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

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 getting a rerun in version 2.5 alongside Feixiao in the first half. 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.

Best Black Swan build in Honkai Star Rail

Weapon	Relic	Ornament	Stats	Team Comp
Reforged Remembrance	Prisoner in Deep Confinement	Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise	Body: Effect Hit Rate Feet: SPD Sphere: Wind DMG Bonus Rope: ATK% Substats: ATK%, Energy Recharge, Effect Hit Rate	Kafka, Black Swan, Ruan Mei, Huohuo

Best Black Swan Light Cones

Reforged Remembrance

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.

Eyes of Prey

This is an amazing alternative Light Cone for Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail. It is quite simple as it increases the Effect Hit Rate by 20% and DoT by 24%. This synergizes well with Black Swan’s kit and she can function quite optimally, despite the Light Cone being 4-star.

Best Relic and Ornaments for Black Swan

Relic

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:

Set Piece	Set Bonus
2-pc	Increases ATK by 12%.
4-pc	For every DoT the target enemy is afflicted with, the wearer will ignore 6% of target’s DEF when dealing DMG to them. This effect is valid for a max of 3 DoTs.

Ornament

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%.

Black Swan Ascension and Trace level-up materials

Ascension

Black Swan in Honkai Star Rail needs Extinguished Core and its upgrades, and Ascendant Debris. The exact number of materials she needs is as follows:

• Extinguished Core x15
• Glimmering Core x15
• Squirming Core x15
• Ascendant Debris x65

Traces

The materials you need to level up Black Swan’s Traces include Fiery Spirit and its upgrades, Extinguished Core and its upgrades, and Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster. The exact number of materials you need are as follows:

• Fiery Spirit x15
• Starfire Essence x72
• Heaven Incinerator x139
• Extinguished Core x41
• Glimmering Core x56
• Squirming Core x58
• Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster x12
• Tracks of Destiny x11

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 Huohuo. 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 abilities in Honkai Star Rail

Basic Attack

ABILITY NAME	DESCRIPTION
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

ABILITY NAME	DESCRIPTION
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

ABILITY NAME

DESCRIPTION

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

ABILITY NAME

DESCRIPTION

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

ABILITY NAME

DESCRIPTION

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

ABILITY NAME	DESCRIPTION
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

• 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.

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:

If you are looking to know more about Honkai Star Rail characters, check out our guides on Boothill and Fu Xuan. For more on the game in general, check out our guides on banners, codes, and the Version 2.3 update.