HSR Memory of Chaos Guide

Memory of Chaos is the premier endgame challenge in Honkai: Star Rail, and it's where your team-building skills, resource investment, and tactical decision-making are truly put to the test. As a bi-weekly rotating challenge that demands two fully built teams, it can feel overwhelming for newer players and even trip up veterans when unfamiliar enemy lineups appear. This guide breaks down everything you need to know — from team composition fundamentals to floor-specific strategies — so you can consistently secure full stars and claim those precious Stellar Jades.

Understanding Memory of Chaos: The Basics

How the Challenge Works

Memory of Chaos (MoC) consists of multiple stages, each divided into two halves — requiring you to field two completely separate teams (Team A and Team B). Your goal is to defeat all enemies in both halves within a limited number of cycles. Stars are awarded based on how many cycles remain when you clear:

3 Stars: Clear with the maximum threshold of remaining cycles (typically 20 cycles total, with the target being clearing each half efficiently)
2 Stars: Clear with moderate cycles remaining
1 Star: Simply clearing the stage

You earn up to 80 Stellar Jades per floor at full stars, making a complete MoC clear worth up to 720 Stellar Jades per reset cycle (for 9 floors) or more depending on the current rotation's length.

Why It Matters for Your Account

Stellar Jades are the premium currency in Honkai: Star Rail, and MoC is one of the most reliable free sources. Over a month of consistent full clears, you can accumulate 1,440+ Stellar Jades, which translates to roughly 9 additional Warps. Beyond currency, MoC pushes you to diversify your roster, invest in proper builds, and understand enemy mechanics — skills that carry over into every other piece of challenging content.

Rotation and Reset Schedule

MoC resets approximately every two weeks. Each reset brings a new lineup of enemies with different weaknesses and mechanics, meaning the team that dominated last rotation might struggle in the next. Pay attention to the enemy preview when a new rotation goes live — this is your signal to adjust your teams before committing resources.

Building Two Competitive Teams

The Core Team Structure

Every MoC team should follow a balanced framework. The most reliable composition includes:

Main DPS — Your primary damage dealer who carries the team's offensive output (e.g., Jingliu, Dan Heng IL, Acheron, Firefly)
Sub-DPS or Second Carry — Provides supplemental damage or handles a different enemy weakness (e.g., Topaz, Himeko, Black Swan)
Support (Harmony/Nihility) — Buffs your team's damage or debuffs enemies (e.g., Bronya, Ruan Mei, Sparkle, Silver Wolf)
Sustain (Abundance/Preservation) — Keeps your team alive through healing or shields (e.g., Luocha, Fu Xuan, Huohuo, Aventurine)

A team missing a dedicated sustain unit will crumble on higher floors where enemies deal 2,000–4,000+ damage per hit. Conversely, running two sustain units often means you lack the damage to clear within the cycle limit.

Elemental Coverage Is King

Since enemies in MoC have specific Weakness types, building teams around matching elements is critical. Enemies take toughness damage only from matching elements, and once their Toughness bar is depleted, they become Weakness Broken — delaying their action and reducing their resistance.

Here's a practical approach:

Before each reset, check the enemy weaknesses for all floors
Assign your stronger DPS to the half with enemies weak to their element
Use Silver Wolf if you have her — her Skill applies a random Weakness from your team's elements to an enemy, which is invaluable when your roster doesn't perfectly match
Diversify your investments — having at least one strong DPS for each of the seven elements (Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, Imaginary) gives you maximum flexibility

Investment Priority

Not all characters need equal investment. Prioritize your resources in this order:

Main DPS Trace levels to at least 8/8/8 (Skill, Ultimate, Talent), ideally 10/10/10
Main DPS Light Cone leveled to 80/80
Main DPS Relics — focus on getting correct main stats at +15 before chasing substats
Support Traces — key buff/debuff skills to level 8+
Sustain investment — enough to survive; they don't need maxed damage traces

A properly invested DPS with 2,500+ ATK, 60%+ Crit Rate, and 120%+ Crit DMG can carry floors that would otherwise stall under-invested teams.

Floor-by-Floor Strategy

Reading the Enemy Lineup

Each MoC floor displays its enemies before you enter. Take 30 seconds to analyze:

Enemy elements — Which weaknesses can you exploit?
Enemy path types — Are they single bosses or waves of mobs? Erudition (AoE) characters shine against mob-heavy floors, while Destruction/Hunt characters excel against single bosses.
Special mechanics — Some enemies have unique gimmicks. For example, enemies that summon adds require you to clear the summons quickly or face devastating combined attacks. Certain bosses gain stacking buffs if not Weakness Broken promptly.

