Eithan Rosemberg 
Honkai: Star Rail is set to welcome Fugue to the roster, which means many need a guide on how to build her and which party members complement her.
The second half of HSR patch 2.7 arrives on December 25 and players are to work the five-star character associated with it; Fugue. While she bears a striking resemblance to other nine-tailed fox demon characters, Fugue’s mysterious origin is something players have been captivated by since her announcement. Now that she’s about to be released as a playable character, many are wondering how to make her work in a team and what utility she’ll bring to those arduous Memory of Chaos levels.
As with any character in Honkai: Star Rail, Fugue isn’t simply a plug-and-play option. Players will need to build her out and, ideally, put her alongside the right teammates to find success.
Full guide to building and playing Fugue
Guide for playing Fugue in Honkai Star Rail
Fugue is a fire character on the nihility path who specializes in letting the party deal Super Break damage.
Central to playing her is her Fortune Follows Where Virtue Spreads talent, which debuffs every enemy on the field with Cloudflame Luster, a unique debuff that allows the party to inflict Super Break once their toughness is depleted. To aid with this, her regular skill, Virtue Beckons Bliss, buffs a single party member with Foxian Prayer. This increases their break effect and allows them to deplete the toughness of enemies that don’t match that character’s elemental type.
Her talent also has a unique quirk where once an enemy’s toughness has been depleted, Cloudflame Luster will refill their toughness gauge while still keeping them in break, also known as exo-toughness. Once this gauge gets depleted, the enemy will be dealt additional break damage alongside another instance of Super Break, dealing even more damage than before.
This means that Fugue is a character that benefits a lot from being in teams where the DPS unit deals loads of break damage. There are a lot of characters that can fulfill this niche like Firefly or Rappa, as their high break damage skills and ultimates allow them to deal even more damage and break enemies faster. She can also be paired with the Harmony Trailblazer, who besides being a free unit, also inflicts a debuff on every enemy that allows characters to deal Super Break damage. Since Fugue and the Trailblazer’s debuffs activate individually, every time a DPS unit breaks an enemy they’ll get two separate Super Break damage activations, dealing massive amounts of damage.
Best teams for Fugue in Honkai: Star Rail
As previously mentioned, the best teams for Fugue include characters like Lingsha, Firefly, and Rappa. She also benefits from extra support from Ruan Mei and the Harmony Trailblazer. Different players will have different optimal team compositions based on which characters they’ve unlocked, but here are some of the best options in the game right now.
Best Fugue team for whales: Fugue, Ruan Mei, Lingsha, and Rappa/Firefly
Given that there are a lot of five-star characters whose main kit involves dealing break damage, a good team for Fugue could include Rappa or Firefly as the main DPS, and Ruan Mei as a support that can help buff the party with more weakness penetration. Cap it all off with a sustain unit like Lingsha for healing.
Lingsha can also work wonders as a main DPS unit, given how her follow-up attacks do a lot of damage and heal the party. Setting her up as a DPS and pairing her with Fugue, Ruan Mei, or even the Harmony Trailblazer could work as a great sustain team for longer fights.
Best free-to-play Fugue team: Fugue, March 7th, Pela, and Harmony Trailblazer
Free-to-play Honkai: Star Rail players have to work with more restrictions, but there are a couple of characters that can still work within these limits. March 7th (Imaginary)’s skill lets her choose a character in the party and gains buffs to her basic attack depending on their path, with nihility characters giving her more toughness reduction. Given that Fugue is a nihility character, this means that March 7th can work well as a DPS that takes advantage of her talent and skill.
Other characters that can work for free-to-play players are Pela for overall debuffs to the enemy, and Xueyi who also focuses heavily on break damage and toughness reduction. However, given that the Harmony Trailblazer is a free unit as well, players should use her alongside Fugue for that double Super Break damage activation mentioned before.
Best Lightcones for Fugue
Fugue’s signature lightcone, Long Roads Lead Home, is her best lightcone as it directly benefits characters who do break damage. But of course, not all players are going to get their hands on the signature weapon.
Long Roads Lead Home
Fugue’s signature lightcone is Long Roads Lead Home which buffs the wearer’s break damage and passively inflicts a status ailment called charred on enemies who have had their toughness broken. Charred increases the break damage inflicted on them.
This means that for every instance of break and Super Break damage inflicted on an enemy, they’ll be dealt even more damage. All this makes it a great lightcone that directly plays into Fugue’s strengths.
Before The Tutorial Mission Starts, Those Many Springs, and Hidden Shadow
Given her versatility, Fugue can work well with a lot of the lightcones available to her. Some to note are Before The Tutorial Mission Starts which allows her to regenerate energy faster, Those Many Springs which increases her effect hit rate and lets her deal more damage to any enemy with the defense down debuff, and Hidden Shadow which lets her deal more damage on her basic attack after using her skill, which can come in handy given that her basic attack gets enhanced after using her skill
