Originally published on The Fandom Post

For the best gold Servants, see part 1 of this guide.

While it’s true that rarer Servants have higher stats, that doesn’t mean you need them to win in Grand Order. It’s perfectly possible to clear even the hardest bosses using only Servants from the Friend Point gacha. In this list, I’ll be covering the best Servants you can easily get from the Friend Point gacha. Grand Order isn’t a pay to win game, and being free to play is completely viable, especially if you use these Servants. Unlike the last one, I’ll be highlighting two Casters who are both incredibly useful, but fill radically different roles on a team.

Saber

Winner: Gaius Julius Caesar

Deck: BBAQQ

NP: Quick, single target

There are currently only three Sabers available from the Friend Point gacha, so there’s not a lot of competition there. Even so, Caesar comes out as not just the best three star Saber, but also one of the most useful three stars in the game. While he has the same quick deck and quick NP as Okita, Caesar is far more of a team player. His skills are all focused around buffing his team over anything else. His charisma and tactics skills aren’t as powerful as some five stars’ versions, but having both at once is enough to make up for that. With an attack buff from charisma and an NP damage buff from tactics, he can make his team do far more overall damage than it normally would. His single target crit buff is also excellent on crit teams. It comes with a defense debuff, but the amount of damage it gives makes it well worth using in the right situations. His quick deck allows him to generate more crit stars than most Sabers, although his low hit counts mean he won’t drop enough to be a primary star generator. Instead, he’s best used to support his team with damage buffs and a few extra crit stars until he can use his NP. His NP is a single target that does a ton of damage while also generating a few extra stars to use. Between his buffs and his high damage output, Caesar can serve as either a primary damage dealer on a team, or an anchor to enhance a crit team and give it more consistent damage. Either way, he’s the best Saber to use if you don’t have Saber Alter or any of the five star Sabers (most of the four star Sabers aren’t that good).

For a more buster focused Saber, you can use Fergus Mac Roich. Fergus has a weaker AOE NP and can’t buff his team, but still does a lot of damage thanks to his three buster cards and attack buff. Fergus is essentially a Berserker who trades slightly less damage for better survivability, and is your best option if Caesar isn’t to your liking.

Archer

Winner: Euryale

Deck: BAAQQ

NP: Arts, single target

Choosing the best Archer here wasn’t easy. All of the free Archers are great, and many of them are superior to the current four star Archers. But since there has to be a winner, I’m picking Euryale as the best choice. What makes Euryale so useful is her sheer versatility. Her attack and HP are both solid without being exceptional, and her deck allows her to fit on a variety of teams. Her two arts cards and single target arts NP are a great bonus to any arts team. Her first skill has a high chance to drain an enemies NP by one tick, but is guaranteed to give Euryale 18-27% charge depending on level. Delaying an enemy’s NP can mean the difference between victory and defeat, so being able to buy an extra turn is great, even if it isn’t guaranteed. The free NP charge and her two arts cards also let her use her single target NP pretty regularly and to great effect. She can also serve as a star absorber on a crit team. Her class gives her high star absorption already, and her two quick cards and decent hit counts let her generate a few extra stars to supplement whoever you have as your main star generator. Regardless of what kind of team you put her on, Euryale’s best feature is her NP. It already does high damage as a single target, but it also gets a damage bonus against male enemies, which are pretty common throughout the game. In addition to that, it’s guaranteed to reduce their attack by 20% for three turns and has a high chance to stun male enemies. An attack debuff like that can save your team if you’re fighting a tough boss, and being able to stun a boss for one turn is one of the most useful abilities in the game. Even though she can’t buff her own team, Euryale’s debuff potential lets her protect her team and keep it alive longer than normal. It’s a very close call, but Euryale is the best three star Archer you can get right now.

Arash, Robin Hood, and David are also strong picks if you don’t have Euryale. Robin and David both excel at doing damage with their powerful NPs, and David can also support his team with healing and charisma buffs. Arash is pretty weak in boss fights, but is great for farming. His NP kills him, but can still clear a wave because it’s an AOE with the damage of a single target. Being a one star, it’s also incredibly easy to get it to max, allowing you to wipe out an entire wave of enemies if you’re farming dailies.

Lancer

Winner: Cu Chulainn

Deck: BBAQQ

NP: Quick, single target

Cu isn’t just the best three star Lancer in the game, he’s the best non-limited Lancer you can get. With the exception of Scathach, he completely outclasses every other Lancer currently available (and quite a few that haven’t come out yet). The reason for that is quite simple: he never dies. His first skill gives him guts (a free revive when he dies) for five turns, his second skill gives him evade for three hits and a three turn defense buff, and his third skill heals him and removes all debuffs. Guts and a self-heal/debuff cleanse alone make him hard to kill, but three hits of evade is what really makes him great. Three hits is actually better than the usual one turn of evade since there’s no time limit on it and it’s guaranteed to last at least one turn. All enemies only get three actions per turn, so Cu’s guaranteed to survive for at least that long, and can last much longer if the enemy targets a different Servant on your team or uses a skill instead. The self-heal doesn’t give him a ton of health, but it still helps in a pinch and can keep him alive for an extra turn to give you a chance to use his other skills. The debuff removal is actually more useful because of how many late-game bosses stack debuffs to weaken your team before they even attack. Debuff removal is a rare skill to have, and is almost always useful in some way. Once you max Cu’s skills, he’ll have guts every seven turns and evade every five turns, so all you need to do is time them carefully and give him a tiny bit of support to keep him alive. If you’re careful, Cu can outlast almost any other Servant in the game. He doesn’t do a ton of damage, even though he has a single target NP, but he doesn’t need to. The main strategy for Cu is to keep stalling and slowly chipping away at the enemy’s HP. With how unkillable he is, Cu can outlast your stronger damage dealers and finish off bosses that you’ve already gotten low. In short, Cu is a top-tier Servant that’s worth using even if you have rarer Lancers; he’s just that good.

