Best Honkai Star Rail Yanqing Build, Light Cone, and Relics
Yanqing plays a critical role on any team in Honkai Star Rail.
UPDATE 11/12/2024: We have updated this page with some additional information on Yanqing's best team compositions and his Ascension Materials, as well as how you should prioritise his Traces.
Stack up the extra damage with the best Yanqing build in Honkai: Star Rail. Yanqing is unique among Path of the Hunt characters, with skills and talents that raise his critical rate and damage and let him take down the toughest foes with ease.
The downside is that he has absolutely no way to attack multiple enemies, and his status effects are limited., so you’ll need a good party to make the most of him.
If you need some support characters for Yanqing check out our Honkai Star Rail codes list for some free Stellar Jade.
Best Honkai Star Rail Yanqing Build
Yanqing is a 5-Star character from the Path of the Hunt that uses the Ice element in battle.
Yanqing already has high attack and skills that scale well off his attack. The most important part of his setup is his Soulsteel Synch talent, which boosts his critical hit rate and damage and has a 50 percent chance of launching a counterattack. Boosting critical hit damage and rate even further is a priority to help get the most out of this talent.
Honkai Star Rail - Best Yanqing Light Cone
5-Star Yanqing Light Cones
Cruising in the Stellar Sea is an excellent Light Cone choice for Yanqing, since it buffs the user’s critical rate outright and then doubles that buff if the enemy has 50 percent HP or less. The user’s attack also increases for three turns after they defeat an enemy. The buffs are comparatively small, but they’re constant.
In the Night is another one of the best 5-Star Light Cones for Yanqing. It provides 18% additional crit rate, and for every 10 speed that exceeds 100 (while in battle), Yanqing's basic attack and skill is increased by 6%, with the crit damage of their ultimate also being increased by 12%. This can be stacked up to six times.
Sleep Like the Dead is another strong pick. It raises the wearer’s critical damage by at least 32 percent and, when their basic attack or skill don’t result in a critical hit, their critical rate goes up by 40 percent for one turn. You can only activate this effect once every three turns, though, so it’s not that reliable.
4-Star Yanqing Light Cones
Dan Heng’s Only Silence Remains works well with Yanqing too. It gives the wearer a flat attack buff and, when two or fewer enemies are on the field, they get a critical ratebuff. If you wheel Yanqing out for formidable foes and boss fights, consider Swordplay. This one gives you an attack buff when you strike the same enemy, and it stacks up to five times.
3-Star Yanqing Light Cones
For 3-star Light Cones, your best options are Arrows or Darting Arrow. Arrows gives the wearer a hefty critical rate boost for three turns after a battle starts, and Darting Arrow provides an even heftier attack buff for three turns after the wearer defeats an enemy.
Honkai Star Rail – Best Yanqing Relics
Scholar Lost in Erudition is the best Relic set for Yanqing. It provides the following when equipped:
- Two-piece effect: Increases crit rate by 8 percent.
- Four-piece effect: Increases damage dealt by skill and ultimate by 20 percent. After using ultimate, the damage dealt by the next skill is increased by an additional 25 percent.
A solid alternative for Yanqing, if you do not have the Scholar Lost in Erudition set, is the Hunter of Glacial Forest, which functions as follows:
- Two-piece effect: Raises ice damage by 10 percent.
- Four-piece effect: Critical damage increase by 25 percent for two turns after the wearer uses their ultimate.
Yanqing only deals ice damage, so that’s a nice little buff. While a two-piece effect tied to critical rate might be preferable, this isn't the best Relic set, but it does the job.
Honkai Star Rail Yanqing – Ornaments
Yanqing can make good use of two Ornament sets. One is Space Sealing Station. It raises attack by 12 percent and then, after the wearer’s speed reaches 120 or higher, they get another 12 percent attack buff.
You may also want to try Firmament Frontline: Glamoth, which is arguably better for Yanqing. It boosts the wearer’s attack by twelve percent, and after they reach a speed of 135/160 or higher, they will deal 12/18 percent more damage.
Whatever you choose, prioritize attack, ice damage, and critical hit rate and damage for your stats.
