Merlin

This is a beginner-friendly guide to Merlin in Fate/Grand Order (English). It breaks down what makes Merlin strong, his basic stats, skills, and Noble Phantasm, plus the Ascension and skill-up materials you'll need to raise them.

Merlin's Basic Information

Name	Merlin
Class	★5 Caster
Obtain	Available only in Limited-Time Pickup Summons

Merlin's Strengths

Pull for the Premier Buster and Challenge Quest Support

Merlin remains a highly recommended pull for any player, as he is one of the best supports for long-term survival and high-difficulty quests in the game. While other supports focus on fast farming, Merlin’s ability to sustain a party indefinitely through healing, NP generation, and party-wide protection makes him a strong pick for clearing difficult content and boss fights.

Invincible Buff for Partywide Protection

Merlin can grant the entire party Invincibility for 1 turn with his Skill 2, allowing him to counter even party-wide Noble Phantasms. It also reduces all enemies' Critical Rate for 3 turns, which reduces the risk of unexpected critical hits.

Beware of NP Spam and Ignore Invincible

The cooldown on his Skill 2 is 6 turns at its shortest, so he can't handle enemies that spam their Noble Phantasms or have short cooldowns. Furthermore, enemies with Ignore Invincible or Buff Removal are his natural counters, so keep in mind that he is not a cure-all and has quests he struggles with.

An Excellent Noble Phantasm for High-Difficulty Quests

Merlin's Noble Phantasm provides the entire party with HP recovery and NP gain buffs, in addition to granting himself a star gain buff. He can sustain the party's HP, NP, and C. Stars all by himself, making his NP extremely effective in high-difficulty quests that are often long battles.

Long Duration and Stackable Effects

The Noble Phantasm's effects last for 5 turns and are stackable. In addition to the NP Gain from his NP, his 3 Arts card deck and Class Skill that grants 5% NP per turn make it very easy to reuse his NP. This makes it easier for the entire party to use their NPs and land critical hits.

Tip!	It's possible to maintain 2-3 stacks of the NP's effect active at all times. His ability to strengthen the entire party's offense and defense by using his NP repeatedly is what makes him such a powerful support!

Provides Two Types of Damage Support

Merlin has a party-wide ATK buff that lasts for 3 turns and a single-target Buster buff. The Buster buff, in particular, has a very high multiplier, making him an excellent match for Buster-type attackers.

Has Good Star Generation Abilities

Merlin's Noble Phantasm passively generates Stars, and his Skill 2 provides a C. Star Drop Rate Up buff for 1 turn to the entire party. This makes him an effective star generation supporter.

Time the Use of His Third Skill

The Critical Strength Up from his third skill only lasts for 1 turn, so you should time its use for when an ally can land a powerful critical hit. It also increases Max HP for 3 turns, improving survivability, so it can also be used as a simple HP recovery tool.

Servants with Good Synergy

Compatible Attackers
	Arjuna (Alter) (★5) An attacker who deals high damage with a Special Attack against debuffed enemies and has a 30% NP charge. Buster and ATK buffs naturally pair well, and since he lacks a Critical Strength buff, Merlin's support can greatly boost his damage.
	Altria Pendragon (★5) An AoE NP attacker with a 30% NP charge and a 20% NP refund after her NP. She has good Critical Star generation and can aim for high critical damage by converting her cards to Buster.
	Minamoto-no-Raikou (★5) Her multi-hit NP makes it easy to generate Critical Stars, and her Star Gather Rate skill lets her aim for criticals. With Merlin's Star Drop Rate buff, she can land criticals more consistently.
	Super Orion (★5) An extremely high-damage critical attacker. Merlin's skills not only boost his damage further, but his NP's Critical Star generation also lets him land crits consistently.
	Qin Shi Huang (★5) A critical attacker suited for endurance fights. Their NP's Taunt and Invincibility can protect allies, making for a powerful setup where Qin Shi Huang tanks normal attacks while Merlin handles enemy NPs.
	Himiko (★5) A critical attacker who also provides AoE Buster and critical support. Merlin's support makes it easier to land criticals, and her own Overcharge Level buff also increases the Star generation from Merlin's NP.
	David (★3) He has an AoE Evade for the whole party. Alternating his Evade with Merlin's Invincibility provides a consistent way to survive enemy NPs, and his Buster NP makes him a good fit on the damage side too.
Compatible Supporters
	Altria Caster (★5) A staple pairing for high-difficulty quests. Her NP's Special Invincibility and debuff removal protects the whole party. Her skills, which provide up to 50% NP charge, NP Gain up, and an Arts buff, make it easier for the whole party to use their NPs, and her ATK up boosts damage as well.
	Merlin (★5) Running two Merlins increases NP generation and greatly strengthens the whole party. This also covers the drawback of the long cooldown on his Invincibility skill, making it a very strong pairing.
	Jeanne d'Arc (★5) Her NP can grant party-wide Invincibility. Merlin's NP, which provides passive NP charge, makes it easier to use Jeanne's NP, so this is recommended for quests where the enemy frequently uses powerful attacks.
	Zhuge Liang (Lord El-Melloi II) (★5) He has abundant NP charge options, including a targeted 50% NP charge. While Merlin's 20% party-wide NP charge can sometimes be insufficient for farming, Zhuge Liang can compensate for this.
	Hans Christian Andersen (★2) He has a skill similar to Merlin's NP effect, which can grant NP and Critical Stars per turn to a single ally. He can provide support until Merlin's NP is ready, and his Critical Strength buff is excellent too.

