As of Honkai: Star Rail Version 1.6, you can challenge a new Echo of War, Borehole Planet’s Old Crater. Defeating the Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz (Synthetic) will net you the Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster Trace Material.
How to Access Echo of War: Borehole Planet’s Old Crater
In order to unlock Echo of War: Borehole Planet’s Old Crater in Honkai: Star Rail, you must first complete the Version 1.6 Trailblaze Continuance, “When the Stars of Ingenuity Shine.” After doing so, you can access the Echo of War in the Seclusion Zone on Herta Space Station. You can find it at the bottom of the stage. Conversely, you can just teleport to it.
What is the Strategy to Defeat the Swarm King in Honkai: Star Rail?
As you can imagine from the name, the Swarm King is like a Sting enemy in Simulated Universe: Swarm Disaster. That means that you want to bring characters who can deal damage to multiple enemies at once or ones that can deal a lot of damage to a single target. When the Swarm King activates Multiply mode, every single attack you deal will spawn a Swarm enemy. If you are not careful, this can overwhelm your team pretty quickly.
However, if you Break the Swarm King while it’s in its Multiply mode, it’ll explode and cause a lot of damage to its allies. You can take advantage of this to eliminate multiple Swarm enemies at once. Conversely, since it’ll only multiply to a certain point, you can ignore the Swarm enemies and focus on defeating the Swarm King. This is only if you’re confident in your sustain keeping your party alive, though. If your characters don’t have enough SPD or DEF, the onslaught of Swarm enemies can be overwhelming.
You will also want to bring characters with relatively good Effect RES or Cleanse. This is because the Swarm King can inflict Entanglement with its attacks. In its second phase, it can also deal party-wide damage with Ovum of Collapsed Star, so a good sustain is key in defeating it.
What Characters Are Good Against the Swarm King?
The Swarm King is weak against Physical, Ice, and Imaginary. You can use Silver Wolf to plant a Weakness that’s not those types. However, since the Swarm is also weak to Ice and Physical, characters that can at least hit one of those Weaknesses is preferable.
DPS
- Argenti
Argenti is a very good Physical Erudition character who specializes in taking out multiple enemies. While his damage output might not be great when it’s just the Swarm King itself, he does wonders when there are multiple enemies to hit. You’ll want to run him with characters like Huohuo or Tingyun, since they can help him get his Ultimate back. - Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae
Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae is an excellent character to bring to this fight because he can hit multiple enemies simultaneously with his attacks. He plays similarly to Jingliu, except that he’ll be using a lot more Skill Points than her. You want to bring support characters who are SP-positive, or someone like Hanya who can give him back some SP. - Jingliu
Like Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Jingliu thrives as a main DPS in this fight. As an Ice Destruction character, Jingliu can lay waste to the enemies with her attacks. She is one of the best characters to use for this. - Sushang
Sushang is a pretty good DPS option if you have another character who can help her Break the Swarm King’s Toughness. She has a lot of passive abilities that benefit her damage output against a Broken enemy. Since the main focus of this fight should be Breaking the Swarm King, that makes her pretty helpful as one of two DPSs. - Trailblazer (Physical)
If you don’t have any of the above options, you can also consider a party with Physical Trailblazer as the main DPS. He can alternate between single-target damage (when it’s just the Swarm King) or AoE damage (when you want to get rid of some Swarms while you’re at it). - Yanqing
Yanqing is an Ice Hunt character, meaning he might have a harder time handling all of the Swarm enemies. For a party focusing on Yanqing, you’ll want to make sure that he only targets the Swarm King and induce Weakness Break, causing it to explode. Yanqing shouldn’t pay any attention to the Swarms.
Support
- Hanya
You should only bring Hanya if you can fit her in the party and if you think you’re going to use a lot of SP. Hanya works best if you have a single DPS because of her Ultimate. She can also help to Break the Swarm King’s Toughness if she has downtime. - Pela
Pela is a fantastic choice for this fight because of her Ultimate, which can help deal more damage after lowering enemy DEF. If you need her to get Energy back, you can also use her Basic Attack to help lower Toughness. - Ruan Mei
Since this is Ruan Mei’s debut patch, it stands to reason that her kit is perfect against this particular boss’s mechanics. Her ability to increase Break Efficiency helps you to cause the Swarm King to explode, as well as deal damage when he tries to recover. She can work on a general team or on a hyper carry team, which means you don’t have to worry too much about your comp. - Yukong
Yukong is fantastic, but her niche is mostly for an Imaginary team. While she can work decently well outside of it, you really need to make sure that you’ve done your speed tuning. Otherwise, you won’t be able to enjoy the full benefits of her buffs.
Sustain
- Fu Xuan
Fu Xuan is not any of the Types that the Swarm King is weak to but she’s an excellent generic sustain. Instead of trying to keep up with the barrage of attacks you’ll have to suffer from the Swarm, you can try to reduce the damage you take. She can also help you to deal damage with her Ultimate. Plus, while her field is up, you can resist Entanglement once. Note you have to apply her Matrix again for the resistance to reset. - Luocha
Luocha is a fantastic sustain not only for his passive healing, but also for his ability to cleanse. He should have a high Effect RES so it’s unlikely that the enemy can apply Entanglement on him. He can also help to reduce Toughness with his Ultimate. - Natasha
Natasha is a great sustain if you don’t have any of the premium options. Not only is she able to cleanse and heal, but her Ultimate is a panic button that can get you out of trouble if your HP gets low. Like Luocha, you can also use her Basic Attack to reduce Toughness if she doesn’t have anything else she needs to do.
Honkai: Star Rail is readily available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.
