Honkai: Star Rail – First Day Guide to Anaxa

Anaxa
Demised Scholar

“Sink into insanity!”

Character Description

Anaxa is a 5-Star Wind Erudition character who specializes in AoE DMG and Weakness Implantation. By using his Skill and Ultimate, Anaxa is able to implant all 7 Weaknesses on to an enemy. He can also increase the overall DMG of the team he’s on when he is paired with another Erudition character.

Character Materials

Trace Material: Draft series (18/69/139)(Crimson Calyx: Penacony Grand Theater)
Enemy Drops: Black Tide series (56/71/73)(Black Tide enemies)
Stagnant Shadow Drops: A Glass of the Besotted Era (65)(Stagnant Shadow: Penacony Grand Theater – Present Inebriated in Revelry)
Weekly Boss Drop: Lost Echo of the Shared Wish (12)(Feixaio Boss)

Character Abilities

Basic Attack: Pain, Brews Truth

Generic Basic Attack. Single Target Wind DMG. Generates 1 SP and 20 Energy.

Skill: Fractal, Exiles Fallacy

Bouncing Skill. Deals Wind DMG to the initial target and then bounces up to 4 times. Bounces will prioritize enemies not hit yet, so if there are 5 enemies, it will hit all of them. When used, for each attackable enemy on the field, the Skill’s DMG will increase by 20% (+100% for 5 enemies). Generates 6 Energy and costs 1 SP.

Ultimate: Sprouting Life Sculpts Earth

Inflicts the “Sublimation” state on all enemies and deals Wind DMG to all enemies. Enemies in the “Sublimation” state will be simultaneously afflicted with all 7 Weaknesses until the start of their turn. If the target has no Control RES, they will be unable to take action while in the “Sublimation” state. Costs 140 Energy.

Talent: Tetrad Wisdom Reigns Thrice

Whenever Anaxa hits an enemy, inflict 1 Weakness of a random Type to it, prioritizing Weakness Types that the enemy doesn’t already have. This effect lasts 3 turns.

While Anaxa is on the field, inflict the “Qualitative Disclosure” state on enemy targets that have at least 5 different Types of Weaknesses. Anaxa deals increased DMG to enemies afflicted with “Qualitative Disclosure”.

In addition, when using Basic Attack or Skill on an enemy afflicted with “Qualitative Disclosure”, unleash 1 additional instance of Skill on the target. This additional Skill does not consume any SP and cannot trigger this effect again.

If the target has been defeated before the additional Skill is used, it will be cast on 1 random enemy instead.

Technique: Prism of the Pupil

Use to inflict the Terrified stat on enemies in a set area. Terrified enemies will flee in a direction away from Anaxa for 10 seconds. When allies enter battle after attacking a Terrified enemy, it will always be considered as entering battle via attacking a Weakness.

After entering battle, Anaxa applies 1 Weakness of the attacker’s Type to every enemy target, lasting 3 turns. So, attack with a party member whose Weakness the enemy doesn’t have.

Traces

Stats

1. +22.4% Wind DMG
2. +12.0% CRIT Rate
3. +10.0% HP

Abilities

1. Roaming Signifier
   When using Basic Attack, additionally Regenerate 10 Energy. At the start of the turn, if there are no enemy targets in the “Qualitative Disclosure” state, immediately Regenerate 30 Energy.
2. Imperative Hiatus
   Gain the following effects based on the number of Erudition characters in the team.
   1 Erudition Character: increase Anaxa’s CRIT DMG by 140%
   2 Erudition Characters or more: Increase DMG dealt by all allies by 50%.
3. Qualitative Shift
   For every 1 different Weakness Type an enemy target has, the DMG that Anaxa deals to that target ignores 4% of their DEF. 7 Weakness Types can be counted towards this, so that is a max of 28% DEF ignored.

Eidolons

1: Magician, Isolated by Stars

After using Skill for the first time, recover 1 SP. When using Skill to hit enemy targets, decrease the targets’ DEF by 16% for 2 turns. – SP recovery is nice, though I’m not sure it’s super important. As for the DEF decreases… why do enemies even have DEF anymore?

2: Soul, True to History

When enemy targets enter the battlefield, trigger 1 instance of the Talent’s Weakness Implant effect and reduce their All-Type RES by 20%. – This is nice. Can potentially make sure there isn’t downtime for the debuff.

3: Pupil, Etched into Cosmos

Ultimate level increased by 2, Basic Attack level increased by 1.

4: Blaze, Plunged to Canyon

When using Skill, increase ATK by 30%, lasting 2 turns. This effect can stack up to 2 times. – More DMG is always good, even if it’s a little boring.

5: Embryo, Set Beyond Vortex

Skill and Talent levels increased by 2.

