Mortenax Blade Best Build Guide

[Overview]

Mortenax is the new form of Blade, and he's genuinely fighting for the title of Strongest Fixer with this one. He's a designated Fire Nihility support character, offering ridiculous benefits to the entire team by way of his exceptional debuffs on enemies. He's got DEF Reduction, Vulnerability, and also directly buffs ally DMG%, and these are all passive benefits you get by using his Ultimate. He's also a debuff applying machine, so much so that he is for Acheron what The Dahlia is for Firefly. Mortenax Blade also deals competitive amounts of damage all on his own, and can even be played as a dual carry or hypercarry, and he even has excellent vertical investment options as well. Oh and he's also a tank who taunts enemies into attacking him for even more damage AND a Follow-up attack! Absurd.

[Intro]

Holy crap, a weapon to surpass Metal Gear has been forged. Mortenax Blade is nothing short of legendary, combining the benefits of support and DPS into one package, with all of the upsides and none of the negatives.

This is unquestionably the strongest single unit in the game right now, able to be a universal support for all teams, whose power exceeds that of Tribbie by the way, while also being able to be fielded as the secondary or even primary DPS in the team.

He scales with HP, so he gets to be extremely tanky, but he's also the proud owner of a reliable single-target Taunt, and passively can significantly increase the chances of getting attacked, while also gaining 50% DMG Reduction and a 50% Incoming Healing increase too.

Getting hit means the enemy gets afflicted with a bunch of debuffs, punished for even daring to attack Blade, and meanwhile Blade gets to start stacking towards his Talent's Follow-up ATK, which is actually just a free use of his Skill that regenerates an extra 25 Energy in addition to the Energy you'd get from the Skill.

'But getting attacked is unreliable!' you say, and Blade evidently agrees, because allies simply attacking enemies will also charge Blade's next Follow-up ATK. Oh and naturally, the Skill doesn't consume SP, obviously.

And naturally he can't die, if he does, he just dispels his Ultimate's Zone and comes back to life, getting a colossal injection of Energy that lets him get his Ult back up and running in no time at all.

This is your reminder not to piss off the Blacksmith.

[Abilities]

Blade's got some new tricks up his sleeve alongside some familiar mechanics.

As mentioned, he's a HP scaler, so all of his DMG multipliers use his HP to calculate the damage he'll be dealing, and this is to offset the HP costs that some of his abilities cost to use.

Mortenax Blade doesn't have access to his Skill by default, he needs to go into his Dragon Install first via his Ultimate.

His Ultimate inflicts 'Balefire Bind' on all enemies. Enemies under this effect have their DEF reduced by 30% and will also be afflicted with a 50% Vulnerability on top (more than Cipher!), lasting for 2 turns. Then he consumes 20% of his Max HP to deploy a Zone.

In this Zone, Mortenax Blade enters his Enhanced state called 'Infinite Fury'. While in Infinite Fury, Blade gets 20% extra CRIT Rate and 60% extra CRIT DMG, his Skill becomes unlocked and his Basic is Enhanced, and he gets a new Ultimate. If Blade receives a killing blow while this Zone is active, Blade will not go down, and instead restores 50% of his Max HP while dispelling both the Zone and his Infinite Fury state.

Ultimate 2 will deal 350% Max HP to all enemies. The Infinite Fury state comes with a countdown in the Action Order with a fixed SPD of 70 after which the Zone and Infinite Fury state will both be dispelled.

Both versions cost 160 Energy to use.

The Skill consumes 10% Max HP to hit all enemies for 72% of Blade's Max HP. If there's not enough HP then Blade's HP goes down to 1. This then additionally deals 4 Bounces, each dealing 24% Max HP to a random enemy. This Skill does not consume Skill Points to use but will still restore the standard 30 Energy when used. This is a very good Skill, obviously.

The regular Basic ATK deals 50% Blade Max HP to one designated enemy, and causes the target hit to enter Taunt for 1 turn. This is especially notable as it's a forced Taunt against enemies without needing any sort of check or EHR.

The Enhanced Basic will instead deal 100% Blade Max HP to one enemy and also taunts them for 1 turn. Both versions restore the same amount of Energy, the standard 20 for Basics.

Blade's Talent takes effect when his Ultimate's Zone is active. Whenever any ally target attacks an enemy, Blade will inflict the Balefire Bind state on them and will gain 1 Charge. When Charge reaches 9 points and Mortenax Blade has more than 1 HP, Blade will consume the 9 points to immediately use his Skill as an extra action.

This extra action Skill counts as a Follow-up ATK and will regenerate an additional 25 Energy on top of the original Skill's 30. You can see how this can result in an endless application of debuffs and consistent Follow-up versions of his Skill.

