Character Guide - Deepspace Anchor: First Light
An in-depth look into Senadina's first battlesuit, a Stardust Type Drive Core user.
Introduction
[Deepspace Anchor: First Light] (DsA) Senadina is the new battlesuit debuting in Version 7.3. She is an S-Rank Stardust Type Lightning DPS, and uses the new Part 2 Weapon type, Drive Core. In this guide, I will be going through her kit, suitable team compositions, rotations, equipment, and more.
Character Mechanics
Thunderous Blazar
Senadina’s Thunderous Blazar state unlocks when she consumes Thunderous Pulse. Thunderous Pulse can be obtained when she triggers her QTE, lands her 4th Basic ATK, or uses Stellar Outburst, and lasts for 3 seconds.
With Thunderous Pulses, Senadina’s Weapon Active is replaced with Thunderous Strike, which when used will cause her to enter the Thunderous Blazar state for 8 seconds. During Thunderous Blazar, Thunderous Strike is changed to Thunder in Clear Skies.
After Thunderous Blazar ends, Senadina will enter an Overheat state for 12 seconds, during which she cannot gain any Thunderous Pulses.
Exiting the field will end Senadina’s Thunderous Blazar state prematurely and put her into the Overheat state.
Astral Ring: World Star
Using the Astral Ring and entering Stellar Outburst will cause Senadina to exit Thunderous Blazar, clear Overheat, and give her 1 Thunderous Pulse and 1 Quantum Mech Energy. Quantum Mech Energy can be consumed to upgrade Senadina’s Thunder in Clear Skies to Lightning Flash Anchor.
Energy Masses
After activating Astral Ring, Senadina will leave Energy Masses with Domain Resonance Mark on the field. This mark can be activated by any team member's Resonance Attack to generate an electromagnetic field that deals 800% ATK of Lightning DMG and restores 4 SP with a cooldown of 1 second. After this effect is triggered 8 times or Stellar Outburst expires, the energy masses are destroyed.
Collecting Stardust Remnants
As a Stardust type Valkyrie, Senadina can connect her Evade into her 3rd Basic ATK to collect any Stardust Remnants on the field to make fighting Stardust bosses much easier.
Equipment
Weapon
This is Senadina’s signature PRI weapon, Red Star Thunderbolt: Breaking Dawn. It is able to buff not only her own damage, but that of her team’s with her weapon’s first and second passive. Since Senadina is the first ever Drive Core user, the alternative options are extremely limited, and the next best option is significantly worse. As such, it is strongly recommended to pull for her weapon. In summary, her weapon has:
35% Lightning DMG
15% Total DMG Taken
16% Elemental DMG Taken for entire team
20% Total DMG on Weapon Active, Ultimate, and Burst Mode ATKs
35% Lightning DMG for Resonance attacks for entire team
The weapon also has a Synergy skill, which will be covered below.
Weapon and Synergy Level Comparison
Shown above are results derived from a single rotation with the loadout shown in the graphic. First, I will go through the Synergy skills of both weapons shown in the test results.
Red Star Thunderbolt PRI: Weapon Actives gain an independent Total DMG Taken multiplier. As an independent multiplier, it boosts damage considerably more than a regular multiplier. Since a lot of Senadina’s damage output comes from her Weapon Actives, this is an incredibly powerful Synergy Skill.
Value of Pi: Weapon Actives gain an Elemental and Physical DMG bonus. These are regular multipliers, and will not be nearly as valuable as Red Star’s Synergy Skill.
So, is it worth it to keep pulling for Synergy level 3 of Red Star Thunderbolt? To be completely honest, I doubt it would be necessary even in Nirvana. I would only recommend it for people aiming for a place in Myriad. The damage difference is negligible and it would be much more worth it to save for future characters. However, I would still strongly recommend pulling for S1.
Stigmata
Signature Set - Perfect Morning
This is Senadina’s signature stigmata set. It is far and away her best option, and with Part 2 introducing a new system making all stigmatas from Part 2 onwards craftable, there is no reason for you not to get it. A placeholder set that can be used while waiting for the materials to craft the stigs is Handel TMB, but if you don’t have it, don’t bother crafting it, as it’ll be much faster to craft this immediately instead.
