Saber

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Golden Dagger (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Blue Flame / Bonfire / Luna
• Passive A: Fierce Breath / Fort Def/Res / Atk/Spd Bond / Fury
• Passive B: Special Spiral
• Passive C: Atk Smoke / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Quickened Pulse / Atk/Def Bond / Darting Stance

Saber’s unique weapon, Golden Dagger, provides almost everything Saber needed to have more of an impact. The stat boosts give a much needed increase to his balanced stats, resulting in him having solid stats across the board. Having access to Distant Counter within the weapon allows Saber to utilize other A skills for more flexibility. The biggest consideration is the conditional prerequisite: it only functions when Saber’s Special is active at the start of combat. Special Spiral has fantastic synergy with this trait, as it will fully recharge Saber’s Special after every combat as long as it’s a 3 cooldown Special (reduced to 2 due to the -1 cooldown function of Golden Dagger). Note that a significant downside of this build is that it’s not fully functional for the very first combat due to Saber not starting with a fully charged Special. Because of this, Saber is at his best when in a team that can provide Infantry Pulse support (or Ostia’s Pulse from Legendary Hector) to charge his Special immediately.

Blue Flame is Saber’s best bet for his Special due to it generally providing the most consistent and highest damage (maintaining the adjacency requirement isn’t particularly hard for an Enemy Phase oriented build like this one). However, Blue Flame is extremely high investment, so Bonfire and Luna are both acceptable alternatives - note that it’s possible for Bonfire and Luna to match Blue Flame’s damage if Saber’s Defense is buffed to at least 50 or if his enemy has at least 50 Defense, respectively.

Fierce Breath is a great choice for Saber’s A skill primarily due to the increased Special charge; this allows him to activate his Special on his first counterattack against a melee opponent even if Golden Dagger isn’t active, and also allows him to activate his Special twice if he gets doubled. The Attack boost from Fierce Breath is very helpful for boosting Saber’s damage output, but it can easily be swapped out for Steady/Warding Breath without hampering Saber’s performance too much. Fort Def/Res is an incredibly potent boost to Saber’s defenses that can help him survive multiple combats. Any Bond skill such as Atk/Spd Bond will work great, particularly if using Blue Flame as Saber will want adjacency regardless. Finally, Fury is acceptable as a budget option, but it will severely hamper Saber’s sustain in combat; he will likely not be able to handle more than one or two combats with it.

For Seals, Quick Riposte is extremely useful as Saber’s Speed isn’t quite high enough to ensure doubles on super speedy opponents. However, if this is not a concern (such as if Saber has access to strong buff support), then it can be replaced with either Atk/Def Bond to simultaneously improve Saber’s damage output and physical bulk, or Darting Stance to somewhat replicate Quick Riposte’s effect by helping Saber double more opponents, with the additional effect of making it much tougher for him to be naturally doubled. Quickened Pulse may be necessary if only one source of Infantry Pulse or Ostia’s Pulse is available, as getting Saber to start with his Special already charged is extremely useful.

• Preferred IVs: +ATK or +SPD / -RES or -HP
• Weapon: Golden Dagger (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition / Ardent Sacrifice / Reciprocal Aid
• Special: Moonbow
• Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Life and Death / Fury / Brazen Atk/Spd
• Passive B: Wrath
• Passive C: Threaten Def / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Brazen Atk/Res / Atk/Def Bond / Speed +3

Thanks to the big stat boost granted by Golden Dagger’s effect, Saber can now utilize an offensive build fairly effectively. The key to this build is combining the Quickened Pulse Seal and Wrath with a low cooldown Special, Moonbow, in order to keep Saber’s Special active for as long as possible in order to maintain Golden Dagger’s effect.

Atk/Spd Solo is easily one of the best offensive A skills due to giving one of the largest raw stat boosts with no downsides aside from an easy to meet condition. If unavailable, then either Life and Death or Fury are both good choices; the downsides to both Life and Death and Fury can potentially work to Saber’s advantage, as the reduced bulk from Life and Death or post-combat recoil damage from Fury can both help Saber enter Wrath’s HP threshold. Finally, Brazen Atk/Spd is an aggressive option as it’s best utilized alongside either Ardent Sacrifice or Reciprocal Aid in order to manually drop Saber’s HP into Wrath’s HP threshold.

Wrath is a vitally important part of this build, as the -1 Special cooldown each turn while within the HP threshold is what allows Saber to easily recharge his Special without having to enter combat without Golden Dagger’s effect active. The extra damage also helps boost Saber’s damage output considerably. Note that because Wrath’s Special cooldown effect occurs at the start of each player turn, Saber is relatively safe from the effects of Guard and Special Fighter. However, he is also limited in that he likely won’t have his Special charged after the first combat each turn, severely limiting his ability to take on multiple opponents.

For Seals, Quickened Pulse is extremely important in order to ensure that Saber can start out with his Special charged. It can potentially be unneeded if Saber has access to Infantry Pulse/Ostia’s Pulse support (from Legendary Hector); in this case, it can be replaced by a different offensive Seal like Brazen Atk/Res (particularly useful if also running Brazen Atk/Spd as Saber’s A skill along with Ardent Sacrifice/Reciprocal Aid), Atk/Def Bond (make sure not to run this if also using Atk/Spd Solo since they have mutually exclusive activation conditions), or Speed +3.

• Preferred IVs: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Golden Dagger (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Aegis / Pavise
• Passive A: Fierce Breath / Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Distant Def / Close Def
• Passive B: Shield Pulse
• Passive C: Atk Smoke / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Close Def / Distant Def

Golden Dagger’s refined effect has excellent synergy with Saber’s native Shield Pulse skill, as it allows him to start with his Special immediately charged. The main concerns with this setup are having to choose between Aegis/Pavise, as well as the relatively low damage output without an offensive Special. Saber’s lowered damage output can result in leaving many opponents alive after combat, leaving him vulnerable (Wings of Mercy is particularly troublesome).

Choosing between Aegis and Pavise is entirely up to player preference; picking one or the other will result in Saber being highly effective at mitigating damage from the chosen option, while the one not chosen will be deadlier in comparison.

Fierce Breath is excellent since it allows Saber to immediately recharge his Special after a single counterattack so that he can reactivate it if he gets doubled. This effect can also be accomplished with Steady/Warding Breath, but Fierce Breath is notably better due to the extra +4 Attack helping Saber’s relatively low damage output. If none of these are available, then either Distant Def or Close Def can work. Note that because Aegis and Pavise work multiplicatively, increasing Saber’s defenses will only be half as effective whenever Aegis/Pavise activate. This means that Distant Def is more efficient when paired with Pavise and Close Def is more efficient when paired with Aegis. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s not worth stacking defenses; Saber can handily shut down ranged threats with both Aegis and Distant Def, or melee threats with both Pavise and Close Def.

For Seals, Quick Riposte helps considerably with Saber’s low damage output as well as helping him immediately recharge his Special after activating it on an enemy attack in order to maintain Golden Dagger’s effect. Alternatively, either Close Def or Distant Def are acceptable choices for Seals.