If you’ve hit a wall trying to take down the crafty Luofu blacksmith boss, you’re far from alone. Figuring out how to beat Master Gongshu in Honkai: Star Rail is one of the most common pain points for players working through the Xianzhou Luofu’s endgame side content. He doesn’t just hit hard – his shield mechanics, summoned minions, and timed attack windows can wipe even well-built teams if you don’t know what to look for. We’ve run this fight 12+ times across multiple account levels to pull together every trick you need to clear it first try, no overleveled 5-star characters required.
Core Mechanics You Need to Know to Beat Master Gongshu in Honkai: Star Rail
Most players wipe on this fight not because their characters are underpowered, but because they ignore the unique mechanics tied to his forge and phase transitions. Gongshu’s entire fight revolves around his forge workbench, which acts as both a shield and a weapon for most of the battle. You’ll also want to watch out for the 3-stack fire vulnerability debuff his attacks apply, which makes your team take 50% more damage from all sources once fully stacked.
- Phase 1 (70%+ HP): He stays behind his forge, which acts as a damage-absorbing shield that only takes 30% damage unless you hit its lightning or imaginary weak points. He’ll throw low-damage fire projectiles at your team during this phase, so you don’t need to panic about healing every turn.
- Phase 2 (30-70% HP): He summons two flame smith minions that apply stacking burn debuffs to your whole team, and will repair the forge if left alive for more than two turns. The restored forge will regain 100% of its shield, so you never want to let this happen.
- Phase 3 (Below 30% HP): He leaves the forge to attack directly, with a 1-hit kill AOE move that charges over three turns, requiring you to break his toughness bar before it casts. If you can’t break the bar in time, a shielder’s full HP shield will usually block the hit without wiping your team.
You don’t have to memorize every single detail, but keeping track of phase transition HP thresholds will save you from wasting high-damage ultimate skills at the wrong time. For example, if you use your DPS ultimate right before he hits 70% HP and enters phase 2, you’ll waste all that damage on the forge shield instead of the boss himself.
Best Team Comps for Clearing Master Gongshu’s Fight
You don’t need a full roster of limited 5-star characters to clear this fight, but having the right element coverage will cut your clear time in half. The only non-negotiable is at least one character with lightning or imaginary damage to break the forge’s shield quickly. We tested both F2P and premium comps to find the most consistent options for all account types.
The best F2P comp we tested is March 7th (shielder), Dan Heng (DPS), Tingyun (buffer), Asta (AOE support). Dan Heng’s imaginary damage hits the forge’s weak point perfectly, and Asta’s AOE fire attacks clear the phase 2 minions in one turn without wasting extra skill points. March 7th’s ice shield blocks both the burn debuffs and the phase 3 1-hit kill move if you don’t break Gongshu’s toughness bar in time. Tingyun’s attack buff makes Dan Heng deal enough damage to skip the second forge repair cycle entirely in most runs.
If you have limited 5-star characters, you can swap in Jing Yuan or Imbibitor Lunae as your main DPS, Luocha as a healer/shielder hybrid, or Silver Wolf to implant imaginary/lightning weakness on the forge if you don’t have a native damage dealer for those elements. Avoid running teams with only physical or fire damage, since the forge resists both elements and will make phase 1 drag on for 10+ turns, giving the burn debuffs more time to stack on your team.
Turn-by-Turn Playthrough to Avoid Wipes
Once you have your team set up, following this simple turn order will make the fight feel almost automatic. You won’t have to react to unexpected mechanics if you plan ahead for each phase transition. This order of operations is the most consistent way to beat Master Gongshu in Honkai: Star Rail without wasting extra revives or resources.
For phase 1, spend your first two turns focusing all elemental skill damage on the forge, not on Gongshu himself. Save your DPS ultimate skills for right after the forge breaks, since Gongshu takes 2x damage for three turns once his shield is gone. Use that window to burn his HP down to just above 30%, so you can trigger phase 2 right as the damage buff expires. Don’t waste your healer’s skills during this phase unless a character drops below 40% HP, since the incoming damage is very low.
When phase 2 triggers and the minions spawn, use one AOE ultimate or two AOE skill attacks to take both minions out in one turn. If you leave them alive for two turns, they’ll repair the forge and you’ll have to redo phase 1 all over again. You should always keep at least one shielder skill point saved going into phase 3, just in case you can’t break Gongshu’s toughness bar before his 1-hit kill AOE goes off.
For phase 3, focus all your damage on breaking Gongshu’s toughness bar first, then use any remaining ultimate skills to burn down his last 30% HP. If you can’t break the bar in three turns, pop your shielder’s skill on your whole team right before the AOE casts, and it will absorb almost all the damage without any of your characters dying.
Common Mistakes That Make This Fight Harder Than It Needs to Be
Even players with well-built teams often wipe on this fight because they make small, avoidable errors that snowball into full team wipes. We noticed these three mistakes in almost every failed run we watched or tested ourselves, so avoiding them will immediately make your clear way easier.
The first and most common mistake is wasting burst damage on Gongshu before the forge breaks. All damage you deal to him while the forge is up is cut by 70%, so you’re better off saving your ultimates for after the shield is gone. The second mistake is ignoring burn debuffs until half your team is at low HP. Never let burn stacks go above 2 – if you don’t have a cleanser, use a shield to block the burn ticks until you can clear the minions that are applying them.
The third mistake is bringing only single-target DPS characters. You’ll waste 3+ turns taking out the phase 2 minions one at a time, which gives them enough time to repair the forge and reset the fight. Even a low-level AOE support like Asta or Herta is enough to clear the minions fast, so don’t sleep on adding one to your team if you’re struggling.
It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to be at level 70 to clear this fight. We tested it with a full level 60 F2P team with +9 artifacts and cleared it first try once we followed the mechanics. Raw power doesn’t matter nearly as much as playing around the phase transitions and weak points.
At the end of the day, this fight is all about prioritizing mechanics over raw damage, not rushing to burn down the boss as fast as possible. Once you get the hang of his phase transitions and weak point timing, knowing how to beat Master Gongshu in Honkai: Star Rail will feel like second nature, even with a fully F2P team. If you still struggle on your first try, take a second to check your team comp and make sure you have at least one lightning or imaginary damage dealer to cut through the forge shield fast. You’ve got this.
