Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing build and ascension guide

Unleash a storm of swords with the best Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing build. This young prodigy is following the Path of The Hunt and inflicts Ice DMG on his adversaries, creating a lethal whirl of blades around him.

Yanqing’s Skill, Darting Ironthorn, deals Ice DMG to a single opponent based on his ATK and activates Soulsteel Sync for one turn. Soulsteel Sync makes it less likely for Yanqing to be attacked, increases his CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG, and has a chance of triggering a Follow-Up Attack after Yanqing’s Basic Attack. This Follow-Up Attack has a chance to Freeze the target. This effect will, however, disappear if Yanqing takes any damage.

His Ultimate, Amidst the Raining Bliss, boosts Yanqing’s CRIT Rate. If Soulsteel Sync is active, it provides a CRIT DMG buff as well. Both buffs last for one turn. Once the buffs are applied, he deals Ice DMG to a single target based on his ATK.

Pulling 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 Level 2 boosts his Energy Regeneration when Soulsteel Sync is active. Level 4 increases his Ice RES PEN whenever his HP is over 80% of his Max HP and Level 6 adds another turn to the duration of his Ultimate’s buff, if he defeats an enemy while that bonus is in effect.

Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best Light Cones

Being a standard damage dealer, Yanqing wants as much CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG as he can get his hands on. Seele’s signature Light Cone, In the Night, is the perfect tool for that with CRIT Rate getting a boost. Basic Attack and Skill DMG are additionally buffed based on the amount of SPD above the threshold of 100 SPD the wearer has. Finally, the Light Cone provides a boost to Ultimate CRIT DMG.

Yanqing’s own signature Light Cone, Sleep Like the Dead, is much less consistent with its buffs, losing out in the direct comparison.

Best Light Cones for Yanqing in HSR:

• In the Night (5-Star)
• Sleep Like the Dead (5-Star)
• I Venture Forth to Hunt (5-Star)
• Cruising in the Stellar Sea (5-Star)
• Swordplay (4-Star)
• River Flows in Spring (4-Star)

Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best Relics

Aside from the already mentioned CRIT stats, Yanqing will want substantial increases in ATK and SPD to be competitive on the battlefield. 

Best Relic Sets for Yanqing in HSR:

• Scholar Lost in Erudition (4) – +8% CRIT Rate, +20% Skill and Ultimate DMG, +25% Skill DMG on the wearer’s next Skill activation after they used their Ultimate.
• Hunter of the Glacial Forest (4) – +10% Ice DMG, +25% CRIT DMG for two turns after using an Ultimate.

Best Planar Ornaments for Yanqing in HSR:

• Firmament Frontline: Glamoth (2) – +12% ATK, +12%/18% more damage when the wearer’s SPD is 135/160 or higher.
• Inert Salsotto (2) – +8% CRIT Rate, +15% Ultimate and Follow-Up Attack DMG when the wearer’s CRIT Rate surpasses 50%.

Best stats for Yanqing in HSR:

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

Honkai: Star Rail – Yanqing: best teams

Yanqing is a strong damage dealer on paper, though a bit unreliable in practice — he definitely needs a shielder on his team to overcome this weakness.

• Yanqing (Main DPS), Sparkle (Support), Tingyun (Support), Aventurine (Support)

Yanqing’s powerful offensive buffs get lost when he takes damage, so having a reliable shielder like Aventurine on the team is a must. Sparkle and Tingyun – or any other buffers of your choice, such as Robin and Bronya – help by squeezing more damage out of Yanqing, bestowing their own boosts on him.

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 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 (Cloudford) or gained through the exchange of similarly rare materials. The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes found on many worlds.

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
• Arrow of the Beast Hunter x18
• Arrow of the Demon Slayer x69
• Arrow of the Starchaser x139
• Guardian’s Lament x12
• 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 (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.