Best teams for the Luminary Wardance Ceremony event in Honkai Star Rail

With the release of Honkai Star Rail's update 2.5, you have access to Rappa and an event called Luminary Wardance Ceremony. This is one of those events that has a bunch of stages, but they were all released at the same time instead of once per day.

Luminary Wardance Ceremony guide in Honkai Star Rail

This new event pits players against a daily challenge with a total of five stages. After completing the story fight between Luka and Gepard, the conversations, and the tutorial battle, you will gain access to the meat of this Xianzhou Alliance fighting tournament where you can start getting the best rewards.

Everything both you and your enemies do will earn Vibes. The aim of the game here is to fill your Vibe meter before the enemy team can fill theirs, since a full Vibe meter will refill all your Ults and buff your team. In the tutorial, you are focused on the break effect to earn the most Vibes; you can't change your team for this one, but the battle is pretty easy, even when the enemy Vibe meter fills.

You'll also want to be aware of something called a Tactical Codex. For the tutorial, when the Codex is in effect and you use your Ultimate, you will gain Weakness Break Efficiency and also you will be action advanced 100%.

Knockout Match 1: Topaz

The first day will have you battling against Topaz and two preliminary teams. Each of these are different fights, and you get to choose new teams for each of these stages, which are called Arena Environments.

Fantastic Botany and Where to Find Them

• Best teammate for the Trail characters: Aventurine, then Lingsha or Lynx.
• Best overall team: Jade, Robin, Herta, Aventurine
• Other honorable mentions: An Unlimited Blade Works team.

The first Arena Environment you can do is called Fantastic Botany and Where to Find Them. To get Vibes, you need to defeat enemies. Follow-up damage is increased exponentially, so you will want to use any follow-up characters you have. The trial characters are Jade, Robin, and Herta. A good addition to this team would be Aventurine, as he is the number one follow-up Sustain currently in Honkai.

If you want to replace the default trail characters, I would recommend keeping Jade and Robin, and only replacing them if you have a better version of them; you can also sub Robin for Ruan Mei or Bronya if you have a well-built version of either. Herta is also a really good choice for this team because of how Herta and Jade work together, you can sub out Herta for Argenti, though he might not hit as often. Also, if you have an Unlimited Blade Works team, you can put them in for this level as well. Without a good Aventurine, you can use Lingsha (if she's available) or Lynx on your team or any other well-built Sustain.

You will also have a choice of which Tactical Codex to use with your team; since you should be using follow-up teams, you should choose Feint Attack. Once you are in the battle, have Jade's skill on Herta at all times, and try to mow down as many of the little flower enemies as possible.

"Ironshield" Gigantus Shieldus

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Robin or Huohuo
• Best overall team: Yunli, Tingyun, Sparkle/Robin, Huohuo

This stage is all about countering opponents; countering heals you, deals more than normal damage, and gives you a big boost of Vibes. The enemy that receives counter damage will also have their actions advanced. Yunli, Clara, and Tingyun are the Trial characters. Since you get healed while Countering, you can technically get away without a Sustain unit for this one; there aren't any debuffs either. If you want to bring a healer, just pick the best one you have.

To replace the Trial characters, you could replace Tingyun with Robin. It can be challenging with Yunli and Clara together, since they will be fighting for aggro, so you might want to sub out one or the other if you can. Pick the Early Reveal Tactical Codex since enemies will be sharing a pool of HP. Once the battle starts, pay attention to turn order, so you can counter effectively. Because Yunli has a Blast counter and she gets a guaranteed Counter follow-up, it's best to have her hit one of the enemies in the middle of the group so you are always landing those Blast hits. Save the Codex until there are a lot of enemy attacks right in a row so you can have a bunch of counters in a row, and give as much aggro as you can to Yunli to be successful.

Topaz

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Huohuo, E1 Aventurine, Aventurine with his Light Cone, Gallagher
• Best overall team: Acheron, Jiaoqiu, Kafka/Pella, Huohuo/Aventurine
• Honorable mention team: A good Firefly E1 team.

