We all remember the day we watched as Shirou looked on in amazement at this armor-clad knight standing before him. She looked down and uttered a phrase that will forever resonate with Masters across the globe: “Tell me. Are you my Master?” Chills. Literal chills. Still, Artoria is not the only saber in FGO. So we’re here to take a look at some of the other sword-swingers that the game has to offer.
5. Okita Souji Alter (Summer)
Okita Alter Summer was only released in JP in 2021 – but she’s already making waves (get it? because she’s a swimsuit servant?) Okita’s skills are fairly overloaded, granting her an NP charge, her patented Christmas buff (boosting the effectiveness of her red and green cards), invincibility, increased crit damage, and an NP gain buff. Needless to say, Summer Okita Alter has a lot going for her. We’ll have to stay tuned until she settles into the meta a little more – but things are looking good for this Saber, that’s for sure!
4. Senji Muramasa
For a long time, people thought of Muramasa as nothing more than a myth. That the character itself was a meme and would never come to the game itself. “Saving for Muramasa” became a mantra spoken by the salty FGO fanbase until, one day, his glorious NP animation trailer dropped – and it breathed fresh new life into us all! It goes without saying that Fate/Stay Night is one of the most popular Fate properties, and an entry point of many to the franchise as a whole. People want to play with characters they like; that is FGO’s selling point. Therefore, allowing people to play as the main character (pseudo-servant) of your most popular series should not have taken this long! That being said, Muramasa is here. And his kit is everything we could have hoped for. Much like Emiya (as you would expect), Muramasa grants himself the rainbow buff to all his face cards. Combine this with an invincibility pierce and NP battery and you have one seriously strong Saber.
3. Nero Bride
Were Castoria to never release, this list may look a lot different. Before Castoria, Nero Bride was essentially your only option for Arts-based looping. Sure, you could use Paracelsus and a bond CE Tamamo. But at that point it begs the question “why not just use double Skadi?” Nero Bride’s NP charge (after her buff), and more importantly her NP gain buff (allowing servants to regain NP charge after a single use) allowed servants like Musashi Berserker to loop long before they had any right to. Yes, Nero Bride has fallen to the wayside more recently due to the advent of Castoria. However, this doesn’t change how powerful her skillset is as a Saber, and not a support Caster.
2. Miyamoto Musashi
Musashi is your go-to, no-brain, Buster-focused Saber. With a triple Buster deck and a Buster NP, things are going to die – and they’re going to die quickly. Musashi has both invincibility and an invul-pierce tacked onto her kit to make her even more sustainable and capable of dealing damage – no matter what the enemy throws her way. However, what really makes Musashi stand out from the crowd is her unique first skill. This doubles the hit counts of all her face cards. Meaning if you activate that ability during a Musashi brave chain that includes an Arts card, your NP charge will skyrocket to near max! All of these things combined make Musashi a great single-target Saber.
1. Okita Souji
Okita stands at the top of all Sabers simply for her longevity as a meta-adjacent pick. Servants like Musashi and Nero Bride have fallen out of favor over the years due to their power crept kits – but Okita has always managed to stay relevant. Okita’s Quick-focused kit allows her to efficiently charge her NP and gain a load of crit stars in the process. Her single-target NP is also nothing to scoff at, and it does a great amount of damage, all things considered. Sure, her defense ability is also linked to her damage buff, forcing you to choose one over the other. But considering Okita’s longevity to this point, chances are she’s only going to get better. Daishouri!
Honorable Mention: Artoria Pendragon
Artoria “Saber” Pendragon has not always been the most powerful servant in FGO. In fact, until recently, she was (pardon our French) pretty damn garbage! However, she has since received a buff allowing you to change all of her face cards to Buster – and this helped a lot in shooting her up the tier list. Artoria’s NP deals a hefty amount of damage. And combining that with a fully-realized Buster brave chain means things are going to get crazy. Saber earns a spot on this list for being the OG Saber we all know and love. It would have felt wrong to not include her.
