Cipher Skill Kit & Playstyle Analysis

General Introduction

Cipher is a 5-star character of the Quantum elements and Nihility Path. She excels at moving extremely fast in battle to inflict enemies with devastating defense reduction debuffs while also increasing the damage they take from allies, helping to supplement the damage output of the team by a large margin while dealing good damage herself.

Skill Analysis & Leveling Priority

	Deal Quantum Damage to a single enemy
	Leveling Priority: Low
Basic Attack
Reason: Only level this up if you want to maximize Cipher’s damage, otherwise it doesn’t affect her overall damage output too much.

	Inflicts Weaken on the enemy and the adjacent target, decreasing their attack.Increase Cipher’s attack by 30%.Deals Quantum damage to the enemy and the adjacent targets.
	Leveling Priority: High
Skill
Reason: Leveling this up will help increase the damage dealt to enemies. Since Cipher will use this as her main damage source most of the time, it is highly recommended to level this ability up.

	Deal Quantum Damage to 1 Enemy. Then Deal True Damage Equal to 25% of the Talent’s Tally to that enemy.Afterwards, Deal Quantum Damage to 1 enemy and the adjacent targets. Then additionally deal true damage equal to 75% of the Talent’s Tally to the enemy and their adjacent targets.
	Leveling Priority: High
Ultimate
Reason: Leveling this allows Cipher to deal even more Quantum damage to enemies. However, please note that level this up will not increase the True Damage modifiers.

	Designate the Enemy with the most HP as “Patron”When an ally attacks the “Patron”, deal a follow up Attack against the enemy. Tally 12% of non-true Damage dealt by all allies to the Patron. This tally clears after using Ultimate
	Leveling Priority: Medium
Talent
Reason: Leveling this up helps boost Cipher’s Follow Up Attack’s damage, so level this up if you want to maximize Cipher’s damage output.

	When Cipher’s SPD is higher than or equal to 140/170, CRIT Rate increases by 25%/50%, and the gained tally increases by 50%/100%.
	Unlock Priority: High
Bonus Ability 1
Reason: Provides Cipher with massive critical stat boost in addition to increasing her Tally amounts, massively boosting Cipher’s damage potential.

	Cipher can tally 8% of the non-True DMG dealt by ally targets to the enemy targets other than the “Patron.” Overflow DMG is not tallied.
	Unlock Priority: High
Bonus Ability 2
Reason: Offer an additional way for Cipher to increase her Tally when allies hit enemies that are not the “Patron”.

	Increases the CRIT DMG dealt by the Talent’s Follow-Up ATK by 100%. When Cipher is on the battlefield, DMG received by all enemy targets increases by 40%.
	Unlock Priority: Highest
Bonus Ability 3
Reason: Massively boosting Cipher’s Follow Up Attack damage output while providing Cipher with her primary gimmick of increasing all damage taken by enemies when she is on the field.

Playstyle Guide & Rotation

Cipher’s kit and abilities are quite simple to understand and grasp. She functions primarily as a debuffer and sub DPS in the team, with her abilities allowing her to massively enhance the damage taken by all enemies and reduce their defense with her attacks, allowing the team to deal more damage when she is around.

When on the field, Cipher will make all enemies take 40% more damage simply by existing. Additionally, the enemy with the most HP will be designated as the Patron enemy. Whenever an ally attacks the Patron, Cipher will immediately deal a Follow Up Attack to them and record a portion of the ally’s damage for her Ultimate.

After recording the damage dealt by allies against enemies, upon using her Ultimate, Cipher will deal True damage to enemies proportional to the amount of damage she recorded, allowing her to deal devastating amounts of damage.

Cipher’s gameplan is simple, take turns as quickly as possible to inflict enemies with her defense reduction debuffs, records all allies’ damage, then, once she has recorded a good amount of damage and her Ultimate is ready, unleash a big chunk of True damage on enemies to finish them off.

Cipher Best In Slot And F2P Lightcones

Cipher Best Lightcone Choices

Some of Cipher’s Best Lightcone Choices are:

Lies Dance on the Breeze	Holiday Thermae Escapade	Resolution Shines As Pearls of Sweat
Limited 5* Lightcone	Battle Pass 4* Lightcone	Gacha 4* Lightcone

	Attack: 582
	Defense: 529
	HP: 952
Lies Dance on the Breeze	Lightcone Rating: Best In Slot
Effect: Increases the wearer’s SPD by 18%. After the wearer uses an attack, there is a 120% base chance to inflict the “Bamboozle” state on every enemy target. While under the “Bamboozle” state, enemy targets have their DEF decreased by 16% for 2 turn(s). If the wearer’s SPD is higher than or equal to 170, there is a 120% base chance to inflict the “Theft” state on every enemy target. While under the “Theft” state, enemy targets have their DEF decreased by 8% for 2 turn(s). When “Bamboozle” or “Theft” is repeatedly inflicted, only the most recently inflicted instance takes effect.
Explanation: Cipher’s signature lightcone and her best in slot lightcone thanks to its ability to boost Cipher’s speed stat and allow her to inflict 2 debuffs on enemies whenever she attacks, massively reducing enemies’ defenses and allow her to enable different debuff-based team comps.

