In this Honkai Star Rail Yanqing Build Guide we’re going to be covering a single target Yanqing build. This build focuses on dispatching bosses and and elite enemies as fast as possible, and doing sustained Ice damage.

Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build Guide

Yanqing is a standard banner character, that you get from either the first Departure banner, after spending 50 wishes or you get from losing your 50:50 chance on rate up banners like Seele – Butterfly on the Swordtip banner. He’s a single target Ice damage dealer from the Hunt path. He can break Ice shields effectively, and freeze enemies. He also comes with passives to buff his own Critical Rate and Critical Damage, and add a follow up attack after his skill’s use.

Overall, Yanqing is very effective character to carry your account from early game to the very end. In case you get him on an account, he’s worth building and investing in. His freeze is reliable to crowd control enemies and skip their turns. He comes with several free stats, but has one condition to keep these buffs up, and that is to not get damaged by enemies. We can fulfill this condition by using a tank support with a taunt to prevent enemies from targeting him, or by using a shield on Yanqing to prevent him from taking damage. So it’s one of the easier conditions, and mostly guaranteed.

Yanqing Build Guide – Active Skills

Skill leveling Priority: Skill = Ultimate = Talent > Basic Attack

Frost Thorn – Basic Attack

As a main dps, Yanqing doesn’t rely on his normal attacks much, and prefers to use his Skill each turn. However, a normal attack is not a bad talent for him, as Yanqing buffs his entire kit’s Crit Rate and Crit Damage. So if things getout of hand, and you end up without skill points to use his skill, normal attacks will continue the DPS.

Darting Ironthorn – Skill

A simple and powerful skill that has Yanqing attack a single enemy with high Ice damage, then it grants him the Soulsteel Sync status for one turn. The Soulsteel Sync is where all of Yanqing’s extra power comes from. With it, he gains extra buffs, gets a chance for an extra follow-up attack, and has a high chance to freeze enemies. So in optimal rotation, you need to manage the team resources properly, to ensure Yanqing’s turn always comes while having a skill point available to use.

One With the Sword – Talent

While Yanqing has the Soulsteel Sync buff from using his skill, he gets less aggro from enemies. Meaning they are more likely to ignore him, and choose to attack other characters. That’s because if Yanqing takes damage, he loses the Soulsteel Sync buff, so you need to keep enemies from targeting him. In addition to that, he gets extra 15% Crit Rate, and 15% Crit damage. This status applies to his entire kit, so it buffs his normal attacks, ultimate, and follow-up attacks as well.

After Yanqing attacks an enemy, he have a 50% chance to attack again with a follow up attack. It deal 25% attack damage, and has a 65% chance to freeze the enemy, even if enemy have no cold weakness, and didn’t get his Toughness shield broken. This effect is very powerful, because it works all the time, without investing into freeze chance from other sources, but also scales up with investment. So you can build Yanqing with a pure focus on damage stats, and still have high Crowd Control, or focus on raising his CC to even higher levels, while maintaining good damage.

An additional note here is that freeze works well in Simulated Universe mode since the Simulated Universe has some powerful blessings from “remembrance” that require freezing enemies.

Amidst the Raining Bliss – Ultimate

Yanqing’s Ultimate follows the standard theme for this Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build, dealing high damage to a single target enemy. It increases Crit Rate even further by 60%, which is additive to 15% from the Talent, and 5% base. So his ultimate Crit Rate is 80% without any gear. If Soulsteel Sync is active, Yanqing gets extra Crit damage for 1 turn as well, which skyrocket his DPS.

If you play Yanqing with a damage buffer like Bronya or Tingyun, this ultimate can finish even enemies who have no Ice weakness in one hit. And as it is an ultimate, it can be used on any turn, not necessarily on Yanqing’s own turn. Sometimes I use it to finish an enemy onn his own turn, to reduce enemies overall damage.

It costs 140 energy to cast Yanqing’s ultimate, which is very high. His skill refunds 30 energy per turn, and killing an enemy refunds 10 energy, while his follow-up Attack gives 10 extra energy. Buffing him with Tingyun can also refund more energy, and using her ultimate on him regenerates 50 extra energy. So if you pair Yanqing with Tingyun, you can pretty much spam his ultimate. Another option is using him with March 7th, and use her shield on him. The shield increases his aggro, while protecting him from damage. And when an enemy hits him, Yanqing gets 15 extra energy to increase his ultimate gain. Finally, Bronya can be another great buffer for Yanqing’s ultimate, by hastening his turn and using his skill more often. That way, he can refund more energy in a shorter space of time, and deal huge damage.

The One True Sword – Technique

Techniques are a skill that characters can use outside of combat, mainly to initiate combat with a big advantage. It has a maximum amount of charges, so you can use in every encounter. You can use Yanqing’s Technique if he’s the active character outside combat, and you press the Technique button (same button as ultimate on controller).

