Clara Honkai: Star Rail Guide for Relics, Light Cores, and Skills

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Some girl and her robot bodyguard are dominating the current soloist scene on Honkai: Star Rail right now. That would be Clara and her trusty dad bot, Mr. Svarog. “Overpowered” sentiments for her definitely put Clara’s capabilities into perspective though she’s not exactly great for beginners, so a Clara Honkai: Star Rail should serve you well if you got lucky with the pull.

For the most part, Clara’s damage comes from reprisals or counterattacks every time Mr. Svarog beats up her assailants like the good father figure he is.

That means Clara’s playstyle is less direct compared to most other damage dealers in Honkai: Star Rail or just about any RPG. So along with her best relics, Light Cores, and Skills, this Clara Honkai: Star Rail guide should lead you in the right direction and impart a bit of technical wisdom as to how to maximize her potential. She’ll be soloing Equilibrium 4-5 in no time, hopefully.

The Best Relics for Clara

For Clara, you get a lot of options thanks to her retaliatory playstyle. The best two relic sets you could put on her would be either a 4-piece Guard of Wuthering Snow or a 4-piece Champion of Streetwise Boxing. You can get these relics from the Cavern of Corrosion.

However, you can also mix and match both sets so you could get the 2-piece bonus from either. 

Here are the bonuses from Guard of Wuthering Snow:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Reduces DMG taken by 8%.
• 4-Piece Bonus – At the beginning of the turn, if the wearer’s HP is equal to or less than 50% of their Max HP, restores HP equal to 8% of their Max HP and regenerates 5 Energy.

For the Champion of Streetwise Boxing, these are the bonuses:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Increases Physical DMG by 10%.
• 4-Piece Bonus – After the wearer attacks or is hit, their ATK increases by 5% for the rest of the battle. This effect can stack up to 5 times.

You’ll be giving up the juicy 4-piece bonus of either set if you mix and match the two. But if you’re soloing with Clara, then you might want to opt for the Guard of Wuthering Snow instead so she can be tankier.

Meanwhile, the best Planar Ornament relic set for Clara would be none other than the Space Sealing Station 2-piece set. It gives Clara a much-needed ATK boost, especially if you went with the Guard of Wuthering Snow for her 4-piece set. You can get this one from the Simulated Universe.

Space Sealing Station gives out these bonuses:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When the wearer’s SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s ATK increases by another 12%.

You will need to stack up on some SPD, but that shouldn’t be difficult, given how some relic pieces can give out 3 or higher SPD bonuses. It won’t really do much for Clara since you’d want enemies to attack her first instead, but if you have energy for her area damage Skill, then you can easily shorten some fights with enough SPD.

Stats to Prioritize for Clara

Speaking of relic stats for Clara, you’d want something that boosts her damage overall. Because while most of her damage comes from Mr. Svarog’s retaliation attacks, you can still deal quite a lot using her Skill. And you’d naturally want those retaliations to also deal CRIT damage to shorten the fight.

So the usual CRIT stacking is useful for Clara here, along with stacking her ATK% and base ATK stat. Since Clara also deals good area damage and a lot of enemies have Physical damage as their weakness, she’d benefit well from Break Effect. However, that’s low on the priority list.

In summary, this is how you should prioritize Clara’s relic stats, from most important to least important: 

• CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG
• ATK%
• ATK
• Break Effect
• HP

The rest of the stats are up to your preference, but stacking up HP or HP% after prioritizing the damage stats can make Clara more resilient, especially since she needs to get hit in order to trigger her big damage numbers. 

Best Light Cones for Clara

As always for most 5-star characters in a HoYoVerse game– Honkai: Star Rail included, Clara has an accompanying Light Cone for her, and that would be Something Irreplaceable.

It’s her best-in-slot Light Cone, and it features bonuses such as: 

• Increases the wearer’s ATK by 24%.
• When the wearer defeats an enemy or is hit, immediately restores HP equal to 8% of the wearer’s ATK. At the same time, the wearer’s DMG increases by 24% until the end of their next turn. This effect cannot stack and can only trigger 1 time per turn.

It’s quite monstrous in Clara’s hands if we’re being pragmatic here. Having Something Irreplaceable for her as a Light Cone also eliminates the need for the 4-piece bonus of Guard of Wuthering Snow since she’ll be healing with every retaliation. 

With this kind of Light Cone, she’ll be unstoppable and can run the game’s content without any team, just Clara. 

So consider yourself lucky if it’s the 5-star weapon you have for Clara. If not, then Clara can still use the only other 5-star Light Cone for the Destruction Path, which is On the Fall of an Aeon.

