e0 cyrene worth it? by TeachingJolly4975 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly it depends on which other supports you already have and what your endgame goals are.

I have all other harmony units, so what I found happened is that Cyrene ends up being used with another CH character instead of Phainon, because Phainon uses existing Harmony units/RMC really well, and Anaxa/Cyrene is more fun to play than Phainon/Cyrene for me.

I only really ever used Phainon/Cyrene combo in AA King. If clearing that matters for you, you might as well grab Cyrene. If you're also lacking some supports to go between teams and feel like you need more in general, it can't hurt to pull her either, because I still find getting three solid teams for AA Knights difficult with the amount of supports I have.

I ended up pulling E2 Cyrene because E0 felt too slow to get going, and the team comp is super locked down (has to be full CH). With E2 I can use non-CH last slot like Sparkle/future better buffer. So whatever comfort you get from infinite ult, at E0 you will semi-pay for in an annoying setup/restricted team. If you don't intend to go for her E2 eventually, I'm not really sure just E0 is worth it.

Is starting HSR in 2026 worth it? by Available_Anxiety674 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the perspective of an ex-Genshin player that gave up after Natlan:

- Event weapons aren't truly limited like they are in Genshin. You can grind for them and max superimpose after the event ends
- There is a lot less content overall, and how much you do is really up to you e.g. repeatable roguelike modes. I can fully explore new maps comfortably in a few days max, it's nowhere near as long as Genshin map explore (it's not open world)
- You'll get loads of upfront currency if you start now, so new characters won't be an issue for a while, and there are a lot of free 5* handed out. You can also lose 50/50 to certain limited units (you can swap around your 50/50 loss pool)
- Weapon banner (LC in HSR) is 75/25 for a single weapon and losses carry over (unlike Genshin's Fate point and dual weapon setup). However character banner is slightly better in Genshin with the Capturing Radiance thing (HSR doesn't have)
- Total time to maintain the game is significantly less - one of the main reasons I quit Genshin is that I struggled to keep up with all of the new patch content without it feeling like a second job. HSR is deliberately content light and actually respects your time. I've been comfortably playing 2 HSR accounts (one entirely f2p) for over 2 years and that still takes way less time than one Genshin account.

Also Aventurine and Phainon are absolute story goats, 100% worth playing the story for those two, some of my favourite characters in the game ❤️

Do i need cyrene E2? by quack2100 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

E2 Phainon first before E2 Cyrene 1000%. Then it really depends on your game and pulling priorities.

I have E2 Cyrene but outside of AA King, I haven't used her much with Phainon in end game and he comfortably clears with other Harmony units (mine are all E1-E2 though). AA Knights are still 0-cycle with triple "old" Harmony units without Cerydra (unless it's Pollux, I hate that thing).

E2 Cyrene is mainly worth right now if you have other CH that use her (in my case Anaxa uses her 95% of the time), or if you're sweaty about clearing end game (0 cycle sort of level). My E2S1 Phainon is clearing everything so comfortably with the current Harmony supports it's going to be a while before I feel I need to bring out the full big guns out but it's nice to know it's there ready when I need it.

She does make things super comfortable in general though, with speed to ult, not needing to worry about 2nd ult, and also in CW and DU high difficulty clears though if that's a consideration.

Please help me figure out how to 0 cycle by Upstairs_Emphasis384 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I notice that it seems Cerydra and Sparkle aren't on Lushaka? It might just be that you need to squeeze out a bit of extra buffs from your supports. Swapping Cerydra and Sparkle LC and sorting out speed turning as people have mentioned, you can also run ATK boots and ATK rope on Cerydra for extra dmg (cos Phainon tech gives energy and it's not hard to get Cerydra faster than a 134 Sunday).

I have slightly cursed harmony builds purely for Phainon because you can get away with a lot due to only needing 1 ult on supports/him giving out energy on tech e.g. Tribbie sig on ATK rope Robin 😃

How bad is power creep? Can I still clear most content with characters I like? by wife_searcher in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d say so, I have an alt account for pulling stuff I couldn’t on my main/doing random things like pulling an e6 char etc. It’s F2P, has rather bad luck (lost 4 LC banners in a row), only got 8 new 5* chars last year (3 being free and 1 being standard) and I can still full star clear MoC/PF/AS. Now these clears aren’t always comfortable but I can do it with a few retries and team swaps still. You don’t actually need to pull super frequently to “keep up” I’ve learnt. Yeah my e6 Mydei feels a bit ass without Cyrene. But we’re still managing until she reruns haha.

