The third banner of 2.X has arrived for Honkai Star Rail, heralding the arrival of the Herrscher of Alzheimer’s. Aside from being the most woman I have ever seen (Jingliu if you see this no you didn’t), Acheron has one of the most unique play styles we have seen yet.
What does Acheron do?
First off, Acheron uses an energy system that isn’t really energy at all. She has a flower that gains petals every time an enemy gains a debuff, and you need nine petals in order to use her ultimate. Every time Acheron gains a stack towards her ultimate, the enemy gets a stack of crimson knot. Crimson Knot can stack up to nine times per enemy, and the goal is to stack as many as possible up before using her ultimate. Acheron’s ultimate has three targeted slashes and a finisher with an AOE that does enough damage to make you want to swipe.
Each of the three targeted slashes of Acheron’s ultimate can remove 3 stacks of crimson knot, and for every stack removed the slash does more damage. When an enemy carrying crimson knot is killed, their stacks are transferred to another enemy. One of Acheron’s major traces gives her a bonus 30% damage per knot removed up to 90% total damage bonus for three turns, and it also increases her finisher’s damage. On top of that, her ultimate can break ANY element in the game and she shreds enemy resistance until the ultimate ends.
The most important thing to remember when playing Acheron is that you need to get stacks as quickly as possible to maximize damage output. Acheron can get up to one petal per action that debuffs. Her skill gives her a slashed dream stack towards her ultimate, which can be doubled if you are using her signature lightcone. Not only that, but if you break enemies you can get a stack that way. Essentially, given the right team comp you can effectively nuke with Acheron faster than she made Black Swan spiral.
Acheron also gets multiplicative damage bonus across her kit if you run 2 Nihility characters, and the difference is massive.
Meanwhile, her technique lets her insta-kill enemies outside of combat with the exception of elite enemies. Don’t feel pressured to pull her for SU at the moment, though, since during the live stream they announced they had a plan to make SU faster as is.
For talent priority, focus on her ultimate, then skill, then talent.
How to Build Acheron
The true best in slot relic set for Acheron is the Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters set that gives damage bonus, crit rate, and crit damage against enemies with debuffs. As Acheron wants to take advantage of debuffed teams, these buffs are too good for her to pass up. She can also take advantage of the 4 piece Genius of Brilliant Stars set, though, especially against quantum weak enemies, where she can use the full 20% defense ignore. For planar sets, the new Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm set is your best option. Worst case scenario you can always throw on an old set of Inert Salsotto since most of her damage is from her ultimate.
Here are the stats you want:
Chest – Crit Rate/DMG
Boots – SPD/ATK%
Sphere – ATK%/Lightning DMG
Rope – ATK%
What’s her best Light Cone?
By far the biggest controversy surrounding Acheron is how strong her light cone is. This is the first time since Honkai Impact 3rd we’ve seen such a massive potential difference in damage.
Her signature Along the Passing Shore gives her some crit damage and damage bonuses, but also applies a debuff to enemies that allows Acheron to gain an extra stack towards her ultimate.
Other good light cone options for her are Incessant Rain and Patience is All You Need, but neither one comes close to what her signature can do. If you only have four star options, stick to Good Night and Sleep Well at S5, or In the Name of the World or Fermata. Fermata especially is a good option if you are using Black Swan with Acheron.
The short of it is, if you want Acheron competing with my wife Jingliu or DHIL then her signature light cone is a must pull. While she does decent damage without it, the difference with her light cone is truly night and day.
However, that does not mean that she is bad without it, as she can still clear all of the content in the game with a free-to-play setup.
Best teams for Acheron
Pela is one of Acheron’s best teammates for her ability to shred enemy defense and apply debuffs. She also can apply a debuff on her basic attack if you give her Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat.
Sparkle is a top tier pick for Acheron due to how many buffs she hands out as well as her action forward!
Black Swan allows you to create the ultimate yuri team featuring consistent debuffs from Black Swan, and a threatening aura from Acheron.
Silver Wolf is a top tier debuffer to pair with Acheron since every turn she applies a debuff, but Welt can also serve as another great pairing
To learn more about Acheron, check my full Acheron guide
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