Honkai: Star Rail 1.6: Dr. Ratio is finally here for FREE, here's how you build him as well as his best gear and teammates

The second half of Honkai: Star Rail version 1.6 is finally here and with it comes the arrival of Dr. Ratio as a free 5-star character for all players as thanks for the many awards that the game amassed at the end of last year!

Just because Dr. Ratio is a free character doesn't mean he's not good, as he's actually a powerhouse and should be a must-build for all players! Dr. Ratio wields the Imaginary element and follows the Path of the Hunt, able to dish out a huge amount of single-target damage and shred through elite enemies with ease.

With that out of the way, read on as we break down how to build your free Dr. Ratio as well as his best Light Cones, relics, and teammates!

Dr. Ratio's kit and how to best utilise him

To wage war on ignorance

As a Hunt character, Dr. Ratio specialises in quickly taking down single-targets with a flurry of hard-hitting attacks — be it by smacking an enemy with his book, tossing a piece of chalk at them, or using precise calculations to make a marble column fall on their head.

Dr. Ratio's kit is centered on his Talent, Cogito, Ergo, Sum, which gives him a fixed chance of launching a follow-up attack at the enemy he last used his skill on. At level 10, his follow-up attack deals a whopping 270% of his ATK as Imaginary DMG.

Dr. Ratio's Talent has a base chance of 40% to activate after using his skill, with an additional 20% being added to that chance for every debuff the target has. When his target has at least three debuffs on them, then Dr. Ratio has a guaranteed 100% chance of launching his follow-up attack after using his skill.

Dr. Ratio's skill, Intellectual Midwifery, is a fairly standard single-target attack that deals 150% of his ATK as Imaginary DMG to his target at level 10.

One neat interaction between Dr. Ratio's skill and Talent is that when an enemy dies after being hit by his skill (and assuming it would have triggered his Talent) then the subsequent follow-up attack would be launched at a random target.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ratio's ultimate, Syllogistic Paradox, deals 240% of his ATK as Imaginary DMG to a single target at level 10 and applies the Wiseman's Folly debuff on them. When Dr. Ratio's allies attack an enemy afflicted by Wiseman's Folly, then he will launch his Talent's follow-up attack on that target for up 2 times.

The high damage scalings of Dr. Ratio's base abilities are complemented nicely by his major Traces, which lets him gain some insane buffs depending on how many debuffs his target has.

Dr. Ratio's A2 Trace, Summation, gives him a 2.5% Crit Rate and 5% Crit DMG bonus for every debuff his target has after using his skill. This effect can stack up to 6 times, giving him 15% Crit Rate and 30% Crit DMG against an enemy afflicted by six debuffs.

Dr. Ratio's A4 Trace, Inference, makes it easier for him and his allies to inflict the needed debuffs on his target by reducing the Effect RES of the enemy hit by his skill by 10% for 2 turns.

Dr. Ratio's A6 Trace, Deduction, gives him a 10% DMG buff for every debuff the target of his attacks has. This effect stacks up to 5 times for a 50% DMG bonus on an enemy with at least five debuffs on them.

Finally, Dr. Ratio's Techique, Mold of Idolatry, lets him summon a statue of himself that creates a special dimension that taunts nearby enemies. Initiating a battle against an enemy in the dimension reduces the Speed of all enemies by 15% for 2 turns.

When leveling up Dr. Ratio's abilities, his Talent should be your first priority, followed by his skill, then his ultimate — though they should all be maxed out eventually. You won't be using his basic attacks much if at all, so there will be no need to level it up.

In battle, use Dr. Ratio's Technique first to reduce the enemy's Speed and ensure your party gets to act first more and frequently. Pick out a high-priority target, use Dr. Ratio's teammates to inflict debuffs on said enemy, then spam his skill and ultimate whenever possible to trigger as many of his Talent's follow-up attacks until the enemy is taken down.

Dr. Ratio's best gear

Light Cones

Dr. Ratio's best Light Cone is undoubtedly his signature, Baptism of Pure Thought. This Light Cone passively gives its wielder a 20% Crit DMG bonus and also gives them 8% more Crit DMG for every debuff on an enemy target, stacking up to 3 times for a whopping 44% Crit DMG bonus against a target with 3 debuffs on them.

In addition, this Light Cone also grants its wielder the Disputation effect whenever they use their ultimate to attack an enemy target. Disputation increases the wielder's DMG by 36% and enables their follow-up attacks to ignore 24% of their target's DEF for 2 turns.

When wielding his signature Light Cone and assuming he is attacking a target with 6 debuffs after using his ultimate, these are the buffs Dr. Ratio will get: 15% Crit Rate, 74% Crit DMG, 86% DMG bonus, and 24% DEF ignore.

Since you already got Dr. Ratio himself for free, why not spend the Stellar Jade you've saved from that on getting his signature Light Cone instead?

