Jingliu was once known as a legend. She was the sword master of the Xianzhou Luofu and one of the High-Cloud Quintet, five legendary heroes in Xianzhou history, along with her pupil, General Jing Yuan. She eventually succumbed to Mara and was supposedly defeated in battle. However, you need to catch up with the latest chapter in Honkai: Star Rail 1.4 if you want to know exactly why she’s become a taboo name onboard the ship. Somehow, she’s back and as strong as she ever was.
Here’s a breakdown of Jingliu’s abilities, what makes her special, and the best way to build her.
First and foremost, Jingliu is a damage dealer. As a Destruction character, her skills can focus either on one enemy or multiple depending on which one. Nearly all of her skills grow stronger with ATK, so you’ll want to raise that stat as high as possible. Crit DMG, Crit Rate, and SPD also benefit her as ideal substats for Light Cones, Relics, and Ornaments.
Jingliu’s signature ability is her power to build Syzygy, stacks of energy that increase her ATK and Crit Rate and enable her to hit multiple targets with one attack. She builds Syzygy with her Skill, Transcendent Flash, and her Ultimate, Florephemeral Dreamflux. Once she has two stacks of Syzygy, her Crescent Transmigration Talent immediately activates and moves her to the top of the queue with increased Crit Rate. Even better, it raises her ATK based on the HP in consumes from her allies.
These are all Jingliu’s abilities described in detail at Level 1:
You can read these descriptions and try her for yourself in the Honkai: Star Rail 1.4 trial run.
Any 5-star Destruction Light Cone will do just fine with Jingliu. However, I Shall Be My Own Sword, Jingliu’s signature Light Cone, fits best with her skills. Jingliu’s Talent forces her to drain HP from her allies, which easily activates the stacks of Eclipse needed to raise the wearer’s attack power and lower enemy defenses. However, pulling for this Light Cone takes way more Star Rail Special Passes than most players are willing to spend. After all, you’ll already need plenty of Passes if you want to pull Jingliu from her limited-time banner in the first place.
Her best free-to-play option is On the Fall of an Aeon, a 5-star Destruction Light Cone that you can buy from Herta’s Shop. You can get it for free and upgrade it to Superimposition Level 5 if you keep earning Herta Bonds from the Simulated Universe. Its useful ability also makes it an upgrade over most 4-star Light Cones.
Hunter of the Glacial Forest and Musketeer of Wild Wheat are the two main Relic sets you want to focus on. Two pieces of each set or four pieces of one of these sets all work, but which one works best depends on the situation. Here’s a rundown of each set’s abilities for reference.
2-Piece Bonus: Increases Ice DMG by 10%.
4-Piece Bonus: After the wearer unleashes their Ultimate, their CRIT DMG increases by 25% for 2 turns.
2-Piece Bonus: ATK increases by 12%.
4-Piece Bonus: The wearer’s SPD increases by 6% and Basic ATK DMG increases by 10%.
Two pieces of Hunter of Glacial Forest increase Ice DMG by 10%. Adding two pieces of Musketeer of Wild Wheat gives you a 10% ATK increase on top of that. Both of them increase Jingliu’s offensive power, so putting them together is even better than just one. These are also easier to pair together because you can mix and match the best of each set.
A four-piece Hunter of Glacial Forest set arguably works even better than a two-piece mix-and-match set, assuming you can somehow get good Crit Rate and Crit DMG from your four Relics. After all, that Crit DMG won’t do you any good if you don’t have a high enough Crit Rate to even get a critical hit. Aim for between 30 and 60% Crit Rate, or it isn’t worth it.
A four-piece Musketeer of Wild Wheat set is similarly situational. If you already have SPD boots equipped, then the extra 6% SPD boost seems unnecessary compared to a 10% Ice DMG bonus. A basic ATK boost isn’t much of a draw because Jingliu’s appeal comes from her Syzygy ability, which can’t charge using basic attacks.
If Jingliu’s SPD still falls short of 120, add SPD boots. This is especially important if you choose to equip Space Sealing Station Ornaments because you won’t get the extra 12% ATK bonus if your SPD is below 120.
Most of Jingliu’s skills scale with her ATK. As a DPS, Crit Rate, Crit DMG, Energy Regeneration, and SPD also benefit her. In that case, Space Sealing Station works best as an Ornamental Set for Jingliu because of its accessibility and ATK boost. Many players should have access to Space Sealing Station Ornaments, considering they come from one of the first Worlds available in the Simulated Universe.
Alternatively, you can try any of the Crit Rate or Crit DMG-based Ornament sets. However, it might be difficult to get all the bonuses because of how high they are. Rutilant Arena, the Ornament set applied to Jingliu in the trial run, is one such example. It requires Jingliu’s Crit Rate to be over 70%, which is difficult to achieve without getting lucky on stat increases as you level up Relics and Ornaments.
Pick a sphere with Ice DMG Boost as its main stat. If you don’t have any Ice DMG spheres, an ATK% one can work in the meantime. As for the Rope, an Energy Regeneration one is ideal for charging Jingliu’s Ultimate. If you can’t get one just yet, an ATK% will do. You can hand off ATK% spheres and ropes to other characters once you get better equipment.
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