There are a lot of characters in Fate: Grand Order. Well over three hundred, counting variants as well. And not equally divided up into the fourteen classes the game has. Called Servants, these characters are of myth and legend, with some sort of insane twist about them. FGO is weird to say the least. 

And like in any gacha game, there are ones that end up better than others. Some of them even redefined the meta itself! And FGO is a game where power-creep isn't as prevalent as other games, say Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. It does exist in some aspects, but the older Servants can still be as good as recent ones, if not in some cases better.

This article is going to cover the best 15 Servants in the USA version of FGO, as of April 2024. There are some opinions here, but I did make sure to cover my bases in doing some research. I do not have all of the characters in the game let alone on this list, as I am someone who prefers to get the ones he wants rather than to follow the meta the entire time.

Doesn't stop me from trying though. Such is the life of a gacha player. And starting at the bottom:

15. Mash Kyrielight (Shielder)

No.1 Kouhai 

• First Servant you recruit 
• Costs 0 to put into party
• Great tanking/support

Any Top-Whatever list that lacks Mash should be immediately dismissed. She is literally the first character you obtain. And in the game where each Servant comes with a cost and your party of Servants has a cost limit, the character that has a cost of zero is always going to be useful. 

Although this only covers her first form, and not of the Ortinax version. That is a version that doesn't belong on a list like this.

Mash is a tank that signs on early and outpaces the other tanks that one could get from the friend point gacha. Party-wide defense buff is great, but the real deal comes from her second kill. It grants Invincibility and raises the targeted Servant a small but significant boost to their Noble Phantasm's bar. You get this at the start of the game. 

Eventually she picks up a skill that draws fire to herself for a single turn and builds her NP up a bit faster. And her Noble Phantasm grants Damage Reduction and a Defense boost to the entire party. After you reach the Camelot section of the first story, it will be upgraded to add on a big Attack boost to the entire party save for her. 

The only downside to Mash is that you need to make progress in the Story sections to Ascend her to higher levels, and once you hit the Cosmos in the Lostbelt section of the story, she'll be locked into the not-so-good Ortinax version. At least certain sections will allow you to use the first version. 

Her costing exactly zero points to put into the party is still one of her biggest boosts. While she might not be on the frontline, she can at least provide some good backup...and during events where you get more drops by equipping Craft Essences, you can always have her in the party so you can equip more CEs! There's hardly ever a bad time to not have her as a ringer. 

14. Van Gogh (Foreigner)

Cursed Painter of the Elder Gods 

• Critical Star Generator
• Rather high single-target damage
• Incredible support, more so for Foreigner teams 

I know you are thinking. Anime Girl Van Gogh? No, it's not a female version of the classic Dutch painter. It's actually Clytie of Greek myth, a water nymph that killed for the love of Apollo and was turned into a sunflower after staring at the sun. The Elder Gods gave her the memories and talent of Van Gogh so they could use his powers...

...and FGO is a really weird game. It ain't going to get any less weird as we progress. 

Van Gogh's own gameplay is a weird one too. You play her skills in the order of 2, 3, 1. And they all do so much. Second skill reduces all enemies' defense and resistance to any Quick attack, while granting Evade and HP Regen to the entire party, but adds in a stack of poison-based Curse to the entire party.

Her entire gameplay revolves around Cursing. Her third skill allows her to grant an Attack boost and the ability draws Critical Stars to the targeted ally's cards, while also drawing in all of the Curses from both allies and enemies alike to her! That's okay, because now her own Quick cards can transform Curses into Attack boosts.

Not enough Curses? Then her first skill gives her three stacks of Curse and Guts, allowing her to survive death. And then it fills up her Noble Phantasm meter based on many stacks of Curse. Her Noble Phantasm has a chance of stunning all enemies over the next three turns, while boosting the party's Critical Damage (Even further if they have a certain trait), Critical Star Regeneration and adding some Attack boosting on top of it. 

