It is the best time of the year for Fate/Grand Order players, and the worst time of year for their wallets. Fate/Grand Order is having its 7th Anniversary currently on the North American server, with limited five star servant Archetype: Earth being currently on rate up. Archetype: Earth, Arcueid for short, is the female lead of a different Type: Moon property – Tsukihime, and since her initial release during 7th Anniversary has not gotten a rerun banner in nearly two years on the Japan server. Sadly, for free to play players, choices must be made between Arcueid and the upcoming summer banners.
FGO has a summer event every year where they tell a fun, light-hearted, sometimes wacky story to lighten the mood of the game. With this event comes summer version servants, where a couple of servants get new versions that have swimsuit based designs and take on new classes and skills. Each event also has a couple of male servants get summer themed costumes. They sadly never get the summer version treatment. Usually the banners are two new five star summer servants, and a rerun banner of the five star male servant getting the costume. The respective four stars are any new summer versions of four stars, or any four star male servants receiving costumes. Summer servants are a tradition, and are traditionally rather… broken, for lack of a better word. This year is only breaking one of these traditions. Instead of two new summer versions of five stars, players will have three new summer banners to roll on.
First up is Lady Avalon who will be available from the event’s launch. She is a five star Pretender servant who specializes as an Arts support for Challenge Quests, boss fights, or Arts units that benefit from crit stats. She also has a support Noble Phantasm that boosts the party’s max HP, gives stars for crit chance, and gives the party Noble Phantasm charge per turn.
The rerun servant is Limbo (Ashiya Douman), a five star Alter Ego who can support a Chaotic or Evil team, inflict damage over time debuffs, and deal some massive damage with critical hits. Overall, Douman might be a pickup for characters uninterested in the other summer servants, but he probably won’t be the highlight of the event for anyone.
On the fourth day of the event the Summer Ibuki Doji banner will be added. Summer Ibuki is a five star Berserker with an AoE Arts Noble Phantasm, and is already being hailed as the best Arts looper in the game, meaning she’s the best general use Arts looper in the game. Ibuki’s strong class of Berserker, paired with an NP that deals extra damage against a laundry list of enemies in the game, and the result is a certified powerhouse. The only drawback for Ibuki is that she does not want to get hit at all, or else she might die. Luckily Arts teams are usually rather defensive, with the two best supports: Castoria and the new Lady Avalon, offering phenomenal viability. However, there might be one servant possibly more tempting for players to consider.
The final new banner of this summer (last summer will have reruns near the end of the event) is Summer Skadi. Summer Skadi is a five star Ruler who is the new best support for Quick teams. She has a 50% battery for NP charging, a Quick and Buster support buff, and an attack buff. Everything anyone could want in a support, Summer Skadi can do almost all of it. She doesn’t have a hard survival skill like invincibility or evasion, but her Ruler class means she can take a few hits from most enemies. Summer Skadi is a meta defining servant for Quick teams, who just got much more viable after buffs from the seventh anniversary. She will be dropping one week after the event begins, so players saving for her must stay strong as the other incredibly strong units tempt players to roll. Luckily all banners will run through the end of the three week long event.
The event will also feature a welfare servant: the Valkyries, a four star Arts assassin, which might be helpful in accounts that have been in need of a farmer against Rider nodes. Also players can acquire a five star craft essence for free that buffs Buster and Arts performance.
Summer Seven – Arctic Summer World – will be coming to players in mid July, most likely on July 17th after Arcueid’s banner ends on July 16th.