[Guide] Honkai Star Rail – Should You Pull for Kafka

The highly anticipated Stellaron Hunter, Kafka who has stolen the hearts of players, is finally joining us on an interstellar journey in Honkai Star Rail.

Calm and collected, Kafka is a mysterious Stellaron Hunter who is on a mission to fulfill Destiny’s Slave Elio’s prophesied future and is on the wanted list of the Interastral Peace Corporation and players alike.

Character Preview

Kafka is a 5★ Lightning-Type character who walks the Path of Nihility. She excels at inflicting Damage Over Time (DoT) on enemies and manipulates its effect for great damage.

The breakdown of her kit is as follows:

• Midnight Tumult (Basic ATK) – Deals Lightning DMG to a single target.
• Caressing Moonlight (Skill) – Deals Lightning DMG to a target and enemies adjacent to it. If the targets are currently under the effect of DoT, trigger its damage.
• Twilight Trill (Ultimate) – Deals Lightning DMG to all enemies with a very high chance of applying Shock to them and triggering its damage immediately upon DoT inflictions.
• Gentle But Cruel (Talent) – After an ally uses Basic ATK on an enemy, Kafka immediately initiates a follow-up attack and deals Lightning DMG with a very high chance of applying Shock to the same target. This effect can only be triggered once per turn.
• Mercy Is Not Forgiveness (Technique) – When activated, Kafka immediately attacks all enemies within range. After entering battle, deal Lightning DMG to all enemies with a very high chance of applying Shock to them.
• Torture (Traces – Ascension 2) – When Kafka uses her ultimate, all enemies will also receive DMG from all currently applied DoT sources instead of only her own Shock.
• Plunder (Traces – Ascension 4) – If an enemy is defeated while under the effect of Shock, Kafka will additionally regenerate 5 energy.
• Thorns (Traces – Ascension 6) – Increases the chance of Kafka applying Shock through her abilities.

Based on Kafka’s kit, she is a character all about DoT mechanics and specializes in manually triggering their damage without waiting for the following turns. As such, Kafka will synergize with characters that can persistently inflict DoT effect onto enemies and open up viability for a DoT-focused playstyle.

Suggested Relic Set

A general rule of thumb for characters that rely on DoT effects is to aim to increase the stat that the DoT damage scales with based on the ability descriptions. In this case, ATK stat will be the main priority for Kafka to boost her damage output as high as possible.

For the Relic choices, the Band of Sizzling Thunder set would be a great choice as it increases her Lightning damage overall as well as boosting ATK% for a turn whenever she uses her Skill. As Kafka will always want to use her Skill to trigger all applied DoT damage, the Relic set’s effect will naturally be activated regularly.

As for Planar Ornaments, a good set to aim for is the Space Sealing Station which enhances her overall ATK but you can also get Sprightly Vonwacq for more Energy Regeneration Rate to cast her Ultimate more frequently.

For the Relics and Planar Ornaments’ main stats, we recommend aiming for:

• ATK% for Body Slot
• ATK% or SPD for Feet Slot
• Lightning DMG Boost for Planar Sphere
• ATK% or Energy Regeneration Rate for Link Rope

Like all other characters, you will have to tune Kafka’s Speed (SPD) stat accordingly, and preferably if she can go first each turn to trigger all applied DoT damage. As for other sub-stats, you can aim for Effect Hit Rate for a more consistent Shock application.

Suggested Light Cones

A general easy way to quickly pick a good Light Cone for a unit in Honkai Star Rail is to look at its illustrations if the character is featured or not. In this case, Kafka’s signature 5★ Light Cone Patience Is All You Need is most likely going to be her best-in-slot but the 4★ Light Cone Fermata is also an amazing choice.

The 5★ Light Cone Patience Is All You Need grants Kafka additional damage dealt to enemies and for every attack Kafka does, her SPD will be increased up to 3 times. But that is not all, enemies attacked by Kafka will also have a high chance to be inflicted with Erode, an alternate form of Shock. As such, this Light Cone is a great choice if you are looking to further maximize Kafka and have sufficient Stellar Jades to spend.

If you are not aiming to spend more Stellar Jades then the 4★ Light Cone Fermata is an alternate great option as players would likely already own it through purchasing items in the Underground Shop of Boulder Town, Jarilo-VI, or exchanging 200 Lucent Afterglow from the Forgotten Hall Store for it. The Light Cone increases the wearer’s damage against enemies afflicted with Shock or Wind Shear but also their Break Effect damage. Another thing to note is that the damage increase from the Light Cone also applies to DoT effects which further improves Kafka’s potential.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Kafka is an amazing newcomer that opens up room for viable DoT-focused team compositions which was not seen much previously. An important aspect of Kafka is that her true strength lies in how much DoT effect is currently applied to enemies so if you are looking to pull for her, we highly recommend having a few allies already leveled to be paired with her.

When forming team compositions, any characters who can consistently inflict DoT effects onto enemies are immediate ideal teammates for Kafka, such as Sampo, Serval, Hook, and the upcoming Luka. For defensive teammates, any Preservation characters will work great with Kafka, especially if you equipped them with Trend of the Universal Market 4★ Light Cone, which grants a chance for the wearer to inflict Burn onto enemies that attack them.

Other recommended allies to support Kafka are Silver Wolf and Pela, who both can lower enemy defenses, which then increases DoT damage. Silver Wolf especially is a valuable ally as she can also implant elemental weaknesses onto enemies and also lower their resistance against elements.

Since her playstyle is rather unique and heavily relies on others, it is hard to say where her potential in the meta truly lies. That being said, if you are charmed by her, go for it. One thing for certain is that she will be a lot of fun in Simulated Universe with the Path of the Nihility chosen.

What do you think of Kafka? Join the discussion on the GamerBraves Discord server and share your thoughts on Kafka and her coat collection.

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