Honkai: Star Rail – Account Progression Guide

Comprehensive Guide to Account Progression

Introduction

What to do at your Trailblaze Level

What to Focus on at each set of Trailblaze Levels.

TerminologyWhat it isWhat it unlocks
Trailblaze Level (TL)Account LevelQuestsRewards for each level up (from Pom Pom)When Trailblaze Level reaches 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 65, it unlocks an Equilibrium Trial
Equilibrium Level (EQ)World LevelImproved drops from monstersIncreased/better drops and drop rate from farming stages that use Trailblaze PowerStronger enemiesUnlocks next Character Ascension levels
RelicsCharacter EquipmentImportant Flat HP and ATK statsPercent% Multipliers to your base stats

Story and quests scale with your Equilibrium Level.

Raising your Equilibrium Level by completing the Equilibrium Trial is always recommended to do as soon as possible. A higher EQ level gives improved rewards from farming.

Farming Stages Explained

Farming StageWhat it GivesPriority
Overworld FarmingCharacter EXP (minor)Cooking IngredientsMonster materials (for ascending character and leveling Traces)Low.It’s free.
Golden CalyxCharacter EXPLight Cone EXPCredits (money)Low.Mostly for early game (under TL 30)Limited Events provide plenty for average player above TL 30
Crimson CalyxTrace materialsHigh, as needed.
Stagnant ShadowsCharacter Ascension materialsHigh, as needed.
Echo of War(EOW)Advanced Trace MaterialsRelicsLow % chance of free 4* lightconeEarly to mid game: Medium/high priority. Make sure to do your 3x weekly runs and stock up.
Late game: As needed. 
Simulated Universe(SU)Relics (Planar ornaments)Monster materialsCooking ingredientsRelic EXP (minor)Credits (minor)
Weekly RewardsStellar JadeFree Trailblazer Power Immersifiers (can only be used in Simulated Universe)Credits (large)Herta Bonds (to purchase Herta Store light cones)Track of Destiny (advanced trace materials)Relic EXP (large)
High.
Prioritize doing your Weekly SU runs as it provides significant rewards that reset every week
You do not need to spend Trailblaze power for an SU run
Trailblaze Power/Immersifiers are only required to get Planar Ornament Drops (optional)

Farming Priority using your daily Trailblaze Power

For Newbies (under TL 30)

  1. Character EXP (Golden Calyx)
  2. Light cone EXP (Golden Calyx)
  3. Trace Materials (Crimson Calyxes)

For mid game players and up (over TL 30)

  1. Ascension materials (Stagnant Shadow)
  2. Trace materials (Crimson Calyxes)
  3. Advanced Trace materials (Echo of War bosses)
  4. Relics (Cavern of Corrosions or Simulated Universe rewards)

Early Levels

TL 1-20

Leveling Goals

  • Make sure to put light cones on every character you are using. Leveling up 3* Light cones are not a waste because it is very cheap to do in early game.
  • Keep your main team’s Character and light cone levels maxed.

Extra Tips

If you have duplicate 3* light cones for characters that you are using, feel free to Superimpose it (merging the duplicate copies to make 1 stronger copy). 3* light cones are extremely plentiful.

3* Meshing Cogs (a Harmony light cone) is a powerful light cone for the entire game. If you have copies of this, do not trash them. Honorable mention also goes to 3* Multiplication (an Abundance light cone)

If you have extra Trailblaze power, spend it to get Trace materials to level up your characters’ abilities.

You will get introduced to Relics at TL 14 (character equipment) and start receiving them as rewards from treasure chests. Put on green rarity relics for minor stat boosts, but do not level them up. The stat boost is too small for green relics and its a waste.

TL 20-30

Leveling Goals

As before, keep your team’s character levels and light cone levels up to the max allowed level for your point in the game.

Keep working on farming Trace materials for your characters, prioritizing DPS > Sustain > Supports in that order.

If you are getting stuck in Story battles and cannot progress:

  • For blue rarity relics, you can level the Head relics to +6 or +9
  • For the DPS, also level their Hand relic to +6 or +9
  • Leveling Chest and Boot relics is optional, and probably not needed.
  • The Head relics give you an extremely important HP boost to better survive Elite and Boss enemies.

At TL 27, you will unlock Relic Caverns for farming relics. It is NOT recommended to farm relics at this point in the game. Relic drops are randomized and most of the time you will not get good relics. It’s better to spend your Trailblaze power on guaranteed progress, such as levels and traces.

Extra Tip

Make sure you do your weekly Simulated Universe runs. The rewards are very important. Use the free Immersifiers to get Planar ornaments for your team.

TL 30-40

Leveling Goals

Keep your character levels and light cones maxed then work on Traces.

Traces will start to become very important; unleveled traces will make your abilities feel very weak

You should start getting Purple Rarity Relics now from the Treasure Chests and in the Simulated Universe.

Begin replacing old blue relics with purple relics and level them.

If you need to choose, substats > set bonus. Don’t worry about making 4pc sets. It is fine to mix and match at this level.

On purple relics, only the Main stat matters. Do not worry too much if the substats are not good. If they happen to be good, then great!

You can begin leveling your purple relics to +9 on your characters. After the whole team is at +9 relics, you can level your DPS’s relics to +12 if you want.

Which relics to level first? In early game, prioritize leveling your team’s head relics because it gives a fat chunk of flat HP for survival. For the DPS, their hand relic is important because it gives good flat ATK. Chest and boot relics can be done last. You’ll notice battles becoming much easier!

We will eventually replace these purple relics, but don’t be afraid to level your current relics up. You can always feed your old relics to the new relics in the future to minimize waste.

If you get lucky with a pair of Speed boots, put the speed boots on your main sustain character for better survival.

