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. And I have spent too much time on it, not because I love it, but because I need to farm jades ASAP. After intense hours of gameplay, I'll go over some of the things I’ve learned so you don’t have to waste the same hours and resources I did.
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 and Imbibitor Lunae to fill it in.
- A buffer: People like Yukong, Tingyun, 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 are also pretty fragile.
- Option #2: You can also bring Gepard to protect your teams.
- Option #3: Fire Trailblazer or any other Preservation character with Landau’s Choice light cone can be brought as a last resort. However, be extra sure they’re tanked enough to survive the fights.
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. Some of my personal top picks to bring into Simulated Universe Swarm Disaster include Imbibitor Lunae and Clara.
- Imbibitor Lunae (Dan Heng): There are too many enemies weak to Imaginary attacks in Swarm Disaster. If I just had Imbibitor Lunae, I would have charged through all those Swarm domains already! With the proper setup, you can also have him AoE every turn.
- Clara: Swarm Disaster enemies love attacking your party.
- 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 my favorite Curio 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.
Seele also gets a semi-pass for being the only 5* Quantum DPS at the moment, but personally, she’s not the best for this. The best, at least starter, characters in Swarm Disaster really are units that can AoE. Depending on how your Seele is built, her tricks might not be enough to simultaneously destroy all bees before they can propagate.
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 Communing Trail buffs and 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 you needing to enter Elite domains, but the DMG boost you can get from winning those is more than worth it.
- Communing Trail buffs: +DMG%, -DMG to own units
- 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.
- Communing Trail buffs: +Follow up attack DMG%, +Crit DMG
- 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).
- Communing Trail buffs: +SPD, +Crit Rate
- 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 gotten 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.
- Communing Trail buffs: +Max HP, +HP recovery
- 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.
- Communing Trail buffs: +Break Effect, +DoT DMG%
- 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.
- Communing Trail buffs: +Effect Hit Rate, -Effect RES for enemies
- 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.
- Communing Trail buffs: +DEF, +Shield%
- Resonance Interplays: Remembrance, Nihility
By the way, there's an eighth Path you can take (Propagation). However, said Path only unlocks after you've gotten far into Swarm Disaster—which is very obviously not the case for me. I don't think I'll be able to break out of Phase 4 without Imbibitor Lunae, but I'll definitely test a couple of comps out. I'll add it in once I have on-hand info!
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!
Another good Curio to have is The Parchment That Always Eats. This is the one that Inflicts 30% of all enemies' Max HP as damage on the very first turn. It works on Elites, Bosses, and even Phase Bosses too.
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.
- Spirit of the Knights of Beauty: Gains your four dice rolls, an invaluable Curio in Swarm Disaster.
That’s it for this guide for now; I hope it helped! I’d like to hear from the rest of you guys as well—how are your Swarm Disaster runs going, and are they equally as disastrous as mine?
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.
Bianca Versoza is Pro Game Guides' Weekend Editor. With over three years of experience in gaming journalism, she specializes in anything remotely turn-based and strategic, like Pokémon, Valkyria, and Honkai: Star Rail. Bianca is a huge fan of Square Enix, RPGs, party games, and visual novels, but will play anything with a banger OST. She's a proud early bird. Follow me on Twitter @friskbee!
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Honkai Star Rail Swarm Disaster Guide (Simulated Universe) – Best teams, strategies, & more!
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