Jingliu build guide for Honkai: Star Rail version 1.4 - Best Relics, Light Cones, team comp

Honkai: Star Rail version 1.4 is finally here, bringing with it the debut of the game's newest 5-star Destruction character: Jingliu!

Jingliu is a living legend of the Xianzhou Luofu, having been a member of the mythical High-Cloud Quintet and the strongest swordmaster in the history of the worldship. She was also once the master of the Arbiter-General Jing Yuan before she lost control of herself due to the effects of mara.

Jingliu wields the Ice element and follows the Path of Destruction, able to unleash a whirlwind of Ice attacks that become more powerful once she enters the enhanced state from her Talent — but at the cost of a portion of all her allies' health.

Jingliu is a powerful damage-dealer with powerful self-buffs that can carry your team to victory, so read on as we break down her best build, gear, and teammates!

Jingliu's kit and how to best utilise her

A sword dance underneath the glacial moon

While most other damage-dealers in Honkai: Star Rail have relatively consistent damage output, Jingliu stands apart as her damage ramps up once she enters her enhanced state. On top of needing to get to her enhanced state, playing Jingliu also requires players to manage how much health her enhanced attacks drain from allies.

These requirements are well worth fulfilling though, as a fully-unleashed Jingliu can sweep the battlefield clean with a veritable blizzard of moonlit swordstrikes.

Jingliu's kit is centred on her Talent, Crescent Transmigration, which lets her gain 1 stack of Syzygy from using her standard skill, Transcendent Flash, which in turn deals Ice damage to a single target.

Once Jingliu gains 2 stacks of Syzygy, she enters the Spectral Transmigration state, her action is advanced by 100%, and gains 50% Crit Rate.

While in the Spectral Transmigration state, Transcendent Flash is enhanced to Moon On Glacial River, which deals Ice damage to its initial target as well as any adjacent enemies. In addition, you can only use Jingliu's enhanced skill or ultimate in the Spectral Transmigration state.

Using Jingliu's enhanced skill also does not consume any skill points, but it does consume 1 stack of Syzygy and 4% of all her allies Max HP. Jingliu's ATK is also massively increased by an amount based on how much HP from her allies was consumed, with the buff only lasting in the enhanced skill usage that triggers it.

Jingliu cannot enter the Spectral Transmigration state again until the current one ends, which will happen once her Syzygy stacks are drained.

Meanwhile, Jingliu's ultimate, Florephemeral Dreamflux, deals massive Ice DMG to a single target as well as any adjacent enemies. It also gives her 1 additional stack of Syzygy.

Jingliu's major Traces lets her enter the Spectral Transmigration state faster while also empowering her once she does enter that enhanced state.

Her A2 Trace, Deathrealm, increases her Effect RES by 35% when she is in the Spectral Transmigration state. Her A4 Trace, Sword Champion, advances her next action forward by 10% after she uses Transcendent Flash. Meanwhile, Jingliu's A6 Trace, Frost Wraith, increases her ultimate's damage by 20% when she is in the Spectral Transmigration state.

Finally, Jingliu's Technique, Shine of Truth, creates a dimension around her that lasts for 20 seconds and freezes any enemies with its area-of-effect. After entering battle with enemies frozen by the dimension, Jingliu regenerates 15 energy, gains 1 stack of Syzygy, and has a 100% base chance of inflicting all enemies with Freeze.

In battle, use Jingliu's standard skill two times so she can enter the Spectral Transmigration state as soon as possible. Once in her enhanced state, use her ultimate so it can take advantage of the damage boost from her A6 Trace and gain 1 additional stack of Syzygy, which lets her unleash her enhanced skill three times before Spectral Transmigration ends.

When levelling up Jingliu's abilities, prioritise her skill first, Talent second, and ultimate third — though you'd want them all to be levelled up to the max in the end. Jingliu doesn't really use her basic attacks, so you can ignore levelling it up unless you're a completionist and have the resources to spare.

Jingliu's best gear

Light Cones

Jingliu's best Light Cone is hands-down her signature, I Shall Be My Own Sword, which passively increases her Crit DMG by 20%. It also lets her gain stacks of Eclipse whenever her allies get attacked or lose HP, up to a max of 3 stacks. Each stack of Eclipse increases the DMG of Jingliu's next attack by 14% and when 3 stacks are reached, her attack will also ignore 12% of the enemy's DEF.

But outside of her signature, Jingliu admittedly doesn't have too many great alternatives. Her best 5-star alternative is On the Fall of an Aeon, which can be acquired and superimposed for free through the Simulated Universe's Herta Store.

