The Xianzhous are heating up with Honkai Star Rail Yunli, a swordmaster hailing from the Zhuming and visiting the Luofu during the War Dance event. She’s a physical-aligned Destruction character, which means she packs a punch in her team comps. Scroll down to see how to build her properly.
While you’re here, be sure to grab the new Honkai Star Rail codes to fill your wallet with jades, then check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list to see who to pull for in the next Honkai Star Rail update banners.
Here’s everything in our Honkai Star Rail Yunli build guide:
What’s the best Honkai Star Rail Yunli build?
Yunli is a five-star character who uses the physical element and follows the path of the Destruction.
| Best light cone | Dance at Sunset |
| Light cone substitutes | Under the Blue Sky, On the Fall of an Aeon |
| Best relic set | The Wind-Soaring Valorous |
| Planar ornaments | Inert Salsotto |
| Main stats | Body – Crit rate/damage Feet – Attack Link rope – Attack Planar sphere – Physical damage bonus |
| Sub stats | Crit rate, crit damage, attack |
Despite Yunli’s flame-filled drip marketing, Yunli is a physical character who follows the path of the Destruction. She’s a hard-hitting DPS that deals blast damage, and has a counter in her kit that allows her to release follow-up attacks in combat.
The best light cone to equip Yunli with is Dance at Sunset, along with a full set of Wind-Soaring Valorous relics. As for planar ornaments, we recommend a set of Inert Salsotto to up her crit numbers.
What are the best light cones for Yunli?
The best light cone overall for Yunli is her signature five-star, Dance at Sunset. However, if it isn’t viable for you to get a character and a light cone at once (trust me, I feel you), there are other options.
Blade’s signature cone, The Unreachable Side, and On the Fall of an Aeon from Herta’s shop both increase Yunli’s damage nicely with boosts to her her crit and attack stats. While The Unreachable Side adds to her HP, which you don’t really need, it does add a good chunk to her crit rate, which frees up some relic stats to focus on other things.
| Light cone | Effect | How to obtain |
| Dance at Sunset (five-star) | Greatly increases Yunli’s chance of getting hit during battle, and increases her crit damage by 36%. After using her ultimate, she gains one stack of Firedance, which lasts for two turns and can stack twice. Each stack increases the damage of her follow-up attack by 36% | Light cone banner (alongside Yunli) |
| The Unreachable Side (five-star) | Increases Yunli’s crit rate and maximum HP by 18%. When she gets attacked, her damage increases by 24%. This effect gets removed after she uses an attack move | Light cone banner (alongside Blade) |
| Under the Blue Sky (four-star) | Increases Yunli’s attack by 16%. When she defeats an enemy, her crit rate increases by 12% for three turns | All banners |
| On the Fall of an Aeon (five-star) | Whenever Yunli attacks, her attack increases by 8%, which can stack four times. When she inflicts a weakness break on enemies, her damage increases by 12% for two turns | Purchase in Herta’s Shop |
| A Secret Vow (four-star) | Increases Yunli’s damage dealt by 20% (S1). She deals an extra 20% (S1) of her damage to enemies with a higher HP percentage than her | All banners |
What are the best relics for Yunli?
Yunli excels with a full set of Wind-Soaring Valorous relics, which not only add to her crit and attack stats but also improve her damage as she uses follow-up attacks on field. If you want to capitalize on her follow-up damage specifically, you can use a set of Ashblazing Grand Duke.
