▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅! Sorry, that was Berserker speech for “Hey, how are you doing?”

Berserkers in Fate: Grand Order are the epitome of ‘high risk, high reward’. They dish out 1.5x more damage to most of the other classes, but take just that much from others. The only real exception is the Foreigner class, of which the Berserker does less damage towards and takes more from. Because of this, Berserkers don’t see a lot of use in later story events let alone in the challenge quests, unless they are busted.

This list covers the top ten best Berserkers, at least on the USA server and as of April 2024. There are some personal opinions mixed in here, along with the fact that I don’t have all of these Servants. My go-to Berserkers are Miyamoto-no-Raikou and Ibaraki Douji; and why they’re good in their own right, they do fall short compared to the ones on this list.

And we shall begin at the bottom of the list with:

10. Paul Bunyan

Giant Tall-Tale Lumberjack 

• Built for quick farming 
• Fastest NP in the game
• Useful support skills

Fate: Grand Order has an official parody manga called Learning with Manga, which started out as more of a tongue-in-cheek tutorial of the gameplay. It eventually evolved, or rather, mutated into a bizarre story of insane characters going on some asinine misadventures. The artist of that manga, Riyo, also does the April Fools artwork of all characters.

But eventually, one of her manga’s original characters popped into the game proper. Paul Bunyan, formed with the tainted mud from the False Holy Grail and udon dough. In case you didn’t read my previous article, FGO is weird.

Paul Bunyan was designed with a certain thing in mind, based around a recurring gag from Learning. Her Noble Phantasm is the fastest in the game, the closest thing that players will ever get to having a NP skip button. While she lacks the ability to really charge it quickly, she more than makes up for it by offering some good support.

Her skills provide the party with buffs to Buster and Critical Damage, a small but nice to have heal, and she can lower the enemies’ Defense and reduce their healing. Sadly, most of the time the enemies’ ability to heal isn’t strong enough to really need that specific debuff. But the big upside to these skills is the cost. Lower ranked Servants require less Quartz Particles and materials than higher ranked, so Bunyan is really a perfect fit for a budget party.

Her lower rank does mean that she dies insanely quick without aid, and her damage output is on the low side. But being someone of low cost and possessing some good support, Bunyan might not be the frontliner you might need but you will be pleasantly surprised when she comes in handy. And if you like her, you can always give her Holy Grails to help boost her Attack and HP to higher levels.

It also helps that she’s cute. You can unlock the quest that will gives her out for five Rare Prisms in the Rare Prism Shop. If you can get your hands on that many Rare Prisms, she will be worth the investment. 

9. Lancelot

The Strongest Knight, Post-Rebellion

• Critical Damage Master
• Capable of looping his NP
• Universal damage

Lancelot in his Berserker form is a bit of a weird unit to talk about. That’s because he’s heavily reliant on other units to help him out. And while one would think that a Servant that needs others to help pull his weight for him wouldn’t be on a list like this, let alone be higher up than someone with decent support skills…

…he makes up for it by being an insanely strong unit with the right setup. He blows Bunyan out of the water easily. Having better HP and ATK values help too.

In the early days, Lancelot saw some use, but not a lot. Quick Servants like him didn’t have the great support in the same neighborhood like Tamamo-no-Mae or Merlin. But once Scathach-Skadi came out, that all changed. Suddenly Lancelot rose to the top thanks to the looping meta.

Skadi’s third skill boosted Quick cards, which makes Lancelot’s focus on Critical Hitting all the more better. With the ability to both generate and draw Critical Stars, his already good damage output shot into insane range. His Noble Phantasm does grant him higher Attack while hitting all enemies, and if he can loop his Noble Phantasm, he can stack that Attack even higher!

But he lacks any damage-mitigation and is generally dependent on having at least one Skadi. Those are some big weaknesses to consider. If you got your hands on a Skadi and him, you got someone who can mop up farming and challenges like they’re nothing. 

