Salome

“Can I have your head? Thanks!”

Infamous for having John the Baptist beheaded, Salome is perhaps the strangest member of the fourth anniversary bronze Servants. Salome is notable for having an unusual and tricky-to-use gimmick that can allow for some powerful, situational setups under the right conditions. Focusing on her gimmick, however, obscures Salome’s less-interesting but more-important traits: she’s a free, class-neutral Arts Berserker, which means she has a place in less-developed rosters once Altria Caster arrives in the game’s fifth anniversary.

Salome’s most striking skill is Dance of the Seven Veils, which grants the party a huge delayed NP charge if Salome remains alive. This skill is generally impractical, but it does allow for some interesting gimmick setups using Salome. Outside of those setups, though, Salome has the skill Blood-Soaked Silver Platter, which provides long lasting damage boosts that, in conjunction with Salome’s single-target Noble Phantasm, allow her to do reasonable damage over multiple turns. Salome also has Natural Body (Figure), which gives her some decent survival tools in general use contexts.

Salome does, however, have several glaring flaws. Most importantly, she is effectively a two-skill Servant in most fights, as Dance of the Seven Veils is not a generally-useful skill. Her damage output is also not as impressive without the Lawful Good niche on Blood-Soaked Silver Platter. Furthermore, she has weak NP gain relative to comparable Servants, which makes it difficult to fully leverage her potential strengths.

Salome is nice in that she has some appeal to both undeveloped and highly-developed rosters. For Masters without many strong Arts alternatives, Salome provides a reasonably effective Servant who works almost anywhere and is a particularly effective counter to most Rulers. For Masters with stronger alternatives, Salome is a unique and interesting gimmick Servant who can be fun to use if not overly practical. She isn’t a standout unit by any means, but she has clear use cases and can be valuable in those contexts.

Unique NP Charge Gimmick

Dance of the Seven Veils removes one of Salome’s defensive buffs every turn, and then charges the entire team’s NP gauges by 100% if Salome is still alive when it ends. As Salome is a low-rarity Berserker, it is difficult to keep her alive through this, but teams specifically built to leverage this buff can enable some powerful strategies.

Strong Sustained Damage

Blood-Soaked Silver Platter boosts Salome’s attack for 3 turns and gives her a significant damage buff against Lawful Good enemies. An NP5 Salome does respectable damage on her NP even without the Lawful Good buff, and with the buff in effect, her damage competes with top-strength NP1 Arts Servants.

Survival Tools

Natural Body (Figure) gives Salome multiple defensive tools that contribute to her stability. None of the defensive buffs it provides is individually enough to keep her alive, but in conjunction with team support, Salome can stay alive reasonably well.

Only Two Practical Skills

Salome is unlikely to ever use Dance of the Seven Veils except in teams specifically built to take advantage of it, which means Salome effectively has only two skills for general-use. Those two skills are reasonably strong, but this still leaves Salome with less flexibility than a typical Servant.

Niche-Dependent Damage Output

While Salome has very good damage against Lawful Good enemies, her damage is less impressive outside of that niche. She still outputs enough damage to be useful, but without the Lawful Good niche in play, it is much more likely Masters will have other Arts Servants with higher damage and fewer drawbacks.

Low NP Gain

Salome has low Arts card NP gain relative to typical Servants with her deck, and her NP has relatively few hit-counts. This means Salome will have difficulty using her NP consecutively even with proper support, which limits her usefulness relative to her competition.

Blood-Soaked Silver Platter is Salome’s only damage boost, and higher levels give it both more damage and better uptime. As such, it should be leveled first, and ideally taken to max level. Natural Body (Figure) increases Salome’s survivability, but it scales poorly with level and maxing it out will have a fairly small impact on Salome’s performance. Dance of the Seven Veils is not useful in typical situations and can be left at level 1 unless Salome is being used specifically for its gimmick, in which case it needs to be max level. For general use, the only one of Salome’s skills that needs to be maxed is Blood-Soaked Silver Platter, as the other two skills have limited impact on Salome’s performance.

• Blood-Soaked Silver Platter Is Salome’s core damage boost. It provides a general-purpose attack buff, which is always useful, and then it gives Salome bonus damage against Lawful Good enemies. This skill lets Salome output huge NP damage against her favored enemies, and, as many Rulers are Lawful Good, this means Salome may be useful as a Ruler-killer even for more established players.
• Natural Body (Figure) Gives Salome a handful of limited defensive buffs. For general use, this skill makes Salome a little more bulky and lets her potentially live through a Noble Phantasm. The skill also gives Dance of the Seven Veils some defensive buffs to remove, which can be useful for preventing the skill from removing more substantial defensive buffs.
• Dance of the Seven Veils is Salome’s gimmick skill. This skill removes one defensive buff from Salome each turn for seven turns, and then at the end charges the entire party’s NP gauge by 100%. Protecting Salome throughout this process is a challenge, but Masters can attempt to do this by stacking defensive buffs or by using target focus skills to keep Salome out of harm’s way.

As Salome is an NP-focused damage-dealer, she particularly wants NP Damage Up Craft Essences in order to boost her damage output. Arts Performance Up Craft Essences are also useful for Salome, as they provide a buff type she doesn’t have and increase her effective NP gain. Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences can also be useful in some teams in order to help Salome use her NP right away.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: These CEs will provide the largest overall damage increase for Salome, letting her hit significantly harder every time she uses her NP.
• Formal Craft / Projection / An Afternoon at the Fortress / Mark on a Smiling Face: These CEs all boost Salome’s Arts Performance. An Afternoon at the Fortress also boosts Salome’s NP damage and Buster cards, and it provides extra HP rather than extra attack, which may be useful for keeping Salome alive if trying to leverage Dance of the Seven Veils. Mark on a Smiling Face provides a mix of Arts Performance Up, NP Gain Up, and NP Damage Up, which is strong mix of useful effects for Salome.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Painting Summer: These starting NP CEs help Salome get moving more quickly. Golden Sumo provides less NP charge, but in exchange it boosts Salome’s attack, helping her damage output in the longer term. Painting Summer boosts Salome’s Arts Performance and NP Gain as well, which can be useful for helping Salome to loop her NP.