You can earn a lot of Vibes by seizing performance points from the enemies by weakness-breaking them. The trial team is Silver Wolf, Acheron, and Jiaoqiu. You want to add a sustain that can heal, cleanse debuffs, and add their own debuffs. Aventurine with his E1 or his Light Cone is a great choice, Huohuo would do well, and Gallagher will work in a pinch. You can also replace Silver Wolf with Black Swan, Pella, or Kafka.

The point of the stage will be to make enemies weak to Lightning so Acheron can then take their performance points. Before the battle, you'll need to pick your Codex as well as the new Tactical Beverage. If you are running Acheron, the Codex doesn't matter too much. Choose the Blu Bull for your beverage.

Once the battle starts, keep in mind that Acheron can only stack x3 extra stacks, so make sure to use her Ult before you start losing stacks to the cap. You will fight a round of enemies, then a round against "Topaz," and finally a round 2 against Topaz. During Topaz's second round, there is a scripted part where they enemies freeze you and you're about to lose, but it will not kill any of your teammates.

Knockout Match 2: Boothill

The next battle will be against Boothill, Tri-Dis of Zhuming, and a battle against some Trotters. In order to win, you should tailor each of your three teams to the fight you are taking on.

Tri-Dis of Zhuming

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Gallagher, since everything is weak to fire. Also, Aventurine, Lingsha, and Huohuo would also be great for cleansing.
• Best overall team: A well-built Firefly team.

The Vibe check is all about attacking enemies that have been weakness broken to make them take even more damage. The trial characters for this one are Ruan Mei, Boothill, and Harmony Trailblazer. Since everything is weak to fire, a well-built Firefly team would be a great replacement. You could replace Harmony MC with Bronya. The best Sustains for this fight to add to the three trial characters is Gallagher because of his fire attacks, but any cleansing Sustain would also be great.

For the Tactical Codex, choose Feint Attack to add to weakness break efficiency. For the Tactical Beverage, neither is super helpful, but Blu Bull is better. Keep in mind that all the puppets share HP, so focus down the center puppet, D. Valieu. Make sure to use Boothill's Standoff to start a duel with D. Valieu, then keep Harmony MC's Ult active as often as possible.

Trotter Battlefront

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Ruan Mei with her signature Light Cone, E1 and S1 Bronya, March 7th the Hunt version.
• Best overall team: Dan Heng - Imbibitor Lunae, Sparkle, S1 Ruan Mei, and Tingyun
• Honorable mention team: A good DoT team.

If you defeat a Trotter, you will get a huge pile of Vibes and a skill point. Every time you use five skill points, the first person on the team gets an action advance and an increase to damage. The trial characters are Dan Heng - Imbibitor Lunae, Sparkle, and Tingyun. Since the enemies are only Trotters, and they don't attack, you won't need a Sustain. You want your fourth to be skill point positive, so March 7th Hunt is a great selection. I picked Westroc Super Drink and Feint Attack. If you are using Kafka's team, you would want Lie in Wait instead for your Codex.

If the Trotter has their weaknesses locked, they will flee the next turn, so make sure to target any that might run away. Dan Heng's skill is a Blast attack, so always attack the Trotters in the center. Spend points with DHIL as often as possible, but make sure not to action advance him if you don't have the skill points and the enhanced points to spend.

Special Invitation Match: Shuojin

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Gallahger, Lingsha.
• Best overall team: A well-built Firefly team.
• Honorable mention team: Herta and Himiko.

After completing either Trotter Battlefront or Tri-Dis of Zhuming, you will get a special battle unlocked in the same screen. You don't have to complete this, but it will get you even more rewards. Go and talk to Topaz, then complete the short battle and story mission. After that, you will get access to this match. This one only gives you one character: you have to use the Story version of Luka. Choose Feint Attack for your Tactical Codex, and both the Beverages are kind of useless.

You can't break the boss, Shuojin, so you need to break one of the two side characters first in order to unlock his weakness bar (and to heal Luka). Whenever Shuojin acts, he will lock his bar again. After the story event, you will be able to break the boss' bar in one hit.

In the second fight, you will get the Trial characters Firefly, Ruan Mei, and Harmony Trailblazer. The best addition to this is team is Gallahger or Lingsha. You could also replace the whole team with a well-built Herta/Himiko team. For this one, if you don't have an E1 Firefly, this team is going to be skill-point-hungry, so be careful to manage them. Use the Feint Attack Codex, and the Westroc Super Drink Beverage. Make sure not to steal weakness breaks from Firefly while attacking; she needs them to function.

