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Kafka has been one of the most anticipated characters in Honkai: Star Rail ever since the game's release. You get to play as the character for a bit when you start the story, and she's introduced as one of the Stellaron Hunters who follow Elio. She's also one of the most wanted criminals.
Released as a playable character during the Version 1.2 update, Kafka is a five-star Nihility DPS who has Lightning as the combat type. If built properly, she can easily outperform most of the single-target and multi-target DPS characters in the game.
Best Relics And Planar Ornaments For Kafka
Kafka is a unique character who doesn't deal a lot of damage by herself. She essentially borrows the damage from DoT applied by her or the other characters. With that in mind, here are some of the best Relic and Planar Ornaments for her:
Type | Name | Reason For Synergy With Kafka |
|---|---|---|
Relics | Band of Sizzling Thunder | In battle, you'd only want to use Kafka's Skill every time she gets a turn. This set gives you extra ATK whenever your Skill is used, making it perfect for the DoT damage. This buff only lasts for one turn, so you'll have to reset it every time. The extra Lightning DMG from the two-piece of this set makes it the best in slot for Kafka. |
Musketeer of Wild Wheat | The two-piece for this set will increase Kafka's ATK permanently, and the four-piece gives her extra SPD and Basic ATK DMG. All these stats apart from the Basic ATK DMG can be good on the character. | |
Thief of Shooting Meteor | Kafka's Skill, Ultimate, and Follow-up Attack are all great at breaking an enemy's Toughness bar. The 32 percent Break Effect from Thief of Shooting Meteor set goes well with these abilities. Moreover, it also allows you to regenerate some Energy whenever you trigger the Weakness Break on an enemy, making it easier to get your Ultimate back. | |
Planar Ornaments | Space Sealing Station | This set gives you up to 24 percent extra ATK if your SPD is higher than 120, which is already a necessity for Kafka. DoT damage directly scales from ATK, making this Ornament set the best in slot for her. |
Talia: Kingdom of Banditry | If you're using the Break Effect Relic set on her, this Ornament set can go along with it and give you another 36 percent Break Effect. Though the high SPD requirement can be quite hard to achieve. You can use characters like Asta with Kafka in a team to get the required SPD just before you trigger Weakness Break. |
You can have a total of six pieces of equipment on Kafka including four Relics and two Planar Ornaments. Every time you get two or more pieces from the same set, you can trigger the set bonuses mentioned above. Though each piece of equipment still has a main stat and up to four sub-stats that you need to pay attention to.
Thankfully, DoT-based characters like Kafka are quite easy to build since you don't have to get any Crit on them. When it comes to sub-stats, you should be looking for ATK Percent, SPD, and Break Effect for Kafka.
You can also look for a ten to 20 percent Effect Hit Rate if you're planning to fight high-level bosses.
Although, the Effect Hit Rate provided by Kafka's Traces is enough to fight normal mobs.
Here are all the main stats you should prioritize for each piece of equipment:
Equipment Type | Main Stat Priority |
|---|---|
Head | HP (guaranteed) |
Hands | ATK (guaranteed) |
Body | ATK Percent |
Feet | SPD |
Planar Sphere | Lightning DMG Bonus > ATK Percent |
Link Rope | ATK Percent > Energy Regeneration Rate |
For the Link Rope, ATK Percent is preferred over Energy Regeneration Rate because Kafka's Follow-up Attack gives you extra Energy. Moreover, one of her Bonus Abilities also lets you get extra Energy upon defeating enemies.
Best Light Cones For Kafka
Honkai: Star Rail has a wide range of Nihility Light Cones you can use on Kafka, but she only benefits from a few of them:
Patience Is All You Need | Much like every other character, Kafka's signature Light Cone works the best for her. It increases Kafka's base DMG by 24 percent as soon as it's equipped. Her SPD also increases by 4.8 percent every time she launches an attack, up to three times. Her attacks also inflict a special DoT on the enemies that can be exploded with her Skill or Ultimate, giving her even more damage. |
|---|---|
Good Night And Sleep Well | If you don't have the five-star signature Light Cone, this one can monumentally increase the damage from your DoT based on the number of debuffs possessed by the enemy. It's best if you're using other debuffers in a team with Kafka. |
Fermata | Fermata can be acquired through the Forgotten Hall shops for free, and it can be great if you're using the Break Effect build on Kafka. It also gives you extra DoT DMG, but it's nowhere near Good Night And Sleep Well at the same Superimposition. |
Kafka Traces Overview And Priority
Kafka's traces include five active abilities and three bonus abilities that buff her in different ways. Here's everything that her abilities can do:
Trace Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Midnight Tumult | Basic Attack | Deals a certain amount of Lightning DMG to one enemy. |
Caressing Moonlight | Skill | Deals Lightning DMG to one enemy and lesser Lightning DMG to enemies adjacent to it. If the main enemy is affected by DoT, all of them instantly take effect and deal a certain percentage of the original DMG. |
Twilight Trill | Ultimate | Deals Lightning DMG to all enemies with a 100% base chance to apply Shock on all of them. The enemies also instantly take damage one time from this Shock effect. |
Gentle but Cruel | Talent | When an ally launches a Basic Attack on an enemy, Kafka follows this up with an attack of her own that can apply Shock to the target. |
Mercy Is Not Forgiveness | Technique | Deals Lightning DMG to all enemies hit by this attack and has a 100 percent base chance to apply the Shock effect on them. |
Plunder | Bonus Ability | If an enemy is defeated while the Shock effect is applied to them, Kafka regenerates five Energy. |
Torture | Bonus Ability | Ultimate triggers all DoT effects on an enemy instead of just triggering the applied Shock effect. |
Thorns | Bonus Ability | Increases the chances of an enemy getting Shocked by 30 percent. |
As you can see from her traces, Kafka benefits the most if you use at least one other DoT character with her like Sampo, Serval, or Luka. DoT can also be applied to an enemy when you break their Toughness bar with a character who uses the Lightning, Fire, Wind, or Physical combat type.
When it comes to her trace priority, the Skill takes priority since it helps you trigger all the DoT sources the most. You can follow that up by upgrading the Ultimate to increase the damage from Kafka's Shock. Finally, her Talent is also important to upgrade so that she can deal more damage with the Follow-up Attack.
You don't have to upgrade Kafka's Basic Attack at all, but you can still get it to level four or five since it doesn't take many resources.
Finally, it's highly recommended to get all the Bonus Abilities as fast as you can since they significantly buff Kafka. The Torture ability is the best as it lets your Ultimate trigger all DoT sources, letting her deal over 50,000 DMG easily.
Is Kafka Worth Pulling?
If you're active in the Honkai: Star Rail community, it'll be hard to avoid pulling for this character because of the surrounding hype. Apart from her being the most popular character in the game, she also has a unique kit that makes an entire play style viable. Without Kafka, DoT might not give you nearly as much value.
With time, there will be more DoT-based characters and some might even belong to non-DoT elements like Imaginary, Quantum, or Ice. Kafka will be good with all these characters, making her future-proof. If you have the required summons, it's worth pulling for Kafka because of her long-term value.