How to Clear Difficulty 5 in Swarm Disaster

Check out how to clear Difficulty 5, also known as the Torturous Difficulty in Honkai: Star Rail's Swarm Disaster. We have the best Paths, teams, Blessings, and how to beat it in this Simulated Universe guide!

Swarm Disaster Guides
How to Clear Difficulty 5	Communing Trail
Exploration Guide	How to Unlock All Chapters

Best Path for Difficulty 5

Abundance Path for Difficulty 5

The Path of Abundance is the best Path for Difficulty 5 as enemies hit hard in this difficulty, so constant healing outside of a character's turn is essential. It's also the safest Path to use as you can easily avoid Planar Disarray, preventing the Final Boss from powering up in the process.

Path of Abundance Guide

Remembrance Path for Difficulty 5

The Path of Remembrance is an alternative Path you can take as The Final Boss doesn't have any resistance to Freeze. Remembrance can help prevent DMG by negating the enemies' chance to take a turn.

Path of Remembrance Guide

Propagation Path for Difficulty 5

The Path of Propagation is the best Path for characters such as Imbibitor Lunae, Blade, and Qingque. You can easily collect a lot of Propagation Blessings to unlock the Path Resonance and all three Resonance Formations.

While the drawback of using this Path is its lack of defensive utility, its high damage numbers are more than enough to defeat the Final Boss and its summons.

How to Unlock Path of Propagation Guide

Best Teams for Difficulty 5

Best Team for General Use

DPS	Support	Utility	Healer
Imbibitor Lunae	Bronya	Fu Xuan	Luocha

Clearing Difficulty 5 requires a team with the right balance of offense and defense. The Main DPS should be capable of dishing out a lot of DMG for both single-target and AoE situations. If the DPS uses Basic ATKs as their specialty, we recommend using the Propagation Path over Abundance.

You would want to have both a Preservation and an Abundance character in the party as most enemies in Difficulty 5 are capable of one-shotting your characters.

Other Recommended Characters

Alternative	Explanation
Seele	DPS Replacement Seele is the best Quantum character to use for Difficulty 5. While she isn't capable of dealing AoE DMG to enemies, her use of Resurgence will be useful in taking out smaller enemies.
Blade	DPS Replacement Blade is one of the best AoE DMG dealers in-game. His high HP will help him survive longer in combat. If you are using Blade, you can replace a Shielder with another Support character to be able to frequently use his Follow-up Attacks.
Qingque	DPS Replacement Qingque is the best F2P character for Difficulty 5, especially when highly invested. Propagation Blessings will improve her DMG and remedy her high SP usage.
Tingyun	Support Replacement Tingyun can increase the DPS' DMG and restore their energy to use their Ultimates much sooner. Tingyun's Relic Stats should have HP or DEF over ATK for better survivability.
Yukong	Support Replacement A F2P Support alternative. Yukong's ability to increase CRIT and deal a good amount of single-target DMG as an Imaginary character makes her a solid pick against the final boss.
Gepard	Shielder Replacement Has the strongest shield in-game. Gepard's Skill also has the chance to Freeze enemies.
Trailblazer (Fire)	Shielder Replacement A F2P Shielder alternative. While their shield isn't as strong as Gepard's, they can taunt enemies and easily tank almost any attack.
Bailu	Healer Replacement A 5-Star healer alternative. Bailu can heal a ton of HP and her character revival mechanic will come in handy in the latter Planes.

Best Team for Remembrance

DPS	Support	Shielder	Healer
Herta	Pela	March 7th	Luocha

Combined with a lot of Remembrance Blessings, this team can immobilize enemies very frequently. It helps that the Final Boss doesn't have any resistance to Freeze.

The downside of using this team is that it can't deal a lot of damage compared to your usual Hypercarry team. You can use another team in the early Planes and use this team against the Final Boss.

Other Recommended Characters

Alternative	Explanation
Yanqing	DPS Replacement Yanqing can be used as to replace Herta. While Yanqing is not capable of dealing AoE DMG, his personal DMG to single targets makes up for it.
Gepard	Shielder Replacement Gepard is a great alternative to March if you want to sacrifice AoE Freezing in favor of more protection.
Bailu	Healer Replacement A 5-Star healer alternative. Bailu can heal a ton of HP and her character revival mechanic will come in handy in the latter Planes.