After using his Technique, Yanqing will deal 30% more damage for first two turns, to enemies above 50% health. So it’s a good DPS increase if you don’t need another utility Technique such as March 7th’s freeze, or Serval’s shock for example.

Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build – Traces

Traces are passive skills that characters unlock after leveling, and reaching certain ascension levels. You need to farm and spend resources to unlock Traces, but they give powerful enchantments to your character. For a main DPS such as Yanqing, you should prioritize leveling and getting his Traces as soon as possible.

Icing on the Kick – Major – Ascension 2

Additional Ice damage instance on enemies weak to Ice. This Trace enables Yanqing to add more instances of damage to hasten the break of shields weak to Ice. Also deal slightly more damage.

Frost Favors the Brave – Major – Ascension 4

Adds resistance to negative effects while Soulsteel Sync is active. So it’s basically a way to reduce the chance enemies freeze, stun or disable Yanqing, so he keeps up dealing damage.

Gentle Blade – Major – Ascension 6

Increase speed for two turns upon dealing Crit hit. It’s another powerful buff in Yanqing’s kit, because speed is very important in this turn-based game. With this buff, and certain team setups, you can get in front of enemy turns which results in an overall increase in the times Yanqing attacks and deals damage.

Minor Traces

Yanqing gets ten minor stats increases, distributed as the following:

• Attack (Five nodes)
• Ice damage (Three Nodes)
• Max HP (two Nodes)

Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build – Light Cone

Gear is a curial part of building characters in Honkai Star Rail, and usually requires some testing with various teams and setups to get the highest performance. In this section, I’ll go through the recommended Light Cone for Yanqing, to fulfill his DPS role.

Light Cones are similar to weapons in other games, and while you can equip any light cone on any character, only cones matching the character’s Path can provide full benefits. Yanqing is of “The Hunt” Path, which focuses on dealing damage and buffing offensive stats. You can get cones from in-game rewards, or randomly from wishing on various banners. And I’ll go through some of free and gacha options for Yanqing.

Darting Arrows – Three Stars

A decent starter Light Cone, that give Yanqing a very good attack boost. As a three star option, you will get it to high Superimpose tier easily, which will increase the passive attack buff. Th condition to get this buff is killing an enemy, which Yanqing will be doing all the time. The buff lasts for three turns, and has no cooldown, so you will have it up most of the time after the first one or two turns.

River Flow In Spring – Four Stars

This four star Light Cone seems like Yanqing’s signature Light Cone. It has his image, and his lore on it. The stats on it is also well tailored for Yanqing, with a buff to Speed and and damage multiplier. The condition to meet to keep this powerful buff is to not get damaged. It’s the same condition to get benefits from his Talent, and will be effective if your team gives Yanqing a shield.

You can get River Flow In Spring from either gacha pull on banner, or buy it from the “Light Cone Manifest” shop from the Messenger on the Astral Express.

Sleep Like the Dead – Five Star

While not all stats on it is ideal for Yanqing, Sleep Like the Dead has higher base attack from being a five star, and the critical damage stat synergies very well with Yanqing’s higher than usual Crit Rate. The extra conditional critical rate is not bad as well.

You have a chance to get this weapon from standard banner, when you lose a 50:50 chance to get a five star character. It’s a nice upgrade over other four star options, but nothing to go crazy about.

Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build – Relics

Relics works similar to artifacts in Genshin Impact. You have four slots, Head, Gloves, Body, and Feet. Then two other slots that unlock at higher levels. Head always comes with Flat HP stat, and Gloves comes with Flat Attack. Then Body and Feet come with random stats. So gearing the Head and gloves will lean more towards finding the best sub stats, while Body and Feet need need to also roll a good main stat.

For Yanqing, we have wide variety of offensive stats to aim for. Such as Speed, Crit Rate, Crit damage, Attack, and effect hit rate. Usually, investing into Critical stats in early game is not the easiest way to scale up damage. Because critical is more effective if you maintain balanced ratio of 1:2 Crit Rate : Crit Damage. However, in Yanqing’s case, he starts off with massive critical buffs, and can easily reach 100% Crit Rate with his ultimate with minimum investment. That makes critical stats more valuable to him, and you should consider using them over attack stats where applicable.

The standard Ratio Yanqing has on his skill before gear is 20% Crit Rate : 65% Crit Damage. While his Ultimate and next Skill after Ultimate have 80% Crit rate : 125% Crit Damage at highest level. So we need to give him an extra 20% Crit Rate, and the rest in Crit damage to avoid overcapping Crit Rate.

Hunter of Glacial Forest

For Relic sets, Yanqing is definitely better with an Ice set. Hunter of Glacial Forest gives very nice Ice damage on the two pieces bonus, but also more Critical Damage on the four set bonus. It goes well with any Light Cone Yanqing can equip, and gives straight up stats with no conditions to meet.

