Utsumi Erice (Avenger)

“This is the pod boat borrowed from Sukunabikona, which crosses over the Underworld.”

Despite her Noble Phantasm’s name, the rough potato is not actually a potato but a type of milkweed native to East Asia which is currently an invasive plant in Minnesota. Its peel is what comprises Erice Avenger’s Single Target Arts Noble Phantasm boat, rented from a God who used it to travel between worlds.

As an Avenger, Erice enjoys one of the highest damage Single Target Noble Phantasms in the game when not factoring in class advantage and outside support. Due to her ability to curse enemies with Boundary on the Underworld Path C and her Noble Phantasm having a supereffective mod against cursed enemies, she can practically guarantee supereffective damage on an enemy of her choice. She’s also a Servant killer with the powermod granted by Reaper A and a basic Arts boost from Evil Spirit Medium A. She’s also capable of producing some nice critical hits.

Erice’s main issues come from charging her NP gauge. Despite several tools in her kit to charge her NP, she just doesn’t have the hit count to use her Noble Phantasm more than once in a fight without extensive support. Her damage also severely drops off if the enemy is not cursed, to the point of becoming worse than some low-rarity AoE Servants at NP1. Not to mention, her Death skills are mostly useless.

Erice best fits as a nuke type Servant where a Master wants to lay down major damage is a single turn alone. In theory against a boss with large hit counts and the proper support she might be able to get off a second nuke, but usually it’s just a one and done. But worst of all, she’s bringing an invasive plant to our world! Get her away!

Burst Damage

Erice’s skills lend themselves to a sudden burst of power to damage her enemies. With a large Arts gain on her Noble Phantasm’s overcharge, a supereffective modifier in curse damage she can guarantee, and potentially even more with her second skill’s ability to inflict a Defense Down when attacked, she’s a pretty decent option for damage at a 4-star cost. 

Servant Killing

Erice has an anti-Servant powermod on her third skill, and unlike Gilgamesh’s, this one affects every Servant. It has a decent 3-turn sustain making her fit well in certain boss fights.

Critical Hits

Erice has not just one but two passives which boost her Critical Damage, as well as her third skill. Overall these make about a 50% Critical damage bonus about half the turns she’s around. Unfortunately it is hard to get stars for her due to her Arts-centric typing, but if she has them she can make good use of them.

NP Charging

Getting Erice charged to full will be a bit of an issue. She has several skills to support it, such as a 30% self charge, 4.2% passive charge a turn, receiving 16% more charge when attacked, and a skill to focus all enemy attacks on her for one turn. However, these are often not enough to overcome her relatively low hitcount single target NP, and rely on the enemy actually surviving it to damage her back. As her self charge and target focus are on the same skill, these must be used to top off a gauge and build the next one on the same turn.

Curse-Based Damage

If a Master has a way to consistently curse enemies, such as with command codes, Erice can become an incredible damage dealer. But if a Master wants to use her on multiple waves and does not have a command code to do it, her damage drops precipitously against non-cursed enemies. She also struggles against debuff immune enemies for the same reason. 

Ignorable Death

On first glance, Erice’s death skills are pretty nice, being able to guarantee death on Silver enemies using her Noble Phantasm. Unfortunately, most enemies Eric will fight are gold level bosses and will be immune to her death effects.

Erice’s skill set primarily revolves around her second skill’s ability to curse enemies on demand, unlocking her Noble Phantasm’s full damage potential. A typical Master will want to pop all three skills on the turn they plan to use a Noble Phantasm with Erice. This will not only give her maximized damage against her enemies but also fully focus attacks on her which she can then evade with her first skill while benefiting from their NP gain. Recommended skill order is 2, then 1, then 3.

• Evil Spirit Medium A has two equally important but different effects. The first acts as a standard Arts boost, giving her more power and refund, especially on her Noble Phantasm. The second, her evasion, goes hand in hand with her second skill’s taunt. This will make sure that she survives two of the three attacks instead of taking it all in at once. As Arts affects refund this would be leveled second, though it can be left at level 9 if necessary. 
• Boundary on the Underworld Path C makes Erice be Erice. By cursing enemies, she can unleash supereffective Noble Phantasm damage. This also serves as a taunt skill which can be strategically used to the team’s advantage. Besides deflecting damage from the rest of the team, it can be negated with the evasion from her first skill and also inflict defense down stacks on the boss. This is her main method of charge too, both providing a 30% boost and being the source of the NP gains from those who attack her. This needs to be leveled first to max to take advantage of the full NP charge.
• Reaper A gives Erice a moderate powermod against Servants, as well as a Crit boost for 3 turns. This in turn works well in boss fights, as many bosses are Servants. While this skill boosts death rate, it rarely comes to play as her enemies will likely not be susceptible to death. 

Erice’s craft essences best work when they can give her access to two Noble Phantasms in three turns, as well as boosting her damage. A Mixed Starting Gauge / Damage CE might be best for that purpose. If Masters can get her enough charge, a Noble Phantasm Damage CE fits best. Otherwise, she’d work best with Starting NP Gauge CEs.

• Ocean Flier / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: If Erice has a 50% starting Gauge, she can access her Noble Phantasm with a maxed second append skill and her second skill. Then a pair of Caster Altrias can fill her up completely for a second shot. Damage boosts are better than none.
• The Black Grail: Erice can in theory use a Black Grail, but it would require her to get about 50% of a gauge refill in the turn of her Noble Phantasm. There may be some randomness involved in this. If she can use it, it is a great damage boost. It should be noted that a Black Grail will stack additively to her Servant powermod, but since it is so much larger it shouldn’t be too big of a difference. 
• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: Any CE with a 50% charge or better can get Erice to do two Noble Phantasms in two straight turns given the right supports. These do not provide any damage boost so are recommended far less than the others.