Lastly his Technique is worth a mention due to it Taunting enemies at the start of combat for 1 turn and also reducing the DMG Blade will take by a hilarious 90% for 2 turns.

[Bonus Traces]

A2 grants Blade the ability to overcap on Energy, up to 80 points. After he uses his Ultimate, the overflow value is returned as Energy and then cleared. This is just a nice way to prevent you from losing value for holding his Ultimate in case you want to quickly refresh the Zone after it goes away, or if you want to hold his Enhanced Ultimate for a better opportunity.

This Trace also makes it so that at the start of combat, or whenever the Zone is dispelled (either naturally from the countdown reaching 0, or from having it removed to prevent Blade from getting downed), Blade will immediately regenerate his Energy to 75% of his Maximum, as long as you were below that threshold.

Aside from giving him a ridiculous ramp-up time at the start of battle, it also means that Blade is never without his Zone for very long at all, even in the scenario where you've literally just gotten back up from being downed, or if you eked out that last little bit of damage from his Enhanced Ultimate just before the countdown goes to 0.

Realistically, your Energy economy is going to be fantastic, so you can consider the second part to only be active during the start of combat or after Blade defies death, and the overflow Energy to be much more meaningful.

A4 will make Blade more likely to be attacked by enemies while the Zone is active. Also while the Zone is active, Blade takes 50% less DMG and has a 50% boost to Incoming Healing. He also gains 1 point of Charge for his Talent whenever he gets attacked, and will also inflict Balefire Bind onto the attacker.

This is a pretty ridiculous Bonus Trace. Aside from pumping his survivability to insane levels, getting attacked more and benefitting more from said increased frequency of attacks is amazing. This debuff application does count for the likes of Acheron, and alongside the basic effects of Blade's Talent, this makes Blade the de facto best-in-slot teammate for Acheron, pretty much becoming the equivalent of The Dahlia but for Acheron.

This is also very impactful for getting his points of Charge, and more frequent Follow-ups is a lot more damage, and a LOT more Energy — a reminder that each Follow-up Skill is restoring 55 Energy at base, so you're going to be pretty glad for that A2 Energy overflow effect. This is without even considering the Energy you'll be getting for simply being hit by enemies. Blade gets to redirect attacks to himself while tanking them well and accelerating his own gameplan perfectly.

Lastly, the A6. While the Zone is active, the DMG dealt by all allies will increase by 50%. If there is at least one other Nihility character on the team, the Ultimate DMG of all allies will increase by 75%. If Blade is the only Nihility on the team, then this instead grants him 75% DMG Boost.

This is the final part of the Acheron-specific turbo synergy. Granted, there are plenty of DPS who are Ultimate focused, but especially with the A4 in mind and the stipulation about Nihility, the one who will benefit the most from this is Acheron, and she benefits a colossal amount too. It's an extreme power boost.

And if you decide you want Blade to be the star of the show himself, well he still gets the same bonuses, and also happens to have an extremely powerful and hard-hitting Ultimate. If you aren't going to be using any other Nihility, you'll get a total of 125% DMG Boost for him, which is still a very significant amount. 

Really just an insane spread of Bonus Traces.

[Eidolons]

The usual disclaimer about Eidolons: they are a nice boost, the character is complete and functional at E0 and further vertical investment is nice but ultimately unnecessary.

That said, you aren't prepared for what these Eidolons are.

E1 makes it so that while the Zone is active, all enemies' All-Type RES is reduced by 20%. After using his Follow-up Skill from his Talent, the countdown timer of his Infinite Fury state has its action delayed by 15%.

We're continuing the trend of really good E1s this major patch line. 20% RES Reduction on top of all of the other benefits Blade gives is just hilarious. He's already the best support in the game, and making him even better is... surprisingly tantalising, I won't lie.

Delaying the countdown of Infinite Fury is also pretty good, as the number of activations isn't limited either, so if you're getting attacked enough, it's quite possible for it to just never go away and for you to have constant access to Mortenax Blade's crazy strong Enhanced Ultimate.

E2 makes it so that whenever an ally character deals DMG by using their Ultimiate, it's considered as them having launched a Follow-up ATK. Follow-up DMG dealt by all allies increases by 75%. In addition to this, the upper limit of Mortenax Blade's Charge goes to 7, meaning you're getting even more Follow-up Skills even quicker.

I don't think I really need to elaborate on why this is an excellent Eidolon. It may not be applicable to absolutely everyone, but it's pretty much there, and even further boosts to Follow-up DMG (and now technically Ult damage too) just makes Mortenax Blade even better at what he was already in likelihood the best at.

If you have E2 Blade and E2 Acheron, you may as well be given a fast-forward button that skips to the end of the fight and says 'You're Winner!' while shooting confetti and playing looping applause and cheering.