I call her Clutchie. As long as you don't send her against Alter Egos, she'll last forever and output some real raw damage! And hey, she cannot die from her own Curse damage! 

13. Arash (Archer)

Legendary Archer from Persia 

• One of the best AOE NPs in the game
• Low cost, ideal for challenges and farming
• Guts-based build allows for multiple use of his NP

Huh, a Rank 1 character being top-tier in a gacha game? Unheard of, but Arash brings some real firepower to the forefront. Let me put it like this. When facing off an army and the general, you send Arash in to deal with the army.

All of his gameplay revolves around his Noble Phantasm: Stella. It does some insanely high damage, some of the highest in the game. Given that he can be obtained from the friend point gacha, it will be easy enough to get copies to boost his NP up to the max level. It hits all enemies...but comes with Arash dying after using it. 

Wait, what?, you might be asking. How does dying make him top-tier?

In FGO, you can bring five of your own Servants and one Friend Servant, three in the front and three in the back. In the middle of the battle, you cannot swap anyone out freely. You either need someone to die so the next character can step in, or to use one of the equippable Mystic Codes that provides you with the Order Change skill. And those have insanely long cooldowns...

But Arash? You bring him to fight the army, and allow your main fighter to deal with the boss at the end. And Arasha doesn't have to die; any Guts will allow him to survive his own NP! Be it from CEs, other Servant's skills, or from a certain Mystic Code, and Arash can potentially loop his powerful NP over and over again!

And when his game plan is given to a different character, but he does things...differently.

12. Chen Gong (Caster)

The Explosive Strategist 

• Ideal for solo/raid bosses
• Good buffer for Buster-focused parties
• Low cost for amazing skills 

The fourth Anniversary event brought in new Friend Point Servants, one for each of the base seven classes of Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. They became the star of the event, and the leading man? He's Arash...but he kills someone else than him!

As long as Chen Gong is not alone, then he could use his Noble Phantasm to damage all enemies and THEN he kills the Servant in the left slot, or the one closest to him. That might sound bad, but in the end, it’s amazing for boss fights.

The ideal team composition for Chen Gong focused parties is having him on the right, another buffer on the left, and your buff target in the middle; The boss slayer. You get Chen Gong to kill the buffer on the left, and combined with Order Change Mystic Codes, you can double up on buffs and do some serious damage.

A particular strategy or self-imposed challenge is the Solo Servant. Have one Servant do all of the work after the rest of the party has died, either by buffing them to the extreme or leaving them in the backline until the rest of the party has bit the dust. Chen Gong aides that set-up by killing off one party member and then using his first skill to Draw Fire to himself.

While he can be an odd fit for some parties, Chen Gong ends up being my number one guy during Raid Bosses. When the next one comes along, I will be bringing a combination of Merlin, my overpowered Ibaraki Douji, Chen Gong, and both Koyanskayas to make quick work of that boss. I encourage experimenting with him and discover his hidden power for yourself!

11. Enkidu (Lancer)

Clay-made Weapon of the Gods 

• Amazing Solo Servant
• Great boss slayer
• One of the best healing skills in the game

Enkidu is a Servant that I keep on forgetting that I have, and each time I end up using them, I feel so stupid for not using them more often. The final boss of the Heian-kyō section was a nightmare to me. Then I swapped over to Enkidu and mopped the boss up.

Upon their release, they was good. But overtime, Enkidu got more buffs to their kit that made them one of the best boss killers in the game. The second skill was their worst skill; removing only Evade from enemies and lowering their Critical Hit chance. But after a Strengthening Quest, it grants Evade to them.

Their healing skill comes with a long cooldown of ten turns, but it heals them for a whopping TEN THOUSAND HP, removes any debuffs they have and boosts the NP gauge by 50%. (Provided that you do the second Strengthening) Completing their second Interlude will buff their NP to do more damage, and even more with the trait of ‘Threat to Humanity’. 

