Best Dan Heng Build in Honkai: Star Rail

Image: Hoyoverse via HGG / Brittany Alva

Human Made

Penned by Brittany Alva

Brittany is our resident Palia and Honkai: Star Rail specialist.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Despite being one of the first characters you gain access to, Dan Heng can dish out some incredibly high damage in Honkai: Star Rail. Considering players get him at the very beginning of the game, he can easily become the powerhouse of your team. However, you’ll need to know the right tips and tricks to craft the best build for Dan Heng and bring out his full potential in Honkai: Star Rail.

Here’s everything you need to know about the best Dan Heng build in Honkai: Star Rail. 

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Ascension Materials for Dan Heng

As a 4-star character, Dan Heng is incredibly easy to level up compared to 5-stars. Here’s what you’ll need:

• 12x Extinguished Core
• 13x Glimmering Core
• 12x Squirming Core
• 50x Storm Eye
• 246,400 Credits

How to Build Dan Heng in Honkai: Star Rail

Dan Heng is a Wind character of the Hunt Path who excels at single-target damage. His kit revolves around slowing and blitzing down enemies, which spirals him into an even stronger killing machine. 

He can literally run circles around any enemies who are weak to Wind, and he even has a way to reduce Wind Resistance for enemies who aren’t weak to his Element. All in all, he’s an incredibly powerful character that’s good to have built for any situation that arises. 

The more you ascend him and the more Eidolons he has, the more his damage increases exponentially. Every Eidolon, especially two and four, is great to have. 

Abilities and Combat Skills

Dan Heng’s Basic Attack deals Wind DMG to one enemy. His Skill deals over double the amount of Wind DMG that his Basic Attack does to a single target. Additionally, if Dan Heng lands a critical hit, the enemy will be slowed for two turns. 

This is where things start ramping up – Dan Heng’s Ultimate deals a massive amount of Wind DMG to a single enemy, with the damage being significantly multiplied if the enemy has been slowed. The combination potential between his Skill and Ultimate can lead to some insane numbers.

If you happen to have his fourth Eidolon and manage to kill the enemy, then his Ultimate allows you to take another turn immediately afterward. He’s like a budget version of Seele. 

Whenever a teammate targets Dang Heng with any ability, Dan Heng’s Talent will boost his next attack’s ability to shred through enemies’ Wind RES. Naturally, this can make his already insane Ultimate output even stronger when used at the right moment.

As for his Technique, using it before a battle gives him an 40% ATK increase for three turns. Simply activate it before going into any tough fight to nuke an enemy out of existence.

All of his kit works so well together that he doesn’t necessarily need a buffer – he’s got everything he really needs on a base level. Of course, you can

Traces and Leveling Priority

All of Dan Heng’s combat skills benefit from being leveled up, it’s just a matter of which one deals the most damage with the least amount of resources. In this case, that would be Dan Heng’s Ultimate. His Basic ATK can be saved for last, since you shouldn’t be using it all that often anyway.

His Major Traces can ramp up his gameplay even further. For example, Faster Than Light has a chance to increase his speed every time he attacks. This doesn’t stack, but any kind of SPD buff helps him start snowballing sooner.

Hidden Dragon reduces the odds of an enemy attacking Dan Heng if his health is lower than 50% – this is great, as you want to focus your resources on buffing his damage instead of his survivability.

High Gale makes his Basic ATK function a bit more like his Ultimate, dealing extra damage to enemies if they’re slowed.

Recommended Combat Skills Order: Ultimate -> Skill -> Talent -> Basic ATK

Recommended Major Traces Order: Faster Than Light -> Hidden Dragon -> High Gale

Best Light Cones for Dan Heng

There are several decent options for Light Cones on Dan Heng, but there’s one that significantly stands out among the rest:

• In the Night (5-star) is an amazing Light Cone for anyone on the Hunt Path, but Dan Heng specifically benefits from it the most. It increases CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Basic ATK, and Skill DMG by a stacking percentage, giving him more of a chance to start spiraling and becoming stronger the longer a fight lasts.
• Swordplay (4-star) is a good option against bosses or tanky enemies that you know will take a lot to take down. This deals increasing damage up to five times as long as Dan Heng attacks the same target, making it a solid backup choice to have at the very least.
• For increasing SPD and DMG consistently, River Flows in Spring (4-star) is a great Light Cone. Dan Heng essentially gets buffed as long as he isn’t getting attacked – considering his Major Trace Hidden Dragon, this works pretty well even if you don’t run a tankier character with him. 
• The signature Light Cone of Dan Heng, Only Silence Remains (4-star), is a decent option. It increases both ATK and CRIT Rate depending on the number of enemies, and the buffs are better than most of the other 4-star Light Cones. 
• If you have to go with a three-star Light Cone, then pick Arrows (3-star). It increases Dan Hen’s CRIT Rate by a decent amount for the first three turns after a battle begins, which can help get through most of the fights in Honkai: Star Rail.