On the Fall of an Aeon increases its wielder's ATK by 8% for the rest of the battle after every attack, stacking up to 4 times. Additionally, inflicting Weakness Break on enemies increases the wielder's DMG by 12% for 2 turns.

As for the other 5-star Destruction Light Cones, they can be usable for Jingliu for their 5-star stats alone but their passives don't synergize well with her kit, so we don't recommend using them.

For 4-star Light Cones, you can either go for Nowhere to Run (Nameless Honor) or A Secret Vow (gacha).

Nowhere to Run increases its wielder's ATK by 24% and restores their HP equal to 12% of their ATK whenever they defeat an enemy. Meanwhile, A Secret Vow passively increases its wielder's DMG by 20%, which gets doubled if their current HP percentage is equal or lower to that of the target enemy's.

Relics

For Jingliu's relics, her go-to Cavern of Corrosion relic set is the 4-piece Hunter of Glacial Forest, which increases its wielder's Ice DMG by 10% with its 2-piece bonus while its 4-piece bonus increases its wielder's Crit DMG by 25% for 2 turns after using their ultimate.

Under certain conditions, you can also go for the 4-piece Genius of Brilliant Stars. While this relic set's 2-piece bonus is useless for Jingliu, its 4-piece bonus is what makes it a viable option. It makes it so that the wearer's attacks ignore 10% of the enemy's DEF, with the amount also getting doubled if the target enemy has a Quantum Weakness.

Since Jingliu's kit gives her very powerful ATK buffs already, additional ATK buffs can have diminishing returns while DEF Ignore or Shred mechanics provide more efficient DMG buffs.

With that in mind, only use 4-piece Genius of Brilliant Stars on Jingliu if you already have her signature Light Cone, are facing enemies with Quantum Weakness, or have Silver Wolf to ensure Quantum Weakness on said enemies.

As for Jingliu's Planar Ornament relics, your best bet is the 2-piece Rutilant Arena, which increases her Crit Rate by 8% and buffs her basic attack and skill damage by 20% if her Crit Rate reaches 70% or higher, a requirement she can easily reach once in her enhanced state.

Jingliu's best teammates

Jingliu's ability to give herself powerful ATK buffs and low skill point usage gives her many versatile teambuilding options, although you will need to run a healer in order to offset the HP drain from her enhanced state.

While Jingliu does want to be surrounded with Harmony or Nihility support characters, her best teammate is arguably a second Destruction damage-dealer in Blade.

The HP drain on allies from Jingliu's enhanced state synergises perfectly with Blade's Talent, which lets him unleash his powerful follow-up attack faster to deal more damage. This way, you have two powerful damage-dealers in your team that don't need to use skill points to play their roles effectively, freeing up those skill points for the rest of your party.

Think of it this way, would you rather have just one buffed-up Jingliu as your main damage dealer or two damage dealers that synergize well in Jingliu and Blade?

As for Jingliu's best supports, your go-to Harmony options will either be Bronya or Tingyun.

Bronya's ultimate gives huge Crit DMG buffs while her skill's turn manipulation lets Jingliu get to her enhanced state faster. Meanwhile, Tingyun provides more damage with her skill while her ultimate gives Jingliu more energy to keep using her own.

For Nihility supports, you can take your pick between Silver Wolf or Pela, both of whom can shred enemy DEF to provide the most efficient damage boosts for Jingliu.

In addition, Silver Wolf's skill can ensure an enemy will always have an Ice Weakness to let Jingliu Freeze them with Weakness Break or Quantum Weakness in order for Jingliu to use the 4-piece Genius of Brilliant Stars buff we discussed earlier. Meanwhile, Pela's skill can remove buffs from enemies and even reduce their Ice RES if she's at E4.

Finally, any Jingliu team will need healers to off-set the HP drain from her enhanced state. This also means that shielders aren't really recommended, as you won't be able heal any HP drained by Jingliu and you'll be in big trouble if enemies manage to get through the shield.

With that in mind, the best sustain character for a Jingliu team will be Luocha, who can heal off-turn and summon a healing field to keep your party in tip-top shape. Other healers like Bailu, Lynx, or Natasha are also more than capable of fulfilling this role if you don't have Luocha.

While she isn't technically a healer, Fu Xuan is also a very strong option as the sustain character in a Jingliu team. Fu Xuan mitigates the damage all allies receive while also providing debuff resistance and Crit Rate buffs, with the latter helping Jingliu more easily reach the requirements for the 2-piece Rutilant Arena set.

Jingliu will be the featured 5-star character for the first half of Honkai: Star Rail version 1.4. The second half of this version will also see the debuts of Topaz and Guinaifen as well as a rerun for Seele.

After version 1.4 comes version 1.5 in mid-November, which will see the release of Huohuo, Argenti, and Hanya.

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

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