Enkidu’s biggest weakness is that their damage isn’t the greatest overall. But with the proper support, his mediocre damage output becomes much better. And if you need someone to carry you across the finish line, there’s nobody better than Enkidu!

10. Senji Muramasa (Saber)

Blacksmith Hero of Accursed Swords 

• Strong Arts AOE NP
• Capable of looping his NP on his own
• Pierces through defenses of enemies

Being based around the main hero of the original visual novel, Fate: Stay/Night, of course the Pseudo-Servant of him would be busted. Debuting in the New Year Event of 2023, he already secured himself as the best Saber of the year, and one of the best Arts AOE in the game. And somehow I got two of him!

His two biggest strengths are that of his ability to rip through the enemies’ defenses. He doesn’t just have Ignore Invincibility as one of his skills, it also inflicts more critical damage to those with Evade/Invincibility, while also doing more critical damage and gaining more critical stars with each attack. And his first skill gives you a buff to all of your card types and some critical stars to get the damage going!

But the biggest skill is that of the third one. A giant buff to your NP meter, and grants more NP per hit on each attack he does. This means that he can fill or refill his NP insanely quickly. And his own NP hits all enemies, removes their offensive buffs, ignores all defenses, buffs the damage of the NP, and buffs his Arts Cards; meaning that he does even more damage AND can refill his NP so he can loop.

That makes him amazing in a lot of ways, but there is someone that can technically outperform him…

9. Melusine/Fairy Knight Lancelot (Lancer)

The Last Dragon and the Greatest Knight

• High critical damage
• Capable of having both single-target and AOE
• Good survivability 

It’s worth noting that despite being in the class that’s weak to Muramasa, this character actually totaled him in the story. And with her release, it was made clear that Melusine can absolutely make even shorter work of the enemies than Muramasa. Still loses to Sabers though. Comes with the territory of Class Advantages/Disadvantages. 

She is, as of this writing, the only character in the game to have both a single-target and an AOE NP. It changes depending on what Ascension Form she is; First and Second give her the single-target, while in her Third form give her the AOE. Also unique to her is the ability to transform into her Third form with her third skill. It does that, along with giving her Invincibility and a huge boost to her NP gauge. How big? 100% at max level! 

Her single-target is Arts-based, granting Critical Stars, lowers the enemy’s defense, and allows Melusine to build NP faster. And her AOE is Buster-based that ignores Evade/Invincibility that also buffs Buster. Melusine’s first skill provides her with some damage reduction and more HP to work with, along with giving her an attack buff and some good amount of NP to work with. Combined with her second skill that also adds some Critical Stars, adds in some Critical Star Regeneration, and draws Critical Stars to her cards, Melusine is fully capable of doing some real damage even without her NP.  

Her only real downside is that once she’s in her third form, she cannot revert back to 1st or 2nd, even if you start the battle in one of those two forms. But besides that? She’s someone that can output some real raw damage and survive a good amount!

8. Tamamo No Mae (Caster)

Foxy Shrine Maiden of the Sun Goddess

• Arts Support
• Amazing support, rare cooldown reduction
• Great healer

Since the very beginning of FGO, there has always been a meta revolving around the Arts Cards. Those Cards fill up the Noble Phantasm the fastest, and therefore have always been effective in all situations. And the first big support based character was Tamamo No Mae.

While outpaced in terms of Arts Support by someone later down on the list, she has a unique benefit to her. Her NP heals the party, restores some of their NP, and reduces all cooldowns by one turn. Given how many Arts Cards she has, she can use her NP a lot more than other characters.

She’s also ideal in stalling. While FGO isn’t a game in which lasting a long time isn’t ideal or really sane, Tamamo no Mae can keep the party going for far longer than really possible. Healing, capable of buffing her defense (Doubled on the first turn on activation), and can drain the enemy’s own NP while buffing her party’s own NPs. 

