HSR Memory of Chaos: Pillar of Genesis review – I missed you, DoT

Another Memory of Chaos reset is upon us in Honkai: Star Rail with Pillar of Genesis replacing Gambler’s Plight and bringing a new line-up of enemies to the table on August 15, 2025.

In this iteration of HSR’s endgame mode, damage is dealt to enemies – targets being randomly determined – at the end of each cycle based on the number of Skill activations and Memosprite attacks by the player’s team. Similar to last MoC’s bonus, this buff is fairly universal and can be used by many teams, giving us room to work with.

Similar to last time around, let’s review my successful run through MoC: Pillar of Genesis to see if we can learn anything that might help you on your own attempt to make it through the gauntlet.

Pillar of Genesis – Stage 9

• Team 1: Saber [E2], Bronya [E6], Cipher, Huohuo
• Team 2: Kafka [E1], Hysilens, Black Swan, Gallagher [E6]
• Cycles: 0 (3/3 Stars)

Focus on Wind DMG in the first half, as this will reliably take care of the heavy hitters. If you do not have Saber available to you, teams around Anaxa, Feixiao, or Blade will do the trick just as easily. I had to decide which team gets Huohuo in this instance, as both ideally want her, and went with the Saber team — Energy is her bread and butter, so I felt Huohuo is more critical to her.

The second half is wide open when it comes to viable compositions. I went with DoT, because it perfectly covered the Weakness Types present in the enemy line-up, but you could easily opt for teams around characters such as Phainon, Mydei, Acheron, Aglaea, or Jing Yuan here. It’s best to consider this particular battle as a test for what’s to come in Stage 12 — Gepard will be back.

Pillar of Genesis – Stage 10

• Team 1: Kafka [E1], Hysilens, Black Swan, Huohuo
• Team 2: Firefly [E1], Fugue, Ruan Mei [E2], Gallagher [E6]
• Cycles: 2 (3/3 Stars)

Physical or Ice are your best bets in the first half of Stage 10. You may remember that Clara was my only Physical DMG 5-Star character, as I mentioned in the previous MoC review, but that has changed since then with the arrival of Hysilens, so I went with my DoT team again — this time in the company of Huohuo. Had I not gotten Hysilens, a team around The Herta would have been my first choice, but characters such as Jingliu, Phainon, or Yunli are perfectly capable of winning.

We are clearly intended to go for a Break DMG team in the second half. Firefly was therefore my first choice, but the weaknesses line up for Boothill and Rappa as well. If you have Silver Wolf, a party with Xueyi as the Main DPS should be able to get three stars as well.

Pillar of Genesis – Stage 11

• Team 1: Kafka [E1], Hysilens, Black Swan, Huohuo
• Team 2: Castorice [E1], Trailblazer (Remembrance) [E6], Cipher, Lingsha
• Cycles: 4 (3/3 Stars)

You could opt for a Firefly team in the first half of Stage 11 as well, but my DoT composition had done a fantastic job thus far, so why switch out a winning team? With Physical Weakness being prevalent, Phainon is once again a fine option here — it definitely helps if you picked up him or Hysilens over the past couple of months.

Our old friend Nikador is almost a welcome sight, bringing some more variety into things. An Ice team around The Herta or Jingliu does the trick against the Titan of Strife, as do Quantum DMG parties around Castorice or Archer. I went with Castorice, since my Archer team feels very flimsy on higher MoC levels — plus, his single-target focus isn’t super helpful against Nikador’s special mechanic. On the plus side, he certainly amps up this MoC’s special damage mechanic, so it's a trade-off.

Pillar of Genesis – Stage 12

• Team 1: Kafka [E1], Hysilens, Black Swan, Lingsha
• Team 2: Saber [E2], Bronya [E6], Cipher, Huohuo
• Cycles: 6 (3/3 Stars)

I said Gepard would be back, didn’t I? And he’s a lot chonkier than before. I have to say, though, that my DoT team absolutely crushed it in the first half of Stage 12, chewing up Gepard’s HP bar at quite a rapid pace despite Huohuo once again being deputized away to the other team. I went with Lingsha instead of Gallagher this time, because Stage 12 enemies hit hard and Lingsha is a more comfy healer to bring, giving you a higher frequency of heals than Gallagher. Yes, Skill Point management was a lot more difficult, but everyone survived. Phainon is once again a good option here, as are Lightning DMG characters like Acheron and Aglaea.

Zandar is a bit of a tough one, as the Weakness Types of his minions are very different from his own — and they can be quite annoying. The Black Tide creatures especially do a nasty amount of damage. While you should consider the boss your main target, it’s best to bring a composition with wave-clearing capabilities to this battle, such as teams around Saber, The Herta, or – huge surprise – Phainon. RNG complicates this battle further: Zandar can refill the Energy of some of your characters, allowing you to use their Ultimate in return for a massive chunk of their HP. 

I got lucky more often than not, getting extra Ultimates from Huohuo or Saber to massively boost my damage output. Huohuo once again proved her worth in this battle, her passive healing coming in clutch several times and allowing me to make the most of Zandar’s Faustian bargains. I’d recommend bringing a healer as a sustain to this fight instead of a shielder, if you can — it’s much easier to use those cursed Ultimates this way.

That said, perhaps the free Dan Heng - Permansor Terrae from Version 3.6 can help you out once we get him in the upcoming update, since he'll help boost your Physical DMG output

If you have Silver Wolf, adding her to a Castorice Memosprite team might do the trick as well — the Memosprites will dilute the damage done to your team by soaking up some of it and Cas is a very happy girl with all the extra HP consumption from Zandar’s special mechanic.

As always with MoC, don’t pressure yourself to zero-cycle or any of that nonsense: Focus on the ten cycle goal to get those three stars and therefore grab the maximum possible rewards.