Honkai: Star Rail – Best Jing Yuan Build

Image: Hoyoverse via HGG / Brittany Alva

Human Made

Penned by Brittany Alva

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

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Arbiter-General Jing Yuan is one of the playable Lightning characters in Honkai: Star Rail. While the Erudition character may be a bit of a jokester, there’s no joking around about his skills in battle. He can quickly turn the tide of a battle in your favor with his devastating AoE attacks and incredible damage potential. So that you too can witness the full might of The Divine Foresight, here’s the best build for Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail.

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Ascension Materials for Jing Yuan

There are a few things you’ll need to fully ascend Jing Yuan:

• 308,000 Credits
• 15x Immortal Scionette
• 15x Immortal Aeroblossom
• 15x Immortal Lumintwig
• 65x Shape Shifter’s Lightning Staff

How to Build Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail

The build for Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail is pretty straightforward – as a purely offensive unit who excels at dealing AoE damage, you’ll want to optimize his ATK and CRIT stats. However, the bulk of his damage doesn’t come from himself.

Instead, he’s got a friendly Lightning-Lord that joins the battle alongside him and does the bulk of the work. However, the game does a… questionable job on explaining how the Lightning-Lord works, making it a bit confusing as to how you should build Jing Yuan.

The Lightning-Lord has its own turn and inherits all of Jing Yuan’s own stats (except for SPD), Every attack from the Lighting-Lord targets a random enemy and deals AoE cleave damage to adjacent enemies.

This attack scales with Jing Yuan’s ATK stat and hits multiple times. A majority of Jing Yuan’s combat skills are centered around buffing the SPD and Hit Count of the Lightning-Lord.

While Serval is a free-to-play Lightning character of The Erudition Path, Jing Yuan deals much more damage. Jing Yuan (or more accurately, the Lightning Lord) can put out some truly insane AoE damage with minimal set-up and is definitely worth pulling for. Conveniently, he even has several free-to-play builds that work well.

Combat Skills of Jing Yuan

The Lightning-Lord

We’ll begin with Jing Yuan’s Talent, as it’s what summons and governs the Lightning-Lord. At the start of the battle, Jing Yuan will summon the Lightning-Lord to effectively serve as a 5th party member, making him the first summoner character in Honkai: Star Rail.

The Lightning-Lord inherits all of Jing Yuan’s stats (including buffs), except for SPD. Instead, the Lightning-Lord has a base SPD of 60 and a default of 3 Hits Per Action. As mentioned above, most of Jing Yuan’s Combat Skills revolve around buffing the Lightning-Lord’s hit count.

Each added hit count boosts the Lightning-Lord’s SPD by 10 and deals another instance of damage during its attack. The max hit count is 10, and both the hit count and SPD of the Lightning-Lord will reset once it attacks.

When the Lightning-Lord attacks, each hit count will randomly target an enemy, dealing full damage to its target and 25% damage to adjacent enemies. Each hit count is treated as a follow-up attack and is its own instance of damage, scaling with Jing Yuan’s ATK stat.

Your goal is to buff the Lightning-Lord’s hit count as much as possible before it takes its turn. At minimum, you want to have at least 6 hit counts on the Lightning-Lord to trigger Battalia Crush (Major Trace) and gain a 25% CRIT DMG boost.

To that extent, you’ll be spamming Jing Yuan’s Skill and Ultimate non-stop to buff the Lightning-Lord (more on those abilities below). Ideally, you’re able to use his Skill 2 times and his Ultimate 1 time to reach the max 10 hit count before the Lightning-Lord acts.

Note: If Jing Yuan himself is downed, then the Lightning-Lord will disappear. If Jing Yuan is CCed and unable to act, the Lightning-Lord will skip its turn.

Jing Yuan, Himself

Jing Yuan’s Basic Attack is a single-target Lightning attack that’s straightforward and doesn’t do anything for Lightning-Lord. You’ll likely never use this except as a last resort.

