Francis Drake

“I've got rules on my ship but not at the helm. I'm always up for a dangerous journey!”

A great adventurer, privateer, and a captain who successfully circumnavigated the whole world, Francis Drake fittingly materializes in the Rider class. Thanks to her seemingly impossible achievement of destroying Spain’s “Invincible Fleet”, the Woman Who Brought Down the Sun is granted the skill Pioneer of the Stars, while the fleet she commanded manifests itself in the form of her NP, Golden Wild Hunt.

Drake’s biggest draw is her self-sufficiency. Alongside a balanced deck, good hit counts and two skills aiding her NP gain, she also has multiple ways to generate critical stars as well as the natural critical weight to use them. While her easily-charged, Interlude-boosted AoE NP makes Drake a farming superstar first and foremost, she also has a way to deal high single-target damage with critical hits. As a result, she has consistent performance even in non-farming situations, with her Invincibility Pierce adding additional utility for difficult quests.

Lamentably, nobody is perfect, and the same goes for Drake. Her biggest problem lies in numbers - with mediocre base stats and a relatively weak, short-lasting team steroid, she often struggles to match the damage output of her peers. Additionally, she has no defensive skills at all, forcing her to rely on other party members in this regard.

All in all, Francis Drake can be viewed as a solid offensive Servant who, despite having several considerable weaknesses, makes up for them with sheer consistency and absurdly good farming prowess. While she can fit seamlessly in most compositions, Drake works especially well in Buster Critical teams, which solve her biggest problem of having a lower damage ceiling.

Great NP Gain

Having access to both Pioneer of the Stars and Golden Rule, Drake will have little trouble charging her NP, even without external aid. Her relatively easy access to critical hits further boosts this capability, particularly when her Arts/Quick cards appear in the turn immediately following her NP.

Good Critical Star Generation and High Star Weight

Drake possesses a decent star generation baseline thanks to the high hit counts on her Quick and Extra card. While this alone is not nearly enough, Pioneer of the Stars and Golden Wild Hunt both allow her to generate even more stars. It should be noted that Drake’s star generation works in a rather selfish way - due to her high star weight, her other allies will rarely get a taste of her treasured critical stars. However, that same weight is what gives Drake her critical consistency, making her one of the easier-to-use critical damage dealers in the game.

Farming Superstar

Thanks to Drake’s early NP interlude, her NP damage is more than enough to finish most weaker enemies, while her critical hits help take care of medium-health ones. Aside from her 50% NP charge enabling instant NPs, a combination of Golden Rule and critical hits allow her to potentially use her NP twice in harder farming quests. All things considered, Drake proves to be one of the easiest to use farming Servants in the game, and is one of the best in the business.

Strategic Flexibility

Considering her self-sufficiency and consistency, balanced QAABB deck, and even a team-wide buff in the form of Voyager of the Storm, Drake is able to work well in most compositions. She also finds a place in most scenarios encountered in-game, ranging from farming to difficult quests, though she faces far steeper competition in the latter when her Invincibility Pierce is not needed.

Modest Damage Ceiling

Drake’s ATK stat is rather low, and while Voyager of the Storm affects the whole party, it only lasts for one turn and is generally weaker in comparison to Mana Burst-type damage boosts. With the lack of a critical damage buff to abuse her star weight and an AoE NP, Drake often struggles to fulfill a Master’s single-target damage needs. Fortunately, her early NP interlude allows her to keep up rather well despite these drawbacks.

No Survivability Skills

In return for her synergistic offensive skill set, Drake has absolutely no defensive tools whatsoever. Her survivability problems are exacerbated by her HP stat, which is lower compared to most other 5-star Servants. While Drake’s primary Caster targets tend to deal lower damage compared to other classes, she is still vulnerable to their Noble Phantasms, and stray critical hits from Berserker or Assassin enemies may eliminate her unexpectedly.

A large part of Drake’s capability is owed to Pioneer of the Stars, which is fittingly her highest-priority skill. Having it maxed first allows for far more flexibility in teambuilding and CE selection. Voyager of the Storm should be leveled second as it is her primary damage boosting skill, while Golden Rule can be safely leveled last.

• While of lesser magnitude compared to Mana Burst skills, Voyager of the Storm A+ is Drake’s primary damage boosting skill, and affects the whole party. It is recommended to level this skill after Pioneer of the Stars, both for the extra damage and the reduced cooldown.

• Thanks to her criticals, Drake does benefit quite a bit from Golden Rule B. However, it is overshadowed by the ease of use of Pioneer of the Stars, making it considerably less important overall. Nonetheless, it is still a highly potent skill during Challenge Quests. This skill should generally be leveled last, and if Drake is to be used only for farming, it could even be ignored for a while.

• Aside from being Drake’s primary NP charge skill, Pioneer of the Stars also grants her Invincibility Pierce for three turns and 10 critical stars. While neither effect scales with level, having this skill maxed allows Drake to unleash an instant NP with hybrid CEs, indirectly increasing her damage by a considerable margin. As such, this skill should be leveled first.

Drake’s Craft Essence picks revolve primarily around her charging her NP and dealing NP damage. Overall, she works best with Starting NP Gauge CEs, with secondary effects such as Buster Performance Up, NP Damage Up, or Critical Damage Up. In compositions where NP charge skills are abundant, she switches to pure damage-increasing Craft Essences.

• Partake with the King / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Holy Night Supper / First Sunrise: Thanks to Pioneer of the Stars, these CEs are Drake’s best overall picks, as she can take advantage of their long-term benefits, while still being able to unleash Golden Wild Hunt instantly. First Sunrise can be used when LB’d, or if support Servants with NP charge (such as Zhuge Liang) are around.

• Joint Recital / Victor of the Moon / Limited/Zero Over / Hero Elly’s Adventure / Black Grail: These CE choices increase Drake’s damage to a greater extent compared to the hybrid options, but lack any Starting NP Gauge. They should be used when Drake’s NP is not needed early on, in longer fights, or in compositions with access to a lot of NP charge potential.

• Origin Bullet: While this CE’s Invincibility Pierce is redundant, Drake is still an extremely good candidate for it, as she suffers less from the lack of Starting NP Gauge generally provided by CEs. This CE should be used in Caster-heavy fights, especially if Drake’s normal damage output is not enough.