Phainon is the most awaited character introduced in Honkai Star Rail. He is a hypercarry DPS who fights alone against enemies by forcing his allies to depart the battlefield. Phainon also has strong free-to-play friendly HSR builds that can carry you through all the hardest challenges. With his best build, Phainon doesn’t even require a sustain to win battles. So, follow this guide to learn about Phainon’s best build and teams in Honkai Star Rail.
Honkai Star Rail Phainon Build
The ‘Deliverer’ Phainon is a hypercarry DPS in the truest sense, as he forces all his allies to leave the battlefield to fight alone. If you want to main Phainon in Honkai Star Rail, then you need to use a good build for him. Here is the best Phainon build that will see you win every fight:
- Relic: Wavestrider Captain (4-piece)
- Planar Ornament: Arcadia of Woven Dreams
- Main Stats: Crit Rate (Body), Speed (Boots), Physical Damage Boost (Sphere), Attack% (Link Rope)
- Light Cone: Thus Burns the Dawn (5-star), A Trail of Bygone Blood (4-star)
- Team: Phainon, Sunday, Robin, Cipher
Although Phainon doesn’t have much build variety as he is strictly a straightforward DPS unit, there are a few alternatives you can try to get the same result. The following is a more detailed breakdown of Phainon’s build with additional alternatives for his relics, planar ornament, stats, light cones, and teams.
Phainon Build: Best Relics
- Wavestrider Captain (4-piece)
- Scholar Lost in Erudition (4-piece)
The Wavestrider Captain relic is tailor-made for Phainon’s kit. It straight up increases the Crit Damage by 16%. Furthermore, when allies target the equipped character with their abilities, the relic gives 1 stack of help, stacking up to 2 times.
When the character uses their Ultimate ability while possessing 2 stacks of Help, they consume all the stacks and get a 40% attack increase, lasting one turn. This makes the Wavestrider relic perfect for this Phainon DPS build in Honkai Star Rail.
Now, if you haven’t found the time to farm this relic, then you can use Scholar Lost in Erudition instead. This relic increases the character’s Crit rate by 8%, and their Skill and Ultimate damage by 20%. Furthermore, the skill used after an Ultimate also gets a 25% damage increase. Although it is not the best relic for Phainon, it is a good placeholder while you farm for the Wavestrider Captain.
Phainon Build: Best Planar Ornaments
- Arcadia of Woven Dreams
- Rutilant Arena
The new Arcadia of Woven Dreams planar ornament is perfect for Phainon. This planar ornament is basically useless for teams that don’t have a memosprite character or Phainon. The set increases the damage of the wearer (and their memosprite) when there are more or fewer than four allies on the battlefield.
Each additional/missing ally increases the damage by 9%/12%, up to a maximum of 4/3 stacks. It means that Phainon is guaranteed to get a 36% damage increase when wearing this ornament and casting his Ultimate.
For alternatives, you can always use the old and trusted Rutilant Arena. It will increase the Crit rate and skill and base attack damage, which is perfect for Phainon’s abilities.
Phainon Build: Main and Sub Stats for Relics
- Body: Crit Rate = Crit Damage
- Boots: Speed > Attack%
- Planar Sphere: Physical Damage Boost
- Link Rope: Attack %
- Sub-stats: Crit Rate (100%) > Crit Damage (above 180%) > Attack% > Speed (136)
Phainon is a classic hypercarry DPS, so his relic stats are pretty straightforward. Simply stack as much Crit rate and Crit damage as humanly possible. The ideal Phainon DPS build will have 100% Crit rate and above 180% Crit damage in total. As Phainon gets a decent Crit damage boost from his Trace, it is best to use a Crit rate body to hit the 100% Crit rate target first.
Other than that, you need to focus on adding as much attack as possible, followed by Speed. Now, Speed is not a massive requirement for Phainon, as you will be using action forwarding supports, such as Bronya, Sunday, and Sparkle, with him anyway. Hitting 136 Speed Breakpoint should be enough.
Phainon Build: Best Light Cones
- Thus Burns the Dawn
- On the Fall of an Aeon
- A Trail of Bygone Blood
- Brighter Than the Sun
- I Shall Be My Own Sword
- Secret Vow
Thus Burns the Dawn is the best Light Cone for Phainon, which is almost given as it is his signature Light Cone. However, other 5-star limited Light Cones like Brighter Than the Sun and I Shall Be My Own Sword will also work well on Phainon.
Among free-to-play options, On the Fall of an Aeon continues to be the finest Light Cone for all Destruction units that scale on attack to date.
When it comes to 4-star Light Cones, the new A Trail of Bygone Blood is a clear favorite. However, you can only get it from the Nameless Honor. Secret Vow can be a good alternative as well, if you don’t want to use On the Fall of an Aeon.
