Honkai Star Rail’s Ruan Mei is an elegant and sweet-natured woman, known for her position as member 81 of the Genius Society and co-creation of the Simulated Universe. As a dedicated scientist, she’s fairly mysterious, so we’re here to share her best build, including light codes and relics, with you.
Ruan Mei is just one of many unique and powerful Honkai Star Rail characters available in this sci-fi universe. It can be hard to know who to choose for your team, so we’ve ranked them all in our Honkai Star Rail tier list. If you need some more stellar jade, check out our Honkai Star Rail codes guide for some freebies. Take a look at our Honkai Star Rail Yanqing and Honkai Star Rail Black Swan guides next.
Let’s dive into the genius mind of Honkai Star Rail’s Ruan Mei.
What’s the best Honkai Star Rail Ruan Mei build?
| Best light cone | Past Self in Mirror |
| Light cone alternatives | Memories of the Past |
| Best relic set | Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations |
| Best planar ornament set | Penacony, Land of the Dreams (ice teams) or Fleet of the Ageless |
| Main stats |
|
| Sub-stats |
|
Ruan Mei’s best light cone is Past Self in Mirror, which massively buffs her break effect while increasing the whole team’s damage output. Her best relic set is Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations with plenty of break effect, speed, HP%, and defense% stats.
Penacony Land of the Dreams is a great fit for boosting Ruan Mei’s energy regeneration rate, whereas Fleet of the Ageless boosts her survivability and can provide a team-wide attack buff if her speed is high enough.
How should I use Ruan Mei?
Ruan Mei is a wonderful support character and currently the only unit in the game that can increase your team’s weakness break efficiency while buffing everyone’s attack. She takes a lot of investment, but she’s definitely worth it.
What are the best light cones for Ruan Mei?
Unsurprisingly, Ruan Mei’s best light cone is her signature cone, Past Self in Mirror. It fits perfectly with her break effect-centric kit and further buffs the whole team’s damage while her ultimate’s field is active.
Of course, limited five-star cones are hard to come by, so Memories of the Past is a great alternative. It also buffs Ruan Mei’s break effect, though admittedly not as much, and can top up her energy after each attack. If you can pair this with her Days Wane, Thoughts Wax trace, she’ll be much easier to power up in combat.
| Light Cone | Effect | How to obtain |
| Past Self in Mirror (five-star) | Increases Ruan Mei’s break effect by 60%. When she uses her ultimate, increases all allies’ damage by 24%, lasting for three turns. Should the break effect exceed or equal 150%, recover one skill point. During the start of every wave, all allies regenerate ten energy. Effects of the same type cannot stack. | Light cone event warp |
| Memories of the Past (four-star) | Increases Ruan Mei’s break effect by 28%. When she attacks, she regenerates four energy. This can trigger once per turn. | All banners |
| Meshing Cogs (three-star) | After Ruan Mei uses attacks or gets hit, additionally regenerates four energy. This effect can only be triggered one time per turn. | All banners |
What are the best relics for Ruan Mei?
Since arriving in Penacony we’ve determined that Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations is Ruan Mei’s best four-piece set. Compared to our previous pick, Thief of Shooting Meteor, Watchmaker can buff both Ruan Mei’s own break effect and the whole team’s break effect whenever she uses her ultimate. That being said, Thief is still the best set to aim for in the early game.
Both of these sets have the same two-piece bonus, so they’re interchangeable in mixed builds depending on what you have access to. You can also pair two Thief or Watchmaker with two pieces of Messenger Traversing Hackerspace for additional speed or two pieces of Longevous Disciple for increased max HP and survivability.
Ruan Mei has quite a few options for planar ornaments. Penacony, Land of Dreams is a powerful option that can grant her three-turn ultimates and buff attackers on your ice-heavy team, but it’s a lot harder to farm. Sprightly Vonwacq offers similar regen buffs and is much easier to acquire, but doesn’t come with the damage buff.
Fleet of
