The best Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan build, Light Cones, and Relics

The best Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan build looks different depending on what ascension tier he’s at.

At early levels, Jing Yuan excels as an attacker who can deal heavy damage to multiple targets several times in one turn.

He's still like this at later levels, but he also gets a sizeable critical hit buff that makes it worth focusing your build on that more than his other stats.

Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan

What is the best Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan build?

Jing Yuan’s setup revolves around the Lightning Lord, an entity who fights alongside Jing Yuan and deals follow-up damage that scales on his attack. Any build should focus on buffing Jing Yuan’s attack, along with skill and ultimate damage. Critical hit damage is more important after you unlock his final trace, though, since that ability gives Jing Yuan a slight critical rate boost.

Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan – Light Cone

Before Dawn is Jing Yuan’s signature Light Cone, and it’s pretty clear why. It raises the wearer’s critical hit damage by 36-60 percent and boosts skill and ultimate damage by 18-30 percent. The wearer generates a Somnus Corpus when they use their skill or ultimate, which boosts the power of their next follow-up attack by 48-80 percent.

The Birth of the Self is another excellent choice, and as a 4-star Light Cone, it’s one you’re more likely to get as well. Birth of the Self increases follow-up attack damage by 24-48 percent, and if the enemy has less than half of their HP, the follow-up damage boost doubles.

Serval’s Make the World Clamor might not affect follow-up attacks, but it’s a strong pick anyway. This one regenerates 20-32 energy for the wearer when a battle starts and buffs their ultimate damage by 32-64 percent. Jing Yuan’s ultimate deals a significant amount of damage anyway, so this buff is a nice little boost.

Sagacity is a good choice on the 3-star side, as it provides a hefty attack buff after the user unleashes their ultimate. You may also want to try Passkey, which restores energy when the wearer uses their skill.

Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan – Best Relics

Jing Yuan has a couple of Relic set options, though neither of them affect his critical hit stat. You’ll have to rely on ornaments for that.

Band of Sizzling Thunder is the best choice.

• Two-piece effect: Increases lightning damage by 10 percent
• Four-piece effect: Raises attack by 20 percent for one turn after the wearer uses their skill

A decent, but not spectacular, alternative is the Musketeer of Wild Wheat set.

• Two-piece effect: Raises attack by 10 percent
• Four-piece effect: Boosts basic attack damage by 10 percent and speed by six percent

Prioritize critical rate and critical damage for the body piece and attack for the feet, and then your substats would ideally include attack, critical damage and rate, and energy regeneration.

Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan – Best Ornaments

Jing Yuan has a few strong ornament choices, but Inert Salsotto is our favorite so far. It raises the user’s critical rate by eight percent, and once that rate reaches 50 percent, it buffs their ultimate and follow-up damage by 15 percent.

Is Jing Yuan good in Star Rail?

Jing Yuan is an excellent choice for teams who need an area-of-effect attacker. His follow-up attacks hit more often than Himeko’s, and while he doesn’t inflict shock as often as Serval, his ultimate is slightly stronger. The Lightning Lord’s attacks also make up for Shock damage, and his traces raise his damage even further.

Jing Yuan’s normal attack is the same as pretty much every other basic attack. It deals lightning damage equal to 50 percent of his attack to one enemy. His skill damages all enemies, and while it’s fairly weak – also 50 percent of Jing Yuan’s attack – it gives the Lightning Lord two more hits per action. It also hits twice, so you end up dealing a fair amount of damage, even with low multipliers.

His ultimate deals lightning damage equal to 120 percent of his attack to all enemies and gives the Lightning Lord three more hits per action.

The Lightning Lord is where most of Jing Yuan’s power comes from. The lord takes up a slot on the action bar like a playable character and starts a battle with three hits per action, which means his attacks damage enemies three times. He gains two hits per action when Jing Yuan uses his skill and three when he uses his ultimate, and the Lightning Lord’s attacks inflict shock.

The short version is that between the two of them, it’s very easy to shred enemy health, especially if you have a debuffer in your party. Pela, Tingyun, and Asta are excellent support choices for Jing Yuan. He needs a good single-target character as well, to help mop up whoever’s left after his AoE attacks. Seele might be overkill, though she’s certainly effective. Sushang, Hook, and Clara are strong alternatives.

For your fourth slot, you could add a healer such as Natasha or a tank like Gepard, or you could also bring in someone like Sampo, who helps shred enemies with his stacking status effects.

Should I pull for Jing Yuan?

There really isn’t a powerful Erudition or multi-target character who can match Jing Yuan as of the launch version. Even Serval struggles to deal damage that equals his, though her shock stackers certainly come close. He’s not strictly necessary for completing the story, but if you want an exceptionally strong fighter who makes very short work of any mob, whether they’re weak to lightning or not, then you should definitely pull for Jing Yuan.

If you miss out, just bear in mind that there will be rerun banners in the future, and Jing Yuan will appear again.

Don’t forget to increase your Equilibrium Level and tackle the Simulated Universe for some extra rewards and a deep dive into Star Rail's lore.