8. Spartacus 

Rebellious Tyrant-Killer Gladiator

• Low cost 
• Farming god
• Tons of HP recovery

Fate: Grand Order is a grindy game. One can easily call it Fate: Grind Order. You have to farm for materials and QP, more so if you want to use the higher ranked Servants as they demand more QP and materials than others. (Within some infamous examples of lower rank Servants demanding hundreds of a certain material)

But from Day One, there was this guy. And he thinks grinding is tyranny, and he’s going to destroy it. Despite his low ranking and low stats, he shines as a powerful farmer if you go the distance with him.

While he doesn’t have that much HP to work with, it’s okay, because he can regenerate all of it quickly. First skill gives him some HP regen per turn, and the effects were doubled after a Strengthening. His third skill (Which has to be unlocked with another Strengthening) not only makes his Buster cards do more but also immediately restore HP. And his Noble Phantasm not only does Buster damage that ignores Defense, but it also restores HP on top if it!

But what if he takes a hit that he couldn’t survive? Then his second skill comes into play as it grants him Guts and even fills up his NP by a good amount. While the Guts only restores him to 1 HP after use, he has three ways of getting that HP back up.

Spartacus might not be the strongest or really the most durable Berserker out there, not really feasible for challenge quests. But his low cost makes him capable of easy farming and with the game mostly being about farming, you got an amazing budget farmer. Crush the tyranny of farming!

7. Sakata Kintoki 

Golden Oni-Slayer 

• Great boss slayer
• Amazing NP Charge skill
• Raw High Damage

Kintoki is the first Rank 5 Berserker in the game, and he made a big splash with his insane damage output. Even more so when it came down to fighting against boss-type enemies in the early game. Kintoki could murder bosses so easily.

And that’s all because of his second skill giving him a 50% NP charge. Berserkers usually have a Buster-focused deck, with Kintoki being no different in that regard, and therefore have always held a problem in building their NPs up without help. But he can get the NP up on his own, and with CEs, he can use his Noble Phantasm turn one. Ideal, seeing how his first skill is a single-turn Attack buff.

His Noble Phantasm is amazing, and it got even better after a Strengthening. It ignores Defense buffs, makes the enemy take more damage from Buster cards, and can stun. It does so much raw damage and then allows him to do even more afterwards. Even if they survive the NP, they aren’t surviving his Buster Chain.

Sadly, his aspect as a go-to Boss Slayer faded out in the game’s third year. Originally, bosses in FGO would have a single HP bar like regular enemies, but extended to high numbers like having a million or more. But after the end of the first story arc, they introduced the gauge system to make boss fights more dynamic and require more strategy than ‘Go Ape and kill in one turn’. 

And Kintoki’s low survivability didn’t gel well with that. He still has his use if a boss doesn’t have multiple gauges to burn through or he gets the right support to keep him alive. Even if his Rider version is a bit better. But the main issue is that the two are Limited in different ways. If you can get an opportunity to get the Berserker version, it will make a nice addition to raid boss focused teams. 

6. Galatea​

Chiseled Ideal Ivory Statue 

• Incredible durability
• Great Single-Target Damage NP
• Good Team Support

She’s got some funny-looking pants there, huh? Anyway, Galatea is a Servant that doesn’t get much love by a lot of people when she debuted or even afterwards, but she does come with some amazing abilities for a Berserker. Her skill loadout is practically tailored-made for a Berserker.

Her first skill provides something real essential to any Berserker; a combination of buffing Arts and Buster cards along with adding in a flat 20% NP rise and the ability to negate one use of Buff Removal. While she only has one Arts Card to her name, her Noble Phantasm is Arts-based, so it does help refill it quickly and make it deal more damage.

Her other skills are dedicated to survival. The second skill provides Guts and a Defense buff while her third one? An amazing support skill that got a powerful buff following one of her Interludes. Party-wide HP Regen and Debuff Cleanse per each turn while also allowing for her Buster cards to build her NP! 

