Honkai Star Rail has completely revamped its repeatable Simulated Universe with an all-new mode called Swarm Disaster that lets players earn thousands of free Stellar Jades and other rewards. Added in Version 1.3 alongside new 5-Star characters Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae and Fu Xuan, the Swarm Disaster event is a permanent addition to Honkai Star Rail and won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
While it shares most of its DNA with the original Simulated Universe mode, Swarm Disaster has several tweaks that make it feel like an entirely new game. It can be overwhelming at first, so this guide will walk you through the basics of Swarm Disaster in Honkai Star Rail’s Simulated Universe.
What is Swarm Disaster in Honkai Star Rail?
Swarm Disaster is an all-new mode for Simulated Universe in Honkai Star Rail. It released on September 6, 2023, but it’s not a limited-time event, so it’ll be available permanently. To unlock it, you need to have cleared World 5 of the Simulated Universe on any difficulty. Then, you’ll get the introduction quest and take your first dive into the Swarm Disaster mode. You can access Swarm Disaster at any time from its unique icon next to World 7 in the Simulated Universe menu.
How Swarm Disaster Works
Swarm Disaster takes place on a board of tiles that act as the levels that you’d fight through in a normal Simulated Universe run. At the beginning of a run, you’ll choose a Path and Aeon just like usual, only this time your choice affects the Audience Dice that you’ll encounter during your playthrough.
Related: How to Bid Farewell to Everyone in Honkai Star Rail | Obsequies Performed Quest Guide
After every encounter, you will roll the dice to decide which buff you’ll get on your next turn. These are preset based on which Path you choose. For example, the Destruction Path comes with buffs that can increase your damage by 50% in your next battle or allow you to claim a tile’s rewards without needing to fight.
As you progress toward the boss of each plane, you’ll collect Blessings and Cosmic Fragments like normal. There’s a countdown limiting your adventure, however, and enemies will receive boosted attack and defense stats once it reaches zero and those buffs will increase every turn after that.
Also, tiles can become infested with a swarm which makes them more difficult and changes the enemy type to the new insect enemies added in this update (hence the name Swarm Disaster). Defeating swarm-infested encounters will let you pick Blessings from the new Path of Propagation, however, so it’s worth it. At the very end of your run, you’ll battle the new Swarm: True Sting boss. Path of Propagation Blessings can make this fight a lot easier.
All Domain Types in Swarm Disaster
There are 9 different domains you can encounter in the Swarm Disaster mode of the Simulated Universe in Honkai Star Rail.
- Blank
- Combat
- Elite
- Occurrence
- Adventure
- Reward
- Transaction
- Respite
- Boss
Related: Honkai Star Rail Argenti: Release Date, Banner, Kit, and Leaks
Combat, Occurrence, and Boss domains can be infested with a swarm, so keep that in mind as you move across the board during a Swarm Disaster run. Each of the domains functions as it normally does in the Simulated Universe otherwise.
How to Unlock New Audience Dice Paths
You’ll start out with the Destruction Path for the Swarm Disaster tutorial, but the other Paths can be chosen on subsequent runs. All of the 7 base game Paths are easy enough to unlock, only requiring you to collect a certain number of Cosmic Fragments or trigger Planar Disarray for the first time, but unlocking the new Path of Propagation requires you to complete every chapter of the Swarm Disaster event. This will unlock a new mission called Swarm Disaster: The End, which rewards the Path upon completion.
How to Unlock New Chapters
You can unlock new chapters in Swarm Disaster by advancing the Trail of Pathstrider, which is Swarm Disaster’s version of the normal Simulated Universe skill tree. By collecting Cosmic Fragments during Swarm Disaster runs, you’ll acquire Communing Trail points that will slowly unlock the chapters for each Path.
As you get more Communing Trail points for a Path, you will unlock more of that Path’s bonuses. For example, unlocking the first part of the Trail of Pathstrider by collecting 750 Cosmic Fragments will net you one Communing Trail point for the Path of Preservation and two for the Path of Nihility. That’s enough to get the level one upgrade for each of the two Paths, which are a defense boost and a DOT boost respectively.
Unlocking new chapters will net you some Stellar Jade, Credits, and Supply Material Boxes. Completing all chapters will unlock the finale mission for the Swarm Disaster storyline and let you choose the Path of Propagation for future Swarm Disaster runs.
How to Defeat the True Sting Boss
The Swarm True Sting final boss is a challenging one, but we have some tips for you to come out on top and defeat it. Let’s review each phase for the boss and the best methods to succeed.
First Phase
During the first phase of the fight, the Swarm True Sting will summon Juvenile Sting enemies, essentially a smaller form of the boss. Your objective is to take these little guys out first, as they can easily overwhelm you with damage. When you defeat the Juvenile Stings, it will cause a ripple effect that will damage the other Juvenile Stings through a Vulnerability status effect (increases damage taken).
As you fight through this phase, the Juvenile Stings will inflict “Wind Shear” debuffs upon your party, increasing the damage you take. To counter this, use any cleanse debuffs in your arsenal to remove the status effect. Or, you can also use the Abundance Path Resonance with the Anicca Blessing, removing the Wind Shear effect.
Second Phase
During the second phase of the boss fight, True Sting will summon a beast called “Lesser Sting,” which debuffs members of your party with Outrage. Outrage will prevent any party member from using Skills against the enemy.
You can easily counter being inflicted with Outrage by defeating the Lesser Sting, so focus all your attacks on it.
Third Phase
During the last and final phase of the True Sting boss fight, True Sting will duplicate itself and create a clone. Focus your attacks and skills on the True Sting with the smaller-sized health bar. Doing so will debuff the real True Sting with Vulnerability, allowing you to deal more damage. Keep attacking until the boss fight has concluded.
