Just when you thought Forgotten Hall: Memory of Chaos was going to be the late Honkai: Star Rail player’s endgame, the Swarm Disaster Simulated Universe update gets added. After intense weeks of gameplay, I'll go over some of the things I’ve learned.
Best Swarm Disaster teams to bring to Simulated Universe - Honkai Star Rail
First off, I need to preface this section with this: there is no single “best” team to bring into Swarm Disaster. The mobs, sans the bees, are random; the bosses are random; the nodes are random. You’re always better off bringing a team that can win every fight, regardless of the enemies’ weaknesses.
However, I do have rules I settled with when I designed my entry team (first four units). When deciding on who to bring first, here’s a checklist:
- A dedicated healer: This is non-negotiable. You need a dedicated healer to survive.
- At least one AoE unit: Usually, this will be Erudition units like Himeko, but you can also have people like Blade to fill it in.
- A buffer: People like Yukong, Ruan Mei, and Bronya improve the versatility of your team. Since you don’t know what elemental weaknesses you’re going up against, having a buffer to support your stronger characters will help you in every situation.
- Your MVP(s): We all have that one (or two) DPS unit we’ve invested all our resources into. Bring them.
- High HPs/DEFs: My Level 80, E6 Sushang, with the best equipment I can give her, can never survive the Elites and Bosses of the later Phases. Be sure the units you’re bringing are equipped to survive. Some five stars like Himeko and Imbibitor Lunae are also pretty fragile.
- Option #2: You can also bring Gepard or Fu Xuan to tank hits and protect your team.
- Option #3: Bring Clara or Fire Trailblazer for "taunts."
- Option #4: Go on the Destruction Path and grab Regression Inequality of Annihilation (3* Blessing); it's the one that splits DMG between allies. Also, grab as many HP and healing-boosting abilities as you can.
Best characters to bring for Swarm Disaster
Of course, just because I had to settle with a patchwork of a team doesn’t mean you all have to. I do have a list of characters I wish I had—and some that I've personally used to clear my runs. Here's a list.
- Clara: Swarm Disaster enemies love attacking your party.
- Blade: Blade has been an indispensable member of my party. He has high survivability, high DMG output, and barely uses any skill points.
- Kafka: I can absolutely see her blasting through enemies on an Elation or Nihility Path and with the proper supporting team. The ability to trigger all DoTs with her skill should be nerfed, really.
- Silver Wolf: Punklorde Mentality is one of my favorite Curios in Swarm Disaster, for the same reason why Silver Wolf would make an amazing unit to have right now. Since you never know what your enemies’ weaknesses are, Silver Wolf can compensate by giving them weaknesses instead.
- Luocha: If you have him, then you have the undisputed best healer in Honkai: Star Rail at the moment.
- Fu Xuan: She will absorb so much DMG for your party.
- Ruan Mei: Compared to Bronya, Ruan Mei has better synergy with teams. In my opinion, she is currently the best buffer in the game.
If you have your own recommendations, let me know! I’m a firm believer that Swarm Disaster hinges more on proper team synergy against the right enemies than a “best character.”
Best Swarm Disaster Paths to use in Honkai Star Rail
I haven’t properly experimented with all the Paths in Swarm Disaster yet, but again, it ultimately will come down to team synergy. For example, my own team encourages fast battles with continuous turns, so my default is the Hunt Path, which summons Trotters. Still, if you want definite answers, I do think Destruction and Elation are your best bets.
Anyways, I’ll outline what the other Paths are good for as well so you can make your own decision on the matter. I’ll cover the Paths it can trigger a Resonance Interplay with, too! You'll only need three of that Path's blessings to get a resonance card.
All Paths in Simulated Universe Swarm Disaster (Strategies & Resonance Interplays)
Destruction
Destruction boosts your team’s DMG% by winning battles. It’s the most straightforward path to follow in Swarm Disaster. The only thing you need to think about is surviving and winning. You don’t have to be fast about them too. Your rewards are consistent blessings, and you can grab good buffs towards the finale. A potential "downside" to this is the Path encouraging you to enter Elite domains, but the extra Blessing you can get from winning those is more than worth it.
