Tezcatlipoca

“Are you being for real? Dying once didn’t teach you enough?!”

As one of the most famed Gods from the Aztec Mythology, Tezcatlipoca is more than deserving of being a Grand Candidate. True to his mythical counterpart’s status, Tezcatlipoca is an absurdly powerful Assassin, far beyond most of his peers’ capacity. He is exceptional as a farmer but still packs enough ridiculous utilities and teamwide support to be fantastic in Challenge Quests.

Tezcatlipoca’s first skill - Charisma of Conflict A is a teamwide Attack buff for 3 turns, with an additional Attack boost for any teammates with Guts at the time of casting. Black Sun EX is easily amongst the most absurd NP Gauge Charging skills available, increasing Tez’s NP Gauge by 50% and all other allies by 30%. This skill also grants a 2 time, 3 turn Invincibility buff to the entire team, albeit also comes with a small debuff of making the next Invincibility buff cast on the team fail to apply. Heart of the Mountain A is another packed skill with a slew of powerful buffs. This skill applies a Guts for 1 time, 3 turns to Tez which is useful to get the second effect from Tez’s first skill, increases his Arts cards’ effectiveness, grants two effective damage boosts against Divine and Super Giant traits, and a small flavor demerit of blocking a Sunlight Battlefield buff to Tez himself. First Sun Xibalba B is an AoE Arts Noble Phantasm that gives him a 1-turn Ignore Invincibility and a 3-turn NP Damage boost before dealing damage, and increases all allies’ NP Gauge by 10%.

Tez’s farming capacity is terrifying. Thanks to his large amount of NP Charge for both himself and his teammates, he is capable of farming in either a Double Castoria setup or a Multi-Core (multiple damage dealer) setup. Double Tezcatlipoca is a potent farming team, granting each other 80% NP Charge and 80% Attack while also giving the other teammates 60%-80% NP Gauge and 40-80% Attack boost, which is generally enough to farm most 90+ nodes in the game without Class Disadvantage.

Tezcatlipoca’s usefulness does not stop at farming either, he has a ridiculous amount of useful perks on a Damage Dealer, ranging from Guts, teamwide Invincibility, Ignore Invincibility, and Anti-Trait Bonus Damage. With his main card type being Arts giving him synergy with Supports such as Altria Caster or Lady Avalon, Tez is an absolute powerhouse in Challenge Quests.

If there is something to hold against Tezcatlipoca, it is his class. Assassin infamously has a lower class modifier compared to other courses, which makes their offensive capacity inherently weaker compared to other classes. In Tezcatlipoca’s case, being primarily a farmer, this is something much more noticeable in the 90++ farming levels. While he will always contribute in farming scenarios thanks to his excellent skill set, an additional NP level might be needed for him to clear beefier waves that can vary significantly event by event. Nonetheless, this is a very small downside to an otherwise terrific Servant and one that most Masters should not pass on in terms of gameplay.

Incredible Farming Performance & Farming Support

Tezcatlipoca is a game changer when it comes to farming while also bringing other farmers into the equation. On his own, he charges a total of 110% NP Gauge between 3 units, without counting the additional 10% from each usage of his Noble Phantasm. This is extremely potent in both farming with him as the sole Damage Dealer, or with 2 other Damage Dealers that can all buff each other (aka Multi-Core Farmings). One of such famous examples is the Double Tezcatlipoca team, as both Tez can turbo boost each other easily with an absurd amount of NP Gauge and Attack buffs.

Powerful Challenge Quest Capacity

With a wide array of powerful effects that compliment him both offensively and defensively, Tezcatlipoca makes a highly effective Challenge Quest performer. Teamwide NP Gauge is ever-useful for virtually any content, while Guts, Ignore Invincible and Invincibility further allow him to combat Challenge Quests’ gimmicks fairly well.

Damage Can Be Insufficient Without NP Level Investment

Being an Assassin is a huge downside in general. The class suffers from having a 0.9x modifier which is quite noticeable when all the buffs and stats boost the game has to offer are taken into the equation. While Tezcatlipoca will generally be completely fine in most situations, there are certain times when he might need a damage boost to compete with other Arts looping powerhouse such as Ibuki Douji (Berserker), such as when he does not hit the right trait against bulkier enemies in 90++ farming nodes.

All of Tez's skills are phenomenal and deserving of the materials invested. Of the 3, Black Sun EX should be maxed as soon as possible, with the other 2 skills maxing soon after to solidify his damage output.

• Charisma of Conflict A - This skill gives a 40% Attack buff to Tez and a 20-40% Attack to the other allies depending on whether or not they have Guts. A simple but very effective teamwide buff and is important for Tez’s damage output.

• Black Sun EX – One of the most overpowered skills ever released, this skill should be maxed no question asked as it provides an absurd amount of teamwide NP Gauge while also packing incredible teamwide protection from the Invulnerability as well.

• Heart of the Mountain A – This skill is the other part of Tez’s offensive buffs, giving him both Arts cards effectiveness and anti-trait damage that scale with levels, which are huge for his damage output in general.

Tezcatlipoca is one of the rare Servants that holds all 4 types of damage buffs: being Attack, NP Damage, Cards Effectiveness and Special Modifier. This means that his kit is already quite efficient at boosting his overall damage, but also means that he does not favor a specific type of offensive buff to improve his performance, the bigger number the better as Tezcatlipoca himself would say. NP Overcharge in looping is another interesting option since it directly increases Tez’s 3 turns NP Damage boost which makes his subsequent NP stronger too.

Beyond that, Starting NP Gauge is obviously stellar for loopers in general. It is worth noting that in a Double Tezcatlipoca team with Append Skill 2 maxed, both the Tezcatlipoca will get 100% NP Gauge just from their 2nd skills, meaning he can completely forego Starting NP Gauge in favor of more damage.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Inverted Rain of Mud: These Craft Essences offer the most bang for the buck in terms of raw damage output, and Tezcatlipoca is an excellent user of them thanks to his capacity to work in Multi-Core Farming with essentially zero Starting NP Gauge.

• Capricious / Treasure of the Caribbean / Royal Icing: These are all CEs with similar mould to Black Grail, as in they forego NP Charge for offensive buffs / more utilities on Tez.

• Ocean Flier / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Thank You For Your Hard Work! / Magical Sion / A Reward For Your Studies: These are all farmable Craft Essences from Events with Starting NP Gauge in conjunction with offensive buffs that Tezcatlipoca can use. In general, he will be fine with any Craft Essences of these molds.