The Art of Target Selection: How To Max Your Score? The Gonzo Buff Revolution Rewriting Pure Fiction Rules

Have you ever experienced this? You bring your perfectly built Himeko + Herta team into Pure Fiction, excited to grind out a high score. You turn on auto-battle, watch them spin and fire off their attacks, and your score skyrockets early on. But by waves 2 and 3, a high-health, high-defense Golden Envoy spawns among your enemies, and your AOE damage starts tickling instead of killing. Your perpetual motion chain stalls out, and your final score ends at just 55,000, missing out on full stars by a hair.

This is the old-school mindset trap. You think Pure Fiction only needs AOE damage, so you stick with AOE clear the entire run. You ignore the two most critical variables on the battlefield: targeting priority and the current rotation’s free Gonzo Buff.

But at the same time, another Trailblazer facing the exact same battlefield gets a totally different result. They play manually, and as soon as the boss spawns, they focus every single single-target ability, including their support’s basic attacks, onto that high-health boss. Once the boss is dead, they switch back to AOE to clear the remaining trash mobs. They also check the current Gonzo Buff: “After the team uses an Ultimate, apply Doubt to all enemies.” They immediately swap Argenti into their team, use his infinite Ultimate loop to trigger the buff over and over, and easily break 70,000 points.

This gap between the two runs is the difference between strategy and brute forcing. Pure Fiction isn’t a mindless grass-cutting grind—it’s an art of resource management and rule exploitation. This guide will break down the art of target selection in depth, and teach you how to get the maximum value out of the Gonzo Buff.

The Pure Fiction Challenge: Why AOE Spamming Leaves You Stuck At A Low Score Cap

Pure Fiction is designed to reward players who know how to adapt. If you’re stuck in the old “AOE everything” mindset, you’ll immediately hit two big walls: high-health elite enemies and mismatched buffs. This is the core blind spot that leaves most players stuck right around 50,000 points.

The Tickling Paradox: Using AOE To Fight A Golden Envoy

Pure Fiction’s scoring rule gives more points for killing trash mobs and less for killing elites, but this is actually a built-in trap. The game intentionally spawns a high-health, high-toughness roadblock like the Golden Envoy or Automaton Grizzly in wave 2 or 3. This enemy exists specifically to break your Himeko + Herta perpetual motion chain.

Case Study: Player Xiao Ming’s Himeko + Herta team has enough AOE damage to one-shot every small trash mob. But when the Golden Envoy spawns, his AOE damage is split across 5 targets, so it barely scratches the boss. Once all trash is dead, only the boss is left on the field, and Himeko and Herta’s follow-up attack passives stop working entirely—there are no new enemies to drop to low health or break toughness on. He gets stuck in the AOE tickling trap, wasting 1 to 2 precious turns that cost him points.

The Overlooked Buff: The Hidden Power Of Gonzo Buff

The Gonzo Buff is the rotating global modifier that changes every rotation of Pure Fiction. Just like the buffs in Forgotten Hall’s Memory of Chaos, it’s a free T0-level power boost the game gives you for free. But 90% of players ignore it entirely, and just reuse the previous rotation’s MVP team comp.

Case Study: The current rotation’s buff gives extra attack-based damage every time your character procs a follow-up attack. Player Xiao Hong still stubbornly uses her Acheron team, which has no follow-up attack mechanics at all. She’s essentially crippling her own damage, voluntarily giving up a 100% potential score increase. Meanwhile, another player running Dr. Ratio and Topaz gets absolutely devastating damage output under the same buff.

How To Rewrite The Rules For High Scores: Focus Fire Priority And Buff Adaptation

To break through the 50,000 point cap, you need to embrace the new rules: Clear trash with AOE, kill elites with focus fire, and burst down enemies using your buff. Your team building approach needs to shift from “fixed comp forever” to “building around the current buff”.

