Fate/Grand Order is a complex Gacha game with much to offer in terms of innovative gameplay. However, the fact that most of its mechanics are more or less new compared to other, similar games currently on the App Store is both exciting and, at times, confusing. As a new player, it can take some time to find your bearings and learn how to prioritize between different characters and activities.

This guide to the early-game is meant to help you familiarize yourself with Fate/Grand Order and its general mechanics much sooner. Having a plan for the development of your team and Servants from the very beginning can help you avoid costly mistakes and spending precious materials on useless heroes. Plus, you’ll give yourself a hefty head start and find it easier to progress through content down the line.

Consider Re-Rolling (with BlueStacks)

The tutorial for Fate/Grand Order will take about 20 minutes to complete, after which you will have the chance to summon a combination of 10 Servants and useful materials. Although you cannot get any 5-star characters from these pulls, you can get at least 2 4-star Servants, which will prove to be tremendously useful during the early game.

Of course, having to spend 20 minutes on each re-roll can suck the fun out of anyone, especially if it takes you 10+ attempts to get a decent line-up. Fortunately, you can get the job done about 5 times faster if you re-roll with BlueStacks. We’ve written a thorough guide on this topic and made several suggestions for the best post-tutorial Servants here.

Secure Your Account

Once you find a satisfactory group of Servants, the next essential step is to finalize your account registration by issuing a Transfer Number (in My Room). This will ensure that your account does not get lost once you switch to a different device or if, for some reason, you have to reinstall the game.

Other than your Transfer Number, customer service might ask for a couple of additional details in the eventuality that you do lose access to your account. These can include your Friend Code (which you can find on the home screen), your name and birthday (both found on the Master Profile), as well as records of any purchase you might have made on this account.

Keep an Eye Out for Powerful Friends

Once you go further into the main storyline, you’ll unlock the ability to add friends and to summon their Servants to fight alongside you in battle. This is not something you will do at all times, but rather a way to gain a bit of extra oomph during fights that you cannot win otherwise.

Play Fate/Grand Order on PC

Although any powerful Servants can be useful during difficult battles, you should focus especially on friends with the following characters: Zhuge Liang (useful in all comps), Jeanne d’Arc (for very difficult fights), Altaria Pendragon (or other high AoE DPS), as well as Gilgamesh (against other Servants) and powerful Berserkers like Vlad, Lancelot, or Heracles.

Stick to the Main Storyline

Like in most mobile RPGs, your greatest limitation in Fate/Grand Order will be your AP (or Energy). Although, at first, you’ll have an abundance of AP, this will no longer be the case throughout the mid-game, when you’ll have to start prioritizing between different activities.

Ideally, you should first focus on completing the main storyline, at least until you hit your first progression wall. Then, you’ll want to split your remaining AP between Ember Gather (for Servant XP cards), Treasure Hunt (for the game’s soft currency, QP), and Training Grounds (for upgrade materials).

Don’t Discard 3-Star Servants

If you compare two fully upgraded Servants, the 5-star character will always be better than the 4-star, with no exception. The same stands for comparisons between 4-star and 2-star Servants. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to fully upgrade and equip a 5-star character for some time. Under the circumstances, you might find it easier to level and buff a 3-star Servant, for instance, which will end up being stronger than your 5-star with no upgrades.

This is why you should never discard a 3-star Servant in this game. They might not make it all the way to the late-game, but at least to begin with, these characters will carry your team through most content. A few notable 3-star Servants to look for are Mash Kyrielight (a great support), Medea (especially in NP teams), Robin Hood (also in NP teams), and Cu Chulainn (for extreme survivability). Even some 1- and 2-star Servants, such as Hassan, Hans Christian Anderson, and Sasaki can pull their weight in the early-game.

Broad Team Compositions

There are three main types of team composition that are considered to be viable in Fate/Grand Order. It will obviously take some time until you can put together a group with legendary characters, but even during the early stages of the game, you can still follow these patterns to mix and match weaker Servants.

The NP/Art Team

This is one of the strongest comps in the game when put together with 4- and 5-star heroes that have excellent NP abilities. These skills are essentially ultimate cards that can be played during combat once a hero’s NP bar is full. The team should include plenty of abilities that rush the accumulation of NP and will generally favor P2W players because the NP abilities of 1- to 3- star characters are fairly weak by comparison. Still, the comp remains useful even with lesser heroes if your aim is to grind daily missions.

The Crit Team

The aim of this comp is to generate up to 50 crit stars per turn in order to keep dealing massive damage throughout the battle. In general, such a team is made up of a hitter (highest damage, high star weight), a crit star generator, and a buffer. The 3 best Servants for this team are Jeanne Alter, Merlin, and Waver, but the comp does work decently with less impressive characters as well.

The Buster Team

This is most likely going to be your comp during the early-game because it’s much less demanding than the other two. To put this team together, you just need three hard-hitting (high attack) heroes that place a large number of Buster cards in your deck. During combat, you simply chain Buster moves, which tends to have a devastating effect on your opponents. This team becomes more or less obsolete during the late-game, but it is the easiest to put together to begin with.

The tips mentioned here are just the beginning. Fate/Grand Order is a massive game with a lot of intricate mechanics that players tend to learn along the way. However, being aware of the aspects described above will help you navigate the early-game much faster and, hopefully, with fewer decision you’ll regret later on.

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