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.

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.

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

Blessing Title	Effects
Being of Abundance, Becoming One Mind ★★★	Effect: When the character Provides healing, allies other than the healed target will also help gain HP equal to 30% of the Outgoing Healing. Enhanced Effect: When a character provides healing, allies other than the healed target will also restore HP equal to 30% of the amount healed. Increases the ATK of all allies by 15% of the amount healed, stacking up to no more than 80% of each ally's respective Base ATK and lasts until the end of the next turn.
Prosperity, Longevity ★★★	Effect: Charges Dewdrop when a character's HP is restored, The Charge value is equal to 100% of the amount of healing received. Enhanced Effect: Charges Dewdrop when a character's HP is restored, The Charge value is equal to 100% of the amount of healing received, and increases the DMG of Dewdrop by 40%.
Mudra of Blessing ★★★	Effect: Charges Dewdrop at the beginning of a character's turn. The Charge value is equal to 60% of their current HP. Enhanced Effect: Charges Dewdrop at the beginning of a character's turn. The Charge value is equal to 70% of their Max HP.
Mortals of the Buddha-Field ★★	Effect: When the character's HP is full, increases the Charging Efficiency for Dewdrop by 80%. Enhanced Effect: When the character's HP is full, increases the Charging Efficiency for Dewdrop by 120%.
Clear Lucite Body ★★	Effect: When a character's HP is full, reduces their DMG taken by 36%. Enhanced Effect: When a character's HP is full, reduces their DMG taken by 36%, and increases their Effect RES by 27%.

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

Blessing Title	Effects
Regression Inequality of Annihilation ★★★	Effect: When the player characters are hit, DMG taken by characters is equally distributed among all allies. Enhanced Effect: Receives 15% less DMG. When the player characters are hit, DMG taken by characters is equally distributed among all allies.
Orbital Redshift ★	Effect: Increases Max HP by 16%. Enhanced Effect: Increases Max HP by 24%.
Reflection ★	Effect: When struck with a killing blow, instead of becoming downed, characters immediately restore HP by 1% of their Max HP. The allied team can only trigger this effect 1 time(s) per battle. Enhanced Effect: When struck with a killing blow, instead of becoming downed, characters immediately restore HP by 30% of their Max HP. The allied team can only trigger this effect 1 time(s) per battle.
Polarization Receptor ★	Effect: For every 1% of HP lost by a character, their DEF increases by 0.40%. Enhanced Effect: For every 1% of HP lost by a character, their DEF increases by 0.60%.

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

Blessing Title	Effects
Divine Construct - Macrosegregation ★★★	Effect: At the start of the battle, characters gain a special Shield that can absorb DMG equal to 1% of their Max HP. Whenever another Shield is gained, this special Shield will also strengthen in equal value. For every 2 turn(s), this will be removed, and then this special Shield can be regained. Enhanced Effect: At the start of the battle, characters gain a special Shield that can absorb DMG equal to 10% of their Max HP. Whenever another Shield is gained, this special Shield will also strengthen by 130%. For every 2 turn(s), this will be removed, and then this special Shield can be regained.
Interstellar Construct - Sanctuary ★★	Effect: At the end of the turn, there is 80% fixed chance for characters to gain a Shield equal to 12% of their Max HP, lasting 1 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: At the end of the turn, characters gain a Shield that can absorb DMG equal to 15% of their Max HP, lasting 1 turn(s).
Interstellar Construct - Quadrangular Pyramid ★★	Effect: Increases the max DMG that can be absorbed by Shields created by characters by 30%. Enhanced Effect: When characters gain a Shield, increases the max DMG that can be absorbed by the Shield by 35%.
Construct - Firmness ★	Effect: Shielded characters take 16% less DMG. Enhanced Effect: Shielded characters take 24% less DMG.
Construct - Compensation ★	Effect: After applying Weakness Break on an enemy, characters gain a Shield that can absorb DMG equal to 14% of their Max HP, lasting for 2 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: After applying Weakness Break on an enemy, characters gain a Shield that can absorb DMG equal to 18% of their Max HP, lasting for 3 turn(s).
Construct - Assemble ★	Effect: Characters gain a 6% DEF increase for each Preservation Blessing, stacking up to a max of 6 time(s). Enhanced Effect: Characters gain an 8% DEF increase for each Preservation Blessing, stacking up to a max of 9 time(s).

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

Blessing Title	Effects
Perfect Experience - Reticence ★★★	Effect: After an enemy is attacked 6 time(s), they have a 120% base chance to become Frozen for 1 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: After an enemy is attacked 5 time(s), they have a 150% base chance to become Frozen for 1 turn(s).
Perfect Experience - Innocence ★★★	Effect: After a character Breaks an enemy's weakness, there is a 100% base chance to apply Dissociation on the enemy for 1 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: After the character inflicts Weakness Break on an enemy, there is a 100% base chance to apply Dissociation on the enemy for 1 turn(s). This effect ignores enemies' chance to resist Frozen.
Perfect Experience - Fuli ★★★	Effect: When attacking Frozen Enemies, there is a 100% base chance to apply Dissociation for 1 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: When attacking Frozen Enemies, there is a 100% base chance to apply Dissociation for 1 turn(s). DMG dealt by Dissociation when it is removed is increased by 20%.
Experience - Lost Memory ★	Effect: When attacks reduce an enemy's HP to a point that is lower than 50% for the first time in this battle, there's a 70% base chance to Freeze the enemy for 1 turn(s). Enhanced Effect: When attacks reduce an enemy's HP to a point that is lower than 50% for the first time in this battle, there's a 70% base chance to Freeze the enemy for 1 turn(s).
Experience - Unspeakable Shame ★	Effect: For every Blessing of Remembrance the team has, enemies' chance to resist Frozen decreases by 6%, stacking up to 6 time(s). Enhanced Effect: For every Blessing of Remembrance the team has, enemies' chance to resist Frozen decreases by 8%, stacking up to 9 time(s).

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

Simulated Universe: The Swarm Disaster Guides
The Swarm Disaster Guide	How to Unlock All Chapters
Communing Trail and Pathstrider Guide	Exploration Guide
How to Clear Difficulty 5

Gold and Gears Guides

Simulated Universe: Gold and Gears Guides
Gold and Gears Guide	How to Unlock All Trailblaze and Aeon Secrets
Neural Network Guide	Dice Customization and All Dice Faces
How to Beat Difficulty 5

Other Simulated Universe Guides

Simulated Universe Guides
List of All Paths	Simulated Universe Events
List of All Curios	Resonance Interplay Guide