New Core Rule: The Art Of Target Selection – Focus Fire Priority

The secret to a high Pure Fiction score is keeping your run smooth. You can’t afford to get stuck on any single enemy. That means you need to switch your attack target constantly based on the current phase:

1. Phase 1 (Trash Wave): Your goal is full AOE coverage. Let your Himeko, Herta, Jing Yuan and other AOE characters spam their skills and Ultimates as much as possible to trigger follow-up attack chains as fast as you can.
2. Phase 2 (Elite Spawn): As soon as the Golden Envoy or Automaton Grizzly spawns, you need to switch your tactic immediately. Every single-target attack in your team, including your support’s basic attacks, needs to be manually focused onto this elite enemy.
3. Phase 3 (Elite Execute): Once the elite’s health is dropped low, immediately use your high burst single-target ability—like Dr. Ratio’s Ultimate or Seele’s skill—to kill it instantly, so it doesn’t slow down your trash clear rhythm.

New Core Rule: Read The Gonzo Buff And Rebuild Your Team

The Gonzo Buff is your blueprint for the run. Before you hit start, you need to spend 10 seconds reading it, and rebuild both of your teams around it as the absolute core priority. You don’t just run Himeko + Herta through every path anymore—you put whatever team can best leverage the buff on the field.

Quick Q&A: How Do I Build My Team Around The Gonzo Buff?

It’s super simple—you just need to match your team to what the buff asks for:

• Buff Keyword: Follow-Up Attacks
  • MVP Characters: Himeko, Herta, Dr. Ratio, Topaz, Clara, Jing Yuan, Sunday
  • Strategy: This is the perfect playground for follow-up attack teams. Pull out your T0 follow-up comp and go to town.
• Buff Keywords: Ultimate Damage, Energy Regeneration
  • MVP Characters: Argenti, Acheron, Jing Yuan, Tingyun, Huohuo
  • Strategy: This is the time for Erudition and Ultimate spam teams. Argenti’s 180-energy Ultimate becomes a nuclear weapon in this mode.
• Buff Keywords: Damage Over Time (DoT), Detonation
  • MVP Characters: Kafka, Black Swan, Sampo, Guinaifen, Luka
  • Strategy: This is Nihility’s home field. DoT teams’ ability to spread damage across the entire group and detonate all stacks at once will pump out massive score gains by the second.

Character pool depth is far more important in Pure Fiction than it is in Memory of Chaos.

Ditching Auto-Battle: 3 Core Metrics For Manual High Score Runs

You can sometimes hit 60,000 points on auto-battle, but if you want to push for 70,000 or 80,000 points, you need to play manually and follow this high score checklist:

Pure Fiction High Score Strategy Checklist (V1.0)

• Strategy Dimension: Target Selection
  • Core Metric: Elite enemy alive on field
  • High Score Action: [Manual Focus Fire] Dump all single-target attacks (basic attacks/skills) into the elite to remove the roadblock fast
  • Comment: This is your number one rule to avoid getting stuck. Never waste AOE damage tickling an elite.
• Strategy Dimension: Gonzo Buff Usage
  • Core Metric: Current rotation’s Gonzo Buff
  • High Score Action: [Pre-Battle Team Building] Read the buff’s keywords (follow-up/ultimate/DoT) and bring matching MVP characters
  • Comment: This is the key to raising your maximum score. Ignoring the buff means giving up 50% of your potential score.
• Strategy Dimension: Timing Control
  • Core Metric: Follow-up attacks / Ultimates
  • High Score Action: 1. Save AOE Ultimates for when there are the most trash mobs on the field. 2. Manually break toughness and drop enemy health to trigger Himeko and Herta’s follow-up chains on purpose.
  • Comment: Manual play lets you intentionally create the perfect conditions for your perpetual motion chain to keep running.

The Future Of Pure Fiction: A Choice Between Adaptability And Rigidity

Pure Fiction’s battlefield is Honkai: Star Rail’s ultimate test of team breadth and tactical adaptability. It uses the Gonzo Buff to point you toward the current meta answer, and uses high-health elites to test your focus fire decision-making.

Ultimately, this comes down to a core choice about your approach to the game: Do you want to be a rigid auto-battle player, satisfied with 50,000 points and the rewards that come with spamming one comp through every run? Or do you want to be a flexible tactical artist, enjoy reading the rules, manually focusing targets, and maximizing buff value to earn the glory of an 80,000 point run?

On this story-built battlefield, art is adaptability, and adaptability is the highest score you can get.