Aozaki Aoko

“Can’t get enough of my explosions, can you?!”

Fresh from the pages of Witch of the Holy Night comes one of the most complicated Servant as we’ve had in a while. As an AoE Arts Foreigner Aoko is a giant mess of magical bullets, transformation sequences, skill planning, and effectively having a double Noble Phantasm available.

Aoko works by empowering her attacks over time. She has a special buff called a magic bullet which will boost her damage by 50% on normal cards at the cost of the bullet, or 50% per bullet on extra attacks at the cost of effectively all bullets. In her normal form, she can gain these bullets via Load Magic Bullet B and through her max bond craft essence, Waiting in the Sky. She also gets a small NP charge per turn skill with Magic Circuit (Rotation) A and a decent card buff and demerit blocker in To Your Era, Once More EX. But in general, those two skills are not recommended to ever be used due to reasons in the next paragraph.

Aoko’s true self comes from her transformation. Her Noble Phantasm, Unfinished Blue changes Aoko from a tiny bullet charging Foreigner into a supportive character capable of dishing out major damage, Super Aoko. For one, she becomes an AoE machine, with both her Buster and Extra attacks dealing damage to all enemies. While this does lead to lower damage due to the split, remember that Unfinished Blue boosted the damage of both Buster and Extra attacks already. Now, did you like bullet charging for extra damage? Super Aoko gives that too, with her first skill Find the Milky Way EX granting 6 total (60% bonus damage on Noble Phantasms!) and her passive Deploy Magic Bullet EX granting 2 every turn. Her support levels go off the chart, with Magic Circuit (Rotation) B becoming a passive that grants the entire party 10% charge per turn and a few critical stars, and her third skill First Star C effectively taking a full gauge from her in order to give every one 50% gauge and reduce their cooldowns by 2 turns with a massive heal to boot. Oh, and did we mention that she has a 100% NP charge skill that grants 40 Critical stars, Magic Circuit (Orbit) EX? Her Noble Phantasm is nothing to sneeze at either, an AoE Arts bomb which can ignore invincibility and defense with supereffective damage based off of the amount of bullets she has. Or did we mention that she’s a defensive powerhouse with Find the Milky Way giving her a turn of invincibility with her passive Magician C change all invincibility statuses on her into the Castoria-level Anti-Enforcement Defense levels which are immune to Ignore Invincible?

Despite all the powers of Super Aoko, she has two fatal flaws. The first is that Masters simply cannot use her the first turn. She has to transform using her Noble Phantasm, meaning another Servant has to clear the wave. Her second flaw is a lack of self-synergy. Outside of a small Arts boost in Find the Milky Way and the defense down on her Noble Phantasm, her skills and buffs primarily are about boosting the AoE Buster and Extra attack cards, not taking advantage on her major damage dealing move.

Masters in love with Aoko can build a team around her. They would typically want a team of multiple damage dealers with Aoko transforming early and then being the featured damage dealer in later turns. She’s also great for longer fights with lots of enemies, although her use cases may struggle at times.

Note her Buster and Extra attacks both hit all enemies.

In Super form, her stat spread changes as follows (Base/Max/Lv100/Lv120):

• HP: 1940/13230/14494/17034

• ATK: 1944/12584/13775/16169

• Death Rate: 5%

• NP Gain: 0.33%

• NP Gain (taking damage): 3%

• Attribute: Star

• Deck: BAAAQ

Normal Aoko has a BBAAQ deck, and Super Aoko has a BAAAQ deck. Masters may want to use Super Aoko to critically hit the first wave with a Buster card after transformation (something boosted up as part of her Noble Phantasm effects). However, there is no telling which Buster card is the one which will turn into an Arts card at card selection. It is highly suggested to go into Command Code Engraving and engrave the last Buster card with a Command Code to mark it so Masters will know if it is available as a Buster card after transformation.

If Super Aoko’s Buster attack kills all enemies, the turn ends. Because of this, it is suggested to use Arts cards for refund prior to Buster cards unless a Master knows her Buster card will not kill all enemies.

Skill cooldowns do not reset upon transformation, so Masters should avoid using as many of her skills as possible until she is transformed. That said, Load Magic Bullet B only has a 2 turn cooldown (1 turn on the initial usage once appends 4 and 5 are unlocked), so this skill can be popped for early bullets.

Support

As Super Aoko, there is nothing better than an ability to give the entire party 50% NP gauge and reduce their cooldowns by 2 turns. And then we throw in her 10% passive charge for NP gauges for her allies, and she can effectively charge the entire party 60% just by existing. The 5000 HP heal is nothing to scoff at either!

Survivability

All forms of Aoko passively turn Invincibility into Anti-Enforcement Defense for herself. As she will typically be paired with Caster Altria, whose third skill gives invincibility, and Super Aoko’s first skill has invincibility to begin with, she can effectively have Anti-Enforcement Defense up most turns in a battle. Masters do need to be careful, because Anti-Enforcement Defense is usually not stackable, so if using a Caster Altria’s Noble Phantasm, that Anti-Enforcement Defense will not have any effect should Aoko already have one.

