Honkai: Star Rail version 1.5: Should you pull for Argenti, Silver Wolf, and their signature Light Cones?

The second half of Honkai: Star Rail version 1.5 is dropping on Wednesday (6 December) and features two very tempting banners.

The first features the debut of the 5-star Physical Erudition character Argenti, who specialises in dealing tons of Physical area-of-effect damage. Meanwhile, the second features the first rerun for the 5-star Quantum Nihility character Silver Wolf, who can inflict a host of debuffs on enemies.

Both of Argenti and Silver Wolf's banners will also feature the new 4-star Physical Harmony character Hanya, who can generate tons of skill points and increase the Speed and DMG of her allies.

So, are Argenti or Silver Wolf as well as their signature Light Cones worth spending your Stellar Jade on? Read on and we'll help you decide.

Need area-of-effect damage? Get Argenti

Argenti wields the Physical element and follows the Path of Erudition, making him an excellent choice when you need a character that deals a massive amount of area-of-effect damage to wave after wave of enemies.

As a member of the Knights of Beauty, he sweeps enemies aside in a dazzling display of spearstrikes and rose petals. With such an iconic aesthetic, developer HoYoverse has even created an entirely new variant of rose bearing Argenti's name to promote his release.

The most unique part of Argenti's kit is his ultimate, which has two energy thresholds that can be reached. While the ultimate can be used to deal Physical DMG to all enemies after reaching the first threshold, using it after reaching the second makes it deal even more damage.

Meanwhile, Argenti's basic attack deals Physical DMG to a single target while his skill deals Physical DMG to all enemies in the field.

Argenti's high energy costs is supported by his Talent, which lets him regenerate additional energy whenever he uses his basic attack, skill, or ultimate. It also lets him acquire stacks of Apotheosis, which increases his Crit Rate, that is stackable up to a certain amount.

Finally, Argenti can use his Technique to inflict the Dazed debuff to nearby enemies for 10 seconds. Dazed enemies will not actively initiate combat and if you attack a Dazed enemy to initiate combat yourself, all enemies will be dealt Physical DMG and Argenti will regenerate energy.

Argenti needs a lot of skill points and energy to reach his full potential, so make sure you have supports that can provide him with that if you're pulling for him.

Tingyun and Huohuo are the two support characters that have built-in energy regeneration for their allies in their kits, so having them will greatly aid Argenti. If you also happen to get Hanya while pulling for Argenti, then she can round out your Argenti party as another support to provide him with skill points while also boosting his damage output.

As an Erudition character, Argenti's damage output against single targets can't compare to Hunt or Destruction characters, so remember to put him in situations where he can shine.

But with current endgame content like the Swarm Disaster and recent Memory of Chaos iterations featuring waves of four enemies or more, Argenti can lead your party to victory and look gorgeous while doing so.

Need a top-tier debuffer? Get Silver Wolf

Silver Wolf wields the Quantum element and follows the Path of Nihility. The genius hacker of the Stellaron Hunters is one of the best support characters in the game, as she can inflict enemies with additional elemental weaknesses, reduce their DEF, and apply a host of other debuffs.

Silver Wolf’s skill is her bread-and-butter, letting her inflict a single enemy with a random elemental weakness of the same type as that of an ally’s. The additional elemental weakness applied will be based on the elemental types of your characters that is not an existing weakness of the target.

For example, if you run Silver Wolf alongside three Fire characters and use her skill on enemy that doesn't have a Quantum or Fire elemental weakness, then her skill will either inflict a Quantum or Fire weakness to the target.

In addition, Silver Wolf’s skill reduces the target enemy’s RES to the inflicted elemental weakness and their overall DMG RES.

As if that wasn’t enough to boost your party’s damage output, Silver Wolf’s ultimate can also lower a target enemy’s DEF while also dealing a hefty amount of Quantum DMG.

Silver Wolf’s Talent also lets her randomly inflict one of three debuffs to an enemy every time she attacks. These debuffs either reduce a target’s ATK, Speed, or DEF.

