Fate Grand Order Lostbelt 6.5 Traum Clear!

Usually, I don’t bother sharing my FGO progress on the storyline unless there’s something truly noteworthy. This year, however, the Christmas event locked the welfare servant; Santa Captain Nemo behind late-game content, specifically Lostbelt 6.5: Traum. Since this meant clearing Traum just to access the event, and given the amount of effort I had to put in over the past few days, I figured it was worth sharing my progress and overall thoughts on this singularity.

There were moments when I seriously considered giving up on FGO altogether, but clearly, I’m still attached enough to marathon story content just for a welfare servant. In this post, I’ll also take the opportunity to briefly reflect on my 8th year with FGO, especially since the game has already deprived itself of the privilege usual yearly report post due to its own nonsense.

Lostbelt 6.5: Traum essentially functions as an intermission between Lostbelt 6 and Lostbelt 7, released in mid-2024. It introduced several new servants at the time which played main role in the singularity, including Kriemhild, Constantine XI, Johanna, Charlemagne, Moriarty, and others.

At its core, Traum is a Singularity where three Servant factions are locked in an endless war, with a younger Moriarty manipulating events behind the scenes to pursue his personal agenda involving Sherlock Holmes. As usual, the Chaldea Master is dispatched to correct the Singularity by siding with the underdog faction.

In terms of difficulty, Traum is moderate. I managed to clear it in about 3–4 days while working full-time. Recently quitting Uma Musume Global also freed up time, reducing distractions and making this marathon possible.

As expected from a non-mainline FGO story chapter, Traum’s narrative is lackluster and mid at best. That said, my detached and increasingly cynical attitude toward FGO, built up over its 7th and now 8th year, probably didn’t help my reception of the story.

That being said, Traum does have its share of decent moments. The generic Servant-class enemy designs are well made, though underused as usual. Interestingly, the Servant characters that stood out to me most were Berserkers, with Salome and Kiyohime playing surprisingly effective roles in the story. They have earned their deserved additional resource investment, including Holy Grails, now that Traum is complete.

The real reason I marathoned Traum in the first place was Santa Nemo (Rider). This entire situation was, frankly, ridiculous and entirely my own folly.

I mistakenly thought that FGO’s 9th Christmas only featured an alternate skin for SSR Captain Nemo. Acting on that assumption, I spent 150 Saint Quartz rolling for him, only to realize later that Santa Nemo is a full welfare servant, locked behind the completion of Lostbelt 6.5.

From there, sunk cost fallacy kicked in. After already burning a significant amount of SQ, I refused to let a ridiculous clear requirement stop me from obtaining the welfare servant. The rest is history.

Since FGO has lost the privilege of a proper yearly report thanks to its increasingly predatory treatment of long-time players, here’s my own summary:

10 new SSR servants obtained this year, which sounds decent on paper

4 of them came from GSSR, highlighting how absurd FGO’s gacha really is

That leaves 6 SSRs from normal gacha, roughly one new SSR every two months

From my intended SSR targets this year, I missed about half, making this my worst year so far. The 900 SQ wasted on Huyan Zhao last year definitely contributed to this downward spiral.

At the very least, pulling Summer Morgan gave me enough motivation to stick with FGO, despite the heavy burnout caused by Lasengle’s repeated missteps, even if it meant treating the game passively for around four months.

Other Gacha games will not gateway with the sort of nonsense that FGO pull off but being my oldest gacha game do shield it from my complete unleash of resentment. 

Given my complicated relationship with FGO at this point, I don’t expect much from its 9th year. My target list is deliberately limited to five servants:

Raikou (Avenger)

Marie Alter

Aoko

Summer Ciel

Phantasmoon

These are achievable targets, as long as I don’t get baited into overcommitting. After hitting such a low point this year, I’ve steeled myself against further disappointment.

As much as I love FGO as a franchise, Lasengle has done a lackluster job managing it so far. With the Lostbelt storyline approaching its conclusion on the JP server, I can only hope the series offers a proper migration solution that respects the fanbase’s time, money, and emotional investment, rather than throwing it all under the bus should it attempt a sequel, Girls Frontliine has shown how a proper migration transition could look like.