None of the other Lancers compare to Cu in terms of overall usefulness, but Romulus is a decent alternative if you want an offense-focused Lancer over a tank.

Rider

Winner: Ushiwakamaru

Deck: BAAQQ

NP: Quick, single target

Rider is another class with a lot of solid choices. All of the current three star Riders are at least somewhat useful, but the best one is definitely Ushiwakamaru. Like most Riders, Ushi shines most when she’s on a crit team. Riders like Ushi have the highest star absorption in the game, so Ushi will almost always get the majority of your team’s crit stars. Her quick/arts deck allows her to use her NP fairly often and generate a fair amount of stars. Having an A+ riding passive is also a nice boost to her star generation, which is helped even more by the star generation buff from her NP. She’s not quite as effective at star generation as an Assassin, but Ushi can still generate a fair amount of stars on her own. Pair her with an Assassin and Caesar, and you should be able to crit almost every turn with Ushi. Even though her attack isn’t particularly high for a three star, the frequent crits and single target NP balance that out and allow her to do a lot of damage. Her skills are also a nice bonus to that. She can buff both damage and NP gain for her entire team, which is why she has so much synergy with Caesar. Her NP gain buff makes up for his slightly low NP gain while her attack buff can stack with his for even more bonus damage. With so many useful skills, Ushi is a great pick for any crit team. Team buffs like hers are always going to be useful in harder fights, and her class allows her to absorb a lot of crit stars even without any star absorption buffs. With her interlude complete and her NP maxed (not too hard to do with a three star), Ushi’s a great pick for a primary damage dealer on a crit team. She’s not as self sufficient as some of the other Servants here, but her use lies more in taking advantage of other Servants’ crit stars and buffing her team.

For other options, Medusa and Alexander are both good picks. They both have higher attack than Ushi, but their AOE NPs balance that out so they don’t do much more damage in the long term. They’re still both good picks and have a lot of useful skills, just not quite as useful as Ushi’s.

Caster (Support)

Winner: Hans Christian Andersen

Deck: BAAAQ

NP: Arts, team buff

A good support Caster can be the difference between a good team and a great team. Being able to buff, heal, and otherwise support your main attackers is an invaluable role, a role in which Hans excels. The bulk of his utility comes from the sheer number of buffs he can stack. His NP has a high chance to apply a 20-40% attack and defense buff (and a star generation buff after his interlude) and is guaranteed to heal at least 1000 HP per turn for three turns, depending on overcharge. Having that many buffs on one ability is a great asset, and is more reliable than it sounds. While the attack, defense, and crit buffs have a chance not to activate, it’s very low at NP 5. Two stars like Hans are so common that it’s almost impossible to play regularly and not max their NP, and his buffs have an 80% chance to activate at max NP. In other words, his buffs work 4/5 times, which is more than reliable enough to use regularly. It helps that his heal is guaranteed to apply, so his NP will never go to waste. His skills are a little more focused, but still well worth using. His first skill buffs the entire party’s crit damage for three turns, which synergizes well with the crit stars his third skill generates. However, his second skill is by far the most useful. Depending on level, it charges his NP by 50-75%. This, combined with his three arts cards and high NP gain, allows Hans to use his NP very frequently to the point where his buffs will probably be up more often than not. Hans’ low attack and class mean he’s not very good at doing damage, but the sheer number of buffs he can stack make him a useful support for any team.

For more specialized support Casters, you can use Shakespeare for buster teams, and Paracelsus van Hohenheim or Mozart for arts teams. They’re all decent supports in the right situation, but nowhere near as universally useful as Hans.

