Romulus=Quirinus

“All of Rome is watching over you.”

The pinnacle of Rome, Romulus=Quirinus, joins the pantheon of AoE SSR Buster Servants. Quirinus is a fairly straightforward offensive unit. While he doesn’t have much in the way of utility or flexibility, he does have plenty of ways to deal damage, and he can help his team deal a little bit more damage too. Quirinus’s core gimmick is turning everything into Rome, and then using that to deal more damage and grant more buffs.

Quirinus’s primary strength is his raw damage potential. With Nine Lives Rome to apply Roman trait to enemies and Per Aspera Ad Astra’s bonus damage against Roman enemies, Quirinus can easily ramp up to substantial damage. Quirinus also has especially good single-target damage output due to his easy critical attack access and his ability to stack multiple Roman debuffs against the target of his crits. Nine Lives Rome and Divinity Transformation help Quirinus access crits, while Throne of Quirinus increases crit damage. Quirinus also has the potential to help allies deal more damage, which can be helpful in certain unusual team setups.

In exchange for these damage-focused strengths, Quirinus has a few key weaknesses. Chief among these is the fact that Quirinus takes time to reach his damage potential, making him a weak choice for short fights. Similarly, while Quirinus has very good single-target damage for an AoE Servant, he has trouble ramping his damage against multiple targets in true AoE fights. Furthermore, Quirinus does not have much utility, making it difficult for him to handle gimmicks typical of hard fights.

Quirinus is a strong AoE Servant, especially for fights where one enemy has much more health than the others. Aside from his damage scaling, though, Quirinus doesn’t have much to set him apart. He’s a good but standard Buster Servant, making him a good pull for newer Masters without many options but fairly unimportant for Masters with more established rosters.

High NP Damage Potential

Quirinus’s NP deals more damage for every stack of Quirinus’s Roman trait debuff. Despite lacking an NP Interlude, Quirinus can output massive levels of NP damage if he can apply multiple stacks of Roman on the enemies he’s fighting.

Strong Single-Target Damage

Quirinus has fairly easy crit access and applies the Roman trait when he crits, further increasing subsequent NP damage. As such, Quirinus will often output levels of damage against a single target that are competitive with Servants with single-target NPs. This makes Quirinus a particularly good pick for fights with one powerful enemy and several weaker enemies.

Party Damage Support

Quirinus can provide 30% in attack buffs and 50% in crit damage buffs to the whole team. This makes him a good choice for teams that need multiple damage-dealers, as Quirinus can increase his allies’ damage while continuing to hit hard himself.

Slow Start

While Quirinus has a high damage ceiling, he will not output that level of damage until he has spent at least a few turns stacking his Roman trait on enemies. This means Quirinus shines in longer fights and is less well-suited to short fights. It also means he is not a particularly good farming Servant, as debuffs do not persist across farming waves.

Mixed Damage Scaling

Quirinus’s ability to scale damage against a single target is an advantage for some fights, but in traditional AoE fights where all enemies have comparable health, it is a disadvantage instead. Quirinus may end up dealing more damage than needed against one target and struggling to kill the other, making him a weaker pick than more standard AoE Servants.

Lack of Utility

Quirinus’s skills are mostly focused on damage and on meeting basic damage-dealer needs. As such, he lacks tools to deal with enemy buffs and debuffs and is reliant on supports to manage gimmicks in hard fights.

As a Buster Servant, Quirinus is especially reliant on NP charge skills in order to gain access to his NP, so Divinity Transformation should be leveled first. Nine Lives Rome is a damage boost and, more importantly, is the primary way for Quirinus to apply multiple stacks of Roman trait, so it should be leveled second. Throne of Quirinus is also a valuable damage buff, but it is slightly less important than the other two skills and can be saved for last. All three skills contribute to Quirinus’s effectiveness, so all three should ideally be taken to max level.

• Throne of Quirinus boosts the party’s damage and also provides a free Roman stack. Quirinus can safely use this any time it is available. As the skill has a 5-turn cooldown at max level and the Roman trait debuff lasts for 5 turns, this skill ensures enemies will almost always have at least one stack of Roman trait.
• Divinity Transformation does three standard-but-valuable things: it charges Quirinus’s NP, it grants two hits of Invincible, and it grants 10 critical stars. All of these things make it easier for Quirinus to function as a Buster damage-dealer, making this a very good skill despite its simplicity. The amount of NP Gauge he gains scales with skill level, making leveling this first recommended.
• Nine Lives Rome is a damage buff that also lets Quirinus apply extra stacks of Roman trait when he crits. This skill is the primary tool Quirinus uses to ramp up his damage against a single target.

NP Damage Up Craft Essences are the best way to increase Quirinus’s damage output, as Quirinus has no innate NP damage buffs and he generally wants to be dealing NP damage over the course of multiple turns. Buster Damage Up and Attack Up craft essences are less effective on Quirinus but can be useful for similar reasons. Starting NP Gauge craft essences, meanwhile, can be important for helping Quirinus use his NP quickly and consistently, especially in farming contexts. Critical Star Generation CEs can also be useful for helping Quirinus gain consistent access to critical hits in order to add stacks of his Roman trait.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Holy Night Supper: These CEs provide substantial boosts to Quirinus’s damage over time. They are especially good for stall-oriented teams where Quirinus expects to NP many times over many turns.
• Limited/Zero Over / Victor of the Moon / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: These CEs are less effective at boosting damage than NP damage CEs, but they have the added benefit of increasing Quirinus’s damage on normal attacks, which can be an advantage in AoE fights with one very high HP enemy.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Aerial Drive: These CEs provide starting NP gauge, helping Quirinus get moving faster or loop his NP with NP charge supports. Aerial Drive, in particular, provides nice damage buffs along with the NP charge.
• A Fragment of 2030 / His Rightful Place: These CEs provide stars each turn, which helps Quirinus to inflict more stacks of his Roman trait debuff.