How do you use Honkai Star Rail relics? Relics are one of the primary ways you can improve a character’s stats, and ignoring them can come at a significant cost to your progression. If you feel like your characters are slightly too underpowered for the challenges appropriate for your level, it’s highly likely that subpar relics are the cause. To keep your team at the top of their game, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about HSR relics into one handy guide.
Honkai Star Rail relics behave like artifacts in Genshin Impact, so seasoned Hoyoverse fans should have no trouble picking up this system. They also require a substantial amount of time, energy, and resources to both acquire and upgrade, so we highly recommend consulting our Honkai Star Rail tier list to get an idea of which characters deserve that investment. If you find your roster leans toward the lower tiers, our Honkai Star Rail Stellar Jade farming guide should be your next stop, so you can be in with a chance to pull your next five-star in Honkai Star Rail banners. In the meantime, here’s how to unlock, get, and upgrade your HSR relics.
What are Honkai Star Rail relics?
In short, relics are equipment separate from light cones that provide an assortment of stat bonuses and effects to improve the performance of your characters. While Honkai Star Rail light cones only deliver stat boosts to HP, ATK, and DEF, relics provide some welcome nuance, and can vastly improve the efficacy of your Honkai Star Rail builds.
There are two main relic types: Cavern Relics and Planar Ornaments. You can equip up to four Cavern Relics and two Planar Ornaments at any one time. Relics are split into six separate slots, with one relic slot available for each type. Each relic is guaranteed to include one main stat from the restricted stat pool for its slot, which is important to bear in mind when deciding which ones to equip and upgrade.
The relic slots and their stat pools are as follows:
| Relic slot | Main stat pool |
| Head | HP |
| Body | ATK |
| Hands | HP% ATK% DEF% Crit Rate Crit DMG Outgoing Healing Effect Hit Rate |
| Feet | HP% ATK% DEF% Speed |
| Planar Sphere | HP% ATK% DEF% Physical DMG Fire DMG Ice DMG Lightning DMG Wind DMG Quantum DMG Imaginary DMG |
| Link Rope | HP% ATK% DEF% Break Effect Energy Regen Rate |
HSR Relics gain additional sub-stats as you upgrade them, though these stats are left entirely up to random chance – you might find they synergize well with the main stat, or they might be of no benefit for a particular character altogether.
Honkai Star Rail relic sets
Honkai Star Rail relics are split into 14 Cavern Relic sets and ten Planar Ornament sets that provide various bonuses when equipped together. Equipping a two-piece set unlocks a straightforward percentage bonus to a particular stat, while a four-piece set includes a further buff that’s a bit more situational. Thankfully, these set bonuses are fixed and can be relied upon when wrestling with the random chance tied to sub-stats.
Here are all 14 Cavern Relic sets and their bonuses:
| Cavern Relic sets | Two-piece | Four-piece |
| Band of Sizzling Thunder | Increases Lightning DMG by 10%. | When the wearer uses their skill, increase the wearer’s ATK by 20% for one turn. |
| Champion of Streetwise Boxing | Increases Physical DMG by 10%. | After the wearer attacks or is hit, their ATK increases by 5% for the rest of the battle. This effect can stack up to five times. |
| Eagle of Twilight Line | Increases Wind DMG by 10%. | After the wearer uses their ultimate, their action is advanced forward by 25%. |
| Firesmith of Lava-Forging | Increases Fire DMG by 10%. | Increases the wearer’s skill DMG by 12%. After unleashing their ultimate, increases the wearer’s Fire DMG by 12% for next attack. |
| Genius of Brilliant Stars | Increases Quantum DMG by 10%. | When the wearer deals DMG to the target enemy, ignores 10% DEF. If the target enemy has Quantum Weakness, the wearer additionally ignores 10% DEF. |
| Guard of Wuthering Snow | Reduces DMG taken by 8%. | At the beginning of the turn, if the wearer’s HP is equal to or less than 50% of their Max HP, restores HP equal to 8% of their Max HP and regenerates five Energy. |
| Hunter of Glacial Forest | Increases Ice DMG by 10%. | After the wearer unleashes their ultimate, their Crit DMG increases by 25% for two turns. |
| Knight of Purity Palace | Increases DEF by 12%. | Increases the maximum DMG that can be absorbed by the shield created by the wearer by 20%. |
| Longevous Disciple |
Increases Max HP | When the wearer is hit or their HP is consumed by an ally (including by themselves), their Crit Rate increases for a certain number of turns. This effect is stackable. |
| Messenger Traversing Hackerspace | Increases speed. | When the wearer uses their ultimate on any ally (including on themselves), speed for all allies increases for a certain number of turns. This effect cannot be stacked. |
| Musketeer of Wild Wheat | ATK increases by 10%. | The wearer’s speed increases by 6% and their basic attack DMG increases by 10%. |
| Passerby of Wandering Cloud | Increases Outgoing Healing by 10%. | At the beginning of the battle, immediately recovers one skill point. |
| Thief of Shooting Meteor | Increases Break Effect by 16%. | Increases the wearer’s Break Effect by 16%. When the wearer inflicts Weakness Break on an enemy, regenerates three Energy. |
| Wastelander of Banditry Desert | Increases Imaginary DMG by 10%. | When attacking debuffed enemies, the wearer’s Crit Rate increases by 10%. If the enemy is Imprisoned, then the wearer’s Crit DMG increases by 20%. |
Investing in a four-piece Cavern Relic set is often the best course of action given how powerful their effects can be, especially if you’re looking a little thin on the ground by way of useful sub-stat percentages. However, we still recommend taking your character’s own base stats and their accompanying Honkai Star Rail team comp into account, since you might find that they’ll be better served with a pair of two-piece Cavern Relic sets instead.
