When it comes to buffing up your dedicated damage dealers in Honkai: Star Rail, one name dominates the current meta. That would be the foxy Tingyun. She’s one of the most important characters in the game, and thus warrants a Tingyun Honkai: Star Rail guide.
Her job in Honkai: Star Rail is mainly to provide energy for energy-hungry characters– those who rely too much on their Ultimate. She also buffs damage for a generous number of turns. So despite being a 4-star character, you shouldn’t sleep on Tingyun; make sure to give her the best relics, Light Cones, and skills she deserves.
The Best Relics for Tingyun
You might be thinking that since Tingyun deals Lightning damage, you must give her the Lightning DMG relic set. But that’s not exactly her most optimal setup.
One of Tingyun’s most available buffs, via her Skill, scales off ATK. And since she’s not a DPS or damage dealer, she doesn’t really need to dish out decent Lightning Element damage.
Thus, the best relic set for her would be the good old Musketeer of Wild Wheat, which plays off her role and strengths.
Musketeer of Wild Wheat
You don’t even need to go far in order to obtain this particular relic set. It’s given out generously as level-up and quest rewards. You can give the 4-star ones to Tingyun as placeholders until you get to the Cavern of Corrosion in the Corridor of Fading Echoes, Jarilo-VI.
That cavern shares a relic reward pool with Passerby of Wandering Cloud, which is perfect for healers, so you’ll get a lot of good rewards farming this dungeon.
In any case, here are the bonuses and stats for Musketeer of Wild Wheat:
- ATK increases by 12%.
- The wearer’s SPD increases by 6% and Basic ATK DMG increases by 10%.
That’s just a straightforward ATK boost, nothing fancy. But that’s all Tingyun needs in order to carry the team with her support.
You’ll also need to give her some Planar Ornament relic sets and the Space Sealing Station is the ideal choice here.
Space Sealing Station (Planar Ornament)
Like Musketeer of Wild Wheat, Space Sealing Station also provides Tingyun with a generous serving of ATK to ensure that her damage buffs are as high as they can be.
You can obtain Space Sealing Station in the Simulated Universe during the respire periods. It has the following bonuses:
- Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%.
- When the wearer’s SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s ATK increases by another 12%.
As you can imagine, that’s a lot of ATK. And further boosting Tingyun’s SPD to 120 just to get the second bonus hits two birds with one stone since you also get to bring her high in the turn queue.
Relic Stats to Prioritize
In order to keep Tingyun in tiptop shape as a buffer, you would need to give her high ATK stats; but at the same time, you’d also want her to come first in the turn queue since a lot of The Hunt Path DPS characters or even Erudition Path characters in Honkai: Star Rail are fast.
So SPD or speed is also crucial here for her in order to save time and turns. So from most important to least important, these are the following stats you’d want for Tingyun:
- Speed (Boots)
- ATK% / ATK (everything else)
- Energy Regen (Link Rope)
- Effect Res / HP% / HP (if you find her dying or getting targeted too much)
That’s most of what matters to Tingyun. You can ditch the CRIT stats and even the Lightning DMG main stats. All she needs is lots of speed for her Planar Ornament and lots of ATK and ATK% to give out the highest damage buff possible.
Best Light Cones for Tingyun
Being a support and dedicated buffer, Tingyun’s Light Cones can be hard to pin down. But thankfully, there’s currently only one 5-star Light Cone for The Harmony. That would be Bronya’s signature weapon, ‘But the Battle Isn’t Over.’
But the Battle Isn’t Over
It’s the best Light Cone you can give to Tingyun. ‘But the Battle Isn’t Over’ has the following stats and bonuses:
- Increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 10% and regenerates 1 Skill Point when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally. This effect can be triggered after every 2 uses of the wearer’s Ultimate.
- When the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 30% more DMG for 1 turn(s).
You will have to make sure that the next ally will be the one buffed or attacking; otherwise, the damage bonus will be wasted. With characters like Seele on the team, it’s fair to expect astronomical single-target damage with this kind of buff interaction.
It’s also somewhat easy to work towards this Light Cone. It’s available in the in-game store (via the menu).
Budget Alternatives
If you don’t have enough Undying Starlight to purchase ‘But the Battle Isn’t Over’ in the Starlight Exchange section of the in-game store, then you can always resort to 4-star alternatives.
