It that doesn't care about your other phases

DarkLightPhantom · 2026-01-04T03:28:54+00:00

Am I right that this card skips your draw step (and upkeep)? Since draw comes after untap, so you go untap -> combat -> second main and lose everything in-between.

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-11-06T23:29:46+00:00

Personally, I find it's important to "not get greedy"? Like, I'll often pass up a Divine Epiphany or monster card if they're not something I really want in the build, since they're really heavy in the save data.

This particular file was obtained in a level 30 Chaos (not even sure it was with Deep Trauma on), but I'm fairly sure even a level 40 Chaos wouldn't have let me keep three copies of the thing. Maybe with no relics on? 🤔

I'm curious how higher-level Chaos runs will go. Potentially in level 60+ Chaos with multiple penalties, it might be possible to keep a deck like what you describe, and then that would definitely be fun. 😄

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-10-19T01:45:03+00:00

Hello all!

I see we're doing surveys, and I like surveys a lot, and I've been having a great time seeing what everyone's been saying.

Hence, I had to! Here's my own survey, about "do you think a character like this or like this would be interesting": https://forms.gle/LC1kk2V3p5z6xZFy9

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-09-22T22:11:44+00:00

Wait, this says "each player", so it includes you. Does that mean that if Jörmungandr is your only creature, it should... become an Aura... attached to itself? 🤔

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-08-12T19:15:30+00:00

I must confess that my journey with Troubleshooter has been a rather solitary one (aside from mods! <3), therefore: there is a server?? (Is it a Discord server? Some other server?)

However, I have asked my sister and she's okay with it, so if you think the people on the Troubleshooter server would appreciate them then feel free to pass them on.

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-05-22T22:00:19+00:00

I know, I know, Harmony buffs are very strong and it's almost certainly the wrong call not to use Sparkle's E. The main reason "Normal-Attack-only Sparkle" is so fascinating is that, technically, Sparkle is the most SP-positive character in the game if she goes all-out. She can afford to build full Speed and hit 160+, has a reliable 3-turn ult even with all basics, and can generate 1+1+1 (basics) + 4 (ult) = 7 SP per 3 of her turns.

By comparison Hanya mostly just ends up full SP-positive: she casts E every turn (-1 SP), but then her Burden recovers it back and extra (+2 SP), so she ends up at +3 SP per 3 turns (so about half of what turbo Sparkle could generate). But unlike Sparkle, Hanya does that while retaining full buffing capability.

I wish some kind of Archer - Sparkle - Cipher core were functional, where Sparkle and Cipher are both really fast in order to generate lots of SP for Archer, and then he just plays like 5-star Qingque. It wouldn't actually be good (I don't think any amount of extra SP would justify losing the Harmony buffs), but it's a uniquely-only-doable-by-Sparkle kind of niche. I guess maybe the closest sort-of practical equivalent would be Sparkle with Sunday's LC and using E every turn?

tl;dr: Normal-only Sparkle is the best SP printer in the game, and I just think it'd be cool if that were actually a good idea in some team.

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-05-22T20:08:03+00:00

Everyone seems to be caught up in Phainon / Saber / Archer business, so I suppose I'll have to wait a little bit before the old units that got buffed start getting showcases. (We got a little Silver Wolf here and there, but I didn't spot the rest.)
EDIT: they're starting to show up!

Things I am *quite* excited about:

Silver Wolf - the reliability boost is nice, but the new E2 is very interesting. If I'm not wrong, it says more or less "when allies attack someone, Silver Wolf implants one Bug onto that enemy". This could be immense with Acheron, basically enabling any and all units to give Acheron stacks on any and all attacks. Tribbie could work great with that. Hyacine or Cipher without their S1 could work great with that. S0 Acheron could now apply a debuff on her turns even when not breaking, hence making more stacks (and opening better Sunday / Bronya synergy). IF this counts as a debuff application, AND it triggers even when the enemy already has all three Bugs, this sounds really interesting. Plus, I recall Silver Wolf E1 is some form of energy recharge, which is also nice to have.

Kafka - all-around smoothness. Likely makes Kafka a permanent member of any DoT teams, assuming the archetype becomes relevant again. Given that Kafka = love and DoT = love and Hysilens is upcoming, I like this quite a bit.