As always, it can be hard to farm the right set with the right stats, so you can mix and match two two-pieces of the above sets with Champion of Streetwise Boxing for a pure damage boost.
| Relic | Effect | How to obtain |
| The Wind-Soaring Valorous | Two equipped: Increases attack Four equipped: Increases Yunli’s crit rate by 6%. After she uses her follow-up attack, her ultimate damage increases by 30% for one turn |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Cavalier |
| Ashblazing Grand Duke | Two equipped: Increases follow-up damage Four equipped: When Yunli uses a follow-up attack against an enemy, her attack increases by 6% each time the follow-up deals damage. This can stack up to eight times and lasts for three turns. This removes the next time she uses a follow-up attack |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Darkness |
| Champion of Streetwise Boxing | Two equipped: Increases physical damage Four equipped: After Yunli attacks or is hit, her attack stat increases by 5% for the rest of the battle. This effect can stack five times |
Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Jabbing Punch |
Planar ornament
| Relic | Effect | How to obtain |
| Inert Salsotto | Two equipped: Increases Yunli’s crit rate by 8%. When her crit rate reaches 50% or higher, her ultimate and follow-up attack damage increases by 15% | Immersion Reward devices in World 6 of the Simulated Universe |
| Duran, Dynasty of Running Wolves | Two equipped: When allies use follow-up attacks, Yunli gains one stack of Merit, which can stack five times. Each stack of Merit increases the damage dealt by Yunli’s follow-up attacks by 5%. When there are five stacks, her crit damage additionally increases by 25 | Reward in the Divergent Universe |
Relic stat recommendations
Make sure to pick relics that have good stats on them for Yunli. Here are the main and sub-stats to aim for to get the best out of her:
Main stats:
- Body: Crit damage/rate or attack
- Feet: Attack
- Planar sphere: Physical damage boost
- Link rope: Attack
Sub-stats:
- Crit damage/rate
- Attack
- Speed
What are the best Yunli team comps?
While Yunli can deal some great damage, she’s made to be good as a counter and parry unit, to take the damage while your main DPS goes ahead and survives to hit the enemy. We suggest pairing her up with another DPS, such as Topaz.
Using support units like Tingyun and Huohuo – or Lynx as a good substitute – can help fill up Yunli’s energy faster.
 Yunli |
 March 7th (imaginary) |
 Tingyun |
 Huohuo |
Yunli |
 Topaz |
 Robin |
 Lynx |
Yunli |
 Sparkle |
Robin |
Huohuo |
What are Yunli’s skills?
You can find a full run-down of Yunli’s kit here, including her basic attack, follow-up, and her key skill: her ultimate.
Active skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| Basic attack: Galespin Summersault | Yunli deals physical damage to a single target enemy |
| Skill: Bladeborne Quake | Yunli restores her own HP while dealing physical damage to a single target and adjacent enemies in a blast attack. The main target takes more damage whereas the adjacent targets take approximately half the damage |
| Ultimate: Earthbind, Etherbreak | Yunli acquires the Parry state by consuming 120 energy, which taunts enemies. This lasts until the end of the next party member or enemy’s turn. The move increases the crit damage of Yunli’s next counter by 90%. When triggering a counterattack from her talent, she launches Intuit: Cull and removes the Parry effect. If no counter triggers during Parry, she launches Intuit: Slash on a random target. Intuit: Slash deals heavy physical damage to a main target and adjacent enemies. Intuit: Cull does the same, but launches an addition six instances of damage to a single enemy. This is considered as ultimate damage |
Talent:
| Skill | Effect |
| Flashforge | When an enemy attacks Yunli, she regenerates 15 energy and launches a counter, which deals heavy physical damage based on her attack stat to a main target, and physical damage to adjacent targets. If there is no immediate target to counter, she counters a random target instead |
Technique:
| Technique | Effect |
| Posterior Precedence | Yunli gains the Ward effect, which lasts for 20 seconds. During this, when entering combat (either by attacking or getting attacked) Yunli immediately unleashes Intuit: Cull on a random enemy. The damage of this attack increases by 80% |
Traces:
| Trace | Effect |
| Fiery Wheel | After each use of Intuit: Slash, the next gets replaced by Intuit: Cull |
| Demon Quell | When in the Parry state, Yunli resists crowd control debuffs and reduces the damage she receives by 20% |
| True Sunder | When using a counter, Yunli’s attack increases by 30% for one turn |
What are Yunli’s eidolons?
