Rejoice, Pathstriders of IX! Honkai: Star Rail – Version 3.4 introduced a variety of new content: new story, features, characters, and, of course, the Novaflare enhancement system. Among the lucky four, there are two main stays of the Nihility path: Silver Wolf and Kafka. So, what does the Kafka buff and Silver Wolf enhancement mean for their use? Read on to find out!
The two have been introduced very early on in the game’s life cycle, with the mechanics and overall combat design evolving in the way that left them ineffective. After all, the early Honkai: Star Rail was much more of a single-target game, allowing units like Seele and Silver Wolf to prosper. The addition of heroes who can ignore or embed their own Weakness – Acheron, Firefly, Boothill, Feixiao – only made the issue worse.
Kafka’s kit could also be considered outdated by the 3.x standards, exacerbated further by the overall decline of the DoT playstyle, including the lack of characters to bring something new. Together with Black Swan, Kafka could only watch as Acheron was rapidly taking over Nihility.
Things go through an exciting change in Version 3.4: For the Sun is Set to Die, with both Silver Wolf and Kafka receiving significant upgrades. We’re talking more than just adjusting scaling on their abilities, some traces and mechanics are revamped, Eidolons adjusted and more, all opening up new possibilities.
Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Stellaron Hunters (including the honorary member, Jingliu) certainly prove otherwise.
Silver Wolf (5-star Quantum Nihility):
Silver Wolf, the game’s resident hacking gamer goblin, received what can only be described as an overhaul, repairing some glaring holes in her old kit. She still plays largely the same, but her effectiveness is now through the roof even at E0 (which is impressive, considering she’s a V1.1 character), and she turns into a beast with E2, especially in an Acheron team, but not limited by it.
No longer does she lose out to Pela, one of the game’s starter 4-stars! Her Ultimate is now AoE, affecting all enemies on the battlefield, and the Weakness implant can be controlled. Not only that, but she also gets some free energy that helps with her rotation.
Check out a quick overview of changes that Silver Wolf has gone through:
- Ultimate now causes an AoE attack and debuff;
- Skill prioritizes adding the Weakness corresponding to the first position ally in the lineup;
- At the start of the battle and the turn, regenerates Energy;
- When the enemy target is defeated, the implanted Weakness will be transferred;
- For every 10% EHR that Silver Wolf has, additionally increases her Attack by 10% to a max of 50%.
- E2 buff: when any enemy target enters battle, increases their damage taken by 20%. When an enemy target receives an attack from ally targets, Silver Wolf has a 100% base chance to implant the attacked enemy target with 1 random “Bug”. THE Acheron support Eidolon.
- E4 adjustment to AoE.
New Silver Wolf’s needs in the EHR department had been significantly lowered as well. Now you can build as much as 67% to ensure that all her debuffs will land and she gets the maximum free Attack from her new trace. That allows you to focus on her Speed and other stats to suit your needs.
For Acheron specifically, Speed would matter the most, followed by ERR to make sure you can attack and Ult as often as possible. Something like 2 pieces Messenger + 2 pieces Sacerdos (both granting Speed) or Eagle of Twilight Line + Lushaka + Before the Tutorial Mission Starts works wonders, especially with E1 Silver Wolf.
There’s only one drawback: unlike the Favonius weapon line in Genshin, there’s only one Tutorial in the game, and it might be already in use by Jiaoqiu, Kafka, Pela, Black Swan, or any other Nihility. In that case, consider a 4-star Nihility cone with debuffing capabilities, such as Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat or the new Battle Pass LC Holiday Thermae Escapade.
However, if your mind is on building the best Silver Wolf possible, her new best option is the Cipher’s LC, Lies Dance on the Breeze. Not only does it have its own powerful effect, it also allows her to relatively easily reach 170+ speed. Note that not all of the LCs above contain EHR, so you will have to pick it up in secondary stats/main chest stat instead!
Alas, Silver Wolf’s own signature LC is as much a thing of the bygone era as her old kit. As a not-so-proud owner, I am admittedly a bit salty it wasn’t updated alongside the character. It certainly would have helped to have another Tutorial or the like.
Silver Wolf’s E1 grants her extra energy, which lets her Ult more frequently, working frighteningly well with the Tutorial 4-star LC. Now, E2 is something otherworldly if you have Acheron. It makes it so any ally attack applies a debuff, adding to Acheron’s stacks.
Tribbie’s endless follow-ups? Absolutely. Aventurine’s auto-attacks and FUAs? In! Lingsha’s attacks and summon, Hyacine and Little Ica without the need for the LC? Trailblazer and Mem? Gallagher even more than he is? Y E S. The debuff counter is going crazy with this one, turning anyone and everyone into the perfect generator for Acheron. If you were so inclined, you could even do something crazy, like turning Feixiao into an Acheron battery.