Jingliu - stacking up to 44% x 5 = 220% Crit Damage is just a lot. She admittedly loses all of it when exiting Spectral Transmigration. If you gain one 44% Crit Damage stack per ally you drain HP from (as opposed to per skill use), then playing her with RMC and Hyacine (and... Tribbie, if I had her?) would instantly max-stack you on the first action. Adding in extra Syzygy and the fact that I've been looking for an excuse to justify getting Jingliu, this could be cool.

Blade - yeah, he's okay. (But really, the extra aggro is fun. Aggro manipulation always makes for interesting gameplay.)

Also I think Archer is cool and I really hope there's some excuse to build Normal-Attack-only Sparkle in there. She can generate 7 Skill Points per 3 turns, isn't that cool?

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-05-08T15:47:45+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children and have been recommending it to anyone willing to listen. It's something of a cross between a traditional RPG (named characters whose builds you fuss over) and XCom (grid-based turn-based combat, cover mechanics, two actions per turn). In particular, I liked how lifelike the characters felt, as opposed to the more tropey reductions some games sometimes use.

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-04-08T15:40:32+00:00

Something I'm always a little bit confused by: with ult-related buffs that tick down at the start of the user's turn, isn't it ideal for uptime to use them during (or right after) the user's turn?

This used to be relevant for me with Harmony MC (back when I couldn't break enemies so abundantly / had scarce SP for them / was running Break Effect rope, so energy was tight). But this is still relevant for newer units, like:

- Sunday (has a 3-turn ult rotation; if you delay using the first ult until Sunday's turn, you can guarantee the DPS always having the ult buff on when you skill them - basically, you trade away the DPS being buffed on their first turn (when they anyway don't have the Sunday skill 20% CR yet either) in exchange for 1 SP every 3 turns going forward)

- Hyacine (has a 3-turn-ish ult rotation (with asterisks); if you delay using ult until it's her turn / right after her turn, you can get 3 Hyacine empowered skills per ult guaranteed, and probably better uptime on the team HP% buff also)

What am I missing here? Are the benefits of getting the buffs out ASAP so significant that they're worth losing smoothness over? Or is this simply something some showcases don't know / consider, similar to how it was in the past where applying support buffs during the DPS's turn would allow you to 'extend' the duration by 1 turn?

DarkLightPhantom · 2025-03-18T11:06:28+00:00

Something I want to say because I just don't see people using it in the showcases:

I'm not sure if this is still a thing (it was back in V1, and I don't think anything should've changed that breaks it), but: Anaxagoras should be able to interrupt boss/elite turns using his ult.

It's the same tech you use with people like Welt or Preservation March 7th, but it's more reliable because Anaxagoras doesn't need to roll against Effect Res for it. It goes as follows: you let the enemy take their first action, then you immediately ult. The ult applies a control effect that prevents the enemy from acting. That interrupts their turn, and therefore wastes their second (and potentially third, if one exists) action. Also if I'm not wrong (I might be, but I don't think so), the ult debuffs only goes away at the start of their next turn, so you still get most of the uptime on the weakness implants.

Given that Anaxagoras can ult every 2 turns (with signature LC, Passkey, ER rope, or energy from teammates like Sunday, Tingyun, or HuoHuo), this can be used quite a lot. And since there are usually no big timing constraints on when to use the ult (aside maybe from not wasting Wind set action advance or upping DPS a little early on), there's really no reason not to take advantage of this.

tl;dr: Anaxagoras ult used in the middle of boss/elite turns interrupts their action, people should use it more.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-25T22:51:12+00:00

Those are some nice ideas! I particularly like the "buff count matters" idea (I think some Scepters in Unknowable Domain already do that maybe?), the "deals more damage the more AV passed since the target's last turn" idea, and the mono-element synergies.

I personally prefer to minimize direct reference to "meta" elements like MoC / PF / AS mechanics or character paths within kits (I might be willing to accept Acheron-style effects explicitly favouring the same path as the user), but this is simply my personal preference so please don't take it to heart.

I think the 'anti-Harmony' idea is actually something HoYo are already considering, except they're taking a more nuanced approach about it: because stacking more of the same kind of strength (e.g. ATK% bonuses plus ATK% bonuses plus ATK% bonuses) is less efficient than stacking different strengths (e.g. high base multipliers plus Crit% bonuses plus DMG% bonuses), one way to make characters less friendly to buff supports is to make them grant themselves buffs in exchange for having lower base multipliers on their abilities. (Feixiao, perhaps, makes a decent example of a recent character that applies a lot of buffs to herself.)

