Sizuki Soujyuro

“When I woke up from my nap, I found myself in a place that made me want to go home more than anything… To be honest, even though I’m used to it, I’d really rather not have to deal with this. Well then—could you fill me in?”

The Welfare Servant of the Witch on the Holy Night Collaboration Event, Soujyuro Sizuki has an unassuming appearance but packs fierce firepower under the surface. He is a single target Buster Berserker whose NP has a self-sacrifice effect, and he also has several unique twists to otherwise mundane-looking effects in his skill set.

Soujyuro’s first skill, Mushi Fusatsu Henro A, serves as both a damage buff and defensive skill in one. It increases both Arts and Buster Card performance for 3 turns, and applies a unique Evade effect that only works on lethal hits, lasting for 5 hits across 3 turns. His second skill, Shakutenrin Jizai Zaifuza A, is a different spin on the usual NP charge skill. Instead of giving him a flat amount of NP charge, it doubles his current NP gauge value, which would max out his NP charge any time he is at 50% NP or higher. Additionally, this skill can buff his Critical Damage for 3 turns, up to four times based on how low his HP is, with the highest amount at 25% health or lower. Finally, Hyakkotsu Bansei Sentou Shugen A is a delayed buff skill that allows Masters to select one of Quick, Arts, or Buster, and after 1 turn passes, all of Soujyuro’s Command Cards are changed to that type and he gains a Card buff matching the type selected. His skill kit makes him a potent Buster Crit damage dealer if played correctly, and is tied together with his Noble Phantasm.

His Noble Phantasm, Coordi■■■■s unknown - Evil spirit ■■■■ing, is the feature of his kit. It increases his own ATK, applies both Ignore Invincible, and the very rare Ignore Damage Cut effect to himself before dealing high damage to a single enemy, with supereffective bonus against enemies with any DEF Up buffs active. Afterwards, he inflicts death on himself. This death effect can be used similarly to an Order Change, where a back line Servant with all their skills available comes in after his death to further stack buffs. Alternatively, when combined with Guts, the self-death effect enables the unique effects of the rest of his kit. His Evade vs. lethal damage becomes active after low health Guts revival, as do all of the Crit Damage buffs from his second skill that activate at low health. Additionally, the Card Type swap effect that activates after a 1-turn delay also will become active. This makes him capable of making great use of any Guts Craft Essences, where turns after his NP become powerful Buster Crit turns so long as he has Stars available.

Overall, Soujyuro Sizuki provides a powerful burst of single target damage followed by self-sacrifice, which can enable many team compositions. Much like other self-sacrifice Servants with a damaging NP, such as Arash or Chen Gong, he can serve to take out earlier enemies swiftly and rotate in back liners. However, his single target focus means he can deal greater damage in waves that only have a single enemy, which often will have higher HP values. As another bonus, he is passively immune to Terror, Confusion, and Skill Seal effects. Additionally, he has the claim of being the only Servant in the roster (as of his release) to have the Ignore Damage Cut ability. He is a powerful team composition enabler who also can deal very respectable damage on his own.

Self-Sacrifice

Soujyuro’s NP causes death on himself, which can be used to bring in back line Servants who have fresh skills to further buff stacking setups. The self-sacrifice also doubles as a way to bring down his own HP, if combined with Guts, which allows him to take advantage of his massive +100% Crit Damage buff on his second skill, along with his unique Evade lethal damage defensive skill.

Ignore Damage Cut Utility

His NP is one of the only abilities in the game that can ignore Damage Cut (which is flat damage reduction, and counts as a separate buff type from Defense). In addition to this, he ignores Invincibility and also deals supereffective damage to any targets who have DEF Up buffs active. Note the DEF Up buffs do not include other defensive buffs, only the strict “Defense Up” buff category.

Delayed Skill Effect

His third skill’s buffs all come after 1 turn pass. The Card type change also requires that Soujyuro’s Cards are available on the next turn, which is not always guaranteed, so it can be somewhat difficult to make this skill work consistently.

No Innate Star Gain Skills

Despite having powerful critical damage buffs, his NP only hits one time, and he has no way to generate a flat sum of Stars within his own kit. Additionally, being Berserker Class, he has very low innate Star Gather weight. In order to fully take advantage of his Crit Damage buffs at low health, Masters will want to bring a Servant that can supply him with enough Critical Stars.

Each of Soujyuro’s skills do improve his overall performance, but are not particularly central to him being able to perform his role. If Masters are mostly using him for self-sacrifice, the only skill that impacts his immediate damage is his first skill. The other two skills are better if Soujyuro is running a Guts CE or a Support Servant that can provide Guts to him. Overall, the suggested leveling order is 1 > 2 > 3.

• Mushi Fusatsu Henro A – Levels in this skill improve both the Arts and Buster buffs, which take effect immediately and are non-conditional. Since this skill will be in effect most often in all scenarios where Soujyuro is used, this skill is suggested to be leveled first. However, if simply bringing him as a self-sacrifice, in many cases his damage is sufficient without leveling this skill and it can be left at level 1.

• Shakutenrin Jizai Zaifuza A – The main effect that scales with level are the Crit Damage buffs that have more active stacks the lower his health is. Although this skill gives a lot of bang for buck per level, it requires a bit more setup and for Soujyuro to have taken damage or used his NP with Guts to fully take advantage of, so it can be left for second priority.

• Hyakkotsu Bansei Sentou Shugen A – This skill’s Quick, Arts, or Buster Card buff scales with level. Regardless of level, however, this skill always takes 1 turn to activate, and due to this delay Masters may not always be able to benefit from this skill. This can be left for last.

Soujyuro Sizuki can fully fill his NP Gauge with at least 50% NP charge, so taking Starting NP Gauge with at least 50% is helpful. Otherwise, any CEs that provide NP Damage, ATK, or Buster Performance Up will help bolster his damage output. Since his skillset does not contain a source of NP Damage on its own, Masters may wish to favor NP Damage over other options for the additional multiplicative damage bonus. Soujyuro also makes particularly good use of Guts CEs, which allow him to survive his own NP at low health and take advantage of the rest of his skills.

• Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Aerial Drive / Remnants on a Sand Board / Empty Garden / Mystery Treasure / Summer Anniversary / Round and Round / Partake with the King / Sewing a Beloved Doll – These are hybrid NP starter CE options that provide at least 50% NP charge at battle start, and also buff at least one aspect of Soujyuro’s offense.

• Princess of the White Rose / Divine Three-Legged Race / Grudge Match / Our Hearts Raised Up High / Bare Kings / Chaldea Lifesavers / Star of Altria / Secret Makanai Meshi – Guts CE options (which includes his own Bond CE). Many of these also provide some form of further offensive or NP gauge support for Soujyuro. These can allow Soujyuro to survive NP usage and continue further applying damage while taking advantage of low health Crit bonuses from his second skill.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide the highest NP Damage boost available for Soujyuro. However, without any starting NP Gauge, his charge skill will not be effective, which means he will need support to help with filling his NP.