How to beat Hook in Honkai: Star Rail’s Aetherium Wars

The final battle you’ll face in Honkai: Star Rail’s Aetherium Wars event is an epic fight against the four-star Fire Destruction character Hook.

Every other battle you tackled in Aetherium Wars prepared you to take on Hook, but she’s still an incredibly formidable opponent to defeat. It takes a strong team and a well-thought-out strategy to find victory in this fight, so here’s what you need to know to successfully beat Hook in battle.

Who is the mysterious elite player in Honkai: Star Rail?

The mysterious elite player who is teased throughout the entire event is none other than Hook, and the battle against her is by far the toughest you’ll face in Aetherium Wars.

Once you’ve beaten Topaz in battle, Giovanni will tell you it’s time to take on the mysterious elite player he has been mentioning throughout the entire event. After proceeding up a snowy mountain, you’ll come face to face with Hook for the final showdown of the event.

How to defeat Hook in Honkai: Star Rail

To successfully defeat Hook in battle, you’ll need a team capable of healing and sustaining themselves through a long battle while also ensuring you have some brutal damage dealers to effectively take out her team. A well-balanced team is the key to success here, but since you only have four slots to craft the best Aetherium Wars team possible, it can be quite difficult to win this battle even with a stellar lineup.

Before you head into this fight, consider what Hook’s team looks like and build your own lineup based on hers. The Counteract system is your friend here and you should choose your team based on which Aether Spirits you can use to deal increased damage against Hook’s team.

Unlike every other Aetherium Wars opponent you’ve faced, Hook has two teams you’ll have to defeat. You still only have one lineup of four characters, though, so it’s like you’ll be facing two battles in a row without a healing break, which is why this can be quite a tough fight.

Hook’s team includes:

• Wave one team
  • Automaton Grizzly (Mechanical Overlord)
  • Automaton Direwolf (Mechanical Overlord)
  • Imaginary Weaver (Abberant)
  • Imaginary Weaver (Abberant)
• Wave two team
  • Frigid Prowler (Mechanical Overlord)
  • Searing Prowler (Mechanical Overlord)
  • Everwinter Shadewalker (Abberant)
  • Incineration Shadewalker (Abberant)

Her team has some Aether Spirits you’ve never faced before and a few you can’t recruit yourself, which means you won’t see firsthand exactly how they work until you face them.

In this fight, start by focusing on the Imaginary Weavers since they can take many turns quickly and dish out strong damage against single targets. Move on to the Automaton Grizzly’s summoned Automaton Spiders next if there are any present before taking out the Automaton Grizzly. Lastly, eliminate the Automaton Direwolf.

The second wave will then begin and you’ll likely be tempted to get rid of the Frigid Prowler and Searing Prowler first, but it’s best to start by eliminating both the Everwinter Shadewalker and the Incineration Shadewalker. Both Prowlers have a ton of health and they’ll take a bit to break down, so eliminating both Shadewalkers first is the best move so you’ll be facing fewer opponents.

The Frigid Prowler also drains allies’ health points, so waiting to fight them is a great way to allow Hook’s team to grow weaker over time. Move on to the Searing Prowler after the Shadewalkers are defeated before ending with the Frigid Prowler.

Best team to use against Hook in Honkai: Star Rail

Since Hook’s team is made up of all Mechanical and Abberant entities, the best team to go up against her is one that mainly has Mechanical Aether Spirits.

If you lean into either Humanoid or Abberant too much, you’ll allow the Counteract system to tip in Hook’s favor rather than yours. Instead, you should try to use a team of at least two Mechanical Aether Spirits, one Abberant Spirit, and one Humanoid Spirit.

The team I used to beat Hook in one go included:

• Aurumaton Gatekeeper (Mechanical Overlord)
  • Level: Six
  • Expansion Chips: General Upgrade, Wind Shear Loophole, and Backstage Enhancement
• Warp Trotter (Abberant)
  • Level: Six
  • Expansion Chips: Deep Clean, Saturated Activation, Parallel Enhancement, and Malfunction
• Entranced Ingenium: Obedient Dracolion (Mechanical)
  • Level: Six
  • Expansion Chips: Sudden Evasion and Firewall
• Silvermane Cannoneer (Humanoid)
  • Level: Six
  • Expansion Chips: Auto-Repair and Morale Activation

With this kind of lineup, your Mechanical Aether Spirits won’t have any weaknesses to the Aether Spirits on Hook’s team but they will deal increased damage against all of her Abberrant sprits. Your singular Humanoid spirit will deal better damage against Hook’s Mechanical allies, but they will also be more prone to damage from Abberants.

Lastly, your singular Aberrant won’t deal any increased damage against Hook’s team, but the Warp Trotter is just too useful to leave behind and they’re quite tough, so you should have no issue keeping them alive in battle. You can swap out the Warp Trotter for another Mechanical unit if you’re struggling, but I prefer to keep them in every battle since they are the strongest Aether Spirit of all.

Hook will break down in tears after you beat her, but luckily, you’ll quickly come to find these are actually tears of happiness. This is the last official battle of the Aetherium Wars event, although you might still have some side quest Hyperlink Matches to complete before you’re completely done with it.

After you’ve beaten Hook in battle, you can then potentially add her to your roster for free. You’ll have your choice of one free four-star Belobog character and Hook is one of the options, so be sure to claim one of these recruits before the limited-time Aetherium Wars rewards are no longer available.