Honkai Star Rail’s Serval is the eldest daughter of the Landau family, but couldn’t be more different than her brother Gepard. A butt-kicking, guitar-shredding, four-star lightning character, she works as a mechanic by day, but is off rocking out at gigs and zappin’ down enemies by night. So let’s dive into the best Honkai Star Rail 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?
| Best light cone | Make the World Clamor |
| Light cone substitute |
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| Best relic set | Band of Sizzling Thunder |
| Best planar ornament set | Firmament Frontline: Glamoth |
| Main stats |
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| Sub-stats |
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The best light cone for Serval is Night on the Milky Way, and her best relic set is Band of Sizzling Thunder. 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).
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.
| Light cone | Effect | How to obtain |
| Make the World Clamor | Increases the wearer’s ultimate damage by 24%, and allows them to regenerate 20 energy immediately upon entering battle | Gacha |
| 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 | Gacha or the Starlight Exchange shop |
| Data Bank | Increases the wearer’s ultimate damage by 28% | Gacha |
| Passkey | After the wearer uses their skill, they regenerate eight energy. This can only occur once per turn | Gacha |
What are the best relics for Serval?
You can equip Serval with a maximum of six relics – with four slots for a standard set, and two slots for one of the Simulated Universe sets. In the four main slots, we recommend equipping her with four pieces of Band of Sizzling Thunder to boost her attack and lightning damage, or four pieces of Musketeer of Wild Wheat, which is an accessible, all-rounder DPS set. You can also equip two of each to get a boost to both her attack and lightning damage.
For the other two slots, we recommend Space Sealing Station, which increases her attack, or Sprightly Vonwacq, which boosts her energy regeneration.
| Relic set | Effect | Obtained from |
| 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 |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Holy Hymn in the Xianzhou Luofu’s Cloudford |
| Musketeer of Wild Wheat | Two equipped: increases attack by 10% Four equipped: increases Serval’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 | Effects | How to obtain |
| 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% | Immersion Reward devices in World 3 of the Simulated Universe |
| Sprightly Vonwacq | Two equipped: increases Serval’s energy regeneration rate by 5%. When Serval’s speed reaches 120 or higher, her action advances forward by 40% immediately upon entering battle | Immersion Reward devices in World 4 of the Simulated Universe |
Relic stat recommendations
Here are the stats we recommend focusing on when choosing a set of relics for Serval.
Main stats:
- Feet: attack%
- Neck: lightning damage bonus
- Article: crit or effect hit rate
Sub-stats:
- Lightning damage bonus
- Attack%
- Crit rate/damage
- Effect hit rate
What are Honkai Star Rail’s Serval attacks?
Here are all of Serval’s attacks and talents.
Active:
| Skill | Effect |
| 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:
| Skill | Effect |
| Galvanic Chords | After attacking, deal an additional 30% of Serval’s attack as lightning damage to all shocked enemies |
Technique:
| Skill | Effect |
| 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 |
Traces:
| Traces | Effect |
| Rock ‘n’ Roll | Serval’s skill has a 20% increased base chance to shock enemies |
| String Vibration | Serval immediately regenerates 15 energy at the beginning of the battle |
| Mania | Upon defeating an enemy Serval’s attack increases by 20% for two turns |
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.
| Eidolon | Effect |
| 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.
| Required level | Credits | Ascension materials |
| 20 | 3.2k | Five silvermane badges |
| 30 | 6.4k | Ten silvermane badges |
| 40 | 12.8k | Six silvermane insignias and three lightning crown of the past shadow |
| 50 | 32k | Nine silvermane insignias and seven lightning crown of the past shadow |
| 60 | 64k | Six silvermane medals and 20 lightning crown of the past shadow |
| 70 | 128k | Nine silvermane medals and 35 lightning crown of the past shadow |
Here’s where to get each of Serval’s talent materials:
- Silvermane badges / insignias / medals – drops from silvermane enemies on Jarilo-VI and in the Honkai Star Rail simulated universe, assignment rewards, and purchasable from the Embers Exchange store
- Lightning crowns – rewards from the Honkai Star Rail stagnant shadow in Jarilo-VI’s Corridor of Fading Echoes
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.