And her Noble Phantasm might be single-target, but it reduces the enemy Charge by one level while increasing her own NP’s Damage first. Being Arts-based, it also means that she gets a little bit back after using. Combine with her the proper support, and she can start spamming it to the point where the enemy will never be able to use their own NPs.

Some people would put Vlad III over her, but as someone who has Vlad, I feel like Galatea’s more survival-based loadout makes her a better fit. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m not using Vlad III to the best of his abilities, but I went with Galatea because she can tank and build up NP while dealing greater damage. Even if I don’t have her.

5. Cu Chulainn Alter

Mad King of Thorns 

• Great survival 
• Reliable rate of damage
• Upgrade allows for removal of defense buffs on enemy

The legendary Irish hero of the Ulster Cycle, Cu Chulainn has a particular nickname in FGO. Cockroach Cu, mostly due to the fact that all variants of Cu are notoriously hard to kill. And the evil version of him that serves as the main antagonist of the American Singularity is no different in that regard.

He possesses his Lancer counterpart’s amazing Evade skill. While most Evade skills protect for just one turn, this one allows him to void two attacks over the next three turns. Combined with the Defense buff, even if someone does hit him, it does less damage. It also has a short cooldown, so he can keep on trucking.

His first skill lowers all enemies Attack and their Critical Hit chance, which combined with his Guts skill, allows to survive so much crap. And his Noble Phantasm does give him a single turn of Attack and Defense buff, adding to his already great defense. Complete the Strengthening and he’ll strip Defensive Buffs on his enemy before it hits, and that will give him all that he really needs.

The higher ranked characters on this list can hit harder, it cannot be denied how durable Cu Alter can be. While that will require you to upgrade him to max so you can really take advantage of his skillset (And that will cost a lot of materials and QP) it will be worth the investment. You will have to first complete the American Singularity to unlock him to pick him up in the gacha.

4. Miyamoto Musashi (Summer)

American Samurai 

• Great Arts AOE NP
• Capable of refunding her NP
• Unique skill that doubles up the hits of her Arts Card

Genderbends are no real surprise in FGO. It’s usually the ones that aren’t genderbent are the biggest surprise. But regardless of how used you are to mythical male characters being turned into girls, I doubt you woke up this morning expecting to see the legendary dual-wielding samurai Miyamoto Musashi being both a girl, dual-wielding gunblades and being an American.

Oh, and she’s not really a genderbent Miyamoto Musashi. She’s actually an alternative universe of Musashi, the one of our world is still male. This version of Musashi started hopping dimensions after eating udon out of a Holy Grail. Again, FGO.

This version of Musashi is mostly-focused on Arts and using her Noble Phantasm more often. This all comes down to her second skill, a variant on a unique skill that the original Musashi had. It doubles up the hits on the Arts Card (While lowering the damage of second hit) while also increasing the damage output of Arts Cards and boosting NP Gain. While she’s not the best at looping on her own, with the proper support, she could easily refund her own NP. 

But she comes with a dangerous price. Her third skill takes away a whopping 5000 HP in exchange for Ignoring Invincibility, an Attack buff, granting Guts, and lowering enemies’ Defense. It’s Death or Glory. If you have some way of recovering her HP, it will be fine, but it’s still a risky move. (That’s half her HP!)

She can be extremely risky to work with, but if you like living life on the edge, then let’s get dangerous! Pair her with some Arts Support and she’ll cut down the enemies, American-Style! Just ignore her saying that she’s Miyamoto Iori, she cannot keep consistent to that alias and Iori himself will be joining up in the game in two years time.

3. Heracles

Mad Conqueror of the Twelve Trials

• Wickedly high durability 
• One of the best Bond CEs in the game
• Great overall damage

When he was called the strongest around back in Fate: Stay/Night, they weren’t kidding. One of the best Servants you could get for free during the tutorial summon, if you ended up snagging the legendary Greek Hero (And spelled the same way that it would be in Greek) you were going to be set. 

