Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka build and ascension guide
Dominate your opponents in style with the best Honkai: Star Rail Kafka build. Specializing in causing and exploiting DoT effects, the Stellaron Hunters’ mysterious femme fatale naturally follows The Nihility and is adept at dealing Lightning Damage. Kafka has so far been integral in moving the story of Honkai: Star Rail forward and her connection to the Trailblazer is sure to be important in the future as well. Her dashing demeanor and her fantastic looks have already won her many fans, making her one of the game’s most popular characters before she was even released.
Kafka’s Skill, Caressing Moonlight, deals Lightning Damage against a target based on her Attack stat, which is blasted to adjacent enemies as well. If the main target currently suffers from a DoT effect, it’ll immediately suffer a large portion of that effect’s damage as bonus damage.
Her Ultimate, Twilight Trill, deals Lightning Damage to all enemies based on Kafka’s Attack stat. This move has a 100% base chance to inflict Shocked on the enemies. If enemies are already suffering from Shocked, they suffer damage from it immediately. The Shocked status inflicted by this ability lasts for two turns.
Leave it to Kafka to lend elegance to a massacre.
HoYoverse
Kafka’s Talent, Gentle but Cruel, allows her to make a follow-up attack one time per turn when one of her allies uses a Basic Attack against an enemy. These follow-up attacks deal Lightning Damage based on her Attack stat and have a 100% base chance to inflict Shocked on the target, which follows the same rules as her Ultimate’s Shocked status.
Her Eidolon Levels, which can be obtained by getting additional copies of Kafka, are powerful as well. Eidolon 1 gives her Talent a 100% base chance to increase the DoT received by the target by 30% over the next two turns, in essence buffing the entire team’s DoT output. Eidolon 2 flat out buffs DoT dealt by all allies by 25%. Eidolon 4 allows Kafka to regenerate additional Energy whenever her Shocked status damages an opponent. Finally, Eidolon 6 increases the amount of damage her Shocked status does and extends its duration to three turns.
Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka: best Light Cones
Kafka’s signature Light Cone, Patience is All You Need, is the strongest option on her. It boosts the damage dealt by the wielder and increases their Speed after every attack – an effect that can stack up to three times. In addition, this Light Cone has a 100% base chance to inflict Erode on any enemy that isn’t yet suffering from this effect. Eroded targets are considered Shocked and will receive DoT.
Best Light Cones for Kafka:
- Patience is All You Need (5-Star)
- Solitary Healing (5-Star)
- Incessant Rain (5-Star)
- In the Name of the World (5-Star)
- Before the Tutorial Mission Starts (4-Star)
- Fermata (4-Star)
- Eyes of the Prey (4-Star)
- Void (3-Star)
The last thing Kafka's enemies hear is a seductive "Boom" as hell breaks loose around them.
HoYoverse
Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka: best Relics
It’s all about going on the offense for Kafka, so you want more damage stats like Attack and Critical Hit Rate on your Relics. She’s quite a technical character to use and ideally wants to take her turn after her allies, allowing them to stack DoT effects on the enemy, which makes Speed a bit less important to her.
Best Relic Sets for Kafka:
- Prisoner in Deep Confinement (4) – +12% Attack, the wearer ignores 6% of the enemy's Defense when dealing damage to them for each DoT affecting them. This effect is valid for up to three DoT effects.
- Band of Sizzling Thunder (4) – +10% Lightning Damage, +25% Attack for the wearer for one turn after using their Skill.
Best Planar Ornaments for Kafka:
- Firmament Frontline: Glamoth (2) – +12% Attack, +12%/18% more damage when the wearer's Speed reaches 135/160 or higher.
- Space Sealing Station (2) – +12% Attack, another 12% Attack when wearer’s Speed surpasses 120.
- Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise (2) – +10% Effect Hit Rate, up to 25% of the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate are added to Attack.
Prioritize the following Relic and Planar Ornament stats for Kafka:
- Head – HP (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Attack %, Break Effect %
- Hands – Attack (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Attack %, Break Effect %
- Body – Attack % (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %, Attack
- Feet – Speed (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Attack %, Break Effect %, Attack
- Planar Sphere – Lightning Damage % (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Attack %, Break Effect %
- Link Rope – Attack % (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %, Attack
Honkai: Star Rail is actually just Kafka's world that she allows us to live in.
HoYoverse
Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka: best teams
Death by a thousand little electroshocks is probably the best way to describe Kafka’s play style: You’ll want her team to stack DoT effects on enemies before unleashing Kafka on them, who on her turn is able to inflict bonus damage due to the existing status effects.
This Kafka team comes with three characters specialized in maximizing the effectiveness of DoT effects, those being Kafka herself, Sampo, and Guinaifen. Alternatively, Luka is another DoT-centered character you can use to support her. Luocha, Bailu, Huohuo, Lynx, or Natasha fill the healer slot.
Kafka absolutely is too cool to look at explosions.
HoYoverse
Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka: ascension materials
Here’s everything you need to know to get Kafka ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of her Traces.
Kafka requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:
- Credits x308,000
- Thief’s Instinct x15
- Usurper’s Scheme x15
- Conqueror’s Will x15
- Shape Shifter’s Lightning Staff x65
You can collect Thief’s Instincts, Usurper’s Schemes, and Conqueror’s Wills from Antimatter Legion enemies on Herta Space Station as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Thief’s Instincts are one of the base materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material.
Shape Shifter’s Lightning Staff is dropped by the Stagnant Shadow at Stargazer Navalia or gained through exchange. The best source of Credits is the Golden Calyx in the Great Mine.
Kafka awakened Trailblazer and used her commanding whisper to push them into a certain direction. But to what end?
HoYoverse
Kafka requires the following materials to upgrade her combat abilities and Traces:
- Credits x3,000,000
- Thief’s Instinct x41
- Usurper’s Scheme x56
- Conqueror’s Will x58
- Obsidian of Dread x18
- Obsidian of Desolation x69
- Obsidian of Obsession x139
- Regret of Infinite Ochema x12
- Tracks of Destiny x8
For the materials already mentioned, check above. Obsidians can be farmed in the Crimson Calyx in the Great Mine. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using up lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.
Regret of Infinite Ochema is a boss material only gained from the Echo of War (Scalegorge Waterscape) domain by defeating Phantylia, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained during time-limited events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.