Best Blessings in Difficulty 5

List of Best Blessings

Path	Blessings
Abundance	• Any Dewdrop Blessing • Being of Abundance, Becoming One Mind • Clear Lucite Body • Every Other Abundance Blessing
Destruction	• Regression Inequality of Annihilation • Orbital Redshift • Reflection • Polarization Receptor
Preservation	• Divine Construct - Macrosegregation • Interstellar Construct - Sanctuary • Interstellar Construct - Quadrangular Pyramid • Construct - Firmness • Construct - Compensation • Construct - Assemble
Remembrance	• Any Dissociation Blessing* • Perfect Experience - Reticence • Perfect Experience - Innocence • Perfect Experience - Fuli • Experience - Lost Memory • Experience - Unspeakable Shame

Abundance Blessings

Abundance Blessings must be prioritized as you will need a lot of them to activate the Path Resonance and Resonance Formations. Being of Abundance, Becoming One Mind is a must-have Blessing thanks to its ability to spread healing to other party members.

Clear Lucite Body can help reduce DMG taken when a character's HP is full. Lastly, every Blessing that involves the Dewdrop mechanic is mandatory to have since its additional DMG makes up for the lack of offensive Blessings in your collection.

List of Abundance Blessings

Destruction Blessings

Destruction Blessings are great to have for their survivability through defensive stat buffs and DMG reduction. The Regression Inequality of Annihilation in particular can greatly increase the party's overall survivability and prevent one-shot attacks.

Orbital Redshift can increase the party's max HP and Reflection can prevent a party member from getting knocked down. Polarization Receptor can be great to have if you find yourself always low on HP.

List of Destruction Blessings

Preservation Blessings

Preservation Blessings are also great to have for stat bonuses and DMG reduction when equipped with a shield. Divine Construct - Macrosegregation, Interstellar Construct - Sanctuary, and Construct - Compensation will help you get shields through various means.

Interstellar Construct - Quadrangular Pyramid and Construct - Firmness can increase shield durability. Construct - Assemble can increase everyone's DEF for every Preservation Blessing owned.

List of Preservation Blessings

Remembrance Blessings

Remembrance Blessings are useful for immobilizing every enemy which includes the Final Boss. Focus on getting these Blessings if you've chosen the Path of Remembrance at the start of the run. Dissociation Blessings are extremely helpful for dealing a ton of DMG once the Frozen status is removed.

Perfect Experience - Reticence and Perfect Experience - Innocence can Freeze enemies simply by attacking and Weakness Break respectively. Perfect Experience - Fuli can apply Dissociation to Frozen enemies. Experience - Lost Memory and Experience - Unspeakable Shame can increase the chances of enemies getting Frozen.

List of Remembrance Blessings

How to Beat Difficulty 5

Complete Pathstrider Challenges

If your characters are easily knocked out during Difficulty 5, you could opt to complete Pathstrider Challenges to improve your stats. While not a significant increase, it does slightly improve your chances for Survival.

Communing Trail and Pathstrider Guide

Enter Domains with Mercy

If you chose the Path of Abundance, take your time and go into the domains affected by Mercy to prevent Planar Disarray. This is you so can gather up a bunch of Blessings for the party before the final boss.

Skip to the End with Propagation

If you chose the Path of Propagation, there's an Audience Die effect called Inorganic Embers that allows you to skip toward the Boss domain and collect Propagation Blessings based on the number of Swarm domains in the Plane.

Combined with the Dissociated Id effect, you can gather enough Propagation Blessings to unlock Path Resonance and all three Resonance Formations.

Prioritize Weakness Break

In the final domain, prioritize Weakness Break over defeating The Swarm - True Sting as they can charge up and deal a massive amount of DMG to the entire party.

If you have the right Remembrance Blessings, it should be easy to trigger Perfect Experience - Innocence and apply Dissociation via Weakness Break.

The Swarm - True Sting (Complete) Guide

Honkai: Star Rail Related Guides

Simulated Universe Guide

Simulated Universe Stage Guides

Simulated Universe Guides
World 1	World 2	World 3
World 4	World 5	World 6
World 7	World 8	World 9

Paths and Blessing Guides

All Simulated Universe Paths
Propagation	Preservation	Abundance
Nihility	The Hunt	Remembrance
Destruction	Elation	Erudition

Swarm Disaster Guides

Gold and Gears Guides

Divergent Universe Guides

Unknowable Domain Guides

Other Simulated Universe Guides