Sugitani Zenjubou

“I’m Sugitani Zenjubou, warrior monk and sniper. What, are you asking why I’m not a man? I’ve turned into a woman, thanks to Kashin Koji! It had no effect on my sniping skill, so it’s fine.”

A master marksman from the Sengoku period, Sugitani Zenjubou was infamous for their attempted (but failed) assassination of Oda Nobunaga. In Fate/GO, Sugitani joins the roster during the Grail Front: Castle of Dawn and Dusk event, as a single target Buster Archer with multiple powerful but chance-based buffs on their NP.

Sugitani’s kit consists of a combination of self-buffs and utility effects. Their first skill, Sniping Conditions C, provides both Buster and Buster Crit Damage buffs for Sugitani, each for 3 turns, and functions as the primary steroid skill in their kit. Disengage (Reload) C+ provides a useful debuff clear for Sugitani, and also gives them a gradually stacking Crit Damage buff, with up to 5 total buffs across 5 turns, each buff lasting for 1 hit and 5 turns, while topping it off with up to 10 Stars per turn for 3 turns. Finally, Camouflaged Sniping B functions as a hard defensive skill, providing 3 hits of Evasion across 3 turns. Additionally, it buffs Sugitani’s Buster Star Gather, and has a most direct synergy with Sugitani’s NP by giving a stack of +15% Buff Success rate every turn for 3 turns, capping out at +45%, which effectively guarantees all effects of their NP.

Two Shots Fired is Sugitani’s Noble Phantasm, and has multiple chance-based effects that can occur before damage, including Sure Hit, NP Damage +20% (twice, each buff’s chance is rolled separately), and Buster / Arts buffs. Their NP notably will remove all Buff Success Rate buffs after dealing damage, so any Buff Success Rate stacks from their third skill will be consumed upon NP use. Masters can opt to fire off multiple NPs with sub-maximum stacks of Buff Success Rate buffs, or wait til all three are active to ensure all effects succeed depending on the situation. After their Interlude upgrade, their NP also gains the ability to deal supereffective damage against King trait enemies, while also further supporting their Buster Crit niche by dropping 20 Stars.

Due to the high number of possible damage buffs that Sugitani’s NP can benefit from, their damage ceiling is extremely impressive for their rarity in the ST Buster Archer niche. Even with some of the chance-based, the average NP damage Sugitani can put out is still around average to above-average for others in the same niche, making Sugitani an excellent boss slayer, especially against any Saber or Berserker targets. Given their addition to the Friend Point Gacha after the event, Masters also will easily reach max NP level with Sugitani. Masters will find Sugitani to be an excellent addition to their roster, especially if an ST Archer is needed.

High NP Damage

With all buffs active, Sugitani Zenjubou boasts some of the highest raw NP damage in the Archer roster despite being a silver rarity Servant. This is in part due to their multiple chance-based NP buffs. When combined with their skills, they can reach a total of 50-70% Buster buffs, and 40% NP Damage buffs from their own skill set alone.

Great Buster Crit Performance

Sugitani has multiple sources of Crit Damage buffs, including Buster Crit Damage +50%, Buster Star Gather +500%, and a ramping Crit Damage buff that can reach a whopping 250% by turn 5 in a single shot if no Crits are dealt by then. This is added to their Crit Damage +12% passive skill. Additionally, they can generate 10 Stars per turn from their Star Regen buff from their second skill. All told, Sugitani has an excellent ceiling on their Critical damage as well.

Low Rarity

Silver Rarity Servants are generally easily obtained in the Friend Point Gacha, and Sugitani is no exception. This makes it easier for Masters to reach NP5 with them, and will be able to more readily slot them into a party due to their lower cost.

Delayed Ramping Damage

Both Sugitani’s Crit Damage buffs from their second skill, as well as the Buff Success Rate buffs from their third skill (which in turn helps improve chances of the offensive buffs succeeding for their NP), are effects that ramp and increase in potency over time. This also does mean Sugitani needs a lot of prep time before they can reach their full damage potential, which can be a liability depending on the encounter.

Sugitani’s first two skills are most important to his performance; his third also has extremely helpful effects, but levels in the skill do not particularly impact his performance majorly. The overall recommended leveling order is 1 > 2 >> 3.

• Sniping Conditions C – This is probably Sugitani’s most important skill to level, which improves the Buster and Buster Crit Damage buff values per level. This should be prioritized first, since it is a three-turn buff that improves Sugitani’s performance in both their NP damage and their Buster Crit damage.

• Disengage (Reload) C+ – This skill is important mostly to Sugitani’s performance as a Buster Crit damage dealer. However, levels in this skill have a potentially great effect, since if the Crit Damage buffs are stored across 5 turns, the damage boost increases from 150% at level 1 to 250% at level 10. Additionally, levels also increase the number of Stars generated per turn. This skill is also very much worth investing in if Masters plan to use Sugitani for their Crit damage.

• Camouflaged Sniping B – Although this skill is extremely helpful in supporting Sugitani’s survivability as well as their NP’s consistency, the only effect that improves with level is the Buster Star Gather buff, which is already quite decent at base level. Masters can leave this skill for last, and can leave it unleveled if materials are in short supply.

Sugitani lacks any source of ATK buffs in their own kit, so they benefit well from ATK CEs. Additionally, Starting NP Gauge, and any Buff Success Rate CEs are greatly helpful to improving their NP’s consistency. Additionally, any Buster Effectiveness or NP Damage buffs are also welcome.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – These CEs provide a pure NP Gauge boost and help Sugitani use their NP immediately. Without an NP Gauge charger of their own, Sugitani needs either an MLB Kaleidoscope, or non-MLB Kaleidoscope and maxed 2nd Append Skill to NP right off the bat.

• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Aerial Drive / Afterimage of a Sand Table / Empty Garden / Mystery Treasure / Summer Anniversary / Round and Round / Holy Night Supper / Partake with the King / Starry Nights / Gemstone Shots – These are hybrid NP starter CE options that provide a boost to offensive performance as well. The best option for Sugitani is Golden Sumo, given that they do not have a source of ATK buffs within their own kit, allowing them to benefit from the buffs multiplicatively.

• First Calligraphy / Comic Girl / Queen’s Dream / The Beauty at the Window / Synchronization – These are CEs that provide Buff Rate Success up, which help improve the likelihood of Sugitani’s NP buffs from activating.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide the highest NP Damage boost available for Sugitani. However, Sugitani will need additional support to fire off their NP given they have no NP charge skill of their own.