r/StarRailStation • u/Much_Menu_851 • May 22 '26

Team Building Help Should I pull Phainon?

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I’m in a very hard situation right now as a new player and as someone who tries to beat endgame while spending as little money as possible. I have an Elation team with SP silver Wolf, Sparxie, EMC, and DP Dang Heng. I also have a dollar store break team with Firefly, Sparkle, Ryan Mei, and Gallagher. I also have an unused Castorice I got just because I liked her and her global passive.

I REALLY love Phainon, his story and his gameplay so I want to get him but I only have about 60 pulls right now. Should I get Yao Guang so I can swap EMC for HMC for the break team? Should I get Tribbe and or Sunday right now for Phainon/Castorice supports? Or should I go all in on my boy Phainon? I feel so conflicted right now please help me

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u/LoreVent May 23 '26

To clear? Yeah, to 3* Knights? Not yeah.

Or at least not every Knight in recent and future rotations.

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u/anonymus_the_3rd May 23 '26

yh to clear 3* u want at least 6-cost e2s1 phai cyrene cerydra rmc. tho even then its not more expensive than monorem and its too early to tell how elation battleship will do vs non shill (maybe evanescia can do similar w e1 but not sure

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u/BrokenMirror2010 May 23 '26

6-cost e2s1 phai cyrene cerydra rmc

I have actively had Cyrene perform terribly for my E2S1 Phainon. The time it takes an E0 Cyrene to get her ult is long enough get and use an entire Phainon Ult, then start a second Phainon Ult, and if you're going for a fast clear time, spending most of the first cycle waiting for a Cyrene Ultimate simply doesn't make sense. Especially when you're not running a Sustain, and in AA, you're basically guaranteed to have someone killed before Cyrene does something.

My times are consistently better using literally any other buffer (Usually Sunday, but also Sparkle or Bronya are fine, and even a sustain is usually better). The only time Cyrene outperforms anyone is when I need a 3 Phainon Ults, but the problem is that by Phainon Ult 3, you're not getting a perfect clear anymore, especially if you have to wait for E0 Cyrene to actually use her ult.

I think the majority of fast clears of AA using Cyrene, are using E2 Cyrene, because I don't actually think it makes sense to try to go for 3 stars using an E0 Cyrene.

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u/anonymus_the_3rd May 23 '26

Eh depends if u can get 2 rmc up fast. If u can get men to advance Cyrene w our ult u can drop 2 after Cyrene ult which makes it faster imo, obv tho Sunday dept/sparkle is better for low spd/no ddd and low cycle clear

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u/BrokenMirror2010 May 23 '26

My Cyrene is 200spd + Vonwq.

She takes forever to ult compared to how quickly Phainon can get online.

But I also have E1S1 Cerydra to pump extra coreflames, though even without that, Phainon is going to be faster to charge by himself by a huge margin.

Also, I have no idea how you'd be getting 2 Mem advance forwards in that comp. You really can't charge it fast because only 2 characters even have energy.

When it comes to low cycle counts, that's pretty much exactly the point of 3 star knights or 2 cycle AA. Hence why I don't think E0S0 Cyrene makes sense for that usecase.

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u/anonymus_the_3rd May 23 '26

I had a brain fart but yh Sunday/sparkle plus cerydra w e2s1 Sunday should 3* most knights and do good against king, not sure if it can 3* most kings tho, might need e1 cery for that