Rabbit’s Reviews #426: Jeunesse Crane (4* Alter Ego)

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In contrast to Miyu, Crane is probably the most interesting of the summer SRs this year. She’s not necessarily the best—Kriemhild, with her unambiguously SSR-tier damage, might be superior in practical terms—but Crane definitely has the most going on in her kit. The end result of everything Crane has going for her is that she’s both a strong alternate support and a powerful damage-dealer, and unlike many Servants for whom that’s true, she can do both at once.
Like Kriem, Crane surpasses the damage of most of her direct competition, outdoing Kiara and Kirei at equal NP levels, with loop specs that are right about on-par. The only knock against her as a damage-dealer is that Alter Egos only get half class advantage in most cases and they’re weak against all three knight classes. Crane needs high NP levels to surpass free options like Habetrot and Sieg against their preferred classes, but that fact that she can do so at all speaks highly of her, and being good at damage but not quite as good as a proper counterclasser is probably actually healthy in terms of overall game balance.
And then you have Crane’s supportive functionality, where she brings a ton of both offensive and defensive utility. She functionally has a 20/50 buff spread on her skills, which matches what Servants like Castoria and Merlin provide. Those buffs come with some caveats, and she offers a lot less charge than those two do, but for her rarity she’s a remarkably good support.
Essentially, Crane is what you want a jack-of-all-trades to be. She can kill Casters, and Riders, and Assassins, and Berserkers, and Foreigners. She’s not the best at any of those things, but she can do all of them reasonably well. Similarly, she’s a good enough support to be totally functional if you can’t use the SSR options for any reason, with just enough asterisks that she doesn’t reach the level of proper meta support herself. 
FGO is a game that rewards specialization, so a Servant like Crane who’s very good at a lot of different things but not the best at any of them is maybe not the most appealing in theory… but she is very good at all the things she does. If you’re light on Servants who fit into any of Crane’s various roles, or if you need someone who can do all of them at once, she’s got you covered.
Miss Crane (Alter Ego)
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Crane has a nicely offensive stat spread relative to SRs as a whole, though because Lip and Mecha-Liz are both also offense-oriented she only has the third-highest attack of the four SR Alter Egos. High attack helps her damage output, and while higher health might make her a better stall support, she’s definitely better off overall for being attack-leaning. Crane has substandard NP gain relative to her deck, with weak Arts cards and a single really bad Quick. Her star gen is also bad, mostly due to bring a triple-Arts Servant with an Arts NP.
All three of Crane’s passives are unique. Item Creation (Clothing) slightly increases buff success rate for the whole party. None of Crane’s buffs have a fail chance, but this provides a small bit of protection against the rare enemy that reduces buff success rate, and it can be a small bonus when supporting Servants who do have buffs that can whiff, like Spish. Presence Acclimation is an odd passive that provides a pretty good 20% star gen buff—enough to give each of Crane’s cards a good chance to drop a star, despite her Arts focus—but in exchange it gives enemies an extra 5% chance to crit against Crane. I’d call this a bad trade on-balance, but slightly increased star gen can be okay if Crane is supporting, and in rare cases you might want Crane to get crit and killed so you can cycle her out. Summerfields Forever is probably Crane’s best passive, giving passive healing, passive star gen, and increased NP gain to every Child and Summer Servant, including Crane herself. At minimum this helps Crane’s NP gain, provides stars per turn, and helps her survive, and in certain teams it gives the same thing to Crane’s allies, which is pretty nice!
Mana Loading is Crane’s most important append for loop specs reasons. Anti-Caster Attack Up is actually helpful to Crane as well, as it increases her damage against one of the classes she gets class advantage against. Skill reload can occasionally be handy for long fights, and the other two appends don’t do much for Crane.
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Crane takes a full set of both Saber and Caster pieces and gems. I am almost always out of both Saber and Caster gems—there are just too many good Servants who use them—so anecdotally I would say this is maybe the worst possible combination for an Alter Ego. In exchange, though, none of her other mats are likely to be a gate.