Best Phainon Teams in Honkai Star Rail
- Best Team: Phainon, Sunday, Cipher, Robin
- Alternative: Phainon, Ruan Mei, Tingyun, Yukong
- Free-to-play-friendly: Phainon, Remembrance Trailblazer, Tingyun, Yukong
Phainon doesn’t require any sustain character to keep his team alive. His ultimate forces all allies to leave the battlefield as he attacks alone while healing himself. This makes it so that you don’t need a sustain character in the team, as ideally they would exit the fight at the very start once Phainon enters his ultimate state.
The best teammates for Phainon would be allies who buff him. He gets Coreflame stacks when abilities from allies target him. This way, running three other Harmony units will let Phainon enter his Ultimate state much quicker than normal. Moreover, every buff applied to Phainon doesn’t expire once he enters the Ultimate state. This way, you won’t need to worry about reapplying buffs on him even though only Phainon remains on the battlefield.
Harmony characters or those that buff damage in different ways will be best for Phainon. Sunday, Robin, Bronya, Sparkle, Ruan Mei, Tingyun, and even Yukong are excellent partners for Phainon. Phainon’s ability to retain buffs in his Ultimate state makes it easy to apply Yukong’s powerful buff on him, which has the downside of expiring after every turn.
On the other hand, Remembrance Trailblazers, Tribbie and Cipher, are also good alternatives to be part of Phainon’s team. Although they are not Harmony characters, they give buffs to Phainon in other ways while also giving him Coreflame stacks.
Honkai Star Rail Phainon Kit and Traces
Phainon has the most overpowered abilities in Honkai Star Rail. Phainon’s kit features excellent damage multipliers, letting him solo carry a team. His entire gimmick is to fight alone against enemies, while his allies buff him for that encounter. After using an Ultimate ability, Phainon enters an enhanced state that makes all his allies depart from the battlefield.
During this period, Phainon deals insane amounts of damage, making up for the damage output of four characters single-handedly. Plus, during this state, Phainon also applies Physical Weakness on enemies, making him useful against any enemy in the game. So, let’s take a closer look at Phainon’s Kit in Honkai Star Rail.
- Basic Attack:
- Stride to Deliverance: Deals Physical Damage equal to 100% of Phainon’s Attack to one designated enemy.
- Creation: Bloodthorn Ferry: Gains 2 “Scourge”, dealing Blast Physical Damage equal to 250% of Khaslana’s Attack to the main target and Physical damage equal to 75% to adjacent targets.
- Skill:
- Let There Be Light: Gains 2 points of “Coreflame” dealing Physical damage equal to 300% of Phainon’s Attack to one designated enemy and Physical Damage equal to 120% of Phainon’s Attack to adjacent targets.
- Calamity: Soulscorch Edict: Gains Scourge by an amount equal to the number of targets present and 1 stack of Soulscorch, then causes all enemy targets to immediately take action. When in the Soulscorch state, it reduces Damage received by Khaslana by 75% and gains 1 additional stack of Soulscorch after enemy targets attack or take action. Immediately launches a Counter after the aforementioned enemy targets take their actions, dealing Physical Damage to all enemies equal to 40% of Khaslana’s Attack, as well as additionally dealing 4 instances of damage, each instance being Physical Damage equal to 30% of Khaslana’s Attack to one random enemy. Then, Soulscorch is dispelled. Each stack of Soulscorch increases this Counter’s damage multiplier by 20% of the original multiplier. Damage dealt through this ability is considered Skill Damage. If Soulscorch is still active at the start of Khaslana’s extra turn, it immediately launches Counter.
- Foundation: Stardeath: Dispels all debuffs on this unit, then deals Physical Damage equal to a max 1,170% of Khaslana’s Attack. For every 1 Scourge consumed, it deals 4 instances of damage, with each instance dealing Physical damage equal to 45% of Khaslana’s Attack to one random enemy. When consuming 4 Scourge, it additionally deals Physical damage equal to 450% of Khaslana’s Attack, and this damage is evenly distributed to all enemies.
- Ultimate (He Who Bears the World Must Burn): Transforms into Khaslana and expands a Territory “Ruinous Irontomb” while Transformed. Other teammates in the Territory become Departed and cannot take action, and all enemies gain Physical Weakness for the Territory’s duration. Khaslana does not enter his own turn, but has 8 Khaslana’s extra turns with a fixed Speed equal to 60% of Khaslana’s base Speed. At the start of the final Khaslana’s extra turn, immediately uses Final Hit and deals Physical Ultimate Damage equal to 960% of Khaslana’s Attack that is distributed evenly across all enemies.
