Black Swan debuted in Honkai Star Rail 2.0 and quickly took the spot as one of the best DoT characters in the game, with the proper build, of course. Thanks to her skills that affect foes with damage-over-time effects and even reduce their defense, she’s a force to be reckoned with in almost every situation. However, to make the most out of there, there always needs to be a proper team comp with the right items if you want to make her shine. So, prepare to spend a lot of credits and hours grinding what she needs. Spoiler alert: It’s worth it.
Black Swan and Kafka Dominate the Battlefield With this Build in Honkai Star Rail
Before we delve into specifics, let’s talk about the general aspects of this build for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail. As mentioned, she’s a DoT-focused character. This means she doesn’t do a lot of burst damage like Jingliu or Argenti. Instead, she slowly tears enemies apart with her skills, making her great against most enemies. However, she needs the right items and some specific party members to tear any enemy in minutes.
Light Cone
Since Black Swan is a 5-star character in Honkai Star Rail, this build greatly benefits from her featured Light Cone. Still, if you don’t want to spend a lot of Stellar Jade to pull for this item, there are other options that might work for the time being.
- Reforged Remembrance (Best): Increases wearer’s Effect Hit Rate by 40%. When the wearer deals DMG to an enemy inflicted with Wind Shear, Burn, Shock, or Bleed, they will individually gain 1 stack of Prophet. This effect can stack up to 4 times. In a single battle, each type of DoT can only generate 1 stack of Prophet. Every stack of Prophet increases the wearer’s ATK by 5%, and the DoT dealt will ignore 7.2% of the target’s DEF.
- Eyes of the Prey (Best 4-Star Option): Increases Effect Hit Rate of its wearer by 20% and increases DoT by 24%.
We usually recommend more Light Cones for a character, but that won’t be the case for Black Swan; allow us to explain. Black Swan needs two main stats to perform perfectly: Attack and Effect Hit Rate. As you can see in the Light Cones, both provide bonuses for these stats, so using any other Light Cone would be a waste. Instead, we recommend looking for these two, with Eyes of the Prey being the safest and cheapest option, assuming you have it.
Relic Set
After a bit of experimenting, we only found one relic set that works perfectly if paired with Black Swan, so make sure to grind the Cavern of Corrosion that features these items.
- Prisoner in Deep Confinement (4 Pieces)
- 2-Piece Bonus: ATK increases by 12%.
- 4-Piece Bonus: For every DoT the target enemy is afflicted with, the wearer will ignore 6% of its DEF when dealing damage. This effect is valid for a max of 3 DoTs.
- Planar Ornament: Firmament Frontline Glamoth (2 Pieces)
- 2-Piece Bonus: Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When the wearer’s SPD is equal to or higher than 135/160, the wearer deals 12%/18% more DMG.
The reason why we picked these sets is because they provide a bonus to Black Swan’s Attack, which is the stat with which her skills scale and also synergize with DoT damage. However, assuming you’re praying to the RNG Gods, you also need to prioritize certain stats before calling it a day when farming Relics.
Stat Priority
There are two stats that will make this build work for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail, and those are Attack and Effect Hit Rate. Whenever you are grinding or synthesizing Relics, here’s the order of stats you should watch out for:
- Attack/Effect Hit Rate
- Speed
- Wind Damage
- HP
Since you need to start burning the enemy down as fast as possible, it is important to stack Speed on Black Swan to allow her to attack first or second, but always before the enemy. If you have a character like Guinaifen or Kafka, they can go first, but if Black Swan is your only DoT character, try to get her to act as soon as possible.
Team Comp
Contrary to certain healers or tanks, Black Swan only functions if she has other strong DoT characters, and who might that be? You guessed it: Kafka. These two ladies are a dynamic duo regarding damage-over-time effects, and having them together is the best and almost only reliable choice. However, there are others you can swap in case you don’t have premium characters.
- Premium Team
- Main DPS: Kafka
- Sub-DPS: Black Swan
- Support: Ruan Mei
- Healer/Tank: Fu Xuan
- Free-to-Play Team
- Main DPS: Black Swan
- Sub-DPS: Sampo
- Support: Pela
- Tank: Trailblazer (Fire)
For both team comps, it is important to let Black Swan go first to start stacking Arcana. After that, you need to focus on using Pela or Ruan Mei to debuff enemies. If you have Kafka, she’ll be the one to unleash most of the damage with her ultimate and by stacking even more DoT effects, same as Sampo. Your tanks and healers are just there to keep everyone alive, so most fights are a race against the clock to burn foes down with DoTs and get out.
Overall, Black Swan is a fantastic character with the proper build in Honkai Star Rail. While other party members leave a bit of experimenting room, DoT characters aren’t too flexible. However, with the right team comp and items, you’ll be deleting enemies in the blink of an eye.
