Hakuno Kishinami (Male)

“Hakuno-san, I found you! Ah, are you scared?”

From the legendary world of Fate/Extra comes the protagonist, Kishinami Hakuno, who Masters will clearly pick the female version because of girl power. As an AoE Buster Damage Dealer she comes with a number of neat gimmicks which make her into one of the better free units available in the game. As a Moon Cancer she often has to fill a niche position, but she is a decent unit to slot in for any Master looking for a general damage dealer.

Hakuno can serve in two roles. In the first, she is a looping damage dealer. As she has a 30% charge on CCC Punishment on a low cooldown, she can effectively be slotted into a double Koyanskaya / Oberon setup. Her second is far more interesting, with her card shuffle ability on Sparks Root B. With its 0 turn cooldown, she can effectively reshuffle the deck until she gets the cards she wants, at the cost of 10% NP each try. This directly plays off of her second skill’s, Checkmate Interceptor EX, unique card buffs. Did I mention that her Noble Phantasm is the only one in the game thus far to pierce Anti-Enforcement Defense?

Hakuno’s issues primarily stem from her defenses. She has no defense boost naturally, and can only get a 2-time Evasion if her 1 Quick card shows up. She’s also on the lower side of damage due to Moon Cancer typing. Her Noble Phantasm also is mostly simple damage, lacking many of the bonus effects we like to see on modern Servants.

Hakuno has great potential for both farming if a Master is lacking a featured damage dealer, and for more unique quests with her card shuffle potential. Though while she’s decent at farming, she’s not so good at fishing according to Rabbit, with her “inconsistency as a carp-manipulation support.”

Masters will be able to choose 1 version of Hakuno upon completing Archetype Inception, and summon further copies from the Friend Point summon. She will have a rate up in the Friend Point summon about a month after the event closes. Early 2027, if a Master mistakenly chose the male version, they will be able to acquire the female version when Archetype Inception becomes permanent. Alternatively, if they chose the female version, they can grab a male version for completion purposes only. (Editor Note: Hey! What’s with all this male Hakuno slander? Sure, I might be picking female Hakuno myself, but male Hakuno deserves love too. -NorseFTX)

For party setups, male and female Hakuno are considered the same Servant so cannot both be fielded at the same time unless one is a support.

Utility

Hakuno offers a lot that no other Servant can offer. For one, she is currently the only Servant in the game capable of piercing anti-enforcement defense with her Noble Phantasm, although this does come with the tradeoff of not being able to pierce evasion. In practice this will likely not come into play much as very few enemy fights involve anti-enforcement defense, but it’s useful to have. She also can be slotted into most any enemy composition, barring the rare ruler, as her passive Moon Regalia EX gives her a small 10% damage boost against all classes except foreigner, which is covered by her Append 3 skill. It also should be noted that her Noble Phantasm does have a chance to stun all enemies, but it is low at 60% so generally should be considered a bonus instead of a guarantee.

Card Re-sorting

At the cost of 10% NP gauge and a 0 turn cooldown, Hakuno can reshuffle the deck with her first skill as much as she wants. This allows her a number of chances to get the cards she wants. And with her second skill’s bonuses of 20% extra NP charge on Arts cards, 20% Crit up on Buster cards, or 2-time evasion on Quick cards, she will want to be able to choose these cards as needed.

Looping

Hakuno’s skill 3 is a 30% charge on a 6-turn cooldown, and she has a Buster noble Phantasm. With her A2 maxed, this is enough to do a perfect 3-turn loop with two Koyanskaya’s and an Oberon.

Critical Potential

At first glance, Hakuno doesn’t have too much in the way of Crits with just a card-based Critical boost in her kit. But she can become a Critical Machine. Her Independent Action EX and Code Cast A givie her 17% bonus Critical damage to start. Then, when using her Buster cards and her second skill, she gets a further 20% Crit damage buff for 3 turns per Buster Card used. To make matters even better, with a double Koyanskaya set and A5 reducing the cooldown, she can have 2 stacks of Skill 2 active at once, increasing her crit damage by 40% each card, ramping up until the 3rd turn. In theory, with the right card shuffles and Koyanskaya’s Buster Critical support, she could be looking at 257% bonus Critical damage on her last Buster card of turn 3. Her first skill’s 10 Critical Stars also gets her the stars she needs to utilize her Crit Damage buffs.

