Phainon Cyrene Team Synergy Guide

With the upcoming release of Cyrene and her unique ability to grant special buffs to different Chrysos Heirs in the team, one of the most highly anticipated interactions with her kit will be between her and Phainon. Therefore, in this guide, we will go over the team synergy between Cyrene and Phainon and show players what Cyrene can bring when in the same team as Phainon.

Phainon And Cyrene Team Synergy - Everything You Need To Know

As a character that is made specifically to help buff the different Chrysos Heirs with powerful buffs depending on her abilities, Cyrene is intended as one of the best support character to run alongside other Heirs in the team to be able to buff their power immensely and help to maximize the damage potential of different Amphoreus Characters.

This naturally means that Cyrene can be slotted into a Phainon team in order to best help boost his damage output with her unique buff. However, there are certain advantages and drawbacks that players need to be aware of when slotting these two characters into the same team in order to maximize Phainon’s damage potential.

Cyrene’s Phainon Buff Analysis

Upon using her Ultimate and summoning her Memosprite, Cyrene can select Phainon as her main buff target and grant him a special buff with powerful effect that completely changes his playstyle:

- Effective for the entire battle. After it is used on Phainon, Phainon gains 6 "Coreflames" as well as "Eternal Ignition" when Transforming.

- When Transforming, if "Coreflame" exceeds 12, for each point in excess, Khaslana's CRIT DMG increases by 12%, up to 72%.

- While "Eternal Ignition" persists, increases Khaslana's CRIT Rate by 16%. After the extra turns are depleted, the Transformation does not end, but refreshes all of Khaslana's extra turns and gains 4 point(s) of "Scourge."

- At the start of Khaslana's extra turns, Khaslana consumes an amount of HP equal to 15% of his current HP.

- After using an attack, deals 5 instances of Additional DMG, with each instance dealing Fire Additional DMG equal to 10% of Khaslana's ATK to one random enemy.

To summarize, the buff essentially grants him a permanent buff that grants him the following effect:

- When receiving the buff, Phainon immediately gains 6 points of core flame ,and when using his Ultimate, Phainon will stay in his Kaslana mode indefinitely unless his HP is depleted to 0. Additionally, when he is in his Ultimate Mode, he gains a 16% Crit Rate Up.

- When activating his Ultimate, if Phainon’s Coreflames count is above 12, he gains 12% Crit Damage boost for every point of Coreflames exceeding the limit (up to 72%). This means that at E0, he can gain 36% Critical Damage Up and at E6, he can gain up to 72% Critical Damage Up.

- After finishing his first round of turns, Phainon will not exit his Ultimate Form but instead gains additional turns with the detriment of having his HP reduced by 15% every turn. Additionally, he will deal 5 extra instances of Fire Damage to enemies whenever he uses a skill during his Ultimate.

Essentially, this buff allows Phainon to instantly activate his Ultimate, grants him massive amounts of Critical Stats when he is in his Ultimate mode, allows him to stay in this mode for as long as possible while also boosting his damage output overall. The only detriment effect is the fact that he will lose 15% of his HP whenever he uses his skill during Ultimate Mode, making it so that HP maintenance is crucial to keep him in the mode indefinitely.

Cyrene’s Role In A Phainon Team

Now that we have gone over the buff effects on Phainon, we will need to analyze what Cyrene's role will be in a Phainon team.

As her buffs and abilities suggest, in a Phainon centric team, Cyrene will serve as one of the 2 main support options for Phainon, and can even serve as a 3rd support character for the Phainon team if players don’t want to run a sustain. This means that she will most likely take the place of either Cerydra or Sunday in a Phainon Premium team.

As a support option, aside from her unique buff to Phainon, Cyrene can additionally provide the entire team with an additional True Damage Instance with her Skill buff, allowing all allies to deal extra damage to enemies with their attacks and buffs the damage output of all allies by 20% when her speed is high enough. Additionally she can serve as a sub DPS character for when Phainon is not in his Ultimate mode.

While the buff also drains Phainon’s HP every time he uses his attack while in his Ultimate Mode, Phainon himself can offset the HP drain by recovering his HP using his attacks, allowing him to recover 20% of his HP every time. This means that as long as the enemies’ attacks aren’t too strong, he can stay in the Ultimate Mode indefinitely. However, to ensure this, players should slot in Dan Heng Permansor Terrae as his main sustain option, allowing him to gain shields even when he is in his Ultimate mode.

Cyrene VS Sunday VS Cerydra

In a typical Phainon team, the goal of the team is to buff Phainon with as many different damage boosting abilities and effects as possible in order for Phainon to be able to deal as much damage to all enemies as possible while he is in his Ultimate form where he will have 8 different turns. To do this, players will typically run Phainon with 2 to 3 different support characters with powerful buffing effects.

As mentioned, as Cyrene is a support Sub DPS character, she will inevitably have to compete with other supports for 1 or the 2 support slots in Phainon team, especially with Phainon’s 2 best support options: Cerydra and Sunday.

