Archer of Inferno (Saber)

“Master, how about one game in VR?!”

So what happens when one disables the serious aspect of To– I mean, Archer of Inferno? She obviously becomes a hardcore gamer dual-wielding VR terminals! Now she will come in with her AoE Arts Noble Phantasm and mop up the big boss with furious crits to make all gamer girls cry!

Archer of Inferno’s experience in video games means one thing: She knows how important Crits are against enemies. She surely manages to pack a punch for that by creating her own stars with Survival (Hill and Valley), gathering them to herself with VR Shinkageryu B+, and then boosting her crit strength with Midnight of Summer Side A. Her ability to burn enemies is a huge bonus too, especially with the release of the Honey Lake CE. She also can be set up in a double-Castoria system as a looper against Lancers.

Gamers do have to deal with drawbacks, and Archer of Inferno is no exception. For one, her non-crit damage is fairly weak thanks to a general lack of persistent steroids. She’s not great in longer fights due to her burst-centric nature and her self-stun. She’s quite squishy as well.

Archer of Inferno is a capable Arts looper and a Crit machine who will not disappoint a Master looking for either. As an added bonus, she’s voiced by the same voice actress as Helena Blavatsky, which makes her a must get! Now the real question is… if she’s the Archer of Inferno, how is she the Saber Archer of Inferno? I thought the Archer class was made up of archers!

Crit Machine

Very few Servants are as self-supportive with Critical hits as Archer of Inferno. She can generate a sea of stars, gather them to her Arts cards, and boost her Critical damage up by a whopping 100%. With proper Arts supports, she could deal out a ton of damage if she gets one of her two Arts cards on the right turn. Note that she is only capable of boosting star gather rate to her Arts cards, not all of them.

Burning

Similar to her Archer version, Archer of Inferno burns all enemies on her Noble Phantasm, and doubles burn damage they receive. While this DoT on some large enemies may prove trivial, it also enables usage of special CEs to stack on top of her Critical hits to land even more damage in future turns, with the burn damage entirely unmitigated by defense or damage resist buffs. 

Arts Looping

Archer of Inferno has just enough to perform an Arts loop if provided a Sign of the Smiling Face or similar NP gain CEs, or if using a Chaldea Combat Uniform and swapping in another charging Servant. With a NP gain CE, she takes all of Caster Artoria’s buffs turn one and the Fragment of 2004’s NP gain up buff, then turn 2 she uses her 2nd skill’s Arts up, and turn 3 puts on everything else. However, it is highly suggested in nodes where the 3rd wave has a high HP boss that a Chaldea Combat Uniform is utilized to swap in a Separate charging Servant so she can save her Arts boost for the final turn.

Poor Sustained Damage

Archer of Inferno’s damage on her Criticals are nice, but she can only forcibly gather them to her Arts cards for a single turn. As her Noble Phantasm is Arts based, in the long run she will be relying near exclusively on the 10 Stars she generates each turn. She is lacking in most long-term boosts to sustain the damage.

Short Fights Only

Archer of Inferno can work great if she is only fighting a farming node, or if she is bursting down a boss quickly. But if a fight drags longer than a couple of turns, she’ll be in trouble. Her Crit steroid stuns her after 3 turns, and it cannot be cleansed as it is counted as a buff instead of a debuff. With her bursty nature, it’s unlikely she’ll see use in extended battles.

Low Endurability

Archer of Inferno only has a 1-time Guts over 3 turns to survive on with no hard counters to incoming damage. Her HP is fairly high but without external supports she will be quite defenseless. 

Archer of Inferno is unique as all three of her skills work together for one aim: becoming a Crit Machine. By using skill 3 to generate stars, 2 to gather them, and 1 to boost Crit Strength, she can dish out damage. Masters generally can level any skill to any level they wish in any order, as they all will result in increases of damage with no particular need to be maxed out. However, if a Master wishes to use her for looping, her 2nd skill should be maxed out first and ideally should be maxed.

• Midnight of Summer Side A is Archer of Inferno’s Crit steroid, doubling her Crit power for 3-turns. While it also provides a small Guts, that likely will not be used. Be warned that it will stun her for a turn once the 3-turn buff expires. Masters will want to use this on the turn where she’s going to face her big enemy. Raising this will upgrade her Crit strength so should be leveled second to as high as a Master has materials for.
• VR Shinkageryu B+ for a looping Master is critical, as she will need to pop this on wave 2 with a Fragment of 2004 mystic code to generate enough gauge. For one only concerned with Crits, it is far less important providing a small Arts buff and increases to Arts Star gather rate which is already high enough at level 1. This should be leveled first in either case, to 10 for loopers and to any level for Crit based Masters.
• Survival (Hill and Valley) EX generates stars both in a chunk on the first turn and in small bunches in latter ones. Masters usually use this the first turn to ensure she has a constant supply of stars. It also provides a debuff immune which can help offset the delayed stun, although it only applies to the stun itself and not the delayed debuff, and at times enemies can consume the debuff immunity effect by applying their debuffs beforehand. This can be leveled last, and as it’s only 1 extra star per level, it doesn’t need to be leveled to max if a Master doesn’t have the materials.

If a Master is looking to use Archer of Inferno for Critical damage, the best way to boost her damage is through use of her burning attributes and a Burn Supereffective Damage CE. A Master looking to loop with her should aim for a NP Damage Up CE if using a Chaldea Combat uniform and third charger, or a NP Gain Up CE if using a Fragment of 2004 CE. Otherwise, Masters will want to use Starting NP Gauge CEs to get earlier access to her Noble Phantasm.

• Honey Lake: Archer of Inferno burns her enemies for a long time with every Noble Phantasm, and adding in an additional 40% damage on her Criticals goes a long way. Please note this damage is additive to her Criticals, but stays every turn to eliminate her sustained damage issues. It is highly suggested to use a Burn command code on her if using this.
• The Black Grail: For looping, this will boost her damage by the largest amount. This however will require a Chaldea Combat Uniform to get a third charging support in.
• Mark on a Smiling Face / Magical Girl of Sapphire: Without a third charging support, Archer of Inferno needs extra NP gain to provide enough charge each round to loop. 
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: While less damage than any of the above CEs, giving her a starting gauge makes it very easy for her to access her Noble Phantasm and burn her enemies.