Black Swan (Wind, Nihility) is the first new limited 5* character released in the 2.0 update, and I can say she certainly lives up to the hype built up prior to her release. She boasts a practically permanent hard-hitting DoT (Damage over Time) that has the unique ability to gain stacks, each increasing the damage as well as granting special effects upon certain numbers of stacks.

On top of her high personal damage, she holds the ability to reduce enemies' DEF (Defense) as well, just from her Skill! Don't even get me started on her ULT (Ultimate), increasing ALL enemies' damage taken. Because of this, she has quite a few playstyles which we'll dive into here, from Support-oriented all the way to Main DPS. I'll be talking about the builds, team compositions and general tips of each playstyle in detail.

Buckle up your seatbelts, this will be a loooonnggg ride/read. Don't worry though, there will be a few summary pictures for those who don't have the time to read.

Before we start... Should you pull for her?

I assume anyone reading this has her already, but if not, long story short, personally, I would, (and have,) but only if her niche fits you. She fills the gap in our current character range of being our first "true" DoT DPS and not a detonator. However, optimally, she would want to be paired with another DoT character, as you'll see later that her kit (and BiS relics) do quite depend on having other DoTs applied.

Kit General Overview

Talent - Loom of Fate's Caprice

"the bread and butter"

Each time an enemy takes damage from DoT at the start of its turn, there is a 50%-65% (68% at E3) base chance for it to be inflicted with one stack of Arcana. Enemies with Arcana receive Wind DoT equal to 96%-240% (264% at E3) of her attack at the start of each turn. Arcana is stackable, and each stack increases the damage multiplier by 4.8%-12.0% (13.2% at E3). Stacks reset at the start of an enemy's turn.

When Arcana stacks reach 3 on an enemy, deals Wind DoT equal to 72%-180% (198% at E3) of her attack to adjacent enemies, with a 50%-65% (68% at E3) base chance to inflict 1 stack of Arcana on them.

When Arcana stacks reach 7, allows the current DoT dealt this time to ignore 20% of all targets' DEF.

These effects only trigger at the start of an enemy's turn.

Arcana is considered as Wind Shear.

Here's the full nitty-gritty numbers:

All level values. Lots of info here

Basic ATK - Percipience, Silent Dawn

Single Target

"finally, not just some old boring basic attack!"

Deals Wind damage equal to 30%-60% (66% at E5) of her attack to one enemy, with a 50%-65% (68% at E5) base chance to add 1 stack of Arcana to the target.

If attacking an enemy afflicted with Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn or Shock, each have a 50%-65% (68% at E5) base chance to add an extra stack of Arcana.

Here's the full nitty-gritty numbers:

All level values + Max potential Arcana stacks

Skill - Decadence, False Twilight

Blast

"DEF reduction on 3 enemies with just a Skill???"

Deals Wind damage equal to 45%-90% (99% at E3) of her attack to one enemy and any adjacent targets with a 100% base chance to add 1 stack of Arcana to all damaged enemies, and has a 100% base chance of reducing their DEF by 14.8%-20.8% (22.0% at E3).

(Requires Bonus Trace Viscera's Disquiet): If attacking a single target enemy afflicted with Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn or Shock, each have a 65% base chance to add an extra stack of Arcana.

Here's the full nitty-gritty numbers:

All level values + Max potential Arcana stacks (Single enemy)

Ultimate - Bliss of Otherworld's Embrace

AoE

"huge DoT support & no Arcana reset!!"

Deals Wind damage equal to 72%-120% (129% at E5) of her attack to all enemies and inflicts Epiphany on them. While afflicted with Epiphany, enemies take 15%-25% (27% at E5) increased damage during their turn, essentially buffing start-of-turn DoT damage.

When afflicted with Epiphany & Arcana, enemies are considered to be simultaneously afflicted with Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn and Shock, which means other units such as Luka can trigger Arcana with his enhanced Basic ATK, as it detonates all Bleed effects. On top of this, her Basic ATK & Skill (with bonus Trace 1) will be able to inflict extra Arcana stacks, although it cannot stack with the actual DoTs.

If that wasn't enough, when Arcana causes damage at the start of an enemy's turn and the enemy has Epiphany, Arcana stacks will not be reset. This can be triggered once per Epiphany application.

Here's the full nitty-gritty numbers:

All level values

Technique - From Facade to Verite

Enhance

"who needs Aventurine to gamble?"

