Odysseus

“Wooden horse, advance!”

Odysseus is a nice, if fairly standard, addition to the Servant roster. He mixes decent damage with good utility and great NP gain. While he’s not a standout unit in any particular field, he’s a strong generalist as AoE Arts Servants go. This makes him a strong overall Servant, especially for Masters who do not already have good AoE Arts options.

Odysseus is most notable for his NP looping potential. Between his strong NP gain and his AoE Noble Phantasm, Troia Híppos, Odysseus has an easy time using his NP multiple turns in a row. He also deals solid damage while he does this, thanks to Resourceful General’s Inspiration and Protection of the Messenger Deity providing further damage increases beyond what his NP offers. While serving as a damage-dealer, Odysseus also has nice utility features: he can help keep a fragile support safe with the taunt effect on Resourceful General’s Inspiration, and his NP removes defensive buffs before dealing damage.

While Odysseus is a strong all-around Servant, he does suffer from a lack of specialization. Most notably, his damage, while decent, does not compete with top-end Arts units, in part due to its lack of scaling across multiple turns. Additionally, he has generally low normal attack damage, as he tends to prefer teams that struggle to gain access to critical hits, and he has few buffs that apply to normal attacks. His NP charge skill also only reaches 30% charge at max level, which is a disadvantage relative to top-end SSR Arts Servants, who often have 50% charge skills.

Odysseus is a generically good AoE Arts unit. He has a number of nice tools, but he is noticeably weaker than his limited SSR competition. This is fairly normal for non-limited SSRs, and it makes Odysseus a good off-banner pull, even if he is not necessarily a great Servant to target actively.

Strong NP Gain

Odysseus has very high Arts card NP gain for a Servant with a QQAAB deck. He also has good refund on his NP, as well as a 30% NP charge skill for emergencies. Especially with the help of Caster Altria, Odysseus can reliably loop his Noble Phantasm.

Persistent NP Damage Buffs

Odysseus has a good spread of damage buffs for his Noble Phantasm, most of which are available every time he uses his NP. This means his damage will be highly consistent while he is looping.

Useful Utility

Odysseus brings a set of skills that let him deal with various challenge quest gimmicks. He can make himself immune to buff removal, he can protect a specific ally, and he can remove enemy defensive buffs. Together, these make him a stable choice for hard fights, which helps to outweigh his middling damage output.

Low NP Damage Ceiling

While Odysseus has good general damage buffs, the buff on his NP only lasts one turn, which means Odysseus’s damage does not increase as he loops his NP. This puts him at a disadvantage relative to many other Arts units, and it holds back his damage overall.

Low Normal Attack Damage

Odysseus’s normal attack boosts are limited to 30% total Arts and 20% total Quick up. Furthermore, Arts teams generally struggle to generate critical stars, and Odysseus does not help with that. Together, this means Odysseu’s normal attack damage output is likely to remain low.

Limited NP Charge Ability

Odysseus’s NP charge skill reaches 30% at level 10. This is still a useful skill, but many top-end Arts Servants have 50% NP charge skills, which lets them farm more difficult quests or make up for turns without good card draws. Odysseus is less flexible in this regard than much of his competition.

Devote Thyself to One Purpose (Love) is Odysseus’s NP charge skill, and as such it should be maxed first to ensure Odysseus can NP reliably when he needs the extra charge. Resourceful General’s Inspiration is Odysseus’s damage-boosting skill, so it should be leveled first. Aegis is not important to farming and gains somewhat less value from levels than the other skills, so it can be saved for last. It should be noted, though, that Odysseus will need Aegis maxed in order to rely on its buff removal resistance, so Masters planning to use Odysseus for hard fights should still level all three skills.

• Resourceful General’s Inspiration provides a small, persistent damage buff to the whole team. In most cases, this means the most to Odysseus himself, although it may help supports generate more NP off their Arts and Quick cards. The skill also grants a 3-turn target focus effect to two of three party members, effectively protecting one team member from hits. Swapping out one of the focused Servants turns this into a proper 3-turn taunt on one Servant at a time, which is also a powerful effect for difficult fights.
• Devote Thyself to One Purpose (Love) is an NP charge skill and will mostly be used for that purpose. It also makes Odysseus immune to charm, which is situationally helpful, and it draws critical stars to him if you happen to have generated any. The star gather effect is unlikely to be helpful in most Odysseus teams, as Arts teams struggle to generate critical stars, but with the help of a critical-focused support like Sherlock Holmes or Lanling, Odysseus may benefit from this as well.
• Aegis is a defensive utility skill, protecting Odysseus from damage for a turn while also preventing his buffs from being removed. The skill leaves Odysseus with a small defense buff, too, which makes this skill a nice overall utility tool.

Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences are often good for farming and for hard fights, especially in cases where Odysseus does not have multiple NP charge supports to rely on. NP Damage Up and Arts Up craft essences are also good for pushing Odysseus’s overall damage. Critical Star Generation Craft Essences can also be useful to help Odysseus crit, especially if Odysseus’s supports bring critical damage buffs.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Painting Summer: These CEs provide starting NP gauge in order to make it easier for Odysseus to loop. Painting Summer in particular increases Odysseus’s NP gain as well, which is a nice synergy.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Holy Night Supper / Dive to Blue / Formal Craft: These CEs boost Odysseus’s damage output, which is useful for both farming and for challenge quests provided Odysseus has enough NP gain to loop.
• A Fragment of 2030 / His Rightful Place / Meeting of the Heirs: These CEs provide stars each turn, which allow Odysseus to leverage his naturally high star weight and his star gather up skill to execute critical hits more reliably.