All three of Crane’s skills are useful for both supportive and selfish purposes, and she needs all of them leveled in order to be fully functional. She’s also somewhat unusual in that every single effect on every single skill is meaningful—there’s nothing throwaway about this skillset. Recommended skill order is 2>3>1.
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Emotional Distancing is a very strong supportive skill and a passable selfish one. It provides four effects, all of which are very nice to have on a support. Partywide Arts up is nice for both damage and NP gain, though at 20% the value is lower than you would expect from a fully selfish equivalent. Debuff immunity is great for consistency in CQs, though it will only block a single debuff application. AoE dodges are also excellent, potentially letting Crane block an enemy NP—though that does mean not using this skill proactively for its damage, which is usually unideal. Lastly, the skill gives a partywide 30% critical attack chance resistance buff, which, due to how crit chance works, effectively negates all crits from anything without a crit buff. This is a deceptively large boost to overall survival, as crits are the most likely thing to break through your defenses if you otherwise have a way to guard against NPs. Aside from the fact that there’s a slight survival/damage trade here, this is a fantastic skill for Crane as a support, and everything here is still useful when Crane is your DPS.
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Song of Clothing also provides lots of useful things in one place. It starts off with a 20% partywide battery, which is certainly nice—it’s not enough charge for Crane to compete directly with the SSR supports, but it’s more or less the standard for a top-end SR support unit, and it’s definitely better than nothing. It also gives 20% NP damage up to the party—always useful—and raises the whole team’s mental debuff success rate. This is useful to Crane herself for various reasons, and it also makes Servants who rely on things like charm more consistent. More importantly, though, it plays into the last effect on this skill: 30% power mod against enemies with mental debuffs for the whole party. Crane can apply mental debuffs and trigger this effect with her own kit, so if you’re willing to jump through a few hoops she functionally provides 20% Arts up, 20% NP damage up, and 30% power mod universally, which is on-par with many SSR supports and very good for an SR. This is naturally even better for DPS units who bring mental debuffs of their own—and that applies to Crane herself as well. If Crane is looping, she should always have the benefit of this power mod, which contributes to what are quite good in-kit steroids overall.
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This Summer is an AoE charm. It has an accuracy of 60% at base, which jumps to 100% if used after Song of Clothing. That’s low enough that it can still be resisted, but you can usually count on it, and it’ll always land if the enemy doesn’t have any debuff resistance. AoE charm is a great source of survival in challenge quests, locking enemies down entirely for a turn, and it has the added benefit of proccing Crane’s power mod. The one drawback is that mental debuff resistance is somewhat more common than normal debuff resistance in hard fights (which is a lingering consequence of Euryale trivializing a lot of early-FGO content), but as long as enemies aren’t immune, this is a great form of utility that’s also useful for farming due to its connection to Crane’s second skill. Aside from that, this skill provides 30% NP charge—making Crane a 50% charger, which is a rarity at the SR level—and it gives a 3-turn 30% NP damage buff, further increasing Crane’s damage. Crane has 50% total NP damage up in her kit, which, on top of being a lot of damage ampage in general, synergizes nicely with Oberon to let Crane reach good turn-3 damage numbers.
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Crane’s NP has a lot going on for what is ultimately mostly just a typical DPS NP. It’s most notable for having ramp, which is not particularly common on SRs. It also applies confusion before dealing damage, which is actually relevant to farming because confusion is a mental debuff and therefore triggers Crane’s power mod. Confusion has a 100% change of applying at base, so as long as Crane has used her third skill, it should essentially always land unless the target is immune. The only enemies who even have a chance of dodging it in farming contexts are those with both Magic Resistance and Core of the Goddess or something similar, and even those Servants will get hit most of the time.
