Summary
Black Swan is a five-star Wind-Type character inHonkai: Star Railwho follows the Path of Nihility. In the lore, she’s a Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection who can divine other people’s fate through her tarot cards. In-game, she’s a broken DMG dealer who makes use of a unique type of DoT.
Rather than dealing huge DMG up front,DoT characters rely on dealing Damage-over-Time, which appear as small ticks of individual DMG during the start of an enemy’s turn, but can stack up and quickly deplete their HP. DoTs also cannot deal CRIT hits, which makes it easier to build and use DoT-based characters, as is the case for Black Swan.
6Understand Her Arcana Debuff
Black Swan’s entire kit revolves around a unique mechanic called Arcana, which is a type of DoT exclusive only to her.Black Swan can apply Arcana using her Basic ATK, Skill, and Technique, each with a certain chance of applying it:
When enemies are affected by Arcana,they receive Wind DoT at the start of their turn. Arcana can be stacked up to 50 times, and it will reset to one stack after it’s triggered.
5Utilize DoTs To Apply More Arcana Stacks
With Black Swan’s Talent, every time an enemy target receives DoT at the start of their turn, there is a 50 percent to 68 percent base chance for it be inflicted with Arcana. Aside from that, DoTs can also apply additional stacks of Arcana through her Traces:
Utilizing DoTs in your team is an effective way to gain more Arcana stacks to deal more DMG. You should pair Black Swan with one or two characters who can consistently apply DoTs in order to take advantage of her Talent and Trace,such as Kafka, Sampo, Guinaifen, and Luka.
4Get As Many Arcana Stacks As You Can
Aside from dealing Wind DoT,each stack of Arcana will increase its DoT DMG multiplier by 4.8 percent to 13.2 percent. Additionally,Black Swan will also trigger additional effectswhenever Arcana deals DMG at the start of an enemy target’s turn:
This mechanic turns Black Swan into both an effective DoT support as well as a viable DPS, as she can increase the DMG output of DoT, as well as deal AoE DMG, in contrast to DoTs being restricted to the enemy that they’re applied to.attempt to apply as much DoT and Arcana stacks as you may to make the most out of Black Swan’s DMG.
3Use Her Ultimate To Extend Arcana’s Duration
Using Black Swan’s Ultimate, Bliss of Otherworld’s Embrace, will deal Wind DMG to all enemy targets and apply the Epiphany status to them for two turns.Enemies affected by Epiphany will take increased DMG, up to 15 percent to 27 percent, and their Arcana effect will be regarded as Wind Sheer, Bleed, Burn, and Shock effects all at the same time.
Additionally,while enemies are affected by Epiphany, their Arcana stacks will not reset after Arcana deals DMG at the start of their turn. This effect can only be triggered once, and can be replenished when Epiphany is applied again.
Black Swan’s Ultimate allows you to apply more stacks of Arcana to enemies, as it preserves the previous amount of Arcana stacks they have for one cycle, on top of the new stacks that you apply. Use her Ultimate as often as you may to deal more DMG with Arcana.
2Use Her Technique To Start With More Arcana Stacks
After using Black Swan’s Technique, there is a 150 percent base chance for each enemy to be inflicted with one stack of Arcana at the start of the battle. If Arcana is successfully applied on a target enemy, another stack of Arcana will be applied.
Each successive application of Arcana on a target will reduce the base chance of success to half of the base chance of the previous Arcana. This process will go on until Arcana fails to be inflicted on the target. Using this technique at the beginning of the battle will allow you to start with significantly more Arcana stacks.
1Build Her With Effect Hit Rate
After unlocking her third Major Trace, Candleflame’s Portent, her DMG will be increased based on 60 percent of her Effect Hit Rate, up to a maximum of 72 percent DMG increase. Building her with Effect Hit Rate on her light cone, Relics, andPlanar Ornament setwill not only increase the base chance of applying Arcana, but also her DMG.
You’ll need a total of 120 percent Effect Hit Rate to fully maximize her Trace’s DMG increase. Make sure to upgrade her minor traces in order to gain ten percent Effect Hit Rate for free.
Effect Hit Rate will also increase the base chance of successfully applying debuffs to enemies, such as Arcana. Building high Effect Hit Rate allows your characters to ignore enemies' Effect RES depending on how much Effect Hit Rate they have.