When used, there is a 150% base chance for each enemy to be inflicted with a stack of Arcana at the start of the next battle. Each successful application halves the chance of applying an extra stack of Arcana. This repeats until the Arcana application fails.

The chances up to the 6th try:

It's very unlikely that you'll get past the 6th application, but congrats if you do

Upgrades

Ascensions

Ascension Materials & Base ATK for your calculations

Eidolons

• Eidolon 1; Seven Pillars of Wisdom allows her to reduce enemies' Type RES (RESistance) by 25% to Wind, Physical, Fire and Lightning as long as they are afflicted with their respective DoT. (i.e. Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn and Shock)
• Eidolon 2; Weep Not For Me, My Lamb gives a 100% base chance to inflict 6 stacks of Arcana on adjacent targets after defeating an enemy afflicted with Arcana.
• Eidolon 3; As Above, So Below upgrades her Skill and Talent by 2 levels.
• Eidolon 4; In Tears We Gift reduces enemies' Effect RES by 10% when afflicted with Epiphany. Black Swan also regenerates 8 Energy at the start of their turn or when they are defeated. This can only happen once per Epiphany application.
• Eidolon 5; Linnutee Flyway upgrades her Ultimate by 2 levels and Basic ATK by 1 level.
• Eidolon 6; Pantheon Merciful, Masses Pitiful allows her to have a 65% base chance of inflicting a stack of Arcana on ememies when attacked by her allies. Additionally, when she inflicts Arcana, there is a 50% fixed chance to increase the number of Arcana stacked by 1.*

*I am unsure if this means stacks are doubled or only 1 stack is added no matter how many stacks are added during the initial attack - I'm F2P lol. A strong Eidolon regardless. (Do note that her stat charts above assume stacks are doubled.)

Personally, I would either aim for E1 or E6 as a stopping point. 25% RES shred is a significant damage boost, and remember Arcana is counted as Wind Shear and is unremovable, giving her a permanent buff! Not to mention, it also boosts the damage of your other DoT character(s) since Black Swan is ideally paired with 1 or more DoT detonators/DPSes.

E6, just like any other E6, boosts her damage by quite a bit, and increases the need of another DoT character. As if her kit wasn't enough to get to you pair her with another.

Trace Overview

All Traces, fully labeled

Basic ATK Materials:

Basic ATK

Skill, Ultimate & Talent Materials:

These are only enough to upgrade ONE of the above to level 10

I apologize for the slightly large images.

Her Bonus Traces have quite a large impact on gameplay.

• Bonus Trace 1; Viscera's Disquiet allows her Skill to inflict an extra stack of Arcana at a 65% base chance for each unique DoT (Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn or Shock) that the enemy is afflicted with.
• Bonus Trace 2; Goblet's Dredges makes each enemy have a 65% base chance of gaining a stack of Arcana upon entering battle. Every time an enemy takes DoT damage from a single attack by an ally, there is a 65% base chance for the target to be inflicted with a stack of Arcana, up to a maximum of 3 stacks.* (*Note: the official wording is "when an enemy receives DoT", which might sound like it adds a stack on a DoT application. However, after some testing I believe it is on a DoT retrigger (i.e. Kafka's Skill), not application. Same goes for Talent.)
• Bonus Trace 3; Candleflame's Portent increases her own damage by 60% of her EHR (Effect Hit Rate), up to a maximum damage increase of 72%, which would require 120% EHR.

Try to get bonus Traces just after you've reached the limit on your Talent. If deciding between BT1 & BT2, I would go for BT1 if your Swan is faster than your other DoT detonator, and vice versa. (If you have more than 1 DoT detonator, go for BT2, if you don't have a single one then BT1.) If you already have some EHR going (~50%+), it might be beneficial to directly unlock bonus Trace 3 before upgrading anything else as soon as you get the option to unlock it, as it provides a substantial damage boost to Swan herself.

If you have limited resources and don't know which Traces to upgrade, here's a general guide:

Focus on upgrading her attacks/bonus Traces first, with the priority of

Talent > Bonus Traces >= Ultimate = Skill > Basic ATK

If you have more DoT characters, upgrade her Ultimate first. Otherwise, Skill.

*The reason why I list BT3 ahead of Talent in the summary but not here is because this is for bonus traces as a whole.

...unless you're running the Support build (more on that later) for fun. In that case...