Best Stats for Dan Heng

For the most part, you’ll want to focus on making sure Dan Heng can hit as hard as possible. This means ignoring all defensive stats and focusing on CRIT stats with a bit of Energy Regeneration to help him use his Ultimate as much as possible (especially if you have his fourth Eidolon). 

Here’s the best stats to optimize your Dan Heng build in Honkai: Star Rail.

Main Stats

• Body: CRIT DMG / CRIT Rate
• Feet: ATK% / Speed
• Planar Sphere: Wind DMG
• Link Rope: Energy Regen Rate / ATK%

Substats

• CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG
• ATK%
• Speed
• Break Effect
• Energy Regen Rate (specifically if you have an ATK% Link Rope)

Best Relics for Dan Heng

There are a few different Relic sets that work well on Dan Heng. These all deal with ramping up his DMG in some way.

Cavern Relics

• Eagle of Twilight Lane (4-piece) helps Dan Heng’s Wind DMG while also getting in more shots. After he uses his Ultimate, this Relic set advances his next turn. Considering his Ultimate can lead to him having a second turn in some cases already, this makes him more and more like a free Seele. 
• If you can’t farm Eagle of Twilight Lane, then Muskateer of Wild Wheat (4-piece) also works well. This not only buffs Dan Heng’s ATK, but also his SPD and Basic ATK damage specifically. It’s not the greatest choice, but it’s a good second one to help him hit harder. This also works well as a 2-piece set along with a 2-piece set of Eagle of Twilight Lane if you happen to only have two Relics from each set. 

Planar Ornaments

• Space Sealing Station (2-piece) was made for Dan Heng. It gives an ATK buff along with an additional ATK buff if his SPD is high enough. Considering his kit, Dan Heng’s SPD will almost always be high enough on its own.
• Celestial Differentiator (2-piece) is another great set if you’ve got Dan Heng built well. It increases his CRIT DMG, and if his CRIT DMG is high enough, then it’ll also boost his CRIT Rate for a brief period of time. This can help him effectively nuke an enemy out of existence at the beginning of a fight, but he’ll need a lot of CRIT DMG on his own before the CRIT Rate buff will activate.
• Talia: Kingdom of Bounty (2-piece) is another option that works specifically well if you’re trying to make Dan Heng target Weakness Breaks in particular. This set boosts Break Effect, and it gets a second Break Effect boost when Dan Heng’s SPD is high enough (which is pretty much always). 

Best Team Comps for Dan Heng

Because Dan Heng’s kit supports itself, he fits into a variety of teams very well. If you’re looking for a single-target DPS or a Wind Element character, then Dan Heng is almost always a good choice. 

That being said, do your best to make sure your team has good Skill Point management, as Dan Heng will want use his Skill whenever his Ultimate isn’t available.

If you’re looking to build a team comp around Dan Heng, then there are a few good options.

Dan Heng vs. Debuffed Enemies

• Dan Heng
• Welt / Pela (alternative)
• Bailu / Natasha (alternative)
• Asta

This team revolves around Dan Heng dishing out massive damage numbers, while Welt debuffs enemies left and right. Asta does a stellar job at tearing through shields while simultaneously buffing Dan Heng with both SPD and ATK buffs. 

Bailu’s main job is to keep everyone alive, and considering she has a revive, she does a pretty good job at this. She also covers an additional Elemental Weakness, making this team pretty well-rounded.

If you don’t have Welt or Bailu, you can switch them out for Pela and Natasha. This is a very accessible team, and it does a great job at clearing a lot of content in Honkai: Star Rail.

Mob Clearing with Dan Heng

• Dan Heng
• Serval / Herta (alternative)
• Asta
• Natasha

With the addition of Serval instead of a debuff-centered character, this Dan Heng team can focus on mobs of enemies. It’s not the best team option for tanky bosses, but it gets the job done quickly and efficiently when you’re farming Calyxes or going through the Simulated Universe. 

It also covers a variety of Weaknesses, which is always a good idea. It’s another accessible team that most players can scrounge together. If you don’t have Serval, then you can use Herta – at that point, everyone in the game can play this team as all the characters are given for free. 

Join the High Ground

Considering he’s a free character you get at the very start of the game, Dan Heng is incredibly powerful. And now that you have the best Dan Heng build in Honkai: Star Rail, you can make sure yours is the powerhouse he’s capable of being. Luckily, it’s not too hard to build him, and you can still make him unstoppable, even at a relatively low level.

Let us know in the comments if you used Dan Heng from the start. You can also subscribe for more Honkai: Star Rail content and gaming guides below. 

Happy gaming!