Stackable Damage

Super Aoko essentially gets +20% damage per turn on her Noble Phantasm when she doesn’t use it, and another +60% on the turn she uses her first skill. In effect this could mean double damage once Append skills 4 and 5 release on turn two.

NP Charging

A 100% on demand NP gauge charge is always a strength.

Transforming

Aoko transformation into Super Aoko takes a turn. Masters wanting to three turn clear will have to find another way to clear the first wave, either by hoping to get lucky with her card draw to get a Buster or extra attack chain, or by bringing another Servant.

Lack of Damage Boosts

Aoko has her magic bullets, but that’s about it in terms of boosting her damage. A small 30% Arts buff and 10% Defense down on her Noble Phantasm isn’t going to cut it. She’ll need to rely on outside supports to get any real damage off.

Critical Hits

Aoko does get a small boost to Critical damage upon transformation, but she’s in the end an Arts Servant. Arts supports do not particularly boost Critical damage to the levels that her Buster and Extra cards demand to make them a powerhouse tool.

Aoko is unique in that she has two sets of skills based off of her form. In Form 1, Masters really should only want to use Load Magic Bullet B in most cases for a free three bullets and some stars, as her second form’s skills are far better and we don’t want them on cooldown. In form two, Aoko’s skills are multi-faceted, either designed to blitz NP an enemy by using her first and second skill, or to support the rest of the team while boosting her own AoE card damage by using the second and third skill. It is suggested to boost skill 2 first as access to a full gauge post-transformation is a must, and then boost skill 3 so she can give the full 50% to the team. Her first skill should be maxed to take advantage of the cooldown.

• Load Magic Bullet B is a decent skill to stack Magic Bullets, giving Aoko 3 stacks for free, along with a nice drop of stars. Its main advantage is its short cooldown, only 2 turns at max level, which becomes 1 turn when appends 4 and 5 release. This is a great way to use her before transformation. After transformation, this becomes Find the Milky Way EX which gives a massive 6 stacks of Magic Bullets, along with Invincibility (which turns into Anti-Purge Defense) and boosts her Arts performance. Masters will want to use this skill early and often. It should be noted that the skill goes from a 2 turn to a 4 turn cooldown after transformation, but if it is already on cooldown that cooldown’s timing does not increase. Level this last as it has the least benefit from levels, but it should go to max to make sure it is actually a 2 turn cooldown.

• Magic Circuit (Rotation) A is a decent enough skill, giving NP charge per turn and Critical stars per turn. But it should never be used. Not only does it start a large 7-9 turn cooldown, but once Aoko transforms the effects are entirely removed. Rather, Masters should save it for after transformation where it becomes Magic Circuit (Orbit) EX. A free 100% gauge charge and 40 Critical Stars is a massive boost. Level this to max to ensure it is 100% as she is guaranteed to be starting for 0% after transformation, and first.

• To Your Era, Once More EX is a tricky skill. It gives nice boosts to all card types, critical damage up, heal up, and demerit avoidance for a Servant of Aoko’s choosing. The only time a Master would want to use this is if they are just using Aoko for her NP repeatedly, as she would ignore her third skill in her second form in that case. But usually, Aoko is used in a team, so First Star C is far more valuable. By sacrificing her NP gauge, Aoko can give everyone on the team 50% NP charge and reduce their cooldowns by 2 turns. This also gives her personally extra boosts to Buster and Extra cards lasting for a massive 5 turns. In a longer fight, this makes her a powerhouse to support a team and still dish out damage, although her Noble Phantasm will likely not come into play much. This should be leveled second, but to max, to get the full charge to the party.

In general, Aoko needs damage and NP charge to function. The best option for her will be a NP Damage CE to boost her damage after transformation. However, she does get smaller similar bonuses from her Max Bond CE. After that, Masters will want Starting NP charge to transform her as soon as possible.

• The Black Grail: As usual, there is no substitute for an 80% NP damage boost. With a 100% on demand charge after transformation, she’ll be able to take full advantage of it at least once after transformation, if not twice if supported.

• Waiting in the Sky: Most Max Bond Craft Essences are pretty poor, but Aoko’s directly supports her. Each turn, she will gain an additional stack of Magic Bullets which she can use for boosting any card or to boost her Noble Phantasm. In Super Aoko form, where she gets 2 per turn just for existing, this means 3 available at the start of every turn. Add that to the 30% NP damage boost the CE gives and it is an excellent option: especially if planning to use her more for AoE Buster and Extra attacks instead of Noble Phantasms.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Ocean Flier / Dragon’s Meridian: Aoko does need to get a full charge one time to transform, and since she has no suggested skills to do so she could benefit with an early gauge charge.