Even if you’re not running an Arts or stall team, Tamamo can make a good support unit. It’s worth mentioning that unlike Van Gogh, Muramasa, and Melusine, Tamamo is not limited. That means you can summon her in any drawing pool. If you get your hands on her, you can be set for a long time!

7. Space Ishtar (Avenger)

Threefold Devil Goddess 

• Best Arts AOE NP attacker
• Capable of looping NP
• Insane damage

Clearing out waves as soon as possible is one of the staple gameplay strategies since the dawn of FGO. Characters capable of looping their NPs are always going to be seen as top dog in the community. And the leader of the pack is Space Ishtar!

Yes, Space Ishtar. She comes from space. She hails from an event that’s mostly paroding Star Wars. Calamity Jane is in the event too. There’s also three different versions of Space Ishtar, each with their own unique voice lines and animations. 

Her biggest and most unique feature is her ability to swap out her NP’s card type with her second skill. This means she can fit into any support-based team. But in particular, she fits best with Arts teams, as she can loop her NP.

Having both an attack buff, an NP damage buff, and a skill that can fill up the NP meter by 50% while also giving an buff to potentially all three of the card types, she can output some high damage. Having the Avenger’s 1.1x damage output allows her to fight anyone sans Moon Cancer-type enemies…and there’s exactly four currently, five in JP. She helped me clear out all of the Free Quests and will continue to be my go-to 3 Turn Clearer in the future.

Unless…

6. Arjuna Alter (Berserker)

The Final Dark God

• Best Buster AOE NP in the game 
• Can crit with Buster cards for some insane damage
• Capable of quickly clearing out any waves of enemies

The fourth chapter of the Cosmos in the Lostbelt story introduced the Alter version of a popular character in FGO, the hero of the Indian epic Mahabharata, Arjuna, as the main antagonist. He came to much fanfare and found himself as the best of the Berserker class instantly, despite his limited release status. And despite me never much caring for him…I got two of him during the recent White Day event! 

My luck stat is an interrobang. That is a !? BTW.

Berserkers in FGO are a gamble to play. They deal more damage to other classes, while taking more from every class. They can finish battles quickly, either in your favor or against. The better ones, like Hercales and Sparatcus, have ways of staying alive. 

Arjuna Alter does have a skill that provides Guts and HP Regen, but he focuses more on killing things quickly. His first skill provides him an Attack buff and the unique ability to deal more damage to debuffed enemies. A bit unusual for a character that lacks debuff skills, but his Noble Phantasm? 

It activates a debuff BEFORE the damage kicks! The debuff lowers the enemies’ resistance to Buster attacks, and hey! The NP is Buster! He already gets a big damage buff before he even starts! And with the proper support, he can go and do it…again! And again! 

And even without his NP, he can still bomb the enemies with his second skill, which draws Critical Stars to his Buster cards and gives him a good amount of boost to his NP. He can nuke his enemies so well; that he can be used for both farming and challenge quests.

Pair him up with good support, and he’ll go even further. Arjuna Alter hits insanely hard to finish any battle quickly. His status as a Berserker only means that he will end any battle he ends up in quickly. And unless you get unlucky, it will be in your favor.

5. Scathach-Skadi (Caster)

Cold Bride of the Gods

• Best Quick support
• 50% NP to any Servant
• Allows for Looping of NPs

Merlin's debut shafted the Quick Servants. With Merlin greatly buffing Buster Servants and the Arts Servant doing all right with Tamamo No Mae, the Quick Servants had no real support and fell out of favor. The release of Assassin Osakabehime was supposed to help matters but she didn't do enough for them. 

Scathach-Skadi ended up being the savor that the Quick Servants needed. And sadly…the only one I never got. I tried. The term for trying to get a specific Servant but getting someone else is getting ‘spooked’. I got spooked by another Caster whose name also begins with ‘S’ and would be on the opposite end of this list.

