Voyager

“Have you ever played hide-and-seek with a fox in a wheat field?”

Voyager is a delightful blend of space travel and the classic book “The Little Prince.” Not only is he one of the most unique Servants in the game conceptually, but he’s also pretty good mechanically. What Voyager lacks in raw damage, he makes up for in NP charge and party utility. He may not be as flashy as harder-hitting SSRs, but he does have a lot of nice tools and will happily keep his team using their NPs regularly.

Voyager’s biggest strength is his easy access to NP recursion. Voyager of the Stars gives Voyager a big NP charge, and Pale Blue Dot recharges Voyager’s NP further. His NP also charges his team’s NP gauges, helping supports or other damage-dealers to use their NPs as well. Furthermore, Voyager makes critical stars with Voyager of the Stars and Pale Blue Dot, and he increases the whole party’s critical damage with Protection of World's End (Space), letting anyone on the team output a little more damage.

In exchange for these strengths, Voyager has very low damage, suffering from both low attack and low innate damage boosts. Compounding this, Voyager is a Foreigner, which means he will very rarely benefit from offensive class advantage. Voyager also has weak normal cards in terms of both damage and NP gain, meaning he is heavily reliant on his NP in order to function.

Voyager has a lot of great tools in exchange for his low damage. Masters who really like him can aim for high NP levels in order to offset his weaknesses. For everyone else who pulls him, Voyager may not be the strongest damage-dealer, but his utility makes him a nice Servant in defense-oriented teams.

NP Recursion

Between his AoE Quick Noble Phantasm, his 50% NP charge skill, and the party NP charge each time he uses his NP, Voyager can easily loop his Noble Phantasm. When he can deal enough damage, this makes him good at both farming and hard fights.

Party NP Charge

Each time Voyager uses his NP, he charges the whole team’s NP gauge. This is useful for helping support Servants access their NPs without needing to prioritize their normal attacks. It gives even more charge to living Servants (which means Pseudo-Servants, plus a few unusual cases like Shiki), which can be nice for specific teams.

Party Critical Tools

Voyager makes stars with the hits on his NP, as well as from one of the effects on his first skill. His second skill, meanwhile, increases the whole team’s critical damage by a bit and lets him focus stars to one ally. While Voyager’s critical buffs are not especially strong, they let him help an ally crit for a little bit of extra damage when needed.

Low Damage

Voyager has low attack and low-to-middling damage buffs. Some of Voyager’s damage increases are debuffs, which is sub-optimal for farming and can be resisted in hard fights. Additionally, unlike many powerful Servants, Voyager’s damage does not increase over the course of multiple turns. Altogether, this leaves Voyager’s damage relatively unimpressive as AoE Servants go.

Limited Class Advantage Context

As a Foreigner, Voyager only gets class advantage against Berserkers, Pretenders, and other Foreigners. Voyager would really like class advantage to offset his low base damage, but unfortunately Pretenders and Foreigners are rare enemies, and everyone gets class advantage against Berserkers, which leaves Voyager as a rather niche damage dealer choice.

Weak Normal Attacks

Voyager has unimpressive NP gain on his Arts cards and very low NP gain on his Quicks. Furthermore, his damage buffs that apply to normal attacks are quite low. As such, he is strongly dependent on his NP for both damage and NP gain, as well as his NP charge skill, which may not always be available.

Voyager of the Stars is Voyager’s NP charge skill, and the NP charge effect scales with levels, so it should be leveled first. Swing-by increases Voyager’s damage, so it should be leveled second. Protection of World's End (Space) is a nice skill, but its effects are fairly marginal even at max level, so it can be leveled last. Voyager wants his first two skills maxed as quickly as possible in order to be maximally effective, but he can safely leave his third skill at lower levels and do fine.

• Voyager of the Stars is most notable for being a 50% NP charge skill, which is always great for farming especially. The skill’s other effects are more useful for hard fights: 3-turn debuff immunity lets Voyager get past certain gimmicks, and star gen effects are nice for enabling easier crits. This is a great skill overall and does a lot for Voyager.
• Swing-by is important to Voyager, but it also pairs its effects in an unfortunate way. The fact that half of the damage boost on this skill is a debuff means Voyager cannot fully benefit from his damage buffs while farming. In hard fights, the skill forces a survival-damage trade, too. While each of the effects on this skill is individually nice, they do not play well together.
• Protection of World's End (Space) combines a bunch of critical-centric utility. The skill lets Voyager funnel stars to himself or an ally for a turn for more reliable crits, and it also marginally increases crit damage to the party. 30% crit damage up is low for crit damage skills, but more damage is always nice. The skill also provides critical attack resistance, a rare form of utility that acts like crit chance down, except as a buff. Negating crits can help with party survival in hard fights, making this a nice utility skill in general.

NP Damage Up craft essences are the best way to increase damage, and Voyager’s low base damage output means he appreciates as much extra damage as he can get. Attack Up craft essences are also nice due to Voyager’s lack of in-kit attack buffs, and Quick Card Performance Up craft essences benefit both damage and NP gain. Starting NP Gauge craft essences can also be helpful for stabilizing Voyager’s NP loops while farming.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Holy Night Supper: The Black Grail is the biggest damage increase Voyager can get from a CE. The other two CEs are also useful damage boosts, helping to offset Voyager’s biggest weakness.
• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament:  This CE gives Voyager starting NP gauge, as well as a useful attack buff. While this won’t increase damage as much as an NP damage CE, it fills a damage bracket Voyager does not otherwise have the ability to innately access.
• Imaginary Around / Three Anglers / Decapitating Bunny: Quick buffs are less valuable for damage than NP damage or attack buffs are, but in exchange, they increase Voyager’s NP gain and star gen. Imaginary Around is the largest standard Quick buff, while Three Anglers mixes in NP damage and crit damage, and Decapitating Bunny grants Ignore Invincible to help get past gimmicks in hard fights.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Traces of Christmases Past: These CEs provide starting NP gauge, letting Voyager NP with just his own NP charge skill, or loop more flexibly in farming setups.