Gilgamesh

"Now awaken, Ea! A worthy stage has been set for you!"

In recognition of his worthy Master, the King of Heroes’ magnificent strength has been unleashed in all its heavenly glory. An offensive powerhouse with good stats across the board, Gilgamesh’s main value lies in his signature NP, Enuma Elish. The biggest contributing factor to its awesome power is the NP’s bonus damage against all but a few Servants, and Servants often account for most of the harder fights in the game. After his NP upgrade, this bonus damage is notable enough that the NP is often compared in effectiveness to single-target NPs, while its damage to non-Servant enemies is still more than respectable. Additionally, Gilgamesh is armed with the Archer class’s high star absorption, further increased by Collector EX, as well as the Independent Action passive skill, making him a highly reliable critical damage dealer to boot.

Gilgamesh is not perfect, however. His primary weakness is his lack of survival or utility skills, which makes him unsuited for slower-paced teams. A bit of external aid is needed in order to maximize Gilgamesh’s performance, both in the form of defensive measures as well as critical stars. These small shortcomings prevent him from being a completely overpowered unit, but since they’re clear-cut and easy to compensate for, he is easily one of the best in the business.

Versatile & Self-Sufficient

Gilgamesh’s balanced deck and Charisma skill allow him to work well in a lot of teams. This advantage is further amplified by his good NP gain (owing to Golden Rule, high star absorption, and instant NP charge on Collector EX) as well as decent star generation, thanks to his high hit counts.

High Range of Bonus Damage Targets

As most of the harder bosses are Servants, Gilgamesh’s increased NP damage against them makes him a great end-game asset. While there are other Servants with bonus damage modifiers who can rival Gil in terms of pure numbers, what puts him above everyone else is the wide range of targets for Enuma Elish’s increased damage. It affects all but a select few Servants and thus has arguably the best anti-trait modifier currently in the game.

Good Critical Damage Dealer

Despite his lack of large notable damage buffs, Gilgamesh’s high ATK stat combined with his passive critical buff and high star absorption allow him to consistently deal high critical damage. Activating his Collector EX skill will make his critical hits even more reliable.

Lacks Survival Skills

Aside from having the HP pool of a 5* Servant (albeit on the lower end), Gilgamesh has neither hard defensive skills nor defense buffs, and is therefore purely reliant on his allies for survival during longer combat.

Lacks Utility

As befits Gilgamesh’s character, his kit is rather selfish, and offers little to the team outside of Charisma’s party-wide attack buff. As a result, any team Gilgamesh is on would have to be built around him in order for the King of Heroes to reach his full potential.

Gilgamesh’s balanced skill set means that any one of them benefits from being leveled up, and a solid case can be made for any of them to be maxed first depending on personal preference. In general, the order in which they should be maxed is as follows:

Gilgamesh’s only damage-increasing skill, Charisma’s high up-time gives him a rather constant performance increase. It is overall the safest skill to level up, benefiting Gil and his team in any and all situations. However, if you build a team with proper supports around Gilgamesh, maxing Collector EX first (for the reduced cooldown) may be preferable.

Golden Rule increases Gilgamesh’s NP gain to well above average, especially when critical hits are in play. However, due to Enuma Elish’s Buster type and Gilgamesh’s average base NP gain, his NP spamming capability is still rather limited without external aid. At the point where one turns to external sources of NP charge (if insistent on going for NP spam), the skill’s value drops a fair bit and can safely be maxed last.

In the past, Collector EX’s primary usage was to ensure critical hits during crucial turns. With its upgrade, it now grants up to 30% NP charge alongside the absorption effect, turning it into Gilgamesh’s main NP charging skill. Leveling this skill allows Gilgamesh to keep his NP bar topped off more reliably, which makes him even more flexible on the field.

Being both an NP nuker as well as a critical damage dealer, Gilgamesh’s CE choices are generally focused on amplifying these roles in some way. As such, CEs with NP Damage Up, Starting NP Gauge, Buster Performance Up, and Critical Damage Up effects are recommended.

• Joint Recital / Victor of the Moon / Limited/Zero Over

This type of CE aims to increase Gilgamesh’s single-target damage via his normal cards (both critical hits and otherwise). Buster performance buffs are generally the most preferable as they also affect his NP, while Critical damage buffs are a good secondary effect to have.

• The Black Grail / Hero Elly’s Adventure

These CEs amplify Gilgamesh’s naturally high NP damage, allowing him to deal ridiculous amounts of damage against multiple opponents. While these are most suited for one-shotting strategies, they can also be used in stages with multiple waves of opponents in order to help Gilgamesh kill medium-HP enemies with a minimum amount of buffs.  

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element

Best suited for farming stages, these CEs allow Gilgamesh to fire off his NP quickly without relying on external aid. While his damage output is somewhat limited as a result, it is generally still more than enough against most enemies.

• Partake with the King / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament

Hybrid CEs combining the above effects are also strong picks for Gilgamesh, especially when good supports are not readily available. With proper supports, however, it may be better to go with pure effect CEs due to his already good NP gain.