Defense

Hakuno has no defenses outside of her HP that can be guaranteed. Only by using her Quick card can she get a 2-time evasion, and she only has 1 of those, so she’d likely have to sort a number of times to get it.

Damage

Hakuno is a Moon Cancer, and by their very nature Moon Cancers tend to have lower damage in favor of higher defenses. This is somewhat mitigated with her third skill allowing her to get 30% bonus damage against the enemy type (if a Master knows if they are Earth, Heaven, or Human Attribute), and her passive’s 10% bonus damage against practically every class. But she will likely never reach the levels needed for 90++ content.

NP Generation

If it wasn’t for her first skill, Hakuno would have a decent kit with a 30% charge on her 3rd skill and her 20-40% charge per Arts card bonus with her second. The issue comes when looping with her. She simply will not have the charge required in any wave to use her first skill. Which is fine if she can clear the third wave with her Noble Phantasm alone, but if she needs cards to end it she’ll be playing the same chance game as everyone else.

Hakuno’s skills follow two distinct patterns. The first use case is mainly for looping, relying on her 3rd skill’s 30% charge on turns 1 and 3, her 2nd skill on turns 1 and 2 with A5 unlocked, and ignoring her 1st skill. The second uses her as a card speciality, using her 3rd skill primarily to give her more rerolls to get just the right cards, and prioritizes her 2nd skill to give her exactly what boost she needs. If Masters are looping for her for looping then the order is 3 -> 2 -> 1. If Masters want to use her for card (or carp) manipulation, it is 1 -> 2 -> 3. Also of note, Hakuno’s Append 5 is great unlocked, but leveling it provides very little benefit as she will likely only want her 2nd skill with a reduced cooldown in 99% of all situations, and never needs it on her 1st skill if it is already maxed.

• Sparks Root ∞ B gives Hakuno a card swap as well as 10 Critical stars in exchange for 10% of her gauge. This skill can be extremely powerful mainly for its 0 turn cooldown at max level. If a Master is looking at her for card damage and manipulation, this can make all the difference. This has to be raised to max to get infinite card sort, otherwise it will have a cooldown. Level this 1st if using her for card manipulation, last if you plan to loop with her.

• Checkmate Interceptor EX has a nice 30% boost to all card types, but more important are the bonus effects of 20% crit bonus for 3 turns with Buster, 20% NP charge with Arts, and a 2-time 3-turn evasion with Quick. With its cooldown and a double Koyanskaya this can stack on turn two, giving her nearly half a gauge with any Arts card, or 40% Crit up for 3 turns with a Buster. This needs max and A5 to do this double-stacking on turn 2, and should always be levelled second.

• CCC Punishment B+ gives a nice 10 stars per turn bonus, as well as the necessary 30% NP charge to loop. More notably, she can choose 30% special attack damage based off of the enemy’s attribute (Human, Heaven, Earth), so a Master with knowledge can apply it to the game. If planning a basic looping composition, this is the first to level as she needs the 30% to loop. If not planning to use a NP with her, level it last as the others affect her cards way more. As a charge skill, it should be leveled to max if possible.

Hakuno’s Craft Essences depend on her usage. If planning to use her as a looper, Mixed Starting Gauge / Damage CEs are her best bet to give a damage boost. If planning to use her for her card sort, she’s looking more at Starting NP Gauge CEs or NP Gain Per Turn CEs to ensure she gets more card sorts. Her Max Bond CE is also notable for completing the set.

• First Day of Filming / Aerial Drive / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: As a standard looper, a Master wants to have a 50% starting charge CE, her A2 maxed, and double Koyanskaya + Oberon supports. It just doesn’t work without it.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal: If using her card sort, these CEs give her 6-10 shuffles for free.

• Prisma Cosmos: At MLB, this CE gives 10% gauge per turn, effectively allowing Hakuno to sort the cards once per turn if needed.

• Proof of Graduation (Female): Yes, we’re using the female version because girl power. If you are a scrub who chooses the male version, you use the male version type. Anyways, this CE gives Hakuno bonus NP damage but also completes her 2nd skill, boosting her Extra Attack damage and giving it a special effect to drop critical stars. If a Master wants all cards to give some kind of a bonus, this CE is for them.