Jingliu Build Guide, Abilities, and Best Teams - Honkai: Star Rail Guide - IGN (2024)

Honkai: Star Rail character Jingliu is an immensely dangerous sword master capable of freezing anyone who stands in her way. After escaping her troubled past, Jing Yuan’s former master is ready to join your team as a 5-star Ice DPS of the Destruction Path. Well, as long as you don’t mind her consuming the team’s HP every now and then…

Here’s how to get the best Jingliu build for your Honkai: Star Rail team, including the best Jingliu Relics, Light Cones, and stats.

How to Get Jingliu

Jingliu is a 5-star character released in Honkai: Star Rail version 1.4. Due to her 5-star rarity, she’s only obtainable when she’s featured on a Character Event Warp banner, which means that you need to spend special star rail passes on her banner for a chance to obtain her. If you don’t get lucky while Jingliu’s banner is active, you’ll have to wait for a future banner rerun.

Jingliu Stats

Jingliu Abilities

• Basic Attack: Deals Ice DMG equal to 50% of Jingliu’s ATK to a single enemy.
• Skill: Deals Ice DMG equal to 100% of Jingliu's ATK to a single enemy and obtains 1 stack of Syzygy.
• Enhanced Skill: Deals Ice DMG equal to 125% of Jingliu's ATK to a single enemy, and deals Ice DMG equal to 62% of Jingliu's ATK to adjacent enemies. Consumes 1 stack of Syzygy and doesn’t consume Skill Points.
• Ultimate: Deals Ice DMG equal to 180% of Jingliu's ATK to a single enemy, and deals Ice DMG equal to 90% of Jingliu's ATK to any adjacent enemies. She gains 1 stack of Syzygy after the attack ends.
• Talent: When Jingliu has 2 stacks of Syzygy, she enters the Spectral Transmigration state with her Action Advanced by 100% and her CRIT Rate increased by 40%. This changes Jingliu’s Skill to her Enhanced Skill. When Jingliu uses an attack in the Spectral Transmigration state, she consumes HP from all other allies equal to 4% of their respective Max HP (this cannot reduce allies' HP to lower than 1). Jingliu's ATK increases by 540% of the total HP consumed from all allies during this attack, capped at 90% of her base ATK, lasting until the end of the current attack. Syzygy can stack up to 3 times, and when the stacks are depleted, Jingliu will exit the Spectral Transmigration state.
• Technique: After using this Technique, creates a dimension around Jingliu that lasts for 20 seconds, and all enemies in this dimension will become Frozen. After entering combat with enemies in the dimension, Jingliu immediately regenerates 15 Energy and obtains 1 stack of Syzygy, with a 100% base chance of Freezing enemy targets for 1 turn. While Frozen, enemy targets cannot take action, and receive additional Ice DMG equal to 80% of Jingliu’s ATK at the start of every turn. Only 1 dimension created by allies may exist at the same time.

Just like some of her Destruction Path peers, Jingliu consumes HP to become stronger. However, instead of using her own health, she consumes a small percentage of HP from her allies in what is called the “Spectral Transmigration” state – activated by her Talent. As this state enhances Jingliu’s Attack and Critical Rate, it’s an extremely important mechanic that needs to be triggered as often as possible.

To activate Jingliu’s Spectral Transmigration, you need two stacks of Syzygy. You get one stack of Syzygy from using her (normal) Skill or Ultimate attack. It’s best to activate Spectral Transmigration using Jingliu’s Skill only though, as this will benefit the during and damage output of this special state (more on that below). It doesn’t really matter that her Skill is fairly unimpressive without enhancements; you just need those stacks!

Don’t worry too much about the time required to gather Syzygy stacks – although the Ultimate has an Energy requirement of 140, making it hard to use very often, using Jingliu’s Skill twice still makes for a quick Spectral Transmigration activation. After all, her Talent advances her next action by 100%, which basically grants her an extra turn, thus allowing her to immediately use a Spectral Transmigration attack following the second Syzygy stack gained. This won’t cause a Skill Point management issue either, as Jingliu’s Enhanced Skill consumes Syzygy instead of Skill Points.

