Something really rare to see in gacha games is the characters that are free being useful for the long-term duration of the game. These are typically characters given to you in ways outside the traditional gacha pull where you spend a certain amount of game currency and cross your fingers. Instead, they are collected through an event or are pulled from a specific gacha banner that does not use up the main game currency.
Fate Grand Order has always been known for making high-quality lower rarity characters, so it’s no surprise they would launch an entirely new line of them on the game’s fourth anniversary. Here is everything to know about every new free character now available in the game.
10 Salome
Salome is the berserker class in the batch. Her cards are arts-based, meaning she has the capability to loop her special attack. However, she will need some special attack gain buffs from other support servants in order to do so.
Since Salome has an anti-lawful good niche, she is best suited for use in boss fights against other characters with this trait. This includes Gawain, Ganesha, Arjuna Alter, Mysterious Heroine XX, etc.
If you’re a newer player who is just getting to Camelot, she is a good choice to bring along for that since many (but not all) of the bosses are knights with the same trait. She is also optimal for long fights since one of her niches gives the team a special attack battery and heal buff after seven turns. Salome can also do a lot of curse chain damage if you use two copies.
9 Gareth
Gareth is the newest knight of the round table to arrive in Chaldea. Like Leonidas, she is a lancer with a taunt gimmick. However, her true power comes from her utility as a single target archer boss destroyer. To maximize this power, her skills must be managed in a certain way. The first one to activate is her second skill which is a twenty percent special attack battery. The next one to do is the third skill which is a special attack gaining buff.
They must be activated together because one benefits the other. Gareth’s second skill comes with very unique magic that isn’t seen in many lower rarity servants, that being that the more attack she takes from enemies, the more powerful her single target special attack damage will be. Make sure she has support protection to be able to pull this off.
8 Paris
Paris is the archer class servant in the new batch. If you’ve ever read the Iliad or know anything about Greek stories, Paris was the younger brother of the famed warrior Hector. He killed Achilles by shooting him with an arrow in his only weak area, the heel. This is where Paris’s niche is inspired from, as he has a skill that removes the target’s buff. If the buff removal is successful, the enemy will have increased damage from his single target special attack.
This will last for three turns so don’t worry about having to use it right away. Although do note that some boss’s buffs can’t be removed at all. Since Paris is a quick card-based archer, it is recommended to place him with a support Skadi in battle. These skills make him excellent for saber and berserker boss battles. Paris also has an ignore invincibility power, meaning he can hit enemies who have an evade skill active.
7 Bartholomew Roberts
This next one, Bartholomew Roberts, is not a boss killer but an area of effect rider whose specialty is destroying waves of low rarity bosses. One of his skills buffs the special attack damage of the entire party. It is very similar to the skill of a five-star area of effect rider, Francis Drake. Some people might even call him a bronze Drake, but they aren’t really fair to compare because the buster card-based Drake does not need as much support as the quick based Roberts does.
Besides farming, Roberts is a critical star dropper, so he’s a good choice to bring along if you need somebody to print stars for another character. One of his skills reduces his star weight and also increases critical damage for the entire team on the field. His other skill buffs his own quick damage for three turns, so it’s crucial to put him with a support Skadi in order to get the best output.
6 Charlotte Corday
Charlotte Corday is an arts-based single-target assassin. Most veteran players will agree that the best single target arts assassin in the game is Ryougi Shiki. Unfortunately, Shiki was a reward character for completing the Garden Of Sinners event that ran in the game a few years ago and she is not available outside of that.
Charlotte is an optimal choice for newer players who were not able to get Shiki because they have a similar set of skills. Like most assassins, Charlotte is very good at generating stars. She has an instakill niche on her special attack move that will most likely work on silver and bronze tier enemies but not usually gold ones, as they typically have instakill resistance. Her evade gives her good survivability too, which can be a problem with assassins.
5 Jason
Jason was first introduced early in the game as an NPC enemy, but a few chapters later he actually proved himself to be not as bad as we thought. Now the leader of the Argonauts has been summoned to Chaldea as a one-star arts-based saber.
While he doesn’t do a whole lot of damage on his own, he’s worth bringing along if you need some extra arts cards for helping another servant loop their special attack. He also provides a supportive role, having a skill that removes a debuff from one ally and restores their HP as well. His other skill provides evade to an ally. If his special attack goes into overcharge, it will buff arts cards for three turns.
4 Chen Gong
If you’re going to level only one of these characters, Chen Gong is the one to pick. He’s one of the only caster supports that can do significant damage, has great skills, and is just a really really well-rounded character. He’s very comparable to the five-star supports like Skadi and Tamamao. His first skill puts a taunt on an ally, so he would actually be optimal to pair with Gareth since she gets stronger the more attacks she takes. This skill also decreases the critical rate for every enemy. The second skill increases every ally’s defense. It also provides a damage cut and increases their special attack gauge.
If you were one of the people lucky enough to get Arjuna Alter, you have an excellent asset here because Chen Gong third skill increases both buster power for an ally and critical strength if they are a berserker. His area of effect special attack hits like a truck, but do be warned, the ally that is on the left of him will die after, so plan accordingly. Put an ally on the left that you won’t need for the whole fight, for instance, someone just there to clear a wave with their special attack.
3 Bonus Character: Arash
So the archer class Arash is not new by any means, but we’re going to cover him for a lot of new players who just started the game because of the anniversary. A buster-based area of effect character, Arash is one of the first one-star servants you should raise because he is going to be absolutely crucial for your three-turn farming.
Farming for material and experience cards is a big component of the game, so you want to find ways to do it quickly without spending 20 turns on one three-part node. To execute this, you need characters who can one-shot waves of enemies with their special attack. Also, you can only do a character switch out in battle with the combat suit mystic code, which is achieved by finishing a quest. However, that quest is tough to do if you aren’t leveled to a certain point yet. This is where Arash comes in because he dies right after he shoots off his attack, meaning the next character ready to kill the next wave will come and take his place. Now you have an entire first wave cleared and a new character geared to go.
2 Bonus Character: William Shakespeare
Again, Shakespeare is not new but he tends to be an overlooked support character who gets lost in Merlin and Waver so he’s definitely worth mentioning.
His first skill does a one-turn buster boost for all allies, so you could use him to boost Arash’s power if you need him to clear a high-level wave that is not sabers. His third skill increases the NP gauge for one ally by 20 percent and boosts their critical star drop rate. It’s not quite comparable to Merlin or even Chen Gong but when you’re a newer player, any and all support characters you can get are helpful.
1 Bonus Character: Cu Chulainn
Cu is a single target lancer who is available in the friend gacha right away. He is one of the tankiest early game servants you can get your hands on, meaning it’s very tough to kill him. His first skill gives him a one time guts boost for five turns, guts meaning that if he dies in battles, he will autotmatically be revived. The second skill gives him an evade for three turns and increases his defense for the same amount of turns. Lastly, his third skill removes any debuffs he has and recovers some of his HP.
He is a quick card based character, so its best to place him with a support Skadi because she has the ability to boost the power of those cards. Overall, Cu is an amazing archer boss killer that will carry you for the early chapters of the game and beyond.
NEXT: Things You Didn’t Know About Tsukihime