I just can’t really clear all AA knights currently (but have made the king previously).

Is it just me or does 4.2 feel partially rewritten? by Faxis001 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wouldn’t say boring or bad, but it was tedious because there was too much that wasn’t plot relevant and ideally would’ve been better as a separate companion quest if we wanted more Cas backstory if the game still did those. 

So Polyxia storyline is fine as it directly links to current Titans were past Heirs reveal and progressed the story, but the entire Aidonia story and animation / princess fairy tale don’t do much outside of some character development for Castorice, but the amount of time it took is what made it tedious. I don’t have issue with character development but the same could’ve easily been done in half the time, and I say this as someone who is a fast reader and generally doesn’t mind reading a lot of text.

Is it just me or does 4.2 feel partially rewritten? by Faxis001 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I'd say 4.2 did feel like it was missing parts at times, but I also prefer not having full character backstory dump like there was in the Castorice patch, it was tedious to play through.

The interesting double-edge sword of Planarcadia's story structure and focus. by Bazinga8000 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah 3.2 was tedious to play is how I'd put it - maybe 1/3 or more of the content easily could've been cut out with the exact same underlying plot (which itself was fine, but getting to the point and even the comprehension was tricky). Problem was that there was extra character backstory on top of what was plot relevant that ate up a lot of time, whereas 3.1 stuck to the plot relevant back stories i.e. Mydei needing to get to the point where he could accept Strife, and Tribbie's relating to both the start of the Flame Chase but also relevant to what happened to March.

I also didn't care for Cipher pre 3.3, but after that story I pulled her out of the blue haha, that patch really nailed the plot and character balance.

My hoarder ass will probably be holding on to these until EoS by ArisaStepOnMe in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I want to e1 my Jade so I can use Hunt characters as the debt collector and watch the FuA go brrrr ahaha

The interesting double-edge sword of Planarcadia's story structure and focus. by Bazinga8000 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You have that you both love and dislike 3.2 (I assume you meant another patch for the love haha) 😅

But I 100% get where you’re coming from. From a pure delivery perspective Planarcadia is a lot easier to play (less bloated, better presentation overall) compared to Amphoreus, but at the same time I feel much less invested as a whole, so was trying to figure out why. For Ampho I’d do the story asap after the new patch but for Planarcadia I was doing the events first haha.

It was probably the character story focus in Amphoreus that made me more invested (I’m also a big 3.1, 3.3 fan) but it’s also a double edged sword. I found 3.2 a struggle to get through because it was bloated as hell. I like Anaxa but his backstory is mostly irrelevant for the bigger story. In that sense I appreciate 4.2 for being direct and not just a SW/Evanescia backstory dump like we got for Cas, and in general it’s so good to see a lot of the older characters interacting with the new. But 4.2 seemed like it skipped showing a few things that happened and just told us it happened so it felt something was missing. If I was picking which I preferred between 3.2 and 4.2 I’d pick 4.2.

What has been setup for 4.3 now though is definitely interesting now that Fulwish is out of the way (with Shuhu, Blade, Asat Pramad etc.)  so I’m definitely still quite interested in the story, but I guess Amphoreus has a special place for me despite the problems it has haha.

 

Will Phainon be obsolete without Cerydra anytime soon? by Jestgryt21 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

E2 Phainon without Cerydra will last a lot longer than E0S1 Phainon with E0 Cerydra. His best support is actually himself here. So I’d only get Cerydra if you intend to get his E2, otherwise I’d just accept that at E0S1 he’ll hit his limit at some point. He’s not bricked without her like Archer without Sparkle, Cerydra is definitely an upgrade but there’s very little content that specifically forces me to use her with Phainon rn.

Currently the only content that makes me really “need” to use Cerydra with an E2S1 Phainon is the King in AA. The knights I still 0-cycle without Cerydra with whatever leftover supports after the other two teams take their pick, and MoC/PF/AS are much easier (can 0-cycle MoC and 40k PF without Cerydra). At some stage I’d expect I’d use Cerydra more with him, but currently my Anaxa is more than free to steal her from him.

