Black Swan is a powerful DoT-based attacker in Honkai: Star Rail who works best in teams that contain other DoT characters. Here is a list of characters who can maximize her unique Arcana debuff.
DoT in Honkai: Star Rail operates differently than the more orthodox way of attacking in that the damage accumulates turn by turn and that the majority of damage takes place at the beginning of the enemy’s turn. You also do not need high Crit stats in order to deal a lot of damage, meaning that characters like Bronya who can boost Crit DMG will not be very useful when you use her with Black Swan.
Here are some of the best teams for Black Swan in Honkai: Star Rail:
- Kafka | Black Swan | Guinaifen | Luocha
This is a highly aggressive DoT-based team in which Black Swan and Guinaifen focus on applying as many DoTs as possible, and Kafka sets them off with her Skill. The best tertiary DoT for this team is Guinaifen because she can introduce two new DoTs—Burn and Firekiss—whereas Sampo and Serval will step on Black Swan and Kafka’s toes, type-wise. Because of how much SP this team will use up, you’ll want to bring in someone like Luocha or Fu Xuan, since they’re SP-positive sustains. - Kafka | Black Swan | Ruan Mei | Huohuo
For a slightly more SP-positive team that still utilizes Kafka, you can replace Guinaifen with Ruan Mei to boost your DoT attackers’ damage. Ruan Mei is the best for this team because she is able to buff all of the characters, whereas other Harmony characters like Hanya or Tingyun have to choose either Kafka or Black Swan. Ruan Mei can also help with delaying Break recovery, which will let you deal more DoT damage before an enemy can retaliate. - Black Swan | Serval | Asta | Fu Xuan
Black Swan doesn’t necessarily have to run with Kafka. You can also use her with another DPS DoT character. You’ll want her to be with another DoT so that you can hit enemies with as many Arcana stacks as you can. Asta can help boost SPD and ATK—both vital stats for a DoT team—and Fu Xuan is an SP-positive sustain. This will be yet another party that eats through your SP, so someone like Fu Xuan will mitigate it. - Black Swan | Asta | Pela | Natasha
If Black Swan is the only DoT character you have built, you can run her as a solo DPS. Asta can buff her with her Ultimate, as well as deal Burn DoT when she Breaks an enemy. Natasha is the sustain but she can also inflict Bleed, since she’s a Physical character. Pela can debuff the enemies to lower their DEF, which will cause them to take more damage from Arcana and any other DoTs.
Honkai: Star Rail is readily available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. You can only pull for Black Swan in Honkai: Star Rail when the “Ripples in Reflection” Event Warp is active.
