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freyayuki · 1 year ago

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Fate/Grand Order Merlin Pickup Summon Banner

The Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Pickup Summon series of banners just started in the Fate/Grand Order (FGO) mobile game.

This is to celebrate the conclusion of "Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born".

The Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Pickup Summon comes with 3 banners. These banners and the Servants they feature are as follows:

Merlin Banner

5-star SSR Caster Merlin (#ad)

4-star SR Saber Gawain

4-star SR Archer Tristan

Medb Banner

5-star SSR Rider Queen Medb

4-star SR Saber Gawain

4-star SR Archer Tristan

Caren C. Hortensia (Amor (Caren)) Banner

5-star SSR Ruler Caren C. Hortensia (Amor (Caren))

4-star SR Saber Gawain

4-star SR Archer Tristan

Medb’s banner will show up from 2023-7-24 21:00 - 2023-7-27 20:59 PDT. Caren’s banner will show up from 2023-7-26 21:00 - 2023-7-29 20:59 PDT. Merlin’s banner will show up from 2023-7-28 21:00 - 2023-7-31 20:59 PDT.

Thoughts about 5-star SSR Rider Queen Medb

After playing through the Fate/Grand Order Waltz in the MOONLIGHT/LOSTROOM×Fate/Grand Order Collaboration Event "Bedazzled! Grail Concert! Crane Returns an Idol's Favor", ended up liking Medb. Also really like the costume she got from said event.

I remember throwing like 10 tickets on the Queen Medb banner that showed up with the aforementioned event. Was supposed to be saving my pulling resources for other upcoming Servants so I really shouldn’t have done that but couldn’t seem to help it.

Unfortunately, Medb didn’t show up. Thankfully, managed to stop myself from throwing more tickets or even Saint Quartz (SQ) on the Medb banner.

When the feature that lets us get 1 non-limited and/or story-locked 5-star SSR Servant became available, I strongly considered choosing Medb. But since said feature doesn’t expire, decided to hold off on using it for now.

It’s not like I really need Medb anyway. And there are other Servants I’m also considering getting instead of Medb. She just happened to be one of my top picks.

Aside from liking her and her costume from the Grail Concert event, Medb also happens to be a story-locked Servant. This means there’s no way she can spook me or show up as an off-banner pull. The only way to get a copy of her is to roll on a banner that features her.

Anyway, at the time I’m writing this post, currently playing through “Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born”.

Warning for possible spoilers for the aforementioned story chapter.

Queen Medb or a char who’s her spitting image is featured in Lostbelt 6 and, as I played through the aforementioned chapter, ended up liking that version of her too. Too bad Rider Medb has yet to get a costume that features any of her Lostbelt 6 outfits.

Anyway, the point is, definitely interested in pulling for Medb. She’s also a pretty good Rider who’s a mix between a DPS and a support.

Unfortunately, much as I want to, I can’t pull for Medb right now because there’s someone who I want more. Gonna have to skip this banner of hers and either just wait for her to get another banner or pick her as my free SSR.

Thoughts about 5-star SSR Ruler Caren C. Hortensia (Amor (Caren))

Caren seems fine. Wouldn’t mind getting her but, like with Medb, can’t afford to pull for her right now.

Besides, she has a Quick-type Noble Phantasm or NP and I unfortunately don’t have my own 5-star SSR Caster Scáthach-Skadi, the premier support for Servants with Quick-type NPs.

Thoughts about 5-star SSR Caster Merlin

I really like Merlin. Ever since I first started playing Fate/Grand Order and heard about him, I’ve wanted to pull for him. It’s not just because he’s a really good support, especially for Challenge Quests and the like.

Always pleased whenever I see Merlin show up in events and story chapters and such. Heck, I wish he’d show up more often. Always like seeing him and learning more about him.

Anyway, if I’m remembering correctly, I first started playing Fate/Grand Order a bit before the rerun of the event featuring 4-star SR Archer Oda Nobunaga. I think the Chaldea Boys event was ongoing or about to start at that time.

