Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai is currently unavailbe on the Global ver.
Katsushika Hokusai is a limited servant and only availale in the New Year 2018 Pickup Summon.

Almost immediately after the release of our first Foreigner Servant, we get our second. Katsushika Hokusai provides a very interesting skillset and playstyle to the table, which gives her great potential for power without making her outright broken. Most probably initially assumed that she was only meant to fill in the shoes of the previously nonexistent AoE damagers for the Foreigner class, but surprisingly she doesn’t shy out from boasting her strengths.

• Her NP charge and dodge skill have a short cooldown of 5 turns
• Has good stat distribution
• Her 3rd skill allows her offensive power to grow considerably
• Her NP’s supereffective niche is of a decent size
• Having star absorb equal to Archers allows her to crit considerably well

• Her deck and base gain can limit her overall NP gain
• Her dodge and NP charge are fitted into one skill, which may affect usage
• Her base damage isn’t that high

The introduction of the Foreigner class is definitely interesting, although it’s a little doubtful they’ll actually have much worth outside of their Anti-Berserker niche. As such, the developers seem to have really poured effort in making these Servants strong even outside of counterclasses.

Hokusai presents an interesting way of dealing damage— she’s somewhat similar to Nero Bride, whose damage grows the more they use their NP. And being an Arts Servant, it’s fairly easy to recharge it continuously. In Hokusai’s case, her damage grows the more she uses her Arts cards. Her 3rd skill allows her to grant defense debuffs on enemies she uses her Arts cards on, which in return gives her the potential to inflate her team’s and her own damage against a single Servant. There are a lot of factors that make her an interesting and useful Servant. One is the fact that her main card is Arts--- in an Arts team, using her Arts cards to debuff enemies isn’t that much of a hassle than when using say, Quick or Buster cards. This is because in an Arts team, one would be using her Arts cards with other Servants constantly. As such, the use of her Arts cards doesn’t get in the way of rotations of the team.

Another factor that contributes to her play is the power of Brave chains and same-color chains. When performing a same-color Brave chain, the Extra card receives a hefty boost in damage that makes it hit particularly hard. With the ability to stack up to 60% DEF down on a single target with an NPAA, she gains an incredibly powerful damage bonus on her Extra card, making her hit numbers that are close to how hard Berserkers hit. With critical absorption as heavy as Archers, it’s not exactly that difficult to make Hokusai hit very well.

Her NP and main card being Arts also makes spam somewhat doable--- Here’s a scenario:

Cards rotate every 3 turns. At the end of every 3rd turn all your Servants cards would have appeared already, and so on the next set it will be randomly dealt again. Assuming Hokusai does an NPAA on the 2nd turn, and recharges NP a turn, it’s possible to stack at 80-120% DEF dcwn on an enemy, depending on what cards you get. It’s not a common occurrence to do this but there is a good possibility of it happening.

That said, Hokusai isn’t exactly instantly memetier amazing--- her potential to deal damage without hindering her team much is great, but the base damage that she’s able to give out isn’t exactly amazing. In fact, it’s rather low, and it can be a little underwhelming to seer her damage at its base, as she hits at neutral damage towards most classes. Due to her class and her lack of skills to sustain herself, she isn’t really that tanky either, so she would be relying mostly on the team to keep her alive. Still, the potential for really good damage is there, and it’s not difficult to achieve either.

Hokusai’s NP damage hits at a low 19k against neutral targets, which is to be expected considering she has an unupgraded NP. However, it also has the secondary effect of dealing extra damage to [Man] enemies, which boosts her damage to hit on par with great AoE NPs, at 27k. Considering it’s also a decently-sized niche, she would be able to hit decently against a good number of Servants. It’s also important to note however,, that the fact that her NP is Arts gives her a considerable boost in her overall performance. It has a decent number of hits, allowing her to refill decently, and as an Arts card it works with her 3rd skill to grant the entire enemy team a debuff. In the case that one is able to use her NP once more with her DEF debuff in effect, its damage increases decently, going from 19k to 21k with one DEF debuff.

An increase in crit damage would multiply with Hokusai’s other buffs to allow her to hit even harder as she stacks her debuffs.

Such a CE would multiply well with Hokusai’s supereffective and own buffs, making her NP damage scale for higher numbers as she stacks her debuffs.

Deal strong damage to all enemies
[Overcharge] Deal extra damage to enemies with the attribute of Man

Skill Priority: 3 / 2 / 1

• All Things in Nature A+

  Most dodge skills have a cooldown of 6 turns, and the same goes for NP charge skills too. Hokusai doesn’t only have one of those, but she has both at a shorter cooldown of 5 turns. This is pretty cool, as it lets her dodge against boss NPs easier, and maybe even multiple times. The cooldown also allows her to charge her NP gauge at an overall quicker rate as well. However, due to the fact that the two effects are fitted on one skill, there may be times where one has to sacrifice one effect for the other.

• Bonds of Father and Daughter A

  This skill allows Hokusai to deal decent damage on her NP and Arts cards, as well as boost her NP gain from them. It’s pretty standard in that aspect, but it also comes with 2 debuff resistance skills that are useful against debuff-based gimmicks that have been common as of late. It scales up to 100% at max level, which is great, but it also lasts for only a turn. This makes it a rather difficult bonus to benefit from, although one can at least expect that the chance of the resistance failing is incredibly small, if ever Hokusai is debuffed at the turn one uses it.

• Alias: Octopus from Another Planet B

  This is perhaps what makes Hokusai as interesting and useful as she is. Both the buff that allows her to do this and the debuff that is inflicted lasts for 3 turns, which allows it to be stacked decently with minimal effort. The fact that this is a DEF debuff also allows the entire team to hit harder against the enemy inflicted on, which gives a good boost to the team’s overall DPT.

Available from the start
Apply Evade for yourself (1 turn)
Increase your NP Gauge

Unlocks after 1st Ascension

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns)
Apply Buff Removal Resist for yourself (1 turn)
Apply Debuff Resist for yourself (1 turn)

Unlocks after 3rd Ascension

When attacking with Arts Card, decrease Defense of a target (3 turns)

This is one of the rare occurrences where a QAABB deck is a misfit for the Servant receiving it. Due to Hokusai’s unique 3rd skill, a QAAAB deck would have made her more powerful as it would allow her to debuff more frequently and charge her NP even faster. Nevertheless, her current deck makes her fairly strong while still keeping her balanced overall. Her hitcounts are decent enough to make a few stars, although due to her Arts having more hits than her other cards, her NP gain outside of her Arts cards can be a little disappointing.

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