Both Jing Yuan’s Skill and Ultimate buff the Lightning-Lord and deal massive AoE damage (although his Ultimate deals over double the amount of damage that his Skill does). Jing Yuan’s Skill gives Lightning-Lord two attack counts, and Jing Yuan’s Ultimate gives Lightning-Lord three attack counts.

However, note that his Ultimate does cost 130 energy, which is considerably higher than the usual amount. Thankfully, increasing the Lightning-Lord’s hit counts results in regenerating more energy as well, off-setting a portion of his ultimate’s cost.

Jing Yuan’s Technique is also centered around Lightning-Lord – using it gives Lightning-Lord three additional hit counts at the start of the battle.

Eidolons for Jing Yuan boost his damage and focus on debuffing enemies hit by Lightning-Lord. His 1st and 2nd Eidolons are significant power boosts, with the first increasing the DMG multiplier on adjacent enemies by 25% when Lightning-Lord attacks and the second boosting all of Jing Yuan’s DMG by 20% for two turns.  

Traces & Leveling Priority for Jing Yuan

Leveling up Jing Yuan’s Traces in Honkai: Star Rail will increase his and thus the Lightning-Lord’s ATK, which are all helpful. As the bulk of Jing Yuan’s damage comes from the Lightning-Lord, you should prioritize his Talent. Afterwards, focus on his Skill and Ultimate, since you’re all about increasing the Lightning-Lord’s hit count.

When it comes to Major Traces, prioritize War Marshal first for the bonus two-turn 10% CRIT Rate. It doesn’t matter how much CRIT DMG you deal if you don’t have the Crit Rate to trigger it. Afterwards, focus on Battalia Crush, as it provides a staggering 25% boost to CRIT DMG if the Lightning-Lord has 6 or more hit counts. Given how many attacks the Lightning-Lord can put out, we’re sure you can see why these two Traces are so potent.

The last Major Trace, Savant Providence, immediately gives Jing Yuan 15 Energy at the start of a battle, and it even has a CRIT Rate tier as well. While it’s good, the other two are just too good to not prioritize.

Recommended Combat Skills Order: Talent > Skill = Ultimate > Basic

Recommended Major Traces Order: War Marshal > Battalia Crush > Savant Providence

Best Light Cone for Jing Yuan

Note: In Honkai: Star Rail, anything % is better than flat stats. Additionally, DMG scales better than ATK, so it’s more important to prioritize these things when choosing Light Cones for any of your characters, including Jing Yuan.

Because you want to build him to hit as hard as possible, the best Light Cone for Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail will have effects focused on boosting: CRIT DMG, CRIT Rate, DMG%, and even raw DMG.

• Before Dawn (5-star): Taking the above into consideration, the best Light Cone for Jing Yuan is his signature one. Before Dawn does a lot of good things for Jing Yuan, increasing his CRIT DMG%, Skill / Ultimate DMG%, and his follow-up attack DMG% (applies to Lightning-Lord’s attacks). But since it’s a limited 5-star Light Cone, it can be a bit hard to get.
• Today is Another Peaceful Day (4-star): Provides a high base ATK stat and given that Jing Yuan has a max energy of 130 (second highest in the game), it gives him a constant 24% DMG boost at all times.
  • If you regularly buy the Battle Pass, you can easily max out its Superimposition for a constant 52% DMG boost.
• The Seriousness of Breakfast (4-star): Comes with a solid ATK stat, constantly boosts Jing Yuan’s DMG%, and grants up to 4 stacks of an ATK% boost per enemy defeated.
• The Birth of the Self (4-star): Increases DMG% of follow-up attacks (i.e. Lightning-Lord) and grants even more of a DMG% if the enemy’s HP is under 50%. 
  • This is the best completely F2P Light Cone, as you can obtain enough copies to max out Superimposition via completing Trailblaze Missions and exchanging for it in the Forgotten Hall Store.

Best Stats for Jing Yuan

When it comes to the best stats for Jing Yuan, you’ll want to build a balance of CRIT DMG%, CRIT Rate, and ATK%. There are no DMG% Relics, so you won’t have to worry about those. Alternatively, Lightning DMG is also great if you have a Planar Sphere with it.

