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May 14, 2024 · Black Swan is a Wind and Nihility character in Honkai: Star Rail. Check out this guide for Black Swan's best builds, team comps, relics, light cones, rating, and how to play them here!
Learn how to build Black Swan, a Wind DPS character in Honkai: Star Rail, with skills, talents, relics, ornaments, and more. See Black Swan's stats, showcase, video, and Eidolon effects.
Black Swan from Honkai: Star Rail. Best builds, Relics, Light Cones, guides and other information.
- Overview
- How to Get Black Swan
- Black Swan Abilities
- Black Swan Traces
- Black Swan Eidolon Levels
- Best Black Swan Build
- Best Black Swan Light Cones
- Best Black Swan Relics
- Best Stats
- Best Teams for Black Swan
By Marloes Valentina Stella, Shailyn Cotten, Ethan Anderson, +10 more
Honkai: Star Rail's Black Swan is an elegant soothsayer with an air of mystery - and a special talent for damage over time (DoT) attacks. This 5-star Wind character of the Nihility Path is also affiliated with the Garden of Recollection, a faction that worships the Aeon of Remembrance.
Black Swan was released on February 6, at the start of Honkai: Star Rail version 2.0. As a 5-star character, she’ll be featured on her personal Character Event Warp banner. You can exchange one special star rail pass to get one “warp”; one chance to obtain Black Swan. If you’ve missed her banner, you’ll have to wait for a rerun banner in the future...
•Basic Attack: Deals Wind DMG equal to 30% of Black Swan’s ATK to a single enemy, with a 50% base chance of inflicting 1 stack of Arcana. If the target has Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, or Shock applied to them, each respectively has a 50% base chance of inflicting 1 extra stack of Arcana onto the enemy.
•Skill: Deals Wind DMG equal to 45% of Black Swan’s ATK to a single enemy and any adjacent targets. There’s a 100% base chance to inflict 1 stack of Arcana to the attacked enemies and a 100% base chance to reduce their DEF by 14.8%, lasting for 3 turns.
•Ultimate: Deals Wind DMG equal to 72% of Black Swan’s ATK to all enemies and inflicts Epiphany on them for 2 turns. Enemies affected by Epiphany take 15% more damage in their turn, and their Arcana effect is regarded as Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, and Shock effects. In addition, when their Arcana effect is triggered at the beginning of the next turn, the Arcana stacks are not reset. The stack-saving effect can be triggered up to 1 time during Epiphany’s duration, and its charges are replenished when Epiphany is applied again.
•Talent: Every time an enemy target receives DoT at the start of each turn, there’s a 50% base chance to inflict them with Arcana. While afflicted with Arcana, enemy targets receive Wind DoT equal to 96% of Black Swan’s ATK at the start of each turn, with each stack of Arcana increasing this DMG multiplier by 4.8% (up to 50 stacks), then Arcana resets to 1 stack. When Arcana deals DMG at the start of an enemy’s turn, Black Swan triggers additional effects based on the number of Arcana stacks inflicted on the target: if there’s 3 or more stacks, deals Wind DoT equal to 72% of Black Swan’s ATK to adjacent targets with a 50% base chance of inflicting 1 stack of Arcana on adjacent targets. In case of 7 or more stacks: enables the current DoT dealt this time to ignore 20% of the target’s and adjacent targets’ DEF.
•Technique: At the start of the next battle, there is a 150% base chance to inflict 1 stack of Arcana to each enemy. For each successful application of Arcana, inflict 1 additional stack on the enemy, repeating until Arcana fails to be inflicted. For each successive application of Arcana, the base chance of success is equal to 50% of the base chance of the previous successful infliction of Arcana on that target.
Black Swan’s Basic Attack and Skill are somewhat alike: both deal a humble amount of direct Wind damage and have a chance to inflict the Arcana status effect on the opponent. The Basic Attack has a 50% base chance to inflict Arcana on a single opponent, with an additional 50% base chance for each DoT (damage over time) effect, while the Skill has a 100% base chance to apply Arcana on all three targets (and lower their Defense as a nice bonus). In other words, the Skill is best used against multiple smaller enemies, while the Basic Attack is great against a stronger opponent already suffering from multiple status effects.
•Viscera’s Disquiet (bonus ability Ascension 2): After using the Skill to hit a single target enemy that has Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, or Shock, each effect has a 65% base chance respectively of additionally inflicting 1 extra stack of Arcana.
•Goblet’s Dredges (bonus ability Ascension 4): There’s a 65% base chance to inflict 1 stack of Arcana when an enemy enters battle. Every time an enemy target receives DoT during a single attack by an ally, there’s a 65% base chance for the target to be inflicted with 1 stack of Arcana, stacking up to 3 times during 1 single attack.
•Candleflame’s Portent (bonus ability Ascension 6): Increases this unit’s DMG by an amount equal to 60% of their Effect Hit Rate, up to a maximum DMG increase of 72%.