There was a Merlin banner that was gonna show up a few months after those aforementioned events. When the Merlin banner finally arrived, used all the resources that I had but, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and I failed to get even a single copy of Merlin.

Needless to say, was very upset. To make matters worse, IIRC, it was gonna be a really long wait for Merlin’s next banner.

If I’m not mistaken, Merlin’s next banner, or at least the next one I pulled on was the one that showed up in one of the summer events. Unfortunately, I once again failed to get Merlin on that summer banner.

At that time, was already feeling kinda burnt out with FGO so failing to get Merlin didn’t help at all. Was so upset that I couldn’t get through the summer event.

Didn’t feel like doing anything in the game so started just logging in then quickly logging out. Only really bothered to log in to get the daily login rewards. But as time passed - well, this happened what feels like forever ago so don’t remember all the details anymore but I eventually just stopped logging on to FGO.

Didn’t delete the game, but for all intents and purposes, I basically quit. I knew the summer Merlin banner was gonna get a rerun though. And a part of me was still interested in FGO. The story is good. So sometimes, I’d still check out news about it like upcoming and/or new Servants and such.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I unfortunately missed the Merlin rerun banner. I returned to FGO either right before or during the anniversary that featured 5-star SSR Caster Altria or Artoria or Castoria.

Told myself that if I fail to get Castoria, then I’ll just quit playing again, but if I actually manage to get her, then maybe I can take that as a sign to start playing again. Well, managed to get Castoria somehow so here I am again, back in FGO. LOL.

I still want Merlin though. He’s undoubtedly one of my fave Servants in this game. But I know that I don’t actually need him.

I mean, I’ve been able to get by this long without him, and I can just borrow a friend support Merlin if I really need him for a fight or something. Well, assuming it’s possible to do so anyway since there are fights where you can’t bring a support or you’re locked to using certain chars.

The point is that my interest in Merlin was never just about how good and meta he is. He is really good, but that’s just a bonus for me. I like him so want to pull for him and Grail him to level 100.

Merlin’s next banner was supposed to be sometime in March 2024 so my plan was to save and pull for said banner.

This Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Merlin Pickup Summon banner came as a surprise. Totally wasn’t expecting this banner, and I’m not ready for it at all, but can’t and don’t want to pass up an opportunity to finally get my first copy of Merlin. Well, hopefully, anyway.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Saber Gawain

Currently have Gawain at NP2. I like him but don’t get to use him that often since I have lots of other Sabers, and I don’t have any of his skills leveled to the max. Certainly wouldn’t mind getting more copies of him though.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Archer Tristan

I like Tristan too. Currently have him at NP3. He has a Quick-type NP and don’t have any of his skills leveled to the max either so don’t really get to use him much at all.

Don’t mind getting more copies of Tristan and Gawain, but of course, my main priority is getting Merlin.

Fate/Grand Order Guaranteed Summon Function

Fate/Grand Order now has a “pity system” but it costs 900 Saint Quartz for 1 rate-up SSR. If you happen to get the rate-up SSR before spending 900 SQ, you’re not guaranteed to get another copy even if you keep pulling until you spend 900 SQ. In short, this so-called pity system sucks.

Fate/Grand Order Pulling Resources

Sadly, don’t have enough to pity Merlin right now. Banners featuring the following Servants just recently showed up in Fate/Grand Order:

5-star SSR Berserker Morgan

5-star SSR Assassin Koyanskaya of Light

5-star SSR Pretender Oberon

Spent a lot of my tickets and SQ on these banners. Thankfully, was able to get them all but after 3 banners that were practically back-to-back-to-back, I barely have any pulling resources left.

I know it’s better to skip this Merlin banner and just pull on his upcoming March 2024 banner instead so I have more time to save. Maybe by then I’ll even have enough to pity him if I have to.

But like I said, I just can’t help it. Don’t want to pass up the opportunity to try and get Merlin now. Really don’t have a lot of resources left though so I can only hope that I’ll get lucky or there’ll be a miracle or something.

Ahh, if only the rates in this game were higher and/or the cost to pity a SSR Servant wasn’t so high.

Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Merlin Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results

Currently have 180 SQ on hand and 1 summon ticket. Still have a few more that I can get from my present box, from the SQ fragment exchange shop, and from rewards from clearing missions and such.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get Merlin right away. Also hoping that I can get 1 copy of the 5-star SSR Craft Essence The Black Grail.

My copy of this CE is stuck at Level 80 of 80. Need 1 more copy in order to be able to fully MLB this CE.

The Black Grail is one of the best CEs in FGO. It increases NP damage by 60%. When fully MLB, it increases NP damage by 80%. The downside or demerit is that the Servant equipped with this will lose 500 HP each turn but that’s a small price to pay for such a powerful effect.

Anyway, here are the results of my pulls on the Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Merlin Pickup Summon banner. Only gonna list the notable stuff I get though.

Started with a multi-draw. Got 2 4-star CEs and 1 5-star CE but they were all dupes. Too bad the 5-star CE wasn’t The Black Grail.

Got a silver Caster card on my next multi-draw. To my surprise, this card suddenly started turning gold. OMFG! Also, hell yes!

The moment I saw the silver Caster card turning gold, I got so hyped and excited. Thought for sure that I was about to get Merlin. Surely, I was about to get Merlin. Right? Right?

More like wrong. Unfortunately. Because the gold Caster card soon revealed itself to be my very first copy of 5-star SSR Caster Xuanzang Sanzang.

She's a new Servant but - argh! Disappointed doesn't even begin to cover this. Why? Why'd this have to happen? Damn it. Seriously, have no words for this. I'm so, so - argh!

Instantly, I flashed back to the first time I tried pulling for Merlin. I still remember getting a gold Caster card from that banner and thinking for sure that I was about to get Merlin already.

Got so hyped and excited when I saw that gold Caster card but that quickly turned to disappointment and complete and utter despair when I ended up getting my first copy of 4-star SR Nitocris instead.

Was so tempted to burn or sell Nitocris for a Rare Prism. I didn't but I also didn't bother to use her or even level her up for the longest time. Eventually, I did end up leveling her up and even increasing the levels of some of her skills since I needed a farmer and I thought she might as well make herself useful.

Unsurprisingly, was also really tempted to sell Sanzang. I didn't but argh! Seriously, why? Why'd this have to happen? Sigh.

Anyway, my next multi-draw gave me dupes of 1 5-star CE (Holy King of Twilight) and 1 4-star CE (The Vessel of Desire). Wish that 5-star CE had been a dupe of The Black Grail instead. At least I haven't fully MLB'd the aforementioned CEs yet but still.

After that, decided to do single draws. The very first single pull I did gave me a dupe of the 4-star CE called Divine Banquet.

Feels like this CE is trolling me because I keep on getting it. IIRC, also got dupes of this in one or more of the recent banners that I just pulled on. Currently already have 2 fully MLB copies of Divine Banquet so really don't need any more.

The rest of my single pulls after that were all nothing more than 3-star trash. Meh.

So went back to doing a multi. Got a gold Archer card that soon turned into a dupe of Tristan.

Then a gold Saber card showed up too and this turned into a dupe of Gawain.

Aside from those 2, also got dupes of 2 4-star CEs, one of which is Imaginary Number Attribute, which is pretty good and which I have yet to fully MLB.

My next multi-draw gave me another dupe of The Vessel of Desire as well as a dupe of the 4-star CE called Be Graceful.

Now down to 3 SQ on hand so went to exchange my SQ fragments for actual SQ and went to get the rest of the SQ that I have in my present box and as mission rewards and such.

My next multi-draw gave me yet another dupe of Divine Banquet and a dupe of the 4-star CE called La Folia.

Started doing single draws again. But I soon ran out of SQ. Should have taken this as a sign to stop pulling already, but didn't want to just give up now after waiting for what feels like forever for a Merlin banner to show up.

So I decided that I was going to keep on trying until the end. Still have some content in the game that I had yet to do and that would give me SQ so my plan was to just try to finish all of these quests and such and use any SQ I manage to get on the Merlin banner.

