The easiest mistake you can make in a game like Honkai: Star Rail is wasting your resources when gathering or grinding enemies for materials. And the first mistake people will make is trying to get Relics for characters at the Cave of Corrosion. Here are some tasks and goals to achieve before you go hunting for Relics in Honkai: Star Rail.
When to Begin Hunting for Relics in Honkai: Star Rail
Reach Equilibrium 3
Gold or Five-Star Relics only unlock after you reach Equilibrium 3. Why is this important? Five-Star Relics are going to be the strongest relics to equip on your character in the game thus far and will prove much more useful than your three- and four-star relics because they can be leveled higher. This means that they’ll add additional stats in terms of HP, Attack, and whichever two stats you focus on for your Chestplate, Boots, Orb, and Charm.
Does this mean they can be better than four-star relics? Not always, sometimes the sub-stats on your four-star relic will be better than the ones on your five-star relic. But your main goal is to grind for relics with the aim of achieving a good Gold Relic and then using what Four-Stars are available for the sake of completing a set on your characters and taking advantage of the 2-piece and 4-piece effects they come with.
You’re aiming to do more with your resources like Fuel and your Trailblazer Power while you have plenty of it. Similar to Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd, you don’t want to spend time going after items that you’ll be upgrading later anyway. Your characters are strong based on the Relics that you equip onto them, but they’ll be stronger if you select relics that have good stats and are geared toward that character’s best build.
Level Up: Characters, Light Cones, and Traces
Honkai: Star Rail has a pretty unique system in the way it holds back building characters beyond your capabilities by way of capping you at certain Equilibrium Levels. By using your cap, you know where to stop when it comes to leveling up characters to their max. At Equilibrium 3, your characters will be capped at Level 60, this gives you the perfect chance to level them up to that point, their Light cones as well, and then focus on Traces.
Leveling up your characters is important since this will raise their base stats and also indicate what enemies are in your range or tough before you even go into battle. You’ll want to match your levels with your enemies, if not aim even above that to ensure a safe match that will result in the least amount of casualties. Success gets you those materials, after all. Therefore, leveling up your characters and gathering materials for doing so should be your top priority before going after Relics.
Related: Should You Salvage Relics in Honkai: Star Rail? – Answered
The same can be said for Light Cones, these are meant to be your weapons in this game. They provide different effects depending on which one you equip onto a character and they can add to the base stats of your character since they often come with an increase in HP, Attack, and Defense. Necessary buffs that make a world of difference in your character’s damage and survivability in battle.
The last of these is Traces, which are imperative to increase in level. For each level up, they can increase the damage specifically to a character’s Basic Attack, Skill, Ultimate, and Talent depending on what that character’s Talent is. Traces increase the power behind all of the abilities that you use in battle and while they can be incredibly costly in terms of using Trailblazer Power, you will notice a difference when encountering enemies. There are nodes in Traces that also increase stats for your character as well, often in the Stat that they most benefit from like Attack for DPS characters, HP for healers, and Defense for shielding characters. So not only does it buff their abilities, but it can further buff your characters and their use in battle.
Access Higher World Levels in Simulated Universe
The Cave of Corrosion isn’t the only place you get relics, unfortunately. No, it would be far too convenient for Hoyoverse to just stick to one place for you to go to gather items. Instead, you must also utilize the worlds in the Simulated Universe. And sadly, it’s not as simple as achieving a certain level, but unlocking all of the worlds.
There are several more Relic sets in the Simulated Universe to keep track of, but they are only available until you complete all of the Worlds and even then, like your other Relic Sets, the Gold Five-Stars aren’t available until the second difficulty. It’s all a bit of a pain, but for the Simulated Universe, I found that it doesn’t hurt to get some pieces by using Immersifiers. It’s a great way to get more of those second sets and orbs that deal with Elemental Damage Boosts for characters that require those drops.
Related: How to Synthesize Relics in Honkai: Star Rail
Unlocking the worlds in the Simulated Universe is by no means a simple task, so be sure to check out our guides on how to tackle some of those harder levels. But these are the list of things you should do before you go grinding for Relics. If you’ve already been playing Genshin Impact, then you know the deal is quite similar in terms of Artifacts and you’ll find that— Honkai: Star Rail does try to make it easier— but it’s still a pain in the butt.
For more guides, be sure to check out the list of Relics that you can find in Cave of Corrosions to best match up to your character builds, and take a look at our Honkai: Star Rail tag below this article!
