Rider of Resistance

It don’t matter whether your dream is to save the world or be filthy rich. What I can teach you is simple: “giving up” is the enemy to all dreams.

A modern-day embodiment of the saying “the ends justify the means”, Rider of Resistance pursues the path that offers the greatest profit, never mind whether his actions are good or evil. A man of action, it is little wonder that he is represented by a Buster-focused skill set and NP, as he will overcome any obstacle to achieve his goals.

Rider of Resistance is blessed with 3 strong skills, any of which could make a Servant with a lesser skill jealous. Voyager of the Storm and Conquistador give him coverage of all 3 buff types to improve his NP’s damage, with Conquistador providing a healthy amount of Critical Stars to boot. Critical Stars that he can take advantage of with his class’ naturally high base Critical Star Weight. In addition, Unyielding Will is a nice NP battery skill that comes with a Guts bonus that can keep him in the fight longer, though the combination of an NP battery and AoE NP makes him more suited for farming endeavors. Finally, after his Rank Up, not only is his NP Damage improved, but it will also apply an extremely potent Critical Rate Down to all his enemies.

Rider of Resistance is not without flaws though, the severity of which he can do little to alleviate such as how his Attack stat is among the lowest of his rarity. Furthermore, his NP Generation outside of Unyielding Will is a bit stunted despite having markedly high hit counts. Perhaps most troubling is that, due to his Story-Locked status, obtaining any copies of Rider of Resistance is a trial in and of itself, as he is not a Singularity reward and is contained in relatively few banners.

Still, if Rider of Resistance’s complications can be dealt with and Masters acquire multiple copies of him, his bright smile and hearty laugh will be the last thing the enemy sees before he plunders them of their possessions after a farming session.

Rider of Resistance is a rare story-locked Servant with few direct rate ups. However, special class-based Rider banners are excellent opportunities to collect copies of Rider of Resistance with higher rates, with his rate up reaching up to 8% on them. After the release of Red hare, his rate-up on class banners will be lowered to 6.67%.

Good Farming Potential

The combination of damage buffs in Rider of Resistance’s skills make him a strong AoE Rider for farming purposes, especially considering that he will be able to NP before his peers in most situations thanks to Unyielding Will’s NP battery. He can even save his Voyager of the Storm for an ally if his own damage is sufficient to clear a wave.

Buster Critical Damage Potential

Though he lacks a method to directly boost his Critical Damage, his class’ high base Critical Star Weight plus the stars he can produce from Conquistador can make him a surprise Critical Damage dealer. His Buster nature also allows him access to all of the powerful Buster supports, which synergizes exceptionally well with his Star Weight.

Poor Generation Performance

While he may crit more often than normal, even crits will do little to improve his naturally low NP Gain and Critical Star Generation from normal cards. Rider of Resistance has to rely on CEs, supports and Unyielding Will to charge his NP.

Extreme Improvement Difficulty

Due to being Story-locked and having an incredibly low Attack stat, Rider of Resistance may spend a long period of time twiddling his thumbs before his Good Farming Potential can be realized.

Rider of Resistance excels at burst NP Damage, and all of his skills work towards doing so. The first order of business is maxing out Unyielding Will for the 30% NP battery it provides at level 10. Improving his 2 damage skills, Voyager of the Storm and Conquistador, will directly improve his NP’s damage, though the improvement is less impactful than expected given how poorly both skills scale with levels

• Voyager of the Storm B provides both NP Damage Up and Attack Up for 1 turn, and should be either saved for Rider of Resistance’s NP or an allies’s NP. Though his max damage potential is at level 10 for this skill, it’s fine to leave this skill at lower levels, such as level 4 or 6, depending on material and QP reserves.

• Unyielding Will C is Rider of Resistance’s most important skill to max. A potential 30% battery skill is too powerful to ignore and opens up more party cost and CE options. None of his skills are more influential, and it makes little sense to level his other skills first..

• Conquistador EX, like Voyager of the Storm, should be leveled after maxing Unyielding Will. Conquistador is strictly weaker than Voyager of the Storm for Rider of Resistance’s NP, but the 3 turn Buster Up and Instant Critical Stars it offers can swing things in its favor over Unyielding Will. Like Voyager of the Storm, level 4 or 6 is a fine enough early stopping point.

Because Unyielding Will is a 30% NP battery when maxed and Rider of Resistance is geared towards delivering a fast and powerful AoE NP, Rider of Resistance is best off using CEs that provide Starting NP Gauge. Hybrid CEs with Buster Performance Up or, better yet, NP Damage Up can provide the extra damage he desperately needs. Unlike most Servants, Rider of Resistance isn’t as reliant on Starting NP Gauge values in excess of 50%, though he can still use them to NP with little to no external assistance.. Lastly, pure Critical Damage Up CEs offer little for Rider of Resistance since, despite his high base Critical Star Weight, his Critical Damage Potential is generally much less important than the damage his NP can deal.

• Golden Sumo / Holy Night Supper: Assuming all of these hybrid CEs are MLB, they fit the bill for a 50% Starting NP Gauge CE with additional damage buff. There is no difference between them in terms of NP damage before considering external damage buffs, but Golden Sumo’s bonus also works on Rider of Resistance’s regular cards.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: If it’s possible to get Rider of Resistance 70% battery from external sources, these two CEs can go a long way towards drastically improving his NP’s damage.

• Dragon’s Meridian: If a Master just started out or if the Cost limit rears its ugly head, this CE when MLB gives Rider of Resistance that 50% Starting NP Gauge. Combine it with a 20% NP Charge from an ally for an instant NP.