Aboard the Herta Space Station in Honkai Star Rail, Herta is the real top dog. She may appear as an adorable puppet in a cute little dress, but this sharp-tongued, ice hammer wielder is a top member of the Genius Society, known to have the highest IQ in The Blue – and we’re here to help you make the most of her amazing potential.
To see how HSR’s Herta sizes up against the other Trailblazers, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list – and be sure to snap up these Honkai Star Rail codes and complete these Honkai Star Rail events so you can pull on the next Honkai Star Rail banner.
Here’s everything in our Honkai Star Rail Herta build:
What’s the best Honkai Star Rail Herta build?
Herta is a four-star ice character who treads the path of the Erudition. She dishes out heaps of AoE ice damage, and has a super useful follow-up attack – plus, you get a bunch of copies of her via the Simulated Universe, so you can unlock her eidolons without relying on RNG.
Here’s a brief overview of our best HSR Herta build:
| Best light cone | Before Dawn |
| Light cone substitutes |
|
| Best relic set | Hunter of Glacial Forest |
| Best planar ornaments | Space Sealing Station |
| Main stats | Body: crit rate Feet: attack% or speed Planar sphere: ice damage Link rope: attack% |
| Sub-stats |
|
Herta’s best light cone is the five-star Before Dawn, though The Seriousness of Breakfast and The Birth of the Self at superimpose level six are also strong options.
Her best relic set is Hunter of Glacial Forest paired up with the planar ornament set Space Sealing Station. When picking relics for Herta, we recommend prioritizing crit, attack%, and speed above other stats.
How to use Herta
As mentioned above, Herta is a four-star erudition character, meaning she specializes in multi-target damage. She also delivers shattering follow-up attacks which can turn the tide of battle to your favor.
Herta makes for a great sub-DPS, especially when you’re taking on large groups or waves of enemies in modes such as the Forgotten Hall and the Simulated Universe. All of her attacks have the ability to freeze enemies, disabling them for a set amount of turns, which offers great utility to her team.
However, keep in mind that her normal attack only hits one enemy, whereas both her skill and ultimate are multi-target, and we’ve found that her skill has a higher chance of freezing enemies than her basic attack.
As such, when you’re facing more than one enemy, we recommend saving skill points to pop her skill as often as possible. Outside of that, just sit back and watch her ‘I’ll Take a Swing’ talent dish out follow-up attacks.
We recommend pairing Herta up with a strong DPS from the path of The Hunt or The Destruction and a buffer to form an enemy-shattering team that makes the most of her kit and enables your main DPS to shine.
What’s the best light cone for Herta?
The best light cone for Herta is Before Dawn, as it dramatically boosts her crit, skill, and ultimate damage, and also increases her follow-up attack damage after she uses her skill or ultimate. However, this is a five-star light cone and is highly contested, so you may find better use for it on another character.
Alternatively, The Seriousness of Breakfast is a great option, especially in wave-based battles with lots of enemies. Her signature light cone, The Birth of the Self, comes in close behind, giving her a healthy boost to her follow-up attack damage.
However, if you’re looking for an alternate, be sure it aligns with the path of Erudition. For something a bit more accessible, Sagacity or Data Bank are good three-star options.
Here are HSR Herta’s best light cones:
| Light cone | Effect | How to obtain |
| Before Dawn | Increases the wearer’s crit damage by 32%, and their ultimate damage by 20%. After the wearer uses their skill or ultimate, they gain Somnus Corpus. Upon triggering a follow-up attack, they consume Somnus Corpus and their follow-up attack damage increases by 48% | Gacha |
| The Seriousness of Breakfast | Increases the wearer’s damage by 12%. For every defeated enemy, the wearer’s attack increases by 4%, stacking up to three times | Gacha |
| The Birth of the Self | Increases damage dealt by the wearer’s follow-up attacks. If the current HP of the target enemy is below 50% of the wearer’s max HP, damage dealt by follow up attacks increases further | Gacha |
| Sagacity | When the wearer uses their ultimate, their attack increases by 24% for two turns | Gacha |
| Data Bank | Increases the wearer’s ultimate damage by 28% | Gacha |
What are the best relics for Herta?
You can equip Herta with a total of six relics – four from a standard set, and two from the Simulated Universe sets.
When it comes to boosting her ice attack, the best relic set for Herta is two pieces of Hunter of Glacial Forest and two pieces of Musketeer of Wild Wheat as it boosts her ice damage and attack. In terms of planar ornaments, we recommend Space Sealing Station, which also offers a hefty attack boost.
Find out more about the different relic sets and our recommendations in our Honkai Star Rail relics guide.
Here are HSR Herta’s best relics:
| Relic | Effect | How to obtain |
| Hunter of Glacial Forest | Two equipped: increases ice damage by 10% Four equipped: after Herta unleashes her ultimate, her crit damage increases by 25% for two turns |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Gelid Wind in Herta Space Station’s Storage Zone |
| Musketeer of Wild Wheat | Two equipped: increases attack by 12% Four equipped: increases Herta’s speed by 6% and her basic attack damage by 10% |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Drifting in Jarilo-VI’s Corridor of Fading Echoes |
Planar ornaments
| Relics | Effect | How to obtain |
| Space Sealing Station | Two equipped: increases Herta’s attack by 12%. When Herta’s speed reaches 120 or higher, her attack increases by another 12% | World 3 of the Simulated Universe |
Relic stat recommendations
When picking out relics for Herta, we recommend prioritizing the following stats.