Bonus Traces = Ultimate = Skill >>>>>>>>>> Talent

If you're unsure when to get sub-Traces, I'd recommend unlocking them after you've reached the limit on your Ultimate and Skill. If you just want to maximize DoT damage output and you've reached the limit on your Talent, however, feel free to invest in them first as well, with the priority of

EHR > ATK/Wind DMG

(If you use Ruan Mei with Swan, prioritize ATK%, otherwise Wind DMG)

Summary:

Brief summary of upgrade prioritization

Builds

Overview

There's really only 3 playstyles/builds you can run with Swan: Main DPS, Sub DPS & Support.

Main DPS: This playstyle prefers a constant Skill rotation to maximize her damage output (and recharge her Ultimate faster), however there won't be much of a difference in damage against one target even if you keep using her Basic ATK, provided you use her Skill every now and then to DEF debuff the enemy or clean up small enemies. I recommend spamming her Skill only if you have mostly skill point positive teammates such as Ruan Mei, Tingyun and Luocha. Or Sparkle, obviously.

This playstyle is Skill Point Negative. (i.e. she uses more Skill Points than she generates)

Build: Focus on stacking ATK as much as possible, while still maintaining a decent amount of SPD (Speed) (~134+ without external buffs, ~122+ with Ruan Mei) & 120%+ EHR. This ensures her Arcana deals pretty high damage while being able to be stacked at a reasonably fast rate. More on the sub stat balance & main stats later at the Relics section.

Or vice versa - stacking as much SPD as possible, with ATK being the secondary concern (~2800+ without external buffs). A fast build allows her to apply Arcana and her Ultimate more often but comes with the cost of increased skill point usage (since she takes turns faster) and lesser damage per Arcana stack.

The optimal build, by quite a margin.

Sub DPS: This playstyle focuses on Swan's teammates repeatedly re-triggering and applying Arcana through her bonus Trace 2. Once again, the highest damage rotation would be to spam her Skill, yet I wouldn't recommend this as you'll have a different Main DPS character, optimally Kafka or another DoT detonator to help deal damage, so just use the Skill whenever the DEF debuff wears off to save Skill Points for your Main DPS.

This playstyle is mostly Skill Point Positive, yet can be played as Neutral or Negative.

Build: Once again, stack as much ATK as you can while reaching ~120%+ EHR. However, this time, don't even think about SPD, since this playstyle hinges on teammate Arcana detonation & reapplication, and not Swan herself. Not the best, but is a nice and fresh build. More on the sub stat balance & main stats later at the Relics section.

Recommended to have Eidolon 6.

Support: This playstyle isn't the most viable thing ever, but is a fun twist for those who want a breather from running meta ("Most Effective Tactics Available") builds over and over again.

This focuses on debuffing enemies with her Skill every so now and then, and generating some Skill Points in between with her Basic ATK before the debuff expires.

This playstyle is Skill Point Positive,

Build: Completely disregard ATK and get as much SPD as you can. You can forget about EHR as well.

Just SPEED everything.

Note: Support builds are not included in summary pictures for the sake of simplicity.

Recommended to have Eidolon 1.

Relics

Other guides often tell you what main stats to use on Relics, but few tell you what main/sub stats are suitable for different scenarios. Therefore, here I'll be going into detail about the recommended stats for each playstyle.

4PC Set:

Her BiS (Best in Slot) 4 piece relic set is no doubt the Prisoner in Deep Confinement, providing a solid 12% ATK bonus and providing 6% DEF ignoration for every DoT the attack enemy is afflicted with, up to 18% at 3 DoTs. This is only valid for Main & Sub DPS builds, however. A Support playstyle would prefer Eagle of Twilight Line for some bonus Wind Damage and a 25% action advance forward on an Ult use, or heck, even Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations for a decent 30% teamwide BE (Break Effect) buff. Do note that this buff cannot be stacked with another character equipping the same set, though.

2PC + 2PC:

If Black Swan is your only DoT DPS, you want some versatility or the RNG god doesn't want to bless you with good rolls, running some 2PC sets won't be too much of a degrade. In fact, you have a much broader set choice here. For Main & Sub DPS, you can run any 2 of a 12% ATK set*, Eagle of Twilight Line for 10% Wind DMG, Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters for a sweet permanent 12% damage increase (since Arcana is a debuff), and Messenger Traversing Hackerspace* for a 6% SPD increase (Main DPS & Support only). For Support, you could run Guard of Wuthering Snow for an 8% damage reduction as well.

