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

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Serval Landau took center stage during the Jarilo-VI main quest and in everybody’s team comps for the first few weeks of Honkai: Star Rail‘s release. But as anyone who’s played a live service game knows, things don’t stay that way forever. As more Lightning element and Erudition path characters are added to the game, Serval seems to suffer from the dreaded 1.0-itis. (Read: Being an early character who is overpowered by subsequent releases.)

The operative word here is ‘seems’ because with the right build and at higher Eidolons, your Serval can give an electrifying performance that will have you enjoying a second Jing Yuan to run for Memory of Chaos. Here’s how you can get the most out of Belobog’s all-in-one rockstar, mechanic, scientist, and older sister.

Best Relic Set and Ornaments for Serval

Band of Sizzling Thunder

Serval excels in applying the Shock effect. While Lightning’s ability to apply the Break effect may feel lackluster compared to other elements in the game, Serval is special because she extends the Shock effect with her Ultimate, Here Comes the Mechanical Fever. Because of this, we recommend using the relic set Band of Sizzling Thunder, which you can get from the Path of Holy Hymn Cavern of Corrosion located in the Cloudford area of the Xianzhou map.

The Band of Sizzling Thunder set comes with the following set bonuses:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Increases Lightning DMG by 10%
• 4-Piece Bonus – When the wearer uses their Skill, increases the wearer’s ATK by 2% for 1 turn.

Musketeer of Wild Wheat

Serval’s damage scales on her ATK stat, so we recommend stacking ATK on your Serval. Musketeer of Wild Wheat. If you’re having trouble building Crit DMG and Crit Rate onto your Serval, you’ll be able to skate by with a mostly ATK Serval as long as you don’t expect her to do the job of a DPS.

Here are the set bonuses for Musketeer of Wild Wheat:

• 2-Piece Bonus – ATK increases by 12%.
• 4-Piece Bonus – The wearer’s SPD increases by 6%, and Basic ATK DMG increases by 10%.

The Musketeer of Wild Wheat Set can be found at the Path of Drifting, a Cavern of Corrosion located in the Corridor of Fading Echoes area of the Jarilo-VI map.

For similar reasons stated previously, Serval’s Planar Ornaments should either be Space Sealing Station or Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise.

• Space Sealing Station: Increases ATK by 12 percent. When your Speed reaches 120 or higher, your ATK increases by an extra 12 percent.
• Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise: Increases Effect Hit Rate by ten percent. Increases ATK by an amount equal to 25 percent of the current Effect Hit Rate, up to a maximum of 25 percent.

Relic Stats to Prioritize for Serval

There are three key things to keep in mind when building your Serval. First, she’s good at inflicting Shock, so you want her to get as much Lightning DMG bonus as possible. Second, she scales on ATK. Third, she’s good at applying the Break effect to enemies. Aside from those, she also has a pretty classic and straightforward kit where the name of the game is Elemental DMG, ATK, and Crit.

1. Body: Crit Rate, Crit DMG,
2. Feet: ATK
3. Planar Sphere: Lighting DMG
4. Link Rope: ATK or Energy Regen

Wherever possible, it’s also favorable to have Break Effect, ATK, and Energy Regen as main stats or substats, so don’t trash the relics you get just because they aren’t exact matches.

Best Light Cones for Serval

Before Dawn

Jing Yuan and Serval both provide Lightning AoE, given that they’re both Lightning and Erudition characters. If you have a Before Dawn to spare or no Jing Yuan to put it on, it’s the best light cone you can give to your Serval. Before Dawn increases Crit DMG and increases both Skill and Ultimate DMG. While Serval can’t make use of the light cone fully because she can’t perform follow-up attacks like Jing Yuan, she does benefit from the aforementioned effects.

Here’s what Before Dawn does:

• Increases the wearer’s CRIT DMG by 36%. Increases the wearer’s Skill and Ultimate DMG by 18%. After the wearer uses their Skill or Ultimate, they gain Somnus Corpus. Upon triggering a follow-up attack, Somnus Corpus will be consumed, and the follow-up attack DMG increases by 48%.

If you don’t have Before Dawn or, really, an extra Before Dawn, a great alternative is The Seriousness of Breakfast.

Budget Alternative

You likely already have a copy of this light cone. The Seriousness of Breakfast is handed out like candy throughout the game, and you can get it from the Forgotten Hall, an Echo of War, or as mission rewards from quests. You’re bound to have more than one to Superimpose with, so unless you have other Erudition characters that need them, a high Superimposition version of this light cone is your best bet.

At the first Superimposition, The Seriousness of Breakfast has the following ability:

• Increases the wearer’s DMG by 12%. For every defeated enemy, the wearer’s ATK increases by 4%, stacking up to 3 time(s).

Skill Priorities for Serval

When unlocking and leveling up Serval’s traces, you should keep in mind how good she is at keeping her audience in a perpetual state of Shock and awe. Apply Lightning on all of your enemies first, push them into Shock, and keep them there. You’ll want to follow this order:

1. Rock ‘n’ Roll (Trace): Serval’s skill has a 20% increased base chance to shock the enemies.
2. String Vibration (Trace): Serval immediately regenerates 15 Energy at the beginning of battle.
3. Here Comes the Mechanical Fever (Ultimate): Deals Lightning DMG equal to 108-171% of Serval’s ATK to all enemies. Enemies already Shocked will extend the duration of their Shock state by 2 turn(s).
4. Good Night, Belobog (Technique): Immediately attacks the enemy. After entering battle, deals Lightning DMG equal to 50% of Serval’s ATK to a random enemy, and all enemies have a 100% base chance to become Shocked for 3 turn(s). While Shocked, enemies will take Lightning DoT equal to 50% of Serval’s ATK at the beginning of each turn.
5. Galvanic Chords (Talent): After Serval attacks, it deals additional Lightning DMG equal to 30-56.25% of Serval’s ATK to all Shocked enemies.

To upgrade those traces and skills, you’ll need:

Serval Team Composition

Once you’ve got your Serval ready, it’s time to start pairing her with other characters. As much as Serval excels at AoE, she doesn’t have any good single-target damage, so you may want to run her with a single-target damage dealer. Additionally, because her kit’s gimmick is to extend the Shock effect, you can run her with another Lightning character. You can also run her with a character that increases her DoT damage as Shock deals Lightning DoT.

• Sampo increases the DoT damage taken by enemies.
• Arlan is a Lightning and Destruction path character that can get more value out of Serval’s Shock extending kit. As a Destruction character, he can compensate for Serval’s lack of single-target damage.
• Tingyun increases ATK and Energy Regen.
• Natasha, Luocha, and Bailu because you still need a healer.