Was gonna keep doing that until one of the following happens: I completely run out of SQ, the banner goes away, or Merlin actually comes home. At this point, that last part seems really unlikely to happen and this is likely - no, totally an exercise in futility, but I don't know. Guess I wanted to keep trying and hoping for a miracle anyway.

When the Merlin banner was announced, was still going through Lostbelt 6. Continued doing that. Didn't skip any scenes but every time I got enough SQ to do a single draw, I'd go to the Merlin banner, hope for the best, and pull. Unfortunately, still no Merlin.

Was already nearing the end of Lostbelt 6 when the Merlin banner showed up so it didn't take that long to finish it. After that, started doing all the Lostbelt 6 free quests and the rest of the free quests from other chapters that I had yet to do.

There's a permanent mission that gives you 10 SQ every time you complete 10 free quests. So was really glad to find out that I had yet to complete all of the free quests from Lostbelt 5.5.

There's also a permanent mission that will give you 10 SQ every time you complete 10 rank up quests. Currently, my progress for this mission is at 139/140. Sadly, already cleared all the available rank up quests for all of my Servants.

Since I really wanted more SQ, actually seriously considered using the free SSR feature to get Medb now. It helped that she has 2 rank up quests and 2 interludes.

While trying to decide if I was really gonna do that or not, I happened to tap on the Rank Up Quest button in the game. Since I didn't have any more rank ups to do, was expecting to see the text "No Quest Available" so was surprised when I saw a greyed-out rank up quest. It was Sanzang's.

Took a closer look at her and saw that she actually has 2 rank up quests and 1 interlude. Honestly, was all set to just completely ignore her for now. Really didn't want anything to do with her at the moment.

Didn't even want to look at her because every time I see her, I keep being reminded that the only time I ever got a gold Caster card on the Merlin banner, I ended up being trolled by Sanzang.

However, the fact that she has 2 rank up quests and 1 interlude and the fact that completing these quests would give me more SQ for Merlin changed everything. Her rank ups are locked behind leveling her up while her interlude requires her bond to be at a certain level for it to be unlocked.

And so, much as I didn't want to, reluctantly leveled up Sanzang to 90. Left all her skills at 1 though. And didn't bother trying to raise her bond level yet since I actually have a lot of other interludes to do so didn't need to unlock hers right away.

Anyway, after leveling up Sanzang, completed both of her rank up quests which gave me 4 SQ. Also finally cleared the "complete 140 rank up quests" mission which gave me 10 SQ. Yay for more SQ for Merlin.

Speaking of interludes, there's also a mission that will reward players with 10 SQ every time they complete 10 interludes. So far, I've completed 110 interludes and have around 30+ more that I have yet to do. So now I started doing these interludes.

Interludes have cut scenes, some of which are kinda long, so it takes time to read through and finish these. However, didn't want to skip these stories, so just tried to read fast and finish off the enemies in these quests as quickly as possible.

Time was running out though. Sadly, the Merlin banner was gonna end soon. On one hand, I'm getting burnt out with all this grinding and the situation seems hopeless so maybe it's for the best for the Merlin banner to end aready. I can just try again the next time he shows up.

But on the other hand, after grinding so much, I really wish I wasn't leaving this banner with nothing to show for it. Sure, the Tristan and Gawain dupes are fine but they're not Merlin. Sigh.

Anyway, soon, maintenance for the Grand Nero Fest Summer 2023 Revival just started. After this maintenance ended, the aforementioned event began.

I thought the Merlin banner would be gone after the maintenance was over so was surprised but glad that that wasn't the case at all because I was able to scrounge up a bit more SQ from playing through more interludes and such and we also got some SQ as apology for the maintenance.

The Merlin banner was definitely ending soon though so was rushing to get as much SQ as I could before that happened.

This included quickly finishing all the weekly Master Missions quests.

Also decided to spend 5 Rare Prisms to unlock the Main Interlude Abyssal Cyber Paradise, SE.RA.PH event so I could get even more SQ although I did this before the maintenance for Nero Fest started so when I got back to the game, opted to start with some of the available Nero Fest quests first.