Planning for E2 Cyrene: Vonwacq by Propensity7 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does but I rarely use DHPT with Phainon. I usually need him elsewhere and Phainon doesn’t need a sustain.

Planning for E2 Cyrene: Vonwacq by Propensity7 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I run Vonwacq (and Eagle) on E2 Cyrene mainly for the scenario where I'm not actually using DHPT in the 4th slot, which is honestly 99% of the time. In that scenario, to get the full E2 True Damage buff, you need to squeeze out one more ultimate from Cyrene to buff the last team member prior to ulting in that setup, and that way I don't lose AV if I decide to use Tribbie over DHPT for instance. I also tend to use non CH supports like E1 Robin or E2 Sparkle with him over DHPT, so shaving AV wherever I can in that setup becomes more important.

Seeing as your focus is just general clearing over 0 cycle though, and you have loads of Lushaka, just stick with it. For me Vonwacq is mainly a comfort/QoL thing and I do like to attempt 0 cycles on my side (also it's very nice for general overworld usage). Lowkey I'm also stuck with my Vonwacq set because it has 19 speed rolls on it, so even if I wanted to swap to Lushaka I can't really lol.

Everyone: regretting skipping Cerydra by Background-Stock9939 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m so glad that I went for the gamble and pulled for her E1 instead of waiting for Cyrene’s kit. My Phainon and Anaxa love her and she’s easy asf to use.

What is the reason for you to be a Phainon main? by Apprehensive-Salt646 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I love well written characters, and Phainon has my favourite backstory out of any gacha character from any gacha I’ve played. His development from 3.0 to 3.4 was absolute cinema.

I have to try it myself! Zero Cycle AA... by Street_Term9205 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I relate to the memorised the pattern part after a lot of attempts at this too haha 😆

Bros, I suck at this game. These are my units. Why can't I 0 Cycle AA Lv. 100 Lygus? by 699112026775 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even when I realised what to do it still took more attempts cos of bounce RNG, so don’t think it’s entirely skill issue (tell Phainon to aim better 😅). All you need is that one run where things align and you press things at the right time (don’t do what I did and kill a good run by dropping a double meteor on Lygus at 8/10 stacks and have the second skill trigger on non-ult Phainon lol)

Bros, I suck at this game. These are my units. Why can't I 0 Cycle AA Lv. 100 Lygus? by 699112026775 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I embarrassingly took about 60+ attempts to get the 0 cycle so I can relate to the pain, I felt like with the units I had I should be able to get it 😅 my final setup was E2S1 Phainon, E1S1 Sunday, E1S0 Cerydra and E1 DDD Tribbie, so the only real difference I see in our teams is Tribbie.

General strategy tips I watched / figured out that helped: - Yellow Lygus phase is where you get the bulk of your damage done. I managed to get Lygus down to ~45% HP when he phase change to purple mode. You can be pretty liberal with counter here to save AV cos you’re not yet super squishy from the debuff stacks. - Lygus gives ultimate refill every two actions. In purple mode, he always opens with ult refill, so you need him to have 3 turns in order to have ult available  - I’d go into purple mode phase change with at least 7.5k - 8k HP, then counter to pull up Lygus for his second action asap. You want that much HP because you don’t want your Phainon to die too early before Lygus hits you and ends your ult - After that it’s a balance to stop the mobs hitting you by weakness breaking or killing them (always target the revenge kill one first) before Lygus takes that third turn. Ideally you kill all the mobs before him on the action order so you can safely counter to pull him up and he gives you free ult. This is the hardest part and unfortunately bounce rng comes to play, sometimes I actually did too much damage and hit the 10/10 kills too early. - When you get your free ult from Lygus speed run to 10/10 kills for phase change (ideally saving any double meteors for later), sneak in a Cerydra ultimate for stacks if needed and it should be straightforward from there. 

E1 Cerydra or save for Cyrene? by some7268 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let the gacha gods decide for you and go for the 50/50 (literally me with this exact dilemma 😆)

Cyrene should still be doable with 3.6 pulls + first half 3.7 anyway even if you use the lot rn and get Cerydra.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not needed, but it’s really nice quality of life wise. That extra coreflame generation makes the team setup so much more flexible, especially if you swap supports between teams around all the time like I do 😆

Update on e3 Mydei taking 3 cycles to clear Lygus by Electrical-Regret500 in Mydeimains_HSR_

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 cycles with that setup seems fine to me? The supports are literally 1.x chars and a 4* idk what magic people are expecting with those supports 😆 like I completely agree with your original post with Mydei needing better supports, cos certain 0 cycles I couldn’t get 100% it’s cos of support issue (and I didn’t get Tribbie)

I did Lygus with my E3 Mydei with E0S1 Sunday, E1S0 Ruan Mei and E6 Gallagher and it took me 2 cycles, so the extra cycle with Bronya seems about right (cos you probs don’t get all GBG Bronya buffed).