Skadi was the first real Servant to really allow for looping of NPs. Her Quick buff skill allows for quick filling/refunding of NPs, along with buffing the damage output and dropping of Critical Stars. Combined with her third skill that could give 50% NP to one character, it allowed for easier farming and clearing of challenges.

In FGO, you cannot slot in the same Servant twice in your own party, but the Friend Unit bypasses that. Additionally, most buffs stack as high as you can make them go. So you could have two Skadis buffing one Quick-focused Servant, and that’s where the Looping Meta truly began. Quick Servants went from being underused to the ones dominating the field.

Skadi’s biggest weakness has always been her Noble Phantasm. It was even a joke upon her reveal in the US version would also reveal her NP to the world. A single-attack Evade, Critical Damage buff, the rare and not-so-useful Instant Death immunity and slight Damage Reduction. A later Strengthening increased the Critical Damage buff and added in an Attack buff, but it’s still often better to not use her NP unless you REALLY needed it.

And her lackluster NP is the reason as to why she’s placed behind the top four: 

4. Zhuge Liang/El-Melloi II (Caster)

The Legendary Tactician and Detective Professor

• NP Generator
• Fits into any party
• Amazing NP

Sometimes simple is better. And Zhuge Liang/El-Melloi II/Waver Velvet does the simple job of being able to fit into any party by the mere aspect of being a NP Generator. Being the first Rank 5 Caster in the game, he didn’t start out that well. Thankfully, I never got to play that weak version. 

All of his skills build up NP. His first skill buffs Critical Damage and adds 30% NP to one character. Second skill is a party-wide defense buff and adds 10% NP. And his third skill is a party-wide attack buff and adds one last 10% NP. He can fill up one Servant’s NP by 50%, while the entire party gets 20%.

Not that impressive nowadays, with Servants that can add in 50% NP or more on their own. But for Servants WITHOUT that benefit, he can buff them and build up their NPs quite easily. This makes Waver a Swiss-Army knife of a Servant; capable of fitting into any party and solving a good chunk of problems.

And his Noble Phantasm is fantastic after it’s been buffed. Stuns enemies, reduces their Charge gauge, activates Curse on them, and lowers their Defense? Talk about a stuffed potato of a NP! It can buy you some much needed space and time when the going gets rough.

Unlike the last few members of the list, he’s also commonly-available in any Summon pool. You can get him by complete incident, and he’s a great asset to have when you have some room for him. And I know, he’s literally the second Rank Five I got and he’s about to die from exhaustion from the amount of times I have used him!

3. Merlin (Caster)

Shifty Magus of Flowers

• Great Buster Support
• Can keep the party alive for a long time
• Best pick for challenges 

This man changed how people approached the game. We were given a preview of him during the Babylonia chapter and people knew that he would reshape the meta the moment he got introduced. Everyone’s friend list got filled by Merlin and the Buster Meta would be there to stay for years to come.

But even with the release of characters more ideal for looping/farming and even ones that outpace Merlin in Buster support, Merlin is still ideal for challenge quests. Even more so with ones that require the player to survive for several teams. And that’s all due to him having Invincibility on demand, a great skill that buffs the party’s attack with the additional benefit of granting 20% NP, and the ability to be a better healer than Tamamo.

While Tamamo has both a skill and a NP that heals (And her NP reduces her own cooldowns as well, so she can use that skill more often), Merlin builds up NP insanely fast. His Noble Phantasm grants the party HP and NP regeneration, as well adding on Critical Star regeneration for Merlin. And remember, you can bring a friend unit version of Merlin along and that can double the healing output. 

His big claim to fame is his third skill: Hero Creation EX. Buffs Buster cards, buffs Critical Damage, and raises the targeted character’s Max HP/heals them up. The skill that shifted the meta in favor of raw damage output from Buster cards. It took until Skadi to really take some focus away from this.

