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Honkai: Star Rail – Yunli build and ascension guide

Originally posted on Video Games on SI | By Marco Wutz | Last updated Jul 26, 2024 2:03 PM ET

Hunt down all cursed swords with the best Honkai: Star Rail Yunli build and melt them down to create the ultimate blade for yourself. Yunli is a 5-Star follower of The Destruction and deals Physical Damage, specializing in powerful counter-attacks.

Her Skill, Bladeborn Quake, deals Physical Damage to her target and adjacent enemies based on her Attack, healing her own HP in the process.

Yunli’s Talent, Flashforge, allows her to immediately generate additional Energy and launch a Counter against the attacker and adjacent targets, dealing Physical Damage based on her Attack.

Yunli’s Ultimate, Earthbind, Etherbreak, makes her enter the Parry state and taunts all enemies, with both effects lasting until the end of the next ally’s or enemy’s turn. When in the Parry state, Counter deals additional Critical Hit Damage and the enhanced Counter: Intuit Cull is used instead of the regular Counter: Intuit Slash. If Counter is not triggered while Yunli is in Parry state, she will automatically use Counter: Intuit Slash when the state ends. Both Counters deal Physical Damage to the target and adjacent enemies based on her Attack, but Counter: Intuit Cull additionally deals several instances of damage to one random enemy afterwards.

Obtaining additional copies of Yunli allows you to raise her Eidolon Levels, gaining additional power-ups. Eidolon 1 boosts the damage of her Ultimate’s Counters as well as increasing the number of damage instances Counter: Intuit Cull dishes out. Eidolon 2 allows Counters to ignore a portion of the enemy’s Defense. Eidolon 4 strengthens Yunli’s Effect Resistance for a turn after launching her Ultimate’s Counter. Finally, Eidolon 6 allows Yunli to use Counter: Intuit Cull against any enemy using an ability, regardless of its target, in addition to increasing the Critical Hit Rate and Physical Resistance Penetration of her Ultimate’s Counters.

HSR – Yunli: best Light Cones

Like all 5-Star characters, Yunli has a perfect Light Cone to complement her kit in the form of her signature weapon: Dance at Sunset. It provides additional Critical Hit Damage on top of increasing the chance of its wearer to be attacked – which is usually a bad thing for damage dealers, but is very convenient for Yunli, since she depends on her counter-attacks so much.

In addition, Dance at Sunset creates a stack of Firedance for its wielder after they use an Ultimate. Firedance lasts for two turns and can have up to two stacks. Each stack boosts the wearer’s follow-up attack damage. The same aspects make this Light Cone fantastic for Clara as well.

Best Light Cones for Yunli in HSR:

Dance at Sunset (5-Star)
Something Irreplaceable (5-Star)
The Unreachable Side (5-Star)
On the Fall of an Aeon (5-Star)
The Moles Welcome You (4-Star)
Under the Blue Sky (4-Star)
Collapsing Sky (3-Star)

HoYoverse

HSR – Yunli: best Relics

Yunli wants to gobble up as many offensive stats as she can. All of her offensive moves scale with Attack, making it a crucial component of your build. Speed is a less important factor, since Yunli’s damage mainly comes from counter-attacks. These do count as follow-up attacks, so keep that in mind when choosing your Relics and team members.

Best Relic Sets for Yunli in HSR:

The Wind-Soaring Valorous (4) – +12% Attack, +6% Critical Hit Rate, and +36% Ultimate damage after the wearer uses a follow-up attack.
Longevous Disciple (4) – +12% Maximum HP, +8% Critical Hit Rate for two turns (up to two stacks) when the wearer is hit or has their HP consumed by an ally or themselves.
Champion of Streetwise Boxing (4) – +10% Physical Damage, +5% Attack after the wearer attacks or is hit (can stack up to five times).

Best Planar Ornaments for Yunli in HSR:

Duran, Dynasty of Running Wolves (2) – +5% follow-up attack damage for the wielder whenever a stack of Merit is gained, up to five times. Merit is obtained by allies making follow-up attack attacks; +25% Critical Hit Damage for the wearer upon reaching five stacks of Merit.
Inert Salsotto (2) – +8% Critical Hit Rate, +15% follow-up attack and Ultimate Damage when the wearer’s Critical Hit Rate surpasses 50%.

Note: Use Duran, Dynasty of Running Wolves only as part of a follow-up attack team.

Prioritize the following Relic and Planar Ornament stats for Yunli in HSR:

Head – HP (Primary), Attack %, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Hit Damage, Speed
Hands – Attack (Primary), Attack %, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Hit Damage, Speed
Body – Critical Hit Rate or Critical Hit Damage (Primary), Attack %, Critical Hit Rate or Critical Hit Damage, Speed, Attack
Feet – Attack % (Primary), Critical Hit Rate, Critical Hit Damage, Speed, Attak
Planar Sphere – Physical Damage % (Primary), Attack %, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Hit Damage, Speed
Link Rope – Attack % (Primary), Critical Hit Rate, Critical Hit Damage, Speed, Attack

HoYoverse

HSR – Yunli: best teams

Yunli is quite versatile when it comes to her team composition, though she has the most synergy with a follow-up attack party. This allows her to run Duran as her Planar Ornament set, which is best for her personal damage output.

Yunli (Main DPS), Topaz (Sub DPS), Robin (Support), Aventurine (Support)

This follow-up attack team can easily maximize the benefits gained from Duran, Dynasty of Running Wolves, and provides a variety of related buffs to each other. Yunli and Topaz will be this party’s main damage dealers with Robin providing offensive boosts and Aventurine being a reliable shielder.

Sparkle, Tingyun, and Bronya are all fantastic support characters to accompany Yunli. March 7th (Preservation) offers great synergy as well, being able to shield Yunli and add to her taunt value, ensuring a continuous stream of attacks coming her way. This is especially useful if you don’t have her signature Light Cone to provide passive taunt value.

You could also run her with Jade, using Yunli as the Debt Collector. Since Yunli always hits up to three targets with her abilities, this Jade can reliably power up her follow-up attack.

HoYoverse

HSR – Yunli: Trace and ascension materials

Here’s everything you need to know to get Yunli ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of her talents.

Yunli requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:

Credits x308,000
Artifex’s Module x15
Artifex’s Cogwheel x15
Artifex’s Gyreheart x15
IPC Work Permit x65

You can collect Artifex’s Modules, Cogwheels, and Gyrehearts from enemies on the Xianzhou Luofu as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Artifex’s Modules are one of the base materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material. IPC Work Permit is dropped by the Stagnant Shadow in Clock Studios Theme Park on Penacony or gained through exchange. The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes found on many worlds.

Yunli requires the following materials to upgrade her combat abilities and Traces:

Credits x3,000,000
Artifex’s Module x41
Artifex’s Cogwheel x56
Artifex’s Gyreheart x58
Borisin Teeth x18
Lupitoxin Sawteeth x69
Moon Rage Fang x139
Regret of Infinite Ochema x12
Tracks of Destiny x8

For the materials already mentioned, check above. Borisin Teeth and their upgrades can be farmed in the Crimson Calyx (Scalegorge Waterscape) on the Xianzhou Luofu. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.

Regret of Infinite Ochema is a rarer material only gained from defeating Phantylia in the Echo of War (Scalegorge Waterscape) domain, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained during time-limited events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.

This article first appeared on Video Games on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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