E4 will further boost the effects of his A6 Bonus Trace to provide an additional 50% DMG to allies while the Zone is active, for a new total of 100% (without factoring in the other benefits).

Lastly, the E6. While the Zone is active, any time Mortenax Blade takes DMG or consumes HP, he gains 1 point of Charge. This can trigger again after any target's turn ends (so every single turn, essentially). This also increases the DMG multiplier of Blade's Enhanced Ultimate to 150% of its original value. A proper 1.5x final multiplier to the damage it'd deal, which when combined with the bonuses you've accumulated by getting to this point, may just be a planet destroying level of power.

Funny Eidolons, I won't lie.

[The Rest]

I'm just gonna say it — This is a real 'main character' kit. This is the kind of thing that the protagonist gets during their big ol' 'hero's journey', complete with a brand new wardrobe!

I'm not even joking, Mortenax Blade is without question the strongest single unit in the game right now, and he can be played on virtually every single team with whoever you damn well please. It may not always be an upgrade depending on the exact team, but it often is, and in those rare cases where it's not, his performance can get astonishingly close to the full monty.

His amplifying capabilities exceed that of Tribbie and with even less effort than thought possible, all while slinging out significantly more personal damage and making you question who the real DPS of the team is.

The consistency with which you can have his Zone active means it's never far away even if it got used to defy death for Blade, and his overall Energy economy is outstanding, even among the great self-battery characters, and if you're overflowing on Energy, you can use it to really lay down the hurt onto enemies with his Enhanced Ultimate.

This isn't even factoring in that he pairs excellently with damn near every other kind of support as well; the DMG% he provides is fantastic and goes a long way to upping performance for free, but also his DEF Reduction and Vulnerability stack very nicely with more traditional Harmony characters.

And DEF Reduction is one of the few things that gets better the more of it that you have, so pairing him with other characters who Shred or Ignore DEF will result in even more substantial gains.

You could also just say 'sod it' and use him as your main DPS. It's not going to be on the same level as dedicated DPS characters, but... Well actually it's pretty damn close, and it's kind of absurd to think that a designated support character is dealing extremely competitive levels of damage. He is still better as a support since he can go almost everywhere (with a varying skill requirement depending on where specifically — new players be aware), but it's an astonishingly good option to have.

Plus, he's a Nihility character, meaning he's got access to some great options for 4-star Light Cones, regardless of how you're going to be using him. Okay yeah the acquisition of some of the 4-star Light Cones is locked to RNG or the Battle Pass, but it's still really good options to have, and even just Good Night Sleep Well can be more than good enough for a DPS setup.

That said, his Signature is pretty important since it does things that no other Nihility Cone does, and that's offer a sizeable Max HP increase, alongside a 20 Energy injection on the first turn of every wave, and yet another debuff that increases the CRIT DMG that enemies take. The Energy is even more impactful since you're actually going to be using an Energy Regeneration Rope on Mortenax Blade anyway, since his Energy gains are so substantial. It's not irreplaceable by any means, but it's just a nice package overall.

Other limited 5-star characters' Signature Light Cones are somewhat messy to use for Blade because Nihility is the 'random BS go' Path that can't stick to an archetype. Mortenax is not about to be building any amount of Effect Hit Rate, so even though Pearls is a great LC, its effects may be applied inconsistently. Tutorial is always there if you really want to ensure his Energy gains are where you need them to be, though it is oftentimes a contested Light Cone, and Holiday Thermae Escapade (the BP cone) is also always a good shout. 

As for teammate and team specifics, it's pretty much everything and anything, with maybe a small asterisk for Elation teams. No, seriously, this man is truly universal, and saying anything more would just end up with me repeating all of the reasons and explanations I've been saying so far, but I will speak on some particularly noteworthy combos.

Acheron.

I've been saying it throughout the review, but it really must be said again. Mortenax Blade is 'The Dahlia' for Acheron. The same way that The Dahlia revived the Break archetype and single-handedly brought it back to the limelight, this is the very same way that Blade is gently leading Acheron by the hand back to the centre stage. She got lost, what can you do. Probably stumbled into a different game franchise by mistake like Zoro tends to do.

The endless surge of debuffs that Mortenax Blade inflicts means that Acheron is constantly getting her points of Slashed Dream on every single possible turn — on ally turns, on her own turn, and on enemies simply acting and hitting Blade, and the more frequent the attacks are from your team, the faster Acheron gets to ramp up and gain access to her Ultimate.

Oh and of course the Ultimate-specific buff that Blade provides alongside the insane general debuffs he has through Balefire Bind mean that Acheron is going to be eviscerating whatever's unlucky enough to be in their collective way. I should say that Blade is most assuredly not going to be dealing the majority of the damage in this setup, because he really does just skyrocket Acheron's damage output by that much, and also the Nihility pairing means he doesn't get any self-DMG buffs to his Skill, but again, doesn't really matter when the enemies are red and monochrome ribbons.

