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Honkai Star Rail Serval build

In our Honkai Star Rail Serval build we show you how to use this four-star lightning DPS, including her light cones, relics, and more.

Honkai Star Rail’s Serval is a butt-kicking, guitar-shredding, four-star lightning character. For a free character, she’s surprisingly solid, and can be a great ally – especially in the early game. So let’s dive into the best Serval build, featuring her skills, best light cones and relics, and more.

If you want to see how Serval sizes up against her brother, Honkai Star Rail’s Gepard, be sure to check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list. We’ve also got guides to all the latest Honkai Star Rail codes and Honkai Star Rail banners, as well as all the current and upcoming Honkai Star Rail events.

Here’s everything in our Honkai Star Rail Serval build:

What’s the best Honkai Star Rail Serval build?

Serval is a four-star lightning character who follows the path of the Erudition. She excels as a sub-DPS, dishing out multi-target damage with her AoE attacks and inflicting enemies with the shock debuff.

Here’s a brief overview of our best HSR Serval build:

Rarity Four-star
Element Lightning
Path The Erudition
Best light cone Make the World Clamor
Light cone substitute
  • Night on the Milky Way
  • Data Bank
  • Passkey
Best relic set Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters
Best planar ornament set Firmament Frontline: Glamoth
Main stats
  • Body: crit rate/damage
  • Feet: speed/attack%
  • Planar sphere: lightning damage/attack%
  • Link rope: attack%
Sub-stats
  • Speed
  • Crit rate/crit damage
  • Attack%

The best light cone for Serval is Night on the Milky Way, and her best relic set is Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters. Her best planar ornament set is Firmament Frontline: Glamoth.

While Serval is an Erudition character, her scaling is closer to a traditional DPS – therefore we recommend prioritizing crit and speed, followed by attack%.

When leveling up Serval’s talents, you should prioritize her skill, then her talent, then her ultimate, then her basic attack. In terms of traces, prioritize her A2 (Rock ‘n’ Roll), followed by her A6 (Mania), then her A4 (String Vibration).

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How to use Serval

Serval is a four-star lightning character who treads the path of the Erudition, meaning she’s capable of dishing out powerful multi-target, AoE damage, and can apply lightning damage over time. Therefore, she’s best suited to the role of DPS or sub-DPS, and excels most when facing groups of multiple enemies.

She’s a decent damage dealer who performs well in the early game and manages to hold her own later in the game as long as you’re willing to invest in her, though she struggles to stand up against the strong, five-star DPS in the game. Her kit revolves around applying shock to enemies and dealing increased damage to shocked foes, but she’s still capable of maintaining her peak damage after the initial shock application stage.

As such, your main goal with Serval is to apply shock to as many enemies as you can straight away. You can do this through her skill which is an AoE that has an 80% base chance to shock enemies for two turns. However, 80% is actually pretty low, especially with how her targetting works, making it pretty difficult to shock all enemies simultaneously.

Luckily, her ultimate is better at applying shock – so, if you can get past the initial phase of the fight and charge up her ultimate as frequently as possible, it’s much easier to maintain the shocked debuff on her enemies. So it’s a good thing that her ultimate has a relatively low energy cost, meaning you can use it pretty frequently!

When your enemies are shocked, you can then fall back on Serval’s basic attack, as her talent ensures that she will deal an additional instance of lightning damage to all shocked enemies, even if she only hits one of them.

What’s the best light cone for Serval?

Serval has her own unique, four-star light cone called Make the World Clamor, which boosts her energy when she enters battle and increases her ultimate damage. This, of course, is a great option for her, as it caters to her specific playstyle.

If you’re looking for a five-star option, we recommend Himeko’s Night on the Milky Way, which boosts her attack based on how many enemies are on the field, and further increases her damage when you inflict a weakness break on an enemy.

For a three-star option, we recommend either Data Bank or Passkey, but you can ultimately try out any light cone you like as long as it aligns with the path of the Erudition, otherwise its skill won’t activate.

Make the World Clamor Increases the wearer’s ultimate damage by 24%, and allows them to regenerate 20 energy immediately upon entering battle Limited and standard banner
Night on the Milky Way For every enemy on the field, the wearer’s attack increases by 9%, for a maximum of five stacks. When you inflict weakness break on an enemy, the wearer’s damage dealt increases by 30% for one turn Limited and standard banner
Data Bank Increases the wearer’s ultimate damage by 28% Limited and standard banner
Passkey After the wearer uses their skill, they regenerate eight energy. This can only occur once per turn Limited and standard banner

What are the best relics for Serval?

