Summary
Honkai: Star Railhas loads of endgame content, one of them being the Simulated Universe. This is a rogue-like game mode that involves collecting buffs, also known as Blessings, to enhance your team’s combat ability and progress through multiple stages with increasingly difficult monsters.
You’re given the option to choose one of nine available Paths upon entering the Simulated Universe which will define your fate as you progress through the various stages. Your chosen path will buff a specific kind of stat or damage, and you can gain more buffs and even powerful Path Resonances as you defeat more monsters. Choosing the right path based on your team is the key to navigating this special game mode.
9Destruction
The Destruction is the Path presided by the Aeon Nanook. This Path rewards you for playing recklessly and allows you to increase your damagewhen you lose HPor get hit. Its Path Resonance can also deal huge damage the more HP you lose.
Despite that, the Destruction path falls short as it’s basically a weaker version of the other damage-oriented Paths. Most Destruction Blessings require your characters to be low on HP for a reasonable increase in ATK and DEF, but it also makes them susceptible to being one-shot by bosses. Overall, the other Paths just offer better buffs without any unnecessary trade-offs.
8Remembrance
The Remembrance is the Path presided by the Aeon Fuli. It’s one of the three Paths that are exclusive to the Simulated Universe and does not have any playable characters. This Path allows you to Freeze enemies on demand using its Path Resonance.
This Path is great not only for damage but also for survivability, because Frozen enemies are forced to skip a turn when they leave the Frozen state, allowing you to manipulate the enemies’ turn. However, its obvious weakness is that it’s mostly dependent on runningIce type charactersto reliably proc Freeze and make use of its buffs, making it a more niche option.
7Preservation
The Preservation is the Path presided by the Aeon Qlipoth. This Path revolves around the use and gaining of shields, with its Path Resonance allowing you to deal damage based on the total health of your shields.
As of Version 1.6, there are only four Preservation characters in the game, with only two of them being easily accessible (March 7th and Fire Trailblazer) and one more focusing on damage reduction rather than shielding (Fu Xuan), making the Preservation too restrictive in play style and teambuilding. And although it provides great survivability, its focus on defense will make it difficult to kill bosses fast enough. After a certain amount of turns, bosses will enter Berserk Mode, progressively increasing their damage the longer the fight continues.
6Abundance
The Abundance is the Path presided by the Aeon Yaoshi. It focuses on restoring HP and cleansing debuffs from allies. Its Path Resonance instantly heals the whole team while increasing their Max HP.
Just like the Preservation, the Abundance focuses heavily on survivability, but you might fail to output enough damage before bosses go berserk. However, some of its Blessings allow you to deal extra damage based on the amount of healing you output. It can also cleanse debuffs and revive fallen characters, so you may still find some use for it inlower Simulated Universe worlds, especially against Cocolia and her annoying Freezes.
5Elation
The Elation is the Path presided by the Aeon Aha. Like the Remembrance, it is also exclusive to the Simulated Universe. This Path focuses on increasing the damage dealt by follow-up attacks.
The Elation Path is great when paired with characters who can deal a lot of follow-up attack damage such as Jing Yuan, Clara andTopaz. Although it may not feel as impressive on other characters as it only buffs one specific type of damage, it has a Blessing that treats Ultimates as follow-up attacks, allowing your Ultimates to also benefit from the Path of Elation’s buffs.
4Erudition
The Erudition is the Path presided by the Aeon Nous and is the newest addition to the Simulated Universe after Version 1.6. It revolves around spending and refunding Energy, dealing multi-target damage, and playing around your Ultimate.
Its Path Resonance can link enemies together and when enemies are linked, they’ll still receive Ultimate Damage even if they aren’t targeted, which allows even non-Erudition characters to benefit from this Path. It’s especially devastating when paired with actual AOE characters. Although most of its Blessings are tied to AOE and Ultimate Damage, its Brain in a Vat mechanic allows you to use your Ultimate for an extra time.
3Propagation
The Propagation is the Path presided by the Aeon Tayzzyronth and the first to be added to the Simulated Universe during a later version. It also doesn’t have any playable characters. This Path revolves around buffing Basic ATK Damage, using and refunding Skill Points, and detonating something called Spores.
This Path is extremely powerful when paired with characters who can use a lot of Skill Points in a single turnsuch as Imbibitor Lunaeand Qingque, as well as Basic ATK-centered characters like Blade. Additionally, its Blessings can summon Spores that cling to multiple enemies and deal extra damage upon bursting.
2The Hunt
The Hunt is the Path presided by the Aeon Lan. Unlike the other Paths that focus on a specific type of damage or playstyle, the Hunt provides a straight-up boost to your combat capability by buffing your ATK, CRIT, Speed and DMG.
The Hunt is arguably the least restrictive Path in the Simulated Universe because it empowers everything you need in order to deal massive damage, making it usable not onlyfor Hunt charactersbut any damage-dealing character in general. Its Path Resonance is especially effective against wiping out weaker mobs summoned by bosses or in the lower chambers.
1Nihility
The Nihility is the Path presided by the Aeon IX. This Path focuses on applying debuffs and damage over time (DoT) to enemies as well as increasing your Break Efficiency and Break Effect. Though it may seem like it’s only good for DoT-focused characters like Kafka, Sampo, Luka and Guinaifen, it’s actually more powerful than you think.
Its Path Resonance and Blessings can apply debuffs and DoTs to enemies, which means you don’t even need to bring a single DoT character to benefit from this Path. Afterward, you’re able to just sit back and watch as the DoTs do all the work, dealing even bigger damage than your own characters as hundreds of DoT numbers fill the screen.