Two Merlins and a Berserker could handle most problems. Berserkers might be fragile, but Merlin has Invincibility and healing for days, and now you got a second one? You had an unstoppable team. And if Merlin creates heroes, then the one that could replace him would be a villain:

2. Koyanskaya of Light (Assassin) 

Beastly Secretary 

• Best Buster Support 
• High damage support 
• Useful NP

Merlin remained in power as the number one Buster support for nearly five years. Even with the release of Skadi and the No.1 Servant on this list, he still remained popular and useful. When Koyanskaya of Light debuted in the 6th Anniversary, she immediately took over that position for one primary reason: raw damage output. 

Her version of Hero Creation EX is NFF Special, which trades out the HP buff in favor of more Critical Damage and adding in the ability to make Critical Stars go to Buster cards. She can literally triple the damage output of Buster-focused Servants just like that. This immediately put her a leg up past Merlin.

Going further is her second skill, which has the weird buff of doing more damage to Humans of both trait and attribute, only the latter of which is remotely useful. But it comes with the rare buff of allowing Buster Cards to build NP and grants Critical Stars to boot! That is considered to be her worst skill…

…with her first one being the best. Remember Tamamo had that rare ability to decrease skill cooldowns? Well, being an offshoot of Tamamo herself, Koyanskaya of the Light can not only do that herself, but she also adds in 50% NP charge! And damages the entire party for 1,000 HP. That includes herself for some reason.

And the thing is? She doesn’t need to support someone else, she can support HERSELF. Her Noble Phantasm is Buster, so her own kit works for her as well. With the benefit of buffing her own Attack, lowering the enemies’ Charge, and increasing the party’s NP, can you see why she ended up replacing Merlin?

Now, you might have noticed that the last few characters before Koyanskaya have been Casters. FGO is just like that; most of the game’s best characters are Casters. Well, after that short break, we’re going right back to the Casters with our number one:

1. Altria Caster (Caster) 

Staff of Selection’s Child of Light

• Best Arts Support
• Ideal for challenges/raid bosses
• Special form of invincibility 

The Caster version of King Arthur. This was to be expected, seeing how King Arthur has so many variants and clones (Be them metaphorical or LITERAL clones) out there that there’s a trait dedicated to it called Saberface. But what people didn’t expect is her to rise to the top as the no.1 Arts Support Servant, and could easily be considered to be the best Servant.

Her biggest benefit comes from her Noble Phantasm. It contains a special form of the Invincibility buff called Anti-Enforcement Defense; one that cannot be ignored by any method of Ignore Invincibility effect in the game. Unlike Skadi’s single-used Evade, if you can improve the NP or use it at the end of a NP Chain, you can stack the Anti-Enforcement Defense to take multiple attacks! And the NP also removes debuffs and adds in a major Attack buff!

And her skills are all amazing. Party-wide Attack buff with a 30% NP Charge. Single-target 20% NP add to one target while buffing the entire party’s NP Generation. And finally, her Arts buff that also grants the normal Invincibility while adding in the somewhat useful attack buff to those considered Threats to Humanity.

As mentioned in Tamamo’s entry, Arts have always been the meta. And remember how I mentioned I used Space Ishtar to mop up the Free Quests? That’s because with two Altria Casters, it makes looping insanely easy. 

The only things she’s lacking is the ability to heal and helping with Critical Damage. But that’s it! She can do so much to one of the easier metas to work in. That’s a reason as to why she’s No.1 on this list, because the Arts meta is easy to work with!

And that’s it for the list! There are a lot more Servants coming, and I know one will end up replacing Skadi. But even though a Servant can be knocked out of this list doesn’t mean they stop being useful. If you feel like that someone needs to be on this list or be taken off, let me know down in the comments. 

Until then, may your draws be plentiful and the gacha salt be minor!

If you liked this article, please check out the others I've done: 

• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best Berserkers (Ranked)
• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best Archers (Ranked)
• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best 5 Star Servants (Ranked)

All images sourced from Fate/Grand Order Wiki (https://fategrandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Fate/Grand_Order_Wikia)