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 DMG.

Sparkle’s Skill, Dreamdiver, increases the CRIT DMG of the target ally based on Sparkle’s own CRIT DMG 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 effect. 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, which is more than fitting for her.

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 ATK buff to its effects. Eidolon 2 allows allies affected by Red Herring to bypass some of the enemy’s DEF 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 an additional point 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 latest 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 CRIT DMG, 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 CRIT DMG and CRIT Rate. The wearer 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 reactivate 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 in HSR:

• Earthly Escapade (5-Star)
• A Grounded Ascent (5-Star)
• But the Battle Isn’t Over (5-Star)
• If Time Were a Flower (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

CRIT DMG, SPD, 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 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 in HSR:

• Sacerdos’ Relived Ordeal (4) – +6% SPD, +18% CRIT DMG for two turns for an ally that has been targeted by the wearer’s Skill or Ultimate (can stack up to two times).
• Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (4) – +6% SPD, +12% SPD for all allies for one turn when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally.

Best Planar Ornaments for Sparkle in HSR:

• Broken Keel (2) – +10% Effect RES, +10% CRIT DMG for all allies when the wearer’s Effect RES is 30% or higher.
• [Mono-Quantum] Penacony, Land of the Dreams (2) – +5% Energy Regeneration, +10% Damage for all allies that are of the same Damage Type as the wearer.
• Fleet of the Ageless (2) – +12% Max HP, +8% ATK for all allies when the wearer’s SPD is 120 or higher.

Best stats for Sparkle in HSR:

• Head – HP (Primary), CRIT DMG, SPD, Effect RES, HP %
• Hands – ATK (Primary), CRIT DMG, SPD, Effect RES, HP %
• Body – CRIT DMG (Primary), SPD, Effect RES, HP %, DEF %
• Feet – SPD (Primary), CRIT DMG, Effect RES, HP %, DEF %
• Planar Sphere – HP % (Primary), CRIT DMG, SPD, Effect RES, DEF %
• Link Rope – Energy Regeneration (Primary), CRIT DMG, SPD, Effect RES, HP %

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.

Naturally, Sparkle is a prime Support choice for the Skill Point-hungry Imbibitor Lunae as well.

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 found all over the cosmos.

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 (The Reverie, Dreamscape) on 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.