Merlin's Skills & Noble Phantasm

Skills & Noble Phantasm

Class	★5 Caster
Cards
Obtain	Available only in Limited-Time Pickup Summons
HP / ATK	14259 / 10546（Lv Max）
Skill 1	Dreamlike Charisma A【CT：7~5】 Increase all allies' ATK by 10-20% (3T) [Lv] Increase all allies' NP Gauge by 20%
Skill 2	Illusion A【CT：8~6】 Apply Invincible to all allies (1T) Increase C. Star Drop Rate for all allies (1T) [Lv] Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies (3T) [Lv]
Skill 3	Hero Creation EX【CT：8~6】 Increase Buster Card effectiveness by 30-50% (3T) for one ally [Lv] Increase Max HP of one ally by 2000-3000 (3T) [Lv] Increase Critical Strength of one ally by 50-100% (1T) [Lv]
Noble Phantasm	「Garden of Avalon」 Apply Recover HP 1000~2000 each turn to all allies (5 turns) [Lv] Apply Gain 5% NP Gauge each turn (5 turns) to all allies Apply Gain 5~25 C. Stars each turn to yourself (5 turns) [OC]
VA	Takahiro Sakurai
Illustrator	Taiki

Append Skill

Extra Attack Boost	Increase Extra Attack Card's effectiveness by 30~50% for yourself
Load Magical Energy	Begin battle with NP charged at 10~20% for yourself
Anti-Berserker (ATK Up)	Increase own ATK against Berserker class by 20-30%

Card Performance

Alignment & Traits / Class Skills

Alignment & Traits
Alignment	Lawful / Good / Earth
Traits	Male / Round Table Knight / Summer Mode
Class Skill
Territory Creation C	Increase Arts Card effectiveness by 6%
Item Construction C	Increase Debuff Success Rate
Mixed Blood EX	Apply NP Gauge each turn (by 5%)

Recommended Skill Leveling by Priority

Skill 1	Priority: ★★★ It boosts the ATK Up multiplier for all allies. The NP charge is fixed at 20%, but since it boosts damage, level it up alongside the other skills.
Skill 2	Priority: ★★☆ It increases the Crit Rate Down multiplier for enemies and Star Drop Rate Up for allies. In addition to the crit rate down multiplier, the cooldown reduction from leveling makes reusing Invincible easier, so it also improves survivability in clears. Level it up alongside the other skills.
Skill 3	Priority: ★★★ In addition to the high-multiplier Buster Up + Critical Strength up, you can also boost the Max HP Up buff multiplier. Since it greatly boosts damage, level it first.

Ascension & Skill Enhancement Materials

Ascension Materials

Stage 1	Caster Piece x5
Stage 2	Caster Piece x12 Eternal Gear x8
Stage 3	Caster Monument x5 Forbidden Page x10 Scarab of Wisdom x2
Final Ascension	Caster Monument x12 Scarab of Wisdom x4 Dragon's Reverse Scale x5
Total	x17 x17 x6 x8 x10 x5 x4,400,000 QP

Skill Enhancement Materials

Lv1	Gem of Caster x5
Lv2	Gem of Caster x12
Lv3	Magic Gem of Caster x5
Lv4	Magic Gem of Caster x12 Forbidden Page x5
Lv5	Secret Gem of Caster x5 Forbidden Page x10
Lv6	Secret Gem of Caster x12 Eternal Gear x5
Lv7	Eternal Gear x10 Spirit Root x3
Lv8	Spirit Root x8 Heart of the Foreign God x10
Lv9	Crystallized Lore x1
Total	x17 x17 x17 x1 x15 x15 x11 x10 x54,400,000 QP

Append Skill Enhancement Materials

Lv1	Gem of Caster x5
Lv2	Gem of Caster x12
Lv3	Magic Gem of Caster x5
Lv4	Magic Gem of Caster x12 Dragon Fang x12
Lv5	Secret Gem of Caster x5 Dragon Fang x24
Lv6	Secret Gem of Caster x12 Dragon's Reverse Scale x2
Lv7	Dragon's Reverse Scale x4 Scarab of Wisdom x3
Lv8	Scarab of Wisdom x8 Scale of Fantasy x24
Lv9	Crystallized Lore x1
Total	x17 x17 x17 x1 x36 x6 x11 x24 x54,400,000 QP

Illustrator / Voice Actor & Final Ascension Art

Illustrator / Voice Actor

Parameters

Ascension Art (Final Ascension Spoiler Warning)

We have included images up to Final Ascension. Because they contain spoilers, please proceed with caution.

Default

1st Ascension

2nd-3rd Ascension

Final Ascension

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