Honkai: Star RailAnaxaBest build, teams and other guides

Anaxa is a remarkable Erudition character with an emphasis on Weakness Implant, allowing him to be played not only as a Main DPS but also as a Sub DPS. He deals increased DMG to targets with extra Weakness Types and provides additional bonuses to himself and the team based on the number of Erudition units in the team. He is extremely flexible as a character, being able to be used in almost any team due to his ability to mass implant weaknesses onto enemies, extremely good Energy economy, and high personal damage output. After some initial ramp-up, he can even be played SP neutral or positive at the cost of some damage, making him a fantastic pairing for even SP inefficient DPS.

Anaxagoras, the man bold enough to face countless people and say 'No, you are all wrong, actually'. Thankfully, compared to other 3.x characters like Castorice, his kit is much easier to understand and dissect. He's a phenomenal universal DPS whose prowess with Weakness Implant is both coveted and envied (if you know, you know), being able to casually implant every Weakness in the game onto everything on the field and deal even more damage as a result.

Anaxa's Skill will deal up to 70% ATK to a single enemy, and then four additional single hits to a random enemy. This is a Bounce skill, so it will function the same way as Asta's and Sampo's Skills, only here, instead of it being completely random, Anaxa's Skill Bounce will prioritise Bouncing to enemies that have not yet been hit by this instance of his Skill.

The total damage it can deal is 350% ATK spread across all the enemies, making it quite potent in single-target scenarios. It may look underwhelming in AoE at only 70% per enemy, but the Skill actually has an additional effect that grants a 20% DMG bonus for every enemy on the field; this means the single-target damage is slightly higher than advertised, and that the AoE damage against 5 targets has a 100% DMG bonus, making this Skill effective against any number of enemies.

Anaxa's Talent will inflict 1 random Weakness Type onto enemies for every 1 hit he lands, prioritising Weaknesses that the enemy doesn't already have. Now, the reason for the Bounce Skill becomes apparent. Using his Skill against 5 enemies will Implant a random Weakness into every single foe, and rather amusingly, using it against a single enemy will most likely max out the available Weaknesses, making them vulnerable to every Element.

Additionally, if an enemy has at least 5 different Weakness Types while Anaxa is still on the field, Anaxa will automatically inflict them with the Qualitative Disclosure state. Anaxa will deal up to 30% increased DMG to enemies in this state, and when using either a Basic ATK or Skill against such an enemy, he will also automatically use an additional instance of his Skill on the target. This auto Skill usage is completely free, but it does not reactivate this effect.

This means that for simply doing what he was already doing anyway, Anaxa gets to double-up on his Skill uses without expending any extra SP. This extra Skill usage functions exactly the same way as his regular Skill, meaning that even if you hit the only enemy with Qualitative Disclosure, the extra Skill will still Bounce in the same way to all the other foes. Oh, and yes, this extra Skill does also regenerate the exact same amount of Energy, meaning you can be getting as much as 60 Energy every single turn.

The Ultimate is also extremely funny. Anaxa will inflict the Sublimation state onto all enemies and deals up to 160% ATK to them as well. During the Sublimation state, the enemies will be simultaneously inflicted with... Let me just check my notes... Yeah, every single Weakness Type currently in the game. That's Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, and Imaginary.

This Sublimation state only lasts until the start of the targets' next turn, but if they don't have Control RES, they will also be unable to act in the Sublimation state. I'd say to make sure to make it count, but even with an Energy cost of 140, Anaxa gets so much Energy back that you'll probably get another shot sooner than you expect.

It's refreshing when a basic kit breakdown doesn't take much time at all. Anaxa already performs well with just this, but the Bonus Traces are very impactful and make him even better.

Anaxa's A2 will regenerate an additional 10 Energy whenever he uses his Basic ATK. This means that there is no Energy penalty for choosing to be SP positive with Anaxa, and especially when factoring in his free follow-up Skill from his Talent, Anaxa is now able to regenerate 60 Energy consistently, regardless of if he used a Skill Point or not.

Additionally, if there are no enemies with Qualitative Disclosure on the field, Anaxa will automatically regenerate 30 Energy at the start of his turn. This effect coupled with the last means that Anaxa is guaranteed to always be getting 60 Energy on every turn, no matter what, making his Energy economy exceptionally good.

His A4 will provide bonuses based on the number of Erudition characters in the team. If there is 1 Erudition character (Himself alone), Anaxa will increase his own CRIT DMG by a whopping 140%. With this he becomes very serviceable as a main DPS with this Trace active.

However, when there are at least 2 Erudition characters in the team, Anaxa will instead increase the DMG dealt by all allies by 50%. This is a permanent and very potent buff, and since Anaxa himself also benefits from this, this boosts Anaxa’s value as a sub-DPS for other Erudition main DPS’s significantly. Note, you can only have either the first or second buff active at one time, not both. 

Lastly, Anaxa's A6 is a fun one. For every 1 different Weakness Type on an enemy, Anaxa gets to ignore 4% of their DEF when dealing damage. At the cap of 7 Weaknesses, Anaxa gets to permanently ignore 28% of the enemy's DEF when hitting them, which is a staggeringly powerful bonus to have on a character by default. With how strong all of these Traces are, it's imperative that you unlock all of them if you want Anaxa to be at his strongest.

Anaxa's got some impressive stuff in his kit, and being able to Implant so many Weaknesses really quite effortlessly means he can enable teams to go against typically unfavourable matchups and have a better time, without necessarily needing to factor in actual Weakness Types.

Do note, however, that Implanting a Weakness is not quite the same as having that Weakness inherently; you do not gain the natural DMG bonus that you would otherwise have, and any existing resistances are not magically thrown aside, so if you're thinking of bringing Himeko to fight Blaze out of Space, you'll be reducing the Toughness now, sure, but you'll still need to contend with the massive Fire RES that enemy naturally has.

With the A4, as mentioned already, it is pretty clear that Anaxa is designed specifically to enable Erudition characters to deal even more damage and be more universally applicable, and when it comes to strong Erudition characters... Well, it's obviously going to be Big Hat Herta.

Big Herta already has no troubles wiping the floor with pretty much everything, and her teams are pretty versatile already, but Anaxa gets to amplify that even more. Especially since Herta already has bonuses for the number of Erudition characters on the team herself, putting her and Anaxa together means they both benefit from each others respective A4 Bonus Trace effects automatically, giving the entire team a laughable amount of increased DMG — buffs comparable to having multiple Harmony characters on the team but without sacrificing any damage potential.

Outside of The Herta, all of his combined unique supportive capabilities also mean he is going to be a compelling choice for any future Erudition DPS as well, further amplifying his already high pull value. Heck, maybe he'll even find his way into Super Break teams at some point.

As obviously strong as Anaxa is as a Sub-DPS (the role he is clearly designed for) in a lot of teams, he can still hold his own in hypercarry set-ups, especially in modes that can take advantage of his ability to make enemy toughness bars a thing of the past. Getting 140% CRIT DMG for free and having solid damage multipliers is enough to give him a fair shot at clearing most of endgame solo at the time of his release.

He's a pretty cool guy, and like all Flame Chasers is destined for greatness. You may not like it, but this is what peak physical performance looks like (insert image of 7 Implanted Weaknesses here).