However, being Acheron’s slave is not the only thing that Silver Wolf is capable of. She can serve as a support/sub-DPS in pretty much any circumstances when you find yourself thinking “I don’t really have any support that fits”. Castorice, Archer, Dr. Ratio, new Jingliu and Blade – the Wolf can’t stop, won’t stop debuffing and shredding defenses.
Silver Wolf is an undisputed winner of the buffing lottery.
Kafka (5-star Lightning Nihility):
Kafka is one of my favorite HSR heroes and among the early reasons for playing. However, her situation is not very different from Silver Wolf’s: her old design just screamed the 1.x era, and had been lagging behind since early Penacony, if not before.
Since those early days, Kafka had been proclaimed to be future-proof as the enabler of the entire DoT archetype. Who could have guessed that she’d be going down with the entirety of it once the DoT got abandoned with the release of Black Swan in 2.0?
However, things change, and it seems that the developers have decided it’s time to do something with Damage Over Time – Hysilens’ Golden Boon in the Divergent Universe, new Planars, the possibility of new DoT characters, all require the enabler to match the new energy. Simply buffing Kafka’s detonations would have been a bandaid, and so Kafka’s buff gives the mother of DoTs a new shiny kit to match:
- Skill can cause DoT detonation on all three targets;
- Follow-up attack count increased to 2, and the FUAs can cause DoTs to detonate on the target as well;
- All ally attacks trigger FUAs, not just Basics;
- When an allied target’s (included Kafka herself) EHR is 75% or above, their Attack is increased by 100%;
- E1 adjustment – instead of being triggered by FUA, the 30% DoT vulnerability is triggered by any attack by Kafka, increasing its consistency across the board;
- E2 buff – While Kafka is in the field, DoT damage dealt by all allies increases by 33% (was 25%).
Much like her fellow Stellaron Hunter, she plays largely the same, but better, more convenient and with more possibilities regarding gear – but not teammates. More on that later.
Her FUA’s detonating DoTs on the target and skill causing an instance of damage on all enemies it hits is a simple, straightforward, and extremely potent buff, both baseline and to her E1. Add in the fact that she now has two follow-up attacks that can be triggered by any ally attack and offers an almost free 100% Attack in exchange for EHR, and she actually starts resembling an enabler.
And as such, there are now two distinct builds you can have for her:
- Sub-DPS Kafka: 4pc Prisoner + Glamoth (but you might still want to swap the rope for ERR) + PAYN/GNSW. 75% EHR, 160+ Speed, everything else going into attack. Theoretically, you could drop Glamoth for the new DoT Planar set if you are having problems with Speed-tuning. More damage, fewer ultimates;
- Support Kafka: 4pc Eagle + Lushaka + Tutorial. Note that if you use Tutorial, you need a source of Def shred. Thankfully, Black Swan can do just that. All in for Speed, has disgustingly fast Ultimate recharge time, and that makes up for the drop in power.
Alternatively, you can go for a mix of the two, for example continuing to use the 4pc Prisoner you have, but giving Kafka the Tutorial for some extra EHR and energy and still swapping the rope for ERR. Chances are, by this point in time you should have a pretty good Prisoner set, and returning to the soulless farming for Eagle is pure pain.
If you have E4, you don’t have to fistfight Silver Wolf and others for Tutorial after Kafka buff, the extra DoT from the signature will help with the energy.
When it comes to her teams, things have not changed since 2.0, so this section will be noticeably shorter than Silver Wolf’s:
- Black Swan + Kafka + support + Huohuo/Gallagher.
Since we still lack a dedicated DoT support, any team-wide buffer or debuffer you can poach off your other teams will work: Jiaoqiu (especially if he’s E2), Robin, Ruan Mei, Silver Wolf, Cipher, Tribbie… Or two of them if you are not afraid to go sustainless and watch your squishies get demolished when RNG doesn’t turn in your favor.
But my real hope is that you’d be able to fill this third slot with another damage-dealer to form a coherent, working Triple DoT comp.
It won’t be the first time you have three characters of one Path in the team: Feixiao + Moze/March/Topaz, Acheron + two more Nihilities, it can work. Especially with Kafka’s kit revolving around enabling more damage the more DoTs there are on the target.
And, with the developers suddenly paying attention to DoT with the Kafka buff and all, perhaps one day we can expect to get a dedicated support or sustain that would interact with the archetype’s mechanic. And just perhaps, as another staple of the DoT gameplay, Black Swan can get something done about her Arcanas and very conditional damage amps as well.
