Sam in Honkai Star Rail: How to Defeat the Stellaron Hunter

In Honkai: Star Rail, the Stellaron Hunter Sam is a strengthened enemy, the first encounter and fight with which occurs as the story campaign “Noise and Fury” on the planet Penaconia. For most of the battle, Sam is in a buff state, in which the pack suffers from periodic Burn damage and the boss' powerful attack moves. In this guide, we will tell you how to defeat a group member as a Stellaron Hunter: we will analyze the skills and vulnerabilities of the enemy, the most advantageous combinations of units and tactics of the fight against Sam, as well as the achievements available for obtaining.

Completing the combat test with the boss Sam in Honkai: Star Rail

How to meet your opponent

By the time of version 2.0, Sam appears only at the end of the main plot component of the patch, in the Grand Hotel location in the world of dreams for the quest “Who is the killer?..”. In addition, the Stellaron Hunter is one of the main enemies of stage 11 of “Longing for the World of Dreams” (temporary chapter of the Hall of Oblivion, valid until 04/01/2024).

Weaknesses and resistances of the boss

Boss Mecha is susceptible to Imaginary, Quantum and Electric damage types, but has 50% resistance to any stun effects. He himself attacks with the Fire element, which causes a decent amount of dot damage with Burning.

Robot skills

The fight with Sam consists of one stage, during which the Hunter alternates the following set of attacks (their description can be studied in the screenshots above):

• Single attack [BHF: Fire Offensive];
• Attack on the target and adjacent units [BHF: Skyfire];
• Mass Strike [BBHF: Scorched Earth];
• Talents [SGE: Melting Core] and [SGE: Melting Engine].

In addition to the above skills, Sam has two critical skills marked DHGDR: Secondary Combustion and Supernova Overload. The first greatly buffs the mech, but in return it loses health, and the second carries out a massive attack with impressive damage and a high chance of putting “Burning” on our team.

Tips and team selection

< img class="aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/sem-v-honkai-star-rail-kak-pobedit-ohotnika-za-stellaronami-2c20369.webp" alt="Sam in Honkai Star Rail: how to defeat the Stellaron Hunter" />

When speaking against Sam, you should take into account the following features of the future fight with the boss:

• The most useful supports will be shield warriors and heroes that remove weakening – Sam puts a lot of dot damage on the squad with fire, which will not be superfluous to neutralize ;
• If you play with healers, then take well-leveled heroes into your squad, since one of the Hunter’s talents significantly reduces the effectiveness of treatment;
• One of Sam’s enhanced modes can be knocked down by spending action points on your turn, so you shouldn’t take into your squad characters with a low frequency of using E-shki (especially those like Blade and Jingliu);
• If your squad is sagging in survivability, be sure to take both a shield warrior and a healer.

Here are just a few examples of packs that are suitable for defeating the Hunter:

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Moon Eater

Jing Yuan

It is worth mentioning that Sam will not be a problematic opponent for you even without having more suitable characters in your squad (for example, you often play with Blade and/or Jingliu), if your team members are well-leveled.

Battle strategy

Unlike the Memory Zone Meme “Something to Die”, the battle with which is divided into 2 phases, the battle with Sam will take place in one go.

At the beginning of the fight, and until the Hunter's first turn, he is completely immune to breaking the durability scale. Also, from the very start we have support from Black Swan – extra. skill “Ethereal Cradle” [“R” on PC].

When Sam enters the “Secondary Combustion state, each of his attacks will consume his own HP. With this buff, a mark with 5 stacks will appear under his health bar – knock it down by actively using the E-shocks of squad members, and the boss will exit the enhanced mode.

Please note that in the above state, in which we are recommended to cast E-shka often, for each such action we will also lose the health of squad members (even under the shield).

Under the buff from “Secondary Combustion”, the boss’s enhanced attacks become even more dangerous, and the effectiveness of our healers becomes lower (+ dot damage from “Burning” increases) . At such moments, healers with the skill of neutralizing effects (for example, the budget Lynx) will be of great support.

Other tips for passing this battle can be found in our guide to the task “Who is the killer?..”.

Achievements for the battle with the boss Sam

In the battle with Sam, you can get two achievements at once:

• “Silent Burning”. Issued after you defeat Secondary Combustion before the robot uses its massive Supernova Overload attack. Try to use the E-shka as often as possible and attack the Hunter with elements to which he is vulnerable;
• “Inflame my heart, burn my body.” Can be obtained if the health of one of the allied units is reduced to five% of the maximum. HP due to the use of action points (during Secondary Combustion on Sam). To avoid losing a squad member to boss attacks, try to apply shields more often.

Reward for collecting each of the trophies received: 5 star jade.