Honkai: Star Rail | Simulated Universe World 5 Guide (Easy F2P Clear)

The Simulated Universe is one of the endgame pursuits in Honkai: Star Rail. Part rogue-lite, part strategy, part Relic grind, the Simulated Universe is the best test of how good your characters and team compositions are as you’re tested against some of the toughest challenges the Astral Express has ever seen. You’ll battle through randomised rooms trying to reach a familiar boss at the end of each World, attempting to unravel the secrets of the unfathomable Aeons as you do. This activity is really fun but also pretty challenging, especially when we get to the later worlds like World 5.

World 5 is one of the toughest roadblocks for many players. After battling through Gepard and Svarog in the previous two Worlds, Kafka the Stellaron Hunter is gatekeeping access to the final World. The entirety of World 5 is a step up from the last, but Kafka, in particular, is a nasty pain that needs thorough planning and preparation to best. Fortunately, one of the best and most consistent methods for beating World 5 involves characters and Light Cones that are completely free-to-play.

Here is your guide to World 5 of the Simulated Universe in Honkai: Star Rail, including a completely F2P method that everyone can use to beat this difficult challenge.

Want more Honkai: Star Rail content and articles? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

1. Honkai: Star Rail | Reroll Guide and Character Tier List
2. Honkai: Star Rail | Relic Guide: Caverns of Corrosion, Planar Ornaments, Best Relic Sets
3. Honkai: Star Rail | How to Unlock the Triple Authentication Room
4. Honkai: Star Rail | The Seven Errors of Cycranes Guide (All Missing Cycrane Locations)
5. Honkai: Star Rail | All Codes and How to Redeem Them

World 5 Overview

World 5 of the Simulated Universe is the penultimate World in Herta’s little experiment, at least as of Version 1.0. The base difficulty version of World 6 in Honkai: Star Rail requires you to have completed World 4 and the Trailblazer Mission Foretelling the Path of the Stars, which requires Trailblaze Level 29, and is recommended Team Level 55. 

The majority of regular enemies roaming around World 5 are from the last few areas of Belobog, but there are a few packs of Xianzhou Luofu foes that show up near the end. Some common weaknesses that these enemies share are Physical, Wind, Electric and Fire, with a particular focus on those first two. 

Returning to Kafka

This is also the first World that can be reliably farmed for 5-Star Relics: whenever you defeat an Elite enemy in World 5 and obtain the rewards from the Immersion Device, at least one of the Planar Ornaments is guaranteed to be a 5-Star. You can do this up to 3 times per run. The Planar Ornament sets for World 4 are Celestial Differentiator (CRIT DMG set) and Pan-Galactic Enterprise (Effect Hit Rate set).

Like with the previous Worlds, there are 13 floors to clear in total. 7 of these floors will either be a combat floor or an event floor, with Elite enemies at floors 4 and 8 and Respite chambers at floors 5, 9 and 12. 

Elite Enemies

Kafka

The big baddie of World 5 is the infamous Stellaron Hunter, Kafka. You should’ve already fought Kafka once already on the Xianzhou Luofu and, while she shares a lot of the same moves and techniques, this battle will require much more planning and preparation to overcome.

Stellaron Hunter: Kafka is Level 60 when you encounter her and she is accompanied by two Cloud Knights during phase 1, who do not respawn when defeated. She uses Lightning attacks and is weak to Physical, Wind and Imaginary Damage, with significant resistance to the Freeze status effect.

There are four major attacks that Kafka will cycle through during the fight:

• Midnight Tumult: Deals minor Lightning DMG to a single target, with a high chance to Shock the target.
• Caressing Moonlight: Deals Lightning DMG to a single target and units adjacent to the target. If the target is Shocked, inflicts Shock on the adjacent units.
• Silent and Sharp Mockery: Deals minor Lightning DMG to all targets.
• Spirit Whisper: Has a high chance of Dominating a single target and Advancing their action forward to immediately attack a random ally of theirs.

Kafka Breakdown

The main thing to look out for with Kafka is her unique debuff Domination. If a unit is afflicted with this status, they will turn against your team for several rounds and stop you from using their Ultimate. On its own, this debuff is already very tricky and detrimental, but it gets worse because of several unique skills and abilities Kafka has that exploit your team with Dominate is active: for example, if your Dominated or Shocked target is attacked by either of Kafka’s Cloud Knights, she will get an immediate follow-up attack that deals very big damage and provides her with a permanent attack buff. 

Kafka will increase the number of units targeted by her Dominate abilities per phase. In phase 1, she will instantly cast Dominate using Spirit Whisper. Then, in phase 2, this move will change to Psychological Suggestion which targets two random allies and Dominates them when the next rolls around (marked on the flow state by a spider icon). Both of these effects can be removed by anything which allows you to remove debuffs.