	Attack: 529
	Defense: 330
	HP: 1058
Holiday Thermae Escapade	Lightcone Rating: Best Alternative
Effect: Increases the wearer’s DMG dealt by 16%. After the wearer attacks, there is a 100% base chance that the attacked target is inflicted with Vulnerability, increasing the DMG they receive by 10% for 2 turn(s). The same effect type cannot be stacked
Explanation: The Battle Pass alternative option for Cipher, offering her a damage increase buff while also allowing her to inflict a damage taken increase debuff on enemies whenever she attacks.

	Attack: 476
	Defense: 330
	HP: 952
Resolution Shines As Pearls of Sweat	Lightcone Rating: Best F2P Lightcone
Effect: When the wearer hits an enemy and if the hit enemy is not already “Ensnared,” then there is a 60% base chance to “Ensnare” the hit enemy. “Ensnared” enemies’ DEF decreases by 12% for 1 turn(s).
Explanation: The best F2P Lightcone for Cipher that allows her to inflict a defense reduction debuff on enemies whenever she attacks.

Optimize Cipher’s debuffing capabilities by rolling her signature Lightcone with the help of Enjoygm Honkai Star Rail Top Up.

Cipher Best Relics, Ornament Set and Stats

Cipher Best Relics And Ornament Sets

For Relics, the best Relic Set on Cipher is the Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters set as it provides Cipher with much needed critical stats while also boosting her damage output against debuffed enemies.

	Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters
2-pc: Increases DMG dealt to enemies with debuff by 12%.
4-pc: Increases CRIT Rate by 4%. The wearer deals 8%/12% increased CRIT DMG to enemies with at least 2/3 debuffs. After the wearer inflicts a debuff on enemy targets, the aforementioned effects increase by 100%, lasting for 1 turn(s).
Explanation: This set provides Cipher with additional Critical Rate and Critical Damage against enemies with debuffs. Since Cipher can inflict debuffs on enemies whenever she acts, this effect will last permanently, boosting Cipher’s overall damage output immensely.

For Ornaments, Cipher should use either the Firmament Frontline Glamoth Ornament set for generic team building and overall damage boost. Or she could use the Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm Ornament Set when running in an Acheron team to get an additional Critical Rate boost, further lowering her stat requirements.

	Firmament Frontline Glamoth
2-pc: Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When the wearer’s SPD is equal to or higher than 135/160, the wearer deals 12%/18% more DMG.
Explanation: Offers Cipher a generic boost in damage since she will need to reach 170 speed anyway, allowing her to take full advantage of the set effects.

	Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm
2-pc: Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When entering battle, if at least one other ally follows the same Path as the wearer, then the wearer’s CRIT Rate increases by 12%.
Explanation: Provides Cipher with a good attack buff in addition to a 12% critical rate increase when she is in the same team as Acheron, helping players to focus on building her with more Critical Damage to further optimize her damage.

Cipher Best Main Stats & Sub Stats

As a sub DPS and support debuffer character, Cipher wants to have as much speed as possible so that she can inflict debuffs on enemies as quickly as possible. Additionally, with how her kit is critical based, she would want to have as many critical stats as possible as well.

Important Stat Threshold:

– Cipher needs to be able to reach 170 speed to activate both her talent’s critical boost effect and her Signature Lightcone’s additional effect, so players should make that the target when building her.

– As Cipher’s talent supplies her with a free 50% critical rate when she reaches 170 spd, players can focus on building her with more critical damage than critical rate to optimize her damage output.

– To guarantee her debuffs, players should aim for at least 38% Effect Hit Rate on Cipher.

Cipher Best Teams 

Acheron Hypercarry Team

Acheron	Cipher	Jiaoqiu	Aventurine
Main DPS	Sub DPS/ Support	Support	Sustain

Cipher slots perfectly into the Acheron team as one of her debuffing support and sub DPS character, as Cipher can inflict up to 2 different debuffs whenever she attacks enemies if she is equipped with her signature Lightcone. Additionally, with the help of Jiaoqiu and Cipher, Acheron can ignore up a large portion of enemies defenses while dealing massive amounts of damage thanks to their damage taken increase effects on all enemies. Any sustain characters with the ability to inflict debuffs on enemies can be slotted in as the last character for this comp.

Follow Up Attack Team

Feixiao	Cipher	Robin	Lingsha
Main DPS	Sub DPS/ Support	Support	Sustain

As Cipher can trigger Follow Up Attack whenever an ally attacks the main “Patron” target, Cipher can be used in a Follow Up Attack team comp as a support/ Sub DPS option to increase the overall damage dealt of all allies. Feixiao or Dr.Ratio can function as the team’s main DPS option, with Feixiao being able to do Follow Up Attacks whenever allies do Follow Up Attacks and Dr.Ratio benefiting immensely from Cipher’s ability to inflict debuffs. The other sub DPS/ Support option can be other Follow Up characters like Tribbie, Topaz or Robin. For sustain, players should consider either Lingsha or Aventurine for their Follow Up Attack oriented skill kits.

Conclusion

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