Anomaly Arbitration Version 4.0 Guide | Honkai: Star Rail

Last Updated on February 25, 2026 by SoraHoshina

Anomaly Arbitration is the latest end-game in Honkai: Star Rail, and Trailblazers got another mode for them to test out their team damage. In Anomaly Arbitration (shorten as AA), players need to defeat 3 Knights to weaken the King and finally defeating the King to get the full rewards.

Skipping Knights to directly fight the King is possible, but the latter will be buffed and a lot more stronger, so F2P should not even try this. This guide will list out all the mechanics for Anomaly Arbitration in Honkai: Star Rail version 4.0, and a quick guide on what teams you should use to each Knight and the King.

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Knight I in Anomaly Arbitration Version 4.0

Enemy Traits For Knight I

Tempering: For every 1% HP the enemy target loses, reduces Crit DMG dealt to them by 3%.
➡️Because of the Crit DMG loss, do not bring a team that depends on Crit DMG as their damage output. Instead, the best damage here would either be Break DMG or DoT DMG.

Team Recommendation For Knight I

Team	Characters
Break Team #1	Firefly + The Dahlia + Fugue/Harmony MC + Lingsha/Gallagher
Break Team #2	Rappa + The Dahlia + Fugue/Harmony MC + Lingsha/Gallagher
DoT Team	Hysilens + Kafka + Black Swan + Huohuo/Dan Heng Permansor Terrae
Amphoreus Team	Phainon + Sunday/Remembrance MC/Cyrene/Cerydra/Bronya + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae (This team is Crit team so might have a hard time, but if you have all Phainon’s best support, he can still clear it)

Quick Guide for Knight I

In the first wave, there are 2 elite enemies: Dreamjolt Troupe’s Beyond Overcooked and Lady of Crashing Waves. Both of them are very susceptible to DoT teams. But of course, because of the Fire weakness, they are also weak to Break teams if since most of Break characters are Fire type.

• For the Dreamjolt Troupe’s Beyond Overcooked, there will be stacks of Stove Heating on it. Once you fill the Stove Heating stacks twice by attacking it, it will deal damage to all enemies and decreases this unit’s DEF. So you want to attack the dinosaur first to deal damage to every enemies.
• For the Lady of Crashing Waves, it will has a stacks of Respite By The Waters. Once you fill the stacks by attacking it, the enemy will advances its own action – which is why DoT is perfect for it as it will take damage when its turn started. This elite enemy will also summon minions that have the same mechanic.

In the second wave, there is a single boss Harbinger of Death: Swam Nightmare that can summon many Juvenile Stings. The reason Rappa is also recommended in the team above is because these Stings have Imaginary weakness, and with Rappa’s AoE, you can defeat them much easier compared to other DPSes.

• The boss here will let you pick a single character to be “Nemesis”. Nemesis character will have their Break Effect increased- thus the Break team recommendation. In addition, non-Nemesis characters cannot deal Crit attacks on the Juvenile Stings.
• Harbinger of Death will also have a stack of Mortal Instinct. You don’t have to do anything to increase the stacks. Instead, when the Juvenile Stings attack your team, the boss will gain 1 stack of Moral Instinct. Once the stacks are full, it will trigger one of hit Ultimate move.
• As previous Juvenile Stings that you face, defeating any of them will make the bugs explode and deal damage to other enemies.

Knight II in Anomaly Arbitration Version 4.0

Enemy Traits For Knight II

Inversion: Each time after the enemy target is attacked, the attacker will lose HP equal to 2% of their own Max HP. This effect is Non-fatal.
Depowered: When entering combat, reduces ally target’s Energy by 50% and decrease their Energy Regeneration Rate by 50% outside of their turn for 2 turns.