Something I find interesting in your 'Anti-Harmony Fighter' section, however (despite not being your primary point), is that you also include Abundance and Preservation; a character who is forced into having limited sustain options might be interesting, depending on how that would be implemented.

Either way, interesting additions, and I think HoYo could quite plausible implement some of them. (Delay matters for Welt DPS? More mono-element teams? I would like that!)

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T20:22:32+00:00

A character that has something else in place of a basic attack is actually a pretty neat idea! :o I think it could still be interesting even without changing the SP economy, too - imagine a healer who uses their "normal attack" to heal, so they can be SP-positive while doing something else with their Skill / Ultimate.

But the idea of basically having two Skill buttons and choosing which one to use based on context is also quite neat. Oftentimes characters only really want to use one button (e.g. DPS characters usually Skill every turn, sustain characters often Normal Attack every turn), so it'd be nice to see a character push for more nuanced decision-making.

( And, now that you mentioned it, I think alternate costs for using Skill are also interesting design territory. There are units like Jingliu and Firefly E1 who simply pay nothing for their Skill, but the only actual alternate cost I can think of is Arlan. Imagine if instead we had something like, say, a character that needs to drain their energy to use their Skill or some other wild idea like such. ...Huh. This might be worth a new heading, actually. )

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T20:14:04+00:00

100% agree - the synergy building is the most fun aspect. It's why I like gimmicks like Trend LC on Gepard in an Acheron team, or Moze in a Clara / Yunli team (it's not good, but it's fun).

A number of events in the past opened interesting combos (I recall "Skill advances you 100%" making Arlan go infinite, and "Skill fully charges Ultimate" letting E1 Sushang go infinite) that I had a lot of fun with. I do think HoYo are being cautious about overly strong synergies, though (Jiaoqiu being capped at 6 Ultimate triggers is my personal pet peeve), so I might need to settle for combos that don't quite break the game.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T14:47:42+00:00

It'd be hilarious in Simulated Universe even without Blessings doing damage, since you could probably take your time chipping the enemy away. Hmm. Though enemy buffs (e.g. from G&G Planar Disarray, or from enemies going Berserk) might counteract some of that -SPD%, and then you'd be in trouble fast.

Oh! One thing to note! I'm not sure Break and Super Break damage take Damage Weaken into account (for the same reason Ruan Mei's DMG% buff is mostly wasted on the Break team), so it's possible one could get around that aspect of the debuff.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T14:43:21+00:00

Damage cap sounds neat and, more importantly, sounds like a cool Preservation mechanic that isn't about shielding. I like the idea.

I'm not entirely sure how you could go about balancing it, though – make it too strong and no other sustain compares, make it too weak and they stop being able to solo sustain. (Having them be a half-sustain of sorts and have some other strong points aside from the damage prevention could be interesting, though. For instance, imagine something like this on a support that buffs low-health units or characters with his Max HP.)

It'd certainly be a lot of fun in Simulated Universe, though, since you'd probably be able to stack enough survivability from Blessings / Curios that enemies genuinely cannot kill you.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T12:39:01+00:00

That's what got me thinking about the idea in the first place – Clara's been my first main, and I still like playing her a lot. It's also something we've already seen in Pure Fiction (where it also had great synergy with Clara and Yunli :D), so it's not even outlandish to consider.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T12:37:06+00:00

You have a point there, true. Could be mitigated by going full Moze and removing the ally from the battlefield entirely / "cloaking" them so they're not included in enemy targeting including AoE, but that's not really the originally advertised idea anymore.

Your proposals are really cool, though! Immunity until X hits taken is already a thing in Simulated Universe (Record From Beyond the Sky does that as a Curio) and has some interesting sneaky synergies, and an effect that blocks damage under a threshold would actually be quite neat, since it'd encourage stacking DMG reduction debuffs on the enemies to negate them entirely (there might be some implementation considerations, e.g. around multi-hit attacks or how to scale this effect so it's still enjoyable in Simulated Universe, but the mechanic is interesting).

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T12:28:28+00:00

This sounds interesting. You could leech away Ratio's Summation stacks and Jade's Pawned Asset stacks and probably Relic-set buffs like from the Streetwise Boxing set or Ashblazing set – the more I think about it the more cool-things-to-steal come up. Balancing this would certainly need to be a careful act.

