Honkai Star Rail: How to Beat Kafka

As you traverse the Xianzhou Loufu in Honkai: Star Rail, you’ll once again run across Kafka, the manipulative Stellaron Hunter from the game’s tutorial. This time, she’s your adversary, and you’ll need to fight and defeat her in a challenging boss fight to progress. The boss version of Kafka also has a few additional tricks up her sleeve the playable one is sorely missing, meaning you’ll need to go in prepared. This guide will discuss everything you need to know about how to beat Kafka.

Honkai: Star Rail Kafka Boss Guide

Boss Kafka is a very different beast from the playable version you got a taste of at the start of your playthrough. She hits harder, can act twice in one turn, and has several additional attacks that make her much more of a nuisance than she’d ever be in a player’s hands.

Kafka is also weak to Wind, Physical, and Imagination, so bring Destruction Trailblazer, Sushang, Dan Heng, Welt, and the like to the table. Don’t rely too much on a single character for anything. Kafka can turn your teammates against one another. If she does so to your only damage dealer, there will be problems. She also comes flanked by two Cloud Knights, whose attacks deal Lightning vulnerability, and as Lightning is Kafka’s element, she’ll deal additional damage to any afflicted character.

All Kafka’s Attacks in Honkai: Star Rail

Spirit Whisper: Kafka pulls on purple energy strings and Dominates one member of your team, causing them to attack other members for two turns. If the Trailblazer is in your party, they will always be the first target. Kafka also tends to prioritize dominated targets, so keep them healed even as they attack their friends. If you can remove debuffs, like from Natasha’s Soothe Trace, you can remove the effect.

Caressing Moonlight: A quick three-hit-combo that causes Shock and also damages the nearest member(s) of your team. It doesn’t deal a ton of damage, but the Shock status buildup can get you in the long run.

Midnight Tumult: A two-slash-combo that also inflicts Shock, this attack is faster and doesn’t hit as hard as Caressing Moonlight, but it still applies another stack of Shock, and Kafka often uses it as a follow-up for her harder-hitting attacks.

SMG Shot: Kafka’s only unnamed attack, she points her silver SMG at a target and shoots three times, activating Shock with each hit.

Silent and Sharp Mockery: One of Kafka’s more powerful attacks. She pulls the pins on four grenades and leaves them at your team’s feet, dealing heavy Lightning damage and inflicting Shock as they detonate. She also uses this attack as a follow-up, so if one of your teammates is low and you know Kafka has an extra turn to use, you might interrupt with a healing Ultimate if you have one.

Kafka is one of the harder story bosses in Honkai: Star Rail and the best way to beat her is by playing to her weaknesses and ensuring all your teammates are healed. There’s not much nuance here, as this fight is a gear and DPS check. You will probably want a way to remove the Dominated condition, but it’s not strictly necessary if you have more than one damage dealer on the team. Be sure to clear her two mook allies, as they only add to the pain Kafka can dish out.

My strategy was as straightforward as they come: have Seele and Physical Trailblazer, and buff whichever one isn’t dominated. I didn’t have Natasha’s Soothe Trace unlocked yet. Once I had Kafka alone, I buffed my Trailblazer for single target damage and Weakness Break as often as possible. Bronya was my fourth, and her buffs were essential to keeping my damage in tune with Kafka’s.

If you have a team with far better DPS than mine (not hard where I’m at), I’ve no doubt you’ll be able to take Kafka down. If there are other areas of Honkai: Star Rail that are giving you trouble, we’ve covered topics like a tier list of the best four and five-star Light Cones, all the upcoming characters, and more in our HSR guides hub.