Destruction Trailblazer Honkai: Star Rail Guide for Relics, Light Cones, and Skills

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The first few minutes of Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) is, without a doubt, a stellar hook to draw new players into HoYoverse’s new space adventure. During the Anti-Matter Legion’s invasion of the Herta Space Station, we meet the Trailblazer, HSR’s quintessential self-insert. Mysteriously left behind after having had a Stellaron (seeds of disasters) placed inside of them by a mysterious group called the Stellaron Hunters, the Trailblazer finds themselves aboard the Astral Express, resolving Stellaron crises all over the galaxy as they try to figure out their destiny.

Upon gaining the attention of Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction, the Trailblazer gains access to the hard-hitting Path of Destruction. In this guide, we will be focusing on the powers granted to the Trailblazer on this path and how players can best utilize them from their relics, ornaments, light cones, skills, and team compositions.

Best Relic Set and Ornament for Trailblazer

The Destruction Trailblazer’s attacks deal Physical DMG. This makes choosing their relic set quite easy as Champion of Streetwise Boxing is the set that’s specifically designed to enhance that type of damage. The 4 piece bonus is especially powerful for Destruction characters as it stacks on top of their other ATK bonuses, leading to a more monstrous amount of damage with each strike. Players can farm for pieces of this set by fighting in the Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Jabbing Punch.

The bonuses that Champion of Streetwise Boxing gives are:

• 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.

Space Stealing Station doubles down on the plan of stacking as much ATK as possible which makes this the ideal planar ornament for your Destruction Trailblazer. Not only does it give an outright ATK boost but it also comes with the conditional effect that doubles that buff if a certain SPD requirement is met. Getting these Planar Ornaments require you to defeat bosses in World 3 of the Simulated Universe and spend either 40 Trailblaze Power or one Immersifier.

Space Stealing Station buffs the following:

• Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When the wearer’s SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s ATK increases by an extra 12%.

Stats to Prioritize for Trailblazer

Equip your Trailblazer with relics that have the following main stats:

• Body: CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG
• Feet: SPD
• Planar Sphere: Physical DMG
• Link Rope: ATK% or Break Effect

With the Trailblazer getting a lot of buffs to their ATK stat either through relics, ornaments, or light cones, players can then focus on rounding out their other stats such as their CRIT ratios and SPD. You can go with either a CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG for the body piece with the former being better in general for its consistency. SPD Boots will allow the Trailblazer to attack earlier in the turn order. Planar Spheres are the only relics that can have specific element damage as their main stat so getting a Physical DMG sphere on your Trailblazer is a must. Lastly, choosing between ATK% or Break Effect for their link rope is a matter of preference as both would still improve the Trailblazer’s overall damage.

You’ll want to have CRIT DMG, CRIT Rate, ATK%, and SPD as your relics substats, in order of most important to least. However, due to the RNG aspect of the relic stats, getting all four substats might be a rare occurrence. This makes other substats like HP%, Break Effect, or DEF% that improves the Trailblazer’s bulk also worth considering but ideally kept to a minimum.

Best Light Cone for Trailblazer

As much as possible, you will always want to equip your characters with 5-Star light cones. They not only give you the best amount of stats to your base HP, ATK, and DEF but they often come with a lot of crazy powerful abilities that sets them apart from the other light cones in their respective Paths. For example, the health recovery effect and additional DMG bonus that you get upon defeating an enemy makes ‘Something Irreplaceable’ the best-in-slot light cone for Destruction Trailblazer. The synergy it has with the Trailblazer’s kit makes them one hard hitting durable machine. This light cone can be bought from the Starlight Exchange shop for 600 Undying Starlight but unless you have that currency in excess, getting it through Warping is the only alternative.

‘Something Irreplaceable’ gives the wearer these amazing abilities:

• Increases the wearer’s ATK by 24/28/32/36/40%. When the wearer defeats an enemy or is hit, immediately restores HP equal to 8/9/10/11/12% of the wearer’s ATK. At the same time, the wearer’s DMG is increased by 24/28/32/36/40% until the end of their next turn. This effect cannot stack and can only trigger 1 time per turn.

Not all hope is lost though as ‘On the Fall of an Aeon’ is another 5-Star light cone that is available to players through Herta’s Store for eight Herta Bonds. This is much easier to collect as players can earn one Herta Bond every week for reaching a certain score in the Simulated Universe. Though its effects are not as strong as ‘Something Irreplaceable’, it’s still a serviceable light cone with great stats and abilities that the Trailblazer can use to great effect.