6: Everything is in Everything

The DMG dealt by Anaxa is 130% of the original DMG. The 2 effects in the Trace “Imperative Hiatus” will be triggered directly and will no longer depend on the number of Erudition characters in the team. – So you can shove him in any team you want (except Acheron if you don’t have her at E2). Nice.

Gameplay Overview

Anaxa’s kit is pretty easy to understand. Use Ultimate to give all enemies all 7 Weaknesses until the start of their next turn. Use Skill to Implant 1 Weakness per hit (5 hits total) to enemies. If an enemy has at least 5 Weaknesses, use Basic Attack against it to get a free, autocast of Skill.

The major issue is that you will have to do a little timing control. Weaknesses leave with the death of an enemy, so you have to make sure you don’t waste them.

Relics

Cavern Relics

Best: Eagle of Twilight Line

This is the Relic Set suggested by the game. I’m guessing that they are trying to indicate that the Action Advancement is worth more than just raw DMG, and it could very well be. Action priority is rather hard to calculate. But, fundamentally, more actions means more Weaknesses, which means more DMG, so it kinda checks out.

Good: Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters

If you would rather go for pure Stats, try this one. Anaxa Weakness implants count as Debuffs, so it should work out well.

Viable: Scholar Lost in Erudition

Another viable option. You should do some decent damage with it, but it’s not the ideal setup.

Funky: Genius of Brilliant Stars

This is one I saw suggested. Basically, the idea is that, since it’s highly likely you will get Quantum Weakness eventually, you can benefit from both DEF ignore buffs. Course, the Quantum DMG from the 2-Piece is useless. It’s a weird one, but it has some level of merit.

Planar Ornaments

Best: Rutilant Arena

I kinda agree with this suggestion more than I do with the Cavern Relic the game suggested. Since you can use his Basic Attack to trigger a free cast of his Skill, this becomes much more beneficial since you will actually be using his Basic Attack frequently.

Decent: Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm

This is also a good option. Much like Acheron and The Herta, you will probably have at least 1 teammate who has the same Path, so it is definitely worth it.

Viable: Sprightly Vonwacq

If you have concerns about Energy Generation and you want to make sure Anaxa gets his Debuffs out right at the start, go for this one.

Stats

1. CRIT Rate: Assuming you go with Rutilant Arena, you need at least 70% CRIT Rate. Since Anaxa gets a free 140% CRIT DMG, you’ll probably want to go CRIT Rate Chest.
2. ATK: Primary DMG Stat. Get definitely get ATK Chain. ATK Boots will probably be wise, but if you think your ATK is high enough, then SPD ones should be fine.
3. CRIT DMG: While not a Main Stat, you might as well get some Substats. After all, you do have all that CRIT Rate. Might as well capitalize on it a little.
4. SPD: You want to go as often as possible to get as many Weaknesses out as you can. Substats definitely, SPD boots maybe.
5. WIND DMG: Wind Orb. That’s it.

Light Cones

5-Star

Best: Life Should Be Cast to Flames

So good it’s almost as if it was designed for him.

Good: Into the Unreachable Veil

Has a lot of the stuff he needs. Even gives extra CRIT Rate, which is nice.

Decent: Night on the Milky Way

Good but not great.

Viable: Eternal Calculus

More accessible than Night on the Milky Way, but I think Night’s passive provides more benefits.

4-Star

Best: The Great Cosmic Enterprise

Best option, period. Game literally hands it to you on a silver platter.

Good: The Day The Cosmos Fell

Should work for him since he hands out Weaknesses like candy.

Decent: After the Charmony Fall

More SPD is mostly the reason why I’m putting this one here. The Break Effect has its merits, but the SPD is more potent.

Viable: Make the World Clamor

Helps you get his Ultimate off at the start of the fight a little quicker, so you might not have to spend SP on his Skill. Apart from that, meh.

Teams

Triple Erudition (The Herta Hyper-Carry)

The Herta/Anaxa/Jade/Sustain of your choice. While Jade will provide the most benefit for The Herta, her position can be switched out with any Erudition unit that might fit, such as Herta (4-Star), Himeko, Rappa, or Serval.

Triple Element

Get 3 characters from 3 different Elements together, preferably those with decent Weakness Breaking capabilities, and just go to town. Works best if 2 are Erudition like Anaxa/Himeko or Anaxa/Rappa, but should be fine overall.

Final Thoughts

Anaxa is a very good character. He’s essentially an AoE version of Silver Wolf. Unfortunately, since he’s Debuffs are target specific and don’t transfer (like Acheron’s “Crimson Knots” or The Herta’s “Interpretation”), you can end up in situations where you might waste his Skill or Ultimate.

This is only a minor issue, though, and having Anaxa will allow you a degree of flexibility with team building.