Hey everyone! Today, we are going over a guide to Honkai: Star Rail’s exciting new five-star Nihility Quantum character, Cipher, who is releasing in patch three point three! Let’s break down her stats, abilities, and eidolons and see how well her new signature light cone, Lies Aflutter in the Wind, complements her playstyle. Cipher is a Quantum Nihility character built for debuffing enemies and delivering massive follow-up damage. She boasts impressive stats with a high base attack of six hundred and one, speed at one hundred thirteen, and strong quantum damage capabilities. Cipher’s ability-leveling priority is first her ultimate, second her skill, third her talent, and lastly her basic attack.
Cipher’s major trace unlocking priority is first her major trace two, then her major trace three, and lastly her major trace one.
Cipher’s recommended endgame stats are four thousand H.P., four thousand attack, nine hundred defense, one hundred forty-three speed, thirty-nine percent quantum damage boost, a critical rate of seventy percent, and critical damage of one hundred forty percent.
Cipher’s Eidolons truly unlock her potential. Her first Eidolon, Insight for Smiles, increases the frequency of her follow-up attacks and applies additional debuffs, boosting damage taken by enemies significantly. Cipher’s signature Nihility light cone, Lies, Aflutter in the Wind, obviously synergizes perfectly with her. It significantly enhances her speed, and each of her attacks has a high chance to apply potent defense debuffs, Bamboozle and Theft, to enemies. Bamboozle reduces enemy defense by up to thirty percent, while Theft provides an additional defense reduction of up to twenty percent. With high speed, Cipher can consistently apply and refresh these powerful debuffs, significantly enhancing team-wide damage output.
If you are a free-to-play player and want to pull for either her eidolon one or her signature light cone, I would recommend pulling Cipher’s signature light cone because it provides her with more stats. The light cone increases her speed significantly and applies debuffs that decrease enemies’ defense. Meanwhile, her first eidolon only provides her with increased follow-up attacks and increasing damage received. Decreasing defense is more valuable than increasing damage received. Distressed Slight-of-Hand, her second Eidolon, greatly increases her recorded damage and provides a significant critical damage boost. Cipher’s eidolon two is the best stopping point for dolphins because it increases the recorded damage and increases her critical damage.
Now, let's talk about other light cone options for Cipher. Resolution Shines As Pearls of Sweat decreases enemies defense up to sixteen percent. Before the tutorial mission starts is a free-to-play four-star light cone that increases Cipher’s effect hit rate up to forty percent and regenerates up to eight energy. We Will Meet Again is an alternative four-star light cone that deals up to ninety-six percent of Cipher’s attack as additional damage to a random enemy that is attacked by her basic attack or skill. Cipher could also use Boundless Choreo, which increases her critical rate up to sixteen percent and deals up to forty-eight percent more critical damage to enemy targets that have their defense reduced or are slowed. A three-star option is Hidden Shadow, which, after using her skill, makes her next basic attack deal additional damage equal to one hundred twenty percent of her attack to the enemy.
For Cipher’s build, we are looking at a four-piece relic set of Eagle of Twilight Line to advance forward Cipher when using her ultimate. Otherwise use Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters. Alternatively, use a two-piece set of messenger traversing hackerspace and sacredos’ relived ordeal, which both provide six percent speed.
For Cipher's Planar set use Lushaka, the Sunken Seas, Fleet of the Ageless, or Sprightly Vonwacq.
When it comes to relic main stats, for Cipher’s body piece, use an effect hit rate or critical damage main stat. For Cipher’s feet piece, use a speed percent main stat. For Cipher’s planar sphere piece, use a quantum damage boost main stat. For Cipher’s link rope piece, use an energy recharge percent main stat.
When it comes to relic substats for Cipher, keep her speed as high as possible; first, focus on attack percent; second, focus on critical rate percent and critical damage percent up to a ratio of one to two; and third, flat attack.
Cipher fits best in teams that benefit from debuffs and focused fire. Her skill set perfectly supports powerful single-target damage dealers by weakening enemies and setting them up for massive burst damage. Pairing her with high-damage allies and strong buffers will maximize the effectiveness of her Regular Customer mechanic, ensuring your team can swiftly defeat even the toughest foes. Cipher’s best team is herself, Acheron, Jiaoqiu, and Aventurine with Trend of the Universal Market. An alternate premium team is herself, Feixiao, Robin, and Aventurine. A free-to-play team is Dr. Ratio, Cipher, Ruan Mei, and Gallagher. Replace Dr. Ratio with any other main D.P.S. You can also replace Ruan Mei with Remembrance Trailblazer.
Cipher stands out with a very tactical combat style. Her basic attack, Oops, Past the Radar, delivers quantum damage equal to up to one hundred forty percent of her attack to a single enemy, perfect for precision strikes.
However, her real power lies in her skill and talent interactions. When Cipher activates her skill, Heh, Empty-Handed Haul, she not only weakens enemies, making them deal less damage, but also boosts her own attack significantly, amplifying the Quantum damage she inflicts. This skill targets one enemy directly and damages adjacent foes, making her highly effective at crowd control.
Her ultimate, Sincerely, Kitty Phantom Thief!, costs one hundred energy and combines both Quantum damage and True damage in an impressive burst attack. Cipher first hits one designated enemy for quantum damage equal to one hundred fifty percent of her attack. Then, based on the damage recorded from allies attacking her Regular Customer target, she unleashes true damage equal to twenty-five percent of the recorded amount, further boosting damage output. Additionally, she deals another Quantum damage blast equal to fifty percent of her attack to the primary enemy and adjacent targets, coupled with a final True Damage blast equal to seventy-five percent of her recorded value distributed among enemies hit by her skill.
Cipher’s Talent, Hospitable Dolos, introduces the innovative Regular Customer mechanic. This marks a target enemy, making them the focus of Cipher’s attention. Whenever allies attack this Regular Customer, Cipher launches a powerful follow-up attack, dealing up to five hundred percent quantum damage of her attack. Cipher records twenty percent of the non-True damage dealt by allies to this enemy, storing this value to unleash during her Ultimate. Her recorded damage resets upon using her Ultimate, setting up another round of powerful follow-ups.
Cipher’s Technique, Puss in Boots, provides her with Zagreus’s Blessing, making her undetectable by enemies and greatly enhancing her movement speed. Additionally, this blessing allows Cipher to occasionally gain random consumables when encountering enemies in the overworld or special universes. When engaging in battle with Zagreus’s Blessing active, Cipher deals a powerful opening Quantum damage strike to all enemies, increasing her recorded damage significantly. Cipher’s trace upgrades greatly enhance her battle effectiveness. Godstep Marvelous Shoes, for instance, dramatically improves her critical rate when her speed is high enough. Meanwhile, her Trace Three Hundred Rogues further boosts the amount of ally damage she can record, making her Ultimate more potent. Ultimate Switcheroo is another strong passive, automatically reducing enemy defenses and ensuring Cipher always starts combat at an advantage by advancing her action at the start of each wave.
Other Eidolons, like Obfuscation from Thin Air and Absconding in Exposure, further enhance her skills and damage capabilities, especially when targeting marked enemies. Her sixth Eidolon, Burglar Incognito, is a game-changer. It tremendously boosts the damage of her follow-up attacks by three hundred fifty percent and even returns twenty percent of the recorded damage after she uses her Ultimate, allowing Cipher to maintain sustained high damage over multiple turns.
I go over a guide to Hyacine next.