Honkai: Star Rail – Sparkle build and ascension guide
It’s time to get serious with the best Honkai: Star Rail Sparkle build that will enable you to stage the performance of a lifetime – and hopefully entertain even the twisted mind of Aha. Sparkle is following The Harmony for gameplay purposes, though she’s a devout adherent of The Elation when it comes to the lore, and deals Quantum Damage.
Sparkle’s Skill, Dreamdiver, increases the Critical Damage of the target ally based on Sparkle’s own value in the stat on top of advancing the target’s turn forward by 50%. Sparkle can use the ability on herself, but won’t benefit from the Action Advance effect.
Her Ultimate, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, recovers four Skill Points for the team on top of granting every ally the Cipher effects. Cipher enhances the Damage Boost obtained by allies via Sparkle’s Talent, Red Herring, for two turns.
Red Herring increases the damage dealt by allies whenever one of them consumes a Skill Point. This effect lasts for two turns and can stack up to three times. In addition, Red Herring increases the maximum amount of Skill Points the team has access to by two. That’s right, Sparkle is out here breaking the fundamental rules of the game.
As usual, Sparkle’s Eidolon Levels, which are upgraded by obtaining more copies of her, greatly enhance her strength. Eidolon 1 allows Cipher to last an additional turn and adds an Attack buff to its effects. Eidolon 2 allows allies affected by Red Herring to bypass some of the enemy’s Defense when attacking. Not enough Skill Points yet? Eidolon 4 lets Sparkle’s Ultimate recover an additional Skill Point and has her Talent expand the Skill Point capacity by one as well. Finally, Eidolon 6 boosts the effect of Sparkle’s Skill and expands its effect on all allies with Cipher. In addition, using her Ultimate will allow the last ally to be affected by Dreamdiver to spread its effects to adjacent allies now affected by Cipher.
Honkai: Star Rail – Sparkle: best Light Cones
As is the case with most 5-Star characters in the game, Sparkle has a signature Light Cone that especially suits her needs. It’s called Earthly Escapade and provides a hefty bonus to Critical Hit Damage, which in turn benefits those supported by Sparkle’s Skill. Furthermore, the wielder will gain the Mask status for three turns after the battle starts. While Mask is active, all allies gain a bonus to Critical Hit Damage and Critical Hit Rate. The wearer themselves will gain stacks of Radiant Flame whenever they recover a Skill Point. Once they have gained four stacks of this status, they are consumed and will regain Mask for four turns.
Sparkle’s requirements are unique among all existing Harmony characters, so other Light Cones definitely diminish her effectiveness.
Best Light Cones for Sparkle:
- Earthly Escapade (5-Star)
- But the Battle Isn’t Over (5-Star)
- Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds (4-Star)
- Dreamville Adventure (4-Star)
- Past and Future (4-Star)
Honkai: Star Rail – Sparkle: best Relics
Critical Hit Damage, Speed, and Energy Regeneration are the key stats you want to look out for on Sparkle. It’s an odd mixture, especially as you’ll need to consider her survivability as well. In spite of her uniqueness, we’d recommend the usual support Relic sets on Sparkle, though with different stat lines than usual. Another exception is Penacony, Land of the Dreams, which we’d recommend if you’re using Sparkle in a Mono-Quantum line-up.
Best Relic Sets for Sparkle:
- Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (4) – +6% Speed, +12% Speed for all allies for one turn when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally.
Best Planar Ornaments for Sparkle:
- Broken Keel (2) – +10% Effect Resistance, +10% Critical Hit Damage for all allies when the wearer’s Effect Resistance is 30% or higher.
- Penacony, Land of the Dreams (2) – +5% Energy Regeneration Rate, +10% Damage for all allies that are of the same Damage Type as the wearer.
- Fleet of the Ageless (2) – +12% maximum HP, +8% Attack for all allies when the wearer’s Speed is 120 or higher.
Prioritize the following Relic and Planar Ornament stats for Sparkle:
- Head – HP (Primary), Critical Hit Damage %, Speed, HP %, Defense %
- Hands – Attack (Primary), Critical Hit Damage %, Speed, HP %, Defense %
- Body – Critical Hit Damage % (Primary), Speed, HP %, Defense %, Effect Resistance %
- Feet – Speed (Primary), Critical Hit Damage %, HP %, Defense %, Effect Resistance %
- Planar Sphere – HP % (Primary), Critical Hit Damage %, Speed, Defense %, Effect Resistance %
- Link Rope – Energy Regeneration Rate % (Primary), Critical Hit Damage %, Speed, HP %, Defense %
Honkai: Star Rail – Sparkle: best teams
Sparkle obviously is fantastic for Skill Point-hungry characters like Imbibitor Lunae and Qingque, since she can satisfy their needs better than any other support. However, Sparkle also enables the powerful Mono-Quantum team thanks to Nocturne, one of her Traces. The more Quantum Type allies Sparkle has, the higher the damage buff Nocturne provides to all allies (up to 30% for three Quantum Type allies).
- Seele (Main DPS), Silver Wolf (Support), Sparkle (Support), Fu Xuan (Support)
Mono-Quantum supremacy begins with Seele, Qingque, or Xueyi as the team’s main damage dealers. All three benefit immensely from Sparkle’s offensive boosts and can make great use of those Skill Points. Silver Wolf helps by debuffing targets and applying Quantum Weakness – and with no other Damage Types being present in the team, you’re guaranteed to get the right Weakness Type applied. Finally, Fu Xuan sustains the team, absorbing as much damage as she can. You can sub Lynx in for her as a healer.
Honkai: Star Rail – Sparkle: ascension materials
Here’s everything you need to know to get Sparkle ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of her talents.
Sparkle requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:
- Credits x308,000
- Tatters of Thought x15
- Fragments of Impression x15
- Shards of Desires x15
- Dream Flamer x65
You can collect Tatters of Thought, Fragments of Impression, and Shards of Desires from enemies in Pencony as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express. They are one of the materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material, or gain them as a byproduct from farming Golden Calyxes on Penacony. Dream Flamers are dropped by the Stagnant Shadow (Dream’s Edge). The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes in the Great Mine, Artisanship Commission, and The Reverie (Dreamscape).
Sparkle requires the following materials to upgrade her combat abilities and Traces:
- Credits x3,000,000
- Tatters of Thought x41
- Fragments of Impression x56
- Shards of Desires x58
- Firmament Note x18
- Celestial Section x69
- Heavenly Melody x139
- Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster x12
- Tracks of Destiny x8
For the materials already mentioned, check above. Firmament Notes, Celestial Sections, and Heavenly Melodies can be farmed in the Crimson Calyx found in The Reverie (Dreamscape) in Penacony. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using up lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.
Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster is rarer material only gained from the Echo of War (Seclusion Zone) domain, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained during time-limited events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.