Main stats:
- Feet: attack% or speed
- Neck: ice damage bonus or attack%
- Article: attack% or crit rate/damage
Sub-stats:
- Attack%
- Ice damage
- Crit rate/damage
What are Herta’s abilities?
Here are all of Herta’s attacks and abilities.
Active:
| Skill | Effect |
| Basic attack: What Are You Looking At? | Deal ice damage equal to 50% of Herta’s attack to a target enemy |
| Skill: One-Time Offer | Deal 50% of Herta’s attack as ice damage to all enemies. If a target’s HP is 50% or higher, damage dealt to that target increases by 20% |
| Ultimate: It’s Magic. I Added Some Magic | Deal ice damage equal to 120% of Herta’s attack to all enemies |
Talent:
| Skill | Effect |
| Fine, I’ll do it myself | When any ally attack causes an enemy’s HP to fall to 50% or lower, Herta launches a follow-up attack dealing 25% of Herta’s attack as ice damage to all enemies |
Technique:
| Skill | Effect |
| It Can Still Be Optimized (Enhance) | After using her technique, Herta’s attack increases by 40% for three turns in the next battle |
Traces:
| Trace | Effect |
| Efficiency | The damage boost effect of Herta’s skill on enemies with high HP increases by an additional 25% |
| Puppet | Herta’s resistance to crowd control debuffs increases by 35% |
| Icing | Herta’s ultimate deals 20% more damage to frozen enemies |
What are Herta’s eidolons?
In Honkai Star Rail, eidolons are similar to Genshin Impact’s constellations, where gaining more than one copy of a character grants you boosts and upgrades for that character.
Here are all of Herta’s eidolons:
| Eidolon | Effect |
| E1: Kick You When You’re Down | If the target enemy’s HP is less than or equal to 50% of its max HP, Herta’s basic attack deals an additional 40% of her attack as ice damage |
| E2: Keep the Ball Rolling | Every time Herta’s talent triggers, her crit rate increases by 3%. This effect can stack up to five times |
| E3: That’s the Kind of Girl I Am | Increases the level of Herta’s skill by two (to a maximum of level 15), and her basic attack by one (to a maximum of level ten) |
| E4: Hit Where It Hurts | Herta’s damage increases by 10% when her talent triggers |
| E5: Cuss Big or Cuss Nothing | Increases the level of Herta’s ultimate and talent by two (to a maximum of level 15) |
| E6: No One Can Betray Me | After using her ultimate, her attack increases by 25% for one turn |
What are Herta’s ascension materials?
You can level Herta all the way up to 80 but, in addition to the EXP logs, you also need a set of materials to ascend her at certain intervals.
Here are all of HSR Herta’s ascension materials:
| Required level | Credits | Ascension materials |
| 20 | 3.2k | Five extinguished cores |
| 30 | 6.4k | Ten extinguished cores |
| 40 | 12.8k | Six glimmering cores and three horn of snow |
| 50 | 32k | Nine glimmering cores and seven horn of snow |
| 60 | 64k | Six squirming cores and 20 horn of snow |
| 70 | 128k | Nine squirming cores and 35 horn of snow |
Here’s where to get Herta’s ascension materials:
- Extinguished, glimmering, and squirming cores – drops from fragmentum monsters such as flamespawns on either Jarilo-VI or in the Honkai Star Rail simulated universe, from assignment rewards, or the embers exchange store
- Horn of snow – drops from the Honkai Star Rail stagnant shadow in Jarilo-VI’s Corridor of Fading Echoes
What are Honkai Star Rail Herta’s trace materials?
Traces are special buffs and stat boosts that you can unlock to make your character’s skills more powerful. To max out all of Herta’s trace materials, you need the following materials:
- 28 extinguished cores, 42 glimmering cores, and 42 squirming cores
- Obtain from fragmentum monsters on Jarilo-VI or in the simulated universe, from assignment rewards, or the embers exchange store
- 12 key of inspiration, 54 key of knowledge, and 105 key of wisdom
- Obtain from the crimson calyc in Jarilo-VI’s Rivet Town
- 12 destroyer’s final road
- Obtain from the Doomsday Beast boss located in the Supply Zone Echo of War on Herta Space Station
- Five tracks of destiny
- 2.4 million credits
Who is HSR’s Herta?
Herta is Member #83 of the Genius Society, and master of the Herta Space Station. What you see of her is actually a puppet that she modeled after her younger self and controls remotely.
She teamed up with Honkai Star Rail’s Screwllum, Honkai Star Rail’s Ruan Mei, and Stephen Lloyd to create the Simulated Universe in order to research the mysteries and secrets surrounding Aeons.
Herta has the highest IQ on the Blue, but, as is the case with most geniuses, she can be quite abrasive and fickle, often dropping projects the moment she loses interest – including the space station. However, her brilliance is known far and wide, and qualifying as a researcher on the Herta Space Station is a cherished goal among many in the wider scientific community.
And that’s all we’ve got in our Honkai Star Rail Herta build guide. If you’re looking for more Hoyo content, check out our Genshin Impact tier list, Genshin Impact codes, and Genshin Impact events guides.