Here are all of Yunli’s eidolons – you can unlock these by pulling more than one copy of her on the banner.
| Eidolon | Effect |
| E1: Weathered Blade Does Not Sully | Increases the damage dealt by Intuit: Slash and Intuit: Cull by 20%. Increases the number of additional damage instances for Cull by three |
| E2: First Luster Breaks Dawn | When dealing damage via her counter, Yunli ignores 20% of the target’s defense |
| E3: Mastlength Twirls Mountweight | Increases the level of Yunli’s ultimate by two, up to a maximum of 15. Also increases the level of her basic attack by one, up to a maximum of ten |
| E4: Artisan’s Ironsong | After launching Intuit: Slash or Intuit: Cull, Yunli’s effect resistance increases by 50% for one turn |
| E5: Blade of Old Outlasts All | Increases the level of Yunli’s skill by two, up to a maximum of 15. Also increases the level of her talent by two, up to a maximum of 15 |
| E6: Walk in Blade, Talk in Zither | While Parry is active if an enemy uses their abilities (regardless of whether it attacks Yunli), Intuit: Cull triggers. This removes the Parry state. When dealing damage through Intuit: Cull or Intuit: Slash, Yunli’s crit rate increases by 15%, and her physical resistance penetration increases by 20% |
What are Yunli’s ascension materials?
Here are the materials you need to ascend Yunli. The IPC work permits come from the stagnant shadow boss in Clock Studios Theme Park, while the artifex drops come from enemies on the Xianzhou Luofu.
| Required level | Credits | Materials |
| 20 | 4,000 | Five artifex’s module |
| 30 | 8,000 | Ten artifex’s module |
| 40 | 16,000 | Three IPC work permits, six artifex’s cogwheel |
| 50 | 40,000 | Seven IPC work permits, nine artifex’s cogwheel |
| 60 | 80,000 | 20 IPC work permits, six artifex’s gyrehearts |
| 70 | 160,000 | 35 IPC work permits, nine artifex’s gyrehearts |
What are Yunli’s trace materials?
Along with ascending her, you’re going to want to upgrade Yunli’s traces – that’s her skills. Here are the items you need to do that.
- 41 artifex’s module, 56 artifex’s cogwheel, and 58 artifex’s gyreheart
- Obtain from mara-struck enemies, the Simulated Universe, purchase from the Embers Exchange store, and the synthesizer
- 15 borisin teeth, 72 lupitoxin sawteeth, and 139 moon madness fangs
- Obtain from the Bud of the Destruction calyx in Scalegorge Waterscape and purchase from the Embers Exchange store
- 12 regret of infinite ochema
- Obtain from the Phantylia weekly boss in the Scalegorge Waterscape area
- 11 tracks of destiny
- Obtain from events, as rewards in the Simulated Universe, from the Embers exchange, and Nameless Honor (battlepass) rewards
- 3,000,000 credits
Skill trace priority:
- Ultimate > skill > talent > basic attack
Who is Honkai Star Rail’s Yunli?
Yunli, the granddaughter of General Huaiyan hailing from the Xianzhou Zhuming, is a sword aficionado and the second youngest prodigy of the Flamewheel Octet. Yunli doesn’t agree with the Zhuming’s production of cursed swords, however, so she’s on a mission to hunt them down and get rid of them all.
During the Cosmodyssey board game event, an encounter with everyone’s favorite General, Honkai Star Rail’s Jing Yuan, mentions Yunli. Apparently, Jing Yuan thinks that as Yunli and his protegee Honkai Star Rail Yanqing are of similar age and both enjoy collecting swords, they would hit it off.
That’s all we’ve got on Honkai Star Rail’s Yunli for now, but the fun doesn’t stop here. Get up to date on the goings-on of Teyvat with our Genshin Impact events guide. We’ve also got build guides for characters like Genshin Impact’s Albedo, Genshin Impact’s Razor, and Genshin Impact’s Xinyan.