How to build Gallagher, Honkai: Star Rail's newest 4-star healer, including his best Light Cones, relic sets, and teammates

While the spotlight for new characters in Honkai: Star Rail version 2.1 is rightfully focused on the new 5-star Lightning Nihility character Acheron, let's not forget that this banner also features the debut of a new 4-star healer in Gallagher.

Gallagher wields the Fire element and follows the Path of Abundance, boasting Break and debuff-oriented offensive abilities that lets him help the party outside of just providing healing.

If you were lucky enough to get Gallagher, then read on as we break down how he stacks up compared to other healers as well as how to utilise him properly.

How good is Gallagher compared to other healers?

The gold standard for Abundance characters in Honkai: Star Rail has been set by the 5-star duo of Luocha and Huohuo, so let's first compare Gallagher with these two.

Luocha is arguably the closest comparison for Gallagher, as both have the ability to heal allies when they attack enemies under certain conditions and are skill point-positive as a result. However, Luocha is much better in this regard as the healing field from his Talent is much more reliable compared to Gallagher's, not to mention his ability to automatically heal with his skill.

Meanwhile, Huohuo is an offense-oriented Abundance support like Gallagher, though they go about it in different ways.

While Gallagher has the additional roles of Break support and debuffer, Huohuo is more of an Abundance-Harmony hybrid due to her ultimate recharging energy for her allies while also buffing their ATK. Another advantage Huohuo has over Gallagher is that she can cleanse debuffs from her allies with her skill, something that is locked behind Eidolons for the latter.

So it should go without saying that Gallagher is a significant step down compared to Luocha and Huohuo in terms of defensive utility, as should be expected when comparing a 4-star to 5-stars.

With that said, Gallagher looks better when compared to his fellow 4-star Abundance characters in Lynx and Natasha. While both Lynx and Natasha have much stronger defensive utility — especially when considering their built-in debuff cleanse abilities — Gallagher's additional offensive capability does give him an edge, especially in a well-invested team that could use more firepower over the required healing to survive through fights.

Heck, we can even argue that Gallagher is better than the standard 5-star Abundance character Bailu. Bailu provides bigger healing numbers and a free revive, sure, but the healing from her skill is RNG-dependent and her revive is honestly just a crutch that ideally should never get used anyway.

And while both Bailu and Gallagher don't have built-in debuff cleanse abilities, Gallagher does get a cleanse at E2 but Bailu unfortunately cannot get around this problem.

To sum things up, Gallagher is significantly worse than Luocha and Huohuo, as should be expected. However, he is a sidegrade to Lynx and Natasha while being better than Bailu. He looks even better when your team is in need of additional firepower from the sustain slot, especially when paired with debuff-reliant characters like Acheron or facing enemies with Fire weakness.

Gallagher's kit and how to best utilise him

Penacony's enigmatic hound

Gallagher is the game's first Abundance character whose abilities heal for a flat amount of HP, only scaling off of Talent level and Healing Bonus instead of HP or ATK like others of his Path. Not only that, Gallagher also brings offensive firepower to the table as a Break support and debuffer.

Gallagher's skill, Special Brew, is his go-to healing ability, restoring 1,600 HP to a single ally target at level 10. This ability notably gets stronger when Gallagher unlocks E2, which makes it cleanse 1 debuff from its target while also increasing their Effect RES by 30% for 2 turns.

Gallagher's ultimate, Champagne Etiquette, and his Talent, Tipsy Tussle, work hand-in-hand to give him his offensive capability while also providing an additional method to heal his allies.

When using his ultimate, Gallagher deals Fire DMG equal to 150% of his ATK to all enemies and inflicts them with the Besotted debuff for 2 turns. In addition, it will also enhance Gallagher's next basic attack into Nectar Blitz.

Enemies with the Besotted debuff receive 12% more Break DMG and will heal an ally attacking it by 640 HP at level 10. Meanwhile, Nectar Blitz deals Fire DMG equal to 250% of Gallagher's ATK to a single target enemy while also reducing their ATK by 15% at level 6.

Gallagher's major Traces rounds out his kit nicely while giving him an efficient ability rotation. His A2 Trace, Novel Concoction, increases his Outgoing Healing by an amount equal to 50% of his Break Effect. That healing bonus maxes out at 75% when Gallagher reaches 150% Break Effect.

Meanwhile, his A4 Trace, Organic Yeast, and A6 Trace, Bottoms Up, turns his ultimate into a clutch ability when your party needs emergency healing.