*Pro Tip: If you have similar sub stats on a 12% ATK set + Messenger 2PC combo and 4PC Musketeer of Wild Wheat, go for the 4PC Musketeer, as it provides the 6% SPD that Messenger offers on top of a 10% buff to Basic ATK damage.

Planar Ornaments:

For Main and Sub DPS, her best set is no doubt Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise, granting 10% EHR and boosting ATK by a whopping 25% as long as you reach 100% EHR. Great alternatives include Space Sealing Station providing a 12% ATK boost and Firmament Frontline: Glamoth with its 12%/18% DMG buff, provided you reach the SPD requirements of 120 and 135/160 respectively. Support has quite a few choices, them being Broken Keel for teamwide 10% CritDMG, Fleet of the Ageless for teamwide 8% ATK and Penacony, Land of the Dreams for buffing Wind characters. Belobog of the Architects gives a big 30% boost to her DEF as well.

Relic Summary; Sets

Main Stats

Fairly straightforward here. You'll want:

an ATK/EHR Chest - Heavily depends on your Light Cone and substats. I'd recommend choosing this piece last - see if you are at most 20% away from 120% EHR, counting Light Cone & all the trace bonuses. If so, then an ATK piece would be suitable, provided you roll some EHR substats. 120% really isn't an absolute necessity, so don't be afraid to keep some relics with godly substats even if it means barely missing the threshold - I'd say ~10% less would still be fine. At the same time, going over is fine too - over 120% doesn't increase her damage anymore, but still increases the chances of Arcana applying against enemies with a high ERes, such as True Sting. The "true limit" is around ~150% EHR for guaranteed applications, while 120% EHR gives a ~86% chance of application.

If you're going for Support however, then you'll want either HP or DEF to increase survivability*. You will still need ~67% EHR to guarantee the Skill always applies the debuff though, so use EHR if you aren't close at all even with all the other bonus.

Play around with Light Cones and different relics combinations if you're unsure, note that a max level chest gives 43.2% EHR.

*Pro Tip: If you use a shielder, DEF is usually better, while HP goes well with healers.

ATK/SPD Boots - For Main DPS honestly this depends on your playstyle and team. More SPD means she gets her Ult faster, yet also generates/uses more Skill Points depending on how you play her. Just use the one you feel is better. For Sub DPS, ATK is the way to go, and for Support, SPD is certainly better.

Wind DMG/ATK Orb - For Main and Sub DPS, the choice really lies on whether you have an abundance of external DMG% buffs or not. For example, if you use Ruan Mei with Swan, ATK might be the better option, however otherwise Wind DMG is usually better. If you have enough DMG% buffs, the difference is negatable, so use whichever has the better substats in that case. For Support, just use a survivability stat.

ATK/ERR Rope - Both Main and Sub DPS prefer ATK, while Support is better off with ERR (Energy Regeneration Rate).

Relic Summary; Main Stats

Sub Stats

One EHR roll provides on average a 3.89% increase.

One ATK% roll provides on average a 3.89% increase.

One SPD roll provides on average a 2.3 increase.

For Main DPS, the first and foremost requirement, once again, is 120% EHR. Without an EHR lightcone, chest piece, external buffs or any set bonus, you'll need a total of 28-29 substat rolls. A chest piece hugely cuts this down to 17-18 rolls, and with Pan-Cosmic too this goes down to 14-15 rolls. For Light Cone calculations, see the corresponding section.

After that, you're pretty much free to build her however you want. SPD wise, some major breakpoints are 121, providing an extra turn during Cycle 1, 134, providing an extra turn during Cycle 0, 147, providing an extra turn during Cycle 0 & 2 and 161, providing an extra turn during Cycle 0 & 1. Note that a pair of SPD boots would give you 25 speed.

As for ATK, there's really no set goal, so simply get as much ATK% as you can to your liking while achieving your SPD & EHR targets. Just play around with different combinations to find whichever one suits your playstyle.

Some other okay substats include Breakffect, Flattack and ERes.

For Sub DPS, the EHR requirement is the same, yet SPD is no longer a concern, making this build fairly simple. ATK%, ATK%, & more ATK%, and maybe some Breakffect, Flattack and ERes would be fine as well.

For Support, stack all SPD, yet a few rolls on HP or DEF wouldn't hurt as well.

