Durian Phainon Team: HSR Currency Wars A8 Guide

If you’ve ever wanted your team to stand still while enemies literally delete themselves, Durian Phainon is the Currency Wars comp for you. Phainon’s Ultimate turns him into a “playable boss” who kicks everyone else off the field, sits behind stacked shields, and reflects absurd damage through triple Chassis of Retribution—the famous “durian” setup that makes every enemy attack a bad decision.

This guide walks through that shell step by step: why 2-Shield Bond is enough to hit shield cap, how the front row preloads buffs and tempo, and how the back row quietly caps Shield and Energy so bosses effectively KO themselves on A8. Once you understand the routing, it’s one of the comfiest “hands-off” ways to farm high-difficulty runs.

How Durian Phainon Team Works

In Currency Wars, Phainon can enter his Enhanced/Transformation state with his Ultimate: he kicks every ally off the field, gains huge self-buffs and fights alone as a “playable boss.”

That mechanic is exactly why he’s the best driver for Chassis of Retribution (the “Durian” advanced shield item). Chassis of Retribution only reflects damage when the wearer is hit, and the reflection scales from the wearer’s Shield. Other characters’ shields don’t count; only the unit wearing Chassis matters. Community runs show that stacking three Chassis of Retribution on one unit lets enemies literally kill themselves by attacking into massive counter damage.

Because Phainon’s Ultimate removes his teammates from the front row, enemies are forced to only hit him while he’s sitting behind multiple Shields. That means every hostile action is guaranteed to trigger Chassis, making him the best “pilot” for triple durians.

Running the 2-shield Bond is functionally identical to running the 4-shield Bond — they grant the same total shields while freeing two front-row slots for Phainon.

In Currency Wars the shield cap is determined by the stage, not by how many Shield Bonds are active. Therefore the raw shield strength from a 2-shield Bond, combined with the off-field charge-based shield stacking provided by Dan Heng • PT and March 7th, is sufficient to hit the shield cap easily.

Bringing Gepard and Aventurine as extra shielders here has essentially no effect on the strategy; those picks don’t increase the usable shield ceiling and so don’t change how reflect builds perform.

You’re better off using those slots for additional carry-boosters: add two extra “carry-support” units (i.e., characters whose role is to amplify the main carry’s damage) to raise your team’s actual output instead of bloating shield count.

 

Durian Phainon Team Structure

On Field
Phainon	Sunday		Robin		Trailblazer
Off Field
March 7th		Tingyun		Tribbie
Dan Heng • PT		Yunli

This Phainon squad functions as a reflect-oriented hypercarry shell built to preload buffs, shields, and tempo before he transforms. Phainon is the clear win condition, while Sunday and Robin stack ATK, DMG%, and action manipulation so his transformed turns land at maximum value. Trailblazer plays a supportive flex slot here—providing utility, added stats, and smooth bond coverage.

Off-field units supply the stability and fuel the comp needs to survive until Phainon explodes the board. March 7th and Dan Heng • PT generate consistent shielding to meet Shield Bond requirements and keep Phainon’s damage buffs active. Tingyun and Tribbie maintain rapid Energy flow and extra turns, accelerating his ult cycle, and Yunli contributes Xianzhou bond coverage plus reliable

 

Best Investment Environment

Excess Budget doubles item slots in supply phases, massively increasing your equipment intake and making it far easier to assemble triple Chassis of Retribution for Phainon’s core strategy.

Scent of Gunpowder is ideal because Phainon is extremely gear-hungry. Starting with two Weapon Boxes jump-starts his setup, letting you secure key reflect or damage pieces early and stabilize the comp fast.

