Version 3.8 Light Cone Banner Overview
Launch Times:
- NA: Dec 16, 2025, 10:00 PM UTC-5
- Asia/EU: Dec 17, 2025, 11:00 AM UTC+8
Phase 1 (Dec 16 - Jan 7): Never Forget Her Flame + Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest. 4-stars: Concert for Two, Memories of the Past, Good Night and Sleep Well.
Phase 2 (Jan 7 - Jan 28): Long Road Leads Home + Scent Alone Stays True. 4-stars: Geniuses' Repose, The Moles Welcome You, Post-Op Conversation.
Phase 3 (Jan 28 - Feb 12): Time Woven Into Gold + A Grounded Ascent. 4-stars: Geniuses' Greetings, Trend of the Universal Market, Dance! Dance! Dance!.
Standard 80-pull hard pity, 75% featured rate-up applies. Buy Honkai Star Rail stellar jade at BitTopup for competitive rates.
New vs Rerun Light Cones
Never Forget Her Flame (new): 1164 HP, 529 ATK, 463 DEF. 60% Break Effect baseline. Passive: +32% Break DMG for wearer and highest Break Effect ally. Skill Point recovery on Weakness Break (resets after Ultimate).
Reruns align with character banners:
- Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest (Ruan Mei): Routed debuff (-20% Speed, +24% Break DMG for 2 turns)
- Long Road Leads Home (Fugue): Nihility debuff support
- Scent Alone Stays True (Lingsha): Abundance Break-healing hybrid
- Time Woven Into Gold (Aglaea): Remembrance path signature
- A Grounded Ascent (Sunday): 6 Energy after Skill/Ultimate on allies, Hymn stacks (+15% DMG, max 3), 1 Skill Point recovery per 2 activations
Must-Have Light Cone Tier List
S-Tier
A Grounded Ascent: Best Harmony option. Energy regen accelerates Ultimate rotations, Hymn stacks provide unconditional DMG boost, Skill Point recovery solves resource issues. Universal compatibility with future supports.
Time Woven Into Gold: Aglaea's signature. Remembrance path specialization. Expect 30-40% performance gain over alternatives.
Never Forget Her Flame: S-tier for Break teams only. 32% Break DMG affects two characters simultaneously. Skill Point recovery sustains Break rotations. 85-90% of Whereabouts value at S1 with superior team-wide benefits.
A-Tier
Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest: Routed debuff creates extra turns via Speed reduction. 24% Break DMG synergizes with Ruan Mei + Harmony Trailblazer. High priority if missing.
Long Road Leads Home: Fugue's signature for debuff teams. Strong for Acheron/Black Swan compositions.
Scent Alone Stays True: Lingsha's signature. Lower priority—Abundance Light Cones show smaller performance gaps than DPS paths.
B-Tier
Dance! Dance! Dance!: 16% action advance for all allies post-Ultimate. Best 4-star for Pure Fiction multi-wave content.
Geniuses' Repose: Energy regen for Erudition (Herta/Jade). Viable 5-star alternative in AoE scenarios.
F2P Alternatives
Memories of the Past: 28% Break Effect at S5. Budget Never Forget Her Flame for secondary Break DPS.
Post-Op Conversation: Energy regen for healers. Premier F2P Abundance option at S5.
Trend of the Universal Market: Defense scaling for Preservation. Optimal F2P for March 7th/Gepard.
Path-Specific Analysis
Harmony: A Grounded Ascent dominates. Enables 3-turn Ultimate cycles for Sunday, competes with Robin/Sparkle.
Nihility: Three options span all phases. Never Forget Her Flame for Break teams, Long Road for debuff teams, Whereabouts for Ruan Mei.
Remembrance: Time Woven Into Gold required for Aglaea optimization. New path limits long-term value assessment.
Destruction/Hunt: No 3.8 options. Skip version for established DPS rosters.
Erudition: Geniuses' Repose in Phase 2 4-star pool. The Seriousness of Breakfast (Herta Store) remains best F2P.
