Best Honkai Star Rail Kafka build: Relics, Light Cones & more
Honkai Star Rail Kafka is a powerhouse Nihility character who deals out big lightning damage and helps to trigger any damage over time effects enemies are suffering from.
She brings a new team build to the turn-based RPG that allows players to get a bit more use out of a mechanic that has, so far, been a little too niche to be strong enough to take on the end-game content.
Not anymore though, so let's dive into what she does in this best Honkai Star Rail Kafka build guide.
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Honkai Star Rail Kafka abilities
Click to enlargeKafka's normal attacks deal damage, as is the way. Her skill is where things start to get interesting, as it'll not only deal damage to an enemy, but also the enemies around them, and it'll trigger any damage over time effects those enemies are currently suffering from.
It's a powerful way to cause a lot of damage at once, as long as you build your team right.
Her ultimate hits every enemy, causes them to become Shocked, and then also deals damage equal to the damage over time.
Finally, her talent allows her to launch follow-up attacks that also cause enemies to take increased damage from damage over time effects.
She's very focused on not only triggering damage over time, but also causing it too.
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Honkai Star Rail Kafka light cones
Click to enlargeKafka's best Light Cone is her signature one; Patience is All You Need. This light cone boosts her damage, increases her speed, and causes additional damage over time damage as well.
It's a clear frontrunner, but if you're not willing to pull for that, then you can go for In the Name of the World, which boosts damage to rebuffed enemies and increases attack and Effect Hit Rate.
In terms of four-star options, Eyes of the Prey boosts Effect Hit Rate and damage over time as well, making it an excellent choice.
You can also go for Fermata if you want, which increases Break Effect and causes enemies with either Shock or Windshear to take more damage.
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Honkai Star Rail Kafka relics
Click to enlargeThere's currently no dedicated damage over time relic sets, which means that, while Kafka has some good options, there's no clear frontrunner.
As such, we recommend either going for Band of Sizzling Thunder, which can boost your lightning damage and your ATK when you use your skill, or the Musketeer of Wild Wheat, which grants an ATK and SPD boost.
You can also use the new Messenger Traversing Hackerspace set as a two-piece option to boost her speed if you want. Mixing and matching two pieces from among these sets should also do the trick.
Stat-wise, you're going to want a lot of ATK, as that's what boosts damage over time procs, along with her actual attacks.
It's worth noting that DoT effects can't currently crit, which means that crit rate and crit damage, while good for her own attack damage, isn't as essential as normal.
Because of this, we recommend seeking out relics with Effect Hit Rate, ATK, and SPD mainly.
In terms of the Planar Ornaments, Space Sealing Station upgrades ATK by a fair bit, making it your best choice here. Go for lighting damage on the Planar Sphere, and ATK on the Link Rope for maximum damage output.
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Honkai Star Rail Kafka teams
With Kafka being all about damage over time abilities, you're going to want to pair her with other units that care about that.
The only characters that do that as part of their kit at the moment are Sampo, Serval, and the brand-new Luka, so you'll want two of those at least. We recommend Sampo and Luka, just to keep things varied.
Outside of that, you're going to need a defensive option. You can go for a healer if you'd like, someone like Luocha is going to help you stay alive with ease, and the same is true of Bailu.
However, if you've got a good shielder, whether that's Gepard or the Fire MC, you can actually lean into the damage over time thing a bit more using the Trend of the Universal Market light cone, which lets Preservation units apply burn when they're attacked.
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