The best relic set for Serval is four pieces of Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters. This set boosts her crit rate and increases both her crit damage against and the damage she deals to enemies inflicted with a debuff. However, this set is obiviously heavily reliant on her allies having debuffs, so, in order to get the most out of it, you need to ensure that she’s reliably inflicting shock on her enemies.

Alternatively, we recommend equipping Serval with four pieces of Band of Sizzling Thunder. This set results in marginally lower DPS overall, but doesn’t require any prerequisites for you to enjoy its full benefits. It boosts her lightning damage, while also increasing her attack% for one turn after she uses her skill, which is very valuable in taking down shocked enemies quickly.

In terms of planar ornaments, we recommend equipping Serval with two pieces of Firmament Frontline: Glamoth. This set offers a nice boost to both her attack and damage, but requires her to have at least 135 speed, so be sure to keep that in mind.

Serval’s second best planar ornament set is Space Sealing Station, which also offers a substantial boost to her attack. However, similar to Firmament Frontline: Glamoth, it relies on Serval having at least 120 speed to make the most of its attack buff.

Here are Serval’s best relics:

Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters Two equipped: increases damage dealt to debuffed enemies by 12%
Four equipped: increases crit rate by 4%. Serval deals 8%/12% increased crit damage to enemies with at least 2/3 debuffs. After Serval inflicts a debuff on enemy targets, the aforementioned effects increas by 100% for one turn
Band of Sizzling Thunder Two equipped: increases lightning damage by 10%
Four equipped: increases Serval’s attack by 25% for one turn after she uses her skill

Here are Serval’s best planar ornaments:

Firmament Frontline: Glamoth Two equipped: increases Serval’s attack by 12%. When her speed is equal to or higher than 135/160, she deals 12%/18% more damage
Space Sealing Station Two equipped: increases Serval’s attack by 12%. When Serval’s speed reaches 120 or higher, her attack increases by another 12%

Relic stat recommendations

Here are the stats we recommend focusing on when choosing a set of relics for Serval.

Main stats:

  • Body: crit rate/damage
  • Feet: speed/attack%
  • Planar sphere: lightning damage/attack%
  • Link rope: attack%

Sub-stats: 

  • Speed (until requirement, dependent on planar ornament set)
  • Crit rate/crit damage
  • Attack%

What are the best Serval team comps?

Serval has a low-cost ultimate, and can dish out a significant amount of toughness break by chaining them. This makes her a solid option in super break teams.

Sparkle is a great support for Serval. This is primarily due to her ability to recover skill points for her allies and increase their maximum skill point capacity, which allows Serval to use her all-important skill as frequently as required. Additionally, Sparkle’s skill boosts an ally’s crit damage and advances their action, which Serval, as a crit damage-focused DPS, really appreciates.

Tingyun is also a strong support for Serval. She’s very versatile, meaning she can be a great ally for both Serval and any other team members, and her ability to boost damage and provide energy with her ultimate means that you can essentially use Serval’s ultimate off cooldown.

Fu Xuan is another great and versatile support for Serval. Not only can she protect her allies from damage, she can also use her ultimate to dish out damage to all enemies while simultaneously restoring health to her teammates.

Gallagher synergizes well with Serval. His ultimate boosts the effect of break damage, which Serval excels in, and it also allows his allies to restore HP while attacking. On top of that, it enhances his next basic attack and reduces the enemy’s attack power, meaning he can act as a buffer, healer, and debuffer, while still managing to deal some damage of his own.

If you prefer to play Serval as a sub-DPS, Kafka is a great main DPS for Serval. Kafka’s kit is focused on DoT, with a skill that deals additional damage to enemies with DoTs. Therefore, Serval’s ability to apply DoT makes her a handy ally for Kafka, allowing you to dish out heaps of additional damage to afflicted enemies.

These are just a few of Serval’s synergies. Realistically, she works well with most support characters, including the ones mentioned above, along with Ruan Mei, Luocha, and Asta. She also works well with other DPS like Jing Yuan.

Here are some examples of strong HSR Serval teams. 


Serval
HSR Harmony Trailblazer
Trailblazer
(Imaginary)
Ruan Mei icon
Ruan Mei
HSR Gallagher icon
Gallagher

Serval
Sparkle icon
Sparkle
Honkai Star Rail Tingyun icon
Tingyun
 Fu Xuan icon
Fu Xuan
Kafka icon
Kafka

Serval
HSR Asta
Asta
Honkai Star Rail Luocha icon
Luocha
Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan icon
Jing Yuan

Serval
Ruan Mei icon
Ruan Mei
Honkai Star Rail Luocha icon
Luocha

Honkai Star Rail Serval waving her arms

What are Honkai Star Rail’s Serval attacks?