Relic Summary; Sub Stats

Light Cones

5 Star

Her best cone, without a single micrometer of doubt is Reforged Remembrance, providing a huge 40% EHR bonus & permanent ATK & DEF ignoration stacks. This cone would save you 10-11 EHR rolls, S1. Patience Is All You Need is not a bad option too with a straight up DMG% buff, SPD buffs and most importantly providing a permanent source of DoT for extra Arcana stacks.

In The Name Of The World is the best F2P 5*, providing once again a permanent DMG% boost and some EHR & ATK during her skill. The widely accessible Solitary Healing isn't too bad if you don't have other choices, but I would still take the following 4-star cones over it.

4 Star

The 4* Light Cone that provides the most damage would be S5 Good Night and Sleep Well, yet it requires a lot of investment as it doesn't come with any EHR, so you might have to sacrifice the chance for an ATK chest. S5 Eyes Of The Prey is a good alternative, cutting the amount of EHR substats by 10-11 and providing unconditional Arcana damage boost, potentially enabling an ATK chest.

The best F2P option would be It's Showtime, providing some DMG% on debuff applications and an ATK buff as long as you have 80% EHR which you'll probably hit for sure.

A great Support option is Resolution Shines As Pearls of Sweat, giving a basically 100% chance (with 120% EHR even at S1) to apply a DEF reduction on targeted enemies.

Light Cone Summary

Teammates & Team Compositions

Other DPSes/Detonators

Kafka, without question, is her best partner in crime, being to trigger entire Arcana stacks without resetting them and providing a source of DoT from Black Swan to apply more Arcana. She also benefits from Epiphany increasing enemies' damage taken at the start of the turn. Do note that she is completely SP negative, so do run some SP positive characters as buffers. Guinafen/Luka both are good alternatives in AoE and single-target situations respectively, both providing DoT detonation & a DMG boost. Sampo E4 is a good universal detonator and buffer, and could even run Penacony, Land of the Dreams to buff Swan's damage.

Support - Amplification

Ruan Mei is her current best buffer, granting a hefty 68% damage buff & 10% SPD, with them being team-wide being a great bonus since Swan is generally run with another DoT character. Her Ult grants a unique 25% All-Type RES Pen, being one of the best buffs in the game since it is calculated independently from DMG% buffs. Her weakness break action delay mechanic also allows DoT to trigger before the enemies' turn is delayed.

Tingyun, albeit being single-target, is a good 4* alternative, providing a bunch of energy and some ATK & SPD for Swan.

Silver Wolf and Pela, with their DEF debuffs, are a nice alternative way to churn out some extra damage.

Support - Sustain

HuoHuo is currently the best sustain/healer for DoT, since is capable of keeping your team alive while providing massive ATK buffs & energy to your characters.

If you need lots of SP from a constant Skill rotation (or Kafka), Luocha is a good alternative, sacrificing the buffs and energy for a huge SP positivity and some damage of his own.

Compositions

An ideal team would compose of Swan, another DoT detonator, a buffer and a sustain, so the current best team would be Black Swan, Kafka, Ruan Mei and Huohuo. This team has a good balance of damage, damage amplification and healing, which makes it able to take care of 95% of the enemies you throw at it.

If you don't have a viable buffer, running triple DoT DPS (like Swan, Kafka, Luka) isn't bad either, and works best with a Sub DPS build, as well with a sustain that buffs your damage.

Hypercarry teams are possible but not too practical, since both Bronya and Sparkle provide CRIT, and running 2 buffers and 1 DPS is sub-optimal.

I would not recommend running her as a Sub-DPS to a non-DoT Main DPS.

Conclusion

Black Swan may be niche, but boy does she fill that niche very well, being the first "true" DoT DPS, being able to function independently as the main damager, yet unlocks her true potential in the presence of another DoT character. Quite true to her character, I'll say - reserved and calm on the surface, yet holds immense power underneath ready to use anytime. Well-designed!

Anyway, I hope you learned something here from this guide - and please pardon me for the word-wall. That's it from me this time, and enjoy the remainder of your day!

Credits

This guide contains a small amount of non-original work, being the official artwork for Materials & Relics, etc. All other media, including the spreadsheets and build pictures, were created by me, without the use of websites or AI.

Guide Writer: Aurion/W, UID 900110921

Official Artwork: HSR Team, retrieved from the Fandom Wiki: Honkai: Star Rail Wiki | Fandom

Some are captured from the game directly.

Cover image from Official Character Preview

Media Font: Bahnscrift