On the Fall of an Aeon gives out these bonuses: 

• Whenever the wearer attacks, their ATK is increased by 8% in this battle, up to 4 times.
• When the wearer inflicts Weakness Break on enemies, the wearer’s DMG increases by 12% for 2 turn(s).

Compared to Something Irreplaceable, it pales in power, really; it doesn’t allow Clara to be practically immortal during combat. But it’s still better than the 4-star Light Cone alternatives, thanks to the hefty damage and ATK bonus.

Budget Alternatives

For those who didn’t get Something Irreplaceable or the other 5-star Light Cone but still want Clara to be tanky and be able to solo content, there’s a good 4-star alternative called Nowhere to Run.

Nowhere to Run gives out these bonuses: 

• Increases the wearer’s ATK by 24%.
• Whenever the wearer defeats an enemy, they restore HP equal to 12% of their ATK.

It’s still not as robust as Something Irreplaceable since it only heals Clara after she kills an enemy instead of every attack. However, the ATK bonus is too big to ignore here, making it the best 4-star option for Clara. 

If you sadly don’t have this, as it can still be tricky to obtain due to the randomness of the rewards in Honkai: Star Rail, then just about any 4-star Light Cone that increases ATK should work well for Clara. Her damage and abilities scale off her ATK anyway.

Skill Priorities for Clara

Clara’s combat skills are as follows: 

• I Want to Help (Basic ATK) – Her basic attack, which generates energy, is somewhat weak compared to ‌Mr. Svarog’s Counter damage, so it’s not really reliable. You should only use it if you have no energy for the Skill.
• Svarog Watches Over You (Skill) – The skill is an area attack that deals 60 to 150 percent of Clara’s ATK, which is a better range compared to her Basik ATK. The only downside is that it will only hit enemies with a Mark of Counter, and all the Counters will be removed afterward, so use it wisely.
• Promise, Not Command (Ultimate) – It’s initially a defensive buff that reduces the damage that Clara will take by 15 to 30 percent, but she’ll also be attacked more frequently. Beyond that, it’s also an offensive buff that makes Svarog’s Counter deal area damage while also increasing ‌overall Counter damage by as much as 192 percent for two turns. This is one of the most effective Ultimates and area damage sources in the game.
• Because We’re Family (Talent) – Most of Clara’s damage revolves around this since it deals high damage and gets further boosted by the Ultimate. It further reduces the damage Clara receives by 10 percent while also making Svarog deal 80 to 200 percent Physical damage as a retaliatory Counter whenever Clara gets hit.
• A Small Price for Victory (Technique) – Her out-of-combat technique skill increases the chance of enemies attacking Clara for 2 turns, practically giving her aggro.

Leveling up these talents will require copious amounts of these materials and currencies: 

Since those materials can get expensive or tedious to farm due to limited Trailblazing Power, whether it’s from Caelum or Stelle, you’ll want to prioritize Clara’s bread-and-butter abilities first. So in order of most important to least important, make sure to level these up: 

• Ultimate (Promise, Not Command)
• Talent (Because We’re Family)
• Skill (Svarog Watches Over You)
• Basic ATK (I Want to Help)

While it might be tempting to max out her Talent first since it’s her most used combat skill, her Ultimate gives out a higher bonus when leveled up as it not only increases Counter damage but also the damage reduction. Moreover, it has area damage.

Skill being the third priority might be questionable, but it’s a bit harder to build up on Clara, and she’ll not be relying on it for damage. As for Basic ATK, you can actually forego leveling it up if you’re short on materials. It’s not that good.

The Best Team Comp for Clara

While we did mention that Clara can solo everything as long as she has her best-in-slot Light Cone and the ideal relics, there’s a lot of investment involved for such a notion. And for most players, you’ll still want a team with Clara. 

Wouldn’t want the poor orphan girl to be lonely now, do we? So consider these characters for a Clara-centric theme. They’re here to boost Clara’s tankiness while also adding a source of single-target damage.

• March 7th (gives Clara a Shield and draws more aggro to her)
• Natasha (good healer, she’s great if you don’t have Clara’s BiS weapon)
• Tingyun (impressive energy buffer and can further increase her Counter damage)
• Pela (DEF debuff for enemies so fights can go shorter)
• Dan Heng (only if you need single-target DPS, especially for boss fights)

Most of the time, you’ll want the whole team funneling all their support to Clara so she can either get attacked more often or her Counter deals more damage. So characters like Welt, who deny enemies their chance to attack, or selfish DPS like Seele are not really synergistic with Clara. All she needs most of the time is Mr. Svarog.