Here are all of Serval’s attacks and talents.

Active:

Basic attack Roaring Thunderclap
Deal 50% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to a target enemy
Skill Lightning Flash 
Deal 60% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to a target enemy, and 30% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to enemies adjacent to the target. Additionally, there’s a 80% base chance for enemies hit by the attack to be shocked for two turns. While shocked, enemies take 40% of Serval’s attack as lightning DoT (damage over time) at the start of each turn
Ultimate Here Comes the Mechanical Fever
Deal 108% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to all enemies. Also increases the duration of shock on enemies by two turns

Talent and technique:

Talent Galvanic Chords
After attacking, deal an additional 30% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to all shocked enemies
Technique Good Night, Belobog
After entering battle, Serval deals 50% of her attack as lightning damage to a random enemy. Additionally, all enemies have a 100% base chance to be shocked for three turns. While shocked, enemies take 50% of Serval’s attack as lightning DoT at the start of each turn

Major traces:

A2 Rock ‘n’ Roll
Serval’s skill has a 20% increased base chance to shock enemies
A4 String Vibration
Serval immediately regenerates 15 energy at the beginning of the battle
A6 Mania
Upon defeating an enemy Serval’s attack increases by 20% for two turns

Honkai Star Rail's Serval smiling at the camera

What are Honkai Star Rail Serval’s eidolons?

Eidolons are similar to Genshin Impact’s constellations. If you gain more than one copy of Serval, you can unlock one of her six eidolons.

Here are all of Serval’s eidolons.

E1 Echo Chamber
Serval’s basic attack deals lightning damage equal to 60% of her basic attack damage to a random enemy adjacent to the basic attack target
E2 Encore!
Every time her talent triggers to deal additional damage, Serval regenerates four energy
E3 Listen, the Heartbeat of the Gears
Increases the level of Serval’s skill by two, up to a maximum of level 15, and the level of her basic attack by one, up to a maximum of level ten
E4 Make Some Noise!
Serval’s Ultimate has a 100% chance to apply shock to any enemies not currently shocked. This shock has the same effects as the shock applied by her skill
E5 Belobog’s Loudest Roar!
Increases the level of Serval’s ultimate and talent by two, to a maximum of level 15
E6 This Song Rocks to Heaven!
Serval deals 30% more damage to shocked enemies

What are Honkai Star Rail Serval’s ascension materials?

You can level Serval 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 the materials you need to fully ascend her to max level.

You can get silvermane badges, insignias, and medals from the silvermane enemies on Jarilo-VI, assignment and Honkai Star Rail simulated universe rewards, the embers exchange store, and more. The lightning crown of the past shadow materials come from the Honkai Star Rail stagnant shadow in Jarilo-VI’s Corridor of Fading Echoes.

20➔30
  • 3.2k credits
  • Five silvermane badges
30➔40
  • 6.4k credits
  • Ten silvermane badges
40➔50
  • 12.8k credits
  • Six silvermane insignia
  • Three lightning crown of the past shadow
50➔60
  • 32k credits
  • Nine silvermane insignia
  • Seven lightning crown of the past shadow
60➔70
  • 64k credits
  • Six silvermane medals
  • 20 lightning crown of the past shadow
70➔80
  • 128k credits
  • Nine silvermane medals
  • 35 lightning crown of the past shadow

Here’s where to get each of Serval’s talent materials:

What are Serval’s trace materials?

You can upgrade Serval’s skills and unlock special buffs by leveling up her traces, but you need to use a special set of materials to do so.

Here are all of Honkai Star Rail Serval’s trace materials:

  • 28 Silvermane badges, 42 Silvermane insignia, 42 Silvermane medals – obtain from Silvermane enemies on Jarilo-VI and in the simulated universe, assignment rewards, or the Embers Exchange store
  • Key of inspiration / key of knowledge / key of wisdom – obtain from the crimson calyx in Jarilo-VI’s Rivet Town, or purchase from the Herta Space Station and Jarilo-VI world shops
  • 12 guardian’s lament – obtain from the End of the Eternal Freeze echo of war in Jarilo-VI’s Everwinter Hill
  • Five tracks of destiny
  • 2.4 million credits

And that’s all we’ve got in our Honkai Star Rail Serval guide. If you’re looking for more Hoyo-flavoured fun, check out our Genshin Impact tier list, Genshin Impact codes, and Genshin Impact events guides.