TL 40-50

Leveling Goals

  • As always, keep your character levels and light cone levels up to date.
  • Level your DPS and Sustain to the max allowed level
  • Supports are allowed to be 10 levels lower than DPS/Sustains, but if they’re dying, level them up

Relic Goals

Same as before, level purple relics to +9 or +12.

If you happen to get Gold relics, feel free to put them on, but do not level them to +15 unless you have a lot of spare relic exp materials. Leveling a relic from +12 to +15 is very expensive.

If you haven’t already, leveling the purple planar ornaments on your main team is a good idea. Use the free Immersifiers from weekly Simulated Universe runs to get new planar ornaments.

By now, your character roster probably has expanded. If your main team is up to date, then you can work on side characters.

To prepare for endgame content (Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction) it’s recommended to build your selection of support characters. You will eventually need a minimum of 4 support characters, plus extras. The more support characters to choose from, the better.

If you don’t want to work on side characters, you can pre-farm Ascension and trace materials ahead of time and prepare for TL 50.

TL 50-60

Things are starting to get expensive! Leveling your characters and light cones will take significantly more exp, and your Traces are more expensive now that you’re hitting higher levels. You will probably be farming a lot of calyxes.

Leveling Goals

  • Level your DPS characters to level 70.
  • Level Sustains to level 60 or 70.
  • Level Supports to level 60.

You can match a character’s light cone level with their character level. However, if your weaker level 60 characters are dying too easily, consider leveling their light cone to level 70.

Traces for DPS should be at level 8 for most characters.

Relic Goals

Resist the urge to farm Relic caverns. If you want to, you can farm a little in moderation, but it’s not recommended to do so extensively.

You should keep your DPS relics to at least +12 if you want to have an easier time.

Preparing for Endgame

If you have run out of things to farm, pre-farm your team’s ascension mats or trace mats for TL 60’s equilibrium level.

Midgame + Endgame

TL 60+

You can now farm Relic caverns and get 2x guaranteed Gold pieces per run.

However, do NOT farm relics until you are finished with your Character levels, light cones, and traces. Relic farming is endless and it’s best to level the basics first.

Leveling Goals

  • Level your DPS to lvl 80, light cone to lvl 80. Yes, it is worth it.
  • Level Sustains and Supports to level 70, and light cones lvl 70-80.

Trace Goals

  • DPS traces to level 8. Take them to level 9-10 if you really like the character, but note it’s very expensive.
  • Support/Sustain traces to level 8. For high usage supports, maxing their buff/debuff abilities to lvl 10 is worth it in the long run, but not required.
  • Grab important minor traces for your main teams.
  • Ascend your Sustains and Supports (in order to unlock their last major Trace if needed), but keep them lvl 70.

Units such as Pela don’t have particularly important 6th ascension traces, make sure to check what the trace does before upgrading it unless you need stats behind said trace.

Why is lvl 80 important for DPS? There is an invisible damage penalty when attacking enemies above your DPS’s level, so being max level will minimize the penalty. Also, relics multiply Base Stats (character level + light cone level) not Total Stats. If your Base Stats are low, then your Relics are less effective.

You can level sustains and supports to level 80, but it costs so many purple EXP books that it isn’t necessary. Often, any survival issues can be fixed with good relics instead.

At this point in the game, if you want to tackle endgame content, it’s time to pay attention to important stats like Crit Ratio, Speed, ERR (energy regeneration rate), and EHR (effect hit rate). See the next section for details.

For endgame content such as Pure Fiction and Memory of Chaos and Apocalyptic Shadow, you will need both single target AND AOE attacking characters. Your Himeko’s and Herta’s will see use!

TL 65+

Welcome to endgame relic farming hell! You made it.

This is more or less the same as before. By now, you should start having enough good relics to more seriously tackle MOC and PF beyond just the first few stages.

Endgame Goals

If you’ve run out of things to farm, you could always consider:

Supports’ buff/debuff ability traces to lvl 9 or 10

Support/Sustain light cones to 80.

Build your support roster! You want to aim for over 5+ finished build supports.

DPS relics: minimum crit ratio for a “usable” DPS to full clear endgame content is 70 crit rate / 140 crit damage. You can try it with less, but don’t expect to always full clear. Many people aim for 80/160 ratio if not more.

Many Supports run better at higher speed than the 134 speed minimum. Many endgame build supports are 161 speed.

Sustains generally need 134 speed minimum. Sometimes Speed boots are not enough so you need to farm speed substats on your relics.

Daily Things to Do

WhatWhat it GivesEstimated Time TakenShould I do it?
Daily Training (the actual Dailies)Tons of Trailblaze EXPStellar JadeCreditsEXP materialsRelic EXP2-5 minutes on average for an established account
(doing Assignment and using up Trailblaze Power will max your Dailies automatically)
Yes
AssignmentsFree Character EXP, Light Cone EXP, Credits, monster mats, or cooking ingredientsLiterally 1 secondYes
Using up all Trailblaze PowerImportant Resources, Character mats, and RelicsVaries from 3-10 minutes
Can be completely Auto playedJust borrow a high level character to clear faster
DON’T let it overcap. Only 33% of overcapped Trailblaze Power turns into Reserved Trailblaze Power.
Yes
Daily QuestCredits (5k)
Completes one of the Daily Training tasks
2-5 minutes
Generally not worth it because the reward is so low
Optional
PomPom missionsCredits (8k per mission)
Can be stacked if you missed previous days (up to around 3x)
1-2 minutes eachOptional
Overworld Farming (killing overworld monsters)Credits (minor)
Monster mats
Cooking ingredients
1.5-2.5 hours if you want to full clear the entire game (Herta Space Station, Jarilo V, Xianzhou Luofu, Penacony)
If you have Acheron (a character) you can full clear in 30 minutes with practice
Optional
Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 4470 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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