The list above details Black Swan’s Bonus Trace Abilities. Viscera’s Disquiet and Goblet’s Dredges increase the number of Arcana stacks applied to enemies, which is always good to have - beware that Goblet’s Dredge depends on Black Swan’s allies though. Candleflame’s Portent simply improves Black Swan’s damage based on her Effect Hit Rate stat - which will be the most important stat in your Black Swan build.
While upgrading the active abilities’ Trace levels, prioritize Black Swan’s Talent, as it greatly improves Arcana’s damage multiplier as well as the base chance of applying an Arcana stack whenever an opponent takes DoT damage. Improve the Basic Attack and Ultimate next, as they will improve Arcana’s base chance and Epiphany’s damage increase respectively. Although the Skill is an important ability, its Trace levels only improve its direct damage and Defense debuff - it should be upgraded eventually, but it’s not as urgent.
Black Swan’s minor stat Traces grant her extra Effect Hit Rate, Wind Damage, and Attack. Although all three stats are helpful, unlocking the Effect Hit Rate will make it much easier to get a great Black Swan build, so focus on that.
All of Black Swan’s Eidolon Levels are great, but Eidolon Level 6 is quite overpowered as it places an insane amount of Arcana stacks on opponents. Eidolon Level 1 is also quite useful, as it makes enemies much more vulnerable to every incoming attack (provided you’ve got the corresponding Elements on your team). Eidolon Level 2 is especially good when facing several tough opponents at once, and Eidolon Level 4 will help you generate Energy faster, which also makes it a bit easier to get a good Black Swan build.
None of these Eidolon Levels are essential for a good Black Swan build though. Instead of upgrading an Eidolon Level, consider spending your special star rail passes on Black Swan’s signature Light Cone: Reforged Remembrance.
Here's an overview of the best Light Cones, Relics, Planar Ornaments, and stats for your Honkai: Star Rail Black Swan build.
The best Light Cone for your Black Swan build is the 5-star Reforged Remembrance, which offers the massive Effect Hit Rate boost she needs. The second effect will greatly improve Black Swan’s damage, but beware that she’ll need to attack enemies suffering from different types of DoT to trigger it.
The best 4-star Light Cone for your Black Swan build is Before the Tutorial Mission Starts, as it offers nearly as much Effect Hit Rate as the signature Light Cone. As Black Swan may reduce enemy Defense using her Skill, she can trigger the Energy bonus even without help from allies. It's Showtime is a good alternative though, as you’ll likely be able to hit the Effect Hit Rate threshold using your Relics and Planar Ornaments, thus gaining an extra damage bonus.
The best Relic set for your Black Swan build is the 4-piece Prisoner in Deep Confinement set, as it allows her to ignore 18% of the opponent’s Defense if they’re suffering from at least three DoT effects. As Black Swan’s Ultimate counts Arcana as DoT’s, and she’ll team up with DoT characters, it’s easy to trigger the full bonus.
The best Planar Ornament set for your Black Swan build is the Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise set, but beware that you’ll need a high Effect Hit Rate stat to make this work. If your Black Swan build can hit the 160 Speed stat, you might want to go for Firmament Frontline: Glamoth instead.
•Body: Effect Hit Rate
•Feet: Speed
•Planar Sphere: Wind Damage Boost
•Link Rope: ATK%
•Sub stats: Speed, ATK%, Effect Hit Rate
The most important stat for your Black Swan build is Effect Hit Rate, as it determines her chances of applying a stack of Arcana. Keep in mind that her Basic Attack and Talent start out with a 50% base chance of applying Arcana, which can both be upgraded to a 65% base chance. If we don’t improve Black Swan’s Effect Hit Rate, the real hit chance would become much lower, dropping as far as 40% or 50% against enemies with a high Effect Resistance.
The best Black Swan team compositions should feature at least one other DoT DPS, as you need to ensure that enemies take DoT damage at the start of their turn and thereby gain Arcana from Black Swan’s Talent. Characters like Sampo, Luka, Guinaifen, Serval, Himeko, and even Asta come with DoT attacks, but the best one is Kafka, as she can detonate DoT’s before enemy turns.
Black Swan doesn’t work too well with your typical buff support characters like Tingyun and Bronya, as she needs a multi-DPS team focused on DoT (which would make Bronya’s Critical Damage bonus redundant). However, Ruan Mei might be a good option as she improves everyone's damage and adds a team-wide Speed bonus.
Any healer or shielder can work for your Black Swan team, but especially Huohuo, who provides an Energy- and attack boost next to her healing.
With that in mind, here are two of the best Black Swan teams you can get in Honkai: Star Rail:
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Feb 10, 2024 · Learn how to build and play Black Swan, a 5★ Wind-Type Nihility character in Honkai: Star Rail. Find out her kit, traces, eidolons, light cones, and team synergies.
Feb 6, 2024 · Learn how to make the best Black Swan build in Honkai Star Rail with this easy guide that goes over her kit, her best Relics and Light Cones, what teams you should run her in and more. Black Swan is a 5-star Wind Nihility unit that uses a special type of damage-over-time effect called Arcana to rend and shred her opponents.
