Honkai: Star Rail Yukong Build Guide
Jun. 30, 2023Honkai: Star Rail Yukong Build Guide
In thisHonkai Star Rail Yukong Build Guidewe’re going to be covering theoffensive supportYukongBuild. She’s very good at buffing Attack, Crit Rate, Crit Damage, and Speed of teammates. On top of that, she buff Imaginary type Damage, so she’s perfect support for all characters from this element. This build focuses on increasing the damage of allies, to kill enemies as fast as possible.
Yukong is four-star character, that was first introduced in version 1.1 in the Luocha banner. At Patch 1.2 players are able to get a free copy of Yukong from event rewards, so she’s technically a free character. She’s the third Imaginary character we getting afterWeltYang, and Luocha. Yukong come from Harmony Path, which specializes in buffing allies, by having a skill that deals no damage but applies a buff instead.
Her kit revolves around adjusting her Speed relative to your damage dealer(s) Speed. The reason is, that Yukong only buffs allies in the following two turns after herself, and then her buff expires. So playing her optimally requires some planning. She also can’t afford to spam her skill every turn to give a buff as there wouldn’t be enough SP left for DPS character(s).
Yukong promotes a new Burst rotation playstyle In Honkai Star Rail, by allowing the team to have uptime and downtime. There are turns where the team have all buffs, and spam all Skills and Ultimate, then downtime to recover SP and energy. It’s an amazing playstyle for characters with DPS tied with their Ultimate, such as Sushang, and Dan Heng. She enables Imaginary sub DPS/debuffers such asWeltto play as full DPS. On the other hand, Yukong is also good with characters who have passive counterattacks without taking a turn. Which makes Yukong the best support forClara.
Skill leveling Priority: Skill > Ultimate » Basic Attack > Talent
Yukong uses an Imaginary Normal Attack, that is affected by Talent, to have bigger than normal Break efficacy. In a standard rotation, Yukong will use her normal attacks more often than her skill. So she’s SP positive in most comps, especially the ones with more than one DPS character. However, in some other teams, you can play Yukong as SP neutral, with an equal number of skill uses, versus normal attacks.
The scaling on her Normal attack – and Talent – are somewhat impactful on team DPS. Yukong buffs don’t scale with her own stats, so after filling speed and energy requirements, Yukong is free to build for damage. Either by going for a break effect, or a standard Attack/Crit build. Break effect builds don’t concentrate on normal attack modifiers, so you can leave it at a very low level and save resources. While Crit builds rely on levelling up normal attacks.
The main ability in Yukong’s kit is her skill, which grants two stacks of “Roaring Bowstrings” to the entire team. At the end of any ally’s turn (besides Yukong herself), one stack will be consumed. So virtually, allies get the buff for only the next two turns after Yukong. You can use these two turns by two allies, or one ally that advances their turn forward by 100% and take two turns in a row.
Another way to use the buff with Clara is adjusting Yukong’s turn to be right before an enemy’s turn. So Clara keeps using counterattacks passively per enemy turns before Clara’s own turn comes up and consumes the buff. Finally, you have to pop up Yukong skill when allies are able to use their Ultimate, for the buff to benefit both their skill and ultimate for massive damage.
The buff from the skill is % Attack, which starts at 40% on level 1 skill and scales up to 80% on level 10. It can even go to 88% at level 12 if you have E3 Yukong. So levelling skills are of great importance to team DPS.
The Ultimate is the second most important ability in this Star Rail Yukong build, as it adds more buffs to “Roaring Bowstrings”. The buffs are Crit Rate and Crit Damage, and it requires “Roaring Bowstrings” to be active while using an Ultimate.
The scaling for the Ultimate is very very strong, with a Crit Rate buff starting at 21% at level 1, and going up to 28% at level 10. Crit Damage starts at 39% at level 1, and scales up to 65% at level 10. So you can get up to a 121 Crit Value from this buff alone, and that’s a huge damage boost.