These won’t “break the bank,” so to speak, and are a lot more accessible for those who just want to keep their Tingyun up to speed.
Tingyun’s signature Light Cone, ‘Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds,’ is here, and it has the following bonus:
- One of the following effects is applied randomly at the start of combat and whenever the wearer takes action: Increase all allies’ ATK by 10%, increase all allies’ CRIT DMG by 12%, or increase all allies’ Energy Regeneration Rate by 6%. The applied effect cannot be identical to the last effect applied, and will replace the previous effect. The applied effect will be removed when the wearer has been knocked down. Effects of the similar type cannot be stacked.
It’s a randomized buff every turn but all of them are reliable enough and you don’t have to worry about turn order.
Another option is ‘Dance! Dance! Dance!’ and it comes with the following bonus:
- When the wearer uses their Ultimate, all allies’ actions are Advanced Forward by 16%.
Not as direct as a damage or stat buff, but it helps in denying enemies their turn, which is always a welcome mechanic.
Finally, there’s also ‘Past and Future’, which comes with:
- When the wearer uses their Skill, then the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 16% increased DMG for 1 turn(s).
It’s essentially a junior version of Bronya’s ‘But the Battle Isn’t Over.’ What’s great with this one, is that the buff also stacks with Tingyun’s Skill buff, leading to some big boy damage numbers.
Skill Priorities for Tingyun
For Tingyun, it’s usually a toss-up between her Skill and her Ultimate abilities, so you can’t go wrong prioritizing one over the other.
Both abilities will buff allies. Her Skill will buff an ally’s ATK stat and her Ultimate will give an ally 50 percent energy which is highly useful for spamming said ally’s Ultimate. Her Skill, however, offers better value since it lasts for three turns and adds an additional Lightning DMG to the buffed ally which is handy for breaking weaknesses.
So with that in mind, here’s the ability priority for Tingyun:
- Soothing Melody (Skill) – Grants a single ally with Benediction to increase their ATK by 25%–62.5%, up to 15%–30% of Tingyun’s current ATK. When the ally with Benediction attacks, they will deal Additional Lightning DMG equal to 20%–50% of that ally’s ATK for 1 time. Benediction lasts for 3 turn(s) and is only effective on the most recent receiver of Tingyun’s Skill.
- Amidst the Rejoicing Clouds (Ultimate) – Regenerates 50 Energy for a single ally and increases the target’s DMG by 20%–65% for 2 turn(s).
- Violet Sparknado (Talent) – When an enemy is attacked by Tingyun, the ally with Benediction immediately deals Additional Lightning DMG equal to 30%–75% of that ally’s ATK to the same enemy.
- Dislodged (Basic ATK) – Tingyun deals Lightning DMG equal to 50%–130% of her ATK to a single enemy.
You will need to be careful not to shower your whole team with the Skill since it will only work on one ally at a time. As for her Ultimate, just give it to your most damaging DPS, like Seele, Dan Heng, or whoever the main damage dealer is in the party.
You’ll also need copious amounts of these resources to level up the said abilities:
| Immortal Scionette (tier 1) | Harmonic Tune (tier 1) | Millions of Credits |
| Immortal Aeroblossom (tier 2) | Ancestral Hymn (tier 2) | Destroyer’s Final Road |
| Immortal Lumintwig (tier 3) | Stellaris Symphony (tier 3) | Tracks of Destiny |
You can obtain most of these through events, quests, and Calyx Dungeons.
Tingyun Team Composition
As is the case with most support characters in Honkai: Star Rail, you don’t build a team around Tingyun. Rather, you put her on a team that sorely needs her or someone who will let them spam their Ultimate abilities and deal as much damage as they can.
With that said, she has exceptional synergy with the following characters:
- Seele (It’s. Always. Her. Turn.)
- Bronya (gives more turns to Seele or another DPS, maximizing Tingyun’s buff)
- Sushang (budget Seele)
- Yanqing (huge damage with Tingyun in the team)
- Asta (debuffs for enemies are always welcome)
- Jing Yuan (one of the highest-damage Erudition characters)
- Clara (for unlimited Mr. Svarog AoE counters)
- Any healer (you don’t want Tingyun to die now, do you?)
To be fair, you can actually put Tingyun in just about any team. Ultimate abilities are powerful, after all. But for her to be versatile or flexible, it’s best to follow our recommendations in this Tingyun Honkai: Star Rail guide.