To be more precise, focused my attention on the 2 available Exhibition Quests. These are Challenge Quests that will reward you with 1 ticket after you clear each of them for the first time. So 2 Exhibition Quests means 2 tickets. Too bad the rest of the Exhibition Quests aren't available yet.

While doing all of the aforementioned chapters and quests and interludes and such, was also trying to increase the bond levels of my Servants. Made sure to bring the ones who were close to increasing their bond levels since you get some SQ every time a Servant's bond goes up. The amount you get depends on the bond level and even the Servant's rarity.

Was also really thankful that the monthly Mana Prism shop's ticket stash got reset just before the Merlin banner ended. This meant I was able to get 5 more tickets.

Anyway, here are the results of the rest of the pulls I was able to do on the Merlin banner before it went away:

A single draw gave me another gold Archer card which turned into yet another dupe of Tristan.

After a few more singles, got my 10th and +1 or bonus summon, both of which turned out to be dupes of Be Graceful. Ugh. Merlin, doko da?

My next set of single draws just gave me dupes and more dupes.

The only noteworthy thing that I got from my next set of singles was yet another dupe of Gawain.

The few times I actually got a Caster card, it was always silver, which was really disheartening.

It seemed like my next set of single draws was all set to give me crap again. Got a Caster card but it was silver and didn't turn gold. Instead, it just turned into my nth dupe of 3-star R Caster Avicebron. Got a 5-star CE (Under the Sun) but it wasn't The Black Grail. It wasn't even new or useful.

By now, it really seemed like all hope was lost. Even if I wanted to keep on grinding and grinding, time was fast running out. Was just getting more and more frustrated, angry, depressed, and burnt out.

IIRC, it was around this time that I got the tickets from the Mana Prism shop and the 2 Exhibition Quests from the Nero Fest event. So started using these tickets.

Soon, I was set to do my 10th and +1 or bonus summon. Saw some gold sparks during the 10th summon. Tried not to get too excited since this could be yet another dupe of Tristan or Gawain or something.

But then a gold Caster card actually appeared.

OMFG! Please, please, please be Merlin. Please. My heart was beating fast. Fingers crossed. Hoping, hoping. Then the gold Caster card soon revealed itself and -

OMFG! It's Merlin. It's actually Merlin. Yes! Hell, yes! Merlin! Finally! It's a miracle. This is so freaking awesome. Thank you, thank you. So freaking happy to see Merlin. He's finally home. Yes, yes, yes! Don't know what else to say, but definitely really freaking happy about this.

At least all that grinding didn't turn out to be for nothing. Since Merlin actually showed up, in the end, it was all worth it.

Anyway, here are some more screenshots of Merlin:

4-star SR Archer Tristan and 4-star SR Saber Gawain

Managed to get my NP3 Tristan to NP5.

Got my NP2 Gawain to NP3 and then to NP4.

5-star SSR Caster Merlin

Leveled up Merlin to 90 then spent all the Holy Grails needed to get him to level 100.

Also got all of his skills to level 10. Would have unlocked and maxed out his second Append skill (Load Magical Energy or Mana Loading) too but, unfortunately, currently don't have enough of his Coins to do that yet.

Also, sadly, since I didn't clear the summer event where Merlin showed up, I don't have the Key needed to unlock his costume or Spiritron Dress. It’s called Camelot & Co. Thankfully, this is apparently coming back, just not anytime soon.

Also missed out on the Command Code that features Merlin. It's called the Mage of Flowers, and it also showed up on that summer event I skipped. Sadly, it looks like this one isn't coming back at all. Sigh.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on any of the Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Pickup Summon series of banners? What do you think about Merlin, Medb, Caren, Tristan, and Gawain?

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Fate/Grand Order game account

#fate/grand order #fgo merlin #fgo gawain #fgo tristan #merlin #fgo #tristan #gawain #grand order #mobile games #gacha games #games #mobile apps #fate go #fate grand order

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