If your DPS character has for example 60% Crit Rate and 120% Crit damage before Yukong’s buff, that’s (0.6*1.2+1 = 172% Crit multiplier). Now you can add Yukong’s buff, receiving an 82% Crit Rate, and 185% Crit Damage, for a massive 251% Crit Multiplier. So it’s very important to time Yukong’s Ultimate right, to get max damage output.
Adds an additional hit to her Normal attacks, and allows it to break two units of the toughness bar instead of one. This is a major key in picking Yukong over other Harmony characters in teams that rely on breaking. It also increases her DPS, if you choose to go for a Crit build.
The talent is always up, so you have no conditions to worry about. This helps in Break planning, to know exactly who in your team will deal with the breaking hit.
Her Technique has two aspects, the out-of-battle aspect is a huge speed boost, which helps go through the content in the world faster. In combat though, you have to activate it, and attack with Yukong, so it blocks the player from using other active Techniques.
The Technique gives two turns of “Roaring Bowstrings” buff, similar to her skill. However, unlike her skill, Yukong herself consume a stack at the end of her turn. So if Yukong is among the two fastest characters on the team, half the buff goes to waste.
This buff is useful for two reasons. One reason is in getting 4 characters buffed at the start of the battle. The other is that it helps in saving one SP with Yukong at the very first turn, to build more SP for a burst style.
What I recommend in this Honkai Star Rail Yukong build, is to use Nihility Techniques such as Pela’s or Silverwolf’s over Yukong Technique. But use Yukong’s if you want to start with an AOE Imaginary damage for breaking shields.
Traces are a passive skill that characters unlock after leveling, and reaching certain ascension levels. For this Honkai: Star Rail Yukong Build, you need to farm and spend resources to unlock Traces, but they give a huge advantage to Yukong. As an offensive support buffer, she should prioritize all major Traces, especially A4 for Imaginary teams. Her A6 is very crucial for energy regeneration. For minor Traces, these aren’t as important unless you’re building Yukong for DPS.
A very simple passive that enables Yukong to resist one debuff, on 2 turns cooldown. It’s an easy way to prevent Yukong from getting controlled and losing turns. Though it’s not mandatory in every fight.
A passive buff to all Imaginary damage on the team. Yukong triggers this buff by merely existing, and it affects all team, including Yukong herself. It’s a perfect buff for Welt teams, and nice overall for teams withYukongandLuocha. It’s one of the reasons Yukong can do some decent damage while playing her normal buffer role.
One of the most potent traces is Majestas at Ascension 6. It’s the difference between fully buffing a team Ultimate or desync. It grants Yukong 2 energy every time an ally takes action while Bowstring is active. Two mere energy might seem underwhelming until you realize it procs on Yukong’s own Skill and Ultimate, as well as allies’. So on every skill cast, Yukong can get up to 4 energy from herself, and 6-8 extra from allies.
The short duration of Yukong buff encourages allies to sync their ultimate with Yukong Ultimate. So at least one character will use an ultimate within Yukong’s buff duration, and procs her A6 for more energy.
Yukong gets ten minor stats increases, distributed as the following:
These are offensive and defensive stats, that don’t affect Yukong’s role as a buffer. So if you don’t build her for a DPS role, you can mostly ignore them. HP is good for survivability, especially at high Memory of Chaos floors with more aggressive enemies to face. If you build for DPS though, these stats are very nice to have, probably after getting done building your main DPS character’s stats.
Yukong is a four-star that everybody will get for free in Honkai Star Rail version 1.2. She also appears in the Luocha banner. So there’s a good chance to gain at least some of her Eidolons through either way. From version 1.2 onward she will be included in the standard banner, so she’s not going anywhere fast. So it’s worth highlighting the most prominent Eidolons and what they actually do.
Her 1st EidolonAerial Marshalgrants 10% Speed for the entire team for the first two turns. This is a nice bonus that doesn’t mess up the order of team turns but gives them a chance to act more frequently. An ally can take turns in the first cycle if they reach 134 speed. But since most DPS characters don’t sacrifice offensive stats for speed, it’s hard for them to reach this threshold without outside buffs. Yukong E1 gives such a buff, and it’s perfect for most teams.
