How to Beat the Shadow of “Feixiao” in Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail update 2.5 brought an end to the return to the Xianzhou Luofu side story, and with it came a new weekly boss: the Shadow of “Feixiao.” The story versions of these bosses tend to be quite a bit tougher (for me) than the Echo of War version, but knowing how to beat the Shadow of Feixiao up front makes all subsequent fights trivial.

How to Beat the Shadow of Feixiao Weekly Boss

Like most weekly bosses, the Shadow of “Feixiao” is a three-phase fight. The first is against “Feixiao” alone. The second pits you against her and her wolf spirit summons, and the third expands on the mechanics of the second. First and foremost, you should bring a Fire, Quantum, or Physical DPS. Weakness Break is essential to making the Shadow of Feixiao fight easier, so I highly recommend you bring any of the following characters:

• Fire: Firefly, Topaz, Himeko (but only if you have no one else for Fire)
• Physical: Yunli or Clara (or both if you have them), Boothill
• Quantum: Seele, Jade, Xueyi (if you have no one else)

Of the above options, Firefly and Yunli would be my go-tos for fighting the Shadow of “Feixiao,” as they’re the most powerful DPS dealers in their class that can deal with multiple targets simultaneously. Firefly is probably best because of her innate Weakness Break potential. Boothill is another good option, but his focus on one target at a time hamstrings his utility in the fight’s later phases.

How to Beat the Shadow of “Feixiao” First Phase

The first phase of the Shadow of “Feixiao” fight is very straightforward. You face it on its own, and its main gimmick is giving itself three consecutive turns instead of the usual two via the Heaven’s Binds move. Other than that, the boss uses mostly low-damage single-target and AoE attacks that deal Wind damage but do not cause the Wind Sheer DoT debuff. You can, of course, still die if you can’t break the Shadow’s Toughness, but even Natasha can keep up with the damage of the Shadow’s first phase.

Get all your buffs and Ultimate energy to maximum during this phase. If you’re using Firefly’s team, get Ruan Mei or Asta’s buffs rolling, get Gallagher ready to Ult when you need more Fire break damage and a quick heal, and put both Firefly and Harmony Trailblazer into their respective states. Play Yunli or Clara the way you’d normally play them, and the same for Boothill. Note that debuffs and other effects do not transfer between boss phases, so you’ll need to apply everything again once the real fight starts.

How to Beat the Shadow of “Feixiao” Second Phase

The second phase of the Shadow of “Feixiao” fight is the first actual test. You’ll have four targets to deal with, including the Shadow itself. However, don’t focus your attacks on the Shadow because it’s not the threat here. Rather, you need to break the other three parts as quickly as possible. Each of them gets a turn of their own, meaning it’s technically a four-on-four fight now, and each of the boss’ four parts have their attacks.

• The Tail Ornament uses a Wind damage AoE.
• The wolf head summons an energy ball to do AoE Wind damage.
• The wolf claw strikes the entire body for AoE Wind damage. If it manages to hit, its damage increases.
• The tail ornament summons a tornado that does AoE Wind damage. If it hits, it applies Weaken to allies.

Each of these four parts of the boss acts independently of the other and has its own Toughness bars. They also share a single health bar, so damage to one is damage to all. Note that Weakness Break damage to parts does more damage than if you were attacking the Shadow, so long as they resonate. So, if you want to focus on keeping one of them broken at all times, you can, but there’s a problem if you do that.

Leave even one of the parts unbroken; it will act on each turn as expected. If all four parts are active during their collective turn, they instead unleash a massive whirlwind that deals about triple the damage of any one attack. You can stop this Resonance by breaking any of the boss’ parts. Doing so not only stops the larger attack but also advances the action of your entire party, giving you another set of turns for free.

The Shadow of “Feixiao” itself can restore it and the other parts’ Toughness on its turn, so keep an eye on the turn tracker to see when the Shadow acts twice. Prioritize breaking a single part at a time or as many as you can as quickly as you can. The parts all have different Weaknesses, and they don’t share one across all of them. Fire is the most common, save for the tail ornament, which is weak only to Physical and Quantum.

How to Beat the Shadow of “Feixiao” Third Phase

The third phase of the Shadow of “Feixiao” fight tests everything you’ve learned in the first two. Here, the Shadow portion can once again instantly restore its other parts’ Toughness, but doing so also puts it in a preparatory state for a huge attack. There is no way to stop the attack from occurring, but each part of the boss you Weakness Break significantly reduces the damage the attack will cause.

The Shadow of “Feixiao” and its parts can also use their regular attacks on their turns. When the turn order reaches the boss icon while it’s shining bright red, the big attack sequence begins again. This process repeats until either you beat the boss or it beats you.

My best piece of advice for this third phase is: do not spend resources breaking the boss’s Toughness bars until its big attack sequence begins. Instead, use normal attacks to bank Skill Points and build some extra Ultimate energy. Once the sequence starts, unleash hell. If possible, break the Toughness of all three active target parts, but if you have a top-tier sustain like Aventurine, you might be able to tank the whole thing. You shouldn’t, but you can for a laugh.

The Shadow of “Feixiao” is ultimately a damage and Weakness Break race. The faster you can put the Shadow on the backfoot, the faster you can take it down. Don’t be like me, and try to use one of Feixiao’s teams for the fight because the only thing you’ll be breaking is with her Ultimate. Aventurine hard carried my sorry behind, and Firefly made the fight so much more comfortable.

Those are my best tips for beating the Shadow of “Feixiao” story and Echo of War boss in Honkai: Star Rail. Get used to the fight because I’ve no doubt you’ll be doing it quite a bit as more characters release that require the materials the encounter rewards.

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