Here are all ten Planar Ornament sets and their bonuses:
| Planar Ornament sets | Two-piece |
| Belobog of the Architects | Increases the wearer’s DEF by 15%. When the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate is 50% or higher, the wearer gains an extra 15% DEF. |
| Broken Keel |
Increases the wearer’s effect resistance. When the wearer’s effect resistance is equal to or greater than a certain percentage, all allies’ Crit DMG increases. |
| Celestial Differentiator | Increases the wearer’s Crit DMG by 16%. When the wearer’s current Crit DMG reaches 120% or higher, after entering battle, the wearer’s Crit Rate increases by 60% until the end of their first attack. |
| Fleet of the Ageless | Increases the wearer’s Max HP by 12%. When the wearer’s Speed reaches 120 or higher, all allies’ ATK increases by 8%. |
| Inert Salsotto | Increases the wearer’s Crit Rate by 8%. When the wearer’s current Crit Rate reaches 50% or higher, the wearer’s ultimate and follow-up attack DMG increases by 15%. |
| Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise | Increases the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate by 10%. Meanwhile, the wearer’s ATK increases by an amount that is equal to 25% of Effect Hit Rate, up to a maximum of 25%. |
| Rutilant Arena |
Increases the wearer’s Crit Rate. When the wearers’ current Crit Rate is equal to or greater than a certain percentage, the wearer’s basic attack and skill DMG increase. |
| Space Sealing Station | Increases the wearer’s ATK by 12%. When the wearer’s SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s ATK increases by another 12%. |
| Sprightly Vonwacq | Increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 5%. When the wearer’s Speed reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s action is advanced forward by 40% immediately upon entering battle |
| Talia: Kingdom of Banditry | Increases the wearer’s Break Effect by 20%. When the wearer’s Speed reaches 145 or higher, the wearer’s Break Effect increases by an extra 28%. |
How to unlock Honkai Star Rail relics
The Honkai Star Rail relic system is automatically unlocked during the ‘Ones Fallen Into the Abyss’ story mission, which you can only begin at Trailblaze Level 14 or above. However, this only grants you access to Cavern Relics. Planar Ornaments are unlocked at the culmination of the Jarilo VI questline, specifically during the ‘No Time for Me, My Friend’ story mission.
How to get Honkai Star Rail relics
The best way to get Honkai Star Rail relics is by completing the Cavern of Corrosion combat challenges or progressing through Herta’s Simulated Universe. As you might expect, Cavern Relics can only be acquired in the Cavern of Corrosion, while Planar Ornaments may be purchased from Immersion Devices after defeating elite enemies in Simulated Universe in World Three and above. They cost 40 Trailblaze Power or one Immersifier, but you do gain a bundle of Planar Ornaments for your trouble.
Equally, you must discover each Cavern of Corrosion before you can access them, though you can easily track down its location via the Survival Index. Once the Cavern of Corrosion has been discovered, you can teleport directly to it and initiate the challenge whenever you like – though these challenges also come at a cost of 40 Trailblaze Power. Each Cavern of Corrosion offers you the chance to obtain relics from certain sets, so be sure you’ve selected the challenge that’s most likely to grant you rewards that your Honkai Star Rail characters can use.
You might find that you’re too underpowered to take on either of these challenges as soon as they become available – in fact, you won’t be able to access Simulated Universe World Three until you’ve reached Honkai Star Rail equilibrium level two. Thankfully, you can often find relics in chests, or as leveling and quest rewards while playing through the anime game’s campaign.
How to upgrade Honkai Star Rail relics
You can upgrade Honkai Star Rail relics with Lost Lightdust, Lost Gold Fragment, or Lost Crystal enhancement materials. All relic enhancement materials are primarily acquired by salvaging relics, so we recommend salvaging anything less than four-star rarity to invest the materials into your best relics.
In our experience, it’s also best to hold off on upgrading your Honkai Star Rail relics until you can acquire versions of higher rarity. The number of bonuses provided by a single Honkai Star Rail relic varies wildly depending on its rarity and level – a two-star relic that hasn’t been upgraded only provides two stat bonuses, whereas a fully upgraded four-star relic will net you five bonuses in total. Relics of a higher rarity also have a higher level cap than their lesser counterparts, giving them more scope to grow with your characters.
At least four relics must be upgraded to gain access to later phases of the Operation Briefing, but you don’t need to worry about prioritizing these – all milestones in later phases of the Operational Briefing are automatically unlocked, even if you haven’t reached that phase yet, so you can invest enhancement materials into the relics you actually use and scoop up those rewards all at once without worrying about losing out.
That’s everything you need to know about Honkai Star Rail relics. Check out our complete list of up-to-date Honkai Star Rail codes for additional Stellar Jade and Fuel to help you replenish your Trailblaze Power and scoop up more equipment on your travels. Our Honkai Star Rail review delves into our own impressions of the interstellar RPG game, from laidback relic farming to strategic combat.