Required Materials for Crafting
These are the materials needed to craft the full Perfect Morning stigmata set. Note that there is an extremely low chance you will ever need to craft all 3 stigs, since pulling for the weapon will likely get you one or more.
Recommended Teams
As you can see, unlike most other DPS units, Senadina has two viable teams she functions as the main DPS in. P2 trio, consisting of her, Helia, and Coralie, is strongly recommended for beginners starting in 7.3 as they will be able to get all 3 of them fully geared relatively easily. It is her main team and has higher damage potential, focusing on the Astral Ring system and rotating through the entire team to do damage.
The second team, using Golden Diva and Lunar Vow as supports, focuses more on Senadina’s personal damage instead of relying on other Valkyries. This team is only recommended to Captains who have GD and LV geared, as it is not worth pulling for their gear now. It has lower damage potential and focuses more on Senadina. This team uses GD as the leader as using the Astral Ring system in this team isn’t recommended, due to both LV and GD being unable to charge it. Instead, ELFs such as Kiana ELF are used.
Rotations
Part 2 Trio Rotations
Disclaimer
Due to the mechanics of this team as well as the new Astral Ring, there are a variety of rotations you can carry out while using this team. For example, in some scenarios, using Helia or Coralie’s Ultimates can result in a score or DPS loss. Moreover, when you activate Astral Ring is never fixed. The rotations shown below are merely a few of many examples you can use in combat.
Extended Rotation
This is a single rotation shown over two graphics due to its length. To be clear, this is not to be used over and over in a real combat situation. P2 Trio is unique in that there is no fixed rotation which results in more flexibility in choosing how to rotate. A good time to carry out this rotation would be against bosses during vulnerability phases where they take the most damage, as all 3 Valkyries cast their ULTs here.
Shown below is a video example of the rotation. As it is relatively longer than the other rotations, it will also have guiding icons provided.
Short Rotation
This is the short, or non-ULT, version of the team’s rotation. It can be used to sacrifice damage to rotate faster, in scenarios where the boss may be low on HP. It can also be used when the Valkyries are unable to ULT in general. Again, this is only an example, and not a fixed rotation.
Shown below is a video example of the rotation.
DsA LV GD Rotations
Standard Rotation
This is the standard rotation for the Senadina LV GD team. Unlike the P2 Trio rotations, there isn’t much variation to this one. Thus, it should be fairly easy to remember.
Shown below is a video example of the rotation.
Short Rotation
This is a shorter rotation for the Senadina LV GD team. It’s generally mostly used only when LV and/or Senadina is unable to ULT due to lack of SP. GD still casts her ULT here because her personal SP gain is very high.
Shown below is a video example of the rotation.
Should I pull?
Senadina is undeniably strong, and as the first ever dedicated Stardust type DPS she will definitely be very strong against the several Stardust bosses we already have, as well as any new ones that may come in the future. Pulling her, even as a new player, will boost accounts significantly as Captains can just use Helia and Coralie with her.
For brand new players, or players who have started in the last few weeks of Version 7.2 and haven’t spent their beginner crystals yet, I would strongly recommend pulling for Senadina, including her gear.
For older players with more established accounts, Senadina will still be an incredibly useful pull. With her strength in competitive game modes, and the gacha system now requiring less crystals for a full geared Valkyrie, it’s difficult to find a reason not to pull for her. However, skipping her will not cause any adverse effects on your account. Captains with a full geared Cosmic Expression can use her as an alternative for Stardust type bosses, and should perform relatively well in Exalted Redlotus and below.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Senadina is a strong addition to any account’s roster, being able to cover both the Stardust and Lightning type niches fairly easily. With the shift in focus towards new mechanics like the Astral Ring, I have no doubt that Senadina will continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for reading my guide! I hope it helped you learn more about Senadina. I want to give a big thank you to Kagefumi for helping me with the rotation videos; wouldn’t know what to do without her. If I made any mistakes, please contact me and I will rectify them as soon as possible.
Cayjunn is a Honkai Impact 3rd guide maker and a member of the Hyperion Team. He can be found on Discord as @cayjunn, or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cayjunn1.