Best Black Swan Honkai Star Rail build: Relics, Light Cones, Eidolons, and abilities

❘ Updated: 2024-02-06T10:00:00

Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan is a brand new 5-star Wind Nihility unit in Honkai Star Rail. Here is all you need to know about her including her best Light Cones, Relics, Ornaments, and other details.

Black Swan is the first limited banner character in the game that you will get to pull as part of patch 2.0 and Penacony. She is amazing and is the perfect unit to pair alongside Kafka on account of their brilliant synergy.

However, if you want, you can run Black Swan alongside standard DPS units as well since her kit provides a lot of utility. If you are planning to pull for Black Swan, we have got you covered.

Here is all you need to know about Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail.

Black Swan abilities in Honkai Star Rail
Black Swan Eidolons in Honkai Star Rail
Best Black Swan Light Cones in Honkai Star Rail
Best Relics and Ornaments for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail
Trace level-up and stat requirement for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail
Best Black Swan team comp in Honkai Star Rail
Black Swan trailer in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan abilities in Honkai Star Rail

A screenshot from the game Honkai Star Rail

Basic Attack – Percipience, Silent Dawn: Deals Wind DMG equal to 30% of Black Swan’s ATK on a single enemy unit, with a 50% base chance of inflicting 1 stack of Sacrament on the attacked enemy unit, and should a target have Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, or Shock applied to them, each will have a 50% base chance of additionally applying 1 stack of Sacrament on the enemy.
Skill – Decadence, False Twilight: Deals Wind DMG equal to 45% of Black Swan’s ATK to a single enemy and any adjacent targets, with a 100% base chance to inflict 1 stack of Arcana to the attacked enemies and a 100% base chance to lower the attacked enemies’ DEF by 14.8%, lasting for 3 turns.
Ultimate – Bliss of Otherworld’s Embrace: Deals Wind DMG equal to 72% of Black Swan’s ATK to all enemies and inflicts Epiphany on them for 2 turn(s). 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 stacks are not reset. The stack reservation effect can be triggered up to 1 time(s) during the Epiphany duration, and its charges are replenished when Epiphany is applied again.
Talent – Loom of Fate’s Caprice: Every time an enemy target receives DoT at the start of each turn, there is a 50% base chance for it to be inflicted with Arcana. While afflicted with Arcana, enemy targets receive Wind DoT equal to 96% of Black Swan’s ATK. Each stack of Arcana increases this DMG multiplier by 4.8%. Then Sacrament resets to 1 stack. Arcana can stack up to 50 times. Only when Arcana deals DMG at the start of an enemy target’s turn, Black Swan triggers additional effects based on the number of Arcana stacks inflicted on the target: When having 3 or more Arcana 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. When having 7 or more Arcana stacks, enables the current DoT dealt this time to ignore 20% of the target’s DEF and adjacent targets’ DEF.
Technique – From Façade to Vérité: After using this 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 of Arcana 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.

Passives

Viscera’s Disquiet: After using the Skill to hit a single target enemy that has Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, or Shock, there is a 65% base chance of additionally inflicting 1 stack of Arcana for each of the above debuffs on the enemy.
Goblet’s Dredges: Every time an enemy target receives DoT during the single attack of allies, there is a 65% base chance for it to be inflicted with 1 stack of Arcana, stacking up to 3 time(s) during 1 single attack.
Candleflame’s Portent: Increases DMG dealt by this unit by an amount equal to 60% of their Effect Hit Rate, up to a maximum DMG increase of 72%.

Black Swan Eidolons in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan Eidolons are extremely powerful in the game

Level One – Seven Pillars of Wisdom: While Black Swan is active in battle, enemies in the Wind Shear, Bleeding, Burning, and Shocked states respectively have their Wind, Physical, Fire, and Lightning RES reduced by 25%.
Level Two – Weep Not for Me, My Lamb: When an enemy under the Arcana effect is downed, there is a 100% base chance of inflicting 5 stack(s) of Arcana on adjacent targets.
Level Three – As Above, So Below: Skill Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Talent Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15.
Level Four – In Tears We Gift: While in the Epiphany state, enemy targets’ Effect RES reduces by 10%, and Black Swan regenerates 8 Energy at the start of the target’s turn or when the afflicted enemy is defeated. The Energy Regeneration effect can only trigger up to 1 time while Epiphany lasts. The trigger count will refresh after the enemy is inflicted with Epiphany again.
Level Five – Linnutee Flyway: Ultimate Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Basic ATK Lv. +1, up to a maximum of Lv. 10.
Level Six – Pantheon Merciful, Masses Pitiful: When Black Swan’s teammates attack enemy targets, Black Swan has a 65% base chance of inflicting Arcana on every enemy target hit. Each time Black Swan inflicts Sacrament on an enemy target, there is a 50% fixed chance to additionally increase the Arcana stack afflicted this time by 1.

Best Black Swan Light Cones in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan’s signature Light Cone is a must have for her

The best Light Cone for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail is Reforged Remembrance. This Light Cone increases the Effect Hit Rate of the wearer by 40%-60%. Additionally, when the wearer deals damage to an enemy inflicted with Wind Shear, Burn, Shock, or Bleed, each respectively grants 1 stack of Prophet, up to 4 times.

In a single battle, only one stack of Prophet is granted for each type of DoT. Each Prophet stack increases the wearer’s ATK by 5%-9% and enables DoT dealt to ignore the target’s DEF by 7.2%-10%. This Light Cone can only be obtained through the Event Warp.

However, if you are looking for alternatives, the 5-star Light Cone Patience is All You Need is quite good on her. Apart from that, the 4-star Light Cone, Eyes of the Prey is one of the best weapons to use on Black Swan.

Finally, the event exclusive weapon, Before the Tutorial Mission Starts is also good on Black Swan.

Best Relic and Ornaments for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan is a Nihility unit, which means her best Relic set will be Prisoner in Deep Confinement. The set bonus for this Relic set has been listed below:

2-piece bonus: ATK increased by 12%
4-piece bonus: For every DoT the target enemy is afflicted with, the wearer will ignore 6% of its DEF when dealing DMG to it. This effect is valid for a max of 3 DoTs.

The best Ornament set for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail is Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise. This Relic set increases the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate by 10%. Additionally, the wearer’s ATK is increased by 25% of the current Effect Hit Rate up to a maximum of 25%.

Trace level-up and stat requirement for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail

The traces you need to prioritize for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail are:

Talent
Ultimate
Skill

The stats you need to prioritize for Black Swan are as follows:

Main Stat	Sub stat
Body: Effect Hit Rate	ATK%
Boots: SPD or ATK%	Effect Hit Rate
Sphere: Wind DMG Bonus or ATK%	SPD
Rope: ATK%	Flat ATK

Best Black Swan Team Comp in Honkai Star Rail

Best Black Swan team comp in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan being a Nihility unit, she will shine the most in teams featuring similar characters. The best team partners for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail are Kafka, Ruan Mei, and Luocha. In this team, Kafka and Black Swan work together to dish out huge amounts of damage.

Ruan Mei is the Harmony unit who will enhance the damage output of the team. Finally, Luocha is the healer who will keep the team alive. You can also go for a team comprised of Black Swan, Kafka, Guinaifen, and Luocha.

Finally, for a more free-to-play team, you can go for Black Swan, Serval, Tingyun, and Natasha.

Black Swan trailer in Honkai Star Rail

On February 5, 2024, HoYoverse released the official trailer for Black Swan on their YouTube channel. If you have not watched it yet, you can catch it from the link provided below:

For more on Honkai Star Rail, click on the links provided below.