In the Fate series, a Servant is a reincarnation of an ancient Heroic Spirit, summoned by a Mage later called Master, with the help of Fuyuki’s Greater Grail to participate in the Holy Grail War. Servants are very powerful familiars, defined as “the most powerful beings”, summoned by Mages. Normally, a Mage cannot summon a more powerful familiar than himself, so limiting himself to only small pets performing simple tasks for them, however, Servants are different.
And it is exactly because of that that we have decided to bring you a list of the strongest servants in the Fate series. We have decided to analyze the large list of known servants and select the 15 strongest among them. You’re going to find out a bit about them and when they first appeared.
Strongest Fate Servants
As we have said, the list is going to contain a total of 15 names, of all alignments. They are going to be ranked from 15th to 1st place, based on their basic strengths and powers.
15. William Shakespeare
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Although he is a wizard, he can use almost no magic. He has absolutely no combat power. However, his fame has spread across almost the entire world, and the illusions created by the “theatre troupe” are a form of magic. While he is unable to do direct damage, he is perfect for causing chaos and confusion, but sometimes messes up his own allies.
He is the best when it comes to empowering his master. The more character his master has, the better his writing is, or so he says. In other words, strengthening his master and having him fight as an assassin is Shakespeare’s way of fighting in a Holy Grail War.
No matter how much he strengthens his master, the chances of him defeating a servant are, of course, extremely slim – but it is said that he could only bring about this unlikely possibility once, in one of the Holy Grail Wars of the Subspecies.
14. Jack the Ripper
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Jack the Ripper was perpetuated in legend as a symbol of madness. Hence, “Jack” says that the Berserker class is the only one that truly fits him. Jack is a unique servant who is unaware of his true identity. Because of this, he has no normal form and only communicates with his master through telepathy. Flat Escardos is able to sense the magical energy flowing through the command spells to an unknown location.
It is a voice that has no unique characteristics, making it impossible to discern gender, age, or other features of the profession that are normally revealed by details in the voice.
It has the ability to take possession of its master, and if it had maintained its insanity under a different class, it would likely have taken possession of Flat and slaughtered everyone in the area in a mad rampage. Jack expresses surprise that someone felt it necessary to call him out, as he could not be expected to have the power of a hero or the morals of a human.
13. Vlad III
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Vlad III has been summoned by Elizabeth Báthory with the help of a fragment of the Grail she found in Orleans, and greets Ritsuka’s party when they meet him. He comments on Kiyohime’s statement that no berserker surpasses her in elegance and breeding, saying that none of them can return from the wicked paths they have trodden.
He says it is time to entertain the group, as he understands the importance of a feast as the ruler of a nation. Vlad, however, is a bit offended when the Romani Archaman calls him the only reasonable person, and decides to entertain the group with a blood dance.
He admits that his talents lie more in embroidery and offers Mash a lesson so she can decorate Ritsuka’s uniform. After the group kills his monsters, he thanks Elizabeth for the event, calling her one of the few servants who can shamelessly spread such sweet delusions.
12. Medusa
Debut: Fate/stay night
Medusa is the fearsome monster from Greek mythology who had a nest of poisonous snakes for hair and eyes that turned anyone who encountered them to stone. The story in which the hero Perseus slew Medusa is famous even in Japan. Since she was originally an earth goddess, Rider is an existence closer to a divine spirit than a heroic spirit. However, it is better to call her “an anti-hero who resembles a monster” than a true Divine Spirit.
Although Medusa is not a true Heroic Spirit, she is not a true Anti-Hero either. Because she has the Monster Attribute, Rider is very incompatible with Servants like Cú Chulainn, who fought monsters in their tales. Due to her status as a former Earth Goddess, she has a strong connection to Earth and is sensitive enough to sense disturbances in Fuyuki’s leyline.
11. Mordred
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Mordred has strength rank B+, endurance rank A, agility rank B, mana rank B, etc. Aside from Luck, all of her parameters are above C. This is really appropriate for her class. Her Strength in particular is exceptional, as a plus is a rare modifier that allows the respective value to be multiplied for an instance.
Although Mordred has the highest parameters and attack power of her class, it makes her unlikely to lose to another Servant. Still, Mordred’s stats are lower overall compared to those of her father, the King of Knights.
