Ceui
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13 Min read Cerydra is the second Wind Harmony released in Honkai Star Rail, focusing on boosting Damage Dealers that rely on their Skill to deal damage by allowing them to occasionally duplicate their Skill. Despite there being many high-profile units that fit this mould, Cerydra can be considered the first Limited Harmony that is below par at the time of her release.
Cerydra’s banner will be in the second half of Version 3.5, releasing on September 3rd, 2025 and will run until September 24th, 2025.
Cerydra’s primary buffing method is via an effect called Military Merit, which she can grant a targeted ally via her Skill and Noble Phantasm. Her Skill also gives Cerydra a point of Charge, which is capped at 8 points. When Charge reaches 6 points, Cerydra will upgrade the Military Merit effect to Peerage, which is also considered Military Merit simultaneously. Peerage will dispel all Crowd Control debuffs on the targeted ally, grant them a massive 72% Crit Damage boost to their Skill, a 10% All-Type Res Pen by 10%, and when they use their next skill, it will be duplicated and trigger again. This Skill duplication effect is called “Coup de Main”. Once the targeted ally uses this Coup de Main effect, their Peerage boost will be reverted to Military Merit and consume 6 points of Charge. While Peerage is active, Cerydra will not be able to gain Charge.
Cerydra can also grant Military Merit via her Ultimate and Technique. Her Ultimate is an AoE attack that increases her Charge count by 2 and also puts Military Merit on the first character in the team if there is no ally with Military Merit on the field. Upon use, her Technique will also give Military Merit to the character that enters the battle, and also automatically cast her Skill one on that character without consuming any Skill Points.
Cerydra Talent & Traces are focused on amplifying the damage of the ally with Military Merit and Peerage, as well as giving her some personal damage. Her Talent grants said ally an increase in Attack equal to a portion of Cerydra’s Attack. It also gives Cerydra one stack of Charge when the ally uses their Basic Attack or Skill while having Military Merit. Last but not least, she will deal an instance of Wind Damage whenever the ally with Military Merit attacks.
Cerydra’s first trace – Veni gives her increased Crit Damage based on how high her Attack is. Her second trace – Vidi increases her Crit Rate by 100% and grants her 1 stack of Charge the first time the ally with Military Merit uses their Ultimate. Vici – her last trace gives both her and the ally with Military Merit a Speed boost for 3 turns when she uses her Skill, and gives Cerydra herself an extra 5 Energy when said ally uses their Basic Attack and Skill.
Limited Harmony units are often praised for their game-changing ability to amplify their teammates as well as improve the team’s operation, but this pattern has finally been broken with Cerydra, as she is a rather mediocre Harmony in both damage amplification as well as teamwide utility, and improving the function of Damage Dealers.
While duplicating Skill is an interesting and can potentially be an impactful mechanic, especially with several powerful Damage Dealers that deal most of their damage via their Skills, this effect does not trigger that often to make it worthwhile. Furthermore, both the amount and effects of the buffs she gives to them are very minimal compared to units like Robin, Tribbie, or Sunday. Much of Cerydra’s power is distributed to her damage, which is a baffling design choice, as this aspect of her is also very lackluster, as she cannot buff herself much which resulting in negligible damage output.
Cerydra’s gameplay direction only makes sense when taking into account her main purpose – to be an aftersales service for Phainon. Phainon’s primary damage comes from his Skill during his transformation, and thanks to his snapshotting every buff before entering this state, he can fully take advantage of Cerydra’s skill duplication effect. Outside of Phainon, there are barely any other Damage Dealers (namely just Archer and Anaxa) that would prefer her over other Harmonies and even some high-profile Nihility amplifiers due to how lackluster her buffing capacity is.
Basic Attack – King’s Castling: Deals Wind DMG equal to 100% of Cerydra’s ATK to one designated enemy.
Skill – Pawn’s Promotion: Grants “Military Merit” to one designated ally character and gives Cerydra 1 point of Charge. Charge is capped at 8 points. When Charge reaches 6 points, it automatically upgrades the character’s “Military Merit” to “Peerage” and dispels their Crowd Control debuffs. The character with “Peerage” is considered to have “Military Merit” simultaneously. The character with “Peerage” increases the CRIT DMG for their dealt Skill DMG by 72%, increases their All-Type RES PEN by 10%, and triggers Coup de Main when using their Skill on enemy targets. After Coup de Main ends, consumes 6 points of Charge to revert “Peerage” to “Military Merit.”.
Ultimate – Scholar’s Mate: Gains 2 Charge. Deals Wind DMG equal to 240% of Cerydra’s ATK to all enemies. If no character on the field has “Military Merit,” prioritizes granting “Military Merit” to the first character in the current team.