Skyward Commandat E2 is a great Eidolon for Yukong, and the best stopping point if you are wishing for her. Her E2 is a flat Energy gain when an ally fully recharges their Ultimate. It grants 5 energy per ally, so it stacks up to 15 flat energy, which can further be increased by the ERR stat. It opens up some Light Cones options that couldn’t reach Energy goals when used with E0.
Overall, a perfect Eidolon if you want to use the Light Cone “Memories of the Past” at a low Superimpose tier, or “But the Battle Isn’t Over”.
Zephyrean Echoesdeals an Extra 30% damage bonus for Yukong while her buff is active. Usually useful for DPS Yukong builds, because it affects the damage of her Ultimate. It’s nothing to go crazy about, just a little extra damage that might save you one turn or save you nothing.
The strongest Eidolon for Yukong isBowstring Thunderclap, yet still unnecessary in my opinion. It grants teams one extra stack of “Roaring Bowstrings” when she uses an Ultimate. This can be used to grant the buff to the last ally in the team. But the real strength of it is to give the main DPS Yukong a buff one extra time. It makes rotation more flexible since you can use the buff on demand. It also helps solve some issues that enemies can cause when they hard CC your characters and mess up your turn order.
Another thing Yukong gets from E6 is extra energy. Her A6 always refunds 2 extra energy when any ally takes turns with “Roaring Bowstrings” active. Now you get one extra stack of “Roaring Bowstrings”, so you get more procs from A6 for more energy.
For this Honkai: Star Rail Yukong Build, gear is a crucial part, and the Light Cone is a major part of gearing. The niche Yukong needs to fulfil is how she wants to sync her Ultimate with a damage dealer Ultimate. To achieve this, she needs an energy recharge to cast ultimate every three turns or every four turns, depending on the damage dealer.
Yukong is of the “Harmony” Path, and among Light Cones of this path, there are several that help regain energy. We have to use one of them, and nothing else because missing ultimate during DPS ultimate is a huge waste of Yukong potential.
This is not only a starter option, it’s a suitable Light Cone for the very endgame build, and beyond. For Yukong to use an Ultimate every three turns without her E2, she must run Meshing Cogs. It’s the only viable choice at E0, You get this Light Cone to the maximum Superimpose tier so easily, and it gives 8 Energy per attack.
In three turns, Yukong can do three attacks, two normal attacks, and one Ultimate is also considered an attack. Her skill will not count, but we usually use it once per rotation. So 3 attacks grant 24 Energy, and with the Energy Regeneration rate bonus from the Rope Relic piece, this number gets over 28 Energy. That’s a huge bonus to get, relative to all other sources of Energy. Paired with her A6 trace, she gets enough Energy in the third turn to use her Ultimate.
This also works with E2 Yukong, since E2 alone can’t provide all the Energy she needs. So using Meching Cogs can easily help her get over the Energy threshold, even though there are some other options that become viable at E2.
Memories of the PastLight Cone’s Break Effect can be useful but it ultimately depends on the build. Regardless, Memories of the Past is here to provide her with Energy on attack. Similar to Meching Cogs, it maxes out at 8 Energy per attack on max Superimpose. But due to being a four-star gacha Light Cone, getting one copy of it will take time, let alone getting five copies of it.
But even at S1, it’s a very good pair for players who have Yukong with Eidolon two. It gives 4 Energy instead of 8, and in three attacks it stacks up to 12~14 energy. That’s still a very solid choice making an E2 Yukong an option with + Energy Generation Rate Rope.
Being Four Stars, it has naturally higher Attack, Def, and HP stats, so it provides more damage and survivability.
Yukong can useBronya‘s signature Light Cone and use it well. Instead of flat Energy on Meching Cogs and Memories of the Past, But the Battle Isn’t Over comes with a percentage Energy Reg Rate. This is a similar bonus to the Link Rope Relic piece, and they stack additively.
