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Pure Fiction is one of Honkai Star Rail’s multiple endgame challenges. As opposed to the Swarm Disaster or Memory of Chaos modes, Pure Fiction is a different challenge that tests your team’s AoE damage (damage that can hit multiple units.) To complete Pure Fiction and earn all the possible rewards, you’ll need to form two squads of characters that can reliably deal AoE damage. Here’s how to beat Pure Fiction in Honkai Star Rail.
Honkai Star Rail Pure Fiction Guide
Pure Fiction rotates each month with new enemies, challenges, and buffs. Each stage in Pure Fiction features two fights against waves of enemies, typically consisting of three to four weaker enemies and one elite enemy per wave. Defeat as many enemies as possible within four cycles to earn points. The more points you earn, the better the rewards.
Each Pure Fiction rotation features a different “Whimsicality Effect,” a buff that can greatly empower your team if you play around it. For Deceitful Chaos, the buff is as follows: “When allies use their Ultimate to attack an enemy target, inflicts the target with Shatter, stacking up to 6 time(s). At the start of the target’s turn or when the target is defeated, deals a set amount of DMG to the target and adjacent targets based on the number of Shatter stacks.”
Choosing a Cacophony Buff
In addition to the “Whimsicality Effect,” Pure Fiction provides both of your teams an additional “Cacophony Buff.” This is a second buff that stacks with the Whimsicality Effect. Each Pure Fiction rotation has three buffs you can choose from. We recommend the Inducement buff, as this increases the amount of Shatter the enemies receive which better increases your damage.
Recommended Characters
| First Half Recommended Characters | Second Half Recommended Characters |
| Jingliu: Jingliu is the premier Ice DPS character and is perfect for the first half, as she has great AoE damage and can break plenty of Ice weaknesses. | Acheron: Acheron is a new Electric DPS character. Acheron is perfect for this half of Pure Fiction, which comprises multiple Electric-weak enemies. |
| Ruan Mei: Ruan Mei is an Ice Harmony character who is the recommended buffer in this half. She can help your characters Weakness Break enemies faster and contribute herself as an Ice character. | Jing Yuan: Jing Yuan is another Electric DPS character and is of the Erudition path, meaning he specializes in AoE damage. He’s a great alternative to Acheron. |
| Argenti: Argent is the premier Physical DPS Erudition character. As this half features enemies weak to Physical, he is highly recommended as he’s designed to clear waves of multiple enemies. | Black Swan: Black Swan is a Wind DPS character and can also dish out some high AoE damage. This half features Wind-weak enemies, so Black Swan is a good character to bring here. |
| Clara + Herta: This DPS duo is a decent pair for this half. While Herta loses some effectiveness due to higher HP enemies, she’s still adequate when paired with Clara as a sub-DPS. | Blade: Blade is another Wind DPS character. He’s a bit weaker than other options as he only deals Blast damage, but when paired with proper supports such as Sparkle and Bronya, he can dish out adequate damage. |
Honkai Star Rail Pure Fiction Tips
Taking advantage of the Shatter buff will be important for success in this Pure Fiction rotation. This rotation in particular features higher HP enemies compared to past rotations. This is important if you are used to running lower-damage AoE teams, such as a Herta + Himeko combination. With Ice-weak enemies, you can even consider running a sustainless team. In other words, you can run a team without a healer or Preservation unit to maximize your damage if possible.
For strategies to maximize your Shatter damage, you can also consider bringing characters like Tingyun and Huohuo, as these characters can battery your characters and allow them to use more Ultimates. Picking characters who can use their Ultimates frequently helps as well. Acheron, for instance, can use her Ultimate a lot when paired with multiple Nihility characters or debuffers in general.
To gain the most rewards, you’ll need 60,000 points in total. Therefore, you should shoot for at least 30,000 points on each half. Clearing all of Pure Fiction can earn you a total of 720 Stellar Jades, so it’s highly recommended to have proper AoE teams to earn all the rewards possible.
