Illyasviel von Einzbern (Archer)

"Hueeeee!”

What’s this? A new Illya version in a swimsuit which looks suspiciously like a cheerleading outfit, carrying a water hose and a metric ton of magical power? Everyone’s favorite magical girl returns to top form as an Archer with an AoE Quick Noble Phantasm capable of looping, and crit power which would make Miyu cry.

Like her Caster counterpart, Illya is all about the damage, but unlike her counterpart this damage comes from her critical hits as opposed to a nuke of a Noble Phantasm. Both her skills, Legal Shower! B+ and High Pressure! A increase her critical strength up to a whopping 150% on Quick Cards total. This, combined with Skadi shenanigans can have her devastating an enemy in a single card hit. She also has looping potential thanks to the NP gain buff on Summer Vacation! (Child) A+ along with a Quick up on High Pressure, a charge on Legal Shower, and passive generation on Infinite Magical Energy C. These make her a true two-way player, being effective in both challenging quests and farming quests.

On the flip side of things, Illya cannot effectively do both of her specialties at once. High Pressure unfortunately has both Illya’s 3-turn Quick up buff she’d need to loop, and her primary Critical steroids, meaning a Master could not use both boons in a farming situation on the final Wave. She also is rather fragile and will need outside help to survive.

Illya’s versatility cannot be disputed, and she would be a wonderful addition to any Master looking for an AoE Archer to add to their team. Just don’t flip her “weird” switch!

Critical Damage

Illya doesn’t have just one, but two buffs to her Critical damage, with Legal Shower providing a 50% boost to all Critical damage for 3 turns, and High Pressure providing a 100% boost to Quick Critical damage for 1 turn. Even better, High Pressure has a star gathering skill for Illya’s Quick cards. Her classing is also helpful as Archers have higher star gathering than most other classes. When paired up with the right Servants, her Critical hits with Quick cards can hit for more damage than some Noble Phantasms.

NP Gain / Looping

Illya has everything one needs to Quick Loop: An NP gain skill on Summer Vacation, Quick Card up on High Pressure, a 30% charge on Legal Shower, decent hit counts on an AoE Noble Phantasm, a passive 3% NP gain per turn, and just enough cuteness to do it with flair. While she isn’t quite at the Tier 1 level for looping, she can loop with minimal support and a MLB Kaleidoscope and not require a plugsuit swap, or with other NP Gain CEs and a plugsuit. Even without a double Skadi or an Altria Caster setup, she gains more than enough gauge to get off at least 2 Noble Phantasms in three turns.

Child Support

Illya’s Summer Vacation skill has an interesting skill boosting the Attack of child allies by 20%. While not versatile in practice, this skill can provide that little extra boost to Illya’s attack as well as some allies. One should note that Kama is only considered a child in her 1st Ascension and Nursery Rhyme only in her 2nd and 3rd.

Tied Skills

When looping, Masters often want to be able to have some decent steroids for the third wave of enemies, which often contains stronger mobs. While Illya would seem perfect for this due to her Critical steroids, it unfortunately cannot work that way as her Quick up skill on High Pressure also activates her 1-turn Quick Star Gather and 100% critical damage buffs. Masters looking to loop would use this turn 1, and lose it by turn 3. Further, Legal Shower provides the Critical damage boost for 3-turns, but when looping one cannot use it until turn 2 as they need the NP charge provided by the skill. As a result, Masters will need to choose between either Critical damage or looping when using her.

Low Durability

Illya cannot take many hits and survive. Her HP is on the lower end of the spectrum for 4-stars, and her only method of recovering it is with Regal Charge’s 3-turn low HP healing skill. To make matters worse, this HP healing skill is chance based, so it can miss at inopportune moments. She does have hard survival in the form of a 1-hit 3-turn invincibility on Summer Vacation, but by being of a 1-hit nature, it’ll go away fast.

Illya’s kit centers around both Critical Damage and NP Looping. It is imperative to level all her skills as they all make her what she is.

• High Pressure A is Illya’s primary steroid, giving her Quick card up, Quick critical gather up, and critical damage up. No matter how a Master wants to use her, this skill is imperative to increasing both her looping capabilities and her Critical capabilities. This skill should be leveled to max (especially when using her for looping) and second.
• Summer Vacation (Child) A+ serves as an invincibility, a boost to NP gain, and an attack boost to all Child servants (including Illya herself). This is again imperative for looping capabilities, but it is the only skill which is not necessary for Masters using her for Critical damage. Those looking to loop with her should level this to max, and resource-strapped Masters only looking to use her Critical kit can leave it at level 6. Either way, level this skill last as it provides the least utility.
• Legal Shower B+ is Illya’s charge skill and also her longer-term Critical damage skill. While it also has a small chance-based heal on it, Masters will likely not be using it for that purpose. Masters looking to loop will want to activate this on turn 2 in MLB KScope loops, or turn 3 if using a plugsuit swap. As this is a charge skill which scales with level, it should be leveled to max and first.

As has been mentioned, Illya works as either a NP looper or a Critical damage Servant. Her CE selection will depend on what a Master wants to use her for. If a Master wants to use her as a looping Servant, Starting Gauge CEs and Mixed Starting Gauge / NP Gain Rate CEs are her best friend. If a Master wants to use her as a Critical Damage Servant, they’d be best served by Attack Up CEs as she already has significant Critical Damage and faces diminishing returns.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element – With a starting gauge Illya needs much less support to effectively loop. A MLB Kaleidoscope will allow her to loop against all 3-mob waves of Sabers in a Double Skadi setup (with an Mage’s Association Mystic code) so it deserves a special mention.
• Magical Girl of Sapphire / Little Halloween Devil / Distant Pilgrimage – Like most loopers, Illya benefits from Mixed CEs which boost her NP Gain rate as well as her Starting NP Gauge. However, using one of these will take away her ability to loop without a Chaldea Combat Uniform.
• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Code Cast – Illya has a ton of Critical power, and if running her with a Skadi support, plenty of Quick power as well. Increasing her Attack stat will allow for her Critical hits to hit even harder. Of note - Code Cast can only be used in situations where Illya will be on the field for 3 turns or less.