Talent – Ave Imperator: The character with “Military Merit” increases ATK by an amount equal to 24% of Cerydra’s ATK. When the character uses Basic ATK or Skill, Cerydra gains 1 Charge. During Coup de Main, Cerydra cannot gain Charge. After the character with “Military Merit” uses an attack, Cerydra additionally deals 1 instance of Wind Additional DMG equal to 60% of her ATK. This effect can trigger up to 20 time(s). The trigger count resets every time Cerydra uses her Ultimate. “Military Merit” only takes effect on the most recent target. When the target changes, Cerydra’s Charge is reset to 0.
Technique – First-Move Advantage: After using Technique, gains “Military Merit.” When switching the active character, “Military Merit” transfers to the current active character. At the start of the next battle, automatically uses Skill 1 time on the character with “Military Merit” without consuming any Skill Points.
Veni: For every 100 of Cerydra’s ATK that exceeds 2000, increases her CRIT DMG by 18%, up to a max increase of 360%.
Vidi: Increases Cerydra’s CRIT Rate by 100%. While Cerydra’s Charge is below its maximum, the character with “Military Merit” using their Ultimate grants Cerydra 1 Charge. This effect can trigger once per battle.
Vici: When using Skill, increases SPD by 20 for this unit and the teammate with “Military Merit,” lasting for 3 turn(s). When the character with “Military Merit” uses Basic ATK or Skill, regenerates 5 Energy for Cerydra.
Cerydra is not a particularly strong unit for vertical investment. Her most valuable Eidolon is Eidolon 1, but only for players who want to improve their Phainon team. On top of the 16% Def Ignore, which is decent, this Eidolon gives a very minuscule 2 Energy per Cerydra skill. This effect does practically nothing to other Damage Dealers, but will grant an additional Coreflame stack to Phainon.
Her E2 and E6 give decent boost to her buffing capacity, but are too inefficient for how expensive they are, and E4 is a filler Eidolon that increases her personal damage output.
Phainon users should still prioritize his E2 over Cerydra since it is a monstrous improvement. But for players who already have E2S1 Phainon and want vertical investment options, then E0S1 or even E1S1 Cerydra is a good consideration.
Epoch Etched in Golden Blood: Increases the wearer’s ATK by 64%/80%/96%/112%/128%. After using Ultimate to attack, recovers 1 Skill Point(s). After the wearer uses their Skill on one ally character, increases the Skill DMG dealt by the target by 54%/67.5%/81%/94.5%/108% for 3 turn(s).
This Light Cone gives a massive Attack% boost, as one of her main buffs scales with Attack. Additional Skill Points are also exceptionally useful since most of Cerydra’s team will be focusing on spending Skill Points as often as possible. Last but not least, the increase in Skill Damage is also quite potent, patching up her buffing capacity. If the player wants to play Cerydra, this is a high recommendation as it smooths Cerydra’s operation by a good margin.
Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds: At the start of the battle and whenever the wearer’s turn begins, one of the following effects is applied randomly: All allies’ Attack increases by 10%/12.5%/15%/17.5%/20%, all allies’ Crit Damage increases by 12%/15%/18%/21%/24%, or all allies’ Energy Regeneration Rate increases by 6%/7.5%/9%/10.5%/12%. The applied effect cannot be identical to the last effect applied, and will replace the previous effect. The applied effect will be removed when the wearer has been knocked down. Effects of the same type cannot be stacked.
This Light Cone is a solid option if players have this at a high SuperImposition level since the buffs it gives are quite generically useful.
Dance! Dance! Dance!: When the wearer uses their Ultimate, all allies’ actions are Advanced Forward by 16%/18%/20%/22%/24%.
Dance Dance Dance is a classic Light Cone for most Harmony units due to how powerful teamwide advance is. Cerydra’s team, in particular, loves the extra action that this Light Cone can occasionally squeeze out to charge the Stack on Cerydra faster.
But the Battle Isn’t Over: Increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 10%/12%/14%/16%/18% and regenerates 1 Skill Point when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally. This effect can be triggered once after every 2 uses of the wearer’s Ultimate. When the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 30%/35%/40%/45%/50% more DMG for 1 turn(s).
A very decent F2P option as it gives several strong effects and good base stats, especially if Cerydra can lineup her turn right before the Damage Dealer turn.
The Forever Victual: Increases the wearer’s ATK by 16%/20%/24%/28%/32%. After the wearer uses Skill, increases ATK by 8%/10%/12%/14%/16%, stacking up to 3 times.
This Light Cone gives a massive amount of Attack boost and is available for free on the same patch that Cerydra is released, making it one of the best F2P options for her.