One thing to mention is the Bonds. As you take Servants into battle, you’ll generate Bonds, earning rewards at each milestone. At the tenth milestone, you’ll get an unique Craft Essence that can only be equipped by the Servant who gives you it. Most of these aren’t that great, not really competing with the ones that give a giant amount of NP at the start of the round.

But Heracles is one of those exceptions. His Bond CE gives him three layers of Guts to work with. That’s four lives. And by completing a Strengthening Quest for him, you upgrade his own Guts skill to not only allow for him to stack Guts, but also to give him a Buster Buff for each stack of Guts that he ends up using. Killing him makes him even stronger!

And even with his Guts, he still has a single-turn Evade to help him negate damage. His first skill even buffs his Attack and raises his resistances to Mental debuffs, that covers most of the ones that prevent a Servant from acting. His Noble Phantasm is simple like Kintoki’s, being a single-target Buster. It only decreases Defense, but that’s universally useful.

While his use has decreased over the years with other characters, Heracles is still powerful in his own right. A Berserker capable of surviving almost anything thrown at him and capable of dealing a ton of damage? What’s not to like?

2. Morgan

Faerie Queen of Winter

• Amazing damage output
• Good team support
• Buster AOE NP looping

The sixth Lostbelt: Avalon le Fae, is massive. A three-part tragedy with a ton of characters, most of them insanely popular. And the starting villain Morgan le Fay ended up being the most popular of that sort. Half of it is from the fandom, and the other half came from her being prioritized by the development team. 

She has some skills that relate to Altria Caster. Party-wide attack buff that raises her, and only hers, NP by a good amount while also debuffs enemies defense. Her second skill…is outright the same as Altria Caster’s second. Single-targeted NP boost to one ally while giving the entire party the ability to generate NP faster.

Then on her third skill, a real loaded potato. It gives you Guts, draws Critical Stars to her cards while also boosting her Critical Damage AND giving some Critical Stars, and a unique benefit. It debuffs all enemies' Attack and Critical Hit Chance on every turn for the next three turns. Her only true survival skill.

But her claim to fame is her Noble Phantasm. AOE Buster, adds in the poison-based Curse, and Overcharges the party’s Noble Phantasms. With her ability to loop her NP, it means she can take advantage of her Overcharge effect of doing bonus damage to those with the Human Attributes, which is a fairly common attribute to Servants. She does deal more damage to those that are considered to be Knights of the Round Table and Fae, but that’s not as common as the Human Attribute. 

She has a lot going for her, but there is one standing head and shoulders above her:

1. Arjuna Alter

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

I have an article in the works where I go over the Top 15 of all Servants in FGO. This guy is on it; placed 6th out of 15th. Arjuna Alter is rightfully seen as a God in the hierarchy of FGO. The damage this man is capable of is off the charts. 

He has a unique and universal skill that makes him deal more damage to debuffed enemies, and with his Noble Phantasm debuffing their Buster Resistance before the damage, it gives him one of the strongest Noble Phantasms in the game. Coupled with his ability to draw Critical Stars to his Buster cards, and you get a combination that can nuke.

Perhaps the big weakness of Arjuna Alter besides his lack of durability is his lack of availability. Arjuna Alter being limited means he’s only available when he actually appears in a summon banner. Same as Morgan, but Morgan has appeared in more banners than he has. 

Now that we have reached the end of this list, I shall remind you that Berserkers, even the god-tier ones, still have to deal with the extra damage they take from all other classes. One Critical Hit and even the likes of Morgan and Arjuna Alter go down for good. Battling with Berserkers in your party requires you to flip a coin on each turn…

…but with the proper support, that’s a trick coin that lands the way you want it to. With ways to quickly farm or end battles, Berserkers do have their use even in the late game content. Good luck to you if you wish to use them. Or as they say (Or used to say): ▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!

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

• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best Archers (Ranked)
• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best Assassins (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)