Honkai Star Rail 1.2: Why Kafka Is The Next Character Worth Pulling?

Kafka was finally revealed to be one of the banner 5-stars for Honkai Star Rail 1.2. So, today I’m going to be going over Kafka’s kit from what we officially know.

Kafka’s Kit Overview & Breakdown

To begin, let’s discuss the basics of Kafka’s kit.

Kafka is a lightning ahility character and Kafka’s skill kit revolves around adding damage over time to enemies, which in her case would be shock.

She also has damage over time detonation. Her skills deal inflicts lightning damage to multiple targets. If the enemy is inflicted with damage over time, then she’s able to do additional damage to the enemy based on the damage over time on the enemy. This will make the enemy take damage from the damage over time infliction during their own turn and when Kafka uses her skill.

Another nice thing about Kafka’s skill is that her dealing the additional damage will not remove the current forms of damage over time on the enemy, which means you can have Bleed when Shear and even Shock sacked on the end enemy. And Kafka's skill will do additional damage without removing any of the current damage over time on the enemy. This is overall just a very nice plus to her skill kit.

Kafka’s kit is able to inflict shock onto enemies and because of that, she’ll be able to trigger the additional damage with her own kit, which is a nice benefit as well since she could take advantage of the extra damage inflicted onto the enemy without the need of another character. This can actually open the door for other team members if her own skill kit is sufficient enough through her own damage over time inflection.

I definitely think her skill has immense potential to do a good amount of damage, depending on her multipliers. But overall, the aspect of her kit looks very nice.

Another thing Kafka can do is a follow-up attack when an ally uses a basic attack, which is likely limited to a certain amount of times per turn. But this is nice for a dish of additional damage. Kafka’s ultimate does lightning damage to all enemies. And she has a chance to inflict shock onto enemies and immediately deals extra damage to those who do get shocked, which is very nice as she could ultimate and then skill to take advantage of her, shocking the enemy to deal the extra damage I mentioned before.

Lastly, Kafka’s technique deals lightning damage to all enemies. This is nice because if she breaks the enemy with her technique, then she can immediately inflict shock onto the enemy and now she can use her skill to immediately deal extra damage.

Overall, Kafka’s kit looks pretty nice and she can likely do a good amount of damage, especially if you’re able to consistently strike enemies or even inflict other forms of damage over time, which could be Wind Shear, Bleed, and so on.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail 1.3 Character Revealed! - How To Pull Is The Most Sensible Choice?

Kafka Teams & Ideal Partners

As for team comps or partners that may be good with Kafka, a top Contender can be Sampo due to his abilities to afflict Wind Shear very often. Kafka’s skill can take advantage of this for the extra damage without her having to use her ultimate to shock enemies.

Sampo can also increase how much damage over time and damage enemies take through his ultimate. And since he is on Kafka’s banner, the possibility of getting copies of him also exists. This can also further enhance his Wind Shear.

Another possible partner can be the newly revealed four-star Luka, who has a focus on inflicting bleed onto enemies. And Luka has the potential to do a good amount of damage himself due to him having enhanced attacks through his skill kit him. Inflicting bleed consistently can also assist Kafka’s damage with her skill as well.

As for buffers majority of buffers that we currently have can likely assist Kafka with increasing her attack, speed, hurt rate, crit damage, and so on.

Tingyun may actually be the best pairing though since Tingyun is not very skill points hungry and she can further buff Kafka’s lightning damage. Tingyun can also assist Kafka by increasing her damage and Tingyun’s ultimate can regenerate energy for Kafka’s ultimate, which can lead to more shock inflicted onto enemies.

You’d likely possibly want a team comp with Kafka. Sampo or maybe even Luka are both the most ideal partners. But of course, there are more options, such as Serval, Hook, Himeko and so on. But it’ll ultimately come down to which partner helps Kafka deal the most damage out of the bunch, which will likely be Sampo, but Luka can be a good Contender depending on what he fully does once he’s here.

A buffer would be nice for Kafka, which can be Tingyun, Bronya, Asta, or Yukong. Preferably one that doesn’t use skill points too often may be the best, since Kafka would want to use her skill quite often for the extra damage. But if your team is pretty skill point positive or neutral, the other buffers may be good options as well.

Lastly, you’d want a sustain, which can be Luocha, Gepard, Fire MC, Bailu or Natasha. This ultimately comes down to which the same character you currently have and are currently using.

Overall, I do think these are pretty good options for team members with Kafka. But only if you have these characters in your Honkai Star Rail Account first. For those who have Silver Wolves, this can be pretty nice as well since Silver Wolf debuffs enemy resistances defenses and so on, which can assist Kafka in dealing even more damage to enemies.

Kafka Light Cone Build Recommendations

Now that I’ve gone overpotential team members, let’s discuss potential light cone options.

As for light cones, you may use Good Night and Sleep Well, which increases the damage the wearer deals, depending on how many debuffs are on the enemy. This also includes damage over time. So, depending on your team comp, Kafka can take advantage of this.

You can also use Fermata, which is a light cone all free to play players can get through the Forgotten Hall shop. This light cone increases break effect and damage out to enemies inflicted with Shock or Wind Shear. And this is a nice light cone if you pair Kafka with Sampo.

Another option is Eyes of the Prey to increase kafka’s effect hit rate and damage over time multiplier. I would likely recommend the two other four-star light clones over this one. But this one can be nice to increase your effects hit rate since Kafka has a chance to inflict shock, which means she’ll likely want some effect hit rate depending on what her base chance actually is to inflict shocks. This will allow though for more consistent shocks to her ultimate, which I will go over how much effects hit rate you may want once Kafka is here.

As for 5 stars, the “In the Name of the World” can be great for increasing Kafka’s damage that her skill does and damage against debuffed enemies. Of course, Kafka’s signature light cone will probably be her best in slot. But I thought I’d give recommendations other than her signature for those who are only looking to pull the character and not the light cone.

Final Thoughts

That’ll be all for my thoughts on Kafka, her potential team comps and light cones. I think Kafka has the immense potential to be a great damage dealer with the right builds and synergies. Overall, I’m very excited about her release as the enhanced damage over time play style looks really nice.