You can generally prioritize CRIT DMG% over CRIT Rate, because Jing Yuan already has a significant amount of CRIT Rate built into his Traces. However, keep the 1:2 rule of CRIT Rate to CRIT DMG in mind when choosing the right Relics. 

The best main stat on each relic is as follows:

For substats, aim for the following priority (reminder – substats cannot be the same as the main stat):

Best Relics for Jing Yuan

When it comes to Relic sets, the best ones for Jing Yuan require delving a bit further into the Simulated Universe than most might be ready for.

Standard DPS Build

Cavern Relics:

• Band of Sizzling Thunder (4-piece) is by far the best option for Jing Yuan. The two-piece bonus increases Lightning DMG by 10%, and the four-piece bonus grants a 20% ATK boost for 1 turn after using your Skill. Perfect, given the boost lasts long enough to bolster the Lightning-Lord’s many Lightning attacks!
  • You can farm this set in the Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Holy Hymn.
• Musketeer of Wild Wheat (4-piece) is a good alternative if you don’t have access to Band of Sizzling Thunder yet. The full set increases your ATK by 10% and Speed by 6%. You also get a boost to your Basic Attack, but that’s largely irrelevant for Jing Yuan.
  • It can be found at the Cavern of Corrosion: Corridor of Fading Echoes.
• Thief of Shooting Meteor (4-piece): The two-piece set increases Break Effect while the four-piece set also regenerates Energy when Jing Yuan inflicts Weakness Break. This set specifically works well for shredding enemy shields – a simple task for the AoE monster that is Jing Yuan.
  • The set can be farmed at the Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Jabbing Punch.

Planar Ornaments:

• Inert Salsotto (2-piece) is the best set to pick. This set bonus increases Jing Yuan’s CRIT Rate by 8% along with increasing his Ultimate and follow-up attack DMG% when his CRIT Rate is 50% or higher.
  • Unfortunately, this is only available in World Six of the Simulated Universe.
• Space Sealing Station (2-piece): This is a good alternative if you don’t have access to Inert Salsotto yet. Boosts your ATK by 12% and again if you have 120 or more SPD.

Best Teams for Jing Yuan

There’s one character that seems made to go alongside Jing Yuan: Bronya. Besides providing massive buffs to ATK, DMG, and CRIT DMG to the party, her Skill allows Jing Yuan to immediately act again.

This not only allows for more massive AoE damage, but it also gives Jing Yuan more chances to buff Lightning-Lord before it attacks. If you don’t have Bronya, then a buffer like Tingyun is also a good choice (and a much more accessible one).

Given that his kit is entirely offensive, Jing Yuan needs some kind of protection. This can accomplished with either a healer or tank. A superb option that everyone has access to is the Fire Trailblazer, who is easily one of the best tanks in the game. Gepard is another stellar choice here. If you’re looking to use a healer, Natasha is another option that everyone has access to after playing a bit of the main story. 

The last spot is a fill spot. You could run a debuffer like Pela or another buffer like Asta. Another good choice is to run both a tank and a healer to be safe and cover enemy Weaknesses. Alternatively, run another damage dealer and just fixate on running the enemy down.

The ideal best team looks something like this:

• Jing Yuan (DPS/Carry)
• Bronya (Buffer)
• Tingyun (Buffer / Support)
• Natasha / Bailu (Healer)

Another good F2P team is:

• Jing Yuan (DPS/Carry)
• Natasha (Healer)
• Fire Trailblazer (Tank)
• Asta / Tingyun (Buffer / Support)

Join the High Ground!

That’s everything you need to know about how to build Jing Yuan in Honkai: Star Rail. Now he and Lightning-Lord can light into enemies with their insane AoE claws.

What’s your favorite way to use Jing Yuan? Let us know in the comments below, and feel free to include ideas that you’d like to see us cover in the future! You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more gaming content and Honkai: Star Rail fun.

Happy gaming!