Here some plus and minus points that these characters can provide to Phainon in terms of buffs and effects:

Cyrene	Sunday	Cerydra
+ Crit Rate Increase (16%) + Crit Damage Increase (36% at E0, 72% at E6) + True Damage Instance + Damage Increase (20%) + Additional Fire Damage Instances + Can use the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas effect, increasing Attack by 12% or Amphoreus, The Eternal Land, increasing all allies speed by 8%. + Indefinite Ultimate Duration Buff	+ Crit Rate Increase (20%) + Crit Damage Increase (30% of Sunday’s own Crit Damage + 12%) + Can use the Sacerdos' Relived Ordeal effects twice, increasing Critical Damage by an additional 36%. + Can use the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas effect, increasing Attack by 12%. + Damage Increase (30%, 80% if Dan Heng Permansor Terrae is in the team)	+ Increase Skill Critical Damage (72%) + Increase All Type Res-Pen (10%) + Increase Attack ( 24% of Cerydra’s own Attack) + Can use the Sacerdos' Relived Ordeal effects twice, increasing Critical Damage by an additional 36%. + Can use the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas effect, increasing Attack by 12%. + Can Retrigger Skill Use When Military Merit reaches max.
- Ultimate Cost Is Extremely High - Can only trigger Sacerdos' Relived Ordeal effects once, increasing Critical Damage by 18%. - HP reduction demerit.	- Requires Dan Heng Permansor Terrae in the team for maximum buff amount. - Requires proper speedtuning.	- No Crit Rate Increase buff. - Takes time to set up Military Merit. - Requires Phainon to enter the Ultimate state before Military merit reaches max to maximize its effect.

As can be seen from the list, generally speaking, Cyrene provides the least benefits to Phainon overall when compared to the other two support options in the form of Cerydra and Sunday. However, her ability to allow Phainon to remain in his Ultimate Form almost indefinitely is extremely valuable to have. Therefore, if players don’t have either Sunday or Cerydra as a support for Phainon, slotting her into the team is highly recommended.

Here are some of combos players can consider for the Phainon team if you were to have Cyrene, Sunday and Cerydra:

- Sunday + Cyrene + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae: This combo of support forgo Cerydra’s Critical Damage buff in exchange for extra Critical Chance for Phainon, with Cyrene and Sunday providing up to 36% Critical Rate Increase, lowering Phainon’s Critical rate requirement and allow him to run Critical Damage body, making up for the difference in Critical Damage buff. Additionally, this set up allows Phainon to remain in his Ultimate Form indefinitely thanks to Dan Heng’s shielding and his ability to self recover HP after every attack, allowing him to deal constant damage supplemented with Fire Attacks and True Damage Instances from Cyrene.

- Cerydra + Cyrene + Dan Heng Permasor Terrae: A Chrysos Heir combo that allows Cyrene to charges up her ultimate as quickly as possible with the help of 3 Chrysos Heirs in the team and allow Phainon to gain strong Critical Rate and Critical Damage boost from both Cyrene and Cerydra. By allowing Phainon to remain in his Ultimate form indefinitely, Phainon can constantly raise the Military Merit stacks and deal bonus Skill Damage instances to enemies with the help of Cerydra.

- Sunday + Cyrene + Cerydra: The offensive combo that completely forgo Dan Heng Permansor Terrae’s shielding ability in exchange for all 3 support’s powerful offensive buff. Phainon will be able to gain up to a free 36% Critical rate increase in addition to a massive amount of Critical Damage increase and be able to remain in his Ultimate form indefinitely as long as he can heal himself with attacks quickly enough. The main downside of this is that, if the enemies attack too frequently, Phainon will be forced out of his Ultimate form when he loses all of his HP. However, players can simply buff him back up and let him enter the form once again.

 

Phainon Build Changes With Cyrene In The Team

When slotting Cyrene in the same team with Phainon, players should consider some of these build changes to Phainon to help maximize their synergy together in the same team:

- Prioritize Critical Damage over Critical Rate: With Cyrene in the team, Phainon will gain a free Critical Rate increase, lowering his Crit Rate requirements and allowing players to invest more into his Critical Damage.

- Attack % Orb over Physical Damage% Orb: Due to how Cyrene’s buff works, if players want to maximize the damage output of both Cyrene’s True Damage and the 5 instances of Fire Damage provided by Cyrene buff, using an Attack% Orb will be slightly better than a Physical Damage% Orb for Phainon, as long as the sub stats for the 2 orbs are generally at the same level.

Conclusion

And with that, we have gone over the important Synergistic relationship between Cyrene and Phainon and what can be offered to him in terms of gameplay. We hope that with the help of this analysis, players will have a better understanding of how to use Cyrene properly in a Phainon team in order to allow Phainon to shine as much as possible and reach his maximum potential.Follow the LDShop Honkai: Star Rail Blog for the latest news and guides.