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 follows The Nihility and is adept at dealing Lightning DMG.

Kafka’s Skill, Caressing Moonlight, deals Lightning DMG against a target based on her ATK, 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 DMG to all enemies based on Kafka’s ATK. This move has a 100% base chance to inflict Shocked on its targets. If enemies are already suffering from Shocked, they suffer damage from it immediately. The Shocked status inflicted by this ability lasts for two turns.

Kafka’s Talent, Gentle but Cruel, allows her to make a Follow-Up Attack once per turn when one of her allies uses a Basic Attack against an enemy. These Follow-Up Attacks deal Lightning DMG based on her ATK 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 an enemy suffers damage from Shocked inflicted by her. 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 SPD 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 in HSR:

• Patience is All You Need (5-Star)
• Incessant Rain (5-Star)
• Reforged Remembrance (5-Star)
• In the Name of the World (5-Star)
• Solitary Healing (5-Star)
• Before the Tutorial Mission Starts (4-Star)
• Fermata (4-Star)
• Eyes of the Prey (4-Star)

Honkai: Star Rail – Kafka: best Relics

Like many other damage dealers, Kafka thrives the more ATK and SPD you stack on her. As a DoT character, she is not reliant on CRIT DMG and CRIT Rate, though. Instead, it’s best to get more Effect Hit Rate and Break Effect on her to enhance her DoT effects.

Best Relic Sets for Kafka in HSR:

• Prisoner in Deep Confinement (4) – +12% ATK, the wearer ignores 6% of the target’s DEF for every DoT effect the target is suffering from (counting up to three DoTs)

Best Planar Ornaments for Kafka in HSR:

• Firmament Frontline: Glamoth (2) – +12% ATK, +12%/18% damage when the wearer’s SPD reaches 135/160 or higher.
• Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise (2) – +10% Effect Hit Rate, up to 25% of the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate are added to ATK.
• Space Sealing Station (2) – +12% ATK, another 12% ATK when the wearer’s SPD surpasses 120.

Best stats for Kafka in HSR:

• Head – HP (Primary), ATK %, SPD, Effect Hit Rate, ATK
• Hands – ATK (Primary), ATK %, SPD, Effect Hit Rate, Break Effect %
• Body – ATK % (Primary), SPD, Effect Hit Rate, ATK, Break Effect %
• Feet – SPD (Primary), ATK %, Effect Hit Rate, ATK, Break Effect %
• Planar Sphere – Lightning DMG (Primary), ATK %, SPD, Effect Hit Rate, ATK
• Link Rope – ATK % (Primary), SPD, Effect Hit Rate, ATK, Break Effect %

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.

• Kafka (Main DPS), Black Swan (Support), Guinaifen (Support), Huohuo (Support)

This Kafka team features three DoT-focused characters, guaranteeing a consistent influx of DoT effects on enemies. This will allow Kafka to make full use of Prisoner in Deep Confinement’s set bonus on top of letting her exploit the vulnerabilities Black Swan and Guinaifen inflict on foes. As for the team’s healer, Huohuo is the best choice. She comes with an ATK buff, strong dispel and healing abilities, and can assist the party with regenerating Energy. Ruan Mei and Fugue are strong alternative Support characters for this team and can replace Guinaifen.

Kafka is an able Sub DPS for Acheron as well, since she reliably inflicts debuffs on the enemy with her attacks.

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 (Stargazer Navalia) or gained through exchange. The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyx around the cosmos.

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 (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.