Keep in mind that Jingliu’s enhanced state lasts until Syzygy is depleted: so two turns if she only uses her Enhanced Skill. If, however, she triggers her Ultimate while Spectral Transmigration is active, she gains another stack of Syzygy, thus granting her three Enhanced Skill uses. To sum up: Jingliu only needs one “weak” round to gain three very strong rounds and an enhanced Ultimate attack.

If you use Jingliu’s Technique, you’ll gain one stack of Syzygy. This is highly recommended, as it will allow you to start her Spectral Transmigration in the first round of battle.

Jingliu Traces

• Deathrealm (bonus ability Ascension 2): While in the Spectral Transmigration state, Effect RES increases by 35%.
• Sword Champion (bonus ability Ascension 4): After using Jingliu’s Skill (not enhanced), the next action will be Advanced Forward by 10%.
• Frost Wraith (bonus ability Ascension 6): While in the Spectral Transmigration state, Ultimate DMG increases by 20%.

As explained above, it’s best to use Jingliu’s Ultimate while her Spectral Transmigration is active because it increases the Ultimate’s damage output and prolongs the Spectral Transmigration’s duration. Thanks to the Frost Wraith Trace, her Ultimate damage during the special state will be even higher – which, of course, is a most welcome enhancement.

Sword Champion is even more important, however, as it allows Jingliu to use her second Skill (required to get the second Syzygy stack) faster. This means she’ll spend even less time outside of the Spectral Transmigration state. Her first Trace, Deathrealm, is certainly helpful – but since it’s more defensive, it’s slightly less important to our Ice DPS.

Be sure to upgrade Jingliu’s bonus stats as well: while HP isn’t very important, the Speed and Critical Damage boosts are super helpful.

As for her Active Ability Trace Levels, prioritize her Talent and her Skill, followed by her Ultimate. There’s no need to upgrade her Basic Attack since we (ideally) won’t be using it.

Jingliu Eidolon Levels

Jingliu’s Eidolon levels are all focused on increasing her damage during the Spectral Transmigration state. While it’s true that Jingliu at Eidolon Level 6 receives an incredibly high attack and Critical Damage bonus, this also means that you don’t need the Eidolons to get a perfectly fine Jingliu. She’s extremely strong with Eidolon upgrades, but still a powerful DPS without them.

If you’re considering some extra Warp pulls, it may be better to spend them on Jingliu’s signature Light Cone, “I Shall Be My Own Sword”, rather than her Eidolon levels – especially if you don’t have any of the Light Cones recommended in our Jingliu build guide below.

Want to Ascend Jingliu and upgrade her Trace levels? Take a look at our Jingliu materials list!

Best Jingliu Build

Here's an overview of the best Light Cones, Relics, Planar Ornaments, and stats for your Honkai: Star Rail Jingliu build.

Best Light Cones

The best Light Cone for Jingliu is by far the 5-star I Shall Be My Own Sword. The Critical Damage boost works great together with her Talent’s Critical Rate increase, and the fact that she consumes HP from her three allies upon triggering one Enhanced Skill, means that she’ll immediately gain the maximum bonus.

As the only 4-star Destruction Light Cone to offer a Critical Rate bonus, Under the Blue Sky is a serious contender for the title of “best 4-star Light Cone for Jingliu”. Even at its highest upgrade level, Jingliu’s Talent only offers a 55% Critical Rate boost, while a more attainable upgrade level will offer a Critical Rate boost of about 45% - not enough to get a reliable hit chance. If you don’t want to spend a Relic’s main stat on Critical Rate (we’d rather reserve that for Critical Damage), this Light Cone is the solution.

That said, you may not need the extra Critical Rate. If that's indeed the case, try getting Jingliu's best "free to play" Light Cone: the 5-star On the Fall of an Aeon. As a DPS, Jingliou will regularly inflict Weakness Break, thus granting her the full damage bonus.

Best Relics and Ornaments

The best Relic set for Jingliu is Hunter of Glacial Forest, mostly because of its excellent Ice Damage bonus. The Critical Damage bonus is a bit harder to trigger due to Jingliu's high Energy requirement (and the need to wait for her Spectral Transmigration state before using the Ultimate), but still a great way to improve two Enhanced Skill attacks.