Best Yanqing Substats
Regardless of what Relics and Ornaments you decide to kit Yanqing out with in Honkai Star Rail, your optimal substats remain the same. Overall, you'll want to look out for all the additional attack, ice damage, and critical damage you can for Yanqing.
For your primary Relics and your Ornaments, you ideally want the following substats:
- Body: Crit damage
- Feet: Speed or attack %
- Sphere: Ice damage or attack %
- Rope: Attack %
Yanqing Traces Priority
Both Yanqing's ultimate and talent are very important in Honkai Star Rail, as both provide him with boosts to his crit rate and crit damage. Therefore, you want to prioritise these above all. After that, focus on building Yanqing's skill - if you aren't able to put some levels into it while levelling his ultimate and talent - as this is what activates his talent's Soulsteel Sync.
Last, but not least, with his ultimate, talent, and skill Traces fully leveled, you can look at levelling his basic attack.
Yanqing's Traces and the order in which you should prioritise them, from highest to lowest priority, are as follows:
- Ultimate
- Talent
- Skill
- Basic Attack
Yanqing Ascension Materials
To get Yanqing from Level 1 all the way to Level 80 in Honkai Star Rail, you will need the following Ascension Materials for her:
- 15x Thief's Instinct
- 15x Usurper's Scheme
- 15x Conquerer's Will
- 65x Gelid Chitin
- 308000x Credits
Best Yanqing Teams
Yanqing is a greedy DPS who needs support in Honkai Star Rail, both in the form of someone who can keep him alive, and someone who can buff him further so that we can make the most of the Ice character.
To help get more out of Yanqing's kit, Tingyun is an excellent free-to-play friendly choice, thanks to her attack buffs and energy regeneration ability. Also free-to-play friendly, Asta helps buff his attack and, to a lesser extent, his speed, while Pela’s single-target debuffs make it easy to defeat foes quickly.
Bronya, a 5-Star support character, ensures he’s attacking as often as possible, and is one of the best characters to accompany Yanqing with. Though, version 2.7 character, Sunday, is also a more than viable option for a Yanqing team.
All that said and done, you will still want a tank or healer to keep Yanqing safe.
Options for this include both Gepard and Aventurine, with both being able to kit Yanqing out with shields. Out of the pair, Aventurine is the better option, but Gepard can support Yanqing nicely if needed.
The issue with Yanqing teams, for the most part, is that they tend to be single-target focused. As a result, we recommend picking two supports and a sub-DPS to help speed through battles and cover your weak points.
Is Yanqing good in Honkai Star Rail?
Yanqing is a good character in Honkai Star Rail, but when it comes to 5-Star characters, he is - honestly - the least impressive of them all. That said, he's still pretty good against single targets and can deal an impressive amount of damage, especially when you give his critical hit rate the attention it needs.
Yanqing’s basic attack has the usual low scaling you’d expect, but his skill is much more impressive. It deals ice damage the scales to 110 percent of Yanqing’s attack and activates Soulsteel Sync for one turn. While this state is active, Yanqing gets a critical hit and damage buff, and when he attacks, he has a 50 percent chance of triggering a follow-up attack that has a 65 percent chance of freezing a foe.
These follow-ups are handy, but infrequent enough that we don’t recommend building Yanqing around them. His critical damage is more important.
Yanqing’s ultimate increases his critical rate and, if Soulsteel is active, his critical damage as well. These buffs last for one turn, and then the ultimate deals ice damage equal to 210 percent of Yanqing’s attack. With the right buffs and planning, that’s a lot of damage, but only to one enemy, which is Yanqing’s biggest weakness.
Should I pull for Yanqing in Honkai Star Rail?
Honkai Star Rail isn’t short of strong main DPS characters to lead your party, and Yanqing is available permanently on the standard banner. He’s a good character for sure, but you shouldn’t go out of your way to try and pull for him. The same is true if you already have Yanqing and are curious about his Eidolons. They’re fine, but not much more than that. None of them are particularly necessary.
Don’t forget to increase your Equilibrium Level and tackle the Simulated Universe for some extra rewards and a deep dive into Honkai Star Rail's lore.