Thief of Shooting Meteor

This set is one of the two starter sets that you get early game. It boosts break effects rather than offensive stats, and that’s exactly what you need in early game. You encounter a lot of enemies with Ice weakness, in early game, and breaking their Toughness shield is usually the best way to deal massive damage early on. Beside that, the other alternative set at the start is not that appealing because it buffs only the normal attacks, and Yanqing uses his skill the majority of time.

Honkai: Star Rail Yanqing Build – Team Composition

Teams consist of four characters in Honkai Star Rail, where you usually seek to fill several roles, such as single target DPS, AOE DPS, shield breakers, and both defensive and offensive supports. The combat system prevents you from using one character to break all shields, since shields break only if you attack it with the elements it’s weak against. Therefore, the game still encourages players to build a very diverse team, with four different elements, or at the very least three elements.

In this section, I’ll go through some of the recommended team members that goes well with Yanqing. Note that Yanqing has the Hunt Path, so he fulfills the single target DPS role perfectly. We will never pair him with another character from the Hunt Path, such as Don Hang, Sushang, or Seele.

Shielder from Preservation Path

This is the most obvious and easiest choice in terms of Yanqing team building. Yanqing loses a lot of his buffs upon taking damage, and shielders prevent damage. At launch, there are only three characters from Preservation Path in the game. These are Gepard, Fire Trailblazer, and March 7th. With Gepard being the only five star among them, and other two are guaranteed characters.

While March 7th has the Ice element similar to Yanqing, she’s still worth running early game. Her shield is very tanky, and lasts a long time, but she forces you to keep changing the other two supports with different encounters, to meet the enemies weakness.

Fire Trailblazer comes later after you finish the story quests in Jarilo-VI, and it eases up the team composition a lot, because it has fire element. The Trailblazer doesn’t have the strongest of shields, but they are very effective at keeping aggro on themselves, so Yanqing will only get hit by AOE attacks. You should place Trailblazer furthest away from Yanqing, so the small AOEs from enemies don’t hit Yanqing.

AOE breaker from Erudition Path

I prefer using Serval in this slot. She brings AOE lightning element, along with strong damage over time. All of her kit enables her to hit enemies multiple times, and that’s exactly what you need to break their toughness. She also cover up for Yanqing’s lack of AOE.

Erudition characters in general can use some Light Cones that help them generate energy, and this increases their ultimate usage, and breaking ability.

An upgrade to Serval, would be the five star Himeko, but she’s not accessible to most players

Healer from Abundance Path, or buffer from Harmony?

This choice can be a little tricky, because against most enemies, you would prefer survivability over damage buff. Honkai Star Rail is not very forgiving, and enemies can do a lot of damage, so it’s natural to use a healer like Natasha on top of your shielder, even if fights takes more turns.

Natasha is a natural fit in this team, because she’s a physical character. She can skip using her skill on several turns, as long as shields stay intact, and the team’s HP doesn’t drop low. She also enables the team to start with extra skill point, and with Traces, she can also cleanse.

However, she brings nothing else beside healing, and she prevent you from using strong buffers such as Asta, Tingyun, or Bronya. Any of those three can improve your team clear speed by a lot, and help you do “Forgotten Hall” with ease, but you have to either sacrifice a healer, or an AOE shield breaker. So pick your poison.

Final Tips

Yanqing is a mutually exclusive Single target DPS, and while he can carry the entire account in virtually all game modes, you can’t use him with any other single target DPS. So if you are pull the rate up character, Seele, you will find very few reasons to use Yanqing with her. That’s the drawback of Yanqing in early game, because resources are very scarce, and you don’t have the luxury to build a lot DPS characters in same role.

However, in endgame, you will need two teams to clear ” the Forgotten Hall” mode, and that’s where Yanqing becomes relevant, even if you have other single target DPS characters.

To Maintain a good rotation with Yanqing, you should aim to use his skill in every turn. That forces the team to use more natural characters that only use their normal attacks to generate skill points. The problem with using normal attacks on supports is that they lack AOE, so you have to use the skill of a third character for AOE. This way, you need another natural character that uses only normal attacks to refund more skill points. That’s why Serval is a good character to pair with Yanqing.

Serval leaves a Shock DoT on enemies, so in the following turns, she can resort to using her normal attacks, while she’s still doing AOE damage from her DoT.

Bronya is also very good pick alongside Yanqing, because she alternates between her skill and normal attack each turn. And Natasha also give team extra skill point at first turn.

Lastly, when you manage to unlock Planetary Ornaments, you can go for the Inert Salsotto set. This gives extra crit rate, and with the condition of reaching 50% Crit Rate, you can get extra ultimate and follow up attack damage.

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Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. And check out Honkai: Star Rail Gepard Guide. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check out Honkai: Star Rail Guide – F2P Characters Overview, Honkai: Star Rail Beginner Guide, and Honkai: Star Rail Gameplay Overview (F2P Turn-Based RPG).