Best Light Cones for Kafka in Honkai: Star Rail

The elegant and cunning Kafka is making her highly anticipated debut for the second half of Honkai: Star Rail’s Version 1.2 update. Kafka is a powerful Nihility character with brutal Lightning powers, so if you’re adding her to your roster then you’ll need to equip her with the best Light Cone possible.

What are the best Light Cones for Kafka in Honkai: Star Rail?

Overall, the best Light Cone for Kafka is one that increases the effectiveness of her Nihility abilities including debuffs and damage over time.

The most important statistics for Kafka are:

• Attack
• Effect hit rate
• Critical rate
• Critical damage

All of Kafka’s abilities scale off of attack, so this is the most important statistic to focus on when building her. Effect hit rate is also crucial for her build since it will allow her to inflict status effects more frequently.

A good critical rate and critical damage ratio are crucial for just about any character build in Honkai: Star Rail, so if you want Kafka to be a solid damage dealer and a potent debuffer then building both is quite important.

Since Kafka is part of the Nihility path, she is focused on exposing enemies’ weaknesses and draining their health points over time. Characters who are part of this path are generally considered debuffers since their skill sets are specifically focused on inflicting status effects.

Although most Nihility characters are considered to be support units, Kafka’s impressive damage over time effects deals such solid damage that she makes both an adept damage dealer and a supporting character. Based on my experience with her, you’ll still generally want at least one other damage-dealing unit on your team for success, but Kafka certainly will be useful for both damage-dealing and debuffing.

All of the best Light Cones you can equip on Kafka are as follows. Every Light Cone is discussed at the lowest superimposition level, so if you manage to get more than one copy of any of them you can then choose to merge them to increase their effects.

Best five-star Light Cones for Kafka

To maximize Kafka’s potential, you’ll want to equip her with a five-star Light Cone if possible. Five-star Light Cones always have the most potent and powerful effects of all, so here are the best five-star choices for Kafka.

• Patience Is All You Need
  • “Spider Web” Ability: The equipping character deals 16 percent more damage against foes who are inflicted with damage over time. For each attack, this Light Cone also raises the wearer’s speed by four percent for up to a maximum of five times. All foes receiving attacks also take an additional 20 percent damage over time for one turn.
  • Kafka’s abilities are primarily focused on applying draining debuffs that deal damage over time. The Patience Is All You Need Light Cone is designed to complement Kafka’s abilities and is her signature Light Cone which makes it the best choice for her overall.

• Incessant Rain
  • “Mirage of Reality” Ability: Raises the equipping character’s effect hit rate by 24 percent. When the wearer deals damage against an enemy who has three or more debuffs, their critical rate is then raised by 12 percent. After the equipping recruit uses their basic attack, skill, or Ultimate there is a 100 percent chance of applying an Aether Code on a random target that doesn’t have one yet. Foes who have an Aether Code active on them receive 12 percent increased damage for one turn.
  • Silver Wolf’s signature Light Cone is also a strong choice for her fellow Stellaron Hunter Kafka. Both recruits are part of the Nihility path and focus on debuffing foes, so they have similar needs which is why this is a strong choice for Kafka too.
• In the Name of the World
  • “Inheritor” Ability: Raises the wearer’s damage against debuffed enemies by 24 percent. When the equipping character uses their skill, the effect hit rate of the attack is raised by 18 percent and attack is increased by 24 percent.
  • Although this Light Cone is technically designed for the five-star Imagonary character Welt, it is also a strong choice for Kafka since she also needs her effect hit rate raised and applies debuffs frequently.

Best four-star Light Cones for Kafka

Because five-star Light Cones are tough to get, most players will likely have a four-star option equipped on Kafka instead. Four-star Light Cones can still be quite powerful and there are many powerful options for Kafka.

• Eyes of the Prey
  • “Self-Confidence” Ability: Raises the equipping character’s effect hit rate by 20 percent and increases their damage over time by 24 percent.
  • The effects of this Light Cone are quite simple, but extremely effective for Kafka. This Light Cone is designed for Sampo, who is a four-star character that functions similarly to Kafka. Because of this, you’ll find that this is one of the best choices for Kafka if you cannot obtain a five-star Light Cone instead. Out of the available options, I believe this is the best four-star option for Kafka based on my experience with her.
• Before the Tutorial Mission Starts
  • “Quick on the Draw” Ability: Raises the equipping recruit’s effect hit rate by 20 percent. When the wearer strikes opponents who have reduced defense, four energy is regenerated.
  • Raising Kafka’s effect hit rate is a necessity for ensuring she is able to effectively apply her draining status effects. This Light Cone essentially raises Kafka’s chances of inflicting her foes with damage over time which is the most powerful part of her skillset.

Related: Best Light Cones for Blade in Honkai: Star Rail

• Fermata
  • “Semibreve Rest” Ability: Raises the wearer’s break effect by 16 percent and increases their damage against foes who are affected by Shock or Wind-Shear by 16 percent. This also affects damage over time.
  • Kafka will activate Shock frequently due to her Lightning-based abilities and this effect applies damage over time. Because of this, the effects of this Light Cone are a strong way to enhance Kafka’s powerful Nihility abilities.
• We Will Meet Again
  • “A Discourse in Arms” Ability: After the equipping recruit uses a basic attack or skill they then deal additional damage equal to 48 percent of their attack against a random foe that has already been attacked.
  • You might like this Light Cone for Kafka if you are looking for an additional damage boost based on her attack. Since you’ll be using Kafka’s basic attack and skill frequently, the effects of this Light Cone are quite powerful for her.

Best three-star Light Cones for Kafka

There are currently no great three-star Light Cones for Kafka to use, but more will likely arrive in the future. For now, there is just one three-star Light Cone that is a decent option for her.

• Hidden Shadow
  • “Mechanism” Ability: After a skill is used, the equipping character’s next basic attack deals additional damage equal to 60 percent of their attack against the targeted foe.
  • The effects of this Light Cone aren’t really targeted toward Kafka’s skills, but if you cannot obtain any of the better Light Cones then this is the best three-star option for her.

The debut run of Kafka’s “Nessun Dorma” banner will run from Aug. 9 to Aug. 29 for the entire second half of the Version 1.2 update. Since Honkai: Star Rail is still quite a new game that only launched on April 26, 2023, you can expect that Kafka will become unobtainable for quite a long time after her debut banner ends as more five-star new recruits become available.

If you’re hoping to add the Nihility character to your roster, you’ll want to pull for Kafka while she is available on her debut banner. Otherwise, you may not be able to obtain her for at least six months but likely even longer as it could be an entire year before the Stellaron Hunter returns.

We gathered this information by playing Honkai Star Rail Version 1.2 “Even Immortality Ends” on PC.