FGO Teambuilding 101

How to Teambuild for Dummies

Fate/Grand Order contains a vast array of Servants with unique skillsets and attributes, so it’s important to consider these, as well as the enemy at hand, when building a team. This brief guide will walk you through some of the basics when it comes to building a proper team, complete with examples. It assumes you have every Servant and Craft Essence that is available from the Friend Point summoning pool, every welfare Servant and Craft Essence (such as Oda Nobunaga and Halloween Princess), and access to any Servant you want via the Support feature.


Let’s Build a Buster Team
Buster teams are probably the most simple to build. They deal the majority of their damage via hitting with their Buster cards and use Buster Chains to further increase their damage output. Berserkers tend to fit in here extremely well, but require some kind of support to increase their longevity. Servants like Leonidas that can taunt enemies are vital if you decide to use Berserkers for your Buster team.
Here is an example of a Buster team that deals heavy damage and has decent survivability.

https://imgur.com/a/E16mK

Leonidas can do a decent job keeping aggro on himself, while also providing a party-wide Buster buff and a good amount of Buster cards for the party, while the rest of the party can focus on dealing damage via their Buster cards and Noble Phantasms. Both Santa Alter and Nobunaga have two Arts cards, so it can be worth trying to give them access to their Noble Phantasms, but Lu Bu and Darius III are better served with upgrades to their damage and survivability. At the very end we have a Heracles with his Bond Craft Essence, who can clean up whatever the others can’t handle.
There’s little point in trying to go for critical hits with a team like this, as you have barely any Quick cards to work with, so getting a critical hit will be very rare.


Let’s Build an Offensive Arts Team
Arts teams tend to focus on spamming Noble Phantasms as often as possible to deal damage. They usually have only one or two attackers at first, while the remainder of the frontline acts as support, healing and buffing the attacker(s). They rely a lot on Arts chains to gain Noble Phantasm gauge and make frequent use of skills, for which reason a Tamamo is all but required if you want to make an effective Arts team.
Here is an example of an Arts team with a single attacker in the frontline, focusing on dealing damage to a single enemy.

https://imgur.com/a/9Y9Sq

Shiki acts as the main damage dealer, thanks to her ”guaranteed” NP5, her decent attack, her Arts buff, and her ability to charge her own Noble Phantasm. Andersen provides a steady stream of offensive and defensive buffs, while Tamamo drastically increases Shiki’s damage output and helps keep skills ready when they have to be. Robin will take the place of whoever dies first and can deal heavy damage, while David’s Harp of Healing skill can save the party in a pinch, which you’re likely to be in if he cycles in naturally. Cú Chulainn doesn’t have any syngergy with the rest of the team, but acts as last resort and failsafe, since the actual team composition is likely to be completely ruined if he ends up on the frontline. Your Craft Essences should all focus on giving access to Noble Phantasms and increasing their damage dealt, with the exception of Cú, who should focus on survival.


Let’s Build a Defensive Arts Team
If you prefer taking it slow and steady, Arts teams provide a ton of Servants that help keep your team safe and healed at all times. The primary focus will be to have plenty of healing and defensive buffs available, while also having access to skills that can help you deal with bursts of damage.
Here is an example of a team that will deal pitiful damage, but can survive almost anything.

https://imgur.com/a/3Au0k

Mash and Andersen both provide defensive buffs at a constant rate, while Jeanne can stun and give the party full invuln for a turn. The remainder of the party serves to alleviate the burden of the frontline should they cycle in, dealing with attacks and drawing aggro to themselves, with Cú once again serving as a last resort.
You want to focus on Craft Essences that provide a steady stream of Noble Phantasm gauge, as battles with this kind of team often drag on for quite a while.


Let’s Build a Quick Team
Quick teams focus on dropping a lot of critical stars and deal the majority of their damage via critical hits. For this reason, it’s important to have both Servants that can help with dropping stars and Servants that can draw them to themselves. Assassins tend to drop a lot of stars naturally, while Riders naturally draw them to themselves, so these classes in particular are good for pure Quick teams.
Here is an example of a team that both drops and takes advantage of critical stars frequently.

https://imgur.com/a/AYyAq

Hassan and Jack both drop a lot of stars, while Ushiwakamaru will draw them to herself and deal heavy damage via critical hits without her card loadout interfering with Quick chains. Kojiro will replace whoever dies first, so make sure not to let Ushiwakamaru die first, as that would leave the team without anyone to suck up stars. Caesar will replace whoever is next to die, likely Ushiwakamaru, and will take over her role as damage dealer, with Cú being the last resort once more.
For Craft Essences, you want to focus on critical star droprate and Quick card performance on your Assassins, and critical damage on your main damage dealers.


You can, of course, also make hybrid teams, as many Servants have skills and abilities that benefit other card types they themselves don't have many of, such as Andersen, who can be a massive boon on a team focusing on critical hits. This guide is just meant to lay the groundwork and provide some basic examples. Experiment and find out for yourself how you can build teams that suit the situation at hand.