Speaking of the colour red, the retired Galaxy Ranger is another exceptional pairing. Ashveil allows for one of the most ridiculous Dual DPS setups in the game right now when paired with Mortenax Blade. The two complement each other perfectly, having undiluted amplifying effects boost their collective DMG, while also reaching a ridiculous 70% DEF Reduction on enemies without any outside assistance, and without any particularly notable amount of effort either.

They feed into each other flawlessly as well by being frequent attackers — Blade gives Ashveil Energy by hitting The Bait, and Ashveil gives Blade points of Charge, which in turns gives Follow-ups that start the cycle again — and smashing the raw DMG% values into the amplifying effects to create singularity level damage values, just like with Acheron.

Ashveil was already one of the most competitive and powerful DPS in the game, but now it's reaching an undisputable zenith alongside the absolute best of the best Elation teams. Blade is much more present in this team as a damage dealer, and it's pretty clear to understand why the lore pairing of Blade and Ashveil is as feared and revered as it is.

You can also use both Blade and Ashveil to boost Acheron even further, should you wish to combine the biggest aura farmers into one team (it's shockingly amazing).

Other funny setups can occur with any characters that attack extremely often, but I will bring particular attention to Seele and Archer, as these two attack incredibly often and also both benefit extensively from the power that Blade brings, all while also feeding into Blade's kit perfectly. Hell, even Dr. Ratio and the secret tekkers of Main DPS Moze can work extremely well with him too, so have a blast and experiment. Oh and Feixiao, too, I guess, but nobody plays her anymore, right? There's definitely not a specific content creator who loves to play Feixiao, I'm almost certain of it.

Welt might be an interesting duo as well, but there's some slight anti-synergy with Welt delaying enemy actions, and with Welt being Nihility, this shifts Blade's A6 Bonus to be specific to team Ultimate DMG instead of buffing his own DMG. It's definitely a worse option but it's two of the best generalist units on one team, so it's still going to be pretty good — especially because of the excellent survivability these two provide to the team and themselves.

On the note of main DPS setups for Blade, it's kind of the same answer as for running him as a support, so the sky's really the limit. Try out a bunch of options and see what you like and what works for you, you'll be more than okay.

Now for the Elation asterisk. As ever, Elation DMG doesn't care about generic DMG% boosts, so unfortunately the benefits from Blade's A6 are just not relevant there (unless you count the pittance that Eva would get from it). However, 30% DEF Shred and 50% Vuln is still highly prized, and in fact, if you're really feeling like going without a sustain for Elation and your Welt is occupied elsewhere, Blade is going to be a surprisingly excellent option for the 4th slot, especially since he's very tanky and draws a lot of the enemies' attention to himself.

Remember, Mortenax Blade has a 100% guaranteed Taunt debuff on his Basics, so if you really need to redirect a specific hard-hitting Boss attack then you can do that with extreme ease. This means that even in Elation where he doesn't get his full benefits, he's still a formidable support. Besides, with no other Nihility on the team, Blade gets the full selfish benefits of his A6 so he'll even be contributing quite an impressive amount of damage as well. If you're an Eva enjoyer, be sure to try this out on her team, you may just be surprised.

All of this thoroughly deserved glaze is amplified if you get Mortenax Blade's E1, or, god help you, his E2. If you really want to ensure that Blade is going to stay relevant for a VERY long time, then vertical investment into him is undoubtedly one of the best things you can do for him.

COMPLETE OVERKILL, just to remind everyone, but hey, it is pretty damn good.

And no, Jing Yuan is not back with this. Give him a Novaflare.

[Wrap up]

Blade really picked up a lot of tricks from his excursion to Fortnite /s.

There's nothing more to say without repeating myself (which is something I've already said so I failed), I think it's pretty clear to anyone with eyes what Mortenax Blade's power level is.

Given that he's a Main Character™ in the larger scope of the story of Star Rail, it's maybe not too surprising. The people within this category of Main Mains like the Express Crew and the Stellaron Hunters are generally safe bets when it comes to having extremely powerful kits.

Kafka is one of the best DoT enablers in the game, Silver Wolf is a top tier generalist support and a top hypercarry with her lv. 999 form, broad gestures towards Firefly, and original Blade is still pretty good after his Novaflare some time back. Now, Blade gets to really shake up the scene with his Mortenax form and remind people that he is in fact a major player, both in the story and in the gameplay.

Will that side stay unreachable for him? Time will tell, but as far as the gameplay is concerned, Mortenax Blade has absolutely no trouble with allowing himself and his allies to send their adversaries to that other side. 

Why specifically 'adversaries' and not 'enemies'? 

Because Blade has no enemies.