Nightingale (Santa)

“Commencing medication.”

Free support Servants can be hit-or-miss in FGO, but Santa Night is an example of a welfare support done right. Bringing a mixture of useful general buffs and rare utility, Night is a helpful Servant for new and old Masters alike. She can also output good damage herself in a pinch. With plenty of flexibility and the ability to function well in whatever role she fills, Night is a great addition to the game’s roster.

Nightingale’s most direct strength is her ability to increase party damage. Nurse of Steel (Holy Night), Bell Rung by an Angel on the Holy Night, and Assault Medicine Full Burst Party all let Night increase an ally’s damage for 3 turns, making her a respectable support Servant even when her other utility isn’t needed. In terms of utility, though, Nurse of Steel also brings Buff Removal Resistance, a rare form of utility useful for certain fights. Night also brings various forms of buff and debuff removal, along with some healing on Assault Medicine. Furthermore, Night is herself an AoE Archer with good buffs, so she can function as a damage-dealer if needed.

In exchange for these various strengths, Night misses out on other benefits typical of higher-rarity supports. She has limited survival tools, especially when functioning as a support, which means she may struggle to survive until her skills cool down for a second use. Relatedly, her skill cooldowns are a bit long relative to their effects, further reinforcing her one-and-done nature. Night also provides low crit damage buffs, and her high Archer star weight makes her a weak support choice for critical-focused Servants.

Nightingale is useful for Masters with less complete Servant rosters due to her general-purpose damage-buffs, and she’s useful for Masters with more complete rosters due to her unique challenge quest utility. She’s also good at damaging Sabers as a bonus. Welfare Servants are rarely so universally useful, which makes Night a welcome arrival.

Strong Supportive Damage Buffs

Nightingale can increase an ally’s NP damage and attack for three turns, helping her team to clear content faster. Her damage buffs are among the best of any non-SSR Servants, meaning Night is a great universal pick for any Master without a deep bench of top-tier supports.

Useful Challenge Quest Utility

Between her buff removal, debuff removal, and buff removal resistance effects, Night has tools for dealing with many gimmicks in difficult fights. Buff removal resistance is particularly valuable, as it is relatively rare, and buff removal can shut down otherwise-strong teams.

Good Damage Output

If used as a damage-dealer, Night can output good damage to the enemy team. This is especially true of Saber enemies, where Night’s useful skills and good NP gain make her one of the better offensive AoE options.

Limited Survival Tools

Night’s survival tools are limited to a targetable guts effect and some healing. Especially when she uses her guts on an ally (as she will in supportive contexts), Night tends to be relatively fragile and is likely to die before she has the chance to use her skills a second time.

Long Skill Cooldowns

Nurse of Steel is on a 7-turn cooldown at max level, and Bell Rung by an Angel on the Holy Night is on a 6-turn cooldown despite being functionally a Charisma-type skill. Especially with Night’s offensive focus in mind, this makes it difficult for Night to use her buffs a second time, and it means she has long stretches where she provides no damage buffs to herself or her allies.

Weak Critical Support

Night’s only critical buff caps out at 30%, and she has no way beyond active star generation to feed stars to her allies. Furthermore, she has high star weight due to her class. This means Night is not a particularly good support for critical-focused Servants.

Nurse of Steel (Holy Night) is Night’s largest damage buff and also has her most valuable piece of utility. The Buff Removal Resistance buff, in particular, needs to be maxed out in order to be completely reliable, so this skill should be leveled first. Bell Rung by an Angel on the Holy Night is Night’s other damage-boosting skill, so it should be leveled second. Assault Medicine only increases its healing as it gains levels, so it can be saved for last. Night needs Nurse of Steel maxed in order to ensure her utility works as intended, but the other two skills only gain marginal benefits from levels and can safely be left at lower levels if resources are at a premium.

• Assault Medicine brings a mix of low-grade utility effects. Buff removal on enemies can help to get around defensive buffs, but only if those defensive buffs are the most recent buffs applied. Similarly, removing one debuff from all allies can be useful, but only if the problematic debuff is the most recent one. The heal on this skill is also occasionally useful for keeping the team alive.
• Nurse of Steel (Holy Night) is Night’s best skill. Three turns of NP damage up is always nice for pushing damage, and the skill comes with a guts effect for added protection. Arguably more importantly, at max level this skill prevents most buff removal effects from working, stabilizing the team in the face of certain challenge quest or story fight gimmicks.
• Bell Rung by an Angel on the Holy Night is fairly simple, increasing the party’s attack and critical attack damage for 3 turns. This is another generic damage increase that helps Night be useful in all sorts of teams.

Target Focus Craft Essences are a good pick for Nightingale, as they let her use her buffs and then get out of the way in favor of a more sustainable support Servant. Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences are also useful for letting Night deal damage quickly and apply the defense down effect on her NP. Critical Star Generation Craft Essences, by contrast, can help offset Night’s weak critical attack support functionality when using her with a critical-oriented Servant. Quick Performance Up and NP Damage Up Craft Essences also work well when using Night as an offensive Servant.

• GUDAGUDA Poster Girl / Outrage: These CEs let Night draw enemy attacks when she arrives on the field. With Poster Girl especially, these will likely result in Night dying quickly, allowing a new support to take the field. This largely negates Night’s cooldown- and sustain-oriented weaknesses.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Traces of Christmases Past: These CEs provide starting NP gauge in order to make it easier for Night to use her NP. Traces of Christmases Past is the free CE in Night’s debut event, and it works especially well, giving her starting NP gauge as well as Quick and NP gain boosts.
• A Fragment of 2030 / His Rightful Place / Wolves of Mibu / Golden Captures the Carp / Crowning Beauty, Greater Glory: These CEs provide stars either on an ongoing basis, or in a burst when Night arrives on the field. Easy access to critical stars is useful for ensuring the team can execute critical attacks.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Holy Night Supper / Imaginary Around: These CEs boost Nightingale’s damage output. NP-damage-focused CEs are most effective for increasing damage, but Quick-focused CEs can also help increase Night’s effective NP gain and star generation.