Wave Management

Most floors consist of 2–3 waves per half. Key principles:

Don't burn all your Skill Points (SP) on Wave 1. Basic Attacks generate SP; Skills consume them. If your Support uses their Skill every turn, you'll run dry by Wave 2.
Aim to have your Ultimate ready entering the boss wave. A well-timed Ultimate can immediately Weakness Break or eliminate priority targets.
Track enemy Toughness bars. If a boss is close to breaking, save your DPS's Skill or Ultimate for the Weakness Break window — the bonus damage during this window is significant (typically +10–20% damage depending on character mechanics).

Cycle Budgeting

With a total of roughly 20 cycles to work with across both halves, here's a general budgeting guideline:

Target: ~10 cycles per half as a baseline
If your Team A is stronger, let them clear in 7–8 cycles, giving Team B 12–13 cycles of breathing room
If a floor is taking more than 12 cycles for one half, consider swapping team assignments or adjusting strategy

Optimizing Relics and Light Cones for MoC

Relic Set Recommendations by Role

Main DPS:

4-piece Prisoner in Deep Confinement for DoT characters (Kafka, Black Swan)
4-piece Genius of Brilliant Stars for Quantum DPS (Seele, Silver Wolf as DPS)
4-piece Hunter of Glacial Forest for Ice DPS (Jingliu, Yanqing)
4-piece Musketeer of Wild Wheat as a solid generic option
2-piece + 2-piece combos of matching elemental sets + Musketeer/Champion work well as transitional builds

Supports:

4-piece Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (SPD buff for the team)
4-piece Penacony, Land of the Dreams (10% DMG buff for allies of matching element)

Sustain:

4-piece Knight of Purity Palace (shield strength +12% for Preservation units like Fu Xuan, Gepard)
2-piece Passerby of Wandering Cloud + 2-piece Knight/other defensive set for Abundance healers

Substat Priority

For DPS characters, target these substats in order of importance:

Crit Rate / Crit DMG — Aim for a 1:2 ratio (e.g., 70% Crit Rate to 140% Crit DMG)
ATK% — Especially valuable when Crit stats are already solid
SPD — Hitting 121+ SPD or 134+ SPD breakpoints ensures you act before most enemies
Elemental DMG Bonus — comes from Orb main stat; always use the matching elemental sphere

For supports, SPD is king — getting your buffers to act before your DPS means they can apply buffs before the big damage turn. A support with 140+ SPD using Messenger 4-piece grants the entire team a +12% SPD boost for one turn after their Ultimate.

Advanced Tips for Full-Star Clears

Skill Point Management

This is the single most important tactical skill in MoC. Each team starts with 3 SP, and generates roughly 1 SP per turn from Basic Attacks. Key principles:

Your sustain unit should Basic Attack most turns unless healing is urgently needed
Your support should alternate between Skill (for buffs) and Basic Attack to stay SP-neutral
Your DPS should Skill every turn — this is where your SP should be spent
Sparkle is exceptional in MoC because her kit generates bonus SP, enabling Skill-spamming DPS characters like Dan Heng IL (who consumes 3 SP per Enhanced Basic)

Action Value Manipulation

Understanding Action Value (AV) gives you a significant edge:

SPD determines turn order — higher SPD means lower AV, meaning you act sooner
Characters with forward advancement abilities (like Bronya's Skill, which advances an ally's turn by 100%) effectively grant extra actions per cycle
Speed tuning your team so your Support acts immediately before your DPS (e.g., Bronya at 1 SPD slower than your carry) creates devastating burst windows

When to Reset and Retry

MoC allows unlimited retries with no penalty. If any of these happen, consider resetting:

A character dies before the boss wave
You burn an Ultimate on the wrong target (e.g., using AoE Ult on a single remaining mob instead of saving it)
You realize the team swap (Team A on first half vs. second half) would be more efficient

A good full-star clear might take 3–5 attempts per floor as you optimize. Don't be discouraged — even experienced players reset frequently.

Key Takeaways

Always check enemy weaknesses before building teams for each MoC rotation — flexibility matters more than raw power.
Prioritize DPS investment first. A hyper-invested main DPS with proper supports will outperform two half-built damage dealers.
Manage Skill Points religiously. The difference between a 10-cycle and 14-cycle clear is often just better SP economy.
Aim for SPD breakpoints (121, 134, or 143+) on all characters to maximize actions per cycle.
Don't neglect your second team. MoC's two-team format means your account is only as strong as its weaker roster.
Reset aggressively to learn enemy patterns and optimize your timing — there's no cost to retrying.