Try-Not-to-Laugh Challenge Event Guide for Honkai: Star Rail

In this event, players must battle Challenge Stages by building teams with Comedians and a Supporting Cast of characters. There are a total of seven stages altogether, and each of them have several objectives to complete.

Each Challenge Stage features waves of enemies you must defeat to earn a final score. The Challenge Stage difficulty is based on your current Equilibrium level, so players are highly recommended to either use the Trial Characters available, or upgrade their roster as necessary.

In addition, there is also a Surprise Box on the action order that has Surprise Gifts of various effects. The Surprise Box's power is determined by how many Giggle Gauge points you can build before the Surprise Box opens.

To progress in the event, your Challenge Stage scores must be at least a B-rank or higher. The more objectives you complete before the Cycle ends, the higher your score rating will be.

The highest rating you can get is SS-rank, which is obtained upon clearing a Challenge Stage with a Perfect Win. Perfect Wins occur when you complete the S-rank objective and eliminate all enemies on the final wave.

Some playable characters, called Comedians, can increase the types of Surprise Gifts in the Surprise Box. In addition, they can also increase the Surprise Box's Giggle Gauge when their turn begins. The higher the points, the stronger the effects.

Comedians have new abilities, which are different from the roster version of the characters. You can review this information on each Challenge Stage the Comedian is featured on.

If a Challenge Stage features multiple Comedians, their Surprise Gifts will activate in order from left to right, based on the character positions in the team.

Your Challenge Stage teams will feature both Comedians and a Supporting Cast.

In this event, you must include all of the Comedian(s) featured in the Challenge Stage. In addition, the order of Comedian(s) impact the Surprise Gift order in the Surprise Box. If there are multiple Comedians in the team, the Surprise Gifts activate starting with Comedians from left to right.

The Supporting Cast, on the other hand, are characters from your roster. These can include Trial Characters, who are scaled according to the current Equilibrium level difficulty. You can obtain scores of S-rank and higher with the Trial Characters, so players are recommended to try them out!

You can use any combination of characters available, but this guide provides team recommendations for Full-Auto SS-rank gameplay. For more information, consult the Challenge Stages section.

During the Challenge Stage, players can control the Comedian(s) like they would any other character. In addition, there is also a Surprise Box in the Action Order, filled with Surprise Gifts of various effects.

The Surprise Box will open when its Action Value reaches 0, or at the top of the Action Order.

The Surprise Box's Surprise Gifts deal various amounts of damage, either directly or indirectly (such as Feixiao or Cerydra) The power of its Surprise Gift effects are determined by the amount of Giggle Gauge points accumulated.

You can consult the Giggle Gauge either on the Action Order or to the right-hand side of the screen. The higher the Giggle Gauge reaches, the more powerful your Surprise Gifts will be.

By building sufficient Giggle Gauge for the Surprise Box, you will have a better chance of completing the Challenge Stage with a higher score. Your score will be recorded after 3 turns have passed, or if you have eliminated all waves of enemies in the Challenge Stage.

In the first Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedian Sparkle.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay.

There is virtually no difference between the Trial-only and SS-rank teams, though keep in mind you can use your own Supporting Cast roster. Only Sparkle cannot be replaced. For example, you can replace Archer with any characters who use multiple Skill Points per action, such as:

• Qingque
• Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae

The Surprise Box gains 1 Giggle Gauge point every time a Skill Point is consumed by any ally target. This includes the Surprised ally target, who was targeted by Sparkle's Dreamdiver.

If you are playing manually, Sparkle's Dreamdiver should always target an ally who uses multiple Skill Points per action. Her Surprise Bonus allows the Surprised ally target to use Skills without consuming Skill Points, up to 3 Skills. You will want to ensure Sparkle has at least 1 Skill Point before her action.

In the second Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedians Qingque and Sparkle.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay. However, for higher Giggle Gauge points per Surprise Box, manual gameplay is recommended.

With only the Trial Characters, you might find the team does not require an Abundance character such as Gallagher. As Qingque and the Surprise Box will deal enough damage per action, it may be more preferable to use another Harmony character instead. For example:

• Sunday
• Bronya
• Robin

Ideally, as Qingque will use a lot of Skill Points per action, the Harmony character is Skill Point Neutral or Positive.

Whenever Qingque obtains a Hidden Hand, the Surprise Box gains 5 Giggle Gauge points. In addition, after gaining the Hidden Hand state, Qingque can continue to use her Skill to obtain another Hidden Hand.

If you are playing manually, use Sparkle's Dreamdiver on Qingque. Whenever Qingque's action is available, use all of your Skill Points for A Scoop of Moon until you have no more remaining. This maximizes your Giggle Gauge points per Surprise Box, though it heavily depends on how fast and how many Hidden Hands Qingque can obtain in one action.

