Honkai Star Rail Acheron kit and Traces priority

Honkai: Star Rail’s Acheron kit is like no other. The Galaxy Ranger’s moveset features the most moving pieces yet and takes a bit to wrap your head around – and a bit of party planning to get the most out of it. The rewards are worth the trouble, though. Acheron’s kit is mighty indeed.

Our Honkai Star Rail Acheron kit guide breaks down how each ability works and which of Acheron’s Traces you should focus on first.

Honkai Star Rail Acheron kit

Acheron’s kit is unique among Star Rail characters in that she has no energy. The only way to use her ultimate – which you’ll want to use often, as it’s exceptionally powerful – is to obtain stacks of Slashed Dream, which accumulates as Acheron attacks foes. She might be a Nihility character, but Acheron functions more like a Destruction fighter, dealing extensive damage to her target and nearby enemies and providing almost no debuff support.

Her kit’s a little more complex than usual, thanks to her multifunctional ultimate and the fact that you’ll want to wait before firing it off, but we’ve broken down how it all works below.

Acheron basic attack: Trilateral Wiltcross

Acheron deals lighting damage equal to 50/110 percent of her attack to a single target.

Acheron skill: Octobolt Blast

Acheron deals lighting damage equal to 80/160 percent of her attack to the target foe and lighting damage equal to 30/60 percent of her attack to adjacent foes. Octobolt Blast grants Acheron one stack of Slashed Dream and inflicts one Crimson Knot on the target foe.

Acheron ultimate: Slashed Dream Cries in Red

Can only use once Acheron obtains nine stacks of Slashed Dream. Acheron unleashes three Rainblade strikes and one Stygian Resurge slash.

Rainblade deals lightning damage equal to 14/24 percent of Acheron’s attack to a single enemy, and each strike removes up to three stacks of Crimson Knot from the target foe. Each stack of Crimson Knot removed deals lighting damage equal to nine perent of Acheron’s attack to all foes. Every Crimson Knot removed increases that damage multiplier, up to 36/60 percent.

The ultimate’s final strike is Stygian Resurge, which deals lightning damage to all enemies equal to 72/120 percent of Acheron’s attack. It also removes all Crimson Knots. That’s a lot to take in, but the short version is that you really want to make sure enemies have Crimson Knots to get the most out of Acheron’s ultimate. Having Ruan Mei’s extra All Type Res Pen helps too.

Acheron talent: Atop Rainleaf Hangs Oneness

Upon activating Acheron’s ultimate, all enemies have their All Type Resistance Penetration reduced by 10/20 percent until the ultimate ends. Acheron’s ultimate reduces toughness regardless of enemy weakness type. That’s the basic bit, but the most important part that’s going to help you get the most out of Acheron’s ultimate is this.

When any ally inflicts debuffs on foes, Acheron gets one Slashed Dream and inflicts one Crimson Knot on foes. This happens once each time an ally inflicts a debuff and seems to exclude damage-over-time debuffs. Break effects, the initial application of a DOT effect, and stat reductions would all count, though.

Acheron technique: Quadrivalent Ascendance

Acheron attacks an enemy and, when battle begins, gains a stack of Quadrivalent Ascendance. That stack deals lightning damage equal to 200 percent of Acheron’s attack to all foes and reduces enemy toughness regardless of their weakness type. Quadrivalent Ascendance also gives Acheron one Slashed Dream and applies one Crimson Knot to a random foe after she uses her ultimate.

Acheron’s technique will instantly defeat all non-boss, non-elite foes when used.

Acheron bonus Traces

Acheron’s bonus Traces make it easier to boost her damage multipliers, so unlock them as soon as you can.

• Red Oni (ascension rank 2): Acheron gains five Slashed Dream and applies five Crimson Knots to a random enemy when battle starts. If Acheron gains nine stacks of Slashed Dream and leaves them unused, she’ll gain one stack of Quadrivalent Ascendance when she earns another Slashed Dream. Acheron can gain three stacks of Quadrivalent Ascendance total, but only once you unlock this Trace. These Quadrivalent Ascendance stacks apply Crimson Knots after Acheron uses her ultimate, but they don't deal additional skill damage.
• The Abyss (ascension rank 4): Acheron’s basic attack, skill, and ultimate deal 115/160 percent of their normal damage when one or two additional Nihility characters are on Acheron’s team, respectively.
• Thunder Core (ascension rank 6): Acheron’s Rainblade strikes deal 30 percent more damage when they strike a foe with a Crimson Knot attached, and the damage increase can stack up to three times. Stygian Resurge will deal damage six more times against random enemies, each for 25 percent of Acheron’s attack. This damage counts as ultimate damage.

Acheron Traces priority

Acheron’s ultimate is where pretty much all of her damage comes from, so that should be your main focus. The second most important Trace depends on what you want to get from Acheron. Leveling her talent increases her ultimate’s resistance penetration, which means that ability deals more damage. However, you’ll want to get at least something from her skill as well. You’ll be using it a fair bit to get Slashed Dream stacks, and even though the damage scaling isn’t spectacular, it’s not bad either.

The short version of that is:

• Ultimate
• Talent or skill (or talent and skill)
• Basic attack

If you're wondering who might work with Acheron, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list, and head over to our Star Rail codes page for some freebies to help with your next pull.