Organic Yeast makes Gallagher's ultimate immediately advance his action forward by 100%. Bottoms Up then lets him trigger the healing from his Talent to all allies when he attacks an enemy with the Besotted debuff with his Nectar Blitz enhanced basic attack.

Finally, Gallagher's Technique, Artisan Elixir, lets him start the battle by inflicting all enemies with the Besotted debuff for 2 turns while dealing Fire DMG equal to 50% of his ATK to all targets.

When leveling up Gallagher's abilities, prioritise his skill and Talent followed by his basic attack, though you want to max them all out eventually. Leveling up his ultimate only increases its DMG, so you can skip leveling it up if you want to save up your enhancement materials.

In battle, have Gallagher focus on using his basic attack to generate skill points for the party or healing any low HP allies with his skill. If you're in need of emergency healing, just use his ultimate then attack any enemy with his enhanced basic attack to heal the entire party.

Gallagher's best gear

Light Cones

Your go-to Light Cone for Gallagher should be What is Real?, which can be acquired for free as a reward from the Clockie Statue in Penacony then Superimposed through the Forgotten Hall's Light Cone Manifest.

At S1, it increases Gallagher's Break Effect by 24% while healing him for an amount equal to 2% of his Max HP plus 800 whenever he uses his basic attack. At S5, the Break Effect bonus increases to 48% while the healing is boosted to an amount equal to 4% of his Max HP plus 800.

Since Gallagher's healing and damage output scales off Break Effect, it should be obvious why this Light Cone is so good for him. It also lets him focus on healing his allies by letting him constantly heal himself through his basic attacks. The fact that you can acquire and Superimpose this Light Cone completely for free is just the cherry on top.

With that said, you can't go wrong with the other 4-star Abundance Light Cones like Post-Op Conversation, Perfect Timing, Quid Pro Quo, Warmth Shortens Cold Nights, Shared Feeling, and Hey, Over Here as they all have strong effects suitable to both general and niche combat situations.

However, if you're really looking to fully invest in Gallagher, then his best Light Cone is Night of Fright, Huohuo's signature. It increases his Energy Regeneration Rate by 12% and, whenever an ally uses their ultimate, lets him restore HP for an ally with the lowest HP percentage by an amount equal to 10% of the healed ally's Max HP.

In addition, when he heals an ally, Gallagher will also increase the healed ally's ATK by 2.4%, with the effect can stack up to 5 times and lasts for 2 turns.

Relics

Gallagher's go-to Cavern of Corrosion relics will be a mixed set containing the 2-piece sets of each of the following relic sets: Passerby of Wandering Cloud for a 10% Outgoing Healing bonus, Messenger Traversing Hackerspace for a 6% Speed bonus, and Thief of Shooting Meteor or Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations for a 16% Break Effect bonus.

Go with whichever sets have the main stats and substats you need, though we do recommend going for the Speed and Break Effect sets for a more efficient build.

As for Gallagher's Planar Ornament relics, go for any of the support sets depending on what your team needs.

Fleet of the Ageless provides a party-wide 8% ATK bonus, Broken Keel provides a party-wide 10% Crit DMG, while Penacony, Land of the Dreams gives a 10% DMG boost to all allies that share the same element as Gallagher.

The main stats you should go for are Outgoing Healing bonus for the body, Speed for the feet, HP% or DEF for the Planar Sphere, and Energy Regeneration Rate for the Link Rope. Substats to aim for are more Speed, Break Effect up to 150%, and as much HP% or DEF as possible for Gallagher's own survivability.

Gallagher's best teammates

As an Abundance character, Gallagher can be fit into any team in need of a healer. However, you need to keep in mind that he lacks debuff cleanse when he's not E2, so make sure to account for enemy debuffs affecting your rotations.

With that said, Gallagher's ability to inflict two debuffs with his ultimate and basic attack does make him synergise very well with debuff-focused DPS characters like Acheron and Dr. Ratio.

Gallagher's strong Toughness and Break DMG output also lets him work well with a Fire Break-focused composition alongside characters like Himeko, Hook, and Ruan Mei.

Honkai: Star Rail version 2.1 will see the release of three new characters in Acheron, Aventurine, and Gallagher, reruns for Luocha and Jingliu, and two new areas in Penacony. Not only that, version 2.1 will be Honkai: Star Rail's first-year anniversary patch and as such will give players tons of rewards!

If you're still on the fence on who you should pull for in the first half of version 2.1, then check here and we'll help you decide.

Once version 2.1 drops on 27 March, then the wait begins for version 2.2 in May featuring two new 5-star characters in Robin and Boothill.

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

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