Top Black Swan Build for Honkai Star Rail: Optimal Light Cone and Relic Setup

UPDATE 11/12/2024: We’ve added some additional information on alternative Light Cones and why you should use Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail.

The Ultimate Black Swan Build in Honkai: Star Rail

In the expansive universe of Honkai: Star Rail, the Black Swan stands out as a powerful 5-Star character from the Path of Nihility. This Wind-element character specializes in utilizing damage-over-time (DOT) effects, turning them into significant opportunities for her party. Importantly, while her signature Light Cone can enhance her abilities, it is not a prerequisite for her effectiveness. This flexibility allows players to optimize her build without engaging in excessive grinding to achieve high effect hit rates.

This comprehensive guide on the Black Swan build will highlight her optimal Light Cones and Relics, catering to various playstyles and preferences.

Essential Components for the Black Swan Build

When constructing your Black Swan character, consider focusing on enhancing her attack power and speed instead of overly maximizing effect hit rate, which allows for a more streamlined gaming experience. Increasing her attack enables her arcana stacks to inflict higher damage, proving advantageous during battles.

Optimal Light Cones for Black Swan

Top Picks: 5-Star Light Cones

The Reforged Remembrance is Black Swan’s optimal 5-Star Light Cone. This signature item boosts her effect hit rate by 40% while also offering an impressive enhancement for DOT attacks. When Black Swan strikes an enemy suffering from bleed, burn, wind shear, or shock, she receives a stack of Prophet for each DOT on the target. Each stack provides a 5% attack bonus and allows her to bypass 7% of the enemy’s defense, further amplifying her damage output.

Alternative options like Incessant Rain from Silver Wolf or Patience is All You Need from Kafka are also commendable choices and can augment Black Swan’s combat prowess if you’re able to obtain them.

Notable 4-Star Light Cones

Several 4-Star Light Cones can also be effective in maximizing Black Swan’s abilities. The Fermata Light Cone is particularly beneficial even though its break effect is moderate, as it enhances damage against enemies afflicted by shock and wind shear. As copies of Fermata are available through the Forgotten Hall’s Light Cone shop, acquiring this one is achievable.

Good Night, Sleep Well is another practical 4-Star option, increasing damage to debuffed enemies up to three significant times, though it necessitates random pulls from banners.

Additionally, It’s Showtime provides damage boosts following a debuff and works well with Black Swan’s relics due to its manageable effect hit rate requirement.

3-Star Light Cones

For 3-Star Light Cones, Void is the most appropriate choice as an interim option, enhancing effect hit rate. However, players should aim to upgrade to a superior 4-Star cone as soon as possible.

Relics Tailored for Black Swan

The Prisoner in Deep Confinement set is an excellent match for Black Swan, providing effective bonuses:

Two-piece bonus: Boosts wearer’s attack by 12%.
Four-piece bonus: Allows the wearer to ignore 6% of an enemy’s defense for each DOT effect applied, stacking up to three times.

Alternatively, the Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters set offers:

Two-piece bonus: Increases damage against enemies with debuffs by 12%.
Four-piece bonus: Enhances crit rate, providing 8%-12% more critical damage to foes with 2-3 debuffs. Debuffing an enemy also boosts this effect by 100% for one turn.

Ornaments for Black Swan

The premier ornament for Black Swan is the Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise, which elevates her effect hit rate by 10% and adds an attack bonus equivalent to 25% of her total effect hit rate, capped at 25%.

Target Substats for Black Swan

Strive for these substats when customizing Black Swan’s Relics and Ornaments:

Body: Effect hit rate
Feet: Speed or attack percentage
Sphere: Attack percentage
Rope: Attack percentage

While elemental damage spheres are a common choice, they do not optimize Black Swan’s damage output effectively, as her arcana stacks scale primarily with her attack values.

Evaluating Black Swan’s Effectiveness

As a character from the Path of Nihility in Honkai Star Rail, Black Swan excels when paired with Kafka. In the absence of Kafka, players might find investing in Black Swan less worthwhile compared to other available 5-Star characters. However, she can still synergize efficiently with other Nihility characters that create DOT damage, such as Guinaifen, Sampo, or Jiaoqiu, although her potential may not be fully realized without Kafka in the team composition.

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