Noble Phantasm (宝具, Hōgu?) (NP for short) is a Servant's unique special attack during battle. These act like normal Command Cards but have extremely powerful effects such as area-of-effect damage, inflicting Status Effects, and healing, among others.
Noble Phantasms require the NP Gauge, located below the Servant's Health bar, to be at 100% or higher. The gauge fills up by attacking with normal Command Cards, getting hit by enemies, or using various Active Skills. It also fills up by equipping various Craft Essences that affect NP, like "Starting NP," "NP Acquisition," and "NP Regeneration."
Once the NP gauge is at or over 100%, the Servant's NP gauge glows and, at the Command Card selection screen, the Noble Phantasm card appears above the normal Command Cards. When an NP is used, the Servant's NP gauge will drop to 0%.
Characteristics
Each Noble Phantasm has a Level and Type.
The Level of an NP directly affects its primary effect's potency and may increase the Servant's maximum NP Gauge. All Servants' NPs have a maximum level of 5, which can only be increased by fusing the exact same Servant card via NP Enhancement. At Level 2, the Servant's NP Gauge maximum increases to 200%; at Level 5, the maximum again increases to 300%.
The Type of an NP indicates what kind of Command Card it behaves as.
While all NPs also have a Rank, this is not directly tied to any in-game statistics and simply represents overall effectiveness in reference to the story. Some interludes will upgrade the rank of a Servant's NP, but this results in a static increase in the power based on the Type which has no direct relation to the old or new Rank assignment.
Effects
Each Noble Phantasm has at least 2 Effects: the Base Effect and the Overcharge Effect.
- The Base Effect of an NP changes based on its Level and how many times its Rank has been upgraded.
- The Overcharge Effect of an NP changes based on the NP Gauge value when that NP is executed.
Example: Artoria's Excalibur is a Buster-type Noble Phantasm that has a base effect of dealing damage to all enemies and an overcharge effect of recharging her NP Gauge.
| Excalibur | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Level | NP Gauge | Base Effect | Overcharge Effect |
| A | 1 | 100% | 300% Damage to all Enemies | 20% NP Charged |
| A | 1 | 200% | 300% Damage to all Enemies | 27.5% NP Charged |
| A++ | 1 | 100% | 400% Damage to all Enemies | 20% NP Charged |
| A++ | 1 | 200% | 400% Damage to all Enemies | 27.5% NP Charged |
Notice that, for Rank A, the base effect does not change between a 100% and 200% NP gauge, it only changes when comparing with Rank A++. Likewise, the overcharge effect does not change between ranks, but it does when you look at a 100% vs. 200% NP gauge.
Note that an NP counts as its card type when used as the first card, and for 3-of-a-kind Chains, but otherwise the NP itself is unaffected by any effects granted within the chain. In other words:
- Using a Buster-type NP as the first in a chain will increase other non-NP cards' damage.
- Using a damaging NP as the last card in a chain starting with a Buster card will not increase the NP's damage.
- Using a Buster-type NP in a Buster chain will not increase the NP's damage.
Overcharge
When multiple NPs are used in the same turn, later NPs are Overcharged. Overcharge increases the NP gauge of a Servant by 100% for each Noble Phantasm activated before it in the same turn. This value is fixed - it does not matter how high your Servant's NP gauge is, it can only be Overcharged by 100% per previous Noble Phantasm used. Currently, the maximum NP charge at any condition or in any combination is 500%; this is most commonly achieved by using a 300%-charged NP as the 3rd action after 2 other NPs.
During the Command Phase, if you choose 2 NPs in a row, the message Noble Phantasm Chain Bonus Activated! (宝具チェインボーナス獲得!?) will appear with a sound effect to alert you that an NP will be Overcharged. If your three Servants all have a 100% NP gauge and you queue up all three NPs in a row, the first NP will have a charge of 100%, the second will have 200%, and the last will have 300%.
If you activate your Noble Phantasms in the order of 200%, 100%, 200%, the first NP has 200% (200+0) Charge, the second will have 200% (100+100) Charge, and the last will have 400% (200+100+100) Charge.
Overcharge only affects the secondary overcharge effect of a Noble Phantasm. Overcharge does not affect the damage output of the Noble Phantasm unless the overcharge effect applies a damage bonus, such as Stella or Enuma Elish. The base effect of any given damage NP (which is the effect that does the damage) is going to be the same whether it has 100% or 500% charge.
Using Artoria Pendragon's NP as an example again:
 Base Damage: x1.5 |
Rank | Noble Phantasm Type | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Anti-Fortress | ||||
| Hits | Per Hit Percentage | ||||
| 1 | |||||
| Effect | Deal damage to all enemies. | ||||
| NP Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Damage + | 300% | 400% | 450% | 475% | 500% |
| Overcharge Effect | Charges own NP gauge | ||||
| Charge | 100% | 200% | 300% | 400% | 500% |
| Charge the NP gauge. | 20% | 27.5% | 35% | 42.5% | 50% |
If you cast Excalibur by itself with no other NPs, it will charge her NP gauge by 20% with 100% charge, 27.5% at 200% charge, and 35% at 300% charge. However, if you have 2 other Servants with NPs ready, the amount charged will depend on when you cast Excalibur and how much charge Artoria has:
| Charge / Refund | NP Gauge | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | 200% | 300% | ||
| Excalibur is executed: |
1st | 100% / 20% | 200%  / 27.5% |
300%  / 35%
|
| 2nd | 200% / 27.5% |
300% / 35% |
400%  / 42.5%
| |
| 3rd | 300% / 35% |
400% / 42.5% |
500%  / 50%
| |