Overall, Kafka is strong, ruthless and can quickly run away with the fight if you’re unprepared. Between the all-commanding control of Dominate and the high Shock DMG, she can deal with the majority of her moves, you’ll be in for a tough time no matter what. Fortunately, there are a few things which can help settle this Stellaron Hunter down. 

Stellaron Hunter: Kafka

Team Composition

There are likely a lot of good team compositions in Honkai: Star Rail that can confidently clear World 5 of the Simulated Universe. However, the following team recommendation is not only one of the best around thanks to a great mix of survivability, damage and utility, but it is also complete F2P. All 4 characters are either given to you or are earned for free through gameplay, making this a viable and approachable path for all players. 

Here’s the team you’ll want build for World 5. All characters are level 50 with a variety of okay Relics: 

• March 7th (Preservation) + We Are Wildfire
• Trailblazer (Destruction) + Woof! Walk Time! 
• Dan Heng (The Hunt) + River Flows in Spring
• Natasha (Abundance) + Quid Pro Quo

Team Composition

Destruction Path Trailblazer (Physical MC)

Honkai: Star Rail is one of those rare gacha games where the main characters are competitive units. Both forms of the Trailblazer are potent forces in offence or defence, with Destruction becoming a versatile brawler that can deal good damage with an equally good amount of sustain whereas Preservation is one of the best taunt tanks in the entire game. While both are great, you’re going to want to focus on the Physical Trailblazer for World 4.

There are only 3 Physical DPS units in Star Rail so far – Destruction MC, Clara and Sushang – and the Trailblazer is one capable of dealing consistent damage over a wide area. Physical is a fairly common weakness among the World 4 Elites and regular mobs, allowing the Trailblazer to easily get off consistent Weakness Breaks across a lot of enemies. That’s not all, of course, as they also have great single-target damage thanks to their Ultimate.

This amount of versatility is what lets them shine in World 4. Whenever you need them to be, they can play the role of Erdution just as well as they can become a sort of pseudo-Hunt character.  You can even easily get a hold of their Ediolons for some really helpful bonus effects like healing, additional ATK, and Energy Recharge rates. They’re simply a really solid, easy-to-level and invest-in character who you’ll get a ton of mileage out of.

Physical Trailblazer, the Destruction

March 7th

The next character up for discussion is the lovable March 7th, another starter character who follows in the same fortune as the Trailblazer. As a Preservation juggernaut, March is responsible for controlling the flow of battle via taunting and aggro, while also acting as an incredible source of shields for your whole team. While she won’t be doing a ton of damage (especially considering that Kafka, specifically, is resistant to Freeze) her utility more than makes up for it.

That utility mainly comes from her Skill. This will create a chunky shield based on March’s DEF stat and it plays an excellent job of letting your team tank some of those more devastating hits. That’s not all, though, as whoever has the shield has an increased chance of being targeted, effectively serving as a soft form of the taunt debuff, and it can even remove debuffs. By shielding certain characters at the beginning of each round, March can direct attention away from those who certainly need discretion and towards the characters who can take the hits and even benefit from them.

In particular, March and Natasha work well to facilitate the damage done by the Trailblazer and Dan Heng. If you get unlucky and a particularly powerful opponent decides to zero in on your squishier party members, that can kill your run: Dan Heng, in particular, is pretty fragile. Natasha, on the other hand, has very high HP and even benefits from being targeted if you have her 4th Eidolon. Putting March’s shield on Natasha means that enemies are more likely to focus on her and no one else, ironically meaning that your resident healer can spend more time dealing damage and spawning Skill Points.

Obviously, March’s other abilities like her shield counter and Ultimate are excellent additions that will never let you down, especially on the off chance that you can hit those elusive Freeze debuffs. The shield is why she’s here, though, so be sure to constantly be on the lookout for its next recipient.

March 7th, the Preservation

Dan Heng

Yet another member of our excellent F2P cast list is Dan Heng and he will be serving as our primary damage dealer for the duration of World 4. Wind is a pretty sparse element, with the other two prominent members being mainly support options, which lets our elusive Astral Express guardian take the reigns. While the Trailblazer is capable of immense amounts of damage, their speciality is in multi-target attacks that Break several enemies at once. Dan Heng, on the other hand, is here for intense single-target damage, great for taking on Elites and Kafka. 

Dan Heng is pretty fast, meaning he’ll be the opening number for most of your fights. This is an excellent opportunity for him to quickly sneak in and Break any enemies. Between his Skill and his Ultimate, Dan Heng can shred through enemies quickly, eliminating low-health targets in only an attack or two. For bosses, he serves even better, dealing high damage and the potential to inflict Slow when he lands a critical hit. 

