best CE pick highly depends on his team, with Starting NP Gauge and Critical Absorption Up CEs being valuable options in less synergistic teams. Meanwhile, in well-constructed teams, his CE preference turns into damage-boosting ones, primarily Buster Performance Up, Critical Damage Up or NP Damage Up.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: These CEs allow Karna to unleash his NP early on in a stage, even without external support. They are best used in farming stages, or those with only one wave of enemies.

• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Partake with the King / Holy Night Supper: These hybrid CEs are used when Karna’s NP is not needed in the first two waves, or when an ally with NP Charging skills is brought along. As Karna’s kit already contains Buster Performance Up, NP Damage Up, and Critical Damage Up buffs, Golden Sumo is generally recommended over the other choices.

• Joint Recital / Victor From The Moon / Limited/Zero Over / Verdant Sound of Destruction: Each of these CEs improves on Karna’s base damage potential in some way, and they are best used in teams with reliable NP charge and critical star generation capabilities.

• The Black Grail: While Karna’s lack of survivability makes Black Grail less enticing in longer fights, the damage increase it gives far outshines any other CE pick, and lets Karna quickly burst down multiple bosses with Vasavi Shakti.

• Conversation on the Hot Sands/ Teacher and I / Seal Designation Enforcer / Room Guard: Best used in teams where Karna will be competing for access to critical stars, these CEs allow him to perform critical hits far more reliably, though he sacrifices some damage compared to other CE picks.