Despite their incredibly different aesthetics, personalities, and elements, Genshin Impact players with Hu Tao should be rather familiar with how to run Blade in Honkai: Star Rail. Like Hu Tao, he has a stance ability that increases his DMG output depending on how much HP he’s lost. Because of this, your Blade build in Honkai: Star Rail should focus on stacking as much HP as possible on him.
All of Blade’s attacks (excluding his most Basic Attack without Hellscape active) take a combination of his ATK, his Max HP, and/or how much HP he lost. However, the percentages skew heavily towards the HP side of things. For example, at Trace 8, his Ultimate takes only 36% of his ATK. In comparison, it also takes 90% of his Max HP and 90% of the tally of Blade’s HP loss. It’s clear that it’s far more efficient to build Blade based on his HP than his ATK when it comes to how much DPS he can do.
Some Light Cones to consider for Blade in Honkai: Star Rail include:
Screenshot by Siliconera
- The Unreachable Side: As this is Blade’s Light Cone, it’s obviously his best one. Signature Light Cones always play directly to how you should run or build a character, after all. Blade’s signature Light Cone increases his Max HP, his Crit Rate, and how much damage he deals whenever an enemy attacks him or he consumes his own HP. Blade’s entire kit consumes his HP, so you’re going to enjoy this boost (24% at S1) every turn.
- Something Irreplaceable: Ironically, this is a Light Cone you’ll want to replace pretty quickly as soon as you get something better from this list. It’s good as a stat stick and offers a bit more stability than A Secret Vow. But since it works on increasing Blade’s ATK (whereas he draws way more from his HP stat), it’s not going to give you the mega powerful Blade that you should have.
- Nowhere to Run: This Light Cone can double as a stat stick and as a Light Cone you stick on a lower-level Blade. It increases his ATK and heals him every time he defeats an enemy. This is best for if you want to run Blade against mobs rather than against a boss. You can also guarantee getting it so long as you pay for Nameless Glory.
- A Secret Vow: This is essentially Blade’s second-best Light Cone for if you don’t want to pull for his signature one. A Secret Vow passively increases how much DMG Blade does, and gives an even bigger boost when Blade’s HP is lower or equal percentage-wise to an enemy’s current HP. The downside of A Secret Vow is that your Blade’s HP needs to constantly be at 50% or lower. This means that those running him with Luocha will have a hard time reaping its benefits due to Luocha’s auto-heal.
Some Relics to consider for Blade in Honkai: Star Rail include:
Screenshot by Siliconera
- Longevous Disciple: This is the Blade’s best Relic Set in Honkai: Star Rail as of Version 1.2. It increases his Max HP with the 2-piece set, and increases his Crit Rate whenever he’s hit or has his HP consumed with the 4-piece set. It’s basically the Blade Relic Set.
- Longevous Disciple + Eagle of Twilight Line: Because Longevous Disciple came out in the same update as Blade, many people might not have had the time to accumulate a good set for him. In that case, you can try using a 2-piece of the Longevous Disciple and a 2-piece of the Eagle of Twilight Line. Twilight Line increases his Wind DMG.
- The Ashblazing Grand Duke: This is a pretty good Relic Set for Blade if you’re running him with a focus on his follow-up attack. For example, if you run a double DPS comp with Blade and Jingliu, then Jingliu will help to build stacks for Blade, letting him use his follow-up attack far more often. If you have good Relics from this Set, it’s a good idea to put him on it. Otherwise, his best-in-slot is still Longevous Disciple.
- Inert Salsotto: This is the best Planar Ornament set for Blade right now. It increases his Crit Rate, and when it’s at 50%, it increases his Ultimate and follow-up attack DMG output. Both of those are really major damage dealers in Blade’s kit—it’s almost his bread and butter—so you really want him to be able to get that buff.
- Rutilant Arena: Rutilant Arena is almost the same thing as Inert Salsotto, except it increases his Basic ATK and Skill DMG when his Crit Rate is at 70%. While this is a good set, it has a really high Crit Rate requirement. That means it’s better to use this set if you have his E2. At E2, he increases his Crit Rate by 15% every time he’s in Hellscape, which means you can get away with a lower Crit Rate.
Honkai: Star Rail is readily available on mobile devices and Windows PC. PS4 and PS5 versions are in development.
