"At least I have chicken..."

It's the most wonderful time of the year and with a bucket of the most delicious fried chicken Santa Alter makes her appearance! The latest event combines mechanics from previous events: Multi Token from Halloween, Specific Servant Bonuses from Honnoji and CE Bonuses from Lunar Festival. Don't speak Japanese? Fear not for the Clock Tower will guide you on your quest through the blizzards of the North Pole!

While many people did expect Iskandar to make an appearance for the Christmas event his job was robbed by the grumpy Santa Alter, who can be warmed up after delivering several stockings to her (she might even sing a song for you). From now until December 25th you'll be able to check out a brand new storyline by Nasu himself and indulge yourself in a sea of Experience Cards and other loot.

To participate in the event you'll want to enter the Chaldea Gate (where the daily quests can be found) and you'll have a brand new quest at the very top. You'll have to complete two preliminary storyline quests in order to begin to unlock the Free Quests, but they're relatively quick and you will be rewarded with a Golden Apple for your trouble. After that, a 10 AP quest will open up, which will open up again at 20 AP, then 30 AP, until you've reached the highest 40 AP quest (for now). Like previous quests each quest has a higher yield of each item that you'll need to purchase from Da Vinci's Event Shop.

Event Currencies & Boosters

Quick Guide Buckets of Chicken = Target Ascension Item. Get this first if short on time. (100 Mini Ribbon x 1, 100 Silver Bell x 1, 100 Golden Star x 2) 3 Tokens: Mini Ribbon, Silver Bell, Golden Star 2 Magic Stocking = 1 Special Christmas Gift Chance and we suggest you pull all Apples before resetting.



As with the previous event you'll have to deal with 4 different types of currencies. This time around we'll be dealing with Mini Ribbons, Silver Bells, Golden Stars and Magic Stockings. The formula is mostly the same as the Honnoji event with the exception of the Magic Stocking. Ribbons, Bells, and Stars are used to purchase items from Da Vinci's "Suteki na Shoppu" and will be required for purchasing Buckets of Chicken. Chicken will be your priority item for this event as the special 4★ Santa Alter will require it for ascensions. Each of these will cost you 150 currency with two purchasable from Golden Stars making your grand total 150 Mini Ribbons, 150 Silver Bells and 300 Golden Stars to buy out the delectable buckets. Again, this is the only way to ascend Santa Alter, which is why it takes priority.

Magic Stockings are the new gimmick of the event. Every 2 of these will give you a shot at the Christmas Gift Pool which consists of various items which include Golden Apples, Experience Cards and ascension items like Dragon Teeth. You will obtain a ton of these from just farming the event so rolling these in sets of 10 is recommended. Every attempt will pull a random item from the pool which removes the item from it—meaning if you roll enough you can get everything in the pool. If you obtain a Black Ticket you can use it to activate the button below:

Using Black Tickets in this way doesn't seem to remove them from your inventory which leads me to believe that it will be used for some future purpose. After resetting, you will move on to the next pool of items which will restock the pool completely. The first four pools have Black Tickets and the fifth pool will have a Crystalized Lore which also acts as a Black Ticket. After these first five pools you can only reset the pool by rolling out every single item before you are given the option to reset the pool. I highly suggest you wait until you obtain the ascension items you need, as well as all of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Apples.

Each material has a specific location that offers the best farm at the time this guide was written:

Mini Ribbons: 10 AP Free Quest

Silver Bells: 20 AP Free Quest

Golden Stars & Magic Stockings: 40 AP Free Quest

You can increase the amount of Tokens and Stockings that you receive by using specific Servants and Event Craft Essences:

+4 Magic Stockings Artoria Pendragon (Santa Alter, Rider)



+3 Magic Stockings Jack the Ripper (Assassin)



+2 Magic Stockings Nursery Rhyme (Caster) Marie Antoinette (Rider) Saint Martha (Rider)



+1 Magic Stocking David (Archer) Robin Hood (Archer) Jing Ke (Assassin) Gaius Julius Caesar (Saber) Darius III (Berserker) The Phantom of the Opera (Assassin)



+1 Mini Ribbon Lightning Reindeer (３★ Event CE)



+1 Silver Bell March of the Saints (４★Event CE)



+1 Gold Star Present for my Master (５★Event CE)



+20% Chance For An Additional Magic Stocking Drop Holy Night Sign (５★Event CE, Available in Shop)



Event Strategy

Quick Reference Full Buy Strategy Purchase 2 Holy Night Sign CE with Ribbons/Bells. Optional: If you have time you can purchase until you have 4 total. Farm AP 40 Free Quest with proper support. Bare Minimum Immediately purchase four Fried Chicken Buckets with 100 Ribbons, 100 Bells and 200 Stars then proceed to Farm AP 40.



Your strategy will be dependent on the amount of commitment you can give to the event. Below I will list two different strategies.

