Honkai Star Rail: Kafka Theorycrafting (Advanced Analysis)

Listen…

It’s well known that Kafka is the DoT damage dealer required to finally make a proper DoT team in Honkai: Star Rail. However, she’s not so simple to use, so players shouldn’t rush to get her before understanding her pros and cons (unless the reason for pulling is simply because of bias; in this case, go for it!).

RELATED:
Genshin Impact: Zhongli Build Guide

Kafka is a great DPS if players wish to play a DoT team, but unlike vanilla damage dealers like Seele and Blade, she’s far more limited in terms of team composition. This can put Trailblazers in a tough spot when the designed DoT team doesn’t work well against the enemy’s weakness.

Recommended Relic For Kafka In Honkai: Star Rail

Kafka’s playstyle revolves around triggering existing DoT while applying some of her own. Since DoT doesn’t Crit but still scales with DMG Bonus, players should use ATK/ATK/Lightning DMG Bonus/ATK. However, since her main feature is the ability to pop DoT on enemies, investing on SPD can also be beneficial as it allows her to use her Skill more often.

Space Sealing Station is the best option for Kafka since it increases ATK by 24%, but if players can’t fulfill the SPD requirement, Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise is a viable alternative. With Pan-Galactic, she needs at least a 50% Effect Hit Rate (EHR) to exceed the 12% buff from Space Sealing Station.

Here’s a comparison between the performance of ATK VS Crit on Body piece:

Weapon		Body Main Stat	Percentage %
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	ATK	114.49%
	Patience Is All You Need	ATK	114.31%
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	ATK	104.83%
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	Crit	104.12%
	Patience Is All You Need	Crit	102.54%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	ATK	100.00%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	ATK	95.17%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	Crit	91.32%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	Crit	87.06%

Recommended Light Cone For Kafka In Honkai: Star Rail

The best-in-slot weapon for Kafka in Honkai: Star Rail is Patience Is All You Need. However, this Light Cone at S1 can be outperformed by Good Night And Sleep Well at maximum Superimposition, which is great news for non-spending players. Welt’s Standard Light Cone, In The Name Of The World, is also viable for its universal DMG boost and situational ATK boost.

If players are unlucky with Good Night And Sleep Well gacha, Eyes Of The Prey is a great alternative. This weapon comes toe-to-toe with Fermata on the same Superimposition level, so it’s best to opt for Fermata over Eyes Of The Prey if the former is more Superimposed. On the lower end of Kafka’s best Light Cone, there’s the Silver Wolf weapon, Incessant Rain, and the 3-star equipment Hidden Shadow. Due to its low performance and mediocre passive, Hidden Shadow should only be used by beginner Trailblazers.

Here’s a comparison of Kafka’s DPS with different Light Cones:

Weapon		Body Main Stat	Percentage %
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	ATK	114.49%
	Patience Is All You Need	ATK	114.31%
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	ATK	104.83%
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	Crit	104.12%
	Patience Is All You Need	Crit	102.54%
	In the Name of the World	ATK	101.74%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	ATK	100.00%
	S5 Eyes of the Prey	ATK	98.42%
	S5 Fermata	ATK	98.39%
	S5 Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	Crit	95.59%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	ATK	95.17%
	We Will Meet Again	ATK	93.89%
	In the Name of the World	Crit	93.13%
	Eyes of the Prey	ATK	91.97%
	Fermata	ATK	91.95%
	Incessant Rain	ATK	91.72%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (Max Stacks)	Crit	91.32%
	S5 Fermata	Crit	89.90%
	S5 Eyes of the Prey	Crit	88.72%
	Good Night and Sleep Well (2 Stacks)	Crit	87.06%
	We Will Meet Again	Crit	86.95%
	Incessant Rain	Crit	84.72%
	Fermata	Crit	84.21%
	Eyes of the Prey	Crit	83.62%
	S5 Hidden Shadow	ATK	81.26%
	S5 Hidden Shadow	Crit	75.52%

Kafka’s Pros & Cons In Honkai: Star Rail

Kafka has the potential to deal massive damage in Honkai: Star Rail with her DoT-triggering Skill which works wonders in both single and multi-target cases. Unfortunately, this talent comes with a few flaws, such as:

1. Kafka’s own DoT can only be applied from her Talent and Ultimate (and Technique at the start of the combat).
2. As her gameplay revolves around triggering her teammate’s DoT, playing on auto-battle may mess up the pattern and lead to wasted moves.
3. The DoT-triggering effect comes from Skill and Ultimate so she demands a lot of Skill Points.
4. Since Kafka’s main idea is to trigger DoT on enemies, her team should consist of at least one other DoTer. If she’s the only DoT unit, her damage will be underwhelming and can’t fare with typical DPS like Blade or Jing Yuan.
5. Crit and one-turn buffer like Bronya isn’t as useful as plain ATK buffer like Tingyun.

How To Play Kafka In Honkai: Star Rail

Talent

• Energy Regeneration: 10
• Weakness Break: 30
• Range: Single target
• Once per turn, when an ally uses Basic ATK on an enemy, immediately launch a follow-up attack, dealing Lightning DMG to the target and applying a Shock equivalent to the one applied by her Ultimate for 2 turns.

Players can apply Shock from Kafka’s Technique, Talent, or Ultimate. Note that the debuff applied is the same, so the DoT given by her Talent and Ultimate will not co-exist on the same enemy and will instead replace each other.