 

Best Investment Strategy

Free Market	Batch Produced Armor Blessing	Military Supply Chain
Whenever you are about to gain one piece ofbasic equipment, gains 1 "Basic Weapon Box'instead. Gains 1 piece(s) of random basic equipment.	Obtains 1 "Batch Produced Armor." The allysquad gains 15% DMG Mitigation and 5% Shield Strength.	Obtains 1 "Basic Weapon Box." At thebeginning of the next 5 Node(s), obtains 1"Basic Weapon Box."
This strategy snowballs Phainon’s gear curve by converting every basic drop into dedicated equipment, rapidly filling out the Duraians he needs. More rolls early means stabilizing the comp long before tougher planes begin.	This blessing provides reliable bulk for the whole squad, helping you hit Shield Bond thresholds faster—crucial for scaling Phainon’s reflect damage. The extra mitigation smooths early fights, and Batch-Produced Armor itself is a component used to craft Chassis of Retribution, making it doubly valuable for this build.	A steady stream of Basic Weapon Boxes ensures you never fall behind on Phainon’s highly equipment-dependent setup. It’s the safest long-term option, drip-feeding the boxes needed to finish his build by midgame.

 

Best Equipment Set

This loadout prioritizes 3 Durians for Phainon while giving his supports the exact tools they need to keep the engine stable. March 7th must hold at least one pair of Anti-Grav Boots to guarantee frequent shield application and tempo bumps, and Sunday needs Perpetual Engine so he can reliably take early turns and establish buffs before Phainon transforms. Once these anchors are in place, the rest of the gear simply reinforces shielding, action flow, and consistency across the team.

Phainon	Chassis of Retribution	Chassis of Retribution	Chassis of Retribution
March 7th	Anti-Grav Boots	Anti-Grav Boots	Analgesia Chip
Dan Heng • PT	Flash Grenade	Electromagnetic Catapult	Photon Shield
Sunday	Perpetual Engine

 

Full Game Route

Early Game (Lv. 1–6)

Lv. 1 - 4
Kafka	Asta	Sampo

I treat early planes as a normal meta climb, using a 3-DoT / Belobog / Xianzhou starter to secure a clean winstreak with minimal HP loss. I hover around 50 gold, only buying obvious power characters while preserving econ, and I rush Level 7 as fast as my HP allows so the real Phainon search can begin early.

Lv. 5 - 6
Aglaea	Tribbie	Hyacine	Sunday
Tingyun

If my first craft spits out Anti-Grav Boots instead of a Chassis component, I temporarily shift into a 3 Energy + 3 Day Demigod Aglaea lineup to maximize the value of double Boots, but I never over-invest in pieces that won’t be used later. The entire goal is simply entering midgame with best streak, HP, and gold. If you already have two Chassis of Retribution, you can begin picking up early Phainon copies in preparation for the transition.

 

Mid Game (Lv. 7)

Phainon	Tribbie	Tingyun	Sunday
March 7th	Dan Heng • PT	Sparkle

On 2-1, I power-level straight to Lv.7 and flip the run into ‘find Phainon mode.’ I roll aggressively until he appears and push him to 2★ or 3★, since stronger base stats massively amplify Chassis reflect damage. Once I secure a 2★ Phainon together with at least two—ideally three—Chassis of Retribution, the comp essentially enters its “cheese mode,” where enemies start deleting themselves by attacking into you.

During this process, every coin goes into Phainon copies and picking up March 7th, PT, Tingyun, and Tribbie so the shield and energy engine is ready the moment he comes online.

 

Late Game (Lv. 8-9)

On Field
Phainon	Sunday		Robin		Trailblazer
Off Field
March 7th		Tingyun		Tribbie
Dan Heng • PT		Yunli

Before the boss floor I push to Lv. 8, then field the final frontline: Phainon + Sunday + Robin + Trailblazer, with March 7th, PT, Tingyun, Tribbie and (high-roll) Yunli off field. At this point I want three Durians, Shield Bond active, and my support slots fully geared so Phainon enters his transformed state with capped shields and stacked buffs. If econ allows, going to Lv. 9 for Yunli makes clears even smoother, but the core reflect engine is already enough to let enemies delete themselves on A8 bosses.

 

Conclusion

Durian Phainon Team is a fully loaded reflect cannon. As long as you rush Phainon to 3★, craft your Durians, hit shield cap with March + PT, and let Sunday/Robin juice his damage, the game quickly stops being a DPS race and turns into a contest of who survives their own attacks longer.

And if your runs ever feel rough because your Eidolons aren’t quite there yet, you can always juice your roster a bit first by topping up safely and cheaply through LDShop, then return and watch everything explode into your shields.