This additive nature of the Energy Reg Rate stat, makes E2 and EER on Rope not enough. So we need also to use the Planetary Set Sprightly Vonwacq on Yukong, to get an extra 5% ERR. These four sources of energy combined are enough to meet Yukong’s requirement to make a three-turn rotation.
You can get theBut the Battle Isn’t OverLight Cone from the Starlight Exchange under Store. It costs 600 Undying Starlight, which you get slowly over time after spending wishes and getting new and duplicate characters or Light Cones. Generally, it’s the best Light Cone in this store, and it works also on Bronya. If you get it, it’s worth this much hassle, as it also gives other buffs.
When the wearer uses the skill, the next ally using an action gets a 30% damage bonus at S1. This synergies with Yukong using her skill only when the next ally is ready to unleash a lot of burst damage. So the ally gets extra damage from this Light Cone. Unfortunately, unlike Bronya, Yukong can’t trigger the extra SP regain passive. But that’s fine, because other bonuses are good enough, on top of getting five-star stats.
In this Honkai: Star Rail Yukong Build we’ll cover all four Relics slots: Head, Gloves, Body, and Feet. As well as the two accessories slots, Sphere and Rope. Head always comes with a Flat HP main stat, and Gloves comes with a Flat Attack main stat. Then Body, Feet, Sphere, and Rope come with random stats. So gearing the Head and Gloves will lean more towards finding the best sub-stats, while the other four have to also roll a good main stat.
For Yukong, we prioritize the “good “Energy Generation Rate” main stat on Rope. That’s the single most impactful stat in Yukong’s entire build. Then we have to adjust her speed according to team speed, which is a very delicate stat, and subject to a lot of factors. In short, Yukong wants to have her turn before the two characters who deal the most damage, or after the character who deals the least damage.
So your team speed should look either like: Yukong > Main DPS> sub DPS > healer/tank. Or Main DPS > sub DPS > healer/tank > Yukong. In both scenarios, your DPS turns will come after Yukong.
For fast DPS characters such as Seele, Yukong can use Speed Boots comfortably. But for characters who stay slow, you have to adjust and be more flexible. The rest of the Main stats should either be Crit and Attack for DPS or Def and HP for survivability.
The sub-stats we desire are always Speed (up to the target speed she needs), and then any stat that boosts her damage or survivability. So any Def, HP, Crit, or Attack, though they are not necessary.
The easiest way to build Yukong is with a speed set, which grants some Normal Attack damage, Speed, and Attack stats. You can equip it to help reach the desired speed, and add some damage to Yukong as well.
Farming this set is easy, and you get extra pieces from weekly bosses anyway, without target farming it.
The Imaginary set is the choice for a DPS Yukong, especially in aMono Imaginary Team. The set grants conditional Crit Rate and Crit Damage stats, depending on the enemy being debuffed, and Imprisoned. That’s on top of a generic Imaginary Damage bonus. Pairing Yukong with Welt is enough to get Imprisonment and other debuffs applied to the enemy.
The Cavern of Corrosion for Imaginary set is usually not the best to farm, however, in a mono Imaginary team you can farm it anyway. You will be equipping two characters from the same Cavern, so it becomes more efficient.
Similar to most supports, Yukong has great use for support sets such as Fleet of the Ageless. The set gives an unconditional 8% Attack to the entire team, as long as Yukong meet the 120-speed requirement.
The buff affects Yukong herself as well as her teammates, so it still boosts her damage. On top of having HP stat for more survivability.
The Energy Regeneration Rate set is not the first choice you should go for on Yukong. Reason being is, at E0 with an ERR Rope and Meching Cogs, you already regain enough energy without theVonwacqset. However, without Meching Cogs or ERR Rope, the bonus fromVonwacqalone can’t compensate for lost energy.
On E2 though, you might pass withVonwacqset and Meching Cogs, without ERR Rope. This opens up a niche Break Effect build, or even using extra Attack main stat. This makes rotation very tight, but it’s worth considering.
Another use for theVonwacqset is to pair it with Bronya’s Five Stars Light Cone,But the Battle Isn’t Over. The Light Cone doesn’t provide enough energy with ERR Rope, so we addVonwacqto regain enough energy.