Since getting Ultimate is not so easy, players should try to trigger this Talent at least once per turn so that surrounding enemies will always be inflicted with DoT.

Basic Attack

• Energy Regeneration: 20
• Weakness Break: 30
• Deals Lightning DMG to an enemy.

Skill

• Energy Regeneration: 30
• Weakness Break: 60 (main target) and 30 (adjacent target)
• Range: One main target and the enemies adjacent to it
• Deals Lightning DMG where the adjacent enemies receive lower damage than the main target. If the target has DoT on them, immediately deals damage by a percentage of the original DoT (this doesn’t consume the DoT itself).

Kafka’s Skill is how she deals most of her damage. After the rest of the team applies DoT, players can now trigger everything at once with Kafka’s Skill. The DMG dealt will be less than the original DMG (up to around 75%), but if the others are built for DoT, then players can be certain that the numbers will be astounding.

Ultimate

• Energy Regeneration: 5
• Weakness Break: 60
• Energy Required: 120
• Range: All enemies
• Deals Lightning DMG to all enemies and applies Shock to them for 2 turns. Afterward, trigger all DoT on the enemies by up to 100% of their original DMG.

Kafka can apply DoT via her Talent, but the multiplier itself exists in her Ultimate. Similar to the Skill, she will also trigger all DoT on the enemies, but with a higher percentage.

Does Kafka Need Effect Hit Rate Relic In Honkai: Star Rail?

All of Kafka’s DoT has a 100% base chance, so she doesn’t need an Effect Hit Rate Relic. Even with a 20% Effect Hit Rate, she already has a 72% Hit Rate against an enemy with 40% RES.

Once her A6 Talent is unlocked, the base chance for her debuffs increases by 30%. With a 130% base chance, Kafka practically doesn’t need any additional Effect Hit Rate. Remember that she’ll get 18% EHR from Traces too.

Kafka Trace Priority In Honkai: Star Rail

Since her DoT uses her Ultimate for its damage multiplier, the main priority for Kafka Trace in Honkai: Star Rail is Ultimate > Skill > Talent > Basic Attack.

Here’s a comparison between the DPS increase from level 8 to level 9 on each Trace:

Kafka Team Composition In Honkai: Star Rail

Kafka’s team composition in Honkai: Star Rail can consist of either two DoT units and one healer; one DoT character, one buffer/debuffer, and one healer; or two DoT and one buffer/debuffer with no healer.

DoT Enabler

When building a Kafka team, players must include an additional DoT unit in the party. Otherwise, her damage would be underwhelming. Here are the pro and cons of each character:

• Hook: Has decent survivability and can work against single or multi-target, but DoT damage is on the lower side.
• Sampo: Wind Shear can last up to 4 turns, Ultimate can give a debuff that increases DoT damage, and Skill can be excellent for Toughness breaking against a single target. However, in AoE case, Skill cast is quite dependent on RNG. Additionally, Sampo has a low base hit chance, so he needs Effect Hit Rate to apply his DoT.
• Luka: Bleed debuff has a large damage potential, and Luka is an excellent debuffer against bosses. His Ultimate can also increase DMG taken by the enemy, and Skill can remove one buff from the target. However, Luka is bad in AoE scenarios as his hits are concentrated on a single target.
• Serval: Amazing DoT and Erudiiton character, but since she’s a Lightning like Kafka, it may not be efficient against bosses that demand other Elements.

Buff/Debuff Support

• Asta
• Tingyun
• Yukong
• Bronya
• Pela
• Silver Wolf

Players can play Kafka with either ATK support or DEF debuffer. DoT damage is affected by DEF, so Pela and Silver Wolf are both great to increase DoT. Pela is better for the AoE scenario, while Silver Wolf is amazing in single-target cases.

Next, it’s also important to know that DoT is dynamic. This means the damage it deals will follow the stat that the character has when it triggers. This makes an ATK buffer that lasts for several turns more valuable than a one-turn DMG buffer like Bronya. However, one advantage of Bronya is that, with proper SPD tuning, she can give your Kafka a turn immediately after hers ended. This will allow Kafka to trigger the DoT on enemies twice in a row, and eventually regain her Ultimate faster. Just keep in mind that both Bronya and Kafka demand a ton of Skill Points, so it may be tough to run both at the same time.

Therefore, players can either:

• Use Tingyun to nicely enhance one character
• Use Asta to support the entire team with ATK and SPD buff and minor Burn to the enemy
• Strategically use Yukong in a way that her massive ATK buff is available when DoT triggers
• SPD tune Bronya so her turn comes right after Kafka

Healer

• Luocha
• Bailu
• Natasha

Finally, if players are unable to survive without a healer, then bringing an Abundance character is highly recommended.

Kafka Eidolon In Honkai Star Rail

Most of Kafka’s Eidolons in Honkai: Star Rail are worth getting, but the best lies in her E1, E2, and E6. Her E1 can greatly increase DoT DMG taken by the target by simply triggering her Talent. With her E2, she basically gives a free 25% DoT DMG bonus to her party by simply being on the field. Meanwhile, E6 offers no utility, but it grants large damage addition to Kafka’s personal Shock DMG from her Ultimate, Technique, and Talent.

This is how much damage increase players can expect from each Eidolon.

Note: E2% includes the bonus from E1, and E6 includes the bonus from E1 and E2. E3 to E5 are not considered in the E6 calculation.

MORE
Genshin Impact: Xiangling Build Guide