Should You Pull For Mortenax Blade In Version 4.3 Of Honkai: Star Rail?

Version 4.3 of Honkai: Star Rail is releasing soon, and with it, an alternate playable version of Stellaron Hunter Blade known as Mortenax Blade will be released. Mortenax Blade is a 5-star Fire-element unit following the Path of Nihility, and represents Blade once the curse of immortality bestowed upon him by Shuhu's cells is removed. While the process and nature of his new form have yet to be revealed (we have some speculation about this, which you can find in our Version 4.3 Special Livestream coverage), we know that it represents a rebirth of sorts for the character.

Mortenax Blade Character Trailer

A Quick Overview

Mortenax Blade marks a new chapter in the journey of the silent, brooding Stellaron Hunter, Blade. Having absorbed all the cells of the undying Abomination of Abundance known as Shuhu to save the citizens of Planarcadia, Blade's journey will take him into Planarcadia's depths in search of a power to free himself of Shuhu and the curse of immortality he bears.

In-game, Mortenax Blade is a generalist debuffer unit who provides powerful debuffs against enemies and buffs to allies, all while providing a decent amount of DPS himself. The nature of his kit also allows him to act as a pseudo-sustain unit due to his ability to pull enemy aggro and revive himself when downed, meaning more experienced players can use him in sustainless runs as a support and sub-DPS unit in the 4th team slot.

Should you pull for him? As always, it depends. Let's take a quick look at everything that Blade provides, and which allies his kit caters to the most.

• What Mortenax Blade does:
  
  Applies consistent DEF shred and DMG Vulnerability debuffs on enemies Can increase the Ultimate DMG of allied Nihility characters Aggros enemies, taking DMG away from squishier team members Deals a good amount of personal DMG
• Who he's best with:
  
  Almost any team is capable of using Mortenax Blade to his full potential due to the universality of the debuffs inflicted on enemies There is special synergy with Acheron due to Mortenax Blade's quick debuff application and the Ultimate DMG increase for allied Nihility units

Mortenax Blade's Kit

Mortenax Blade's kit centers on applying constant DEF shred and Vulnerability debuffs to enemies while performing frequent attacks and pulling enemy aggro. Mortenax Blade's kit is largely locked behind a special state known as Infinite Fury, only having access to his Basic ATK, which deals damage and applies Taunt to a single enemy.

Mortenax Blade's Skill consumes 10% of his Maximum HP and deals DMG that scales off his Maximum HP to all enemies, dealing another four instances of DMG to a random enemy. This Skill doesn't consume Skill Points, and can't be used when Mortenax Blade is at 1 HP. This ability can only be activated while Mortenax Blade is in the Infinite Fury state.

Mortenax Blade enters the Infinite Fury state when using his first of two Ultimate abilities, Fornax Ex Corpore. This ability applies Balefire Bind, which is a DEF shred and Vulnerability debuff, to all enemies for 2 turns, and creates a Zone. While the Zone is active, Mortenax Blade enters the Infinite Fury state, gains access to his Skill, and applies Balefire Bind to enemies attacked by allies. Additionally, while in the Infinite Fury state, Mortenax Blade has increased CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG. This state lasts until the end of a countdown, which has a fixed SPD of 70.

Whenever Mortenax Blade applies Balefire Bind while in the Zone, he gains one point of Charge. When he reaches nine points and is above 1 HP, he consumes the Charges, performs his Skill as a Follow-Up ATK, and regenerates 30 Energy.

Mortenax Blade's second Ultimate, Tenax Per Ignem, can only be activated while he is currently in the Infinite Fury state. This Ultimate deals massive DMG to all enemies based on Mortenax Blade's Maximum HP.

Mortenax Blade's first Trace allows him to store up to 80 excess Energy when his Energy is full. After using his Ultimate, the stored Energy is immediately restored. Additionally, at the start of battle and whenever the Zone created by his Ultimate disappears, he regenerates Energy up to 75% of his maximum if he is below that threshold.

His second Trace improves his survivability by increasing his aggro, reducing DMG taken, and boosting Incoming Healing. While inside his Zone, being hit by an enemy also grants him one stack of Balefire Bind and one Charge.

His final Trace provides a teamwide DMG boost while his Zone is active. If another Nihility character is present in the party, it instead grants a bonus to allied Ultimate DMG. Otherwise, Mortenax Blade receives an increased personal DMG bonus.

Mortenax Blade's Gameplay

Mortenax Blade's gameplay revolves around activating his Ultimate as quickly as possible to enter his Zone and unlock the majority of his kit. His overall kit design is streamlined for comfortable Energy generation, SP-neutral rotations with the possibility of SP-positive play. As a result, his core gameplay loop is straightforward, mostly consisting of deploying his Zone with his Ultimate, then using his Skill to pile on damage and debuffs. While not optimal in every situation, this rotation is reliable and easy to execute. Mortenax Blade also offers a high skill ceiling for more advanced players who want to push his team performance further through smart use of Action Advance effects during Infinite Fury and utilizing his Taunt to maximize Energy generation.

Should You Pull For Mortenax Blade?

Should you pull for Mortenax Blade? The short answer is yes if you like his character, want to restore Acheron teams to meta-level performance, want to build a team for Ashveil, or are missing generalist support options like Tribbie, Welt (E4), and Silver Wolf. The full suite of DMG amplification he provides is currently unparalleled in the support character meta, and he deals a decent amount of DMG on top of that, even having the DMG multipliers to be able to play as a main DPS in most mid-endgame content.

As of Version 4.3, Mortenax Blade is slated to be the best-in-slot support for Acheron and Ashveil, being the unit capable of reviving Acheron's place in the meta, similarly to what The Dahlia did for Super Break teams.

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This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 12:02 PM.