Miyamoto Musashi

Wielder of two blades and historical founder of the Niten-Ichiryu style, Miyamoto Musashi materializes as a Servant in the Saber class. Musashi is a powerful damage dealer with a single target Buster NP, a deck of three Buster cards, a self Buster buff, 1-turn invincibility and ignore invincibility, self debuff cleanse and the ability to remove buffs from an enemy with her NP, and last but not least, the ability to dual-wield to double her hit counts.

Musashi’s base parameters feature not only a slightly above average ATk stat for a Saber class Servant, but also good hit counts and NP gain on her basic Command Cards. Her main forte is the sheer damage potential her triple Buster deck and Fifth Force skill can provide, especially when mixed with her single target Buster NP and how easy it is to set up a Buster Brave Chain as a result. Although her primary damage boosting skills last only for one turn, she ranks among the highest in damage among Saber Servants.

Charging Musashi’s NP normally and from scratch may prove difficult with her single Arts and Quick card though, but with either a proper support, a well-timed use of her Fifth Force, or the right Craft Essence, Musashi can more than compensate for this.

Overall, Musashi is one of the more powerful ST Sabers available, and would slot in perfectly as the primary damage dealer in Buster teams. Among SSR Sabers, she has one of the highest damage performance ceilings due to her compatibility with Merlin's support, especially given her own damage boosts and hit count boosting capabilities.

Gameplay Tip

Fifth Force, which doubles all Musashi’s hit counts for a turn, is a unique skill and the way it interacts with Musashi’s generation stats leads to some very particularly powerful uses. Properly timing Fifth Force can lead to a massive jump in performance and may even lead to a full refund of Musashi’s NP gauge if timed just right in combination with a critical hit and her Arts card.

The key mechanic to gain access to this jump in generation stats is to trigger the Overkill status on enemies. Once an enemy is in Overkill status, both NP gain (+50%) and star generation (+30%) are improved, which further stacks multiplicatively with card performance buffs, and NP gain buffs.

Overkill is normally triggered by depleting an enemy’s HP bar. However, Overkill also seems to trigger when an enemy loses 50% of their relative (remaining) HP bar in the same turn. Any subsequent hit after reaching this benchmark will often profit from Overkill anyway even if the game does not display this.

This odd facet of Overkill is especially notable on Musashi who often has no problems depleting a vast amount of HP with her Buster cards when her Arts card is put last in a chain. Thus, when trying to charge or refund Musashi’s NP bar, try to time her Fifth Force with an Arts card at the end of a chain with an Overkill bonus for some incredible generation numbers.

Ability to Dual-Wield

Fifth Force doubles the hit counts on Musashi’s basic command cards, resulting in massively improved NP gain and critical star generation per card. At higher levels, it also further increases her damage potential and can function in practice as a Pseudo-NP (can be used for wave 2 bosses, break bars, etc.). With Fifth Force active, her NP gain becomes enormous, particularly with crits or with an overkill bonus. In the right situation it can cause Musashi to completely fill her NP gauge in one shot by ending a Brave chain with a crit from her Arts card.

High Damage Buster-centric ST Saber

A combination of a single target Buster NP with a triple Buster deck and powerful offensive buffs from her Fifth Force, NP overcharge and Heavenly Eyes make her unique among SSR Sabers in sheer Buster damage potential. She synergizes particularly well with Buster-centric Supports in hard content.

High Utility

Musashi has a vast array of tools for hard content such as buff removal on NP, self debuff cleansing, Invincibility, and Ignore Invincibility. These effects are highly valuable for Challenge Quests, and her ability to supply such utility is unmatched among Sabers.

Unwieldy Skill Set Without Support

Musashi’s damage-oriented skills last only one turn, which can result in inconsistent damage output across multiple turns without external support in a team. Musashi is also fairly reliant on getting suitable card draws to do full damage with her Fifth Force. For support, Merlin works particularly well with her as he provides much of the support she needs to be more effective (such as a 3-turn Buster + Crit damage buffs).

Difficulty Charging NP Bar Without Fifth Force or Support

A triple Buster deck can frustrate any attempts at charging the NP Gauge from scratch, particularly when card draws are unlucky and Arts cards do not show up for several turns in a row.  While Musashi can somewhat rely on her Fifth Force skill to counteract this, in situations where support and Craft Essence options are limited, Musashi can struggle to charge her NP bar in time.

Miyamoto Musashi’s skills are all functional at level 1, but when leveled, they provide a great boost to her performance by raising raw damage values as well as improving skill cooldowns. If one had to choose, her first two skills are the most important to her role of primary damage dealer and should be leveled concurrently if possible.

• Fifth Force A - Fifth Force is Musashi’s unique skill. Initially, it doubles the hit counts of all normal cards for 1 turn (does not influence damage). With additional levels, the damage of all her normal command cards is boosted by up to +30%, making overkill status easier to reach. This skill is central to her effectiveness as it also effectively doubles the star generation and NP generation of every one of her cards for a turn, and is therefore worth leveling first.
• Heavenly Eyes A - This is a more straightforward Buster buff with added invincibility pierce. Given the Buster bonus scales with levels up to a maximum of +50%, and the skill cooldown reaches a decent 5 turns at max level, this skill is also very much worth leveling second. For Masters who want more pure damage, it could be leveled first as well. 
• Emptiness A - Levels in this skill further improve the star generation bonus, which synergizes very well with Fifth Force’s doubled hit counts. Although not of the highest priority, levels in this skill will more likely guarantee that any brave chains Musashi can pull off with a Quick card, her NP and Fifth Force will flood the field with critical stars.

Miyamoto Musashi’s goal is to generate both stars and NP gauge with her dual-wielding skill(or simply use it deal more damage), with which she can then slash her enemies into pieces with her subsequent critical hits, and/or carve her foes into a new landmark with her NP. All the usual Buster Servant suspects work for her: Buster Up, Critical Damage Up, Attack Up, NP Damage Up, and Starting NP Gauge CEs all perform well with her.

Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Aerial Drive / Holy Night Supper / Partake with the King / First Sunrise: These hybrid CEs provide a bit of starting NP Gauge to assist with filling her NP gauge in case of unlucky card draws. Golden Sumo Stacks particularly well given her lack of an Attack Up buff of her own.

Victor of the Moon / Joint Recital / Limited/Zero Over: When starting NP Gauge isn’t needed or is not relevant to a quest, these options provide a Buster and/or Crit damage boost at higher values than the starting NP Gauge CEs listed above.

Black Grail: This CE gives the largest boost to her NP damage, and is useful for times when maximizing burst NP damage is desired.

Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: These Starting NP Gauge CEs are always useful when an NP is desired as soon as possible upon entering the fight.