Don’t like giant bugs? Kill them in great quantities when you learn how to beat Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz (Synthetic) in Honkai: Star Rail. Introduced as the final boss of the Crown of the Mundane and Divine Trailblaze Mission Extension and available after as an Echo of War encounter, he can be a pain without the right team and strategy.
How to Kill Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz in Honkai: Star Rail
Unlike end-of-story-arc bosses Cocolia, Phantylia, or The Great Septimus, fighting the Starcrusher Swarm King is a bit more straightforward. Don’t let the encounter’s relative simplicity fool you, though. This big bug packs a wallop and is very fond of summoning friends to its aid. Like all Honkai: Star Rail bosses, it also gets two turns before your characters can act again, and if you don’t deal with the standard mobs it creates, you’ll be in for a world of hurt.
First Boss Fight Phase
In the first of the fight’s two phases, there are only a few attacks to worry about. The most dangerous is called Radiating Venom, and sees the boss sending out large amounts of energy attacks in two waves, dealing heavy damage and potentially Ensnaring the character hit. Ensnare is the Quantum status effect, and not only does it delay the affected character’s turn, but it deals a solid chunk of damage when it wears off. The other three primary attacks are a weaker, multi-hit combo, a single, large projectile that deals moderate damage, and a blast attack that deals solid damage to one character and less to the two adjacent ones.
The remaining mechanic in the first phase is the Carapace of Forgotten Spawn, which surrounds the Swarm King in a shield that summons up to four additional Swarm enemies whenever you hit the boss. These enemies might be standard Swarm or the orange kind that explode after a duration. Left alone, both the boss and the enemies can combine for seven total attacks before you can take a single action. However, if you defeat any of the tiny insects, they explode, deal damage, and apply a Vulnerability debuff to the boss. Plus, if you Break the boss’s Toughness, its shield explodes, chunking its health by about 20%.
Second Boss Fight Phase
The second phase of the fight is a lot like the first, with one exception: the boss’s ultimate attack, Ovum of Collapsed Star, which it uses two turns after activating its shield. This attack can easily deal 3,000 or more damage to every member of your team, which can one-shot the likes of Fu Xuan if she absorbs too much damage and doesn’t have enough mitigation.
In my testing, you will always deal with at least one Starcrusher Swarm King ultimate per fight, and how quickly you can bounce back will determine the rest of the fight. The boss has no additional attacks but can continue using Ovum of Collapsing Star every few turns until it’s dead, so you’ll absolutely want to kill it before a second attack goes off.
Best Characters to Beat Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz in Honkai: Star Rail
Ultimately, you want to beat Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz as quickly as possible to avoid it getting too much momentum with additional mobs, especially its Ult in the second phase. You also need solid damage mitigation, or on-demand heals to ensure you can quickly recover from Ovum of Collapsed Star. To that end, there are a few characters who immediately come to mind when fighting the Swarm King, but there are plenty of good options if you don’t have the absolute best ones on tap.
| Character | Role/Strategy |
|---|---|
| Aventurine | Aventurine is simply the best damage mitigation unit in Honkai: Star Rail, and if you stack his shields high enough, even the Ovum attack is nothing to worry about. Use his Ultimate whenever possible to work on Breaking the boss, and always have a Skill Point handy to apply more shields. |
| Pela | As both a single-target and AoE debuffer, Pela is fantastic for this fight, as she can not only apply Defense shred to the entire enemy squad, but she also Breaks the Ice weakness all the enemies have. Her Skill and Basic Attack each have their uses, and her Ult is a great follow-up to the Swarm King summoning more mobs. |
| Jingliu | The Break Effect meta is coming, and Ruan Mei not only extends any Break you apply to Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz, but she also comes with incredible damage buffs for your whole team. Keep her Skill active and use her Ultimate wisely, and Skaracabaz might never get a turn. |
| Robin | As a buff unit, there are few better suited to fighting the Swarm King than Robin. She can do Physical damage to help break its Toughness, buff your follow-up attack characters, action-forward the rest of your squad with her Ultimate, and generally be a benefit to any other team setup. |
| Dan Heng, Imbibitor Lunae | While not as immediately useful as Jingliu, Handsomer Dan Heng can still do work on the Swarm King’s Toughness, and with enough investment, he can keep the mobs in check, as well. You’ll need to watch your Skill Point economy a bit more with him, too. |
| Dr. Ratio | Dr. Ratio isn’t going to be doing any group clearing, but between his high single-target Imaginary damage and consistent follow-up attacks, he can quickly chunk the Swarm King’s health. He’ll need to focus his attention on the boss almost exclusively, but he can do so with ease and grace. |
| Acheron | The only reason Acheron is so far down on this list is she has no immediate synergy in fighting Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz. Like every other encounter in the game, her damage is so high she brute forces the fight. If you pulled her, keep those debuffs rolling and use Acheron’s Ult whenever available. |
| Silver Wolf | Should you bring another DPS that can’t inherently break the Swarm King’s weakness, Silver Wolf is there to give them that weakness for you. That and her Basic Attack applies one of three debuffs, meaning she adds value every turn. |
| Ruan Mei | The Break Effect meta is coming, and Ruan Mei not only extends any Break you apply to Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz, she also comes with incredible damage buffs for your whole team. Keep her Skill active and use her Ultimate wisely, and Skaracabaz might never get a turn. |
| Sparkle | If you have Sparkle, there are very few encounters where she doesn’t immediately make things easier. While she doesn’t have any innate synergy with the Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz fight, she can empower those who do, and her ability to give Skill Points back to the team ensures even the likes of Dan Heng IL always have ammo to spare. |
Those are my best tips and characters you can use to beat Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz (Synthetic) in Honkai: Star Rail. It’s a very simple fight: do enough DPS, mitigate enough damage, and control the flow of the encounter, and you’ll win. For more content, check out Honkai: Star Rail our guides hub.
