Super Bunyan

“Look at this manifested body that is close to my prime! … Huh? For some reason, my height has… Even though I've grown, I've shrunk?”

Super Bunyan is the much needed glow-up version of the lovely Paul Bunyan that everyone knows and loves. With a unique mechanic centered around gathering affection and love from people believing in her to channel her massive strength, Super Bunyan’s strength is expressed in game as an Alter-Ego with a focus on strong Single-Target damage and a small amount of team support. 

To understand Super Bunyan’s kit, one has to start with her unique passive Power of "Like!" EX. Everytime Super Bunyan attacks or takes damage, she receives a stack of [Like!], which is capped at 10. Bunyan’s Noble Phantasm - America’s Dark Sweetheart A deals heavy Single Target damage with increased damage in proportion to the amount of [Like!] stacks that she has. 

Similar to her personality, Bunyan’s skills are relatively simple with no additional gimmicks. Her first skill - Executive Order C increases her own Attack and all allies’ Buster Card effectiveness for 3 turns. Vision Quest A increases her own NP Gauge while also giving all allies one turn of NP Overcharge increase by 1. Add Maple Syrup A inflict NP Seal on all enemies for 1 turn, lowering their Critical Rate for 3 turns while also raising all allies’ Buster Critical Star Absorption Rate for 3 turns. 

Super Bunyan’s is a rather awkward Servant in terms of usage. Her damage needs a ramp up time, and it’s not particularly strong enough to distinguish herself from other competitors, especially considering while Alter-Ego has good coverage, its own damage modifier is still weaker than bringing other Servants with direct class advantage (i.e Rider vs Caster). Beyond pure damage, her utility and team support are also very limited. While Overcharge, NP Seal and Buster buffs are relatively useful, they are not enough to carve a niche for herself considering the powerful teamwide buffs / utilities that many damage dealers bring to the table. 

In a vacuum, Super Bunyan is not a bad Servant and certainly can perform decently in the right team. However, the game has gotten to a point where she simply has to do more to be on the same level as many good currently available damage dealers that Masters can pick from. With the right strengthening in the future, Super Bunyan may become very competitive, but as of right now, she is sadly a tad behind.

Good Single-Target Damage

Super Bunyan still has a Single-Target Noble Phantasm that has a bonus modifier against pretty much anything due to how her [Likes!] stacks work. This coupled with her self-buffs and Alter-Ego class giving good coverage make her Single Target damage very respectable.

Decent Teamwide Buffs

Super Bunyan has several nice effects from her skills that can improve the run smoothness in the form of Overcharge Increase, NP Seal, Buster Cards Effectiveness and Enemies Critical Rate Reduction. While they are nothing near gamebreaking, having some extra utilities and team supports from a Damage Dealers is always a nice bonus

Require Ramp-Up Time For Damage

The [Likes!] stacks have a huge impact on Bunyan’s NP Damage - her main source of firepower. Therefore, Bunyan does require a certain amount of turns / actions, and sometimes RNG to get to 10 stacks for maximum damage output. This could make her first few turns’ damage output awkward. 

Lack A Real Distinguishing Niche

Single Target Damage Dealers with wide coverage are not rare, and Super Bunyan does not possess any real upside over other options.

Super Bunyan Skills have decent scaling with skill level. Her second skills have the most value as it is the NP Gauge Charger, but since she is rarely used in farming it is not tantamount to her performance. 6/6/6 is a good baseline to start with and 6/10/6 would be a good stopping point unless Masters really want to invest into her more

• Executive Order C - A basic buff skill and is Bunyan’s main damage steroid. Both effects scale with level so it is a decent skill to get some level in for better damage output, especially with other Buster damage dealers on the team.
• Vision Quest A – The main reason to raise this skill is to get her NP Gauge charging value to 30% which helps improve her CE and teammates selection a lot. 
• Add Maple Syrup A – This is mostly an utility skill with poor scaling so the main value from leveling it is for the cooldown reduction.

Super Bunyan functions best as a ramping up NP attacker. As her kit lacks NP Damage buff and her self NP Charger is only 30%, Craft Essences that give these two stats are very valuable for her general usage. Buster Card Effectiveness or Attack are also viable offensive stats to look for when selecting a Craft Essence. Critical Damage or Buster Card Critical Damage are alternatives to smooth her damage output by improving her other avenue of damage. 

• Take One, Action! / Aerial Drive / Holy Night Supper / Sewing a Beloved Doll : These are event free Craft Essences that can be strong general options for Super Bunyan.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: The strongest options for raw damage improvement as she has 0 sources of NP Damage in her kit and these two Craft Essences give an unparalleled amount of boost in terms of NP Damage buff.
• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Vessel of Desire / The Imaginary Element: Standard-pool NP Gauge charger Craft Essences that can be good placeholders until better alternatives are acquired.