Kriemhild

“If you want to die gruesomely, feel free to do so…”

When some husbands die, their wives go into mourning. When Kriemhild’s beloved Siegfried died, she went stabby. Wielding her Single Target Arts Noble Phantasm and a lot of hatred, Kriemhild is a boss-slaying Berserker who gets down to business fast. 

Kriemhild’s entire kit focuses on boosting her damage. With the ability to increase her two main card types’ worth of damage with Murderous Retribution A, reduce enemy defenses with Revenge Plot (Amok), and having two types of supereffective damage, she’s a monster in laying down the hurt. This damage isn’t just large, it is unavoidable, as she removes all defensive and evasive buffs from the enemy before applying damage. To add to that, she is one of only a handful of Berserkers with a 50% charge skill on Noblewoman's Love EX. Secondarily, she also can serve as a one-and-done type Servant with a target focus.

However, if one were to look up the definition of “Glass Cannon” in the dictionary, Kriemhild’s picture would be next to it. She has no defenses at all and can easily be killed by a mistimed crit or two. Further, her crit potential is quite poor, concentrating all her damage into her Noble Phantasm. She also is rather support reliant to uncap her max potential.

Any Master would benefit from Kriemhild as a primary single-target damage dealer. As a Berserker, there are very few enemies she won’t be able to lay the hurt on. She’s is the kriem of the crop for krieming her foes.

Damage

Kriemhild has a diverse number of ways to boost her damage. Between her Buster boosts through Madness enhancement and her second skill’s Buster and Arts boosts, to her Defense down on her first, she has many damage boost forms covered that she can top off with a Black Grail. But if that wasn’t enough she also gains powermod damage against Chaotic enemies and supereffective against Dragons. As many Servants are Chaotic alignment, she covers a wide swath of them. 

Unavoidable Damage

On Kriemhild’s Noble Phantasm, she will strip away all defensive buffs, whether they are damage reduction types or negation types. This means that every time she uses her Noble Phantasm, the enemy will take the brunt of her damage if they have no Buff Removal Resist capabilities. 

NP Generation

Without a doubt, Kriemhild’s power comes from her third skill’s 50% charge. Any Servant with a 50% charge skill will be decent due to needing minimal supports to reach full potential, but Kriemhild is a Single Target Berserker, and Single Target Berserkers rarely ever have that much of a battery. Even better, she has an Arts Noble Phantasm, which will refund a good amount of gauge with each use. If properly supported with Caster Altria, she should be able to refund 25-35% of her gauge every Noble Phantasm, and has the potential to unleash 3 Noble Phantasms in 3 turns with double Caster Altria, Oberon, unlocked append 2, and a 50% charge CE (see gameplay tip).

Target Focus

Along with Kriemhild’s third skill comes a target focus skill which she can apply to an ally of her choice. Against bosses that she can kill with a single Noble Phantasm, this might not come into play. But against bosses who do not die, it can be one of the most strategic parts of her kit. It could be used to take damage away from herself, passing it onto an ally and bringing a more useful ally onto the field. Or, it could be used specifically to take damage from the enemy after using up her Noble Phantasm, taking her off the field as an intentional sacrifice to bring a fresh Servant in.

Squishy

Unlike many Berserkers, Kriemhild has no way of boosting her defenses. To add to that, she has a low HP pool, to the point where even a single critical hit from a high enough level enemy could wipe her out. As a Berserker, she will take double damage too. Unless she can be externally protected, her only real defense is making some other ally take the damage with her 3rd skill. Her heal winds up being quite useless because of this, as she can’t heal herself when she’s dead. 

Poor Crit Potential

As everything about Kriemhild focuses on her Noble Phantasm, she has no real boosts to Crit Potential in her kit. Further, since a Master will typically run her with Arts support Servants, and they don’t tend to boost Crit, she won’t find any way to boost her Crits. Not to mention how rare her Crits are due to her low Berserker star weight and low-hit Quick card. 

Support Reliant

Kriemhild can work without supports thanks to her 50% battery. However, with no real defenses Kriemhild will be reliant on external supports to survive more than a turn or two. Further, she needs external boosts to her refund and external charges if she wants to fire off multiple Noble Phantasms, due to having rather poor card hit counts. For an experienced Master she should slot in nicely, but for a newer one she may be a one-and-done type of Servant.

Kriemhild’s kit is all about getting Noble Phantasm damage out fast, and getting it out hard. Masters will typically use her second skill immediately to boost her refund, her third skill when they need to max out her charge, and her first skill either turn 1 or 3 depending on whether there are waves or if she is facing a Break Bar boss. Recommended skill leveling order is skill 3, then 2, then 1.

• Revenge Plot (Amok) is a skill with the potential to nerf the enemy. It will reduce critical chance and NP gauge of all enemies, best used to delay lethal damage. It also provides a defense down which will boost Kriemhild’s damage. This is best used either on the last wave, or the first turn if facing a Break Bar boss, as the defense down carries through the breaks. As the defense down is fairly weak, level this last, and up to at least level 6 to take advantage of cooldown reduction. 
• Murderous Retribution A gives Kriemhild boosts to Arts and Buster as well as Powermod damage against chaotic enemies. This is a key skill for her refund potential, and also serves to create a niche for her. She should use this skill the first turn she can in order to lay down the hurt all fight. Level this second. A Master in theory could get away with leveling this to 6 and still have her capable of CCO looping, but it’s advised to level it to max. 
• Noblewoman's Love EX is Kriemhild’s bread and butter. It is an on demand 50% charge skill, giving her fast access to her Noble Phantasm. Beyond that, it has a target focus which she can use to either protect herself for a turn or to kill herself if she’s beyond her usefulness. Its heal is rather useless as if she takes damage she’s likely dead anyways, so most Masters ignore it. This should be leveled first and to max due to a scaling charge.

As Kriemhild is so focused on Noble Phantasms and nothing else, her Craft Essence suggestions reflect that. The best craft essence if planning to use her for multiple Noble Phantasms are Mixed Damage/Starting Gauge CEs, preferably those which boost Noble Phantasm Damage. If a Master plans to use her for one large hit, a NP Damage CE will serve that purpose the best. Starting NP Gauge CEs can work as well for her if she does not have sufficient supports.

• Ocean Flier / Holy Night Supper / The Vessel of Desire: Kriemhild has plenty of boosts to her Card type damage and decent enough boosts to attack through her own defense down and external supports, so a mixed CE which boosts Noble Phantasm damage in addition to giving her the starting NP gauge is preferred. Ocean Flyer notably boosts her damage in two separate ways. 
• Phantasmal Princess / The Black Grail: If looking to use Kriemhild for a single powerful Noble Phantasm, it’s best to fully boost her Noble Phantasm damage. As a Berserker she can use Phantasmal Princess to not have to deal with the 500 HP loss per turn, but it does come at a cost of 400 attack. 
• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / Dragon’s Meridian: Starting gauge CEs are good for getting Kriemhild to her Noble Phantasm charge quickly. Kaleidoscope in particular could help her fire off two Noble Phantasms if Masters do not have many of the best supports to create a loop setup.