Cipher vs Her Light Cone: Should You Skip the Character?

If you're on the fence about pulling for Cipher or just picking up her Light Cone, you’re not alone. There’s a solid argument for skipping Cipher herself and just grabbing her signature Light Cone instead, especially if you’re optimizing for value or playing more on the budget-conscious side. Here’s a full breakdown to help you make the best choice based on your account and goals.

Cipher brings a mixed utility-DPS playstyle, with a strong focus on true damage and debuff support.

🔥 True Damage Scaling

Her main damage source is true damage, which completely ignores resistances and defenses. It doesn’t rely on crit either, but it scales off the total damage your team deals. So, if your team has strong DPS, she hits harder. If they don’t, her impact is limited.

🧊 Debuffs

Cipher applies three distinct debuffs:

• Auto-proc debuff via her skill (costs 1 SP), not counting light cone effects
• 40% vulnerability debuff, constantly active and benefits every team
• Patron stacks, which fuel her true damage burst

These are valuable for synergy with characters like Dr. Ratio or Acheron, especially in debuff-reliant teams.

💥 Follow-Up Attacks

She also triggers a follow-up attack once per turn, with 100% bonus crit damage from a bonus ability. This doesn’t scale with her true damage, but it adds some steady chip damage and is easier to build around due to the free crit damage.

⚡ Speed = Power Cipher scales with speed, specifically between 140 to 170:

• At 140 SPD: +25% crit rate, +50% recorded damage
• At 170 SPD: +50% crit rate, +100% recorded damage

While this doesn’t affect her true damage, it greatly boosts her follow-up and skill attack effectiveness. Hitting 170 SPD is a must for optimal performance.

Her Light Cone gives:

• +18% speed
• • Two debuffs:
• • 16% defense shred
• Additional 8% defense shred if the user has 170+ SPD

This makes it arguably stronger than Pearls of Sweat, which only provides the 16% shred at S5. The speed bonus is also massive for most Inhaler-type characters like Black Swan, Guinaifen, Kafka, and Silver Wolf. Even without Cipher, this Light Cone is incredibly versatile.

✅ Cipher Pros

• Brings three debuffs, great for debuff-reliant comps
• Free crit damage follow-up attack every turn
• Scales well with power creep, since her damage is tied to team DPS
• Flexible utility (true damage, speed scaling, team buffs)

❌ Cipher Cons

• Takes up a valuable team slot, especially in tight comps
• Needs significant investment to outperform other support options
• Debuff uptime depends on her actions, not guaranteed passively
• Effectiveness hinges on how strong your existing DPS characters are
• Often second-best in slot, not top tier for many team archetypes

✅ Light Cone Pros

• 18% speed bonus is huge for Inhalers
• Defense shred that scales with SPD
• Usable on a wide range of characters
• Better value for resource-conscious players
• No need to commit to Cipher herself

❌ Light Cone Cons

• Needs 170 SPD to unlock full defense shred
• Still a marginal upgrade over Pearls of Sweat if you can’t hit the speed threshold

Here’s the rough jade cost breakdown:

• Cipher (character): Up to 180 pulls, average 154 pulls, 24,000 jades
• Light Cone: Up to 160 pulls, average 138 pulls, 22,000 jades

The Light Cone is slightly cheaper, and you don’t have to worry about losing a 50/50 — the gacha odds are in your favor here. For free-to-play and light spenders, this matters a lot.