Honkai: Star Rail - Swarm Disaster Difficulty V Preservation Path Blessing Recommendations

Publish date: 2024-05-06
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Overcoming the Swarm Disaster in Honkai: Star Rail’s Simulated Universe takes a lot of work, especially as you start increasing the difficulty with every subsequent clear. Elite enemies are suddenly much scarier, the final boss will be much tougher, and you’ll need to be more particular about your Blessing choices. 

Preservation is just one of eight Paths you’ll be able to pick when attempting Version 1.3’s Swarm Disaster, and it’s focused on making your team as tanky as possible with shields and damage reduction. In the standard Simulated Universe, Preservation is by far one of the stronger Path options, however, it’s not quite as strong in Swarm Disaster. That said, it’s still viable for clearing Difficulty V of Swarm Disaster, no lucky rolls or code-abuse needed, as long as you keep a general game plan in mind – specifically with Blessings in particular. 

Table of Contents

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The Core Blessing Build

Before getting into individual Path Blessing recommendations, let’s go over the core ‘concept’ behind a Preservation build in Swarm Disaster. Essentially, the most optimal build will be centered around the idea of using Quake damage to steadily chunk down enemies while your team barely takes any real damage.

On top of that, it’s also focused on using the Path Resonance to deal large bursts of damage when ally Shields are at their highest. In particular, any Blessings that have the words Shield, Shielded, Quake, and Disassociation are worth grabbing. 

Blessing Recommendations & Priority Order

In order of priority of Blessings for a Preservation Swarm Disaster run, Preservation is first by far, followed by Remembrance, then Nihility, then Propagation, Abundance, Hunt, Destruction, and finally Elation. 

We’ve ordered each table in the sections below from highest to lowest priority of Blessings to grab, but the top priority Remembrance Blessing would still be lower in priority than most of the higher priority Preservation Blessings. Essentially, you’ll want to get Quake Damage activated, then general Shield Efficiency, and Disassociation, get enough Preservation Blessings for at least 2 Resonance Formations, get both Resonance Interplays activated, and then you can focus on all the other basic Blessings.

Path Resonance Formation & Resonance Interplay

The Resonance Interplay options for Preservation are critically important to grab if you want to make it through Difficulty V of Swarm Disaster. To get both, you’ll need to grab at least 3 Remembrance Blessings and 3 Nihility Blessings, with the Nihility Interplay being of a higher priority.

Additionally, for the Path Resonance Formation unlock order, Isomorphous Reaction is almost always worth grabbing first, then Zero-Dimensional Reinforcement, & finally Eutectic Reaction.

However, if you’re struggling with survivability, grab Eutectic Reaction earlier and if you’re struggling with Damage output you can grab Zero-Dimensional Reinforcement earlier.

Preservation Blessings

First up are the Preservation Blessings. You should grab as many of these as possible in your run, and will likely have 12+ or even 20+ by the End Result screen. Quake Damage is the priority to focus on, then Shield Effectiveness, and then the more general Blessings.

Remembrance Blessings

Remembrance has synergy with Preservation, given that Disassociation lets you deal set amounts of damage to enemies regardless of how few attack-type Blessings you have. Since most Preservation teams will run March 7th and Gepard in their composition, freezing is going to happen.

Nihility Blessings

What counts as a DoT or Debuff in Honkai: Star Rail can be a bit confusing at times. Thankfully, both Bleed and Frozen count as Debuffs, making Nihility Blessings a good grab for some extra damage, enemy attack reduction, and Weakness Break efficiency.

Propagation Blessings

Typically you’d only invest heavily into Propagation if you’re running Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae on your team or maybe even Qingque. However, there are also a few general Propagation Blessings that buff Preservation defense even higher and make sure allies, such as Gepard, can always use their Skills to get their Ultimate charged as often as possible.

Abundance Blessings

Abundance Blessings might seem like a bit of overkill to stack on top of Preservation. Thankfully, some Abundance options give your team more attacks when their health is full or even reduce the damage taken when their health is full.

Additionally, Dewdrop is a great extra bit of damage that, with the Salvation From Damnation Blessing, can often save allies who would have been stuck in the Outrage Debuff against the True Sting (Complete) final boss.

The Hunt Blessings

The Hunt’s Blessings aren’t nearly as useful on a Preservation build as they are on just about every other Path. However, Auspicious Star is almost always worth grabbing on any run in any area of the Simulated Universe.

Preservation teams tend to struggle with their Speed (especially Gepard) and this can lead to the tank or healer getting completely targeted by 5+ enemies before their turn even comes around. Thankfully, some key Hunt Blessings help negate some of the Speed disadvantages.

Destruction Blessings

You’ll primarily be grabbing Destruction Blessings on a Preservation run to help with your survivability rather than what the Destruction Path is usually used for – raw damage. Reflection is a must-have when it pops up since it can save a run. Hazardous Lucent Residue also gives you another avenue for generating more Shields.

Elation Blessings

The Elation Blessings are the only branch of Blessings with a pre-requisite for a Preservation run. If you’re not running March 7th on your team, it’s typically not worth grabbing any Elation Blessings. However, if you are running March 7th, the Twenty-First Military Rule Blessing will make it so that you’ll always have Skill Points to use.

About the author

Jake Buchalter

Jacob Buchalter is a full-time writer, contract writer, and all around creative who truly cares a bit too much about pop culture media, art, and all things gaming. Some of his favorite games include Enter the Gungeon, the Infamous franchise, Assassin's Creed 2, Hades, Bastion, Transistor, Remnant 2, Bloodborne, and Street Fighter 6.

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