- Resonance Interplays: Elation, Preservation
Elation
Elation is the opposite of Destruction—it’s for players who like to avoid fighting. Elation can apply “Happiness” to domains and turn them into anything but battles. You’ll be walking through Adventures, Rewards, and Swarm Occurrences most of the time! The only real “downside” is how you can’t choose what rewards you’re going to get, especially for Occurences, so it’s a little harder to build a good setup. The luck factor can be pretty exciting, though.
- Resonance Interplays: Abundance, Remembrance
Hunt
Hunt’s usually the path I go for, as mentioned, since I like teams that involve a lot of advanced forwarding and continuous turns. In the Hunt path, a Warp Trotter can be added to domains. Your team gets +Crit DMG% for every Warp Trotter you beat. As you know, these creatures are notoriously fickle, so only take this domain if you know you can beat them quickly. They're weak to Quantum, Imaginary, and Physical. If you have Sushang built, you can use her here (never in the Elite and Boss rooms though).
- Resonance Interplays: Elation, Abundance
Abundance
The Abundance Path encourages people to stay in Swarm Disaster and enter as many Domains as luck will grant them. Any domain blessed with “Mercy” can increase your countdown number, allowing you to avoid Planar Disarray until you’ve got all the things you need. The Communing Trail buffs you get also make it a good option for people with self-sacrificial characters like Blade and Arlan.
- Resonance Interplays: Nihility, Propagation
Nihility
Nihility allows you to turn nodes into “Blank” nodes. Stepping into one increases your party’s DMG. Only when you’re on a Nihility path do the Blank domains turn into events (instead of nothing). But what they turn into is completely random. I would only enter Nihility if you need the blessings.
- Resonance Interplays: Hunt, Propagation
Remembrance
The Remembrance Path is good but sadly not a fit for the characters I have. Essentially, its passive boosts Effect Hit Rate. Those who play a lot with DoT characters like Kafka, Sampo, etc. might have a good time here. Its Swarm playstyle is pretty sweet, though. If the master of luck gives you god-tier domains (like Reward and Adventure), you can copy the domains you like to adjacent nodes.
- Resonance Interplays: Destruction, Hunt
Preservation
Preservation is all about retaining the domains you really like and preventing them from collapsing. Each of these protected domains even grants a Shield% boost. The catch is that you have to enter Boss domains to get those boosts. If you like playing the long game, you can try and walk the Preservation Path.
- Resonance Interplays: Remembrance, Nihility
Propagation
The Propagation Path only unlocks after you've completed the Swarm Univer story (ergo, the last Difficulty). It's a Path that encourages you to enter Swarm domains, granting you Basic ATK% when you go. Unless you have a main Imaginary DPS or two Erudition characters that can carry damage dealing for the team, this Path will be a difficult one to tread.
- Resonance Interplays: Preservation, Destruction
Best Domains to enter in Swarm Disaster Simulated Universe
Now that you’ve learned all about the Paths you can take and the domains you’re encouraged to enter with them equipped, let’s talk about generally good domains to dive into whenever you see them. There are two I like: Reward (marked with a chest) and Adventure (marked with a controller). My third would be the Occurrences, if only because they’re usually good.
Related: All Warp Trotter Locations (Map) in Honkai Star Rail
Reward ensures that whatever you’re getting, it’s good. It could be a Curio, a good Occurrence, and more.
Adventure’s my personal favorite. It makes you play a game where you either have to attack trotters or destroy barrels in a given timeframe. You can get a Curio, Blessing, and Fragments for getting the best score possible. The rewards decrease if you don’t meet the goals, but even just the Blessing and the Fragments are good to have. If you have characters that attack fast and from afar, like Bronya, Asta, and March 7th, they can clear these pretty well. This is also the only domain that has a Downloader, allowing you to bring more characters with you.
If you have a ton of Fragments, always enter a Transaction domain when you see it. I highly recommend purchasing a Curio from Herta, as those are the real MVP of the stage.
Best Curios in Swarm Disaster Simulated Universe
While there are a ton of really good, Swarm-exclusive Curios in Honkai: Star Rail, my personal favorite to use is Punklorde Mentality. If you missed my Silver Wolf section above, the reason why this Curio is good is because you never have to adjust your teams based on the enemies you fight (sans the Phase boss—but they’re another story). Punklorde Mentality will give your enemies a weakness to an element your team has for three turns. That’s more than enough to blast through most domains!