~Full Buy / Full Stockings Pool~

If you're planning on purchasing all items and milking the Magic Stocking pool for what it's worth I highly recommend that you immediately farm 150 Magic Ribbons and 150 Silver Bells. You'll want to quickly purchase 2 "Holy Night Sign" 5★ Event CEs from the shop—this will greatly increase your Magic Stocking gains over time as equipping them (even on the bench) will yield a large amount of Stockings. After this you'll want to farm the AP 40 Free Quest in order to gather both Golden Stars and Magic Stockings while using a Jack the Ripper support character with Holy Night Sign equipped if possible. If not available try to use the next highest that you can (example: Nursery Rhyme/Marie Antoinette).

You may want to purchase an additional Holy Night Sign with Golden Stars if you have the Mana Limit to support the amount of CEs and Servants, otherwise its fine to go without it. Since Holy Night Sign increases the percent chance of an additional drop stacking this to 100% (4 CEs and 1 Support) can be ideal if you have the time to invest.

~Bare Minimum~

If you don't have enough time to fully farm the event or are in a rush you'll want to immediately pick up the four Fried Chicken Buckets with 100 Magic Ribbons, 100 Silver Bells, and 200 Golden Stars. By picking these up immediately at the beginning you can ensure that you will be able to ascend Santa Alter after the event. Don't make my Mom's mistake (she didn't get all NobuNobu's from Honnoji); underestimate your farm and you'll miss out!

References

New Servants

Quick Reference Loadout: Quick, Quick, Quick, Arts, Buster Skills: Murderer of the Misty Night A: Increases Quick Card effectiveness by 30% (max 50%) and grants evasion for 1 turn. Information Erasure B: Removes buffs from the target enemy and decreases their critical chance by 10% (max 30%) for 3 turns. Surgery E: Recover target ally HP by 500 (max 2500)



It turns out that infamous and uncaught Murderer of the Mists is actually a girl according to Fate lore. Jack has a decent 11557 Maximum Attack Power, however this is reduced at base by the fact that she is an Assassin and her Maximum Hit Points are also extremely weak which puts her on the lower end of 5★ Servants in terms of raw stats. Her abilities aren't much to look at either—she suffers from a distinct de-synergy as Information Erasure B and Surgery E seem like abilities that are more fitting on supports and support hybrids. Information Erasure B does give her an edge as a buff clearer just as Rule Breaker and Diarmuid and is actually stronger due to the fact that it occurs on command.

She does sport the incredible dual utility Murder of the Misty Night A, which is a strong all around ability with both Offense and Defense packed into it. Remember, the ability increases EFFECTIVENESS which also increases Quick Critical Star gain and Noble Phantasm gain which makes her a Noble Phantasm beast that is able to charge up her Noble Phantasm quickly with Arts-Quick-Quick. While she may seem to be weak, don't discount her yet! Her Buster and Arts both strike twice, her Quicks strike five times each and her Brave Combo will strike four times—making her a Crit Generation machine that is able to easily generate 40+ Critical Stars in a single turn.

She is easily slottable into any Crit Team and pairs well with Servants like Okita Souji, Francis Drake and Mary & Anne and any high-damage character that can utilize her Star Generation effectively. Her ultimate also deals an incredible amount of single target damage and the bonus effect can usually land due to the prevalence of female Servants in the game.

Artistically she can be a bit dull compared to recent 5★ Servants and while her Noble Phantasm is a bit flashy its not anything to note.

Quick Reference Loadout: Quick, Arts, Arts, Arts, Buster Skills: Self-Modification A: Increases unit's Critical Damage by 20% (max 50%) and Star Absorption by 300% (max 600%). Shapeshift A+: Increases unit's Defense by 10% (max 30%) for 3 turns and an additional 30% for 1 turn and increases self Debuff Resistance for 3 turns. Meanwhile... A: Increases own NP Gauge by 20% (max 40%), recovers own HP by 1000 (max 2000) and removes all Debuffs on self.



A tea party with a weird caster—this is the best way to explain the anomaly that is Nursery Rhyme. She fills an interesting niche as our first Critical-focused Caster who can dish out some decent Critical damage if Self-Modification A is ranked up. There is a caveat however, her Max Attack and Maximum HP are more in line with 4★ tanks than they are with damage dealers, combine that with the fact that she receives a 10% penalty in Attacking due to being a Caster and you have a weird mix that performs at its best only while critting or taking advantage of her Noble Phantasm. Luckily for her she does have "Meanwhile... A" which is a quick way to increase her Noble Phantasm—making her great with a Craft Essence that helps boost her Noble Phantasm gain rate such as Petit Devil.