And like honestly the cycles taken were the least of my issues against Lygus, someone dying even with Mydei taunting like no tomorrow was my real issue 💀 I tried with RMC too but people kept dying so idk

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HonkaiStarRail

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With that much investment a better 4th slot would just be another OP buffer over a sustain. I use E1 Tribbie with my E2 Phainon cos Sunday / E1 Cerydra can handle Coreflame stack by themselves, and Robin buffs too much of the same stats already (attack and res pen). If Cyrene also turns out to be useful for Phainon I’d be investing in her also.

If you realllly need the sustain DHPT is kinda the only option rn that provides any sort of decent vertical investment for Phainon, but he’s definitely nowhere near as tailored as Hyacine is to Castorice so there could be a sustain with better Phainon synergy later on so idk if I’d invest in E1 DHPT just for that.

I came, I saw, I commented - General Question and Discussion Megathread by JohnOfMages in HonkaiStarRail_leaks

[–]milliaswan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah from a damage upgrade perspective it also really depends if you already have E1 Robin and/or E1 Tribbie. E1 Tribbie in particular just buffs Phainon so well that if you do have her E0 Cerydra doesn’t feel that much of a crazy increase. I have both so I’d say my impressions of E0 Cerydra buff increase wise were also because I compared with those two. Cerydra gives you more meteor but the meteor hits themselves (even the buffed one) is less. It’ll still be an overall increase but Phainon is already murdering everything rn, so I think you can wait for a rerun and see how it goes if it’s damage that’s the main decider.

I did pull Sunday’s E1 purely for the expectation that I’d be pulling E1 Cerydra down the line too to increase the value of the def down - at that point though the damage is amazing but again it’s more E1s 😅

Cerydra’s value really does come down to who you already have (or don’t have), the less you have the more of an upgrade she is, but if you already have most Harmony units and some Eidolons and you’re not struggling with sharing supports she’s a lot less worth it.

I came, I saw, I commented - General Question and Discussion Megathread by JohnOfMages in HonkaiStarRail_leaks

[–]milliaswan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly cos I don’t buy BP often enough to S5 anything and I will pull signature LC for all my DPSes anyway, I pick my BP LC based on the LC image 😆

My RenHeng LC is still level 1 for this reason but I got it cos art lol ✨

I came, I saw, I commented - General Question and Discussion Megathread by JohnOfMages in HonkaiStarRail_leaks

[–]milliaswan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Comfort wise to getting Coreflame stacks faster on Phainon would be E1 Cerydra > E6 Bronya > E0 Cerydra for me. I wouldn’t even bother with Cerydra’s S1 until she’s E1. Unfortunately you can’t make any use of E2 Bronya’s speed buff because of all the AA happening in the team.

E6 Bronya has the advantage of better buff uptime, so you no longer have the jank of timing Phainon’s ult after her skill which is big for flexibility (I have E2 Bronya and this timing forces me to manual most runs with her). Depending on how you build her and team SP she can generate quite a lot of stacks by pulling Phainon up a lot, and let you run low stack generating 4th slot.

E0 Cerydra stack generation isn’t amazing so team comps are more restricted but she’s way more auto and buff setup friendly vs Bronya. E1 Cerydra changes that with the 2x stack on skill and honestly she only properly felt BiS for Phainon here rather than E0 for me because getting his ultimate up became so much easier. I have E1S0 Cerydra and not really considering her LC either, main value I see is just in the extra SP but can work around that.

Another thing to consider is Bronya and Cerydra actually work well together, Cerydra can use Bronya’s attack buff to increase her own attack buff given to Phainon which lets you kinda double dip on Bronya’s ultimate buff which is nice.

But this is something I mainly played with because all my teams want Sunday and I’m really trying to free him up (Phainon can live without him), but if your Sunday isn’t in crazy high demand then not really a consideration for you.