Honkai Star Rail Dan Heng is a character with a striking appearance and mysterious past, so it’s no wonder people are so interested in him. But who exactly is he, and how can you get the best out of him in your comp? In our Dan Heng build guide, we endeavor to give you some insight into this tight-lipped guard from the Astral Express, as we take a look at his attacks and abilities, his best build, light cones, and relics.
If you want to get familiar with the other faces you can meet on your Trailblazing adventure, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list, Honkai Star Rail next banner guide, and Honkai Star Rail codes to bag yourself some freebies. We also have other build guides for the likes of Honkai Star Rail Guinaifen and Honkai Star Rail Hook.
Here’s everything in our Honkai Star Rail Dan Heng build.
What’s the best Honkai Star Rail Dan Heng build?
Dan Heng is a four-star wind character who follows the path of the Hunt. Wielding a spear named Cloud-Piercer, he’s a single target damage dealer who is surprisingly strong in the early stages of the game, especially for a free starter character. He scales well with eidolons, is naturally very speedy, and has high ability multipliers, but he poses a steep learning curve, has no means of AoE, and requires high investment if you want to keep playing him later in the game.
Here’s a brief overview of our best HSR Dan Heng build:
| Best light cone | In the Night |
| Light cone alternatives | Only Silence Remains |
| Best relic set | Eagle of Twilight Line |
| Best planar ornament set | Space Sealing Station |
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| Sub-stats |
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Dan Heng’s best light cone is In the Night which buffs his crit rate, crit damage, and base damage. His best relic set is Eagle of Twilight Line paired with Space Sealing Station, making him relatively easy to build for new players.
His kit is all about speed and critical hits, so we recommend building him with plenty of crit rate, crit damage, speed, attack, and wind damage. He’s a solid damage dealer throughout most stages of the game and can keep up relatively well if you put enough investment into him and pair him up with the right team.
How to use Dan Heng
As mentioned above, Dan Heng is a purely single-target damage dealer. His skill deals up to 260% of his attack to a single enemy, and if the skill lands a crit hit, he has a 100% base chance to slow the target enemy by 12% for two turns. This slow is super important to his ultimate, which makes its reliance on landing a crit hit a little troublesome.
However, as it strikes the enemy four times in total and each one can trigger the slow, if you build him with enough crit rate you should be able to pull this off quite reliably. Note that the 12% slow that he applies isn’t particularly useful in the grand scheme of things, and you won’t see much benefit on the battlefield – its main purpose is to act as a priming tool for his ultimate.
On that topic, Dan Heng’s ultimate deals 400% of his attack to a single enemy. If the enemy is slowed, this multiplier increases by an additional 120%. That means that Dan deals a whopping 520% of his attack as damage to a single slowed enemy, which is pretty darn impressive, especially for a four-star starter character.
To make it even better, his ultimate has a relatively low energy cost, meaning he should be able to use it relatively frequently – and pairing him up with an energy buffing teammate like Honkai Star Rail’s Tingyun or Honkai Star Rail’s Huohuo can essentially provide him with back-to-back ultimates.
What are the best light cones for Dan Heng?
Dan Heng’s best light cone is In the Night, Honkai Star Rail’s Seele‘s signature light cone. Its effect synergizes well with his speed and crit damage-based kit, allowing him to ramp up power throughout the battle.
The four-star light cone Only Silence Remains is made specifically to match Dan Heng’s kit, so it’s a great cheaper option. Additionally, equipping a character with a light cone that matches their path allows them to utilize the light cone ability it offers – meaning you should aim to equip Dan Heng with a light cone that follows ‘The Hunt’ path if you don’t have Only Silence Remains.
Here are HSR Dan Heng’s best light cones:
| Light cone | Effect | |
| In the Night | Increases Dan Heng’s crit rate by 18%. While he is in battle, for every ten speed that exceeds 100, Dan Heng’s basic attack and skill’s damage is increased by 6% and his ultimate’s crit damage is increased by 12%. This effect can stack up to six times | |
| Only Silence Remains | Increases Dan Heng’s attack by 16%. If there are two or fewer enemies on the field it also increases his crit rate by 12% | |
| Darting Arrow | When Dan Heng defeats an enemy, increases his attack by 24% for three turns |
