The masterful strategist and Cloud Knight General of the Xianzhou Loufu, Jing Yuan, makes his striking appearance in the latest character banner for Honkai: Star Rail. If, like me, you’ve been saving your Star Rail Passes for this badass summoner of a lightning god, you may have pulled him already and now need to know how to build him to best zap your enemies.
The Best Way to Build Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail
I managed to pull Jing Yuan shortly after he released and, using the materials I pre-farmed, have already leveled him up and geared him. I can assure you he’s an absolute AOE king, shredding every challenge I’ve put him up against and hitting for tens of thousands of damage.
Jing Yuan has a unique skill kit, being the only character in the game (for now) who summons an entity, Lightning-Lord, to fight alongside him. This entity gets its own slot in the battle timeline. Jing Yuan’s gameplay revolves around this mechanic.
Both his skill and ultimate abilities build stacks for his summon, stacking up to 10 times, with each increasing Lightning-Lord’s hits per action and speed. If you can get enough skill attacks and ultimates before Lightning-Lord’s turn, it’ll deal 10 attacks to an enemy based on Jing Yuan’s attack stat and a portion of that to adjacent enemies as well. It’s an insane amount of damage, and if you use a buffing character alongside him as suggested in our guide to the best teams for Jing Yuan, you’ll see some ridiculous damage numbers.
To build him, we want to focus on taking advantage of Lightning-Lord, so there are a few key stats to focus on. The attack stat is important for scaling the amount of damage done with each Lightning-Lord strike. The ability also can crit and, in fact, increases critical damage dealt by 25% at 6 stacks, so you’ll want to increase Jing Yuan’s crit rate and crit damage where possible. Lastly, lightning damage % directly increases damage overall, so getting this stat as high as possible is a big boost as well.
Best Relics for Jing Yuan
With the stats mentioned above in mind, the best relic set for Jing Yuan is the Band of Sizzling Thunder set, which you can find out how to get here. The set effect increases lightning damage % and boosts attack % for a turn after using a skill, both incredibly valuable effects for Jing Yuan. As for the rolls on the artifacts, aim to have your main stats as crit rate, crit damage, and increased attack %. Try to have your crit damage be double your crit rate where possible, e.g. 50% crit rate and 100% crit damage. For sub stats you’re looking for flat attack, attack %, speed, crit damage, and crit rate for the best outcomes.
For your Planar Sphere and Link Rope Relics, the Inert Salsotto set that you get from Simulated Universe World 6 is the best in-slot, increasing crit rate, ultimate damage, and follow-up attack damage, which directly buffs Lightning-Lord.
For stats, it’s important to have a Planar Sphere with lightning damage % as the main stat. It’s the only relic that can roll this as a main stat and it’s a huge damage boost. For the Link Rope, attack % is your best bet as a main stat. And again, crit and attack stats are best for the sub stats on this Relic.
Best Light Cones for Jing Yuan
There are a few great options for Light Cones for Jing Yuan. Of course, his 5-star Light Cone (Before Dawn) is best in-slot, being designed to maximize his damage. It’s currently on the weapon event banner, but if you don’t want to use your hard earned Rail Passes on it there are awesome 4-star alternatives.
Today is Another Peaceful Day is a good option, providing damage that scales with energy. Birth of the Self is another great choice, focusing on increasing follow-up damage %, which works very nicely with Lightning-Lord.
Lastly, The Seriousness of Breakfast is a great option attainable by everyone from the Forgotten Hall Light Cone store. It increases damage as well as attack % for each enemy you defeat and stacks up to 3 times. With Jing Yuan being an AOE powerhouse, it will be very easy to reach 3 stacks most of the time.
That covers it for the best build for Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail. Best of luck getting some strong relics to use with Jing Yuan. If you haven’t pulled him yet I’m crossing my fingers for you!
And if you’re looking for more tips on building characters and team comps in Honkai: Star Rail, be sure to check out our archive.