Team Recommendation For Knight II

Team	Characters
Memosprite Team	Castorice + Tribbie/Evernight + Cyrene/Remembrance MC + Hyacine
Amphoreus Team	Phainon + Sunday/Remembrance MC/Cyrene/Cerydra/Bronya + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae
Erudition Team #1	The Herta + Anaxagoras/Jade + Tribbie + Huohuo (This teams relies on Energy – especially The Herta – so might have a hard time here)
Erudition Team #2	Anaxagoras + Cerydra + Cyrene + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Quick Guide for Knight II

In the first wave, both Black Tide’s Corroded Daemon and Dark Sun Gryphon will inflict Corrosion on your character (converts a portion of the target’s reduced HP to Corrosion). To remove the Corrosion, you’ll need a healer.

• For Black Tide’s Corroded Daemon, if your character has Corrosion, it has the ability to absorb the Corrosion to fill its stack of Filth. When the stack of Filth is full, it can trigger its Ultimate attack.
• While the Dark Sun Gryphon has the power to summon two Archer of the Dark Suns. These mobs aren’t that big of a deal except it deals AoE damage while also inflicting Corrosion to your character. Completely removing the Corrosion may be hard, and that’s not the focus anyway. Bring a healer to ensure the team’s survival, and focus on defeating Dark Sun Gryphon or it will keep summoning more minions.

In the second wave, you will face Flame Reaver of the Deepest Dark. It has two phases so you really need a strong DPS or he will waste all your cycles.

• In the first phase, Flame Reaver will often summons 4 Long-Shattered Vessel. If you defeat any of the vessel, it will also deal some damage to Flame Reaver. That’s why AoE is really important here. If you didn’t defeat the summons in time and Flame Reaver manages to absorb them again, he will deal huge damage aka Ultimate based on the Calamity Power stacks (the number of Vessel he absorbs).
• In the second phase, Flame Reaver will still summons Long-Shattered Vessel. But this time, you will see that he immediately obtain 8 Calamity Power. You can reduce the stacks by defeating the Vessels. If you didn’t defeat them before the next turn of Flame Reaver, he will deal bigger damage from his Ultimate.

Knight III in Anomaly Arbitration Version 4.0

Enemy Traits For Knight III

Honing the Blade: Ally targets initially obtain 10 stacks of this effect, with each stack decreasing their own Crit DMG by 15%. This effect cannot be dispelled. Each time any ally target consumes a Skill Point, 1 stack is removed from all ally targets.

Team Recommendation For Knight III

Team	Characters
Best Team	Archer + Sparkle + Tribbie/Remembrance MC + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae (Not only this is the best team for this Knight, all of them are also free – if you choose Sparkle from the selector)
DoT Team	Hysilens + Black Swan + Kafka + Huohuo/Dan Heng Permansor Terrae
Break Team	Firefly + The Dahlia + Harmony MC/Fugue + Gallagher/Lingsha
Amphoreus Team	Phainon + Sunday/Remembrance MC/Cyrene/Cerydra/Bronya + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Quick Guide for Knight III

There are 2 elite enemies in the first wave, one is extremely old and another one is the new enemy released in version 4.0. Blaze Out of Space is nothing new, so let’s talk about the Canvas Peacock.

• You can see the ‘Paint’ stacks on the side of Canvas Peacock’s HP. When attacked by any of your character, the Peacock will gain 1 point of Paint based on the attacker’s Type (Archer’s Type is Quantum, so it will gain Ultramarine paint). More Paints will be added if you use Elation attacks.
• When Canvas Peacock has 6 Paints, it will enter the ‘Color’ state. In this state, it will gain the Type of Weakness and lowered RES to the Type that were inflicted before.
  Example: Archer (Quantum Type) hit the Canvas Peacock > Peacock enters Color state > Obtain Quantum weakness and reduced RES to Quantum attack
• Make sure to focus on attacking the Canvas Peacock so it will gain the weakness and lowered RES to your Main DPS!

In the second wave, we have Stellaron Hunter: Sam. In the beginning, they have Weakness Protected effect meaning you can’t reduce their weakness to inflict Break. But don’t worry as they will dispel this attack in their second turn.