In the third Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedians Qingque and Aventurine.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay. However, for higher Giggle Gauge points per Surprise Box, manual gameplay is recommended. You may require multiple attempts to achieve SS-rank, as Aventurine's Surprise Bonus is randomized each action.

To maximize on Aventurine's Surprise Bonus, you will want to prioritize any characters who can provide him with extra Energy or Actions. For example:

• Sunday
• Bronya
• Tingyun
• Huohuo
• Robin

The goal when playing manually is to ensure Aventurine can use Roulette Shark and/or Cornerstone Deluxe on every action. With the reduced Energy cost, Aventurine can guarantee his Roulette Shark when using Skill Points.

The Surprise Box gains 1/2/4/8 Giggle Gauge point(s) according to the Lottery Result from Roulette Shark.

Aventurine's Roulette Shark rolls a Lottery Result value of 1/2/4/8, which determines his Surprise Gift's strength.

If the Lottery Result rolls an 8, the Surprise Box will immediately take action with the current Giggle Gauge amount. Because the Lottery Result is random, it may take a few uses of Roulette Shark before the Surprise Box can act immediately.

In the fourth Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedians Aventurine and Feixiao.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay.

There is virtually no difference between the Trial-only and SS-rank teams, though keep in mind you can use your own Supporting Cast roster. Only Aventurine and Feixiao cannot be replaced.

If you are playing manually, consider using The Hunt March 7th's Master, It's Tea Time! on Feixiao. This will ensure The Hunt March 7th deals additional damage and can help end waves faster.

The Surprise Box gains Giggle Gauge points whenever Feixiao attacks. In addition, the Surprise Gift will always give Feixiao:

• 4 Flying Aureus, and
• Additional Flying Aureus for every 4 Giggle Gauge points accumulated

When playing manually, Feixiao's Terrasplit will increase the number of hits based on all Flying Aureus consumed. In addition, Terrasplit will attack all enemies and automatically end when all enemies in the wave are defeated.

If the enemies are defeated before the hit counter reaches 0, Feixiao will receive Flying Aureus equal to the remaining hits from Terrasplit. As her Flying Aureus limit is 30, you can "carry over" Terrasplit to the following wave of enemies.

In the fifth Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedians Feixiao, Cerydra, and Sparkle.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay.

There is virtually no difference between the Trial-only and SS-rank teams, though keep in mind you can use your own Supporting Cast roster. Only Feixiao, Cerydra, and Sparkle cannot be replaced.

The Surprise Box gains 5 Giggle Gauge points whenever Cerydra's "Military Merit" upgrades to "Peerage". This is possible after using Pawn's Promotion on an ally target, and the Charge reaches 6 points or higher.

The ally target with "Military Merit" will have their SPD and ATK increased, and the effect refreshes after any unit takes action. The increased values depend on how many Giggle Gauge points you currently have.

If you are playing manually, use both Pawn's Promotion and Dreamdiver on Feixiao. In addition, ensure Feixiao uses Waraxe on every action.

In the sixth Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring the Comedians Sampo, Cerydra, and Sparkle.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

Trial

SS Rank

Both recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay.

There is virtually no difference between the Trial-only and SS-rank teams, though keep in mind you can use your own Supporting Cast roster. Only Sampo, Cerydra, and Sparkle cannot be replaced.

When the Surprise Box's action ends, it will automatically obtain an amount of Giggle Gauge points equal to the number of defeated enemies when the Surprise Box was open.

If you are playing manually, Sampo's Surprise Present will automatically activate a personal Surprise Box immediately. This personal Surprise Box features all Surprise Gifts available in the team, and at a set Giggle Gauge of 10. It will also not overwrite nor action advance the current Surprise Box in the Action Order.

In this Challenge Stage, the personal Surprise Box will not feature Surprise Gifts from Qingque, Aventurine, nor Feixiao.

In addition, using Surprise Present will increase Sampo's DMG by 2,000% for 2 turns.

In the final Challenge Stage, you must play with a team featuring only Comedians from the Challenge Stages.

For the highest score available, try creating a team similar to the recommendations below:

SS Rank

SS Rank

SS Rank

All recommended teams can achieve S-rank or higher in Full Auto gameplay. For higher consistency with Giggle Gauge points per Surprise Box, you may want to consider playing manually.

The character positions will not significantly impact the Surprise Box's Surprise Gift effects. However, as Cerydra's Surprise Gift re-activates the previous Surprise Gift, you want to ensure she is never in the team's first position on the left.