Here are other Curios to watch out for in Swarm Disaster:
- Medal of the Glorybood Era: Instantly gain a three-star blessing in exchange for your next Occurrence domain being a blank.
- Rubert Empire Mechanical Cogwheel: Obtain 50 Fragments each time you enter a domain. As long as you keep your total below 500, this is a Curio you can keep until the last room. However, if your Fragments exceed 500, you lose all the ones you have and this Curio.
- Cavity System Model: Lose all the Fragments you have, but increase your team’s Crit DMG by 24% for every 100 you lost. An invaluable Curio for building high output DMG instantly. I always hoard Fragments on the off chance I see it. In my opinion, you do need to sacrifice at least 500 Fragments for the trade off to be worth it.
- Spirit of the Knights of Beauty: Gains your four dice rolls, an invaluable Curio in Swarm Disaster.
- A Pinch of Bearded Gunpower: Gain an extra Cheat (available only after you've unlocked Cheats).
How to defeat the True Sting - HSR Swarm Disaster final boss
True Sting is the final boss in every Swarm Disaster run you’ll go on in Honkai: Star Rail. It’s characterized by four things:
- A changing first weakness (True Sting will always be weak to Quantum and Imaginary—but the third is random; you learn about it once you touch the final room’s Obelisk). Always have your favorite DPSes of varying elements with you before you enter the final room!
- Endless mobs
- Extremely high HP
- Potentially one shot, one kill attacks from the second round onwards
So, how does one go about defeating this Propagation Monster? The first step is to ensure you don’t die. Never mind it taking eons to beat; just have a team whose survivability you’re sure about.
Aside from taking characters like Fu Xuan, Luocha, etc. with you, the blessings that you take are really important. If you grab the following, your survivability will increase dramatically:
- Regression Inequality of Annihilation (3*, Destruction): Spilts DMG between all allies
- Being of Abundance, Becoming One Mind (3*, Abundance): 30% of a single target’s heal will be blasted to other allies
- Clear Lucite Body (2*, Abundance): When HP is full, reduces DMG take
- Interstellar Construct: Quadrangular Pyramid (2*, Preservation): Increases max DMG that can be absorbed by Shields
- Interstellar Construct: Sanctuary (2*, Preservation): At the end of the turn, there is a fixed chance to gain a shield equal to % of a character’s max HP
- Orbital Redshift (1*, Destruction): Increases Max HP
Next, and I can’t emphasize this enough: make sure each member of your team has a base HP of at least above 4,200, including your DPSes. This is without the blessing boosts. They will perish otherwise; I can testify to that.
Related: Best Teams for Aetherium Wars in Honkai Star Rail – Aether Spirits, Expansion Chips, & more!
Actually, beating True Sting is a test of patience… with maybe a little luck involved. You have to be able to whittle down its gigantic HP bar while protecting yourself from its and its mobs’ attacks. There is no one way to beat it, and even if I beat it once, there is no guarantee I will beat it again with the same team. The key is the right blessings and Curios, which, as you know, are randomized.
The only thing you have control over is the Path you choose. As such, provide yourself every opportunity to get stronger with whatever Path you choose (a more complete guide for that is in my Path subheading above). For example, if you choose Destruction, grit your teeth and blaze through combat domains whenever you’re given the opportunity to enter one. Also, make sure that your team has good synergy with the Path that you are on.
Here’s the team I used to clear Difficulty 4. True Sting was weak to Lightning in this round. My Path was Destruction.
In this setup, I made sure everybody had high HP and a Regression Inequality of Annihilation blessing with me. Even then, it was a very close call a couple of times. My Bronya was there to either boost Jing Yuan (for DMG) or Luocha (for emergency healing). I ran into a lot of Propagation rooms before I got here.
However, you may not have all these characters, and your run will never look exactly like mine. Thus, it’s difficult for me to recommend this setup to you. The best way, really, is to look at what you have and start a build from there. There isn’t a one-fits-all solution; there might even be better heroes I haven’t considered just because I don’t have them yet.
If you can’t clear all these stages now, be patient. Max your traces; grind for better Relics. You’ll clear it eventually!
For more on Honkai: Star Rail, take a look at Honkai Star Rail – All Character Ages and Heights and Best in game settings for Honkai Star Rail – PC, Android, & iOS here at Pro Game Guides.
Published: Jan 5, 2024 11:47 pm