Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing build and ascension guide
Unleash a storm of swords with the best Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing build. This young prodigy has subscribed to the Path of the Hunt and inflicts Ice Damage on his adversaries, creating a whirl of blades around him.
Yanqing’s Skill, Drakestoning Edge, deals Ice Damage to a single opponent based on his Attack stats and activates Empathic Sword Link for one turn. Empathic Sword Link makes it less likely for Yanqing to be attacked, increases his Critical Hit Rate and Critical Hit Damage, and has a chance of triggering a follow-up attack after Yanqing’s Normal Attack. This follow-up attack has a chance to Freeze the target. This effect will, however, disappear if Yanqing takes any damage.
Yanqing's a young prodigy, but can be impatient.
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His Ultimate, Swallow’s Pluvious Pursuit, boosts Yanqing’s Critical Hit Rate by a staggering 60%. If Empathic Sword Link is active, it provides a Critical Hit Damage buff as well. The attack then deals a large amount of Ice Damage to the target.
Gaining duplicates of Yanqing allows you to raise his Eidolon level, which provides additional useful effects: Level 1 doubles Yanqing’s damage against targets affected by Freeze, while the second level boosts his Energy Regeneration Rate when Empathic Sword Link is active. Level 4 increases his Ice Resistance Penetration whenever his HP is over 80% of his maximum and the sixth and final level adds another turn to his Ultimate buff, if he defeats an enemy while that bonus is in effect. Suffice to say, Yanqing is a perfect single-target attacker, but you’ll want to keep him safe.
The young fellow has become a bit of a meme in the community for being beaten up in the story several times.
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Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best Light Cones
Yanqing has lots of attacks thanks to his follow-ups, so upgrading his Critical Hit Rate and Critical Hit Damage will result in a solid DPS increase. His signature Light Cone, Sleep Like the Dead, is the perfect tool to achieve this.
It boosts the wearer’s Critical Hit Damage and provides a buff to Critical Hit Rate for one turn whenever a Normal Attack or Skill use does not result in a critical hit. That effect, however, may only be triggered every three turns.
Best Light Cones for Yanqing:
- Sleep Like the Dead (5-Star)
- Cruising in the Stellar Sea (5-Star)
- In the Night (5-Star)
- Swordplay (4-Star)
- River Flows in Spring (4-Star)
- Darting Arrow (3-Star)
Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best Relics
Since Yanqing is all about attacking, his Attack, Critical Hit Damage, and Critical Hit Rate are the prime stats you want to boost. Speed and Energy Regeneration Rate are important as well.
Best Relic Sets for Yanqing:
- Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters (4) – +12% damage dealt to debuffed enemies, +4% Critical Hit Rate and 8%/12% increased Critical Hit Damage against enemies with at least 2/3 debuffs. After the wearer inflicts a debuff on enemy targets, these effects increase by 100% for one turn.
- Hunter of Glacial Forest (4) – +10% Ice Damage, +25% Critical Hit Damage for two turns after using an Ultimate.
- Musketeer of Wild Wheat (4) – +12% Attack, +10% Normal Attack Damage, and +6% Speed.
Best Planar Ornaments for Yanqing:
- Inert Salsatto (2) – +8% Critical Hit Rate, +15% Ultimate Damage and follow-up attack damage, when wearer’s Critical Hit Rate surpasses 50%.
- Space Sealing Station (2) – +12% Attack, another +12% Attack when the wearer’s Speed surpasses 120.
Prioritize the following Relic and Planar Ornament stats for Yanqing:
- Head – HP (Primary), Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Attack %, Speed
- Hands – Attack (Primary), Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Attack %, Speed
- Body – Critical Hit Damage or Critical Hit Rate (Primary), Critical Hit Damage or Critical Hit Rate, Attack %, Speed, Break Effect %
- Feet – Attack % (Primary), Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Speed, Break Effect %
- Planar Sphere – Ice Damage % (Primary), Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Attack %, Speed
- Link Rope – Energy Regeneration % (Primary), Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Attack %, Speed
Jing Yuan is Yanqing's mentor.
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Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best teams
Yanqing ideally wants a shielder on his team, as his effectiveness hinges on not taking damage.
Bronya allows Yanqing to jump the turn order and increases his offensive capabilities even more. Tingyun has another offensive buff in store, further upgrading the Main DPS’ damage. She is also the key to getting Gepard’s shields online on a consistent basis, which keeps Yanqing safe.
March 7th is always a fantastic replacement for Gepard, as she can focus on shielding Yanqing exclusively. Trailblazer (Fire) is another solid character to use for protecting the Main DPS. Clara is an interesting option, too, since she can taunt enemies into focusing her. In that case, having a healer like Bailu, Natasha, or Luocha on board would pay off.
Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: ascension materials
Here’s everything you need to know to get Yanqing ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of his talents.
Yanqing requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:
- Credits x308,000
- Thief’s Instinct x15
- Usurper’s Scheme x15
- Conqueror’s Will x15
- Gelid Chitin x65
You can farm Thief’s Instinct, Usurper’s Scheme, and Conqueror’s Will from Voidranger Reavers and other enemies on Herta Space Station as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Thief’s Instinct are one of the base materials you can easily generate through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material.
Gelid Chitin is dropped by the Stagnant Shadow in Cloudford or gained through the exchange of similarly rare materials. The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes found on many worlds.
Yanqing mastered some of Jingliu's techniques immediately after their first encounter.
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Yanqing requires the following materials to upgrade her combat abilities and Traces:
- Credits x3,000,000
- Thief’s Instinct x41
- Usurper’s Scheme x56
- Conqueror’s Will x58
- Endurance of Bronze x18
- Arrow of the Beast Hunter x18
- Arrow of the Demon Slayer x69
- Arrow of the Starchaser x139
- Tracks of Destiny x8
For the materials already mentioned, check above. Arrow of the Beast Hunter, Arrow of the Demon Slayer, and Arrow of the Starchaser are available from the Crimson Calyx in the Outlying Snow Plains. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.
Guardian’s Lament is a rarer material only gained from the Echo of War (Everwinter Hill) 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.