Shapeshift A+ and "Meanwhile...A" make her incredibly tanky for a Caster, which can help her take advantage of multiple Noble Phantasms which have great blanket utility with defense down and AoE damage. If her NP reduction lands she can also be great for stalling the enemy team, which gives you that little extra bit of breathing room against Archers and Assassins. Nursery Rhyme would do decently in a team focused around Crit as a utility secondary DPS as long as you can support her with Critical Star Generation. Alternatively you might choose to run her in an Arts team as a utility Caster that can take advantage of her rapid fire Arts Noble Phantasm to both Arts Brave Chain for herself and also help Allies build their own Arts chains.

Her art direction is interesting! She begins her journey as a floating book and transforms into a little girl at 2nd Ascension. Her 4th Ascension makes her all the more cute and her attack animations match her personality well. When she flicks her wrist to attack a spray of hearts and stars are a prelude to flashy elemental magics which rain down upon her foes. Nursery Rhyme "A Story For Another" also has very crisp animations as she flicks open her Alice in Wonderland Book in front of her and sprays a barrage of whimsical material.

Quick Reference Loadout: Quick, Arts, Arts, Buster, Buster Skills: Saint's Gift EX: Recovers target ally's HP by 1500 (max 3500) and increases their Critical Star Generation by 30%. Instinct A: Instantly gains 5 (max 15) Critical Stars. Prana Burst A-: Increases Buster effectiveness by 25% (max 45%) for 1 turn.



Santa Alter is still fixing her sleigh at the time I'm writing this article so the upcoming information is mostly speculation. Let's start with "holycrap those abilities." Saint's Gift EX recovers an ally's HP by a high amount and also increases their Critical Star Generation by 30%. It would seem that lately DelightW0rks has been favoring crit with their latest releases and Santa Alter is no exception. Combine Saint's Gift EX and Instinct A and you have a perfect Critical Utility setup with big damage to boot. Prana Burst A- is slightly weaker than the usual Prana Burst, but for a Rider it's quite an amazing thing to have and it has synergy with her Noble Phantasm Excalibur Morgan which is a Buster-type.

I speculate that she will be one of the strongest 4★ to date with her balanced stat line and her extremely high damage Noble Phantasm which deals 450% damage in Buster Anti-Fortress goodness which will be an easy max with the event for a whopping 650%.

While I haven't had a chance to play her yet, she's starting to look like a great all-around Rider that can be a strong frontline for any team. Thanks DelightWorks for the Christmas Gift!

New Craft Essences

Present for My Master 5★

Increases Critical Absorption by 100%. Unit also receives 40% more healing. Limit Break increases values to 200% and 50%.

-Commentary-

A very niche purpose that will be hard to justify slotting. While it would benefit Jack the Ripper and Nursery Rhyme there are simply other options that will take you much further. Gives +1 Golden Stars during the event and is obtainable through Event Grand Summon.

Holy Night Sign 5★

Increases effectiveness of Quick Cards by 8% and increases Critical Attack Damage by 15%. Limit Break increases values to 10%/20%.

-Commentary-

Decent on Critical Damage Dealers that have 2 or more Quick Cards such as Okita and Scathach, this card has a very targetted purpose. Also increases the chance that an additional Magic Stocking will drop from enemies that drop Magic Stockings and is stackable, this makes it incredible for farming the event.. Obtainable through Da Vinci's Shop during the event and rare item drop from battle.

March of the Saints 4★

Unit recovers 200 HP every turn. Unit gains 3% NP every turn. Limit breaks to 300 HP and 4% NP gain.

-Commentary-

While at first glance it would seem that this card would be great on Jeanne D'Arc, the values are simply too low to justify taking up her Craft Essence even when Limit Broken. If you have no other options, this can definitely can work—it's just not ideal. This card does have amazingly ironic art though (haha). Also increases Silver Bell drops by 1 and is obtainable through the Event Grand Summon.

Lightning Reindeer 3★

Increases Buster Card Effectiveness by 15% for 3 turns. Limit breaks to 20%.

-Commentary-

It's a three star CE, so it'll already be hard to justify using it. 4★ Verdant Sound of Destruction offers the same bonus without the 3 turn limit and Limited Over Zero offers 25%. I can't see any real use for this at all but the card does have hilariously cute art. Also grants +1 Mini Ribbons for the event and you can obtain it from the Event Grand Summon and you obtain 1 for free for completing the first Storyline Quest.

I hope this guide helps you along on your Winter Journey! Don't forget to feed Santa Alter her fried chickens when she appears and have a Merry Christmas! Special thanks as usual goes out to the FGO Reddit Community, FGO Wikia and FGO English Translations on Twitter.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below and we'll do our best to answer!

Good luck and happy farming!

EDIT: A few errors were corrected, thanks to /r/Grandorder for catching them. ^^ I tested out the Holy Night Sign CE to check for the effect and I believe that it was listed wrong and have since updated the information above. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks everyone for the comments and help!