Preservation/Abundance: Scent Alone Stays True only option. Texture of Memories (F2P) adequate for most content.
Character Synergy Guide
The Dahlia + Never Forget Her Flame: Mandatory pairing. 60% Break Effect + 32% Break DMG + Skill Point recovery = max Break potential.
Sunday + A Grounded Ascent: 35-40% improvement over But the Battle Isn't Over. Energy regen enables extra Ultimate per cycle.
Fugue + Long Road Leads Home: Accelerates Acheron Ultimate charge via increased debuff frequency.
Ruan Mei + Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest: 30% advantage over Memories of the Past. Speed reduction creates action economy.
Best-in-Slot vs Budget
- Never Forget Her Flame: 35% over Memories (S5), 45% in dual-Break-DPS teams
- A Grounded Ascent: 28% over But the Battle Isn't Over in hypercarry setups
- Whereabouts: 30% over Memories via Routed debuff turn advantage
Team Composition Impact
Hypercarry: Prioritize Harmony Light Cones over DPS weapons. A Grounded Ascent > signature DPS weapons for team-wide benefit.
Break Effect: Coordinate investments. The Dahlia/Firefly/Ruan Mei/HMC needs Never Forget + Whereabouts simultaneously.
DoT: Skip 3.8 entirely. No Kafka/Black Swan synergies.
Refinement Priority
S1 vs S5 Performance Gaps
- Never Forget Her Flame: 32% → 56% Break DMG (75% relative, 15-18% actual damage increase)
- A Grounded Ascent: 45% → 75% total DMG at max stacks (meaningful but not essential)
- Whereabouts: 24% → 40% Break DMG (12-15% actual increase)
Resource Efficiency
New S1 acquisition > refinement. S1 costs 65-70 pulls average, provides 100% base value. S2 costs identical but adds only 20-25% value.
Priority hierarchy: Characters > Essential Light Cone S1 > Secondary Light Cone S1 > Refinements.
Endgame Breakpoints
Memory of Chaos rarely requires S1+ refinements with optimized builds. Pure Fiction benefits from AoE Light Cone refinements. Apocalyptic Shadow shows strongest refinement case for sustained DPS checks.
F2P Strategy
60-70 pulls/version budget = 1.5-2 five-stars total.
Top 4-Star Competitors
- Memories of the Past: 70-75% of Never Forget Her Flame at S5
- Post-Op Conversation: 80-85% of premium Abundance performance
- Dance! Dance! Dance!: Unique action advance competes with 5-stars in Ultimate teams
Herta Store Priority
- Memories of the Past (S5) - Break support
- Post-Op Conversation (S5) - Abundance sustain
- Trend of Universal Market (S5) - Preservation shields
- Seriousness of Breakfast (S5) - Erudition damage
Pull Framework
Tier 1: Characters enabling new archetypes Tier 2: DPS signatures with 30%+ improvements Tier 3: Support signatures enabling new compositions Tier 4: Refinements/secondary acquisitions
Skip Conditions
Skip when featured weapons don't match roster, upcoming characters have higher priority, F2P alternatives provide 75%+ effectiveness, or team gaps need character fills.
3.8 = skip for non-Break/non-Remembrance accounts. Exception: A Grounded Ascent offers universal Harmony value.
Endgame Performance Testing
Memory of Chaos (Floor 12)
The Dahlia/Ruan Mei/HMC/Gallagher:
- Never Forget Her Flame (S1): 2:45 avg
- Memories of the Past (S5): 3:20 avg
- Differential: 21% faster
Sunday Hypercarry:
- A Grounded Ascent (S1): 2:30 avg
- But the Battle Isn't Over (S5): 3:15 avg
- Differential: 23% faster
Pure Fiction Scores
Dance! Dance! Dance!: 38,000-40,000 scores, approaching premium Harmony performance.
Geniuses' Repose: 12-15% improvement over Seriousness of Breakfast via faster Ultimates.