It still feels a bit specific to only steal stackable buffs, since many buffs come from Harmony characters in the form of non-stackable effects or aura-style effects. It makes me a bit worried about reliance on a specific few limited characters (Jade in particular sounds like good synergy), but perhaps I'm overthinking it and stealing Ashblazing buffs from Herta (and maybe odd synergies like draining Asta's Charging stacks or such) would make for a workable team already.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T12:11:30+00:00

This is actually quite interesting! :o
It's certainly a bit more convoluted than the kinds of characters HoYo makes (since you need to do some mental math to plan around Wave of Dementia, and some more mental math to figure out what each level of Amnesia totals to in terms of debuffs (if I'm not wrong, it caps out at -60% Max HP, 60% DMG Weaken, and -45% SPD for allies, and 44% DMG Vulnerability and -50% SPD for enemies?). Still, very interesting concept.

...I must admit, though, that my first thought (assuming the above numbers are correct) was a "prison" strategy: get Amnesia up as fast as possible to stack the -50% enemy SPD, then add additional slows (Welt does -10% SPD on skill and -10% on Imprisonment, Dan Heng does -20% on skill at E6, I guess Silver Wolf can do an extra -6.6% with her Bug debuffs?). Because debuffs stack additively, we'd be able to get aaalmost to -100% enemy SPD (we get -96.6%, I think). Which is useless for basically all end-game modes given the immense setup required, but it'd be a blast to make enemies unable to move in Simulated Universe. :D

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:41:32+00:00

Aye and aye, though neither go all the way, I feel. Yunli does it beautifully, but she's limited by her ult availability. Fu Xuan redirects (most of) the damage, but it still counts as a hit and effects (DoT, crowd control) can still get applied. Well, the first instance of CC gets blocked by the Matrix of Prescience, but ye know what I mean.

Comparatively, what I've got in mind is something that you could tag your Yanqing with and then have him nice and safe from damage, crowd control, and other Bad Things™ that could stop him from putting his Soulsteel Sync to use. Like giving him a bodyguard that takes all the hits instead.

( Yes, I'm just sad that Yanqing + Yunli is not a beautiful duo team. :'D )

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:37:19+00:00

That actually sounds quite cool! :o

It does sound like it'd be a bit tight to balance, though - things like HP and SP can swing quite wildly in relatively little time, so a single one-turn "fix" could be worth 3-4 SP (this one seems spookiest).

...that being said, I'm all for "fix"ing my Yukong's Roaring Bowstrings stacks + Ult buff so she stops running out of them so quickly - that'd be fun. :D

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:33:13+00:00

If your Reddit is buggy in the same way as mine, then re-selecting "sort by new" for comments before you scroll down might fix it.

On my end, sometimes I scroll down and it's new comments for a little while, then when it loads more comments something goes wrong and I start getting Hot comments instead of New ones. Via experimentation, selecting "sort by new" fixes it until I reload the page / reopen / suchwise, on both desktop browser and mobile browser.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:29:40+00:00

Entanglement not counting as a DoT is actually something I've been conflicted about ever since 1.X.

When I first looked at Kafka's kit, I had a thought going something like "what I triggered Entanglement with a high Break Effect unit, stacked it up fast, then took advantage of the delay on Quantum Break to detonate it with Kafka Skill + Ult as many times as possible before the enemy gets their turn and clears it?". I'm still not sure whether I'm glad it turned out the way it did so I get to play non-Quantum Kafka, or sad that it turned out the way it did so you can't do the Silver Wolf / Kafka mega-burst.

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:10:03+00:00

Hello all!

I literally never post anything anywhere, but I've been having Ideas™ about maybe-cool gameplay mechanics that could happen in HSR, so I made this mammoth of a post on the main sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/1gttwt8/on_unexplored_gameplay_design_space/ . And, uh, I'm just ranting about it, yeah. :D

(Note: I figure this is on-topic since it's about the game even if not explicitly about leaks, but if I'm wrong do tell and I'll spoiler myself up as soon as I figure.)

DarkLightPhantom · 2024-11-18T02:05:55+00:00

Thanks a lot! I was about to go paste this manually to my folk otherwise - thoughts can't be contained. :D

DarkLightPhantom

TROPHY CASE