- Talent:
- Pyric Corpus (Phainon’s Talent): When Coreflame reaches 12 points, Ultimate can be activated. After reaching the max limit, up to 3 excess points can be accumulated. At the end of the Transformation, gains Coreflames based on the excess points. When Phainon is the target of any target’s ability, he gains 1 point of Coreflame. If the ability’s user is Phainon’s teammate, it additionally increases Phainon’s Crit Damage by 30% for 3 turns.
- Fate: Divine Vessel (Khaslana’s Talent): When transforming, gains 4 Scourge. If transformed during an ally target’s turn, all buffs on that ally target will be extended by 1 turn, and the current turn ends. Khaslana is immune to Crowd Control debuffs and has 1 Enhanced Basic Attack and 2 Enhanced Skills, but cannot use Ultimate. While transformed, it increases Attack by 80% and Max HP by 270%. He will not be knocked down upon taking a killing blow, but will restore HP equal to 25% of Max HP and immediately reduce by 12% of its original multiplier. When the Transformation ends, it increases all allies’ Speed by 15% for 1 turn.
- Technique (Beginning of the End): While Phainon is in the team, it increases Max Technique Points by 3. When actively using this Technique, it consumes 2 Technique Points and immediately attacks all enemies within a certain range. After entering battle, it regenerates 25 Energy for allies and gains 2 Scourge and 1 Skill Point. Deals Physical Damage equal to 200% of Phainon’s Attack to all enemies at the start of each wave. If attacking a normal enemy, it immediately defeats them without entering combat. No Technique Points are consumed if no enemies are hit.
- Trace Abilities:
- March to Oblivion: At the start of the battle, gains 1 point of Coreflame. When the transformation ends, it gains 3 points of Coreflame.
- Bide in Flames: When receiving healing effects or Shields from a teammate, increases Damage dealt by 45% for 4 turns. This effect cannot be triggered repeatedly within one turn. When receiving Energy regeneration ability effects provided by teammates, gains 1 point of Coreflame.
- Shine with Valor: When entering battle or when transformation ends, increases Attack by 50%. This effect can stack up to 2 times.
- Trace Boosts:
- Crit Rate Boost: 12%
- Crit Damage Boost: 32%
- Speed Boost: 5
Honkai Star Rail Phainon Eidolons
Phainon’s Eidolons are decent upgrades to his kit and but none of them are needed to play the character to its best ability. He is extremely broken just with his base kit, so I recommend not going for his Eidolons and instead suggest that you focus on his signature Light Cone.
But if you want Eidolons as well, then his E1 and E2 are likely the most you should invest to obtain. With that said, here is a breakdown of Phainon’s Eidolons in Honkai Star Rail.
- E1 (Fire and Light Bind Virtue and Vice): The base Speed inheritance ratio of Khaslana’s extra turn increases to 66%. For every enemy target defeated in one battle, further increases it by 1.5%, up to 84%. When using Ultimate, Crit Damage increases by 50%, lasting for 3 turns.
- E2 (Sky and Earth Churn Mortal Froth): Khaslana’s Physical Resistance Penetration increases by 20%. When consuming 4 Scourge points in one use of Foundation: Stardeath Verdict, gains 1 extra turn.
- E3 (Depths of Quiet, Entombed in Ruin): Ultimate Level +2 and Basic Attack Level + 1.
- E4 (Faces of Titans, Blurred by Time): When using Calamity: Soulscorch Edict, additionally gains 4 stacks of Soulscorch.
- E5 (The Wheel Spins Forevermore): Skill Level +2 and Talent Level + 2.
- E6 (Embers of Old Rise Still): The number of Overflow points for Coreflame no longer has an upper limit. When battle starts, gains 6 Coreflames. After using Foundation: Stardeath Verdict’s attack, it additionally deals True Damage equal to 36% of the total damage dealt in this attack to the enemy with the highest HP.
Honkai Star Rail Phainon Materials
Check out the total number of character ascension and trace level-up materials for Phainon:
HSR Phainon Character Ascension Materials:
- 15 Ethereal Omen
- 15 Echoing Wail
- 65 Invasive Clot
- 15 Eternal Lament
- 308k Credits
HSR Phainon Trace Materials:
- 18 Borisin Teeth
- 69 Lupitoxin Sawteeth
- 139 Moon Rage Fang
- 41 Ethereal Omen
- 56 Echoing Wail
- 58 Eternal Lament
- 12 Daythunder Anamnesis
- 8 Tracks of Destiny
- 3M Credits
With Phainon featuring in the HSR 3.4 banners on release, you don’t really want to miss out on him. He is very free-to-play friendly and is self-sufficient to carry you through the hardest challenges with barely any support. Phainon also doesn’t require a good sustain to survive on the battlefield, making him an ideal character for new players. So, have you pulled Phainon in Honkai Star Rail yet? Tell us in the comments below.
