The first Penacony-era character to be introduced in Honkai: Star Rail is Black Swan, first teased months ago when the game barely had any updates. She’s the real deal, and while players couldn’t fully farm for her before her release, here are all the materials needed to do it now.
All Required Ascension Materials for Black Swan in Honkai: Star Rail
Black Swan is a 5-star Wind Nihility character, acting asa DoT-based DPSand filling a similar niche to Sampo. But she has a lot of extra utility outside of delivering slow deaths, such as reducing her target’s defense, so while she really shines on those teams, she has some potential for other teams too. She needs some good levels before that, though.
Ascension Materials
The Ascendant Debris items come from the Shape of Celestial boss in the Xianzhou Luofu, while the Core items come directly from Fragmentum-related monsters that you usually find around Jarilo-VI. These are all easy to get, despite the Shape of Celestial requiring a lot of Trailblaze Power.You need at least 13 runs (for a total of 390 Trailblaze Power) to fully ascend Black Swan to 90.
Traces Materials
Her Traces require a bit extra effort, though. Since she’s from 2.0, the previous version’s Nihility Trace items won’t work and you’ll have to get the new onesor use Tears of Dreams.The new Nihility-related Calyx is located at the Alchemy Commission, so head there to start your farm on those. As usual, you’ll need a tremendous amount of the highest-tier item, so be ready to spend a few days here.
And for leveling Traces even beyond, you also need the drops from theBorehole Planet’s Old Crater Echo of War weekly boss, located in the Seclusion Zone in Herta Space Station. Recent characters will all use its items, so farming it for a while might be a good idea if you don’t have extrasfrom leveling Dr. Ratio or others.

Patrick Souza
Patrick has been working for Prima since 2022 and joined as a Staff Writer in 2023. He’s been interested in gaming journalism since college, and that was the path he took once he had his degree in hands. Diligently ignores his ever-growing backlog to keep raiding in Final Fantasy XIV, exploring in Genshin Impact or replaying some of his favorite RPGs from time to time. Loves tackling hard challenges in games, but his cats are still the hardest bosses he could ask for.
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