The effects that ‘On the Fall of an Aeon’ grants are:

• Whenever the wearer attacks, their ATK is increased by 8/10/12/14/16% in this battle, up to 4 time(s). When the wearer inflicts Weakness Break on enemies, the wearer’s DMG increases by 12/15/18/21/24% for 2 turn(s).

Budget Alternative

For their 4-Star light cone options, ‘Nowhere to Run’ or ‘A Secret Vow’ works the best with how Destruction Trailblazer’s kit functions. Although both light cones give a hefty buff to the wearer’s ATK, ‘Nowhere to Run’ has a secondary ability that improves survivability while ‘A Secret Vow’ can be used to cut bigger enemies down with the additional damage bonus. In terms of availability, ‘A Secret Vow’ can be obtained through warping but ‘Nowhere to Run’ is only available by purchasing the Nameless Glory and reaching Level 30 in Nameless Honor.

Nowhere to Run has these effects:

• Increases the wearer’s ATK by 24/30/36/42/48%. Whenever the wearer defeats an enemy, they restore HP equal to 12/15/18/21/24% of their ATK.

To compare, ‘A Secret Vow’ gives the following bonuses:

• Increases DMG dealt by the wearer by 20/25/30/35/40%. The wearer also deals an extra 20/25/30/35/40% of DMG to enemies with a higher HP percentage than the wearer.

Trailblazer Skill Priorities

Destruction Trailblazer’s skills are as follows:

• Farewell Hit (Basic ATK) – The Trailblazer’s Basic ATK deals Physical DMG equal to 50 to 110% of their ATK to a single enemy.
• RIP Home Run (Skill) – Deals Physical DMG equal to 62/125/137% of the Trailblazer’s ATK to a single enemy and enemies adjacent to it.
• Stardust Ace (Ultimate) – Trailblazer’s Ultimate has two attack modes that you can choose from. Blowout: Farewell Hit deals single target Physical DMG equal to 300 to 480% of their ATK. Blowout: RIP Home Run is an AoE Physical DMG attack, dealing 180 to 288% of their ATK to a single enemy, and 108 to 172% of their ATK to enemies adjacent to it.
• Perfect Pickoff (Talent) – Each time the Trailblazer inflicts Weakness Break on an enemy, their ATK increases by 10 to 22% and this effect can stack up to two times.
• Immortal Third Strike (Technique) – This immediately heals all allies for 15% of their respective Max HP.

Here’s how we would prioritize their skills::

• Ultimate (Stardust Ace)
• Skill (RIP Home Run)
• Talent (Perfect Pickoff)
• Basic ATK (Farewell Hit)

Destruction Trailblazer’s Ultimate is called an ace for a reason as it’s their strongest attacking move thus, players should level this skill first. Maxing their Skill second is the next best step as more levels lead to better damage scaling. Physical is one of the most common element weaknesses of enemies in HSR and Trailblazers Talent allows him to take advantage of that as he gets a substantial buff to his ATK upon inflicting Weakness Break. This makes leveling his talent up more favorable over his Basic ATK which players can safely leave for last.

The Worldbreaker Blade is a path specific trace material that can be farmed by challenging Crimson Calyxes, namely the Bud of Destruction. This resource requires 10 Trailblaze Power for each run. Trailblaze Power is not infinite and only recovers 1 point for every 6 minutes so knowing what skills give you the most benefit from levels is crucial in being cost-efficient with your finite resources.

Caelus or Stelle starts out on the Path of Destruction but more Paths will be made available to them as the story of Honkai: Star Rail progresses. This system is reminiscent of Genshin Impact’s main character, the Traveler, and how their skills differ with each element unlocking a new playstyle. It is important to note that although their overall level does carry over for each iteration, the levels for their skills do not and require different materials altogether. It’s considered to be a huge resource sink to level multiple Paths, so players are advised to stick to the Path that they like the best.

Best Trailblazer Team Compositions

The role that the physical variant of the Trailblazer plays in the team is that of a DPS that relies on breaking the Toughness of opponents to deal massive amounts of damage. Their alignment to the Path of Destruction makes it so that he can deal hard hits but also be able to take one and recover from it with no problem, which other DPS characters do struggle with. 

Here are the characters that can play ball with the Destruction Trailblazer:

• Secondary DPS like Serval or Dan Heng
• Buff Supports like Tingyun or Bronya
• Healers like Natasha or Bailu
• Shielder like March 7th
• Follow Up Damage Dealers like Himeko or Herta

The Trailblazer’s ability to switch between single target and AoE damage makes them a force in combat as they’re able to effectively adapt whether they’re fighting hordes of enemies or a single elite boss. The Destruction Trailblazer may have fallen out of favor with players compared to their Preservation counterpart, but this Trailblazer can still hit home runs for those who’d like their main character to take up the sword instead of the shield.