Pure Fiction Guide in Honkai Star Rail: F2P Tips for Success

Pure Fiction Guide in Honkai Star Rail: F2P Tips for Success
Last updated:
January 9, 2024

Honkai Star Rail recently released new endgame content, called Pure Fiction, that offers a challenging yet rewarding experience.

This guide provides valuable tips for players, especially free-to-play (F2P), to excel in this mode.

Let's dive in!

A Comprehensive Pure Fiction Guide for Honkai Star Rail: F2P Tips for Success

Understanding Pure Fiction

in game pure fiction mode overview in honkai star rail

Key Features of Pure Fiction

Scoring Mechanism

The core of Pure Fiction revolves around scoring points, primarily determined by the amount of damage dealt and the number of enemies hit.

The more damage you inflict and the more enemies you defeat, the higher your score will be.

Strategic Aspects of Pure Fiction

Since the scoring is heavily reliant on damage, it’s advantageous to prioritize DPS characters over those providing sustain or defense.

You shouldn’t be afraid to restart a run if it's not going well, as there's no penalty for doing so, and it allows for experimenting with different strategies.

Leverage Ice, Physical, Fire and Lightning Damage

in game combat types ice and physical details in honkai star rail

Importance of Ice, Physical, Fire and Lightning Damage

Enemy Weaknesses

A majority of enemies in Pure Fiction exhibit vulnerabilities to these 4 elements. Exploiting these weaknesses is key to dealing maximum damage and earning higher scores.

Understanding which enemies are vulnerable to which damage types allows for more strategic and effective combat.

Character Selection

Pick characters in your roster who specialize in these damage elements.

Their abilities will be more effective against the common enemy types in this mode.

Characters like Argenti, Himeko, Jing Yuan, Serval or Herta are particularly valuable.

Maximizing Damage Output

Align your character builds and team composition to enhance ice, physical, fire and lightning damage output.

Focus on relics, light cones, and Eidolons that boost these damage types. Prioritize the use of skills and ultimates that exploit these vulnerabilities.

Coordinating your team's attacks to target enemy weaknesses can lead to quick and efficient wave clearances.

Focus on More DPS, Less Sustain

in game team setup for pure fiction mode in honkai star rail

Scoring Based on Damage

Pure Fiction rewards players based on the damage dealt. Higher DPS translates to higher scores.

Maximizing your team's damage output is more beneficial than focusing on sustain or defensive strategies.

Rapid Enemy Clearing

High DPS allows for quick elimination of waves of enemies, which is essential for gathering points efficiently.

The faster you can defeat enemies, the less you need to worry about sustaining your team’s health over time.

Reduced Need for Sustain

With a high-DPS team, many enemy waves can be cleared so rapidly that the need for healing or prolonged sustain becomes minimal.

Building a High-DPS Team

Choose characters known for their high damage output. Prioritize those with strong AoE or burst damage capabilities.

Equip your characters with relics and light cones that enhance DPS. Look for attributes that boost attack power, critical rate, and damage.

Target the Mobs for Higher Scores

in game combat with argenti in pure fiction mode in honkai star rail

Importance of Focusing on Mobs

Each mob defeated contributes to your overall score. More mobs mean more opportunities to rack up points.

By targeting additional enemies, you can efficiently increase your score, especially since new mobs keep spawning, providing a continuous source of points.

In many instances, defeating mobs triggers chain reactions that can damage other enemies, including the boss. This multi-target damage not only clears waves faster but also adds to your score.

Focusing on mobs can indirectly weaken the boss, making the final takedown quicker and more efficient.

Effective Mob Management Strategies

AoE and Splash Damage

Use characters and abilities that offer area-of-effect (AoE) or splash damage.

This ensures that you can hit multiple mobs with single attacks, maximizing damage output and scoring.

Prioritize Mobs Over Boss

In certain waves, it might be tempting to focus on the boss, but prioritizing mobs can lead to a higher overall score, as well as incidental damage to the boss through chain reactions.

Use the Right Buffs

in game pure fiction mode buff effects details in honkai star rail

Key Buffs in Pure Fiction

Excitation Buff

Provides a chance for enemies to receive a stack of shatter upon entering battle.

This buff can trigger chain reactions, particularly effective against groups of enemies or mobs, leading to rapid wave clearances and higher scores.

Rupture Buff

When shatter targets are defeated, it increases the ultimate damage for all allies in that battle.

Works well in conjunction with Excitation and Erupt, especially if your team composition includes characters with powerful ultimate attacks.

Ideal for teams that rely on ultimates for wave clearing and dealing substantial damage to bosses.

Optimizing Your Speed

Waves in Pure Fiction don't work like MoC and other endgame content. New waves don't reset the cycle, meaning you only get one bonus action from 134 speed per cycle instead of two for MoC.

You should optimize speed around one of the action break points for 5 cycle (or 550 action units):

  • 91 Speed - 5 actions total
  • 110 Speed - 6 actions total
  • 128 Speed - 7 actions total
  • 146 Speed - 8 actions total
  • 164 Speed - 9 actions total
  • 182 Speed - 10 actions total
  • 201 Speed - 11 actions total

Some speed breakpoints are hard to achieve without optimal relic stats, that's why characters like Asta are extremely valuable in Pure Fiction.

Conclusion

Success in Pure Fiction relies on understanding the mode's mechanics and optimizing your team composition accordingly.

By focusing on high damage output, targeting mobs, and using buffs strategically, you can achieve higher scores and excel in this endgame content.

These tips, especially valuable for F2P players, can help in navigating Pure Fiction effectively, making the most of the characters and resources available.