Finally, using Silver Wolf's Technique to initiate combat reduces the Toughness of all enemies regardless of their elemental weaknesses. Any enemy who gets inflicted by Weakness Break by this Technique will trigger the Quantum Weakness Break effect known as Entanglement.

Silver Wolf is a massive boost in power for any account, as her ability to inflict elemental weaknesses reduces the need to pull more characters to cover all element types. Not only that, her ability to shred an enemy's DEF is second to none, though it can only be used on single targets.

In addition, Silver Wolf anchors the strong mono-Quantum team and can enable faux mono element lineups.

The mono Quantum team features Silver Wolf as the debuffer and guarantees any enemy will have a Quantum weakness, Seele or Qingque will be the team's main damage-dealer, while Lynx and/or Fu Xuan will provide sustain.

Meanwhile, you can put Silver Wolf in any team with three characters of the same element to guarantee a 75% chance that Silver Wolf's skill will inflict them with an elemental weakness of your choice — unless the target already has a Quantum weakness, in which case it's 100% chance.

Should you pull for Argenti and Silver Wolf's signature Light Cones?

Argenti's signature Light Cone, An Instant Before a Gaze, passively increases his Crit DMG by a hefty 36%. When using his ultimate, it also increases his ultimate's DMG based on their max energy, which plays into his ideal playstyle of using his high-energy cost ultimate.

If you want your Argenti to reach his full potential, then you will need his signature Light Cone, provided you have enough Stellar Jade to get it. Unfortunately, your alternatives are pretty limited.

There is no free 5-star Erudition Light Cone from the Simulated Universe's Herta store yet, so your 5-star alternatives will have to be Before Dawn or Night in the Milky Way, both of which aren't ideal fits for Argenti's playstyle.

Your best bets will be the 4-star Light Cones Today Is Another Peaceful Day and The Seriousness of Breakfast.

Today is Another Peaceful Day has a similar effect to Argenti's signature, as it increases its wielder's DMG based on their max energy. The caveat is that it's locked behind the paid upgrade for the Battle Pass. On the other hand, The Seriousness of Breakfast is easier to acquire and should be your go-to if you don't want to spend anything.

While Argenti's Light Cone options are rather limited, Silver Wolf can enjoy much more freedom of choice.

Silver Wolf's best bet is still her signature, Incessant Rain, which passively increases her Effect Hit Rate by 24% and her Crit Rate by 12% if her target has 3 or more debuffs on them. Additionally, this Light Cone gives her a 100% base chance upon attacking an enemy to implant them with the Aether Code debuff, which increases the DMG they receive by 12%.

If you don't want to get Silver Wolf's signature, she has plenty of very good alternatives.

First is the event-exclusive 4-star Light Cone Before the Tutorial Mission Starts, which could be acquired and Superimposed for free during the main event of version 1.1. At max Superimposition level, this Light Cone increases Silver Wolf's Effect Hit Rate by 40% and regenerates 8 energy for her whenever she attacks an enemy whose DEF has been reduced.

If you were able to get Before the Tutorial Mission Starts during version 1.1, then great! You don't really need to get Silver Wolf's signature as this works just fine. If you started playing after version 1.1, then tough luck as there are no foreseeable ways to acquire this event-exclusive Light Cone anymore.

Aside from Before the Tutorial Mission Starts, Silver Wolf's best 4-star Light Cone is Eyes of the Prey, which gives her some much-needed Effect Hit Rate even if she can't make use of the damage-over-time buffs.

You can also go for Good Night and Sleep Well for more damage or Resolution Shines like Pearls of Sweat for more DEF shred.

The second half of Honkai: Star Rail version 1.5 features the debuts of the 5-star Physical Erudition character Argenti and the 4-star Physical Harmony character Hanya as well as a rerun for the 5-star Quantum Nihility character Silver Wolf.

Version 1.6 in December will also see the release of three new characters in Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio, and Xueyi.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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