The other great thing about having Dan Heng is that you can trigger Wind Shear via Break very often. This is similar to other DoTs like Burn, Shock or Bleed but it seems to deal a decent amount more damage in return for having a shorter life cycle. Wind Shear is a great additional tool in this strategy, one that can shave a good deal of time off your runs and make things go a fair deal smoother.

Dan Heng only really needs to do one thing: hit stuff hard. Everything in this team, between March’s shields and Natasha’s healing, is here to make that happen. Keep him nice and healthy in the Kafka fight and she’ll be out for the count before you know it.

Dan Heng, the Hunt

Natasha

Last, but certainly not least, is Natasha. Her role in all this is quite obvious: as one of the only two Abundance units in Version 1.0, she serves a vital role in keeping most teams alive in Honkai: Star Rail’s Simulated Universe. What’s even better is that she is excellent, with utility alongside her heals that make her a must-have for World 4 and beyond. 

As we’ll discuss later on, the best strategy for World 4 does involve taking on the Path of Abundance, a Path primarily focused on healing and keeping you alive. To some, this may make Natasha seem a bit redundant but it improves her standing significantly. Before you can get your hands on the Blessings and Resonance at the heart of this idea, you need to push through the lower floors and Natasha is the one who will keep you going during those tough times. Having effectively a party-wide 50% heal in your back pocket via her Ultimate is always going to be immensely useful.

What’s even better than that, though, is how Natasha fulfils other roles in the team after you get your Abundance strategy going. A lot of Abundance Blessings trigger off healing, turning Natasha into a character who buffs numerous stats like ATK, SPD and DEF just by keeping her team alive. Additionally, we’ve already spoken about how well she pairs with March as the team’s tank and how that allows her to focus on building up Skill Points for the other three party members (who are all very Skill Point hungry). Paired with her status as a Physical unit to push out just that little bit of extra damage and you have a near-perfect unit for World 4. 

Versatile, full of utility, and capable of dealing respectable damage while keeping everyone alive puts Natasha is possibly the most important character on this team. Do not go into this without her.

Natasha, the Abundance

Path and Blessing Recommendations

Path of Abundance

The first time you enter World 5, you will meet Yaoshi, the Aeon of Abundance. From your first run onwards, you can begin to choose the Path of Abundance at the beginning of the Simulated Universe. 

The Path of Abundance is one of the best Paths to take. It’s almost entirely focused on healing and health in a similar way to how the Preservation centres on shields. The Blessings do a wide variety of things, but the most common is granting some additional effects or buffs upon healing an ally: it could be an ATK or DEF boost, healing for the user as well as the target or even additional Ultimate energy.

The strongest Blessings of Abundance are likely going to be the Dewdrop Blessings. Dewdrops are generated by the Prosperity, Longevity and Mudra of Blessing Blessings, which are both 3-Star in rarity and serve as a way to weaponize your healing and current HP. While you have a Dewdrop, you deal additional damage based on how high your current HP is: the healthier you are thanks to consistent healing, the more you will do. Pair that with the stat buffs from being healed and you can turn your team into a strong offensive and defensive wall in no time flat.

Alongside the regular Blessings, there’s also the Path Resonance. Yaoshi’s Resonance manifests as a full party heal, similar to Natasha’s Ultimate with a few additions tacked on. When activated, it will consume all of the Resonance Energy to immediately heal all of your team for 50% of their maximum HP while also increasing their HP by 12% for 3 turns. On its own, this is incredibly useful just like with Natasha, giving you some additional safety nets and reassurance.

Abundance Resonance

What makes this Resonance incredible for World 5, though, are the Resonance Formation buffs. You’ll acquire one of these formations upon collecting 6 Blessings of Abundance, and then another one at 10 Blessings. The bonuses these provide raise the utility and viability of the Resonance above just a simple heal and it will be your primary way of countering the might of Kafka.

The two most important Abundance Resonance Blessings are Resonance Formation: Anatta and Resonance Formation: Anicca. On their own, these are already great, but if you manage to collect 10 Blessings and snag both, you’ll become nearly unstoppable. With both of these together, the Resonance becomes a permanent one-per-turn heal after your initial cast, with the added ability to dispel any debuffs on your characters. Shock and Dominate are the main red flags with Kafka and, with this, you have an opportunity to completely negate them.

The main thing to take note of with the Path of Abundance is that, while you will likely deal some additional damage here or there, it mainly serves as a way to let you stall out fights. The insane amount of healing can reverse most damage dealt to you, especially if it is continuous round-upon-round. That isn’t even to mention how it gets rid of annoying things like Burn, Bleed or Defence Down. You can simply face tank most damage because you cannot die. The Path of Abundance lives up to its name and essentially makes you immortal, which is why it’s perfect for Kafka and Simulated Universe World 5.