The difference between the two is so great that Gawain claims he would usually defeat Mordred without breaking a sweat, even at night when he is three times weaker than at midday, when he is considered by some to be King Arthur’s equal. Still, Mordred is an incredibly powerful servant, for he possesses unparalleled strength and consumes an incredible amount of magical energy to do so.
10. Atalanta
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Atalanta is a famous huntress from Greek mythology who gained notoriety by being the first to hit an arrow in the extermination of the Calydonian boar. After being raised by a bear and later adopted by a hunter who took to the mountains, she has strikingly developed her skills, perhaps due to her latent talent. As such, Atalanta is a peerless huntress and the greatest in Greek mythology.
She has mastered the ways of the forest, can easily traverse it by leaping between branches, knows how to subdue wild animals, and possesses the ability to become one with the forest, easily disappearing from the sight of anyone actively watching her. She is more animal than human and her senses are far more powerful than others.
9. Lancelot
Debut: Fate/Zero
Lancelot was born with numerous skills and talents that took him beyond the realm of “highly specialized” and into the realm of “completely superior.” The “Knight of the Lake” gained an outstanding reputation thanks to the great deeds he performed during his lifetime.
For example, he fought Gawain with the power of the sun for several hours until he wounded him at nightfall. For this reason, Lancelot is known as the strongest of the Knights of the Round Table and Gawain’s equal.
As a heroic spirit, his most fitting class is the Saber, but since he often fell to madness due to his troubles with Guinevere, he is especially compatible with the Berserker class.
Although his combat power as a Berserker is inferior to his counterpart as a Saber due to the sealing of some abilities and Noble Phantasms, his raw power is actually increased thanks to the Madness Enhancement, which increases his parameters by one rank in all stats except Luck and Magic Energy.
8. Frankenstein’s Monster
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Frankenstein is a relatively recent mystery. Even though her parameters have been increased by Mad Enhancement, nothing about her particularly stands out as making her a suitable servant for Caules, who is ill-suited as a master. Instead, her true value lies in a unique innate ability.
Since she is a berserker who rages in madness on the battlefield without taking orders and eventually falling, Darnic has few expectations for her in the Black Faction’s battle plan.
He plans to use her to cause massive destruction on the battlefield, using Caule’s command spells at the right time to confuse the Red Faction. Normally slow to react in the interpersonal realm, she displays surprising agility and tenacity in battle; in Berserk mode, she carries out orders with extreme fidelity.
7. Cú Chulainn
Debut: Fate/stay night
Despite being heavily armored compared to the other Lancer, Lancer’s A+ agility parameter surpasses that of his counterpart, possibly due to his “youthful mentality of charging forward” rather than a difference in their physical abilities.
He is a master of beasts, and gets along particularly well with dogs and the familiars raised by Misaya. Just like his counterpart, he is proficient in rune magic.
He possesses the same Noble Phantasm as his counterpart Gae Bolg, namely the ability to reverse causality to deliver an inevitable blow to the heart, as well as an anti-army function. In the prototype world, Misaya sealed it because he feels that revealing such a technique so easily lacks elegance.
Therefore, he uses a green makeshift spear instead. In the Great Orders, he initially possesses the same spear, but gains the Gae Bolg back through Ascension.
6. Iskandar
Debut: Fate/Zero
The heroic spirit Iskandar has done great deeds in his lifetime and is a top servant. Because of this fact and his personality, he eventually becomes Saber’s rival in the Fourth Grail War. During the same war, Rider is recognized by Gilgamesh as a true enemy and someone worth using all his strength against.
He is said to be Altera’s equal, but when he fights her to warm up, he loses easily. In combat, Iskandar usually uses his Noble Phantasm Gordius Wheel to trample enemies with lightning strikes that generate the same amount of magical energy that Artoria or Diarmuid would use in an attack where they use their full potential.
When used as a surprise attack, it is powerful enough to nearly incapacitate Lancelot in one blow, forcing him to retreat.
To summon the chariot, Iskandar slices the air with his sword. Iskandar can also ride his horse Bucephalus. Although he seems to prefer riding, Iskandar does not hesitate to fight on foot as well, showing amazing skills despite being more geared towards fighting on horseback.