Caster (Offense)

Winner: Medea

Deck: BAAAQ

NP: Arts, single target

Offensive Casters are in a weird place. Grand Order has hidden damage modifiers for each class, and Casters’ modifier is .90. What that means is Casters do 10% less damage than their stats would indicate. That’s fine for support Casters since their role is buffing the team, but it means most offensive Casters are rarely useful. That said, Medea is decidedly the exception here. Medea’s role is very straightforward: spam her NP as often as possible. Casters with three arts cards always get their Noble Phantasms quickly, and Medea is no exception. Her arts cards and 1.64% NP gain are already enough to charge it quickly, but her first skill makes her even better. It give 80% NP at level one, and 150% at max level. Not only that, her NP itself restores 20-100% NP depending on how much charge she has. By timing her skill properly and getting enough arts chains, Medea can use her NP faster than any other Servant in the game. Even though her max attack of 7418 is pretty good for a three star, she doesn’t do much damage thanks to the aforementioned class modifier. Even so, the sheer number of times she can use her NP more than makes up for the lack of damage per hit. Her NP itself is a single target arts card, which already puts her well above most offensive Casters since they usually have buster AOEs. It gets a damage boost after her interlude, which came out recently, and also removes all buffs from the target. Buff removal is a huge advantage in tougher boss fights. A lot of bosses stack various attack and defense buffs, so being able to remove them consistently is a massive boost to your team’s damage and survivability. If you’re building an arts team or need a Caster to kill enemy Assassins, Medea is perfect. As offensive Casters go, she’s by far the best in the game, and a great addition to any arts focused team.

I’d normally go over other offensive Casters, but there really aren’t any others that are worth using much. None come close to Medea’s damage output, and three stars like her are common enough that most players are likely to get her eventually just from using the free friend point rolls you get every day.

Assassin

Winner: Hassan of the Cursed Arm

Deck: BAQQQ

NP: Quick, single target

Hassan’s role is apparent as soon as you look at him. With three quick cards, decent hit counts, a quick NP, and skills to buff his crit damage, star generation, and to generate stars, he’s a pure star generator. Like most Assassins, he won’t be your primary damage dealer. Instead, Hassan is perfect to consistently generate crit stars for Servants like Ushi and Eurayle. Pretty much any Rider or Archer would fit with him, since they all have higher star weight than Assassins, so they’ll get the majority of Hassans crit stars and be able to do more damage with them. Even though he’s an Assassin, Hassan has surprisingly good survivability. His third skill increases his star generation, but also grants him three hits of evade. Just like Cu’s second skill, this is vastly more useful than turn-based evade, so you won’t have to worry about Hassan dying too quickly. His second skill, which increases his crit damage, is less useful. Hassan’s low damage output means buffing his own crit damage is generally useless unless you get a brave chain or Hassan is the only Servant you have left. His NP does decent damage as a single target and charges pretty fast due to his having three hits on his quick cards and a high NP gain rate. Being a two star, it’s pretty easy to max Hassan’s NP, so it can still do decent damage in spite of his generally low damage output. It also has a chance to insta-kill, although that’s less useful than it sounds. Most bosses have their insta-kill rate pre-set regardless of which skill is used, and it’s always so low that it might as well not exist at all. On the whole, Hassan perfectly embodies the Assassin class. He doesn’t do much damage on his own, but he generates a ton of crit stars from his quick deck and skills that he can feed to a more powerful Servant to massively boost their damage. Even if you have one of the four star Assassins, I’d still recommend using Hassan since he’s the best overall star generator aside from Jack.

If you don’t want to use Hassan, Kojirou Sasaki and Jing Ke are both solid alternatives. Kojirou has slightly worse stats as a one star, but his skills and NP are both a little better than Hassan’s. Jing Ke is the opposite, with slightly better stats and weaker skills and a weaker NP (due to the self-damage). All are solid star generators, but Hassan is the best overall unless you put a lot of effort into upgrading Kojirou’s skills.

Berserker

Winner: Lu Bu Fengxian

Deck: BBBAQ

NP: Buster, single target

Berserkers generally have one role on a team: come in and do as much damage as possible before they inevitably die. In that regard, Lu Bu is a perfect example of his class. His max attack of 8119 is the highest out of all three star Servants by a long shot, and is even higher than some four stars. Combine that with the three turn attack buff on his first skill and the bonus damage Berserkers have against every class, and Lu Bu is by far the hardest hitting three star in the game. His buster deck and single target buster NP are also great for maximizing his damage potential. His NP’s overcharge effect gives it a slight chance to stun, although that doesn’t matter too much since the chance is pretty low. It’s main purpose is to nuke any target you use it on. Lu Bu isn’t without his drawbacks, however.  His max HP of 8302 is the lowest out of all three stars, and his class means he’ll take even more damage than usual. The defense skill on his second skill helps a bit, but isn’t enough to keep him alive in the long term. The best way to use Lu Bu is to either bring him out after the rest of your team has weakened the enemy team for him to finish, or pair him with a good support like Hans to keep him alive. Lu Bu may not be able to last long, but his damage potential means he can still leave a huge impact on a fight.

Asterios is also a solid pick with the right team. His NP allows him to debuff enemy teams into the ground with some of the longest lasting attack and defense debuffs in the game. Pair him with a support like Hans to keep him alive and buff his damage, and he’s perfect for harder boss fights. Even on JP, a common team for late-game bosses is pairing Asterios with Hans and Mash for support. He may not have a lot of power on his own, but Asterios is another Servant who’s excellent with the proper team.

 

Grand Order can be pretty overwhelming at first, so hopefully this guide will help you figure out which Servant and team is right for you. I’ve only included Servants currently available in NA, so don’t be afraid to mix and match with newer Servants as they come out to see what works. Happy New Year everyone, and may the gacha be ever in your favor!