Black Swan vs Sparkle: Speculating which 5-star to pick in Honkai Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail 2.0 update will incorporate two new 5-star characters, Black Swan and Sparkle, into its roster. The former excels at dealing damage through DoT, whereas Sparkle specializes in buffing her allies. Black Swan follows the Path of while the latter abides by the Path of Harmony. Since they excel in distinct fields due to their Paths, players may wonder which 5-star unit to choose in the upcoming update of this space odyssey.

This article details each character's abilities to determine your ideal pick in Honkai Star Rail 2.0

Note: This article is based on leaks and is highly subject to change.

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Sparkle’s abilities in Honkai Star Rail

Sparkle (Image via HoYoverse)

Sparkle’s abilities are listed in the section below:

• Basic ATK: Deals Quantum damage to a single adversary.
• Skill: Boosts an ally’s CRIT DMG for a turn and advances their Action simultaneously. When Sparkle uses this ability on herself, the Action advance effect will not activate.
• Ultimate: Replenishes four Skill Points (SP) for all allies and grants them Cipher. When allies with Cipher activate the damage boost effect of her Talent, each stack’s damage potency additionally increases by 12% for two turns.
• Talent: Increases the maximum number of Skill Points by two when Sparkle is on the battlefield. When an ally uses a Skill Point, all allies' damage will increase for two turns. This ability can be stacked up to three times.
• Technique: Sparkle activates Stealth for 20 seconds. Characters in Stealth cannot be detected by adversaries, and after entering battle, it replenishes three Skill Points for all party members.

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Black Swan’s abilities in Honkai Star Rail

Black Swan (Image via HoYoverse)

Black Swan’s abilities are as follows:

• Basic ATK: Deals Wind damage to a single opponent with a chance to inflict Arcana on them. If the opponent is already affected by Wind Shear, Bleed, Shock, or Burn, each debuff respectively has a chance to inflict an additional stack of Arcana.
• Skill: Unleashes an attack that deals Wind damage to three adjacent enemies and inflicts a stack of Arcana on them. This ability also reduces their DEF for three turns.
• Ultimate: Upon activation, deals Wind damage to all opponents and inflicts Epiphany on all enemies. The adversaries affected by this effect will be vulnerable in their turn, and their Arcana stack will be counted as Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn, and Shock.
• When their Arcana stacks are activated at the start of the next turn, it will not reset. This non-reset effect can be triggered only once while Epiphany is active.
• Talent: Each time an adversary receives DoT (Damage over Time) at the start of a turn, there is a chance of them getting inflicted with Arcana. When an enemy is affected with Arcana, they receive Wind DoT that scales with Black Swan’s ATK stat. Each stack of Arcana boosts the DoT damage multiplier and can be stacked up to 50 stacks.
• Black Swan can activate additional effects when an opponent has a certain number of Arcana stacks:

1. When the opponent has three stacks of Arcana, Black Swan unleashes an attack that deals Wind damage to adjacent enemies with a chance of inflicting Arcana on them.
2. When the opponent has seven stacks, allow the current DoT to ignore 20% of the target’s and adjacent enemies’ DEF.

• Technique: Upon activation, each enemy will be inflicted with a stack Arcana at the start of the next fight. If an enemy is successfully inflicted with Arcana, they will receive an additional stack of it. This process continues until Black Swan fails to inflict Arcana on the same target.

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Black Swan vs Sparkle: Speculating which 5-star to pick in Honkai Star Rail

In Honkai Star Rail version 2.0, Trailblazers should summon Sparkle, a 5-star Harmony unit. She is an exceptional character who can buff her allies with various buffs to boost their damage. Sparkle can also be placed in numerous team compositions as her buffs can benefit any character who excels in dealing damage, such as Blade, Jingliu, and Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae. For those who lack a strong Harmony character like Bronya or Ruan Mei, Sparkle is a must-pull.

Black Swan is also an exceptional Nihility unit in Honkai Star Rail 2.0 but requires some specific characters who excel in DoT (Damage over Time) to accompany her on the battlefield. Therefore, Black Swan can excel when paired with characters such as Kafka, Guinaifen, Luka, and Sampo in Honkai Star Rail. Those who have Bronya, Ruan Mei, or Kafka can also summon Black Swan to gain an immense advantage.