Tides Of War Complete Event Guide In Honkai Star Rail

Here is a complete guide for the Tides of War event in Honkai Star Rail, from the best team compositions to the best buffs to pick, and more.

Tides Of War Complete Event Guide

First off, let's start with the event duration. Players can play the Tides of War event in Honkai Star Rail until May 6, 2024, at 3:59 AM server time. Sadly, unlike Vignettes in a Cup, this event is not permanent. As such, players must complete the event and get its rewards before the event ends.

Now, let's dive deeper into our guide for Tides of War in Honkai Star Rail

Tides of War Event Basics

During the event, players will face off against waves of enemies, accumulating Grit Value, which in turn increases the Grit Phase. Each stage also has a mechanics that, when met, will reward the player with Grit Value. This allows the player to reach higher levels of the Grit Phase.

Players can reach up to Grit Phase 4, which will provide powerful buffs to the player. Additionally, the player will also be able to set what buffs they can get during Grit Phases 2 and 3. This allows the player to complement the team that they want to bring during each event stage.

The event also provides players with five Trial Characters, which they can use to supplement their owned characters. This also opens up new team compositions for the player to try. If the player has better versions of the Trial characters, feel free to use them.

To get all the rewards from a specific stage, the player must enter Grit Phase 4 one time, as well as defeat the stage's three bosses. Completing all of the objectives for a stage gives the player the following rewards:

40 Stellar Jades
6 Traveler's Guide
3 Refined Aether
3 Lost Crystal
30 Relic Remains
50,000 Credits

Additionally, beating the first boss for all six stages will reward the player with a Tracks of Destiny.

Now, let's dive into each stage in the Tides of War Honkai Star Rail Event, and the guide for their possible team compositions. For this guide, we will focus on teams made from the available Trial Characters.

Trotter Effect Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: Defeat a Trotter to accumulate a large amount of Grit Value

Using only the Trial characters, players can go for either an Acheron Carry Team, a Black Swan-Kafka DoT team, or a mix of both. Here are the possible team compositions, as well as what Grit Phase Bonuses to get.

Acheron Carry Team

For this team, use Acheron, Black Swan, Pela, and Gallagher. Select Fear Vulnerability and Final Blow for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. This will help Acheron use her Ultimate more often.

Black Swan-Kafka DoT Team

For this team, use Black Swan, Kafka, Pela, and Gallagher. Select Enduring Effect and War of Attrition for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. This will increase the damage of the stacking DoTs from Black Swan and Kafka.

Mixed Team

For this team, use Acheron, Black Swan, Kafka, and Gallagher. Select Enduring Effect and War of Attrition for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. The DoTs from Kafka and Black Swan will help charge Acheron's Ultimate, while also providing a source of damage to take enemies down easily.

For all three of these teams, make sure to use Acheron's Skill as much as possible, and focus all attacks on the boss. Acheron's Ultimate can easily take care of Trotters, so there's no need to try and take them down specifically.

Perilous Threshold Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: Each time an ally's current HP is increased or decreased, accumulate Grit Value

Using only the Trial Characters, the best team for this stage is a Blade-Jingliu combo team

Blade-Jingliu Team

For this team, use Blade, Jingliu, Bronya, and Luocha. Select Desperate Counter and Struggle Booster for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. Players can also bring Equivalent Exchange if they want to deal more damage, but this is slightly more risky.

Blade and Jingliu synergize with each other thanks to Jingliu's empowered Normal Attacks dealing damage to the entire team. This means that Blade's follow-up attack will happen more often, quickly dealing a lot of damage to the enemy team.

Focus on the enemy boss, and mostly use Bronya's skill on Jingliu as all of the bosses are weak to Ice.

Supreme Leader Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: When the ally positioned first in the Team Setup successfully uses their Ultimate, you accumulate a large amount of Grit Value.

Using only the Trial characters, the best team for this stage is mostly the same, differing only on who the Main Carry is.

Dan Heng – Imbibitor Lunae Team

For this team, use Dan Heng – Imbibitor Lunae, Sparkle, Tingyun, and Huohuo. Select Shared Hatred and Hone Your Strength For Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. Alternatively, the player can also select Determined Attack for Grit Phase 3.

Any of the 3 supports can be placed in position 2 for the effects of Shared Hatred, but Sparkle is a good candidate for it as you will be using her Skill more often and her Ultimate only costs 110 Energy, which will charge her Ultimate faster.

Once you reach Grit Phase 3, remember to alternate between using Dan Heng – Imbibitor Lunae's Ultimate, and the Ultimate of whoever is in Position 2. That way, you can theoretically use Dan Heng – Imbibitor Lunae's Ultimate twice in a row.

Finally, use Tingyun and Huohuo's Ultimates to Charge up the team. Don't be scared of using Tingyun to charge up the Ultimate of the character in Position 2, as that will, in turn, charge Dan Heng – Imbibitor Lunae's Ultimate.

Argenti Team

For this team, use Argenti, Sparkle, Tingyun, and Huohuo. Select Shared Hatred and Hone Your Strength For Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. Alternatively, the player can also select Determined Attack for Grit Phase 3.

Similar to the above team, remember to alternate between Argenti's Ultimate and the Ultimate of whoever is in Position 2. Also, don't be afraid of using Tingyun and Huohuo's Ultimate to charge up the Ultimate of whoever is in Position 2.

Weakness Assault Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: Break your enemy's Weakness or attack Weakness Broken enemies to accumulate Grit Value.

Using only the Trial Characters, the best team for this stage is a Himeko-Xueyi combo team.