Boothill

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Ruan Mei, Robin, or Jiaoqiu.
• Best overall team: Kafka, Black Swan, Huohuo, and Jiaoqiu.

This fight will be DoT focused; enemies take extra damage from DoTs. Gain a lot of Vibes from defeating enemy summons, and when you defeat a summon, you get a chance to bounce out the enemies on each side of the summon. The trial characters are Kafka, Black Swan, and Huohuo. You could probably replace Huohuo with any Sustain if you have a well-built one. The best additions to this team would be Ruan Mei, Robin, or Jiaoqiu. For the Codex, choose Lie in Wait to help trigger DoTs. In the Tactical Beverages menu, you'll notice that you have unlocked new drinks. The best one to pick is Devil's Hand.

You'll be fighting the Memory Zone Meme "Something Unto Death." When he sunsets, he will kill whoever acted last, putting a gravestone above them that you have to kill. Try to avoid Black Swan or Kafka getting killed by this mechanic as often as possible. Kafka's follow-up will not trigger this sunset kill attack. In phase 2, "Something Unto Death" will use Morbid Dream, which works similarly to sunsetting, but it takes two characters instead. You want to avoid getting Kafka or Black Swan caught in this as well.

Popularity Repechage: Argenti

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Tingyun.
• Best overall team: Yunli, Argenti, Huohuo, and Tingyun

Once again, you need to defeat enemy summons for this one. After using Ultimates three times, you deal additional damage. You get Jade, Argenti, and Huohuo, and the best addition to this team is Tingyun, as she refills everyone's Ults. A viable replacement for Jade in this, since she doesn't perform super well, is a well-built Yunli. For the Codex, choose the Out of Thin Air which charges Ultimates, and for the Beverage, pick the Westroc Super Drink.

Use Tingyun and Jade on Argenti. Wait for summons to be on the field before using Argenti's Ult, as his point regain is based on the number of enemies he hits. Use Argenti's Ult level 1 each time; you only care about how many Ultimates you use over how hard the Ultimate hits. Use Tingyun and Huohuo as batteries to keep Argenti Ulting as often as possible.

Knockout Match 3

Now that you have won your Repechage against Argenti, you will rejoin the tournament. The first contestants you can take down will be someone impersonating SAM or a ghostly apparition.

Stellaron Hunter SAM

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Robin, Bronya.
• Best overall team: Feixiao, Bronya, March 7th Hunt, and Aventurine.

In order to get as many Vibes as possible, you need to inflict Weakness Break on targets. Any Weakness Breaks inflicted on a target makes other enemies lose toughness. The trial characters are March 7th Hunt, Lingsha, and Feixiao. For a Support, Robin is the number one addition to these teams. Since the trashcans don't have inherent weaknesses and gain weakness from whatever element hits them, Bronya is also a good addition to the team since she is a Wind character. Topaz, Asta, or Hanya could also work here. If you want to sub out Lingsha, a good replacement is Aventurine. The important thing is to not dilute the pool of weaknesses on your team; try to have two of one type and two of another to make the most of weakness breaking the cans.

There are two Tactician Codexis you could choose from: Out of Thin Air or Uproot the Cause. Out of Thin Air will just help overall, and Uproot the Cause you would have to work around, but both can be really helpful. I used Might Quench for my Tactical Beverage to add more damage to my follow ups. You want to focus down the silver cans first, saving the golden can for last since you can't implant a weakness on the gold one. Support Feixiao with March 7th Hunt, and use Feixiao's E when they aren't broken, and her Q when they already are broken. Break the silver cans until the gold can is broken, then use your bonuses to toss them in the garbage.

Karmic Hinkypunk

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Tingyun.
• Best overall team: Argenti, Huohuo, Tingyun, Jade/Robin.

To earn tons of Vibes in this battle, you will need to make sure your left-most teammate Ultimates as often as possible. So you need to make sure the first position is filled with the person who will be Ultimating against enemies the most. The trial characters are Argenti, Huohuo, and Herta. You could replace Herta with a good Jade or your own Herta. You could use Ruan Mei, Sparkle, or Robin too, depending on what you have available. The best possible fourth is Tingyun.