• Sam will enter Secondary Combustion in their second turn, revealing the weakness so you can reduce it and inflict Break. In addition, Sam will also gain 5 points of Molten Energy on the side of the HP bar.
• You can reduce the Molten Energy points by using Skill Points to attack them. This is where Archer shines the most (or Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, but he’s fallen from the meta now) as he will consume SP to deal continuous attacks. If you managed to remove all Molten Energy or Weakness is Broken, Sam will dispel the Secondary Combustion + receives increased DMG + recovers all Skill Points for you.

King in Anomaly Arbitration Version 4.0

Enemy Traits For King

Interference: After the enemy target uses an attack, randomly causes 5% or 10% action delay to the attacked target.
Confinement+: Ally targets initially obtain 2 stacks of this effect, with each stack decreasing their own DMG by 20%. This effect cannot be dispelled, and 1 stack is removed after each Ultimate used.

Team Recommendation For King

Team	Characters	Buffs
Memosprite Team	Castorice + Tribbie/Evernight + Cyrene/Remembrance MC + Hyacine	Thrilling Delight
Elation Team #1	Sparxie (Not released yet) + Yao Guang + Sparkle + Gallagher	Elation Instant
Elation Team #2	Archer + Yao Guang + Sparkle + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae	Elation Instant
Break Team	Firefly + The Dahlia + Fugue + Lingsha	Tears Behind Smiles
DoT Team	Hysilens + Kafka + Black Swan + Huohuo/Dan Heng Permansor Terrae	Tears Behind Smiles
Amphoreus Team	Phainon + Sunday/Remembrance MC/Cyrene/Cerydra/Bronya + Dan Heng Permansor Terrae	Thrilling Delight

Quick Guide for King

In the first wave, there are multiple mobs so a single-target DPS may have a hard time (like Archer, but still doable with Yao Guang and Elation mechanic).

• The first mobs are 2 Aggressive Reading Materials. They wil enter the “Book-Smart” state right from the start, and it will increase their DMG while decreasing damage taken. You can remove this state if this enemy receive Elation DMG or the team gains Punchline (Elation mechanic). If you don’t bring any Elation character, brute force is the way.
• Second one is Rocking Rebel. This chicken will enter the Charging mode on its first turn and uses its Ultimate in the next one if you didn’t manage to dispel the charging state. You can do so by triggering Weakness Broken or Aha Instant (or Yao Guang’s Ultimate to trigger the Aha Instant).
• The last enemy is Abundance Sprite: Malefic Ape, and I believe you already fight this one multiple time before. The mechanic you have to be careful of is when it monitors a random target. At first it will be random, but afterwards the target will change to the character who uses their Skill. The Ape will consume its stack of Gusto deal high damage to the monitored character.

The last wave features the brand new elite enemy, @SparxiConOfficial and she has 2 phases. In both phases, she has almost the same mechanic for the Ultimate.

• She will let you choose one character to fight in a sub-field while other characters remain in the prime-field providing support (you can play the characters in the prime field, this is NOT like Phainon’s domain where you can only play him during Ultimate).
• In the first phase, the enemies your DPS will be facing in the sub-field are 3 Aggressive Reading Materials. While in the second phase, the enemies will be 2 Aggressive Reading Materials and Live Stream Assistant. There’s nothing else to do but defeating these enemies.
• Once all enemies are defeated, your chosen character will leave the sub-field, increases the damage taken by all enemies, delay enemies action, recover Skill Points for us, and enables Aha to immediately gain an extra turn.

• While your DPS is on the sub-field, the remaining characters in the prime-field can choose to attack the Output Port 1 to increase the ‘Ally Popularity’ stacks or Output Port 2 to decrease the ‘Enemy Popularity’ stacks. Blast or AoE attacks are even better as you can hit every enemy on the field.
  • If Ally Popularity increases, ally on the sub-field will gain All-Type RES PEN Boost.
  • If Enemy Popularity decreases, enemy targets on the sub-field lose their damage buff.