Cerydra primarily scales off Attack to max out her traces & the amount of Attack she can grant to her teammate, hence she should go for Attack% chest piece and Orb. For boot, she wants to move as often as possible to both generate Skill Points and get some attack in, so Speed boot should unequivocally be the best option. For Rope, Energy Regeneration % is a staple for most Support units, and Cerydra is not an exception, smoothing out her rotation so that she can frequently use her Ultimate and gain Charge stacks.
Attack% and Speed subs are ideal for Cerydra to improve her buffing capacity further. Some HP% or Def% are acceptable since she will be squishier without HP %/Def % chest piece and Orb.
Cerydra does not have a specific Speed breakpoint that she needs to function. Generally, being as fast as possible is recommended, but not the highest priority. 134 Speed and 160 Speed are both generally useful Speed thresholds to squeeze out extra turns over the first few cycles.
Eagle of Twilight Line
Cerydra wants to move fast so Eagle is her best practical set, allowing her to cycle through her rotation more often.
Sacerdos’ Relived Ordeal
Since Cerydra’s Skill target, she can make use of Sacerdos’s 4-pc effect.
2+2 Pieces
Cerydra can utilize any combination of 2+2 sets that give Attack% and Speed since both are desirable stats for her.
Lushaka, the Sunken Seas:
On top of 5% extra Energy Regeneration, this set also improves Cerydra’s buffing capacity via granting 12% extra Attack to one designated teammate.
Sprightly Vonwacq:
Vonwaq is a staple set for support thanks to the extra Energy Regeneration boost, and the action advance effect is especially useful in modes such as Apocalyptic Shadow to save extra Action Value.
Space Sealing Station:
A pure statstick option, as this set gives Cerydra a massive 24% Attack boost, which can help her save some of her substat rolls on other useful stats.
Penacony, Land of the Dreams:
This set would be one of the best options when used to support Anaxa, as they share the same element.
Cerydra has a very specific list of Damage Dealers where she would be best in slot. While she is usable with other Damage Dealers, especially ones that rely on their Skill for damage, she often falls behind other, more ubiquitous options, such as Sunday, Tribbie, Robin, or specific Supports that help certain niches.
Phainon: Phainon is by far Cerydra’s best teammate. Unlike most Damage Dealer – Support combinations, Cerydra needs Phainon far more than he needs her. Phainon’s mechanics allow him to fully take advantage of the Coup de Main effect and duplicate his powerful Skill during his transformation, resulting in a large damage increase.
Anaxa: When Coup de Main triggers while enemies have 5 or more weaknesses, Anaxa can trigger 4 Skills immediately, which is a massive burst of damage. Anaxa is thus one of Cerydra’s best teammates, but similar to Phainon, he does not need her at all to function and has a lot of strong alternatives.
Archer: Archer’s one of the strongest Damage Dealers that rely on Skill to deal damage, and has generally quite strong synergy with Cerydra since extra Skill helps him a lot with both Skill Point consumption as well as stacking his Skill’s damage up.
These Damage Dealers can use Cerydra to an extent; however, the synergy with her is not that outstanding, and they also have several strong alternatives.
Seele/Saber: Seele and Saber both benefit from the extra Skill usage and appreciate the high Attack boost that Cerydra provides. The problem with both Seele and Saber is that their innate mechanics do not play very well with Cerydra (Resurgence and Saber’s Dragon Core), and both also have a very strong array of good Supports to pick from.
The Herta: The Herta’s damage mainly comes from her Enhanced Skill. What is stopping Cerydra from being a great teammate for The Herta is that the duplicated Skill will not be able to get the increased modifier from the stacks that The Herta generates on the battlefield due to the initial Skill consuming it.
Jingliu/Mydei: Both these units are similar in the sense that their primary damage comes from their Enhanced Skills, but since both are HP-scaling, they don’t benefit much from her other buffs.
Firefly: Firefly does benefit from doubling her Skill in her Combustion state, but since Break team is generally very constricted in terms of slots, this is not a particularly outstanding synergy.
Huohuo: Huohuo provides both an Attack and an Energy boost that Cerydra highly appreciates.
Cerydra is primarily used as a hypercarry buffer. She is often used alongside an Action Advance Support since she wants the main Damage Dealer to move as much as possible.
Limited Harmony units often have very pull value and long shelf-life. That is not such a case with Cerydra. She has a small amount of team where she would be the best-in-slot option, and only in the Phainon team where she’d be unquestionably better than any alternatives. As such, it is highly recommended for most players who do not have Phainon or do not intend to play Phainon to skip Cerydra. For players with strong Phainon and/or intending to hyperinvest into Anaxa/Archer as well, then Cerydra would be a great investment.
Thanks for reading! For more resources, check out our other Honkai Star Rail Guides.
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