As for the best Planar Ornaments, Rutilant Arena is typically the best choice as it greatly improves Jingliu's Skill damage, her most important attack. If you can't reach the Critical Rate threshold yet, however, Space Sealing Station is a good substitute.

Best Stats

• Body: Critical Damage
• Feet: Speed, ATK%
• Planar Sphere: Ice Damage Boost
• Link Rope: ATK%
• Sub stats: Critical Rate, Critical Damage, Speed, ATK%

Jingliu gains a high Critical Rate bonus from her Talent, which is why you should get a Critical Damage stat on the Body slot. Since she’s an Ice DPS, she benefits immensely from an Ice Damage Boost Relic on the Planar Sphere slot.

In case you're wondering; you don’t need a lot of Energy for your Jingliu build, as she only needs to use it while her Spectral Transmigration state is active (for extra damage and an extra Enhanced Skill use). As long as your Energy is full before her Spectral Transmigration ends, there’s no need to get extra Energy.

Best Teams for Jingliu

When searching for the best Jingliu team, it’s very important to consider her Talent’s attack bonus: Jingliu consumes 4% of her allies’ max HP, and increases her attack by 540% of the consumed HP, which means that she benefits from having teammates with a high HP. However, the maximum bonus is capped at 90-225% (depending on Trace level) of Jingliu’s own Base Attack.

For example, let’s assume you have a level 80 Jingliu with a Talent level of 10, which translates to a Talent Attack bonus cap of 180% of Jingliu’s Base Attack. If she wears her signature Light Cone, fully upgraded, her Base Attack is 1,261. If you take 180% of Jingliu’s Base Attack, you get a maximum attack bonus of 2,270.

Do the same calculation for your Jingliu build (using the correct Talent level, character level, and Light Cone stat), and you’ll know exactly what her maximum attack bonus is. Your next step, then, is to ensure her allies’ combined HP is high enough to reach this Attack bonus cap. Let’s say your allies have a combined max HP of 9,000, which would translate to a combined HP consumption of 360 (4%). As 560% of this number equals an Attack bonus of 1,944, the 9,000 combined HP would not be enough to realize Jingliu’s full potential.

However, if the allies have a combined HP of 10,510, the attack bonus would be 2,270 – thus granting Jingliu the maximum obtainable bonus. It can’t hurt to go a bit higher or lower, but try to get as close to your perfect max HP count as possible. This typically requires more than one teammate with a high HP.

Finally, since Jingliu consumes her allies’ HP, it’s good to have a healer on the team. On top of that, consider using characters who benefit from HP loss (such as Blade) and avoid using characters who’ll suffer from this effect (such as Yanqing).

Jingliu Hypercarry Team

Thanks to her Critical Damage boost, Bronya is the best buff support for Jingliu. She also improves Jingliu’s Attack and advances her action forward, making your Spectral Transmigration downtime even shorter.

As Jingliu is the main DPS, Silver Wolf will use her Skill to ensure that the enemy has Ice Weakness. Furthermore, she’ll constantly debuff the opponent to maximize Jingliu’s damage. As less Elements means more efficient Weakness application from Silver Wolf, the best healer for this team is Lynx.

Jingliu Double DPS Team

Blade is a DPS who grows stronger when his HP gets lower – so he won’t mind Jingliu’s HP consumption one bit. Even better, his high max HP will help you reach the maximum Talent Attack bonus for Jingliu. As this dual-DPS team still needs a safety net, Luocha is an excellent choice to keep everyone alive and deal some damage of his own.

Since you’re using two DPS characters, it’s better to rely on a debuff support to weaken the enemy rather than a buff support to strengthen your DPS characters – after all, only one DPS can typically receive a buff, while both DPS characters can attack a weakened opponent. Using her Ultimate to lower her opponents’ Defense, Pela would be a great choice.

Need more characters to build the best Jingliu teams? Take a look at our Honkai: Star Rail Warp guide for more info on the Warp system and the current character banners.