Yukong quickly became the main support for burst DPS teams, and mono Imaginary teams. But outside of these archetypes, she can still serve as secondary support forhyper-carry teams. So she’s somewhat flexible, but she makes rotation much tighter, due to her short duration buff. She can also enable dual-DPS teams, which is something I’m still testing.
I’ll be going lightly on Yukong’s team composition, giving an easy example, before dedicating a full guide for each new team build archetype she brought to Honkai Star Rail.
As long as the main DPS character has consistent speed and gets turns in the expected way, Yukong can support them. However, the two-turn duration of her buff highly encourages using Yukong with a character who can take advantage of these two turns. So Seele and Sushang come as the best pairing for Yukong. They both can advance their turn forward by 100%, to take new turn immediately after their turn ends.
The other DPS who can take huge advantage of Yukong’s buff is Clara, who deals passive damage from counter-attacking. Yukong can buff Clara before the enemy’s turn, and the buff will not be consumed when Clara counters enemy attacks. So far, Yukong has proven to be the strongest support for Clara in Honkai Star Rail
In a turn-based game, the player can’t dodge or run away from enemy damage and has to take the beating. So a team can’t survive without healing, shielding, or totally disabling enemies. So shielders and healers are really important roles of any team.
For a team with Yukong, the best healer to pick is Luocha, who is a limited five-star healer from the Abundance path. Luocha has the same Imaginary element as Yukong, and they are a part of the same banner, so chances are high that you got the two together. If the enemy is weak to Imaginary, they make a very good combo to break the enemy’s toughness. The same could be forced on enemies not weak to Imaginary, throughSilverwolf‘s weakness change.
Besides his element, Luocha can benefit from Yukong’s attack buff, especially with how he can trigger his heals outside his turn. So Yukong’s buff affects the entire team and Luocha triggers his heal, gets bigger heals from Yukong’s buff, and doesn’t consume the buff since it’s not his turn. Very good synergy.
If you don’t have Luocha though, you can still use Bailu, Natasha, or Gepard in this slot. All of them can sustain the team through most content, especially the five-star characters. March 7th has some niche team with Imaginary characters that rely on breaking and delaying enemies, preventing them from acting, so she can be viable in very specific conditions.
The ideal secondary DPS for Yukong teams is Clara, because she can use the buff without consuming it. That’s especially true if your main DPS consumes a lot of SP using their skills since Clara doesn’t consume much SP herself.
However, not all accounts can afford to build so many DPS characters to use two in one team. Not everybody has Clara so they may have to resort to building several support characters instead and play a hyper-carry team. In this case, they will fill the last slot with secondary support instead. Such supports can be anyone, Bronya, Tingyun, Silverwolf, or even Pela.
The secondary support will adjust their energy regeneration to follow the same rotation as Yukong, to condense their buffs together, for greater burst damage.
Yukong is a great addition to the support roster, and her kit fulfils both a general support role and mono imaginary team niche. This will keep her relevant in most accounts for a long time, and her usage will even become wider, with every new Imaginary dps they release.
Imaginary break is generally a very good way to control enemies and prevent them from acting. So it adds a defensive layer that can be the exact thing some squishy teams need. Yukong has double the amount of Breaks using her her normal attack. Compared to other Harmony characters, her ultimate is the only ultimate that also attacks enemies and inflicts Break. So if paired with other characters with high breaks, they will do short work of enemy toughness.
Being four stars opens up a chance to upgrade in the future, by gaining more Eidolons and eventually getting E6. That would open her up for even more build variety and flexibility. If you’re looking for an alternative Yukong guide try ourMono Imaginary Team Guide.
Stay tuned for moreHonkai: Star Rail Guidesand be sure to drop by ourTwitch Channelif you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check ourHonkai Star Rail Guide: 5 Best Eidolons, as well as ourHonkai Star Rail Guide: Best Relics To Farm. For more team builds, check ourSilver Wolf Mono Ice team Guide.
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