The Honkai Star Rail Aetherium Wars event has begun, and your success will largely depend on your Aetherium Wars team composition. As this mini-game uses “Aether Spirits”, a new type of unit, it can be quite a hassle to figure out which units are the best. This guide will help you find the best Aether Spirits to create the best Aetherium Wars teams.
The Honkai Star Rail Aetherium Wars event runs from October 11 to November 13 and offers plenty of rewards, including Stellar Jade, level-up materials, and ascension materials.
How to join the Aetherium Wars event in Honkai Star Rail
Before you can join the Aetherium Wars event, you need to complete the Trailblaze Continuance chapter called “Jolted Awake From a Winter Dream”. Once you’ve completed the required quests, you can open your Travel Log and click on the Aetherium Wars banner to start the first event mission: “Let’s Go! Aetherium Wars!”.
To obtain Aether Spirits, you simply need to play through the Aetherium Wars event missions. There’s no gacha system involved – if you complete every event quest, you will automatically unlock every Aether Spirit.
Aetherium Wars combat is roughly the same as normal turn-based battles in Honkai: Star Rail. You still use a team of four, but instead of normal characters, every teammate is an Aether Spirit. These event-exclusive Aether Spirits also use a Basic Attack, Skill, and Ultimate, and are bound to an Action Order and Skill Point system.
How to build your Aetherium Wars team
Aether Spirits are divided into three categories: humanoid (red), mechanical (blue), and aberrant (purple). These Aether Spirit “types” can counteract each other; humanoid is extra powerful against mechanical, mechanical is extra strong against aberrant, and aberrant is best against humanoid. You deal 1.5x more damage against the weaker type, as opposed to only 0.8x the damage against a stronger type. Therefore, when choosing your Aetherium Wars team, it’s important to check your opponent’s Aether Spirit types!
Another thing to consider while building your Aetherium Wars teams, is your Aether Spirits’ combat role. Here’s an overview:
- Attack-type: deals high damage through either single-target or multi-target attacks.
- Defense-type: can take more damage than an attack-type, and may have support abilities such as providing shields for allies.
- Support and healing-type: helps allies by restoring their HP, boosting their attack power, increasing their speed, etc.
Best Aether Spirits in Aetherium Wars
To get the best Aetherium Wars teams, you need the best Aether Spirits. Here’s an overview of all Aether Spirits and their abilities.
Best attack-type Aether Spirits
- S tier: Silvermane Lieutenant
- A tier: Everwinter Shadewalker, Incineration Shadewalker
The Silvermane Lieutenant uses its Skill and Ultimate to shield his allies. Whenever a shielded ally is attacked, the Silvermane Lieutenant performs a powerful follow-up attack and regenerates energy. Make no mistake; although the Silvermane Lieutenant’s main focus seems to be shielding, the damage from the follow-up attacks is actually very strong, making this an excellent DPS/support hybrid.
The Everwinter Shadewalker can freeze opponents and delay their turn, but beware that the base chance of freezing an enemy is only 50%. The Incineration Shadewalker is very similar to its Everwinter colleague, but applies burn damage instead of frozen. This Aether Spirit deals more damage but doesn’t delay the enemy.
Best support- and healing-type Aether Spirits
- S tier: Trotter, Silvermane Soldier
- A tier: Obedient Dracolion, Silvermane Cannoneer
- B tier: Vagrant
If you’re looking for the best healing-type Aether Spirit, look no further than the Trotter. Besides healing the team with its Skill, the Trotter can use its Ultimate to enter an enhanced state, allowing it to provide additional team healing and increase the team’s damage by using its enhanced Basic Attack. In other words, you get a healer and an attack support in one. The Obedient Dracolion is also a decent healing-type unit, but it needs to consume its own hit points, only heals one unit at a time, and doesn’t come with an attack boost.
Speaking of attack buffs, the Silvermane Soldier can provide just that and more: while his Skill provides a shield for himself and one ally, he’ll continuously gather stacks of “morale” for the team, with each stack improving the team’s attack, resistance, and speed. With a maximum stack of 60, this effect becomes incredibly strong as the battle continues.
The Silvermane Cannoneer deals follow-up damage and increases another unit’s attack power and energy, making him a great ally to a DPS with a strong Ultimate attack. Since an Aetherium War can drag on for as long as you like (there’s no set number of rounds), the Vagrant is not quite as useful as the Silvermane Soldier or Cannoneer as he’s mostly focused on delaying enemy turns whilst speeding up his own team. Especially in DoT teams, you don’t actually want to delay the opponent.
The best Aetherium Wars teams
Obtaining the best Aether Spirits is one thing, but your success in the Honkai: Star Rail Aetherium Wars ultimately depends on finding the right team composition. For example, even a brilliant DPS might not be able to win the toughest battles without a good support to enhance their attack power. Therefore, based on the list of Aether Spirits above, here are some suggestions for the best Aetherium Wars teams.
Best Aetherium Wars starter team
- Silvermane Lieutenant (humanoid)
- Silvermane Soldier (humanoid)
- Silvermane Cannoneer (humanoid)
- Trotter (aberrant)
As mentioned above, the Silvermane Lieutenant is one of the best Aether Spirits in Aetherium Wars, if not the best, so it makes sense to build a team around him. This defensive team composition is extremely strong against mechanical teams; the Silvermane Soldier provides a team buff and creates additional shields, thus allowing for a lot of Silvermane Lieutenant follow-up attacks. The Silvermane Cannoneer throws even more follow-up attacks into the mix and boosts the Lieutenant’s attack whilst also restoring his energy. The best thing about this team though, is that you can already use it in the earliest stages of the Aetherium Wars event.
Best Aetherium Wars DoT team
- Aurumaton Gatekeeper (mechanical)
- Illumination Dragonfish (mechanical) or Wooden Lupus (aberrant)
- Silvermane Cannoneer (humanoid) or Silvermane Soldier (humanoid)
- Trotter (aberrant)
This Aetherium Wars team uses the Aurumaton Gatekeeper to summon Illumination Dragonfish, who then inflict status effects (damage over time) on opponents. You can use additional Illumination Dragonfishes to inflict even more status effects, then link the Silvermane Cannoneer’s follow-up attacks to the Dragonfish to deal a ton of additional damage. Alternatively, you can use the Wooden Lupus to deal more status effect damage and use the Silvermane Soldier to gain a massive team buff.
And that concludes our selection of the best Aether Spirits and teams. Looks like it’s time to try these Aetherium Wars teams for yourself!
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