Himeko-Xueyi Team

For this team, use Himeko, Xueyi, Ruan Mei, and Lynx. Select Expose Weakness and Shattershield for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. Alternatively, players can also bring Pursuer for Grit Phase 3 instead of Shattershield. This is because Shattershield's 3x damage is based on chance, whereas Pursuer's bonus 80% damage is constant.

Each wave consists of a large enemy, a boss, and a mob enemy. The strategy for each wave is to constantly Weakness Break and defeat the smaller enemy to remove the Weakness Protection that the Wave 1 and Wave 3 bosses have. Once Weakness Protection is removed, work towards reducing the wave boss's Toughness.

When the boss's Toughness is about to be depleted, use either Xueyi or Lynx to break the enemy's Toughness. Ideally, use Xueyi's Ultimate. In doing so, you apply Quantum Weakness Break on the boss. Continue to attack the boss to increase the damage they take once it's their turn again.

Use Ruan Mei's Ultimate to your advantage to keep the boss from recovering from its Weakness Break too early.

Overflowing Wounds Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: Accumulates a large amount of Grit Value whenever you defeat an enemy and deals Overflow DMG.

Using only the Trial Characters, the best team for this stage is either a Jing Yuan Carry team, or a Seele Carry team.

Jing Yuan Carry Team

For this team, use Jing Yuan, Tingyun, Sparkle, and Fu Xuan. Select Mass Overwound and Victory Rush for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively. Final Blow can also be used, however the total overall damage output may be lower.

The key for this team is to kill as many targets as possible at the same time. For the first two phases, players should whittle down the HP of the two mob enemies, then use Jing Yuan's AoE Skill and Ultimate, as well as Fu Xuan's Ultimate to maximize the Overflow DMG.

When Grit Phase 4 kicks in, prioritize maximizing the amount of turns that Jing Yuan has. If they player has Bronya, they can opt to bring her instead of Tingyun so that Jing Yuan can keep using his Skill and constantly empower his follow-up attack.

Seele Carry Team

For this team, bring Seele, Tingyun, Sparkle, and Fu Xuan. Select Solitary Overwound and Final Blow for Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3 respectively.

The key for this team is for Seele to constantly be taking down mob enemies. Take advantage of her extra turns to take down low-health mob enemies. Take advantage of Sparkle's Ultimate (thanks to her Light Cone) and Skill to keep advancing Seele's action forward.

Only use Fu Xuan's ultimate to whittle down the HP of enemies in Grit Phase 2 and Grit Phase 3. When Grit Phase 4 Activates, switch instead to doing single-target attack attacks, since taking down multiple enemies does not activate Solitary Overwound.

Acheron Carry Team

Although the above teams were made with only the Trial Characters in mind, it is no surprise that Acheron is the best character to use for this stage. If the player has their own built Acheron, it will be better to bring her instead of the Trial characters.

Bring the usual Acheron team to this fight. If at E0, a team consisting of Acheron, Pela, another Nihility (Welt is a good option), and a Sustatin will work. If at E2, on the other hand, bring Acheron, Pela, a Support (Sparkle or Bronya would work), and a Sustain.

Prioritize getting Acheron's ult as quickly as possible, building up the Crimson Knot stacks on the boss. Once it hits full, use Acheron's Ultimate to deal a lot of Overflow Damage to the boss alongside her Ultimate's damage. Repeat this in every stage.

Use AoE Skills and Ultimates to whittle down the HP of the mob enemies, but make sure to always kill multiple of them at the same time.

Perpetual Exploit Event Stage Guide

Special Grit Mechanic: Accumulate a large amount of Grit Value after allies perform consecutive actions

Using only the Trial Characters, the best team for this stage is a Dr. Ratio – Topaz Team.

Dr. Ratio – Topaz Team

For this team, use Dr. Ratio, Topaz, Hanya, and Aventurine. Select Chain Motivation for Grit Phase 2, and either Master Exploder or Chain Amplification for Grit Phase 3. Either buff works, but we will dive into how to maximize each buff.

Since the first two enemies are weak to Imaginary, Dr. Ratio will be doing most of the damage. Prioritize using his Skill as much as possible to deal damage through consecutive actions. Topaz's job in the first two bosses is to help break the boss's Toughness, which will help Dr. Ratio activate his follow-up attacks thanks to the debuff.

Hanya's job in this team is to make sure the team has enough Skill Points using her Skill. As for Aventurine, he will be the team's source of Shields, as well as quite a bit of damage thanks to his follow-up attack.

If the player decides to use Master Exploder for their Grit Phase 3 buff, most of their damage will come from stacking the boss's Detonate stacks. Use follow-up attacks to easily increase the stacks. Dr. Ratio's Ultimate and Numby will help a lot here.

If, instead, the player uses Chain Amplification, most of the burst damage will occur whenever the player enters Grit Phase 4. Since characters will be able to act consecutively thanks to the Galefury stacks from Grit Phase 4, players can quickly increase the amount of hits a character does with their attacks and follow-up attacks.

Use Hanya and Aventurine's turn to generate shields and Skill Points for Dr. Ratio and Topaz. Once it's Topaz's turn, alternate between using your Skill and Normal Attack. Then, once it's Dr. Ratio's turn, spam his Skill to deal a whole lot of damage.

That's all for our guide on the Tides of War event in Honkai Star Rail so far. As of this article, all of the Tides of War event stages will have become available in Honkai Star Rail.

Again, the Tides of War event will be available in Honkai Star Rail until May 6, 2024. Players must make sure to finish the event before then. Honkai Star Rail is currently available on iOS, Android, PlayStation 5, and PC via the Epic Games Store or from the Official Website.

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