5. Jeanne D’Arc
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Jeanne D’Arc, the most famous female saint in the world, left her village at the age of seventeen and entered indelibly into history two years later when she was burned at the stake. She is the saint who saved France through a miraculous military offensive, only to meet a tragic end shortly thereafter. As a heroic spirit, she can be summoned in the Ruler and Saber classes.
In the Ruler class, she is a special Heroic Spirit summoned by the Holy Grail itself to act as a steward of the Grail War. Any Servant participating in the Grail War can learn her identity and information, but information about the Sovereign is strictly confidential and holds many secrets. In the Great Grail War, some of her abilities no longer function properly due to the existence of the previous ruler.
She has a unique ability that allows her to scan the area surrounding her position within a wide radius of 10 kilometers. With this scan, she can locate the positions of servants that can even overcome the Assassins’ ability to conceal their presence.
4. Astolfo
Debut: Fate/Apocrypha
Although Astolfo was one of Charlemagne’s twelve paladins, he is a “weak” knight whose skills are inferior to those of the others, and as such he is praised in several legends. While Astolfo himself is certainly weak, the many Noble Phantasms he has obtained (or borrowed) in the midst of his adventures are extremely powerful, so he can be fully considered a war hero.
If his Noble Phantasms were not taken into account, Astolfo would be a second to third rate heroic spirit in terms of strength and skill.
Astolfo has a high degree of luck that is not just for show; most of the time, everything Astolfo does turns out well. Unlike many other Servants, he is a Heroic Spirit whose True Name carries no inherent weaknesses when revealed.
Astolfo’s main weapons are a sword and chainmail. He has a slender sword hanging from his hip, which is not a Noble Phantasm, but its sharpness is incomparable to the ordinary weapons of other soldiers. However, since he does not use his sword often, he gave it to Sieg. To Sieg, the steel blade felt heavy in his hands.
3. Archer
Debut: Fate/stay night
In life, EMIYA made a pact with the “world” to become a hero who could work miracles. In return, after death, he became a Counter Guardian, a defense apparatus that emerged from humanity’s collective subconscious, tasked with preventing humanity’s self-destruction by killing a few to save the majority. Since his basis is different from that of the other Heroic Spirits, he cannot be called a legitimate Heroic Spirit.
Although his existence as a Knight of the Bow has been proven, he was a Magus and not an Archer during his lifetime. His default weapon, the bow, seems to be due not to his own strength as a Heroic Spirit being so great, but to the fact that his fighting style eventually settled for ranged shooting.
2. Gilgamesh
Debut: Fate/stay night
In all heaven and earth, Gilgamesh is the only “king of all heroes.” Although he has adjusted his standard powers and abilities a bit to fit the world of EXTRA, he is more or less the same as his counterpart. Gilgamesh differs from the normal Heroic Spirits in that he is not limited to a single class. He was manifested as a Servant like other Heroic Spirits, but his power was too great for the goal of “participating in the Holy Grail War of the Moon Cell”.
The Moon Cell reincarnated Gilgamesh after reconstructing him, but Gilgamesh was still unable to be controlled, so the Moon Cell sealed him away by sending him to the other side of the moon. The Moon Cell did not want the “strongest master”, but the “last surviving master”. It felt that the winner would have been determined from the start if he had participated, so he was disallowed and locked away.
1. King Artoria Pendragon
Debut: Fate/stay night
Artoria Pendragon is the legendary king of knights who ruled the battlefields in the Age of Legends. In her lifetime she commanded the Knights of the Round Table, the greatest knights who ever lived and heroes later sung of in legends. When summoned as servants, each would boast of undeniable glory and strength, but even among them, Artoria stands at the top.
Although Mordred is a top-notch Servant and possesses powers worthy of the Sabre class, Mordred’s overall attributes are inferior compared to her father’s. The difference between the two is so great that Gawain claims he would usually defeat Mordred without breaking a sweat, even at night when he is three times weaker than at noon, a state in which he is considered by some to be the equal of King Arthur.
Although Lancelot is famous as the strongest knight of the Round Table, largely because he defeated Gawain after fighting him for several hours while strengthened by the sun until he wounded him at nightfall, he considered it a fact that the king was invincible and that size and appearance could not change that.
While he claims that Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch who rivaled Merlin, was a ruler of immense power because she had retained the supernatural power that was thought to have gone out with King Uther, he maintains that she was nevertheless but a small pebble in the king’s path.