Apocalyptic Shadow
Never Forget Her Flame: 3-cycle clears vs 4-cycle with Memories (25% damage improvement).
A Grounded Ascent: Reduces cycles by 0.5-1 via Ultimate frequency + DMG amp.
Damage Calculations
Never Forget Her Flame:
- Break Effect: 210% total (60% LC + 150% relics)
- Break DMG: 3.12x multiplier (32% LC + 50% Ruan + 30% HMC)
Memories of the Past:
- Break Effect: 178% total (28% LC + 150% relics)
- Break DMG: 2.80x multiplier (50% Ruan + 30% HMC)
Result: 11.4% damage differential + Skill Point recovery = 21-25% practical improvement.
Common Mistakes
Always pull signatures: False. Most provide 25-35% gains—meaningful but not mandatory. Evaluate via opportunity cost vs new characters.
Dismissing 4-stars: Memories/Post-Op/Dance achieve 70-85% of 5-star effectiveness at S5. Sufficient for all content.
Ignoring team synergy: Light Cone value derives from team performance, not individual power. A Grounded Ascent's value = enabling hypercarry, not Sunday's personal damage.
Refinement trap: S1 → S2 = 15-25% gain. New weapon = new team composition. Establish S1 first policy.
Resource Planning
Pull Requirements
- Hard pity: 80 pulls
- Soft pity: starts pull 63
- Rate-up: 75% featured
Worst case: 160 pulls (80 × 2 after losing rate-up) Average: 86 pulls (65 soft pity × 1.33) Budget: 90-100 pulls per target
Pity Mechanics
Soft pity (pull 63-73) = 50% chance of 5-star. Pity carries between same Light Cone banners, resets on rotation changes. 25% off-banner rate requires accounting for failure scenarios.
3.8 Resource Allocation
F2P budget: 60-70 pulls/phase = 180-210 total.
Break Focus: The Dahlia (90) + Never Forget (90) = 180 pulls Hypercarry Focus: Sunday (90) + A Grounded Ascent (90) = 180 pulls Balanced: 1 character + 1 Light Cone across preferred phases
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Future-Proofing
Long-Term Meta Relevance
A Grounded Ascent: Universal Harmony benefits = multi-year value. Functions independently of character kits/meta trends.
Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest: Break meta persistence + Speed reduction scaling with HP pools = increasing value as difficulty rises.
Never Forget Her Flame: Medium-term (2-3 versions). Specialized Break focus risks obsolescence from future alternatives.
Versatile Collection Framework
One premium weapon per path:
- Destruction: On the Fall of an Aeon
- Hunt: Cruising in the Stellar Sea
- Erudition: Seriousness of Breakfast (F2P)
- Harmony: A Grounded Ascent
- Nihility: Whereabouts/Along the Passing Shore
- Preservation: Texture of Memories (F2P)
- Abundance: Post-Op Conversation (F2P)
Expand horizontally (coverage) before vertically (refinements).
FAQ
Best Light Cones in 3.8? A Grounded Ascent (universal Harmony), Never Forget Her Flame (Break teams), Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest (Break support).
Are signatures worth it? Depends on roster. A Grounded Ascent justifies investment via qualitative benefits. Never Forget essential for Break teams only. Evaluate based on account needs.
Refinements or new Light Cones? New S1 acquisitions always. Refinement = 15-25% gain. New weapon = new team options. S1 first policy.
F2P alternatives? Memories of the Past (70-75% of Never Forget at S5), Post-Op Conversation (80-85% of premium Abundance), Dance! Dance! Dance! (competes in Ultimate teams).
Stellar Jade needed? 90-100 pulls (14,400-16,000 Jade) per target. Worst case: 160 pulls (25,600 Jade). Average: 86 pulls (13,760 Jade).
Memory of Chaos priorities? Harmony/Nihility Light Cones for team-wide buffs. A Grounded Ascent + Whereabouts top tier. DPS weapons secondary—team composition > individual upgrades.
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