If you don't want to spend Stellar Jade for a free character, then don't fret as Dr. Ratio's second-best Light Cone is also free. Cruising in the Stellar Sea can be acquired and superimposed for free by spending Herta Bonds from completing the Simulated Universe.

Cruising in the Stellar Sea increases its wielder's Crit Rate by 8% — which gets doubled if their target is at 50% HP or less — and buffs their ATK by 20% for 2 turns after defeating an enemy.

Dr. Ratio can also make use of other limited 5-star Hunt Light Cones like In the Night, Sleep like the Dead, and Worrisome, Blissful. However, Cruising in the Stellar Sea should still be your go-to pick considering it's free.

If, for some reason, you don't want to use Cruising in the Stellar Sea then you can go for the 4-star Light Cones River Flows in Spring. It can be acquired and superimposed for free by using Lucent Afterglow in the Forgotten Hall's Light Cone Manifest, not to mention it also sometimes drops as an additional reward from Echo of War.

River Flows in Spring increases its wielder's Speed by 8% and DMG by 12% as long as they don't take damage, so make sure to have a hefty shield on Dr. Ratio at all times when using this Light Cone.

Most other 4-star Light Cones are also good enough options for Dr. Ratio, but again, why not just use the free 5-star Light Cone Cruising in the Stellar Sea instead?

Relics

Dr. Ratio has plenty of choices when it comes to which Cavern of Corrosion relics he should equip, though we think his dedicated relic set may still come in the future.

You have the choice between the 4-piece Wastelander of Banditry Desert set or a mixed set of the 2-piece Wastelander of Banditry and 2-piece Ashblazing Grand Duke.

The 4-piece Wastelander of Banditry Desert set gives its wielder a 10% Imaginary DMG bonus with its 2-piece bonus while its 4-piece bonus increases their Crit Rate by 10% against debuffed enemies and their Crit DMG by 20% against enemies afflicted by the Imprison debuff.

Meanwhile, the 2-piece Ashblazing Grand Duke set bonus increases its wielder's follow-up attack DMG by 20%, a huge boost to Dr. Ratio's primary source of damage. Don't bother going for this set's 4-piece bonus though, as it only buffs follow-up attacks with multiple hits — Dr. Ratio's follow-up attack only has one hit.

As for his Planar Ornament relic set, Dr. Ratio's go-to is the 2-piece Inert Salsotto set, which increases his Crit Rate by 8% as well as his follow-up attack and ultimate DMG by 15% as long as his Crit Rate reaches 50% or higher.

The main stats you should go for are Crit Rate/DMG for the body, Speed for the feet, Imaginary DMG bonus for the Planar Sphere, and ATK% for the Link Rope. Substats to go for are Crit Rate/DMG, ATK, and Speed.

Dr. Ratio's best teammates

Since Dr. Ratio is reliant on follow-up attacks and his target being inflicted with debuffs, his two best teammates are hands-down Topaz and Silver Wolf.

Topaz enables teams reliant on follow-up attacks much like how Kafka enables teams reliant on damage-over-time. As a fellow Hunt character, Topaz can buff Dr. Ratio's follow-up attacks against a single target and the Dr. Ratio's own follow-up attacks also boosts Topaz's own damage output by advancing Numby's action forward whenever his Talent gets triggered.

Topaz also has the ability to inflict one debuff on her target at E0, which gets boosted to three when she's at E1S1, thus guaranteeing Dr. Ratio's follow-up attack always gets triggered.

Meanwhile, Silver Wolf can inflict a total of five debuffs on a single target, which include implanting them with an additional elemental weakness and massively reducing their DEF. Not only will she guarantee Dr. Ratio's follow-up attacks will go off, her ensemble of debuffs also helps with triggering his powerful self Crit and DMG buffs.

Aside from those two, you can freely pick and choose which other characters to pair Dr. Ratio with depending on the situation — though you should make sure they can inflict debuffs through their abilities or Light Cones.

Dr. Ratio will also want to use his skill whenever he takes a turn, so his teammates should also be skill point-positive so that he can maintain his maximum damage output throughout every battle.

In order to get your free Dr. Ratio, you first need to complete the Trailblaze Mission "Blue — A Moment of Peace" and unlock the mailbox function. Players will have from the beginning of version 1.6 to version 2.1 to obtain Dr. Ratio for free. Of course, he can still be acquired through traditional means through the limited-time Warp in the second half of version 1.6.

Honkai: Star Rail version 1.6 features three new characters, namely the 5-star Ice Harmony character Ruan Mei, the 5-star Imaginary Hunt character Dr. Ratio, and the 4-star Quantum Destruction character Xueyi. Dr. Ratio will be given to players for free at the start of the second half of this version.

After version 1.6 comes the massive version 2.0 update in February 2024, which will see the release of a new planet in Penacony as well as three new characters in Black Swan, Sparkle, and Misha.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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