Essential Aeon Resonance Upgrades

Other Paths

While Abundance is the focus, you’ll likely run across a few other Path types in your journey through World 5. Some certainly work better than others and you could consider picking them up to expand your repertoire.

The first is the Path of Preservation. This one is a bit tricky as, at its core, it goes against a lot of what the Abundance stands for: they both “negate” damage, but one does it through shields and the other through healing back damage already dealt. However, picking select Preservation Blessings that buff things like CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG while in possession of a shield can work nicely with March’s Skill, letting you enhance Dan Heng or Trailblazer for some sweet additional stats. 

The other major one to consider is the Path of Nihility. Considering that Physical and Wind are your main sources of damage, they both result in DoT effects upon Weakness Breaking an enemy: Wind Shear for Wind and Bleed for Physical. On their own, these DoTs are fine, if negligible, bits of additional damage. With some Blessings of Nihility, though, they can gain additional damage, weaken the afflicted enemies’ defences, heal you on every DoT hit and more. There are plenty of ways to synergise Nihility with Abundance, especially with a team like the one we’ve recommended above.

Preservation and Nihility

How to Beat World 5

To beat World 5 of the Simulated Universe in HSR, select the Path of Abundance at the beginning of the run. The most important thing to remember above all else is to focus on collecting Blessings of Abundance until you have both of the essential Resonance Formation upgrades. This involves collecting 10 different Abundance Blessings, which can be easier said than done if luck isn’t on your side. Without these Resonance buffs, Kafka becomes a whole lot harder: you either won’t have the absurd healing per round or the ability to not care about Dominate, both of which can completely kill the run. 

To maximise your chances of obtaining the Blessings you need, stick to a ratio of 2:1 concerning combat and event floors. Combat encounters will guarantee you at least one Blessing, sometimes more depending on your Curios or progression through the Ability Tree, so you’ll need as many of them as you can get. Other areas to pick up Blessings are by spending Cosmic Cubes in the respite chambers or the very slim chance they appear in an event. Getting 10 of the Abundance Blessing should be your absolute priority, no matter what the Blessing actually is.

Aside from that, approach each of the earlier battles with a bit more caution. At that stage, you lack the defensive potential of the Resonance chain healing, meaning you have to rely purely on March and Natasha. They do an excellent job and will definitely keep you afloat if you’re paying attention, but don’t grow overzealous too quickly. Remember to keep your attention off of Dan Heng and the Trailblazer by applying your shields to Natasha.

Blast through the floors, get the Blessings you need and, eventually, you’ll hit floor 13 and Kafka will be waiting for you. 

The Battle Looms

Kafka Boss Fight

The final obstacle standing between you and the end of Simulated Universe World 6 in Honkai: Star Rail is Kafka. Fortunately, you should have the tools to take her down.

As soon as the fight starts, be ready to place down your Path Resonance as soon as Kafka first casts Dominate. We recommend playing this first bit on normal speed so you can get rid of Dominate before the Dominated character’s turn starts, wasting Kafka’s debuff and setting the Resonance chain in motion. Now, at every turn, the Path Resonance will continually go off, healing your entire team and stripping them of any Dominate or Shock debuffs they are inflicted with. This will even get rid of the delayed Dominate debuff from phase 2 onwards, effectively taking Dominate out of the fight entirely.

Cutting Kafka Down to Size

From here on out, you just need to focus on dealing with Kafka and her Cloud Knight companions. Take care of the Knights first using Dan Heng, as it will allow you to purely focus on just Kafka. There’s also Kafka’s Talent, Cruelty, where she will do an immediate follow-up attack if either of her allies hit a Shocked or Dominated target: the chance that this happens is slim, but the damage she deals is pretty high and getting the potential of it off the board as soon as possible will save any potential headaches later. 

After dealing with guards, it’s just you and Kafka. Her attacks shouldn’t be able to deal lethal damage to you, not while you continually receive healing from the Path Resonance. Even her big team-wide attacks will simply slide off of you, allowing you to tear her down bit by bit. Honestly, if you’re confident in your team you can just auto the final bit of the fight. Kafka’s supposed to grow much stronger from phase 1 to 2 by increasing the number of characters she can Dominate, thus increasing her attack buff associated with Dominated targets, but without that debuff in play, she becomes fairly trivial. 

Deal enough damage to her, keep your damage dealers alive with shields or healing, and Kafka should fall. This will complete Simulated Universe World 5 in Honkai: Star Rail, netting you some really nice rewards and, potentially, the opportunity to pick up a free 5-Star Light Cone.

Victory Achieved!

That was how to beat World 5 of the Simulated Universe in Honkai: Star Rail.