Honkai: Star Rail – Blade build and ascension guide

The best Honkai: Star Rail Blade build cuts both ways, optimizing this edgy character’s damage output by boosting his ATK and HP. Blade is a tragic man — one who seeks death, but has the ability to recover even after suffering the most grievous injuries. He’s following the Path of The Destruction and deals Wind DMG. 

Blade’s Skill, Hellscape, consumes his own HP to allow him to enter the Hellscape state. This increases his damage and transforms his Basic Attack into the Forest of Swords, changing it from a single-target attack to a blast attack. Forest of Swords also consumes a little of Blade’s HP with every attack, adding damage based on his Max HP. Both moves as well as his Basic Attack scale with his Max HP.

His Ultimate, Death Sentence, sets Blade’s HP to 50% of his Max HP – meaning it’s a heal if his previous HP amount is lower at the time – and deals more damage based on his Max HP, and how much HP he’s lost over the course of this battle. This value is capped to 90% of his Max  HP and is reset after each use of his Ultimate.

Blade’s Talent, Shuhu’s Gift, allows him to gain one stack of Charge whenever he is attacked or consumes his own HP. Once he has five Charge stacks, he immediately consumes them and launches a Follow-Up Attack on every enemy based on his Max HP. This heals him for a percentage value of his Max HP and restores some Energy to him, once he unlocked the corresponding Trace.

Blade’s Eidolon Levels, which can be obtained by pulling multiple copies of him, are pretty sweet as well, boosting his Ultimate and Enhanced Basic Attack DMG (Level 1) and CRIT Rate in the Hellscape state (Level 2). Level 4 offers the amazing boon of increasing his Max HP by 20% when his HP drops below 50%, which stacks two times. Best of all, Level 6 reduces the number of Charge stacks Blade can have to four, meaning you’ll get more frequent Follow-Up Attacks and heals. As a cherry on top, they’ll do more damage as well.

Honkai: Star Rail – Blade: best Light Cones

Blade is best served with his signature Light Cone, The Unreachable Side. It increases the wearer’s CRIT Rate and their Max HP. It further boosts the wearer’s damage whenever they are attacked or consume their own HP. This effect resets after the wielder’s next attack.

Best Light Cones for Blade in HSR:

• The Unreachable Side (5-Star)
• Flame of Blood, Blaze My Path (5-Star)
• Something Irreplaceable (5-Star)
• Dance at Sunset (5-Star)
• On the Fall of an Aeon (5-Star)
• Ninja Record: Sound Hunt (4-Star)
• Nowhere to Run (4-Star)
• Under the Blue Sky (4-Star)
• Flames Afar (4-Star)

Honkai: Star Rail – Blade: best Relics

Alongside the usual offensive stats a damage dealer wants to boost – CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, and SPD – Blade will naturally want to increase his Max HP as much as possible, since it’s a potent source of damage for him. More HP will allow him to consume his life more often as well without getting into dangerous one-hit territory.

Best Relic Sets for Blade in HSR:

• Longevous Disciple (4) – +12% Max HP, +8% CRIT Rate (stacks two times) for two turns when the wearer is hit or has their HP consumed by an ally.
• Eagle of the Twilight Line (4) – +10% Wind DMG, wearer’s next action is advanced forward by 25% after their Ultimate.

Best Planar Ornaments for Blade in HSR:

• Bone Collection’s Serene Demesne (2) – +12% Max HP, +28% CRIT DMG for the wearer and their Memosprite when the wearer’s Max HP is 5,000 or higher.
• Rutilant Arena (2) – +8% CRIT Rate, +20% Basic Attack and Skill DMG when the wearer’s CRIT Rate reaches 70%.

Best stats for Blade in HSR:

• Head – HP (Primary), HP %, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, SPD
• Hands – ATK (Primary), HP %, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, SPD
• Body – CRIT DMG or CRIT Rate (Primary), HP %, CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG, SPD, HP
• Feet – SPD (Primary), HP %, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, HP
• Planar Sphere – Wind DMG (Primary), HP %, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, SPD
• Link Rope – HP % (Primary), CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, SPD, HP

Honkai: Star Rail – Blade: best teams

Blade can be a team’s Main DPS or Sub DPS and requires a healer to accompany him despite his own regeneration abilities — his own HP consumption will likely far outstrip his self-healing ability. Depending on which enemies you’re expecting, you can add buffers and debuffers of different types into the mix.

• Castorice (Main DPS), Blade (Sub DPS), Tribbie (Support), Hyacine (Support)

Characters like Castorice, Jade, and Jingliu offer the opportunity to use Blade in a dual-DPS set-up. All of them come with abilities that consume the HP of their party members, which assists Blade. He’s particularly good at Castorice’s side, since the amount of HP he consumes can greatly accelerate her access to Netherwing, creating a good back-and-forth synergy. Tribbie and Tralblazer (Remembrance) are the most potent Support options for this set-up, while Hyacine is the best healer for this composition due her ability to increase the team’s Max HP.

Honkai: Star Rail – Blade: ascension materials

Here’s everything you need to know to get Blade ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of his talents.

Blade requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:

• Credits x308,000
• Immortal Scionette x15
• Immortal Aeroblossom x15
• Immortal Lumintwig x15
• Ascendant Debris x65

You can collect Immortal Scionettes, Aeroblossoms, and Lumintwigs from enemies on the Xianzhou Luofu as well as in the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Immortal Scionettes are one of the materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material. 

Ascendant Debris can be obtained by defeating the Stagnant Shadow (Shape of Celestial). The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes found on several worlds.

Blade requires the following materials to upgrade his combat abilities and Traces:

• Credits x3,000,000
• Immortal Scionette x41
• Immortal Aeroblossom x56
• Immortal Lumintwig x58
• Shattered Blade x18
• Lifeless Blade x69
• Worldbreaker Blade x139
• Regret of Infinite Ochema x12
• Tracks of Destiny x8

For the materials already mentioned, check above. Shattered, Lifeless, and Worldbreaker Blades can be farmed in the Crimson Calyx (Storage Zone) on Herta Space Station. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using up lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.

Regret of Infinite Ochema are gained from the Echo of War (Scalegorge Waterscape) on the Xianzhou Luofu pitting you against Phantylia the Undying, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained during time-limited events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.