One of Fate/Grand Order's biggest events is coming up, and players will want to know how Gilfest works and what to prepare for as it approaches on the horizon. Fate/Grand Order events - while sometimes being exciting callbacks to the anime series - are always noteworthy since they provide players with some of the most important materials in the game, whether it be items used to level or ascend Servants, QP to help fund skill rank ups, or Craft Essences to help strengthen team compositions. There's almost always something worthwhile to gain from an FGO event, as long as players have prepared accordingly.
For those unfamiliar, Fate/Grand Order Gilfest - otherwise known as Battle in New York - is a little different from the standard event fare. Usually, players must either complete missions or progress a narrative to complete an event proper, with the final reward often being a 4-Star Servant, an MLB Craft Essence, and a Holy Grail, to name a few alluring prospects. Once an event is completed and all missions have been cleared, Fate/Grand Order players can go back to their regularly scheduled material farming or main storyline progression without worrying about missing out on anything.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, Fate/Grand Order Gilfest works a little differently from what newer players might expect from a given FGO event. As a result, it can often catch people off-guard, which can be a tremendous detriment to any player - but especially newer ones, who have to work hard to accrue the many materials veterans will have banked hundreds of over the years. Luckily, how Fate/Grand Order Gilfest works and how to prepare for it are pretty simple to grasp once a player has the right information.
How Fate/Grand Order Gilfest Works
The Fate/Grand Order Gilfest event is a lotto event, which makes it a much more time-intensive affair for anyone who wants to maximize their efficiency in it. Essentially, how Gilfest works is that players can farm event currency by completing certain nodes, which will then allow them to open lottery boxes. Each box has a set number of items in it, and once a player cleans out the box - or, for the first 10, hits the grand prize - the box can be reset, which refills it with the same items it had previously.
The trick is that there is no set limit to the amount of boxes a Fate/Grand Order Gilfest player can open, and each box has materials, gems, mana prisms, friend points, and QP in them. In short: Fate/Grand Order Gilfest is the best event for players to farm, and provides returns well above what is expected in basically any other repeatable system in the game.
How to Prepare For Fate/Grand Order Gilfest
Preparing for Fate/Grand Order Gilfest is as simple as stockpiling as many Silver and Golden Apples as possible. Apples help refill a player's AP, which they must spend while completing each Gilfest node. As a result, the limiter for most players is AP, so making sure to exhaust as many Apples as possible in the pursuit of lotto boxes is the best way to prepare for Gilfest and get the most out of it.
Of course, not everyone has access to a stockpile of Apples, and many users go through over 100 while completing Gilfest. Purchasing Saint Quartz in the game shop can also help users refill AP, though it can be expensive. Either way, players will want to prioritize getting FGO Craft Essences from the event shop and the gacha rolls they may use during the event - these CEs provide bonuses to event currency drops, which in turn makes farming more efficient.
Finally, how to prepare for Fate/Grand Order Gilfest also comes down to time. The event is extremely time-consuming, and players looking to farm it will want to make sure they set aside the dozens of hours they'll need to maximize their efficiency in completing it. It's also worth noting that there are several helpful looping guides from Fate/Grand Order content creators, and looping - that is, making sure a team composition can complete a node in the minimum amount of turns by repeating a Servant's Noble Phantasm - is the best time-saving option. Not everyone will have the Servants required, but searching out the right composition can work wonders.