This NP also brings a bit of support value. Confusion isn’t a particularly reliable form of support on its own, but because it triggers Crane’s power mod it’s helpful for enabling Crane’s buffs on an ally. Skill seal itself—the end result of confusion—is a bit less valuable, but keeping enemies from using annoying spammable defensive buffs and other things of that nature can sometimes be nice. In addition to that, the skill removes offensive buffs—not usually terribly important, but sometimes helpful for stability—and it inflicts a small crit resistance debuff against anything that isn’t a child or a summer unit. The crit damage debuff is only 20%, and a supportive Crane is unlikely to be looping, so this won’t matter much in practice… but it’s better than nothing, especially if Crane is supporting a DPS who can reliably crit.
As a DPS, Crane can loop any node that has at least four enemies spread across the first two waves, assuming a Castoria/Castoria/Oberon setup and provided she has Mana Loading. On turn 1, you use Crane’s first skill, both Castoria Arts buffs, both Castoria Charismas, and one Castoria 20% battery. Crane refunds about 15% per enemy. Against one enemy, You need to use the remaining Castoria’s 20% battery, both Crane batteries, and Oberon’s 20% battery, after which Crane must refund 50%, which she does against three enemies on wave 2. If wave 1 has two enemies, Crane refunds 30%, you use the remaining Castoria battery and both Crane batteries, and then Crane needs to refund 30%, which she does if wave 2 has 2 enemies. If wave 1 has 3 enemies, Crane refunds 50% with even the one guaranteed hit of overkill. You then use both of Crane’s batteries, and Crane only needs 10% refund to secure the loop, which she always gets.
In all of the above setups, Crane uses her partywide battery on turn 2, which guarantees both Castorias can access their NPs if they have Mana Loading maxed. Castoria NPs substantially increase Crane’s damage output, so there’s no reason other than NP animation time not to slot them in!
With two Castoria NPs and MLB BG, Crane breaks a million damage against cavalry if she has NP5, 4* Fous, and level 100. She can’t farm the most restrictive enemy formations and she’s limited to Cavalry (and Foreigners), but many SRs can’t feasibly farm 90++ nodes at all. Seven grails and a full set of 4* fous is a lot to invest into an SR, but if you happen to have her at NP5—if you get a bunch of copies while rolling for Tiamat, for instance—it’s nice to know that she can function as a top-end farmer without getting into overgrail territory.
She’s also a prime candidate for multicore farming setups, as most of her power is partywide. Crane provides a whole bunch of buffs and also some NP charge for whoever she’s paired with. She’s certainly nowhere near as good as Castoria as a farming support, but when you consider that she brings a little less than SSR-tier support value and also hits hard herself, she starts to look like one of the best multicore AoEs out there.
Crane is a strong DPS for CQs as well, as all of her farming strengths hold true and her party utility matters a bit more. Crane helps keep the party alive and functional while she deals damage, and her party charge facilitates support NPs nicely. She can function as a burst unit in setups like what I’ve outline above, but she’s also a great point Servant for Arts Stall teams. Lady Avalon/Crane/Castoria is both fast and bulky, and Crane’s third passive gives extra stars, healing, and NP gain to Lady Avalon. Alternatively, Lady Avalon/Crane/Archer Tiamat is nearly as stable, relies less on lining up NP chains every three turns, and gets the benefit of Crane’s passive on all three Servants, which is neat. Crane is generally a great point Servant for both burst and stall, though, so any conventionally strong Arts shell will work well for her.
As a support, you can stick Crane in a team with any Arts Servant you like and she’ll do just fine. If Crane has Mana Loading and you have a Castoria or Tiamat on the team—either of which you can pull off your friend list—you can guarantee Crane an NP, which means you should have at least two and likely more turns of benefiting from her power mod. While it’s not strictly the most optimal timing for her skills defensively, you can use all three of Crane’s skills turn 1 and still get roughly two turns of protection for the whole party, while using Crane’s NP on turn 2 for some extra damage and for the mental debuff from confusion. A Crane/Arts DPS/(Castoria or Tiamat) team should be totally sufficient for all but the hardest fights.