For the Codex, you want Out of Thin Air since it gives more Ults to Argenti. The Tactical Beverage should be Westroc Super Drink in order to get more energy. Then, just focus on getting Argenti to Ult as often as possible with Huohuo and Tingyun. Keep in mind that when you hit 10 with the Ult counter, you need to use his Ult next as it will refill his Ultimate meter back again.

Special Invitational Match: Samantha

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Bronya.
• Best overall team: Unlimited Blade Works (Juingliu, Blade, Luocha, E1/S1 Bronya).

When either you or the enemy loses HP in the match against Samantha, you will gain large amounts of Vibes. You will also lose HP at the beginning of each of your turns, and this decrease will amp your damage. The trial characters are Jingliu, Blade, and Luocha, and you will want to add Bronya to the mix if you have her. Sparkle isn't as good, but you can also use her if she has Dance, Dance, Dance as her Light Cone. Ruan Mei, Robin, and Pella can also work in a pinch as well. Also, if you have a well-built Jade, you could replace Jinglu with her instead and have Jade focus on Blade.

For the Tactical Codex, either Out of Thin Air or Uproot the Cause would be best. The best Beverage for this fight will be Westroc Super Drink or Pulse Energy. When the battle begins, make sure to save Jingliu's Ultimate for when she is in her Enhanced state. Basic attack with Luocha every turn, and use his Ultimate every time it pops. Use Blade's skill every turn it is available, which is every three turns, so you want to make sure you have a skill point waiting in the wings for him on those turns.

The Mysterious Iron Arm (Mr. Svarog)

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Aventurine
• Best overall team: Feixiao, Topaz, Robin, Aventurine.

In this battle, you want to perform consecutive actions, and you get boosted damage for each follow-up. The trial character Robin, Feixiao, and March 7th Hunt, and you will want to add Aventurine as your fourth. You could also use a very fast Gallagher with the Multiplication Light Cone, or Lingsha. Replace March 7th Hunt with Topaz and Numby if you have them, to get over March 7th's follow up limit per turn. Make sure you put Feixiao first in the lineup to ensure hers is the Ultimate that fills up when you get 12 stacks of the Vibe buff.

The best Tactical Codex is Uproot the Cause, and Mighty Quench is the best Tactical Beverage. When the battle starts, remember that Feixiao should only use her E when Svarog is not broken, and her Q when he is weakness broken. Also, your stack of the buff will reset between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the fight.

Knockout Match 4: Yanqing

• Best teammate for the Trial characters: Ruan Mei
• Best overall team: E1 Firefly, Harmony MC, a well-built E6 Gallagher/Lingsha, Ruan Mei

Weakness breaking enemies is how you gain the most Vibes; you will have Firefly, Harmony MC, and Lingsha for this fight. Ruan Mei is pretty necessary for this fight, but you can replace her with March 7th Hunt as she will increase the toughness damage of Lingsha. The Tactical Codex you want to use is the new Stealing Their Thunder, and the High Energy SoulGlad Beverage; these two will help you recover skill points for your team.

In the battle, leave the swords that are weak to the character's teammates available for them while breaking the ones the current character has strength against. In phase 1, Yanqing will have nine weakness bars, and he'll have 99 of them in phase 2, so you'll have plenty of chances to break him over and over. After breaking his bar around 10 times, you'll get a scripted event and the fight will end.

Dreamscape Training

After completing the fight against Topaz, you will unlock Dreamscape Training. As you complete the battles against each of the bosses, you will unlock these harder challenges with additional rewards. If you wait until the end of the competition, you will have each of the Tactical Codexis and later Tactical Beverages, so it's best to do this after do all the stages above first. These are more challenging as you have goals, the fights are harder, and the Vibe checks are harder to complete. Here are the four goals that will be the same with every second fight with the bosses.

• Enter the Super Hype Stage once.
• Defeat the first phase of the boss battle.
• Defeat the second phase of the boss battle.
• Defeat the third phase of the boss battle.

Only the first two goals reward you with Stellar Jades, so those are the most important to complete. The other two will mostly be for bragging rights.

For more Honkai Star Rail, check out All Treasure Chest Locations in Honkai Star Rail on Pro Game Guides.