Honkai Star Rail Pure Fiction Tales of a Tethered Bird guide

Another Pure Fiction challenge is now available in Honkai Star Rail, and this time, you’ll need a really specific set of characters to earn all the rewards. DoT characters are the stars of this phase of Pure Fiction, so you may need to change your usual strategy this time around.

Best Pure Fiction Teams for Tales of a Tethered Bird

For this phase of Pure Fiction, DoT characters inflict massive debuffs on enemies and deal increased damage. All enemies take 50% increased damage from DoT sources in Tales of a Tethered Bird, and any enemy affected with DoT deals 35% reduced damage to your team. On top of that, all enemies will have their actions advanced forward when attacked, feeding your team Energy for their Ultimates.

This phase of Pure Fiction is basically an advertisement for Black Swan, so you should have an easy time if you pulled her from the latest banner. Kafka is also an important character to have for Tales of a Tethered Birds since there aren’t many powerful DoT characters that can carry your team through the harder stages.

Stage 1

Just like last time, the enemies in Stage One are only level 55 so they shouldn’t pose a threat to your team if you’re a high enough level. You should easily be able to hit the 60,000 point threshold and get three stars with these teams.

• Team 1
  • Black Swan
  • Sampo
  • Guinaifen
  • Bailu
• Team 2
  • Kafka
  • Serval
  • Fu Xuan
  • Luka

These teams make use of a lot of 5-Star characters, but there are some 4-Star replacements you can use if you don’t have them. Hook and Sampo are two Fire and Wind characters that can inflict DoT on enemies, for example. Asta and Himeko can also inflict Burn under certain circumstances. While DoT is important for this challenge, you can also bring standard DPS characters like Blade to help your overall damage output.

Stage 2

The second stage ramps things up slightly with level 65 enemies, but if you have even a few characters at level 70 or 80, you should be able to get by with brute force. The weaknesses are switched around a bit on Stage Two, so these are the best teams to use.

• Team 1
  • Black Swan
  • Sampo
  • Serval
  • Bailu
• Team 2
  • Fu Xuan
  • Kafka
  • Guinaifen
  • Hook

Since there aren’t many characters who specialize in DoT, the same handful of characters are the best for each stage of Tales of a Tethered Bird. Sampo and Serval are the best 4-Star options for Tales of a Tethered Bird, so they’re paired with Black Swan on the first team. Kafka carries the second team with the help of Guinaifen and Hook, who should be able to Burn incoming enemies with ease.

Related: Honkai Star Rail Pure Fiction Youci’s Wandering Words guide

Stage 3

At Stage Three, you’re going to need a team of mostly level 80 characters to earn the maximum number of rewards since the enemies jump to level 75. The weaknesses mostly stay the same, but some Imaginary damage is needed this time around. Use these teams for Stage Three of Tales of a Tethered Bird.

• Team 1
  • Black Swan
  • Luka
  • Blade
  • Fu Xuan
• Team 2
  • Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae
  • Kafka
  • Serval
  • Bailu

This stage features a wider variety of weaknesses than the menu implies, so you could also include Jingliu or Ruan Mei on either team to capitalize on Ice weaknesses. If you don’t have any good Imaginary characters for the second phase, then you can double down on Electric characters since every enemy that’s weak to Imaginary in this phase also has an Electric weakness. Physical is a good alternative as well.

Stage 4

The final stage of Tales of a Tethered Bird absolutely requires a team of level 80 characters that have high-level Traces and good Relics. You’ll be facing off against Yanqing and Argenti back to back. Here are the best teams to take them down.

• Team 1
  • Kafka
  • Serval
  • Black Swan
  • Bailu
• Team 2
  • Fu Xuan
  • Jingliu
  • Guinaifen
  • Hook

There aren’t too many replacements that fit into these teams, but you can still make some alterations. Blade or Sampo fit well into the first team. You could replace Jingliu with Ruan Mei or Yanqing as well. Bailu and Fu Xuan are also interchangeable since they’re just there to keep the team alive, so replace them with your best support units if you don’t have them.

Best Tales of a Tethered Bird Buffs in Honkai Star Rail

There are three Cacophony buffs to choose from in Tales of a Tethered Bird. Since the DoT mechanic for this challenge is so straightforward, the buffs don’t do anything too crazy.

Libel will transform DoT damage into AOE damage, dealing 60% of the initial DoT damage to enemies next to the target. This is great for clearing out weaker enemies while focusing on stronger units. Rumor inflicts Wind Shear after every attack, which is great for characters like Kafka and Black Swan who thrive on huge DoT stacks. Finally, Defamation heals your team when an enemy takes DoT damage and slightly advances their action forward. It’s not as useful as the others.

Tales of a Tethered Bird Pure Fiction Rewards

Clearing a stage of Pure Fiction with any rating will grant you these items.

• 6 Traveler’s Guide
• 3 Refined Aether
• 6 Lost Crystal
• 24 Lucen Afterglow
• 30,000 Credits

If you get the highest score on all stages and earn 12 total stars, you’ll get these rewards.

• 720 Stellar Jades
• 600 Jade Feathers
• 240,000 Credits

This phase of Pure Fiction will be live for six weeks, so make sure to clear all four stages before time runs out. New Pure Fiction phases will continue to be added to Honkai Star Rail as time goes on, so make sure you’re building your entire roster so you can be prepared for specific buffs like the DoT buffs in Tales of a Tethered Bird.