Lady Avalon is another noteworthy partner for Crane as a support. Crane and Lady Avalon both have partywide protection, and the two together can keep a steady stream of stars up for your DPS, especially if your DPS happens to also be a Summer unit. In fact, Crane/Summer Castoria/Lady Avalon is a particularly strong team, getting 9 stars per turn passively, plus whatever Lady Avalon’s NP is providing, plus Summer Castoria’s passive star gen—and then you also have survival for days, with all three Servants bringing strong partywide defensive tools.
Crane also has particularly good synergy with damage-dealers who either apply or benefit from mental debuffs. Summer Kiara, for example, deals supereffective damage based on the number of mental debuffs on the target, which means Crane has an outsized impact on her functional damage output in CQ contexts. Summer Kama, similarly, deals supereffective damage against charmed enemies but can only inflict charm for a turn. Getting an extra turn of charm from Crane is a big deal, especially considering Crane brings a bunch of other buffs too.
Overall, treat a supportive Crane like you would any other Arts support, using her defensive tools to extend the fight and her various buffs to enhance damage. Since she provides a pretty wide spread of utility, she can help just about anything. Except for cases where you specifically want to support someone who interfaces with mental debuffs, Crane won’t be as effective as the dedicated SSR supports, but if you don’t have or can’t use the SSRs for whatever reason, Crane is a really good option—and she has the added bonus of being able to contribute solid damage herself.
If you’re using Crane as a DPS, you might as well give her The Black Grail. She’s usually fine recursion-wise, and her healing-per-turn passive exactly offsets the CE’s demerit. As a support, 2030 is a good option, pairing with Crane’s innate passive star gen to help support party crits. Alternatively, if you happen to have GudaGuda Poster Girl, Crane makes great use of it, as the huge short-term attack buff further enhances Crane’s ability to output her own damage, and drawing fire for three turns make it possible to potentially get Crane killed and cycle her out for another support with fresh skills.
Crane has lots of good CC options. For a DPS Crane, crit damage CCs are a solid fallback—she won’t be critting all the time, but she will be critting sometimes, and extra damage is always nice. Buff removal CCs and the like are always helpful for consistency and will benefit Crane both as a support and as a DPS. My personal pick, though, would be to give Crane star gen CCs and really lean into the fact that Crane has lots of little sources of star gen that all add up to promote decent crit rates.
With a pair of grails, Crane is essentially as powerful as a good SSR. I strongly recommend at least a pair of grails for this one—she very much deserves it. She even has a special voice line that can only play if you grail her!
If you happen to NP5 Crane and can spare the grails, I think it’s worth taking her all the way to level 100, since she’ll benefit from the extra stats no matter how you use her and hitting level 100 makes her 90++ viable. She’s just shy of a million damage against Cavalry assuming level 1 Castorias and no 4* Fous, so she should be fine for farming most things with a card or two—and doubly so if your Castoria is NP2 or higher. This will also make her better at multicore setups when those are relevant.
All that said, I don’t think levels above 100 are worth it. They won’t let her hit meaningfully higher break points, and SR coins are in pretty short supply. If you have spare coins and already have Mana Loading, you might consider unlocking the anti-Caster append or Skill Reload instead.
Crane is really really good. She is an all-rounder, which means she’s not the absolute best at either support or damage, but she does both things well enough to be competitive, and in cases where you need both at once there are very few Servants who do it better. While Kriemhild might be stronger in a conventional sense, I think Crane is the real prize as far as this year’s Summer SRs go. She’s a cool support and a very good DPS. She may not raise the power ceiling, but I suspect most players can find a use for her—which is especially nice considering she comes on a banner with a shiny new meta support SSR. Great Servant, and great addition to the game.